Following the dictate of Xerxes, or whoever it was,

I worked up my sweat today by teaching the Little One to ride a bike. We're not there yet, but she's getting better. I'm just holding her under the arms to help her balance. I keep bashing my ankles on the long bolts that formerly held the training wheels. I need to remember to wear boots next time.

It wasn't hard to work up a sweat, it was 93° and humid as heck today. I'm sure it was hotter whereever you are, but that's by far the hottest it's been this year up here. We're lookin' at thunderstorms for the next couple days.

Oh! I forgot to mention, we got a puppy the other day! A schnoodle! Cutest little thing! Definitely a lap dog.

Oh! My! God!

It's pretty certain that I know victims of this pedophile. Or victims of his victims, at least. The two murderers I knew best were both Catholic boys. I knew one deaf boy who went to that school. His family left town. It seemed sudden to me, but we'd already parted as friends, so I wasn't paying attention.

No, I take that back. I don't know that he ever went there. I know for a fact he went to a different school. Whether or not there was any contact with the kids from Father Murphy's school I couldn't say.

But, since I heard about this, I've been thinking about who that I know might have been a victim of "serious" child abuse or molestation. I'm thinking of the sullen kids who became drug users and dropped out. One of the above murderes fit that bill perfectly. Another kid was just kind of boisterous in grade school turned quiet in Junior High and eventually went to prison for trashing the old school.

There were other kids. Kids who never liked me and I never liked them. In seventh and eighth grades they were the peckerheads who made junior high hell. Then they got into drugs and dropped out. I'm thinking the ones - the "burnouts" we called them - who lasted longer in school, weren't trying to bury traumatic memories.

I felt guilty in High School, I remember. Not about those kids and their problems, whatever they may have been. Back then, I was glad to have them out of my life. No, I felt guilty that I was smarter and stronger than almost everyone I knew, and I was guaranteed to go to Heaven. I didn't deserve any of that. There were people who worked out harder, studied harder and were tons better witnesses of the Love of Jesus than I was, but such were the facts.

Didn't take me long to blow all that shit up. Waiting to find out what Jesus had in mind for me to do with these gifts - and, particularly, what my idle hands found to do during that waiting - accounted for that.

And now... now that I know why those kids had those troubles, I feel guilty that I never reached out to them. I wasn't devoid of similar experiences. Some of us who'd experienced various kinds of abuse didn't use chemical drugs, we used Jesus instead. I'd say the evidence that I've seen, points to the theory that the severity, duration and type of abuse affect the outcome. I'm sure the professionals have beaten that dead horse to smithereens, but I'm just discovering the value of psychology myself.

Well, I gotta get the beanie ready for bed. (No school this week, so her mother and I aren't watching the clock.)

Update: You should go here to see what Stef has to say on this topic. You have the choice to watch his video, or read what he says in it. Or both. It's still a kick in the gut to hear my town spoken of in this context.

I didn't think of posting Grandma's obit

Here's a link to it in the Muskogee Phoenix.

They spelled our name wrong, but they got hers right, so I guess that's what counts.

I figured I'd show a couple pics of Muskogee

I'll probably put a couple more on the other blog - more of the Halloween/family stuff.

The weather was real nice Saturday. So nice I caught this guy out walking barefoot:

If that convinces you to move there, the house across the street is for sale:




This here is as much as I'll show now of Mom's house. Go ahead and feel free to use this image when you feel like refering to someone or something as a lightning rod.

BTW: in case you didn't catch it, the "guy" up there is my brother. We had a long, deep conversation that I think was pretty productive. I skirted the elephants in the room, but I did enjoy myself.

I'll be headed down to OK for Grandma's funeral tomorrow

But I felt I had to point out this incredibly important thing my daughter drew my attention to tonight:

THE ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN CROSS DRESSER - PART 1 - watch more funny videos

My daughter just made up a word.

"Contrarium." (She meant to say 'aquarium.' I think the word needs a definition.

Sorry, kids! My modem died.

Long live the modem!

That happened last Thursday, shortly after I posted that last post. I thought we'd forgotten to pay the bill, so I waited until that night to ask Laurie what was up, called the ISP Friday, and then we hit the road to Rendezvous as soon as the wife and kids got home.

I refrained from joining in any youthful hijinx, since I'm a geezer now. The younger kid and I walked all over the place.

I saw my old buddy Steve O. there! That was great!

We've been dealing with other matters since Sunday night. I might even tell you about them someday. Figuring out what was wrong with the internet connection has been on the back burner though.

Now let's go see what my friends have been up to.

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Later: hm. Glad I missed it.