Out of the Basement

Sleep well  tonight ... With all your problems solved, the only sleep that's robbed... is mostly mine. But I won't opine; it's pointless to carry on, with this charade that mostly calls you deeper into you while I stay behind. It's not that I'm really bothered by  the haunts that chase my soul, but more so that I'd rather say just go... Yet that leads to no, in most cases you return... With a brand new fire to burn... and your singular concerns while mine grow colder. But you didn't know? That I might have a few... Some angst need be pursued? but once again postponed... to deal with things that mostly bother you. Aren't I a gem? Always stepping up, to help sweeten bitter cups for those too discouraged to drink themselves. Such a great guy... To sacrifice for love or whatever it's called when all that's wasted is yourself.

I had lunch with my wife and a wonderful young couple today! The food was pleasant but the company was infinitely greater... at some point the conversation turned to the far off and future and I posed the statement, "life is in the journey, not the destination!" I truly believe that but still find it a hard axiom to live out. Even at my age, I am still compelled to look into the days ahead to find some nondescript pivot point to fix my gaze on only to determine that actually getting to the place is how/where the lessons are learned. I have determined that I am not the first, nor will I be the last to ponder this thought, but I do find it curious that I often stop and reassess my direction usually from a location past and not future...why is this? I think it is because we, at least in our hearts, want to enjoy the ride as much as our imagination's long for where the ride leads us to... the memories live on long after we have packed away our travel bag. Throughout most ...

On That Day        David S Callahan (c) 2001 I thought i'd seen it all when that Spetember day began, I watched the buildgins fall; almost too much to take in, My questions were the same, as all others I suppose, The answers wouldn't come, the doubt just seem to grow, I lifted up my eyes, and I sought a higher way, I asked him for His grace... on that day, On that day, we prayed, take away the fear, On that day, we all embraced what we held dear, Reality was maddening, the hurt was too severe, But we found courage in his presence, on that day, Some said everything is different, it would never be the same, Smoke and ashes blurred ourt vision, then there was the pain, Others said it was abandon, You had left us to our fate, In places you were never welcomed, we heard some call Your name, The grief led to a searcching, a nation's soul upon You laid, As we surrender to Your stillne...

For the last couple months I have kept a secret. That is not something that I tend to do... I really prefer to keep things out in the open; if its out in the atmosphere it can be much more easily managed than within the confines of the mind! But I was tasked to hold my tongue... so I did! It all started with Angie's return from a visit with her endocrinologist. Having been diagnosed with diabetes last year, she makes frequent sojourns to his very busy office for random blood-lettings and lectures about insulin and all its wonderful purposes for the body! She made mention to me that she had detected a lump in her throat and that he had paid alarm to it, going so far as to schedule a sonogram and an aspiration biopsy. Upon sharing this news with me, she also asked that I keep it between us and to definitely not "put it on Facebook" or tell a bunch of people about it! If she didn't speak it into existence, then it might not be bad. Hence the secret! I have been swell...

For those who have not been paying attention... the Healthcare bill will most likely pass today. But before it does; just a thought... When people look back, they will not recall the supposed entitled benefits of the enlightened ideology reflected out from the progressive thinkers of our time. Oh no, more likely, they will bitterly and sorrowfully recall the mistaken abandoning of the freedoms long battled for and won to enjoy this great culture! Of course by then, the despotic tyrants (that historically always follow those ideologues) will not care for the mournful remembrances of freedoms, which by then, will have long since been revoked.They will know what is best for us whether we agree or not! Sound familiar? It is amazing to see the price people are willing to pay... Liberty is not as often taken as it is just given away...one lethargic concession at a time!

There is never a good time to get a call that starts with the phrase "I hate to have to call and tell you this...but...!" Still they come nonetheless. I am certain that no one is ever prepared when it does... not really! We got one of those calls last week. It was reminiscent of similar calls from the past, and it brought the same awkward rush of anxiety, fear, and emotion as those before it! You really are never prepared... Angie got a call concerning her dad's emergency admittance to the hospital. He is almost 82, and has struggled with several difficult health issues for a while. She was told that the doctors were at wit's end with how to treat him! The fear was that he might have had a heart attack. Turns out he did; or at least half of one. The incomplete heart attack is apparently quite a risk in that the heart still wants to correct itself . Therein lies the jeopardy for an octogenarian with a very weak and frail heart. He had valve replacement surgery 21 yea...

I went to the doctor today...upper respiratory infection with a side of sinusitis! At least that is what I was told! Isn't that how it works with doctors? We wait in the "waiting" room and then are herded into some triage area for them to add to the bill with temperature, weight, and blood pressure checks! I am thinking maybe to fore go all the perfunctory "padding of the bill" and get to making me feel better! But instead, I get to read the equivalent of War and Peace in out dated magazines as I am attempting to tune out what is surely the spawn of Satan while hoping that the noxious chemical smell causes me to pass out so that time will pass more quickly. I am certain that all 26 of the people who work in the office have some role that keeps them busy, other than, of course, caring for the patients! I have learned how to cook chili, paint cars, and cheat on taxes all from the other side of those smoky glass windows of the "Reception Office." Al...