#17

Hi folks, Hi Gord,

Gord I actually thought ( I can do that from time to time) #17 would throw you for a loop. You're getting good at this aren't you?  #4 I have taken before under a different day. In fact you made comment about that pic. In it you could see what it actually was. This one a little different, different time, different day and different lighting. I have taken many pictures over and over again as time and season change. Most of my shots are from the same places - shore and park. Don't get around much these days. I would like to go to the city and see what I could find there. Just never seem to have the time. Oh well, it should still be around when I do. 

I would like to do some people shots but I feel that I may be intruding and I don't like to be a bother to anyone. I would have to ask permission first if I were to present any here on this blog. Too many people being disrespectful of other people's privacy on the net these days. What I wouldn't want done of me I have no right to do to others. Something I live by.  I believe we should all do the same. As a youth my father always told me to wear another's  shoes before I went ahead , said or did something to another. I try very, very hard to live up to his words for they ware very wise words. If I were to offend another would I not also be offending myself?  Now that is not to say I don't slip up. I can and do that at times but I have learned to apologize for it. I find that in apologizing for our errors and mistakes that something is gained by it. I have also found that in most cases people are willing to accept your apology. Of course it has to be a truthful and sincere one. Yes we all screw up from time to time and all it takes to make amends is to own up to it. I know I have never held a grudge against anyone who has offered an apology to me even tho I have had few.  I don't go looking for one either but I don't forget as well. In any event I still hold no grudges. Just live and learn from it. People are as they are and I have no right to try and change them unless asked for help. It is their decision to make how they do things and not mine. The only business I need mind , really, is my own. As I said, be a helping hand if asked but otherwise mind your own business. Keeps me out of trouble most times.  I don't like trouble but will face it when I have to and I don't like confrontations either. Saw too many of them when I was growing up and to this day it still has it's effects. I'd rather be the referee than one of the combatants. You see my father also told me this ( he was boxer at one time) - it is the brave man that walks away from the fight. That made plenty of sense to me and saw it done once in the playground at school and I have never forgotten and still that story to this day.  I walked home from school that with the fellow that walked away and I couldn't stop telling him how awesome it was what he had done. They called him a chicken and a coward , still, he walked away.  To be so brave , huh?  There is also this and I must be honest about it. I feel that if I ever got into it I would not stop until it was really, really over. You know what I mean?  Yes I talk that foolish man talk about doing this and that to another but in the end I know I would walk away or back off.  In defense of another the rules might change. If it's an unfair incident I won't just stand by. I have worked in a bar and have learned that my mouth can stop a good many fights. I can lift 200 pounds with my mouth, do you believe that? OK, how about a toothpick with an olive on one end? Could you believe that?  No gin tho, did a bottle of gin back in the seventies and that was I all I ever need of that. Drier than a popcorn ( pardon) fart in the Sahara Desert I was the next day.  The story is this. I was transferring some of my old 45 records over to cassette tapes ( dated this is) , having a drink or two, or three or... of this bottle of gin I had won and the next thing you, no I, know, no,  knew the bottle was gone. Never again the next morning I said and never again have I. Heck, I like beer and rum better anyway. I did get my work done tho. I just ended up eventually transferring some of that music over to CDs. Times do change you know. I forgot to mention that there was a sign attached to the back of my shirt when I was done. See what happens when you drink that dry gin? The sign read - genius at work. Yes siree I certainly felt like a genius the next morning.  With this some words of wisdom - don't drink a full bottle of dry gin by yourself.  I wouldn't even allow my camel to drink it. Sahara , camel, get it?  Oh well, I tried.  So went to the oasis and all they had was dry gin and so I died of thirst. Think so?  By the way, my camel's name is Sandy.  See Gord, just what we all need now and then. A little foolishness and maybe a laugh. Maybe it was funny, I don't know , but I said it anyway. 


Yes Gord you are so right, people can be too serious. As I said to you many times, I can be but it is just in that moment for I can't be serious too long.  I hear the news on the radio, read it in the paper and hear it from others ( I do talk to a good many people in my short travels) and do express my concerns and anger but in the end I don't allow it to rule my life anymore for I am in charge of that now.  I have a full understanding now of what is important to me and what is not. I need not allow these things to so overcome me that I fear each day because of it. I am at a point in my life where these things have their place and have to be dealt with but it is not the be-all or end-all  as to how I should lead my life. I had a couple of extra moments at work tonight ( sssh, don't tell anyone) and sat on a couch and dozed as I did so and thought afterwards that if I were to die at that moment it would be OK. Now folks I don't know how you see that, don't know how you feel about me but I say it in truth. I could have died at that moment and been content to do so. What a way to go. How most fear death instead of accepting it as it will be. Is it because of things we have done? How we act at this moment? A fear that we are not as we should be? if that is the case than you will not understand what I say here tonight. Sorry, but you won't for you may not be where you should be. You are not who you should be or want to be. You might not understand life and what it is. Now folks, I am just saying what has been given to me to say for I had no intention of being here tonight. Just a thought that Gord might have something to say, he did, and so here I am. I f not for Gord you would be reading a blank screen. How often do we , come to think of it, read a blank screen. That blank screen being ourselves. Do we really know who we are?  Do we really strive to be what we want to be to ourselves?  In the mirror do we see a blank screen?  Do we take the few words said , as Gord  did tonight, think about them and say what we see?  Do we listen well to others as we should?  


I said to Gord the other night in our conversation, by phone no less, that I haven't been saying much on our blog ( our blog for any who would like to share) for I had not heard from him. Gord , like most of us get caught up in things and we put the little things off. I asked him for but five minutes or so and he did and so here I am. That's all it take from any of us is that few minutes and how we can inspire another. I think I can safely say now that you can all see how my brother Gord can inspire me ( for what it is worth I must say for I cannot speak for you all but I do know it is for me.)  There is more at work here as well if you can but believe for I am no great 'shakes' when it comes to writing or expressing myself well. There is a guiding hand in here somewhere. It's all about us I would add as well. I don't do this for me at all for I know where I am and I sometimes try to convince myself that I need no others. That would be all about me now wouldn't it? Something I don't believe in at all. This world is all about us and the sooner we see that the sooner we can change the way things are. It's the only way folks. 


Sorry I don't have any pictures to share tonight. It was a damp old dreary rainy day and I was not in a mood to venture out. It was not a bad mood but one of melancholy, pensiveness or sadness. Things I had read about got to me. One story came our of Afghanistan where a husband killed his wife because she had a second girl. It seems they don't like to have girls cause they can get more out of boys. First thing I thought - it take two to make babies and how one-side this fool of a man was and secondly - if there are no girls born - how do we have boys?  We gonna create a man who can deliver babies?  I ain't gonna be your partner that's for sure. I ain't gonna marry you either. I wonder what part of their anatomy they think with?  No different in India ( world's largest so-called democracy - ha to that)  and other places as well. Just want the boys to make some money, is that it?  How vile you all are. All about 'me' written all over you I will say. Sorry, I have no time for you at all. This honor thing as well - what do you know about honor anyway?  You were given a live as a gift and this is how you spent it?  You will pay someday for it. A one raped and she is charged with adultery?  What side of the moon do you people see?  can be the bright side for you are not so bright yourselves. You are but candles in the wind and candles in the win know no light. Gonna kill me now are you for telling you the truth?  You poor excuses for whatever you are. That's all you know is all about poor me. Look to those who in our history have given their lives for others and then look in your mirrors and feel your shame. You people surely bring out the anger in me. As I have repeatedly said , I am no great shakes and really nobody at all but I do know right from wrong, justice from injustices and fairness from unfairness. I said earlier I do not want to fight but tries these on me and see if I change my mind.  I might surely lose but I will win in the end for I will have fought for the right of things. Even in death I will do so. Folks I am not trying to be dramatic in any sense here for it is but how I see it all and what I might do. I just abide injustice and unfairness, can't at all. Sorry , I have gone somewhere here that I did not have any intention of going but as I have said so many times before when I get on this here blog I am given things to say. Yes of me but then not of me. can you understand that?  I am but the pen to the paper. 


Then there is this gender neutral thing some people have going on. Now what the hell is that?  Want us all to be bi-sexual, is that it?  Why is it that we humans, unlike the other creatures of this world, not be satisfied with what we have been given instead of trying to manipulate it to our desires or foolish ideas?  I believe it we best spend our time in an understanding of what we have been given and where it leads to. If everyone tries to make things the way they want it to be, where would we be but in chaos and fighting with each other all the time in disagreement. Look at technology. I have a computer that was redundant when I bought it. Outdated at the time of purchase. Oh dear me!  What am I to do?  Buy another , crate more waste and fill the pockets of those who sell these things?  Is that it? Is that what life has become?  Sell junk so the rich can become richer and we to keep following this line of trash over and over again?  Technology is a good thing, I have no doubt but lets add a little wisdom to what is going on here. Me, I would rather spend my time ( I once spent a good deal of time on computer technology) on understand the life I have been given and what part nature pays in it. When I die I won't be taking my computer, I pod. I phone or whatever with me. I will be taking the wisdom of what I have learned about life with me. I have a computer but I use it wisely - as a tool which it was meant to be and not away of life as so many use it for. I have a simple car - something to get me from A to B not to show others who I might be. I am no showboat I am as I present myself , no lies, ploys just who I am.  I don't need those things that most, today, use to show a status. I do what I do and I am who I am. No false pretenses, no fooling around, just me b'y.  I want nothing at all but what I need. Can you understand that?  I don't need attention as in fame, don't want it cause I would not know what to do with it. The only reason I would like lots of money so I could spend it on others. Do things to help others. I was once told , by a fool, that if I had lots of money I would change my tune. I call this a person a fool for they say me as them and not me. No I would feel guilty if I had the money and thought of me only.  Take that to the bank folks for it is as true as it will ever get. 


Oh how I am talking about Jon B'y here tonight. Please understand that this is not what it is all about. I would be so embarrassed if you thought so. I don't want or need any accolades from anyone. I actually despise the thought. I am just trying to instill in you all  how we should all be. Accepted as so with no fanfare. It is what we are all meant to be and do. 


Don't care if you believe in God, Allah, Ra, or whoever as long as you believe something or one created us for a purpose.  Don't care even if you disagree with them/it ( I do.)  Just understand that we just didn't happen to be here. My son does and I and we have a problem with that. He sticks to science and it's understanding of life even with it's falsies. I have another brother who says the same - we are just here to do an die. No reason or purpose in that. Certainly not when our science tells us that everything else has a purpose and then denies that we do not if you believe in a Creator. Science constricts itself when it can't explain something. I, the bumblebee ( note my address) should not be able to fly but they/I do. I don't fly physically but in my case it is all about common sense. Bumblebees fly, why, because they can when science says they should not. I told this to some young ones a few years ago and they saw it and I hope that take it with them through their lives. They saw enough so that they made me cards of bumblebees and wished me on my way. Told me they had learned so much from me and told them I had learned so much from them. Now, is that not the way to teach each other?  We have forsaken the children for we know not how to teach them. We have lost the fact that they can teach us as well. At least remind us of how we once were. Once were, open to our imagination, so ready to learn, so awed at what life was and what could be. Yes, Gord, too serious we have become with age. I have said over and over again that I have stopped my age ( in mind) at nineteen and yes my body has grown older but that moment I have stayed with. A moment of bliss and happiness but also a place to be now. Times have changed but thoughts have not and so I will remain there for ever more tho my body fails me and age has it's way. What I saw and how I felt will always be with me. So, nineteen in mind I am and the eyes I looked into. The way I felt and ...  I will just leave it at that. 



Folks, all I can say, if I may,, is that we take the time to stand back look at ourselves, what we have going and what it is worth to us. Look at those around you and see how fortunate you are to have them. Let your love, their love grow from it. Don't ever question whether the grass is greener on the other side for as Van Morrison once wrote - "... it is meaner.." If you do you will always be searching for that which will never be. Understand what you have now and what it means to you. Put some effort into it for nothing in life comes free, it takes an effort to get what you want. In this world today we see how easy it is to dump and go on. Families , marriages, businesses and all else and only because an effort was lost or never installed. We came into life in an effort, that of birth and we should understand that that was also a lesson of life and that lesson is - life is an effort one way or another.  Put in the effort or run away. Lot of people in prison or some addiction who did not see the truth in what I say.  I grew up in a family of booze and tho I still love my drink I do understand the different reasons for so.  Wanna party - bring on the rum. Wanna argue - leave the booze out of it.  


I am done here for tonight. Take me or leave me I just do what I do - just do what I feel I am meant to do. Don't question it , but hold the phone here a moment, sometimes I do. I am not sure why and I have to question myself as to that . Seems like I have to wonder why I do. Sometimes I even feel bad about what I have had to say. Something in the air it seems. An influence or a truth told?  Hell, I say it anyway. As I have done here tonight. I will fly with that as a bumblebee does when it is told it shouldn't fly. Common sense - don't let it prevent you from getting off and soaring to place you have never been. Those children believed and so why can't you?  


Take care, hi to a stranger, thanks to that helping hand ; be one and goodnight or day wherever you amy be. - Jon B'y


No pictures but I , if I may, say picture the bumblebee as it works , flies and with effort in what it does. What it brings to all of us. The dog as well as it shows how to forgive and forget. How it brings laughter and a wagging tail to prove it. How you can scold them and the moment - ask them to come to you and they do with that tail a-waggin'. So much we can learn from those we deem less intelligent.  So I ask, how intelligent are we?  Really?