Water Under The Bridge

Today, an e-mail was received from a friend who is an avid Republican and whose e-mails have been appreciated in the past; but, this time, it really saddened me on two levels.

The first was the adherence to Creationism; as opposed to Evolution. Unfortunately, however in my humble opinion, this was besmirched by racism.

Here is the e-mail as received:-

A little girl wrote to Sarah Palin and asked
‘How did the human race start?’
Sarah Palin answered, ‘God made Adam and Eve;
They had children; and so was all mankind made.’
Two days later the girl wrote to Michelle Obama
and asked the same question.
Michelle Obama answered,
‘Many years ago there were monkeys from
which the human race evolved.’
The confused girl went to her father and said,
‘Dad, how is it possible that Sarah Palin told me
the Human race was created by God,
And Michelle Obama said they evolved from monkeys.’
The father answered, ‘Well, Dear, it is very simple,
Sarah Palin told you about her ancestors
and Michelle Obama told you about hers.’

To add insult to injury, it is followed by a picture of Sarah Palin, a monkey and Michelle Obama who is caught with an unfortunate expression on her face to illustrate the contention.

I’m greatly saddened

This is another remembrance of the past that popped into my mind today.

Back in 1955 or 1956, my sister, brother-in-law and I, along with a bunch of friends, went up to the Peace River bridge for a late summer picnic.

To this day, I have no idea what possessed us; but Fred Somers and I climbed one of the towers of the suspension bridge. With cameras at the ready, we took several pictures of the beautiful surrounding scenery.

I still have the 35mm slides but Fred, who has now passed on, did not have film in his camera.

As noted in the link, the bridge collapsed in 1957 and was replaced by a more efficient but less attractive structure.

Along with a close friend, the three of us planned to dine at the Walnut Creek Yacht Club and attend the musical, “42nd Street” at the Dean Lesher Regional Theatre.  This was to be on Friday, just past.

On Tuesday, Billie sent us an e-mail (she wanted to keep her phone free) to say that there had been an unexpected death in her family and would be leaving town when she knew of the funeral arrangements.

Naturally, we conveyed our condolences.

This turn of events dampened our enthusiasm for a night on the town; so we decided to stay home

This is not the post that was planned for today; but, when the following news item popped up on my screen, it got my interest and my wish to share.

There is at least one instance of the low key British courtesy of ‘please’ which stands out in the report.  Not that this is strictly a British courtesy, but, considering the circumstances, it demonstrates the quiet demeanor of those involved.

For those you may be interested, here is the news item.

May all of us be so fortunate in life.

Despite a good few years of computer activity, it is very obvious to me that there is still much to be learned and always will be.

That goes along with my concept that some people live and learn and others just live and never learn.

In addition, one is never too old to learn.  My 75th birthday was back in October of this year

What is this all about?

It stands for National Blog Posting Month; when bloggers are encouraged to make a daily post for the month of November.

Sometimes, it is easy to think of a subject for the day, sometimes not and, then, there is a flood of ideas that become a headline for the next post.

However, when it comes time to write the post, your mind says “darn, what was on my mind, I’ve forgotten”

That is it in a nutshell.

Yesterday was a memorable day with the election of the first African-American President.

This occasion was not only celebrated here in the States but throughout the World.

My oldest brother in Scotland phoned me last night to say that he was staying up until 6:00 AM his time (10:00 PM here in California) to watch the results roll in.

It is my opinion that there are times when people overseas know more about the States than we know about other countries.

Although the vote counting is yet to be completed here in California, the United States of America is seeing an historic day with the election of the first African-American, Obama, to the office of President.

The months to come will tell if the States will turn the economic corner for the better and the worlds view of the States will also take a turn for the better.

This is a acronym for My Right ‘Ip - LOL

Actually, today saw me getting an MRI on my right hip which has been causing me pain for quite some time and MAY require a hip replacement.

The procedure did not take all that long but did require me to be sure that there was no metal on me or in me; the last refers to a stent that was implanted during an angioplasty a few years ago.  Fortunately, that did pass the test a few days prior when the informational ID card was checked out.

Headphones were provided, with an offer of various types of music, to help calm any nervious reaction.  My choice was classical.

All went well.  An occasional rat-a-tat-tat, like a machine gun, interrupted the hum of the machine.

Surprisingly, everything was over in less than an hour.

The results will not be known until the next doctor’s appointment on November 13.

This summer, my oldest brother Drew, who turned 82, visited us from Scotland.  It should be noted that I am not that far behind him in years; to be precise, 75 this October.

He was fascinated and curious that I was able to get up to date news from around the world, communicate with friends, manage banking online, enjoy Pogo internet games, etc on my MacBook.

Shortly after he returned to Scotland, there was a message on my cell phone (mobile phone in the UK) to say that he had bad news for me.  That devil of a brother had called to say that he had bought himself a laptop and now would be able to stay in touch online as well as by phone.

Fortunately, a neighbor’s daughter will be assisting him in the ways of the internet and the intricacies of a laptop.

For me, without the generous technical help of my good friend, Daniel Nowak, I would be lost.