Happy 2018

Personally, I welcomed the new year quietly and alone. But it was good.

2017 was an awful year that worsened with every passing month. Worldwide, nationally, personally; I have more bad than good to say about it and I’d gladly give up the good for the bad to have never happened. I’d erase the year if I could.

Too much hate. Too much fear. Too much death. Not enough schnapps.

Not enough smiles.

2018 is a beautiful baby new year, but born from a crack whore we need to as a planet, a nation, as individuals, nurture it with love and protect it so it can have the hope and beauty a new year promises.

*** Christmas 2 will be posted soon pending getting a few photos I want for that blog.

*** Coming soon - 2018 Projects and Goals

Good Things!

I posted this on my Facebook wall this morning:

Tolerance doesn’t mean you don’t disagree with others and it doesn’t mean you don’t share your time or thoughts with others. The greatest intolerance I see on Facebook is when someone posts an opinion or idea and everyone who disagrees jumps to comment. Sometimes people post a thought simply to share the thought, not looking for an argument. INtolerance is the inability to resist starting an argument when someone doesn’t share your opinion. An open post encouraging hate is intolerant because it is lack of resistance to pick a fight. The best formula to use when posting an opinion, especially of the taboo religion and politics stuff: “we’re great” = tolerant, “you suck” = intolerant. If you replace the “we” or “you” with “The World” in that formula you’ll get the results of the ideology.

I’m proud of what I wrote and I believe it. I also acknowledge that it’s not easy to stay away from that “you suck” speech I address at the end. The cool thing is, in an ideal world, that when any one of us slips and utters a “you suck” phrase there are enough people working on the “we’re great” ideas to avoid a “you suck worse” argument that results in that “The World sucks.” I’d love it if we all worked on “The World is great.”

I don’t think it’s a secret to visitors at The Chronicles of Nani that I think this has been a happy week of Supreme Court decisions. I’m a big supporter of marriage equality and have been for….the first friend who came out to me was in 11h grade and I definitely had the “not on MY watch” opinion of anyone denying him ANYTHING a human being has a right to. If he’d met a guy and they wanted to get married it probably would have shocked and incensed 16-year-old me to hear that they couldn’t. So I think I can say I’ve supported marriage equality for 32 years; before it was even “a thing.”

That decision makes me happy even though the only actual effect it has on my life is that there are people who have been, are or will be in my world that can plan a special day that’s appropriate to celebrate their love just like David and I did. That makes me smile


The decision that does affect me, and a lot more of us than the marriage equality decision, is the ruling for the Affordable Care Act. Despite the act’s imperfections and my support of single payer healthcare long before my MS diagnosis, the requirement to carry health insurance goes with “pre-existing condition” not being a reason to turn anyone down for coverage. The Affordable Care Act means I’ll have healthcare in spite of a disease that can’t be cured yet. There has always been so much debate and so many awful things some groups have said about people like me that I’ve been late getting medical things until I had to wait in pain for them because I’ve bought in to the accusations that a disease I did nothing to cause to myself and couldn’t have prevented made me a “leech” and a “drain on everyone.” I’m not of that belief anymore because a wise friend brought me to realize that by taking advantage of the things available to me I can better be a contributing member of society; not at all a leach or drain. In all of its imperfections, the Affordable Care Act is a step in the direction of helping everyone and bringing us up to speed in healthcare with First World Countries.


The last thing I’ll share today is my immediate most important issue: quality sweets that are low in Weight Watchers point! David found these when he was East last week:

Charms Boutique Premium Lollipops are incredible! David chose two for me to try; Cinnamon Bun and Caramel Latte. Mmmm! Great flavor and a vanilla tootsie roll center on the two I tried. I have the last about a dozen Golden Delicious caramel apple pops I bought in the fall. Since the candy canes and peppermint Tootsie Pops from Christmas are gone I’ve been back into that bag of 60 I bought. When those are gone I just might buy a box of Boutiques! In addition to the two flavors David picked out for me, there are Birthday Cake, Orange Cream, Crème Brule, Raspberry Lemon Tart, Strawberry Cheesecake and Root Beer Float, a total of 8 flavors. I think I want to try Birthday Cake or Root Beer Float next. If you like the occasional, or one or two a day, lollipop and you see these, definitely try one!

The Best and Worst Week

The week started with a new month and me wanting to assess January as I went into it. But starting February 1 there was plenty of present to keep me from reviewing the recent past right away.

Of course Sunday was Super Bowl Sunday. The game outshined the commercials this year! There were a few good spots, but the football was exactly what you’re supposed to see when arguably the best from each conference face off in the biggest football event of the year. As a Patriots house we were biting nails at the very end, sure that we were about to see the Sea Hawks grab the victory on a drive at the very end only to screams and exchange happy high fives as Patriot’s rookie, Malcolm Butler, intercepted what would have been the end of the game loss for his team and essentially won the game and the title for the Pats.

Add to the coolness, it’s four Super Bowl rings for Tom Brady, who was the game MVP and was awarded a new truck from Chevy in recognition of that. Brady wanted to give that truck to Butler. The huge difference in incomes of the veteran star and the undrafted rookie would have had major taxable prize/gift implications because the truck would have been taxed at Brady’s considerably higher income with an additional gift tax for transferring it to Butler. Chevy stepped up and changed the awarding of the prize directly to Butler, taxable just as a prize at his income. Three-way awesomeness!


But on Sunday the news wasn’t so celebratory before the game in Toledo. We had snow, tons of it, falling. I’d already made a call for Rapid, LLC., our fantastic plow guys, to come over to do clean-up Sunday night, after the snow stopped and after the game if they had the interest/opportunity to watch. Yes I know we aren’t their only customers but the snow wasn’t supposed to stop until Sunday night, so maybe they’d have some time before they had to head out. It’s a small local company; they’re leaving home to go to work, not a garage with an army of plow tanks.

We were at a Level 3 Snow Emergency, no one who wasn’t medical, street maintenance or media out on the roads. How that started and played out was the darkest part of Sunday. Mayor, D. Michael Collins, held a press conference where he said that the Level 3 would start at 3PM. While driving home after that he suffered a cardiac arrest and his SUV drove into a utility pole. Two people called 911, and with the 911 operator’s guidance, pulled him from the SUV and started resuscitation as he wasn’t responsive. I listened to the 911 recording on The Blade website; they found ID and at that time realized who it was. Mayor Collins was taken the University of Toledo Medical Center where he was listed in critical condition. He died yesterday afternoon when he was taken off life support.

I feel a loss for my city because while it’s only just a little more than a year since Mayor Collins took office he faced so many challenges so well. From losing 2 firefighters, to record snowfall, cold and the snow removal crisis that accompanied that last winter to 2 days without drinkable water to start August and the call left to him when it was safe to drink from the tap again, and he handled them all with strength of character and reassuring confidence. But I think for me personally it’s also shown me how much smaller Toledo is than Detroit too. As a citizen the loss is personal too. Maybe it’s that I actually live in the city where I lived in Detroit suburbs; the mayor of the big city in the area is a choice on my election ballots. Maybe it’s that the mayor lived a block away from us. What I definitely know is that in a year he stretched the shoes in the Mayor’s office enough to make them even harder to fill in the special election that will be held in November.

Please visit The Blade to read about a great man with a personal history that built him into a great mayor. Unlike so many in politics he didn’t create problems, he solved them.

Toledo mourns loss of Mayor D. Michael Collins



In the closer personal Naniland my daily Lasix, water pill, and I have reached a tentative truce area. Simply if I don’t take it I can feel It; my legs swell, what mobility I have is compromised and I feel awful, part because with the swelling I still don’t drink enough water because rising up from the chair to go to the bathroom is painful. The anti-Lasix stance was self-destructive at best. So here is my wake-up to midafternoon ritual that’s worked well for me for the second half of this week.

Wake-up time is when my lower back and legs ache the worst. Bless David, he helps get me through morning stretching and downstairs and once he knows I’m down safely he goes back to bed because it’s usually before wake up time for him. Then I have my morning coffee and breakfast. Notice how I prioritize there? Starve me if you will, but don’t deny me my coffee! I take the Lasix after I’ve had a chance to really wake up and when it calls me to the bathroom I drink 2 Nani-gulps of water. 2 Nani-gulps usually empties a 16-oz bottle. I have no idea why, but it works. The urgency is down and the 3 times and hour bathroom trips have gone down to about 3 in 2 hours. I’m also keeping hydrated and feel a ton better during the day.

I Can Has Do Over!

I’m starting over on my reading for this year. I didn’t think the idea of having two books at a time is bad as long as I accept that the paper pages will go slower than the e-pages. The current paper page book is a hard cover. I’m slow at reading it and slow at getting into the story. That's not because I read slow. Until my first ereader in 2010 I always read slow and had to work to do that. My reading comprehension has always been great, I scored well in school, the Mensa test and thankfully I didn’t need to reread chapters to take tests in college. I just read black on white paper slow. But I read the whole Harry Potter Series, Gone With The Wind and the awful fan-fiction sequel, Scarlett in paperback or hardcover, the current book I just not captivating me. It does interest me though and books that have been slow but interesting to start in the past have often ended well for me. So, while it’s hardcover and honestly, I drop it a lot, I’m going to keep reading.


I think the problem was with the eBook I started with. I was reading that one at night because I wanted to get it over with, but I seemed to have100 pages left every time I looked. Here is the “When I stopped review” that I put on Good Reads when put it in my “did not finish” file.

The Lost Code by Keith Emmerson

I know this is a "young adult" book and sometimes I like to take a break from heavier reading and enjoy some light reading. I got as far as 178/276 pages and I couldn't bear the fact that there was still 100 pages to read. This wasn't the fluff mystery I was expecting it seemed to lose another screw from the reality cap with every chapter. It was taking me forever to read because it just never made me actually want to read it so I never picked it up. Maybe I'll finish it someday but for now I'm letting my brain wake up again in the worlds of murder and political gain. :)

So starting February 1 my new goal for the year is 22 books read, 22 reviews that I’ll post here. It’s the same hard cover in the “currently reading” window at the left but new e-title.

And so the do-over begins! :)

We Are Free To Drink About The City

My birthday present from Pop;

10 gallons and 4 cases of water from Michigan!

Toledo Mayor D. Michael Collins announced in a news conference this morning that our water in all parts of the city tested as safe for all normal usage. That means that immune system challenged me and all of the kids in town get to be clean too! I know for other adults with MS or any other immune-compromised conditions that’s WONDERFUL news. Some of the kids maybe notsomuch, but I’m sure it makes happy moms and dads too.

I have learned so much the past couple days. The first thing I already knew and that’s that for the most part people are innately caring and generous. I read stories about people who traveled many miles to buy bottled water and also of people who travelled many miles TO Toledo to GIVE water. It was the main topic for discussion in these parts and when our neighbors next door were leaving for a few days at their getaway place that had well water we were unpacking the water Pop got for us. They’d given the neighbors across the street, the one who always put back out garbage and recycling cans during the day since David often is home late and I can do it, some water but when we offered they mentioned that they might need some more. There were water stations where people could get fresh water for free and there was calm and no panic with people helping other people fill jugs and get them to their cars. With no reported incidents and so much great kindness, I think we handled the crisis well as a community. For an affected region of somewhere in the area of a half million people without water for the weekend we did a great job of playing the part of a small town when we needed to. I still love my home and after this weekend I’m quite proud to say I’m from Toledo.

More learning came in the form of finding out about microsystin, the toxin that got into our water. The toxin is from the algae blooms in Lake Erie, although this is not a new problem or limited only to Lake Erie. The toxin got past purification methods in the plant. Now that the levels are back to a safe amount it’s time to find out why the toxin didn’t filter out this time and how to prevent it from happening again. The thing is this toxin is not even one they have to check for even though that same toxin attributed to the deaths of 75 people in a kidney dialysis center in Brazil in 1995 according to the article I read in The Blade this morning. I’m glad we do check for it; like I said no one has to in the US and most states don’t. It’s better to err on the side of caution than wait until there are reported cases of people getting sick.

I’ve read comments from some conspiracy theorists that if there were no reports of people getting sick the whole thing was made up. I find that to be the attitude of someone who must enjoy Russian roulette too. I’ll be honest; I like to read comments after news stories and especially political stories because it makes me feel like a better and smarter person. I should probably feel bad about that, but it’s also good to reiterate that it’s harder to help some people and be prepared for that.

Most importantly I learned about timing and decision making. FI shower every other night, which for someone inside in the air conditioning and no moving a ton is not a big deal, and I showered Wednesday. Friday I was tired and decided that I could shower in the morning before David went to work. Of course by morning I couldn’t even drink the water to take my medicine. So the lesson learned there is that if it’s time to shower, no matter how tired, the water will wake me up, shower already! My flat, dirty-looing hair and itchy skin will be happy tonight!

Holy Toledo; My Kingdom For Water!

You’ve likely heard by now that Toledo is in a water crisis! #emptyGlassCity is trending on social media. The Glass City, that’s us, is absolutely an empty glass right now.

As I’ve read, the alert went out at about 2AM that we have toxic levels of microcysten from a large algae bloom in Lake Erie that infected the water supply. The bottled water was pretty much gone from any stores by the time we woke up. Most of the local restaurants are closed because they have no water for cooking or cleaning anything. Remember the frozen pipes in February? This is that and worse. Since it’s all of the area we can’t stay in a local hotel for showers and to wash a few dishes and none of the local stores have any bottled water to sell! There is bottled water coming in from lots of areas and being given away at local distribution centers. As for us, David working in news means he’s been gone all day and still not home and I have to have a day’s notice to go anywhere. Tomorrow morning before David has to be back at work and just before my dad goes in to work we’re meeting him in the parking lot at his job. He got us 10 gallons plus a few cases of smaller bottles. A great king will always be his princess’ hero!

Yesterday a truck driver perished when he drove his truck into Tony Packo's; yes THE Tony Packo’s restaurant made famous by Jamie Farr as Klinger on MASH. It hadn’t been confirmed when I read the story yesterday but they think he suffered a medical, maybe a heart attack, which caused him to drive the semi into the entrance of the famed restaurant.

So yesterday it was a famous Toledo landmark and today our water. So far August doesn’t seem to like us much.

Onto baseball news. Okay that is another part of my rough week! The trade deadline was Thursday, the last day of July, and..

Let me regain my composure here…

and…

I DON’T HAVE A TIGER ANYMORE!!!

When they started the “Who’s your Tiger” ads way back, my answer was always “Curtis Granderson.”  Then they traded Curtis to the Yankees in between the 2009 & 10 seasons and my Detroit baseball heart cried. But the season of “Who’s your Yankee” started and I “discovered” the new outfielder they called up that was part of the trade that sent Granderson away and I had a new Tiger to love! Austin Jackson was decent with a bat but AMAZING with his glove and I LOVE good defense! So my answer to that “Who’s your Tiger?” question was Austin Jackson without hesitation. And on Thursday my Detroit baseball hear screamed and cried again. Austin Jackson is now the answer to “Who’s your Mariner?”

The Mariners are in Detroit for one more series this year. I got tickets to the August 17 game. I’ve been thinking about making a t-shirt that says “Who’s your Mariner” with a 16, Jackson’s new number, in tiger stripe letters.

Okay, so there’s my catching up for the week. Things should be better soon. In August I have tickets for a Mud Hens game with the MS Society and three MLB games. To buy some water tomorrow I’ll just pull a few dollars out from under my nails because with tickets for three Major League games in a month I’m obviously made out of money! Okay, actually I just pass on a few new blouses and ta-dah: baseball tickets. I’m careful to wear different shirts when my picture is taken! ;)

Tid Bits

I have a bunch of short comments I’ve been writing down the past few days. I suppose any of them could be a full paper or editorial or even a long blog post, but I’m choosing brevity just now…over and over and over, which kinda defeats th idea of brevity. I LOVE irony! Here are the current Nani odds and ends.

----------------------------

I didn’t mention this last Wednesday in my answer to the Hodge Podge question “What's the nicest thing a stranger has ever done for you?” I still don’t weigh one nice thing from a stranger above another because anything a stranger does for you that’s kind is a wonderful gesture. Strangers don’t “have to” and when they do it’s from the heart and beautiful.

There were 2 guys that helped me in Detroit. We were coming out of the park after the Division Series game a couple years ago and hit a rut in the sidewalk on the way back to the car. I was jarred and slipped out of the wheelchair onto the pavement. David was pushing the chair and there was no way he could have stopped me from slipping. I wasn’t hurt, but I was on the ground!

Two guys that were behind us walked up and asked if I was okay. I said yes and each of them grabbed an arm and a bend in my knee on either side and lifted me back into the chair. I thanked them and said I was good, just embarrassed. One of them told me it was the City of Detroit that should be embarrassed and they went on their way with a “Go Tigers” cheer.

I’d like to think they still would have helped me without my Tigers jacket. :)

----------------------------

I usually read at least the first few comments after I read a news story online. I think I must like the burning in my eyes from the poison keyboards that also don’t have spell-check.

There are so many awful, spiteful and judgmental people in the news and they draw out their ilk to comment on internet news stories and discussion boards. But remember “Good person does something nice” is not a good news headline and even if they did post a story like that, the same people would comment about what a bad story it is and turn it into another “MY religion and MY politics are right because you’re a moron” page anyway.

Rest assured that those of us that don’t make news still vastly outnumber the ugly people who make the news and the armchair “experts” who insist on making it about their religious/political views.

A healthy self-image and balanced personality go a long way in keeping that need for anonymous attention and affirmation down.


(steps off soapbox)

----------------------------

Last note, but never ever the least, today is the day that Alan Jacobson’s new Karen Vail Mystery is released! I finished The Ex Who Wouldn’t Die this afternoon. My review is coming soon on that one, but I did get No Way Out today and it does move immediately up in my cue for my next read!


There are my tids bits for now. See you tomorrow with the Hodge Podge!

Dark Pondering

The bombs at The Boston Marathon, poison laced letters sent to lawmakers, guns in an elementary school or a maniac in Kevlar at a movie theater, just a few examples in recent headlines of the sickness in our world. I was thinking about this a lot yesterday, As I’ve said before and I will never change my thoughts; I don’t understand how people like this think and I never want to understand it.

So much violence and senseless killing. If the world they live in is that awful suicide is a better answer than killing anyone else. The violence is your problem and yours alone of you have those ideas in your mind. I’m usually the first to say that suicide is not the answer, that those feeling that hopeless need help and support, but if the only alternative they’ll consider is mass murder, by all means, have at it on yourself. Just be kind enough to the people you leave behind to let them know you were probably going to kill innocent people had it not been yourself. Really, it does make it okay.

And “Not guilty by reason of insanity?” Meh, of course your insane! If you kill people you don’t even know, if children are in your line of fire and it’s oaky by you, insanity goes without saying. But is that a reason to consider you “not guilty?” In a premeditated attack you never once thought maybe you were nuts? It never occurred to you that at the very least, what you were planning was considered immoral or at least deviant behavior? At any point in planning you could have sought help instead of following through. If you kept your plan a secret, you knew it was wrong. Why did you CHOOSE not to get help? No, it’s GUILTY by reason of insanity. The insanity plea is no reason to let someone off with being tried for a lesser crime than mass murder when mass murder is what they are guilty of. The defense team of the Aurora movie theater shooter, who will not receive the publicity and humanity of a name here, had considered entering a “not guilty by reason of insanity” plea. None of his victims get to enter a “not dead by reason of movie” reversal. If the crime is punishable by death, it’s punishable by death. If the crime warrants life in prison, it warrants life in prison. Every person who has committed the same crime is unquestionably insane but that is not an excuse not to receive the punishment for the crime committed.

Oh, and terrorism? Aside from the fact that religion really has nothing to do with it; it’s power drunk “religious” “leaders” using a religion they don’t believe in to control weak believers with lies about their religion and other religions to cause the violence that gets their rocks off and makes them feel powerful. They do it because they have nothing else in their being that they consider worth anything. And don’t get me wrong here; this includes the likes of Al Qaeda and every “Christian” “leader” who has inspired their followers to bomb an abortion clinic or picket a funeral. It’s all terrorism and about as far from any kind of religious belief as you can get.

If you truly believe your religion wants that much hate and violence from you, you need to look for a new religion because the one you have is making you pretty miserable. I’m not familiar with any religion that encourages you to honor God, by whatever name the creator has in that religion, by being miserable in the life you were given, If you truly believe God wants you to be so hateful and violent, well, you portray God as quite a jerk. I find that kind of offensive, personally. I haven’t come across any holy book that doesn’t say you shouldn’t kill, so if you are killing in the name of your religion, boy are you screwed up.

Today an entire major city is shut down and we don’t even know the root of the hate yet. The 8th Ammendement includes prohibiting the use of cruel and unusual punishment, including torture. Considering that this Amendment was ratified at a time when slavery was still legal in this country, what exactly is “cruel and unusual?” Do we as a society get a pass when the crime is cruel and unusual? Should we? With the exception of slavery, the crimes today are way bigger than they were at that time.

Just sayin’.

I hope I didn’t offend anyone too much. I’ve said before that some of my crime and punishment ideas have made very right, staunch Republicans say “Well, I wouldn’t go that far.” I’ve also said that I write to get things of my chest and poison out of my brain. I feel a little better now.

After a Good Night’s Sleep

Oh, it’s not another post about decaffeinated coffee, it’s what I had last night: A good night’s sleep! I haven’t really had one of those in about a week. I’ve had a couple of new MS symptoms. I can’t get started on my disease modifying drugs soon enough! That, by the way, will be on November 14. The medication I’ll hopefully be taking requires a 6-hour observation for the first dose to make sure there aren’t super adverse side effects, primarily that the drug can, often does, cause the heart rate to slow down. The heart rate is usually back to normal within a month of starting it, but the main concern is that it doesn’t start slowed too much, so they want the patient, in this case me, to be in a facility with doctors available “stat.” The other drugs included ones that were injected, which I could learn to do to myself, but I’d prefer a pill, and ones with way worse known possible side effects, including brain disease. I’ve been through a ton of tests to be sure I’m strong enough to give the medication a try. Since the beginning of the year I have been tested for just everything! Other than the MS, “I am strong like ox!”


Occupying My Mind

I’ve been reading a lot about the “Occupy” protests going on, not just on Wall Street, or even all over the country, but all over the world. The whole Occupy movement doesn’t seem really organized or even in harmony with itself, but it’s young, so it might evolve into more. Right now, it’s definitely loud. I can imagine the 60s protests must have started something like this, only without the Internet to put them more in everyone’s living rooms, dining rooms, libraries, coffee shops and back pockets on a Smart Phone! I was a baby during the protest movement in the late 60's, no, serious, when the pot started to heat up for those protests I was probably a zygote! The anti-war movement peaked in 1968, but it really started to bubble in 1965. The reading I’ve been doing suggests that the unrest started before that, somewhere as the unification of World War 2 began to fade in the post war years and became unrest about racial equality, unemployment and poverty.

This time the civil unrest had its unification on 9-11-01 and for the comparatively brief period after the terrorist attacks. I recall the comparison to Pearl Harbor at that time. The end of WW2 brought out a similar celebration to Bin Laden’s death, albeit without the dramatic sailor kissing a woman in Times Square photograph, but this age is different too. We did not have the economic boom that my Mother grew up in and our Vietnam happened before the end of our WW2. Iraq was the war that divided our country into those who supported it no matter what and those who said, “what the…?” Our president’s enemy was in Iraq, but our country’s enemy was in Afghanistan. On the world political scale, we had the unrest and economy of the late 60s and never got the boom and celebration of post WW2 and we had it all at once. It’s no wonder the whole movement is mad and seeking someplace to aim their anger. The direction is unclear because the "enemy" is still unclear.

I’m not totally sure where I stand on the Occupy movement. Right now I’m trying to understand it from a psychological and historical point. It’s an interesting opportunity to understand why we study history. Society runs circularly, but it does seem that our historical model has been sucked into the middle of a metaphorical funnel, with groups like Occupy and the Tea Party trying to anchor themselves on the outside with ideas to pull us out, to “save us.”

I read the “demands” of Occupy Wall Street, or one could call them ideals, my preference to call something if you want to get people on board with you. "Demands" is confrontational and sounds dangerous. Their ideas are mostly decent. Some things will take a lot of work to change, some things need to be undone, some things never should have happened. There are other ideals that will never be allowed to happen or shouldn’t because of the strong possibility they’ll do more harm than good.

Yes, the details are purposefully vague there. That's mostly because I don’t have set opinions on a lot of it yet, but also because an entire blog could be devoted to opinions about the Occupy Movement. There are a lot of blogs already devoted to opinions about the Occupy Movement. This little section was just a look at the historical comparison and as fodder for thought and discussion. If you have any insight or opinions, grab a cup of coffee and post away!

It’s definitely NOT a decaf morning!

How Far Have We NOT Come?

I was incensed when I read this story this morning.

Some real Shock and Awe:
Racially profiled and cuffed in Detroit

Shoshana and I both live in Ohio and have similarities in backgrounds. Just the father I look like doesn’t frighten the childlike minds of the paranoid.

I don’t say that to insult children, most of whom are smarter than the prejudiced fools who base “suspicious behavior" on how a person looks. Idiot adults have to teach children to be stupid.

We have to beware of the terrorists from outside out country and just as aware of the small-minded terrorism inside our country that will point out someone based on appearance while they don’t even see someone who looks like them actually acting suspicious on the other side of where they are sitting and pointing. In many ways the terrorists who attacked us ten years ago have won as long as their accomplices in this country point their paranoid little fingers without actually seeing anything, our way of life is disrupted and our freedoms have changed, many of them gone.

Please read Shoshana’s story and share it wherever you can.

Wrapping up Monday

A little taste to kick off the week!

The first bit of business I need to address to start this week is a “fix” from last week. I got several points wrong in my early rant about how Sally, the mother goose from our post office, died. I didn’t correct the mistakes or take down my original post because I don’t want to delete the comments and my demeanor hasn’t changed. It’s settled now after a few days, but the anger about it is a little fueled. The stupid mistakes were made by people who should know better, WAY better. The people who moved the family were from a center for the “rescue” and rehabilitation of wildlife. When they moved the goose family, with three goslings and two un hatched eggs, to a “better” place across the street, they were caught by surprise that geese are territorial and the incumbent geese in that area would threaten the new geese and try to drive them out.

Yanno, I just don’t get how you can work for a wildlife center in an area where there are a lot of geese and not know that. They said it was a “no win” situation because Sally was nesting in an area where there was so much traffic. How about carefully move the family to somewhere that there aren’t geese already living? I mean, if you’re moving the geese and have already invaded them, why not put them someplace safer than where they already are? Sure, a busy parking lot by a busy road is not ideal, but it’s not like no one knew they were there. Putting them in an area where not only is there the human factor but also territorial other geese sounds like a “maybe lose” or “lose big” choice and they chose lose big.

You can read the story on the Toledo Blade’s website here: Blade article



I SO don’t want to be all doom and gloom n a cloudy Monday, here in northwestern Ohio. We’re still on the lookout for that arc! ^The rain was hard and nasty Friday night into Saturday morning. The tulips took quite a beating! In the front half of our side bed, there is a lot of petal litter! That’s from the blooms that just exploded from the driving down rain on them. I’m glad I got my photos when they were strong and healthy! There are more exploded tulip blooms in the front section than the back, so there are still flowers, just not as many. The smaller tulips seemed to fare better than the taller ones, but they weren’t as open. David reported this morning that the absolute las6t of the crocuses, a couple of the stripey ones that bloomed later and stayed a little longer, had finished for the year now. That ups my resolve to get some bulbs in the ground for summer and fall. Now if we can just get a day that doesn’t rain. Our forecast for the beginning of this week: today was “cloudy with a shower or two,” we got three or four, then “mainly cloudy, showers around,” and on Wednesday,“ warmer with showers.” Hey, at least it’ll be warmer! Just give me one weekend day that’s cloudy, but no rain, so David can help me, and I’m good!


There are things that make me happy. The Reds swept the Cardinals out of town over the weekend and hold first place again and they beat up the Cubs in the sixth inning tonight for another win. I like this kind of roll!

David and I got out to the grocery store yesterday and left with many bags of groceries and a lighter pocketbook for the effort, but we saved BIG TIME with coupons, careful sale shopping ahead of time and a good buy ten and get $5 off deal at Kroger. I also got my almond milk supply refilled and Dannon Greek Yogurt comes in peach now! This morning I made a cup of warm cocoa with almond milk and a scoop of Splenda-ized dark chocolate. MMM!!!! I let David try a sip and he was impressed too!

Okay, it was a little bit of a mundane Monday, but it wasn’t a bad Monday. I still really do like Mondays, even if the telling of them is really just wrapping up the weekend. It’s a fresh start to a new week.

Now if we can just get it stop raining or get passage booked on that arc…

Soap Box Between Cookies

I was having my morning multitask, coffee and a banana nut muffin, reading news stories and making Krisp Kringles, well, okay I made and poured to set the Kringles before coffee and news. One story I read was about the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” Gay Rights stories often get my dander up.

I have had friends and good acquaintances that are gay over the years, but there’s not anyone that I am aware of in my family, relatives and friends, who is gay. Still Gay Rights issues are a huge deal to me. I’m not sure why, other than the fact that I can’t stand the government or ignorant special interest groups stepping on another person’s rights “because you’re not like ME!” I was a girl who played ice Hockey in the 70s and a woman in sports production in the 90s. I guess it’s just that I know a thing or two about being told I’m not enough like someone else. NO ONE has a right to tell ANYONE that, EVER.

I am so happy that Rina and Tori, kids in high school in general, are becoming more understanding and accepting. I am proud that the girls find those who bully, abuse and inflict violence and murder for those insecure excuses to be the deviants and worthless members of society. Human morals and values are becoming more normal in that area.

It does pain me at this time of year to think that any kind of discrimination is still in the news. Not in MY world. In my utopia it’s not even a hot topic. It just doesn’t exist.

I look at our Christmas card this year and think, if I was a lesbian and David was a woman and my partner, that card would be the same. I still would have written the sappy verse, still would scrapbook and have designed the card, the cats would still be there on the rumpled comforter on our bed and there would still be a photo of us at someone’s wedding. The difference would be that we wouldn’t be married living in Ohio. Somehow, there are people who think that would be wrong. Since we don’t have kids, I don’t get what the difference would be. It’s not like we took advantage of the ONLY thing a marriage can do on its own exclusively with opposite sex partners.

With the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” the haters will hate louder. The supporters of equal rights for human beings, need to support louder too.

Stepping off soapbox now. Gotta start another batch of cookies. :)

Wake Up – It’s a SIGN!

In 2004, Solid Rock Church near Cincinnati, Ohio, erected a huge statue of Jesus Christ in the large pool in from of their church. The statue was the image of Christ waist deep in the pool with his arms reaching towards the sky. Last night lightning struck that statue and it burned to the ground.

Personally, I’ve always found the huge sculpted image that you can’t miss seeing from its highly visible position facing the I-75 a little, well a little creepy. I don’t recall any Bible stories that include Jesus sinking and arms stretched to Heaven. I remember he was baptized. I remember him asking “the cup” not to be his and the “why have you forsaken me?” from the cross. But I don’t recall ever reading anything about Jesus in standing water up to his waist looking up like he needed saved. I always though he DID the saving.

You can read about it and see more photos, even video here.

David and I talked a little about whether or not they’d rebuild the statue. He says he thinks they will. I think they shouldn’t!

Think about it. Your church’s giant “hey look at me” statue gets struck by lightning, by LIGHTNING! I think if I was a member of that church, the first thing I’d want to do is really look at what’s going on in my church. Is there corruption of some sort at the top that the statue was struck down? Even if it’s just an aesthetic opinion, He took time away from holy wars in the Middle East to flick the statue off His church grounds!

Yes, that’s a little tongue in cheek, but only a little. Lightning striking things is and has long been, significant in religions. I do know that the giant image of Jesus is a source of many jokes in the area. Like the bible thumpers who push themselves on people in coffee shops, I can’t help but wonder if it did more harm than good for their cause.

Like I said, I thought the drowning Jesus was creepy before, but the church is even creepier now that it’s been struck down!

(The Best of) Monday Mug Shot

Okay, I completely forgot I said I was going to do this for busy days. Duh! Yesterday was a day very filled with family stuff for both David and me, so it was not a time for reminiscing or even writing. You know, a short blog in the morning then nothing on a Monday is very odd for me!

So, for yesterday’s Mug Shot, I’m posting from the “best of” series, since I still have a few things I need to do during the first part of today! I hope to get back in this afternoon with holiday greetings for National Popcorn Day and perhaps to share a layout or two with you. Enjoy this mug shot from the archives!

It’s kinda topical in a "remember when the disaster was closer to home" sort of way. Keep the people of Haiti in your thoughts and prayers and help if you can.


Originally posted on Yahoo July 30, 2007

Ave Maria Grotto Cullman, Alabama

I went to Ave Maria Grotto with my Mom on our trip south for 2 weeks in 1989. I’d never been south of Florence, Kentucky before that trip, so it was full of new sights to see! It was also a great female bonding trip, lots of talk, lots of desserts and lots of shopping! That was the trip where I started to collect coffee mugs as souvenirs, with the hope that I’d eventually have a wall with mugs on it.

It was during the World Series between San Francisco and Oakland. Neither of them are one of my teams, but I had a passing interest because Brett Butler, a player I enjoyed, was on the Giants that year. After a crazy day that had us believing that Birmingham was a city that ate Yankees, spit them out and swallowed them again for fun because we kept ending up passing another “Welcome to Birmingham” sign every time we’d thought we’d gotten OUT, a fierce afternoon rain that had me thinking something had happened to my car (Only to have a mechanic laugh at me because I had “those good Yankee snow tires” throwing water on the un-crowned road at the bottom of my car) and a much later than expected arrival in Cullman after a stop at one of the chain in the new restaurant we’d discovered in Kentucky, Cracker Barrel, for diner, we didn’t even turn the TV on. We went right to sleep after checking in to the hotel. I figured I’d get the score for game three in the morning.

That was October 17, 1989 and of course, the next morning, there was no score. Just eye witness accounts about the earthquake, horrific shots from the pancaked highway bridge and a few sound bites from the Candlestick Park, which was evacuated and the World Series put on hold pending a structural inspection of the ball park after search and rescue efforts were complete. The news from San Francisco made it a late start to the day for us, but somehow going to a Catholic Shrine for our first stop of the touring day had become quite appropriate.

Ave Maria Grotto, in Cullman, Alabama is the work of a Benedictine Monk in the early 20th century. It is places of spiritual significance and world landmarks done in miniature sculptures in an outdoor garden setting near to the Abbey Brother Zoetti called home. Now, that’s a switch from my usual attraction to larger-than-life sculptures, but it was an incredible place! The detail in the tiny sculptures just brought the far-off places to enchanted life! If I get back to that part of Alabama, I definitely want to go again...just no earthquakes this time!

And now for some news briefs…

Cat Piller - a bit of genius!

See the picture? That’s a Piller, it is a pill plunger that shorts pills down a cat’s throat. It is the coolest thing, as cool to a human as a can opener is to a cat. Poor Carla has to take two pills in the morning and two at night for her respiratory infection. We’ve been fighting with her tooth and claw for almost a week. She is so good at figuring out innovative cat ways to spit them out. This morning she bit her tongue fighting us and it was bleeding. That was enough for David and me.

The vet’s office where we took Carla last week is in Sylvania, nearly in Michigan, but that’s where her records were and where we had a free visit after adopting her. David was home today and he and I went to visit Grandma, so we stopped at the vet on the way. We were hoping to trade in the pills for some kind of liquid equivalent. They can’t take pills back once they leave the office, so we’d have to buy all new liquid meds or try the Piller. The Piller was less than $4, at the Vet’s office, so we gave it a try.

First try, ack, plunge, remove – the pill went in the cat, no fuss, no stress. Carla didn’t even leave her Daddy’s lap afterwards. If you have to medicate you pet, this is such a small investment to save a ton of hassle!

The kids have been blogging up a storm! Check out Behind Orange Eyes for Kaline’s first impressions of her new sister and the column at that site, written by Baggle, Behind Green Eyes, for his point of view.

Grandma was happy to see us today. She looked great, good color in her face and she was in a very upbeat mood. I’d promised her I’d bring some more Snickers bites and I found a bag of holiday wrapped ones on sale plus a cute green square bowl with snowmen on it to keep them in. She had a candy basket for Halloween, but needed a seasonal update! She’s always happy to get Snickers! She’s looking forward to the family coming there to have Thanksgiving dinner at one of the “Party Rooms,” which have full kitchen facilities. Dad is making the dinner plans, so I’m not sure on what side of traditional we’ll be this year. I’ll be chatting with him tomorrow to see what we need to organize.

Glad We Make Our Own!

In the news, Kellogg’s, makers of Eggo Waffles has an Eggo shortage right now! Between a shut down of their Atlanta plant due to flooding earlier this year and some major repairs being done on equipment at their largest bakery in Rossville, TN, there will be a scarcity of Eggos for a while. They don’t expect to return to pre-shut down levels in stores until mid-2010.

I’m so glad I married into a waffle iron and David married into my flour canister! Together we make beautiful waffles at home! I admit, on waffle days, David makes breakfast, but he couldn’t do it without the flour in my canister set!

Links:

Behind Orange Eyes - Kaline and Baggle

Where to buy a Piller

Eggo Waffle Story

Why Do The Guilty Walk Away?

I was shocked. Then I hurt for the people left behind. Then I wanted to know how and why. Then I was angry.

Getting old doesn’t suck. It never will. I’ve always said it’s NOT getting old that sucks. Three people, including Angels’ top prospect and rookie pitcher, Nick Adenhart were killed early this morning and another passenger in the same car is in critical condition. Adenhart was 22 years old.

The drunk who murdered three walked, no, ran, from the crash to try to save his worthless behind.



Andrew Thomas Gallo drove drunk. It wasn’t the first time. He was driving on a suspended license from a prior DUI. He was speeding. He ran a red light. He crashed the Mitsubishi Eclipse with enough force to crash it into a phone pole. Then he ran on foot from the scene. Three people are dead. One person is in critical condition. HE RAN AWAY.

I know this will up my cuss meter rating, but next to “Selfish Bastard” in the dictionary, you’ll see the mug shot of this worthless waste of air.

It starts with so selfish that you don’t care that getting behind the wheel of a car drunk is the same thing as loading a gun and aiming it into a crowd. It’s even more selfish when you do it again. Keep in mind that most DUI criminals, especially repeat offenders, have driven drunk many more times than they were caught. Oh yeah, he didn’t care that the state found him too irresponsible to drive at all either. Every time he drank and drove, it was unsuccessful attempted murder. Well, now he’s a success.

When he finally killed, all he knew was he was driving illegally and didn’t want to get more trouble, so he'd better hide! He likely didn’t even know he murdered three people. He shattered many more lives.

I am not a proponent of the death penalty, per se. I’d like to see him with a long sentence for the DUI, vehicular manslaughter, murder and fleeing the scene of an accident he is being charged with. And I’d like to know he’s sharing a cell with a hardened criminal who is an Angels fan, better yet, who has a 22 year old son or a 20 year old daughter in college like the deceased driver of the car. Put him in prison, force him to sober up and make him hate himself or at least make why he’s there is well enough known that he’s the only one there who doesn’t.

:::deep breath:::

Remember that I write to calm myself, to get things off my chest, to look for answers. There is no answer for this. It’s sad and so painful in an empathetic way. Why do people who don’t care about themselves take it out on other people? What makes a repeat DUI felon do it again? Why do the murderers with a bottle and wheels shatter lives without getting a scratch?

The story on mlb.com starts with a wrenching image of the groundskeeper smoothing the mound at Angels Stadium where only hours before his death Adenhart pitched 6 scoreless innings last night. There will be no game tonight. It will be played at a later date. Tonight, the Angels mourn.

Nani News Briefs

Believe it or not, our top story tonight on this holiday eve is not about the holiday! There is MAJOR cat news! Kaline scratched on the post!!! YAY KALINE!!!


It was catnip induced to begin with. She was playing with her sock-puppet, a pair of old tights triple-lining dried wild catnip, but she squiggled over and was playing with her sock puppet around the base of the post. Her claws got into it by accident and she liked it! Now when I come downstairs, she runs to the post instead of the love seat to claw her hello!


Now onto the holiday scoop!


My adopted rookie from last year, Joey Votto, is scheduled to start the 2009 season tomorrow in the number 3 spot in the lineup for Cincinnati! My prediction, honest prediction, the Reds will make it to the playoffs this year. The chemistry was already starting to make things sizzle at the end of last year!

I’m going to make an effort to get any work that’s getting dine early tomorrow so I can celebrate the holiday! It’s OPENING DAY!!!!

In the first ESPN party of the the year tonight, Atlanta is doing a bit of showing the World Champion Phillies that this is a new season! The home run fest in the first two innings included Jordan Schafer’s fist Major League at-bat and his first Major League home run! He’s only the fourth player in Braves history to do that!


Weather Report -

It’s raining. I mean, it’s really raining and that rain is scheduled to turn into an inch or two of wet snow tomorrow. I’m not at all happy about that! But, it’s supposed to be getting warmer again by the end of the week.

More important, in Cincinnati tomorrow, there’s a 60% chance of rain. As I recall, last year’s game started very late for a rain delay too! They lost it to Arizona, but they weren’t destined to make the playoffs last year either. Tomorrow will be a different outcome against the victims from New York!!


Okay, back to the party now! Happy Opening Day Eve everyone!

Wait 'Til Next Year!!

Jay Bruce and Joey Votto, Home Run KINGS!

I keep telling David, WE ARE GONNA KICK SOME BUTT NEXT YEAR! The Reds beat Milwaukee 11-2 Friday night, ELEVEN TO TWO!! We don’t have Ken Griffey, Jr., We don’t have Adam Dunn and we don’t have Lance Berkman...yet. But what we do have is a growing core that’s completely nuclear!

Joey Votto and Jay Bruce both went yard twice, making up over half of the Reds record SEVEN home runs in the game.

After losing the first series of September 2-1 to the Pirates, the Reds have won every series this month. They are 10-6 for September so far.

Heck with October, I can’t wait until April 6!

We are gonna kick some BUTT next year!

Monday Mug Shot

Galveston Island, Texas

It’s a topical mug today. It’s heartbreaking to see the photos of Galveston Island after Ike blew through. Yes, homes in more opulent beach front areas were destroyed. Homes, beautiful homes, owned by people that chose to build there for the beauty and pleasure of the location. I’m not going to imply that they are “faultless victims.” When you can afford to build where you want and you know the risk of living where you do, you’ve carefully weighed out the pros and cons. You’ve decided to take that risk because you worked hard to earn the ability to live in your version of paradise. And now, many of those people have no home to go to. Their mayor has told them “don’t come home,” even if their home is still standing. Even knowing the risk, it’s still a devastating blow!

I can’t imagine being homeless, I have someone who loves me enough to be sure I have shelter, as I’m sure many of the refugees from Ike do, but I do know what it feels like to know that if it wasn’t for that love from someone else, you’d have nothing. Just losing physical property is not exactly having “nothing.” Insurance will help to rebuild and replace, but there is that interim time of helplessness that’s incredibly stressful. That feeling I know well!


Mom and I were in Galveston in September 1999. We’d taken a long weekend and met friends in Houston to see the Cubs and Astros last series at the Astrodome. Our friends, a family we’d met through a baseball chat room on AOL, were Astros fans and Mom and I were there to cheer on her Cubbies. It was a fun rival weekend. We stayed at the same hotel the Cubs did. That wasn’t planned that way, it just happened to be that way! We went on one elevator ride with Jeff Blauser and got a glimpse of Sammy Sosa and entourage headed out to the team bus before the Sunday game. Baseball travel always brings about some fun memories and brushes with the stars.

On Monday, we headed out to Galveston. I’d never been to the Gulf of Mexico before and wanted to put my feet in the water before an anticipated lunch of fresh, I mean FRESH, gulf shrimp. I love palm trees and I just marveled at the beautiful homes and shops and all the palm trees. Then there was the water, all glistening and an oil rig in the distance. I’d never seen an off shore oil rig before either! We picked a nice beach spot and parked.

As soon as I hit the sand, as is my custom, off came the shoes! The sand was warm, pleasantly warm and odd for a then Michigan girl in September. Then I waded in, up to my knees. I just turned around looking at Mom, smiling.

“It’s BATH WATER! It’s just like walking in BATH water!”

The water was so warm! After being in the water of the Great Lakes all my life, and even when I’d been to the Atlantic Ocean, it was in the cooler off-season, the Gulf of Mexico was just a shock, a very pleasing hock, but still a shock. In the hottest part of summer, Lake Superior will still turn your feet blue if you stay in too long! The Gulf was like a hot tub!

When we’d driven onto the main road by the water in the morning, I saw the restaurant I wanted to have lunch at. There was a huge shrimp in front of it! I had to have pictures of the shrimp anyway, so why not stop for lunch, right? We had lunch at Casey’s restaurant at Gaido’s Inn. I had grilled shrimp that had been swimming that morning! It was SOOOO good!


But now, as I tuck those wonderful memories back into their mug, I wonder, I worry, about that great restaurant and the giant shrimp with which I was so enamored. You see the address for Casey’s and Gaidos is on Seawall Boulevard. I really don’t even want to know.

Photo from the web - Helen Anders AMERICAN-STATESMAN

Of Curses and Waste

A man lost his job and a contractor paid for other workers to waste money. The worker responsible for the prank of putting a Red Sox jersey n the foundation of the new Yankee Stadium was the one fred and his now former coworkers destroyed the work to remover the shirt. It’s the epitome of waste, of vulgar wealth.

The prank was supposed to “curse” the new Yankee Stadium. Because an average construction worker with a baseball jersey as a weapon has that kind of power. He can take down an entire multi billion dollar professional franchise with a with a really strong wish. That’s why he’s working in construction. It pays better than run of the mill destiny changing.

Curses work because stupid people believe in them. In Chicago some guy with a goat and a temper “cursed” the Cubs. Who was this guy? He was an upset fan who, when told of new ordinances and grounds rules, could no longer bring his pet goat to graze in the outfield. If he was some kind of magical being who possessed the power to levy curses, don’t you think he’d have had acres and acres to his own wealthy self to put the goat in to graze?

Yet, for over 100 years, the Cubs have not been the World Baseball Champions. Curse worked, right?

I’d be impressed with the experiment proving the power of the human mind. But it’s not a controlled experiment. It’s an out of control hoax. They are people who believed an angry fan was actually capable of cursing a team. It only took a few ignorant souls to plant the seeds of defeat and in Chicago. They have been growing many years with some of the greatest fertilizer around. The curse of the goat is scapegoat. It’s an excuse for poor performance. In Chicago, they can “blame the curse” for any setback. The team doesn’t perform poorly. They are never lazy or in a sump, they don’t have to admit anything. They don’t have to put in any effort. They just collect their millions per player and blame it all on a long dead goat.

Ah, but the Yankees don’t deal with those things. They buy anything they want. This, obviously must include flaunting their wealth and ignorance by destroying a foundation to flaunt that they have enough money to cancel a “curse” cast by a powerful mystic construction worker.

But, I say it wasn’t enough.

I say that if the New York Yankees can afford to spend and go through all that trouble to remove on curse, they can afford to reduce the prices in the concessions at the new ball park. Nothing will cost over a dollar. In fact, I say that until they reduce the costs to that extent, the Yankees will never again win a World Series. Oh, I’m not joking. I can’t stand vulgar flaunting of money for selfish stupidity. So, I am cursing the New York Yankees for their waste.

I have more power than a Red Sox fan construction worker. You see, I have karma on my side. I have the cries of the ghosts of fans who remembered actually being able to afford to go to a Yankees game screaming at this act of arrogant filth. I have the powers of justice and balance in the cosmos behind my curse.

Now, of course, if the stopping of curses is so important that Mr. Steinbrenner will waste money to exorcize a jinx, he can contact me.

Monday Mug Shot

“Meet Me On Peachtree”
Atlanta, Georgia

Today’s mug is rather topical. I was shocked Friday night, watching the feed from CNN International on what is our CNN channel, seeing the destruction on the street in front of CNN Center.

According to a article in the LA Times, a computer at CNN.com was sucked outside in the strike. Given the proximity of the CNN properties to one another at CNN Center , that could be a hint at explaining why CNN International and not CNN was on that channel and reporting the news Friday night.
Friday’s storm was the first of a weekend-long saga of violent weather and tornadoes. 2 people were killed Saturday in storms near the Alabama state line and 20 homes were damaged with no reported injuries south of Atlanta on Sunday. I was definitely NOT Georgia's weekend!

For me, watching the aftermath was...I‘m not sure exactly how to put it into words. Atlanta is my favorite city. I’ve been there often since the first time I went there in 1989. I fell in love with the city. I drive a 1994 Camaro instead of something more sensible for winter survival in the Great Lakes area because in 1994, I had plans to move there.

I was looking at all of the glass and debris on the street where windows had shattered at the Omni hotel and CNN Center. CNN Center was the place I had lunch with the news writer who inspired me to get my radio and TV certificate from Specs Howard. It was the place I waved my hand in front of the blue wall and saw myself on TV in front of a chromakeyed CNN weather map when I went on the studio tour.

Pieces of the roof fell in at The Georgia Dome, where I saw men’s gymnastics in the 1996 Summer Olympics and Clemson and Louisiana State face off in the Peach Bowl that December. The news showed debris in Centennial Olympic Park, where I had been with friends the weekend before the Olympics when we went to the country festival at The Atlanta Motor Speedway.

It’s kinda haunting to see and read about all that destruction happening in a place you love that has so many happy memories attached to it. But Atlanta has survived greater destruction and came back to thrive even more. Remember, it was burned to the ground in that war almost a century and a half back?

So, I can drink a cup of coffee from that mug and smile, knowing that Atlanta has the will bred into it from the Civil War days to bounce back and this country has the spirit of drive and cooperation to get things back and running in the little town that has become the communications hub of America and one of our historical Olympic cities.

Oh, and one more thing ... about the mug. Once everything is back and ready for touristing activities, and I DO recommend that, especially in the spring when the dogwoods and the Braves are in bloom, beware of locals that give directions to tourists that include “turn on Peachtree.” There are over 30 streets in Metro Atlanta that have Peachtree in the street name, but there is no street called “Peachtree.”

Sources:
After Atlanta tornado, cleanup is underway
Ga. Storms Kill 2 After Atlanta Twister
Suspected tornado flattens homes near Atlanta