To Sleep, Perchance to Dream...

My dreams are so disjointed and confusing.
Only a few times in my adult life have I had a pleasant dream.
I'm an automation engineer.
One night, I spent most of the night dreaming that there were industrial robots in the hallway outside our room.
Their controller was my alarm clock.
I mentioned this to another (brilliant) engineer the next day.
I said I spent most of the night "programming" my clock radio.
He said, "You do that too?".
And the problem solving is always unsolvable.
It seem's it's common among us.
I don't have nightmares.
I just have restless nights of trying to make sense of something, that upon awakening, I realize is senseless.
Then I fall back asleep and continue doing it.

I hadn't intended when I started writing this to make the following comment, but it begs to be made.
"When will I wake up from this present political climate that makes so little sense.?"

A Prologue to Another Post I've Yet to Post.

First, I'd like to say that I have ADD to some degree. Long posts lose me.
I love Tools of Renewal and Brigid (among other blogs, including yours, and yours, and of course, you too).
But they get long.
It's me, not them.
The writing is phenomenal.
I started to write a post that was getting long.
Then I decided t break it up.
My writing is not phenomenal.
So this is the first part.
After it, take a break, go for a walk, re-fill your coffee.

I've been heavily involved with lasers (as an industrial tool) for years.
More than thirty.
I'm now the Automation Engineer and acting Maintenance Manager for a startup plant (automotive supplier) that's growing fast.
We use lasers.
Now we need a Laser Safety Officer.
I work for Magna and it's headquartered in Toronto.
The Laser Safety Training occurs at the University of Toronto.
That's a five hour road trip, across the Canadian Border at the Ambassador Bridge.
I've had to postpone it twice this year because of product launches.
It got re-scheduled for this last Thursday.
Then our son, who just qualified as Chief-of-the-Boat (think Harvey Keitel in U571) and who is now  on orders to Japan for two years starting next week, decided he'd fly in to visit before leaving, rather than us fly out to Groton this weekend.
So he joined us for the trip to Toronto.
I'd be in class, and his Mom and he would be going up in the CN Tower and sightseeing.

We had dinner with my wife's Dad and his wife, who drove in from Kalamazoo to see our son.
We then left for Toronto.
At the border, somebody's ex (that's a polite way to say "witch from hell") greeted us.
She asked where we were going and I said Toronto, that we'd be sightseeing.
She asked what we were going to see and I said Toronto.
She asked where we'd be staying. I said the Towne Inn.
She nastily said that they are all over Canada.
I said the one in Toronto.
She asked for an address.
I said it was on my phone.
There was more along that line, but her whole attitude seemed to be summed up by:
"I don't have any idea why you would want to infest my country with your presence.".
She said to drive to the immigration window, exit the car (which they searched) and get in line.
The hour and a half line.
During that time, I went to the bathroom and threw away my switchblade.
The officer at the counter asked a lot of questions.
Where we were staying.
I got no reception so I couldn't tell him, but I gave him the phone number and he looked it up.
He appeared pleased.
Finally, it boiled down to the officer asking that with our relationship to each other, why we had different last names.
I said, he was my stepson, her son from a previous marriage.
You could almost see him slap his forehead mentally.
He then asked when was the last time I'd been to Canada and I told him a few months ago for my company, to see a mold tryout.
He asked what mold shop and I told him I couldn't remember the name. That seemed an issue.
I told him I still had the letter of business in my briefcase somewhere.

He started typing.

Then he said, "You work for Magna?" as if that was a good thing.

I said yes and he handed us our passports.

He was very friendly all of a sudden.

So I asked him to stamp my son's passport, something he had wanted before we crossed but which I had said we wouldn't have time for.

Wish I'd kept the blade.

We got to our room about midnight.

OK. If I was reading this, I'd being skipping stuff by now.

More later.

An Atrocity.

I think the perpetrators of that horrific killing of all those innocent people should face the full force of the law.

So much for those abortionists in Philadelphia.

I think the perpetrators of the horrific killing in Boston should be punished too.
I wish the press had made as big a deal over the first as the second.

Turn Your Radio On, Turn Your Radio On.

I was on the Bill Bennett Show Friday about Dr. Ben Carson declining to speak at the John Hopkins Commencement he had been invited to.

A Moment of Panic...

I've seen movies for years where the bad guy/gal approaches someone from behind with a thin filament stretched between both hands to garrote the unsuspecting victim.
A couple days ago, I was sitting in the dentists chair, filled with apprehension.
I glanced at the instruments of torture in the tray next to me and in the reflection of the mirror there, I saw the hygienist  stretch the string of material between her hands and approach me from behind.
I quickly planned, the gun in my pocket would be difficult to get, the pick on the tray might be my only option.
She then stepped beside me, moving the tray away with her elbow.
"Floss is still a foreign concept to you, isn't it?", she said, as she saw the panic in my eyes.

Day Late, Dollar Short...

I've had some arguments rolling around in my head (as I drive to and from work) against gay marriage.
Friday, I heard one on the radio put succinctly.
I was about to make a similar argument on the air the previous day, but work intervened.
Mark Davis put it better, and the guy he was politely and charitably discussing it with was a target rich opportunity.
The caller was seemingly a conservative, or I doubt he would have enjoyed listening daily as he claimed.
That means he just didn't understand or believe the  host every time he explained church/state, for one.

To be laissez-faire on gay marriage is sometimes to be intellectually lazy-fare.
That person will allow himself to be robbed, because the meaning of his words will be stolen from him.

To redefine marriage is to redefine family. The family is already redefined with gay adoptions.
The redefinition of marriage is a natural extension.

There is a difference between men and women.
You know it, I know it.
Yet there are those who deny it to bring about a change in society that they envision.
In a very real Orwellian sense, you too must not notice the difference or the house of cards collapses.
Therefore, there must be "equal" signs on Facebook to demonstrate that you are willing to accept the fiction.
Thankfully I haven't seen these among my "friends" some who are pro-gay marriage.
If I'd seen one, I'd have had to create a "not-equal" profile photo to post.

"Equal" is not "Same"!

Tab "A" goes in Slot "B".
Tab "A" doesn't fit Tab "A" correctly.
Slot "B" can never go in Slot "B".

On another note, the equal protection standard does not apply.
It was put rather succinctly at American Thinker yesterday.
Restricting gay marriage restricts heterosexuals from same sex marriage as well as homosexuals.
It's equality in action!
I'm not offended that I cannot marry a male, even though the law limits me from doing so.

So then, why should we care?
Because men and women are different.
Men have an effect as father's and women as mothers.
Necessary effects. As role models, guides and nurturers.
They don't always get it right.
But on the average it works.
The way it was designed.
oh darn, there's that church/state thing again.
The way "nature" intended (evolved it), if you prefer.
And so the kids grow up being better nurtured and guided.
And they become the basis of the next generation of a healthy society.
A society that affects us all.

Well, thanks for stopping by.

Surreality

After work, I stopped by a gun shop where my friend works.
He said at Easter Dinner yesterday he could get me some 9mm.

When I got there, he smiled in that way that means... "sorry".

Well, it turns out that the guy who was supposed to deliver the ammo had the flu.
(Does "Dog ate my homework" come to mind?)

But I did get some 7.62x39  for $12 a box of twenty. Over twice what I last paid for it.

But $65/500 subsonic .22LR and $75/500 of hyper velocity?

I called a friend who was looking, but he declined.
I think his financial adviser would have had him sleep on the couch.