OK!  I am back after a long bout with second thoughts and underground hostility.  It seems that being in pain and suffering illness does indeed affect your outlook on life. Before I retired work drained any reflection of life out of me but seduced me with the notion that I really was doing something worthy.  However, rather than dwell upon the sad effects of that realization, I am here to scream at the world,  I'm Back!  

     Thanks to friends and acquaintances  especially those in pottery, RV, and past school buddies, I am encouraged to take forward steps.  I just got back from a little vacation to the island of Kauai.  There I did NOTHING!  I did it good and lots of it.  Every day I would say to myself, "you came here to get stronger".  I rested, read, caught up with correspondence and did I say, rested.  At the end of the week I was mimicking bird calls and drinking Longnecks by the bar.  Definitely getting stronger!  

     I am on a quest to build a website.  Not an easy task, but one I feel necessary to showcase my pottery for those wonderful interested patrons. (I am as surprised as you might be)  I also hope to tweak this blog.  Hopefully to make it more attractive.  Wish me luck.

Father's Day

Here's to you, on Father's Day! As a father who had a great role model for a father, I want to salute you for the job you do. I don't have to tell you how much work you do to protect and care for your family. The sacrifices you make on a daily basis to keep the peace and maintain the continuous flow of love in the home. You get up every day and face a hostile world so that your family can live a style of life that provides opportunitiees that yhou never had. You put up with decisions and behavior at your workplace that you have no control over so that you can give to your loved ones.

Others may show their respect once a year with a gift or a card byt the rest of the year yhour efforts seem to be overlooked. You will go to your grave and be thought of as some footnote in the family history book. BUT WE KNOW! We know the courage it takes to face the world every day, to stand tall for your family even when you are frightened. To be in charge ALL the time when all you want some times is just to let someone else take the responsibility for awhile.

We don't form friendships easily, we don't join artificial support groups. We watch those we do call friends disappear one by one until we are alone! But remember, WE KNOW! Your brothers know, your fathers know, you know. The Brotherhood of Fathers know! You are not invisible, you are appreciated and respected by the rest of us.

So, happy Father's Day. Have a day of pride in your accomplishments, and you dreams. Teach your sons the arcane mysteries of Fatherhood and leave a legacy and a legend for those who come after you.

Summer Time
Well they don't call it June gloom for nothing! I suffer when ever there is more than 2 or 3 days of overcast weather, so you can imagine how I feel about Summer. Summer is filled with family birthdays (we all seem to be Leos) We have more family get togethers, outdoor activities, and vacations. The city of Claremont has "Music in the Park" on Monday and the Police dept. sponsors Bar B Que in the park on Thursdays.We all come from "education worker" backgrounds, which means we are all used to taking our vacations in the summer. I remember taking off for a month in July to travel with my mom and dad across the "Mother Road" Highway 66 all the way to New York. We did not have air conditioning so we would have to travel at night with one of those canvas water bag hanging from the front bumper. (How many know what a bumper is?) I still have a yen once in a while for the taste of cool canvas flavored water in the summer time.I have always had the best times in the Summer. The best was the summer after I graduated from Glendale High School. I spent almost every day on the beach at Huntington. A great time was getting a group of kids and going up to "Pipeline" for a night dinner and, well, whatever. I got so tan that my girlfriend's father didn't recognize me from the Spring. He was a jackass!The end of Summer meant getting in shape for Football. Run, run, run, was the schedule every day. My mother would stand on the track with a stopwatch and shout out lap times. Great! Today I have more options than I did than, I don't have to swelter in the heat of the Inland Valley, or suffer the humidity of the coast. I gather the clan and off we go up the coast in the RV to seek cooler climes. We eat the cheeses of Tillimook and Cache Valley. We drink the wines of California, Oregon and Washington. Mybe even catch a willing Salmon up near Whistler in British Colombia. What I am saying is that it doesn't matter which way we go. It"s Summer Time,