Update - 01.20.14

Your grandmother is in the hospital right now. Has been for several days. She'll be stabilized then sent back to the nursing home at hospice care level. Once back it is believed she'll have anywhere from a few days to a few weeks before the infection takes her life. She's not suffering at all and she's pretty loopy so is not much aware of anything let alone her situation, which is good. Over the coming days she'll just get more and more loopy. Eventually she won't regain consciousness. And one day soon simply just won't wake up again. 

However, for your chance to do the right thing, time has run out. I've said before, regrets suck and life is just too short to go around making more. This is one that you will have to own for a very long time. I hope you don't wait around for the next regret.

Codi Chasse -  Dec 27, 2013

Codi, you god damned shit head,


Christmas day your aunt Andrea and her husband Paul,  (who you have never met) your uncle Ed and his wife Geri,  your uncle Joe (who drove up all the way from the coast) and myself gathered with your grandmother Melba in the nursing home where she lives now to celebrate Christmas and family.  During that visit with your grandmother, in her wheel chair, she asked me if I had heard anything from you.  I felt bad for her, and the more I thought about it the angrier I became.

But let’s talk a moment about what it is that has made you angry with your father.  My realization is that you aren’t really angry with me, but anger is how you deal with an issue you are either unwilling, or unable to work out yet.  If you keep the issue at bay, you don’t have to actually confront it.  And yes, it truly is your issue.  It started during your last summer here.  I spoke with your then counselor and he informed me that the issue was that among other minor things, you felt I wasn’t treating you like the grown up you felt you were. (at the age of 15) I said to him that these were issues that were not so terribly uncommon and that if I were still your full time dad they would have been resolved in a matter of days. Or at least, the process would have begun just as in most any other family.  He completely agreed with me.  When did the issue begin for me?  That Christmas when I called and called you but nobody was ever home and with every call I left a message asking for return call, which never came.   After calling 2 or 3 times a day for most of a week, the evening of Christmas day I called one more time and no one answered.  I left a message stating that I was done playing this game and drew a line in the sand stating that when you wanted to talk with your dad, you knew how to reach me.  That was December 25^th, 2005.  At that time I imagined a week or two for things to settle down. I had no idea it would become this.

OK, so why did I become angry on Christmas afternoon, 2013?  It’s this.   I realize you have issues with your dad, and though I have no real power to do anything about that, I have to wonder what the rest of this family ever did to you to deserve this treatment from you.  You never had very much contact with your uncle Ed or Joe, so that’s understandable, but what about your aunt Andrea?  She’s been very good to you.  And of course, what about your grandmother Melba?  Doesn’t she deserve a Christmas card, or a note from her grandson once in a while just to touch bases?   This is what pissed me off.  Somehow or other you have learned to become a selfish, self-centered little prick that only thinks about his own needs. (and perhaps occasionally that of his mother and her family)

Look Codi, you’re 24 years old now.  It’s time you got your head out and grow the fuck up!  It’s time to cut the umbilical and stop letting your mother mess with your head and start to deal with your personal issues without your mom telling you that you don’t have too.  I have heard it said through the grapevine that I blamed your mother for everything.  First of all, that’s simply wrong.  However second and way more important, how could anybody on your side of the mountain know this?  Nobody and I mean nobody has ever asked me, so how could anyone know this to be true except that some, for reasons of their own, need for me to be the bad guy? 

I expect you to do what you think you have to do Codi, I’m not here to question that except for the question I have posed.  If you’re angry with your dad, why take it out on everybody?  Please, your Grandmother is 89 years old and stuck in bed 24/7.  She deserves to hear something from her only living grandson!  Grow some balls and get it done, before she’s dead!

FYI, not a day goes by that I don’t think about you. Nobody ever said being a dad would be easy. However, from the moment you were born I have always enjoyed being your dad.

Just one more thing. What is your last name Codi?   Yep, same as mine!

The Miniature Earth WITH SONG.

Just one of the reasons I became an aware and political human being.

Thought Y'all Might Enjoy My Art

The Rules of Being Human

You will receive a body. You may like it or hate it, but it will be yours for as long as you live. How you take care of it or fail to take care of it can make an enormous difference in the quality of your life.

You will learn lessons. You are enrolled in a full-time, informal school called Life. Each day, you will be presented with opportunities to learn what you need to know. The lessons presented are often completely different from those you think you need.

There are no mistakes, only lessons. Growth is a process of trial, error and experimentation. You can learn as much from failure as you can from success. Maybe more.

A lesson is repeated until it is learned. A lesson will be presented to you in various forms until you have learned it. When you have learned it (as evidenced by a change in your attitude and ultimately your behavior) then you can go on to the next lesson.

Learning lessons does not end. There is no stage of life that does not contain some lessons. As long as you live there will be something more to learn.

“There” is no better than “here”. When your “there” has become a “here” you will simply discover another “there” that will again look better than your “here.” Don’t be fooled by believing that the unattainable is better than what you have.

Others are merely mirrors of you. You cannot love or hate something about another person unless it reflects something you love or hate about yourself. When tempted to criticize others, ask yourself why you feel so strongly.

What you make of your life is up to you. You have all the tools and resources you need. What you create with those tools and resources is up to you. Remember that through desire, goal setting and unflagging effort you can have anything you want. Persistence is the key to success.

The answers lie inside of you. The solutions to all of life’s problems lie within your grasp. All you need to do is ask, look, listen and trust yourself.

It seems I will be back at this place quite a lot.

Below is a wonderful poem Audrey Hepburn wrote

She wrote this when asked to share her "beauty tips."
It was read at her funeral years later.

For attractive lips, speak words of kindness.
For lovely eyes, seek out the good in people.
For a slim figure, share your food with the hungry.
For beautiful hair, let a child run his/her fingers through it once a day.
For poise, walk with the knowledge that you never walk alone.

People, even more than things, have to be restored, renewed, revived, reclaimed, and redeemed; never throw out anyone.
Remember, if you ever need a helping hand, you will find one at the end of each of your arms.
As you grow older, you will discover that you have two hands; one for helping yourself, and the other for helping others.

FREECYCLE

Marketplace takes a look at 'freecycling': a new alternative to bringing your unwanted consumer items to a landfill.

Freecycle.org: Want not, waste not
Broadcast: February 6, 2005

Nancy Daniels has two obsessions: one is her parrots. She loves them so much she’s turned her home into a parrot recovery and adoption agency.

But running a bird rescue site is expensive, and that's where her other obsession comes in: an online site for free stuff.

It’s called Freecycle, a website that’s mushroomed from a handful of people two years ago, to a massive extended family of small communities across North America.

If a member has an old couch she doesn’t want anymore (but it’s too good to throw out), she simply puts a posting on her local Freecycle website. Another member who wants it replies to the posting and comes by to pick up the couch. No money exchanges hands - one member gets a couch, the other gets rid of it.

Click here


Freecycle phenomenon piques corporate interests
Broadcast: February 6, 2005
<<main page

Freecycle communities are popping up in communities across North America. LINK: Freecycle groups in Canada

The Freecycle movement was founded in 2003, but it wasn't until late 2004 that interest in the idea really ignited. Now, Freecycle groups are popping up in communities, big and small, all across North America.

Now there are over 2,000 local groups, with anywhere from one to 13,000 members.

It all started in Tucson, Arizona, with a Deron Beal -- who’s obsessed with recycling.

Before he started Freecycle, Beal worked for a non-profit recycling company (in fact he still works there, and manages the Freecycle movement in his spare time).

From his first day of work at the recycling gig, it drove Deron crazy to see perfectly good stuff being thrown away:

“I live here in the middle of the Sonora Desert, which is one of the most beautiful deserts in the world. And smack-dab in the middle of this desert, you’ve got this hideous landfill, half of which is full of perfectly good reusable stuff.”

Deron Beal, founder of Freecycle.

Click here

Other related links

Bronx FreeCycles with FreeCycleBronxNY
(02/06)
DALLAS: Web Site Offers Free Merchandise
(02/06)
ALASKA: Something for free
(02/05)
DALLAS: Thousands in area reduce, reuse, freecycle
(02/02)
FOX Carolina: "Free Cycle"
(02/02)
STERN: Hier gibt's was umsonst
(01/30)

(Canada)

Electronics recycling fee begins in Alberta (February 1, 2005)

Reduce, reuse, Freecycle (April 23, 2004)

Province applauds recycling program (July 30, 2003)

Montreal rethinking the value of recycling (August 8, 2002)

Environment suffers as recycling costs rise: expert (August 8, 2002)

Freecycle: A victim of its own success?

Rise Inc. (website for Deron Beal's day job, a non-profit recycling company)

Waste Management Inc. (the company that's now sponsoring Freecycle)

Freecycling to the rescue(USA Today)

Don’t need that old blender? ‘Freecycle’ it (MSN Money)

Freecycle.org could be next craigslist (Inland Press Association offers a perspective from the newspaper industry, which sees Freecycling as a competitor to traditional classified advertising)

Kicking your castoffs to the virtual curb (USA Today)

--------------------------------------------------------

THE COUNTER:

Number of Freecycle™ Communities:	2,244
Number of Freecycle™ Members:	894,647

Welcome!

The worldwide Freecycle™ Network is made up of many individual groups across the globe. It's a grassroots movement of people who are giving (& getting) stuff for free in their own towns. Each local group is run by a local volunteer moderator (them's good people). Membership is free. To sign up, find your community by clicking on the region on the right. It will generate an automatic e-mail which, when sent, will sign you up for your local group and send you a response with instructions on how it works. Or, go directly to the Web site for your local group by clicking on your community's link on the left. Can't find a group near you? You might want to consider starting one (click on "Start a Group" for instructions). Have fun!

The Freecycle™ Network was started in May 2003 to promote waste reduction in Tucson's downtown and help save desert landscape from being taken over by landfills. The Network provides individuals and non-profits an electronic forum to "recycle" unwanted items. One person's trash can truly be another's treasure!

How does it work?

When you want to find a new home for something -- whether it's a chair, a fax machine, piano, or an old door -- you simply send an e-mail offering it to members of your Freecycle™ group.

Or, maybe you're looking to acquire something yourself. Simply respond to a member's offer, and you just might get it. After that, it's up to the giver to decide who receives the gift and to set up a pickup time for passing on the treasure.

One main rule: Everything posted must be free, legal, and appropriate for all ages.

Non-profit organizations also benefit from The Freecycle™ Network. Post the item or items you want to give away and a local organization can help you get it to someone in need.

Who can use The Freecycle™ Network?

As Abe Lincoln once said, "Think globally, recycle locally." The Freecycle™ Network is open to all communities and to all individuals who want to participate. Freecycle™ groups are run by local volunteer moderators from across the globe who facilitate each local group - grassroots at its best!
----------------------------------------------------------

I discovered freecycle thanks to my brother about a year ago. Since then I have picked up 2 desks, 38 12' 2x6's from a deck i took apart, plus other lumber including several 20' 2x10's, a hot tub, hot tub controls, pump, heater and blower, antique kitchen cabinets, a leather coat, 3 piece sofa sectional, 4 drawer dresser, refrigerator, built in dishwasher, woodstove, wood slat curtains, and a canoe. Prolly a few other things I might have forgotten. I have given away many things myself. A Sofa, a hidabed, a bike, desks and the smaller fridge.

All of the things I got for free through freecycle were not new, but all are completely useable, though some needed minor fixing. I don't take garbage into my home. However, I have no issue with stretching my dollar and don't mind using my own elbo grease! I am not a rich man and these things have helped me considerably. But lets suppose I were wealthy? I would most likely buy new things and the old stuff, well I'd have to pay someone to haul it off! Instead, I could simply post an ad on Freecycle and someone who is not as economically well off as I am, will come and get it! I don't have to hassle with having it hauled off!

Really, the things I have seen people throw away, it outta be a crime.
Freecycle is one of the greatest inventions of our time!

Freecycle.org
Find a freecycle in your area and sign up today!

I believe I really like my New Camera!

The Last Cast

Sunset

Mt Hood

Today I went for a haircut

On my way to the barber shop,
As I passed the river at sunset,
I was presented with this view.



You can't enjoy it as I did,
Moments are somerimes like that,
This will have to do!

Just What Is the Internet?

Watch this little movie.

If you know who you are. Then you know all people.

Those of you who have taken time to read this far, have already recognized the truth. For deep within us is an awareness of truth's validity. It knows, all arguments are silenced in the fullness and wonderment of its recognition.

As Gibran says in the "Prophet"

And a man said, "Speak to us of Self-Knowledge."

And he answered, saying:

Your hearts know in silence the secrets of the days and the nights.

But your ears thirst for the sound of your heart's knowledge.

You would know in words that which you have always known in thought.

You would touch with your fingers the naked body of your dreams.

And it is well you should.

The hidden well-spring of your soul must needs rise and run murmuring to the sea;

And the treasure of your infinite depths would be revealed to your eyes.

But let there be no scales to weigh your unknown treasure;

And seek not the depths of your knowledge with staff or sounding line.

For self is a sea boundless and measureless.

Say not, "I have found the truth," but rather, "I have found a truth."

Say not, "I have found the path of the soul." Say rather, "I have met the soul walking upon my path."

For the soul walks upon all paths.

The soul walks not upon a line, neither does it grow like a reed.

The soul unfolds itself, like a lotus of countless petals.

If you know who you are. Then you know all people.

It was Ralph Waldo Emerson, the great American philosopher who said...

You cannot do a kindness too soon
because you never know how soon
it will be too late.

I Live As Man

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

"You must teach your children that the ground beneath their
feet is the ashes of our grandfathers.
So that they will respect the land, tell your children that the
Earth is rich with the lives of their kin.
Teach your children what we have taught our children, that
the Earth is our mother.

"Whatever befalls the Earth befalls the sons of the Earth.
If men spit on the ground they spit on themselves. This we know.
All things are connected like the blood which unites one family.
Man did not weave the web of life; he is merely a strand in it.
Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself."

~Chief Seattle~
Art by R. Swanson

Raven, you can see me in his eye

We are part of each other. Together we are one!

Iniquitous American History

"Chief Joseph"
Hin-mah-too-yah-lat-kekt
(Thunder coming over land from water)
Chief of the Idaho Nez Perce
(Nimipu)
(1840-1904)







The Words of Chief Joesph
[On a visit to Washington, D.C., 1879]

At last I was granted permission to come to Washington and bring my friend Yellow Bull and our interpreter with me. I am glad I came. I have shaken hands with a good many friends, but there are some things I want to know which no one seems able to explain. I cannot understand how the Government sends a man out to fight us, as it did General Miles, and then breaks his word. Such a government has some- thing wrong about it. I cannot understand why so many chiefs are allowed to talk so many different ways, and promise so many different things. I have seen the Great Father Chief [President Hayes]; the Next Great Chief [Secretary of the Interior]; the Commissioner Chief; the Law Chief; and many other law chiefs [Congressmen] and they all say they are my friends, and that I shall have justice, but while all their mouths talk right I do not understand why nothing is done for my people. I have heard talk and talk but nothing is done. Good words do not last long unless they amount to something. Words do not pay for my dead people. They do not pay for my country now overrun by white men. They do not protect my father's grave. They do not pay for my horses and cattle. Good words do not give me back my children. Good words will not make good the promise of your war chief, General Miles. Good words will not give my people a home where they can live in peace and take care of themselves. I am tired of talk that comes to nothing. It makes my heart sick when I remember all the good words and all the broken promises. There has been too much talking by men who had no right to talk. Too many misinterpretations have been made; too many misunderstandings have come up between the white men and the Indians. If the white man wants to live in peace with the Indian he can live in peace. There need be no trouble. Treat all men alike. Give them the same laws. Give them all an even chance to live and grow. All men were made by the same Great Spirit Chief. They are all brothers. The earth is the mother of all people, and all people should have equal rights upon it. You might as well expect all rivers to run backward as that any man who was born a free man should be contented penned up and denied liberty to go where he pleases. If you tie a horse to a stake, do you expect he will grow fat? If you pen an Indian up on a small spot of earth and compel him to stay there, he will not be contented nor will he grow and prosper. I have asked some of the Great White Chiefs where they get their authority to say to the Indian that he shall stay in one place, while he sees white men going where they please. They cannot tell me. I only ask of the Government to be treated as all other men are treated. If I cannot go to my own home, let me have a home in a country where my people will not die so fast. I would like to go to Bitter Root Valley. There my people would be happy; where they are now they are dying. Three have died since I left my camp to come to Washington.

When I think of our condition, my heart is heavy. I see men of my own race treated as outlaws and driven from country to country, or shot down like animals.

I know that my race must change. We cannot hold our own with the white men as we are. We only ask an even chance to live as other men live. We ask to be recognized as men. We ask that the same law shall work alike on all men. If an Indian breaks the law, punish him by the law. If a white man breaks the law, punish him also. Let me be a free man, free to travel, free to stop, free to work, free to trade where I choose, free to choose my own teachers, free to follow the religion of my fathers, free to talk, think and act for myself -- and I will obey every law or submit to the penalty.

Whenever the white man treats the Indian as they treat each other then we shall have no more wars. We shall be all alike -- brothers of one father and mother, with one sky above us and one country around us and one government for all. Then the Great Spirit Chief who rules above will smile upon this land and send rain to wash out the bloody spots made by brothers' hands upon the face of the earth. For this time the Indian race is waiting and praying. I hope no more groans of wounded men and women will ever go to the ear of the Great Spirit Chief above, and that all people may be one people.

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Maybe a can of tuna, or some milk, and a toy....