" Grand Mother Brown... Revisited"

I've posted several times about my Grand Mother Brown...

Grand Mother Brown, my Dad, Curtis, and my Aunt Winnie...

I posted here... about traveling to Southern Illinois to visit my Dad's home town and from where our family as I know it originated...  I also referenced Grand Mother Brown here...


I mentioned how sad  Dad felt for  not having her headstone engraved the way it should have been... for being a youngster when his Mom died... and having had an absent Dad himself, I though he did well...


The head stone he purchased simply had her name and the years of  her birth and death...

Mary J Brown

1868                        1929

A year or so before he died, Dad wanted to go 'home' one last time... and I wrote about how he wished he had put her whole name... and the month and date of the day on which his Mom was born and died... he wanted it to be 'more complete'...


I told Dad not to worry about it... that I would take care of it... 


In between the time that I made the promise to Dad and I actually did it, a great deal of time passed... and I have been angry with myself for not having taken actions to do this on a more timely basis... but the fact of the matter is that I just didn't do it... until last August...


I wrote in the above cited link about how the stone worker said he could put the information on the headstone...


It should have looked like this when he finished the work...

Mary J Brown

June 28         Jan 10 

1868            1929

Mary Jane Coles Brown

I received an email this morning acknowledging that the work had been completed... and the headstone looks like this...

I dont mind the 'font' being different... but... he didn't do what he said he would do... what he promised to do... and I feel let down by his actions...

I have a copy of the work order at home... I will have to find it and see exactly what it says...  but this isn't what I wanted for her...

It does show that she isn't buried alone... and belongs to the number of 'Coles' that are buried next to her...

... but... this isn't what we agreed on...

I feel that anything I would further have done to the headstone would just make it look so... so... I don't know...  "not-well-thought-out."

Am I over-reacting?  Is this ok?? It's not like what has happened can be erased...  I wanted what my Dad had done so many years ago to remain... and just have that information 'augmented'...

I am leaning towards buying another headstone... or more correctly, a foot stone... that has the information correctly spaced...

Am I making a mountain out of a mole hill??  I feel so 'unsettled' by this... 

Why? Why is this bothering me so?? I've written about this 'relationship' with Grandmother Brown... and how at times, I wonder if I am her reincarnate?

Tell me your thoughts...

*sighs*

~shoes~

"Yazoo City Tornado... 04/24/2010..."

Thunderstorm at an unknown location 

We had been warned as early as Wednesday of last week that we were to expect a bad weather-event weekend ... of course, this time of year, we always have these kinds of warnings, but most tornadoes we experience seem to miss residential areas...  they mostly stay in the rural farm areas...


Memphis, TN / Olive Branch, MS have been hard hit the past few years... I'm not sure what it is about that area, but many severe thunderstorms and tornadoes seem to track through there...


I watched the weather system approach my area... and the system seemed to split... part went North of here... and the other stayed South... it was nice and sunny here...


Hell... I was at the ball park watching Alluvial Flood Plain State University dismantle the #1 nationally ranked Division II baseball team when people in the bleachers started talking about a tornado hitting Yazoo City...



The video above was made by Reed Timmer... one of the crazy idiots storm chasers whose antics  The Discovery Channel highlights on their series, "Storm Chasers"...

I was surprised to see he was in Mississippi because the terrain, for the most part... doesn't lend itself well to watching these storms develop from a distance...

This is purported to be a photo of the tornado as it tore through Yazoo City...

I have no scale by which to measure the size of this tornado... I saw the largest tornado I've ever seen some years ago... and was just awed by the power and the size of that event...


This tornado is said to have been on the ground for several hours... and for a distance of at least 168 miles... and at times left paths of damage as much as two-miles wide...


The death toll from this storm, according to one source, has reached 12... and a Mississippi Farm Bureau senior claims adjuster I know told me yesterday that they have received over 1,000 property claims just from Yazoo City...


The National Weather Service is still studying the storm and its effects... they are uncertain if it was one huge storm, or possibly a front that created many tornadoes along the path...  

Tornadoes are rated according to a method called The Fujita Scale...

This tornado, according to some sources I have read has been classified as an EF4... several sources say it may have been an EF5... 

This photo has also been attributed to the Yazoo City storm...

These storms can be so beautiful... I am addicted to thunder storms... I love this kind of weather... I have been known to go out and chase a few...  but when there is property damage... and lives are lost... things change... you know??

~shoes~

"Reply For Senorita..."

Senorita asked in her post here the other day about advice...


I think this video is good background music for my answer...

Because in many regards, the answer is about the Long Run...


Her post and questions struck a chord with me... these are things I have often asked of myself and others... but ultimately, each of us have to learn the answer for ourselves...

Now, I'm thinking I wanna see the 'Wizard of Oz' movie 

THIS Dorothy was in!!!


Much like Dorothy in the 'Wizard of Oz'... when at the end of the movie, she asks questions of Glinda... the Good Witch of the North... and Glinda tells Dorothy that she's had everything she needed the entire time... to make it back to Kansas... and it was  the Ruby Slippers... she had the answers the entire time... and when The Scarecrow asks why didn't  Glinda tell her earlier, Glinda gives what I thought was the best answer ever...

"She would have never believed me... she had to learn it for  herself..."

Do you know that in the novel, the shoes are actually Silver?

Do you know that 'The Wizard of Oz' is believed to have been based on monetary policy of that time?


So... the first advice that I would give someone who is asking any question about anything in Life... would be to explore yourself... because more than likely you already do know the answer... and when we seek these answers, we are simply looking for affirmation for what we think or feel...

Senorita asks about the advice that Cyndi Lauper gave someone... about never ever giving up on ones dreams...   No... we shouldn't ever give up on our dreams... that's what keeps many of us moving forward...


However, I think Senorita was looking for affirmation about the comment about Life beginning at age 30...


I am not going to get into the mumbo jumbo thing about when Life starts... but who we are at any point in our Life is the accumulation of everything we have DONE to that point in our Lives...  I think in that sense, our Lives really begin when we become aware of who we are... what we are... and how we got to where we are...


Joan @ "Anything Fits A Naked Man" has a totally FANTASTIC post here...  She does this TOTALLY great thing by writing a letter from her 'current self' to her 'younger self'... to warn her of the pitfalls ahead... and yet of the great happiness that lies ahead for her...  I think everyone should write a similar letter to themselves... I think it might help all of us with where we are at that point in time... that no matter what bad happened in our pasts... we still have a great future ahead...


Dear Senorita... you are 29... by the time I was 29, I was married for 7 years and had a darling 4-year old... and at this point in my 27th year, I knew that my Mother was dying... I was so devastated... and Mom did die...  and I survived that loss...


You say that if you were to die today, you would feel disappointed... can you list out for yourself why you would feel this way?


You've recently jumped out of a perfectly good airplane... You've been to Barcelona... just those two things alone make me immensely JEALOUS of you!!! 

Example of Gaudi's architectural style in Barcelona

Cyndi tells the contestant that her Life didn't start until she was 30...

I didn't get my 'Awareness' about Life until I turned 40... at 40, EVERYTHING started making sense to me... EVERYTHING...


In class one day, I was asking students if they could re-live a year of their lives, which one would they relive... and each had a year and a great reason... and then one of the students turned the question back on me... and in fairness I had to answer... and I think my answer stunned them...


... because the answer I gave them reflected on years that lie ahead of them... I told them   that I would re-live my 40's in a heart beat... and that they had to understand that right in the middle of them, was the death of my Dad, the loss of my family (deep rifts between brothers and sisters... some that would never heal)... and possibly the worst thing that ever happened to me... my divorce... yet... I would re-live them readily...


I was so confident of who I was... of who I had become... I no longer became a "passenger"on that "Journey of Life"... but I think I became proactive in that Life's journey...  That made such a difference...


There are many things over which I have control... and many things over which I don't have control... I never ever thought that I would still be single this long after my divorce... I can't make someone love me... it just happens... so in that regard I will have to be patient...


... But... I don't feel alone... I have friends... I have things I want to do... things I need to do... and those all will happen... whether or not I have someone with me or not...


... There have been things that haven't gone my way... but I haven't let that jade my Life in the Long Run...


My advice to you... Adore your 30's... they can be what you want them to be... I think emotionally and spiritually, you are so far ahead of where I was when I was 30...  your 30's can be my 40's...


Your commenter, Ily, echoes what I have said...  you have great advice in your comments section of your post...


I envy you... you are asking these questions at the right time... continue to ask them... always... sometimes you will see that the answers to those questions will change... because WE change over our Lifetimes...


Feel free to add/agree/disagree with what I've said...  Answers are everywhere...

Namaste...

~shoes~

"20,000 Sex Partners!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

I had heard this once before about Wilt 'The Stilt' Chamberlain... that he claimed to have had somewhere in the neighborhood of 20,000 sex partners in his life time...

If you figured, on average, only one sex partner per 24-hour period, that is

57.8 YEARS

of fucking... 

WTF?!?!?!?!?

I mean... for some of that time, he played college basketball (Kansas).. and professional basketball... so when did he have the time or the energy?!?!?!?

That sign he is holding in the photo above was not designed to throw some unexpecting sex partner off by claiming he had only had 100 sex partners... he scored 100 points once in an NBA game... On March 2, 1962, he and the Philadelphia Warriors beat the New York Knicks 169 - 147... then he probably promptly went out and screwed all of the Warriors' cheering squad... and probably those of the Knicks as well...

Chamberlain himself wrote that based on that number, it more accurately worked out to  1.2 women a day... everyday... since he was 15...

For what it is worth, record books DO know when Wilt scored that 100 points as to time and location... they are not so willing to cite when he banged #20,000... 

I did NOT know that he used to play with the Harlem Globetrotters... 

I wonder how many times he screwed Meadow Lark Lemon and Curly Neal???

Here may be 6 of his Lifetime Conquest... I wonder where the other 19,994 are?

And if you think about it, he said "20,000 women"... I am sure that some of those were repeats... no???

He made this claim when he was 55... he said he started when he was 15... so the following statistics could be in play...

____________

20,000 women  / 40 years = 500 women a year.

Since they were different women no repeats, right?
So that means...

500 women per year/365 days =1.36 women a day

24 hours a day/ 1.36 women a day = a  new woman every 17.64 hours

_____________

And again... that's assuming no repeats... some of them HAD to have been good enough for Wilt to say something along the lines of...

"hey baby... let's go again..."

Or something like that...

Wilt's bedroom... undoubtedly the scene of some of the 'crimes'...

Now... somewhere in all of the crap I stole information I consulted... I read that at the time of Chamberlain's death in 1999, he was working on a book specifically about his sexual exploits that was titled, "It's About Fucking Time!" but that couldn't be confirmed...

Now... for sake of comparison... 

Consider someone who also fancies himself to be a "Lady Nailer"...

Gene Simmons...

He only claims to have screwed 4,600 women... a mere 15,400 short of Wilt's record... and Gene is 56 or so... so unless he just goes "fucking crazy" I don't see any way he will ever catch up...

No.. wait... I just found a source that said the number was more like 4,897... maybe that is a more recent number... and he gathered another 297 since the previous number was cited...

Dayum!!!!!

She should have been in THIS post!!!

Now I feel so insignificant...

(I wonder how many women Stan Laurel slept with?)

~shoes~

"Chay-Chay-chayainnnnnnnnnnnnnnnssss..."

One of my mostest favoritest movies of ALL times is on right now!!!!!

"Pulp Fiction"...

I LOVE the way this movie was put together all out of sequence... BRILLIANT!!!


I realized that one of my favorite scenes in this movie is when Mia (Uma Thurmond) and Vincent Vega (John Travolta) are in the dance contest... I LOVE watching them dance...
I like to dance, and like most white males, lack that 'dance gene'... but I don't let it stop me!!!    I have WAY too much fun when I try to dance... 



While watching them dance, I remembered another great John Travolta dance scene... from 'Michael"

I mean... I am a bassist... I DO know something about rhythm... and dancing is so much fun!!!!!


I like the scene in 'Pulp Fiction' when Mia is interviewing Vincent... and asks him.. if he were Archie... who would he do first... Betty or Veronica???

That's not even a contest... first I would do Veronica... something tells me she would be dirty... possibly even nasty... whereas Betty would be kind and sweet... but then again, it has been the kind, sweet ones that have surprised me the most!!!!!

Hmmmmmm

Betty or Veronica???

DAMN!!!!!

WHAT IF!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

_______________

On a more serious note, Tuppence honored me with 

A Sunshine Award...

If you haven't read her, you should... I enjoy reading what she always has to say... Check her out!!!

Thank you SO much, Tuppence...

I will name the bloggers that I will pass the award on to soon!!!!

____________

~shoes~

"April 14th... Epilogue..."

I am better than I was the other day... thank you all... I do need to go beyond letting 'anniversaries' bother me so... I seem to have many more negative ones than I do positive ones... I need to work on that...


The comments that some of you left for me regarding the harassment/stalking by married woman... encouraged me to talk to her husband... or to call the police...

I could possibly do both at one time... he is an investigator on the PD here in this city...

I LOVE 'Reno 911'... I haven't watched it as much since they made changes in the cast... but it is my favorite 'Cops' - type show...


A few months ago, I arrived at work one morning... parked in the Faculty Parking area for my building... and there was a University Police Woman writing a ticket for someone who was parked in the wrong area...

She should have looked like this...

But she didn't...

But she was sporting some cool looking handcuffs 

on her utility belt that looked just like... 

THESE!!!!!

I mean... JUST like them... I wasn't aware that they 

made police issue handcuffs in Pink...

I thought about asking her if she grabbed the wrong set before she left the house that morning... or... maybe asking her if her signifcant other was still 'cuffed' to the bed at home..  I wonder if they make pink pistols??

I was curious if someone made a vibrator that looked like a pink pistol... I looked... trust me, I looked... I really really looked... Hmmmm... might require some marketing research...

I'm thinking that this woman would have to do a better job of concealing her 'weapon'... but I'm just not THAT sure where she would hide it...

Personally, she could give me a cavity search anytime she wanted....

As long as she reciprocated...

_______________

"Senorita" has a hilarious post HERE ... in the comment section, "Darn Girl" goes into a discourse on 'ball sucking'... which made me think of 

THIS!!!!

I miss Chef... I hate that he joined that strange Society... and got killed... and then just a year or so later, Issac Hayes, who supplied the voice for the character of 'Chef'... died...

What a wonderful musician he was...

Anyhoo...

Things are back to some level of normal here at the "Shoes" household...

~shoes~

"April 14th..."

Many people think of April 14th as being the 'one more day' that one has before Federal Income Taxes have to be filed...


For me, it's the memory of the day I had to go to court for my divorce hearing 13 years ago today...

I have written WAY too much about events and all that led up to this day...  I wrote about it here...  and I wrote about it here... and I even wrote about it HERE...   Hmmm.... and Here even...  and Oh... Most Definitely HERE!!!!!!!   Well... I think you get the drift... I am sure there are others...


The divorce was horrible... it was ugly... she wanted everything... she was not wanting to settle... so we actually went to court... and I had to testify... way too much... way too long... all of her attorney's questions were designed to humilate me... tear me down... and they did... but I persevered...  I guess...

Did I say how horrible it was?  So much had happened... So much had gone wrong... and my lawyer had asked me to lie under oath... be misleading on some of my answers to the questions that could be asked...


But... I didn't need the 'Lie' to go on... I didn't need the 'Lie' to continue... so I didn't lie...  I had decided that everything that was going to happen was going to be honest... and above-board... everything...


Needless to say, I am having a bad hives day... but I was expecting as much...

___________

I'm not sure I've written about this... there is a married woman here at the university that has been after me for almost 4 years... I fend her off... she goes away... for a while... then comes back... she is persistent...

She is nice enough, I suppose... 

The week before Easter, I was leaving home to go to work... and there was a bag hanging from my front door knob... and when I looked inside, there was a ceramic rabbit... I knew who it was from...  so... I was thinking... do I acknowledge the receipt of it?  No... because if I do that, that would sound as if I was accepting the gift... and opening that door... which I did NOT want to do... So I chose to ignore it...

I was home last night... tinkering around... watching some TV... reading some blogs... taking a couple of phone calls... and I get an email... and it said...

I almost made a terrible mistake tonight...I was at your door, 

about to ring the doorbell, then I realized what I was doing and left. 

I was upset and wanted someone to talk with, things have been very stressful lately, 

but I know they have with you as well. You have made it very clear that you want 

nothing to do with me and that's understood. You have my apology.

... and it was from her... the time stamp was 10.04pm...

I have told her and told her and told her that I can NOT be what she wants me to be... I can NOT do what she wants me to do...  I have been blunt with her in the past... I have even threatened to talk to her husband about this...

I've been stern without being mean...what do I need to do?  Do I need to grab myself by my boot straps, get stern, and tell her to 'GO AWAY!?!?'  I guess I've been telling her to 'go away'... and she hasn't taken that seriously...

____________

____________

I suppose tomorrow will be a better day... I filed my taxes and wrote an extra check yesterday...

I'm thinking that an early Happy Hour might be just what the doctor would order...

Still, I'm sad...

~shoes~