"MY ROLE MODELS"

Remember these guys? I new them as the "Our Gang" kids, others
know them as "The Little Rascals." We watched them every morning before we left for school .
I can remember being small enough that Steve Dondalski and I would sit in the same chair in my livingroom watching them. Spanky was every ones favorite. The girls liked Darla the main reason that the "He-man Women Haters Club" was started.
They were filmed in the 1930's during the Great Depression so everyone was poor. Also notice that the films are mixed race. We grew up knowing this was the way it should be. Go to http://www.youtube.com/ and watch a few. "The Teacher's Beau" is one of my favorites. There is one about them at night with ghosts, that's hysterical and there's always the "Wish I had a watermelon" episode! Buckwheat',"Oh-tay", was so funny and not one character mentioned his speech impediment.
Their antics were all good fun. No one got hurt or shot and though they walked a fine line with the law they were great role models.
I think it's fair to say that the infamous "Two Idiots", Glenn and Nick, owe them some credit for many of their pranks. It's crazy to get my age and realize that "Our Gang" and "Looney Toons" were a large part of forming my values as a youth.
Another time we'll talk 1950's cowboys!

"What Time is it? How can that be?"

The first time my wife and I drove cross country in our motorhome we left at 5:30 a.m.. I'm a morning person, she's not! She slept in the passenger seat with her blanky and pillow until I stopped just southwest of Buffalo for breakfast at Cracker Barrel.
When we got back in the motorhome Kat took out our road atlas and the three ring binder that I set up over the spring. I had gotten trip planning software and made a trip tik which included a map, directions and our camp ground reservations for each day. This was a well thought out plan!
Almost every stop I had been able to get a site with electric, water, sewer and cable hook ups. Livin' large! We were set both ways. I had planned a leisurely drive both ways with sight seeing stops along the way. This was our long shake down cruise - our first big trip I wanted to be prepared.
Our first stop was in central Ohio, arriving in the earling afternoon. We had a nice dinner and relaxed.
Still excited, the next morning I broke camp at 5:00a.m. without waking Kat. We were headed to Iowa next. I pulled out quietly, figuring I'd drive a couple of hours and then stop for breakfast. Which is exactly what I did. Just after crossing in to Indiana, I saw a billboard advertising a Cracker Barrel. I stopped there and woke Kathy up. One of the nice things about this chain is they have large RV parking spots. No one was parked in the RV reserve.
Other than one other customer, we were it.
Kat asked what time it was I said 7 and our waitress said, 6.
6?
The waitress informed us that the time changed when I entered Indiana. We'd lost an hour or gained one, whatever!,
All my planning and I hadn't figured in time changes. Good news - extra time going out - less time going home. All Kat heard was it really wasn't necessary for me to leave so early.
It turned out for the best. I spent many beautiful mornings drinking a cup of coffee and smoking a nice cigar watching the day come to life in places like South Dakota, Wyoming, Utah, Nevada and California. One of my favorite early mornings was on our second trip when my daughter-in-law and I went into Sequoia National Park just after sunrise and watched a young deer feed.

This weekend I watched some of the Earth Live concert and saw all the stats on plastic water bottles. They talked about how much energy can be saved if we would refill an empty bottle. I've never understood why we bought water. Rotterdam, New York, where I grew up, still has award winning tap water. No lie! It was actually decided in a blind taste test.
When I was a kid if you were thirsty you drank water. In grade school we had the old fashioned porceline drinking fountains with the silver handle. It wasn't even cooled. Junior High and High School you knew better than to drink from them. We even had one outside at Bigsbee School near the playground.
Everyone had a "water bottle" in the refrigerator so you'd have really cold water.
Sometimes if you needed to, you drank directly from the outside faucet on the house. You know you're old if you can remember the taste of water from a garden hose - how about the taste of warm water from a garden hose! Yuck!
So just a thought - how about we all stop buying bottled water?

"SISSY BOYS"

Have you noticed that all the reality shows are hosted and judged by Brits? How did this happen? Idol, So you think you can dance, Dancing with the stars - damn - now that I think about it there's Canadians on too! Paul Schaefer, Alex Trebeck - but they're really Brits - sissy boys!

I'd like to see Simon Cowell, Nigel Lithgow and Len Goodman get dropped off somewhere in a large American inner city area, like Detroit, NYC or even Albany . Imagine them getting dissed by a group of little brothers and sisters and them trying to just defend themselves verbally. "I say young man, you're a bit cheeky." or "Young lady lower your voice it's pitchy." or Simon telling them,"I didn't understand a word you just said. It was just awful!"

You want a good laugh? Check out BBC On Demand. The shows suck. I get their humor, it's like their teeth - bad. Monty Python was a classic but name a couple more really good Brit shows.

"Eh da unna stun mooch a wa shi sez," but I do like Cat Deeley! She's really the only good thing to come out of this latest Brit invasion.

"NOW THAT WAS STUPID!"

Yesterday I did something really stupid, knowing the whole time that it was stupid. That's what makes it so stupid.

When I first saw the cartoon above, I thought of my father. Every night after dinner Bud would go in the bathroom with a magazine and his Camel cigarettes. Our housing development started to be built in the late 1940's, so we had a window in the bathroom but no fan. Let's just say no one wanted to follow Bud! As a teen I would volunteer only because I could get in a smoke without getting caught.

Well on with my "stupid" story.

Kat had an evening appointment at 5:30 and left the house about 5. The last thing she did was give me the phone. She feels better when I have the phone when I'm alone. She told me she'd be back at 7.

About 5:20, I had to go to the bathroom. As most of you know this is an adventure for me! I got up with the lift/recliner, transferred to the stair lift with my walker, up the stairs, transferred to the electric wheelchair, in to the bathroom and transfer to the toilet. Did my business and then tried to get up to transfer back to the wheelchair.

I used to work with a man named Mike Sudolski. We used to call him the "Polock" simply because he would do stupid stuff and then come to work and tell us. This story I feel Like Mike!!

I realized, almost immediately, that I wasn't able to get up on my own.

This only happens occassionally but I can tell right away. It has to do with fatigue. Some times I can tell before hand, others not.

I had to wait 1 hour and 20 minutes until Kat got back at 6:40!

Now you know me. I didn't just sit there calmly waiting. I tried everything I could think of - I even tried to stand on the foot pads of the electric chair and tilted it to try to lift me - I yelled to Dozer to get help, you know like "Lassie get help Timmy's in the well." Nothing!

I then concentrated on not allowing my legs to fall asleep. I rocked my butt cheeks back and forth and raised and lowered my legs to keep the blood flowing. It's now the next morning and I can still feel a circle on my butt!

Of course I did not bring the telephone with me! As you can Imagine, I've had a "talking to", threats were made and I will now travel with the phone. You all be ready for the "I'm stuck and can't get up" call.

I hope some one learns from my stupidity' If you know your limitations, live within them. Just like Dirty Harry - "Unless you feel Lucky, Punk."

"The Pink Lady"

Our son, also a Glenn, is a luthier. He makes acoustic guitars at Tippin Guitars in Marblehead, Massachusetts. This is a small 3 person shop that makes highend guitars.

Check out their newest - http://www.dreamguitars.com/ = click on featured new instruments and scroll down to Tippin, it's listed alphabetically.

Pretty nice, uh! We're proud of him.

"The Sound Track of my Youth"

Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young - from Woodstock on - they were one of my favorite groups. I have a Hospice volunteer, Dr. Ricki Lewis, who is helping me complete what l call "my memoirs"

which I'm compiling for my kids. She's a professional writer and has helped me alot. She's a geneticist by education and writes amazingly readable genetics and life science texts. Since much of my youth is the 60's, we've talked alot about that time and what it represented to us.

Ricki shared an essay she authored for a local paper where she discussed how Springsteen has been able to create new art successfully and how through her personal experience she's found that C,S & N have gone Hollywood.(please notice Neil Young is not included - he still rocks)

This essay took my thoughts in a couple different directions.

First of all, I always look at the past using the same criteria I use when reading a book. You take out of a book in direct corelation to what experiences you bring into a book. For instance, I read Robinson Caruso when I was 10 years old. I loved it and got lost in, what I thought was a great adventure. Being a child I saw it as fantasy and adventure - different from my normal day. When I reread it in college as an adult, I had a different take. My experience base was now wider and I could now bring the necessary emotions with me to fully understand the whole message of the book.

The past is the same. I naturally look at CSN&Y as men as well as musicians. Having watched and listened to them as young men, from their concert audience and reading Rollingstone and eventually their books. We bring experience with us to the table. My kids hear their music and may have read about them, but Ricki and I were there - we felt the "time a chang'in" right along with them. Many of our generation had a vision to make a difference in the world.

I chose "........ teach your children well, their father's hell did slowly go by...." but many of our generation, and I think Ricki would argue CS&N, went the way of the dollar! Look at people my age and try to figure how their life affected others in a positive way. Yeah - not a hell of alot of them is there?

These were the same people who 35 - 40 years ago sat around smoking dope, drinking Boone's Farm wine and bragging about how they would change the world. Soon, when we're gone the measure will be made. I'm not saying that you had to live poor to reach the goal but most everyone lost the idea of doing for others. They did for themselves.

This idea of my generation being measured took my thoughts to politics.

I have another friend, Susan Schlossberg, who sends me political e-mails. Fortunately, I agree with most of the propaganda. I say that because isn't that what most political writing is? Propaganda?

Politics = frustration. Locally - statewide - federal - all the same. The people who yell the loudest do the least. Our ancestors set up a form of government for the people. A system, well thought out, to speak the voice of America. But most American's remain mute by not voting.
So politicians rule.

How did I get here from CSN&Y? The mutes are the same people that were going to change the world.

COME ON GUYS - GET OFF YOUR DEAD ASSES AND LET THAT FREAK FLAG FLY!
IT'S NOT TOO LATE TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE!