22 things about Christopher Lee that we didn't know about and I'm FREE from Jury duty~~~~

Hello Darklings,

Well I am free of Jury Duty, how did the trial turn out??  We were dismissed!!!  The two culprits took a plea deal, when the defense attorney found out about security video and another witness.  If they went forward with the trial, and with that new information that just came forward, they would have been found so Guilty!! 

But when I was in the elevator I heard one of the victim's parent say to their own lawyer that to go ahead with the Civil suit, hit the defendants and their families in the wallet, and that new information will be presented.  

I am so glad I'm not going to be on that Jury!

So I am now free to enjoy the Summer, even with the on again off again warm weather.

And now my Darklings, Doyle found for me this lovely article which I am going to share with all of you~~~~

22 Incredible Facts About The Life and Career Of Sir Christopher Lee

If Sir Christopher Lee had just been a movie star, he would still have been an icon. But the late actor, who passed away last week, had an amazing life even beyond his incredible body of work. Whether you’re still lamenting his passing or unsure why his death is such a loss, here’s 22 reasons why Christopher Lee will always be a legend.

1) He was entered into the Guinness Book of World Records in 2007 for most screen credits, having appeared in 244 film and TV movies by that point in his career— at which point he made 14 more movies, with a 15th due later this year (titled Angels in Notting Hill). He also holds the record for the tallest leading actor — he stood 6’ 5” — but also for starring in the “most films with a sword fight” with 17.

2) His mother was an Italian contessa, and through her Lee descended from the Emperor Charlemagne of the Holy Roman Empire and was related to Robert E. Lee, the Confederate general.

3) He met Prince Yusupov and Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich, the assassins of the Russian monk Rasputin. He didn’t do this as research for his later film role as Rasputin (in the 1966 Hammer film Rasputin the Mad Monk), but just as a child in the 1920s.

4) At age 17, he saw the death of the murderer Eugen Weidmann in Paris, the last person in France to be publicly executed by guillotine.

5) During World War II, Lee joined the Royal Air Force but wasn’t allowed to fly because of a problem with his optic nerve. So he became an intelligence officer for the Long Range Desert Patrol, a forerunner of the SAS, Britain’s special forces. He fought the Nazis in North Africa, often having up to five missions a day. During this time he helped retake Sicily, prevented a mutiny among his troops, contracted malaria six times in a single year and climbed Mount Vesuvius three days before it erupted.

6) At some point during the war he moved from the LRDP to Winston Churchill’s even more elite Special Operations Executive, whose missions are literally still classified, but involved “conducting espionage, sabotage and reconnaissance in occupied Europe against the Axis powers.” The SOE was more informally called — and I can’t believe this somehow hasn’t been made into a movie yet — The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare.

  

7) Lee never said anything specific about his time in the SOE, but he did say this: “I’ve seen many men die right in front of me - so many in fact that I’ve become almost hardened to it. Having seen the worst that human beings can do to each other, the results of torture, mutilation and seeing someone blown to pieces by a bomb, you develop a kind of shell. But you had to. You had to. Otherwise we would never have won.” By the end of the war he’d received commendations for bravery from the British, Polish, Czech and Yugoslavia governments.

8) Speaking both French and Italian, Lee spent his time after World War II he hunting Nazis with the Central Registry of War Criminals and Security Suspects until he decided to give acting a try at age 25. Yes, all of this happened before Lee was 25 years old.

9) While filming a sword-fight with a drunken Errol Flynn during the filming of The Dark Avengers in 1955, Flynn accidentally cut Lee’s hand so badly his finger nearly came off, and permanently injured. Later, Lee cut off Flynn’s wig while Flynn was still wearing it. Flynn stormed off set and refused to come out of his trailer until Lee claimed it was an accident.

10) While best known for his portrayal of Dracula in countless films, he’s also starred as the Mummy and Frankenstein’s monster. Of course he’s known as Saruman in Lord of the Rings and Count Dooku in the Star Wars prequels, but his other villainous roles include Fu Manchu, Rasputin, Rochefort of The Three Musketeers (whose portrayal was so popular the character now inevitably appears with an eye patch, although it wasn’t in the book — Lee introduced it), Lord Summerisle of The Wicker Man, the James Bond villain Scaramanga, Mephistopheles, and Death himself.

11) Lee was not only related to James Bond creator and author Ian Fleming — they were step-cousins — but Lee was actually one of Fleming’s first choices for the role of Bond, not least because of Lee’s World War II and SOC experiences.

12) He has played Sherlock Holmes, his brother Mycroft Holmes, and also Sir Henry Baskerville of The Hound of the Baskervilles.

13) Tired of playing Dracula and feeling that the movies had gotten sub-par, Lee tried to quit Hammer films, but studio executives guilted him into returning by stressing how many people could be out of work if Lee stopped churning out hits. Lee agreed to star in 1966 Dracula: Prince of Darkness, he felt the script was so awful he adamantly refused to say any of the dialogue. (Hammer decided that it was far more important to have a mute Lee as star as opposed to anyone else, and thus had Dracula hiss and yell through the film.

14) In the ‘50s, Lee was engaged to Henriette von Rosen, daughter of Count Fritz von Rosen. The Count apparently didn’t like Lee, because after hiring private detectives to investigate the actor and demanding references, he also refused to allow his daughter to marry him unless Lee got the blessing of the King of Sweden. Lee got it.

15) Lee was a major Tolkien fan, reading The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings trilogy once a year for the majority of his life. He was the only member of the movie cast to have met Tolkien personally — apparently he ran into him randomly in a pub — and fanboyed out. Tolkien actually gave him his blessing to play Gandalf in any future Lord of the Rings movie.

16) When Lee heard that Hollywood was going to finally make the LotR trilogy into movies, he took a role in the terrible 1997 TV series The New Adventures of Robin Hood as a wizard, specifically so he’d have clear evidence of his ability to be a wizard. When he heard Peter Jackson would direct the films, he sent Jackson a personal letter asking to be in the movies along with a picture of him dressed up as a wizard. Unfortunately, Lee’s advanced age and his natural ability to play villains made him an even better choice for Saruman.

17) The story has gone around a lot, but it bears repeating because it is incredible: During his death scene in Return of the King (only included in the Extended Edition to Lee’s disapproval), director Peter Jackson was describing to him what sound people getting stabbed in the back should make. Lee gravely responded that he had seen people being stabbed in the back, and knew exactly what sound they made.

18) Lee was quite interested in the history of public executions, and reportedly knew “the names of every official public executioner employed by England, dating all the way back to the mid-15th century.”

19) He’s always been a big metal fan, but he released his first full heavy metal album in 2010 at the age of 88. Titled Charlemagne: By the Sword and the Cross, which won the “Spirit of Metal” award from the 2010 Metal Hammer Golden Gods ceremony. He made a metal Christmas album in 2012. He was the oldest metal performer, and the oldest musician to ever hit the Billboard music charts.

20) In addition to his impossibly prolific film career, Lee was a world champion fencer, an opera singer, spoke six languages, and was a hell of a golfer.

21) He was made a Knight Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire in 2009, a Commander of the Venerable Order of Saint John in 1997, made a Commander of the Order of Arts and Letters by the French government in 2011, earned he British Academy of Film and Television Arts Fellowship in 2011, received the The Bram Stoker Award for Lifetime Achievement in 1994, and so many more.

22) Last but not least: Despite everything you’ve heard about the “six degrees of Kevin Bacon,” Christopher Lee was recognized as being the most connected actor in the world in 2008, again by Guinness. He connects to virtually any actor in 2.59 steps, beating Bacon.

[Via Wikipedia, Guinness World Records, Badass of the Week, Factfiend, The Independent]

 

In watching a You Tube video of Lee acting as Sauruman, everyone on the set was more interesting in listening to all the various experiences he had with other actors that it got to the point where one of the "Script women" or someone, I know it was a woman, had to get everyone back on point or the movie would run over budget. 

Even Doyle said that if Christopher Lee told him to take a "Long Walk off a short pier" in that precise voice that he used in the Johnny Depp version of "Dark Shadows" he would have done it willingly.

He should have be claimed as both a National Treasure as well as an International Treasure, and we are all poorer for losing him.

Later Darklings,  I'm going to go and cry some more.

Of Still being on Jury Duty and missing Goth Day~~~~

Hello Darklings,

I have a few minutes before  I leave to go to the courthouse.

Yes I am still on Jury Duty!

And it looks like it's going to drag on a while, each side bringing in their own experts, two different teams for the two defendants.  Where they get the money to pay for them I haven't a clue.

Then postponements because something or another comes up.  It is throwing my life off. 

And we lost a jury member last week, came down with appendicitis, rushed to the hospital.  So an alternate was sworn in.  At least it happened during the trial and not during deliberations. 

And when that happens I hope it's not going to be like that movie "12 Angry Men".

Anyway I just wanted to let you Darklings know I'm still alive and among the living.

And I'm so upset--- I MISSED GOTH DAY!!!  May 22 is Goth Day and I missed it!!!  Oh I did wear black, wore purple eye shadow and dark lipstick and took my coffin purse, one female jury member asked me if I thought she could pull that look off,  I thought she could. 

But considering the weather here the whole bay area looks like it's being Goth!   We have not had one really warm day for the past 3 weeks, the weather man said that May has been colder than January, but we did get now and then a few drizzels, most welcomed. 

So we've been having May Gray, I wonder if it will match the eventual June Gloom.   And now some weather people are wondering if the heavy rain patterns that is being experienced in Texas (heavy flooding) will shift over here for some type of el Nino in July.   Now that would be interesting. Hmmm maybe a Goth Summer??

My poor brother and his family came down sick with what appears to be either terrible allergies or Summer colds, they've all be doing so much with the schedules and the moving in they had completely exhausted themselves.  Poor things, so I suggested to just only do that which really needs to be done, put off everything else. 

They are doing much better, but I do worry about them especially the children.

Well I have to go, Doyle is going to drop me off and then if need be I'll take the bus home.

Later Darklings

Of Jury Duty, Dark Shadows and chilly weather~~~~

Hello Darklings,

I have not been posting as often as I like, the Jury Duty is taking up time and energy, bleh!!

We were let go early today, but back tomorow!

And Decades T.V. was running "Dark Shadows"!!!   last week.

The good thing is Brian was working from home so he had the timer set so that every 6 hours he'd change the discs to record the episodes I and Sis would  be missing while doing what we've got to do.

We'd watch it during the evenings and record our other shows, just when you think "Oh well, I'll just go and make myself a sandwich!"  Darn if it doesn't sucker you right back into it again.

Even Doyle got caught up, he missed it years ago when he was at the Academy and then working,  so we confessed to each other----we have GOT  to buy all 1225 episodes (well it's listed as 1245--but it was a numbering situation),  and they come out in volumes.  I missed the last year of it because of my job.

So that is on our shopping list

It was such fun!!

Unfortunately I cannot talk about the trial I'm on, I'm still constrained but I think this next picture will give you and idea of what at least I feel about it, Doyle did manage to come into the court room to listen in and his attitude is the same.

Like Really??!!

But we will do our best to be objective. 


And the weather!!  It has been so chilly, some an occasional shower but I understand snow is showing up in the mountains.   But I have not been able to get out of my winter clothes.  At least not yet, over cast and cold, over cast and cold.

And all the children have come down with Spring colds, we thought allergies but no, colds!  At least they were healthy for Mother's day.


And now I am going to go have have lunch, a friend of mine called me a few minutes ago and I pleaded with her to take me out into the normal world --- or what passes for normal so I can think of nicer things.

Later Darklings

Of Doing Jury Duty, speicality sodas and the drought~~~

Hello My Darklings,

Yes I know I haven't post for a while, BUT.....

Well what is more Elder Gothic than being on a Murder trial?   Being On a Murder Trial.

Oh I know Darklings bad pun.   But I am stuck doing Jury Duty and it is a murder trial.   I cannot talk about the case itself, but I can tell you it was 3 of the most excruciating days of jury selection I have ever gone through, and because I'm semi-retired I cannot claim hardship.

Well to be honest, this may be interesting to see unfold.  You know see how the lawyers do things, I mean Darklings it's totally different from "Perry Mason", "Boston Legal" or even "The Good Wife". 

One thing I'm grateful for is the chairs in the jury box are comfortable if they weren't I'd be screaming.  

And I'm glad we got off early today, the Judge had something to attend to, there is no trail tomorrow and the courtroom is air conditioned, yes Darklings we are now having a bit of a heat wave.

So Dinner is going to be light a spinach salad with shrimp (grilled),  lime sherbert for dessert, no wine, but a delightful specialty soda called "Portuguese Blend"  it's green in color, but lighter in flavor than 7-Up and it's made with cane sugar not corn sugar,  we had it after dinner last week, so Sis went and bought 6 bottles of it.  Doyle prefers the Root Beer called "Rat Bastard"  I told him we cannot serve a root beer with that name to the children when they come over to visit.  So we'll stick with "Dad's"

I know---- What??  The Elder Gothests is off of wine??  No Darklings I'm not, but once in a while in a playful mood we do like to try specialty soda's, and just see what they come up with.  And really with the heat, it's best to drink water with a hint of lemon in it for a sense of freshness. 

We did have about a week ago a very nice rain storm which did wonders for my water cisterns, so I'll be able to water the plants for a while without having to use the districts water system.  But because of this drought I've decided to not plant any new exotic plants in my garden, however to make up  for any sparseness, I've decided to increase the plantings of Lavender, Sage and Rosemary, these plants encourage the honey bees and humming birds and I've made sure that the moveable bird baths are in area's of shade for the birds, bees and humming bird feeders are in the shade for them as well.  

I've been happy to see a few Monarch Butterflies as well, which cheers me up a lot, at least the flowers on those plants are lavender and purple, may be not too dark but enough to keep things interesting.   And at least they can tolerate the weather conditions much better.  Towards the back in the Pet Cemetery area nasturtiums have sprouted, I did not plant any seeds so either the birds brought them over or something, I think they are rather pretty in their own wild way so I will leave them to grow, something as natural as that is fine.

Poor Belladonna and Wiener Dog are just to tuckered from the heat and have chosen to lay down on the kitchen floor near their water bowls, I have a fan rotating in here  to help cool them down.  But I'm going to ask Doyle when he comes home if he could up the fans from the storage room, we may not need them all the time but at least they will be available. 

I've advised my Sister in Law to buy fans as well and she has mostly for the bed rooms, she wants something more Victorian for down in the main rooms so I suggested she check out the Victorian Trading Company that is where I got mine.

I have no idea how long this murder trial is going to run, but my Boss is not exactly happy, because already several of the staff have summer vacations planned, I said ..."It is what it is..." and left it at that. 

And now I'm going to take a nap my Darklings, the heat is getting to me.

Later Darklings

of Still on Jury Duty, it's freezing here, a new T.V. station and storms in Australia~~~

Hello Darklings,

I'm still waiting to see if I will be on the Jury panel, the two lawyers are so slow in choosing and picking and it is FREEZING here.  No rain but Freezing cold.

Granted we are in April and not expected to be really warm but this is too much.

The only good thing is that I can get to the court house by Bus, but if I want to avoid standing forever in the long line for screening I need to get there early before the Judge steps to the bench other wise latecomers have to wait outside the court room until the Judge says O.K.

The weatherman is threatening drizzel, but have not seen anything yet, at least my cisterns are full enough that I can water my plants but the lawn will have to suffer I'm afraid.  Well it's hardy enough.

On the dinner front, thank goodness for crock pots, Chinese take out and my Sister, Doyle takes care of Belladonna and Wiener Dog sees that they get to their baby sitter.

I wish I could talk about this trial but I am bound not to, even though I have not be sworn in as a Juror, prospective jurors are bound by this as well, until either sworn in where they have to remain under the code of silence or are dismissed when they can freely talk about the case.

It was interesting because how this all started out is first the Judge is explaining to us that in the U.S. we go by the presumption of innocent until proven guilty, but in many other countries it is guilty until they can prove they are innocent.  Obviously in a country that goes by that formula you had better have a good lawyer to prove your innocence--   Even the judges and juries in those countries think you are guilty so you much convince them you are innocent.   I find that very twisted, it's like you are already convicted before you even say a word.

Doyle couldn't sleep Saturday night after we watched Svengoulie's presentation of "Jungle Captive" and I can understand even I felt a little restless but managed to fall asleep.

So he decided to channel surf and discovered a new station off of the antenna  here locally its 2.3 and it's called "Marquee Movies!" and that's all they show is movies, and very late Saturday night to Sunday morning they show Film Noir---he found out they were going to show "The Line Up" 1958 so decided to record it so I could see it, and he stayed up to watch "Riot in Cell Block 11".

They show films from the 1930's to the early 1980's  all different types, their web site is www.moviestvnetwork.com/   at least I hope I have the link right.  I love it our own little batch of Film Noir to enjoy.  Something for the darkness of the soul.

My friend down in Austrailia e-mailed me saying that they are having the worse storm in Sydney history for the last 100 years, floods, Dams over flowing, Ferries not able to travel, things being knocked over so far 3 people dead and over 600 displaced.  She's fine in her area but she counted 6 umbrellas' so far rolling down her street. 

Well now Sis says dinner is ready so time to relax and then watch a guilty pleasure "iZombie".  Who says Zombies can't be fun.

Later Darklings

Of Jury Duty and Exhaustion~~~

Hello Darklings,

Well I'm exhausted!!!

I've been covering staff members who have taken time off to coincide with their children's' Easter or Spring Break, and we got a heavy work load.

Then just when they come back and I think I can relax I have to report for Jury Duty, I had postponed it once I could not do it again and because work was back to full staffing I could not claim "hard-ship"

So I report in, one day or one trial, so I'm there all day, and just as I think I and a few others are not going to be needed we are called to report to a court room, the Judge said we were NOT dismissed so we had to come back the next day, and the next day and the next day.  It seemed that either one or the other lawyer had something come up or the Judge could not do a full session. 

I was ready to scream!!

So I'm hoping that I'll be eliminated and today---TODAY!!!  Do I get a good night's sleep??? NO!!!

I'm awake at 4:30 a.m. Up and down and UP and Down, I cannot sleep, I finally lay down praying for a few minutes sleep.  But the Dawn Came Up Like Thunder Across Mandalay Bay---as my Dad would say---actually he'd sing it, some old song, and he'd sing it when I and Sis did not want to get up for School.

So I drag my weary self to the Court House, finally I'm being questioned by the lawyers as they decide if I'm right for the Jury---I know what they are doing.   But we still are not set yet.  The Judge gets a note and he has to stop proceedings and do another Day's delay and we are to pick up where we left off on MONDAY!!!   No Wonder no one wants to serve on a Jury with all this going on.

So now as I type this, my eyes grow weary, Sis called and said she'd make dinner. 

Now I and the Dynamic Duo are going to lie down and get some much needed Sleep!

Later Darklings

AAArrrrrgggghhhhh!!!!!! and a Fire in San Francisco and Hannibal~~~

Well Darklings,

I am frustrated, extremely so.... my poor computer is ready for "The Boneyard", impossible to upgrade, parts of it are deteriorating, and not able to really replace so I'll have to buy a new system.  Except for my printer, which is only 6 months old none of the other components will work with a new system.

What it is is that my system is so old that with it working with internet explorer is total garbage, cranky-slow-frustrating.  So to do research my IT person installed Google Crome as a stop gap, BUT I have to go to internet explore to bring up my e-mail and to do any postings with blog.spot because for some reason with my system Google Crome won't give me what I need to get into it, parts disappear.

So for research or to go to facebook its google chrome, but for e-mails and blogspot its internet explorer but to not make internet explorer my default.  Oy Vey!!!  Talk about a Rube Goldberg system.

But not having to go to work for the last few days (and tomorrow) Doyle and I have been looking for what I need, Oh decisions, decisions----I don't need anything fancy, but everything has Windows 8, which I'm told is really not a bad thing, but I'll be seeing a whole new screen to get use to.  Oh can my Model T-Ford Brain keep up with all the Ferrari's????  Well if I can crank it up a little.

But I've been looking a some tower types one even had 1Terra bit of ram----but do I need that much???

Until the IT sales person said that maybe I should look at an "all in one" save the cost of the monitor, don't have to "freak out" about wi-fi, eliminate the tower, don't have to buy a camera or speakers...HuuuHHHH????  Says I.

Well he showed it to us, and yes it's all in one, all built into the monitor, wired keyboard and mouse, camera in the frame and speakers same way, can increase RAM to 8 GB's from 4 GB's, no tower, with plug in's for UB and digital camera and my router and could convert to wi-fi, would install Microsoft word without installation costs, MacAfee virus protection, has DVD and CD player recorder, they will take out all the trial stuff and those aps I don't need, compatable with my current printer.

All for 1/2 what I was looking at.  Doyle was mentally hopping from one foot to the other like Homer Simpson (he's too dignified to do it in real time),  so I said "Wrap it up!"  But I have to wait a bit while they do what they have to do to it to make it completely mine, so I should have a new system by next monday at the latest.  So its a birthday present to myself, a bit early.  Well Doyle is going to chip in for half, the Darling.

So that is that....

And after all that excitment that Doyle went through the other Day, what happened was a horrible 5 alarm fire occured in China Basin area of San Francisco, this has been going through some serious redevelopment with apartments with busiensses on the ground floors,  one of the new buildings under construction (9 stories tall) caught fire, they are not sure what happened only the good thing is that it occured after all the construction workers had left for the day.

Doyle was visiting a client at his apartment around the block from where the new constrution was when they heard a commontion in the halls,  people evacuating from the west side of the building this was the side that was facing the fire,  Doyle encouraged his client to grab the important papers and they left the building, quickly and felt a tremendous heat,  Doyle saw the smoke rising over the buildings, he and his client walked East, away,  Doyle was glad he had taken a taxi to the client's place, what they saw was an inferno from hell,  as a matter of fact it was call the San Francisco Inferno.   At a safe distance Doyle and his client watched the fire, no loss of life, two firemen received minor injuries, one car was partially melted, the glass windows on the West side facing the fire buckled and cracked.  But damaged to the occupied apartments and the businesses was kept to a minimum, which itself is a miracle.

What the fire dept did was create a wall of water to prevent the heat and any embers from setting the near by buildings on fire, some embers did land on a roof top but was quickly put out. 

Everyone was evacuated at least over night including Doyle's client, Doyle called for a taxi and set his client up in a hotel for a few days until the O.K. was given for tennants to return,  the one's who live on the west side of the building will have to stay away for a few days while crews continue to put out hot spots still burning even as I type this, and also because they are demolishing the building and all it's melted metal scaffoling.  Doyle said that it was terrifying to see a wall of flames from that 9 story building, and the S.F. Fire Department did a heroic job getting everyone out and saving the already occupied buildings.

When he came home, I sat him down and gave him a bottle of one of his chilled Ale's and said "Rest, don't think, just rest."  

That day while he was escaping from a fire I was doing my jury duty stint,  Oh sitting there, waiting to be called to a court room, then going to the court room and waiting while everyone gets together, and then waiting to be called as a prospective juror, finally they came to me,  and asked me a few questions, one of which was "Do you own a gun"  "Yes"  I replied  "And I'm a member of the NRA"  ---- Dismissed and Thank you, you have done your Jury Service for the year....Thank yu, Thak yu vry much.... totally shot my day, it was a murder...would have loved to have been on that jury.   Oh well picked up some goodies at a very good Deli that I like and had an easy time for cooking, while waiting on the outcome of my ancient computer.

So my ancient computer has been cleaned up and will work for a little while, I'll retire it to do word processing until it finally gives up the ghost, maybe I'll have Coralline use it for her homework when she has to write out reports and essays, much better than waiting to use my computer.  Yes that would be a very good thing.

I don't know if any of you have been watching "Hannibal" but frankly its getting a little too grusome even for me,  I know I will never allow Coralline or her friends watch it, the convolutions and psychological aspects are to the point of beyond bizarre but just short of perverison or maybe not.  We record it to watch at a later date as Doyle likes "Blue Bloods", and then watch it early enough in an evening to discuss what its all about but after dinner for sure, of course we love "Blacklist", but it conflicts with "Castle" so that is recorded as well,  we enjoy the psychological aspects of situations but we tried "The Following" and found that it really wasn't going anywhere, and boring, why its still on is a mystery to us.  But "Hannibal"....I just do not have the words for it except that Gillian Anderson's character said it that he is too dangerous, only with the divider of the Televison screen can we be safe, but what of those in the outside world.  That is where "Hannibal" becomes disturbing.  For anyone.

Now I must go and prepare the salad for tonight's dinner.  The weather is a bit warm right now, the fake mulberry trees with their clusters of white flowers are in full bloom, to the point where the light breeze has the petals falling like fine snowflakes, in a spring wonderland,  Mom and Dad were married at the time the Snowball Trees or bushes would bloom and their petals would fall like snowflakes,  We have a picture of them in front of such a huge bush all the white blooms, surrounding and arching above them, a lovely wedding picture.  When I see the flowers blooming now I'm reminded of that, and feel a lightness of being.

Later Darklings

Jury Duty avoided---and traveling again~~~

Well Darklings I’ve escaped from an unbearable situation----JURY DUTY.

Do not mistake my relief about this as a desire to never serve on a Jury; I feel that it is everyone’s duty to endure this interruption in one’s life.

But frankly it could not have come at a worse time, and I won’t go into details.  And it make it worse it was going to be a civil case of someone being rear-ended by a car and claiming psychological pain and suffering.

How can one measure something that is so subjective?? 

I was brought up to “Hope for the Best, Expect the worst and Deal with what comes.”

If the injury is physical, which can be seen in an X-Ray or MRI then I’d feel better about it.  Soft tissue injury of course is something hard to determine, but to say that the trauma about being rear-ended has caused emotional trauma to one’s psyche----Please Darklings, give me a break!!!

I have been rear-ended at least twice, not happy about it, but with the exchange of insurance information at least satisfied.  Another time I was rear-ended and the person who hit me was not the owner, and gave false information.  But I made sure I wrote down the license plate number and tracked down the owner who had allowed his friend to drive the car.  To Small Claims court I took them to and I won.

But did I suffer emotional psychic trauma???  No, I was more mad as Hell than anything.

And I told them that---well of course I was excused, they didn’t want someone with that sort of idea in their head, which I was happy about, because the traffic on the freeway to get to the court house  and home was horrible both days and I knew was going to get worse.  Why it has to be at a court house that’s nearly 20 miles away I’ll never know, I called and asked if I could be assigned to a court house that was closer, I knew of two of them, “Sorry” they say “No change of assignments”.   How RUDE!!!

Now if this was a criminal case, it would have been more interesting, but still being forced to travel to a court house that’s 20 miles away and only being paid .34 cents per mile one way does not match the true cost of gasoline usage.  Of course if I had been picked, I would have figured out a way to get there without using my car, and see if I could “car pool” it home.

Alright My Darklings, my rant is over---but still a Criminal Case would have been far more interesting, but emotionally demanding.

But now I’m free for another year.

Halloween is only 5 days away!!!  And they are predicting Rain!!!  Pooh!!!  I hope not!

Anyway Doyle is putting our luggage and Belladonna’s things into his car (he’s driving), Belladonna is dressed in her doggie sweater and we will be leaving in a few minutes to go to the paranormal conference at Columbia State Park, no special expectations, but it should be interesting and beautiful this time of year.

And for now until Thanksgiving nothing special will be happening, I think, but you never know what might “pop-up”. 

Later Darklings