Good to hear from you, Little John. I was actually beginning to get worried about you. This place does tend to become like an extended family...which means, sadly, that a person can get hurt here sometimes too...as well as all the good aspects.

Someone said awhile back in another thread that we start out by idolizing our parents and end up by despising them (or something like that). How about our lovers? Or our business partners? Or our neighbours? Or the other band members (in the case of musicians)? Or our friends?

As Dylan said, "The foreign sun it squints upon a bed that is never mine, while friends and other strangers from their fates try to resign, leaving men wholly totally free to do anything they wish to do but die, and there are no trials inside the Gates of Eden.

How I long for the Gates of Eden.

Is this why porcupines grow quills, and armadillos have armour? Explain that, someone. I do not mind a joke being at my expense...as long as it was not with harmful intention.

Anyway, I am glad that you are back.

I don't particularly care whether or not scientists believe in some of the extraordinary things I have seen either. There will always be mysteries. The fact that we are here at all is one of them. It never ceases to amaze me.