Friday, May 12, 2006
Looney?
By ALLAN TURNERCopyright 2006 Houston Chronicle" (link)
According to the English professor, Janet Lowery, '"It was fairly graphic," she said of the poem. "He**ual or ho**ual, it was so graphic that it was a concern. And aesthetically, it was somewhat of a problem. The Basilians (who operated the university) leave us alone. But out of respect, we have to set some boundaries."'
So she had the students rip these pages from the publication before the one thousand copies could be ready for distribution.
If only a couple sneaked by with the contraband pages, they could become collectors' items.
The poem, Lusting Chaos, a poem by Jonathan Rea, 21 (not the motorcycle rider), could show up in a University of St. Thomas student's blog.
.
A couple of things here:
First, I could learn a few words if I looked them up. But I don't think I care to know.
Secondly, teachers have to stay on their toes come rain or shine, sickness or health. Or could this be sensational censorship by big brother (sister)?
A question:
I really can't put this Cow Jumped Over the Moon in perspective. I looked a little with Google but nothing enlightening popped up except one sight there were a lot of pop-ups.
It sticks in my memory that when I was a kid (I really liked that rhyme) there were a lot of pictures. The cow and moon of course were there, but also the fiddleing cat, the fiddle, the dish, and the spoon. Maybe all these six characters were friends who played together?
.
DAILY STATUS REPORT:
.
Health check--blood pressure/heart rate 133/68/58 . . . . 5:15 AM
.
Day's biggie--walk home with Adi, pretty well finish up work on Sunday school lesson for Sunday, help get house and meal ready for tonight's monthly 42 (domino) game party, entertain friends, and win, win, go Jim, go tonight.
.
. Back to normalcy?
What it normal?
Thursday, May 11, 2006
Adi Can ...
Adi can guard the Mustang we washed Tuesday.
.
Adi can also stop on our walk to admire the flowers. Do you think she likes them?
.
What is Adi looking at? Maybe for these ducks we saw on our walk?
.
DAILY STATUS REPORT:
Health check--
blood pressure/heart rate . . . . 112/59/65 at 5:50AM.
Day's biggies--
Get Mrs. Jim off for hair appointment
Go to out patient surgery place to stay with family of friend who is having arthoscopic knee
Go to a funeral with Mrs. Jim for friends middleaged son who died unexpectedly
Visit Billy's mom in the hospital after her surgery
Continue work on the Sunday school lesson I'm teaching this Sunday
Wednesday, May 10, 2006
The Amazing Race
I sure hope it wasn't 'MoJo'--that's Joseph and Monica--tonight because they got eliminated. Nobody liked Joseph and Monica (MoJo), and I really didn't care for their tactics and attitude either.
Next week it will be a two-hour spectacular and the final winning team will be announced.
It can be:
- B.J. and Tyler (the hippies), they're my choice, this week and next week;
- Eric and Jeremy; or
- Ray and Yolanda, they were the CBS.com voters' choice (link to vote) last week.
I also liked Fran and Barry (the older couple) too, but they got eliminated last week.
I hope I'm not picking the losers. Winners can celebrate next week. CBS.com is also giving prizes to lucky voters. I haven't entered yet so can't say much about it.
.
Searches
There have been thirteen hits in the last couple of hours from searches. Eight were for 'Amazing Race,' one for 'hippies,' one for "BJ and Tyler," the others came from other referals.
No one stayed to comment.
Banashed, Adi and me for the day
Now, that sounds cruel. Here is the dungeon: we (Adi and I) are on the little balcony of our home. It looks out on the golf course and we can see a little bit of the lake--better in the winter when some of the trees lose their leaves.
Do you think Adi is reading the funnies or looking at my granola bar? The reason for the paper? I'm about to write on one of my favorites, The Headlines Say ... Here we are with the tools of my retirement--bet you thought I was going to say 'tools of my trade.'
The reason I'm up here is that Mrs. Jim and three lady friends are downstairs playing bridge. So I gathered the tools of my retirement--you thought I was going to say 'tools of my trade'--and came up here.
The bridge thing is the man reason I vacuumed the house yesterday. Yes, I did get most of the things on that list from yesterday done. More about that latter.
Once a month Mrs. Jim and these three ladies get together to play bridge at one lady's home. They all bring a sandwich, then the hostess provides drinks, condiments, and desert. I made Mrs. Jim and a sandwich this morning before the ladies came. I put mine in the little 'dorm' refrigerator we have upstairs here in the game room.
DAILY STATUS REPORT:
.
Health check--blood pressure/heart rate 127/61/66 10:30AM.
.
Day's biggies--
Get Mrs. Jim and the house ready for the ladies and their bridge games (that's done now, and is the reason I'm up here)
Work on this blog
Walk with with Adi this evening while Mrs. Jim is at orchestra practice [it is such a nice day today, I might just go for a Mustang (convertible--got it washed yesterday) ride]
Continue work on the Sunday school lesson I'm teaching this Sunday
Clean up my mess in the game room. I have started filing the things I used for income tax but didn't finish before going on our loooooonnngg vacation in March and April. Also might finish reading the Sunday paper.
.
A work in progress: I'm about to stop for lunch. More will be written after we (Adi and I) eat.
It's cool in here, I might just move in for the rest of he day. Maybe even clear the tax stuff off this table and file it before I finish the blog. The windows are by the table, so I can still see the pretty outside view.
I did update me, old blogs never read, and . . . (link) today before I tackled this larger, more serious, blog.
Tuesday, May 09, 2006
[yesterday]
and the law won
Well I had some, but sure did want to keep it. The Social Security people said I needed to pay it back. All $4538.
Yesterday we settled up.
All I have to do is pay $126 easy payments a month for three years and we will be settled up, interest free. They will even be nice and take it out of my check, I won't have to be"breakin' rocks in the hot sun." I wasn't in these stocks either [click on picture to enlarge].Guess I was robbing the people, but I didn't have a gun, remember my 'back when blog'--December 18, 2005.
When I retired I had been drawing my Social Security for the last three years I was working, thanks to Bill Clinton. That was fine, not robbery. I had worked 27 years and paid into Social Security quite a bit.
Then when I retired I reported to the Social Security office so they could reduce my benefits. That happens for people who work in the schools in Texas, Massachusetts, and four other states. When I did my midlife career change, leaving Ford at NASA and going to teach at the college, I stopped paying into the SS fund.
You see, Pres. Ronald Reagan fixed it so us people who work in public positions can't be double dipping on our government pensions. Not to draw on the state and the fed pensions at the same time, that is the rule made then.
But I wasn't going to draw on mine until I got to be 70 1/2. The fellow at the SS office, after checking with the experts there, said no problem, just come back when I started drawing out my retirement and they would reduce then.
I did all that last year. Now they say the fellow was wrong, I was eligible to draw in October 2001 and that's when the reduction should have begun.
The bottom line: a permanent reduction ($70 per month) of my 27 years worth of earnings and pay back the five years worth over three years of easy payments.
DAILY STATUS REPORT:
.
Health check--blood pressure/heart rate 119/63/62 5:30AM.
Day's biggies--
Get Mrs. Jim off for golfing
Walk back home with Adi
Wash the Mustang
Adi should get her bath today
Go to bank, post office, and grocery store (and maybe WalMart and the Dollar Store)
Vacuum the floors
Go to the doctor with Mrs. Jim
Start work on the Sunday school lesson, I'm teaching this Sunday
Monday, May 08, 2006
The first plate,
[click on picture to enlarge]
of all you can eat crawfish. We won't tell how many plates we had, but I'm still stuffed three hours after we stopped eating.
DAILY STATUS REPORT:.Health check--blood pressure/heart rate 121/61/69 10:30AM.
Day's biggies--
...Go to Social Security Office. Submit a Request for Reconsideration, they say they overpaid me $4538 for the past five years. I believe it should be for two years. This might take a while.
...Mrs. Jim will play bridge this afternoon.
...Give Adi a bath if I get back home in time.
Sunday, May 07, 2006
.
Health check--blood pressure/heart rate 128/62/6 7:30AM
.
Day's biggies--
Going to church in a couple of minutes
Eat "all you can eat" crawfish boil the Young Life is putting on
Will visit with Billy and Karen, Mothers Day stuff early
Sister Lois is coming to visit tonight
