Saturday Morning Cartoons (+)

No, it is not that I am in the midst of experiencing a second or third childhood.  For it is arguable that I have never really grown up because of my march toward maturity being interrupted along the way by some episodes of arrested development.  So, instead of thinking that this series is meant as a wistful look back upon a simpler time, think of it as being a rather simplistic mind remaining in a moment for an extended period of time.  In any event, I hope you find it enjoyable.

Please Also Visit:

[Arlynda Lea]

[FishHawk Droppings]
[The Tribulation Times Herald-Exhorter]

Sites To See #374

The SOLE purpose of this series is to help call attention to sites that I think many would find most interesting—in one way or another.  Just to be clear, inclusion in this series is not necessarily meant as a endorsement, and I have included sites that I found rather disturbing.  The link below each image is to the site itself, and each image is linked to the particular post from which it was taken when applicable.  Please, go see for yourself.  Oh, and as of August 10, 2012, I will be no longer including sites that have auto-play and word verification engaged.

 Link: [Sawdust In My Socks]

 Link: [Scrambled Henfruit]

 Link: [Scrap Addict]

 Link: [Secret Garden Club]

 Link: [Standing Outside Looking In]

 Link: [StickupArtist]

 Link: [Stories From The N.C. Mountains]

 Link: [Sue Clinker]

 Link: [T.]

 Link: [The Beginning Farmer]

 Link: [The Benevolent Hecklers]

 Link: [The Crow]

 Link: [The Other McCain]

 Link: [The Weaver of Grass]

Link: [Thoughts and Musings of the Cat from Hell]

Please Also Visit:

[Arlynda Lea]

[FishHawk Droppings]

[The Tribulation Times Herald-Exhorter]

ATF: Nam

This weekly series will include as many of my all-time favorite tunes as I can get my grubby little hands on (so to speak).  Now, each one included in each edition will have some connection with the other—albeit only as a figment of my imagination, but they will not be numbered.  For I just cannot bring myself to rate some higher than others.  So, this will not be a countdown, but if you are enjoying them as much as I do, it won’t matter.  Besides, with no countdown, this could go on forever and ever!  Oh, and despite the fact that there is absolutely no way that your musical tastes can be as exquisite as mine, I welcome any suggestions you might dare to make.  For I am, after all, quite magnanimous by nature.

Link: [Charlie Daniels]

Still In Saigon

Charlie Daniels

Got on a plane in 'Frisco

And got off in Vietnam

I walked into a different world

The past forever gone

I could have gone to Canada

Or I could have stayed in school

But I was brought up differently

I couldn't break the rules

Thirteen months

And fifteen days

The last ones were the worst

One minute I'd kneel down and pray

And the next I'd stand and curse

No place to run to

Where I did not feel that war

When I got home

I stayed alone

And checked behind each door

‘Cause I'm

Still in Saigon

Still in Saigon

I am

Still in Saigon

In my mind

The ground at home was covered with snow

And I was covered with sweat

My younger brother calls me a killer

And my daddy calls me a vet

Everybody says I'm someone else

And I'm sick

And there's no cure

Damned if I know who I am

There was only one place I was sure

When I was

Still in Saigon

Still in Saigon

I am

Still in Saigon

In my mind

Every summer

When it rains

I smell the jungle

I hear the planes

I can't tell no one

I feel ashamed

Afraid someday

I'll go insane

That's been ten long years ago

And time has gone on by

Now and then I catch myself

Eyes searchin’ through the sky

All the sounds of long ago

Will be forever in my head

Mingled with

The wounded cries

And the silence of the dead

'Cause I'm

Still in Saigon

Still in Saigon

I am

Still in Saigon

In my mind

I am

Still in Saigon

I am

Still in Saigon

Yes

I'm

Still in Saigon

In my mind

Still in Saigon

Link: [The Rolling Stones]

Paint It Black

The Rolling Stones

I see the red door

And I want it painted black

No colors anymore

I want them to turn black

I see the girls walk by

Dressed in their summer clothes

I have to turn my head

Until my darkness goes

I see a line of cars

And they're all painted black

With flowers and my love both

Never to come back

I see people turn their heads

And quickly look away

Like a new born baby

It just happens everyday

I look inside myself

And see my heart is black

I see my red door

I must have it painted black

Maybe then I'll fade away

And not have to face the facts

It's not easy facin' up

When your whole world is black

No more will my green sea

Go turn a deeper blue

I could not foresee this thing

Happening to you

If I look hard enough

Into the settin' sun

My love will laugh with me

Before the mornin' comes

I see a red door

And I want it painted black

No colors anymore

I want them to turn black

I see the girls walk by

Dressed in their summer clothes

I have to turn my head

Until my darkness goes

I wanna see your face

Painted black

Black as night

Black as coal

I wanna see the sun

Blotted out from the sky

I wanna see it painted

Painted

Painted

Painted black

Yeah

Lyrics From: [elyrics.net]

Please Also Visit:

[Arlynda Lea]

[FishHawk Droppings]

[The Tribulation Times Herald-Exhorter]

Swedish Ire

This weekly series will feature ads that I consider to be the very best (in one way or another).  Please do not hesitate to tell me about your favorite ads, and if you have some (good) taste, I just might add yours to the list.

Please Also Visit:

[Arlynda Lea]

[FishHawk Droppings]
[The Tribulation Times Herald-Exhorter]

Sites To See #373

The SOLE purpose of this series is to help call attention to sites that I think many would find most interesting—in one way or another.  Just to be clear, inclusion in this series is not necessarily meant as a recommendation, and I have included sites that are rather disturbing to me.  The link below each image is to the site itself, and each image is linked to the particular post from which it was taken when applicable.  Please, go see for yourself.  Oh, and as of August 10, 2012, I will be no longer including sites that have auto-play and word verification engaged.

 Link: [My Grave Place]

 Link: [My Random Insanities]

 Link: [New York Portraits]

 Link: [NewNostalgia]

 Link: [Nine Pound Sledgehammer]

 Link: [No Excuses - Musings of a Procrastinator]

 Link: [Nobody Asked Me...]

 Link: [Ottawa Daily Photo]

 Link: [Pasadena Adjacent]

 Link: [Prince Snow Farm]

 Link: [Ramlings of a Roachling]

 Link: [Razmataz]

 Link: [Retired in Alaska]

 Link: [Robert Frost's Banjo]

Link: [Rosyfinch Ramblings]

Please Also Visit:

[Arlynda Lea]

[FishHawk Droppings]

[The Tribulation Times Herald-Exhorter]

Come Monday...Nothing New with the VA

“Come Monday…” is a weekly series that will involve a review of (or commentary about) websites, movies, documentaries, television shows, sports, music, and whatever else may tickle my fancy at the time.  Be assured that these reviews will be generally positive, as in accordance to the Jimmy Buffett song “Come Monday.”  This is subject to change, however.  In fact, I would be most derelict in my duties to neglect going on a rant every once in a while.  For rants promote change, and change can be good—right?  Therefore, since good is generally considered as being a positive force in 99.3% of the parallel universes that I am aware of, even a rant could be considered as being something positive, and a genuine hissy-fit would be even better (so I’m told).

Unless you have been stuck without any access to an outside news source for the last couple of weeks or so, you have probably already seen at least some of the splatter from the “stuff” hitting the proverbial fan over how much time some veterans have been having to wait to receive medical care at some [VA medical facilities].  Having to wait 5-6 months to see a doctor is indeed outrageous, but how good is the care after they finally receive it?  I sincerely doubt that it is really all that good.

All I have to go on is what happened to my dad years ago, and in all fairness, the quality of care at VA medical facilities may have greatly improved since.  On the hand, my dad’s experiences display a pattern of conduct that the current scandal seems to be proving is still being maintained.

Since it was before the [VA] was officially established, my dad’s first experience with the agency may not count, but it sure is telling about what was to come.  For it happened after Germany surrendered in 1945, and my dad was one of thousands of G.I.s in France, who desperately wanted to go home to their families.  When my dad’s turn came up, he was asked to sign a waiver that released the United States government from any liabilities due to the wounds he received during the beginning of the [Battle of the Bulge] or face having to wait maybe another six months before being given a berth on a transport ship back to the States.  What would you do if you were 25 years-old and already greatly concerned about your very young daughter after receiving a letter from her mother that said that she wanted a divorce on the grounds of your abandonment of them to go off to war?  Oh yeah, my dad signed the release, but his first wife still got her divorce.

My dad’s next experience with the VA (at least for the purpose of this piece) happened 35 years later, in 1980.  I think it was sometime in September when I took my dad down to the VA Hospital in Fayetteville, Arkansas after he started feeling extra poorly.  The doctor he saw there told him that he was just getting older.  When I took him to the VA Hospital in Kansas City, Missouri a couple of months later, the doctor he saw up there gave him around two months to live after diagnosing him with lung cancer.  When asked, the Kansas City VA doctor confirmed that his cancer would have been quite easy to see to anyone who bothered to look when he went to the Fayetteville VA Hospital.  He went on to also say that the kind of cancer my dad had was rapidly-moving, and that if it had of been detected in Fayetteville, much could have been done to stop its growth.  Yeah, “stuff” happens—right?

By the way, when you see a movie depiction of an old, run-down medical facility, with patients wandering around with their [I.V. stand] in tow, you are seeing what I remember of the Fayetteville VA Hospital.  The Kansas City facility was much better in appearance, but I only remember being up there once.

Alas, my dad raised me to be a hardcore political conservative, who believes that the federal government has no business doing anything but maintaining a strong defense of the country and good trading relations with “good” countries, but our Heavenly Father has shown me where all levels of government are meant to provide good service in all sorts of capacities to all citizens—especially to those in need.  At least the hardcore conservatives are generally much more honest than their bleeding-heart liberal counterparts.  For liberal politicians generally love to talk real big about using government programs to do all sorts of good, but they are loathed to make sure that those programs are really doing what they should and not just wasting an enormous amount of tax-payer dollars.  The VA stands as a corroded example of such—regardless of which political philosophy may be in a position of greater power at a given time.

Please Also Visit:

[Arlynda Lea]

[FishHawk Droppings]

[The Tribulation Times Herald-Exhorter]

A Sunday Drive

Back during my childhood, our parents would often load up my brother and me after Sunday morning church services for a leisurely drive around where we lived.  Even though we were seeing mostly familiar sights, it was still good to see them, and this is why “A Sunday Drive” sounded about right for the name of a series revisiting familiar sites that are well worth seeing again and again.  The link below the image is to the site itself, and the image is linked to the post it was first included in here.

Link: [My Cat and I]

 Link: [The Comforts of Home]

 Link: [The Eff-Stop]

 Link: [The Girl Next Door]

 Link: [The Middle]

 Link: [The ND's Nigh...]

 Link: [The Outskirts of Suburbia]

 Link: [The Postal Picture]

 Link: [This and That...]

 Link: [Thrift Shop Commando]

 Link: [Tin and Sparkle]

 Link: [Tree Hugger]

 Link: [View From The Northern Wall]

 

 Link: [When I Was 69]

Link: [W.M. Morrell's Musings from Down Under and Off to the Side.]

Please Also Visit:

[Arlynda Lea]

[FishHawk Droppings]

[The Tribulation Times Herald-Exhorter]

Saturday Morning Cartoons (+)

No, it is not that I am in the midst of experiencing a second or third childhood.  For it is arguable that I have never really grown up because of my march toward maturity being interrupted by some episodes of arrested development along the way.  So, instead of thinking that this series is meant as a wistful look back upon a simpler time, think of it as being a rather simplistic mind remaining in a moment for an extended period of time.  In any event, I hope you find it enjoyable.

Please Also Visit:

[Arlynda Lea]

[FishHawk Droppings]

[The Tribulation Times Herald-Exhorter]

Sites To See #372

The SOLE purpose of this series is to help call attention to sites that I think many would find most interesting—in one way or another.  Just to be clear, inclusion in this series is not necessarily meant as a recommendation, and I have included sites that are rather disturbing to me.  The link below each image is to the site itself, and each image is linked to the particular post from which it was taken when applicable.  Please, go see for yourself.  Oh, and as of August 10, 2012, I will be no longer including sites that have auto-play and word verification engaged.

 Link: [Eric van Elven Fine Art]

 Link: [Gbkoru]

 Link: [High Cotton]

 Link: [Hob-Nobbers]

 Link: [Holler Notes]

 Link: [Home on the Range]

 Link: [In the MIDDLE of the RIGHT]

 Link: [Japolina]

 Link: [Kirk Dale]

 Link: [Life After Money]

 Link: [Living the Life in Saint-Aignan]

 Link: [Message in a Milk Bottle]

 Link: [MsMarmiteLover]

 Link: [My Affairs With Art & Daily Life]

Link: [Pic-A-Day]

Please Also Visit:

[Arlynda Lea]

[FishHawk Droppings]

[The Tribulation Times Herald-Exhorter]