I have always thought of Porta-Potties as a necessary evil. Ever stand in line to get into a concert? Some of those concerts happened in the middle of summer in sweltering heat. I won’t go into it, but lets just say I held out as long as I could then held my breath before entering what was a truly horrific ordeal. That was the old days! Now they have not only better facilities but some are nicer than the bathrooms in my house. I walked into one which had a solar fan blow air in and keeping it cool, it also had  a sink to wash your hands in. I fully expected a guy standing outside with a towel expecting a tip. Another amazing thing was I didn’t have to step up to get in, the door was wide enough to get a wheelchair in and the toilette paper was three-ply! You know the next outdoor event I go to , I want to let the organizers know that I would pay a dollar or two more to be able to sit down without knocking the door off the hinges in the accommodations. I’m just saying.

I feel compelled today to make a distinction between, what I think are two entirely different things that are sometimes confused to be the same. Religion, as defined by Dictionary.com is: a specific fundamental set of beliefs and practices generally agreed upon by a number of persons or sects. In other words, it is the setting up of a list of rules around a belief we set up to follow. All organized religions do this. Some are more strict than others but for the most part they are typically rules used to control those involved. It makes it easy to lord over others and to beat people up over trivial things. Faith on the other hand is defined as: confidence or trust in a person or thing. As a young man I threw away what I saw as a boring stale religion believing It offered me nothing. What I learned later was that thou I had walked away from that I had never lost my Faith! We have to stop seeing these two things as the same. I hear the connection from those who say they the don’t believe in God a lot, and I think that what they really don’t believe in is religion. The sad part is I am so inadequate in explaining it that most walk away still holding to that notion. I pray we can all figure that out!

Why are some things named what they are? Staff infections? What is that, it sounds like something that would infect a whole group at one time. How about tendonitis, How is that about a part of your leg and not a bug that crawls up on your leg? I always wonder who gets to name things? is it what they thought it should be or was it some random word they made up. Like paprika, you can’t tell me that means something. Some one sneezed and instead of saying bless you, someone asked “did you say paprika”? There can’t be a rational explanation for every word in the english language but if it sticks we just use it. Our family has a word for being silly “foonya”. Not sure of the spelling because I have never written it before but it has stuck! I check the Websters dictionary every year to see if it has been added yet. Maybe next year.

If you are old enough to remember, the only things that came in bottles and cans were sodas. Occasionally you would see a juice but those were few and far between. Water on the other hand was what we use to get out of the hose. On a hot day playing outside with my friends and neighbors when we got thirsty we would go to the side of who ever’s house we were at and turn on the hose. Yes, it tasted like hose we didn’t think about it. If I had walked in the house my mom would have asked me why I was there or she would ask me to do some chore so we drank from the hose instead. Then came bottled water. I would like to meet the first guy to think of doing this because he was a genius. We started paying for what I drank out of the hose! Then we got fancier water, french, swiss alps, and spring water. All of a sudden the hose wasn’t good enough, we became water snobs drinking only the finest water from the remote villages in mountains we never have visited. The latest is water with hints of stuff. Infused or enhanced have become the buzz words for putting a drop of something in the water so it doesn’t taste like water, which is what soda was in the first place. I am thinking of coming out with water infused with garden hose and calling it retro water for those of us who kind of liked the taste as a kid. Or maybe I will sell my idea to Coca Cola!

I was listening in to an interview with a hollywood actress. She was babbling on about all kinds of things but then the conversation turned to her significant other. What struck be as odd was the term. I have many in my life I would call significant, my parents, sister and brother. My children, pets and even some others who have been significant in my life. This sounds like the most non-committed term for what ever person you are living with or married to or what ever else arrangement you have. No wonder these arrangements don’t last, if they are only significant and not vital or some other word that means you are committed then your plan is to make changes as soon as they are no longer significant. Why not call it what it is, who you are with today. I don’t think those who are married are always making the right choices either but at least the term marriage does imply more than just significant!

Since I was on it yesterday, I thought I would continue on the theme of love. Yesterday, I had to do something I did not enjoy. Unfortunately we lost our chickens in the Black Forest fire and they had to be dealt with. They were my wife’s thing. If I have not mentioned it before we are Green Acres in reverse. ( You kids go ask your mom what Green Acres was?) So for her the loss of the birds was personal. She cried when we went to the house and saw them. So I as the loving guy went and dug a hole in the back yard and said I was sorry to them and covered over what my wife should not have to. Being a Nurse she gets all the health care issue and shots which I am not a fan of and I get all the animal disposal. That’s how it works, we work as a team to get done what needs to get done, not just what we want to get done. The other way it works is, I forget to do the thing I was supposed to, and she reminds me how I didn’t do it. It really is better than keeping a calendar! Isn’t love grand!

I have been married now for twenty-three years. I love my wife and I am grateful for her and all the years we have spent together. That doesn’t mean I understand women any better than when I was young. Women seem like a contradiction many times, they want men to be attracted to them but not that attracted. They want attention but not too much. And each situation is so dynamic with in a relationship that what worked yesterday may not work today.

Take this story out of china. http://www.click2houston.com/news/antipervert-hairy-leggings-all-the-rage-in-china/-/1735978/20611376/-/15cm5b6/-/index.html

This is a great example of what I mean. Women will shave their legs to be attractive then put on fake hairy leg coverings to do the opposite. Wouldn’t it just be easier to let your legs go hairy in the first place? I know the answer I would get but it doesn’t make it any clearer. I will just be grateful Love doesn’t require me to understand any of this.

You forget how comfortable you get with some things. My tooth-brush, for example. It is right next to my sink that I can’t get to at the moment. It isn’t a big deal but I bought a temporary one while we are evacuated and it isn’t right! the bristles are not the same and it isn’t electric. I didn’t realize how attached I was to it until this morning when I was brushing my teeth and I thought, I really want to get back to using my tooth-brush. Maybe it is some metaphor for wanting to return home or maybe it isn’t that deep. I could just be I like my tooth-brush.

Well last week was a kick in the pants! I thought I was on top of the world. I got a new job, My second son is heading off to college, and all my cars seem to be running for now. Life was going pretty smooth. All that changed in the matter of hours. Now I am living in the basement of my in-laws home, our animals, other than the chickens that didn’t make it, are at a temporary barn, and our home is surrounded by what looks like a war zone! We really don’t live our lives like every moment is a gift. So many things could have gone differently, so many things could have gone wrong! My wife works nights so she could have been sleeping. It was her day off so she was up and doing things. All the kids were home. I was at work but the kids helped get everything loaded and hooked up so we could evacuate. The fire could have started somewhere where we would not have had a bird’s eye view of the smoke and so have been slow to get out. We were going through the everyday hoping for nothing to change when everything did! Life is really funny that way, the minute you think you are king of the world, along comes something to knock you off your perch!

For those who read this and don’t know. That covers one person. The Black Forest fire has burned up our neighborhood. As of last word our house is spared but all our neighbors homes are gone. Because the fire is still burning we can’t get into our home so we are in a waiting mode. It is surreal, we don’t even have picture of what our home looks like right now. We probably are not going to get back in for a while. Even when the do let us back in it is going to be like living on the moon. Nobody for miles around and all the tree’s we loved to live under will be gone. The good news is we got out with the important papers and we are all safe it is really what is important. It just feels weird to say we have been blessed. We are, but to see so many we know lose so much just doesn’t feel like we are. Time will tell how many rebuild or move and how many trees will be left, but for now I will pray with mixed emotions .