Hello on Friday Morning.

Dear Friends,

Well, I did stir up a bit of controversy with Thursday's e-mail, which is good.
One of my friend's thought the Funeral Director and Teacher dialogue was the best part of the e-mail.
It is amazing how I tried to make people laugh, but a few of you focused on the health care issue.

I just spent the first few hours of this day untangling a birds nest of yarn. Linda always leaves the tangled mess in a visible spot so that I can readily see that she needs help.

Our Thursday went as planned. I dropped my friend off at the day surgery place for his 10:30 AM appointment. All I know was that my friend's surgery was delayed two hours.
I don't know how the surgery went since I was asleep when Linda arrived home from her book club meeting.
The wife of my friend would have filled Linda in how her husband's surgery went since she is a member of the book club too. I am guessing that my friend is popping pain pills right now. Another friend had a similar surgery a few months ago, and he was back skiing in now time at all.

I did visit Mom on Thursday. She ate her breakfast without her false teeth in again. I hope the food was soft food. She seemed a little groggy, but she ate her lunch sitting up in a chair (with her teeth in). The antibiotics must be working because the swelling in her leg has gone down considerably.

The Pasta Fund Raiser went very well. We served over 250 men, women, and children. You had to have been there to appreciate how well my UNICO brothers and sisters work together both in the kitchen and on the serving line.
The organizers said that they had sold 110 tickets. We are never sure how many people will show up. Italians always have enough food.

Social Calendar -- I will be visiting Mom while Linda is off to her monthly retiree breakfast. We will both be leaving the house a little after 8 AM. If all goes well, I will take an afternoon nap so that I can make it through our evening event. We have reservations (there are 7 of us) at 6 PM at Patrick's Pub, and then we are heading off to the Colonial Theater for an 8 PM "Celtic Concert". I am guessing that the place will be packed with many people of Irish descent.

Politics / World News -- The President was on the Jay Leno show last evening. Linda recorded the program for me. I am going to watch it in a few minutes.
I didn't realize that there is a "Suicide Forest" in Japan where people go to kill themselves instead of getting psychiatric help when life's problems overwhelm them. One guy did go there, but some hiker found him still alive after several days of wandering in the forest after slitting his wrists.
Maybe their health care system doesn't pay for such services. Should we have a suicide forest in the United States? I would bet the friends of Rush Limbaugh would vote for it! I can't believe that I just said that since I wanted people to think happy thoughts as we approach the weekend.

We have a cool day on tap for us today in the Berkshires. The high will be around 40 degrees, and a low in the teens. It will be a turtle neck and a sweater day once again.

I would like to thank my loyal readers for at least skimming my daily e-mails. Think of my e-mail as a daily column in a local newspaper. Yes, I know some of you might just delete the e-mail instead of reading it because I am sometimes a bit long winded.
Yes, I sometimes might appear to have "blinders on", but it is so difficult for me to change from a Democratic philosophy to Republican one. Some of my Democratic friends have changed to Independents hoping that their vote will change things considerably, but it is still a two party system in the United States.
As I have become more mature, I have tended to be a bit more conservative, but I will always vote the Democratic ticket.

Local News -- It was like the "Wild West" in Pittsfield the other day. A person was walking down the street in a tough section of town when a van drove by and someone started shooting at the guy. The guy whips out a gun, and starts firing back. Luckily, no one got hurt including the kids playing in the neighborhood.
After sorting the incident out, the police arrested two brothers from New Jersey. The pair were just retaliating from a prior shooting. Do you think that these wacko's had pistol permits?

Have to go, and finish reading the local newspaper.
Talk to you soon. The Curley Lad