Guardian Angel's Blog

[Bingo]

One female parent near here has been arrested three times for supplying alcoholic beverages for her kids' parties.  Uses the old they aren't drinking and driving, I know where they are, they are drinking at home bit.  Another female parent was arrested last year in Highland IL, her little darling was supplied booze for his weekend party, he took younger females to a camper in their yard and raped them while they were drunk. I don't know what is wrong with parents who do these kinds of things, what are they thinking?

[Guardian Angel]

Doesn't appear they have anything up there to think with........

[Butterfly]

I have heard that excuse before....the first time was when my boys were teenagers in Nebraska.  I always called the parents whenever the boys said they were going to a party.  One parent told me they did provide beer, but took the kids keys away from them so they couldn't drive.......   When the cops showed up and raided the place, and all the kids grabbed their keys and hit the road.......that blew that theory.  I got in many arguments about it being ILLEGAL for underage kids to drink.  Some parents just don't get it.  Even had a discussion with a big shot at Lauhoff about his parents letting him and friends go down the basement and consume whatever alcohol they wanted, as long as they stayed overnight.  Their theory.......if they were allowed to drink at home, they wouldn't drink anywhere else.................HUH !!

[Guardian Angel]

Yeah right..........that theory doesn't hold water................

[Guardian Angel]

I would really like to have a blog spot but I have no idea how to create one.  I tried reading how to do it and just gave up because I didn't understand the lingo....Anyway I am posting some of my material from the blogs we had on the original Briarpatch.

Posted on May 18, 2006 by Guardian Angel

Thoughts, they come and go like night and day.  If I don't record them they slip away.  That's the trouble with aging.  It comes like a thief in the night and robs you of precious things.

There are times when I am conversing with someone and my thoughts just disappear, only to return later as if my brain had been "rebooted."

Deep within, where others cannot see, there are thoughts that take me to extraordinary heights and move me to the limits of my human possibilities.  There is where the thoughts that tell me I can still do the things I did when I was younger come  from.  The only problem is, my body refuses to cooperate!

Right now my brain is saying "OK, you've been serious long enough, move on."  Now I will have to wait for it to reboot to continue.......Later.

[Guardian Angel]

Posted on May 22, 2006

I am having a soap box moment today and as I climb upon it I am hoping that my words do not offend anyone but rather make you think.

Alcoholism is a disease, one that millions of Americans suffer from.  It has been linked to genetics. My youngest son has been diagnosed as an alcoholic.  I guess what I am here to talk about is the way they lock people up who are suffering from a disease that has no cure.  That's right, alcoholism cannot be cured.  Once an alcoholic, always an alcoholic!

At best, the people suffering from alcoholism should be enrolled in programs to rehabilitate them and sometimes they are, but only for 120 days.  That is far from enough.  Instead when someone is arrested for DWI and is a repeat offender, they are treated as common criminal and locked up, sometimes for years.  That puts an added burden on the tax payers.  If the alcoholic were instead, allowed to stay in the community, pay his taxes, child support and be enrolled in a program to help him deal with his disease, it seems to me it would help everyone involved and save us, as tax payers, a bundle.

State governments are spending millions of tax dollars to keep these people locked up and when they are released I would venture to say most of them wind up in a bar.  Because they have a record, they have difficulty finding a job, and fitting back into the community.  Many times they lose their homes and families in addition to the jobs they held.  There has to be a better solution to dealing with this disease.  I just know the one they have isn't working.

OK, I am climbing down now, but I am far from done with this subject......

[Guardian Angel]

Posted on May 26, 2006

When moments of truth come, they are lightbulb moments that sometimes over shadow everything else on our minds and cause us to reflect deeply.

I had one of those this morning at 4:30 AM while crawling out of bed.  Note I said crawling!  It suddenly dawned on me that never again will I jump out of bed and vigorously challenge the day.  Creep, at best, is what I do and shuffle comes after creep.  It now takes me 30 minutes to do what I used to complete in 10.   Ahhhhhh, the disadvantages of growing old...

I was busy filling out the form they sent me for my 50th class reunion when I noticed a trick question.....What are your goals for the future?  Depending on how far into the future they are talking about, I may have to change some things.....I merely put LIFE and that is my goal for the future.  You know how people are always saying "get a life?"   Well I haven't gotten mine yet and my 15 minutes of fame is overdue too.......

[Guardian Angel]

Posted on June 11, 2006 by Guardian Angel


Our lesson in Sunday School today was about Daniel.   Jealousy of his position by his peers put Daniel in the Lions Den, a very uncomfortable place to be.  How often do we put our friends in a Lions Den by spreading false rumors, convincing others that our friends are wrong, and urging them to take actions that are harmful to them.  Jealousy is a strong emotion that can take over if you let it.

Daniel had faith and his faith got him through the ordeal  It takes faith to put your feet on the floor in the morning, to get out of bed, to put that key in the ignition and drive out of the driveway, to enter an airport and go through what you have to go through to board that plane and then, to board that plane.  Pretty much everything you do takes a great deal of faith now days.  Everyday of our lives our faith is tested.  I can't help but wonder how many times we put ourselves in that paverbial Lions den and lack the faith to get out.

Sometimes we are in a position to be used at the right time, the right moment, the right place for all the right reasons and we do the wrong thing.....................and that is life in a nut shell!!!!!!

[Oliver]

I KNOW Pesoto or Tuck or Techguy could assist with any problems in getting one up and going. Sammy has one and she'd probably be the 1st to say that if she can do it, anyone can.

However, I have one, and am not doing much with it. It just seems so much easier to blog in spots like this. Anyway, the link, which you may have already seen, claims to get you set up and blogging. Good luck.

https://www.blogger.com/start

[Guardian Angel]

I found that last night.  It looks pretty simple, but it doesn't take much to stump me where computers are concerned.......Thanks

[Guardian Angel]

Posted on June 17, 2006 by Guardian Angel


As I write this I am listening to Andre Rieu on PBS.  Beautiful music has a way of transporting me to where ever it is I want to go at the moment.  I can close my eyes and be back home on the porch on Collett street or on the banks of a river with a fishing pole in my hand, or swinging in the swings on the grounds of Collett School, or driving with my family through the western mountain passes on a beautiful spring day.  I can even go skating at the I & I rink...... but only in my mind.

Music has a way of stirring my soul and regenerating long lost memories to the point that I can feel, smell and hear those memories.  Yes, I want to be here but sometimes the tug to be there is so strong that I could get lost forever in that space in between the two.

I remember thinking I could never go home again after my parents both died in the same year, but I was wrong,  all I need is some beautiful music and I can go anywhere I want, even home............. especially home.

[Guardian Angel]

The hearing test on Tuesday was very professional, however, since the results have to be sent to the VA, we are not likely to hear anything about it for a good 4-6 weeks so it's on with repeating myself several times so that George can hear what I say.  If I talk in normal tones he can't hear, if I raise my voice he gets upset.......maybe we need to learn sign language..................

Well today we finally heard from the people who were contracted to do George's hearing test.  That 4-6 weeks turned into 4 months.
He has an appointment tomorrow morning to have molds made of his ears so they can fashion a hearing aid for him.  Surprise, the VA is going to pay for it.......We are overwhelmed......

[Guardian Angel]

Posted on June 22, 2006 by Guardian Angel


I have been reading posts about drunk drivers on another forum and one of the things I did not see mentioned was the fact that alcohol alters ones thinking.  To maintain that a drunk driver knows what he is doing when he gets behind the wheel is ridiculous.  Their thinking is impared with the first drink and they lose control of their good sense, if in fact, they had any to begin with.  Alcoholism is not a choice, it's a disease, one that has been studied and linked to genetics.  Once you become an alcoholic,  and decide to gain control of your life again, you are considered a recovering alcoholic for life.  You are never completely recovered because one drink can set you back into the old routine.  An alcoholic does not get behind the wheel and delibertly set out to kill or mame someone.  I can remember when someone caught driving under the influence was put in jail overnight and then released when they were sober.  MADD lobbied hard for the laws we have now that try to keep the alcoloics from behind the wheel.

If one decides to go bar hopping they should have an alternative plan for getting home while they are still sober and can think straight.  Maybe bartenders should insist that car keys be checked at the door and a sobriety test be given before the keys are relinquished to their owners.

I can't help but wonder how long it will be before they start arresting cigarette smokers for contributing to the death of the people around them.  Parents who smoke around children should beware........that's where it will start if there ever is a push.

[Guardian Angel]

It would appear that interest in the forums has dropped to an all time low.  If you check the stats, what I am saying can be verified.  There seems to be a new interest in blogging, not on blogs such as this but on those that are out there in cyberspace.  One has to wonder if the attraction there is the fact that you can post your opinion without fear of attack on the messenger which has always been a problem.

At first I thought it was the summer activities that caused the drop in activity, but lately my opinion has changed.   It's not just here, it's on every forum I visit.  There are a handful of posters trying their best to keep the forums alive.  Kudos to Oliver for doing his part.

Just one stimulating post can add some spice to an otherwise dead forum.  I truly believe there are several people perusing all the forums waiting for the right post to catch their eye so that they can stir up some controversy.  Maybe if it were just a wee bit hotter....................... .......

[Oliver]

Without Googling the Al Capp, "Little Abner" characters, wasn't there a little guy who always had a rain cloud over him? And he brought gloom and doom? I bet I'm mixing something up, partly because I didn't understand a lot of Little Abner as a kid, believe-it-or-not, probably because it really wasn't a little kid-type comic strip.

Anyway, I have felt that has been my very unintended role: somehow driving off everyone in the forums I try to post on. Now, I can imagine a moderater from long ago on "an unnamed forum" saying: "You think YOU are that important? LOLOLOL."  I probably would have replied with some nice, choice intellectual-sounding retorts comparing his discourse as being on par with a five-gallon bucket of water the upstream neighbors drank last week, etc.

Anyway (the final one) what must be affecting forum numbers must be vacations, being out and about, transition time now for many going back to school, perhaps getting a little bored with the on-line routine, other interests (I mean, like any red-blooded American boy on-line would give it up in a heartbeat if it meant time with a girl, right??) and perhaps a distaste for the content (and heaven knows there is a ton of excrement on-line),,all this must really by the main factors of the cycles we see.

I love written words. If all of this were "real-time" audio connections, you would never have heard a peep out of me. Long live the written words and this forum!!