Look, our fearless leader *cough* has his own blog.  Somehow I suspect he isn't the one doing the work though.

One of my hobbies is genealogy.  I love that crap.  Spending entire weekends searching records until I can't see anymore.  With any luck, I can find one tiny bit of information that will fill in a missing spot.

The part of the family I am currently researching is the Nichol(l)(s).  They are an interesting bunch.  My g-g-g grandparents had 11 kids.  One of them grew up to be C.R. (Charles Ready) Nichol a master debator & Church of Christ preacher.  Someone even wrote a book about the guy.  I managed to find a copy of the thing & shelled out $30 for it.  Its a giant load of crap.

Apparently the people that followed good 'ol C.R. thought he was literally sent from above.  He was as close as they were going to get to God himself.  Poor suckers.  I never met the man.  He died 12 years before I was born, but if he's like the rest of that side of the family, he was a certifiable looney.

This book basically says that he can do no wrong.  What he said WAS the gospel.  Whatever.  It paints his parents to be just as saintly.  His mother, maybe, but his father, no way.  From everything that I can find, my g-g-g grandfather was a merchant.  When the heat got to be too much in one place (i.e. he cheated too many people), the family moved to a different area.  Sad really.  Especailly considering he came from a fairly prominent Tennessee family & married into an even more prominent one (the Ready family).

What's even better is J.W.'s (g-g-g grandfather) Civil War service.  There were pieces written about him in a book & another in a magazine.  They painted him as being a great hero of the time, although he never got the recognition.  He was never awarded anything.  When you read everything, nothing adds up.  The dates are screwy.  Several times when there was a major battle, he was out sick.  He was wounded twice.  I just don't buy it.  A lot of people would jump on something like this in their family history.  I won't.  If I can't prove what he did, then in my mind, he did nothing.

From various accounts, no one would speak out against him.  Most certainly not his children.  To me, that means he was a fairly cold, unfeeling man who had to have control over everything.  I'm pretty sure that when he married, it was for social & monetary reasons.  He died of a massive stroke.  They were dead broke.  Two of his daughters were living with him at the time.  I wonder where all the money from his "successful" business went?  What happened to the business?  Why did he marry my g-g-g grandmother?  Why did most of the children feel the need to move so far away from him?

I have many, many more questions than I think I will ever have answers for.  Since I wasn't there, never knew them & there is no one left who even has second hand stories, I probably never will know. 

Well, I've changed up a couple things.  Added a mood dealie in place of my picture.  Really makes the place a lot less scary.  Then I found a script for displaying your Amazon wishlist.  Pretty much worthless, but something to do.  I also deleted a couple things from the side.  Nothing major.  I get bored easily.

I was watching I Love the 80's the other day.  I dig that series.  They had a segment with David Coverdale on there.  Damn he's looking old.  He's starting to take on the Keith Richards decomposing thing.  He should go as the Crypt Keeper for halloween.  Wouldn't be much of a stretch.

Yesterday, I ventured out to play bingo.  I know, I'm not a blue hair yet, but I'm in training for my retirement days.  Besides, it kills an hour & they have free doughnuts in the morning.

So, I'm sitting in the back as usual.  I never win so what does it matter where I sit?  Two tables in front of me sit a couple of women, probably in their mid 30's.  They are talking loud enough to wake the dead & disturbed my crossword time, so I'm going to listen.

At first, they were discussing social manners.  How so many people were rude & didn't handle themselves well in public.  Here they were talking loud enough that they had the attention of most of the room & they have the nerve to talk about social manners.  I wanted to smack them upside the head, but that would be bad form.

The next topic up for the chatty duo, ovarian cysts & visits to the gyno.  Just ewwww.  I don't want to hear about my own insides, let alone anyone elses.  Apparently, the doctor missed something & malpractice was discussed.  The doctor probably missed whatever it was because she wouldn't shut the hell up & let him do his work.  I'll have to keep my eye out for this one in case she does sue.  I'm going to bat for the doctor.

The best part was the discussion concerning weight.  One was saying to her very much thinner friend that the only way she could lose any amount of weight was when she was on prescription pills.  The entire time she's been flapping her yap she's been stuffing sugared doughnuts into it.  Even eating doesn't shut this one up.  You know, if you'd put down the damn doughnuts for five minutes you might lose a little weight honey.

Now I'm not talking smack about her being overwieght.  Hell, I'm no waif myself, but you aren't going to hear me bitching about it either.  And most certianly not while I'm stuffing my face with a deep fried, sugary carbohydrate treat.  Just isn't going to happen.

I figured when bingo actually started the two of them would shut up.  But no.  They only took it down a notch.  I hate people like that.  Just shut the hell up & stop using extra oxygen.  You don't have to constantly have your mouth open for people to know you're around.  Quiet is a good thing.

Word of the Day
abstemious - ab-STEE-mee-uss - adjective
marked by restraint especially in the consumption of food or alcohol

Can someone please tell me what happened to Boy George?  I just don't understand.  I really don't.  Changing your image, yes, I understand that.  But dumping paint on your head?  OK, yes, I know that's his new look for his stage show, but all the time?!?  Great googly moogly.  I love Boy George.  Yes, I just admitted that.  In a public forum no less.  I have no shame.

He looks like abstract art painted by a blind person.  Is the heroin just now starting to get to him?

  

I use to manage one of those crappy accessory stores at the mall.  We had to have the "popular" station on all the time.  I hated it & I hated this song.  However, had I seen this then, I would have laughed til I peed myself everytime it came on.

I've been thinking about a lot of things lately.  Ever since Shane died, I have just retreated to some place inside myself.  Today, I was thinking about my financial situation, or should I say, lack thereof. 

When I was a kid, my parents both worked.  We had a roof over our head & some form of food on the table.  We didn't have much.  Sometimes the electricity or water would get cut off.  We'd eat beans & cornbread for a week.  But none the less, we were healthy & safe.

That's Troy Dillinger.  He's a cool guy.  He lives in Austin & plays music 'n stuff.  You should buy his CD's.  No, he's not paying me to put this here.  He can't afford that.  But I like him enough that I'll tell ya all about him.  When I was back in Texas a few years ago, I went to see him play a few times in Austin with a chick I use to hang out with.  I've even been to the fabled Grossland Manor (Elvis had Graceland, Troy had Grossland).  It was a party during SXSW.  I don't remember much.  I got wasted & ended up across the street at another band house.  When I went back to Troy's, I talked to his cat & then cleaned things up around the place.  I'm such a sucker.  Well, back to the point.  Go to Troy's site.  He does all his own work.  You can check out his music & then buy some of it.  He'd appreciate it.  One of my favorites is What They Seem (formerly known in my head as "that reams of paper song" - don't ask, I think I had too much coffee the first night I heard that one).  You can listen to that one on the site.  Tell him I sent ya.  He won't remember me, but that's OK.  By the way, I stole that picture up there from his site.

If you have been reading this blog since the beginning, you know that my brother (not my biological brother, but I'd known him since he was a kid, his older brother is my BIL), Shane, died on September 10.  If you haven't been keeping up since then, I'll give you the Reader's Digest version.  Shane had Interstitial Lung Disease (ILD) & Primary Pulmonary Hypertension (PPH).  He had been on the transplant list for over two years for new lungs & a new heart.  He was finally at the top of the list.  He went back into the hospital & never came out.  He was septic.  It caused his already weak heart to fail.  They were able to bring him back, but it was too late.  There was no brain activity.  When all this came up, Shane & his brother discussed it & Shane did not want to live on support.  So, they took him off the vent.  He was 24.

Well, that was a super crappy week.  September 13 was my Mom's birthday as well as one of Shane & mine's nephew's birthday.  It also happened to be the day of the Sugar Shane Mosley - Oscar De La Hoya fight out here in Vegas.  By the way, that was a Saturday.  So, Sunday, I wake up after my 2 hours of sleep.  I was completely groggy & hadn't even had my first smoke yet.  My eyes were scratchy from crying myself to sleep.  I looked down at the morning paper & about passed out.  The headline read:

SHANE COMES BACK

For a minute I just stood there & blinked.  This is what I wanted.  More than anything I wanted him not to be gone & now he wasn't!  YAY!  He was back & the Las Vegas Review Journal said so.  Of course then I woke up.  Well, really woke up.  I know nothing about boxing.  But that picture under the headline should have been a dead give away.  Now I have a rule.  No looking at the paper until after a sufficient amount of caffeine has entered my system.  Of course now the paper is extra depressing.

Why bring this up now?  Because I was cleaning stuff up today & found the paper.  Its one I'll keep forever.  I was going to scan it & throw a picture up there, but I am entirely too lazy to hook the scanner up right now.  Maybe in the morning.

Word of the Day
interstitial - ntr-stshl - adjective
1.relating to or situated in the interstices
2.  a) situated within but not restricted to or characteristic of a particular organ or tissue -- used especially of fibrous tissue  b) affecting the interstitial tissues of an organ or part
3.  being or relating to a crystalline compound in which usually small atoms or ions of a nonmetal occupy holes between the larger metal atoms or ions in the crystal lattice

This sounds like a B movie to me.  Attacking babies...... *shudders*  By the way, that came from Josie's blog.  You should go there & read the comments.  The one about bathing the kid in BBQ sauce before sending him off to nursery had me snorting.