Dark Fridays

Whether I shall turn out to be the hero of my own life, or whether that station will be held by anybody else, these pages must show...(the opening lines of David Copperfield as written by Charles Dickens;inspired by MTM). Or at least this ACCOUNT will, perhaps, have a reflection on whether I'm going to be the hero in my own life.


Gentle now A tender breeze Blows/
Whispers through The Gran Torino/
Whistling another Tired song/
Engines humm And better dreams Grow/
Heart locked In a Gran Torino/
It beats A lonely rhythm All night long/
It beats A lonely rhythm All night long/
It beats A lonely rhythm All night long~~~Jamie Cullum - Gran Torino Lyrics

Over the previous week-end of 20 November, I get in the mail this solicitation from one of these 501(c) non-profits, looking for a donation. It is a non-profit, it is local, and as I'm reading the solicitation that is gushing all over, about these great and wondrous projects that they are undertaking, the proverbial 150-watt-light-bulb goes off in my head!! Wait a minute, I'm thinking, they want my money. Instead, I'll give them something better~~~ME!!! So on Monday, I devote time to put together a cover-letter and resume, and I send it to the President of VOICE-BUFFALO, Ava White. I trimmed the sails of the cover-letter right along the lines of the one I sent to The Catholic Charities, the week previous.

Given enough time to have this seed take root, I'll follow-up on this with Ava White. Certainly with the disruptive element of Thanksgiving, and Black Friday, I'll earmark into the middle of next-week, for the follow-up letter.

On Tuesday, I visited my friends Greg Stein, and Charlie, at the Buffalo Historical Society's WWW.RAILBARONS.ORG meeting. I had with me, my flagship locomotive to be allowed to have operating on their layout. This time, I was ready to take all of this, to the next-level. I had, in-tow, and was allowed to place on the layout, a compliment of my coal-car rolling-stock. Everything, for the most part, went to plan. I am going to try something different though, the next time I attend. Up until now, when putting the train onto the layout, I do so, having the train run counter-clockwise. In running counter-clockwise, the front single-axle truck of the articulated-mallet becomes vulnerable to this one straight-away turn-out(switch). The front truck will sometimes develop a mind-of-its-own and will try to navigate the not-thrown, turn-out. A derailment ensues; gggrrr!! At the H-O gauge level, re-railing~~~is truly, TOILING!!!

What physically helps the lead-truck to 'take-on-a-mind-of-its-own' is that just before the turnout there exists an oh-so-subtle 'bump'. By going clockwise, the turn-out will now have been cleared by the lead-truck, and in navigating the soft bump, the lead-truck will only have the straight-away to navigate across. I'm expecting the lead-truck to stay true, and stay on its rails.

Wednesday, I had this one PRETTY COOL experience!! The sun was out and my van was recently cleaned. I was in a plaza setting, covering a couple of 'ERRANDS' and in going across this one storefront window section, the image I observed was pretty cool.
I had gotten to see my van, all bright and shiny, with the brand-new USMC vehicle-flags all-aflutter!!! The reflection, AND IMAGE, that CAME BACK to me~~~glowed!!

Thursday: THANKSGIVING; the celebration of blessings and bounty!! And I did send out a greeting~~~To all whom I consider my dearest family & friends, and to your families, I sincerely pray for a most bountiful and memorable Thanksgiving!!! And, that the bounty bestowed on all of you, this THANKSGIVING DAY, continues to be provided to you, throughout your life.

And of course, like so many Thanksgiving gatherings, ours had all the attributes of lots of people, a cornucopia of edibles, and pomp & ceremony. But our Thanksgiving had this side-bar, that is, in effect, putting together a string of these~~~whereby I'm redefining---the subsequent Friday.

The Friday after Thanksgiving, 2008, my 1997 Dodge Caravan, with 190,000 miles already under its hood, blows its transmission. With me just losing my Airborne/D H L job, and the tranny replacement coming in at almost $2000.00, I am hugely deflated. This just takes the Thanksgiving spirit right out of me.

The early Friday morning after Thanksgiving, 2009, we wake up to our hot-water($$$$$$$) plumbing line ruptured, and spewing water for, God-only-knows, hours in our basement. After shutting off the cut-off valve, and then scrambling to find, and then paying, a plumber on the Holiday, I again had this sunken feeling.

What am I getting at????
Yeap!!!
Check this out!!!

5:00AM, our time, The Friday morning after Thanksgiving 2010, my night-stand phone is ringing. Of course, the first thought is---well, I can't say it here. I pick the phone up, and it is our daughter Erica calling, from Oxford, MS; 1100 miles away. Having had Supper with her Aunt, my Sister, at their Oxford, MS residence, Erica is now at her residence, sicker than a dog. She has already brought up her supper, five times, and is desperate for some help. We of course go into scramble-alert to try to make 'something' happen. My sister, Rose, is a trained critical-care nurse, and we are able to successfully contact her, and have her go over to Erica's residence to help and provide corrective-action. It wasn't an issue with the food, because nobody else was sick. Erica must have developed some degree of the flu-bug, and it was enough to get the better of her. The fall-out!?!? She is still bed-ridden Saturday. What breaks Erica's heart is that Saturday is Game-Day for Ole Miss. And being a loyal collegian, she would want to be a very visible part of the extravaganza!! Go Rebels!!!

Black Fridays; try DARK FRIDAYS.


NB: Hi, Lou!
This is Barry's wife, Kathy. Barry is unable to read anything on the computer right now as he is having problems with his eyes. He has diabetic retinopathy and has had laser on both eyes as well as a vitrectomy on one eye. This surgery, while stopping the bleeding, caused a small cataract to become a large cataract. In the meantime, the other eye is bleeding again from the retinopathy. He will have cataract surgery on Dec. 6 and will probably end up having a vitrectomy on the other eye. We will see the retina doctor again on Tues.
Aren't you glad you asked! In spite of all this, he is hanging in there. Our phone number is 702 633-5785. We are planning on being in Buffalo for a month this summer. When we came last summer our original plans fell through ( a house exchange with a friend) and we ended up staying with friends and relatives - half of the time in Canada. That's why getting together never materialized. I need to contact Susie McKnight for Barry and explain all of this to her too. Thanks for keeping in touch!
Kathy Goodwin

I sent this out as a NewsLetter, on Friday, and I will include this in my Web Log~~~to once again implore prayers for one-of-our-own. As the many battles that our Barry Goodwin has already had to contend with, cancer being the most serious, he is now in the midst of another health-related battle. Continue to include him, and his very very SUPPORTIVE wife Kathy, in your prayers.
--{-=@
Hickok
The Promise
Roosters