The Obscure Store just posted a link to about a wedding between a Omaha Goodwill employee and a customer. He met her while she was working at the store, they dated, fell in love and decided to get married, at the Goodwill. They also decided to purchase as many wedding items from the store as possible. They did a good job of it finding, among other things, her wedding dress, the cake topper, guest book, champagne glasses, and the invitation kit. Many of the items were still in their original wrapping.
I'd forgotten until I read the story that I went to second hand store wedding one time. However, the bride and groom were not as organized as the Brozacs from Omaha. There was no guestbook. In fact, there wasn't really any guests. Besides a couple of Goodwill employees, I was the only person who attended. I loved it. I think everything must have been second hand including the cake which looked like one of those day old delights that finds its way to charitable organizations. It was near closing time so the ceremony, held unceremoniously in one of the isles, was brief. There was no special decorations. The Justice read the parts, they nodded, we smiled benignly and it was over. They cut the cake, the moment dissolved and we all went our separate ways. I never did find out their names but they didn't seem to mind at all.
Language itself is a barrier.
30/09/2004
TV Time
I would like to tell you about the ancient, stone knife blade I came across during my last camping trip in central Nevada. I would like to tell you about the chilling crossroads we re-visited near Area 51. At the moment, I can’t. I just spent the last few days in Oregon and my mind is completely polluted by the Brain Drain (television). My god! I’m so glad we don’t have a TV. The feverish spin of the election “news” is so polluting. I found I was watching more television to counter act the effect of watching some television. At home, I get my news online. I control the sources and the pace. The dis/ease spewing from the propaganda machines of Fox and CNN etc. is really unsettling. After a couple of days of being force fed poison pap, I felt ill. I can see why TV is the preferred brain-washing tool of Corporate Amerika and its agents in Washington DC. It works.
The first time I voted, I voted for Ronald Reagan. Don’t get me wrong. It wasn’t because I thought Reagan would make a good president. Even though I was living on a religious commune and barely knew what year it was, I knew Reagan was an asshole. I just didn’t care who was president. However, it was the opinion of our spiritual leaders was that voting for Reagan was good because “preaching would be so much better after the war” (he would start). So I voted for Reagan.
The other night, instead of sleeping, I lay awaking thinking that maybe Bush should win this election. After all, he deserves shit on his face, for all the shit he’s hurled at the fan. Maybe after four more years of his ever increasing shit storm, people would wake up…. blahblahblah. But, the fact is, we don’t learn “later”. We either learn or we don’t. Plus, it already is later and the behind the scene guys running the Bush administration are the same guys that ran the Reagan administration…the good old boys over at the Project for the New American Century, moldy wine in new bottles. They are everyone’s enemy and Bush is merely their latest poster boy.
But the brain dead dummy christian religious fanatics have fallen for an illusion of security, sweetened with the promise that gays will go away and creationism will be re-enthroned as the state philosophy. These dopes are simply the well-fed counterparts of the muslim (etc.) fanatics. In fact, the evangelicals, whatever name they give their “god”, are closer to each other than to anybody else on the planet. And the christian and muslim extremists are out of the same pod. And what particularily erks me is that they are both lopsided, oppressive patriarchies claiming exclusive access to The One and Only True and Jealous God who just happens to want men to control women, for their own good of course.
But for however smart they claim to be, people who can but don’t vote are no better. Silence is compliance. After I left the commune, I was dejected for a long time. For all the soul sucking, it’s hard transitioning out of the safely cloistered world of a religious community. I was pretty numb but it life returned. Eventually there was evan a local measure on the ballot I actually felt strongly about. A first. About fifteen minutes before the polls closed I found myself directly across the street from the library where the voting was taking place. But instead of going over and casting my ballot I gave in to the old thought, “Oh well. Why bother? One vote won’t make a difference one way or another.” The measure I would have voted for lost by one vote. So vote, damn it.
Oh, and if you want to watch the so-called debate online and comment afterwards go to Talk Left.
The first time I voted, I voted for Ronald Reagan. Don’t get me wrong. It wasn’t because I thought Reagan would make a good president. Even though I was living on a religious commune and barely knew what year it was, I knew Reagan was an asshole. I just didn’t care who was president. However, it was the opinion of our spiritual leaders was that voting for Reagan was good because “preaching would be so much better after the war” (he would start). So I voted for Reagan.
The other night, instead of sleeping, I lay awaking thinking that maybe Bush should win this election. After all, he deserves shit on his face, for all the shit he’s hurled at the fan. Maybe after four more years of his ever increasing shit storm, people would wake up…. blahblahblah. But, the fact is, we don’t learn “later”. We either learn or we don’t. Plus, it already is later and the behind the scene guys running the Bush administration are the same guys that ran the Reagan administration…the good old boys over at the Project for the New American Century, moldy wine in new bottles. They are everyone’s enemy and Bush is merely their latest poster boy.
But the brain dead dummy christian religious fanatics have fallen for an illusion of security, sweetened with the promise that gays will go away and creationism will be re-enthroned as the state philosophy. These dopes are simply the well-fed counterparts of the muslim (etc.) fanatics. In fact, the evangelicals, whatever name they give their “god”, are closer to each other than to anybody else on the planet. And the christian and muslim extremists are out of the same pod. And what particularily erks me is that they are both lopsided, oppressive patriarchies claiming exclusive access to The One and Only True and Jealous God who just happens to want men to control women, for their own good of course.
But for however smart they claim to be, people who can but don’t vote are no better. Silence is compliance. After I left the commune, I was dejected for a long time. For all the soul sucking, it’s hard transitioning out of the safely cloistered world of a religious community. I was pretty numb but it life returned. Eventually there was evan a local measure on the ballot I actually felt strongly about. A first. About fifteen minutes before the polls closed I found myself directly across the street from the library where the voting was taking place. But instead of going over and casting my ballot I gave in to the old thought, “Oh well. Why bother? One vote won’t make a difference one way or another.” The measure I would have voted for lost by one vote. So vote, damn it.
Oh, and if you want to watch the so-called debate online and comment afterwards go to Talk Left.
23/09/2004
Requiem for a Cockroach
La Mort de Ha'penny
We got home from camping yesterday to find out that Ha'penny had died. There was an unseasonal cold snap the day before and the drunken neighbor who was watching over things didn't think to turn the heat on. She was the baby of the bunch and just got too cold. Bummer. This Christmas we would have had her three years. I can't really blame the neighbor. Cockroaches are cold-blooded so I always meant to get a heat pad for them but didn't get around to it until yesterday. Delicata and Nugget are pretty happy about it but sadly it's too late for Ha'penny.
La Delicata and Ha'penny with Nugget on tube.
It's funny the things we can get attached to. Mr. Lee and I were really shocked when Ladybug gave us three giant, hissing Madagascan cockroaches as our Big Present, Christmas 2001. I have to admit, cockroaches were not on the Wish List. We named them La Delicata the big fat pig, Nugget because, after all, we are in Nevada and Ha'penny because she was the watermelon seed sized baby who hitchhiked a ride in the shavings. There were only supposed to be two. But life is life, big or small, and she became part of mine. So I will miss her now and then. I put a chunk of crystal in the terrarium as a place holder marking the mystery of things.
Delicata, Nugget and the Ha'penny Stone
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