A Godly Hero

Pretty excited. "A Godly Hero" the new biography of Wm Jennings Bryan came in on reserve. I'm interested to see what the current revision is on him especially since evolution has inexplicably resurfaced as an issue. Sadly his part in the Scopes Monkey Trial is about all he's known for these days. I maybe woulda been a Bryanista had I been kickin it in the 1880s or so. Which reminds me...I wish all these current politicos and neo-cons in power would quit citing Ronald Reagan as their single greatest influence. I thought he was against big government. And he wasn't afraid of terrorists.

Well, planning for the big spring break trip. Yep - takin' the tribe cross country. My god, we can't go 15 minutes at home without some blindsiding emotional explosion and I'm actually entering a vehicle with three fizzing powderkegs. I can already see me acting out the role of Yosemite Sam in nearly every cartoon he was in, desperately trying to disrupt the gunpowder trail maliciously spilled by Bugs Bunny. Watch this space for video of me dressed as a pirate running around a ship with a cask of gunpowder stuck in the back of my pants while sparks chase after me; will I jump into the shark-infested waters or explode!? Remember in Saving Private Ryan when Capt. Miller teaches the whippersnappers to make stickybombs from old socks and motor oil or whatever but he tells them how unstable they are? Sometimes stuff happens and I get this quick visual image of the later scene where those two anonymous soldiers from Matt Damon's platoon run up to a tank and put stickybombs on it and before they can run away the bombs go off and they are instantly obliterated. And the tank rumbles on. Like the other day I was feeling worse than usual about the Cold War raging between me and The Self. I've been pretty much toeing the can't-say-something-nice-don't-say-anything-at-all-line which means I rarely say anything and so I decide on the way home from work that I'm going to be upbeat and chipper - y'know treat her like a stranger. Cause I really hate that it has to be this way with us. So I decide to give in, y'know let her 'win' essentially, and anyway I walk in the house and she's talking to YHWH and I say with great ebullience, "Hey! Good to see ya!" and pat her on the back (the pat was the metaphorical stickybomb (see how I bring it around?)) and she explodes: What was that? What did I do to deserve that? Did you have a bad day or something and want to take it out on me? I was trying to be upbeat, nice, I say. And so it went for 15 minutes with an eventual return to detente. More of a Grenada or a 1965 Domincan Republic sort of deal, really. It's not like it was Korea or the Cuban Missile Crisis. But, yeah, I'm entering into a mobile emotional cauldron for a couple of 12 hour stretches. Hopefully it will be in a 2006 Buick Lucrene with XM Radio and a little GPS action. We're renting.

How can people dispute there's a God? I had 15 minutes to walk over to Quiznos and get some dinner then move my car before my shift started. I walk ten steps from the door of my building and it starts a torrential downpour. I run at near embarassing speeds, skittering on slippery street grates and oily back alleys praying for a stretch of road with an eave overhead, and finally make it into Quiznos where I'm met with the obligatory, "Is it raining outside?" The whole time I'm inside it stops raining and then picks up again when I'm halfway to the garage. And they say there's no God...

TODAY BY THE NUMBERS
Miles walked: 0 (hey I had a schedule change at work!)
Cups of coffee: 2
Rows of Om Yoga Bag knitted: 8
Stitches of Om Yoga Bag knitted: 640
Episodes of Desperate Housewives viewed: 4
Desk shifts: 3
Smiles: 1 (I was on the phone, though)
Phone calls from The Self: 1
Emails from boss: 0
Genealogy questions answered: 3
History questions answered:2