PATTY/ESSIE

In this shot from early 2005, we have Patty Tidd with Essie in the New Port Richey home. If you can see, dimly, standing behind Essie is Steve Peterson.

SOUL BACKUP

Did God install a back-up switch,
In case of devastating glitch!
To one’s soul, like memory stick,
When the mind turns off in click,
With Alzheimer’s or just old age,
In times the brain fails to engage;
And when the end does come at last,
Does some reboot reclaim the past?
And send the soul on its last flight,
With all memories then made right?


[If we are not our memories, then what are we? What goes on in the soul, that will make sure one connects with loved ones in the afterlife? Alzheimer's is a cruel disease.]

BROOKE

A way back picture of my sister Bobbie (bet she hates that she is taking a bite of cake, unawares), and her daughter Brooke, It looks like they are at a wedding reception, perhaps. Although undated, I think this is 1990.

OXANA

Came across a couple of pictures, apparently from around 1990, possibly taken by my Dad, of his granddaughter Oxana, the daughter of my brother Paul and his wife Patty, my little niece who is now married and a police in Connecticut. How time flies. The pictures appear to have been taken in our Keystone lake living room, sometimes around the holiday (because my mother's creche is in the background, as are some paintings belonging to my parents).

PAUL & BOBBIE

Recent pic of my brother and sister, Paul and Bobbie, in Tennessee, while visiting my Dad.

CHIMO ON TABLE ROCK

Chimo was the lead scout and biggest kid of Troop 324 on their weekend visit to Table Rock (the location of my injurious fall so many years ago), and here are three pics, stolen from their website posts.

ANYWHERE

It could have easily been
a cowboy bar, or rock concert,
crowded subway train filled,
elementary school stilled
by crazed mind, anger filled;
clutching weapon of mass destruction,
on any street in America.

ORLANDO

Rainbow flags and Pride
are slim protection against
hate and machine guns.


[May the deceased rest in peace and the injured and bereaved have swift recoveries. This hatred must be better combated, or be better managed by those supposed to be protecting us. This could have happened to anyone. Groups that influence losers in society should be better monitored, both here and abroad.]

MAUDE 2016

Maude, the tortoise-shell I was given when I moved into a friend's apartment so many moons ago, and who is now the loving step-cat of my friend Phil, sleeps atop his livingroom table. She would now be around nineteen years, darn good for a cat who almost didn't make it past eleven or so, due to feline diabetes and my dark passenger (nod to Dexter). The message there: Don't give up on your older pet, if you can. Phil deserves all the credit for helping Maude recuperate and thrive, albeit in the den of rascally canines and one kitty rival. Thanks Phil.

JROTC LEADER

Dropped Joey off for a week of leadership training at Fort Jackson with his unit out of A. C. Flora. I am hoping he has a good, yet challenging, week. Looks good in his uniform.

MY FRIEND RETIRES

She walked today,
always there, sixteen years, and
I am at a loss.