My World (Part VIII)

Tuesday: September 28, 1971

"My mother, the backbone of our home, she gave birth to four children all at home and with no doctor to assist her. The amazing thing was that after each of us were born, she would get up from bed and get my fathers supper. She is a very immaculate person, even today at 85 years, she still prefers to wash her clothes by hand and scrub the stairs on her knees.

She punished us when we deserved it (or not). All the times I got a licken from her, I forgot the words or not. She was a firm believer in respect for older people.

She was so pround, that even if we didn't have food and someone offered some to her, she would say she had plenty. That woman as pround and as hard as she tried to make us believe she was really as warm and soft as a rose in June.

She proved this time and time again. As I will express in my daily journals."

-Ed J.

This would be my great-grandmother, ('Bachi' is how I have always heard her name as. However, I think once again my family has slaughtered a foreign language name. A little google search shows Polish for granmother is 'Babci'. Hey, whatcha gonna do?)

It's really crazy to think that she gave birth four times, unassisted. My first kid is on the way and I can't imagine my wife and I flying that solo.

Other journal entries from my grandfather: 1, 2

Parking Ability

Every once in a while I like to share recent web sites that I find. Today I cam across something near and dear to my heart. Something so great...I like it even better than FUH2.com.

The site is called YOUPARKLIKEANASSHOLE.com

This site feeds on one of my biggest pet peeves of all time. The site allows for anyone to upload pictures of people parking like assholes. It even provides a standard Asshole Parking Ticket for you to print out and give to people. Perhaps thou, the best part of the whole site is the Hate Mail page.

It's good ol' fun with a message for poor drivers. Check it out. I can't wait to make my first submittal.

My World

Today I will be sharing another entry from my grandfathers journal. One of his own 'Slingshot Thoughts' if you will.

'A Weird Thought'

Saturday: September 18, 1971

In this day of long hair and mod clothes, it may be the in thing, but somehow I'm not sure how in this thing may be.


It could be that the age of leadership is dead, and we are in the mist of the age of followers going around in circles looking for a leader.


In the past, we have had Elie Whittney and his famous 'Cotton Gin', Fulton and the 'Steam Boat', the Wright Bros. and the 'Airplane', Einstein and his 'Equations of Relativity', Von Brown and his 'Space Flights'.


Today, who have we got to lead us into tomorrow? Have we reached a stagnant time period? What is the answer? Religion, love, trust, parenthood or togetherness or is the answer near -- Death!!

--Ed

After I read this I noticed that the people my grandfather thought of when he was referring to 'leaders' are all scientists or inventors. Interesting, considering that I believe my self to be a scientist. Perhaps I would have provided some faith for him that the future does or will indeed have leaders to step forward.

A New College Graduate

This was a big weekend. My mom graduated from U. Maine Augusta with a B.S. in Library Science. The graduation was held at the Augusta Civic Center on Saturday and while the ceremony it self was pretty lame, it was awesome to see my mom walk in during the procession with her cap and gown and gold honors cord and then get to walk across the stage to get her diploma.

Now she just has to get a job to pay back her student loans. :)

Congratulations Mah, We're very proud of you.

GeologyJoe: Bird Savior

The weather was beautiful yesterday morning. We even had a door open to enjoy it. Then a small bird decided to fly into the office.

"Joe! Joe! A bird, a bird flew in the office." I hear from my desk while I am preparing my daily ToDo list.
We find which office our little visitor made it in to and I quickly shut that door to keep him contained.
What to do? What to do?
Knowing they will fly towards the light I shut off the lights, drew the shades and opened a window. The plan was to get the bird to fly around and hopefully find the window in the darkened room. I approached the little bird but he was not about to budge from his perch on top of the window shade.
Quickly reformulating the plan I grabbed a towel from my desk. The little bird actually let me pick him up.
I started to carry him out and he wiggled free, fluttered about and landed on my co-workers shoulder and back.
She squealed.
"Don't move! Don't move!" I say laughing.
I quickly got the bird back into hand and brought him out side. I figured that once we were out and I let go, he would just fly away.
Nope. He just hung out in my hand. I eventually was able to get him to jump into a nearby tree. The little bird, while probably dazed from smacking into a couple of windows, eventually flew away.

Can anyone ID the bird for me? I wish the picture were better but I couldn't seem to get the camera to focus on the foreground. Oh well.

And the Universe Smiled...

Today at lunch time I took a walk as I usual. Within a couple of minutes of walking up the street, there it was, a nice little folded up 1 dollar bill. SCORE! I pocketed it glee and with a huge shit-eatin' on my face I carried on.

This must be karma paying me back for yesterdays' good deed. Then brief thoughts of that t.v. show My Name is Earl pops into my head.

Yesterday as I was returning from lunch I walked past a woman in an electric wheelchair fighting with a non-automatic door. I stopped and open the door for her. Simple. She said "Thank You" I said "Your Welcome" Total interaction 21 seconds.

'The universe is smiling today' I think as a walk toward my typical sitting spot 'and it just paid me a dollar to get the door for that woman yesterday'.
How will I spend my dollar? Shortly after that thought I pass by Violin Man, in His usual spot along the side of the Nickelodeon movie house. Everyone in town knows who this is, I walk past him ALL THE TIME. That's him in the photo above.

So, I flip him the buck I just found.

"Hey how a bout a nice polka?" He coherently mumbles.

And after years of walking past him, today he played my that polka.

"It's usually an according song, but I can do it with this.."

A few more final bits of small talk of the weather and I was back on my way.

The Universe is Smiling today and Karma has once again proven itslef.

Blog Genesis - My Daily Journal (1)

I started this blog some time in 2004. The original idea of doing this came to me after my mom gave me a journal that my grandfather wrote in 1971. He wrote his as part of an assignment upon returning to school at age 40. It is the only real insight I have of him and is a good look into that time. With all that in mind back in 2004, I decided to make my own modern version.

Recently, I have been reading through it again, and it strikes me that his writings would make good posts.

Tuesday: September 14, 1971

Imagine after twenty-five years, to be back in school.

All those wasted years working as a common laborer. First, as a warehouse worker, then as a baker, and finaly as a clicker die worker. If it wasn't for the repeated operations, on my left elbow, I would still be there, in the world of drudgery, and what have I got to show for my toils? A limited vocabulary but with a mind that can be healed through hard work and study.

I am grateful to be able to have an oppourtunity for a new and exciting career. Optomistic but never pessimistic. As the saying goes, "The finer things in life are never easy to achieve".