Picked this up from an email...

I'm not sure who the author is...

To Those of Us
Born
1925 - 1970 :

TO ALL THE KIDS WHO SURVIVED THE 1930's, '40's, '50's, '60's and '70's!!

First, we survived being born to mothers who may have smoked and/or drank while they were
pregnant.

They took aspirin, ate blue cheese dressing, tuna from a can and didn't get tested for diabetes. Then, after that trauma we were put to sleep on our tummies in baby cribs covered with bright colored lead-based paints. We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, locks on doors or cabinets and when we rode our bikes we had baseball caps (not helmets) on our heads.

As infants and children we would ride in cars with no car seats, no booster seats, no seat belts, no air bags, bald tires and sometimes no brakes.. Riding in the back of a pick-up truck on a warm day was always a special treat.

We drank water from the garden hose and not from a bottle. We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle and no one actually died from this.

We ate cupcakes, white bread, real butter and bacon. We drank Kool-Aid made with real white sugar and we weren't overweight.

WHY?

Because we were always outside playing...that's why!

We would leave home in the morning and play all day as long as we were back when the streetlights came on or when Dad would whistle. No one was able to reach us all day and we were OKAY.

We would spend hours building our go-carts out of scraps and then ride them down the hill
only to find out we forgot the brakes. After running into the bushes a few times we learned
to solve the problem..

We did not have Play Stations, Nintendo's and X-boxes. There were no video games, no 150 channels on cable, no video movies or DVDs, no surround-sound or CDs, no cell phones,
no personal computers, no Internet and no chat rooms.

WE HAD FRIENDS and we went outside and found them!

We fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth and there were no lawsuits from those accidents. We would get spankings with wooden spoons, switches, ping-pong paddles or just a bare hand and no one would call child services to report abuse.

We ate worms and mud pies made from dirt and the worms did not live in us forever.

We were given BB guns for our 10th birthdays, made up games with sticks and tennis balls and although we were told it would happen- we did not put out very many eyes.

We rode bikes or walked to a friend's house and knocked on the door or rang the bell or just walked in and talked to them.

Little League had tryouts and not everyone made the team. Those who didn't had to learn to deal with disappointment.

Imagine that!!

The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke the law was unheard of. They actually sided with the law!

These generations have produced some of the best risk-takers, problem solvers and inventors ever. The past 50 to 85 years have seen an explosion of innovation and new ideas..

We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility and we learned how to deal with it all.

If YOU are one of those born between 1925-1970 CONGRATULATIONS! You might want to share this with others who have had the luck to grow up as kids before the lawyers and the government regulated so much of our lives for our own good.

Kind of makes you want to run through the house with scissors, doesn't it ?

~~~~~~~
The quote of the century by Jay Leno:

"With hurricanes, tornados, fires out of control, mud slides, flooding, severe thunderstorms tearing up the country from one end to another and with the threat of bird flu and terrorist attacks are we sure this is a good time to take God out of the Pledge of Allegiance?"

Think about it...

Hey Dad!!!

Happy Father's Day and thanks for all you did for us when you walked this earth. You'll always be remembered and loved.

I'll catch up with you again one of these days.

just thinking and looking...

(About the pic: This picture was taken by our son's mother in law of our son, me and Dad down along the South Sound in the Beach Crest area probably in 2006 or 2007. We don't have the original photo. This is a picture of that picture. Too bad. I'd love to have had the original.)

I was just thinking and looking and wondering about things the other day. Out and about running around trying to catch up on some work related stuff and stumbled across those everyday sights that I've been taking for granted lately.

Nothing spectacular, just sights of things that have been "overlooked" over the past couple of years. It's too bad... they're important to me and I just let them slip by... kind of like this blog site...

(About this pic: Mt. Rainier. March 05, 2010. Taken from a hilltop in the Elbe/Mineral, Washington state area. One of the states several active volcanoes.)

Simple things with simple meanings.

These are places we go to reconnect, to keep in touch, to share... why have I not kept up? Why is it that I can't seem to get recharged and get that good ol' spirit regenerated and going again?

I don't know but it's an odd feeling... this having not been here in so long. There've been times over the past year where I've contemplated deleting everything and forgetting about it... moving on. Knowing it's here seems to cause some personal angst... especially since I haven't "kept up", haven't posted anything worthwhile in "oh so long". Yet, it still tells a story... even the inactivity.

I've revisited this site from time to time over the past several months with the sole intention of either posting to it or deleting it altogether... one or the other... but not letting it hang out here... alone... gathering dust... tangled in the web.

That's just not right. There's too many memories here.

(About the pic: A pic of an old homestead taken in the Pingston Creek area, Washington State. January 21, 2010)

It's not fair to log those activities, memories, experiences we've all shared throughout our lives only to abandon them to the mindless, heartless vacuum of the web.

I should have kept up but I didn't! I mean, a post that consists of a copy and paste of an anonymous email... where's that coming from?! That was a rather useless post, eh?

That isn't "keeping up". That isn't worthy of the label "blog activity". That type of post prompts action, serious consideration as to what to do next.

...with this blog...

If I stay on that course this blog will become nothing more than a dump site for witty but anonymous emails and cartoons...

...which has nothing to do with my original intentions for being here.

So, I've got some thinking to do.

Just thought I'd share my thoughts... Have fun all!

ain't this so true!

I got this sent to me via email. It's supposed to be a copy of an actual letter that was sent by a frustrated U.S. citizen to the federal government. I have no idea who actually authored the letter but was told it's relating to his application for a passport.

I read it over, got a good laugh and then thought to myself "isn't this a pretty sad situation if it is real."

I have no reason to believe why it wouldn't be real. I know I've wrote some of the same type of responses to our government folks over the years out of total frustration. I just don't think I was quite as eloquent as this gentleman was...

There is some rather crass language in it so beware...

Here it is... enjoy!

Dear Mrs. Ms. or Sir:


I'm in the process of renewing my passport and still cannot believe this..

How is it that Radio Shack has my address and telephone number and knows that I bought a cable TV from them in 1987 (22 years ago), and yet, the Federal Government is still asking me where I was born and on what date.

For Christ sakes, do you guys do this by hand? Ever heard of computers? My birth date you have in my social security file. It's on EVERY income tax form I've filed for the past 30 years. It's on my Medicare health insurance card and my driver's license, It's on the last eight damn passports I've had, It's on every stupid customs declaration form I've had to fill out before being allowed off the plane for the last 30 years. And it's on all those census forms that we have to do at election times. Would somebody please take note, once and for all, that my mother's name is Maryanne, my father's name is Robert and I'm reasonably confident that neither name is likely to change between now and when I die. Between you an' me, I've had enough of this bureaucratic bullshit! You send the application to my house, then you ask me for my f______g address. What is going on? You must have a gang of bureaucratic Neanderthal morons working there! Look at my damn picture. Do I look like Bin Laden? And "No," I don't want to dig up Yasser Arafat, for shit sakes. I just want to go and park my ass on a sandy beach.

And would someone please tell me, why would you give a damn whether I plan on visiting a farm in the next 15 days? If I ever got the urge to do something weird to a chicken or a goat, believe you me, I'd sure as hell not want to tell anyone!

Well, I have to go now because I have to go to the other end of the city and get another f______ g copy of my birth certificate - to the tune of $100. Would it be so difficult to have all the services in the same area so I could get a new passport the same day? Nooooo, that would require planning and organization. And it would be too logical for the f_______g government.

You'd rather have us running all over the place like chickens with our heads cut off. Then, we have to find some asshole to confirm that it's really me on the damn picture - you know, the one where we're not allowed to smile. Hey, you know why we can't smile? We're totally pissed off!

Signed - An Irate Citizen.

P.S. Remember what I wrote about getting someone to confirm that the picture is me? Well, my family has been in the United States of America since 1776. I have served in the military for something over 35 years and have had security clearances up the yingyang. However, I have to get someone important to verify who I am - you know, someone like my doctor WHO WAS BORN AND RAISED IN INDIA ! And you assholes want to run our health care system?????

Betcha' he didn't get the passport...