words of a people aligned in their perfect order
1934 – a total usurpation of power in Germany.
and I’ve yet to visit the Holocaust Museum in Skokie, Il.
This will be amended quite soon as I have always meant to go but not wanted to go.
In the distance there is a truck backing down a driveway and somewhere near here there are baby raccoons looking forward to a life of hiding and eating garbage.
The boy is running a fever, the kittens are getting more playful and there is a load of dishes that I understand are my responsibility.
So I sit here smoking cigarettes and drinking coffee and contemplate firing a vendor that works with our PTO.
This is draft two of this particular post. I don’t blame the dishes or paper airplanes for the apparent lack of style today.
I don’t blame the newly hatched robin or those awaiting to be hatched on the downspout adjacent to a window looking out from my typewriter.
a fever has no concern for the goings on of the lives it affects.
A few things for today – maybe no poem but we shall see.
I was reading a friend of mines blog where she shared an excellent story of strength through defiance and 24 year old bravado – you can read it yourself here. One of the commenters mentioned getting a CCL permit, which I read to be a CCW permit – a license to carry a concealed weapon. There are a lot of folks against this for various reasons but the aforementioned story highlights a point I often make in the face of the “wouldn’t it be a better world without guns?” – my answer? – no. what? you didn’t hear that? – It was a resounding NO.
Say the story ended a little differently and the 24 year old was beaten or worse by the two offenders instead of backing off. What was she or the guy she was with going to do about it if it escalated into an absolute horror show? Not a damn thing could have been done except possibly call the police who would have arrived well after what ever could have happened happened.
I firmly believe that all women should carry a weapon that they have been trained to use in the moment of need. I would feel much better if my mentally stable wife would walk around with her SR9c in her purse (and maybe she does, who knows?). 49 states have acknowledged that this right exists for a reason – self preservation, among others.
I usually give this scenario – imagine a large man who stands nearly 6’2″ – weighing well over 200 pounds and no-one (including doctors) would describe him as fat. A large animal and can be terrifying to behold. If he met a woman or girl and decided that he was to be a brute – is there anything that can be done to stop him? not by most unarmed females, however, a smallish revolver or auto is an equalizer – one that would stop even the most vicious attack. It is far better to be judged by twelve than carried by six.
I’ll end this here but I am sure it may be carried on in the comments.
If you can – get a CCW, train properly and have it should the need ever arise and I hope that it never will. It isn’t that you ought to live in fear, it is that you ought to want to make it to bed every night and wake up every morning unharmed.
for some levity…
look what I found!
Four of the most precious kittens – between my and my neighbors back yard. Jackson has already named one.
mittens.
It wasn’t the hair I was worried about – This is obvious to the onlookers as I allowed a seven year old to cut it – it was the beard I had concerns over. It survived the seven year old shearing.
Had I done it I would look a little different on top but he insisted and I like to encourage – so I am closely cut and all the scars on my head from years of flying through windshields, hitting pavement (M/Cycle) and one golf club to the top, are now showing.
I am not loved for the scars but because I managed to grow despite them.
Cold all night due to blanket in wash. White summer blanket used when I was younger now barely covering my shoulders to shoes, pulled taut between and wrestled within for some semblance of insulation. I did not wish to awaken my lover so I didn’t get close enough to prod the embers of my outer layer.
then promptly took a nap.
last night the sound of glass breaking alerted me into action – pistol in hand I searched the house then the grounds around my home and my mother-in-laws – It was a sound that I’ve been dreading but there was, thankfully nothing or no one about.
After I awoke to every little noise and shadow movement perceived through half closed eyes.
most of the time these sounds and such as faces on the outside of the widow are of my minds making but K had heard it as well. I can only imagine what was going through the neighbors heads at one thirty if they saw me walking around with pistol pointed out – flashlight and laser on. I drew down on a raccoon who appeared scared shitless to have been met with the business end and a laser pointing at its head. The trigger was not pulled – otherwise this would be a story about how I am the killer of raccoons.
and now for something of a tangent
One of my favorite artists is completing yet another painting that I want – this makes more than I can count. I only own one of his but I want more to adorn the walls of my writing room and home. His art challenges me to write and paint and love – check him out here – HERE! – Warning: he doesn’t sell his art which is a serious loss to folks like me.
the platitudes of willful resemblance 