politics

Right-wing rant to follow:
The dems in congress just re-upped the Patriot Act. Weren't these jokers beating up the repubs for doing this, and once in power, they were going to ditch it? I don't know if it is for the sake of control (probably) or the total incompetance of the executive branch that they are trying to cover for(ditto). This was part of my political awakening. Both parties want control. They want control over US. It is human nature. While there may be perfectly justifiable reasons for the Patriot Act, the disconnect between what groups do while in power and out of it just tell me volumes.

Disgusting bunch of lying liers who lie.

And, yes, that is spelled correctly. Who the heck runs this english language!? 

Divorce

Divorce

 

No, I’m not planning one. I just think about the concept occasionally, as some of my own relationships have nose-dived. It also helps when my wife does marriage counseling for a profession.

 

So, my main thing is when somebody thinks this is a good idea? I know you can’t control the other person in a marriage but I just can’t fathom wanting to go through that. I am at a real loss of words here, so please bear with me. My wife told me that I’m much too introspective to have this happen so I can only look at this from the outside.

 

I disliked dating. I was no good at it. I view myself as a complete klutz at relationships and the prospect of leaving one perfectly good woman for the quest of finding another is too daunting and too difficult for me to contemplate. Why would I ever want to do that? Especially now, when I’m overweight, balding, and about as adventurous as watching paint dry? I don’t want to go through my life on this earth alone, so going solo would be out of the question.

 

The kids. My kids would be absolutely devastated. I couldn’t bear doing that to them. I also couldn’t suddenly start using them as some sort of pawns in a custody battle. Good night, I don’t want to screw up anyone like that.

 

My wife as the enemy. I know some divorces don’t have this little wrinkle, but all in all, my life with Tracy has been pretty good. We’ve gone through a lot together. She’s my best friend, confidant. There isn’t much that I’m uncomfortable discussing with her. Of course, I think that in a marriage, that is what is needed, so I’d probably be that way no matter who I married. Still, what would happen to my psyche if I started to view her as the enemy? I can’t imagine what kind of damage that would do to me. What it would do to her…don’t care, she’s the enemy, remember?

 

Now, I realize that sometimes you can’t help it. As Tracy once commented, you can’t control when the other person is a jerk. I’ll give you that. I would hope that jerkdom could be determined before the sealer says “Amen” (mormon lingo), but I guess it sometimes can’t. Tracy had a relationship with a jerk once, or so she says. She’s better at telling that story than I am anyway. I guess jerks hide their jerkdom in many ways. They say the right things at the right time. They play on your emotions, work the system, so to speak. Tracy says that I don’t have the disposition to be a jerk. I’m too willing to repent and change. I don’t hide behind a façade of acceptability. I am just me. God help us all.

 

That isn’t to say I didn’t have brushes with jerkdom or sometimes deserve the title. I did crash and burn once but in my defense, I was fighting off a prolonged depression (madder than a hatter) and couldn’t really change my situation. I had to embrace my jerkdom, repent, and overcome it. By the time I came out of it, situations had changed and I could go back to my adorable self. My breakups with those I dated might qualify me for jerkdom, but how do you do that and not appear to be one? Marriage is a much more serious situation.

 

Still, the confusion and wake of other’s divorces affect me, even though I’m far from the events. Who do I side with? What happened (not to the point of gossip, I really just want to see if I’m guilty of some fault and purge it)?

 

So, I stand on the sidelines and wonder. Why would people do this? I don’t understand it. I’m an engineer. I practice the art of approximation, the art of making it work. I figure I probably will never understand it.

Very Cool Pic

A Completely Unrelated Title

I know it might be late but I did want to publically state my wonder and awe of my wife. Not only has she decided to spend the majority of her life so far with me, but to raise and nurture my children. I mean, who would do that? I have kept her from a glamorous life of a concert pianist and here she is in jeans, with cold macaroni and cheese on her shirt from the latest run-in with our smallest back-up child. What kind of illness does this woman have?

 

She has put up with a lot from me. I dated her with my A-Game back then, and that isn’t a lot, let me tell ya. I’ve always been a geek. All I had were season tickets to the student theater, and a wonderful life of nerd-dom ahead of me. I didn’t have any sparkling and witty conversation, because I was tongue-tied while I was dating her. I was completely taken by this girl. Groessers in love isn’t a pretty picture.

 

Somewhere along the line, she decided I was a keeper and with a little help from God, she agreed to marry me. It is her commitment to God and pity on the less fortunate that keeps her with me. We’ve gone through poverty and hardship to barely keeping our heads above water, and there she still is. Every morning as I wake up I look over, and she is still there. Amazing. 21 years I’ve been with this woman, and I’m still amazed.

 

We lead such an exciting life. We went on a “date” last weekend. It has been so long, that we didn’t know any restaurants locally. While we munched on some Mexican food at a swanky storefront, the fact that I still feel completely taken by her...I just wish I could find the words at how much I love and appreciate her and what she has done for me.

 

I Love you, Tracy. Ready for the next 21?

Rainforest Cafe #2

Going Outside

Rainforest Cafe

Video 1

Typical Baby in the bath

Hayden's New RC

It was a good Christmas.

Ellies Birthday - at home

Dancing Hayden

I can't explain this.

Ellies Birthday

She has her seventh at the IHOP.

The Secret Files of the Inquisition

Rating:	★★★
Category:	Movies
Genre:	Documentary

While I'm hesitant to believe much that PBS creates, if the events passed as depicted, I'm surprised most people don't run from Christianity at a full sprint. The amount of revulsion that I feel at such disrespect of freedom of conscience is fairly complete. I know the Catholic father that played more the part of apologist always referred to the situation in history. He even recognized that those explanations would fall on deaf ears in our current time. I don't know what to say. I'm fully in agreement. It really does fall on deaf ears. I don't know how to come to terms with treating others in that way because they think differently. It was a clear rejection of "Forgive them for they know not what they do." by the institution that, they believe, was created to uphold that teaching.

I guess they have their reward.

http://www.pbs.org/inquisition/