The Night Watch

My dear friend, Mark sent this to me. Thought it should be posted for the world to read. I just wish more people would take heed of it's message.


NIGHT WATCH
by Roy Popkin

A nurse took the tired, anxious serviceman to the bedside. "Your son is
here," she said to the old man. She had to repeat the words several
times before the patient's eyes opened. Heavily sedated because of the
pain of his heart attack, he dimly saw the young uniformed Marine
standing outside the oxygen tent. He reached out his hand.

The Marine wrapped his toughened fingers around the old man's limp ones,
squeezing a message of love and encouragement. The nurse brought a chair
so that the Marine could sit beside the bed.

All through the night the young Marine sat there in the poorly lighted
ward, holding the old man's hand and offering him words of love and
strength.

Occasionally, the nurse suggested that the Marine move away and rest
awhile. He refused. Whenever the nurse came into the ward, the Marine
was oblivious of her and of the night noises of the hospital - the
clanking of the oxygen tank, the laughter of the night staff members
exchanging greetings, the cries and moans of the other patients. Now
and then she heard him say a few gentle words. The dying man said
nothing, only held tightly to his son all through the night.

Along towards dawn, the old man died. The Marine released the now
lifeless hand he had been holding and went to tell the nurse. While she
did what she had to do, he waited. Finally, she returned. She started
to offer words of sympathy, but the Marine interrupted her. "Who was
that man?" he asked.

The nurse was startled, "He was your father" she answered.

"No, he wasn't," the Marine replied. "I never saw him before in my
life."

"Then why didn't you say something when I took you to him?"

"I knew right away there had been a mistake, but I also knew he needed
his son, and his son just wasn't here. When I realized that he was too
sick to tell whether or not I was his son, knowing how much he needed
me. I stayed."

The next time someone needs you...be there. Stay. You'll be glad you
did.

<>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <><

This sounds so familiar

Do you remember?

DO YOU REMEMBER WHEN...?

All the girls had ugly gym uniforms?

It took five minutes for the TV warm up?

Nearly everyone's Mom was at home when the kids got home from school?

Nobody owned a purebred dog?

When a quarter was a decent allowance?

You'd reach into a muddy gutter for a penny?

Your Mom wore nylons that came in two pieces?

All your male teachers wore neckties and female teachers had
their hair done every day and wore high heels?

You got your windshield cleaned, oil checked, and gas pumped,
without asking, all for free, every time?  And you didn't pay for air?

And, you got trading stamps to boot?

Laundry detergent had free glasses, dishes or towels hidden inside the
box?

It was considered a great privilege to be taken out to dinner
at a real restaurant with your parents?

They threatened to keep kids back a grade if they failed. . .

and they did?

When a 57 Chevy was everyone's dream car...to cruise,
peel out, lay rubber or watch submarine races, and people went
steady?

No one ever asked where the car keys were because they were

always in the car, in the ignition, and the doors were never locked?

Lying on your back in the grass with your friends and saying things like,

"That cloud looks like a .."   and playing baseball with no adults to

help kids with the rules of the game?

Stuff from the store came without safety caps and hermetic seals
because no one had yet tried to poison a perfect stranger?

And with all our progress, don't you just wish, just once,
you could slip back in time and savor the slower pace,
and share it with the children of today?

 

When being sent to the principal's office was nothing
compared to the fate that awaited the student at home?
Basically we were in fear for our lives,    but it wasn't because

of drive-by shootings, drugs, gangs, etc. Our parents and grandparents

were a much bigger threat!    But we survived because their love was

greater than the threat.

 

Copy and Send this on to someone who can still remember
Nancy Drew, the Hardy Boys, Laurel and Hardy, Howdy Dowdy

and the Peanut Gallery, the Lone Ranger, The Shadow Knows,
Nellie Bell, Roy and Dale, Trigger and Buttermilk.

As well as summers filled with bike rides, baseball games, Hula Hoops,

bowling and visits to the pool,  and eating Kool-Aid powder with sugar.
Didn't that feel good, just to go back and say, "Yeah, I remember
that"?

 

I am sharing this with you today because it ended with a double dog dare

to pass it on. To remember what a double dog dare is, read on. And

remember that the perfect age is somewhere between old enough to know

better and too young to care. 

How many of these do you remember? 

Candy cigarettes
Wax Coke-shaped bottles with colored sugar water inside
Soda pop machines that dispensed glass bottles
Coffee shops with tableside jukeboxes
Blackjack, Clove and Teaberry chewing gum
Home milk delivery in glass bottles with cardboard stoppers
Newsreels before the movie P.F. Fliers
Telephone numbers with a word prefix...(Raymond 4-601).
Party lines
Peashooters
Howdy Dowdy
45 RPM records
Green Stamps
Hi-Fi's
Metal ice cubes trays with levers
Mimeograph paper
Beanie and Cecil
Roller-skate keys
Cork pop guns
Drive ins
Studebakers
Washtub wringers
The Fuller Brush Man
Reel-To-Reel tape recorders
Tinkertoys
Erector Sets
The Fort Apache Play Set
Lincoln Logs
15 cent McDonald hamburgers
5 cent packs of baseball cards -
with that awful pink slab of bubble gum
Penny candy
35 cent a gallon gasoline
Jiffy Pop popcorn

 

Do you remember a time when...
Decisions were made by going "eeny-meeny-miney-moe"?
Mistakes were corrected by simply exclaiming, "Do Over!"?
"Race issue" meant arguing about who ran the fastest?
Catching the fireflies could happily occupy an entire evening?
It wasn't odd to have two or three "Best Friends"?
The worst thing you could catch from the opposite sex was "cooties"?
Having a weapon in school meant being caught with a slingshot?
A foot of snow was a dream come true?
Saturday morning cartoons weren't 30-minute commercials for action
figures?
"Oly-oly-oxen-free" made perfect sense?
Spinning around, getting dizzy, and falling down was cause for
giggles?
The worst embarrassment was being picked last for a team?
War was a card game?
Baseball cards in the spokes transformed any bike into a motorcycle?
Taking drugs meant orange-flavored chewable aspirin?
Water balloons were the ultimate weapon?

 If you can remember most or all of these, then you have
lived!!!!!!!
Pass this on to anyone who may need a break from
their "grown-up" life . . .I
double-dog-dare-ya!


 

Things that aggravate me.

Do you want to know what gets under my skin? Well, I'm going to tell you. Take a look at the following:
 

*spam

 

*tele-marketers

*when the stapler runs out of staples

*when a button pops off minutes before I'm ready to leave for work 

*when I step with my bare feet into something wet that I didn't put there

*when people in cars race to get ahead of me and then proceed to drive slower than I ever would

*when the light turns red and there's a cop nearby just waiting to see if I'll blow the light

*when I run out of something important in something I'm making

*when any drain in the house gets clogged 

*when the gas light goes on in my car, signalling the fact that I need to fill up the tank and go broke in doing so 

*a nap that's too short 

 

*people who backstab, people who put on a false front, and people who are two-faced

*Bible beaters, born-agains, and pseudo-Christians (you know what those are; the ones who get all dressed up to go to church, but then treat the people they run into like shit on a daily basis, not "walking the walk," so to speak) 

*music about pimps, ho's, and hoochie mamas (translation: black men screaming at me on the radio) and any music that forces the white girl singing to sound like she's not white, but in the middle of a seizure, popping that vein that sticks out of her forehead as she's straining to hit that high note
 

*people who classify themselves as ****-Americans. Either your American or your not.

 

*people who degrade this country, our military and our leaders.

 

*stupid news about actors, actresses singers etc which most of us could give a rats ass about.

 

*actors etc. who supposedly support this or that foundation to get you to send money, but don't openly support it financially themselves.

 

*Stupid people

 

*having to get up in the morning

 

*attorneys

*What pisses you off? I'm so curious. I didn't purposely set out to offend anyone, but if I did, so be it. These are my opinions, like them or not. Now tell me yours.

 

Daily Dose of Nonsense 18 Oct

Vimrod's Daily Dose of Nonsense
Check out www.lastlemon.com/dailydose/index.htm to see the archived strips.

---

Copyright Last Lemon Productions Ltd. 2005.
Registered US Library of Congress
http://www.lastlemon.com/

Quotes of the Day

If you find a path with no opsticles, It probably leads to nowhere.

 

Don't bother me, I'm living happily ever after.....

Weekend Madness

Well another weekend has come and gone. This one was busy. Now that we are in the house, Of course everything has to get put away, placed, hung on the walls, you all know the drill.

So let's just start out with Friday.

The new television I ordered did come in to the store. I called to find out if it had come in and they told me they didn't know why it hadn't come in, but they did get a couple of the new JVC HD IHA's in. come take a look, you may like it better. So the other half and I run down there and take a look at this one. 61'' screen, beautiful picture and new technology. Same price as the Mitsubishi I was looking at. When can you deliver it? Saturday. No problem, send it on. Then it's back home to pick up the kid from school and off to the liquor store to work for the night. Boring, but at least I was training someone so not as boring. Closed at 1 am and off to the house for some sleep.

So Saturday comes around. Can't sleep to late. She has things for me to do, have to go to the grocery store and Florida State game is coming on and my television still isn't here. Where is it? Plus she wants the garage cleaned out, the boxes torn down and some space made so she can get the car in the garage. So here are me and her and the boys out there shoving paper into boxes and making this huge mess in the front yard. Game's on, no TV and this huge mess to clean up. Plus I have to finish putting up pictures, and shelves. Missed the game but what the hell, I knew FSU would beat Wake Forest. I had no doubt. Nice quiet evening, doing things around the house, finally got to sit down about 9.

A bright and cheery good morning, it's Sunday. She got up early but let me sleep in till 8:30. the big kid comes in to wake me up while she is playing on the computer. He about got his ass whooped, snapped me with a rubber band in the ass. Well now I am up. Still have pictures to hang, have to fix the pool pump, trying to hook up the TV now that it has been delivered, to do what I wanted with the TIVO. But DirecTV's Tivo won't do what I want it to do. So now what. Mark and his gang are coming over to grill out and watch some football before we had to go to work at the liquor store. Kids were playing in the pool, we were watching the game, grill is doing a good job on the burgers and dogs. New England beats Atlanta, but other games are just going every which way they can. Not according to the spreads. Jags beat the Bengals though, which I knew could happen. I played it in all the pools I play. So off to work I go, another boring night at the store. Well I get there and now I have to train one of the newbie's. Fortunately she has a clue and not dumb as a box of rocks and picks it up fairly quickly. Slow night.

Monday, Columbus Day. No work at the main job. So I can get things done around the house. Called DirecTV about the DVR. It won't do the same things that a regular stand alone TIVO will. So what's the use in having it? Turned off the service and get the TIVO out to hook up. Plug it in and the cooling fan starts screaming.   Now I have to call them too. They were good though. Going to exchange it for a new one for just the cost of shipping. All I have to do is pack it up and ship it to them. Going out today or tomorrow. Watched a little tv, got a few other things done and took it easy until work time at the store. Boring night. No one to train, not busy, hell didn't even have a customer after 10:30. Hour and a half with nothing or nobody coming in. what a waste of time. Went home to find her sitting up watching TV waiting for me to get home. Hmmm……..

"AMERICA"

Osama Bin Laden, your time is short;

We'd rather you die, than come to court.

Why are you hiding if it was in God's name?

You're just a punk with a turban; a pathetic shame.

I have a question, about your theory and laws;

" How come You never die for the cause?"

Is it because you're a coward who counts on others?

Well, here in America, we stand by our brothers.

As is usual, you failed in your mission; if you expected pure chaos, you can keep on wishing. Americans are now focused and stronger than ever;

Your death has become our next endevor.

What you tried to kill, doesn't live in our walls;

It's not in buildings or shopping malls.

If all of our structures came crashing down;

It would still be there, safe and sound.

Because pride and courage can't be destroyed;

Even if the towers leave a deep void.

We'll band together and fill the holes.

We'll bury our dead and bless their souls.

But then our energy will focus on you;

And you'll feel the wrath of the

Red, White and Blue!

So slither and hide like a snake in the grass;

Because America's coming to

Kick your sorry ass!!!

New Orleans

New Orleans Blues Band lead guitar player, Bill Boudreux wrote this...


Been sitting here with my ass in a wad, wanting to speak out about the bullshit going on in New Orleans.

For the people of New Orleans... First we would like to say, Sorry for your loss. With that said, Lets go through a few hurricane rules: (Unlike an earthquake, we know it's coming)


#1. A mandatory evacuation means just that... Get the hell out. Don't blame the Government after they tell you to go. If they hadn't said anything, I can see the argument. They said get out... if you didn't, it's your fault, not theirs. (We don't want to hear it, even if you don't have a car, you can get out.)


#2. If there is an emergency, stock up on water and non-perishables. If you didn't do this, it's not the governments fault you're starving.


#2a. If you run out of food and water, find a store that has some. (Remember, shoes, TV's, DVD's and CD's are not edible. Leave them alone.)


#2b. If the local store is too looted of food or water, leave your neighbor's TV and stereo alone. (See # 2a) They worked hard to get their stuff. Just because they were smart enough to leave during a mandatory evacuation, doesn't give you the right to take their stuff... it's theirs, not yours.


#3. If someone comes in to help you, don't shoot at them and then complain no one is helping you. I'm not getting shot to help save some dumbass who didn't leave when told to do so.


#4. If you are in your house that is completely under water, your belongings are probably too far gone for anyone to want them. If someone does want them, Let them have them and hopefully they'll die in the filth. Just leave! ( For Christ's sakes, it's New Orleans, find a voodoo warrior and put a curse on them )


#5. My tax money should not pay to rebuild a 2 million dollar house, a sports stadium or a floating casino. Also, my tax money shouldn't go to rebuild a city that is under sea level . You wouldn't build your house on quicksand would you? You want to live below sea-level, do your country some good and join the Navy.


#6. Regardless what the Poverty Pimps Jessie Jackson and Al Sharpton want you to believe, The US Government didn't create the Hurricane as a way to eradicate the black people of New Orleans; (Neither did Russia as a way to destroy America). The US Government didn't cause global warming that caused the hurricane (We've been coming out of an ice age for over a million years).


#7. The government isn't responsible for giving you anything. This is the land of the free and the home of the brave, but you gotta work for what you want. McDonalds and Wal-Mart are always hiring, get a damn job and stop spooning off the people who are actually working for a living.


President Kennedy said it best... "Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country."


Thank you for allowing me to rant.

Social Security, How can we fix it?

DOESN'T MATTER IF YOU ARE REPUBLICAN OR DEMOCRAT !

KEEP IT GOING!!!!

2008 Election Issue !!

GET A BILL STARTED TO PLACE ALL POLITICIANS ON SOC. SEC.

This must be an issue in "2006 & 2008". Please! Keep it going.

----------------------------------

SOCIAL SECURITY:
(This is worth reading. It is short and to the point.)

Perhaps we are asking the wrong questions during election years. !

Our Senators and Congresswomen do not pay into Social Security and, of course, they do not collect from it.

You see, Social Security benefits were not suitable for persons

 of their rare elevation in society .They felt they should have a special plan for themselves!

So, many years ago they voted in their own benefit plan.

In more recent years, no congressperson has felt the need to change it. After all, it is a great plan.

For all practical purposes their plan works like this:

When they retire, they continue to draw the same pay until they die.

Except it may increase from time to time for cost of living adjustments..

For example, former Senator Byrd and Congressman White

and their wives may expect to draw $7,800,000.00

(that's Seven Million, Eight-Hundred Thousand Dollars),

with their wives drawing $275,000.00 during the last years of their lives.

This is calculated on an average life span for each of those two Dignitaries.

Younger Dignitaries who retire at an early age,

will receive much more during the rest of their lives.

Their cost for this excellent plan is $0.00 .

NADA....ZILCH....

This little perk they voted for themselves is free to them.

You and I pick up the tab for this plan .

The funds for this fine retirement plan come directly from the General Funds;

" OUR TAX DOLLARS AT WORK "!

From our own Social Security Plan, which you and I pay (or have paid) into,

 -every payday until we retire (which amount is matched by our employer)

- we can expect to get an average of $1,000 per month after retirement.

Or, in other words, we would have to collect our average of $1,000 monthly benefits

for 68 years and one (1) month to equal Senator Bill Bradley's ! benefits!

Social Security could be very good if only one small change were made.

That change would be to:

Jerk the Golden Fleece Retirement Plan from under the

Senators and Congressmen.

Put them into the Social Security plan with the rest of us

then sit back..

and watch how fast they would fix it.

If enough people receive this,

maybe a seed of awareness will be planted and maybe good changes will evolve.
Copy this and send it to everyone we know.

How many people can YOU send this to?

Better yet.....

How many people WILL you send this to??

Comments on America

The following was sent to me from a friend in Virginia. It was listed as comments from Andy Rooney on 60 Minutesand it sounds right up his alley but after some research, and a comment from Ben (a comment posted to me) it is not. It has been edited to remove the comments about Andy Rooney.I for 1, agree 100% with this view. Read On. I don't think being a minority makes you a victim of anything except numbers. The only things I can think of that are truly discriminatory are things like the United Negro College Fund, Jet Magazine, Black Entertainment Television, and Miss Black America. Try to have things like the United Caucasian College Fund, Cloud Magazine, White Entertainment Television, or Miss White America; and see what happens...Jesse Jackson will be knocking down your door. Guns do not make you a killer. I think killing makes you a killer. You can kill someone with a baseball bat or a car, but no one is trying to ban you from driving to the ball game. I believe they are called the Boy Scouts for a reason, that is why there are no girls allowed. Girls belong in the Girl Scouts! ARE YOU LISTENING MARTHA BURKE? I think that if you feel homosexuality is wrong, it is not a phobia, it is an opinion. I have the right "NOT" to be tolerant of others because they are different, weird, or tick me off. When 70% of the people who get arrested are black, in cities where 70% of the population is black, that is not racial profiling, it is the Law of Probability. I believe that if you are selling me a milkshake, a pack of cigarettes, a newspaper or a hotel room, you must do it in English! As a matter of fact, if you want to be an American citizen, you should have to speak English! My father and grandfather didn't die in vain so you can leave the countries you were born in to come over and disrespect ours. I think the police should have every right to shoot your sorry behind if you threaten them after they tell you to stop. If you can't understand the word "freeze" or "stop" in English, see the above lines. I don't think just because you were not born in this country, you are qualified for any special loan programs, government sponsored bank loans or tax breaks, etc., so you can open a hotel, coffee shop, trinket store, or any other business. We did not go to the aid of certain foreign countries and risk our lives in wars to defend their freedoms, so that decades later they could come over here and tell us our constitution is a living document; and open to their interpretations. I know pro wrestling is fake, but so are movies and television. That doesn't stop you from watching them I think Bill Gates has every right to keep every penny he made and continue to make more. If it ticks you off, go and invent the next operating system that's better, and put your name on the building. It doesn't take a whole village to raise a child right, but it does take a parent to stand up to the kid; and smack their little behinds when necessary, and say "NO!" I think tattoos and piercing are fine if you want them, but please don't pretend they are a political statement. And, please, stay home until that new lip ring heals. I don't want to look at your ugly infected mouth as you serve me French fries! I am sick of "Political Correctness." I know a lot of black people, and not a single one of them was born in Africa; so how can they be "African-Americans"? Besides, Africa is a continent. I don't go around saying I am a European-American because my great, great, great, great, great, great grandfather was from Europe. I am proud to be from America and nowhere else And if you don't like my point of view, tough... DON'T PASS IT ON