Blood will Flow

HAD to repost this one because have becc_j and quickreaver seen Jared's top knot ponytail? !!!
Originally posted by katwoman76 at Tough Mudder Texas

Forgot to post these yesterday and as I'm awake so early (dammit!) I may as well do it now.
Being careful of poor Jared's bad shoulder, Daniela had him sitting down for the doubles so I couldn't do my original idea. This was the best I could come up with after some frantic rethinking in the queue! Ha ha ha!  And of course I had no idea what faces the boys were pulling until I saw the print. Pretty priceless.
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Love isn’t always about the grand gestures. Sometimes the smallest things speak loudest.  Let me tell you a little story about a love that has lasted over fifty years, and one tiny gesture that demonstrates it.

Christmas Day, and our family had decided to have Christmas dinner at our local pub instead of trying to cook at home. There was me, my cousin and my parents, enjoying a quiet dinner. There we were, stuffed full of turkey and/or veggie roast, Christmas pudding and brandy butter, the usual traditional sort of stuff.  The last item on the menu was the coffee and mince pies, at which point my Mum had to take a comfort break, leaving Dad contemplating his cup of coffee.

When my cousin said she thought the coffee was pretty awful, what did Dad think?, Dad looked up from adding a couple of sugars, and shrugged.

“It’s alright,” he said. Then he got this sheepish expression on his face. “Actually, I don’t really like coffee.”

“Hang on a minute, why do you drink it then?”

“Well, your mother likes it, and she might not have a coffee if I don’t have one too, so…”

“So basically all these years you’ve been drinking coffee to please my Mum?”

“Um, yes.”

Of course, we told my Mum, and now at 81 years old, my Dad has a free pass from drinking any more coffee.

So there you have it, folks.  True love written in coffee beans.

After my little crisis of confidence yesterday, which some of you were kind enough to slap me for being so silly (ta very much, I loves y'all), here are some things that made me happy today.
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I do not want to give more recognition and publicity to the perpetrators of the atrocity in Woolwich, as that is clearly what they were looking for, but I will say this.

I salute the bravery of Ingrid Loyau-Kennett who confronted the murderers of the soldier outside Woolwich barracks, and the other woman who held his body in her arms. Two women who shame those two brutes with their courage and compassion. It is their voices we should listen to, whilst consigning the murderers to the obscurity they deserve.

You can read about Ingrid here.

I heard this on the radio but they only played a tiny bit, so I dug around on Youtbue and *sniffle* this is so beautiful, it made me cry.
New Zealand, take a bow.

I was feeling very down after yesterday, and a friend posted this on Facebook, by a comedian I'd never heard of, and I found that I am in total agreement with the sentiments.

Boston. Fucking horrible.

I remember, when 9/11 went down, my reaction was, "Well, I've had it with humanity."

But I was wrong. I don't know what's going to be revealed to be behind all of this mayhem. One human insect or a poisonous mass of broken sociopaths.

But here's what I DO know. If it's one person or a HUNDRED people, that number is not even a fraction of a fraction of a fraction of a percent of the population on this planet. You watch the videos of the carnage and there are people running TOWARDS the destruction to help out. (Thanks FAKE Gallery founder and owner Paul Kozlowski for pointing this out to me). This is a giant planet and we're lucky to live on it but there are prices and penalties incurred for the daily miracle of existence. One of them is, every once in awhile, the wiring of a tiny sliver of the species gets snarled and they're pointed towards darkness.

But the vast majority stands against that darkness and, like white blood cells attacking a virus, they dilute and weaken and eventually wash away the evil doers and, more importantly, the damage they wreak. This is beyond religion or creed or nation. We would not be here if humanity were inherently evil. We'd have eaten ourselves alive long ago.

So when you spot violence, or bigotry, or intolerance or fear or just garden-variety misogyny, hatred or ignorance, just look it in the eye and think, "The good outnumber you, and we always will."   Patton Oswalt

And then there was the story about the 78 year old marathon runner, who is the guy you see on the news footage who gets thrown to the ground by the blast.  He was helped to his feet and finished the race, he then walked back to his hotel - 26.2 miles and he wasn't going to let a terrorist bomb stop him finishing.  I do find that both crazy and admirable - and typical of all the runners I know (including my hubby).  His story, and I'm sure there will be many others, demonstrates how true Patton's statement above is.

In your faces, anonymous cowardly murderers.

The beautiful Can't & Won't pictures are by pineprecipice on tumblr

Do not rest in peace, Thatcher. Not while the damage you did lives on.



I saw a newspaper picture from the political
campaign
A woman was kissing a child, who was obviously
in pain
She spills with compassion, as that young child's
face in her hands she grips
Can you imagine all that greed and avarice
coming down on that child's lips
Well I hope I don't die too soon
I pray the Lord my soul to save
Oh I'll be a good boy, I'm trying so hard to behave
Because there's one thing I know, I'd like to live
long enough to savour
That's when they finally put you in the ground
I'll stand on your grave and tramp the dirt down

When England was the whore of the world
Margeret [sic] was her madam
And the future looked as bright and as clear as
the black tarmacadam
Well I hope that she sleeps well at night, isn't
haunted by every tiny detail
'Cos when she held that lovely face in her hands
all she thought of was betrayal

And now the cynical ones say that it all ends
the same in the long run
Try telling that to the desperate father who just
squeezed the life from his only son
And how it's only voices in your head and
dreams you never dreamt
Try telling him the subtle difference between
justice and contempt
Try telling me she isn't angry with this pitiful
discontent
When they flaunt it in your face as you line up
for punishment
And then expect you to say "Thank you"
straighten up, look proud and pleased
Because you've only got the symptoms, you
haven't got the whole disease
Just like a schoolboy, whose head's like a tin-can
filled up with dreams then poured down
the drain
Try telling that to the boys on both sides, being
blown to bits or beaten and maimed
Who takes all the glory and none of the shame

Well I hope you live long now, I pray the Lord
your soul to keep
I think I'll be going before we fold our arms
and start to weep
I never thought for a moment that human life
could be so cheap
'Cos when they finally put you in the ground
They'll stand there laughing and tramp the
dirt down

Don't ever let anyone tell you there is no such thing as love at first sight.  Or that love cannot last, it will always die.

Today I watched a good friend bury his wife.  He met her when he was in the Merchant Navy, a young man playing and working hard on a cruise ship back in 1957.  He and his mates were drunk and decided to hit on the next pretty girls to walk through the door of the function room, and Christie was the first one he saw.  52 years of marriage later, through all sorts of stress related illnesses, memory malfunctions, bodily decrepitude, they were still in love. I am so sad that he will now have to find some way to live without her, because I know that his life will seem empty.

And I don't want to think about how empty my life would be if I were to lose my husband (and we have only been together for 32 years).  Certainly, our love isn't the same creature it was 32 years ago, but that doesn't make it less, or invalid, or something to be thrown away.  I hope it will continue to change and grow as we change and grow (well, I also hope the growing is figurative not literal, I don't want to put any more weight on thanks!).

So anyway, next time you have a drink, raise a glass to my friend Mal and his late wife Christie, and if you are the praying type or just a deep thinker, spare him a thought to keep him strong without her.