Day 128: Corner of....

No story, no thoughts....I was just catching some fresh air and decided to capture some of at which I was staring.

Day 127: My Bacon Sistuh!

My humor is a bit crass at times (say it ain't so). Often, it's misinterpreted as blatant rudeness. Such as in the case of another Jackson Coffee Co employee, "Danger."

At the meeting of Danger and myself, we were talking about Chinese food and how awesome it is to sit down and go to town with a favorite genre food. I felt I'd stumbled upon a kindred spirit, a fellow "fat kid." Of course, never should one just spit out "fat kid" to anyone that was at one point a much heavier person than they are now. For the record, she's a very, very lovely person. Giggitus Maximus!

Madeline and I didn't have quite as similar meeting, though I won't say it was any more cordial. It centered around...Bacon.

After meeting my bacon brother in JCo, I've run a bit of a joke on the employees there that I don't know well; to test them if I'll get along with them. In most cases the test starts as a simple question: "do you like Bacon?" In their answer is no, I follow up with the questions, "are you Jewish" or "are you vegetarian?" Those are the only two excusable reasons I can think of for not liking Bacon, but if they aren't Jewish or vegetarian and they still do not like Bacon than I am wary around them. Madeline was one of those who said "no" to the first question, and also to the following questions. Also didn't help that at first we really had no chemistry at JCo. Not that there was anything wrong with her, but a friendship wasn't there for some time.

Since then, she has become one of my very favorite people to see at JCo. Though I don't see her often enough, and I have to endure her absences in Coffee Co companionship during the summers as she retires to a less abysmal place of residence out West (*sob*), I've come to love her disposition and presence at JCo. I dare say, I'd be excited as all hell to see her out of the coffee shop, at a firing perhaps. *WINK WINK*

And for the record, she has since dug deep and found her innate love of Bacon, thus also establishing herself as my Bacon Sister.

Day 126: Another Nice Sight

No story to go with this. It's more a continuation of Monday's photo in that I became aware of a beautiful sight. Not overly beautiful and I know that few people will glorify the quality of the photograph itself. I just appreciated the visual of sun making it's presence known through the trees.

Day 125: Ole' Friend, Great Friends...

A good friend said it best: there are acquain - tances, there are good friends, and then there are great friends with whom you can pick up a conversation months or years after the last one and continue as if only minutes had passed.

Yes....this girl is one of those people. Though the younger sister of one my best friends, she has become an equally great best friend through sheer conversational compatibility. There are people with whom you can talk to, and it's good. Then there are people with whom you talk and it's as if the conversation was choreographed and as if the two of you were meant to have that conversation.

Day 124: Decent View...

Late in the day I looked out my bedroom window and had a pleasant thought: it looks like Spring out there. There isn't any snow, there isn't any rain, and there isn't any gloom in the skies, though you can't really see that because I'm not taking a pic of the sky (just take my word for it).

It's funny. When it gets to a certain point, I begin wearing shorts regardless of the temperature. It might only be 60 degrees Fahrenheit peak temperature of the day, but my ass is in Summer mode and I want to show off skin.

Pants still have a very prominent role, because I'm more likely to wear pants on the bike than shorts, though I'll still wear shorts on the bike when the weather hits high 80's and I'm only rolling around town.

I'm ready for shorts and flip flops. Girls in summer dresses. Swim suits, sandals, ball caps and sunglasses, ice cream on a hot day, and beer out on the deck with a grilled boiger in my hands. Sleeveless shirts while flying down the hallway on two wheels. Falling asleep on a lake front. Camping in tents.....the list could go on forever.

Day 123: Twinkies Taste Jesus #1

Yes, I know the title of this blog entry lacks the respect and import of the situation, but let me make a point so you understand my distaste for this event.

First communion is a wonderful thing. The entire Eucharist is a wonderful and mind boggling thing. Transubstantiation...don't even get me started there.

However, I feel as if First Communion is pushed on children. While the Holy Mother Church says that there must be sufficient knowledge of Christ in the mind of the person to receive the Body of Christ, there must also be sufficient mental capacity. Not to call my nieces out, but the world over of children that receive the Eucharist at that ripe age; I highly doubt these children have the capacity to truly understand the enormous gift and responsibility with which they're now shouldered.

I too received my first taste of the Lord in second grade, and let me tell you this: I only did it because it was expected. I really had no concept of the Lord at that time. Likely I prayed, but more out of mechanical habit and emulation of close family than out of a real sense of faith. Just like every other child at that stage, I received my first communion in my nice clothes, parents and grandparents looking on, and no real individual consideration to what I was doing. There was no fear of beating either, this was just something you did as a Catholic.

Indoctrination of the young in the ways of faith is tantamount to forcing an addiction of smoking
on a child. By the time they grow up, they just know it's the way things are. Thank God that we have all these smoking bans now, but I'll save that diatribe for another day.

My brother-in-law came into the Church at the approximate age of 35. Remembering his baptism, first communion, and confirmation as a member of the Catholic faith, I saw it as a beautiful thing. I saw it as a choice too. He was not raised to believe; he made the conscience choice to profess love of Christ and enter the church.

Watching him, and countless others since, I've come to the conclusion that this is the way it ideally should be. Would it lead to a breakdown and abandoning of culture? Not forcing it I mean, would that be detrimental to the continuation of faith's role?

Serious thoughts to be sure, but I haven't had my coffee yet this morning. Time to remedy that situation.

Day 122: This Is...

...Not the most beautiful thing I've ever seen. I didn't detect any benevolent force guiding all things in the universe, and I sure as hell have no intention of selling weed for a living.

Caught on yet?