Category: Personal

My grandfather was in the Army for all of 3 days during WWII. He was an artilleryman at the Battle of the Bulge. After those 3 days he was given a medical discharge as he had completely lost his hearing. He came back and worked at the Brooklyn Navy Yards as a tank mechanic.

My uncle served in the Navy in the 50’s before returning to work as a DoD contractor for Sperry, later Unisys, where he joined my father, eventually becoming the company’s manager in charge of all DoD contracts.

My dad, an electrical engineer, was on the original design team for the E2-C AWACS radar at Sperry in 1959. Most of his career was spent developing and testing radars and weapons guidance systems. Many of the battleships, destroyers and carriers out there have been worked on by my father. He was also involved in the development and maintenance of Polaris, Trident and Terrier missile systems while at Sperry/Unisys in Great Neck and Ronkonkoma, and later at Harris PRD/GSSD in Syosset.

I am still stunned by what has happened.  While I have many concerns I am not thinking about them now.  If only for this one essay, I want to set everything aside to simply celebrate our historic achievement as a people.

I remain overwhelmed.  It still hasn’t entirely sunk in.  It is really huge, probably the biggest single event in my lifetime – certainly in the political realm.  What a remarkable, amazing, stunning victory for us all.  What a wonderful moment for America.  We have achieved a great milestone.

How starving were we for this great day to be an American?

(crossposted at www.dailykos.com, this series started there, and a commenter suggested they might be more in sync over here)

Nothing against dogs; it’s actually admirable that they are more willing to exert themselves, though it may not be to their own benefit. Cats are more likely to stalk patiently, take things step by step, take a break when they need to, or even a long nap.



It may be my problem with meditation is not taking small enough steps; sleep is another story. For those who don’t want to go back and read my old Kos diaries, I identified stress and a shortage of sleep as factors in my belly fat hanging around ( I have the healthy diet and aerobic exercise down good), and I want to get rid of it. More below the fold.

Originally posted on ePluribus Media.

Mumsie passed away last year, on the cusp of December 18th and 19th.  Next week is Wifey’s birthday; a little more than one month later is the first anniversary of her mother’s passing.

Today, Wifey ran across the following video — it is a sweet, special memory of the special bond between a mother and daughter called "The Chestnut Tree."

It reduced her to tears.

I thought I’d share it with all of you.  Below the fold, other pieces I’ve written in memory and honor of Mumsie and the caretaking journey we all took together.

experience is unconditional.

i heard this guy, Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, say that in a video in Edger’s essay Been a Long Time Coming.

it was like someone hit a bell and the clarity and simplicity of its sound keeps reverberating in my head.

experience is unconditional. how simple: that which happens to us happens.  

what, then, are the mechanisms that condition our experience?

i’ve been thinking about this in the context, of say poking fun at Sarah Palin (she doesn’t seem to realize Africa is a continent).

Is it dismissive or disdainful when I label 59 million people who voted (a second time) for bush as stupid?

i wonder how our reactions to those of others might condition experience and the ensuing interactions among us. what am i filtering out that makes it near impossible for me to understand teaching creationism as science? it isn’t so much that i mind another view point, but come on. it is religion. not science. or is it?

In our house we went to bed at 6.30am, as we waited for the Obama speech, which was masterfully delivered to a thunderous, energized crowd. Every face glowed with hope, tears of joy were rolling down acres of cheeks, the relief was palpable. Then we watched a few pundits in amusement across the cable news divide, as some suddenly found a few nice words to say about the new president…In France people were dancing in the streets, as they were across Europe. I got calls from Australian friends & family who were partying hard on the heels of this momentous election, and of course most wanted to talk about what to drink next!

I’m in a celebratory mood (and will be for the next few days), let’s talk about what sort of victory drink you may be having…now or later.  

Haven’t been able to sleep, certainly last tonight. Been functionally unable to talk about this election for the last week to ten days. I could not look at those I know who voted for hope today without tearing up.  I have witnessed a lot of history in 64 years, written about our shared history, written about our candidate and yet this time I can not find the words. It’s not hero worship or some kind of weird transference caused by a decided lack of religion on my part, but none the less to be so deeply moved it is almost impossible to express. I believe this is true for many of us, perhaps all of us. Follow me below the fold and I will try to share some of those feelings with you.

Note: These are exciting times.  Daniel and I voted on Friday.  It was a thrill watching him cast his first vote under such historic circumstances.  It took 3.5 grueling hours but was so worth it.  What a great feeling.  Change is coming.

This has nothing to do with the election.  Please pardon the diversion, but if you could use one…

This is the latest installment in an autobiographical series I’ve been working on.  This episode takes place in Colombia.

I know this is way too early to write about the sort of celebration we will have next Tuesday night and, ahem, the price we’ll pay the following day: a post-celebration that many of us will suffer as the MOTHER of all HANGOVERS! I spell it EXCESS! When Blake wrote “The road to excess leads to the palace of wisdom”, he wasn’t wrong!

Yes, excessive it will be, and we have earned it after enduring 8 years of conveyor-belt propelled BS, false promises, stupid wars, the raping of the constitution, economic downgrading and a lot more. Of course eating right is elitist and since this election is the most important one this century (and possibly the last one) I’m going to throw caution to the wind and celebrate properly by purchasing, bartering, demanding, begging for the primo stuff to be on hand during the long hours of the election results. Here’s to the future!

I was in my 20s (yeah, I’m old).  The Reagan era was a time of rampant homelessness, as the city had not fully recovered from its 1970s bankruptcy…and then, to save money, mentally ill people were being turned out onto the streets; there were not enough beds in homeless shelters and the shelters themselves were unsafe….

These problems got shoved aside during the gentrification years after Rudy Ghouliani took office.

there’s more:

Note:  I got a little out of sequence with this series and published Part IV – Love and Death in Colombia before this Part III.  This one gets me back on track sequence-wise and sets the stage for Part V.  

Links to the other parts of this series:

This is my story – I hope that it finds you (Part I)

Wear Your Love Like Heaven (My Story – Part II)

Love and Death in Colombia  (My Story – Part IV)

First, so as to set the mood, I present to you a tender love ballad by John Prine and sung here with Iris DeMent called In Spite of Ourselves.