Chuckles

I remember this candy but I don't remember eating it. I never chose it. I don't know why. I sure would try it, now. I doubt that it had the "Fat Free Candy" remark on it back in the 60's. Maybe it should have. I was very young then and didn't have to worry about fat.We ran off any extra calories. We were outside moving, moving, moving. Sigh.

Nobody wants to go outside this week. It is still pouring buckets. I have water everywhere (but in my house, thank goodness!) I mean in my yard. The earth is but a sponge. It is like walking on a muddy sponge out there. The dogs are not happy, either. Now my sister tells me snow by tomorrow late afternoon - evening. We sisters were supposed to meet for dinner. We have about a 40 minute drive for us all to meet in a central location. Double drat!

My work presentation is a week away. My Linux one is Wednesday and my filter one is Thursday. I am not worried about the filter - I know that stuff pretty well. Linux (Ubuntu) - I am getting the hang of. My area is CUPS (Common Unix Print System). Not so familiar with that! I'm trying, though. Most of my spare time has me with my nose stuck inside a Linux Administration book or my eyes fixed onto an Ubuntu command line prompt or desktop screen. I did not anticipate so many work problems to crop up and I thought I would have more time to work on this at the office. Not to be! Best laid plans! All that jazz.

Oh, and 'best laid plans' from this poem by Robert Burns. For a better translation - go here.

I Am

As usual, the picture has nothing to do with the post

The bridge spans a koi pond built by my brother-in-law after his retirement. The little boy is the youngest son of a nephew's girlfriend. As we tend to do, we have absorbed them into our family with no questions asked and plenty of love. That is our way.

No prejudice. Well, I try anyway. I have fallen victim to laughing at a politically incorrect joke from time to time. Mostly in my younger years when I wasn't strong enough to stand up to other people. Then I went through a phase where I challenged those that told the jokes. Now I am at the stage where I don't laugh, I ignore them - they get no reaction from me and I don't waste my time with them.

I watched "Invictus". Before posting about the movie, I wanted to research it. To get my facts straight. Okay, that was three hours ago. Yes, folks. I have been reading about Nelson Mandela, Winnie, apartheid, South Africa and the poet William Ernest Henley for the past three hours. C'mon! You should know me by now. I'll do anything to get out of housework and yard work.

Poet Henley brings me to the title of my post. "I Am". This can get complicated. I started with Nelson. I continued with apartheid, read a little on Winnie (she just scares me) and South Africa. Then I started on the poem by Henley. During the movie when the poem was read in the back ground I wondered to myself, "Hmmm. I wonder what the name of that poem is?" Silly me.

I googled almost every line of the poem. Come to find out that none other than the coward T McVeigh used the poem to express himself. Forget him. Well, don't forget him and what he did but forget the fact that he thought himself a hero.

The religious undertones of the poem were an interesting read. Many folks deciphered the poem that Henley was an atheist or at least in my opinion an agnostic. Some folks say that he had to know that "I Am" is Hebrew for "God". Interesting.

I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

Well, I wonder if Neil Diamond knew that when he wrote his song? The article does mention this reference when speaking of Jan Rot's version.

Regardless, the poem is powerful and inspiring in my book.

During my research, I came to remember other African movies full of strife that I have watched over the past couple of years. Three came to mind, "The Country of My Skull (In My Country)", "Blood Diamond" and "The Last King of Scotland". In My Country is set during the apartheid, the other two are different countries altogether.

Sigh. It is time. Time to clean. My daughter is bringing a new boyfriend to the house today. Gee, I hope he likes dogs.

Oops. Almost forgot. Had a wonderful reunion with sister 1954 last evening. My daughter, myself, sister and my nephew sat and talked for two hours after dinner (much to the dismay of the waitress and waiter-in-training). Everything was perfect except for my daughter's undercooked salmon. Twice! We sent the first one back and when the second one came, she was satisfied with just eating the edges which were done to a perfect flakiness and just left the thick soupy middle.

We did a lot of catching up, and took some "horrible" pictures which are not worth posting - the restaurant was very dark (probably so people wouldn't notice the undercooked food). I am now facing another very, very rainy day in the Ohio wetlands. My grass is definitely going to need a brush hog before I can get to it. Hey, wait! The daughter's new beau works in landscaping - you think? Nah! Do not go there! LOL!

I may as well throw this in, too. Since I am stalling. The electricity was off in my neighborhood for 7 hours yesterday. From 5:30 to 12:30. As the day wore on (with the monsoon making the day as dark as late evening) I noticed a stupid headache developing and not responding to my migraine medication. I was getting upset because I was really looking forward to this dinner we had planned. I even drank an alka-seltzer. At about 3:00 it dawned on me. Coffee! Caffeine withdraw. Idiot! After three cups of java and a nice hot shower I was back in form and ready to meet.

The poppies blow

In Flanders fields, the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row...

I give you the first two lines of the poem "In Flanders Fields" a poem by John McCrae. Thus inspiring another poem "We Shall Keep the Faith" by Moina Michael. Now, each time I see my poppies I will think of the fallen soldiers that created a life for us. For this I am eternally thankful.