John Grisham's "Ford County"

How dare they threaten us! With sunshine instead of rain for tomorrow. We'll just see about that!

I am reading John Grisham's "Ford County" and last night I read the chapter "Michael's Room."
For me, this chapter really hit home. It almost mirrors my own life.

It involves a lawyer, kidnapped by a father of a child, with Cerebral Palsy. Ten years earlier, the lawyer had defended a doctor in a malpractice suit. The end result gave the family absolutely nothing. The theory was that the child wouldn't live past a year anyway. But now the boy is eleven years old. So the father grabs the lawyer and brings him to his house to show him the result of the jury verdict.

The differences between that family, and mine, is not much. He's from Miss. and his son is eleven. My daughter is thirty-eight. We even have the extra room on the side of the house. It used to be my garage, but now it is her room, with a wood stove in case the power goes out. It has patio doors, which go out onto the patio, which I doubled in length to accommodate her.

My daughter also has one brother, and the description of the wife's life, pretty well describes what my wife does. Except it has been for thirty eight years instead of eleven. And the money problems? At one point, I had four extra jobs while being in the military. With government assistance, it is much better now.

He sued the doctor, I didn't do that. In fact, the doctor died a little while later, from cirrhosis of the liver. He also had family support, which I didn't get. Except for one brother out of four, and their families, I'm more or less shunned. But one can certainly pick up good friends along the way.

John Grisham really did his homework on this story.



Jack Sakalauskas
http://twitter.com/#!/PensionersRant
http://originalmagazineads.com/flashfiction/
http://oldmagazineads.blogspot.com/
http://www.originalmagazineads.com/wordpress/

Criminal Minds

No use telling you it's still raining.

It appears we have fallen into the abyss of crime. Since Sat. we have had two home invasions, two people shot (1 dead), two stabbings, one rape, one beating and robbery. It seems like every day someone is getting stabbed. Before my hospital visit, I did my daily walk and one of the paths was along a lake. The other day, a guy was stabbed in the back, on that same path. I will be staying on the sidewalk, but my wife is still not happy with that.

Parliment is trying to pass a law in which way the courts deal with arrest of a group of people like Hells Angels. If every member agrees, it's a done deal. So the leader of the Green Party, who happens to be the only one of her party to be elected, says no. She wants every part of it debated. This will slow down that process and everything after it. And one of the things coming is a major crime bill. It appears she is there for only one reason, to draw attention to herself.

What's this about lesbian bloggers revealed as men? Weird or what? Of course this is only on the internet. In real life they can't go and tell everyone they are lesbian. People would know something amiss when he went to the washroom.



Jack Sakalauskas
http://twitter.com/#!/PensionersRant
http://originalmagazineads.com/flashfiction/
http://oldmagazineads.blogspot.com/
http://www.originalmagazineads.com/wordpress/

Stealing From A Thrift Store

Big rain today and temp. is the large number of 9C/46F. We are not ready for palm trees yet. This would have been perfect weather for fat, nude people on bikes.

All we hear about around here is strikes. The post office is doing rotating strikes and Air Canada is going on strike. I figure the post office is just driving themselves into a grave. With Air Canada, I can see their point. New employees won't get a pension but excutives will. The guys on top will rip you off as much as they can.

Someone just dropped in and talked about the mess in front of the Salvation Army Store. What happens is, people drop stuff off over the weekend. In the evening you can see other people there, going through the stuff, seeing what they can steal. They act like a bunch of wild animals. They just rip garbage bags apart and toss everything around. With all that rain, the place looks like a dump, which leaves the store employees to clean it up.

Yesterday, I finished working on part 5 of "A Slice of Time." I'll look at it again in a couple of days. Now on to part 6, which is also finished, but needs work.




Jack Sakalauskas
http://twitter.com/#!/PensionersRant
http://originalmagazineads.com/flashfiction/
http://oldmagazineads.blogspot.com/
http://www.originalmagazineads.com/wordpress/

Indecent Exposure

Today the temp. is 21C/69F and no wind. Very pleasant. I can't enjoy it quite yet. Tomorrow I can go outside, but forecast is rain.

Yesterday in Halifax, we had the parade of nude bikers. I think it is called "World Bicycle Awareness Day". Bet if you asked the bystanders what kinds of bicycles they were riding, no one would know. It's mostly women who do it. They must be thinking,"Tee hee, I can be naughty and get away with it." I wonder what would have happened if they gave everyone a ticket. For sure, we would have been on CNN. What would they do if it had rained?

This morning I had to package up an old magazine ad. It's on its way to Wilshire Blvd, Los Angeles. It's a 1961 Seagram's 7 Crown ad. Once I sent an ad to the postal code 90210. Another time I sent one to Boston to be used in a movie, and my name was in the credits. So there.

Back to revising part 5 for "A Slice of Time." My arc got kind of raggid in the middle. I hooked up this blog to my Goodreads page, so it will always have something. I wrote in the names of eighty books I've read. Read a lot more than those, but don't remember the titles.

I'm not allowed to drive for two weeks, so no yard sales for me. Last week I was at a yard sale and purchased a bunch of books. I gave a boxfull to a friend of ours. Her daughter's class is having a booksale to raise money for a trip.

This Side of the Grass

Well, I'm still on the same side of the grass. Came home from the hospital yesterday. The big thing is not to move around too much. I'll try. Not allowed to drive my van for two weeks.

It's sunny today, since I can't go out. The forecast for the next two weeks is rain. The U.S. has forest fires, Europe has droughts and we have rain all the time. I guess we have to wait till they control the weather, to take care of all these problems. Sounds good, but unfortunately they will use it as a weapon. That would really be a weaopn of mass destruction.

This is curbside giveaway weekend. That's stuff you don't want to bother selling. Just put it on the curb and anyone can take it. I wish they had it last week, when I wasn't sick. I talked my wife and son to go around for me. I want a dresser for my shed, to put my tool boxes on, and stash stuff away. Free yard sales! No trouble talking my wife into that.

I'm reading this book "Their Last Suppers: Legends of History and Their Final Meals."  Pretty fancy eating, like the captain of the Titanic and his nine course meal. It's a free book from Kindle. The pocket book I'm reading is "Ford Country," by John Grisham.

The 3rd and 4th part of "A Slice of Time", is at the publishers. The 5th and sth are finished, but I have to do some changing. I guess I now have the available time. http://amzn.to/jSQLeq  link for first two parts, on Amazon.

I imagine a lot of you people know about Goodreads. If not, check it out if you read a lot. http://www.goodreads.com/

The Time Machine.

Tomorrow is my operation and it reminds me, until this prostate business, I haden't been in a hospital for fifty years. (Not counting visiting, of course). So tomorrow, I put on the dressing gown and my plastic booties. Then I walk to the operating room, which I find kind of weird. Then they give me a little stool, and I climb up on the operating table. Also weird. They have an oven in there where they warm up blankets, so they cover me with a warm blanket until everything is ready. (Not weird, cozy).

So everything is going great. We are having a nice conversation, then Zap! I'm in the future, a different room and a different time. A Time Machine, that's what it is. When you wake up, you don't know how far into the future you've come. Hopefully only a few hours. So, if anyone ever asks me, "Have you ever done time travel?" I can in all honesty say "yes."

Time For Hospital Food

The weather for this week is rain. I think all week. We had a couple of good days last week, where we were able to cut the grass. I wanted to cut it this week before I go to the hospital. There won't be much cutting afterwards.

Because of an enlarged prostate, I had to have an operation last Dec. So they cut a part of it out and that should have been the end of it. But, by Feb, it grew back. So I need another operation, which is on Thur. I was wondering if it is like the miracle of loaves and fishes, or is it because I'm so healthy. I won't be cutting off a finger to test that theory.

This pretty well wrecks my summer. For the first few days, I was only allowed to walk around the house. A few days later, I was allowed to go out on the patio. (But who would, in Dec.?) I wasn't allowed to drive for two weeks. No lifting for a few months. I'm wondering if this time around, the rules will be more stringent.

At least I know what to expect. The first time I go to the washroom, it will be really bad, but each time after will be less. All the chores, I lined up for the summer, had to be done in the last two weeks. Too bad, I like cutting grass. It will give me time to write my YA book.