Mermaid Monday; The Cove

I finally saw the movie "The Cove" last night and it effected me deeply. Hannah Fraser was in the movie and even without her fish tail she is a Mermaid in her heart trying to protect Dolphin from cruel death at the hands of cruel men with lies filling their hearts.

To Japan; killing Whales and Dolphins makes your country very tiny.

My Favorite Thing

My son Micheal turned 27 years old on August 25th and I drove my parents to Olive Gardens in Lee's Summit Mo for my son's family dinner in celebration of his birthday. My asthma was bad that day and Cordelia was extra sweet to me wanting me to take her for a little walk outside so we could talk.

"Grandpa, my favorite thing is talking to you."

My favorite thing is my family and here are some pictures both old and new of my extended family.

Cordelia, if this blog survives till you're old enough to explore it, know you have been a great joy in my life. I will always love talking to you

Honor Killings and Terrible Secrets I Carry

Honor, can you kill for it? Wives and Sisters have been killed in the name of honor. When I was getting divorced some of my friends asked if I was going to hurt my wife.

"There has been enough hurt, I wish her all the happiness in the world now."

The two men that stood before me were tough strong men that did the hard labor of working in a warehouse. They would have killed for honor. They couldn't understand what I said.

It doesn't matter what part of the world you grow up in, the world is full of honor killings. Men killing women to protect a lie in their hearts. You can't own women they are not your property and yet women lose their last names in marriage and never pass their family name to their daughters.

My Grand Daughter would be no less my Grand Daughter if she didn't carry my last name.

Too many ugly dark secrets in my mind. Too much hate in the world on gender lines. Was God made a man by men to make women less? What is wrong with worshipping the Goddess or the One Soul?

A day ago I learned more ugly secrets about the world. I fought a battle for a friend with love and truth and risked my own freedom and safety to do the right thing. It was for real honor.

When Grandma Dated Grandpa

90 years ago when my grandfather Oliver English was dating Lois McDonald the 19th amenment passed and woman had the right to vote in America.

Son of the End of the Rainbow

My son leaves a message on my cell phone.

"Dad, something something Crazy something something Rainbow!"

I can only understand three words in the message, Dad, Crazy and Rainbow. My youngest son must be buying something for my grand daughter. Some kind of rainbow toy. I call my son Michael and he says he didn't call and I forget about the message.

About a week later my oldest son Mark calls and tells me he made the message. This is the first time I have ever made the mistake of thinking Mark was Michael on the phone. Mark has almost no Missouri accent and Michael has a thick Missouri draw to his voice like me.

Mark tells me he drove through the end of a rainbow and his car was full of color like mine was years before. Mark had called me when it was happening to him. Mark told me he didn't believe me till it happened to him.

Unless it happens to you I don't expect you to believe me. Sometimes tall tales are replaced by tall truths.

Mermaid Monday; On Tuesday

Crystal St Romain

She is a Mermaid to me because she swims through the dangerous ocean of life. She is a friend and I even think of her as part of my extended family. She is the bravest person I know. I feel I can't tell you why I think she is so brave at the writing of this post.

If I had a daughter I would want her to be like Crystal. May the One Soul bind you to all the love in the universe Crystal and may happiness roll out before your feet.

Imagination versus the Ugly Ego

For twenty years I thought about designing a Sea Town. Not a town by the sea but a free floating sea town that was part of the sea. I am working on three feature length movie scripts as I write this and the sea town is part of the movie but never spoken about because it is a dream too big for the girl genius in the scripts to dare hope for.

Beside this blog and one of my other blogs (Pardon my Politics) I posted the above photo collage/drawing/painting on two other sites. The Venus Project and Wikia Micro-nations. Positive feedback on The Venus Project but a pretend Dictator using a fake name removed all my postings from Wikia. I knew this was a possibility but from a ugly little ego that plays with hate speech said my work wasn't good enough. No one on the site said anything to him about saying he liked to burn children.

The internet can be beautiful even with all the ugly egos that play in it.

Bang, Bang, Bang!

My parents got a new roof. Three days without rain. Missouri is having a second wet summer in a row. Three dry days and the roofers got the roof finished in three days. Beautiful job but I went a little insane with all the noise. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. Great job Early Bird Roofing.

The insurance company (State Farm) didn't treat my parents so well. A lady from Columbia Missouri told my mother in harsh terms she didn't follow the rules to file a clam for hail damage. I picked up the phone to hear what she was saying to my mother and was shocked to hear the hate in the lady's voice.

"I'm her son, don't call back if...."

I'm afraid I wasn't very nice to the lady. I didn't talk long or use curse words but how America treats old people is very sad. She didn't talk down to me but I believe she was trying to bully my mother into keeping her insurance with State Farm.

My mother cried for three hours after the phone call.

The photos are the roofers starting the job and my mother and aunt in the front yard. My aunt is one of the hardest workers I know.

Whale Wednesday: A Whale of a Tale

At 12:30 PM my daughter-in-law called.

"Hi Robert, would you watch Cordelia today?"

"Sure I miss her."

I take her to see Toy Story 3.

At the movie she was an angel. After the movie not so much but I still had fun. I don't want to have a perfect grand daughter, that wouldn't be fun at all.

"Cordelia do you know what Whales are?"

"Yes Grand Da, I know they real!"

"How do you know they are real?"

" I saw them swim with mermaids on the video."

My mind is dumb founded and I begin to laugh.

Mermaid Monday; Nerdy Grandpa

On my 52 birthday I had a conversation with my grand daughter.

"You know Cordelia, I write emails to mermaids."

"You're nerdy grandpa!"

How right my grand daughter is.