The following Is called "Gone From My Sight" and was written by Henry Van Dyke. This is for my friend R, my late mother, and all those who lost a loved one at this time of year.

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     Copper thieves accidentally torched Birmingham, AL's 35-foot downtown Christmas tree when they stole the lights off of it, poured gasoline on the lights, and set fire to them to separate the plastic from the copper wiring, igniting the tree in the process. The problem: The tree is located in the park right across from City Hall, and there was ( Read more... )

Touch my heart, elusive peace
That comes in dreams
When night is still
Loves once lost
Reappear as new
We sit and talk
Old friends again
Wounds are healed
Sleep's gentle balm of Gilead
Mocks grief with smiles and laughing eyes
Only to vanish with a wave
As the dawn of the new day sighs

   "For of all sad words of tongue and pen, the saddest are these, 'it might have been'".--John Greenleaf   Whittier

What follows is just a little fictional story I wrote a long time ago. It's not really a sad story in my opinion, but a sweet one. It's not really a children's story, but it's written about a child and a cat and a dog and an ( Read more... )

     She looked just like Renee Zellwegger, and I called her Li'l Bit. I met her recently during my stay in the partial hospitalization program. She is so very young, newly sober, and fighting both a dysfunctional, still-drinking non-supportive family and issues of depression and anxiety that so frequently accompany recovery from toxic substances ( Read more... )

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I have uploaded several photos of the area I drove through on my road trip Wednesday. I did not take these photos as I do not have a digital camera yet, thus the different seasons. I found the photos on the 'net but wanted to give you an idea of what I was talking about. The one with the double arches was taken by someone driving the Natchez Trace ( Read more... )

    Today, I honor all U.S. servicemen/women and veterans of all wars, and especially my late father, Ted, The Baffled King, a veteran of  WWII, USMC, VMTB 131, Guadalcanal, Guam and Okinawa. Their courage and sacrifices can never be repaid. It seems only fitting that yesterday I took a long road trip through parts of historic Alabama and ( Read more... )

                 { Feel free to add your own entries to the letter in comments section }

Hey you! Yes, you, Narci, the one believing yourself to be the center of everything 'cause you can't see anyone but yourself.  I'd recognize that swollen, grotesque ego of yours anywhere, though I admit you look pretty spiffy tonight, except for all the lies ( Read more... )

1. Why am I so dreading the heart cath I am having this Wednesday? (Muse: 'because the Baffled King had a horrible stroke after a heart cath and stent that left him incapacitated and bedridden for 1-3/4 years prior to death') --solved
2. Why did Rusty tell me that babies were brought by storks and hidden in a garden under cabbage leaves so people ( Read more... )