so, maybe a had a few too many - this is off the cuff, unedited.. are there two t's in edit or just the one?

When I first moved to New York, my father teased me by saying, “There’s one thing New Jersey has that New York will never have.”
“What’s that?” I asked.
“A view of New York.”

I pinched that from a March 12 post off of Jamie's site.


It just made me think sometimes I get too close to a thing to remember its beauty.

It's hard to enjoy a skyline view when you're walking around at street level. Sometimes, it's not a bad idea to take a few steps back to remember where you are, to remember where you're going, to be reminded that some folks wouldn't mind having you're queue in life.

Sometimes, I focus more on the trash in the gutter than the blue skies above.


...

I did this fluff piece half a thousand years ago and published it to the internet. Maybe, it was only ten years ago but in internet years, that's close to five hundred. The fluff piece came about for marketing purposes, for searches and links pointing in, it was all about the hits, which they call page views now.

I took some photos, wrote some things, neither were very good; my digital camera was good when new but back then good was still not all that good and the writing was mainly just to get to the next photo. When the page was up, I told the person I did it for "This needs to be rewritten. This is just to show something you can do." Well, it was never rewritten, it remained mostly unchanged save for the names of a couple points of interest had changed.

I recently decided that I would rewrite the page; I started taking some photos. Driving around my old home town, I realized that I still like it. There is a lot I don't like, the racism, the bigotry, the foolish pride, the intolerance, the ignored drug use but there are other parts mostly the parts that the residents can't change, or at least not change that easily, that I still enjoy. The parts of American history memorialized, the waterfronts, and the parks, I like them all. I even like some of the people still there.


So, I picked up a Gadsden Flag patch when I was at my local National Park Service gift shop a couple months ago. The Gadsden Flag is the "Don't Tread on Me", usually yellow with the rattlesnake, that came to be prior to the U.S. Revolution. I really had no use for it but I liked it so I bought it but then it seemed like a shame to have it just gather dust in my possession so I started to think of who I could give it to but didn't bother contacting the person until the other day. I didn't contact them because I don't like asking for addresses over the internet; it a crazy psychological deficiency I have. I don't want to ask people to trust me. I would rather have trust in me earned and I have a hard time earning trust to my own satisfaction. Sometimes I do not allow people to trust me.

"What? I trust you" they will say and then I will say "Yeah I know, but just in case" and it's not that I can't be trusted it's just that I need them to know that their trust hasn't been misplaced.

But that's not the point of this story. I had a patch somewhere in my house that I was finally going to mail and instead of finding the patch I had I was just going to buy another. It would just be easy on me, I thought and plus it would get me out of the office. So, I went to the National Park Service gift shop, looked around and I couldn't find the patch. When I got the patch months ago, they were sitting right on the counter. I asked the people there, there were three on them behind the counter, if they had any more. They had bookmarks on the counter with various types of American flags, throughout American history, I pulled one out and pointed to the Gadsden Flag.

"Do you have any more of the Gadsden Flag patches?"

"The what?"

"A patch of the Gadsden Flag." The three of them look at each other.

"I don't think we ever had them" the younger female park ranger said.

"I got one awhile ago. They were sitting on the counter but I don't see them now."

"I don't remember ever having them."

"You did, but it was awhile ago."

"I don't remember seeing them either" the older female park ranger said.

"I bought it here. They were on the counter. There were only a couple of them but they were right here."

"There was talk about some supplier who wanted us to carry some Gadsden Flag items. Maybe he dropped some items off and they just sold what the guy dropped off as a sample, just to get rid of them. I don't remember seeing them either but I usually work over at the U.S.S. Constitution" the male park ranger said.

"I never saw them. Are you sure you bought it here" the younger female park ranger said

"Absolutely." I said and then paused for effect, "I was here and I bought one of these with it" as I held up a National Parks Service postcard, and then added "I'll bring it in and show you if you want."

"No that's alright"

"Well, thanks anyway" I said and then left.

And walking back to my office all I could think about was proving the help at the sales counter wrong. I was trying to remember if I saved the receipt or not. I knew I still had the post card, I knew I still had the patch and I was pretty sure that both were still in the same plain paper bag that they came in.

And then I thought, "What a spaz you are" you're going to go through all this effort to try and prove some strangers wrong, which by the way would be impossible because the patch was just in a plastic sleeve with a card that had no mention of the Parks Service and the price tag made no mention of the Parks Service either and I may have already removed the price tag because I was going to gift the patch.

And then I thought, "What a spaz you are" because I was going through all this crazy thinking just because I didn't want look through the small stack of mail and other assorted stuff in the small pile that has gathered by my laptop computer. At worst it's in with a box of books that I got tired of moving from a chair one day.

I did get me out of the office though, for like seven minutes.


geedee government workers

...

So, if you're one of those freaks that are into reading sidebars, you know that I have a link to the NFL Cardinals http://www.azcardinals.com/

The only reason that link is there is because I once read that the cardinal is the most ferocious of the of the songbirds and I just like that statement so I posted it. I don't know if it's true or not but who's going to argue with you? The red-headed house finch crowd? Notwithstanding I think naming a football team after any songbird is wrong. It's just bad marketing.

I do like the Cardinals. I always have. I also like the Seahawks. I always have even when they did do so well but that's a different post.

Anyway the Arizona Cardinals signed Edgerrin James, so I wish them luck because with James they will be doubly ferocious.

(If your panties are all in a knot right now, I don't know if finches are songbirds or not, please pardon my ignorance)