Bill's Saturday Morning Rant - Note This is pretty extreme - read with caution

DISCLAIMER - I want to be up front - these are totally my feelings and the ones I have been carrying around with me for quite awhile.  I needed to rant and it just exploded out of me today.  My intent is not to offend anyone for sure - but my intent is to unburden myself by speaking my true mind.  This really may not sit well with many people - I get that - I just that you respect my feelings as I try to respect yours by not posting snide remarks/rants on posts you make -  If you read this and we are friends on Facebook and all this bothers you - unfriend me - I'm not going to apologize - anymore - for what I believe and who I have grown to be.  I feel like I have regained some dignity in my life.  Some that was missing over the years.  Let me also say that when I went to the hospital and they asked if I wanted a religion designated to my file - my response was "No I like them all."  I have some very core beliefs about God - that you won't shake and that you may not believe or may even disagree with it - again that is your prerogative - but I am not required to believe what you believe anymore than I require you to believe what I believe - Spirituality is very personal and should be - Again comments to a rant are not necessary because they are not seeking any or is the rant an attempt to dialogue about a situation - if you want to dialogue - then we need to sit down face to face to do this - social media is not the place to dialogue.  Social media is the chicken shit way of dealing with people we don't like and get away with it - Social Media can be very good when used correctly - but Social media is being ruined by the idiots who do what they do - It is not the news causing all the problems among people - it is the likes of FB and Twitter and whatever other Social media outlet that allows for the spread of filth and lies about people.   Hmmm sorry looks like this disclaimer has turned into a rant too -  I guess I have a lot inside that has been boiling to come out.  It is simple folks - Love each other as you wish to be loved.   Let it go at that point.  

This is a rant that began with an article about teachers not wanting to teach in Indiana - whose governor at the time was Mike Pence - oddly most of Indiana hates him and they are overjoyed that he is now running for VP - 

Hmmmmmmmm and this now our VP candidate - I was a republican in my youth - then I grew up and learned about the world and the people in it - my world view expanding to include all people not just my immediate little world - at that point I switched. I like to think I am still conservative - but I like to think that people cannot determine things about other people - for me God is the only judge - And even those of us who think we have cornered the "God Market" based on a book that is at best filled with ideas of how people need to treat people - and laws that are so out-dated it is insane. Hence - judgment doesn't come until the end and no man should be judging others. No man should be saying my way is right and your way is wrong - I'm more right than you - NO ONE knows what "right" is - some people just think they do. To think any other way is just unwise - haughty - prideful - and arrogant. At best - we should - for better or worse be in this together - because we are all human beings - made up of parts of each other - get your DNA checked - Our country is free for a reason - Donald Trump is one of the scariest people I have ever seen or heard - The stench about others that comes out of his mouth is just plain wrong - it is filled with a lot of hate. Voting for him is just plain ignorant on your part - it means your world view is just not broad enough - to throw away a vote on another candidate is wrong too - because then you increase the chances of Donald Trump being elected (Can you say Brexit?) At worst - voting for Hilary - whether you like her or not - will last at the least 4 years - I know she can do a lot of harm in 4 years - but nothing like Donald Trump could do with his (and I would not be surprised) diminished mental capacity for knowing the difference between right and wrong - appropriate and inappropriate - One final closing thought - You are more than welcome to disagree with me - It is America - but we clearly do not agree on some very fundamental things - things that I have been swallowing since I've been teaching - I'm not teaching anymore and I am done swallowing - Unfriend me - I am totally fine with that - because chances are - neither of us are going to agree with much - doesn't mean I don't respect you as a fellow human - but it does mean that I don't have to listen to your rhetoric and try to agree with it - I have tried and once this election is over and behind us - I hope that our world becomes a civil place again where people can stop needing to be right about their beliefs and be open to what others have to say - to dialogue - to explain and more importantly - to listen to each other and come up with a compromise rather than taking your toys and going home when someone does not agreed with your way of thinking.

Over 2,000 VIEWS - Thank You so much!!!!

This blog has had over 2,000 views - I want to thank all of you very much for taking the time to read about my life - not extraordinary by any sense, but it is my life and the people who shaped or the dumb things I have done.  Please feel free to comment or if you see errors, mention them so I can fix them.  I actually do like writing, apparently I have since I was in junior high,  which is where I started keeping a journal.  I have books and books of my life story and my thoughts.

Again many thanks for reading!

Cheers!!!

Green Street to Moyer Road - the Sharon saga continues

The Adventures Continue - Green Street -

This is likely to be disappointing because, believe it or not, I don’t have many stories from Green Street.  I remember baby sitting Tracey and Todd somewhat regularly.  I also remember a picnic that was held in her side yard because it was a big side yard.  I believe it was around this time that Sharon’s first husband found the Lord.  That find caused a number of problems for them and eventually split them.  I am sure there were other reasons for their split, but I know that was one of them.  I believe that shortly after the split she sold the home on Green Street and moved to an apartment up outside of Boyertown right of Rt. 100.  

I know I visited there a couple times, not many, but I must have been 16 because I think I drove - but that is not necessarily true.  Most of my real memories come from her home on Moyer Road.  She had remarried by this time to Dave.  The house on Moyer Road was nice.  It was a 3 bedroom Goldie Locks and the three Bears kind of place.  Each bedroom got smaller.  The kitchen was actually small and as I recall I don’t know where they ate because there was not dining room.  An edition was built on, but maybe the dinning room edition was built and then they added another bedroom above the dinning room.  Most of my memories from Moyer Road came from after my parents moved to Florida an I moved in with Sharon.  

I became known as the “Basement Dweller.”  I got card board and made fake walls and then hung sheets over the cardboard to make my little room.  It offered me some privacy and gave me a cute little room.  I was able to have a bed and a small table and chairs from which to work.  The winters in the basement were quite nasty as it was VERY cold.  I had to burn a kerosene heater to keep warm over night.  They had also put a shower in the basement - in the laundry room though it was just a shower it helped with the fact that there was only one bathroom in the house.  

So my parents moved off to Florida and I moved into the basement as well as into my college dorm.  Sharon’s place was my home away from home - the place I went to when I needed to get away, do laundry, or get a good meal.  On breaks I generally spent my time at the house or would visit my parents- and most holidays I would end up in Florida.  

Once the new bedroom was made, Tracy moved into the downstairs master, Todd moved into his sister’s room and the spare room became a TV/Sewing room.  It was not long before it was a TV room.  There was a wicker chair in this room that faced the TV straight on - that was the optimal seat, and then there was  sofa and a small table for propping feet or putting food on.  Oddly, I ended up with that chair, which was Ada’s and is well over 30 years old.  It is still in use.  My fondest memories of the TV room included sharing the room with Todd - the master of the remote.  He would drive me freaking crazy switching channels constantly until he found something he liked.  At times it would upset me so much we would get into an argument about it.  It would turn out that Todd and I had quite a love/hate relationship - I suspect because at the time we were both terribly bull headed and because I was older, but he was bigger. but I digress.  Once Tracy married a very amazing man - Mike - she moved out and I was awarded the master bedroom and was not longer the “Basement Dweller.”  I know that this occurred while I was still at university.  

I learned quite a bit about life from Sharon, because she shared practically everything with me, despite our age differences.  It was funny to me, how over the years, someone who had been friends with my brother became so close with me.  I am not really sure what that was all about except that I did not have the greatest relationship with my parents, ok more my father than my mother - I am not sure if she felt the need to be that important adult in my life that maybe she didn’t have growing up and wanted to make sure I did.  It could explain why, to this day that has always been something I’ve wanted and actually do for young people.  I was privy to a lot of information about her children that, at the time they probably would not have been happy to hear about.  I never shared, always listened and tried to give my view as a 20 something.  Sharon was also - I believe even my father said this once - she was my confessor.  It was true.  At the time there was little she did not know about me.  She was source of great strength while I struggled to grow up, figure out who I was, and what I would become.  Navigating those years, as anyone knows, is quite difficult.  

In my final year of university, I was required to student teach.  Because I had to wait a semester before I could student teach, I lived full time at the house.  I was teaching bands everywhere, so I traveled extensively. It was nice to be home for a good meal.  I was provided a room on campus wth a couple friends for my student teaching, but it was a very small room and very cold.  Since my friends were not involved in education, they were able to stay up late and of course made a lot of noise.  I tied to make it work - they wanted me there and I wanted to be there, but it was just too much.  I decided to move back to Sharon’s and drive from Boyertown to Malvern - A drive that was - at the least an hour.  There were no slick roads in 1986.  One of the first days I had to go to school, I was in the upstairs shower, there was a knock on the door, the door opened and Sharon,announced, “Bill, I’m coming in.”  So there I was behind a shower curtain showering and on the other side was Sharon, my female cousin, going to the bathroom.  Needless to say this turn of events was a bit startling, even for me who was quite liberal in thought.  As it would turn out, this would be the only time during the day I could talk to her.  I left early for school and most evening by the time I returned she was in bed or out herself and then I was in bed.  My friends found it difficult to believe that we practiced this ritual daily and not only in the same way.  Sometimes it was she, who was in the shower, and I who was going to the bathroom.  That went on for several months.  

As this entry is already spiraling out of control - I will end it now - and return with more stories of Moyer Road.  What I remember most about Moyer Road - was that there were really some great times, times that I will forever cherish.

The Biggest Loser at Lancaster Honda

Since my double knee surgery, I was forced to cell my beloved little Honda Scooter.  The bug was put in me when I road on the back of my friend Jim's cycle in California.  In typical Jim fashion, after our first adventure on his bike, upon arrival at home, he paid me what he thought was very high praise.  He called me his best "motorcycle bitch."  I understood that it meant that I was a good person to have as a passenger because I moved like you were supposed to move on the bike.  We still joke about me being his "best bitch" - My last trip out - he did ask me to try, because parking in San Francisco is a nightmare and I had, along with my glasses, forgotten my handicapped parking placard.  I obliged, and though difficult and somewhat painful, I managed and the rides were short.  This rekindled in me my feelings of loss for my scooter.  I have several very funny stories about my scooter - but will save them for later - what follows is a true story of what happened on probably the second day I owned the bike.

Biggest Loser at Lancaster Honda

Ok ... so another story about the scooter. I went out two days ago or so and could not get the bike started. I bought a charger and it still would not start ... I went to buy a new battery today but my credit card was declined ... and then Seth (the guy who has answered most of my questions) said that it was odd to leave your key in the ignition for so long and to leave the lights on. I had not done that and was told that then the lights would not have been on. I mentioned that the turn signal, lights, and horn still worked. He asked me if I held in the front break when I started the scooter. Suffice to say it was good the card was declined (though a mystery about that) because my battery is fine. I came home and held onto the front break and it started right up. I mentioned to the workers that friends have suggested bubble wrap around myself when riding (Rick) but was informed it was not a good look ... God bless Seth because he just keeps encouraging me and telling me I will get the hang of it ... he doesn't even laugh in my face though Lord knows he could and probably should ... so today I was the Biggest Loser at Lancaster Honda!