the end of the baseball season

Red Sox and Yankees - 2 games for all the marbles.
Go Sox!!!

Screw You! Cancer

Got a note from my friend's wife today.

Great news! The orginal tumor is markedly decreased. There is no longer any visible involvement in his stomach or abdominal lymph nodes and the lymph node in his neck is dying, at least in the center but possibly more. We have 2 more months (4 treatments) on the same course, then we'll reasses, change the arm pic line to a clavical shunt and go from there. They're actually saying remission is a possiblity!

So, take that you s.o.b. You're not staying here.

iPod - it's alive

must have been some mysterious battery discharge and a bad USB cable. I finally managed to bring it back.
Apple still sucks ;o)

Now, back to listening to Bob Dylan: No Direction Home soundtrack

this is me alright

Your Personality Is

Rational (NT) You are both logical and creative. You are full of ideas. You are so rational that you analyze everything. This drives people a little crazy! Intelligence is important to you. You always like to be around smart people. In fact, you're often a little short with people who don't impress you mentally. You seem distant to some - but it's usually because you're deep in thought. Those who understand you best are fellow Rationals. In love, you tend to approach things with logic. You seek a compatible mate - who is also very intelligent. At work, you tend to gravitate toward idea building careers - like programming, medicine, or academia. With others, you are very honest and direct. People often can't take your criticism well. As far as your looks go, you're coasting on what you were born with. You think fashion is silly. On weekends, you spend most of your time thinking, experimenting with new ideas, or learning new things.

The Three Question Personality Test

iPod - RIP

My iPod died sometime overnight. A short life, really. Only 4 months.
I hate Apple.
(I was smart enough to get the 3 year protection plan) :o)

Religion, politics, & the right wing

The ultra-right wing seems to think they have a monopoly on "values", religion, or even God.
Well, it just isn't so.

Check out Street Prophets to see religion and politics from the left.

but you already knew this

You are a Social Liberal (78% permissive) and an... Economic Liberal (18% permissive) You are best described as a: Socialist Link: The Politics Test on Ok Cupid

blog

I sit
and click
the link
to see
your pic
to read
your words
since
you're
not here
and
I'm
not there

I'm getting nothing here, Jerry

nothing I tell you. Absolutely nothing!

Scenes from Maine 09/05

Direction

The first breath of autumn
blows through the trees
And the nights are getting long
and growing colder
And the maples are turning
and the fields have gone brown
And the waves against the shore
make such a sad sound
-Dan Fogelberg

There are really few words that adequately express my feelings about the state of Maine. It truly has become the place where my inner compass gets reset. After our very first visit back in 1996, I wrote in my Maine journal:

I'd always wanted to go there, mainly out of curiosity. I had no idea what to expect. I had no idea that the very foundation of my soul would be shaken by that place. It's been a year since that first visit, but not a day has passed since that I haven't thought of it. How much I want to go back there, how much I want to live there, how much I don't ever want to leave there.

This trip did nothing to change that. I have never felt more at home than I did out on that wooden sailing yacht. The water, the popping of the sails in the wind, the seabreeze blowing in your face, all conspire to bring focus and direction. Everything I do now is centered on our permanent relocation to Maine. The path is neither short nor straight, but the destination is set.

Maine

bumped back to the top
On the way back to Boothbay Harbor this a.m. Yipee!!!

It's Maine...
And it's Autumn
The birches have just begun turning
It's life and it's dying
The lobstermen's boats come returning
With the catch of they day in their holds
and the young boys cold and complaining
The fog meets the beaches and out on
the Reach it is raining --
It's father and son
It's the way it's been done since the
old days
It's hauling by hand ten miles out
from the land where their chow waits
All the days get so lonely and long
and seas grow so stormy and strong but
The Reach will sing welcome as homeward
they hurry along.
And the morning will
blow away
As the waves crash and fall
And the Reach like a siren sings
as she beckons and calls
As the coastline recedes from view
And the seas swell and roll
I will take from the Reach
all that she has to teach
To the depths of my soul –
-Dan Fogelberg, The Reach

Once again, September will find us on the coast of Maine.
Maine has become a safe harbor for me. A place where the natural order is restored once I step off the plane in Portland and get the first whiff of saltwater or hear the longing of the seagulls along the waterfront. My inner compass gets reset and the things that seemed to matter just a day before are all of a sudden reduced to their intrinsic insignificance. The smell of the pines along the bay clear out the haze and once again focus my thoughts on the journey ahead.
And when it is time to leave
the bellowing of the foghorn as the fog creeps in on cat paws,
the popping of the sails on a schooner in the harbor,
the falling of the yellow, red, and orange leaves in the woods as a winter's blanket for the trees,
the ringing of the buoy bell,
and the flashing light from the lighthouse on the island,
are all calling me to come back "home" again soon.

Two Americas

John Edwards used parts of this speech in his 2004 Presidential and Vice-Presidential campaigns

And we have so much work to do. Because the truth is, we still live in two different Americas: one for people who have lived the American Dream and don't have to worry, and another for most Americans who work hard and still struggle to make ends meet.

It doesn't have to be that way. We can build one America.

We can build one America where we no longer have two health care systems. One for people who get the best health care money can buy and then one for everybody else, rationed out by insurance companies, drug companies, and HMOs millions of Americans who don't have any health insurance at all.

It doesn't have to be that way.

We shouldn't have two public school systems in this country: one for the most affluent communities, and one for everybody else.

None of us believe that the quality of a child's education should be controlled by where they live or the affluence of their community.

It doesn't have to be that way.

We shouldn't have two different economies in America: one for people who are set for life, their kids and grandkids will be just fine, and then one for most Americans who live paycheck to paycheck.

And you know what I'm saying. You don't need me to explain it to you, you know you can't save any money, can you? Takes every dime you make just to pay your bills, and you know what happens if something goes wrong a child gets sick, somebody gets laid off, or there's a financial problem, you go right off the cliff.

And what's the first thing to go. Your dreams. It doesn't have to be that way.

Now I have friends who told me that the Two Americas idea was just a load of political nonsense. Of course they would say that. I'm pretty sure most of them have never seen the "other" America from the comfort of their small town or sterile suburb. Oh, they think they know. They'll hear the buzzwords of welfare mom, or food stamps, or Medicaid and then go into some rant about how "those people" are too lazy to get a job. Well this past week, the "other" America showed up in their living rooms in the faces of the thousands of people too poor to have a car in which to escape or enough money to pay for gas and a hotel room on the way out of town. The "other" America was shown living in squalor inside a sporting arena on every single news channel. But those who refuse to acknowledge the Two Americas focused on the few thugs whose opportunistic crime sprees gained airtime. "That's just how 'those people' are." Those who refuse to acknowledge the Two Americas watched Hardy Jackson break down as he described having to let go of his wife as the storm surge ripped their house in half, and then had the nerve to say that Hardy should have left town sooner.

Katrina has brought a much needed spotlight on the "other" America. People all over the country have opened up their wallets to help those in need, because that's what Americans do. But this is the face of the "other" America. It won't vanish whenever the last family leaves the shelter and disappears back into anonymity in another city, in another state, in the "other" America. They will still be there wondering why it takes a natural disaster for anyone to notice, or to care.

Like all of us, I have learned a lot of lessons in my life. Two of the most important are that first, there will always be heartache and struggle. You can't make it go away. But the other is that people of good and strong will, can make a difference. One lesson is a sad lesson and the other's inspiring. We are Americans and we choose to be inspired.

We choose hope over despair; possibilities over problems; optimism over cynicism. We choose to do what's right even when those around us say, "You can't do that." We choose to be inspired because we know that we can do better because this is America where everything is still possible.

What we believe is that you should never look down on anybody, that we should lift people up. We don't believe in tearing people apart. We believe in bringing people together. What we believe what I believe is that the family you're born into and the color of your skin in our America should never control your destiny.

Labor Day

June 28, 1894

An Act Making Labor Day a legal holiday.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the first Monday of September in each year, being the day celebrated and known as Labor's Holiday, is hereby made a legal public holiday, to all intents and purposes, in the same manner as Christmas, the first day of January, the twenty-second day of February, the thirtieth day of May, and the fourth day of July are now made by law public holidays.

APPROVED, June 28, 1894.

"It is appropriate, therefore, that the nation pay tribute on Labor Day to the creator of so much of the nation's strength, freedom, and leadership -- the American worker."

Labor Day was declared a national holiday in 1894. It is a tribute to people like my grandparents and great-grandparents - the sharecroppers, the farmers, the linemen, the cabinet makers, and soldiers of The Greatest Generation. Each and every one of them working hard every day to provide a better life for their children. And in passing down the ethics of a hard day's work, they've ensured that each generation that has come after them has indeed had a better life than those before. So on this day, I think about my forefathers who worked hard each day to make this a better place.

Louisiana 1927 (or 2005)

lyrics by Randy Newman

What has happened down here, is the winds have changed
Clouds roll in from the north and it started to rain
It rained real hard, and it rained for a real long time
Six feet of water in the streets of Evangeline

The river rose all day, the river rose all night
Some people got lost in the flood, some people got away alright
The river had busted through clear down to Placker Mine
Six feet of water in the streets of Evangeline

Louisiana, Louisiana
They're trying to wash us away, they're trying to wash us away
Oh Louisiana, Louisiana
They're trying to wash us away, they're trying to wash us away

President Coolidge come down, in a railroad train
With his little fat man with a note pad in his hand
President say "little fat man, oh isn't it a shame,
What the river has done to this poor farmer's land"

Oh Louisiana, Louisiana
They're trying to wash us away, you're trying to wash us away
Oh Louisiana, oh Louisiana
They're trying to wash us away, oh Lord, they're trying to wash us away
They're trying to wash us away, they're trying to wash us away

American Red Cross

For the people of New Orleans

Do You Know What it Means to Miss New Orleans
by Louis Armstrong

Do you know what it means to miss New Orleans
And miss her each night and day
I know I'm not wrong because the feeling's
Getting stronger the longer I stay away

Miss the moss-covered vines, tall sugar pines
Where mockingbirds used to sing
I'd love to see that old lazy Mississippi
Running in the spring

Moonlight on the bayous
Creole tunes fill the air
I dream about magnolias in June
And I'm wishin I was there

Do you know what it means to miss New Orleans
When that's where you left your heart
And there's one thing more, I miss the one I care for
More than I miss New Orleans

may God bless the people of New Orleans