Among the souvenirs Winnie brought back from China on her recent trip was an 11-disk set of DVDs containing the Chinese classic series “Journey to the West.” Now, as part of our evening routine whenever Winnie and I are both home, we watch one or two episodes. Although it’s only in the Chinese national language (no subtitles) I am able to mostly follow the action with Winnie’s help explaining the dialog. Watching these series has becoming a lot of fun.
My writing has been light lately, and there’s actually a good reason for this; a better reason that just not feeling like writing. I finally finished rebuilding my boat “Sea Dreams” enough that I could get her back in the water, and that event has pretty much taken first priority.
Winnie returned home in Virginia from her month long visit to China Sunday morning. She reports she had a nice visit traveling around different family in different towns around south-eastern China. However, her flying experience coming back to the U.S. left something to be desired.
It’s been a fast month. Spring is officially here and not a day too soon. It’s still not nearly warm enough for my liking but every day gets better. The boating season has begun, but my boat is not ready for the water. Beyond all that, Winnie’s gone to China trusting in me to keep her plants alive until she returns.
She is a very trusting soul indeed.
Once again, I’ve had an interesting on-line “debate” in our very own “The Potomac News.” This time, the issues was global climate change. The letter to the editor (LTE) that started the debate was titled “Global warming: Another big, fat lie,” which is a fairly neutral title that gives one no hint of the general tone of the letter.
After nearly three years and many adventures in the New World, Winnie left today to go visit her family. One catch with marrying a person who lived halfway around the planet; going to visit family takes a lot of planning.
I’ve made a point of getting a Letter to the Editor (LTE) of our local newspaper published at least once each month since last summer. Over these past months my writing has evolved from simple rebutting of our local Conservative columnists to writing on original topics. Part of the change from rebutting columnists is that the newspaper has introduced commenting in their on-line version. This on-line commenting is moderated but apparently only filtered for obvious spam, as evidenced by the range of opinions that actually gets posted.
A comments thread I participated in became extremely amusing to me extremely fast today. Unfortunately, it is also a sad example of what now-a-days passes for “educated discussion” on immigration in this Virginia county of Prince William.
The recent series of Posts by AlyceClover has gotten me thinking about some of the mysterious events I’ve been around. I have the dubious distinction of having lived in two areas currently considered to be UFO hot spots; Pine Bush, New York, and Pascagoula, Mississippi. Pascagoula has the added distinction of being a hot spot for ghosts and haunted places.
Here’s to wishing all Mother’s in the United States a Happy Mother’s Day. For those families who actually live within commuting distance of “Mom,” be sure to take her out to breakfast, lunch, dinner, or at least stop by and say hello. For those of us too far away to commute, at least give dear old Mom a call….after sending a card or some flowers… Read a short history of Mother’s Day on the flip.
The New Age of Mom and Pops
An editorial in today’s local newspaper, coupled with a news story, has gotten me to thinking about the old-fashioned “Mom and Pop” shops. If you look around, you might think that those type stores, small specialty outlets run by a single family, famous for knowing their customers and offering great service, were going the way of the dinosaur (and gas guzzling monster trucks).
In reality, if you look around you might recognize that those “Mom and Pop shops” have morphed into something bigger and better. They’ve become the new age of Internet shopping.
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