Who with the Autumn night

The Sixth Ethic......

2011-09-25T18:34:00.004-04:00

Yesterday a fellow Trainer and I had the opportunity to teach the Front Country guidelines of Leave No Trace to a group of scout leaders at a Scouting Success seminar. For the most part they were very open to what we had to say, but one fellow laughed a bit, made a joke here and there, and finally aid "I want to embrace this, but I'm having a hard time wrapping myself around this whole "Respect Wildlife" concept!". Personally, I don't see why anyone would need any help grasping the concept, but for those not in the know, here's what the 6th ethic sates:

Respect Wildlife

Observe wildlife from a distance. Do not follow or approach them.
Never feed animals. Feeding wildlife damages their health, alters natural behaviors, and exposes them to predators and other dangers.
Protect wildlife and your food by storing rations and trash securely.
Control pets at all times, or leave them at home.
Avoid wildlife during sensitive times: mating, nesting, raising young, or winter.

So.....Whats so hard to understand? It seems to me that it's all rather straight forward. Take a look at the picture above, I took that a few days ago.2 Does, 2 bucks and a fawn. Now usually you don't see bucks, and if you do it's only for a few seconds before they crash through the forest in what can only be called a perfect display of self preservation. But these deer, they saw me in my golf cart, and they had absolutely no concern over my presence whatsoever. These deer have obviously had too much exposure to humans and civilization. I will be very surprised if I don't see any of them on the side of the road this season.

The Sixth ethic is one of the most important I think, and one of the most abused. I am of the opinion that if we, as a people, cant respect wildlife? Well then, we have no right to be in the wilderness at all.

Getting to know you ♪ ♫......

2011-09-14T18:36:00.003-04:00

Like my new friend? I was driving across campus in my trusty golf cart when I happened upon this fellow getting a sun bath. For the 15 minutes or so I sat with him (no closer than this mind you) he made no defensive posturing towards me, none at all.

Copperheads are very common in our area; in fact, they are the only venomous snake to be found in this part of North Carolina Rattlesnakes to left of us and cottonmouths and coral snakes to the right), but I haven't seen one in "the wild" for a very long time.

Resilient little critters; as I was watching him, a bike rider came along, and before I could warn him, completely ran over him with both tires! But I think that it happened so fast that he wasn't really hurt in the least bit, because he just sort of looked around like "What in the heck was that?!?" and went about his snakely duties. I sat with him for another 5 minutes or so, just to make sure he was O.K, and then shooed him off the trail and back into the woods so he would not get into trouble with all the people who use this greenway.

A few friends of mine of FaceBook declared me insane for not lopping his head off, but why? How is it my duty, my obligation -my right- to kill him? Is he in my house? Is he threatening my family? No! In fact, were in HIS house, threatening HIS family! He has more right to be there than any of the people who use that greenway, and instead of killing him, they should give him a very wide berth, and leave him alone.

What's for dinner? ( A labored and forced review of the GSI Outdoors Pinnacle Soloist Cookset)

2011-08-28T14:24:00.004-04:00

This is another little gem I picked up along the way; The GSI Outdoors Pinnacle Soloist Cookset). Coming in at a hefty 10.7 ounces, it's massive weight is only outdone by it's behemoth dimensions of 5.5 x 5.4 x 5 inches.

The fact that it can either be used on an open fire or a jet-boil type cooking stove without ruining the finish should make you no never mind; neither should the fact that the coffee mug/bowl has an insulated sleeve that comes off for easy cleaning. The fact that the whole thing comes wrapped in a waterproof cinch-sack that can be used for washing said set is equally as unimpressive. Overall, on a scale of ten stars? Eh, I'd give it a paltry 9.5, maybe 9.75.

(The sarcasm included in this review was completely non-gratis...Your welcome)

To Hammock, or not to hammock....

2011-08-26T09:34:00.005-04:00

Since the last time i really and truly posted something of worth, I have entered the world of hammocking...

I had been batting the idea around for a while, and when Boudreaux ended up going to Webelo resident Camp, I gave him and two of his friends my small tent to use. I was only coming out a for a few nights, so I bit the proverbial bullet, went down to my local REI store, and got the ENO Single nest in Olive and Khaki (always mindful of the LNT ethic "Be Considerate of Other Visitors", I chose a hammock that had the lowest visual impact).

How does it feel? Well, it sleeps really well, the only problem is, right now it's just sooo hot, it's really not comfortable to sleep outside in any conditions! Webelo resident camp found the low at a frigid 89 degrees, and since then, Ive only had one other chance to use it, and that was on a family trip to Pisgah. I did indeed use it there, but unfortunately, the lights from the bath house were right in my eyes ( the position of trees in a campground plays a great factor in how your nights rest will be) the first night, and the second found us in the middle of thunderstorms.

Can I suggest that if you plan on getting a hammock, you go ahead and buy a rain fly for it at the same time? I only had a very small tent footprint to use (Tent footprints are just as good as a fly, and sometimes about 75% cheaper too), and things got a little bit damp. Thank goodness the kids and my wife had the Taj Mahal of tents set up or I would have been soaked through and through.

ENO also makes these things called "Slap straps" which are really cool. They are essentially a set of adjustable straps for your hammock that help you set up your hammock in a matter of 2 or 3 minutes, and also help minimize the impact you will have on the trees you are securing the Hammock to. I did not buy these, but immediately regretted that decision when I saw the marks I left on two trees (securing my hammock with rock climbing rope) the other weekend. They are now on my shopping list for the next trip.

One really cool benefit of it is how small the thing is! Wrapped up and put away in it's attached sack, it's about the size and weight of a softball. This can seriously cut down on your weight, which is a plus if you are trying to do the whole ultra light hiking thing.

I have also been over to the "Hammock Forums" (yes, there really is a forum for hammock users, and it is one busy site!), and seen it suggested that you replace the carabiners on your ENO with some serious rock climbing carabiners. The ones it came with work just fine, but I do intend on doing this as well, just to be safe...er.

Anyway, thats a short run down on the ENO SingleNest Hammock.. I'm hoping that this Fall I will get a few chances to use it; we are taking several scout camping trips, and my hope is to use the Hammock instead of the tent. I'll have to write more and let you know how it goes!

2011-08-26T00:07:00.002-04:00

I took this picture two weeks ago in Pisgah, along the Davidson River Campground trails. Pisgah has always been one of my favorite places, and I still love it, but ever since I took my LNT training, I look at things differently. Has anyone else experienced this?

Its almost as if I've become misanthropic, because I love the scenery there, but the litter, the sea of ignorant humanity that comes through there disgusts me. I hate to sound like that, but when you go to Looking Glass falls, you want to see these great waterfalls, feel the cool mist on your face, not pick up batteries that people have thrown on the rocks when they changed ot the batteries in their camera!

So what do you in a scenario like this? How should you act?

Finally!!

2011-08-25T16:07:00.001-04:00

For the longest time, I could not figure out the pass word to this particular blog, and lo and behold, today I remembered it!! So watch out, new posts are-a-comin!!

2011-05-25T11:55:00.002-04:00

You know, they say the road to hell is paved with good intentions....If that is indeed the truth, then I must be driving the asphalt truck, because I have been meaning to upgrade this blog for a very very long time!

So much has happened in the past year, I haven't really had time to think about anything but family. There were multiple hospital stays in my family, for my Mom, my dad, and-most seriously- for my wife, who quite honestly almost died on me. So please, please, please have some compassion and understanding, and know that while I always wanted to keep this up, it was simply not an option for the longest time. When it rains, it pours eh?

Despite all the calamity in my life, I did get some productive things done! #1, I got my BALOO (Basic Adult Leader Outdoor Orientation) training out of the way, and Most importantly, I am now an official Leave No Trace Trainer! I took the BSA course a few weeks ago, and I am now able to teach the Leave No Trace Outdoor Ethics to other BSA leaders, teachers, schoolchildren, just about anyone! I am planning on taking the Master Educator course in the next year or so, but I am going to go after my Wood Badge first! I've been wanting to do that for 2 or 3 years now, and I think the timing will be right when it is offered again next winter/ spring.

Oh yeah, and through a lot of dieting, I have lost 56 pounds since October. Pretty cool huh? Im having problems getting below 260 though. I waffle between 258 and 263 depending on the day. Im 6'3, so 260 doesnt look bad on me, but I'd like to lose another 20 pounds, all truth be told.

I have to play catch up with this blog, as we had a fantastic trip to the Smoky Mountains last October with scouts for the Elk rut, and I have tons of photos! Look for more over the next few weeks!

The Road to Recovery.....Finally.

2011-01-01T13:19:00.002-05:00

Dear friends, 3 days after my last entry, I got a call from one of the local Hospitals during a Den Meeting. It was concerning my wife. emergency surgery was required, could I please come down? Next of kin was needed, and the spectre of DNR reared it's ugly, pale head......

Long story short, she's OK now, but since her surgery, Bronchitis and strep throat have both plagued my family too. So to say that the proverbial road to recovery has been long and really mean is almost an understatement. The past two years have....well, they've sucked for my family. First, we lose my Father In Law, one of the greatest men I've ever known, then my back goes out (I have planters fasciitis in my left foot now because of the back), and not 3 weeks after I was cleared to go back to work, my wife almost dies.

I figure I owed you guys an explanation as to why I've been AWOL, so here it is.
With that being said, here's to us all! Happy New Year, and I'm hoping, praying, begging for a new year filled with blue skies and great hikes for everyone.

"In every walk with nature, one receives far more than he seeks"
~John Muir~

2010-10-11T21:16:00.004-04:00

I love the failing light of an October afternoon. There's something so exclusively special about it, don't you think? It gives time for reflection, for deeper thought, a moment to pause and just stare into the impending evening. I like it alot, especially when you're walking in a valley, and the tops of the trees are lit up like Christmas trees, while down below, the night starts to creep in.

It reminds me of how I like to walk alone at this time of year, and just reflect on things. It urges me to sit outside at Caribou Coffee, and drink Campfire Mochas (forget Starbucks Pumpkin Latte's, Caribou is where it's all at), and read a really good book. It reminds me of old loves,the frailty and hopelessness of those early flings, and how absolutely comfortable and in place with the world where I am right now. I dont want anything to change, I want to be that Dad, planning camping trips, and that husband who is depended on, no matter how much my wife teases me and declares it otherwise. I am, where I should be, standing in the long shadows, thankful for the moment.

By the way, this photo is Wimbeldon Park, Autumn After Glow (1866), by John Atkinson Grimshaw.

I like

2010-07-26T14:23:00.001-04:00

So I' down for the count folks; ruptured disc in L5 has taken me out of the outdoors for the rest of July and August, but I will keep posting, and God willing, I'll be able to do some decent camping in the Autumn.

I had surgery 3 days ago, but Im on disability for the next 6 weeks.

A message for 蔡舜娟蔡舜娟

2010-07-20T15:49:00.002-04:00

Dear 蔡舜娟蔡舜娟,
I appreciate that you keep leaving messages on my board, I really do. But I do not speak, nor do i read whatever language it is you are speaking, and since your Blog doesn't really have anything to it, I cannot publish your comments. That may be prejudiced of me, but if I cant read what it says, I really don't want it on my blog. If you want to comment on what I write in English, I'd be more than happy to publish your comments, providing they have some relevence to what I am trying to convey. However, at this time, I cannot accept your comments in their current form, so please stop sending them to me. Thank you.

2010-07-07T18:49:00.000-04:00

"Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where nature may heal and give strength to body and soul."
~John Muir~

July 4th weekend 2010 in Pisgah National Forest

2010-07-05T12:46:00.008-04:00

So I finally got a chance to go back to Pisgah...... Have I ever mentioned that Pisgah National Forest is my favorite place in the world? No? Well it is. Winter, Spring Summer, or Fall, I love Pisgah. This past Saturday found us with one mission in mind; floating down the Davidson River. Let me tell you what, you can keep the beach, and you can have the poolside sauntering of summer for all I care. Just give me an inner tube and the Davidson river! A bright, sunny day in the mid 80's and a gently rolling mountain river with a temp in the mid to lower 60's? That's the stuff that real vacations are made of!!

I honestly think I could spend the rest of my life in the area surrounding Pisgah and never have the desire to wander elsewhere. It is absolutely my most favorite place on earth.

After floating down the river ($7.00 per day inner tube rental) for a few hours, I got out and hiked back to where we had left the car, and drove it down stream to where the rest of my family was. We got out, dried off a bit and had a really nice picnic lunch stream side. There were a lot of people there, but the vast majority of them were respectable. The one or two instances where people were being.... well, people, I illustrated the finer points of "Leave No Trace" to my kids. It's something were going to start working on in Scouts this year, and it was a fine time to jump start Boudreaux and Thibadeaux in the finer aspects of taking care of the wilderness.

No finer a point to this topic could be made than when we went on our hike to Bridal Veil Falls. It's a fairly easy trail, with a few steep inclines, but it was not anything too difficult for kids to navigate. But it has been heavily traveled, and in the middle of it were a couple of boggy areas you had to walk around because of heavy foot traffic. It was easily avoided, and to be honest, you were a whole lot better off (and drier) going around it, but people seemed to have -pardon the pun- muddled through it.

I suppose that's to be expected on some of the easier, shorter paths. But there were signs of ignorance in the midst of heavy traffic. We came across some really beautiful mushrooms underneath a fallen tree, that I was lucky enough to photograph, because on our return trip, someone had taken the time to destroy them. A shame that ignorance and disregard for nature exists, but again, I used it as a lesson for my boys. I explained to them, that while we might not use something, there are all sorts of animals that prosper and thrive because of things like these little mushrooms, and if we destroy them, we make other life forms suffer. I started to get very Franciscan about things, which is O.K. because St. Francis was probably one of the first environmentalists, but I was still really disappointed to see those little yellow mushrooms torn from the ground. I'll have top ask my sources at the college to identify what kind of mushroom it is. It seems as if it might be visicid (slippery-wet), but I didn't touch it for various and sundry reasons.

I suppose that the harder the trail, the less ignorance we'll see, but none of us were really set for an extended hike ( I was the only one not wearing sandals, and even then my shoes were not made for hiking), so this one was going to have to suffice.

We hiked the entire trail, ending up at a very pretty waterfall, but again, there were traces of man's encroachment were everywhere. I suppose that included us as well, but we didn't disturb the rocks, or draw our names in the mud, or go off trail, so our impact was minimal. One thing I did see that was not only hazardous to the flora and fauna, but also incredibly stupid and foolhardy, was a young man and his girlfriend strip down to their bathing suits and bare feet, and climb up the left hand side of these falls (Left as you look at the picture) all the way to the top. It might not seem like such a big thing, but if you notice in the bottom right hand corner of the picture, there is a child. He was around 5 feet tall, so that gives you a little scale when it comes to how high they climbed. It even said at the trail head that there was a risk of certain death if you fell (The water was only about 8 inches deep at the base) from that height, and that it was forbidden to do so, but they climbed it anyway.

It bugs me to be there and see so many people doing so many stupid and selfish things, especially in a place I love so much, but if a lesson is learned, I suppose it's a good thing, right?

2010-06-23T21:09:00.002-04:00

Yeah, yeah, I know! I promised more posts, but life has a funny way of consuming your time, dont it? Well, one thing at work led to another, and before I knew it, it was time for Cub Scout Day camp, and there I was, on vacation again. But instead of my own two maniacs, I signed up to help watch 250 maniacs!! Still, I would do it all over again, as it was great fun.

Greetings from Dixie!!

2010-05-13T12:16:00.002-04:00

Howdy!! Yes, yes, I know, it's been a very long time, and I apologize for that, but grief keeps it's own schedule, and you cannot vary far from the timeline. But I am back now, and hopefully I'll have lots of stuff to report about. First on my list will be last months annual trip back home to Louisiana, where I snapped the above picture. That handsome fellow (and he IS a handsome devil, yeah?) was probably about 12 feet long! Biggest one we saw the whole time! But I have plenty of gator shots, and snake shots, frogs, snakes, moths, snakes, cows, snakes.....Do you sense a theme here? So, if you still drop by, thanks for doing so, and look for new material in the next few days!!

2009-12-18T15:49:00.002-05:00

So it's sleeting/snowing outside today. Exams are over, graduation is tomorrow, Christmas break begins next Wednesday, and I find myself in the position of not having a great deal to do at work these days. So what do I do? I get into my golf cart, drive out to the edge of the woods surrounding our campus, and go for a walk. It's a mountain bike trail actually, used by a few students for exercise and by a lot of deer crossing from one side of campus to another. But I like it, because it's secluded and for one brief shining moment in my day, I can stand in the woods and listen to the silence. It's not the silence of the woods out where I deer hunt, but it's quiet enough to listen to the wind blow through the trees. I'm hoping to make a hike tomorrow thru Reedy creek park, but were expected to get 3 inches of wintry mix, so who knows what's going to happen. Hope y'all have better luck at getting outdoors than I'm having these days!

Goodbye old friends....

2009-11-23T11:20:00.007-05:00

So it's looking like it may be time for me to say goodbye to some old friends soon. I don't want to do it, they have been with me quite honestly, on a daily basis for the past 4 years or so. They have been to the top of Mt. Mitchell with me, they have tromped across creek beds and frog leaped through den meetings., They have been to Sunday Mass with me, soccer games at the Y, as well as to see sick relatives in the hospital, and they never have thought of leaving me...EVER. They are my trusted and well loved Hiking boots.

I can deny it no longer; I've tried to shirk off the warning signs, I've done my best to ignore the pleading of my feet, that pitiful squeaking that stayed with me for a few weeks as the soles tried gallantly to hold together.I cant count how many pairs of shoe laces I've gone through, how many times I've bent the eyelets back into place, or how many pieces of gravel I've pried out of the heels after clicking and clacking across our new hardwood floors. I am forced to resign to the fact that at long last, after a valiant and noble run, I need a new pair of hiking boots.

They were a good pair to be sure, and I will swear by the Columbia name, but I'm thinking that maybe I need to open my mind a bit, and look at other brands too. that's a little scary for me, because I'm usually the type of guy who finds something that works, and sticks with it until he cant find it anymore, and is forced into the cold,harsh, world of change. "Why don't you look at a pair of these Merrell's?" my wife (who does not hike or camp by the way, but knew more about hiking boots than I do) said. I eyed the new-fangled boots with suspicion, not knowing whether I had the level of education -or the appropriate state licensing- to even wear them, and decided i could manage for a few more weeks, maybe a month or two longer.. as we walked out of the store, I silently swore an oath never to forsake my dear friends like that again. Next time I would spare my friends this humility, and instead wear my Vans to try on new boots.

Well OK, so maybe it's not that bad, but seriously, how do you choose new hiking boots anyway? Well according to the good folks over at ABC of Hiking, there are a few things to look for:

Intended Use & Hiking Skill Level
What kind of hiking will I be doing? Well for me, it would be mostly day hiking, and no more than a couple of miles at that. I am not only (after all) still badly out of shape, and a beginner, but I usually hike with a 6 year old and a 7 year old too. So 10 mile hikes are pretty much out of the question for me, at least for right now anyway. The class of my boot should (again, according to ABC) increase under the following factors: expected terrain and weather conditions, intended Hiking duration, and intended backpack load. Since I'll be doing mostly day hiking on pretty well established trails and paths, with not much more than a small day pack or Camelbak, With all this to take in, I think the most important thing to remember is that I should probably go for something that gives a little more support.

There is a heckuva lot more to take in to consideration, and since I don't really want to steal from the good people at ABC's of Hiking, I'll just redirect you to their website ,in case you are interested in learning more. What do i currently wear? Columbia hiking boots, and I have to say that they have performed heroically. For the last year and a half, I have worn them to work almost every single day, and I can quite honestly say they are the one pair of shoes I own that do not hurt my feet at the end of the day. ....maybe I'll stick with Columbia then..

Indian Summer....

2009-11-14T17:55:00.000-05:00

Yes, sonny, this is sure enough Injun summer.

Don't know what that is, I reckon, do you?

Well, that's when all the homesick Injuns come back to play. You know, a long time ago, long afore your granddaddy was born even, there used to be heaps of Injuns around here - thousands - millions, I reckon, far as that's concerned. Reg'lar sure'nuf Injuns - none o'yer cigar store Injuns, not much. They wuz all around here - right here where you are standin'.

Don't be skeered - hain't none around here now, leastways no live ones. They been gone this many a year. They all went away and died, so they ain't no more left.

But every year, 'long about now, they all come back, leastways their sperrits do.

They are here now. You can see'em across the fields. Look real hard. See that kind o' hazy, misty look out yonder? Well, them's Injuns - Injun sperrits marchin' along an' dancin' in the sunlight. That's what makes that kind o' haze that's everywhere - it's jest the sperrits of the Injuns all come back. They're all around us now.

See off yonder; see them teepees? They kind o' look like corn shocks from here, but them's Injun tents, sure as you're a foot high. See'em now? Sure, I knowed you could. Smell that smoky sort o' smell in the air? That's the campfires a-burnin' and their pipes a-goin'.

Lots o' people say it's just leaves burnin', but it ain't. It's the campfires, an' th' Injuns are hoppin' 'round 'em t' beat the old Harry.

You jest come out here tonight when the moon is hangin' over the hill off yonder an' the harvest fields is all swimmin' in the moonlight, an' you can see the Injuns and the teepees jest as plain as kin be. You can, eh? I knowed you would after a little while.

Jever notice the leaves turn red 'bout this time o' year? That's jest another sign o' redskins. That's when an old Injun sperrit gets tired dancin' an' goes up an' squats on a leaf t' rest.

Why, I kin hear 'em rustlin' an' whisperin' an' creepin' 'round among the leaves all the time; an' ever' once 'n a while a leaf gives way under some fat old Injun ghost an' comes floatin' down to the ground.

See - here's one now. See how red it is? That's the warpaint rubbed off'n an Injun ghost, sure's you're born.

Purty soon, all the Injuns'll go marchin' away agin, back to the happy huntin' ground, but next year, you'll see'em troopion' back - th' sky jest hazy with'm and their campfires smoulderin' away jest like they are now.

© Copyright 1907 John McCutcheon

Indian summer is an informal expression given to a period of sunny, warm weather in autumn in the Northern Hemisphere, typically in late October or early November, after the leaves have turned following an onset of frost but before the first snowfall.

Called циганско лято, tsigansko lyato) or Gypsy Summer in Bulgaria, In Sweden it is called "brittsommar", In Germany and Austria it is called "Altweibersommer", in Hungary "vénasszonyok nyara" (Old Ladies Summer or Crone's Summer) and also known as "Saint Luke's summer", as the saint's feast day is October 18.

2009-11-11T08:10:00.001-05:00

Thanks to my Great Uncle Norman, who lied about his age to join the Army in 1944, and at the tender age of 17 was assigned to the 28th Infantry, Pennsylvania National Guard, and sent to the Huertgen forest. He survived hopeless odds; His unit had a 110% casualty rate, and in 2 months of fighting in Huertgen, the U.S. Losses were a little over 33,... Read More000 dead (That's almost as many as we lost during the entire Vietnam war). My Uncle received the bronze Star with V for Valor for his part in the Battle of the Huertgen forest. No one in my family knows why, and that in and of itself, is a very sad statement about our society.

When relieved in early December, the 28th-and my Uncle- were sent to a very quiet part of the front for R&R. It was so quiet, it was nicknamed "the Ghost front". The ghost front was right near a little Belgian town called Bastogne.

I was never allowed to tell you thank you Uncle Norman, and it is one of my only regrets in life.

Veterans Day parade 2009

2009-11-08T15:12:00.003-05:00

Well, Saturday morning found Pack 49 in downtown on a bright, crisp, clear Autumn morning; perfect for being outside, and perfect for a parade! We were participating in the "Salute to veterans day" parade, as a part of the Mecklenburg council of BSA. Last year was the first year we were in scouts, and we marched then too, but there were only 15-20 of us. This year I started asking people in June from our Council to march, and by the time Saturday morning came around, we had close to 500 scouts in the parade! I dont have a ton of pictures just yet, but here are a few that I took.

We finally get moving!

Boudreaux, Thibadeaux and friend with a dough boy!

Learning how to properly fold a flag courtesy of the fine men and women of VFW Post 9488

"Happy Veterans Day", or "Thank You Veterans Day"??

2009-11-04T08:28:00.002-05:00

One week from today is Veterans day, and this weekend, the Mecklenburg Council of BSA will be part of the Salute toVeterans day parade. It's always a lot of fun, but this year promises to be a bigger parade than ever before. I kind of jumped up and down so much about it back in June, that I went and got myself "volunteered" to head things up. It has been a labor of love, but the men and women who have protected us all these years are worth it. I am not worthy of being counted amongst their ranks, but reluctantly, I am. If you have a Veterans day parade in your town, I would urge you to take that hour out of your day, and go down and participate. They gave at least 4 years of their lives up to protect us, is it really so much to ask that you give up one hour a year to say thank you?

If you are a leader in Cub Scouts or Brownies, heres a good project for you to do in the next week with your kids;There are a ton of Veterans Day coloring sheets found online that you can print out for your scouts to color. have them pick from a few different ones, color the sheet and write a small message to a veteran on the back. They can then send the picture to a family member who might be a vet, or who might still be serving. A nice touch is to take a picture of the den and send it along in the letters with a thank you on the back of it. We went an extra step, and got a nice Veterans Day card from hallmark, and had all the kids and leaders sign it, put a picture of the den in it, and then figured out who in the den had the oldest Veteran in their family, and mailed the card to that boys relative (in this case a Great Granpa who was with the 8th Army Air Corps in WWII).

You would be surprised how a simple "thank you" will touch a vets heart; I've seen men who braved the flesh shredding machine gun fire of Okinawa and Guadacanal well up with tears in their eyes because someone simply said thank you to them. Whatever you decide to do, at the very least find a veteran, shake their hand, and tell them you appreciate what they do every day for us .

Beauty for ashes

2009-11-01T11:26:00.000-05:00

Okay one and all, if you are looking for my more theological ramblings, they can be found over at "Beauty for Ashes", my WordPress blog. I have decided that i need to keep the two seperate. and that it is time for meto start writing again, so it will be a little more active over there now than it has been in the past.

Our Haunted Halloween Hike to the Robinson Rockhouse Ruins.

2009-10-31T17:49:00.000-04:00

Well wouldn't you know it, we went on a hike to a new site, and I forgot to bring my camera! Doh!Doh!Doh! Ah well, I knicked these pictures via Google to illustrate where we were ( I photoshopped them though)and what we saw. Forgive me for the thievery dear reader.

Anyway, Boudreaux, Myself and our fearless pup Molly decided that it was such a nice Halloween afternoon, that a hike through our closest nature preserve was a grand idea. Luckily, we live really close to a fantastic park that is complete with fishing, coyotes, Bobcat, deer, owls, all sorts of distractions, along a series of great trails. We had not decided on what we were going to do until we were at the trail heads, and it occurred to me that we had never been to the Robinson rockhouse. After consulting with my fearless viking, we headed off into the woods. The trail was rather easy, a few steep inclines and a little bit of mud (It had been raining for three days, after all), but aside from that it was a grand journey!

The Robinson rockhouse and the land surrounding it was originally granted to Robert Robinson by George Augustus Selwyn in 1767 and King George III in 1769, so the house itself is 240 years old, and for a Halloween hike, you couldn't have asked for more! To get to the site, you have to take a trail that gets progressively thinner, that farther into the woods you get. There are all sorts of deer trails interspersed along the way, and the only reason you know you are on the right path is by the little metal hiker signs that are on the trees every 10 feet or so. As you get closer to the ruins, you come across this massive orange tree that fell over a few years ago in an ice storm. The park rangers say it was planted by the Robinsons 200 years ago as a shade tree. it's probably a good 5 feet in circumference, just a massive, massive tree. despite being dead, it shows no outward signs of rot.
The ruins-just behind the felled orange tree- of the house are just that, ruins, but vastly impressive in their own right. The city of Charlotte has been going back and forth with historic preservation over archeological rights, as it is the oldest site of it's kind that can be excavated without damaging the remains. As such,it could give us great insight into the lives of some of our counties earliest settlers and their daily lives. There is supposed to be a cemetery somewhere around here too, but my son -6 year olds being the catious lot they are- decided that we weren't going to go looking for that any time soon. The stairs were easily 4 to 5 feet wide, and a foot and a half to two feet thick. No bricks here folks, these were just huge slabs of rock.
As we turned around and started back towards the car, it occurred to me that, what really got me about the ruins (that I did not attempt to explain to Boudreaux) was how much they reminded me of a movie I had seen a few years back about hikers in the woods.
Happy Halloween everyone!!

Our weekend in the clouds.

2009-10-25T10:17:00.012-04:00

Well, early Saturday morning found us "city-folk down in the flatlands" with a rained out soccer game, and a rained out football game, so we decided that we'd take a chance, and drive on up to Zirconia, home of Sky Top orchards. It's between the towns of Saluda (where I want to move) and Flat Rock, just N.E. of the DuPont State Forest. (I had a link for the Forest, but it came up as malicious, so if you google it, be warned!).

The day started off cloudy, and as we got closer to the mountains, the clouds gave way to a beautiful Autumn afternoon of sunshine and 70 degrees. Hardly what we thought it was going to be! Apparently, we weren't the only people who had cancelled soccer games, because the parking for SkyTop was thronged. After navigating thru the crowds,we made our choices (Pink Lady for the Cajun princess and sons, and Stayman Winesap for me), got some Apple cider and 1 dozen fresh hot apple cider donuts (they mix fresh pressed apple cider into the batter), and bid farewell to Sky top until our next trip.

We decided that perhaps we'd do a little "leafing", by driving up the Blue Ridge Parkway for a stretch, to see if the color was any better higher up. If you were planning on going up the BRP anytime soon, the next few weeks should be spectacular! We saw good color higher up, but as we climbed the trees changed from Hickory and Oaks, to Spruce and fir, so we lost a lot of the color.... We also lost the sun and the 70 degrees. as low lying clouds lumbered in and the temperature started to cool off. By the time the picture below had been taken, the temperature had dipped to 50.

We watched the clouds come in with some excitement, as the boys chattered about telling classmates on Monday that they had driven thru the clouds. I dont think they had any idea how right they'd be!! The farther up we drove, the heavier the clouds got, until we had visibility of about 5 feet and had slowed down to a respectable 5-10 mph as the winds howled and the temperature dipped even lower...
By the time the picture below was taken of me (at the only rest stop we found that was still open) the temperature had dipped to 38 degrees with a guesstimated wind chill of probably 22 or lower.Suffice it to say, i was not prepared for such a drastic change in the weather, and it is a good thing that we had earlier decided against a short hike we were thinking of doing. I seriously dont think I'll ever go to the mountains again without an extra layer or two stashed in the back of the car.

As we drove along towards home, we caught glimpses thru the trees of mighty Mt. Mitchell, the Highest peak in the U.S, East of the Mississippi.There was no place that I could pull over to get the images I saw, but they were magnificent. the Clouds were below us, the setting sun reflecting golds and reds off the top of the clouds, the top of Mt.Mitchell just peaking up from beneath this fluffy white blanket .

As we drove further down the parkway, the clouds eventually swallowed all of Mt Mitchell in a blanket for the night. I can only imagine how cold it really got up there, and I worried about the bicyclists we had passed on our way down the mountain. I hope they had cars near by, because this was a classic example of how quickly the weather can turn against you if you aren't properly prepared for the unexpected. I've got more pictures, and I'll add them later, but I thought this initial batch would be a good start. Am I planning on going back any time soon? You betcha! Soon, hopefully within the next few weeks, I plan on making a camping trip to Pisgah or the Smokies. I'd love to go to the smokies to see the Elk rut, but I have to see how things pan out.

Finally!!

2009-10-23T22:21:00.002-04:00

Well, were off in the morning to go apple picking at Sky Top Orchards!! It's not a hike thru the smokies, but it's outside, in the mountains in October, and so I'll take it!! Hopefully, I'll be able to get some decent pictures to share. If you want fresh NC mountain apples, let me know, maybe I'll send you some!!

The Southern Appalachian Creature Feature

2009-10-19T14:58:00.001-04:00

The Southern Appalachian Creature Feature is a short morning radio show broadcast on the best radio station in Western North Carolina(& the only decent one in central NC to boot), WNCW 88.7 . I felt that it is worthy of your time to read about, and definately worth your time to listen to, and is available via the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service's website, as well as iTunes. I have included an MP3 here as an example for you to check out.

The trout economy of western North Carolina The North Mills River, in North Carolina’s Henderson County, is one of Western North Carolina’s most popular trout rivers. I took some time one Friday to enjoy the river and as I was getting ready to head home, I struck up a conversation with another man in the parking area who was arriving. The man was from Texas. His wife had come to the area on business, and when he saw you could trout fish here, he decided to tag along with her. Trout money.mp3 (MP3)

2009-10-19T08:31:00.003-04:00

Back entrance to Carl Sandburgs house
~Photo by Me~

Autumn Movement

I cried over beautiful things knowing no beautiful thing lasts.

The field of cornflower yellow is a scarf at the neck of the copper
sunburned woman, the mother of the year, the taker of seeds.

The northwest wind comes and the yellow is torn full of holes,
 new beautiful things come in the first spit of snow on the northwest wind,
 and the old things go, not one lasts.

~Carl Sandburg~

2009-10-18T18:45:00.002-04:00

Photo brought to you by High Country WebCams.

How come, when it seems like I'm ready for my weekend to start, it's always Sunday night? It wasn't an extraordinary weekend by any stretch of the imagination, but at least I did get out to take the dog for an extended walk. Still, I would have rather have had a nice long walk over the stretch of the Smoky Mountains National park you see above.

Small matter; As we are planning to go to Skytop orchard next Saturday for our annual apple picking expedition, and from the sounds of it, the leaves should be peaking by then at and below heights of 3,000 feet.

Anyway, I hope y'all had a great weekend, got a chance to get out and walk around some, enjoy the outside and have a talk with the Big Guy.

2009-10-18T13:27:00.002-04:00

Autumn Fires

In the other gardens
And all up the vale,
From the autumn bonfires
See the smoke trail!

Pleasant summer over
And all the summer flowers,
The red fire blazes,
The gray smoke towers.

Sing a song of seasons!
Something bright in all!
Flowers in the summer,
Fires in the fall!
~Robert Louis Stevenson~

All my ducks in a row........

2009-10-17T19:36:00.000-04:00

Ok, so it's not a picture of ducks, but rather an old picture I took on a considerably older digital camera, hence the graininess, but it illustrates what I'm pondering these days rather well , getting things to where they ought to be. When did everything become so complicated? As the days tick by, and we get obviously farther and farther into Autumn, I find my self desperately trying to organize something from my previous post about camping. All day today, nothing went thru my head more than the notion that i should have been somewhere up in the woods -maybe Mt. Mitchell- thinking, contemplating, praying...

I really wanted to be camping this weekend, but the conspiracy against me was too overwhelming! Our Parish Fall Festival, Soccer games, flag football games,a 7 yo singing in choir tomorrow, and to top it all off? A sick mother (my 78 year old Mom may have H1N1, on top of pneumonia and grade B Lymphoma). Now, I suppose, if I wanted to act like a grownup, I could say it was the Lord convincing me NOT to go....I know that's the truth, and I was meant to stay here, but doggonit!! I've got to get out of here soon!!

So, as I sit here, listening to the drone of Nascar engines wafting in thru my back windows from down the street at Lowes Motor Speedway,fell no pity for me, but maybe give the big guy a heads up that i need some down time soon.

2009-10-09T14:28:00.001-04:00

To Autumn

O Autumn, laden with fruit, and stainèd
With the blood of the grape, pass not, but sit
Beneath my shady roof; there thou may'st rest,
And tune thy jolly voice to my fresh pipe,
And all the daughters of the year shall dance!
Sing now the lusty song of fruits and flowers.
`The narrow bud opens her beauties to
The sun, and love runs in her thrilling veins;
Blossoms hang round the brows of Morning, and
Flourish down the bright cheek of modest Eve,
Till clust'ring Summer breaks forth into singing,
And feather'd clouds strew flowers round her head.

`The spirits of the air live on the smells
Of fruit; and Joy, with pinions light, roves round
The gardens, or sits singing in the trees.'
Thus sang the jolly Autumn as he sat;
Then rose, girded himself, and o'er the bleak
Hills fled from our sight; but left his golden load.

William Blake

I love this time of year the best, but this year it's been kind of hard to "get going" as it were. The boys and I were going to jump start everything on Sunday with a hike through Graveyard fields but Boudreaux is sick with a fever (not H1N1 thank the Lord), and it's supposed to rain all weekend here, we have football games on both days, and choir practice on Sunday (part of Faith Formation at our parish), so even if #1 son wasn't sick, my weekend seems to have already been decided for me.

I have a selfish idea though.......I'm thinking I might go to the mountains for a weekend by myself in November. no really, just drive up to Pisgah National Forest one Friday, find a campsite along the Davidson river, and spend a night or two there, fly fishing. Who could say no to this? I think I'm feeling the need for a little solitude & introspection right now. My wife is off to Texas for her High school reunion, and I think that when she's back I'm going to ask her if this proposal is acceptable to her. Nothing is wrong per se, but I just want to go somewhere without having to worry about someone else and their needs, if only for a few hours....Or, in this case a few days. I don't even care if I catch anything, I never really have. I've been deer hunting before where it was just nice to be in a tree stand -alone- for 5 hours or so, swaying in the breeze in unison with the pine tree I was in.

Things are just weighing heavy on my soul these days. Not that anything in particular is so out of balance, not that my life has any perceptible flaws or reasons for me to gnash my teeth, I just think, I need a small break......

"2nd Poem to Mary"

2009-09-19T01:03:00.000-04:00

Hemmingway was a war correspondent attached to the 22nd Infantry Regiment when he wrote this poem for the 33,000 Americans lost between September 19th,1944 and February 10, 1945....33,000 in 5 months....(We lost 58,228 soldiers during the entire vietna...m war from 1959-1975) The forest covers over barely 50 square miles, east of the Belgian–German border, and had no significant value to the completion of the war, which led to it being called "The Death factory".

Excuses, excuses.....

2009-09-16T08:44:00.003-04:00

*SIGH*
I know, I know, I promised I'd be more regular in my posts, but school started, soccer practice and football practice geared up, and then Scouting ensued, so time has been at a premium as of late. I will, however, finish my report on Lake Powhatan, and will cross post things from FaceBook and Twitter too. If you want to follow me on Twitter, Here's my profile.Likewise, heres my faceBook profile. I try to keep up with everything, but facebook seems to be the big one. twitter, not as much, but I do have a whole lot of Catholic followers, and Outdoor/scouting followers there, so it may be worth your while to check out.

Anyway, Autumn is almost upon us, and with it's arrival, I find myself stirred to write more, so hopefully you'll see more of my ugly mug around here!!

Lake Powhatan , Pisgah National forest

2009-08-19T18:48:00.009-04:00

So last weekend, the Cajun princess and I packed up the car with camping gear, firewood and food, grabbed Molly (the evil dog) and headed for Lake Powhatan. Powhatan is situated in the N.E. section of the Pisgah National Forest a little bit south of Asheville, N.C. It was our first time at the Powhatan campground, and I must say we were mightily impressed with the place! We weren't there 15 minutes, and Boudreaux and Thibadeaux had a date to sing "silly songs" with Ms. Karen, one of the rangers.

Our campsite was really nice; spacious, clean and secluded. Though we were 50 yards from the guard shack, you would have known it. there was an abundance of firewood to be gathered all around, and it appeared as if it was all due to the staff cutting it and leaving it in the woods for collection. An experiment in clearing old dead wood to make room for the saplings sprouting up all around. The Campsites were spaced about 30 yards apart, so you knew you had neighbors, but you didn't see them. Hearing them however, well that's another story. Our first night there was a group of college kids camping next to us that came in from partying after "quiet time" (10:00 PM to 7:00 AM) was established. they brought a lot of friends with them, and they made quite a lot of racket around 3:00 AM with giggling, laughing, talking, putting up more tents and the like. this ired the "evil dog" to no ends, and she barked ferociously, protecting us from the unseen threats outside. By the next morning, the Park rangers had removed the guests who were not supposed to be there, had told the campers who were supposed to be there that they were on thin ice, and had ap[ologized profusely to us. The next nights rest was uneventful and even enjoyable.

Saturday found us entering Pisgah National Forest proper, to visit the infamous "Sliding Rock" falls. (To be continued).

Many many moons....

2009-08-16T16:16:00.003-04:00

Howdy all, hope that someone still drops by here to check on me from time to time! Sorry for the absence, but it hasn't been the greatest of times for me and mine, as you can tell from my most previous post. But, things being what they are, we have moved on, and have actually just returned from a spectacular camping trip to the Pisgah National forest this very afternoon! I have pictures, and they will be posted (hopefully later tonight) so stay tuned! Also; for those who have often wandered what I look like, I do believe I rear my ugly head in these pics a few times, and as an added bonus, this was the first trip the Cajun Princess made with us as well! I promise, I will post them soon!

Missing.....

2009-06-08T09:07:00.003-04:00

Sorry for my absence, but things have not been good. I don't feel like rehashing it right here and now, but if you are at all interested, here is a post the I recently wrote about the current situation that explains it all on my other blog, "Southern Porch".

I promise, I will be back at some point this summer, but I'm probably going to be a bit more balanced, as I need the religious part of my life right now a whole lot, and I want to find a way ti incorporate my love for the outdoors with my love for Christ..... Thanks for your understanding.

2009-03-08T09:07:00.002-04:00

"Worry is a weakness from which very few of us are entirely free. We must be on guard against this most insidious enemy of our peace of soul. Instead, let us foster confidence in God, and thank Him ahead of time for whatever He chooses to send us."

~Venerable Solanus Casey (1870-1957)~

A very good snow day.

2009-03-03T17:01:00.005-05:00

As I walked down the snow covered street Monday morning with my faithful -albeit disobedient- Beagle Molly, the words my wife uttered the night before (in the middle of a solid 3 days downpour of rain) came back to haunt me; "It's going to snow tonight"....."Aw, baloney" I said, citing every piece of folk wisdom I could muster to prove to her why she was wrong... Are they ever really wrong? So I found myself walking the dog on a crisp march morning, with the crunch of snow under foot and the prospect of a day off of work on my horizon as we meandered down the street from our house..

I decided that since the kids were playing with friends and my wife was still sleeping peacefully, I'd take the chance to just go out and....just be...One with nature, one with the environment, I dont know, but I knew I wanted to be outside on this beaitiful morning for as long as possible. We walked a good mile or so down the middle of a usually very busy street across snow and ice as polished as a mirror. To the right of the road is a thin line of scrub pines, blocking an old cow pasture partially from view. I knew from the moment we stepped outside, this was our destination.

The snow was deeper here, probably because of the overgrown brush , but it still came well up to my shins and was a little harder to mavigate than you'd expect. Molly loved it, leaping from spot to spot, chasing birds, oblivious to me, or the limitations of her lead at times.We walked to the other side of the field, and right into the woods. It was quiet here, the scrub trees and snow had muffled the distant sounds of traffic and the train tracks at the top of our street. i felt as if I was 100 miles away from Charlotte, and out in the mountains somewhere, the only sound coming from the chirping of small birds faintly breaking the silence.We walked in silence, underneath trees blowing and whispering in the breeze. I really should have taken the time to say a prayer, or recite the rosary (it is, after all, Lent), but instead I just stood in silence, listening to the muted sounds of nature. I guess I was listening to God, though it didn't occur to me at the time, but any time spend in silence, just contemplating the very essence of our surroundings, away from all distractions is time with God.

As we walked back towards home, I felt a peace about me, a happiness that only grew more and more with the rising sun. It was a very good snow day.

2009-03-01T13:40:00.001-05:00

MESSAGE OF HIS HOLINESS
BENEDICT XVI

FOR LENT 2009

"He fasted for forty days and forty nights, and afterwards he was hungry" (Mt 4,1-2)

Dear Brothers and Sisters!

At the beginning of Lent, which constitutes an itinerary of more intense spiritual training, the Liturgy sets before us again three penitential practices that are very dear to the biblical and Christian tradition – prayer, almsgiving, fasting – to prepare us to better celebrate Easter and thus experience God’s power that, as we shall hear in the Paschal Vigil, “dispels all evil, washes guilt away, restores lost innocence, brings mourners joy, casts out hatred, brings us peace and humbles earthly pride” (Paschal Præconium ). For this year’s Lenten Message, I wish to focus my reflections especially on the value and meaning of fasting. Indeed, Lent recalls the forty days of our Lord’s fasting in the desert, which He undertook before entering into His public
ministry. We read in the Gospel: “Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. He fasted for forty days and forty nights, and afterwards he was hungry” (Mt 4,1-2). Like Moses, who fasted before receiving the tablets of the Law (cf. Ex 34,28) and Elijah’s fast before meeting the Lord on Mount Horeb (cf. 1 Kings 19,8), Jesus, too, through prayer and fasting, prepared Himself for the mission that lay before Him, marked at the start by a serious battle with the tempter.(click on above link for entire story)

"The law of fasting requires a Catholic from the 18th Birthday [Canon 97] to the 59th Birthday [i.e. the beginning of the 60th year, a year which will be completed on the 60th birthday] to reduce the amount of food eaten from normal. The Church defines this as one meal a day, and two smaller meals which if added together would not exceed the main meal in quantity. Such fasting is obligatory on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday. The fast is broken by eating between meals and by drinks which could be considered food (milk shakes, but not milk). Alcoholic beverages do not break the fast; however, they seem contrary to the spirit of doing penance." (EWTN, The Holy Season of Lent)

I myself am a supporter of the fast, and on fast days I even try to avoid the collations ( I did pretty good Friday). I am really trying to make this Lenten season better than the past few years. I have in the past given up lame-o things, things my Doctor would have me give up anyway, and it never seems to come out to anything more than a lack-luster effort at best. This year though, I'm going in the opposite direction. Once a week I plan on either throwing out a bag of stuff I don't need cluttering up my life, or I'll give away a bag of stuff to charity. One a week, I think that's a good start, don't you? I'm also going to volunteer to help the Knights of Columbus out with the Lenten meal preparations again. I haven't done that in quite a few years, and I feel as if the time might have come to start volunteering with them again. I don't want a position in the council or anything, but I need to help out around the Parish more. My problem is, every year I make these plans, and I never carry them out, so I have to change my tactics, approach it all from a different angle. Does anyone else have any suggestions for me?

Vatican: Bishop's apology on Holocaust not enough

2009-02-28T11:38:00.004-05:00

By NICOLE WINFIELD, Associated Press Writer Nicole Winfield, Associated Press Writer Fri Feb 27, 6:02 pm ET

VATICAN CITY – An apology from a bishop who denied the Holocaust wasn't good enough, the Vatican said Friday, adding that he must repudiate his views if he wants to be a Roman Catholic clergyman.

The statement by Bishop Richard Williamson "doesn't appear to respect the conditions" the Vatican set out for him, said the Rev. Federico Lombardi, a spokesman for the pope.

In an interview broadcast last month on Swedish state TV and in previous letters and speeches, Williamson denied 6 million Jews were killed in the Holocaust, saying about 200,000 or 300,000 were murdered. He said none was gassed.

Williamson apologized for his remarks on Thursday upon his arrival in his native Britain after being ordered to leave Argentina. He said he would never have made them if he had known "the full harm and hurt to which they would give rise."

But he didn't say he had been wrong or that he no longer believed what he had said.(The rest of the story can be found here)

How many of us had to explain all of this to friends or coworkers in the past week? Isn't it interesting how the press left out the fact that what the Pope did was simply lift the excommunication so they can attend mass and nothing-NOTHING- more? It was a gesture of forgiveness that was supposed to be reciprocated by these four bishops, not an absolution of their sins, nor an act of alliance with Williamsons twisted views.

As far as I'm concerned, they did more damage to the church than Williamson's delusional and ignorant beliefs did. Shame on him for being being the braying jack-ass he is, and shame on the media for feeding him.

2009-02-27T11:31:00.002-05:00

So were going to start working on "Leave No Trace" this week in our Tiger Cub den, and I thought maybe I'd post about LNT here, in case noone has heard of it.

As more people use parks and recreation facilities, LEAVE NO TRACE® guidelines become even more important for outdoor visitors.

Leave No Trace is a plan that helps people to be more concerned about their environment and to help them protect it for future generations. Leave No Trace applies in a backyard or local park (frontcountry) as much as it does in the wilderness (backcountry).

We should practice Leave No Trace in our attitude and actions--wherever we go. Understanding nature strengthens our respect toward the environment. One person with thoughtless behavior or one shortcut on a trail can spoil the outdoor experience for others.

Help protect the environment by remembering that while you are there, you are a visitor. When you visit the outdoors, take special care of the area. Leave everything just as you find it.

Hiking and camping without a trace are signs of a considerate outdoorsman who cares for the environment. Travel lightly on the land.

Watch for hazards and follow all the rules of the park or outdoor facility. Remember proper clothing, sunscreen, hats, first aid kits, and plenty of drinking water. Use the buddy system. Make sure you carry your family's name, phone number, and address.

Stay on marked trails whenever possible. Short-cutting trails causes the soil to wear away or to be packed, which eventually kills trees and other vegetation. Trampled wildflowers and vegetation take years to recover. Stick to trails!

Managing your pet will keep people, dogs, livestock, and wildlife from feeling threatened. Make sure your pet is on a leash or controlled at all times. Do not let your pet approach or chase wildlife. When animals are chased or disturbed, they change eating patterns and use more energy that may result in poor health or death.

Take care of your pet's waste. Take a small shovel or scoop and a pick-up bag to pick up your pet's waste— wherever it's left. Place the waste bags in a trash can for disposal.

When visiting any outdoor area, try to leave it the same as you find it. The less impact we each make, the longer we will enjoy what we have. Even picking flowers denies others the opportunity to see them and reduces seeds, which means fewer plants next year.

Use established restrooms. Graffiti and vandalism have no place anywhere, and they spoil the experience for others. Leave your mark by doing an approved conservation project.

Expect to meet other visitors. Be courteous and make room for others. Control your speed when biking or running. Pass with care and let others know before you pass. Avoid disturbing others by making noise or playing loud music.

Respect "No Trespassing" signs. If property boundaries are unclear, do not enter the area.

Make sure all trash is put in a bag or trash receptacle. Trash is unsightly and ruins everyone's outdoor experience. Your trash can kill wildlife. Even materials, such as orange peels, apple cores and food scraps, take years to break down and may attract unwanted pests that could become a problem.

Memories......

2009-02-19T16:59:00.003-05:00

I was looking through old photographs yesterday, and I found this photo. It kind of struck me, because I think this is who I got my sense of adventure in the outdoors from. This is a picture of me, my sister and our Grandfather on a hike in the Pine Barrens of Southern New Jersey. He and my Grandmother moved there after he retired from ARCO in Philadelphia. He loved the ocean; had a sailboat, and a big Chris craft with a flying deck.

He used to take us out almost daily on the big boat; We'd go out and explore all the little hidden coves in Barnegat Bay, sliding effortlessly past hunting cabins and duck blinds closed for the season, past sand bars and jetties. We'd spend the best part of our summers fishing ,clamming, and finding seahorses and horshoe crabs in the shallows arounf Barnegat Lighthouse.

My Grandfather loved the outdoors, and I think that part of the reason I love it so. Moreover, i think the joy he had in showing me and my sister new and wonderous things in his backyard is why I want my boys to know it as well. He died 12 years ago, and he left a really big hole in my heart when he went, but I think seeing the wonder of new discoveries in my sons eyes is shoring up that hole, filling it in, making the pain and sorrow fade away like the sun going down on Barnegat Light and the beautiful New Jersey Pine Barrens.

I have a winner!!!

2009-02-11T16:23:00.002-05:00

Remember these pictures from a few months ago? Well I finally found out what the little flower in the pictures was! It's not actually a flower at all, it's a Partridge Berry!

"In the wild, partridgeberry is a common component of the forest understory throughout eastern North America. It ranges from Newfoundland south to central Florida and from southern Ontario and Minnesota south to eastern Texas. The diminutive shrub inhabits the shady nooks of rich mixed-deciduous woods, preferring acidic soils. As an evergreen, it compensates for its low-light environment through its ability to photosynthesize during the entire winter season. From late spring to fall, the forest floor is cloaked in semidarkness, and mats of Mitchella repens lie prostrate, soaking up whatever sunlight penetrates the canopy above.

The creeping shrub hugs the ground, growing to only two inches in height. As the stems spread out, the branch and leaf nodes develop roots and anchor themselves into the soil. Eventually the slow-growing plant forms a dense carpet that may be several meters across. This scrambling cover spills down slopes and skirts the base of trees. By favoring such inclines, partridgeberry shrugs off fallen leaves that could otherwise smother it."

So there we have it! Mystery solved.

2009-02-02T11:58:00.002-05:00

Sorry for the absence, but I've been under the weather pretty harshly since around this time last month. I found myself over new years day with a sharp pain in my right calf that soon intensified . Long story short, I had streptococcal cellulitis in my leg that required IV's and a boat load of anti-biotics to get rid of. I have a really nasty scar on my leg now, but aside from that I'm doing pretty good.

Suffice it to say, I have not had much time for the outdoors in the past 31 days, but I'm hoping to remedy that really soon. In the interim I have found something really cool via the CU Underground!

Apparently the Holy Father has his own You Tube page! that was cool enough, but then i found this ad that NBC apparently refused to run during the Superbowl....

Birding.....

2009-01-12T09:02:00.005-05:00

I wish I had taken this photo, but I didn't. But I did see a Cardinal that was this vivid on Saturday with the boys, as we went on our weekend hike. I'm really pleased that they've kind of gotten into the idea of these hikes. This past weekend, we went out with the intent of birdwatching. Well, we did see a few cardinals, and we heard some titmice, but it wasn't a very fruitful adventure in as far as birding went. But the boys had fun, we got some exercise, and I actually felt pretty good. In retrospect, I probably should have brought the dog with us, but theres always next time.

Here are my ever watchful assistants, looking for the titmouse and the bluejay that were carrying on somewhere in the trees.

A tree had been cut down recently, and here my assistants are dilligently counting the rings in said tree to see how old it was. I think they gave up after 35 rings.

Lastly, I took this picture with the macro enabled on my little Sony Cybershot in an attempt to get a decent enough picture to enter an amateur photo contest our local parks dept is putting on. whatya think? I've got more, perhaps some that are even better (hopefully).

2009-01-09T08:17:00.004-05:00

I love winter...........I LOVE winter. This morning found me in one of those moments where you dont want to be anywhere other than where you are at that precise point in time. Boudreaux and I were up early for school; up earlier than we usually are. We were ready to go, getting ready to eat breakfast, and on a whil, I took him out for breakfast. Just he and I, munching on cinnamon rolls and bacon egg and cheese biscuits under a darkened landscape that led out to the most gorgeous hue of pink I've ever seen in a horizon.

But the real ingredient in the whole recipe, the only thing it really needed, was me and my son spending some time together. It really meant a lot to me, because we dont always get time to do stuff just he and I. I need to do that more often, because he's really such a sweet kid, and I dont want these moments to slip away too fast, you know? It's like my youngest, Thibadeaux; I hate the fact that he's almost to that point where he is getting to be too big for me to pick up. I have a theory; I dont think Heaven is actually like the traditional concept. I think heaven is a culmination of all the moments you cherish in your life. The tears in the corner of your wifes eyes as she walked down the aisle towards you on that cold November morning, the first time you held your newborn son and he looked up at you with those sleepy eyes, watching "101 Dalmations" with your family, all underneath the same blanket, carrying your youngest in from the car after he fell asleep, his warm little face nuzzled into your neck. You can feel how safe and content he is in your arms. These are the things Heaven is, and if they arent, then youre doing something wrong.....

God made us a family.

We need one another.

We love one another.

We forgive one another.

We work together.

We play together.

We worship together.

Together we use God's word.

Together we grow in Christ.

Together we love all people.

Together we serve our God.

Together we hope for heaven.

These are our hopes and ideals.

Help us to attain them, O God,

through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Inheritance

2009-01-07T11:58:00.002-05:00

I found this video yesterday, during a discussion over whether or not Matt Damon was digitally altered in the opening and closing scenes of "Saving Private Ryan" to look like an old man. I knew from reading the credits that it was a different actor, because I had wondered the same thing myself at one time. Turns out the man who played the older Ryan was an actor named Harrison Young, who also did a short called "Inheritance", which apparently Youtube doesnt want anyone on Blogger.com to use, so I've had to provide the link for it instead of posting this one here. Please go watch it, it's really important anda very timely piece for a lot of us.

"Leading the Examined Life" (or St. Francis was a tree hugger)

2009-01-01T01:31:00.007-05:00

Happy New Year everyone! I trust you guys had a happy and safe New years Eve! After working in nightclubs for so long, I'm pretty much burnt out on the whole stereotypical new years celebration. No, my New Years eve celebrations these days are between me, the Cajun Princess, Boudreaux, Thibadeaux and Molly, our trusty beagle. We pop a whole lot of popcorn, make ice cream floats, watch a movie, and somewhere along the way, we talk of resolutions.

This year, my resolutions have taken a slightly different path. I'm "going green" as they say. The choice was obvious to me; Our Tiger Cub den is getting ready to start their "Leave No Trace' project, since we have started camping I have become more "ecologically aware"...Conscious if you will, and since I have started riding my bike regularly, I feel like I'm working towards making my own carbon footprint smaller. this whole concept became even more of a certainty for me when I read the following on the Patagonia Footprint Chronicles blog.

Environmentalism: Leading the Examined Life™

Every one of us does things in the course of a day that adversely affect the health of the planet. We don’t decide to, we just don’t give it a thought.

Surprising, though, how many habitual practices we can – and do – change once we give them some thought. We can all name environmental habits we’ve changed and more we intend to. This has to be done, and more often by more of us. The impact of an unexamined life is far more serious than it once was – deadly so.

Here we’ll examine Patagonia’s life and habits as a company. The idea is to give more of our practices some air and thought, and to change habits often played out on an industrial scale, with concomitant effects. We’ve been in business long enough to know that when we can reduce or eliminate a harm, other businesses will be eager to follow suit.

Tying my Catholicism into my edological endeavors
Certainly a noble endeavor, this desire of mine to be less of an impact on the earth than I already am, and one that perhaps we all should take a look at as individual citizens of the earth. This resolution of mine was further cemented early this morning when I found the "Assisi Nature Council". They're a " environmental organisation inspired by St.Francis of Assisi ’s vision of a universal brotherhood as ecological interdependence and the frugal use of earthly resources. It is concerned with the preservation of the natural and cultural heritage of the area Assisi/Mount Subasio, and it is focused on education to sustainability and environmental ethics as its foundation." Anyone who has followed my blog for any period of time will know that I am an aspiring Secular franciscan, and one of these days I'll actually have the time to devote to it. But until then I study all that I can find about st. Francis, and I try-Lord do I try- to live by the example that he set for us as disciples of Christ.

So that clinched it for me. I'll teach the boys of our pack about Leave No trace, I'll ride my bike instead of driving my car when I can, and I'll follow the examples of St. Francis. I think that's a pretty decent set of resolutions for the new year, dont you? So what resolutions do you have? I'd love to hear about them so drop me a line in my comments, and have a great new year!

Night time is the right time??

2008-12-30T00:04:00.002-05:00

So it finally stopped raining, and after putting the kids to bed, and settling the Cajun Princess (along with Molly, the spoiled and obnoxious beagle) in on the sofa with her DVD of the "Sex & the City" movie, I finally found time to ride my new bike! I only went around 3 miles, but my lungs hurt and I feel as if i actually went farther. I would have gone further too, but the darkness and the knowledge that a massive army of idiots are driving around culled my plans to go any further. I had a head lamp, but the batteries are running low, and in my neighborhood there are just too many avenues without street lamps, and too many chances to get nailed by some kid not paying attention to the road, so i called it a night.

But what a rush! Granted, the hills killed me (but I knew they would), and I almost clothes lined myself on a power line anchor cord I forgot was there until the last second (In retrospect, the head lamp was a GREAT idea), but I really enjoyed it My lungs are burning from the pedaling, but it feels so good! Still, riding in the dark is scary as hell! Heres a video that pretty much sums up what it was like, even though I wasn't on a trail.

Christmas Vacation.....

2008-12-23T21:04:00.004-05:00

Well, when I walked out of work today, I walked straight into an eleven day stretch of vacation! Nothing to do but hang out with my family and be a dad and a husband! I haven't had a Christmas Vacation since 1984!! This is exciting!

In case I dont get a chance tomorrow to say so, I hope everyone has a merry Christmas, and a happy new year. Please be safe, drive carefully and say an extra prayer for everyone else out on the road, and for all those people who cant be home for christmas.Whether theyre our sevice men and women, or people who have to be in the hospital for whatever reason, they need our prayers more than you know. Now go have fun! I'm going downstairs to watch "White Christmas" with my wife and kids.

Farewell......

2008-12-20T00:35:00.002-05:00

No, I'm not going anywhere, not really, but I've kind of made a decision in my life. I'm -for the most part- giving up computer gaming and wasting so much time on the internet. I spend far too much time schlepping around my home office, not really doing anything worthwhile. It has caused me to miss quality time with my family, my health suffers because of it, i have become a slave to it, and I want it no more.

I still plan on keeping up my blog and everything, but my health-while certainly not bad- is not good. I need to exercise, loose weight, and in general, feel better about myself. I mean, Ispend the greater part of my Saturdays in front of this infernal machine, and what does it give me back? Not as much as I'd like.

I have neglected my husbandly duties around the house, and even worse, I've not spent as much time with my kids as I ought to.So since New years is around the corner, this is the perfect time to make the change.

Hopefully, the New year will find me filling this blog with lots of outdoor adventures, good, healthy life changing stuff, not life stunting stuff. Anyway, if I dont get back here before next weekend, y'all have a very merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year. God Bless!

My newest addiction......

2008-12-17T08:20:00.002-05:00

I dont do this all that much, really I dont, so please bear with me for a few moments.....I have oftentimes heard listeners of various podcasts expressing their admiration for the creators via skype messages or e-mails, declaring that they were so enamoured with said Podcasters words, that they just had to download all the available past podcasts. I've always thought this a tad bit extreme,; if I find one I like, I start listening from the most recent broadcast, and leave it at that.

So imagine my surprise when I found myself declaring with just as much fervor the same thing about "The Dirtbag Diaries" . For those not in the know, "The Dirtbag diaries" is one of -if not the best- outdoor podcasts available. It has a definite flow to it, the smoothness of a wave as it folds up on itself right before it crashes into the shore. All you have to do is get in the middle and ride with it. At the end of every podcast, I find myself wanting the next one immediately. It is pure addiction.

It's not a hiking podcast per se, it's not a mountain biking podcast or a rock climbing podcast, it's a podcast about one mans love for the outdoors, his need, desire to be in the wide open, his love affair with the mountains, and it is utterly addictive. The first one I listened to was entitled: "The_Shorts--Friendship is a Used Bicycle.", and if by the end of that podcast, you dont find yourself wanting to rush out and buy a bike? Then you better get somebody to check your pulse.

You feel as if you've always known Fitz Cahall, he's that friend that you have that always does so much, the one your so secretly envious of because he's always so active, and he seems to motivate you with every word that he so effortlesly speaks..

Whatever your interest is in the outdoors, hiking, surfing, camping, rock climbing, bike riding -of any sort- even simple walks in a local park, I'm telling you, you have to listen tothe Dirtbag diaries at least once. you wont be sorry.

My mid-life crisis.....

2008-12-16T20:07:00.007-05:00

I'm told that I'm taking the whole nearing mid-40's thing rather well, better than a lot of men take it. While some guys go out, buy flashy cars and "Just for Men" hair dye, I'm content with my Ford Taurus and my rapidly greying hair...Hey, after all the stupid things I did to it in the 80's? (Spray painting it black after a tequila induced, self inflicted 9-inch tall mohawk for a Black Flag show) I am not one to tempt fates hand, or my hair's resentment to how I ill-treated it 24 years ago.

But the one thing, the one tell-tale sign that maybe I'm redirecting my way of thinking is this house. It's situated on the North Mills River section of Pisgah, and every time I see it, I want to chuck everything and move in. I dont know what it is that makes me love it so, maybe it's just the stark beauty surrounding it (Front yard to your right, back yard is below). Sure it's a little bit rickety and could use a lot of work, but, as they say in the real estate game, "location,location,location".

Van Johnson dies at 92

2008-12-12T16:24:00.002-05:00

NEW YORK (AP) — Van Johnson, whose boy-next-door wholesomeness made him a popular Hollywood star in the '40s and '50s with such films as "30 Seconds over Tokyo," "A Guy Named Joe" "Battleground" and "The Caine Mutiny," died Friday of natural causes. He was 92. Johnson died at Tappan Zee Manor, an assisted living center in Nyack, N.Y., said Wendy Bleisweiss, a close friend.

Always sad to see one of the good ones go, isn't it? I've always liked him, he reminded me of a guy you might know from down the street, very amiable type of guy.

Somewhere outside Albemarle in a deer stand

2008-12-06T06:30:00.004-05:00

Been on stand since 5:30 AM, and haven't seen anything but three squirrel's-a-scrounging, two cardinals-a-pecking, and a titmouse in an oak tree....No seriously, I DID see 3 squirrel's, 2 cardinals and a titmouse!

I've heard a lot of shooting around me, but so far I haven't seen any deer. But, that's not surprising, since we're between the first rut and the second. Most of them are hunkering down in the early morning these days. They have gotten used to the routine of the loud booms heralding bad things for them, and they simply wait us out...

I don't really mind not getting a deer; I'm just grateful for a chance to be out in the woods again. Albeit, the entire purpose IS to bag a deer, I'm just happy to be alone in a stretch of woods, watching this little titmouse hop from tree limb to tree limb, landing gracefully every now and then to grab corn beneath the automatic feeder.

It's been this way with me for a few years now, I just want to be out in the woods. I want to be away from the city and all the petty dramas and concerns that seem gravitate towards populated living, it just doesn't seem to be what I need....No, not need, what I want anymore.....

I know, I know, common sense (and the cost of living) dictates different; it tells me I must live and work within the confines of my cities limits and adhere to the normal construct of society, but I oh-so want to be out in the woods, watching that Titmouse flutter from tree to corn pile and back again.....

COOL!

2008-12-04T16:51:00.004-05:00

Had to share this.Make sure you enlarge the screen to full size, as this is too cool not to watch full size.

To qoute the site I found this on:
"This is one of the most amazing pieces of eye candy I've found in a long time: A demolition derby—full of monster trucks, scrap cars, and even a giant Godzilla—filmed with tilt-shift photography, then put together in a time-lapse video. The final effect is extraordinary."

So this movie is actually real, but done in such a way that it looks animated.

Metal Heart from Keith Loutit on Vimeo.

Have you ever....

2008-12-04T11:35:00.002-05:00

Barb posted this and it looked like fun I havent done one of these in quite a while.

How to play: BOLD anything you have done.

1. Started your own blog
2. Slept under the stars.
3. Played in a band (albeit a very BAD punk rock band that only played once)
4. Visited Hawaii
5. Watched a meteor shower
6. Given more than you can afford to charity
7. Been to Disneyland (DisneyWorld)
8. Climbed a mountain
9. Held a praying mantis
10. Sang a solo
11. Bungee jumped
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched a lightning storm at sea (VERY cool, reccomend it highly)
14. Taught yourself an art from scratch
15. Adopted a child
16. Had food poisoning
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty
18. Grown your own vegetables
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France
20. Slept on an overnight train
21. Had a pillow fight
22. Hitch hiked
23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill
24. Built a snow fort
25. Held a lamb
26. Gone skinny dipping
27. Run a Marathon
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice
29. Seen a total eclipse
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset
31. Hit a home run
32. Been on a cruise
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person
34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors
35. Seen an Amish community
36. Taught yourself a new language (I taught myself to write and read runic, that count?)
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied (in general)
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person
39. Gone rock climbing
40. Seen Michelangelos David
41. Sung karaoke - if that's what you want to call it!
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant
44. Visited Africa
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight
46. Been transported in an ambulance (I worked on an ambulance, does that count?)
47. Had your portrait painted
48. Gone deep sea fishing
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling
52. Kissed in the rain
53. Played in the mud
54. Gone to a drive-in theater
55. Been in a movie
56. Visited the Great Wall of China
57. Started a business
58. Taken a martial arts class
59. Visited Russia
60. Served at a soup kitchen
61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies
62. Gone whale watching
63. Got flowers for no reason
64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma
65. Gone sky diving
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp
67. Bounced a check
68. Flown in a helicopter
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial
71. Eaten Caviar
72. Pieced a quilt
73. Stood in Times Square
74. Toured the Everglades
75. Been fired from a job
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London
77. Broken a bone
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person
80. Published a book
81. Visited the Vatican
82. Bought a brand new car
83. Walked in Jerusalem
84. Had your picture in the newspaper
85. Read the entire Bible
86. Visited the White House
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
88. Had chickenpox
89. Saved someone’s life
90. Sat on a jury
91. Met someone famous
92. Joined a book club
93. Lost a loved one
94. Had a baby
95. Seen the Alamo in person
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake
97. Been involved in a law suit
98. Owned a cell phone
99. Been stung by a bee
100. Read an entire book in one day

Anyone???

2008-11-30T22:55:00.004-05:00

So on our last camping trip, we came upon this really small plant with bright red flowers on it, and I have no idea what it is. Boudreaux and Thibadeaux are pointing at it in the picture above for scale, it was attached to a very large tree which had fallen over, taking the earth surrounding it with it, so it was (I am assuming) a ground flower of some sort. In the picture below, I tried the Macro setting on my Sony Cyber shot 7.2 megapixel camera, and this is the best i could get. Anyone have a clue as to what kind of flower it might be? It almost looks like a little berry, doesn't it?

It was in the North Mills River area of Pisgah National Park, first weekend in November, and seemes to do rather well in cool to cold weather. Maybe I need a plant guide, ya think? Wish my Macro pic had come out better, but I suppose sometimes, even digital photography can go awry.

Unable to see, unwilling to quit

2008-11-28T14:29:00.007-05:00

Feeling Sorry for yourself are ya?? Well dear friends, read the following story and maybe you wont feel like you've been wronged. It's all in your mind! Really, I'm not lying to you! Just read on, and maybe then you'll realize it's all in your mind.

Charlotte man completes 2,175-mile Appalachian Trail without his eyesight or the guide he'd expected.

By Clay Barbour
cbarbour@charlotteobserver.com

Posted: Friday, Nov. 28, 2008

Cracked ribs made it hard to breathe. A chipped bone in his hip ached as he walked. And 60-mph winds stabbed at him like icy needles. But at that moment, Trevor Thomas of Charlotte could not imagine feeling better. He was a third-of-a-mile from the rocky summit of Mount Katahdin, a granite giant that climbs skyward out of Maine's wilderness.

The peak marked the end of a 2,175-mile journey, the completion of a through-hike on the Appalachian Trail. And for the first time in six months, Thomas knew for sure he was going to make it. “Just keep moving,” he said to himself. “Whatever you do, don't stop.”

Hiking the entire Appalachian Trail is an accomplishment few people can claim. This year about 1,600 have tried and about 460 have finished. Only one of them – Thomas – was blind.

Those who attempt such a feat face months of aches and pains, extremes in weather, intense physical challenges and long periods of loneliness. For Thomas, stricken by a rare eye disease in 2004, the challenge offered something valuable – a chance to restore faith in himself. But along the way it did more than that. It restored his faith in others.

On April 6, Elizabeth Thomas drove her brother 237 miles to Springer Mountain, Ga., where northbound hikers begin their trek to Katahdin. The Appalachian Trail runs through 14 states, from Georgia to Maine. In its 60-year history, it has attracted a wide variety of people, from naturalists trying to connect with the land to rugged individualists.

Millions have hiked portions of the trail, but only about 50,000 have attempted a through-hike. Of those, about 8,000 finished. And of those, only five were blind. Elizabeth Thomas didn't like the idea of dropping her brother off at the foot of Springer Mountain, but she understood why he had to do it.

Trevor Thomas had always been into extreme sports. But just after he graduated from law school at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas, doctors discovered that his immune system was attacking his macula, the part of the eye that controls center vision.

He still had about 10 percent of his peripheral vision in his right eye and 2 percent in his left, which essentially meant he could tell when something big was beside him. That helps when walking a straight line in safe territory, but what he was about to do was anything but safe.

The Rest Of The Story Is Right Here

Look down, you gods, And on this couple drop a blessed crown

2008-11-25T00:27:00.003-05:00

8 years today! If the only problem we ever have is money, then I think were doing all right!
Seriously though, in retrospect I look back at all the girls I ever dated, all the....train wrecks I was involved in, and I cant believe I found The One! People always say "never say never", but I can tell you that I will NEVER find another gift like my Cajun Princess, and I'd NEVER want a replacement for her. she is The One, and that's just it! She is THE one!

At any rate, Happy anniversary sweetness!

Outdoors Radio

2008-11-22T06:46:00.004-05:00

For all you outdoor junkies out there in the ether; There is this great show on 1110 WBT every Saturday morning at 5:00 AM called...Well, it's called the Carolina Outdoors Show, and it's hosted by Bill Bartee and Don Yeager, who: "bring their passion and years of outdoor experience to the airwaves of WBT each Saturday morning at 5am. If it's an outdoor adventure, they've done it, or they know someone who has, and they spend an hour each weekend sharing those adventures with you.". I love their show, it's always entertaining, informative and quite frankly, it gives me the impetus to get up, get dressed and go outside to do something with my Saturday, instead of frittering it away on game after game of Call of Duty 4. the only problem I have with it, is the timing; Saturday morning is my only morning that I can be afforded the luxury of sleeping past 6:30. I already wake up to keep the Cajun Princess company while she gets ready to go to work, but once she's gone, I dearly want to fall back into a deep slumber. So, Im already awake for most of the show, but due to my delerium, I oftentimes miss a sizable chunk of it. Well no more friends and neighbors, because I just found out they have a podcast!!

Now I still listen to S.Eastern Backpackers, and ATHiking and all, but check these guys out, their show is really top-notch, and well worth your time to find.

Now, the question this has all posed for me is this; when you are camping, hiking, whatever you do in the great outdoors, do you listen to an Ipod or other MP3 player? What do you listen to? What types of music or podcasts do you find to be entertaining?

2008-11-20T11:55:00.005-05:00

This is one of my favorite pictures of the boys and me.

It's a little over 2 months old, but already I can tell that it will always mean a great deal to me. We'd spent the weekend with the CubScouts, & after everyone had left camp, we decided to just meander around the N.C. mountains for a while. We drove all over, getting out of the car when the mood struck us to look at whatever caught our interest; peering over cliffs, investigating hulking old barns, collecting leaves that were so bright, they looked as if theyd burn you to touch them. We climbed on rocks, made grass angels, gladly offered to take pictures for strangers

-thats how we got this picture,we took a photo of their family, and they returned the favor-

and just in general enjoyed being together. my only regret to the entire day was that my wife wasn't able to be with us. Nevertheless, it was a special day, and as long as I live, I'll remember it.

This picture makes me wish I could spend all my time with my family, doing great things. the reality however, is that I have to work, I have to fulfill my obligations to society in order to spend these precious moments with my blood. It also makes me realize I have a responsibility to my family to keep myself healthy and fit,so I can have many more moments like this with them.

It's amazing, how things that at one time were so fleeting to me have all of a sudden become so essential.

Winter Haiku 2008/2009

2008-11-20T08:32:00.004-05:00

Good morning! Albeit a chilly one, it is still a wonderful day to be alive! My only regret is, that I am not in the mountains right now. But then I suppose if I spent all my time in the mountains, they wouldnt be so special to me, eh?

At any rate, I have set up Winter Haiku 2008/2009 . To be invited to this blog or to continue being a contributor, send your:your email addressyour nom de plumea link to your blog or websiteto Steve at songofnovember@gmail.comIf you participated in the previous seasonal blog, and all the information is the same, just let Steve know that fact.If you don't receive an invitation, check your TRASH or BULK or SPAM mailbox, in case the invitation ended up in those folders.You will need to register with Blogger in order to contribute to the blog. You can register with your email address; you don't need to get a gmail address.

RULESThis blog is open to all haiku poets! Please submit your FAMILY-FRIENDLY haiku, senryu, tanka, haiga, or haibun.You can also submit photos or drawings to enhance our experience of reading your one-breath thoughts!Artwork or photographs should be the original work of the contributor. If not, it is the contributor's responsibility to ensure that they have permission to use the work.ALL POSTS WILL BE BOLD AND IN (you decide the color). If you decide to use another color, please make sure that your text doesn't disappear into the background.The only requirement for posting is that there should be an WINTER theme.Postings/day: 3 maximum.

2008-11-17T22:59:00.003-05:00

I haven't had a whole lot of time to write anything new, but the first reading from this past Sundays Mass has me thinking about my wife and all the great things she does for me:

"When one finds a worthy wife,
her value is far beyond pearls.
Her husband, entrusting his heart to her,
has an unfailing prize.
She brings him good, and not evil,
all the days of her life.
She obtains wool and flax
and works with loving hands.
She puts her hands to the distaff,
and her fingers ply the spindle.
She reaches out her hands to the poor,
and extends her arms to the needy.
Charm is deceptive and beauty fleeting;
the woman who fears the LORD is to be praised.
Give her a reward for her labors,
and let her works praise her at the city gates."

Prv 31:10-13, 19-20, 30-31

Now maybe the passage has a different meaning than my interpretation, but essentially, they are one in the same. My wife does a ton of stuff for our family, for the community, for our parish, a whole bunch of people aside from myself and the boys rely on her for different things. My point? Sometimes we take the women in our lives for granted guys, and we need to step back, reflect on their impact on our lives, how they help us to grow, how they support us, and we need to return the gift in kind. Not just on birthdays or Mothers day, but every day.

Thank You.....

2008-11-11T12:07:00.001-05:00

Pisgah....

2008-11-10T13:42:00.002-05:00

So last weekend was our camping trip to Pisgah with Boudreaux and Thibadeaux's Uncle; all in all, a very nice camping trip I thought. The boys seemed to have more fun on this trip, and even seemed to like hiking a whole lot more. This hike was more one-on-one, and the boys even learned how to make a lean-to (as illustrated above), and absolutely embraced the outdoors this time. I dont know what the difference was, but the change in their demeanor was evident, and a good time was had by all.

alles ist defekt......

2008-11-05T00:39:00.001-05:00

I am at a loss for words...Well, ok, so I'm not really at a loss for words (Im never really at a loss for words as my wife will readily tell you), but the words I have are heavy handed, and somehwat irrational. In short, I fear for our country right now, I cant help it. It seems to me that Obama has won based on WHAT he is, rather than on WHO he is, and I fear that some of the ideas and plans he has for us are going to hurt the country rather than heal it. I guess I ought to be praying for him, instead of worrying, huh?

2008-10-27T16:36:00.005-04:00

So Fioretta has linked an interesting article on advice from the Dying to the living, and one snippet in particular has caught my attention;

"There are some things about my cancer that are a gift and that may seem really odd to some people," says Mr Ransom, who was 32 when he was first diagnosed with Hodgkin's lymphoma, a cancer that affects the whole lymphatic system. He's now 46.

"It's aroused something in me that's made me more aware. You can do the same things for 20 years, running back and forth to work, or have five years where you process more about your life. I don't know which one is the best, but maybe the latter is a much richer way to live. "

I like this, the philosophy is sound (IMNSHO). I mean, why do we run ourselves ragged all the time? What do we get out of it that is so rewarding? A couple of extra dollars? Maybe some shares of a company whose future cant even be assured? I mean, I understand taking care of family, taking care of bills, etc, and I'm not saying that we should shirk those responsibilities, but maybe, just maybe, "someone" is trying to tell us something.

We need to slow down and look at the sunset, smell the smoke from a fireplace on a cold autumn night, reflect on your wifes laughter as she talks to an old friend on the phone.

We are presented with great opportunities every day to just.....stop, and do we take them, or move to the next task we think is so important?

I have found a release in camping and hiking, it gives me an outlet that runs tandem with my faith, and with the passing of every day, with every step I take thru the woods, with every turn of the next rosary bead, I feel myself becoming less and less angry, and more human/humane.

Mountains may rise, and mountains may fall, but we will probably not live long enough to see the completion of such work on this mortal coil, so we may as well slow down and watch the small part of the show that we can.

The great outdoors.....

2008-10-24T10:00:00.005-04:00

OK, my anti-social mood has waned somewhat from my last post, so I can talk about our camping experiences at greater length now....I still want to move to the mountains, but at least I am not loathing my present locale nearly as much today.

Anyway, I suppose I ought to start with last years Christmas gift from my parents, which is which was the impetus for the whole "lets go camping!" epiphany we collectively had as a family.

This my friends, is the family tent.... It has become known to one and all in our Cubscout pack as "the Taj Mahal" because it is so horking huge. Seriously folks, this is a BIG tent. This is what is called the LL Bean King Pine Dome Tent, Six-Person model. I have to admit, I thought it was going to be a little bit too big for my family, but it actually seems as if it's going to be just the right size.

The Cajun princess has not been camping with us yet, but myself, Boudreaux and Thibadeaux slept very comfortably together on a queen size air matress, with the most minimal of discomfort being a slight chill on the face in the morning...Discomfort for Thibadeaux, but for me it was wonderful. Instead of sleeping in sleeping bags, we made a bed with an alternating base of 2 blankets and 2 sleeping bags (unzipped and spread out), and covers done in the same fashion. We put Thibadeaux in the middle (little nuclear generator that he is), and it was really quite warm and cozy.

So all in all, our first run with the tent was a success, and I think my family has taken a liking to the camping experience. I'm not sure about camping in the summer time though; too many bugs for my taste, but the other three seasons seem to be just fine.

Hopefully, I'll be posting more pictures later tonight or tomorrow, plus a much more thorough report on the weekend. It's just that it's been so long since I wrote anything, I wanted to go ahead and post something, try to stir the creative juices as it were.

Your camping recipe of the week from BackPacking Recipes.com:

Latte Bars

3 eggs1 1/2 cups sugar2 tsp. vanilla1/4 cup butter, melted2 cups all-purpose flour1/2 tsp. salt1/4 cup instant coffee crystals1/4 cup milk or heavy cream1 cup pecans, chopped1/2 cup mini chocolate chips

At home: preheat oven to 325. Lightly grease a 13 by 9 inch pan. Beat the eggs in a mixing bowl until light and fluffy. Add the sugar, vanilla and butter, beating to combine. Stir in the flour and salt. Set aside 1 ï¿½ cups of batter. Stir the coffee crystals and cream and add to the remaining batter. Spread the coffee batter into the prepared pan. Add chocolate chips to the reserved batter and spoon over the coffee batter. Run a knife through the two batters to marble them. Sprinkle the pecans over the top. Bake 20-25 minutes or until the center is firm and set. Cool before cutting into bars. Wrap tightly in plastic wrap.

In camp: unwrap and enjoy! Makes about 2 dozen.

Note: These firm up as they cool. They are not like a granola bar. More like a dense coffee cake or brownie.
This recipe courtesy of One Pan Wonders

SIGH

2008-10-19T22:59:00.001-04:00

So, here I am, in front of my keyboard again.

6 hours ago I was above 6,000 feet, on top of Mt. Mitchell, walking
the trail thru the dense scrub and pine trees,showing my two sons
signs of bears in the area, taking pictures of the color below us,
spread out across the blue ridge, with mountains as far as you could
see.....No McCain,or Palin No Obama or Biden,no stock market woes,
just me, and my boys, walking a trail, being pals.........Words fail
me right now, I cant stand living in the city, I cant stand all the
petty crap; politics,celebrities, chintzy newscasters standing in
parking lots covering the most banal of stories....Honestly? I don't
want it anymore. Every time I head up into the mountains, I don't want
to come back, and when I do, it depresses me so.....

Anyway, I'll post pictures later, right now I just want to
sleep....Maybe if I wish hard enough, I'll wake up in our tent.....

2008-09-27T23:32:00.001-04:00

"He was smiling... That's right. You know, that, that Luke smile of his. He had it on his face right to the very end. Hell, if they didn't know it 'fore, they could tell right then that they weren't a-gonna beat him. That old Luke smile. Oh, Luke. He was some boy. Cool Hand Luke. Hell, he's a natural-born world-shaker. "

2008-09-22T22:01:00.004-04:00

So this really excited me! I was invited this past weekend to a reunion; a reunion of the 325th GIR (Glider Infantry regiment) of the 82nd Airborne. I have over the past year become friends with their president, and knowing how much I appreciate the efforts made by our countrymen to defeat the Germans, he thought it would a good thing to invite me to their reunion, which was this past weekend. So I went, met alot of fine soldiers, and got them to honor a small request I had, which I thought I'd share with you. I brought the following book with me.To which they most cheerfully added the following:How cool is that?! So in the years to come, when people start to forget (and you know they will)My kids can show this book to their children and say: "These men sacrificed all for you".

Happy Ending to Gustav?

2008-09-02T17:09:00.003-04:00

Cemetery in Dulac, La., after Gustav

Added by the Times-Picayune on September 2, 2008 at 3:01 PM

John McCusker / The Times-Picayune
A statue of Jesus is just above the waterline in a cemetery in Dulac. Residents say the water came up here after the storm had passed. Shot Tuesday, Sept. 2, 2008

Well, New Orleans missed the proverbial bullet, and Anderson Cooper and Geraldo have packed it up and gone back to New York, but the story isn't over. Just because New Orleans didn't flood out, doesn't mean the rest of the state fared so well.What about the ordinary folks who pump your oil, or come up with the shrimp and crabs we eat? They got hit hard, and without any mercy. Places like Grand Isle, New Iberia, Larose, and Thibadoux. For the rest of the story -The real story-check Houma Today or maybe The Advocate. Perhaps give KLRZ~The Rajun Cajun a listen. It's bad down there folks, worse than you may think.

2008-08-21T15:48:00.001-04:00

My latest contribution to the Summer Haiku blog...

Moment of truth

Missing training wheels

sweat and anxiety

Daddy!!! Look at me!!!

New family member!!

2008-08-14T21:44:00.003-04:00

This is Molly!! She is a 6 week old Blue Tick Beagle! We got her from a woman who raises beagles to hunt rabbits (waaaaay out in Wilkesboro), but all she's going to hunt here is fun!
Well, maybe we'll let her chase rabbits when were down at the farm in Louisiana, but she is a really sweet little girl! Now if I can get her to sleep at night we'll be good as gold!!

A Slight relapse......

2008-08-08T16:30:00.002-04:00

In case you've been wondering where I've been...... In the middle of all my rehab, I seem to have contracted a nasty case of staph in the same arm I had surgery on. this had led me to have a central line placed in my arm for the last week, having to have IV's every morning before I go to work, and led to me being very uncomfortable and in a decent ammount of pain.

But, I am getting better; the IV is gone, the infection is receding, and today, for the first time since the end of April, I felt really really good. So look for more from me soon, and until then, know I keep you guys in my prayers, and I'd ask that you keep me in your prayers as well....Thanks

Im in love.....

2008-07-28T19:24:00.003-04:00

I have very odd tastes when it comes to music......VERY odd. I am a big Tom Waits fan, love Leonard Cohen, Lisa Gerard, Nick Cave, Suzanne Vega, Frank Sinatra, Bjork, all sorts of stuff. I'm probably the only guy you will ever meet who likes Greek and Arab dance music, Punk Rock (old 80's stuff, not this new jive) the 5th Dimension, Earth Wind and Fire, Slipknot, System of a Down, and has a huge addiction to Polka music and anything from Louisiana.

But mark my words, not matter how psychotic my tastes in music might be, if I like something alot, I'm going to tell you about it. I cant help it, I used to write music reviews for a local newspaper, I have been a DJ, as well as a roadie and a bouncer for a very large rock club. I adhere to the Nietzsche opinion that: "Without Music, life would be a mistake" So it is with this in mind that i want to tell you to check out Ingrid Michaelson. All I can say is Wow!! I feel the same way about her as I did the first time I heard Suzanne Vega's "Small Blue Thing". She has a sweet, utterly addictive voice, but don't take my word for it, just go to her site and check out her music, you wont be sorry.

A Southern porch.....

2008-07-20T12:56:00.002-04:00

As if I dont have enough blogs already, I started a new one today called "A Southern Porch".
It will mostly be my poems, photos, anything involving the south....Just thought I'd let ya know!

A Journey into God....Questions....

2008-07-05T09:52:00.002-04:00

The Journey Into God~A Forty-Day Retreat with Bonaventure, Francis and Clare
by Josef Raischl, S.F.O., and André Cirino, O.F.M.

I have questions about this book; has anyone read it before? If so, what were you're impressions of it? I got into week 5, and just felt it was too complicated, especially since it was supposed to be mostly based on the examples of St. Francis and St.Clare. I was reading it as part of a SFO group on Yahoo groups, and didn't really communicate very well with the other members, so perhaps I just had a bad attitude about the whole thing. I think I'm going to pick it back up and start over again, see if I can "get it" this time. Still, if anyone has read it, please let me know, I'd like to get some input on this book and your experiences with it -or any like minded books- and any pointers you might give me to get more out of it.

In retrospect, I think I need to read more books like this anyway. I've pretty much been on a steady diet of history books for the past year, and I think I need to balance my system out with more spiritual fare. In as much as I enjoy history -especially WWII history- I think it tends to harden one after a while, I've gotten more cynical in the past year or so, and I really don't like that very much. So, if anyone has any suggestions for me, by all means, post em in my comments page, I'm open to suggestions!!

No static at all......

2008-07-05T09:00:00.000-04:00

Okeedokee artichokees, I know ya didn't ask for it, but here it tis anyway; my most listened to radio stations on the internet for this 4th of July weekend,2008. Usually, topping the list would be The Catholic Channel on Sirius, and rest assured, it is still up there, but I'm concentrating on four music stations today, so with out further delay.....

Topping my list right now, is KRVS 88.7, Radio Acadie ,despite their morning programming being mostly in French, this is a true slice of Americana. Located in Lafayette, Louisiana, this Public Radio Station plays Cajun music, Zydeco, Blues, Jazz, Swamp Pop, Swamp Rock, Louisiana singer/ songwriter music, and many other types of music created and played in Louisiana. This is the toe tapping music of the Louisiana heartland, not the standard schtick played in every tourist trap in the French quarter. If you like accordions in any way shape or form, you'll like this station.

Speaking of accordions, you really don't have to look any further than WALN~ The Polka Station
for great accordion music. Located in Allentown Pennsylvania, it is a welcome addition to internet radio station phenomena, and yes, it is also broadcast in a mixture of English and other languages, predominantly German this time . I have to say, that not one weekend in the past 5 or 6 years has gone by where I did not tune in WALN for at least a couple of hours.

Let's bop back below -WAY below- the Mason/Dixon line to Louisiana again, this time to WWOZ . Now, WWOZ is called the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Station, broadcasting live from the famed New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival annually. Their governance board is appointed by the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival Foundation., and they are a listener-supported, volunteer-operated radio station, currently operating out of the French Market Corporation Offices.
In the aftermath of Katrina, they moved all their vinyl, all their equipment, and broadcasted out of the second story of a coffee shop until new digs could be acquired. Again, a vital, essential chunk of Americana that also should never be placed in the position of ceasing to be. WWOZ plays music that you positively will not hear anywhere else in the world, oftentimes music that was recorded the night before, live at The Maple Leaf. One word of warning for those leaning towards the political right; there is no love loss or lack of heated comments in New Orleans for "W", his administration, FEMA, and anyone else connected to the blunders after that witch katrina came ashore, and it is oftentimes voiced by the DJ's on this station. But it is really a great station that should not be overlooked.

And finally, we get a little closer to home (for me at least). WNCW, is a gem of a station, situated in lovely Spindale, North Carolina. This station is situated snugly in the foothills of the Appalachain's, and it's format oftentimes reflects that down home, rural lifestyle. Now, I will say that they have a tendency on weekday nights -especially Wednesday's- to play a whole lot of Grateful dead (which I loathe), but on the weekends, they have the best bluegrass and Celtic programming you will ever find anywhere. Fiona Ritchie's "Thistle and Shamrock" program hasn't got a thing on WNCW's "Celtic winds" and their show their bluegrass show "Goin Across the Mountain" (Every saturday from 11am-7pm) is 2nd to none.

I hope that you find at least one station in the motley bunch that piques your interest, I certainly find a little time for all of them here and there as my weekend progresses. I have, over the years, found that I rather enjoy denying the TV it's assumed sway over me, and these stations are another defense against just that. Enjoy
.

Happy 4th of July!!

2008-07-04T20:25:00.003-04:00

What price freedom?? ( aka,Book Review #2)

2008-07-02T22:57:00.005-04:00

Have any of you read this? Let me first say that I did not read this because Oprah told me to. In fact, I didn't even notice her taint on the cover until now. If I'd seen it earlier, I probably would have mulled over not reading it, based on her recommendations alone ( My disdain for the "cult of Oprah" is a story for another day)...

This is -mercifully- a very short book, and I say mercifully, because I don't know if my heart could have taken much more of this sad, sad story. I dont know what is sadder, the content of the book, or the fact that it is a true story. I knew from my WWII "history fetish" about the holocaust, but I never knew what great lengths the Nazis went to when it came to their cruelty and inhumanity, and quite frankly, I kind of liked it that way. sort of my own little "see nothing, hear nothing, say nothing" rule.

But I digress...... Remember the first 20 minutes of "Saving Private Ryan", where you just kept wanting the killing to stop, kept praying that it would be over soon? I got the same feeling with this book, and it affected me so, that I even intended on putting it down and not picking it back up-EVER- but, I pulled myself back together again, and decided I really needed to finish reading it.

I highly reccomend this book for those of us with small children who, inevitably, will have to learn of the Holocaust some day in school. This book is now essential reading in alot of schools and IMSHO, I feel that it behooves me to be ready for the questions that will someday come along as a result of having to explain to them those blackest of days in humanities history. A very important read, well worth your while, and cheap to boot! I picked up a copy in Target for $7.00 and some change.

"everything worth doing hurts like hell"

2008-06-26T13:06:00.003-04:00

As promised, I thought I'd start my review of books worth your time.Anyone who knows me even a little bit can tell you that I love my Wife and Kids, I love to read, and I love Louisiana. So is it any wonder then, that I have picked "Welding With Children" by Tim Gautreaux for this, my first review?

"Welding" is Gautreauxs second compilation of short stories, and is beyond all shadow of a doubt, worth your time to peruse. These stories are gritty and stark, as they are enlightening, uplifting, funny and horribly sad. These are the stories of ordinary people in ordinary situations that we all pass by day after day,never really giving them a second thought.

My personal favorites? I'd have to say "Good For The Soul", with poor Father Ledet, just trying to do right by parishioners who unwittingly get him into trouble, "Dancing with the One Armed Gal" , with Iry Boudreaux who teaches a very lonely and confused woman that life indeed, can be a "happy cowboy movie" if you let it. "Sunset In Heaven" is simply beautiful, with sweet old (albeit confused) Mr. Santangelo. The point is, all these people you meet could be from just about anywhere, but they're the heart and soul Louisiana, and that's exactly what this book is, the Heart and soul not only of Louisiana, but of Tim Gautreauxs book, and they have an important message for you. Buy it, read it, I guarantee you will not be sorry.

Recovery......

2008-06-25T20:37:00.002-04:00

So I got my staples out today! Finally, I will be able to sleep in my own bed tonight!! I haven't done that in almost 6 weeks (Because of the level of discomfort this shoulder problem has brought on, I've been sleeping in a La-z boy)! Now it just looks really, really ugly. The deep bruising has come to the surface, and so this yellow/black pallor has lent itself to my skin. I have also started my therapy, which is probably 50% of why I am so sore tonight. The therapist says I'm actually farther along in my recovery than what they thought I'd be, so that, too, is a good thing! Now I start a new diet, and a new exercise program. I'm really sick of being overweight and out-of-shape, so now is the perfect time to do something about it.

I feel very lucky and very blessed (one of the reasons I deleted those whiny posts I had up earlier); I had the anointing of the sick the day before my surgery, and I thought it would just be Father Remo and I, but my wife and children were also present, and it really made a difference. To have them all pray over me was........massive, just absolutely massive. It humbled me completely, and I really felt closer to my family than ever. I feel close to them anyway, but this was a different kind of feeling, know what I mean?

So anyway, I'm "on the mend" now, and I have a question for my handful of readers; What should I format this blog around? I'm thinking I need to go in a different direction with this thing, and I certainly dont want to copy you guys, because your blogs stand out and are great, and copying from y'all, well that's just cheap, don't you think? Any suggestions you may have for me would be great, because I don't want this to be a labor, and I want it to be something people want to read.
so, leave me suggestions, ideas, criticisms, whatever. it will all be used!

Remember........

2008-06-05T12:19:00.003-04:00

Tomorrow marks the 64th anniversary of the D-Day Invasion of Europe. To say it is an important day for.....well, the whole world, is an understatement. This day is one of the most pivotal moments in humanities entire history, it marks the begining of the end for a regime whose attrocities have been unparalelled in history.

I'd like to say thanks and farewell to my Uncle Norman Farrer, 28th division,My Uncle Oliver, 8th army air corps, and thanks to two men I'm proud to call friends, Jesse Oxendine, Company B of the 325th Glider Infantry,82nd Airborne, and Col Jim Moncrief, 9th armored infantry battalion, 6th armored division.

To celebrate the monumental gift we were all given, I will be participating in a WWII exhibit on Saturday at the Charlotte Museum of History. the Model club I belong to is putting on an exhibit of WWII armor, and a bunch of reenactors will be there, portraying American and British troops. The event will be brought to a close with a memorial service for the fallen. The Guest of honor is a wonderful man by the name of Jesse Oxendine (as fate would have it, I went to high school with his daughter), who was with the 325th Glider Infantry of the 82nd Airborne Division. On May 2, 1945, while advancing toward Berlin, his unit discovered what appeared to be a detention camp at Wobbelin, Germany. if you would like to read his story and see pictures of him, go to this link.

For those of you who have a direct link to the war, via Fathers, Brothers, Uncles, Cousins, Nephews,Grandfathers, etc, I urge you; ask them about their unit, where they were, and do it NOW. It is vital! We lose over 1,000 -ONE THOUSAND- WWII veterans a day!! we are down to 3 WWI veterans here in the states, and soon enough, that willbe the case with our WWII vets as well.

If thats not enough to compell you, try this sad fact on for size...Did you know that 40% of all High school graduates believe that the United States and Germany fought together against the Soviet Union!?!? In a 1993 Roper survey of American high school students 53 percent of high school students did not even know the meaning of the term Holocaust!! How can it be, that our children are this ignorant?

If your relative does not want to talk about the war, dont push it. You can understand why they dont want to recall specifics, but see if you can at least find out what unit he was with, so you can record it for posterities sake. One day your children will want to know, it really is important information, despite the fact that it might seem to the contrary right now.

The wonderful photo above of the 2nd Ranger Battalion taken on the morning of D-day came from a great site called:WWII in Color

Update on Health...

2008-06-02T16:08:00.002-04:00

And the winner is (drum roll please)........Multiple bone spurs and arthritis!! Yes indeedy folks, if I was ever in denial about the onslaught of middle age, I am no longer in doubt of it's arrival. So, in two weeks time, I will have orthoscopic surgery to removes the bone spurs, and trim out the arthritis. they say that if I dont so it soon, I'll definately be looking at a torn rotator cuff. So in the interim, I am trying not to over exert myself, I was told not to lift anything heavier than 8 pounds, so I dont cause more damage than whats already there.

If I said I wasn't scared? I'd be a total liar. I've skimmed over the papers they gave me Friday, and while I have been assured this is a routine, run-of-the-mill procedure, I still see the nefarious words:

"Please write NO on the arm we WILL NOT be operating on"

and that, boys and girls, really freaks me out. I know, theyre only doing the "C.Y.A. Dance", but you take stock of your life -if even for a fleeting moment- in instances like this, and the future seems very shakey. It's odd, isnt it? You can drive back and forth to work every day, placing your life in the trust that the other drivers will look out for you as you look out for them,and you do this without a second thought, yet when it comes to Doctors we get all anxious and hesitant. Why am I apprehensive about letting someone with years and years of experience operate on my shoulder, yet I trust complete strangers -some of who I've actually seen texting people while driving- to make rational decisions?

I suppose it's just that the only other time I've had an operation, I was given morphine for the pain, and really had no idea what was going on until after it was over. But now, I have time to mull over it, and thats a bad thing. I really think I need to go have a talk with Father Remo.....

Reading....

2008-05-29T15:43:00.002-04:00

So I am what you might call a "happy camper"; In an effort to save money, we have chucked out our digital cable box, as well as the other two regular cable boxes, and have committed to receiving the minimal amount of cable stations possible. In this day and age, that is certainly a step towards a spartan existence (can you feel the sarcasm there?), but the gesture is a good one. It's only been 5 days, but already I personally feel that we are -as a family- spending a great deal more time together (in the same room talking) than we did previously. In the past, the television has dominated our landscape; at any given time, I could walk in our house from work, and all three TV's would be on, and in some instances, NOONE was watching ANY of them!

Now, before the Cajun Princess and I got married, I had a TV at my apartment that got one NBC affiliate, and a PBS station. So I watched "The Simpsons", "Nova" and maybe the evening news, if I wasn't already depressed enough. The majority of my time was spent reading, and listening to the radio, and I was happy with that! But for the past 8 years, our lives have been dominated by this malignant, 32 inch wide ,brain vacuum! Perhaps I'm being overdramatic with the word "dominated", but it certainly felt like that at times. I'm not claiming to be superior or anything, I am just as guilty as everyone else in my house when it comes to watching junk (What else can you call it when you make time in your day for recordings of "Robot Chicken"?), but I am so glad those boxes are gone! Time to start reading -heavily- again, time to do all those things I should have been doing all along, but I let fall by the wayside.......So I think for the meanwhile, I might start doing "book reports" on this blog about the books I'm reading, in case anyone else might be interested in them.

When it rains...........

2008-05-24T09:34:00.002-04:00

So I haven't been much on writing these past few weeks....Well, I'm in a lot of very uncomfortable pain, and have not felt like doing much of anything. Since February, I've had this aching spot in my left shoulder, that has gotten worse and worse over time. To the point where my sleep cycle is suffering badly because of it. I went to the Ortho Doctor the other day, and it ends up I either have a torn rotator cuff, or I have arthritis. I have an MRI this Tuesday, and we'll find out by next Friday morning what the proverbial deal is. From what he told me, the picture above is pretty much what they're going to have to do to me. They put the scope in the top of my shoulder to see, and the other one comes up from below and shaves bone off of my shoulder.......Shaving bone off of my shoulder.....Yeah, I'm so happy, I could just explode......

I think the only reason I'm not totally freaking out is because of faith. I pray every morning, and make a conscious effort to do the right thing, so I feel that the good Lord will see me thru this. But part of me, a little tiny sliver, still has doubt, still is scared. Not doubt about God, but doubt about doctors and their abilities. have any of you come across this before? Have you, put in this scenario, been afraid? How did you overcome it? Do you have a special prayer to share with me? I mean, I had my Gall bladder removed about 15 years ago, but I wasn't religious, and they had me so doped up on morphine, I barely was aware of anything happening the entire time I was in the hospital. But then, I didn't have children, or a wife, I didn't have that much to worry about, and now it concerns me greatly.

So if you have some kind of a trick, or a prayer that would help me out, by all means, post them, I need all the help I can get.

The Atheist and the Bear

2008-05-15T20:10:00.005-04:00

An atheist was taking a walk through the woods, admiring all that the evolution had created. "What majestic trees! What powerful rivers! What beautiful animals!", he said to himself.

As he was walking alongside the river he heard a rustling in the bushes behind him. He turned to look. He saw a 7-foot grizzly charge towards him. He ran as fast as he could up the path. He looked over his shoulder and saw that the bear was closing.

He ran even faster, so scared that tears were coming to his eyes. He looked over his shoulder again, and the bear was even closer. His heart was pumping frantically and he tried to run even faster. He tripped and fell on the ground. He rolled over to pick himself up but saw the bear right on top of him, reaching for him with his left paw and raising his right paw to strike him.

At that instant the Atheist cried out "Oh my God!...."
Time stopped.
The bear froze.
The forest was silent.
Even the river stopped moving.

As a bright light shone upon the man, a voice came out of the sky, "You deny my existence for all of these years; teach others I don't exist; and even credit creation to a cosmic accident. Do you expect me to help you out of this predicament? Am I to count you as a believer?"

The atheist looked directly into the light "It would be hypocritical of me to suddenly ask You to treat me as Christian now, but perhaps could you make the bear a Christian?"

"Very well," said the voice.
The light went out.
The river ran again.
And the sounds of the forest resumed.
And then the bear dropped his right paw ..... brought both paws together...bowed his head and spoke:

"Bless us, Oh Lord,
and these thy gifts which
we are about to receive from thy bounty,
through Christ, Our Lord....AMEN!"

I love that joke!! Moreover, it fits in to this entry!! Yet again, Father Roderick has managed to grab my attention by the throat. In Daily Breakfast 479 - There’s an Alien in My Church!, the Good Father speaks of a press release from the Vatican pertaining to SETI and the church which says that Just as there are multiple forms of life on earth, so there could exist intelligent beings in outer space created by God.

I am reminded of the time before I was even seriously dating the wonderful woman who would eventually become my wife, when I would spend hours outside at night, staring up at the stars, trying to catch glimpses of meteorites, bollides and solar flares. Much like the atheist in the joke, I would sit there in the sand plains of South Carolina marveling at the great expanse of space with nary a thought as to how it got to be. One night though, it occurred to me though, that all..... this had to have started somewhere, right? But what was there before? Where do black holes lead to? It all of a sudden became very clear to me that the design of the Universe had the fingerprint of the divine upon it. I didn't exactly believe in God per se at that time; I had been an Odinist previously, and had just advanced to the Universalist theory (God is God, it doesn't matter what you call him/her) but I knew, I just knew it was all Gods doing. I may get in trouble for doing this, but I'm going to post the Friday, November 14th2003 Devotion from Living Faith by Aileen O'Donoghue, because it goes so well with the Story Father Roderick was relating.

God Is Greater Than The Cosmos
.......They seek God and wish to find him. Wisdom 13:6

Do those seeking God in nature not find God, or is the God they find not the one they learned about in church? In packaging God for classrooms, picture books, and dashboard medallions, have we believers inadvertently made God smaller and less mysterious than the universe? I live in a particularly large universe, since my work involves studying galaxies a billion light years away. This means the light I analyze has been traveling across the emptiness of space since before life on earth evolved past algae blooms. the God I find in this universe is much vaster and weirder than the one presented in the typical homily. I suspect that the God of the homilists and the listeners know in their hearts is also vaster and weirder than words usually express. Perhaps we need to learn to speak from the depths of our hearts so seekers will see that the God we worship in church is not only larger than picture books and dashboard medallions, but larger than the universe.

Aileen O'Donoghue is associate professor of physics at Saint Lawrence University in Canton, New York

In closing, I'll simply quote the Jodie Foster movie "Contact"

Ellie Arroway: Dad, do you think there's people on other planets?
Ted Arroway: I don't know, Sparks. But I guess I'd say if it is just us... seems like an awful waste of space.

To Game? Or not to game...

2008-05-14T09:15:00.000-04:00

So on Father Rodericks Daily Breakfast 478 - Looking For An Audience, he was asking how to evangelize to GTA IV gamers. Thats "Grand Theft Auto IV" for the non gaming crew out there. Now I dont play this game, and I refuse to give it any press, hence the above picture from my favorite game, "Call of Duty 4". Now some might say that COD4 is just as violent as GTA IV, and while I can see why, they'd say that, I dont agree. COD4 is good Vs. evil, there is an objective, saving the world. GTA IV is all about climbing your way up the corporate ladder of criminal enterprise. "The main character can commit a wide variety of crimes and violent acts while dealing with only temporary consequences, including the killing of policemen and military personnel." Wikipedias entry for the entire GTA series of games.

But I digress; Fr. Roderick's question was, how can we, as Catholics, evangelize to the kids who play Grand Theft Auto? Certainly no other game has been maligned quite so much as GTA, even to the point where there have been numerous law suits against it's creators purporting that the game led to the murders of Aaron Hamel, Kimberly Bede, Delbert Paul Posey,Marilea Posey,Tryone Schmid, as well as another case where a young man by the name of Devin Moore shot and killed 3 police officers in Alabama after being arrested for (surprise surprise) Grand Theft auto.

So clearly, this game has led more than a few people down the wrong proverbial path, and while you cant say the game directly made these young men murder these people, it certainly seems a safe bet to say it had something to do with the acts. But how do we reach the players, and once we reach them, what do we say to them? Like I said, I dont play this game, and I dont think I personally know anyone who does. So how do we help these people to differentiate between what is game play and what is reality? There has to be a way to get through to the kids who play this brutal "game".

Polish Holocaust hero dies at age 98

2008-05-12T20:05:00.003-04:00

WARSAW, Poland - Irena Sendler — credited with saving some 2,500 Jewish children from the Nazi Holocaust by smuggling them out of the Warsaw Ghetto, some of them in baskets — died Monday, her family said. She was 98.

Sendler, among the first to be honored by Israel's Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial as a Righteous Among Nations for her wartime heroism, died at a Warsaw hospital, daughter Janina Zgrzembska told The Associated Press.

President Lech Kaczynski expressed "great regret" over Sendler's death, calling her "extremely brave" and "an exceptional person." In recent years, Kaczynski had spearheaded a campaign to put Sendler's name forward as a candidate for the Nobel Peace Prize.

Sendler was a 29-year-old social worker with the city's welfare department when Germany invaded Poland in September 1939, launching World War II. Warsaw's Jews were forced into a walled-off ghetto.

Seeking to save the ghetto's children, Sendler masterminded risky rescue operations. Under the pretext of inspecting sanitary conditions during a typhoid outbreak, she and her assistants ventured inside the ghetto — and smuggled out babies and small children in ambulances and in trams, sometimes wrapped up as packages.

Teenagers escaped by joining teams of workers forced to labor outside the ghetto. They were placed in families, orphanages, hospitals or convents.

Records show that Sendler's team of about 20 people saved nearly 2,500 children from the Warsaw Ghetto between October 1940 and its final liquidation in April 1943, when the Nazis burned the ghetto, shooting the residents or sending them to death camps.

"Every child saved with my help and the help of all the wonderful secret messengers, who today are no longer living, is the justification of my existence on this earth, and not a title to glory," Sendler said in 2007 in a letter to the Polish Senate after lawmakers honored her efforts in 2007.

In hopes of one day uniting the children with their families — most of whom perished in the Nazis' death camps — Sendler wrote the children's real names on slips of paper that she kept at home.

When German police came to arrest her in 1943, an assistant managed to hide the slips, which Sendler later buried in a jar under an apple tree in an associate's yard. Some 2,500 names were recorded.

"It took a true miracle to save a Jewish child," Elzbieta Ficowska, who was saved by Sendler's team as a baby in 1942, recalled in an AP interview in 2007. "Mrs. Sendler saved not only us, but also our children and grandchildren and the generations to come."

Anyone caught helping Jews in Nazi-occupied Poland risked being summarily shot, along with family members — a fate Sendler only barely escaped herself after the 1943 raid by the Gestapo.

The Nazis took her to the notorious Pawiak prison, which few people left alive. Gestapo agents tortured her repeatedly, leaving Sendler with scars on her body — but she refused to betray her team.

"I kept silent. I preferred to die than to reveal our activity," she was quoted as saying in Anna Mieszkowska's biography, "Mother of the Children of the Holocaust: The Story of Irena Sendler."

Zegota, an underground organization helping Jews, paid a bribe to German guards to free her from the prison. Under a different name, she continued her work.

After World War II, Sendler worked as a social welfare official and director of vocational schools, continuing to assist some of the children she rescued.

"A great person has died — a person with a great heart, with great organizational talents, a person who always stood on the side of the weak," Warsaw Ghetto survivor Marek Eldeman told TVN24 television.

In 1965, Sendler became one of the first so-called Righteous Gentiles honored by the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem for wartime heroics. Poland's communist leaders at that time would not allow her to travel to Israel; she collected the award in 1983.

Yad Vashem Chairman Avner Shalev said Sender's "courageous activities rescuing Jews during the Holocaust serve as a beacon of light to the world, inspiring hope and restoring faith in the innate goodness of mankind."

Despite the Yad Vashem honor, Sendler was largely forgotten in her homeland until recent years. She came to the world's attention in 2000 when a group of schoolgirls from Uniontown, Kan., wrote a short play about her called "Life in a Jar."

It went on to garner international attention, and has been performed more than 200 times in the United States, Canada and Poland.

Sendler, born Irena Krzyzanowska, said she lived according to her physician father's teachings, arguing that "people can be only divided into good or bad; their race, religion, nationality don't matter."

She married Mieczyslaw Sendler but they divorced after the war's end. Sendler then married fellow underground activist Stefan Zgrzembski, and they had two sons and a daughter. One died a few days after birth. The second son, Adam, died of a heart failure in 1999.

Sendler is survived by her daughter and a granddaughter.

A Foretaste of Heavenly Beauty

2008-05-12T15:50:00.004-04:00

Taken from Augustine, Day-by-Day;

Envision the extraordinary brilliance and effects of the light in sun and moon and stars, in the dark shades of a glade, in the colors and scents of flowers. Then there is the grandeur of the spectacle of the sea as it slips on and off its many colors like robes.
All these are mere consolations for us, not the rewards of the blessed. What can such rewards be like, then, if such things here are so many, so great, and of such quality?
-- City of God 22, 24

Prayer. Look at the heavens and the earth: in their steady change and alteration they proclaim that they were made, and their very existence is itself the voice with which they speak. It was you, O Lord, who created them.
-- Confessions 9, 4

With words like this, how can one doubt at all? How can we not rejoice in the contemplation of what awaits us after this mortal coil? Moreover, how can we not marvel at the wonders and beauty around us presently? Surely God's signature is all about, his breath in every living thing! It is all so wonderful that we really have no room to complain, brood or pity ourselves, yet here I am, in that exact position. Things are not good right now, my family life has been tested and while I am confident that everything will be all right, I still am downhearted and disapointed in current events. I have spoken unkindly to my wife, and harshly to co-workers, I have become that which I have fought so hard not to become, and I am really downhearted by it all. Can noone offer me consolation? God can, but why am I so arrogant as to not rejoice in the gifts I currently have?

My friend S.G., a Paramedic, told me of a call a friend of his had to make yesterday, to a house where a 6 month old child had died.........On Mothers day........ Now I ask you dear reader, who am I to be feeling so downtordden? Why do I have the right to be so selfish and bitch and whine about my own life when nothing quite so horrendous has befallen me? Yet here I sit, and it maddens me!

St. Augustine, LSU and Podcasts......

2008-05-01T00:01:00.001-04:00

Ok, so I was listening (with great intent I might add) to the most recent Catholic Underground podcast, "CU Special #5: For the Parousians About to Rock, We Salute You.", where they met up with a group of Parousians from LSU, and they were talking about St. Augustine, and I was so fascinated by their talk, that i had to look him up, and found this nifty site called "Augustine, Day by Day". Wow! It's really a pretty nifty site! Im not quite sure what exactly the Parousians are all about just yet, but they seem very interesting as well.

May 1

Forgive--Give

o you wish to receive? Then give! Do you wish to be forgiven? Then forgive! This is just a brief summary. Hear Christ say in another place, "forgive, and you shall be forgiven."

Forgive; give. And you shall be given what you desire--eternal life.

Augustine's Great Canticle of Love

My love of you, God, is not some vague feeling;
It is positive and certain.
Your word struck into my heart
and from that moment I loved you.
Besides this, all about me,
heaven and earth and all that they contain
proclaim that I should love you.

But what do I love when I love you?
Not material beauty of a temporal order;
not the brilliance of earthly light;
not the sweet melody of harmony and song;
not the fragrance of flowers, perfumes, and spices;
not manna or honey;
and not limbs the body delights to embrace.

It is not these that I love when I love my God.
And yet, when I love him,
it is true that I love a light of a certain kind,
a voice, a perfume, a food, an embrace;
but they are the kind that I love in my inner self,
when my soul is bathed in light that is not bound by space;
when it listens to sound that never dies away;
when it breathes fragrance that is not borne away on the wind;
when it tastes food that is never consumed by the eating;
when it clings to an embrace from which
it is not severed by fulfillment of desire.
This is what I love when I love my God.

2008-04-24T16:17:00.003-04:00

I posted a few Haikus over at Spring Haiku2008, in case anyone is interested. The one I really like is this one.

Flowers for Alfons (April, 1945)

Along the rivers bank,

Poppies erupt

Staccato, crimson bursts

Seeping slowly

Into the Oder

2008-04-20T16:10:00.005-04:00

Aside from being a Eucharistic Minister, and being able to spend the day with my family, know what else makes me love Spring days? Scenes like the one below taken in our front yard. God is Great!!

Hope everyone has a great Sunday and a great week!! Pax et bonum, Vivat Jesus!!

Resistence is futile?

2008-04-18T13:09:00.005-04:00

So in my Google alerts, I received the following news story from the Wall Street Journal entitled "After Assimilation: The Pope Works To Bring Back Catholic Culture". The article goes on for some great length stating that:

" One recent survey showed that while 77% of American Catholics said they were proud to be Catholic, 68% also said you could be a good Catholic without going to Mass every Sunday. And 56% of Catholics under 40 say "I could be just as happy in some other church." They don't see anything wrong with gay marriage, and church teachings against birth control are a nonstarter. "Young Catholics see these specific moral teachings -- especially regarding sexuality and marriage -- as peripheral to the faith, and well-educated young Catholics see them as even more so," according to "American Catholics Today:"

68% could be happy not going to mass every Sunday?!?! Correct me if I'm wrong but that is still a cornerstone of our faith, is it not? That you go to mass every Sunday? One has to wonder who they talked to, because I love going to mass every Sunday, and I agonize over it if I cant go because of sickness or what not. Anyway,the article goes on to some great length, and is very interesting. in that it also poses the question that::

"In the Christian ideal, God has no grandchildren; faith must be ever new. But then how does the church encourage Catholicism as a culture while keeping the faith fresh and alive? It is an age-old question, the search for a link between the collective sense of a people and the requirement of individual sanctification."

After reading it thru twice now, I find that it begs the question; Just what ARE we doing to protect our Catholic Culture? Do we openly wear it in public, or do we shy away from it for fear of offending others? Do we pray before lunch, or is it an embarassment to us?

The Mary Garden

Example; my wife is very adamant about me not building a Mary garden. She is devoutly Catholic, and is the reason i am as well, but she doesnt want a statue of the Virgin mary in our yard, which I do. She doesnt mind me creating a huge flower bed with all the flowers that go into a Mary garden, but she has in the past, made it clear she doesn't want a statue of the Blessed Mother in our back yard. Now things might have changed, because it's been a few years since we had that discussion, but what I want to know is; whats the big deal? Not just with her being against a statue of Mary, but

why all the hub-bub over being proud of being Roman Catholic? Living down here in the heart of the "Bible Belt" you'd expect me to know the answer, wouldn't you? I can recall a time about 20 years ago, as a young green haired punk rocker being in columbia South Carolina when I saw Nuns for the first time. They got odder looks than I did! Maybe it was because we were all in a liqour store... Ever heard that joke?

"Jews don't recognize Jesus as the Son of God.Protestants don't recognize the pope as the Ruler of the Church.Baptists don't recognize each other in a liquor store."

All jokes aside, why is it that some of us seem so scared to be openly Catholic? Shouldnt we be so filled with joy that we want to share -and defend- our faith every chance we get? I dont mean go out of your way to be a pain in the neck about it, but dont shy away from it either! How else are we going to fix all the misconceptions about Catholicism and set all these people right? Please, someone, drop a few lines into my comment box, let me know how you feel about all of this! I really want to know.

2008-04-17T13:58:00.004-04:00

Main Entry: hope·ful
Function: adjective
Date: 1568
1 : having qualities which inspire hope

2 : full of hope : inclined to hope

I have been listening to the radio and watching the news as much as possible these past few days, to see if I can glean at least a little information about the Holy Father's visit here. I haven't been able to hear much today; I work in a building that is insulated in some strange way and very few radio stations can get through, not to mention I work in another county (a very rural county) and so not a lot of press is given to the Holy Father. But, I will go home tonight, watch whatever my DVR has recorded for me, and see if I can get some more info from The Catholic Channel. Father Dave from The Busted Halo Show is doing extensive coverage, as are a lot of the podcasters. I've got to say, so far I am extremely impressed with his Holiness. He is not as....stern as I thought he was going to be, he seems very kind and gentle, yet he knows what to say and how to say it.

Earlier today while celebrating mass in Washington D.C. he was qouted by CNN as saying:

"Today I encourage each of you to do what you can to foster healing and reconciliation and to assist those who have been hurt," he said."Also, I ask you to love your priests and to affirm them in the excellent work that they do," he added."

That means a lot to me, because I personally think alot of good Priests got a bad rap because of the actions of a very few.I know of at least three people who left the church because they disagreed with the way things were being run, and while I personally think these people were just looking for an excuse to bail in the first place, I cant help but think that the damage done by the media contributed a great deal to these people leaving the church.

I also am happy that the Holy Father has addressed the problem of Hurricane Katrina victims. Those of you who followed my old blog will know how much that whole string of events affected me and my family. But I especially like that his Holiness went on to say:

"The fidelity and courage with which the Church in this country will respond to the challenges raised by an increasingly secular and materialistic culture will depend in large part upon your own fidelity in handing on the treasure of our Catholic faith. Young people need to be helped to discern the path that leads to true freedom: the path of a sincere and generous imitation of Christ, the path of commitment to justice and peace."

IMNSHO, he has, in just one days time, strengthened the bond we have with the Catholic church here in America. At least, for me he has. I already feel a stronger bond, a more faith driven desire to lead a more faith based life, and I think that will carry me on to do more things with my parish than I recently have. I have been really affected by a lot of "bad energy" that was floating around my parish due to a few certain people in a group I worked with, and it left a bad taste in my mouth. I now see that I should not have let this burn in me so, I should have found another path.

But I digress; I will be watching the rest of the Holy Fathers visit with eager ears and a glad heart, ever hopeful that everyopne else will get the same thing from his Holiness and this all impoprtant first visit to the U.S.

2008-04-15T23:26:00.002-04:00

Disconcerted
Pronunciation:\ˌdis-kən-ˈsərt\
Function:transitive verb
Etymology:obsolete French disconcerter, alteration of Middle French desconcerter, from des- dis- + concerter to concert Date:1687

1 : to throw into confusion
2 : to disturb the composure of

So, am I "disconcerted"? I suppose in a way I am. I worry about my wife and kids, I am very uneasy about crime in my area, the pathetic excuse for Presidential candidates (I don't like any of them), my house payment is due, I want to see our troops our troop get the hell out of Iraq as soon as is humanly possible,I work with a woman who is absolutely one of the most unhappy and power hungry people Ive ever met, I.... have quite a few good reasons to feel "disconcerted", but do I feel disconcerted? No.

" The only science that gives purpose to every other science is the science of religion--the science of our happy relationship with, and our providential dependence on God and our neighbor."
~Fr. Solanus Casey~

By living these words, by picking up my rosary every day and reciting it (even though sometimes I feel too tired), I find an escape from disconcernment, a way to beat the doubt and discouragement that could take over at any instance. It would be so easy to fall into despair, so easy to slip back into the black waters of chaos and just give up, I may not place an entry in this blog every day, or even once a month, but I am still here, and I still think of you, my friends, and I pray for each and every one of you, as I hope you do for me.

"The best remedy for those who are afraid, lonely or unhappy is to go outside, somewhere where they can be quiet, alone with the heavens, nature and God. Because only then does one feel that all is as it should be. "
~Anne Frank~

f

2008-04-12T05:22:00.001-04:00

Ah Barb, why'd ya have to make me cry at 5:13 in the morning? So very,very, very sad.

2008-04-12T00:48:00.003-04:00

I realize that my posts have been few and far between here recently, and that perhaps my topics have not been what others want to really read about, and for that I apologize. If you will indulge me for a while longer though, I assure you better things are to come. It has been a very sickly winter for me, and right as I thought I was out of the proverbial woods, I'm back in it again. My doctors have no idea what is wrong with me or why I am in such pain (Back,shoulder,leg,etc) but they have done a myriad of tests, and hopefully something good will come of all this. Meanwhile, all I can do is eat muscle relaxers like M&M's and try to sleep(they don't even help all that much). So anyway, put in a kind word for me to the Big Guy at mass this weekend, I need all the help I can get.