A man in a Facebook group I belong to posted a picture of his daughter eating at a diner that is down the street from a cemetery half my family is buried in.
Ok, the bit about half my family being buried there is an exaggerate but I do have multiple relatives there and a dear friend.
The picture of the little girl and the proximity of the cemetery to the restaurant triggered a memory in which my father told me to hold his hand.
Might have been five, could have been a little younger but it doesn’t matter because it triggered a different memory of working under the sink with him when I was in my twenties.
He asked me to hand him a tool and somehow managed to grab my hand instead of the tool. I told him it was nice to see that my daddy still like to hold my hand.
I could feel the glare and the growl before they hit me because that wasn’t the time or place for nunsense but I am not known for doing things during whenever that perfect time or place exist
Anyhoo, I could tell you about the last time I held his hand in the hospice but I’ll hold onto that memory for myself.
Have you read the last post How To Wrap A Shmata Around You yet?
A work colleague asked me today if I think people really want to kill me for being Jewish and was surprised when I didn’t hesitate and said yes.
“This isn’t anything new. History has proven it time and time again but it has done the same for other groups too. White supremacists have a list of groups besides my people they’d like to end. People still get lynched in all sorts of places.”
He paused and said he thought that was a pretty sad commentary and I agreed.
“It is, but I don’t live in fear of it happening. Still worry more about falling down the stairs, off of a ladder or out of a tree.”
That last part caught his ear and he asked if I still climb trees.
I told him I wasn’t sure the last time I had done so but I figured it was during the last five or so years. Added that I still climb over fences and all sorts of stuff.
“Why?”
“Because it is faster than going around it. Because it is there. Because I can and because one day I might not be able to. It is why I keep a triple dose of Viagara in my pocket.”
Ok, I didn’t add the last part because it was a work setting but I wanted to say it because it sounds ridiculous and when things around you are ridiculous sometimes you go for something silly.
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My father wouldn’t have had much use for the Facebook group I referenced. Too many people posture, bloviate and say stupid crap that offers no value to group members.
Can’t say I disagree because so much of what I have read seems to offer no attempt to solve the situations people are concerned about.
Feels like a herd of cats running in circles and bouncing from place to place with no rhyme or reason. Given that we don’t typically see herds of cats this is what I imagine a herd would look like.
Matter of fact it wouldn’t surprise me if the herd coughed up a giant hairball.
I have seen a few posts about people who said they have heard that Hamas will be in the states trick-or-treating for the purpose of finding homes they can identify as being Jewish.
The rumor is when you open your door to give them a treat they’ll give you a nasty trick. Makes me wonder if they have read about the gun problem here and are aware that we are all armed for Armageddon.
Think one of my neighbors has a flame thrower, AR-15 and an RPG but I might be wrong about it being one neighbor as I do live in Texas.
Periodically people ask me what I carry and I smile and say it is better not to find out. One guy told me I shouldn’t kid around about such things and I said I am not.
Flashed him a broad smile and he said that it was a little unnerving and I said that I have done the job.
“It is all about deterrence isn’t it.”
Reminds me of a time at a previous job when the guys started talking about what sidearm they carry when they go pig hunting, didn’t haven many of those conversations back in LA.
But I can tell you what some guys kept under their seat or in the glove box and I am still the only person I know in Texas who has been through a riot, multiple earthquakes and was evacuated from forest fire.
“In the days of my youth
I was told what it means to be a man
Now I’ve reached that age
I’ve tried to do all those things the best I can”
