There are no words left for Congressional Republicans...

...and some Democrats. Somewhere in the hallowed halls of the United States Capital there has to be an individual who has the guts to come forward in a dramatic way and challenge the Republican leadership. The really troubling thing here is that the fox fans never question what these so called leaders say. The hatred for Obama is unnatural; every single thing that he does cannot be absolutely wrong...there has to be at least ONE thing that might be right. The latest illicit tour de force is the denial that the President had anything to do with the ultimate undoing of Khaddafy (Qadaffi). These small minded trolls are actually touting the line that the British are the ones who should get all the credit. They cannot bring themselves to give this President credit for anything! Talk about patriotism.

AND, the jobs bill.

Is this a joke?

I know many Republicans whom I respect and who are intelligent people. They must be embarrassed. Never have I witnessed such a ridiculous group of political candidates being taken seriously. After the so called Republican "debate" last night I am shocked. Who could possibly think that any of these people could be the President of the United States? 999? Apples and Oranges? Wake up! Yard work? Obama's aunt and uncle? Petty bickering! There are serious problems facing our society and they need to be addressed in a serious way.

A Great Weekend in Oxford with Emily

http://travel.nytimes.com/2011/10/16/travel/faulkner-and-football-in-oxford-miss.html

Pat, Kristy, and I ventured to Mississippi to visit Emily and go to the Georgia Ole Miss football game. It was the ultimate tailgate experience. Kristy and I interviewed many people who had set up outstanding tents, and they all invited us in for food and drinks!

Great visit with Em and her MTC friends.

I am not sure how the NYT missed us there.

Father's Day (an earlier post that refused publication)

Because we miss our babies desperately we journeyed half way across the country and back to spend the weekend with Em & Brink. It was to be a bit of a vaycay, but did not turn out that way. Our plan was to go to Asheville on Thursday, spend the day exploring, find an interesting hotel and leisurely explore the roads to Oxford Mississippi. Nope, didn't happen...we left Chapel Hill at 7:00 PM instead of AM and got to Asheville in the dark. Not much exploring. The two girls at the desk of the interesting hotel we selected suggested that we go to Southern, a place that had a late night menu. Okay, we thought that sounded good so off we went. Asheville at night is not a place that sees many people our age out on the street. We were not smoking pot and we did not have tattoos. Southern was interesting, but I can tell you that the girls that sent us were more than likely laughing. Little did they know that we fit in where ever we go, at least in our minds.

While in the lobby the next morning having coffee I met Amy Laura Hall, a divinity professor at Duke. I am not going into the details of our conversation (her life story) but she wants to start a church in a brewery in Durham...sounded interesting to me.

Off we went to Oxford a new way...I thought we were taking I40 through Knoxville and then follow the Natchez Trace, but NOOOOO. Pat suggested that we go another way through Nantahala and all the winding roads where you can go about 35 MPH. So sometime around 1 or 2 we were in CHATTANOOGA! that was not my plan. Look at a map, that's a long way from Oxford. Attempting to avoid Tupelo we got lost and drove through about a dozen little towns that no one in their right mind would ever go to. (sorry about ending the sentence with a preposition). A sign pointing the way to the Coon Dog Cemetery tells you alot about just where we were.  We did arrive and it was great to see Em and hear all the news. Shopping, meeting all the MTC people, having dinner, and getting to know Paul filled the day. Sunday we had breakfast at Big Bad Breakfast with Em to celebrate Fathers Day and then headed to Atlanta to have dinner with Brink. Pat was in heaven. Both girls in one day.

"pittiful" of late

Life in the "Pitt" has all but disappeared of late, but real life has not. Google in all its wisdom did something to blogger that I was not aware of and each time I wrote an earth shacking post it would not publish. I assumed the geeks at Best Buy, while performing an exorcism to rid my computer of  a virus, had altered my posting capabilities. They must have figured that enough had been said about deer, Sarah Palin, and the Tar Heels. I just sighed and moved on to Gawker. Finally I decided that my brain would explode if I did not figure out why this no post situation existed, after all, there was so much to be said. Alas! The "Pitt" is back.

My life's work...

...is under attack. Somewhere back in the bowels of high school I decided that I wanted to be a teacher. I am not sure why. I have distinct memories of the many classrooms I frequented from September 1962 to June 1965 and the day to day presence of adults who were charged with the very difficult duty of "teaching". Some were interesting, some were "cool", some should not have been there, several were cruel, and a few were inspiring. All of them taught me something, but the ones that I still remember were the ones who had passion...passion for their subject, and they were always engaged; they were part of the class, not directing the class. I wanted to avoid the ways of the worst and perfect the ways of the best. For 33 years the classroom was my world away from home. There was laughter, frustration, anger, enlightenment, and every other human emotion. It was hard every day. Futures were at stake.

Who are these people who have decided to "go after" teachers? Why have they put the profession at risk? Yes, there are those who should never darken the door of a school...but they CAN be gotten rid of. And, it's the public schools they are after not the private schools. Do they actually think all teachers in private schools are wonderful? Are they trying to rid our democracy of the great equalizer? Are they opening the way for private companies to make huge profits by bestowing grades? Well...maybe.

a reprieve from the bad news

With the South being destroyed by tornadoes, the President of the United States feeling the need to show his "long form" (whatever that is) birth certificate to the world, wars, the continuing economic disaster, and every other bad thing going on; I got up at 4 this morning to watch THE wedding. The outfits, the pageantry, the Abby, and especially the HATS kept my attention until the two kisses. The only bad thing was the constant reminiscing about Diana. She's dead! Kate was beautiful and set the bar very high for good taste. The Queen on the other hand looked as though she had gone to Walmart for her outfit. I mean really...that stupid purse, and yellow...really?! There is no need to mention those two daughters of Andrew and Fergie. Who let them go out with those hats. Think about the person who had to sit behind the one that resembled a television antennae. The music was beautiful and the Archbishop of Canterbury was quite good. So there...

Donald Trump is an alien and I am sure his "birth" was faked

I am at present unable to locate my birth certificate! The last time I recall seeing it was when I had my passport renewed a couple of years ago. I have (had) only one copy and I have looked everywhere. The doctor who delivered me has to be dead otherwise he would be well known as one of the oldest people alive. I am sure he (I am assuming it was a man) would not remember delivering me if he were still puttering around in the present. This is a grave situation because I cannot prove that I was actually born in the United States of America. My passport was not accepted at the North Carolina Department of Motor Vehicles when I tried to get a NC driver's license....only a real Social Security card would work; funny, because Social Security Cards are not to be used for identification (it says so right on the card). Anyway, I cannot find that either. I suppose in NC my Passport would not prove my citizenship...I am in real trouble. Oh, and I wonder how many people remember me from 1st grade in Okinawa and would come forth to say they knew me when.

Somehow I missed the national debate that took place over the CONSTITUTIONALITY of our military activity in Iraq after 9/11. Oh yeah, there wasn't one.

The bitter sweet of life...

Spring has sprung, the Tar Heels are in the Sweet Sixteen, and real estate is rockin' here in the Triangle.

We have been so busy of late and my usual "Pitt" activities have been set aside...like writing things on this blog. My garden is a mess and I am going to resort to hiring someone to get it "deleafed". How things lived through the frigid winter I do not know, but they are trying desperately to pop out of the ground. Frogs as big as small dogs inhabit the ponds which freaks me out a bit. (we do live near a nuclear power plant you know) I will not speak of the deer; just picture plants with nubs.

I have seen Archie Cross since the last Pitt report and he is fine. His chair was broken and it took forever to get it fixed. I had been really worried about him. He is such a positive presence in this world.

Of late my mind has not been able to escape constant thoughts of Emily's friend Jason and sweet Kate. Gentle spirits touched by death and illness. It is terribly difficult to grasp the reality of a child's death or their encounter with life altering illness. Godspeed Jason, and everyone will Kate well.