We're OK...

they've finally announced names and Dottie and I don't know any of them...this time...

There's enough meaness to go around in this world between the "real" wars and the "gang" wars and the other forms of hatred and intolerance that abound. We really don't need anyone adding to the mix! We had already had an unusually high number of murders this year related to some kind of gang war, and last month they arrested one of the few women to ever make the F.B.I.'s "Ten Most Wanted" list in connection with those!

I usually try to stay on the "Kansas side" of the border when I can, whether shopping or whatever. The city on the Missouri side is larger and already has a larger tax base; if I can keep most of my money on this side I figure it helps with my property taxes and such. We had been to "Ward Parkway Shopping Center" for the first time in years a few months ago when we were shopping for something for one of the grandkids birthdays that we couldn't find elsewhere. We went on a weekday trying to avoid the crowds, not that that would have made a difference if this turns out to be another mental health incident as they seem to think.

As the noon news plays in the background, they are saying that the man had a history of mental illness, had been cited for the city for the expired tags on his vehicles and that the neighbor he killed had turned him in for not mowing his lawn. They think he killed her, stole a gun from her and her car, and then headed for the mall. He shot a cop at a gas station along the way, pulled into the mall and shot the people who were parking on either side of him, then walked into the mall and opened fire. Responding officers shot him...

Whenever things like this happen I remember a story I was told by an instructor I had 25 years ago in some automotive classes I took preparing myself in case I was laid off and had to go back to work as a mechanic. The teacher was a Korean War veteran, a survivor of the Chosin Reservoir campaign (called "The Frozen Chosin" by those who were there).

He and his buddies had been pinned down by enemy fire for most of a day, trapped in foxholes. The weather had been too bad for air support to come in and take out the sources. After eating the "k-rations" for so long, one of his buddies "had to go" and couldn't wait any longer. He also wasn't going to "go" in the foxhole they might be pinned down in for hours or even days longer. So he jumped out and ran for a rock to squat behind while he "went".

As he settled in behind the rock, an American aircraft came in to napalm the enemy position. For whatever reason, the bomb dropped short and hit the rock George's friend was squatting behind.

The bomb failed to ignite! His buddy came back covered in napalm (jellied gasoline for those who might not know) from head to toe, but alive.

George told us he was convinced then that when it's your time, it's your time, and nothing is going to change it. It won't matter where you are or what you are doing; skydiving or home asleep in your bed...

Of course, I always figured that with my luck, I'd have run back to the foxhole and someone would have been smoking a cigarette!

Yet, when times like this come, somehow that story helps...

Not the post I had planned to write when I got back here!

I'm laid off for a week this week. Dottie has vacation starting tomorrow. If the weather cooperates we plan to spend a lot of time on the water 5 of the next 6 days. In return for which, if the weather doesn't cooperate, Dottie plans on the basement being sorted and vacuumed (that could take a week on it's own). The party for Dillon's birthday is on Saturday...

As you know, Dottie doesn't know I blog so getting here for these next few days will be hard to do, so I hope you all forgive me if you don't hear from me for a bit!

With all that is going on in this world, I keep coming back to the words that Garry Moore used to close "I've Got A Secret" with so many years ago:

"Please be kind to each other!"

alan