Up Next

Posted

1/20/2006

Updated

1/20/2006

Keywords

Blogging, Humor

Viewed 1105 times

Welcome To My Blog, James Frey

Okay. I've finally done it. Started a blog, that is. The name of this blog comes from a bit of current-event trivia that will undoubtedly be forgotten within six months. A Million Little Pieces is a book by James Frey that has gotten him and his publisher, Random House, into a bit of trouble. It was sold as non-fiction and picked up by Oprah's Book Club and so sold millions of copies. There was one little catch. It turns out it didn't really happen. It was a novel.

Posted

1/24/2006

Updated

1/24/2006

Keywords

Evolution, Intelligent Design, Personal History, Science

Viewed 1122 times

Wisdom Teeth and Intelligent Design

Yesterday afternoon I went to the dentist. More specifically, I went to the Arizona School of Dentistry, where I get cut-rate dental work done by students. This sounds scary, but I had an emergency tooth-pulling done there and it was a lot less painful than the teeth I had pulled when I was in Navy boot camp.

Posted

1/25/2006

Updated

1/25/2006

Keywords

Biography, Elizabeth Jane Cochran, Nelly Bly

Viewed 1125 times

Bring The Broom Along

1882 was far from the world of Lois Lane. It was considered "unseemly" for a woman to use her private name in public. Elizabeth Cochran's editor chose "Nelly Bly" from the Steven Foster song. We don't know if Elizabeth took her cue from her namesake's broom, but she got busy cleaning up Pittsburgh by inventing investigative reporting.

Posted

1/26/2006

Updated

1/26/2006

Keywords

Religious Politics

Viewed 1108 times

Thou Shalt Not Argue

Yesterday, the new Pope, Benedict, released his first encyclical.

Posted

1/28/2006

Updated

1/28/2006

Keywords

Historical Jesus, Religious Politics

Viewed 1107 times

Where Are The Photos?

An Italian court is about to decide whether Jesus of Nazareth is an historical character, or a fictional one. Italy has a law against "abusal of popular belief" and the plaintiff has accused his ex-friend, a priest, of conning the public. The trial has sparked the usual division of people into "believers" and "non-believers". The believers have faith on their side. The non-believers have facts. Unfortunately, faith usually trumps facts. Otherwise, why would fundamentalist Christians still believe that gay marriage would destroy the world as we know it?

Posted

1/31/2006

Updated

1/31/2006

Keywords

Gay Rights, Religious Politics

Viewed 1109 times

Shut Up About Human Rights!

The United Nations allows about 3000 groups to come before it and speak on subjects of concern. These groups include the International Red Cross, for example. Which groups can be heard by the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) is controlled by the NGO (Non-Governmental Organizations) committee. 18 nations are on this committee, including the United States.

Posted

2/2/2006

Updated

2/2/2006

Keywords

Freedom Of Speech, Patriot Act, Personal History, Sedition

Viewed 1110 times

Playground Bullies

I remember a kid from the schoolyard playground. Danny loved to play King of the Mountain. He loved it, because he always managed to be king. Our "mountain" was a one-foot high lump in the playground, and he would gleefully, and with excessive force, push anyone who tried to replace him there.

However, when one of the kids got hurt by this shoving and complained to the playground nun that he'd been pushed, Danny got very upset. "I did not!" he cried. "We were just playing!" And then, in a flash of brilliance, he added, "That kid just doesn't like me! He's trying to get me in trouble! He's always trying to get me in trouble!"

The teacher, whose only goal was to keep things quiet for three more minutes until the bell rang and these hellions would return to their classrooms and out of her hair, was neither convinced nor incensed by Danny's argument. But he learned plenty from it. And the next time we gathered for King of the Mountain, before we could play he made us all promise not to complain if we got pushed too hard--otherwise, we couldn't play.

Posted

2/3/2006

Updated

2/3/2006

Keywords

Abramhoff, Bob Ney, Humor, Republican Corruption

Viewed 1106 times

A Sign of the Times

Seriously, how many indicted Republicans will it take before the good Republican citizens of this country admit they've been had?

Posted

2/6/2006

Updated

2/6/2006

Keywords

9/11, Bush Crime Family, Conspiracy, Republican Corruption

Viewed 1125 times

Fear of Facts

As a nation, we are currently living in a shadow world where suspension of disbelief is the only ticket in. In this world, Muslim terrorists attacked the United States in 2001, leading to a justified "war on terror" and invasion of two sovereign nations to prevent their attacking us with weapons of mass destruction. Leading us in this fight is the brave and noble George W. Bush, winner of two elections and possessor of a mandate to right wrongs and bring safety to the American people, in spite of the best efforts of liberal scum to thwart him.

Posted

2/9/2006

Updated

2/9/2006

Keywords

Mohammed Cartoons

Viewed 1109 times

Bomb Hats Away!

Whenever I find the mass media monopolizing its airwaves and headlines with the same story, hammered over and over, it makes me wonder what they're trying to hide.

Posted

2/10/2006

Updated

2/10/2006

Keywords

Bush Crime Family, Conspiracy, Dick Cheney

Viewed 1106 times

Sleight of Hand

As most people know, magicians do their tricks by a technique called "misdirection." That is, if the magician's right hand is about to grasp a card or uncage a dove, the audience will have their attention riveted to the magician's left hand or foot or something, anything, but his or her right hand.

For almost six years, George W. Bush, fighting his ill-defined "war on terror," has made vague claims that this "war" is succeeding; that his tactics have saved American lives from attacks by terrorists.

Posted

2/12/2006

Updated

2/12/2006

Keywords

9/11, Conspiracy, Dick Cheney, Project For A New American Century

Viewed 1124 times

Strange and Amazing Coincidences

Conspiracy theorists are a strange bunch. They see what any normal person would identify as simple coincidence, and perceive a conspiracy. Here are some facts regarding the 9/11 attacks, and their simple explanations...

Posted

2/13/2006

Updated

2/13/2006

Keywords

Viewed 1103 times

Cheney's Got A Gun

Anyone can have an accident, right?

What separates the men from the boys is how quickly a man owns up to it.

Posted

2/15/2006

Updated

2/15/2006

Keywords

Metaphysics

Viewed 1109 times

Ghosts

There are several levels of ghostliness if you will. The shallowest level is merely a shadow of a tragic event, imposed upon space-time. Such a ghost is a loop, running over and over, like the apparitions you hear about of a woman falling downstairs. There is no intelligence to that kind of ghost, same as there's no intelligence in one's shadow.

At deeper levels, some ghosts really are the spirits of people who don't understand their own condition--they may not understand they have died, or may have refused to "go to the light" for whatever reason; may even have insisted on staying for revenge or devotion or babysitting or whatever. These entities do have intelligence, but are confused; and we can help them if we will.

Posted

2/16/2006

Updated

2/16/2006

Keywords

Metaphysics, Personal History, Spiritualism

Viewed 1131 times

Marguerite

It was 1970; I was nineteen and had maintained a friendship with Don and Margaret Speck since my high school days. Margaret had been a waitress at the restaurant at which I had been a busboy, and her husband, Don, a night clerk at a local motel. However, he had once been a professional hypnotist and the three of us shared mutual interests in UFOs, ghosts, and reincarnation. In fact, it was Margaret who had recommended and loaned me the first books I'd read on Edgar Cayce: There Is A River by Thomas Sugrue, and Many Mansions by Gina Cerminara.

Don and Margaret decided to join the Spiritualist Church officially, and to that end moved to a "Spiritualist camp" in the central Florida town of Cassadaga. There they got a 99-year lease on a great, old house, and I visited them there several times.

Posted

2/17/2006

Updated

2/17/2006

Keywords

Religious Politics, Spirituality

Viewed 1110 times

A Man Without A Country

"Do unto others what you would have them do unto you." A lot of people think Jesus said that, because it is so much the sort of thing Jesus liked to say. But it was actually said by Confucius, a Chinese philosopher, five hundred years before there was that greatest and most humane of human beings, named Jesus Christ. The Chinese also gave us, via Marco Polo, pasta and the formula for gunpowder. The Chinese were so dumb they only used gunpowder for fireworks. And everybody was so dumb back then that nobody in either hemisphere even knew that there was another one.

Posted

2/21/2006

Updated

2/21/2006

Keywords

History, Marijuana

Viewed 1114 times

Reefer Sadness

In colonial America, tomatoes were thought to be poisonous and were grown as an ornamental plant called the "love apple." The odor of the leaves made people think it was poisonous. It wasn't until the 1800s that tomatoes made their way into American cookbooks, always with instructions that they be cooked for at least three hours or else they "will not lose their raw taste."

Personally, I am not a big fan of tomatoes. But considering that I recently co-authored a political thriller in which the major characters grow medical marijuana (and smoke a little, too), one might assume that I am an experienced user of this other, so-called, "poisonous" plant. I am not. But marijuana's press has been just as misleading as that of the tomato once was.

Posted

2/22/2006

Updated

2/22/2006

Keywords

Religious Politics

Viewed 1115 times

Religion and Politics

The reason we are told that religion and politics are topics to avoid, is obvious once one attains adulthood: Of everything one might discuss, these are the only two subjects on which people are so unreasoning, so illogical, as to come to blows over a disagreement.

Why is it that there should be such a fundamental difference between these two topics and any other--for example, the cross-pollination of roses or whether Canada should be sanctioned for exporting Celine Dion or whether Chevy trucks outperform Ford? That last example shows it isn't just because there are no clear answers. There's no clear answer to the question "Do we really need another reality show?" but people don't actually wrap their fingers around each others' throats and squeeze until the last vestige of life has evaporated over that, either.

Posted

2/24/2006

Updated

2/24/2006

Keywords

Current Events

Viewed 1117 times

Case of the Runaway Emotions

It was almost a year ago that Jennifer Wilbanks, a young woman who was about to get married, instead embarked on a cross-country journey on which she claimed to have been abducted, but in fact had merely freaked out over her impending wedding. Worse, she didn't do this on the spur of the moment; she had purchased a ticket to Las Vegas several days before and had even arranged for a friend to drive her to the bus station.

Most of us, when we heard the whole story, could have easily ticked off more rational solutions to the problem:

Posted

2/27/2006

Updated

2/27/2006

Keywords

Adolf Hitler, Conspiracy, History, Republican Corruption

Viewed 1132 times

Wolf In The Fold

In myth and in kids' cartoons we have all seen the image of the wolf who disguises himself as a sheep to infiltrate the flock and turn it into a fast-food buffet. We even use the phrase, "Wolf in sheep's clothing" to describe a person who presents himself as one thing but is, in fact, another. However, we think of this as a rare occurrence and one that is usually quickly recognized.

When that belief is held by the sheep it is almost always fatal...for the sheep.

Posted

3/1/2006

Updated

3/1/2006

Keywords

Diebold, Republican Corruption, Stolen Election

Viewed 1114 times

Stop, Thief!

Does this ever really happen? On a crowded sidewalk, a thief snatches a woman's purse and dashes away. "He stole my purse!" the woman cries, and some hero takes off in pursuit, tackles the would-be villain, and rescues the purse to the applause of onlookers who, despite not helping, are pleased the woman got her purse back.

Posted

3/2/2006

Updated

3/2/2006

Keywords

Religious Politics

Viewed 1109 times

Sea Change

As you drive from Miami to Key West, down around the swamps and cypress islands of Key Largo, there's a place where the road is a causeway with water on each side . The most stunning thing about this causeway is the difference between the east and west sides. Both sides are viewed through thickets of scrubby bushes; both bodies of water are dotted with palm tree-bearing islets and, if the wind is blowing, saucy little whitecaps. In fact, it is the same body of water, or should be; occasionally the causeway gives way to a drawbridge and the water flows freely between.

Posted

3/3/2006

Updated

3/3/2006

Keywords

Gay Marriage, Gay Rights, Humor

Viewed 1134 times

Why Gay Marriage Should Be Illegal

Being gay is not natural.
Real Americans always reject unnatural things like eyeglasses, polyester, and air conditioning.

Posted

3/4/2006

Updated

3/4/2006

Keywords

Gay Marriage, Gay Rights, Religious Politics, The Bible

Viewed 1123 times

Gays In The Bible

Take all this fuss over gay marriage. Christian extremists who want to impose their own lifestyle and beliefs on me insist the Bible defines marriage as being between "one man and one woman" and that is their basis for the oppressive laws they propose. Well, even if true, that shouldn't matter because the Constitution of the United States is the basis for our law, not the Boy Scout Handbook, Redbook, and certainly not the Bible.

Even so, they're still wrong. The Bible isn't nearly as clear-cut as fundamentalists would like to think on the subject of marriage. In fact, it describes eight different types!

Posted

3/6/2006

Updated

3/6/2006

Keywords

Conservatives, Humor, Republican Corruption

Viewed 1117 times

Banner Decade For Nitwits

A blog by Paul S. Cilwa, writer, instructor, traveler, photographer, singer, and all-round experiencer. A place where I can ruminate at will on politics, religion, spirituality, sex, and my private life...You know, all those topics we aren't supposed to discuss in public!

Posted

3/8/2006

Updated

3/8/2006

Keywords

Alien Abductions, Personal History, UFOs

Viewed 1132 times

A Novel Hobby

This is what I knew in the spring of 1992. I had managed to convince myself that maybe there was such a thing as alien abductions; and maybe it had happened to me...in the past. But fortunately, if it had ever happened before, at least it didn't seem to be happening now.

I couldn't have been more wrong.

Posted

3/9/2006

Updated

3/9/2006

Keywords

Alien Abductions, Personal History, UFOs

Viewed 1115 times

Bruises and Burns

A blog by Paul S. Cilwa, writer, instructor, traveler, photographer, singer, and all-round experiencer. A place where I can ruminate at will on politics, religion, spirituality, sex, and my private life...You know, all those topics we aren't supposed to discuss in public!

Posted

3/10/2006

Updated

3/10/2006

Keywords

Alien Abductions, Personal History

Viewed 1144 times

What Big Eyes You Have

A blog by Paul S. Cilwa, writer, instructor, traveler, photographer, singer, and all-round experiencer. A place where I can ruminate at will on politics, religion, spirituality, sex, and my private life...You know, all those topics we aren't supposed to discuss in public!

Posted

3/11/2006

Updated

3/11/2006

Keywords

Edna Mae Cilwa, Obituaries, Personal History

Viewed 1118 times

Goodbye, Mom

My mother, Edna Mae Brown/Cilwa, died today at 4:15 pm EST of abdominal cancer. She was 93.

Posted

3/13/2006

Updated

3/13/2006

Keywords

Alien Abductions, Personal History

Viewed 1123 times

The Fifth Pill

A blog by Paul S. Cilwa, writer, instructor, traveler, photographer, singer, and all-round experiencer. A place where I can ruminate at will on politics, religion, spirituality, sex, and my private life...You know, all those topics we aren't supposed to discuss in public!

Posted

3/14/2006

Updated

3/14/2006

Keywords

Alien Abductions, Personal History

Viewed 1138 times

Support Group

The 1990s was the decade in which Americans became aware of the alien abduction phenomenon. The media made fun of abductees, which kept most abductees "in the closet" which in turn made it easier to ridicule the ones who tried to "come out." The experience was very much like childhood sexual abuse, in that the experiencer was molested but had no way to stop it and no one to go to for support.

Yet while every word we heard from the media either denied our experience or made light of it by over-dramatizing it, those of us who experienced it first hand knew there are intelligent, non-human beings, because we’d seen them. They’d been in our bedrooms, taken us from our cars, left us with bruises, scars, mysterious lumps and disappearing pregnancies.

Posted

3/15/2006

Updated

3/15/2006

Keywords

Alien Abductions, Missing Time, Personal History

Viewed 1145 times

Missing Time

A blog by Paul S. Cilwa, writer, instructor, traveler, photographer, singer, and all-round experiencer. A place where I can ruminate at will on politics, religion, spirituality, sex, and my private life...You know, all those topics we aren't supposed to discuss in public!

Posted

3/17/2006

Updated

3/17/2006

Keywords

Alien Abductions, Personal History

Viewed 1126 times

What Are The Odds?

A blog by Paul S. Cilwa, writer, instructor, traveler, photographer, singer, and all-round experiencer. A place where I can ruminate at will on politics, religion, spirituality, sex, and my private life...You know, all those topics we aren't supposed to discuss in public!

Posted

3/20/2006

Updated

3/20/2006

Keywords

Alien Abductions, Missing Time, UFOs

Viewed 1126 times

Awakening

A blog by Paul S. Cilwa, writer, instructor, traveler, photographer, singer, and all-round experiencer. A place where I can ruminate at will on politics, religion, spirituality, sex, and my private life...You know, all those topics we aren't supposed to discuss in public!

Posted

3/21/2006

Updated

3/21/2006

Keywords

Alien Abductions, Personal History

Viewed 1121 times

The Morning After

A blog by Paul S. Cilwa, writer, instructor, traveler, photographer, singer, and all-round experiencer. A place where I can ruminate at will on politics, religion, spirituality, sex, and my private life...You know, all those topics we aren't supposed to discuss in public!

Posted

3/22/2006

Updated

3/22/2006

Keywords

Alien Abductions, Personal History

Viewed 1111 times

Memories

I took off my pack and sat on one of the boulders and waited for the UFO. But really that was just an excuse. It was so beautiful and so right being there, that even if there weren't any aliens I was glad I had made the trip--one I would never have made if I hadn't been UFO hunting!

Posted

3/23/2006

Updated

3/23/2006

Keywords

Alien Abductions, Computer Forums, Personal History

Viewed 1128 times

CyberDramas

And then it started getting weird.

Whenever you get a large group of people together, there tends to be drama; and if anything this is exacerbated when the group is gathered in cyberspace. Not everyone is what he claims to be; not everyone sees him or herself as others do. Most people are honest, straightforward and savvy; but some people do have agendas, some lie, and many are gullible or, at least, naïve.

And cybergroups, such as the Abduction Support Group on the CompuServe "Encounters" forum I started in 1992, are no different. In fact, possibly because of the nature of the subject at hand, some of the dramas were particularly wild.

Posted

3/24/2006

Updated

3/24/2006

Keywords

Alien Abductions, Personal History

Viewed 1170 times

Whistling Dixie

A blog by Paul S. Cilwa, writer, instructor, traveler, photographer, singer, and all-round experiencer. A place where I can ruminate at will on politics, religion, spirituality, sex, and my private life...You know, all those topics we aren't supposed to discuss in public!

Posted

3/27/2006

Updated

3/27/2006

Keywords

Alien Abductions, Personal History

Viewed 1131 times

Cast of Characters

A blog by Paul S. Cilwa, writer, instructor, traveler, photographer, singer, and all-round experiencer. A place where I can ruminate at will on politics, religion, spirituality, sex, and my private life...You know, all those topics we aren't supposed to discuss in public!

Posted

3/28/2006

Updated

3/28/2006

Keywords

Alien Abductions, Personal History

Viewed 1204 times

Starry, Starry Night

A blog by Paul S. Cilwa, writer, instructor, traveler, photographer, singer, and all-round experiencer. A place where I can ruminate at will on politics, religion, spirituality, sex, and my private life...You know, all those topics we aren't supposed to discuss in public!

Posted

3/29/2006

Updated

3/29/2006

Keywords

Alien Abductions, Personal History

Viewed 1140 times

A Strange Friend

A blog by Paul S. Cilwa, writer, instructor, traveler, photographer, singer, and all-round experiencer. A place where I can ruminate at will on politics, religion, spirituality, sex, and my private life...You know, all those topics we aren't supposed to discuss in public!

Posted

3/30/2006

Updated

3/30/2006

Keywords

Alien Abductions, Grand Canyon, Personal History, Whitewater Rafting

Viewed 1129 times

North Canyon Contact

A blog by Paul S. Cilwa, writer, instructor, traveler, photographer, singer, and all-round experiencer. A place where I can ruminate at will on politics, religion, spirituality, sex, and my private life...You know, all those topics we aren't supposed to discuss in public!

Posted

3/31/2006

Updated

3/31/2006

Keywords

Alien Abductions, Grand Canyon, Personal History, Whitewater Rafting

Viewed 1119 times

Back In The Closet

A blog by Paul S. Cilwa, writer, instructor, traveler, photographer, singer, and all-round experiencer. A place where I can ruminate at will on politics, religion, spirituality, sex, and my private life...You know, all those topics we aren't supposed to discuss in public!

Posted

4/3/2006

Updated

4/3/2006

Keywords

Alien Abductions, Grand Canyon, Personal History, Whitewater Rafting

Viewed 1127 times

Not All Aliens Come In Ships

A blog by Paul S. Cilwa, writer, instructor, traveler, photographer, singer, and all-round experiencer. A place where I can ruminate at will on politics, religion, spirituality, sex, and my private life...You know, all those topics we aren't supposed to discuss in public!

Posted

4/5/2006

Updated

4/5/2006

Keywords

Alien Abductions, Grand Canyon, Personal History, Whitewater Rafting

Viewed 1137 times

Living in Illusion

Liz and Kathleen hugged me goodbye and I shook hands with a few of the departing guys. Even the gay doctors politely said farewell. Judy, on the other hand, ignored me as studiously as I ignored her.

Posted

4/6/2006

Updated

4/6/2006

Keywords

Alien Abductions, Grand Canyon, Personal History, Whitewater Rafting

Viewed 1152 times

Heart Attack

And there I was, in the truck. In front of the glove compartment. Where, I'd been told, was a gun.

Posted

4/7/2006

Updated

4/7/2006

Keywords

Alien Abductions, Personal History

Viewed 1152 times

Night School

I spent the nights of November and December of 1994 going to school.

Sort of.

During the day, I continued to teach Windows programming around the country. But at night, I "dreamt" I was in a classroom setting, spending hours being taught things I couldn't remember when I woke up.

Posted

4/10/2006

Updated

4/10/2006

Keywords

Alien Abductions, Personal History

Viewed 1128 times

Parallel Earths

In the Spring of 1995, I experienced my next bit of high strangeness.

The central hub of this experience was Key West, where I had made arrangements to spend another full week's vacation at Light House Court. I'd been working more weeks out of the month than usual and was really looking forward to some time off.

Posted

4/11/2006

Updated

4/11/2006

Keywords

Alien Abductions, Personal History, Spirituality

Viewed 1133 times

Final Exam

Only my naiveté had saved me from the psychic attack that may or may not have originated with the now-unreachable Arcadia. It was, likewise, only my naiveté that kept me from realizing a second attack would be inevitable...and more subtle.

Posted

4/12/2006

Updated

4/12/2006

Keywords

Alien Abductions, Personal History, Spirituality

Viewed 1110 times

Chain of Coincidence

I had gotten to the point where the pain in my gut was a solid, continuous ache. I could still function as a normal human being most of the time, but the gap in my soul where Steve had been still throbbed and demanded attention like a festering wound.

Posted

4/13/2006

Updated

4/13/2006

Keywords

Alien Abductions, Grand Canyon, Personal History

Viewed 1124 times

Standing Wave

I was just starting to doze off when a severe bumping jolted me awake. My eyes flew open and I saw that we were off the left side of the road, heading for the ditch! David was staring, terrified, both his hands off the wheel and in the air as if he had already given up and was waiting for God to take him. I grabbed the wheel with my left hand and wrenched the car back onto the blacktop. When we were safe again, I said, “Would you like me to drive for awhile?” David was so shaken I had to instruct him to remove his foot from the accelerator so the car would slow down and I, still steering, could guide it to the right hand shoulder.

Posted

4/14/2006

Updated

4/14/2006

Keywords

Alien Abductions, Grand Canyon, Personal History

Viewed 1124 times

The Green Room

I looked below. Two hundred feet isn't all that far, but it would probably do the trick. The rocks below were hard and jagged. I would fall 32 feet the first second, 64 the next, and hit during the third. Three seconds. It wouldn't last all that long.

Posted

4/16/2006

Updated

4/16/2006

Keywords

Alien Abductions, Michael Manion, Personal History

Viewed 1179 times

Michael's Smile

On a Thursday in late November, 1996, I met Michael.

Posted

4/17/2006

Updated

4/17/2006

Keywords

Constitution, Current Events, Virginia Tech Shootings

Viewed 1123 times

Unexpected

As you must have heard by now, yesterday's tragic shootings at Virginia Technical Institute claimed the lives of 33, including the shooter. Unsurprisingly, some mainstream media pundits were already calling this the "worst mass shooting" in the history of the United States, although a few of those outlets qualified it as the worst mass civilian shooting, which conveniently brushes aside various massacres of Native Americans such as those at Sand Creek, Wounded Knee, and Marias (and others). In those massacres, the shooters were Army soldiers and the victims were people of color, and the media tends to ignore the entire act of genocide of this nation's first inhabitants, except for the occasional blockbuster movie.

Posted

4/18/2006

Updated

4/18/2006

Keywords

Alien Abductions, Nibiruans, Personal History, Sumerians, Zecharia Sitchin

Viewed 1123 times

Ancient Visitors

All this time, I was very jumpy. Every time I got a "strange feeling" I would blame it on aliens. Every time something was missing, I would suspect aliens. But the fact was, nothing unambiguous could be pinned on them. There was no evidence they'd been around since they'd said goodbye.

Posted

4/20/2006

Updated

4/20/2006

Keywords

Alien Abductions, Nibiruans, Personal History

Viewed 1117 times

Knowledge and Belief

In my night classes, one of the visitors' key points was the difference between knowledge and belief. In today's media-saturated world, nearly all of what we think we know, we actually take on faith. Unless you, personally, have measured it, the "fact" that the speed of light is about 186,000 miles per second is actually a belief--and, even if you have performed the measurement yourself, do you know of your own experience that the measuring equipment is correctly calibrated?

Posted

4/27/2006

Updated

4/27/2006

Keywords

Civil Rights, Constitution, Freedom Of Speech, Politics

Viewed 1119 times

Loose Lips Sink Shitty Politicians

Arizona Republican Congressman Rick Renzi has introduced an amendment into the bill authorizing intelligence programs for the coming year, that makes it illegal to leak secret information to the press. The amendment is non-binding, but urges the White House to take "firm action" against government employees (and ex-employees) who leak secrets to the press.

Posted

4/28/2006

Updated

4/28/2006

Keywords

Immigration, Politics

Viewed 1117 times

Language of the Heart

Today's crisis is the fact that someone has sung the United States' National Anthem in Spanish.

Posted

5/1/2006

Updated

5/1/2006

Keywords

Celestine Prophecy, Metaphysics, Movies, Spirituality

Viewed 1125 times

The Celestine Prophecy

We watched the new movie, The Celestine Prophecy, yesterday. By "we" I mean Michael and I, my ex-wife Mary, daughter Karen, friends Barbara and Peter, and Michael's sister Surya. The movie is still in limited release, so we had to see it in Tempe; and afterwards we gathered at Islands, an adjacent restaurant, to have dinner and discuss the movie.

Posted

5/9/2006

Updated

5/9/2006

Keywords

Alien Abductions, Personal History, UFOs

Viewed 1124 times

Crazy Abductees

"Normal" people, that is, people who haven't been abducted by aliens or ever seen a UFO, are notoriously limited in what they accept as normal. A "normal" person can't be (or at least, act) gay, a member of another race or culture or religion or political party. Anyone who presses the edges of the box that passes for normalcy for these people must be explained away. They can be sinners, animals, wops or spics or kikes, liberals or wingnuts or whatever--any label serves the single purpose of pushing its bearer far enough outside that box of normalcy so they (and what they represent) can be safely and handily ignored, rejected, dismissed.

Posted

5/10/2006

Updated

5/10/2006

Keywords

Personal History, Politics

Viewed 1111 times

Big Mouths

It was a small class, with no more than 20 students. One of them was named Gerry. He was slightly older than the rest of us, probably 22 to our average of 18. He was very good at appearing cool and at being the center of attention. However, for some reason, he took an instant dislike to me--and I'm talking about, before I even met him. Moreover, he decided to do something about it.

Posted

5/11/2006

Updated

5/11/2006

Keywords

Civil Rights, Politics

Viewed 1107 times

How Big Is Too Big?

The human eye can perceive about 16,000,000 different shades, except for Martha Stewart, who can perceive over 24,000,000.

Posted

5/12/2006

Updated

5/12/2006

Keywords

Michael Manion, Personal History

Viewed 1111 times

Michael's Graduation

Michael just graduated from Glendale Community College ...for the second time.

Posted

5/16/2006

Updated

5/16/2006

Keywords

Movies, Religious Politics

Viewed 1103 times

Mining the Da Vinci Lode

Except that today's Muslim suicide bombers are also housewives and bus drivers. It may be that the ordinary person is the most likely to cause mayhem on behalf of dearly-held religious principles; note that no Pope ever got on horseback to lead a crusade; and not only has President Bush not fired a gun in Iraq--or in any other war--not a single member of his extended family has, either.

Posted

5/17/2006

Updated

5/17/2006

Keywords

Civil Rights, Humor, Politics

Viewed 1105 times

Terrorists On The Line

So now that we know the NSA is building the "world's largest database" of all our phone calls--from all time, according to the source who leaked the story to USA Today (presumably not over the phone)--many of us are mentally reviewing every phone call we've ever made, wondering if one of them will eventually come back to haunt us.

Posted

5/22/2006

Updated

5/22/2006

Keywords

Personal History

Viewed 1108 times

Zachary's 7th Birthday Trip

We decided to celebrate my grandson Zachary's birthday with a trip. The original plan was to rent a motor home, drive it to California, spend Saturday at Disneyland, Sunday at McGrath State Beach, and return in time for work Monday morning. I did the math about six weeks ago, and started putting aside the money for it, paying in advance where possible.

Posted

5/24/2006

Updated

5/24/2006

Keywords

Politics

Viewed 1108 times

Identity Theft

A cute series of ads running on TV these days shows a regular person--a guy at the gym, or a barber, or a housewife--speaking in a voice that clearly doesn't belong to that person. A black guy at the gym will have the voice and accent of a Valley girl, or a white housewife will sound like a Japanese teenager. The ads are intended to raise awareness of the new phenomenon of "identity theft" and a particular credit card that claims to insulate its customers from such a crime.

Posted

6/5/2006

Updated

6/5/2006

Keywords

Spirituality

Viewed 1112 times

Beauty and Tragedy

A blog by Paul S. Cilwa, writer, instructor, traveler, photographer, singer, and all-round experiencer. A place where I can ruminate at will on politics, religion, spirituality, sex, and my private life...You know, all those topics we aren't supposed to discuss in public!

Posted

6/6/2006

Updated

6/6/2006

Keywords

Gay Rights, Humor, Politics

Viewed 1104 times

The Ex-Dem Movement

A blog by Paul S. Cilwa, writer, instructor, traveler, photographer, singer, and all-round experiencer. A place where I can ruminate at will on politics, religion, spirituality, sex, and my private life...You know, all those topics we aren't supposed to discuss in public!

Posted

6/7/2006

Updated

6/7/2006

Keywords

Civil Rights, Gay Rights, Personal History

Viewed 1107 times

The Fact of Difference

A blog by Paul S. Cilwa, writer, instructor, traveler, photographer, singer, and all-round experiencer. A place where I can ruminate at will on politics, religion, spirituality, sex, and my private life...You know, all those topics we aren't supposed to discuss in public!

Posted

6/20/2006

Updated

6/20/2006

Keywords

Personal History

Viewed 1106 times

The New Pool

A blog by Paul S. Cilwa, writer, instructor, traveler, photographer, singer, and all-round experiencer. A place where I can ruminate at will on politics, religion, spirituality, sex, and my private life...You know, all those topics we aren't supposed to discuss in public!

Posted

6/21/2006

Updated

6/21/2006

Keywords

Politics

Viewed 1115 times

Predictions

A blog by Paul S. Cilwa, writer, instructor, traveler, photographer, singer, and all-round experiencer. A place where I can ruminate at will on politics, religion, spirituality, sex, and my private life...You know, all those topics we aren't supposed to discuss in public!

Posted

6/23/2006

Updated

6/23/2006

Keywords

Personal History, Vermont

Viewed 1162 times

Vermont: 1958

A blog by Paul S. Cilwa, writer, instructor, traveler, photographer, singer, and all-round experiencer. A place where I can ruminate at will on politics, religion, spirituality, sex, and my private life...You know, all those topics we aren't supposed to discuss in public!

Posted

6/26/2006

Updated

6/26/2006

Keywords

Arizona, Personal History, Salt River

Viewed 1143 times

Salt River Weekend

A blog by Paul S. Cilwa, writer, instructor, traveler, photographer, singer, and all-round experiencer. A place where I can ruminate at will on politics, religion, spirituality, sex, and my private life...You know, all those topics we aren't supposed to discuss in public!

Posted

6/27/2006

Updated

6/27/2006

Keywords

Gay Rights, History

Viewed 1112 times

Stonewall

A blog by Paul S. Cilwa, writer, instructor, traveler, photographer, singer, and all-round experiencer. A place where I can ruminate at will on politics, religion, spirituality, sex, and my private life...You know, all those topics we aren't supposed to discuss in public!

Posted

6/28/2006

Updated

6/28/2006

Keywords

Metaphysics, Prayer, Religious Politics, Spirituality

Viewed 1124 times

The Annoying Power of Prayer

A blog by Paul S. Cilwa, writer, instructor, traveler, photographer, singer, and all-round experiencer. A place where I can ruminate at will on politics, religion, spirituality, sex, and my private life...You know, all those topics we aren't supposed to discuss in public!

Posted

6/29/2006

Updated

6/29/2006

Keywords

Gay Rights, Personal History, Religious Politics

Viewed 1101 times

The Return of Pamela

A blog by Paul S. Cilwa, writer, instructor, traveler, photographer, singer, and all-round experiencer. A place where I can ruminate at will on politics, religion, spirituality, sex, and my private life...You know, all those topics we aren't supposed to discuss in public!

Posted

6/30/2006

Updated

6/30/2006

Keywords

Civil Rights, Gay Marriage, Gay Rights, Personal History

Viewed 1102 times

Changing The World

A blog by Paul S. Cilwa, writer, instructor, traveler, photographer, singer, and all-round experiencer. A place where I can ruminate at will on politics, religion, spirituality, sex, and my private life...You know, all those topics we aren't supposed to discuss in public!

Posted

7/3/2006

Updated

7/3/2006

Keywords

Constitution, History

Viewed 1107 times

Freedom

A blog by Paul S. Cilwa, writer, instructor, traveler, photographer, singer, and all-round experiencer. A place where I can ruminate at will on politics, religion, spirituality, sex, and my private life...You know, all those topics we aren't supposed to discuss in public!

Posted

7/10/2006

Updated

7/10/2006

Keywords

Arthur Fiedler, History, Metaphysics, Music, Personal History

Viewed 1108 times

Good Mourning

A blog by Paul S. Cilwa, writer, instructor, traveler, photographer, singer, and all-round experiencer. A place where I can ruminate at will on politics, religion, spirituality, sex, and my private life...You know, all those topics we aren't supposed to discuss in public!

Posted

7/11/2006

Updated

7/11/2006

Keywords

Gay Rights, History, Metaphysics, Movies, Personal History, Spirituality, Superman

Viewed 1106 times

Superman Returns

A blog by Paul S. Cilwa, writer, instructor, traveler, photographer, singer, and all-round experiencer. A place where I can ruminate at will on politics, religion, spirituality, sex, and my private life...You know, all those topics we aren't supposed to discuss in public!

Posted

7/12/2006

Updated

7/12/2006

Keywords

Arizona, Sedona

Viewed 1107 times

A Week In Sedona

A blog by Paul S. Cilwa, writer, instructor, traveler, photographer, singer, and all-round experiencer. A place where I can ruminate at will on politics, religion, spirituality, sex, and my private life...You know, all those topics we aren't supposed to discuss in public!

Posted

7/21/2006

Updated

7/21/2006

Keywords

Gay Rights, Humor

Viewed 1114 times

In Favor of Panic Defenses

A blog by Paul S. Cilwa, writer, instructor, traveler, photographer, singer, and all-round experiencer. A place where I can ruminate at will on politics, religion, spirituality, sex, and my private life...You know, all those topics we aren't supposed to discuss in public!

Posted

7/24/2006

Updated

7/24/2006

Keywords

Religious Politics, Spirituality

Viewed 1116 times

The God I Don't Believe In

A blog by Paul S. Cilwa, writer, instructor, traveler, photographer, singer, and all-round experiencer. A place where I can ruminate at will on politics, religion, spirituality, sex, and my private life...You know, all those topics we aren't supposed to discuss in public!

Posted

7/27/2006

Updated

7/27/2006

Keywords

Music, Paul Simon, Personal History

Viewed 1110 times

Still Breathing After All These Years

A blog by Paul S. Cilwa, writer, instructor, traveler, photographer, singer, and all-round experiencer. A place where I can ruminate at will on politics, religion, spirituality, sex, and my private life...You know, all those topics we aren't supposed to discuss in public!

Posted

8/8/2006

Updated

8/8/2006

Keywords

History, Music, Science, Sound Recording

Viewed 1131 times

Say What?

A blog by Paul S. Cilwa, writer, instructor, traveler, photographer, singer, and all-round experiencer. A place where I can ruminate at will on politics, religion, spirituality, sex, and my private life...You know, all those topics we aren't supposed to discuss in public!

Posted

8/9/2006

Updated

8/9/2006

Keywords

History, Music, Science, Sound Recording

Viewed 1117 times

The Electric Ear

A blog by Paul S. Cilwa, writer, instructor, traveler, photographer, singer, and all-round experiencer. A place where I can ruminate at will on politics, religion, spirituality, sex, and my private life...You know, all those topics we aren't supposed to discuss in public!

Posted

8/30/2006

Updated

8/30/2006

Keywords

Astronomy, Conspiracy, History, Nibiruans, Pluto, Science, Sumerians, Zecharia Sitchin

Viewed 1113 times

One Of Our Planets Is Missing

A blog by Paul S. Cilwa, writer, instructor, traveler, photographer, singer, and all-round experiencer. A place where I can ruminate at will on politics, religion, spirituality, sex, and my private life...You know, all those topics we aren't supposed to discuss in public!

Posted

9/1/2006

Updated

9/1/2006

Keywords

History, Music, Science, Sound Recording

Viewed 1111 times

Listen To The Music

A blog by Paul S. Cilwa, writer, instructor, traveler, photographer, singer, and all-round experiencer. A place where I can ruminate at will on politics, religion, spirituality, sex, and my private life...You know, all those topics we aren't supposed to discuss in public!

Posted

9/13/2006

Updated

9/13/2006

Keywords

Arizona, Civil Rights, Constitution, Diebold, Elections, Personal History

Viewed 1114 times

Voting At The Primary

A blog by Paul S. Cilwa, writer, instructor, traveler, photographer, singer, and all-round experiencer. A place where I can ruminate at will on politics, religion, spirituality, sex, and my private life...You know, all those topics we aren't supposed to discuss in public!

Posted

9/15/2006

Updated

9/15/2006

Keywords

Arizona, Constitution, Kent Knudson, Politics, Snowflake

Viewed 1108 times

Cattle Free, People Caged

A blog by Paul S. Cilwa, writer, instructor, traveler, photographer, singer, and all-round experiencer. A place where I can ruminate at will on politics, religion, spirituality, sex, and my private life...You know, all those topics we aren't supposed to discuss in public!

Posted

11/21/2006

Updated

11/21/2006

Keywords

Gay Rights, Personal History, Religious Politics, Sexuality

Viewed 1115 times

Loathing

A blog by Paul S. Cilwa, writer, instructor, traveler, photographer, singer, and all-round experiencer. A place where I can ruminate at will on politics, religion, spirituality, sex, and my private life...You know, all those topics we aren't supposed to discuss in public!

Posted

11/30/2006

Updated

11/30/2006

Keywords

Gay Marriage, Gay Rights, Personal History, Religious Politics

Viewed 1116 times

Whattyacallit

A blog by Paul S. Cilwa, writer, instructor, traveler, photographer, singer, and all-round experiencer. A place where I can ruminate at will on politics, religion, spirituality, sex, and my private life...You know, all those topics we aren't supposed to discuss in public!

Posted

12/4/2006

Updated

12/4/2006

Keywords

Music, Personal History, Vermont

Viewed 1118 times

Crank Up The Victrola

Previous posts have described how mechanical recordings were made and played, and how I myself owned a hand-cranked Victrola when I was a kid in Vermont. In today's post I'd like to reminisce about some of my favorite 78 rpm records.

So that you can enjoy these, too, I am going to include links to MP3s (or, in a couple of cases, MIDI files). In most cases, the MP3 was made from the original record, following the rules in effect when they were pressed. In other words, listen and enjoy but you may not use these recordings for commercial purposes.

Prior to moving to Vermont, my Dad, a true music lover, had always made sure I had a working phonograph and a supply of records to play on it. One time, exploring the house in that way only a six-year-old can do, I discovered a stash of 78s in his bottom dresser drawer. I was very excited, but he told me he intended to dole them out a few at a time, to make sure I wasn't overwhelmed with too many new songs at once. To ease my disappointment, he gave me the album at the top: Act 1 of Verde's Aida.

Posted

12/5/2006

Updated

12/5/2006

Keywords

Christmas, Personal History

Viewed 1113 times

Christmas Wish List

I hate making out these lists. Frankly, it seems like anyone who knows me well enough to be giving me a gift, should know what I might like. However, everyone who does know me, says they need a list. I do have a wish list at Amazon.com:

Posted

12/8/2006

Updated

12/8/2006

Keywords

Gay Rights, Humor, Religious Politics

Viewed 1113 times

Chatty Extremist Christians

When I was a kid, Mattel sold these dolls called Chatty Cathy. You pulled a string in the doll's back, and it would say something, like "Would you play with me?" I think there were eleven phrases or so, played back randomly, in June Foray's voice. (June was also the voice of Rocky the Flying Squirrel.) You couldn't have a real conversation, of course, because it's "response" had nothing to do with what you said to it. Exchanges went something like this:

Posted

12/15/2006

Updated

12/15/2006

Keywords

History, Internet Piracy, Movies, Music, Science

Viewed 1114 times

Pirate Movies

As early as 1398, the word "royalty" was borrowed into English (from the French roialte) to refer to the "office or position of a sovereign". In those days, the King owned everything. If you wanted to live on a bit of property, or cut down a tree, or hunt for a rabbit--you had to pay that royalty for the privilege. As centuries passed, people accepted "paying the royalty" as a fact of life. By 1839, the word was used to refer to paying any landowner (not just a King) for the use of a mine, and by 1857, payment to an author or composer for the use of his work.

Posted

12/18/2006

Updated

12/18/2006

Keywords

Christmas, Personal History

Viewed 1115 times

Christmas Letter 2006!

It's time again for your yearly recap of the adventures of the Cilwa-Manions.

Posted

12/19/2006

Updated

12/19/2006

Keywords

Hiking, Mary's Rock, Personal History, Shenandoah Mountains, Virginia

Viewed 1110 times

Mary's Rock

Mary's Rock is a favorite hiking spot in the Shenandoah National Park. Its popularity is partly because it's a fairly easy hike, partly because it offers a spectacular view from its summit, but mostly, I think, because it's so easy to get to. The trail head begins at the parking lot of the concession right at the entrance to the park, where US 211 crosses the Skyline Drive.

In 1984, I took my then-wife Mary, our four kids, and my Mom on the hike. Mom was 72 at the time, in good health, but, let's face it--she was 72. Nevertheless, she completely the hike successfully. Actually, she seemed in less discomfort at the hike's conclusion than I was.

Posted

12/22/2006

Updated

12/22/2006

Keywords

Christmas, New Jersey, Personal History

Viewed 1119 times

1957: Christmas

In 1957 we lived in Garfield, New Jersey. As the year drew to an end it grew cold and snow fell on the ground. When we wanted to go out Momma bundled us up in garments called "snowsuits" that were basically full body armor made of down. They were supposed to keep the cold out; I believe they would have stopped an AK-47 slug as well. When they were on, every part of our bodies were covered, even our mouths, thanks to the woolen scarf that had been wrapped around us prior to the enveloping by the suit. Then came mittens (which prevented us from using our fingers) and rubber boots (which just about prevented us from walking). Once safely insulated, Mom would open the door and allow us to go outside.

Posted

12/23/2006

Updated

12/23/2006

Keywords

Alien Abductions, Evolution, Health Care, Humor, Metaphysics, Religious Politics, UFOs

Viewed 1123 times

Layers

A bit of Internet humor describes the advances of medicine through the last couple millennia:

2000 BCE - Here, eat this root.
1000 CE - That root is heathen. Here, say this prayer.

1850 CE - That prayer is superstition. Here, drink this potion.

1940 CE - That potion is snake oil. Here, swallow this pill.

1985 CE - That pill is ineffective. Here, take this antibiotic.

2000 CE - That antibiotic is unhealthy. Here, eat this root.

The joke is funny because it's true. It points out how attitudes have changed through the years, as well as demonstrating how our original knowing of how to treat an illness has come around, full-circle, over the course of 20 centuries.

Posted

12/27/2006

Updated

12/27/2006

Keywords

Carnival Legend, Cruise, Humor, Movies, Personal History, Western Caribbean

Viewed 1125 times

Peril's of Paul's Grandson

My oldest daughter, Dorothy, has informed us she's going to be married. (She got engaged two or three years ago--I've lost track.) And, she's going to be married on a cruise ship. Since I haven't yet won the lottery, I can't afford to load all her friends and our family on board the cruise ship. Not, that is, as anything but galley slaves. So we're each paying our own way and thanking our preferred deities that she decided to cruise to the Caribbean, and not around the world.

Posted

12/28/2006

Updated

12/28/2006

Keywords

Conspiracy, Health Care, Science

Viewed 1119 times

Cracking The Corporate Shell

Originally, based on studies of contemporary indigenous peoples, mankind lived in smallish groups in which each person contributed to the welfare of all. We know from fossilized burials that our cousins, Homo Neanderthalensis, as well as our own ancestors of 50,000 years ago and more, cared for sick and injured members of their tribes. (Some of the fossils show evidence of serious, but mended, injuries.) In other words, cavemen had access to free health care.

Posted

12/29/2006

Updated

12/29/2006

Keywords

Blogging, Frontpage, Microsoft

Viewed 1138 times

The Passing of a Friend

Why can't I just keep using the copy of FrontPage that I own, you ask? Because FrontPage isn't a stand-alone product. In order to use most of its features, the server that hosts the site must be running FrontPage Extensions. And with the death of FrontPage, so dies the extensions. With no updates to the extensions, servers running them will become increasingly subject to hacker attacks as more vulnerabilities are discovered.

Posted

1/4/2007

Updated

1/4/2007

Keywords

Apache Trail, Arizona, Hiking

Viewed 1147 times

Apache Trail Hike

We celebrated New Years' Day by going on a short hike. Not only was the hike short, but also most of the hikers. Present were Zachary, my grandson, his friends Lane, Brittany, Ashley and Billy, and me. The youngest was Ashley (6); the oldest was her brother, Billy (11). I decided to head out along the Apache Trail into the Superstition mountains, which begins not far from our house.

Posted

1/12/2007

Updated

1/12/2007

Keywords

Conspiracy, Freemasons

Viewed 1126 times

Once Upon A Time

Once upon a time, in a galaxy far, far, away, there was a world that turned in natural balance, its sustainable tool-using population fed, clothed and housed in a simple manner that left much time for contemplation, artistic pursuits, and the enjoyment of life.

As years passed, these people invented government as a way to do works for the common good, like roads and medical schools and hospitals. But then, to enforce the rulings of these governments, religions and police departments and judges came along. And banking and business was not long in following, taking advantage of the opportunities the new government presented.

Among these people, four came up with an idea. One of them happened to be a judge, and another was a businessman, and one was a doctor and the last was a priest. And, by chance, each of them had been born without a conscience.

Posted

1/30/2007

Updated

1/30/2007

Keywords

Karen Hope Cilwa, Personal History

Viewed 1205 times

Happy Birthday, Karen

33 years ago today, dawned with the air of expectation that marks a "special" day...because we knew, even as we awakened, that our second child would be born that day.

Posted

2/6/2007

Updated

2/6/2007

Keywords

Atkins Diet, Personal History

Viewed 1127 times

A Waist Is A Terrible Thing To Mind

Two. Hundred. Fifty. Six.

That's how many pounds I weighed Sunday night. That's about sixty pounds overweight for me. It's also the most I've ever weighed.

Posted

2/9/2007

Updated

2/9/2007

Keywords

Historical Jesus, Religious Politics, The Bible

Viewed 1119 times

People Will Believe Anything

A blog by Paul S. Cilwa, writer, instructor, traveler, photographer, singer, and all-round experiencer. A place where I can ruminate at will on politics, religion, spirituality, sex, and my private life...You know, all those topics we aren't supposed to discuss in public!

Posted

2/14/2007

Updated

2/14/2007

Keywords

Metaphysics, Personal History, Spirituality

Viewed 1125 times

Death, Where Is Thy Sting?

A blog by Paul S. Cilwa, writer, instructor, traveler, photographer, singer, and all-round experiencer. A place where I can ruminate at will on politics, religion, spirituality, sex, and my private life...You know, all those topics we aren't supposed to discuss in public!

Posted

2/19/2007

Updated

2/19/2007

Keywords

Biography, Dorothy Elizabeth Cilwa, Personal History

Viewed 1215 times

Happy Birthday, Dottie

The weeks leading up to the birth of our first child can best be described as unsettled. Mary and I lived in a room rented in the home of an older widow, who had fixed up this room, with a lock on the inner door but access to the outside through its own exterior door, for the purpose of renting it to young couples like us. Or, so we presumed. Mary was gargantuanly pregnant, and it's possible I never actually said, "This is my wife, Mary, who is great with child." But it wasn't something a person could miss.

Posted

2/21/2007

Updated

2/21/2007

Keywords

Mark Twain, Metaphysics, Spirituality, Synchronicity, Telepathy

Viewed 1131 times

Mental Telegraphy Part 1

A blog by Paul S. Cilwa, writer, instructor, traveler, photographer, singer, and all-round experiencer. A place where I can ruminate at will on politics, religion, spirituality, sex, and my private life...You know, all those topics we aren't supposed to discuss in public!

Posted

2/22/2007

Updated

2/22/2007

Keywords

Mark Twain, Metaphysics, Science, Spirituality, Synchronicity, Telepathy

Viewed 1123 times

Mental Telegraphy Part 2

A blog by Paul S. Cilwa, writer, instructor, traveler, photographer, singer, and all-round experiencer. A place where I can ruminate at will on politics, religion, spirituality, sex, and my private life...You know, all those topics we aren't supposed to discuss in public!

Posted

2/23/2007

Updated

2/23/2007

Keywords

Mark Twain, Metaphysics, Personal History, Spirituality, Synchronicity, Telepathy

Viewed 1126 times

Mental Telegraphy Part 3

A blog by Paul S. Cilwa, writer, instructor, traveler, photographer, singer, and all-round experiencer. A place where I can ruminate at will on politics, religion, spirituality, sex, and my private life...You know, all those topics we aren't supposed to discuss in public!

Posted

2/28/2007

Updated

2/28/2007

Keywords

Conspiracy, Consumer Rights, Onrebate.com, Personal History, Tigerdirect.com

Viewed 1125 times

Hold That Tiger...Responsible

A blog by Paul S. Cilwa, writer, instructor, traveler, photographer, singer, and all-round experiencer. A place where I can ruminate at will on politics, religion, spirituality, sex, and my private life...You know, all those topics we aren't supposed to discuss in public!

Posted

3/6/2007

Updated

3/6/2007

Keywords

9/11, Conspiracy

Viewed 3845 times

And Now, Tomorrow's News

A blog by Paul S. Cilwa, writer, instructor, traveler, photographer, singer, and all-round experiencer. A place where I can ruminate at will on politics, religion, spirituality, sex, and my private life...You know, all those topics we aren't supposed to discuss in public!

Posted

3/13/2007

Updated

3/13/2007

Keywords

History, Native Americans, North America, Pre-Columbian America, South America

Viewed 1126 times

Beyond the Edges of the Map

A blog by Paul S. Cilwa, writer, instructor, traveler, photographer, singer, and all-round experiencer. A place where I can ruminate at will on politics, religion, spirituality, sex, and my private life...You know, all those topics we aren't supposed to discuss in public!

Posted

3/14/2007

Updated

3/14/2007

Keywords

History, Personal History, Photography

Viewed 1129 times

The Treasured Past

It wasn't that long ago--two centuries or less--that ordinary people simply had to rely on their memories to recapture their pasts. Prior to 1790, anyone who wanted a visual representation of a person or event had to commission a painting of it--a relatively expensive proposition, and one which did not guarantee accuracy, if the artist had not been present at the event or did not personally know the subject.

Posted

3/15/2007

Updated

3/15/2007

Keywords

Digital Photography, Photography

Viewed 1116 times

Preserving the Past

A blog by Paul S. Cilwa, writer, instructor, traveler, photographer, singer, and all-round experiencer. A place where I can ruminate at will on politics, religion, spirituality, sex, and my private life...You know, all those topics we aren't supposed to discuss in public!

Posted

3/16/2007

Updated

3/16/2007

Keywords

Digital Photography, Photography

Viewed 1118 times

Through A Scanner, Clearly

A blog by Paul S. Cilwa, writer, instructor, traveler, photographer, singer, and all-round experiencer. A place where I can ruminate at will on politics, religion, spirituality, sex, and my private life...You know, all those topics we aren't supposed to discuss in public!

Posted

3/20/2007

Updated

3/20/2007

Keywords

Devonian, Gay Rights, History, Iraq, Ordovician, Religious Politics, Science

Viewed 1116 times

Armor

A blog by Paul S. Cilwa, writer, instructor, traveler, photographer, singer, and all-round experiencer. A place where I can ruminate at will on politics, religion, spirituality, sex, and my private life...You know, all those topics we aren't supposed to discuss in public!

Posted

3/27/2007

Updated

3/27/2007

Keywords

Digital Photography

Viewed 1120 times

Resolution

A blog by Paul S. Cilwa, writer, instructor, traveler, photographer, singer, and all-round experiencer. A place where I can ruminate at will on politics, religion, spirituality, sex, and my private life...You know, all those topics we aren't supposed to discuss in public!

Posted

3/28/2007

Updated

3/28/2007

Keywords

Digital Photography

Viewed 1162 times

Form and Substance

A blog by Paul S. Cilwa, writer, instructor, traveler, photographer, singer, and all-round experiencer. A place where I can ruminate at will on politics, religion, spirituality, sex, and my private life...You know, all those topics we aren't supposed to discuss in public!

Posted

3/30/2007

Updated

3/30/2007

Keywords

Automatic Writing, Metaphysics, Spirituality

Viewed 1121 times

Automatic

A blog by Paul S. Cilwa, writer, instructor, traveler, photographer, singer, and all-round experiencer. A place where I can ruminate at will on politics, religion, spirituality, sex, and my private life...You know, all those topics we aren't supposed to discuss in public!

Posted

4/6/2007

Updated

4/6/2007

Keywords

Conspiracy, Consumer Rights, Food, Health, Pets, Politics

Viewed 1117 times

...And Your Little Dog, Too!

A blog by Paul S. Cilwa, writer, instructor, traveler, photographer, singer, and all-round experiencer. A place where I can ruminate at will on politics, religion, spirituality, sex, and my private life...You know, all those topics we aren't supposed to discuss in public!

Posted

4/7/2007

Updated

4/7/2007

Keywords

Personal History

Viewed 1127 times

Easter Egg Hunt

Back when the kids were little, each Easter I would find some hopefully-photogenic place to take them on Easter, where they could hunt Easter eggs in their spiffy, new Easter outfits and I could take their pictures.

Posted

4/12/2007

Updated

4/12/2007

Keywords

Arizona, Grand Canyon, Personal History, Travel, Vermont

Viewed 1181 times

1961: Trip to Arizona

A blog by Paul S. Cilwa, writer, instructor, traveler, photographer, singer, and all-round experiencer. A place where I can ruminate at will on politics, religion, spirituality, sex, and my private life...You know, all those topics we aren't supposed to discuss in public!

Posted

4/13/2007

Updated

4/13/2007

Keywords

Conspiracy, Health, Health Care, History

Viewed 1131 times

A Pox On Your House

A blog by Paul S. Cilwa, writer, instructor, traveler, photographer, singer, and all-round experiencer. A place where I can ruminate at will on politics, religion, spirituality, sex, and my private life...You know, all those topics we aren't supposed to discuss in public!

Posted

4/20/2007

Updated

4/20/2007

Keywords

Blogging, Humor

Viewed 1142 times

Aw, Shoot!

A blog by Paul S. Cilwa, writer, instructor, traveler, photographer, singer, and all-round experiencer. A place where I can ruminate at will on politics, religion, spirituality, sex, and my private life...You know, all those topics we aren't supposed to discuss in public!

Posted

4/23/2007

Updated

4/23/2007

Keywords

9/11, Conspiracy, Humor, Opera, Personal History

Viewed 1130 times

Oh, Susannah!

A blog by Paul S. Cilwa, writer, instructor, traveler, photographer, singer, and all-round experiencer. A place where I can ruminate at will on politics, religion, spirituality, sex, and my private life...You know, all those topics we aren't supposed to discuss in public!

Posted

4/24/2007

Updated

4/24/2007

Keywords

Evolution, Global Warming, Pleistocene, Pliocene, Science

Viewed 1188 times

Global Warning

A blog by Paul S. Cilwa, writer, instructor, traveler, photographer, singer, and all-round experiencer. A place where I can ruminate at will on politics, religion, spirituality, sex, and my private life...You know, all those topics we aren't supposed to discuss in public!

Posted

4/27/2007

Updated

4/27/2007

Keywords

Personal History, Vermont

Viewed 1158 times

1959: Return to Victory

A blog by Paul S. Cilwa, writer, instructor, traveler, photographer, singer, and all-round experiencer. A place where I can ruminate at will on politics, religion, spirituality, sex, and my private life...You know, all those topics we aren't supposed to discuss in public!

Posted

4/28/2007

Updated

4/28/2007

Keywords

Christmas, Personal History, Vermont

Viewed 1166 times

1959-1960: Our First Vermont Winter

A blog by Paul S. Cilwa, writer, instructor, traveler, photographer, singer, and all-round experiencer. A place where I can ruminate at will on politics, religion, spirituality, sex, and my private life...You know, all those topics we aren't supposed to discuss in public!

Posted

5/8/2007

Updated

5/8/2007

Keywords

Blogging, Website Design

Viewed 1122 times

A Web Site of Your Own

A blog by Paul S. Cilwa, writer, instructor, traveler, photographer, singer, and all-round experiencer. A place where I can ruminate at will on politics, religion, spirituality, sex, and my private life...You know, all those topics we aren't supposed to discuss in public!

Posted

5/11/2007

Updated

5/11/2007

Keywords

Arizona, Michael Manion, Personal History

Viewed 1130 times

If It's Spring, Michael Must Be Graduating

A blog by Paul S. Cilwa, writer, instructor, traveler, photographer, singer, and all-round experiencer. A place where I can ruminate at will on politics, religion, spirituality, sex, and my private life...You know, all those topics we aren't supposed to discuss in public!

Posted

5/12/2007

Updated

5/12/2007

Keywords

Carnival Legend, Cruise, Personal History, Salt Lake City, Western Caribbean

Viewed 1141 times

The Flight To Tampa

A blog by Paul S. Cilwa, writer, instructor, traveler, photographer, singer, and all-round experiencer. A place where I can ruminate at will on politics, religion, spirituality, sex, and my private life...You know, all those topics we aren't supposed to discuss in public!

Posted

5/13/2007

Updated

5/13/2007

Keywords

Carnival Legend, Cruise, Personal History, Western Caribbean

Viewed 1125 times

All Aboard!

A blog by Paul S. Cilwa, writer, instructor, traveler, photographer, singer, and all-round experiencer. A place where I can ruminate at will on politics, religion, spirituality, sex, and my private life...You know, all those topics we aren't supposed to discuss in public!

Posted

5/14/2007

Updated

5/14/2007

Keywords

Carnival Legend, Cruise, Personal History, Western Caribbean

Viewed 1137 times

First Day at Sea

A blog by Paul S. Cilwa, writer, instructor, traveler, photographer, singer, and all-round experiencer. A place where I can ruminate at will on politics, religion, spirituality, sex, and my private life...You know, all those topics we aren't supposed to discuss in public!

Posted

5/15/2007

Updated

5/15/2007

Keywords

Carnival Legend, Cruise, Grand Cayman, Western Caribbean

Viewed 1137 times

Grand Cayman

A blog by Paul S. Cilwa, writer, instructor, traveler, photographer, singer, and all-round experiencer. A place where I can ruminate at will on politics, religion, spirituality, sex, and my private life...You know, all those topics we aren't supposed to discuss in public!

Posted

5/16/2007

Updated

5/16/2007

Keywords

Carnival Legend, Cozumel, Cruise, Kayaking, Personal History, Snorkeling, Tulum, Western Caribbean

Viewed 1139 times

Cozumel

A blog by Paul S. Cilwa, writer, instructor, traveler, photographer, singer, and all-round experiencer. A place where I can ruminate at will on politics, religion, spirituality, sex, and my private life...You know, all those topics we aren't supposed to discuss in public!

Posted

5/17/2007

Updated

5/17/2007

Keywords

Belize, Carnival Legend, Cave Tubing, Cruise, Personal History, Western Caribbean, Xunantunich

Viewed 1149 times

Belize

A blog by Paul S. Cilwa, writer, instructor, traveler, photographer, singer, and all-round experiencer. A place where I can ruminate at will on politics, religion, spirituality, sex, and my private life...You know, all those topics we aren't supposed to discuss in public!

Posted

5/18/2007

Updated

5/18/2007

Keywords

Carnival Legend, Chacchoben, Costa Maya, Cruise, Personal History, Western Caribbean

Viewed 1132 times

Costa Maya

A blog by Paul S. Cilwa, writer, instructor, traveler, photographer, singer, and all-round experiencer. A place where I can ruminate at will on politics, religion, spirituality, sex, and my private life...You know, all those topics we aren't supposed to discuss in public!

Posted

5/18/2007 11:30:00 PM

Updated

5/18/2007 11:30:00 PM

Keywords

Carnival Legend, Cruise, Food, Personal History, Western Caribbean

Viewed 1133 times

Grand Gala Buffet

A blog by Paul S. Cilwa, writer, instructor, traveler, photographer, singer, and all-round experiencer. A place where I can ruminate at will on politics, religion, spirituality, sex, and my private life...You know, all those topics we aren't supposed to discuss in public!

Posted

5/19/2007

Updated

5/19/2007

Keywords

Carnival Legend, Cruise, Personal History, Western Caribbean

Viewed 1125 times

Final Day at Sea

A blog by Paul S. Cilwa, writer, instructor, traveler, photographer, singer, and all-round experiencer. A place where I can ruminate at will on politics, religion, spirituality, sex, and my private life...You know, all those topics we aren't supposed to discuss in public!

Posted

5/20/2007

Updated

5/20/2007

Keywords

Carnival Legend, Cruise, Personal History, Tampa, Western Caribbean

Viewed 1117 times

Return To Tampa

A blog by Paul S. Cilwa, writer, instructor, traveler, photographer, singer, and all-round experiencer. A place where I can ruminate at will on politics, religion, spirituality, sex, and my private life...You know, all those topics we aren't supposed to discuss in public!

Posted

5/31/2007

Updated

5/31/2007

Keywords

Cat, Dog, Humor, Karen Hope Cilwa, Personal History

Viewed 1121 times

Yet Another Pet

A blog by Paul S. Cilwa, writer, instructor, traveler, photographer, singer, and all-round experiencer. A place where I can ruminate at will on politics, religion, spirituality, sex, and my private life...You know, all those topics we aren't supposed to discuss in public!

Posted

6/4/2007

Updated

6/4/2007

Keywords

Humor, Iraq, Politics, Trucking

Viewed 1132 times

Knowing When To Quit

A blog by Paul S. Cilwa, writer, instructor, traveler, photographer, singer, and all-round experiencer. A place where I can ruminate at will on politics, religion, spirituality, sex, and my private life...You know, all those topics we aren't supposed to discuss in public!

Posted

6/5/2007

Updated

6/5/2007

Keywords

Humor, Metaphysics, New Age, Personal History, Spirituality

Viewed 1106 times

Lunch with Sue and Maurean

A blog by Paul S. Cilwa, writer, instructor, traveler, photographer, singer, and all-round experiencer. A place where I can ruminate at will on politics, religion, spirituality, sex, and my private life...You know, all those topics we aren't supposed to discuss in public!

Posted

6/13/2007

Updated

6/13/2007

Keywords

Activism, Adolf Hitler, Bush Crime Family, Current Events, Health Care, James W. Holsinger, Religious Politics, Republican Corruption, Sexuality

Viewed 1121 times

Just Say 'No' To Crazy Religious Freaks

A blog by Paul S. Cilwa, writer, instructor, traveler, photographer, singer, and all-round experiencer. A place where I can ruminate at will on politics, religion, spirituality, sex, and my private life...You know, all those topics we aren't supposed to discuss in public!

Posted

6/19/2007

Updated

6/19/2007

Keywords

Astronomy, Consumer Rights, Humor, Republican Corruption

Viewed 1120 times

Wish I'd Thought Of That!

Dennis Hope is a pretty happy guy these days. In 1980, it occurred to him that there were, literally, trillions of acres of unclaimed land in our solar system alone: On the Moon, on Mars, and on the moons of Jupiter and Saturn, not to mention on the hundreds of thousands of asteroids whizzing around in orbit. And that's only in our solar system--hundreds of planets have been discovered orbiting stars other than our Sun.

Posted

6/22/2007

Updated

6/22/2007

Keywords

Viewed 1116 times

Lenses

A blog by Paul S. Cilwa, writer, instructor, traveler, photographer, singer, and all-round experiencer. A place where I can ruminate at will on politics, religion, spirituality, sex, and my private life...You know, all those topics we aren't supposed to discuss in public!

Posted

6/25/2007

Updated

6/25/2007

Keywords

Arizona, Photography, Salt River

Viewed 1018 times

Salt River Float

A blog by Paul S. Cilwa, writer, instructor, traveler, photographer, singer, and all-round experiencer. A place where I can ruminate at will on politics, religion, spirituality, sex, and my private life...You know, all those topics we aren't supposed to discuss in public!

Posted

7/2/2007

Updated

7/2/2007

Keywords

Dorothy Weems Brown, Florida, Photography

Viewed 1186 times

1970: Jacksonville International Airport

By 1970 the urge to fly was so commonplace that even my grandmother, Dorothy Weems Brown, was ready to go. She had been thinking of taking a trip to New Jersey to visit her friends up there but a journey by train/bus/car seemed just too tedious to consider. Now there was the opportunity to go by air, and no reason not to.

Posted

7/5/2007

Updated

7/5/2007

Keywords

Arizona, Personal History, Republican Corruption

Viewed 1144 times

Bang For A Buck

A blog by Paul S. Cilwa, writer, instructor, traveler, photographer, singer, and all-round experiencer. A place where I can ruminate at will on politics, religion, spirituality, sex, and my private life...You know, all those topics we aren't supposed to discuss in public!

Posted

7/6/2007

Updated

7/6/2007

Keywords

Florida, Joe McGrath, Personal History, Travel

Viewed 1150 times

Joe and Paul's Trip Through Central Florida

The summer of 1968, I had left high school a junior and would return a senior. We had moved from St. Augustine Beach to St. Augustine itself, into a house on Sevilla Street that, coincidentally, had previously belonged to my classmate Joe Oliveros and his family. (To further illustrate the coincidental nature of this relationship, the Oliveros family moved into a house two doors down from my girlfriend and future wife, Mary Steinberg. It is, as they say, a small world.)

Back at the beach was my sister Mary Joan's boyfriend, Joe McGrath. He was also my best friend for the year or so his family lived there. He and I thought it would be fun to make a summer trip for a few days, and to my amazement, Joe's parents made their Volkswagen microbus available for the purpose. I would have to drive, as Joe was a year younger than I and didn't yet have his license. But that was no problem; and we put our summer job money together and began pouring over maps.

Posted

7/9/2007

Updated

7/9/2007

Keywords

Fort Foster, Maine, Metaphysics, Personal History, SCUBA, Spirituality

Viewed 1180 times

Lost At Sea

A blog by Paul S. Cilwa, writer, instructor, traveler, photographer, singer, and all-round experiencer. A place where I can ruminate at will on politics, religion, spirituality, sex, and my private life...You know, all those topics we aren't supposed to discuss in public!

Posted

7/10/2007

Updated

7/10/2007

Keywords

Bridey Murphy, Mass Media, Metaphysics, Reincarnation

Viewed 1135 times

The Spin On Bridey Murphy

There's a telling scene in the brilliant film Thank You For Smoking, where tobacco lobbyist Nick Naylor, whom Newsweek has called "The Sultan of Spin", is trying to explain to his son, Joey, what he does for a living. As they sit having ice cream at a crowded carnival, there is this exchange...

Posted

7/12/2007

Updated

7/12/2007

Keywords

Bridey Murphy, Mass Media

Viewed 1143 times

Corporate Welfare

A blog by Paul S. Cilwa, writer, instructor, traveler, photographer, singer, and all-round experiencer. A place where I can ruminate at will on politics, religion, spirituality, sex, and my private life...You know, all those topics we aren't supposed to discuss in public!

Posted

7/13/2007

Updated

7/13/2007

Keywords

Humor

Viewed 1163 times

Keep An Open Mind

At the phenomenal web site WikiHow, which contains instructions for doing just about anything you can imagine, there's a page entitled "How To Keep An Open Mind." Basically, to keep one's mind facile, we are told to never stop doing things we've never done before: New crossword puzzles, listen to new kinds of music, watch TV shows we think we wouldn't like (or, if we love TV, turn it off!). The premise is that doing or learning anything new causes new neural pathways to form in the brain, which in turn enable one's mind to open to further new possibilities.

But what if you already have an open mind? If there are no TV shows left to watch, no music you haven't heard, no ethnic restaurants left to eat at, what then? Well, here's my contribution: Ten things you almost certainly haven't done or thought of doing, that, in the doing, will help form new pathways in your brain.

Posted

7/16/2007

Updated

7/16/2007

Keywords

Animal Rights, Language, Mass Media

Viewed 1189 times

Signs

A blog by Paul S. Cilwa, writer, instructor, traveler, photographer, singer, and all-round experiencer. A place where I can ruminate at will on politics, religion, spirituality, sex, and my private life...You know, all those topics we aren't supposed to discuss in public!

Posted

7/16/2007 12:00:00 PM

Updated

7/16/2007 12:00:00 PM

Keywords

Metaphysics, New Age, Spirituality

Viewed 1136 times

Fire The Grid!

This is the first time I've posted twice in one day, and I apologize for the overload...but this post is time-critical. The bottom line is, set your alarm clock for Tuesday 11:11 AM GMT (which is tomorrow morning at 7:11 AM EDT, 6:11 AM CDT, 5:11 AM MDT, and 4:11 AM PDT (and here in Arizona, which doesn't do daylight savings time). When your clock goes off, spend the next 60 minutes doing whatever it is that means "being" to you: pray, meditate, sing, exercise at the gym...whatever. But do it with purpose...and the purpose is to re-energize the Earth with love.

I'll explain the back story below.

Posted

7/19/2007

Updated

7/19/2007

Keywords

Bridey Murphy, Health, Hypnosis, Morey Bernstein

Viewed 1138 times

Hypnosis In Medicine

The Search For Bridey Murphy by Morey Bernstein was originally published in 1956. The last time it saw print was almost 15 years ago, in 1993. The original is now out-of-copyright; and since copyright law was intended to protect the rights of a work's author, and not to suppress the work, I feel it is morally right to make at least parts of it available here.

Posted

7/20/2007

Updated

7/20/2007

Keywords

Bridey Murphy, Hypnosis, Mass Media, Morey Bernstein

Viewed 1133 times

Suppression of Hypnosis

This continues the e-presentation of The Search For Bridey Murphy appendices with this essay, originally titled Why Isn't Hypnotism More Widely Used and subtitled A History of Misunderstanding and Prejudice. It was written by Morey Bernstein; the additional comments are mine.

Posted

7/21/2007

Updated

7/21/2007

Keywords

Personal History, St. Joseph Academy

Viewed 1162 times

1994: St. Joseph Academy Class of '69 25th Reunion

A blog by Paul S. Cilwa, writer, instructor, traveler, photographer, singer, and all-round experiencer. A place where I can ruminate at will on politics, religion, spirituality, sex, and my private life...You know, all those topics we aren't supposed to discuss in public!

Posted

7/23/2007

Updated

7/23/2007

Keywords

Conservatives, Republicans

Viewed 1135 times

The Truth Has Sharp Edges

"In the sixties, people took acid to make the world weird. Now the world is weird, and people take Prozac to make the world normal."

Is the world really weirder than it was in the 1960s? The sixties were the last hurrah of what could be called unquestioned conservatism (and here I am not referring to the stultifying political movement of the fans of Rush Limbaugh. Not yet). Television, at the beginning of its second decade, portrayed an America of identical families of identical race in identical houses with identical (if unspecified) jobs. As the decade wore on, attempts to break this mold largely failed: Mary Tyler Moore's character Mary Richards was intended to be divorced, but the network demanded she be "jilted" instead. Attempts by the Smothers Brothers to lace musical numbers with biting political satire got their show abruptly cancelled.

Posted

7/25/2007

Updated

7/25/2007

Keywords

Florida, Humor, Personal History, Travel

Viewed 1201 times

1969: My First Plane Flight

How in 1969, I managed to embarrass myself and disgrace my family name for generations to come...all during a 20-minute jet flight from Jacksonville to Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

Posted

7/30/2007

Updated

7/30/2007

Keywords

Personal History, Travel, Vermont

Viewed 1158 times

1969 Trip to Vermont (Part 1)

In mid-September, 1969, in accordance with the plan we'd made during my visit to him, my friend John and I carefully saved our money until, in September, 1969, we were ready to make the journey of a lifetime: From Florida all the way up to Vermont.

Posted

7/31/2007

Updated

7/31/2007

Keywords

Personal History, Travel, Vermont

Viewed 1157 times

1969 Trip to Vermont (Part 2)

Today's posting concludes the tale of my 1969 trip from Florida to my childhood home in Vermont with my friend Chris Palmes.

Posted

8/7/2007

Updated

8/7/2007

Keywords

Biography, Edna Mae Brown, Edna Mae Cilwa

Viewed 1145 times

Mom's Photo Album

A couple of years before my Mom passed away, she and I spent some time rummaging through her old photographs. She'd lost a lot of them when we lived in Florida; despite the fact that she'd wintered there as a girl, she was unaware of the voracious and wide-ranging appetite of Florida cockroaches--especially as regards to paper. They literally ate hundreds of her precious photos before she discovered the damage. We were able to preserve some.

Posted

8/13/2007

Updated

8/13/2007

Keywords

Arizona, Sedona, Slide Rock, Slide Rock State Park

Viewed 1195 times

Slide Rock

My son's girlfriend, Rachel, is from Texas and wanted to see Sedona. So we arranged to make the expedition yesterday.

This was the day after Saturday, when daughters Jenny and Karen and grandson Zachary and I did a Salt River float that somehow resulted in my getting a sunburn on the top of my head and my chest and stomach. I used sunblock, too. Even Zach got a light burn on his back, and he never burns.

We intended to leave around 9 am for Sedona. We did, too--that was a surprise! But then we left half of what we intended to bring, including bottles of water and a dry towel and shorts for me. Because, we intended to swim.

Posted

8/17/2007

Updated

8/17/2007

Keywords

Ann Coulter, Conservatives, Health, Humor, Personal History

Viewed 1183 times

The Day I Mooned Ann Coulter

I have been thinking of getting a hydrocolonic for some time. (What the heck's that got to do with Ann Coulter, you ask? Read on...)

Posted

8/20/2007

Updated

8/20/2007

Keywords

Arizona, Cancer, Health, Salt River

Viewed 1180 times

The Mighty Sun

We managed to go on our almost-weekly float down the Salt River again this Sunday, despite a very busy weekend for all of us. But Jennifer really enjoys it; Zachary likes to bring his friend Chris, and of course, I love it. Michael's been a bit under the weather and hasn't gone all summer; Karen is somewhat indifferent but decided to go. And even Mary, who's only gone with us once (last year), decided she would go, too.

And wound up getting one heck of a sunburn.

Posted

8/21/2007

Updated

8/21/2007

Keywords

Baja California, Cruise, Ensenada, Monarch Of The Seas, Royal Caribbean

Viewed 1192 times

Our Next Cruise

Having had her appetite whetted by our cruise last May in the Western Caribbean, my daughter Karen has become a cruise aficionado and is already planning our follow-up cruise. As in, she's made reservations and put down a deposit.

Posted

8/22/2007

Updated

8/22/2007

Keywords

McCredie Hot Springs, Personal History, Travel

Viewed 1174 times

Reconnection

I'm one of those people--I assume not the only one!--who, every now and then, simply must return to a natural setting to reconnect and regain my balance. I was going to say, "recharge my batteries" but that would be an inappropriate metaphor, because for me to reconnect (another electrical term!) I have to get away from batteries, television, computers, cars, carbon monoxide, and the other trappings of our self-congratulatory, so-called "civilization."

Posted

8/24/2007

Updated

8/24/2007

Keywords

3 Most Beautiful Places, Blogging, Carnival Spirit, Hawaii, Humor

Viewed 1153 times

The Three Most Beautiful Places in Hawaii

I'm inaugurating a new series for this blog: The 3 Most Beautiful Places. In this series, we are going to take a fantasy tour of the United States, starting with the westernmost and working our way eastward. In each state we'll sample the three most beautiful or otherwise special places that that state has to offer. These will not be cities, commercial tourist attractions, or overcrowded parks (though we will be visiting some national and state parks that are not overcrowded). This will not be a don't-miss restaurant listing, a visit to the Biggest Ball of Twine in Minnesota, or a tour of Disneyland. It will be an armchair tour of the three places in each state you'd most like to photograph, meditate at, or hike through.

The assumption is that money and time do not constitute obstacles; we can travel in comfort and spend as long as we wish.

Since our westernmost states are Alaska and Hawaii, that's where we'll start: on our cruise of the Hawaiian Islands that will later take us to Alaska.

Posted

8/28/2007

Updated

8/28/2007

Keywords

Blogging, Humor, Republican Corruption

Viewed 1189 times

Love, Republican Style

Men, women, boys girls, cops, even mules--is there anything a Republican won't screw in between "defending marriage" and sending the sons of Democrats to die in Iraq for Bush's oil war?

Posted

8/29/2007

Updated

8/29/2007

Keywords

Humor, Politics

Viewed 1140 times

Political Humor

Given the past two weeks' excess of Republican hilarity, I thought it was time to present a few choice bits of political cartoons I've been saving.

Posted

8/30/2007

Updated

8/30/2007

Keywords

Fauxtography, Humor

Viewed 1154 times

Fauxtography

Here's an actual, retouched, photo of genuine Siamese cats.

Posted

9/4/2007

Updated

9/4/2007

Keywords

Arizona, Salt River

Viewed 1220 times

Wild Horses

I don't usually like to do anything far from home on "official" three-day weekends, because the traffic's usually too dense. But the section of the Salt River we like to float is only about twenty minutes from the house. And so we made (what is likely to be) our last float trip of the season on Sunday, and were rewarded by a rare and special visit from a herd of wild horses that lives near the river bank.

Posted

9/5/2007

Updated

9/6/2007 9:22:00 AM

Keywords

Jenny Cilwa, Personal History

Viewed 1225 times

Jenny's Birth Day

Today is the thirty-second anniversary of the birth of my third daughter, Jennifer Ann Cilwa. It's also the first time in a couple of decades that we truly have something to celebrate.

Posted

9/11/2007

Updated

9/13/2007 8:00:00 AM

Keywords

McCredie Hot Springs, Oregon, Personal History, Travel, Umpqua Hot Springs

Viewed 1242 times

Oregon Hot Springs

Michael and I just spent a mini-vacation in Oregon's Cascade Mountains, soaking in hot springs and driving in the unparalleled beauty of the coastal high country. Here's the report and photos.

Posted

9/12/2007

Updated

9/12/2007

Keywords

New Jersey, Personal History

Viewed 1162 times

1951-1958: And Then I Was Born

This lifetime began, for me, on April 8, 1951, at 7:05 pm in Mountainside Hospital in Glen Ridge, New Jersey.

My mother, Edna Mae Brown Cilwa, and my father, Walter Sigimund Cilwa, lived at the time in a small but airy apartment called Styertowne, in Clifton, NJ. I was named after my grandfather (Vernon Paul Brown) and my father, although under the heavy sedation then used in childbirth, my mother wasn't quite able to duplicate the spelling of my father's middle name.

My memory begins somewhere around 6 months old. I can describe the layout of the apartment itself, and I distinctly remember sitting in my high chair, watching Pinky Lee on television. (And I was gay then; even in my high chair, I knew that striped pants and a polka dot shirt didn't go together!)

Posted

9/13/2007

Updated

9/13/2007

Keywords

Arizona, Photography, Zachary

Viewed 1162 times

Fair Weather, Foul Tires

A song in the forties used to begin, "It's always fair weather when hep cats get together." Here in Arizona, it's always fair weather even when storms approach, because they provide such beautifully spectacular examples of rainbows and sun-hearted clouds that there's just no element of depression about them. (As opposed to, say, Manchester, New Hampshire, where the entire winter is one gray mudball.)

This time of year, especially, yields some amazing photos, even when taken with no more than a cellphone camera.

Posted

9/14/2007

Updated

9/14/2007

Keywords

Christmas, New Jersey, Personal History

Viewed 1157 times

1958-1959: Winter in New Jersey

My father had passed away, but life goes on. We spent a couple of "vacation weeks" at my grandparents' garden apartment in Bloomfield, New Jersey; but it was November and everyone else was in school, so it was lonely during the days. And it was cold, too; so it wasn't much fun to play outside. Still, we did; and I had my first experience getting lost.

Posted

9/17/2007

Updated

9/17/2007

Keywords

12-Step Programs, Jenny Cilwa, Recovery, Substance Abuse

Viewed 1135 times

Recovery Walk

This past Saturday, the substance abuse recovery home at which my daughter, Jenny, is program manager, sponsored a Recovery Walk down Mesa's Center Street, accompanied by food, games, an inflatable bouncing thing and piñatas for the kids. Something that might be viewed as a somber and solemn occasion was instead a lighthearted and joyous one, thanks in part to Jenny's contribution to putting it on.

Posted

9/18/2007 6:00:00 PM

Updated

9/18/2007 6:00:00 PM

Keywords

Blogging, Humor, Internet, Personal History

Viewed 1102 times

Internet Friends

Last night we had dinner with a friend from back East (actually, it's Ohio which she thinks of as the "Midwest") and the topic turned to Internet dating. Is it possible, we discussed, to meet a quality person on the Internet, someone you'd want to be friends with if not married to?

Posted

9/21/2007

Updated

9/21/2007

Keywords

Dorothy Ann Zembruski, Obituary

Viewed 704 times

Dorothy Ann Hood Zembruski 1938-2007

One of my two sisters-in-law, Dorothy Ann Zembruski, died unexpectedly September 19. She was 68 years old, and should have had many more years ahead of her.

Posted

10/1/2007

Updated

10/1/2007

Keywords

Blogging, Humor, Personal History, Politics

Viewed 1104 times

I'm Sorry

Last year, I was so busy during the month of October that I didn't have a chance to blog at all. Near the end of the month, I began to receive emails from loyal readers I've never met, wondering if I was all right! Since this month promises to be as busy as October of last year was, I figured I would apologize in advance. But, this is October 1st; so at least, no matter how bad it gets, I will have blogged at least once in October! And the topic is, The Return From The Funeral.

Posted

10/3/2007

Updated

10/3/2007

Keywords

Personal History, Vermont

Viewed 1080 times

1960: Renovations

Mom's father and stepmother were frequent visitors--so frequent, in fact, that Mom permanently assigned them the back bedroom.

Before they came for a visit, we would clean the house thoroughly...and by "we" I mean "Mom," at least for the most part. However, there was one chore I was assigned and enjoyed.

Black flies tend to gather in dark, undisturbed places; and summer days in Vermont it got so warm the flies didn't want to budge. Instead, they collected, by the hundreds, behind the frames of wall paintings and photos. So I got to use the vacuum cleaner, a little Art Deco canister that rolled about on casters like R2-D2 in the Star Wars movies twenty-five years later. I would take down a painting or frame from the wall, then scoop up hundreds of lethargic flies with the vacuum cleaner wand. I often wondered why they didn't just fly out when I turned off the machine, but they never did, and I kept shifting between two possible explanations: One, that they were so lethargic that they found the inside of the vacuum even more pleasant than behind a photo of newly-installed Pope John XXIII; or two, that they simply could not find their way out of the interior of the vacuum.

Posted

10/4/2007

Updated

10/4/2007

Keywords

Circumcision, Personal History, Vermont

Viewed 1083 times

1960: Circumcision

A blog by Paul S. Cilwa, writer, instructor, traveler, photographer, singer, and all-round experiencer. A place where I can ruminate at will on politics, religion, spirituality, sex, and my private life...You know, all those topics we aren't supposed to discuss in public!

Posted

10/5/2007

Updated

10/5/2007

Keywords

Photo Restoration, Photography

Viewed 1076 times

Rescuing A Photo

In working on the photos I took when I was eight, I had some real challenges trying to restore them. After all, it's been almost fifty years; for much of that time I had no idea how to store negatives safely and when I did learn, it was too late. Add to that the fact that even black-and-white negatives deteriorate with age, and you can see that I would be lucky if I could even make out some of the images.

Posted

10/8/2007

Updated

10/8/2007

Keywords

Personal History, Zachary

Viewed 1081 times

B-Ball With Zach

After he'd spent four hours or so playing video games on a beautiful Saturday, and insisted there was "nothing to do" outside, the entire family was forced to rouse itself up off the sofa and go with Zachary to the neighborhood basketball court to shoot some hoops with him.

Posted

10/11/2007

Updated

10/11/2007

Keywords

Astronomy, History, Photography, Science

Viewed 1084 times

Shine On Harvest Moon

Shine on, shine on harvest moon
Up in the sky
I ain't had no lovin' since
January, February, June or July.

Pretty much everyone has heard that song. But what the heck is a "harvest moon"? And what, if anything, would it have to do with a lack of "lovin'"?

Posted

10/15/2007

Updated

10/15/2007

Keywords

Arizona, Biosphere 2, Personal History, Travel

Viewed 1117 times

Biosphere 2

For millennia, Arizona's Sonoran Desert has consisted of trackless miles of scrub, cactus, and bare patches of sand punctuated by the occasional upthrust of rocky crags like the Superstition Mountains and Mount Lemmon and, more recently, little towns with names like Globe and Oracle. However, between 1987 and 1991, a structure arose in the Sonoran so unusual in both appearance and purpose that over 100,000 visitors have come to see it, not to mention the hundreds and hundreds of researchers and students who have flocked to it for more extended study. This structure is known as Biosphere 2, and on this past Saturday I took the family to see it.

Posted

10/19/2007

Updated

10/19/2007

Keywords

Blogging, Bush Crime Family, Politics

Viewed 1050 times

Dude, Where's My Party?

Posted

10/22/2007

Updated

10/22/2007

Keywords

Arizona, Camping, Cub Scouts, Personal History, Salt River, Zachary

Viewed 1105 times

Camping at Coon Bluff

This past weekend, Zach spent at his first-ever Cub Scout camping trip. Unlike Boy Scouts, where the members of a troop camp under the watchful eyes of a scoutmaster and maybe one or two assistants, younger Cub Scouts go to a common area and camp "with their families" but spend the days in activities with their pack. That leaves the parents free to do parent things...which, in my case, meant a planned weekend of sleeping.

Posted

10/25/2007

Updated

10/25/2007

Keywords

Humor, Politics

Viewed 1098 times

Meet Those Who Still Support George W. Bush

A British reporter came to our shores and located the final 24% of Americans who think George W. Bush is doing a good job. You've seen them (they can be spotted by the Bush/Cheney 2004 bumper stickers on their 4X4s); you know they exist; but you still haven't wrapped your head around the fact that anyone could truly be that ignorant.

This YouTube video will help. It begins when the reporter asks pedestrians to name a country whose name begins with "U".

Posted

10/25/2007 7:30:00 AM

Updated

10/25/2007 7:30:00 AM

Keywords

Family, Photography

Viewed 1121 times

Picture Day with Cailey

Because my grandson Zachary lives with me, he gets a lot more attention in my blog than my other two grandchildren. Max, unfortunately, lives in Europe with his mother and we never hear from either of them. But Cailey, though nearly 3000 miles away, lives with my lovely daughter Dottie and her daddy Frank, and I do get photos and frequent updates of how she is doing. So I thought I'd share a few today.

Posted

10/26/2007

Updated

10/26/2007

Keywords

Text Messaging

Viewed 1551 times

Email-to-Texting

If you "don't text," as Michael says, but have received a text message on your phone that you want to answer, what can you do? One possibility is to use your regular email service to reply.

Posted

10/29/2007

Updated

10/29/2007

Keywords

Barak Obama, Humor, Presidential Campaigns

Viewed 1102 times

Missing The Point

There's a hilarious new product coming soon to your Costco store shelves. It's called Batter Blaster^™; and, according to its web site, "it makes organic light and fluffy pancakes and light and crisp waffles in minutes!"

Posted

10/31/2007

Updated

10/31/2007

Keywords

Arizona, Personal History, Zachary

Viewed 1159 times

Do Unto Udders

We went to a farm!

Last night I took Zachary to the Superstition Farm, a local dairy farm that gives tours, on a Cub Scout function. I lived on a wannabe farm in Vermont when I was Zach's age, but since we never actually grew anything while I was there, or milked anything but Nanny the Goat, I found the workings of a real farm to be fascinating. And the best part was, the farm was no more than ten minutes from our house!

Posted

11/9/2007

Updated

11/9/2007

Keywords

Karate, Zachary

Viewed 1143 times

Karate Kids

No matter how busy things get, never miss an opportunity--or, if need be, make an opportunity--to take your grandson to karate class.

Posted

11/12/2007

Updated

11/12/2007

Keywords

John David Cilwa, Personal History

Viewed 1155 times

Happy Birthday, John

"An accident is something that you wouldn't do over again if you had the chance. A surprise is something you didn't even know you wanted until you got it." So said "Roseanne" to her youngest child and only son, "D. J." on her self-titled TV show.

The conception of my son, John, was certainly no accident, though it seemed like one at the time. It definitely proves, though, that humans cannot thwart the Will of God (no matter what the fundamentalists seem to believe). And, also, that our God-selves know far better what we need and want, than our Earth-selves.

Posted

11/13/2007

Updated

11/13/2007

Keywords

Edna Mae Brown, Edna Mae Cilwa, Humor, Poetry

Viewed 1111 times

A Weary Vessel

A few months ago, my sister Louise sent me a box of my mother's things, things Mom had saved for decades. Some things are merely of interest like the hand-written receipt for our property in Vermont, while others are real heart-tuggers, like the hand-drawn birthday and Mother's Day cards I had given her and which she had carted around the country since my childhood. Edna Mae Brown Among the treasures I've found--and I have not yet made it all the way through the box!--are a few of her poems, including some I'd never before read. Louise was considerate enough to type them up from Mom's faded and old-fashioned cursive.

Posted

11/14/2007

Updated

11/14/2007

Keywords

Arizona, Monument Valley, Photography

Viewed 1116 times

Monument Valley (1997)

A blog by Paul S. Cilwa, writer, instructor, traveler, photographer, singer, and all-round experiencer. A place where I can ruminate at will on politics, religion, spirituality, sex, and my private life...You know, all those topics we aren't supposed to discuss in public!

Posted

11/20/2007

Updated

11/20/2007

Keywords

Music

Viewed 1114 times

The Open Window

I can't promise to have time to do any real blogging this week, except maybe for the day after Thanksgiving. So here to tide you over, is a piece of music I wrote in 1969, arranged in 2003 (while driving my big rig!) and finally orchestrated last week.

Posted

11/22/2007

Updated

11/22/2007

Keywords

Humor, Personal History

Viewed 1123 times

Thankful

In Luke 18:11, we read:

The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself: "God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this 'publican."

While I, too, am grateful to not be a Republican, the Pharisee's approach to thanksgiving is generally presented as being a poor one. Nevertheless, as an "attitude of gratitude" is supposed to be good for the soul, not to mention the blood pressure, I'm going to highlight just twelve of the many, many things for which I'm grateful and make them public right here.

Posted

11/26/2007

Updated

11/26/2007

Keywords

Humor

Viewed 1102 times

The Importance of Eating Ernest

Ernest was a young, somewhat overweight, turkey who was beloved of his few friends and whose death shortly before Thanksgiving of 2007, while not unexpected, was still a tragically beautiful footnote to the whole Circle of Life.

This is his story.

Posted

11/27/2007

Updated

11/27/2007

Keywords

Humor, Organized Religion

Viewed 1066 times

Turning The Other Checkbook

Muslims believe that it is a sin to take a life under any circumstances, which is why they never engage in terrorism or suicide bombings. Hindus believe we are all One in Brahman (and therefore of equal importance) which is why they never developed a caste system. Christians believe in forgiveness, which is why none of them ever sue a pedophilic priest or minister.

Oh, wait. Some Muslims do become suicide bombers. Hindus do have a caste system. Christians do sue their leaders, and not just for serious offenses like pedophilia. In October, one Chicago area Catholic has just sued his parish priest over a sermon he didn't like.

Posted

12/12/2007

Updated

12/12/2007

Keywords

Bush Crime Family, Humor, Video

Viewed 1077 times

New Bush Coins

Now that President Bush has declared martial law, it will be illegal to own precious metals after the first of the year. Here's a sneak peek at the newly proposed currency denomination...

Posted

12/13/2007

Updated

12/13/2007

Keywords

Global Warming

Viewed 1116 times

How Long Can You Tread Water?

Biblically speaking, nothing seems to piss God off more than members of the faithful who refuse to heed prophecies.

For example, the prophet Jeremiah, who continued to warn his fellow Israelites that God would punish them if they didn't "turn away from their sins" until he was completely ignored, predicted that if they didn't heed his warnings, the Jews would be scattered from their homeland and persecuted. As you must know, the Jews continued to ignore Jeremiah and, sure enough, they were scattered from their homeland and persecuted. Repeatedly.

Posted

12/14/2007

Updated

12/14/2007

Keywords

Travel

Viewed 1086 times

National Parks Trip Proposal

This coming May, my daughter Karen graduates from Arizona State University. As her graduation present, she wants to go on a trip. (Obviously, this is a young woman modeled after my own heart.) Moreover, she wants as many people to be a part of a this trip as possible. So here's an invitation to all the members of our extended family, including friends, to peruse the itinerary following and see if it sounds like something you'd like to do.

Posted

12/16/2007

Updated

12/16/2007

Keywords

Christmas, Family, Personal History

Viewed 1110 times

Christmas Letter 2007

For the second year in a row, my annual Christmas letter is being presented as part of my blog. Is this a trend?

Posted

12/21/2007

Updated

12/21/2007

Keywords

Canada, Personal History, Travel

Viewed 1116 times

Jasper National Park

In November, 2006, I helped some friends move from Connecticut to Washington state by driving one of their vehicles. When the job was done, I had to get back home to New Hampshire, which I decided to do by taking Canada's Via Rail home through the Canadian Rockies. I didn't make the trip straight through, however; I got off at Jasper, rented a car, and made my first visit to Banff by driving through the Jasper National Park and along the Promenade of Glaciers. Here are the photos of that breathtaking trip.

Posted

12/26/2007

Updated

12/26/2007

Keywords

Christmas, Personal History

Viewed 1152 times

How We Celebrated Christmas

Our house looks like a mall exploded in it, and our family has eaten itself into a stupor. That's right, it's the day after Christmas and all through the house we've all overeaten, including my spouse.

Posted

12/27/2007

Updated

12/27/2007

Keywords

Health, Humor

Viewed 1142 times

Kidney Punch

A week ago today (December 20), Michael went into the hospital to have a "procedure" done. That procedure is called a lithotripsy and its purpose was to blast, with ultra-sound, an unpleasantly large stone that had formed within his left kidney.

Posted

1/2/2008

Updated

1/2/2008

Keywords

Blogging, Cruise, Humor, Personal History

Viewed 1093 times

V Minus 1

We leave tomorrow for this year's vacation.

Is one day long enough to prepare for a cruise? --But I won't even have a day. I have to work and won't be able to pack until afterwards, maybe an hour. Is that long enough? Maybe it's too long...I wouldn't want to start stressing over it. After all, it's a vacation; which is supposed to be the antithesis of stress.

Posted

1/2/2008 6:00:00 PM

Updated

1/2/2008 6:00:00 PM

Keywords

Blogging, Cruise, Humor, Personal History

Viewed 1069 times

Packing List

For the most rabid Paul-o-phile only, my packing list for the cruise.

Posted

1/4/2008

Updated

1/4/2008

Keywords

Blogging, Humor, Personal History, Royal Caribbean, Travel

Viewed 1153 times

2008 Cruise, Day 1

Now that we have become accomplished cruisers (having just completed our second cruise) we find we cannot help compare the two cruise lines based on our admittedly meager experience. I also must admit that my judgment may have been colored by a couple of negative experiences on this latest vacation. Still...you are expecting a complete report and you shall have one!

Posted

1/5/2008

Updated

1/5/2008

Keywords

Ensenada, Personal History, Royal Caribbean, Travel

Viewed 1135 times

Ensenada In The Rain

Zachary woke us early, but then decided to remain in bed while Michael and I went to breakfast. At 8, Zach probably spends too much time closely supervised by one or more of the five adults he lives with; so it was a big deal for him to be left alone even for a half hour.

We ate in the casual buffet restaurant called Windjammers. I loved the decor. The restaurant is on Deck 11, all the way forward, and has full length windows all the way around. I had the "omelet of the day" (which was very much like the omelets of all the other days), a big mess of bacon, and some guava juice that was delicious. Michael had much the same, plus a generous sampling of the pastries. As we ate we watched the rain-shrouded hills of Ensenada slide into view.

Posted

1/6/2008

Updated

1/6/2008

Keywords

Personal History, Royal Caribbean, Travel

Viewed 1042 times

Day At Sea

When I woke in the morning, Michael was the perfect picture of misery. Again, he hadn't slept; he had a headache and a pain in his kidney (where he'd recently had surgery) and his sinuses were killing him. It seemed like we'd have to go to the infirmary.

Posted

1/7/2008

Updated

1/7/2008

Keywords

Blogging, Carnival, Cruise, Humor, Personal History, Royal Caribbean, Travel

Viewed 1156 times

Debarkation

Our ship docked at San Pedro before we woke up. When we did wake up, it was to a shocking surprise. Michael's infirmary bill, which the nurse had told us would run $108 dollars plus a little more for any medicine administered, was just shy of $1000...and it was going to hit my bank card, which didn't have a balance anywhere near that, as soon as we got off the boat.

Posted

1/8/2008

Updated

1/8/2008

Keywords

California, Cruise, Hollywood, Personal History, Royal Caribbean, Travel

Viewed 1026 times

Hooray for Hollywood!

Our cruise over, and Magic Mountain closed, we packed the rented van for the last time and headed back south for Hollywood. Mary wanted to see the homes of the stars, so Karen had spent an hour on the computer copying down addresses. With the GPS, all I had to do was enter in the destination address--the GPS "knew" our current position--and tell it to go. Almost instantly, it would display a map and recite directions, turn by turn. If I made a mistake, it would say, "Recalculating!" without a trace of frustration and gently prod us back onto the correct route.

Our first destination: Alfred Hitchcock's home in Bel Aire.

Posted

1/21/2008

Updated

1/21/2008

Keywords

Arizona, Hiking, Superstition Mountains, Zachary

Viewed 1048 times

Superstitions Hike

Today I found myself with an unexpected (and enforced) day off. Not every business closes shop for Martin Luther King's day, so I was surprised to find that mine did (especially since we'd just had both New Year's Eve and New Year's Day off). Even so, I would have gone into work because, as a "temp", I do not get paid for holidays. But the building was closed.

And so, being that the day was exquisitely beautiful, the kind of Arizona winter day that we recall in the summer as why we continue to live here, I offered to take Zachary and his friend, Lane, for a hike in the nearby Superstition Mountains.

Posted

1/25/2008

Updated

1/25/2008

Keywords

Commercialism, Martin Luther King

Viewed 1097 times

I Have A Sale

The man who was martyred on April 4, 1968, for his activism in trying to end the de facto slavery of America's largest (at the time) minority couldn't be silenced by death. You might think that creating a national holiday in his honor would be proof of that; but it's quite the opposite. The man who once "had a dream" now is used as an excuse for three-day-weekend sales. Don't believe me? Here's a full-page ad from the L.A. Times:

Posted

1/27/2008

Updated

1/27/2008

Keywords

Karate, Zachary

Viewed 1023 times

It's Good To Be Yellow

More Zachary news: On Friday, Zach went to the central karate place to be tested for his yellow belt.

Instructors face off against students.

Posted

1/30/2008

Updated

1/30/2008

Keywords

Karen Hope Cilwa

Viewed 1026 times

Portrait of Karen

Today is Karen's 34th birthday! She is my second child, my second daughter, but her birthday comes first in the calendar year. (Her oldest sister, Dorothy Elizabeth, will have her birthday in three weeks.) Last year at this time, I wrote about Karen's birth. This year I would like to celebrate by presenting a living portrait of this lovely young lady as she has grown from infancy to adulthood.

Posted

2/2/2008

Updated

2/2/2008

Keywords

Cub Scouts, Zachary

Viewed 1104 times

Chasing Rockets

This weekend's adventure occurred Saturday when I drove Zachary to his Cub Scout pack's annual rocket launching.

The rockets were assembled from simple, inexpensive kits at the kids' Wednesday night meeting, two weeks ago. Last weekend, Michael guided Zach in painting his 12-inch rocket. And today, the rocket was launched, not once, but three times.

NASA can only dream of such durability in its fleet.

Here are pictures from the event.

Posted

2/5/2008

Updated

2/5/2008

Keywords

Grand Canyon, Photography, Travel

Viewed 1105 times

AZ-64

One of the most beautiful stretches of road, and one of the most underappreciated, in Arizona is state road 64. This delightful ribbon of concrete runs from the end of US 180 right in Grand Canyon Village, and extends eastward, mostly following the South Rim of the Canyon, for just about 60 miles where it T-bones into US 89 at Cameron. From there you can head north to Tuba City or Page, or south to Flagstaff.

I was last on this road with my son, John, and his then-wife as a side trip while taking them to Minneapolis. It did not impact the trip length by more than two hours, and was well worth the small amount of extra time.

Posted

2/12/2008

Updated

2/12/2008

Keywords

Personal History

Viewed 1200 times

February, 1972: First Wedding

I'm not saying I wish it hadn't happened. I adore my children and grandchildren and still very much love (chastely) my ex-wife. But it has to be said: my now ex-dead-father-in-law tricked me into marrying his daughter.

Posted

2/19/2008

Updated

2/19/2008

Keywords

Dorothy Elizabeth Cilwa

Viewed 1138 times

Portrait of Dorothy Elizabeth

Today is Dorothy Elizabeth's 35th birthday! She is my first child, my oldest daughter, though her birthday comes second in the calendar year. (Her younger sister, Karen, had her birthday three weeks ago.) Last year at this time, I wrote about Dottie's birth. This year I would like to celebrate by presenting a living portrait of this lovely young lady as she has grown from infancy to adulthood (and from baby Dottie to Dorothy to Elizabeth, as she now prefers to be called).

Posted

2/20/2008

Updated

2/20/2008

Keywords

Bush Crime Family, Conservatives, Humor, Politics

Viewed 1092 times

Look Out For Mr. Stork

Is it possible that anyone in the United States above the age of three, doesn't know what the picture on the left represents?

On the off-chance that you might be such a person, it is a drawing of a stork delivering a baby.

If you are above the age of twelve, it's unlikely that you believe that babies are, in fact, delivered by storks. Yet the image persists; its presence on a greeting card is yet an acceptable shortcut for saying "We're having a baby!"

This bit of silliness comes to us from Victorian days, when it was thought necessary to answer the perennial child's question, "Where did I come from?" without actually bringing up the topic of (shudder, pause) sex. Storks, or specifically the white stork, built very visible nests on British chimneys in which stork mothers could be seen from the ground, devotedly tending their stork babies. Since storks were already thought to be harbingers of good luck, it wasn't such a big stretch to credit them with the arrival of a child...especially since the reality was, at the time, a Truth That Dare Not Speak Its Name.

This conceit was still with us in 1941, when one of the opening songs in Walt Disney's Dumbo was "Look Out For Mr. Stork", in which flocks of white storks were shown delivering baby animals to their parents, including Mrs. Jumbo. It was in that cartoon that the addition of caps, such as were worn by telegram delivery boys, was added to the stork's attire and mythology.

The significance of the stork mythology to us is that it vividly portrays an example of eagerly well-meaning parents telling lies to their children on the assumption that the child doesn't need to know the truth. (How many Victorian girls found themselves pregnant, with no idea what was happening to them, since they hadn't been near a stork?) These same parents, of course, would vehemently deny the same kids the right to withhold truths from them on the basis that the parent didn't need to know! Yet we adults find ourselves living beneath a paternalistic government which believes we should be "protected" from truths we don't need to know. And, as with the stork, the consequences of living with false information are hard to gauge but should not be ignored.

Posted

2/22/2008

Updated

2/22/2008

Keywords

Bush Crime Family, Conspiracy, Health Care

Viewed 1128 times

A Little Bird Named Enza

On last night's American Idol, Simon Cowell mentioned not once but three times that we Americans are in the grip of the "worst flu season in history!" This had, apparently, come to his attention because a number of the contestants had come down with the flu that week and the sickness had affected their performances. He also claimed to have never heard the Spiral Starecase song, "More Today Than Yesterday", or, for that matter, of the group itself.

It's wise to remember that American Idol is broadcast on Fox, the one network most consistent in never getting its facts straight. The current flu season, as severe as it may be (at my daughter's work, a recovery center, nearly 25% of the residents have contracted it), is nowhere near the "worst in American history". That honor remains with the 1918 influenza pandemic, which over the course of three years infected as many as 50% of those exposed, on average, wiping out entire towns and killing as many as 100,000,000 people around the globe.

Posted

2/25/2008

Updated

2/25/2008

Keywords

Humor, Lake Massebesic, Michael Manion, New Hampshire, Washington D.C.

Viewed 1099 times

Meet The Cilwas

Today, February 25, is Michael's birthday. And since I have no stories of Michael's birth to share (those are his stories, not mine) I will use the occasion to describe our first day together, and how Michael met my family.

I've already described how we met in November of 1996 and how he came to celebrate New Year's with me at Manchester and Concord's joint First Night celebration.

We woke late on New Year's day, but I was determined to make the most of Michael's visit. So, after a quick brunch, we drove out to Lake Massebesic for the fresh air, the view, and the fun of walking on water.

Posted

2/26/2008

Updated

2/26/2008

Keywords

Digital Music, Digital Recording, MP3s, Windows Media Player

Viewed 1114 times

Ripping MP3s

I am perhaps halfway through digitizing my rather large library of CDs, LPs and tapes and have gotten well past 10,000 MP3 files. When visitors see this, their first reaction is usually, "Oh...my...God!" Their second reaction is usually, "But how can you find what you want?" The answer, of course, is efficient organizing, just as it was when I kept all my CDs alphabetized in plastic racks mounted on the wall next to the CD player. But how to do that, you ask? Well, that's the subject of today's blog.

Posted

2/27/2008

Updated

2/27/2008

Keywords

Digital Music, Digital Recording, MP3s, Windows Media Player

Viewed 1092 times

Polishing MP3s

Yesterday I reported the basics of using Windows Media Player to rip MP3 tracks from your CDs. Today I'm going to cover ways of finessing your MP3 tracks so that you can get the most out of them.

Posted

2/28/2008

Updated

2/28/2008

Keywords

Digital Music, Digital Recording, MP3s, Windows Media Player

Viewed 1115 times

Organizing MP3s

Today I'll conclude my series on the basic care and feeding of MP3s with my suggestions as to how best to organize your MP3 files on your computer so you can find them!

Posted

2/29/2008

Updated

2/29/2008

Keywords

Cub Scouts, Zachary

Viewed 1131 times

Bear Cub

A quick last post for February: A couple of days ago, our Cub Scout, grandson Zachary, got his Bear patch at the monthly Pack meeting.

Posted

3/9/2008

Updated

3/9/2008

Keywords

Arizona, Payson, Personal History, Snow

Viewed 1110 times

Up The Bee Line Highway

Last Wednesday I bought a New Car. (New to me; not to the world. It's a 2004 Ford Expedition.) So, of course, we had to take it out to stretch its tires this weekend, even though simply owning it is enough to melt Greenland, not to mention actually driving it. Our destination: the snow I hoped was still lying on the ground at the top of the Mogollon Rim. Our purpose: to let Zach and his friend Chris play in the snow for a couple of hours. (Yes, there are pictures!)

Posted

3/20/2008

Updated

3/20/2008

Keywords

Humor

Viewed 1075 times

A Little Easter Humor

So with Easter almost upon us, I thought I would share my favorite Easter story.

Posted

3/25/2008

Updated

3/25/2008

Keywords

Health, Humor, Personal History

Viewed 1071 times

Michael and Paul Join A Gym

My last serious attempt at dieting was the Atkins Diet, two Januarys ago, in preparation for "looking good" (a lost cause at best) on our May cruise. I did lose some weight. But of course the diet ended when the ship left Tampa, because the real purpose of a cruise is to provide a venue for conspicuous overconsumption of food; and it never resumed.

I've been getting little hints that I need to do something about my weight. For one thing, Milton, our kitten, comes over to me while I'm watching TV and curls up on the shelf that has materialized between my solar plexus and my navel. I hate to make him move, even when it means I can't put my desert plate there.

Posted

4/1/2008

Updated

4/1/2008

Keywords

Current Events, Humor

Viewed 1064 times

April Fool's Day Challenge

I decided I couldn't let April Fool's Day pass without posting a blog entry, no matter how busy I've been. So I decided to list a number of bizarre current events, making one up, and you can decide which paragraph in this post is the one that isn't true. No fair Googling before you guess. I'll post the answers, and links, tomorrow. (And my little joke endings to each article don't count.)

Posted

4/2/2008

Updated

4/2/2008

Keywords

Blogging, Humor

Viewed 1065 times

Answers to my April Fool's Day Challenge

In yesterday's post, I present a number of news articles and challenged the reader to guess which paragraph in the post was not true. Here is the answer to that challenge.

Posted

4/10/2008

Updated

4/10/2008

Keywords

GPS, Humor, Personal History

Viewed 1139 times

Gym Clothes, Music, Book, GPS

So, my birthday has come and gone. We had a nice family dinner to punctuate the fact that I am now 57 years old. But it really was a nice celebration. I got a pair of gym shorts and an exercise shirt from Jenny (she really wants me to keep working out) and a GPS and mount from Michael, Karen, Mary, John and Rachel so I won't have any trouble finding the gym.

Posted

4/10/2008 4:00:00 PM

Updated

4/10/2008 4:00:00 PM

Keywords

Republican Corruption

Viewed 1579 times

Another Republican Bites The...Prostitute

I've said it before, and I'll say it again. When sex is forbidden, sex is hidden. Forbidding it only pushes it below the surface, where it frequently becomes perverted as it inevitably is expressed anyway.

Posted

4/11/2008

Updated

4/11/2008

Keywords

Contest, Writing

Viewed 1104 times

Cover Contest

Okay, here's the dealio. I'm still trying to decide on a name for my new novel. The problem is, its original title, Avatar, is already in use for dozens of books, games, and so on. So I've tried several others, going so far as to make covers for some of them just to see (for myself) how they would look on a book. I tried Joshua Rising (I liked it, but no one else really did), When Falls The Sky (even I didn't like it) and Hejira (which I really liked for about 48 hours, then hated). So I have a new title, and I'm trying it out on a cover but of course it has to have just the right font to sell the name. So below, please look at the five versions of the cover and let me know which you like best. (Or, if you hate them all, or think it's a dorky title for a book, that would be useful information as well.)

Posted

4/15/2008

Updated

4/15/2008

Keywords

Humor, Karate, Zachary

Viewed 1116 times

Zachary Gets His Orange Belt

They grow up so fast. This past weekend, Zachary graduated into his Orange Belt in Karate. (The progression is white-yellow-orange). At this stage, he is actually "tested" in class, with his classmates, as they go along and orange "tips" are added to their yellow belts. Then they have a graduation.

Posted

4/16/2008

Updated

4/16/2008

Keywords

Current Events, Humor

Viewed 1177 times

Things You Didn't Know To Worry About

Yeah. We all know the obvious things to worry about, like losing your house to foreclosure (up 57% since last year), being unable to afford the gas to drive to work so you can buy gas to drive to work (average price is now $3.50 a gallon), global warming raising sea levels so that your land in Florida will be underwater (even if it wasn't before). But that's just the tip of the iceberg. There's lots of things to worry about you may not have suspected. And as a public service, I'll let you know what a few of them are.

Posted

4/17/2008

Updated

4/17/2008

Keywords

Blogging, RSS

Viewed 1055 times

RSS, Second Try

I attempted to implement an RSS feed on my site once before. That "didn't take", as they say. I had to maintain the RSS file manually and it was just too much trouble. But now I've managed to automate the creation of this file so it should work with no problem to you or me.

Posted

4/22/2008

Updated

4/22/2008

Keywords

Desiderata, Immigration, Max Ehrmann, Spirituality

Viewed 1234 times

A Right To Be Here

One day in 1926, retired lawyer Max Ehrmann awoke in his quiet home in Terre Haute, Indiana, with the idea that he should do something, create something new, and yet not new. He had awakened with notions in his head that seemed ancient and true, yet forgotten; and it seemed he might be able to return them to the public consciousness if he only tried.

He was right.

Posted

4/23/2008

Updated

4/23/2008

Keywords

Personal History

Viewed 1072 times

February through March, 1972: The Honeymoon Is Over

In the early '70s, people--especially Mary's 80-year-old father--still had the idea that getting married equaled a stay-at-home wife. And so, when she and I got married, Mary quit her job--one that she enjoyed and was good at, working with blind kids--and we moved into our new apartment on Laurel Street in Palatka, Florida.

Posted

4/28/2008

Updated

4/28/2008

Keywords

Cruise, Royal Caribbean

Viewed 1640 times

Family Thrown Off Royal Caribbean Ship

You might remember, gentle reader, that I and my family took a cruise on a Royal Caribbean ship this past January. During the trip, Michael became ill and we were charged $1000 for his medical care onboard ship. Supposedly the trip insurance was going to cover that, although we have yet to see a check. Now it looks like we were lucky to be kept on board. The Luis Cortes family of Orange County, Florida, wasn't so fortunate.

Posted

4/29/2008

Updated

4/29/2008

Keywords

Personal History

Viewed 1115 times

April through May, 1972: Palm Coast

So Mary and I, and our friend John, settled into our airy single-wide mobile home in Breezy Brae Trailer Park, in Florida. It was the middle of April, 1972. Mary and I had been married for two months. Now all we needed were jobs.

Posted

4/29/2008 6:00:00 PM

Updated

4/29/2008 6:00:00 PM

Keywords

Obituary

Viewed 1162 times

Astro: RIP

We lost one of our three dogs today. Astro, the runt of his litter, passed on after a couple of days of being "under the weather". He was over 10 years old.

Posted

4/30/2008

Updated

4/30/2008

Keywords

Personal History

Viewed 1104 times

June, 1972: On The Radio

I had always wanted to work at a radio station.

St. Augustine had two radio stations: WFOY, which everyone listened to, and WETH, which almost no one listened to. WFOY was the "easy listening" station; its only real competition for listeners was Jacksonville's WAPE ("The Big Ape!") which played rock 'n' roll. But all the adults in town listened to WFOY.

And so that's where I set my sights.

Posted

5/2/2008

Updated

5/2/2008

Keywords

Cross and Sword, Florida, Personal History, The Cross and Sword, Timucuan Indians

Viewed 2874 times

1972, June through September: Cross & Sword

Previously, I described my main job in June of 1972, that of radio station disc jockey for WAOC radio. But I also mentioned that that was not quite a full-time job. And, in fact, I had another job that summer. I was an actor in Cross and Sword, Florida's "Official State Play." But to tell you that story, I have to backtrack and share with you the previous years I was also in the show.

Posted

5/5/2008

Updated

5/5/2008

Keywords

Camping, Salt River, Upper Salt River, Whitewater Rafting

Viewed 1241 times

Rafting the Upper Salt

For a guy who loves whitewater rafting, I sure haven't done much of it in the past few years. But I did get to go yesterday, on the Upper Salt River, and worked in a little camping with a new friend to boot.

Posted

5/9/2008

Updated

5/9/2008

Keywords

Karen Hope Cilwa, Personal History

Viewed 1193 times

Karen Graduates

It's May, so we have another graduation! This time it's my daughter, Karen, who got her bachelor's degree in Anthropology from Arizona State University this morning. Despite the fact that sitting in a sports stadium for three hours listening to unpronounceable names being, against all odds, pronounced as a thousand purple-robed graduates gavotte from chair to educator to educator and back to chair was considered too severe a torture for even Condoleezza Rice to order for Guantanamo Bay prisoners, it was a wonderful experience to be there for my little girl as she takes that magical step from childhood to employability.

Posted

5/10/2008

Updated

5/10/2008

Keywords

Dorothy Elizabeth Cilwa, Personal History, Wedding

Viewed 2270 times

Dorothy Elizabeth's Wedding

Today, May 10, my firstborn Dorothy Elizabeth Cilwa became married to Frank Lee Kinder, in a ceremony performed at Sedona's Red Rock Crossing. My granddaughter Cailey and grandson Zachary were ring-bearers. The ceremony was attended by immediate family members, and was followed by a short swim and then dinner at the Red Planet Diner.

Posted

5/21/2008

Updated

5/22/2008 4:00:00 AM

Keywords

Current Events, Health, Metaphysics, Politics, Reincarnation, Spirituality

Viewed 1088 times

Who Owns The Children?

There's a question that's been running through my mind for some time. A number of news articles have come along--a girl who died, untreated, for diabetic acidosis because her parents believed Jesus would heal her; the child brides of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints; and more--suggesting that parents don't always know what's best for their children. But who's to say they don't? Does the government know better than the parents? Does the minister? Who owns our children?

Posted

5/23/2008

Updated

5/23/2008

Keywords

Zachary

Viewed 1051 times

Last Day of School!

Today was the last day of school for Zach, our only grade-schooler. That means he is now ready for fourth grade, which he will be entering in the fall. And he got an award!

Posted

5/24/2008

Updated

5/24/2008

Keywords

SunSplash, Zachary

Viewed 1061 times

Zach's Birthday Party

Zachary turned 9 on May 22, but we celebrated it today with a party for his friends at SunSplash.

Posted

5/30/2008

Updated

5/30/2008

Keywords

Equal Rights, Humor, Same Sex Marriage

Viewed 1119 times

Ban Fat Marriage!

Posted

6/1/2008

Updated

6/1/2008

Keywords

Arizona, Bear Canyon Lake, Camping, Cub Scouts, Zachary

Viewed 2281 times

Cub Scout Camping at Bear Canyon Lake

Zach wakes up at Bear Canyon Lake.

We're back from camping at Bear Canyon Lake up on the Mogollon Rim, a little northeast of Payson. By "we" I mean me, my grandson Zachary, and some 15 other Cub Scouts and their parents and families. And other than a little car trouble, the weekend went perfectly.

Posted

6/5/2008

Updated

6/5/2008

Keywords

Metaphysics, Mourning, Spirituality, Trucking

Viewed 1166 times

Keeping One's Lost Love Alive

I am frequently asked to repeat a technique that I first wrote about in my Truckin' Journal of May 20, 2003. It's how to minimize the feeling of devastating loss when a loved one has passed away by connecting with that person's spirit or essence. I'm not talking séance here; rather, this is about reaching into oneself to find the connection one had, and will always have, with another.

Rather than pull all the narrative out, though, I will simply repeat that part of the original essay, because I think it puts a face on it.

Posted

6/6/2008

Updated

6/6/2008

Keywords

Blogging, Fundamentalist Christians, Humor, Rapture

Viewed 1113 times

Caught Up In The Rapture

A new web service allows Fundamentalist Christians to annoy their non-Christian friends after they have been assumed into Heaven in the Rapture.

Posted

6/8/2008

Updated

6/8/2008

Keywords

Salt River

Viewed 1064 times

First Float of the Season

Today we went on our first Salt River float of the 2008 season. Participants were myself, daughter Jenny, and grandson Zachary. Also, half the population of Phoenix, as far as I can tell.

Posted

6/10/2008

Updated

6/10/2008

Keywords

Bridges

Viewed 1064 times

Bridges

Humans are not the only creatures on Earth that build bridges, but we are the only ones who build permanent bridges. Bridges have become so ubiquitous in human culture that, in addition to being used as metaphors ("We'll build a bridge of love and kindness reaching to the other side" as Olivia Newton-John sang in "The River's Too Wide") they have spawned unique fears (gephyrophobia, the fear of bridges), a genre of photography and of course an engineering specialty.

Posted

6/14/2008

Updated

6/14/2008

Keywords

Blogging, Humor, Phon D. Sutton, Salt River, Zachary

Viewed 1104 times

Lower Salt Float

It's getting hard to continue being creative with names for Salt River float trip posts, since we do them so often. Yet, every one is unique and so are the photos!

Posted

6/17/2008

Updated

6/17/2008

Keywords

Gay Marriage, Humor, Marriage Equality

Viewed 1137 times

Marriage Equality

A video that's simply too funny not to share:

Posted

6/26/2008

Updated

6/26/2008

Keywords

Matt Harding, Travel, Video, Where The Hell Is Matt, World Travel

Viewed 1130 times

Where The Hell Is Matt?

I apologize for not posting in so long. I have been very busy (!) at work, with a major modification to an existing report, as well as at home with a side job web site.

However, I have something to share with you. It's a video by another blogger, a guy named Matt Harding, who posts at WhereTheHellIsMatt.com. Matt is a former video game designer who retired in his twenties to see the world. Of course, he shot video along the way; and a friend suggested, just before Matt left on his journey, that Matt do a little dancing in each place he videoed. He did so, and when he returned from his first year's trip in 2005, he strung together the dancing clips, added some cool music, and posted the result on YouTube.

The response was phenomenal.

Posted

6/27/2008

Updated

6/27/2008

Keywords

David Vitter, Gay Marriage, George W. Bush, Larry Craig, Republican Corruption, Word Clouds, Wordles

Viewed 1209 times

Wordles

Here's a cute one. A website, Wordle.com, exists solely to allow you to build "word clouds" in which the non-trivial words in a block of text are displayed with the most-frequently used words appearing larger than the less-frequently used words. The above, for example, is the Wordle version of my posting on the last Cub Scout camping trip I made with my grandson, Zach.

Posted

6/29/2008

Updated

6/29/2008

Keywords

Arizona, Camping, Fossil Creek Road, Photography, Travel, Verde Hot Spring

Viewed 1771 times

Fossil Creek Road to Verde Hot Spring

This weekend's adventure was a solo camping trip to Verde Hot Spring, enhanced with a determined yet wrong-headed GPS, a new route, a car turned into a bedroom, a couple of treacherous trees, and a totally excellent digital camera.

Posted

7/3/2008

Updated

7/3/2008

Keywords

Freedom, Humor, Politics

Viewed 1211 times

Freedom

My First Cavity Search: Helping Your Child Understand Why He May Pose A Threat To National Security

Posted

7/4/2008

Updated

7/4/2008

Keywords

Freedom, Humor

Viewed 1075 times

The Fantastic Founding Fathers

If the Founding Fathers had been super-heroes...

Posted

7/6/2008

Updated

7/6/2008

Keywords

Arizona, Camping, Oak Creek, Photography, Sedona, Slide Rock State Park, Zachary

Viewed 1326 times

Splashing in Oak Creek

On July 4th, the members of our extended family were scattered. Michael and I attended a terrific pool party hosted by our friend, Jay, which included the most divine pasta dishes (which I shouldn't have eaten, but did). Zach and his Mom and grandmother went to Zach friend Chris' house for barbecue and to watch the fireworks (though Zach pooped out before the fireworks started). Karen continued to house sit.

The red walls of Oak Creek Canyon have turned Sedona into a Mecca for tourists. But, on July 5th, Michael and Jenny and Zach and I loaded up the Expedition and headed for Oak Creek Canyon.

Oak Creek Canyon runs from a few miles south of Flagstaff to Sedona. Lots of tourists visit Sedona for its famous red rocks walls and barely notice Oak Creek, which formed those walls. By the time the creek gets to Sedona, the walls are far apart and the canyon opens up. Further north, though, where the walls narrow, there are no T-shirt or crystal shops and true nature lovers like myself can better appreciate the rocks, the energy, and the scenery.

Posted

7/10/2008

Updated

7/10/2008

Keywords

Camping

Viewed 1296 times

Camping Checklist

What should be taken on a camping trip? What's essential, and what can be left out?

For my own convenience as much as anyone else's, in this post you will find a printable checklist of stuff I take when I intend to go out into the wilderness for an overnighter.

Posted

7/13/2008

Updated

7/13/2008

Keywords

Arizona, Camping, Lake Roosevelt, Salt River, Sierra Ancha Wilderness

Viewed 1168 times

Sierra Ancha Wilderness and Bees

This weekend's camping trip was in the Sierra Ancha Wilderness, in the mountains east of Roosevelt Lake. I went with a new friend, Wade, who hadn't been camping since he was a kid and had asked to be taken some place isolated and quiet...which I completely understand, because I am so over the noise and crush and pollution of the city.

Posted

7/22/2008

Updated

7/22/2008

Keywords

Arizona, Camping, UFOs, Verde Hot Spring

Viewed 1116 times

Return to Verde Hot Spring

It's inevitable that, as I travel to campsite after campsite and see each of Arizona's natural wonders, great and small, I develop some favorites to which I want to return. One of these is Verde Hot Spring. Almost any excuse will do, as when my friend and rafting buddy Frank wanted a place to unwind after one of his grueling multi-continent series of flights. And so, back to Verde I went with Frank in tow.

Posted

7/27/2008

Updated

7/27/2008

Keywords

Arizona, Camping, UFOs, Verde Hot Spring

Viewed 1106 times

Son of Return to Verde Hot Spring

The reaction of my dear readers to my last post was, by and large, this: "Well, what happened after you left Verde Hot Spring? Did you spot another UFO? Whatever happened to Truck Guy?" But my readers were just echoing my own thoughts. And so, when I got off work Friday without having already planned a trip, and in fact I thought I'd just stay home and relax for a change, I felt a compulsion to return. Not to see a UFO, because I've already learned that they never show up when you're looking for them, but just because I had this nagging feeling of unfinished business. There was...something...going on at Verde Hot Spring, and I did want to figure out what it was.

Posted

7/30/2008

Updated

7/30/2008

Keywords

Bush Crime Family, Humor

Viewed 1102 times

Brains Being Rushed To Few Remaining Bush Supporters

Donated brains being readied for shipment.

As news of President George W. Bush's continued approval by less than one in five Americans makes its way around the world, an outpouring of generosity has resulted in the Brains For Americans campaign to donate unused brains to the 18% of the American population who have been doing without.

Posted

8/11/2008

Updated

8/11/2008

Keywords

Arizona, Blogging, Camping, Humor, Verde Hot Spring

Viewed 1078 times

Last Weekend In Verde

This past weekend marked my fourth time camping at Verde Hot Spring. Sadly, it will be the last weekend I do so. This gorgeous, remote spot has become a weekend party place for rowdy teenagers and twenty-somethings, to the point that no one else can enjoy the place on weekends. Too bad. Still, that didn't stop Michael and me from having a very nice campout with our new friends Eddie and Carl.

Posted

8/12/2008

Updated

8/12/2008

Keywords

Gay Marriage, Marriage Equality

Viewed 1146 times

Marriage Equality

Today is Michael's and my wedding anniversary. We've now been married for eight years.

What's that you say--how is it possible? Massachusetts, the first state to allow "gay marriage", only did so beginning in 2004. So how could we be married? Simple. We said, "Fuck the government. Marriage is a statement of commitment to ourselves and our friends and families." We got married in the Unitarian Universalist Church of Surprise, Arizona on August 12, 2000.

Posted

8/22/2008

Updated

8/22/2008

Keywords

Alexander Peloquin, Cathedral of St. Augustine, Florida, History, Personal History, St. Augustine

Viewed 1052 times

Festival Mass

The Cathedral of St. Augustine, now officially named the Basilica-Cathedral of St. Augustine, and informally known as Cathedral Parish, was, since its inception in 1565, the social and religious center of St. Augustine. It served the same purpose during most of my growing up there.

Posted

8/24/2008

Updated

8/24/2008

Keywords

Arizona, Camping, Grand Canyon, Photography, Zachary

Viewed 2967 times

Camping at Grand Canyon

One of the things my grandson, Zachary, was most looking forward to about being in fourth grade, was the annual trip the local fourth graders traditionally make to Grand Canyon. This trip isn't just for fun. Grand Canyon is a living example of geology, ecology, the protection of endangered species, and more; and fourth grade is about the time most youngsters have grown aware enough to appreciate and understand it. Unfortunately, since our president has chosen to spend trillions of dollars fighting an un-winnable war against an enemy that didn't exist until he invaded their countries, there isn't enough left for the local schools to make the trip. And so, Michael and I took Zach and his friend, Chris, ourselves.

Posted

9/5/2008

Updated

9/5/2008

Keywords

Jenny Cilwa

Viewed 1160 times

Portrait of Jenny

Today is Jenny's 33rd birthday! She is my third child and my youngest daughter. Last year at this time, I wrote about Jenny's birth. This year I would like to celebrate by presenting a living portrait of this lovely young lady as she has grown from infancy to adulthood.

Posted

9/14/2008

Updated

9/14/2008

Keywords

Jenny, Jenny Cilwa, Recovery, WINR

Viewed 1057 times

Recovery Walk

Today the recovery home at which my daughter, Jenny, works, had their annual Recovery Walk and, of course, I attended.

Posted

9/16/2008

Updated

9/16/2008

Keywords

Humor, Medicine, Michael Manion

Viewed 1078 times

Have A Nice Lithotripsy

I spent today at the hospital with Michael as he got his third lithotripsy.

Posted

9/25/2008

Updated

9/25/2008

Keywords

Alexander Pope

Viewed 1052 times

A Pope I Like

I just finished Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle's novel, The Gripping Hand, a sequel to the science fiction masterpiece they wrote 18 years ago, The Mote In God's Eye. Both books were very good (the first a little better) but today's blog post isn't about either book. It's about a short verse on The Gripping Hand's last page, from poet Alexander Pope's An Essay On Man.

Posted

9/30/2008

Updated

9/30/2008

Keywords

Economic Crisis, Michael Manion, Zachary

Viewed 1121 times

Dog Fight

Last night, Zachary informed us that he really wanted to take the dogs for a walk. His mother is very strict about adhering to his bedtime, so he had to elicit a promise from Michael and me that we would leave at exactly 8:00 pm. We agreed.

At 8 o'clock, we were able to put Cirrus' 24-foot spring-loaded leash on him, but could not find its mate for Amber. So, in order to adhere to our promised departure time, we had to settle for the six-foot leather leash that has been Amber's since she was a puppy.

Remember, there are no coincidences.

Posted

10/5/2008

Updated

10/5/2008

Keywords

Arizona, Camping, Fossil Creek, Verde Hot Spring

Viewed 1106 times

Back Scratching

I really needed to get away and be by myself this weekend. Nothing was wrong; it's just that I had spent the four previous weekends at home with the family and needed some "me" time. I intended to go to Lockett Meadow on the San Francisco Peaks north of Flagstaff; I've never been there, and it's supposed to be lovely and I thought the trees might even have turned color. But the weather forecast predicted rain and possibly snow up there; so by the time Saturday morning came around I had decided to visit my old favorite, Verde Hot Spring, where rain was less likely and the temperatures wouldn't be so low.

Posted

10/7/2008

Updated

10/7/2008

Keywords

Nibiruans, October 14th, UFOs

Viewed 1029 times

Independence Day

Unknown to most people, there is an undercurrent in the Internet in which very unusual people carry on very odd conversations. No, I'm not talking about mechaphiles or child porn devotees or anything else as unsavory as that. I'm talking about people who spend at least part of their time communing with non-Earthly beings and passing on what they say. And what they've been saying for the past few months is very interesting, because if it works out we'll all know about it. They've been saying Earth is about to be visited by a giant UFO that will be so undeniably present that the government will, at last, be forced to acknowledge the reality that other intelligent species exist, besides ours.

Posted

10/8/2008

Updated

10/8/2008

Keywords

October 14th, UFO

Viewed 1085 times

Look! Up In The Sky!

Many years ago, when I was married to Mary and we and the kids lived in Omaha, I was up late one night composing a song while everyone else was in bed. I finally got to the point where I figured I'd join them, and as I was packing my guitar back into its case, an odd thought crossed my mind. What if I got an obscene phone call?

I'd had never before gotten an obscene phone call, and in fact had never had such a thought pop into my head before. But, since it was there, I followed it through. What, in fact, would I say to an obscene phone caller that would immediately make him feel bad and me feel clever?

I crept into bed without waking Mary, closed my eyes, and was just about sound asleep when the phone rang. I picked it up and said, sleepily, "Hello?" I was immediately blasted by a stream of filth that would make a busted sewer look like it was gushing Evian.

Posted

10/9/2008

Updated

10/9/2008

Keywords

October 14th, UFO

Viewed 1043 times

The Ark Of Truth

"Channeling" is done by many different means. A simple one is called "automatic writing". You sit with a pen in hand (or hands on the keyboard, which works better for me), adopt an open attitude, and request that contact be made with whomever you want. You then ask questions and let your fingers type the answers as they arrive. You can recognize that you didn't "make it all up" by two means. First, the words come faster than you could have thought of them yourself, and they don't feel like your words. Second, they present information that you, yourself didn't know but can verify later.

Anyone can do this. If you think you can't, you're wrong. (Except that being sure you can't, is enough to prevent it! Fortunately you don't have to be certain you can in order to successfully try it out.)

So, with this prediction of an October 14th appearance of a giant UFO having originally come in the form of channeled information, I figured I would try to channel these same guys from the "Federation of Light" and get a little more information regarding the predicted event. After all, as I said...anyone can do it.

Posted

10/17/2008

Updated

10/17/2008

Keywords

October 14th, UFO

Viewed 1017 times

Now What?

Thousands of people around the world looked up to the skies October 14 and wondered...Where is the giant UFO that was predicted?

Where, indeed. The reaction was almost more interesting than the actual UFO would have been, ranging from a few "It'll be all right" to massive bitter retorts, swearing at the woman who made the prediction in the vilest of terms and denouncing her, basically, for getting their hopes up.

As an author myself, I had to laugh at the people who accused Ms. Goodchild of making "millions" from her books and the publicity and laughing all the way to the bank. If this had been a hoax of her making, she certainly hadn't planned it well--it's easy to figure that not predicting a particular date would have made much more money over the long haul than predicting a date that would fail.

Posted

10/26/2008

Updated

10/26/2008

Keywords

Arizona, Camping, Verde Hot Spring

Viewed 1056 times

The Aristocrats

Another weekend, another trip to Verde Hot Spring. This time it was for the occasion of my friend Carl's birthday, even though his birthday was actually last week. Verde Hot Spring is also a favorite place of Carl and his partner Eddie. In fact, it's where we met. And spending five days there was Carl's birthday present to himself.

Of course, I couldn't take a whole week off from work; so I drove up on Saturday. Michael was supposed to come with me but backed out due to a sore knee. (The doctor told him to put hot compresses on it all weekend, which of course could not have been done in camp. And hiking to the spring itself would have been out of the question.)

Posted

10/31/2008

Updated

10/31/2008

Keywords

Halloween, Zachary

Viewed 1025 times

Halloween 2008

My, how the year flies! It's Halloween already. Michael has purchased enough candy to fill Fort Knox, got himself and Zachary outfitted with costumes and even bought me one, knowing that I don't usually have the time or energy to devote to the holiday, myself.

Posted

11/7/2008

Updated

11/7/2008

Keywords

Karate, Zachary

Viewed 1050 times

Zach Makes Blue Belt

This evening Zachary was tested for, and received, his Blue Belt in karate. I of course took pictures.

Posted

11/10/2008

Updated

11/10/2008

Keywords

Metaphysics, Spirituality

Viewed 1047 times

Spiritual Experiences

It's another beautiful day here in the Greater Phoenix "Valley". The air is cool and dry; the sun is shining, the smell of freshly cut grass fills the air. It's the kind of day that would spell "spring" most anywhere else in the country; but here in Central Arizona it's not only fall, but late fall. In the central portion of the country they are having sleet, snow, blizzard, and severe thunderstorms.

Glad I'm not there!

Posted

11/15/2008 1:30:00 AM

Updated

11/15/2008 1:30:00 AM

Keywords

Best Western, Dulles Airport, Free Flights, Humor, United Airlines, Virginia

Viewed 1073 times

Yes, Santa Claus, There Is A Virginia

Some months ago, my daughter, Karen, was accepted for training as a flight attendant for regional airline, Colgan Air. She passed at the top of her class and is now, indeed, a flight attendant. And, as you may know, this has a direct application to me: I can now make flights for (almost) free, as can Karen's mother, Mary.

There was a delay while Colgan made certain Karen wasn't going to quit in the first month of working. But that delay finally passed, and we then attempted to schedule our first flight. I wanted to make it an "easy" flight as a sort of test run. By "easy" I mean that:

Not too far; I would have to be able to go and return without taking more than a weekend
Not too complicated an itinerary
Not too important; if it didn't work out, I didn't want to be devastated by disappointment

I therefore settled on flying to Virginia, where Karen now works and her older sister, Dorothy Elizabeth, lives with her husband and their little girl, my only granddaughter. We started about three weeks ago trying to make the arrangements.

Posted

11/15/2008 10:30:00 PM

Updated

11/15/2008 10:30:00 PM

Keywords

Best Western, District of Columbia, Dorothy Elizabeth Cilwa, Gay Marriage, Smithsonian Institution, Washington

Viewed 1058 times

Marriage March and Museums

So now, less than eight hours after our arrival in Virginia, we are ready to start our mini-vacation, "we" being Mary, my ex-wife and present friend, and myself.

Posted

11/16/2008 10:30:00 PM

Updated

11/16/2008 10:30:00 PM

Keywords

Best Western, Karen Hope Cilwa, United Airlines, Virginia

Viewed 1065 times

The Return Home

Our short, low-cost mini-vacation in Virginia was about to come to a close.

The original plan was for us to have dinner with Frankie's parents, Joe and Kathy Kinder, and then to run back to the airport in time for our 5:30 flight back to Phoenix. But two things happened: First, yesterday Joe came down with a nasty infection that sent him to the emergency room. Although he was now back home, of course neither he nor Kathy, who'd sat with him all though hours in the ER, was quite up to entertaining. Besides, the doctors wanted him back in the ER to check how his antibiotic was working. Second, a change in Karen's schedule placed her unexpectedly in Dulles Airport for about three hours prior to our departure. So we would be able to visit her, after all!

Posted

11/17/2008

Updated

11/17/2008

Keywords

Karate, Zachary

Viewed 1023 times

Zachary's Trophy

While Mary and I were in Virginia and the District of Columbia, Zachary was home in Arizona winning a karate trophy.

Posted

11/18/2008

Updated

11/18/2008

Keywords

Metaphysics, Spirituality

Viewed 1052 times

Is That All There Is?

In perhaps the most depressing song ever written, "Is That All There Is?" written by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller and recorded in 1969 by Peggy Lee, the singer laments that the various events that should have defined her life, such as a house fire, going to the circus for the first time, or falling in love, instead left her feeling empty and disappointed. In the song, the singer announces that she won't kill herself, only because she's certain that even death will be "that final disappointment".

My initial reaction is, "Suck it up, lady!" But I do appreciate that many people do, indeed, feel that something is missing from their lives; and for all their attempts to fill that void with food, fashion, TV or religion, nothing they've tried seems to really bring them happiness.

And that, of course, is the key: Nothing they've tried. They've been following our culture's suggestions on how to find happiness; but our culture isn't in fact qualified to offer advice on that topic, based as it is entirely on moving money from the pockets of workers to the off-shore bank accounts of the very rich. (Which, by all accounts, doesn't even bring happiness to the very rich! --Though it probably doesn't make them miserable, either.)

Posted

11/21/2008

Updated

11/21/2008

Keywords

Metaphysics, Spirituality

Viewed 1073 times

God's Ringtone

Let's pick up where we left off, with people who are vaguely dissatisfied (or, possibly, absolutely miserable) with their lives but unable to figure out what's missing. Often, they've tried religion to no avail; they may have tried rampant materialism as well. They may even have given away all their earthly goods and tried asceticism! Yet, neither wealth nor poverty nor church has filled that inner void--and, what's worse, whichever path they've tried, doesn't support dissatisfaction very well. Other proponents always suggest an increase of whatever that path is: even more things (a newer car, a larger flat screen TV), even fewer things (try a 40-day fast), even more Jesus (a retreat where we talk about Jesus all weekend!).

The problem is, the thing that is missing, that void, is within your deepest being. You can't fill a void there with anything external. No round-the-world cruise, no bed of nails, no rosaries or festivals or contortioned postures can, of themselves, fill that innermost void. At best, they can only distract one from feeling that void for a short time. But when the cruise ends or one rises from that bed of nails, or, yes, one emerges from the Wednesday night prayer service, one finds the void is still there.

Posted

11/23/2008

Updated

11/23/2008

Keywords

Gilbert and Sullivan, Mikado, Opera

Viewed 1039 times

The Mikado

I am not the world's biggest opera fan. I love classical music, but I'm afraid I'm one of those Philistines who prefers his entertainment in English. When I see an opera in German or French or Italian, I keep reading the subtitles projected above the stage and miss most of the action. I know, I should just learn German and French and Italian. I'm always meaning to. But I've been busy.

Those TV shows won't just watch themselves, you know.

Posted

12/7/2008

Updated

12/7/2008

Keywords

Jeff Harnar, New York, Travel

Viewed 1082 times

A Day In New York

As regular readers of this blog know, my daughter, Karen, recently became a flight attendant which means I can fly for free (or nearly free) anywhere her airline or its partners go. So, this weekend, I decided to spend a day in New York City.

Posted

12/10/2008

Updated

12/10/2008

Keywords

2008, Christmas, Personal History

Viewed 1136 times

Merry Christmas, 2008

Oh, my, oh my...what an amazingly full year 2008 has been! Complete with cast changes and changes of scene, it seems appropriate at this time of year that I recap the doings of the residents of 10143 East Lobo Avenue and share them with you, our dear friends and extended family.

Posted

12/15/2008

Updated

12/15/2008

Keywords

Arizona, Bell Ringers, Christmas, Sun City

Viewed 1064 times

Ringing In Christmas

We all have certain minor rituals, I guess, which are incorporated into the whole of the rituals that are major holidays. Thanksgiving has its shopping for turkeys; Easter has the dyeing of eggs. For Michael and I, Christmas has come to include going to the Christmas concert of the Handbell Ringers of Sun City as guests of our friend, Willis, with dinner to follow.

Posted

12/21/2008

Updated

12/21/2008

Keywords

Arizona, Photography, Queen Creek, Queen Creek Gorge, Superior, Travel

Viewed 1063 times

Queen Creek Canyon

About 30 miles east of where we live, along US 60, lies the little mining town of Superior, Arizona. It's a relatively unremarkable place, but just a few miles past it US 60 winds its way into a gorge dug eons ago by Queen Creek, which eventually winds its way into the Valley and gives its name to a smaller housing development that is one of the dozens of Phoenix suburbs.

I've passed through Queen Creek Canyon probably a dozen times, and every time I wanted to take pictures. But either I didn't have a decent camera, or the light wasn't right, or I was in a hurry to get somewhere else. This morning I got up early for the express purpose of running out there in the SUV and getting a few shots of this exquisite bit of Arizona that is largely unknown to most people, other than those who live in the immediate area.

Posted

12/22/2008

Updated

12/22/2008

Keywords

Blogging, Christmas, Humor

Viewed 1013 times

Blogging Shepherds

May your holidays be notable!

Posted

12/23/2008

Updated

12/23/2008

Keywords

Blogging, Christmas, Humor

Viewed 1129 times

Christmas Tree 2008

People who know both me and my husband, Michael, know we are opposites in many ways. Anything he does, Michael does with precision and intention. If it doesn't come out the way he wanted, he'll do it again. I'm a lot more relaxed. Michael thinks I "settle" for less than perfect, but that's not it. Rather, I hold a looser view of the outcome and enjoy being surprised by whatever it turns out to be.

I imagine either approach could work with Christmas tree decorating. But I must say, when Michael decorates a Christmas tree (and he has done Christmas decorating professionally, as well as for his family) the result is never anything short of exquisite.

But this year, he has outdone even himself.

Posted

12/25/2008

Updated

12/25/2008

Keywords

Christmas, Santa Claus, Zachary

Viewed 1067 times

Zachary's Letter From Santa 2008

Each year on Christmas Eve, Zachary, who is nine-going-on-thirty, places a plate of Christmas cookies he's baked himself (under guidance, of course) and a glass of milk on a tray table near the tree for Santa. Since he's been able to write, he's also written Santa a note. Santa always leaves a reply. Zachary's note this year was so sweet and sincere, and Santa's reply so insightful, that I thought I should share them with you.

Posted

12/31/2008

Updated

12/31/2008

Keywords

Cailey, Chicago, Greyhound Bus Lines, Travel, Virginia

Viewed 1100 times

The Terminals

Here was my intention: To make a quick, overnight visit to Florida to visit my sisters, Joni and Louise, and their families at their post-Christmas get-togethers. Even my nephew, Tim, was flying in from California.

Now, the thing is, I had a feeling this wasn't going to work out. There was no rational reason for this feeling. I fly standby, because of my daughter, Karen, being a flight attendant. But I checked and there were plenty of empty seats. In fact, despite the storms of a couple of weeks ago, it seemed as if the planes were running fine. Still, I had this feeling, and I tried to postpone my trip. But the moment I called Louise and identified myself, she said, "Don't tell me you're not coming!" I have an issue with disappointing people--I can't stand doing it. So I replied, "Of course I'm coming!"

That turned out to be a lie.

Posted

1/1/2009

Updated

1/1/2009

Keywords

Arizona, Phoenix, Photography, Piestewa Peak, Zachary

Viewed 1059 times

A Walk Around Piestewa Peak

Hey, what better way to start off the New Year than with an easy hike? It sure beats hanging around all day nursing a hangover! This year, Michael, Mary, Zachary and I decided to challenge the Piestewa Peak Circumference Trail. We got the exercise, sunshine, and above-the-pollution-line fresh air; you get the photos.

Posted

1/5/2009

Updated

1/5/2009

Keywords

Metaphysics, Spirituality

Viewed 1092 times

The Twelve Biggest Lies

The entirety of human misery is built on a bed of twelve lies. These lies are disseminated so subtly that often they aren't even stated outright. Nevertheless, they so permeate our culture that they are almost universally believed by people who have never even given them a second thought.

And yet, these twelve lies have taken away from you the power your Creator intended you to have, to the benefit of a handful of obscenely rich men and to the detriment of the remainder of the human race.

Today I want to expose each of these lies, and show how, by simply seeing through them to the underlying Truths, you can instantly and pretty painlessly transform your life into one that is happy, uplifting, and on the road to Enlightenment.

Posted

1/12/2009

Updated

1/12/2009

Keywords

Baja California, Cabo San Lucas, Humor, Los Cabos, Mexico, Photography, Posada Chelaba, Travel

Viewed 1150 times

A Visit To Cabo

On Christmas Day, Michael opened his present from me, an oddly light-weight box. It contained a custom-made travel brochure that read, in part,

On Friday, January 16, 2009, you will be flown to the Mexican resort town of Cabo San Lucas, in Baja California Sur, where you will meet your husband (flying on a different flight), rent a car, and spend Friday and Saturday nights at the Posada Chabela bed and breakfast, with three days’ exploring, before returning on Sunday January 18, 2009, to Phoenix.

We have just returned from that trip.

Posted

1/29/2009

Updated

1/29/2009

Keywords

Cabo San Lucas, Cailey, Flat Stanley

Viewed 1053 times

Flat Stanley

The day before I left for Cabo San Lucas, I received in the mail a brown envelope from Virginia. Two of my daughters, and my only granddaughter, live in Virginia; but not at the address on the envelope. So I almost didn't open it until after my trip. But I did, and it turned out to contain Flat Stanley, a cutout character my granddaughter, Cailey, had made in school. Her teacher had sent Flat Stanley to me, along with a letter from Cailey asking that I allow Flat Stanley to accompany me for a week or so and then to respond by telling his adventures. This blog entry is for that purpose.

Posted

2/8/2009

Updated

2/8/2009

Keywords

Florida, Photography, St. Augustine, Travel

Viewed 1056 times

A Day In St. Augustine

This month's trip, just completed, was to St. Augustine, Florida, where I grew up. Unlike several previous trips, this one went without a hitch. Which means my story about it may be less fascinating! But I do have pictures.

Posted

2/10/2009

Updated

2/10/2009

Keywords

1961, Florida, Personal History, St. Augustine Beach, Travel

Viewed 1101 times

1961: The Beach House

In the 1920s, my Mom and her mother made several winter trips to St. Augustine, Florida (without her father, who remained in Bloomfield, New Jersey, to work his optometry practice). Mom liked it there, especially the mild winters and laid-back attitude common to many Southern towns of the period.

Posted

2/21/2009

Updated

2/21/2009

Keywords

Arizona, Boyce Thompson Arboretum State Park, Photography, Travel

Viewed 1068 times

Boyce Thompson Arboretum State Park

Saturday morning I set out to hike in Boyce Thompson Arboretum State Park, which is located about four miles west of Superior, Arizona, about 35 miles from my house. I had thought it would be a small place (I didn't realize it was an actual state park until I got there) but it wasn't; it contains many paths and trails and is suitable for anyone who wants to get out in the fresh air for a bit. It also happens to be breathtakingly beautiful. So, of course, I took a lot of photos.

Posted

2/23/2009

Updated

2/23/2009

Keywords

Humor, Personal History

Viewed 1086 times

25 Random Facts About Me, Paul S. Cilwa

It used to take a few weeks for a fad to sweep the nation. "Sorry about that, Chief!" needed at least three episodes of Get Smart! to air before everyone in the country was repeating it. (My mom was still saying it the day she died.)

But now, thanks to the Internet, a fad can sweep the nation in a day or less. For example, the "25 Random Facts" meme that urges people "tagged" to write down 25 facts about themselves that aren't generally known. I tend to resist these things--I was the last person I know to join Facebook--but since I now know more things about my friends than I ever wanted to, I feel compelled to get even by adding my own 25 facts to the mix.

Posted

2/27/2009

Updated

2/27/2009

Keywords

Camping, Hawaii, Maui, Photography, Travel

Viewed 1071 times

A Trip To Maui In Winter

Maui, like all of Hawai'i, has two seasons: Summer and Winter. Winter, which runs from October to April, is when most of the rain falls. But it's not a solid rain like some places get; it tends to come down in sudden light showers. And so, when I had a chance to fly to Maui, said by many to be the prettiest of the Hawaiian islands, even though it was in winter, I took it.

Posted

2/28/2009

Updated

2/28/2009

Keywords

Camping, Haleakala, Hawaii, Kipahulu, Maui, Photography, Travel

Viewed 1085 times

The Hana Coast

Every turn--and there were many--revealed some new wonder: A waterfall, a gorge, a flowering tree, a breathtaking seascape. The top speed limit was 20 mph and in many places was 10 mph; rather than holding me up sometimes I went slower for safety. There weren't many cars on the road but the ones that were there seemed to belong to tourists who were also looking more at scenery than for other cars. Fortunately, there were a lot of turnouts but if there had been more, I'd have taken more pictures.

The town of Hana is an artist colony and unspeakably laid back, nestled in this rain forest. It was like a cross between Bar Harbor and Jurassic Park. Someday I would like to spend more time there but today, I needed to keep moving to get to my campground before dark.

Posted

3/1/2009

Updated

3/1/2009

Keywords

Camping, Haleakala, Hawaii, Kipahulu, Maui, Photography, Travel

Viewed 1067 times

The Seven Sacred Pools of Hana and the Pi'ilani Highway

I had camped at the Haleakala National Park's Kipahulu campground on the Hana Coast, I of course had to visit the Seven Sacred Pools which is part of the park. There are, in fact, many more than seven pools; there are dozens of various sizes and in the summer are popular swimming spots. Because of the storm still raging atop the volcano, however, there was flash flood danger and so the pools were closed to swimmers. The trails leading to them were open, however, to photographers and non-swimming hikers.

Posted

3/2/2009

Updated

3/2/2009

Keywords

Camping, Hawaii, Maui, Photography, Travel

Viewed 1064 times

Last Morning In Maui

I awoke in my camper on the beach, to the first blush of sky and the soft rush of waves lapping the shore...and a handsome young man just outside the camper window. He wasn't looking in, but seem to be tugging something. I lifted myself up on one elbow and saw that he was pulling a sea kayak out of a trailer loaded up with them.

Posted

3/15/2009

Updated

3/15/2009

Keywords

California, Photography, Santa Catalina Island, Travel, Two Harbors

Viewed 1056 times

26 Miles Across The Sea

Twenty-six miles across the sea
Santa Catalina is a-waitin' for me
Santa Catalina, the island of romance, romance, romance, romance...

Posted

3/16/2009

Updated

3/16/2009

Keywords

California, Photography, Santa Catalina Island, Travel, Two Harbors

Viewed 1053 times

Catalina Kayaking

So here we are on Catalina Island, and I am hardly a novice camper, but last night was something out of a medieval torture manual.

The problem was that Michael and I didn't have any kind of padding for our sleeping bags. We had brought the air mattress that I keep in one of the pre-packed camping crates we brought; and it's a good one, too, one you'd be pleased to offer guests in your home to sleep on. In fact, to me it's more comfortable than our very expensive bed at home. But the pump for it runs on 12-volt electricity from the car, and we had neither car nor electricity at our campsite.

Posted

3/17/2009

Updated

3/17/2009

Keywords

California, Photography, Santa Catalina Island, Travel, Two Harbors

Viewed 1051 times

Planes, Buses and Helicopters

Today I reluctantly left Michael and the rest of the family on Catalina Island, as I made the journey back home so I could get to work tomorrow...a trip that involved almost every mode of transportation known to man except hot-air ballooning.

Posted

4/2/2009

Updated

4/2/2009

Keywords

Metaphysics

Viewed 1044 times

Recognizing God

There's an old story, attributed to Jesus, that "he"--that is, God--might show up in unexpected ways: as a beggar, or a lame person. The moral of the story is generally taken to mean that we should treat such people as we would treat a deity, should one drop by. However, I prefer to take the story literally.

Posted

4/11/2009

Updated

4/11/2009

Keywords

Colonoscopy, Humor

Viewed 1045 times

Going Where No Man Has Gone Before

Today I had my first colonoscopy. When Mom had her first one, maybe 20 years ago, it was a miserable experience for her, one which not only hurt as it was happening, but for weeks afterwards. People are supposed to have a colonoscopy performed at 50 years of age, which for me was 8 years ago. But Mom's experience caused me to hesitate. Still, we've had a number of family members succumb to colon cancer. So it seemed like I really shouldn't put it off any longer.

Posted

4/17/2009

Updated

4/17/2009

Keywords

Humor

Viewed 1037 times

Camera Tricks

My new Canon Powershot G10 camera that I got from my daughters Jenny and Karen for Christmas, has so many features that I haven't yet learned to use them all. But I am trying to pick up a new technique each week. And this week, I discovered a couple of features that I would never have guessed a camera has, or needs. They are called "Color Swap" and "Color Accent".

Posted

4/18/2009

Updated

4/18/2009

Keywords

Humor, Karate, Video, Zachary

Viewed 1047 times

Zachary, Sparring

Today was Gay Pride in Phoenix (we have it early because of the excessive June heat) but Michael and I didn't go. That's because we were at Grandpa Pride: Our grandson, Zachary, won First Place at a karate sparring competition, the East Valley Classic, and we were there.

Posted

4/19/2009

Updated

4/19/2009

Keywords

Photography, Willis Frye

Viewed 1037 times

Scattering Willis

About a week ago, our friend Willis Frye passed away. He was found in his apartment by cleaning people, having had a stroke, and taken to the hospital. The next day he was transferred to hospice, an MRI at the hospital having discovered that, in addition to his diabetes, Chronic Pulmonary Disease, and bad heart, he also had a massive brain tumor and another tumor in his liver. Michael was able to get over to see him, and though he couldn't speak or even open his eyes, he was able to let Michael know that he knew Michael was there.

Willis died that night.

Yet we weren't really sad. Not only because both Michael and I are well aware that "death" is an illusion and those who have passed on remain a part of our lives, but also because Willis should have died six years ago; and he spent those "extra" years living life on his own terms.

In the gamble of life, Willis had won.

Posted

4/21/2009

Updated

4/21/2009

Keywords

Fox Elipsus, Metaphysics, Music

Viewed 1105 times

Set Us Free

An ancient Chinese curse is said to translate, "May you live in interesting times." It says a lot about the people who thought such a fate would be undesirable, and a lot about the people through the centuries who have repeated the "curse" believing it was one. It also says a lot about us, that so many of us no longer think that "interesting" times must, necessarily, be bad.

And it also says a lot about our mass media, that its constant puking of what it finds "interesting" is, indeed, unpleasant, when so many wonderful things are happening that are even more interesting as well as joy-making.

This evening Michael and I attended a free show by a new friend, singer Fox Elipsus (his professional name). Fox is not from here. He is, in fact, from Britain though his home is currently in Buffalo, New York. But since January his home has been his car, as he has been touring the United States and Canada promoting his new, independent-label double-CD Momentum. Since Fox is not part of the mass media, he is free to write and perform songs of joy, of meaning, of political import, as well as of love. And so I was happy to open our home to him for the several days he will be in the Valley. I knew we weren't only supporting "indie art", but also the high frequency vibration of Love.

Posted

4/26/2009

Updated

4/26/2009

Keywords

Arizona, Camping, Verde Hot Spring

Viewed 1051 times

The Innocents Encamped

My friend, Jason, told me he used to go camping a lot but hadn't in years. So, of course, I invited him to accompany Michael and me to Verde Hot Spring. What I failed to consider is that Jason is a genteel young man who might not be ready for the free-wheeling hippies who camp out there. After all, camping in a genuinely remote area is a lot different than camping with one's parents at a KOA.

Posted

4/27/2009

Updated

4/27/2009

Keywords

Arizona, Upper Salt River, Whitewater Rafting

Viewed 1060 times

2nd Annual Upper Salt Rafting Trip

It's been a year since my friend Frank and I went whitewater rafting on the Upper Salt River. It was his first time, and apparently established a tradition, as he called me a few weeks ago to arrange for a second trip. That's okay with me; the Upper Salt is awesome and I am always up for a bit of river time.

Posted

4/30/2009

Updated

4/30/2009

Keywords

Music, Playing For Change, Spirituality, World Peace

Viewed 1063 times

Stand By Me

I very seldom post videos on my site, especially videos I didn't create. And anyone who knows me knows I am far too cynical to enjoy glurge. But this video doesn't fit into that category. It's genuinely uplifting and guaranteed to bring a smile to your face. It's only 5½ minutes long; so put on your headphones or turn up your speakers and enjoy!

Posted

5/3/2009

Updated

5/3/2009

Keywords

Arizona, Metaphysics, Spirituality, Upper Salt River, Whitewater Rafting

Viewed 1060 times

Zach's First Raft Trip

My Grandson, Zachary, has been hearing me tell river tales all his life. That's because what happens on the river, seldom stays on the river--it's too interesting not to share! Consequently, Zach has asked to go rafting since he could talk. But you can't take babies on a raft unless you are trying to escape the sinking of a luxury liner. So we had to put it off. Until...today!

Posted

5/7/2009

Updated

5/7/2009

Keywords

Metaphysics, Photon Belt, Spirituality

Viewed 1834 times

Does This Photon Belt Make Me Look Fat?

I'm the kind of person strangers feel they can tell anything to. I base this on my experience: almost every time I enter a Wal-Mart, Target, or grocery store, some other customer will approach so they can keep me apprised of their drug problem, affair, kidney disease or crisis of faith. Other people get asked to buy Girl Scout cookies. I get told that by a middle-aged man that there's an injunction against his approaching within 100 feet of Girl Scouts.

But of course my friends also confide in me. I normally keep these confidences to myself. But recently I have heard the same thing from so many different people in the last couple of weeks that I can safely talk about it here without revealing any secrets. Seriously, if you, one of my personal friends, think I am blogging about just you, you are wrong. I've heard the same complaints about depression, loss of faith, and weird or bad dreams, from over a dozen people in the past few weeks. And so I am using this forum to discuss the issue with all of you, plus anyone else that somehow managed not to tell me, at once.

Posted

5/13/2009

Updated

5/13/2009

Keywords

Arizona State University, Barack Obama, Humor, Personal History

Viewed 1302 times

A Body Of Work

How I came to be invited to ASU to hear President Obama's speech, how I heard it, and how I left the Sun Devil Stadium afterwards: A blog post in three acts.

Posted

5/19/2009

Updated

5/19/2009

Keywords

Metaphysics, Spirituality

Viewed 1057 times

Effective Prayer

I've written before about the "annoying power of prayer". Annoying, because the studies that proved prayer works offended both atheists and Christians. Atheists, because the studies showed that something they couldn't put in a jar seemed to exist; and Christians because the studies showed it didn't matter to whom one prayed: Prayers to Jesus were neither more or less effective than prayers to Buddha or Ed McMahan.

However, once one accepts that prayers do work--something that billions of people take as a given without a need for studies--one them comes right up against this brick wall: They don't always seem to work. Science likes repeatable phenomena, like the way a magnet always attracts iron filings, or the way a slice of bread always falls butter-side down. While it's nice to know that praying for the health of a cardiac patient improves his or her chances of recovery by 11%, wouldn't it be even nicer if we could goose the odds a bit? I mean, if we are going to spend time praying for something, we'd like to achieve at least a 90% success ratio.

In today's post, I offer some suggestions for praying more effectively. While I can't promise 90% success, I do propose that considering these ideas may prove helpful to you.

Posted

5/30/2009

Updated

5/30/2009

Keywords

Alaska, Alaska Airlines, Anchorage, Denver, Frontier Airlines, Kennicott, Kennicott River Lodge, McCarthy, Photography, Travel

Viewed 1131 times

North To Alaska

It wasn't that complicated an idea: Travel to Alaska on an (almost) free ticket, stay at the lodge of a friend of a friend's, go whitewater rafting. My friend, Frank, had been urging me to join him in visiting his friend Brad's lodge for over a year; and we had been whitewater rafting together twice so it made sense to do an Alaskan raft trip while there. My husband, Michael, was adamant about going with us...he was not going to miss out on a trip to Alaska! I made detailed plans, made reservations and pre-bought various tickets. Frank, a flight attendant, used frequent flier miles to obtain his transportation and arrange our first night's stay in Anchorage and car rental. Michael bought his own ticket through Priceline for some 30% off (by bidding on it). It was my own ticket that nearly turned the trip into a disaster.

Posted

5/31/2009

Updated

5/31/2009

Keywords

Alaska, Kennicott River, McCarthy, Nizina River, Photography, Rafting, Travel

Viewed 1090 times

Northern Exposure

Some years ago, I visited Cicely, Alaska, the fictional town featured in the 1990s TV series Northern Exposure. I was able to do this without actually going to Alaska, because "Cicely" was actually a side street in the town of Roslyn, Washington. The TV series, however, had renewed my interest in visiting Alaska, which had become a state in 1959 when I was in 3rd grade. My visit to "Cicely" only strengthened my desire to visit the 49th state someday. Now I was here, not only in Alaska but over 300 miles from Anchorage in the little town of McCarthy, which could have served as the template for fictional Cicely. Remote, quaint, set amid pristine wilderness and populated by quirky yet friendly characters, I couldn't help but draw comparisons even as my husband, Michael, and our friend, Frank, and I prepared to go rafting down the Nizina River.

Posted

6/2/2009

Updated

6/2/2009

Keywords

Alaska, Anchorage, McCarthy, Spirituality, Travel, TSA

Viewed 1056 times

License To Fly

I didn't want to spoil what had been a terrific trip for Michael and Frank by openly freaking out, but I was freaking out, quietly, nevertheless. I had no wallet and therefore no identification and therefore would surely not be allowed through security at the airport and so wouldn't be able to go home at all. I might have to stay in Anchorage, but only as a homeless person as I wouldn't have the money for shelter and without an ID I wouldn't even be able to get a job.

Posted

6/16/2009

Updated

6/16/2009

Keywords

2012, Metaphysics, New Age, Spirituality

Viewed 1040 times

New Paradigms for the New Age

In these times of increased quantum vibration and resulting odd mental, physical and emotional ups and downs, many are turning to metaphysical sources for guidance. That's because, throughout Earth's history, we have always been taught to look outside ourselves for guidance. It doesn't even occur to most people to do otherwise.

Posted

6/26/2009

Updated

6/26/2009

Keywords

2012, Metaphysics

Viewed 1035 times

2012 Lightworkers

My friend, Chris, recently drew my attention to a new networking web site. I know, I know; MySpace and Facebook and Twitter, oh, my! Do we really need another one? But this new site, Scribd, specializes on "people who like to read". So, right there, instead of having another site that tries to be all things to all people, Scribd has eliminated all but the 12% of Americans who actually like to read. So, that's a plus. It also allows members to post documents like ebooks, and actually sell them. That's another plus. And it allows the creation of groups who can then share documents. That supports an idea I've had for some time: A way for Lightworkers to share thoughts, which tend to run for more words than the 120-character limit on Twitter allows.

Posted

7/4/2009

Updated

7/4/2009

Keywords

Arizona, Photography, Prescott, Willow Lake, Willow Lake Heritage Park

Viewed 1059 times

Prescott, AZ

When the 4th of July approaches, my thoughts turn to celebrating it anywhere but Phoenix. It's too hot, too crowded, and too expensive. So, this year, when Michael and I were invited by our friends Eddie and Carl to visit them in Prescott, we took them up on it.

We left for Prescott on Friday, which I had off from work. We did not take the shortest route there. Years ago, I drove north on State Road 89 to Prescott, on a very curvy, mountain road. I didn't get to see the view because it happened to be about 2 am at the time. I've always wanted to take that road in the daytime, and this trip we did. So our route went through Wickenberg and some impressive storm clouds that never actually rained on us. From door to door, the drive took us about 3½ hours.

Posted

7/16/2009

Updated

7/16/2009

Keywords

Florida, St. Augustine, Travel, Zachary Cilwa

Viewed 1066 times

Travel Is Broadening

Our first flight left early this afternoon, on US Air from Phoenix to Charlotte, North Carolina. Michael, Zach and I each crammed all our stuff into carry-ons, because our cheap tickets would require us to pay $20 for the first checked baggage for each passenger, and $25 for each additional bag. So I managed to fit into my soft travel bag, not only enough clothes for a week, but my camera, GPS, a 12v DC to 110v AC inverter, a laptop computer, a Pocket PC, and all my medicines. (Now that I am nearing 60, I find my medicines could just about require a suitcase of their own.)

Posted

7/17/2009 6:00:00 PM

Updated

7/17/2009 6:00:00 PM

Keywords

Alligator Farm, Florida, St. Augustine, Travel

Viewed 1062 times

Alligator Farm

For those of you who may be from other parts of the country, please note that it is considered good manners in Florida to greet visitors while shirtless. At least, if you are a man. Especially in the summer it is entirely too humid and hot to wear even a square inch of unnecessary cloth. Occasionally a man might don a shirt to go to church or a fancy restaurant. But he might not, and no one will give him a second look. Women are more modest, but two-piece bathing suits are seen pretty much everywhere. They are certainly not limited to the beach!

Posted

7/17/2009 11:30:00 PM

Updated

7/17/2009 11:30:00 PM

Keywords

Class Reunion, Florida, St. Augustine, St. Joseph Academy

Viewed 1101 times

Class Reunion Event #1

And then it was time to do the thing we'd come 3000 miles for: to attend my 40th high school class reunion, or at least the first of two events.

Posted

7/18/2009 2:00:00 PM

Updated

7/18/2009 2:00:00 PM

Keywords

Alexander Springs, Florida, Travel

Viewed 1082 times

Alexander Springs

Yesterday when we were visiting my sister, Mary Joan, I mentioned that today we planned to visit Alexander Springs and would she like to come with us? "Oh, we don't go to springs," she replied. "They have amoebas in them that get into your head through your nose and eat your brain."

When I pointed out that I've been to Alexander Springs, and other springs, many times before without my brain having yet been eaten, she added, "Well, anyway, there's a storm coming down from the north. It's not like our usual Florida storms that come from the south. It's going to rain all day. Hard. You'll have a terrible time."

Posted

7/18/2009 6:00:00 PM

Updated

7/18/2009 6:00:00 PM

Keywords

Class Reunion, Florida, Metaphysics, Spirituality, St. Augustine, St. Joseph Academy

Viewed 1072 times

Burial Plots

When San Lorenzo was opened in 1892, many families moved their deceased from the Mission to the new cemetery...because they didn't want their families to be separated in death! You would think that Catholics, of all people, would be aware that there is no separation in death and that it completely doesn't matter where the bodies are buried.

Posted

7/18/2009 11:30:00 PM

Updated

7/18/2009 11:30:00 PM

Keywords

Class Reunion, Florida, St. Augustine

Viewed 1086 times

A Class With Class

Leaving our grandson Zachary with his aunt and uncle, Michael and I went directly from the cemetery to the final event of my 40th high school class reunion, to be held at Zhanra's Arts and Eats, a bar sort-of-place on Anastasia Island just across the bridge from downtown. We'd been told there would be "heavy hors devours" which was pretty much exactly what I should not be eating. And they were to be served in a "cigar bar" which is apparently still legal in Florida. I assume the Orgy Room was already booked.

Posted

7/19/2009

Updated

7/19/2009

Keywords

Florida, Georgia, Humor, North Carolina, South Carolina, Travel, Virginia

Viewed 1059 times

Driving to Virginia

Today was a driving day, spent in the rental car driving from my sister's house in St. Augustine, Florida to our hotel in Herndon, Virginia. That's me, my husband Michael, and our 10-year-old grandson trapped in a car for twelve hours.

Posted

7/20/2009

Updated

7/20/2009

Keywords

Cailey, District of Columbia, Smithsonian Institute, Washington, Zachary

Viewed 1048 times

Visiting the Smithsonian

Today is the day Michael and I took two daughters and two grandchildren to the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, DC. The daughters and one grandchild live in Northern Virginia, so we took the Metro into town. What could possibly go wrong?

Posted

7/21/2009

Updated

7/21/2009

Keywords

Dark Hollow Falls, Photography, Shenandoah National Park, Virginia

Viewed 1063 times

Shenandoah National Park and Dark Hollow Falls

Whoever thought that waking up in a motel room with five people who all needed to shower and dress and have breakfast would allow for an early departure must have been clownishly naive. Oh, wait...that was me.

Posted

7/22/2009

Updated

7/22/2009

Keywords

Fireworks, Florida, Greenville, South Carolina, St. Augustine, Travel

Viewed 1052 times

Greenville and Fireworks

We arrived about 1 this morning at the home of my friends, Chris and Kim Renzi, and their daughter, Miranda, in Greenville, South Carolina. Chris and Kim had graciously offered to put us up for the night when they learned we would be passing through the area.

Posted

7/23/2009

Updated

7/23/2009

Keywords

Arizona, Florida, US Air

Viewed 1062 times

The Return Home

To be honest, it's all kind of blurry now and I don't have much to say about it. But today we flew from Florida to Arizona and, because of the time zone differences, we arrived early enough for me to get to work for half a day!

We were supposed to have gotten completely ready the night before, even to pre-showering. (How dirty can one get in a clean bed, anyway?) And so everyone did. All bags were packed. All we had to do was slip into our day clothes, toss our night things into our bags, load them into the car, and leave. What could possibly go wrong?

Posted

8/12/2009

Updated

8/12/2009

Keywords

Health Care, Health Insurance, Humor, Medicine

Viewed 1081 times

Waiting To Inhale

I just got out of the hospital where I spent the night with, as it turns out, some weird kind of pneumonia. And they tried, but they'll never convince me this had nothing to do with the medication my doctor just changed.

Posted

8/15/2009

Updated

8/15/2009

Keywords

Arizona, Photography, Superstition Mountains, Travel

Viewed 1039 times

Superstition Mountains

One of our favorite day trips is along the Apache Trail through the breathtaking Superstition Mountains. Today, in a belated celebration of Michael's sister, Surya's, birthday, we made that trip again.

Posted

8/18/2009

Updated

8/18/2009

Keywords

Christianity, Prayer, School Prayer

Viewed 1049 times

Praying in Private

It was a beautiful day in early spring near the Sea of Galilee, one of those days between the rains of winter and the heat of summer when people who had no choice were glad they lived here and people with a choice came for their vacations. On this day, over a hundred people had gathered in one of the natural amphitheatres in the hills overlooking the sea, to hear a very popular itinerant preacher in this era when that was a viable career choice, and there were few other sources of entertainment for a good Jew.

Posted

8/27/2009

Updated

8/27/2009

Keywords

Health Care Reform

Viewed 1046 times

Who's Trying To Kill Health Care Reform?

Exactly who is trying to kill health care reform? Is it really an angry populace determined to keep the government out of their hospitals? Or is it, simply, the corporations that stand the most to lose if our current system is altered? The answers are easy to come by when you simply follow the money,