to go or not to go? ha! there's no question...

in the last x-years, i've thought the most dangerous places to travel to were the middle east countries. now i've been informed that is currently incorrect. in a snapshot of the 14 most dangerous places for americans to travel to, seven of them were in africa, one of them s.e. of cuba, four in or near the middle east, one just north of australia, and the last was russia.

the african countries are: burundi, cote d'ivoire, the democratic republic of the congo, liberia, somalia, sudan, and zimbabwe.

the country near cuba is haiti.

the countries in/near the middle east are: afghanistan, georgia, iraq, and pakistan.

the country north of australia is papua new guinea, and we all know where russia is.

this information was a surprise to me and i spent quite a bit of time on mapquest looking at their locations and wondering where i'd been when they were teaching geography in school. the article is from Forbes and was presented by msnbc at http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11416638/.

go ahead and call me a chicken, but i don't have a lot of desire to travel outside the u.s. unless it would be to scotland or wales. and maybe new zealand or australia. other than that, forget it. well, okay, yes, i've been and will continue to go to canada, but even that can be a little scary *i thought loonies and toonies were something you watched at the movies*.

i mean, really -- who in their right mind would want to go to africa? oops, well, yeah, my best friend's sister went just within the last couple of years and totally loved it, but yuck! it's not for me -- snakes, spiders, bugs, strange animals, huge wild beasts, men who swing from tree to tree, yodeling. it just doesn't call to me at all. i like my man swinging from the ceiling fan and yodeling in our bedroom, thank you very much.

i'm feeling -- like looking up
while i listen to Dab Screen play Oversleep

life back home...

a couple of paragraphs from uncle b --

"I continue to enjoy your blog, and now John's, along with K's you all have more than doubled the resources that I access on the computer. I am very impressed with the quality of content, and the humor. I am not ready to post. I think I am more comfortable in the person to person, conversational style.

I visited with Dad today. He was very alert, recognized me before I said anything to him. He is eating well but not gaining weight. I cleaned and shaved him, for which his best caregiver was so grateful I thought she was going to cry. I guess he hasn't been very cooperative lately. Picture him happy because that is what he is most of the time. There were little animals playing in the residence today and they were too cute to describe. A puppy, owned by the caregiver, and the resident cat, were running, and wrestling, and entertaining us, and of course Dad was delighted."

wonderful update and great to hear about the little animals that the clients can enjoy.

The Terran

She knew he was a Terran as soon as he walked in her door -- all approximately six and a half feet, 180 pounds of him. He was built like a Terran, solid and tanned with wide shoulders and trim hips just made for riding those horses she’d read about. And gorgeous -- he had brown hair and soft blue eyes, a combination that she hadn’t seen in a long time.

“What can I do for you?” she said.

His face broke into a wide smile like he’d found his best friend. “Howdy. I was hoping you could help me hire someone to escort me around.”

He wanted an escort? Okay -- she could do that. For that body she could do about anything. “An escort? Why do you need an escort?”

He gave her a bashful look and, for a second there, she thought he’d been going to shuffle his feet. “Well, I haven’t been off-Earth before and I’m not too sure of things up here. But the real problem is that I think someone is trying to kill me.”

Kill him? And waste a prime specimen like that? Not if she could help it. “Why would anyone want to kill you, Mister ...”

“I’m sorry ma’am, the name’s Cody. Max Cody. And I’m not sure why someone would want to kill me, but the reason I believe they might be thinking about it is this.” He handed her a small, torn piece of paper which read “If you want to live, meet me at Scott’s Bar at noon. I’ll find you.”

Hmmm. “A mysterious, scribbled note isn’t necessarily indicative of high drama, Mr. Cody.”

“Well, no, maybe not ma’am, but the note was left on the desk in my room along with this little piece of jewelry.” He handed her a small pin.

She took it and gulped. He was in trouble all right. The pin was small, made to wear on the collar, and square-shaped with red enamel and a small black dot in the center. Everyone around knew that this was a serious pin associated with a seriously powerful guy who played for keeps. Aw, what the hell. Things had been slow lately and you couldn’t live forever, could you?

“Yeah, I’ll help you, Mr. Cody. Let me grab my bag, then we’ll go load onto my ship.”

“Okay, but shouldn’t I get my gear?” He looked at her with a worried frown as if he should be doing something.

“Well, now, I suppose that depends on how you look at it.” She opened her locker, grabbed a huge duffle, then opened the front door. “If you want to live, Mr. Cody, the best place for you right now is another galaxy.” And out she went.

i'm feeling -- creative
as i listen to I-Cube playing Adore

the husband has major salient points to make in his blog, the latest being this: http://spaces.msn.com/freerangehuman/blog/cns!C3CADB26CE810164!294.trak . usually husband's commentaries are just hilarious, but this entry is perspicacious and frightening.

well, it would be frightening except that everytime i read about a major event (or series of events) that is going to be catastrophic, that i take right to heart and champion the cause of, everytime i do that ... nothing happens.

last decade there was something about Nostradamas that i believed in, especially since a close friend said she'd talked with a gal who blah blah, i don't remember, but it all tied in. but the prophesied event didn't happen.

and remember Y2K? i totally believed we were going to have problems because of that. i stocked up on supplies, water, food, while husband shook his head and walked away, muttering about hysterical females. and what happened? SSSSSssssssssssssssssssss ... absolutely nothing.

i got the kids their hepatitis shots and pneumonia shots, made sure they had their tetnus shots, encourage them to take flu shots, etc. etc. etc.

so, yes, i KNOW that global warming is causing things to change, but i am extremely wary about taking up the cause. because you know why? if i take up the cause, it won't happen. say ... there's an idea ...

GLOBAL WARMING IS COMING! Sell your homes and retreat to the hills! Buy up vast supplies of irreplaceable items. Stock your land with cows, pigs, chickens, and geese. Learn how to soak brains and use them for tanning hides. Learn how to garden, how to card and spin wool, how to weave on a loom. Learn how to shot a rifle and bow-and-arrow. Learn how to swing an ax, to notch wood for best effect, to sew up cuts. Learn about the healing properties of wild plants and primitive methods of medicine. Well, wait ...stock the Foxfire series, 1 through 12 (by Eliot Wigginton and others) because there's too much stuff to know and not enough time to memorize it all.

there now .. no more trouble about global warming!

right now i'm feeling -- pretty smug
and i'm listening to Deep Dive Corp. playing Walker and lovin' it!

the future and past all rolled into one

the library finally let us know it was our turn to check out Firefly. we'd had it recommended to us by several people and i was looking forward to seeing it.

no, it's not a bug. it's a ... futuristic sci-fi western! haha -- but it's true. it's great fun to watch these renegades zipping around in their space ship, then landing on a planet, jumping on their horses and, wearing their six-shooters, either chasing or being chased by the bad guys!

the crew consists of the captain -- the ship-owner, group leader, and ex-military sgt (of the losing side of the 'verse); the captain's side-kick, first mate, second-in-command -- a very competant black gal who's married to... ; ...the pilot -- a nice, easy-going, quick-thinking white guy; a redneck, rabble-rousing, outspoken and somewhat dense muscle/handyman; an excellent female mechanic who's sweet and friendly; a girl genius who was rescued from the bad guys who had her imprisoned (while they operated on her brain) and is now highly sought after (by the bad guys); a young doctor (the girl's brother) who rescued her from the bad guys (government or at least a highly protected group) and is now running for his life with her; a beautiful female 'companion' who is all things wonderous and for hire -- she's in love with the captain (and he with her) but they don't get that all figured out before the end of the series; and the shepard -- a man of god who helps keep the voice of reason heard.

the series has a lot of humor, some yucky violence, some imagination, and some family moments. some of the episodes are better-written than the others, but all-in-all it was pretty obvious the series should never have been taken off the air. once again the network stupid-frickin'-idiots-at-the-top sent an intelligent, quirky, enjoyable program to the grave -- just like Northern Exposure, WKRP in Cinncinnati, and Earth 2.

oh yeah, bring on jerry springer! let's have more roseanne! gimme bachelors, paris and her 'simple life', and more reality shows! and i'd include south park in that dismal bunch except that i've never seen it and the kids say it's good. hmmm, i saw the clip about aristocrats and really seriously have to wonder about good!

i'm feeling disgusted with those mba schmucks at the top --
but if i listen to Deja Move playing Master of Seduction i feel a little better ...

around the world

got this tip from the husband -- check out this link http://www.steelcitysfinest.com/ToyotaViosAd.htm and this one http://www.steelcitysfinest.com/Isuzu.htm

family IS important

with all the good family time we had this past weekend, it got me to thinking about 'family'.

back when i was diagnosed with breast cancer and had my first mastectomy, i had a number of relatives living within 150 miles (we were in oklahoma). if i remember right, two of my favorite aunts and a favorite cousin-by-marriage came up to visit after i'd gotten home from the hospital. we all talked and did the polite thing, then aunt iantha said, "okay, let's see it," so we went into the bedroom and had show-and-tell. it was weird to me, but they were all pioneer farm women and were bothered by nothing. their natural curiosity and acceptance was so nice and reassuring, and went a long way toward making me feel better about the loss of that body part.

later, when my father drove down (from nebraska) to visit, the first thing he did was give me a warm, full-on, loving hug that was full of acceptance. that, too, helped me feel better about my strange new body.

family can be frustrating, exciting, fun, or aggravating, but (unless they are TOTALLY dysfunctional jerks) best of all they are there, and supportive and loving and accepting. and willing to help and just be any way they can. aren't we all lucky with our family?!!!!!

family makes me feel --
and i'm loving listening to -- Naoki Kenjo playing Voil du Coeur

a good time!

we just had a lovely weekend -- the in-laws came to visit. well, actually, they aren't our in-laws, they're My Older Son's, but they definitely feel like 'family' and we all had a nice and relaxing time. (the son-and-wife came, too.) we had good food, sightsaw (drove around the area), and played balderdash. company is always great when there's laughter and good feelings.

on another note -- MOS is headed to oklahoma city this week as part of his job. they've got a project down there and he'll be spending a lot of time at that location this spring and summer. it's been 10 years (TEN years) since he was last in okc -- it'll be interesting to note what kind of changes he sees.

right now it's peaceful and quiet with -- Superstar playing Apres Le Mans
while i'm feeling -- peaceful and sleepy... *sleepy?? it's the middle of the day!!*

ho hum, just another day in jail ...

well, that's sorta what it felt like, anyhow. i went over the border to the closest costco, bought a few things, then came back. i've gone back and forth over the border probably 20+ times in the last 16 months. i've got a passport and there's usually no problem.

today the border officer said, "you've been selected for random checking, please pull into the parking space ahead." so i, having done nothing wrong, cheerfully said, "okay," pulled into the slot, zipped up the windows, got out, locked the car, and walked toward the building's door, wondering what-all the deal was. before i had gone 15 feet, however, the car alarm went off (i must have inadvertently touched the 'alarm' button on the keychain) so i had to mess with that and finally got the alarm to be quiet, apologized to the guards and went inside.

it was about 4:45 pm and the last customer was leaving as i approached the counter. me on one side and 9 or 10 officers scattered around on the other side -- haha, no problem. the fellow (officer 1) who took my passport handed me a piece of paper to fill out. the first question was, "what is your family name?" hmm ... i was stumped. i mean, i know what MY name is, but were they wanting my family's name which usually means my husband's last name, or did they want my last name, which is hyphenated, and if so why did they call it a family name? several minutes later (don't laugh), i put my name down and went on with the other items.

i got done, then waited for officer 1 to get done talking with the officer beside him (officer 2) -- they were discussing a gal who had tried to come into the country today who didn't have a job, blahblah and whatever else -- and when he finally finished that not-pressing bit of chit-chat, i handed the paperwork to him. i pointed out that i hadn't written down the passport number in the space provided (since he had the passport) and it would need to be added.

he told me he would need the keys so he could check the car and wanted to know if there was anything i wanted to tell him, anything i had left out, or if i wanted to change my story before he went out to the car. mainly i was standing there in disbelief, wondering if i'd somehow accidently left a gun in the car or even a hit of heroin (like, i'm a user ... as if, dude) or even if, perhaps, i'd stumbled into the twilight zone, but mostly the predominate emotion was a sense of being on the edge of uncontrollable maniacal laughter.

so mr. grumpy, excuse me, i mean officer 1 went on out to my car, i sat down, and officer 2 (the ole' good-cop, bad-cop routine) started pleasantly talking to me about costco, the weather, etc. finally officer 1 came back in, handed me my keys with an air of disappointment, and i left.

free ... praise the lord, i was free at last. whew! i didn't even have a reason to feel relief but that cockiness was there just the same. haha, what does that say about me?!

much later i'm feeling -- sleepy
so i'm going to bed after i listen to -- Delerium playing Underwater

wonderful news!

just a quick note before bedtime -- husband's oldest son (a real sweetheart) is getting married in april! the gal is someone he met online and she is a sweetie-pie! they are going to make a great couple and we are all very, very happy for them.

she is from argentina and has a law degree, is fluent in english and spanish, and will have no trouble getting work in phoenix.

my only regret is that they don't live just down the street -- they are wonderful people!!!

i feel -- very happy
and i love listening to -- Chilling Matenda playing Need You

i have been getting soooo smart! it all started a couple of days ago when livejournal administrators decided they wanted to offer their bloggers the chance to buy virtual flowers or a virtual box of candy to send to another lj blogger for valentine's day. the cost was $1 and up, but the graphics were absolutely terrible so ... uh, whyyyy should we?

by the time i saw the post, there had been more than 300 comments made in response. i read all of them -- with most of the people saying why would we do that or your graphics are terrible or fix the problems first and other people saying how cute. then i added my own comment, "and we can use virtual money, right?" (i use lj occasionally.)

later in the day i got a notice of a comment to my comment, so i checked out the site which had gone from 4 pages of comments to 15 -- over 1100 remarks! (and now there are 1445 remarks in more than 18 pages.) let me share the comments that people made in response to mine:

administrator's post entitled Corniest Feature EVAR --
me: and we can use virtual money, right?
rightforyou: LMAO. Love it.
glowing dragon: Haha, I wish!
artsyfanson97: BEST COMMENT. YOU WIN.
artfuldodger: I think we should be able to use francs <[crossed out] franks (an inside joke)
impish nymph: You own.
liliths nymph: :D
lovelie cake: You = teh shit.

uhhh, i own? i the shit?? ww-what? so i e-d My Youngest Son and he saved the day, as follows:

when i asked about you own, he said, "Hahaha -- they meant "you own" as in "Ooooo! That guy totally got owned!" -- or, in leet-speak, "That guy totally got pwn3d!" -- meaning, in other words, you made a comment which was so good that you clearly won the argument. (The 'got owned' sense of course would be describing someone who clearly lost the argument.)"

~and~

when i later said, "??? i = the shit ??? is that bad? is she dissing me?", he replied, "No, that's a compliment, too. Search for "the shit" either here (http://www.uic.edu/orgs/kbc/hiphop/slang.htm) or here (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hip_hop_slang). I got to both sites by doing a Google search for slang "the shit". I also suspect her use of "teh" was intentional for aforementioned reasons.
Peace out"

so, my peeps, that zerg rush, kekeke, pwned m3 bu+ mj n(_) 1337 sk1iiz w1ii buj m3 4 can of pwn4ge!!!11!eleventyone!!1!!! w00t

i feel -- tickled
and i'm enjoying Digital Analog Band playing Dream On

doctor mommy

okay -- i have to put on my mommy hat now. in light of the fact that avian flu is waiting around the bend, we need to be smart in order to deal with it.

the deadly virus has now shown up for the first time in europe (italy and greece) and the middle east (turkey), making its inevitable trek to the americas. it still hasn't turned into a human-to-human transfer situation, but apparently that's coming.

1. go to http://pandemicflu.gov/planguide/checklist.html and read this info to familiarize yourself with the types of things you want to start keeping fully stocked in your house. kind of like when there are blizzardy-type conditions, you keep your tank filled no lower than 3/4 all the time. or i can e-mail you the doc file if you prefer.

2. go to http://pandemicflu.gov/planguide/familyhealthinfo.html for a brief form that you will fill out and keep in your wallet/purse. this actually should probably be on our persons at all times anyhow, but especially for you who travel a lot, or live far away from your parent's home.

prevention: wash your hands a lot; cover your mouth when you sneeze and stay away from people who don't; stay away from farms, zoos, and open-air markets; don't crawl on the ground, pick up bird droppings, or touch dead birds; stay home.

when you get this flu: you may have a sore throat, fever, and eye infection (conjunctivitis), and maybe a cough and muscle aches. then you will have lung problems, severe asthma problems, and pneumonia, possibly organ failure.

treatment: within two days you need to take Tamiflu or Relenza and those meds will be in short supply in the U.S.

so ... stock up and be vigilent. if you start to feel bad, be sure to call me and i will come take care of you!

i feel -- concerned

Amazon charges different people different prices for the same thing; RealPlayer messes with their customers; Netflix slows down service to you if you return movies in a timely manner; credit card companies penalize people for paying their cards off every month; Sony messes with their customers' computers. what is this? why are all these comp... wait, what? netflix does what??

yes, it's true -- if you are a good person who consistently returns your movies in a timely manner (e.g. for kindness, "let's get them back in the mail so the next person will be able to see them", or for excitement, "let's get these back so our next movies will be sent right out to us"), your strategy may be doing you harm.

check this out -- http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11262292/ -- if you return your movies faster than netflix allows, they will slow down your queue or even rearrange it to suit themselves. *those damned mba's are at it again*

i have reviewed my good feelings about netflix and decided they don't deserve my good will. henceforth i will simply view them as a means to an end -- not a decent entity which has my devoted loyalty.

Google, on the other hand, has shown us that it is classy, as well as in a class by itself. they have my loyalty -- at least, until they drop their ethics and start grubbing around with the bottomfeeders.

i feel -- disgusted
but i'll feel better by listening to The Egg playing Venice Beach

oh never mind

well, i finally downloaded the Gregarius reader after i figured out the difference between a zip file and a gun zip file. ha! that took some doing ... after all, i'm not the quickest bird in the tree.

but, i got it downloaded, then had to decide whether to unzip it, update it, or create it. ha! what to do, what to do. so i opted to unzip it and then ... i had NO CLUE what to do next. i looked through all the unzipped files to see if there was something that said "Run" but no.

i finally found a file that said INSTALL so i clicked on it and a screen came up that said "Choose the program you want to use to open this file" -- ha! how the hell do i know. but then i remembered Notepad (it's very basic) and decided to try that and it worked! yay me! then i read what it said. ha!

"works fairly well with PHP5.0" ... "must support socket operations" ... "access to a MySQL or a SQLite" ... "unpack the Gregarius package inside your web directory" ... "create a configuration file" ... "returns a 500 internal server error" ... "command line" ...

hahahahaha ... what's a PHP, or a socket, or SQL? my web directory? hahaha. i'm supposed to know this stuff??? hahahahahaha ..... press delete when ready ... hahaha ...

i feel -- everything's fine
'cause i'm listening to -- Slosnik Luna playing Sun (Kossin Mix) -- Frostbyte Groove Lounge

what's the buzz ... tell me what's a happenin' ...

i've tried a number of times, over the last few days, to set it up so that interested parties would be notified when there was a new entry on this blog.

i tried google groups first, since that was suggested by the blog help section. several issues got wrestled with, but ultimately google groups was not the solution.

in the course of trying to use g-groups, i found out that i might be able to accomplish the mail-list thing within ms outlook. i can do it if i get a third e-mail address and i don't know if i want to bother, so i've talked myself into deciding not to let people know when i post -- they can find out if they are interested.

that said, My Younger Son suggested i might want to suggest to people they could do an rss reader thing if they really needed entry-by-entry notification. but i wanted to be a little bit educated if someone asked me about that arena, so i started checking around. after quite a bit of confusion and frustration, i checked with my wonderful computer guru, Greg Kissell, and he suggested i be careful and that if i really wanted to get a reader, that it would be good to check http://sourceforge.net first.

much, much later i have decided i might give Gregarius a try. no sense in not keeping up with the times, so if i dive right in i'll have to swim. rss/atom reader, here i come!

and while i'm at it, i think i'll get a site meter for the blog and see what that's all about, too!

wish me luck with my risks!

i feel -- (intimidated)
but i'll feel better by listening to -- Vilasido - Flow (FrostByte Groove Lounge)

more books

i had a nice surprise yesterday -- one of our neighbors does cleaning for people and one of her clients writes books. our neighbor, isabel, gave me five of this gal's books! and one of them is an uncorrected proof -- how fun! i started reading the proof and am really intrigued by it so i look forward to the other four. what a nice gesture -- thank you isabel!

Dinner Drinks

It wasn’t working -- the dinner audience hadn’t laughed at any of his jokes except the one about his ditzy neighbor and you’d have to be dead not to laugh at her. And speaking about dead ... I’ve lost my touch. It’s time to bring down the curtain.

He finished his routine and went off the stage, down the stairs in the back, along the side of the crowd, and straight up to the bar. “Hey Tommy,” said the bartender. “The usual?”

“Yeah, Mac,” said Tommy, sitting down, “no sense in pouring good money after bad.” He wanted to laugh, but even he didn’t think his jokes were funny anymore. Mac brought his drink, and Tommy turned so that he could see the audience. How could they be having such a good time when his life was the pits?

Several people were dancing, but most of the crowd were having dinner and drinks. The orchestra was playing some slow jazz number, and Tommy wished he had a dame he could cuddle up with and do the quiet-move-to-the-soft-song thing.

He sucked on his drink and watched the maitre d’ escort a young couple to their table. He tried to remember, later, how the whole thing happened. To start with, the couple had lagged behind just a bit, with the woman saying something over her shoulder to the man. When she looked back around, she accidentally collided with a waiter who was taking two beers and a bowl of shelled, hard-boiled eggs to another table.

The waiter rescued both beers, but the three eggs went slow-motion flying -- one of them falling into the open, laughing mouth of a young gentleman with a Grecian nose and dark hair. The sudden cessation of breath caused him to jerk upright and start coughing which ejected the egg onto the tie of one of his companions, where it promptly swanned back toward the table and into a bowl of garlic mashed potatoes, thereby disgusting their fellow tablemates.

The second egg landed in a full champagne glass, gaily displacing the bubbly liquid all over the hair and face of the here-to-fore perfectly arranged, but now supremely startled, blonde who held the glass to her lips. Her escort heroically produced the requisite handkerchief without moving a single facial muscle.

And the third egg -- it soared expertly through a perfect arc to plunge into the deeply revealing bosom of an operatic-looking matron where it deftly slithered from one precipitous crevice to another as several gentlemen, trying to assist the lady in need, made gallant grabs for the slippery, slimy ball ... much to the lady’s mortification.

After several minutes of total pandemonium, things finally started to quiet down and Tommy tossed down the last of his drink. He arose, chuckling, and started for the door as Mac called out, “So long, Tommy, see ya tomorrow.”

“Sure, Mac,” Tommy said, still chuckling. “I wouldn’t miss it for the world.”

The Crowd

There was always a crowd and he loved it that way. Clean air, deep blue skies, play all day, sleep all night -- there was nothing like it in the whole world.

He’d had a girlfriend, but one day she was gone, just like that. Well, it wasn’t going to be permanent anyhow, so he didn’t spend time missing her.

Come on, come on -- the gang was heading out and he didn’t want to be left behind. It was a gorgeous day to be alive, so he slipped and slid as he made his way to their destination -- a beautiful blue expanse of water to dive in, splash in, play in. When they arrived, they raced each other to see who could make it in first.

It was glorious and carefree and they spent weeks playing in the area -- adults as well as older kids. All of that wonderful, warm sunshine was just perfect.

Suddenly there was a loud cracking noise and an echoing boom that reverberated around and around. What’s happening? He didn’t understand, but part of the group quickly headed one way and took safety on the platform, and part of the group headed over to the main beach area.

He joined the group huddling on the platform. Most of his buddies had headed over to the main area and he watched to see they were all safe. Soon he realized the platform was moving. I wonder if that’s bad, he thought.

After awhile he decided he didn’t want to be so far from his friends and was worried since the distance between them was growing greater. He started to dive in the water and swim to the other group, but he heard several adults talking about seeing danger in the water. He looked around and sure enough -- predators were lurking down there. This doesn’t look good, he thought.

The next day, he was even farther from his friends and was desperate about getting back. There was still danger in the water though. He would wait.

The platform, a small iceberg, floated out to sea and, eventually, all the penguins were lost.
(True story, altered with poetic license -- http://simonc.f2o.org/south/archives/000145.php )

The Lights

She was looking at the stars when the green lights started. It was just a little flicker at first, then another, then a continuous flow of color. It was scary and unlike anything she had ever seen before.

"Unga, unga," she shouted as she fled to her mother.

"Wha, wha," said the mother as she tried to understand why the girl was frightened.

Hesitantly, the girl pulled her mother to the mouth of the cave and pointed upward, then hid behind her, whimpering. "Ahhhh," nodded the mother as she withdrew into the back of the cave. "Kee, kee, kee." They spent the rest of the night huddled together, holding each other tightly.

The next morning her fathers came. She tried to tell them about the strange lights, but they wouldn't listen. "Bwah," boomed the tall father as he shoved her aside. She crept back to her mother.

Many, many seasons passed and the girl watched. She learned how to catch fish and which berries to pick. She learned how to make a weapon and how to start a fire. She learned the best places to hide and the quickest way to climb to the top of the cliff. She became big, brave and strong, and accomplished many things.

Then one night the green lights came again. And she was frightened.

always something

notice to everyone: you know caller ID -- the way we could tell who was calling and whether we wanted to pick up the phone or not?

well, apparently the bad guys have the technology to put whatever name/number they want to use onto your caller ID. the readout can show the federal government, your bank, the police, whoever.

keep that in mind the next time someone, that you don't know personally, calls and tells you or asks you important things. i.e., your son has been in an accident, you need to go to the hospital (and when you leave, they steal your household furnishings).

sheesh ...