We Have To Live Our Lives!

If there is a god he/she sure has a wonderful garden!

It was very odd that I wrote about my wishes for what should be done with my remains after I am gone yesterday and then, a few hours later, I learned about the death of one of my high school classmates and fellow members of Fox Valley Raiders Drum & Bugle Corps from when we were kids. Her younger sister, who was also in The Raiders, had died about five years ago. They were both great people. I never saw either one of them without smiles on their faces (except in drum corps competitions and parades where we were supposed to look miserably serious all the time for some reason). I know good people and young people have to die too but why would a god let all of the evil people go on doing what they do and take some of the good ones? It makes absolutely no sense at all. I know religious people have explanations for this or there is the "we cannot understand God's plans and we must simply trust him" malarkey but I have a difficult time with this. There have been other people from drum corps that I can think of right off the top of my head that died very young: Robin, Deb, Glenda... They were also all VERY VERY nice people. I am sure there are more that are gone that I am not even aware of. If there is a God I am pretty angry at him/her most of the time. Maybe God is just selfish and likes to be surrounded by good people. It makes sense, if that is the case, that I will be around for quite some time to come. I guess I could not blame a god to want to be surrounded by nice things (great people in this case).

I remember marching in a parade with The Raiders when I was probably in fifth or sixth grade. It was an incredibly hot day and I got woozie and almost passed-out. They gave us salt pills because we were sweating so much but I probably weighed only about 60-70 pounds; I was very thin when I was a kid (that sure has changed). Someone put me on the un-air-conditioned equipment bus that followed us while we marched. I remember that I was not the only one on that bus. I remember Nadine being on the bus and just taking care of me. She kept me cool with a wet cloth and gave me water. That is how Barb and Nadine were. Actually, except for a few people that I can recall, almost everybody was extremely nice. That makes me thing of another good story (you didn't come here to hear my old war stories probably so I will make this quick). Being one of the youngest when I started had benefits and disadvantages as well. I remember being incredibly afraid of marijuana. I knew lots of people who smoked pot back then but I believed all the hype about how bad it was for you. At one point some of the "not-so-nice" kids threatened that they were going to make me smoke pot. I was petrified. I started telling my parents that I didn't want to go anymore and they eventually got it out of me why. I never named names - I was not a snitch even then (ironic that I am kind of a snitch for a living now - making up for all the time lost I guess). Anyway, my parents talked to one of the other member of the corps (one that people feared if ever he got angry) and he assured them that nobody would bother me - he would see to it. So, I went back and nobody ever bothered me because of MY BODYGUARD. Ma, you will be happy to know that my personal bodyguard was Tim Meyer. Nobody ever messed with Tim.

We were just like the circus coming to town

Until I wrote all that I forgot about all of those parades. Whenever we would go to some small town across the country we would have to march in a parade during the day to help promote the competition we would be performing that night. I wonder if they still do that? There is a huge Drum Corps show here in town every year and they don't have a parade here. Last year I directed traffic and camped-out at the parking lot watching-over their equipment buses most of the night. Ha, I even saw Tim's brother Rich (another fellow member of The Raiders) there that day. Those parades were like the circus marching through town in The Greatest Show on Earth except people didn't follow us to the big top as I recall.

Okay, on to the nonsense I usually write.... I just realized that I have not had that thing where I Quantum Leap into somebody else's head for quite awhile. It must have been an inner-ear infection or something. Though it was scary at times (depending upon what I was doing at the time) I really miss it. I was going to work on harnessing it so I could use it for evil. We never really know what we had until it is gone; that seems to be the theme of the blog today. I think it would be great to control Brandon Cruz or Mickey Dolenz through taking over their minds. Hey, they both have Z's in their names. Is that a common denominator? I will have to scroll back and see who else's head I jumped into. Maybe just Z-List celebrities?

I have been hearing an ad on the radio for the past several months that bothers me. When did Smokey The Bear become Smokey Bear? I am a purest and I am a Smokey The Bear guy. The website is even www.smokeybear.com. But, I typed smokeythebear.com and it went to the same website. The name Smokey the Bear was originally adopted from a song from the 1950's. Hit that link - it's a catchy little tune. He will always be Smokey THE Bear to me.

For you in the MIDDLEwest (or anyplace else that have very cold temperatures from time-to-time) - do you ever get sore ears from wearing a stocking cap? My ears start to hurt after being pinned-down under a knit hat for too long. Then I move the hat just above my ears so it looks like a dunce cap or a pointy yarmulke. I think I am going to design one that is just black and says "DUNCE" on it in white letters so, when I pull it up into a point above the ear-line, people will know me by name.

I just learned that I have over 42,000 Hilton Honors Points. I need to figure-out what I ca do with those points. It looks like there are some hotel rooms that I can get for 5,000 points and better rooms for more points. I think I may start paying some bills with that card so I can rack-up more points for a family vacation. I will make sure it works that way before I do that though. I also have to make sure that, if I pay a bill with that card and then immediately pay off the bill if the points are good. If not, I guess I could use the card and then go on-line and schedule the payment date for like 28 days later. I know there are gonna be loopholes and limitations but, if I remember correctly, we used Hilton Honors Points for the room we stayed at Hilton Waikoloa Village on the island of Hawaii. Man, that was a great hotel. They had a ferry boat taxi and a tram and everything - the place is huge. Why do you thinks they call it The Big Island? Go big or go home! Who doesn't like a good tram? I wouldn't mind being scattered here. Use my life insurance money for the trip Cha Cha - it's on me! I want my ashes in a window seat though please.

How do you get a job captaining that boat?

I have to get some things done and it's already 1503. I have to go to the store and clean the kitchen for sure. Thank goodness that this is my Friday. Fridays always seem to go faster for some reason. It doesn't even MATTer if you go to work exhausted on Friday. That just goes to show us that attitude is everything. Thank you for stopping by. I am sorry I rambled-on about death and god and stuff. Those are supposed to be taboo subjects but this is my blog and this is about the only place in life where I can do exactly what I want and bear the entire burden of the backlash. I hope you have a great rest of your Hump Day. I will blog tomorrow and try to be more cheerful. TTTT...MITM (out) TA!