HOW TO GET THERE FROM HERE

I love when I am falling asleep at night to realize that I am thinking about the attack on Pearl Harbor, and then track back my thoughts to figure out how on earth I go to thinking about Pearl Harbor (in this case, Pearl Harbor, atomic bomb, Enola Gay, my dad, Michigan, joining the church).

Last night, I really was thinking about Pearl Harbor, and it suddenly occurred to me that I had no idea WHY the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. I mean, I know it was to make a statement about who was going to be the power in the Pacific, but what was really going on? Was it the U.S. shipping embargoes? Japanese invasion of South Korea? Someone in the military ruling who had a really bad migraine one day? And would and/or WHEN would the U.S. have decided to get involved in stopping Hitler's rampage in Europe IF Japan had not attacked?

History, it is said, is written by the winners. Living in a British military compound in Germany, I learned that they have a completely different view (i.e. history books, teaching) of what we call the Revolutionary War, War of 1812, WWI and WWII. Every country does it; it's how, perhaps, we keep our unity - "but since we were obviously correct...."

Then is history, at least so far, pride?

Anyone any ideas? Anyone except actual historians (I don't want to hear how I've got everything so far wrong).

EH?

Remind me again, where do I live? Arizona, right? Where people move because it's sunny and warm, eh? (that's my Canadian accent there).

So someone please explain to me why it is hailing outside right now. SERIOUS hail. I am worried about some windows being broken, and the winds are just SLAMMING the house.

If anyone follows weather, there's a storm coming into Baja California, and we seem to be getting some of that pushed over on us.

TAGGED... MAYBE?

I'm not even certain that I have been tagged, but since both Harmony and Jen have been....

Wait a minute, it's supposed to be fourth photo from the fourth file...

Hmm.. must be from when I was first considering how to change our ugly dark fireplace mantel to something less discordant.

So let's try THIRD photo from the THIRD file...

Well, it's a photo obviously Harmony took, and now I have BEEN there fishing with Colin and his buddy, so it looks nice, but still . . .

How about SECOND file, second photo...

Gorgeous (and in Arizona) - but downloaded from the Internet.

Forget it. I'm not a photographer. Next time I'll begin the tag, and get a photo that I took of something!!

MATTHEW 25:35,36

Just follow-up for those of you who had the patience to read my hungry blog - it's nice.

KNITTING HANDGUN COSIES

Have you ever pointed out a well-behaved child to your child, and said, "See how good that kid is being?! Why can't you be like that?!" And I can almost guarantee you that you have noticed a misbehaving kid in public and have not mentioned to your child, "Thank goodness you aren't like that!" (somehow we think they might learn something terrible if we point out that they aren't doing badly).

I remind myself frequently that one particular child of me is NOT on cocaine, is not pregnant, is not living on the street. She is working, walking, talking, texting (which, with our own relationship, avoids a whole lot of arguing) and trying. I really have nothing to complain about.

But, compared to my two other kids (both of them marvelous albeit very different adults), this one takes up a whole of my time, and more importantly to me, a whole lot of ENERGY. Which is completely within my control, I understand (and this will have to be a completely separate blog... or a new book... hmmm....).

ANYway, this blog began to brag about my well-behaved DOG - I'm not certain where I left that, or why, but I will now get back on track.

I took my dog to the vet's early early early Monday morning to find out why he was scratching half of his fur off. Actually, I am a good enough dog owner that I did know why he was scraping off his skin - with inflamed, red skin, so probably an allergic reaction to something - and I evenknew that before I went on the Internet. But I also do not feel comfortable giving him prescription drugs (well, except for the Vicodin we share, I mean). And since it was the 'walk-in' clinic time, we ended up sitting for quite a while.

Most dogs react very predictably when they go to the vets - much like most of us try NOT to react like when we have to go to the dentist for a root canal or the doctor for a prostrate exam (which I could also write an entire blog about - men are such BABIES). They (back to the dogs, not the baby men) whine (well, we as humans do that also, don't we), turn and try to run away (re-scheduling?), and then panic and cry and pull on their leashes in the waiting room (whereas WE read old issues of "People" and "National Geographic" and try not to look at our watch as the time creeps by).

However, MY dog was the one every other owner was pointing to, saying "See!? Why can't you be good like that dog is being?"

Now, you may have asked yourself, "so where the hell does that title have to do with anything about kids and dogs?" IT DOESN'T. It's just one of the things the detective knits to relax on "Pushing Daisies" (another show my daughter has gotten me watching).

But I'll bet it caught your eye, and made you read to the end.

FIVE GENERATIONS

A friend emailed this to me - isn't it cool?

HUNGER

This was posted on this blog as a thought question:

Indulge me for a second and consider this scenario:

Let's say you're given the opportunity to donate some money to a desperate family who would use it to feed their children

But you were only able to do so if you donated the same amount of money to someone you knew would use it to buy crack.

Would you do it?

I am pleased to report that the grand majority of the replies were yes, they would donate the money to the family.

However, this was one person's response:

I already donate to poor people - the government takes that from me via taxes. You know, the money tat goes to all those government programs that the bleeding heart liberals feel we need.You can take the crack addict out of the equation, I still wouldn't donate to the poor family.

(and yes, the misspelling is in the original)

Will you forgive me for getting on my soap-box again?

Leaving politics and name-calling and the government completely out of this, I have to say only ONE thing:

This person has never been and has never seen her children hungry. I mean, REAL hunger; not where a meal would be nice, or doesn't that sound good, oh, I'm just so hungry - but there is NOTHING, really NOTHING in your cupboard and your children are crying and you would do just about ANYTHING to feed them.

I've never been starving. But I have lived not knowing where my next meal was coming from. And I cannot imagine coping with that if my children were involved.

Thank you. I feel much better.