Hi, Ron:

I know busy. But at least I'm retired, so I can take breaks pretty much when I want to, most days.

When I scan the BS section of Mudcat these days, I think the prefix should be changed to "Oh, Yeah!" And the them song should be The Storms Are On The Ocean. The BS section seems to go through the vortex pretty regularly. There used to be more periods of calm between storms than there seem to be, now. It's more like reading the news headlines: 8 killed in terrorist bombing, Iran lvows to destroy Israel, riots sweep Paris, etc. That is part of reality, but not all of it. Even on my worst days, I see many examples of generosity and quiet commitment to trying to help other people. For some reason, there are people who believe that "reality" is all the ugly stuff, and the beautiful things we see around us and in each other are just "wishful thinking." Or that we're out chasing butterflies in a field. Reality is the whole deal. It's not just the meanness, the destructiveness and the selfishness. It's the kindness and generosity, too.

Today we're practicing up here at the house. That's a hardship for Joe and Frankie, but they're happy to do it. Frankie will be 80 in a few days, and he still works seven days a week, running his pavement company. He'll be up early this morning and working hard, right up to the time that Joe picks him up. Joe has a stressful day, as most of his days are, but he's sacrificing to make the time to come up here. It's an hour's drive to get here... one I'll make, going down to Frankie's this Tuesday night. Joe and Frankie are very "real." They aren't out chasing butterflies in a field. They have committed themsleves to something that they believe in, and they'll honor that commitment if they can crawl. Frankie came directly from the Emergency room to a concert once (for which we weren't getting paid.)

If we sound good, it's not from wishful thinking...

Jerry