Yes, I do take pictures ...

... but I don't think I photograph well ...

... and I can't eliminate the feeling of vanity that comes with taking pictures from the equation either. So I don't take them.

Odd, because I don't have much in the was of memorabilia or souvenirs from my life, period. My family knows what I have done ... I KNOW what I have done, where I have been. For me, that has been enough. My girls know that I took my shots at life as well ... cause their Mom's are able to tell them what they were on hand to see.

The little bit o' stuff that I do have, eh, it ain't much. The family pictures that I was in, I have no idea where any of that stuff is ... sorry, no further comment as to details about why that is. I KNOW and that is the only person who HAS TO KNOW.

Nebraska took that picture of me last year in Chicago. I was surprised to see that I actually looked nice! I mean, I always thought I was good looking, but man, I really liked the way that I looked! I think I told her that it was because I was happy ... hadn't been that kind of happy in a good while.

I didn't think I could find it, but I looked for it one day ... sent it out and then realized I had a picture to put up with my profile! Glad y'all like it ... and I think I lost 20lbs. from that time!

THE AUTO NON-BAILOUT

So cats with benefits for life, making money from so many sources that you can't keep track (unless you are an idiot Gov. from Illinois, who is an idiot!) are telling the American worker that he makes too much money and receives too many health benefits.

Always wondered how the Orwellian society developed. It happens now that you have people 'conditioned', to pull those who are climbing above the rest back down to size. Funny how we can't get upset at those who continue to find ways to stay rich beyond our imaginings, but want to rant and rave at someone who works and lives in our reach, saying that they don't deserve the relative minimal earnings they receive.

That cat from 'bama ... ain't that where Mister Charlie kicks a brother in the face, and the brother says, "Thanky Mister Charlie, thanky,"?

WHAT NOW?

Beth over at "Nutwood Junction" touches on the feeling that you get when something you are involved in personally, but is outside of your ability to make certain of, happens. Kind of like when you pull for Florida to beat Alabama and get a chance to lose to Oklahoma in the national title game ..!

I have been in a 'what now' kind of mind for a little bit now. Mine comes from personal things, because I have let a lot of stuff outside of me go. While I would have liked to have kept my job at the hotel, being it was a 'wheelhouse' activity, I think things for me have worked out quite well. And when you consider the status of my relationship with AKA, I don't have to go anywhere feeling guilty about anything, savvy?

"Mistakes are always made at the easy places." I think that great leaders are good at creating the sense of immediacy that makes for achievement. Some are like Tony Dungy, and can lead with his own special brand of leadership. Others are cut from the Vince Lombardi/Bill Parcells cloth.

When things get to the 'what now?' stage, it isn't really that you don't know what is next. But sometimes, being flushed with success, you don't really want to DO,'what IS now', savvy?

RINSE, WASH, REPEAT AS NECESSARY

So you manage to lose a few pounds this holiday season. You got your grades for the quarter and things are looking good. You have met someone to 'kiss for a year' in a few weeks. Things are going favorably. What you have wanted to happen, is happening. The question hangs in the air ... 'What now?'

That is where I am at, 'what now?'. Sometimes, you get so into something, bad or good, that finally when it is resolved favorably, you DON'T know what to do next. It is like you have been lost at sea, and you are found ... kind of like 'Chuck Noland' in 'Castaway', when he was plucked from the South Pacific. He had been thru so much to get that far ...

... and he still had far yet to go.

I liked how that movie tied things up, with a beautiful, but loose bow. He was able to have the needed closure with 'Kelly', his love for her pulling him out of the depths, and because her love for him was as real for him, though it was not to be for the two of them.

He still had his 'package'.

ON THE WINGS OF AN ANGEL

Rather than hang on to Kelly, Chuck lets her go. It is what I think is the best testimony to the love they shared. Besides, he has one more stop, the package with the wings on it, that survived the flight with him.

So he rides out to Texas (somewhere between Lubbock and Galveston, I reckon), to deliver it. As he stands at a cross roads, the lady who's package kept him in his time, drives by him after he gave it to her. And he knows it was her, because her truck has the same angel wing's on it as the package did that helped keep him 'here'. He turns and smiles as it goes off into what lies ahead ...

... and it is on 'what lies ahead', his gaze is fixed.