Best Bracelet

In yesterday's Contra Costa Times is a story about Kathy Strong and James Leslie Morland. They have never met and it is unfortunately a pretty good bet that they never will. Kathy wears a POW bracelet with James' name on it. She has worn it since she first got it as a Christmas Stocking Stuffer in 1972. I do wonder what her "Santa" was like to put one of these in her stocking. Perhaps if more of us received this type of gift the world might be a little better? It does bring back memories of my own POW bracelet, the Vietnam War, my brother, the Vietnam Memorial, the current war and my other brother. All of them flow thru my brain like rocks in a rock polisher. Not smooth, not good, but noisy and loud and wanting them to stop, but afraid when they do and the silence sets in.

I was one of the lucky ones, I guess. I was able to send my bracelet home. My POW came home, I can't tell you much more than he lived in Texas and I sent the bracelet to him when I was notified that he came back. I never heard from him and I don't remember his name now and that is a shame. I made a promise to myself that I would always remember and I broke it somewhere along the way.

A couple of years ago while visting the Colonel and family we went into Washington, DC and saw the Vietnam Memorial for the first time. I did not expect to be so overwhelmed. It starts out as a small little piece of black marble and rises upwards until it is far about my head. The names brought tears to my eyes, I pictured young boys, dads, sons, brothers, lovers never coming home again. I was angry and I was amazed that the names of missing and dead went back to the 50's. The Colonel being the history nerd he is started telling me about how we had been there for so much longer than most of us think. We looked at that wall with lumps in our throats and spoke of Michael. How that war had killed him, but he had not died there. That men like him should be there, because they were just as dead because of things that happend there.

Then we walked over to the booths - there were three or four of them filled with stickers, badges, pins, names of the still missing. The POW/MIA flag flying over each of them. They were staffed by guys that looked like bikers for the most part and maybe they were. They also seemed a little damaged in that Vietnam Veteran kind of way, but they have vowed to stay there in one form or another until the last POW/MIA comes home from every war. I was confused, one of them explained to me that we still have POW/MIA's from WWI, WWII, Korea and Vietnam. I felt embarassed because I did not know.

I do not know a lot of things, but I do know that I am grateful and humbled by the Kathy Strongs of the world that keep the faith and hope that someday that bracelet can come off their wrist.

Hmm...

One would think that something that says "AIRCAST" on it would be well, light as air? Not so. It is heavy and looks like something a Star Wars clone trooper would wear. It makes me tired. Little whine with my cheese, please.

M.

580 Today

Today was ugly on the highway. There was an accident on the Bay Bridge and it seem to mess things up all over the place, then add to picture that it is raining and you have a lovely idea of what my commute was like this morning. One thing that did happen that was out of the ordinary was this big tanker truck in the lane next to me that put on its blinker to move in front of me. Now, I like to think of myself as a pretty courteous driver, so I let him in. I like to think it had nothing to do with the sign on the back of the truck in big letters that said: MOLTEN SULPHUR. I don't know about you, but that sounds pretty ugly to me. Then, of course, using my handy reference tool (the internet) I looked up SOUFRE FONDU (which is French for this will burn more than the skin off you the roof of your mouth) and then I wondered if I made a good choice by letting the truck in front of me:

General Description

A yellow to red liquid. Handled at elevated temperature (typically 290°F) to prevent solidification and makes transfers easier. Hot enough that plastic or rubber may melt or lose strength. Causes thermal burns to skin on contact. Cools rapidly and solidifies if released. Equipment designed to protect against ordinary chemical exposure is ineffective against the thermal hazard. Exercise caution walking on the surface of a spill to avoid breakthrough into pockets of molten sulfur below the crust. Do not attempt to remove sulfur impregnated clothing because of the danger of tearing flesh if a burn has resulted.

Jesus, Mary and Joseph - they let this stuff travel the highways?????

Are you a good witch or a bad witch?

In the public interest the witch shall be excecuted. Among her accursors, a man that says she made him impotent.

Violet Dangale, a 42-year-old woman who "was driven from her home 30 months ago by relatives and neighbours who accused her of being a witch growing rich from the work of zombies, as the 'living dead' are known."

65-year-old Linah Seabi, "a sorghum beer brewer ... [who] was charged with killing an elderly woman with a poisonous potion.

"Francina Sebatsana, 75, and Desia Mamafa, 55 ... were burned to death on pyres of wood in the village of Wydhoek,"

Am I talking about the European Witch Trials of the 1550s? Or maybe the Salem Witch Trials of the 1690's? No, Francina and Desia were burned to death in South Africa in 1998. Linah stopped brewing beer in 1991. Violet in the early 90's.

And the first one? A Valentine story from the BBC. It seems that Saudi Arabia continues in its quest to punish women. How can we support a government that condons this kind of thing? Oh, yeah, oil. Oil does make the best friends, does it not?

HMO Crap

Let me start by saying I really like my doctor. But, the process of getting my broken foot fixed has been mind boggleing. I first go to my primary doctor in Pleasanton, she sends me to get x-rays in Danville. They take the pictures and confirm that yes I am broken. They call my primary doctor, who gives me a reference to another doctor. The next doctor (back to Danville) tells me, yes you are broken, in a really bad place. He recommends something called a camo cast and tells me that if I am a really good girl and follow all the rules in about six weeks I should be healed. If not, he will have to open me up and put in a screw. Incentive, yes. But, he can't cast me. My HMO will not pay for it if he does it, they have to fax the HMO and get permission to get the cast for me, but I have to go back to Pleasanton to have it done. So it has taken four days since I first went to the doctor to get a cast, am I the only one that thinks this is crazy?

A moment to whine!

I have been here before and it is all coming back to me. When you break something there comes a time when you just want to cry. Not when it happens, cause you do want to cry then. But a little later, back at work, dragging your foot around, your other leg hurts cause you are babying your hurt foot, the skin on your hurt foot itches (why is that). I am feeling that way right now. It will pass, I will be fine, just needed to whine a little. thanks.

What could you...

My beloved just asked me "what could you possibly have taken pictures of in Paris?" How can she even ask that question? Around every corner, on every building, under your feet, Paris always reveals something new and beautiful.


The Lovely Streets:


The Circus

Happy New Year from Travel Chicks window






Palais Royal Metro Station

Need I say more?