And an attempt at poetry.

Freedom

A butterfly moves from one plant to another at its will.

A fawn eats green shoots in an open meadow.

A dragonfly hovers above a pond.

Free they are, they do what they want.

Or do they?

The butterfly MUST flit from plant to plant or it will die.

And after only one full earth day it does.

The fawn eats in the meadow at its peril or it also will die.

And even then may die.

The dragonfly only rests for short periods before it also resumes the search for food.

And it also may die.

A young boy with a butterfly net

A cougar lying in the sun near a meadow.

A kestrel flies low over a pond.

Free they are, they do what they want.

Or do they?

The boy searches for butterflies for his collection,

But he must return home soon to his schoolwork.

The cougar saves its energy for the upcoming run through the meadow for its dinner.

The Kestrel dives low to the pond to find its food.

The world is in a constant state of energy.

Movement.

One thing against the other.

Life versus death.

And we sit quietly in our homes and complain because life is not what we expected

How pitiful we are.

Freedom

OK, so I got discouraged but I am back. Here is a story that I submitted to a children's magazine.

Ebby

A short story by

Everett Ede

Ebby is a year old tomorrow and he is excited about that. He will then be able to run with the other young joeys in his group that live in the hills and plains of Australia’s Northern Territories. A Joey is the name for a young Kangaroo or roo for short. They are a very large furry animal that roams all the lands of Australia. There are about fifty members in Ebby’s family and they are currently scattered all around this large grass plain eating the succulent grass that is found here. Ebby’s father is one of the large adult Roo’s, who is standing guard while the others graze. They are on the lookout for Dingoes, the wild dogs of the Outback. Dingoes are mean little dogs that chase the family members and can sometimes catch the old roos. The Dingo’s caught Ebby’s grandmother last year right after Ebby was born. The lookouts are also watching for a new threat; men.

The men have sticks that they point at the roo’s and then make a big noise and the roos fall down and the men take them and eat them just like the Dingo’s do. Ebby wonders if these two creatures are the same being in different shapes. He also wonders how anyone could hurt his family because his family is just happy and friendly. There have been many rumors from other families that some of the men have been capturing their members and taking them away in big things and are never seen again. But Ebby does not worry about such things because he is just a little Roo, but he hears the discussions from his soon to be abandoned pouch on his mother’s belly. He barely fits in there now but he still likes to crawl in because it is warm and comfortable and when the day gets very hot he hides from the sun in there. As a matter of fact he is a little sleepy right now so he turns around to where his mother is standing and puts his little head inside the pouch and crawls in. There is barely enough room for him to turn around in here anymore but he struggles a little and eventually is able to poke his head out. With his eyes closed he rests his head against his mother’s fur and nods off to sleep.

Ebby is startled awake by his mother jumping from her grazing position to a full run. She does this in one movement and is running at full speed in just a few bounds. Ebby peeks out of her pouch to see what is happening, but he can only see the grass going by in a blur. His mother can run at full speed at about 25 miles per hour for a couple of miles. The fact that she is running at this speed tells Ebby that there is trouble so he holds on and will be ready to jump to a hiding spot if she stops for him to do that. As he looks out he can see others in his family running too and is worried that there are the wild dogs chasing them. He is worried for his grandfather who cannot run as fast as he once could and might be caught.

All of a sudden his mother goes down. Has she tripped on something? Does a dog have her? He is afraid and does not know what to do. He is supposed to stay in her pouch until told to come out. But what if his mother is injured? Where are the others? As he peeks out of her pouch once again he sees that she is being dragged by something. She is lying down on her side but she is moving along the ground. This makes no sense to Ebby and he is getting more and more frightened each moment.

He can see something that looks like brown grass that is in squares and can see that his mother is caught in this grass. There is an opening in the grass squares right where the opening to his pouch is and he decides that he can get out and go to find his father to help. With all of his strength he pushes himself out of the pouch and through the opening in the grass squares and falls onto the ground. As he looks up he sees; MEN! Ebby is terrified; he has never seen men before he has only heard the adults talk about them. They are as big as his father and they have long arms but very small legs and feet.

Ebby bounds to his feet and begins to bound away only to see more men coming after him. He changes directions and runs faster. Then he sees a big thing in front of him and he cannot go over it. He stops and turns around only to be confronted by one of the men who try to grab him. He pushes with all of his strength and with the power of fear included he jumps over the man who just about grabs his leg as he does but he makes it. Then other men come in from both sides and he only has one small opening to try for. So once again he uses his strength and fear to scoot through the opening. Then another big thing is in front of him but he can get over this one because it is not as big. Ebby lands on the top of the thing and can see that it has a hard top on it and then he bounds down off of it on the other side and can see that inside this thing is a Kangaroo. This roo is not one he knows but he can see that he is trying to get out of the thing. Then one of the men comes around the end of the thing and Ebby bounds off into the grass. Ebby is amazed that these men cannot run very fast. He wonders how they were able to catch his mother when they cannot run fast because Ebby cannot run nearly as fast as his mother.

After running a short distance Ebby stops and turns to watch what is happening. He can see several of the big things that he could not get around and they are moving. They must be some kind of big animal and they make a growling sound as they move. He can see the men pick up the square grass thing that his mother is caught in and put it into one of the smaller things like the one the other roo was trying to get out of. Then he sees his father in another one of the smaller things and it is on one of the big things. It is like they are caught behind sticks in the forest and the hard top makes it hard to jump out. This is all very confusing to Ebby and he knows that he must help his mother and father or he will never see them again. Then the men pick up the thing that his mother is in and put it on the big thing next to where his father is. As he watches he can see his father reach out his hand to touch his mother and he knows that he is comforting her. He can hear her crying and she is touching her pouch. She has lost Ebby and she is sad.

The men all get into the big things and the big things with the little things with him mother and father in them all start to move across the grass plain. Ebby looks around for other roos but cannot see any. They must have all run away. It is then that this little Joey Roo named Ebby decides that he must get his mother and father out of those things. So instead of running away he begins to hop toward the big things that are moving across the plain.

The moon has gone below the hills now and so it is completely dark. The big things have stopped moving and their eyes are shining in the dark making them very easy for Ebby to see. Ebby is a nocturnal feeding animal as are all Kangaroos so his eyes work very well even with no moon to light the way. This apparently is not true for the men because they carry light things to show the way in the dark.

Ebby watches as the men move first to one of the small things that are holding his mother and father and the other kangaroos. They are bringing water and bundles of grass for them to eat. Ebby notices that the men open the things so that they can put the water and grass in. He also watches as his mother move to the back of the thing when the men open it. She must be very frightened. Ebby thinks that if he could push the man down somehow that his mother could get out. After the men put the water and grass into the things they close it again so that his mother is once again trapped. Ebby is very sad and afraid for his mother and father. He has no idea what the men are going to do to them. He must help them to get free.

The men have put up big brown things like rocks and have gone inside them and all the lights have gone out. Ebby waits and waits but nothing more happens. He decides to go down to see what he can do to get his mother and father out of the things. He hops to the big thing where his mother is and he is afraid. His heart pounds very loudly and he is afraid that the men might hear and come to capture him as well, but none do. He bounds up onto the big thing and then moves over to where his mother is. She is very happy to see him but tells him to run away so the men can’t catch him. Ebby tries to push the sticks away that are keeping her in but they are very strong and do not move at all. He moves over to where his father is and tries it but the same result. He hears his father tell him to run away and save himself. Ebby wants very much to help but he cannot see how he can, so he hops back over to where his mother is and lays down to wait to see what happens.

As the sun starts to rise he hears a sound like the men barking and he jumps down off of the big thing and runs into the grass to hide. He watches as the men do many strange things and then watch them get into the big things again and they begin to growl and then move off. Ebby again follows them and wonders what he can do.

Ebby is getting very tired. He has followed the big things all day and they have only stopped once. He is used to riding in his mothers pouch and not used to so much hopping on his own. But he is strong and healthy so he has been able to keep up with the slow moving big things that the men are in. As the sun gets low in the sky the men stop once again and Ebby knows that this is the time to do something. He must free his mother and father, he must!

Ebby remembers that the men open the things to put in the water and notices that one of the men has a water thing. Ebby hops to the edge of the high grass and waits for the men to get up on the big thing to give his mother water. When the men do that Ebby hops up with the man and as the big thing is opened he uses his legs to kick the man down. He tells his mother to run and she quickly comes out of the thing and hops down to the ground and begins to run to the high grass. The man has fallen into the thing that his father is in and it opens when the man hits it and his father jumps out. The man reaches out and grabs Ebby’s leg and holds on and makes a loud sound. Ebby can hear the men coming and is trying to get away but the man has a tight grip on him and will not let go. Then Ebby’s father kicks the man and the man falls off of the big thing but he still has a hold on Ebby’s leg and Ebby falls off with him. When they hit the ground the man lets go of Ebby and he is able to hop out of his reach. Then there are other men around them and one is trying to grab Ebby but he remembers that the men cannot run very fast so he hops over one of the men and runs to the tall grass that his mother ran into.

No men are chasing him so Ebby turns around to watch to see where his father is and sees that there are men all around him. One of the men has a bunch of the square grass things and throws it at his father but it misses as his father hops out of the way. When he does this one of the men tries to grab his father but cannot hold on. Ebby’s father is very strong and kicks the man with his very powerful legs and the man falls back into another man and that leaves room for Ebby’s father to hop through them and then into the high grass. The men start to run after him but one of the men makes a loud sound and the men stop.

When Ebby’s father reaches where him he tells Ebby to follow him and they hop further into the high grass and are joined by Ebby’s mother. Then they all hop further away from the men and their big things. Once on a high place they turn around and watch the men who are going from one thing to another giving water and grass bundles to the other kangaroos and are turning on their light sticks because the men cannot see in the dark.

Ebby turns to his mother and climbs once again into her pouch and turns around to look out. His mother and father start to hop back toward their home land and Ebby, who is very tired now, closes his eyes and goes to sleep.

Political definitions

I know that my blog is supposed to be about writing and this one isn’t.  But it is about words.  And I did say in my first one that I might just want to rant.  So I am ranting. 

            One of the main principles of communication as I remember it is that in order to have a complete communication there must be a sender, a person speaking, and a receiver, a person listening.  Over this past week I have watched Republicans speak out and Democrats speak out but it is not clear to me if either of these communications had a receiver.  So, per the principle stated above, there has been no communication.   

            If President Obama were to give his most eloquent speech yet to a group of French citizens who do not speak English would the speech be a complete communication?  No it would not.  How then is it possible for him to speak to a group of Republicans who do not want to hear him?  On the other side of that coin if the Republican minority in the house and senate have a valid point to be presented to the congress and the Democratic majority do not want to hear them what is the chance that they will be heard.

            When people speak the same language the communication may be incomplete for a number of reasons.  For instance, A Catholic speaking to a Muslim, A man speaking to a woman, a republican speaking to a democrat. 

            Even when we speak to each other we do not communicate our point if the person who we are speaking to does not hear or want to hear what we have to say.  And to make things even more complicated what if we do have something to say but we use the wrong words.   Let us start with the definition of what a Democrat and a Republican is.  Webster says that a Democrat is a supporter of democracy:  somebody who believes in or supports democracy or the democratic system of government.  Does this definition fit a person of the Democratic Party?  No it does not.  The United States, often referred to as a democracy, is actually a representative republic.  So what are Democrats doing in congress?  Republicans on the other hand are by definition supporters of a republic as government:  somebody who believes that the best government is one in which supreme power is vested in an electorate. So shouldn’t we all be Republicans?  I know they are just the names that are given to the two major parties but isn’t it confusing when we think about it that way?  And what would we stand for if we still called them Whigs? 

            So on to the next confusing category, conservatives and liberals.  A conservative is a person reluctant to accept change: in favor of preserving the status quo and traditional values and customs, and against abrupt change.  Now if we follow this definition, and per our language we must because that is what it means, then when Clinton left office and Bush came into office were the conservatives not the Democrats?  And when our country is in dire straits as it is now isn’t conservatism a self destructive position to take? 

            The definition of a liberal is; broad-minded: tolerant of different views and standards of behavior in others.  Well now as a righteous Republican I can see why my party is so upset with President Obama.  Wait, isn’t that a good thing?  Oh there is a second part to that as it relates to politics and it says; progressive politically or socially: favoring gradual reform, especially political reforms that extend democracy, distribute wealth more evenly, and protect the personal freedom of the individual.  Oh boy now I am rally confused because I don’t think that part fits either one of them.  It does however seem to fit President Obama.  Wasn’t he accused of wanting to spread the wealth?  Well as a Democrat that is exactly what he is supposed to do. 

            OK so now I have decided that the thing to do to solve these political squabbles is to simply throw out the whole mess of them and get a new batch.  Well that has been tried before and only works on a limited basis so here is my plan.  We should pay them each one million dollars a year.  They will not need to pay their own staff.  The staff will be paid as permanent government employees.  Sort of like the post office.  That way they won’t be able to hire their unqualified brother in law and pay them a huge salary.  Now the cost is really not too significant if you think about it.  Four hundred thirty five congressmen and one hundred senators, total annual cost $535,000,000.  They spent that yesterday.  So how will that help you say?  Well at a million a year there are many midlevel managers in the private sector who are actually qualified to conduct the business of running the country who would now run for office.  So, by my estimate, in the next two elections cycles we would have replaced all of our petty, bickering, whiney representatives with qualified people who will behave themselves lest they lose their million dollars a year job.  Oh and they cannot earn any outside income from any source.  That should shut off the lobbyists influence on them.  

Golden Goose

Golden Geese Discovered in Wyoming.

 

 

Feb 15^th           The department of paleontology at the University of Wyoming has issued a report on the findings at one of their privately funded digs in Northwest Wyoming. The report, which was originally written by students working on the dig, reports that an extremely large nest of ancient geese was found just east of the Mammoth spring’s area of Yellowstone Park.  The nest appears to be that of the mythological Golden Goose and the fossilized eggs are indeed made of pure gold.  Each Egg is approximately one troy pound in weight and at today’s market value makes each egg worth approximately $10,000.  It is estimated that the size of the nest is large enough to contain approximately 330 million eggs. 

            The students who discovered the nest are scheduled to be interviewed by the press on Monday the 9^th of March.  However, since the nest is entirely within the boundaries of Yellowstone park the National Park Service has asked that the eggs be secured by the United states Army until it can be decided what to do with them.  The U.S. congressional committee responsible for the park system has issued an order that no further excavations be completed until a study can be funded to determine its total value estimated to be more than two hundred zillion dollars.  Also the U.S. congressional committee on finance wants to commission a study to see what benefit the value might have relating to the national debt and the current financial crises that we are in. This same committee drafted a bill that would increase the salaries for congress by 34%. 

           

Feb 16^th           The Canadian Paleontology society, the privately funded research group that funded the dig, has filed suit in U.S. district court claiming the eggs belong to them since it was their funding of the project that caused the discovery.  At the same time that this lawsuit was filed the Society for preservation of antiquities has filed suit claiming that disturbing this site in any form would constitute a violation of the federal Antiquities Act that has yet to be enacted and is asking for a restraining order prohibiting any removal from the site until such time as the aforementioned law can be enacted.  

 

Feb 17th          A private group calling themselves the citizens for equitable distribution has estimated that there is approximately one egg for every man woman and child in the United States and that the eggs should be distributed to the citizens of the country accordingly.  A newly formed group called the Citizens against anything socialistic has filed suit against the former group alleging that the distribution to each citizen would constitute a “spreading of the wealth” and since this is a capitalistic society would be illegal.  This second group is not able to site any rule of law relating to their assertion.

           

Feb 18^th           meanwhile the society for the ethical treatment of animals dead or alive has alleged that the removal of the eggs from the nest would constitute a violation of the rights of the extinct goose and should not be undertaken under any circumstances. 

 

Feb 19^th           The Sioux nation today filed suit in district court claiming the Yellowstone site is a sacred burial ground for the now extinct but still revered golden goose.  The representative for the Nation has stated off the record that they would be willing to exchange the Black Hills region of North Dakota, a region that has been determined to have been taken from them illegally by the Supreme Court of the United States, for the much smaller area of Yellowstone Park where the nest is located.  Since they have not taken any of the six hundred million dollars that were offered for the Black Hills in lieu of actually receiving their land back they believe that this would be a much easier solution than the one they originally wanted, that being the removal of all white eyes living in or near the Black hills.  They also assert that since that portion of Yellowstone Park had not been used for more than a decade it should be considered abandoned and according to the treaty of 1885 that they have a legal right to claim it.

Feb 20th The National Parks manager responsible for Yellowstone Park today was asked what position he has taken in regard to the future developments.  His response was "We intend to let it burn."  When reminded that the great fire was nearly twenty years ago he said. "Oh."  

           

Feb 22^nd           The Chinese government today has declared their note for the national debt due and payable.  All sums now owing by the United States are to be paid forthwith.  However a spokesman for the Agricultural Bank of China has stated that they would be willing to take the Golden Goose Site in Wyoming as payment for the debt. 

 

Feb 25th          Today the Governor of Wyoming declared an emergency for the area now known as the Golden Goose site and is reclaiming it as state territory.  He has ordered the activation of the Wyoming National guard and has sent two battalions of troops to retake the disputed area under State control.  In the meantime of course the U.S. Army has already taken up positions around the site and is prepared to defend it against the National Guard.  

 

Feb 26^th           Four University of Wyoming students were arrested today while trying to enter the Golden Goose site with bulldozers.  It seems that these students are part of the original archaeological team who made the discovery.  When asked what they were doing they replied that they were trying to cover up their mess. 

 

Feb 27^th           Today General Paetreus ordered Nuclear weapons sent to the newly constructed garrison at the Golden Goose site to be used in the event of an attack by any government foreign or domestic that might try to seize it. 

           

Feb 28^th           This is the last report that will be filed by this reporter from the Golden Goose site.  Upon hearing this latest development I have abandoned any hope of ever receiving a Pulitzer prize for this story other than posthumously and I am in the process of getting the **** out of here. 

 

Until next time.    

First Amendment Rights

 

            This has been a very hot and much used topic in the United States for many years.  It is also a topic that is used when comparing the freedom of speech in the US to countries like China.  And when you talk about extremes the less restrictive laws of the US are well above those of China.  Of course those of us in the US think that we are the least restrictive but Canada actually is even less so. 

            The reason that I have chosen to talk about this now is that it fits nicely behind my last blog about fibbing.  Now a storyteller who is writing fiction is allowed to stretch the truth.  They are, as a matter of fact, expected to.  But what of the press in the US today, are they allowed to stretch it?    It seems to me that with freedoms come responsibility.  A rule of law states that you have the right to scream your head off about pretty much anything that you want, but you are not allowed to yell fire in a crowded theatre.   Therein lays the responsibility.  But how is it that the press has come to a point that allows them to incite the public and to mislead them for the sake of garnering readership.  Is it not their job to report a story and not to create it? 

            The story that has my ire up is one written on one of the internet news pages that came from a television story.  The headline read; “Funeral director revives man.”  Now when I read that I got a picture in my mind of an undertaker discovering that a man in his parlor was not dead and that the funeral director revived him.  The truth is that a man who happened to be a funeral director was the first on the scene of an automobile pedestrian accident.  The pedestrian appeared to have been killed.  The man saw a passing ambulance and flagged it down and the ambulance crew, using a defibrillator, revived the pedestrian.  The only thing that the funeral director did was to flag down the ambulance.  He did not by any stretch of the imagination revive the man and the fact that he happened to be a funeral director was absolutely immaterial.  So someone needs to explain to me how the story submitted by this irresponsible reporter is any different than any fiction writer who uses an actual event to structure his story around.  The answer is NONE. 

            I for one think that there needs to be some movement on the part of the press to reign in these over zealous reporters before the government decides that it too needs to be regulated in much the same way as the irresponsible CEO’s of the banks are about to be.  When we ask the government in China to relax their laws regarding freedom of speech the request would carry a lot more weight if we could show that our freedoms are not disruptive.  After all they are a country of over a billion people and we only have a little over three hundred million.  Too many people with too much freedom can become chaotic without the element of responsibility. 

            I welcome comments on this as I know that there may be many who will have opposing viewpoints.   

Fibbing for fun and profit

        We have all had experiences that we have told others about and most of us (probably all of us but I wanted to leave you an out) have embellished it to some extent on the retelling.  Every once in a while a person finds that they have a talent for telling stories.  I don’t know where mine came from but it was probably a defense mechanism that I developed for dealing with my father.  Well you know when you get a D on the report card you have to have something to say or you are stuck at home for the next semester.  I must also tell you that my father was a stickler for the truth so I also developed a sense for how far I could stretch a truth.  It doesn’t stretch very far.   So at some point in my life I learned that telling a story just for the fun of it was not only entertaining for me but others seemed to like it as well. But that truthful person that my father pounded into me caused me to develop a caveat.  When I find that I have convincingly told a tale to someone I have to find a cool way of letting them know that they have been had.  You usually know that this has occurred when I ask you if you would now like to buy a bridge.  Oh and the sneaky smile that comes across my face is a clue also. 

            Once when a friend of mine, Jim Bowman, and I were sitting in the seaman’s club at the Indian Head Propellant plants Explosive Ordnance Disposal School two young seamen came to our table to ask if we were in EOD.  Bowman being the story teller that he was admitted that we were.  The tale was that we were in the school and not yet graduated.  They wanted to hear about it so we invited them to sit and of course there was the obligatory beer that they provided while we spun the tale.  Bowman started it by telling the lads that we had just returned from an inspection of the South Vietnamese Army and had learned of a new weapon that the Viet Cong were using against our aircraft.  He then turned to me and asked me to describe it to them.  I quickly related to them how this was a new development on an old system and it was effective because it was not radar guided and so not detectable and that it was silent because it had no propulsion system.  Bowman then came back in and described an over sized arrow.  Due to its size of course it took much more than a man to launch it so they had trained elephants to do that.  It was at that point that one of the young men decided that we had conned them out of the beer. But we did still have his friend.  It took a few well placed looks and words for him to get the point across to his friend and they left.  This story is true although the story that we told the young men was obviously concocted.  But you see how the mind of a true fibber works and that one must be skilled in the art of fibbing if one is to write fiction.  Oh I did mention that my book is fiction didn’t I, wink, wink. 

            Now that I have retired and have taken up the pursuit of writing as a third career I am telling stories and putting them on paper.  I find that this part of the task is pretty simple for me but the profit portion so far has eluded me.  I thought that you wrote the great American novel and then just waited for a publisher to come frothing at the bit to negotiate with me for the rights to publish it and that I would have a movie producer waiting in the wings to make it into a movie.  I have not found it too difficult to distribute my books but I have found that the getting paid part is not that easy.  Well when I say distribute I did not mean to imply that my book is in distribution at book stores and libraries even though it is on Amazon and in a few public libraries.  Of course I had to list it on Amazon myself and donate them to the libraries.  Now let me explain that profit is defined as monies being made in excess of expenses. I know that you already knew that but it is important for the purpose of this article to re-state it because I think that many of us who publish our own material lose site of that definition.   That being said I must disclaim anything that I might have said to imply that I have yet made a profit. 

            But I have a solution to the profit part.  I am going to write another book and spend a lot of money getting it edited, printed, published and distributed.  And I am going to keep doing it until the publishers and movie guys get it through their heads that I am serious. 

 

Until next time.  

On being an author

I have changed my blogspot address to be more compatible with my website and therefor more compatible with my writing in general rather than with just my current book. 

I began writing over twenty years ago while taking college classes.  All degrees require English courses and there are many available.  The one that intrigued me the most was called creative writing.  Well being a government employee at the time who was required to write justifications for positions and equipment allocations I was already doing that to some extent.  Now I will come some short of saying that those writings were untruthful but if they had been investigated to any great extent my section would not have received some of the equipment that we did.  So I enrolled in the creative writing class.  My professor's name was Sarah Gogle.  I say this for two reasons, one I am amazed that I remember her name at all and two that I now blog on Google.Well maybe it wasn't that interesting after all.   

Anyway one of my first assignments in this class was to write a one page story describing a conflict.  I thought and thought and could not think of a suitable conflict that I could describe in only one page.  Then while watching a baseball game on television it came to me.  So I wrote the short story that is now one of many on my web site's free ebook collections of short stories.  These stories can be downloaded for free by going to www.everettede.com and clicking on the link for short stories.  The story that I wrote was titled fastball and was nothing more than a five pitch confrontation between a pitcher and a batter.  The lesson here is that there is conflict in our lives each and everyday and each conflict is worthy of the written word.    

The next thing that I learned in this class had more to do with learning about myself than about writing itself. For the next assignment the class was asked to write a short story and each person would bring enough copies of each story for each of the other class members.  The average length of the stories provided by other class members was four.  My story was seventeen pages long.  It seems that my gift of gab translates well to paper as well.  Oh and I type nearly as fast as I speak so I can simply sit at the computer and have a conversation with myself or, as in this case I just ramble on.  This is actually really cool because no one can get up a walk out on me.  If they don't like what I am writing they simply delete it but I will never know that they did that so my ego remains intact. 

At any rate today I had a conversation with my friend Cliff and he had the courtesy to tell me that he enjoyed my writing and that he read my blogs.  So I was encouraged to start this up again.  I will try to write something at least once each month and most of what I write will be about writing or publishing, however I will no doubt throw a tantrum occasionally over something that I read or see on the Internet. 

I will close this with the same closing that I used when I wrote the articles on communication between men and women for single vision magazine.  

Have a good understanding.