It was nice hanging out with Adrian last night and I figured I’d go to church and put in a good word for Sandy and her dad. I saw Charlie, Hanna, Michelle, Richard, Tom, and a multitude of other acquaintances. Something called Pentecost was today, not sure what it is but they celebrated the first gathering to worship of First Christian Church, which was 6/5/1855. 167 years ago. That’s a lot of years and a lot of souls.

I said a lot of prayers while I was there, and while I didn’t feel a huge sense of relief and was antsy by the time it was all over with, it was worth it just to get out of the house.

First of all, hat’s off and hand over heart to those that gave the ultimate sacrifice for their country. I tried to get into the military but I guess the higher power had different plans for me. Today I celebrated by finishing up the front lawn and then doing work and school, taking a nap, finishing up work, and then school again. Not really a great way to celebrate but it will be the last Memorial Day ever where I don’t have a degree…

Easy not to have Sunday Angst when Monday is a holiday! Not much going on today, finished off bundling the tree limbs for trash day and raking the front strip of grass in the front. I literally raked out 100 pounds of leaves and other debris from there, and another 200 from the beds and front yard. Crazyness.

I had always thought that just mowing in the leaves and such create mulch but I guess in the heat with no real rain, it just petrifies.

Sandy took off for Erie today, leaving me to my own devices for a week. So far so good, I got up and kissed her goodbye, fixed the TV antenna on the roof, went and had a 20lb tank filled, and put the new sticker on the truck. Went to Walmart for supplies to restring the flag pole and a 12-pack of Red Bull. Trimmed the tree around the flags waving path. Managed to get three bundles put together of the trimmings ready for pickup. And I’ve logged 7724 steps all before noon:)

Now it’s getting too hot to be outside so I’m inside and will grab a shower and hit the books. It’s hard to believe I’m just hanging with the cats for the long weekend. Oh well, this will be the last memorial day of my life without a bachelor’s degree. Life is good today!

So as I was going through my day the news started to filter through. School shooting, lockdown, 2 dead, gunman arrested. It barely registered because there were only two after all, tragic as a school shooting is it’s hardly news anymore.

The next I hear there are multiple fatalities and the gunman isn’t in custody… Uh oh, if they’re having trouble nailing down the number dead and where the gunman is, it ain’t over. Sadly that would be correct and after it was all said and done, 19 innocent children and two teachers were gunned down with an AR rifle. I can’t even begin to imagine.

We have to act, something has to happen. We can’t let this continue. As a gun owner let’s start the concessions. You have to have a license to own a gun. Absolutely god damn right. You have a license to drive a car, you have to show that you know the rules of using that car and you have to prove you’re physically and mentally able to drive. Same with a gun, prove you know how to use it and are of a sane mind and physically able to have it. No gun ownership until 25. Exceptions are made for our military who are trained and cleared for ownership.

This is not the state or country that I care to be associated with. We’re forcing women to have kids who are fodder for the nut cases that can buy a gun because that’s our right as Americans. Disgraceful and we must do better.

I REALLY REALLY don’t want to hear about the Johnny Depp – Amber Heard trial but it’s kind of hard not to see it somewhere. It’s hard to fathom what led the once-great actor/heart-throb to expend so much time and energy on a self-destructive, heart-crushing relationship.

The bottom line is there are things that poison our soul and yet we embrace them. The alcoholic with his bottle, the addict with his needle, the fat guy with GrubHub one-click order set up, and Johnny with his Amber. It’s sad to see but it’s never too late to walk away and start new. With all the entertainment that Depp gave to us, he offers us one last lesson, walk away before it gets to this…

I had a decent day, I actually worked all day on school and got it turned in, and spent about 7 hours on it. I turned it in and within an hour I got the notice that it’s deficient:( Three things need to be fixed and at first I was up in arms but as I reviewed the issues they were correct. I’m tired of working on it today.

I’m still undergoing a crush at work but I’m slowly but surely unwinding that snake. I’m hoping it comes to a close so I can get some traction on the classes. I need to get this over with, I don’t mind being a lifelong student but I need to finish this up, I’ve got things to do:)

I had been outside and ran into my neighbor and she mentioned she was watching the Rangers game. I reminded me of visiting my grandmother and uncles house and there was always the Rangers game on. Then my thought train moved on.
Fast forward to that evening and I noticed on the news that the Mavericks are playing, not only playing but in the play offs. I searched OTA channels and nothing, then I realized that our Dallas Stars never played on free TV either. In fact the only local major league team that you can get is the Cowboys so you for 17 days of the year you can catch the home team play.
What gives? And how do they expect kids these days to become fans if they can’t even watch the games? That and you’d think there’d be a huge segment of the local advertising that would want to target that population.
I guess you can listen to it on the radio, although that’s really not the same thing.

We made it halfway through the week. Work is beginning to pick up and it looks like it will be that way through the rest of the 2nd quarter. This is primarily because other companies are dropping support for the ATS, but any news is good news.

A guy I worked with at PDS passed away about a week ago. I can’t say I knew Olin Oliver well, he worked in the financial department and he got in super early as did I so we talked occasionally in those early morning hours. We didn’t see eye to eye politically and I had snoozed him for 30 days at the beginning of the year but that had passed and I saw a post about two weeks ago of him and his wife out at an event. The next thing I knew I got a FBM from Regina saying he had passed. Still not sure of what. He was 59 and spent 42 of those years married to the love of his life Debbie. I’m sad to say I learned more about him after he passed than when he was alive, it would have been good to learn that from him when he was alive to tell me.

Rest in peace my friend, I’m sorry I didn’t get to know you better and I pray for comfort for those you left behind, those whose life won’t be the same without you. You left a beautiful legacy.