Whether to adress the comments I have received in the comments section or as another entry was difficult.  Apparently blogging is like everything else in life, people hear what they want to hear and read what they want to read.  The comments on part II indicate a lack of understanding of part I, thus, part III.  I really wanted to get on to other things, but I don't like my words misunderstood or worse, purposely misconstrued, so a final outing (pun intended) on the subject seems necessary since .

But where to start?  I guess first is the claim that Society must be educated.  This may be true.  Society needs to be educated that almost all pedophiles are male and one third of all sex crimes are comitted against boys.  81% of sex crimes committed against children by Roman Catholic priests during the past 52 years were homosexual men preying on boys.  A copiously documented article by a Ph. D. on the subject is here:  http://www.frc.org/get.cfm?i=IS02E3 along with a brochure by the same doctor: http://www.frc.org/get.cfm?i=BC04C02

To say that allowing this change is not going to lead to anything else is a head-in-the-sand approach.  Establish gay marriage and polygamy will be next.  As I said previously, it may not be in the near future, but it will come.

As to comparing the issue to the civil rights movement of the 60's you will find that many black people find a comparison offensive.  Colin Powell from his book , "My American Journey":  [In testimony before Congress on gays in the military], I said, "I think it would be prejudicial to good order and discipline to try to integrate gays and lesbians in the current military structure." Congresswoman Pat Schroeder quoted a 1942 government report and claimed that the same arguments used then against racial integration in the military were being used against gays today.  She had her logic wrong. I responded, "Skin color is a benign, nonbehavioral characteristic. Sexual orientation is perhaps the most profound of human behavioral characteristics. Comparison of the two is a convenient but invalid argument. The linking of gay rights and the civil rights movement got a mixed reaction in the African-American community. The Congressional Black Caucus favored removing the ban on homosexuals in the armed services. But other leaders were telling me that they resented having the civil rights crusade hijacked by the gay community for its ends.

So no, it isn't about that.

Yes, this country was founded because of religious persecution, usually, as has been the case since John the Baptist was beheaded, because they preached against the sin and immorality of the time.  The pilgrims preached against the established religious practices and immoral behavior of political leaders and were shipped out rather than burnt at the stake.

Besides, the "religious" arguments at the end of Part II were intended for Conservatives and Christian believers.  Obviously non-believers will disregard this part, although most married people have said the Scripture I quoted in their vows.

The Good Book says, "Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination."

Thank you to everyone that commented on my post about the marriage definition amendment.  I had not planned on doing another post about it anytime soon, but having read these comments I would like to address a couple of points before going on to something else because I believe that what people said was sincere.

I was always told (and taught in public school sociology class) that homosexuals were not distinguishable by any outward features, e.g. if a man talks soft or a woman has a haircut like a man’s that that does not mean they are gay.  Homosexuals are just like everyone else and anyone you know and even those you might least expect could be homosexual and you would never know.  This is true.  In fact, if I were a gay person I would find this latest advertising campaign that shows a dog walking like a cow and mooing, extremely offensive because it’s saying that you can tell by these outward signs what a person is.  It is meant to depict, by having a dog saying “moo,” that some people are “just born that way.”  But it’s still unnatural.  A dog saying “moo” is unnatural and the other dogs in the pack might or might not let it run with them, the normal dogs barking and chasing squirrels and eating trash, not ruminating.  This ill-thought advertising campaign was conceived by our former mayor who is now the president of the gay and lesbian society here.  She did a lot of stupid things as mayor, too.

Now, why should the rights of the God-fearing Christian majority be infringed by having to subsidize these unnatural unions?  Why are the rights of Christians always the first to be thrown out?  You are not seeing, aside from the larger problem of the overall moral decay of modern society, that the practical upshot is, in fact, that once you validate marriage as being anything other than one man and one woman, you have to validate all of the other types as well.  This is not taking away anyone’s rights.  Besides, many rights are taken away from us all the time by merely submitting to the rule of law.

Which leads to why the government has to be involved.  The government is already involved in everyone’s day-to-day life.  You cannot steal.  You cannot murder.  You cannot peddle child pornography.  These are laws of our land and we live by them every day.  You can murder someone, but there is a penalty to pay.  Life is sacred, the innocence of children is sacred and marriage should be sacred as well.  Go ahead and live in whatever sin you wish, just don’t ask me to condone it or vote that you should be allowed special privileges to do it.  I don’t feel sorry that the government doesn’t allow someone to steal my car (as if anyone would steal my car, but that’s another entry).  I expect to be protected.  45 states already have definitions of marriage as being a contract between one man and one woman, so really it is representative of the majority of the states.  When was Democracy ever “minority rules?”

The last thing is love.  I think it will probably shock almost every one of my readers to find out that I believe that gay people can be as much “in love” as straights.  Christians, Pseudo-Christians and Christian-Wannabes have allowed love and especially marriage to be cheapened to the point where this conversation is even necessary.  The big problem is Christians.  The harder-core the Christian, the more at fault.  “Umm…Herb, I thought YOU were a hard-core conservative Christian?”  I consider myself as such and I don’t think there is enough leadership in the basic Christian community in the area of instruction about marriage.  Christians have allowed divorce to become a rampant ill in our society by condoning it.  By not teaching, preaching and preparing people for what marriage is supposed to be about you have set them up for failure.

Love is not a twitterpated, giddy feeling of attraction to a person, although that can lead to true love.  True love is a decision.  It is a conscious, committed, decision that grows stronger and stronger the more it is tested; even when the “twitterpation” has been worn down by dirty diapers at three in the morning, the Bible lets us know that we can set our affections.  We can choose who and/or what to love.  It is deeper than a feeling.  “Oh, I just couldn’t help myself falling in love” is really not true.  You felt attracted to that person, maybe by their wit or looks or charm or the way they looked at you, and it led you to want to be closer to them.  Of course it is not always a conscious decision; a couple of lonely people are attracted to each other in some way and immediately decide then and there that if that person will have them, they will stay with them through thick and thin, but it is the commitment part that is love, the setting of affection on that one person forever no matter what, not the goosebumps you feel when their hand touches yours.  That all works into it of course, but the bottom line is that love is that decision to stay forever.  Christians are only allowed to dissolve a marriage in the event of adultery and Jesus even said that that was because of the hardness of an unforgiving heart.  Christians have made this teaching worthless by making all manner of frivolous exceptions.  While there can be situations where divorce is unavoidable, much of the divorce that goes on in our country could be considered frivolous.  For example, a situation where a man (I use the term loosely) sleeps around on his wife and abuses her emotionally is not, in my opinion, frivolous.

That being said, one person can, in fact, set their affections on another and commit to stay with them and be loyal to them for the rest of their life.  This does not mean that it is any less of a sin or that I have to condone it.  God made Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve or Eve and Louise or Adam and Eve and Steve and Louise.  When God made the first man he took a rib from the side of man, not from his head to be above him or his foot to be beneath him, but a rib from the side of him, to create a helper for him (and most men need help from a woman, believe me) to be with him.  It was only one rib and even after the fall of man, God did not create another woman for Adam.  They were to stay together, “bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh.”  In our promiscuous society we often forget that a woman and a man are supposed to “save themselves” for marriage and the act of consummation is supposed to bind the two together in the same manner, to become one.

Marriage between one man and one woman forever is what God intended; what is commonly called “The Nuclear Family” is how God created it.  Of course Hollyweird has tried to cheapen and mock this teaching by making everything okay and Christians who know nothing about their Bible or even their own religion fall prey to their machinations.  The Marriage Definition Amendment is only one step in saving our society from itself.  Christians need to re-learn their own teachings, what they are and what they mean.

Remember, the Good Book says, “For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and cleave to his wife; And they twain shall be one flesh: so then they are no more twain, but one flesh.  What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.”

Coming next, The Flag Burning Amendment

People who oppose a constitutional amendment defining marriage as one man and one woman are wrong.  This issue is being touted by the media as a ban on gay marriage who say anyone who supports the measure hates gays, which is not the truth, but an example of the standard these days for the pap frequently pawned off as journalism is to take the worst possible look at something, from the liberal side, fire off a couple of cheap shots at conservatives and then on to the next story.  Of course they have to sell ads or Mad Ave will get mad (whenever you watch TV you should always observe who is mainly paying for the program, even news).  My problem is that if you say anything against them, for instance, if you point out that it is an unnatural act and a sin against God and nature and nothing more than lust-fires burning out of control, the first word out of their mouth is "homophobe"; often when they have no knowledge of where you come from, who your friends are or why you believe what you do.  Homosexuality is a form of sexual deviancy.  Normal sexuality is one man and one woman.

Oh, I heard that.  So, you want to know who I am to define for you what is normal.  Hah!  See, that is the crux of the whole problem.  Who am I to tell you what is moral?  But then again, who are you to tell me what is moral?  You are equally intolerant and miss a larger point.  The fact is that without a moral compass of some sort, we get on a slippery slope.  The standard backbone of culture for the last six thousand years has been: marriage = 1 man + 1 woman.  Leave it alone because if I cannot impose my morality on you nor you me, then there can be no end, because who is anybody to tell anybody what to do, and have the government subsidize it to boot.

By what seems to me to be a logical progression of the argument, the government should also allow polygamous marriages.  They have been backed by various religions and cultures over time and are once again being espoused (pun intended) by Hollyweird itself having new stories about it.  You are no better than they are and cannot impose your morality on them.  "Well," you say, "There are children under the age of consent involved."  That is your morality that you are imposing on this poor minority of religious people.  Why cannot their morality change the age of consent?  Why is your morality so much better than theirs that you can make a law against it?  Besides, the Colorado Court of Appeals just ruled that since we have no clear legislative or statutory guidance on what a common-law marriage is, we have to go back to centuries-old English common law, the basis for Colorado's common law, where a girl who is 12 and a boy who is 14 can just say, "I intend to marry you" and they have a common law marriage.

What about communal marriages?  Instead of a mere one man and two or three women or two men or two women that love each other, what if one of them falls in love with someone else?  Or they all fall in love?  Add the third, fourth or fifth parties to the marriage?  It's only fair.  What if the 14 year old boy states he intends to marry a 40 year old man?  What if your particular deviancy is to be bisexual?  Add another partner?  You could have a whole household orgy every night.  The Romans did.  Before their civilization fell.  What about the woman who got married to a dolphin?  I don't have the link handy but the ceremony was performed by a clergyman and some people believe that dolphins are smarter than us anyway, so, why not?  "Herb, you're getting ridiculous now."  Am I?  Are you going to tell me that anyone in their right mind would have thought 100 or 200 years ago that this was an issue that required an amendment to the Constitution to resolve?

Why a Constitutional amendment?  Why get the government involved?  Because we are a nation of laws, governed by rule of law. We have laws protecting us from murderers and thieves and child molesters.  Why can I not be protected from a fringe minority's deviant behavior being paid for at my expense?  Look at it.  Do you want to Pay Social Security (Which my president tried to fix and was stonewalled by the elder Senator from Massachusetts who said, quote, "Why are we bothering with this?  All we have to do is raise the tax that everyone pays in and move on." end quote) Benefits to the surviving spouses?  How many of the surviving spouses?  What if the spouse is a dog?  Not an ugly person, but a real dog, because that is what they are into? Or a dolphin?  What about the orgy commune?  Who gets paid what to whom?  How will divorces be handled?  With more and more marriages and more and more types of marriages there will necessarily equal a need for more and more divorce courts, more and more judges, etc.

Marriage has been a man and a woman in all major cultures from the beginning, not just Judeo-Christians, so why change it now to satisfy the lust of a minority?  I contend that the government is not establishing a new religion or preventing the free exercise of the same, but protecting its interests and the interests of its people.  Besides, how far down the road of moral decay will you let the country go?  Did you know the Dutch already have a political party made up of pedophiles [their word] whose platform is lowering their age of consensual sex from 16 down to 12 and decriminalizing child pornography?  We already have NAMBLA marching on congress, how long will it be until the issue is whether over 8 really is too late?  You say that I am an alarmist, using scare tactics but just look at how the morality of the country has slipped over the past 100 years.

Lust will always be with us and so will rebellion, which are the two things that really make up this matter.  People are always going to be filled with desires of all sorts (including the lust for money and the lust for power) and we (especially we Americans) never like to be told what to do.  I want to do what I want to do when I want to do it.  Now, see, if you add, "And I don't care who gets hurt doing it" then we have a problem.  Go ahead and commit your sin, but at least care about who is going to get hurt.  For example, there is one group who could have stopped the spread of AIDS by merely modifying their behavior slightly, not quitting their behavior, only modifying it would have slowed its progression and they are still acting irresponsibly, now seeking political sanction for their deviant sin.

What people do in their own homes is and should be their business and I don't want to know about it.  This also does not apply to private industry.  If Apple Computer or CSAA Insurance or Levi Strauss want to offer benefits to employees by criteria they define, that is their business.  It is their private business and the government should not be involved.  Let them provide for their employees how they want and if you want to support those businesses go ahead.  Personally I think it is hard to find a company in any industry that supports every belief so I recommend making business decisions, e.g., buying a computer, based on business criteria, such as price, quality, etc, although I have never bought a brand new pair of Levi's Jeans since they refused to help the Boy Scouts.  Even though they later reconsidered their position I found that the less expensive brands cover me just as well.  Thrift store jeans, Lee, Wrangler, even *lowers voice to a whisper so the haters won't gig him* the Wal-mart store brand, Rustlers, *resumes normal tone* are good enough.

 But still, who are you to tell me what is morally acceptable, and who am I to tell you?  I think I have made a strong case that the government must be involved at some point or there will be chaos and lawlessness.  As to my own morality, the only final authority I accept is the King James Version of the Bible.  It has been used for the last 400 years as a guidebook to many individuals and nations, ours included.  I also think that the Dead Sea Scrolls prove, at the very least, the diligence and care with which these Scriptures have been handled and preserved as they were handed down, to avoid mistakes.  But people will believe what they want to believe and do what they want to do, which is why, even though the Ten Commandments say "Thou shalt commit no murder" they still had to have laws about dealing with murderers, same with stealing, etc.

A constitutional amendment is necessary to define what marriage is.

Remember, the Good Book says, "Righteousness exalteth a nation: but sin is a reproach to any people."

"We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America."

When I worked at big-name Insurance company, one of the first classes they put everyone through, even if you were "only" a mail-clerk, was called "Basic Insurance Course."  One of the interesting things about insurance policies is the copious number of amendments that are added to very old policies.  Read More

I had started this entry before I blog-frogged around and found some others that were similar topics.  I don't know if there was a theme or not, but I had thought about this the other day.  I have been really working on keeping ahead of myself on updates.  Sometimes I'm too much of a perfectionist, though.  *Heavy sigh* Instead of, "Always a bride's maid, never a bride" it's, "Always a perfectionist, never perfect."  Anyway, here goes...Continue Reading

We get to see a lot of different kinds of neighborhoods traveling around to Margaret's clients.  Occasionally we will wind up having a little spare time and we try to find something to do in the locale because there is no time to go home.  We were on the North Side of Colorado Springs (not to be confused with the North End, as Northenders will tell you) and had an hour to kill.  She needed to go to a neighborhood called "Trail Ridge at Northgate" off of Voyager.  I apologize to those of you who don't know this area, but it is a very nice, upper middle-class area where the big, cookie-cutter houses go for $300k – $700k and beyond.  Covenants protect the scenery and make sure that no one has a purple house with an orange door or a '76 Chevy pickup truck leaking oil on the driveway or a transmission that doubles as a lawn ornament and bird bath.  Not in my league and I'm not sure how well I'd fit into a neighborhood like that.

There is a scenic, almost idyllic park not far from there called Mary Kyer Park.  It is down the hill from a school that emphasizes arts and creativity and science called the Da Vinci Academy.  Everything about the school, from the classroom design to the landscaping is made to enhance creativity and learning; a high-class, high-end school, to be sure.  There is nothing like it on the South side.  I don't know if it's public or private or whether you need a code to get in there or not.  In the park there is a manmade little waterfall that runs into a pond that bubbles with aerators that recycle the water back to the top.  A pair of geese and a pair of mallards live on the end away from the playground.  Picnic tables with generous space between them separated by scrub oak that seems old enough to have been original equipment surround the pond and the safe, modern playground equipment is equally separated by wide expanses of lush green grass, so you could easily see your child from any part of the park.  Of course the young boys play on the rocks of the manmade waterfall (even though the sign says not too) and make up games as they have done for thousands of years in real rivers on real rocks and then accuse each other of cheating and rewrite the rules over and over again.  There is nothing new about that.  On the South side of town we would probably have to drive to Fountain Valley Park to get a similar effect, with the bike and hiking paths and water and such.

If the distant sound of children playing doesn't bother you it is a very nice, peaceful, even serene place.  I had fetched us a couple of lattes and a couple of ice creams from a nice place on the other side called Summit House Coffee and we sat watching the occasional mom stroll by or child on a bike.  Margaret likes Mint Chocolate Chip and I try the Raspberry truffle.  Very good.

We sit at one of the picnic tables under the shade of the scrub oak, Margaret thumbs through an old magazine while I laugh at the antics of the boys.  There is litter blown about here.  Someone has recently had Subway at this very table.  As we sit, a group of teenage boys on bikes rides up and starts rummaging about through the bushes looking for something.

"I think mine is over here."

"That one is mine."

"You boys looking for something?"

"We had to find our cups from Subway so we could get refills, but they blew off this table."

I point around at the littered underbrush, "Any of this other trash from Subway belong to you fellas?"

"Oh no sir, just the cups.  Bye!"

Uh-huh.  The only thing worse than no respect is fake respect and the only thing worse than fake respect is condescension.  Oh well.  They were obviously never Boy Scouts.

We settle quietly again.  Maybe I was too hard on them boys.  Maybe they didn't leave their trash in the bushes.  I scan the sky for a flock of pigs.  We sit.  It is quiet, serene, calm, the way you might picture a high class neighborhood.  In the midst of the stillness comes a sound.

"HONK! HONK! HONK! HONK! HONK!"  It's not the geese, "Herkimer!  Herkimer!  HONK! HONK! HONKITY-HONK!"

Our nerves are jangled and Margaret says to the air, "She could get out of her car and go look for her kid, rather than disturb the rest of us."

"HOOOOOOOONNNNNNNNNNNNKKKKKK!"

Suddenly three kids come flying over the hill, mouths full of apologies.

"$*#@#$&!  Get your $#*@#$#^@# ^% in here NOW!  #*#%^#*@)_!@)$#@)$(#!"

"VRRROOOOOOOMMM!"

As peace returns Margaret observes, "Well, that's the way to act in a classy neighborhood."

To which I reply, "Well, I guess that just because you have a big house and more money doesn't mean you automatically have class."

Remember, The Good Book says, "Do not pervert justice; do not show partiality to the poor or favoritism to the great, but judge your neighbor fairly."

I got to talking to the neighbor last night.  He's a young guy, just fresh back from Iraq.  His dogs and my dog play with each other and so we stood visiting.  He has the new CAB, Combat Action Badge.  Since only 11-series MOS can receive the CIB, Combat Infantry Badge, the army has designed this one.  Carter has earned it, but I don't know if he got it yet.

Anyway, I had not seen the award before, only heard about it.  Here is a picture of it from http://www.army.mil/

You'll see a lot of other pictures there, too.  Soldiers interacting with Iraqi citizens everyday, for example.  You can learn a lot about the military by reading their websites.  You can also learn a lot from talking to people who have been there, done that, got the CAB.  My neighbor was shot in the vest twice while he was over there.  (These must be the vests the liberals are still saying the guys don't have.)  Told him about Carter's near miss, he's been there, too.  Told him about some of the liberal blogs I've been reading, he said the same thing that Carter said, people don't have a clue about what's going on over there.  (Someone else also pointed out that there was zero on any of the leftist "human rights" websites about the torture of American Soldiers.  Guess Amnesty Int'l doesn't count US Soldiers as human.  Surprise, surprise) They only know what they see in 5 second sound-bites on TV and what they read in the left-leaning press, if they bother to pick up a newspaper at all and many of them would never even consider reading an Army newspaper or other source of information.

The neighbor's been there, my buddy for 30 years (it's a shame about his looks, he's really a nice guy), Carter, has been there, the guys I run into everyday at the 7-11 have all been there.

The problem is not the Iraqis.  The Iraqis like the soldiers and like us being there.  We have built new schools and hospitals and roads.  We have given their school children new textbooks and other books and toys.  We have rebuilt many, many people's houses.  The Iraqis like us and they like freedom.  They like being able to speak their mind and not have to worry about their sister or wife or mother being "punished" for it or them being hacked into bits and laid on their front steps.  Most of the Iraqis like us.

The problem is that we have brought freedom and democracy to an area of the world that nobody ever thought it was possible.  My neighbor said that most of the people he's been fighting are not Iraqis, but Syrians, Lebanese, Turkey, places that have something to lose if Democracy and Freedom become a way of life.  They want us to fail and are thrilled by the way our own press treats the issue.  The guy next door said that they had to be so careful of what they said around their "embed" because they were constantly looking for something bad, something negative, to send back.

Remember, folks, what drives the media is not a search for truth, but advertising dollars.  What will sell more papers?  What will sell more TV ads?  Advertising is, of course based in Mad Ave, which is in bed with Hollyweird and all the stars that get up and blather on about things they know less than nothing about.

If you want to help in some way, there are several places to go, here are a few:

Soldier's Angels

Army Emergency Relief

Navy-Marine Corps Relief Society

USO

VFW

Operation Give (this is also a good one for giving toys to Iraqi children)

If you are interested, the VFW also has a news page.  I read this quote from Jim Mueller, National Commander of the VFW:

"From the commanding officers on down to the privates and airmen, our troops know that their mission is important. They are enthusiastic. Their morale is high, and they know they are helping to make a difference to an entire nation--and the Iraqi people know this, too. Everywhere I went, the message that the Iraqis wanted me to take back was for America to be patient, that 'We want to get this democracy right the first time."

Want firsthand information from the people who really know?  Try reading the Department of Defense website and its veritable plethora of links to every branch of service.  http://www.defenselink.mil/sites/

http://www.defenselink.mil/ & http://www.defenselink.mil/news/articles.html

You might say that they would be biased, but if you think a little further you should realize that the mainstream media has access to all this same information and if there was something wrong with it, they wouldn't hesitate to tell you about that.

Another source of information might be military blogs and blogs of family members.  If you read The Patriette's blog http://www.thepatriette.com/ you will see an area called "Milblogs."  Try a few of those, too.

Remember, The Good Book says, "A gossip goes around spreading rumors, while a trustworthy man tries to quiet them."

Well, I hope I haven't misled you with my title.  This is not about peace treaties or terrorism or anything of the sort.  No, this is how I have come to understand why Egyptians worshipped the cat.

Yes, that's right, I have been converted.  Well, I guess converted is the wrong word since I was never really a cat hater, I just never really gave them much thought, one way or the other.  Sure, we have four of them, but that was not really my doing.  I just accepted them as belonging there like the rest of our menagerie.  That was before I knew.

I never knew what these lovable, likable, respectable, admirable creatures could do.  They can find and catch and kill mice before you even knew you had any.  These mighty and ferocious and worthy hunters' actions should be considered laudable by all.  Even their prey should be in awe before their greatness.

We didn't know that we had an old box of Boy Scout popcorn left in the garage somewhere.  We found that out later.  Or that they can sqeeze through a space of 1/4".  Over a period of couple of months each cat caught at least one mouse, but Fraidy Cat and Cookie caught two.  Once we discovered their little food stash we were able to get rid of the food source and toss out their nest and lay sticky traps for them.  Sticky traps, if you buy a name brand and not the dollar store brand, work really well.  It can be a little gross but you have to realize, these are vermin.  They will destroy everything you have.  Curse the early cartoonist, W.D., who anthropomorphized and immortalized them!  Vile Wretch!  They are not cute, they are destructive, despicable pests and if they had a cute girlfriend she would be pregnant every 21 days, with a litter of 6+ each time.  They start breeding at 6 weeks old and can breed for up to 12 months.  One Mickey and one Minnie can 5 - 10 litters per year.  And then to think that there are some in Colorado who want to preserve the nasty little critters as endangered!  Bald Eagles are endangered.  Tigers are endangered.  Maybe some plant species can be endangered.  NO MOUSE WILL EVER BE AN ENDANGERED SPECIES!!!  It is a political lie by fools and extremists.  So what if the Preble's Jumping Meadow Mouse becomes extinct!  GOOD RIDDANCE!!!  These are people who have never seen what a mouse can do and will stop an entire state's economy for the despicable little critters.  It is worse than the Snail Darter fiasco!  I have seen before what they are capable of and believe me, if you have ever seen the damage these rodents, these varmints, these icky little germ carrying aliens can do you would sing my same song.

Um...I don't like mice, can you tell.  I especially hate Mickey and Minnie.  Feivel would have been married a long, long time, and he would not have been cute.  Stupid anthropomorphic cartoons making people feel sorry mice.  Yuck!

So.  Knowing what they are capable of, I cannot tell you the joy that filled my heart when I found out what one of the girls was screaming about.  Far from being murdered or mortally wounded, it was only Fraidy Cat, who had caught and killed a mouse and wanted to share his new toy.  I took his picture (I'll post it if I can find it) and told him what a wonderful and heroic and mighty and noble creature he was and chastised the girl for not letting him put it in her bed.  He was so proud.

Next came Bagheera.  The sleek, handsome black panther.  Mighty, stealthy, jungle-killer, he decided that since shoes are important to Abigail, his momma, that the place he should leave his trophy would be her shoe box.  She didn't quite agree, especially since she didn't know he had done it until she went to get that pair of shoes.

Fee-Foe, the lionhearted lioness, queen of all cats caught a big fat momma mouse and gave it to me.  Beautiful, beautiful Fee-Foe, ruling lioness of the pride, would deign to share her majestic prize with me.

In the meantime we were doing our part by finally finding what had brought all this on and trapping several.  Don't even bother thinking about suggesting live traps.  The only way I would do that is if there was a lab that needed wild ones for some purpose.  The glue traps are very effective along with taking away the food source and cleaning up the area of all nests and nesting materials.  It was a team effort.

Not to be outdone was Cookie, the purebred La Perm we were given.  La Perms are not descended from any of the other curly-haired breeds but are rather descended from barn cats.  Yes, a full-breed cat that comes from the most venerable of all feline races, Barn Cats.  Cookie insisted on living up to her heritage and doing it proud.  She could not be coaxed so easily into giving up her earnings, however.

"Cookie.  Give me the mouse, please."

"It's mine."

"I want to get rid of it."

"No.  I am going to put it on Janet's pillow."

"Janet doesn't want it on her pillow."

"Of course she does.  She gives me treats doesn't she?"

"Yes."

"She scratches me, doesn't she?"

"Yes."

"She treats me like the royal creature I am, does she not?"

"Well, sure, but..."

"So, it is written that I must share my prize with her when I have done with it and that's what I am going to do."

"She doesn't want it in her bed, she wants it in the trash."

"Vile knave!  Wouldst thou dare try to remove it from my mouth!  It goes on her pillow and that's final."

A struggle ensued, and really, it probably would have been wiser to wait until she dropped it on Janet's pillow, but I didn't and finally, as I was trying to gently tug it out of her mouth she let go of it to bite me!  She was mad!  Oh boy was she mad!

But I'm not mad.  She didn't hold a grudge forever, just a few days and it has been several weeks since there has been anything in the traps or since the cats have caught anything, so I am hoping that this episode is over.  But now I can say that I love, like, admire, respect and care about these mighty, ferocious, worthy hunters.

  Go Fraidy Cat! 

^       ^
>>*<<
      
When I told my dad this story he said that one time my mom had seen a mouse in their kitchen and started screaming for him to come and kill it.  It ran under the fridge, so he took a yardstick and started sweeping back and forth under there.  The thing ran out and my mom screamed again and jumped up in the air...and landed right on top of the mouse.  "That was the end of that mouse, Herbert."

Remember, the good book says, "I hates meeses to pieces!"

P.S.

I loved these pics and this story.

Moni at Tuff Toenails went and tagged me with a "meme."  I'm not a big fan of these things, but they can help other people to get to know you a little better and I guess I should be a good sport.  Besides, this way I will have yet another blog entry to post, so, if you don't like posts with memes in them all I can think of to say to you is, "Tuff Toenails."

I think a thing called the "7's meme" ought to only have 7 questions in it, though.  The first 7's one I got tagged with was given to me by the missing Daveman.  I took down the milk cartons on my other two blogs, but that doesn't mean I don't think about him or that I am not his friend or that I don't visit his blog everyday, because I do.  It just seems like it's time to move on and hope for the best and wish him the best.

Anyway, the two questionnaires are fairly similar, the original 10 questions about 7's were:

Name seven:

Things that scare me

Things I like most

Important things in my room (This would be on my desk)

Random facts about me

Things I plan hope to do before I die

Things I can do

Things I can't do

Things I say most

Celeb crushes

People who will have to I hope will do this

The new questions that are different are:

Seven things that attract me to my husband:

Seven Books (or a series of books) I love:

Seven Movies I'd Watch Over and Over Again:

This makes a total of 13 unique questions, which is not even a multiple of 7, so I am changing the list to just 7 questions with 7 items each.  The new list I made up is:

Name 7:

Things that scare me

Things I like most

Things I plan hope to do before I die

Things I can do

Things I can't do

Things I say most

Books I love

I don't want to get too personal, so all I will say to the one question is that the eyes are the most attractive and interesting thing about any person.  Eyes are (dare I say it in a family oriented blog?) sexy.  Eyes talk.

Since I read so many blogs in a day, I would like to see it on everybody's but I do not have a list of people who I am tagging.  Maybe someone could even add their own new questions or original memes that are things that you would like to know.  Okay, on with the show.

7 things that scare me

Day 7 of my parents’ visit

(I won’t be doing a day 8 because really it was just the saying of goodbyes and expressions of love and leaving them at the airport.)

The Procedure

But first I have to tell you, my dad had some things to say about the styles where they hang their britches down so you can see their undershorts and have all these holes in there clothes.

“It’s shameful to go out looking like that.  It used to be a shame for a person to have holes in their clothing.  You were really poor.  You were from the wrong side of the tracks if you went out with holes in your pants.  Not only that, Herbert, I say, not only that, but you could even be sent home from school.”

“We would have to pick beans to get money for school clothes.”  He continued, “My dad would plant 5 acres of beans and whatever money was raised is what we had to work with.  If he couldn’t afford the seed, the man would give him credit because he knew he would get beans.  So we worked in the garden for money for clothes because we didn’t want to go to school with holes or even patches on our clothes if we could help it.”

On to the hospital for the procedure.  It is unusual for this fluid to build up so quickly.  This time the doc drains another 1400 CCs.  Margaret went to watch again.  The reason we had to go to the hospital was that the doctor did not have the equipment in his office to do the procedure.  They were supposed to have some ultra-sound equipment ready at 8 O’clock, but they didn’t.  The doc did not want to waste any of our time so he told Margaret that he was confident that he could find the lung again and did the same procedure.

Dad and Margaret and I sit in the waiting room as she is resting and stabilizing when the doctor comes in.  I couldn’t place his accent, maybe a mix of Indian and French, but I really don’t know.  Respectful and direct makes for a good combination.

“We drained almost 1400 CC’s more from the left lung.  The fluid is almost completely full of lymphocytes.  She has Lymphoma.  I do not have her whole history here and do not know all of her diagnoses, but it seems likely to be a connection.  If the lymphocytes in the fluid are monoclonal, meaning they are all exactly the same, then it is likely the cancer has spread into this lung and probably other parts of her body as well.  If the cells are not monoclonal then there may be something else.  We won’t get the results back before you leave but I have instructed them to print out my report for you to take along to her doctor, with the x-rays.”

An 80 year old man, an elderly man, a man who used to be strong and fast and confident and still is strong, looked at me through his big glasses and said with the cracking voice and watery eyes, “Yes, Herbert, I think Pastor had a reason to send us out here.  This could be the last time we ever get to come like this.”

Later on in the day we finally got Troy over to the house.  Lizzy and Douglas had been there before but we had wanted to get a complete family picture with all four generations.  We finally got to take it.  I had to get some ink for the printer because the one thing mom is always nagging me about is that I never send her any pictures.  That and she wanted some good Christian music CD’s.  So I burned some CDs and printed almost 20 pages of photos, 4 to a sheet and a couple of 8x10s and copied Abigail’s report card for her.  I will post some pics here on my blogdrive gallery, but I always like to try to make the file sizes smaller for people with dialup connections, so that may take a few days.

We had to hustle a little to get ready for church because Sis J had personally invited mom to come to Youth service so Pastor J and one of his assistants could lay hands on her and anoint her with oil and pray over her the way the apostles did and left instruction for us to do; the way that I have seen work in healings; miraculous, mind-boggling healings; before.  I have seen and experienced miracles before, but my mother’s question from the other day haunts me.  I don’t know why.  I am not God.

Remember, the Good Book says, “Doth not he see my ways, and count all my steps?”