Meme

Ganked shamelessly from Brendragon.

Go to Wikipedia and type in your Birthday month and day only. (Mine is March 18)

List 3 Events that occurred that day:
(1) 3952 BC - According to the Venerable Bede, the world was created
(2) 1922 - In India, Mohandas Gandhi is sentenced to six years in prison for civil disobedience. (3) 1965 - Cosmonaut Aleksei Leonov, leaving his spacecraft Voskhod 2 for 12 minutes, becomes the first person to walk in space

List 2 Important Birthdays (besides mine!):
(1) 1877 - Edgar Cayce, American psychic (d. 1945)
(2) 1909 - Ernest Gallo, American winemaker (d. 2007)

List 1 Death:
(1) 2001 - John Phillips, American musician (The Mamas and the Papas) (b. 1935)

List a Holiday or Observance. (if any):
(1) . Mothers Day (Ireland, United Kingdom, Nigeria)

Tuesday Random 10, and a quote

1. Where Did You Go - Mighty Mighty Bosstones
2. After the Glitter Fades - Stevie Nicks
3. Sugar Magnolia - Greatful Dead
4. Heaven is So Far Away - Offspring
5. Bottle of Wine - Fireballs
6. Inmates (We're all Crazy)- Alice Cooper
7. 25 Minutes to Go - Johnny Cash
8. Godzilla - Blue Oyster Cult
9. After Hours - Velvet Underground
10. F You, I'm Drunk - Flogging Molly

And a quote from english writer Terry Pratchett:

Now consider the tortoise and the eagle.
The tortoise is a ground-living creature. It is impossible to live nearer the ground without being under it. Its horizons are a few inches away. It has about as good a turn of speed as you need to hunt down a lettuce. It has survived while the rest of evolution flowed past it by being, on the whole, no threat to anyone and too much trouble to eat.
And then there is the eagle. A creature of the air and high places, whose horizons go all the way to the edge of the world. Eyesight keen enough to spot the rustle of some small and squeaky creature half a mile away. All power, all control. Lightning death on wings. Talons and claws enough to make a meal of anything smaller than it is and at least take a hurried snack out of anything bigger.
And yet the eagle will sit for hours on the crag and survey the kingdoms of the world until it spots a distant movement and then it will focus, focus, focus on the small shell wobbling among the bushes down there on the desert. And it will leap . . .
And a minute later the tortoise finds the world dropping away from it. And it sees the world for the first time, no longer one inch from the ground but five hundred feet above it, and it thinks: what a great friend I have in the eagle.
And then the eagle lets go.
And almost always the tortoise plunges to its death. Everyone knows why the tortoise does this. Gravity is a habit that is hard to shake off. No one knows why the eagle does this. There's good eating on a tortoise but, considering the effort involved, there's much better eating on practically anything else. It's simply the delight of eagles to torment tortoises.
But of course, what the eagle does not realize is that it is participating in a very crude form of natural selection.
One day a tortoise will learn how to fly.

These are the People in my Neighborhood: Poet&Dreamer

I first met Poet through my Bro. They both went to Staven school together, and met due to a Wolverine T-shirt.

Poet was soft spoken, very thoughtful, and extremely shy. When there was a group of us he always seemed to get lost in the shuffle, sometimes on purpose. During one of the many parties at my Bro's house it wasn't unusual to find Poet sitting out back by himself writing his poems by moonlight.

At first he was just one of the folks that I'd see whenever I'd visit down there. There was quite a group, and since I didn't go that often there was a limit to how close I'd get to them. They were my Bro's friends, not necessarily mine. But somewhere along the way that changed for some of them. Poet was such a one. I started to occasionally go down to visit him at his house when my Bro wasn't around. We'd walk down to the beach and sit and watch the waves and talk about comics and girls and life in general.

It was just before my Bro moved to bOregon that Poet met Dreamer. She was his first real girlfriend, the first time he came out of his shell enough, perhaps, to allow himself to believe he could have one (much like myself, the Poet was often a self-defeating person when it came to our outtakes on life. Good things happen, to others that is.). Unfortunately there was some bad vibes between the two of them and my Bro's lady, Patties. By the time my Bro left they weren't talking much, which seemed a shame considering how close they'd been.

I stayed in touch with Poet after my Bro was gone. He moved out on his own with Dreamer and I would go visit sometimes. But if there was one thing that Poet had in common with my Bro it was a major faliure in keeping in touch with people. One day I went to call and got a "this number is no longer in service message'. When I went to visit, they had moved.

10 years passed. Occasionally I'd hear rumors about how Poet and Dreamer were doing from friends who saw him. But I was kinda annoyed at how he'd failed to keep in touch and didn't follow up. Perhaps in time I might have, or maybe if things had been different this post would never have been written.

But then my Bro's Dad, Big B, passed away. Bro came back from bOregon, and we all went to the funeral. And who should turn up but Poet. Standing outside the funeral while they all had a smoke it was just like old times. The conversation picked up as if they happened yesterday. As we left there that night Poet admitted that he had missed having us all in his life, but had held back because he wasn't sure how we felt about him anymore. To which he learned that when it comes to me and Bro, once a Friend always a Friend.

Bro and I ended up going to Poet and Dreamers wedding a month or so later. He also helped talk his Dad into getting me into Yale along with him. Which in many ways is what has currently turned my life around. None of that would have happened if not for Big B passing, so you get the feeling that at least some good came out of his death after all. (also, Bro moved back here for good, which is another good things to come from Big B.).

While I haven't gotten to talk to him much since we both started at Yale (we work differant shifts) I am glad that I have my friend and his lovely lady back in my life. It's been a pleasure getting to know Dreamer, who is much like Poet in being soft spoken yet still much more outgoing than he. She is an old world Deadhead/Phish follower. An avid Stephen King fan too. Between his comic collecting and her horror novels I feel right at home at their house.

Time can cause a lot of things, but a good friendship never fully dies away.

And the days they move so fast

So Wednesday I took Babushka to the Butterfly Museum in Deerfield Ma. We had a great time despite some minor setbacks (my camera died after just 4 pictures! After almost 16 years of service! WTF!?!) Thay have around 4000 butterflys in an area about 8000 sq feet. It was very nice and relaxing (it's hard to be stressed with a butterfly landing on your arm.)
I've laos finally gotten my IRS money, which meant that I was able to go online and purchase tickets to see Phantom of the Opera in April. We used to go see at least one Broadway play a year until I was out of work, so I thought I'd restart the tradition.
Next up is for BS to send me a list of hotels in her area so I can book the trip to her wedding in Denver for June. It's at a renisaunce fair (yeah, I spelled that wrong). I'll be walking around drinking mead and eating a fried turkey leg. Heh heh.
The house is sold. We have to be out by March 26th. This sucks. 27 years here. I was orgionally planning on moving out and gtting my own place when the house sold, but my Pops came and asked if I could move in with them and help with thier bills at least at first till they get everything settled, so my own place is on hold for now.
Next up is going out and getting more boxes. Although most of my stuff is already packed there is still the stuff that I use, as well as all of my folks stuff that they haven't even started to pack.
So thats how things are. Hope you're all doing good and I'll check in this weekend if I can.
Peace.