A little anesthesia will knock you for a loop. I had the dreaded endoscopy and colonoscopy yesterday. The procedure wasn't memorable at all. The preparation will take a long while to forget. There were reasons that I needed to be scanned though so I guess it was good that I went in, 6 years after my doctor asked me to go the first time. A little reluctant as a patient. But no Barrett's esophagus. They clipped one polyp and said I had some diverticulitis and told me to eat more fiber in my diet, which I think I will do.

After getting home you'd think the first thing I'd do would be eat, but it was sleep. Most of the afternoon and evening and then went to bed at 11 and slept right through the night, which I never do, and go up at 6:15. Then I slept away the morning as well. While I have gotten back my steadiness on my feet, I still find difficulty typing this blog. Lots of letters have gone in the wrong places. Weird.

The house where I grew up. I lived here from age 5 to 12, and again from age 15 until I married at 21. Only 13 years I guess. But then my parents continued to live there for twenty years or so. It was Papa's house to our children. We caroled the neighborhood on Christmas Eve. I rode my bike down these hills. I helped plant that maple tree in the foreground when I was 10. The tree and I were about the same height then. Somewhere there is a photo of me and the tree. It cost 10 cents. Dad closed in the carport and made an extra room which he promptly filled with junk. It was good to see that it is being so well maintained by it's current owner. He looked at me and said "You are Mister G's son?" When I asked he said "This is still a pretty good neighborhood." I believed him.

We went to the symphony tonight. It is wonderful to be in the room with musicians and instruments. Really good musicians and really good instruments. And tonight there were actors and singers too. The theme was Shakespeare and we were treated to vinettes by a quartet of players and songs by a trio of singers as well as the instrumental music of Berlioz and Mendelssohn. Even more delightful, one of the singers, Anne Bird, was my student years ago. We went backstage afterward where she was already visiting with friends. She glanced at me and wife and continued talking with college friends and then she looked a second time and realized who we were, after wiping away about 8 years or so of cobwebs. Then she tried to squeeze the life out of me. She looked at her friends and said, "You aren't going to believe who this is. This is my first voice teacher!" I had listened as critically as I could and I can tell you this, she has mastered her vocal technique. It was really quite exciting to see the joyful surprise on Anne's face when she saw us. I last saw her at her senior recital and now she has sung with the Metropolitan Opera. We made a phone date for Monday.

The following is on Vox Verax.

"A clip of former Secretary of State James Baker has been making the rounds recently, as a result of the current 'appeasement' debate between John McCain and Barack Obama. Unfortunately for McCain, Baker agrees with Obama. And even though the interview is from this past October, Baker addresses head-on the issue of appeasement, saying:

"Diplomacy involves talking to your enemies. You don't reward your enemies necessarily by talking to them if you are tough and you know what you are doing. You don't appease them. Talking to an enemy is not in my view appeasement."

I think that should just about settle that. Don't you?

Our friend had surgery last week. It's now clear that she has an abdominal cancer. The doctor's think they got it all out but want to do radiation on one area and also chemotherapy. Ugh is all I can think. To make matters worse, another friend in VA has also been diagnosed with a tumor, though a very small one (3cm). Next week I'm going in to have these gastric scans, colonoscopy and endoscopy. So many people are having these tests that it looks like an assembly line over at the hospital. All to do with my age. Ugh, I think again. Growing older is no picnic.

I'll bet you didn't know that it has only been since 1967 that it has been legal in all 50 states for people of different races to marry. 41 years. Only half a lifetime. Such laws were struck down by the supreme court in the case of Loving V. Virginia.

Bush slammed Obama yesterday about Obama indicating he would talk with the president of Iran. McCain indicated Obama can't tell our friends from our enemies. If we don't talk with our enemies, how does the Cuban missle crisis work out? Wasn't a red phone installed in the Whitehouse so we could talk to our enemies? Bush failed to mention that within his administration, talks with Iran are ongoing at the ambassador level. How do you spell hypocrite?

A few more photos: Papa, Montgomery, and cat. Uncle Robert. The lane to the old place. Uncle Charles and me.

You have to love living in this technologically advanced age. Digital everything is pretty cool--from the way they look inside your body and see that everything is okay, or that it is not, to communication devices of all sorts allowing you to keep up with people who used to just disappear out of your life, to digital photography.

I should stop and talk about the photography. I'm happy to see the beautiful photos my children take with their cameras and I'm too too happy with my Christmas present to me, my Nikon D-200. Though still learning what to do with it, it instantly helped me make images that will last until the end of my days and beyond, helping me remember, and helping the next generations imagine what life was like at the turn of the century and giving them connection with their ancestors, two, three, four, and five generations removed. Studying the photos will reveal much about the past and will also reveal much about their own futures.

Here are a few examples: The old place, first built in 1916 by my great grandfather for my grandparents. Great grandfather Marion was quite a fellow, giving each of the boys a farm, except Ernest who became a preacher. Marion said God would take care of Ernest. Turns out, God did his part. Then there is a photo of Gertrude, Charles, and Belle. The three remaining of my mother's family. Belle is 86 and lives at the old place. Her cousin Sally died last month at 93. Belle said that Sally has been living at the end of the lane all of my life and it is really hard for her to be gone. And finally, my cousin Billy. He loves the bulldogs, though as I remember he only went to Brewton Parker for quarter before going into the airforce.

I keep remembering seeing President Bush on television taking some questions from people about a month ago when gasoline prices were surging over $3.00 a gallon. A woman said something about oil prices going up to $4.00 a gallon. He looked shocked, and said something like "$4.00? I haven't heard anything about that."

Either way, if he was telling the truth or if he was lying, it was a sad comment from a broken, stupid little man. "Oh, really, I hadn't heard that? That seems bad." I think I'll go on a trip to Saudi Arabia and hold hands with the Prince.

It is a good day when a friend goes in for surgery with less than the best likely prognosis, but six hours into it the surgeon can report "We got all of it. The tumor is out." She was happy and positive going into it. When she wakes up she'll be miserable but happy and positive about the future. Thank you modern medicine. In most of the world you have a problem and you die. In America they disassemble you, put you back together and after a little rehab you are as good as new.

After seven and a half years, Laura Bush came to the Whitehouse Press Room to talk to reporters. What brought her there? She came to critisize the government of Myanmar. She refused to call them Myanmar but referred to them as Burma. Amazingly she critisized their preparation and response to this devastating cyclone that has killed thousands. Could their be a greater irony. Has there ever been a bigger case of "kick em while they're down." The preznit had his own news conference to give an award to the nemisis of the Myanmar government and to say shame on you for not taking our aid. So his diplomatic formula for handing out aid is--insult them first, then offer aid.

Meanwhile the preznit is busy crisscrossing the globe preparing another completely fabricated, no evidence but me saying so, case against Iran. He's hell bent on dropping more bombs before leaving office. If he attacks another country, the congress must remove him and Mr. Cheney from office immediately.

What is Hillary Clinton doing these days? She can only win by destroying. He attitude is "I win, or nobody wins." And where is her support. While polling at 51% in Indiana and 14 points behind in N.C., her financial support has disappeared and she is running the campaign on her own money. The Clinton supporters have taken to Repub tactics of negative attacks, political gimmicks like meaningless "tax holidays," and partyline talking points answers to every question. No matter what the question, every Clinton official will give the same answer. Good grief. It's time to stop Mrs. Clinton.

It is useless to add my voice to the political fray these days. So much is being said that is pointless that it becomes impossible to make a point. We can watch "Bomb, bomb, bomb. Bomb, bomb Iran" on you tube. Jeremiah Wright is touring. He's pretty much a nut case at times, though I haven't heard him say much about the country that I thought he was that off base on. His statements on damning America have been said by many if not most preachers. Turn from your wicked ways or be damned. Sounds like Charles Stanley or the late Homer Lindsey. How many times have we heard America's wickedness compared to that of pagan ancient Rome. Words that are not politically correct. But theologically . . . you can certainly make a case for them. They aren't words to be sung at a ball game. It's a bit more serious.

Is there any end or slow down in sight for the war in Iraq? Will the preznit light a fire to Iran before he leaves office? If he does, I call for the violent overthrow of the Presidency.

Gas has gone from $1.44 to $3.67 during the "Mission Accomplished" era. That is a lot of change (hee hee). Seriously, it all comes out of the pocket of the American consumer. You can say, poor truckers, poor commuters, poor airlines, but we all pay for it, don't we. With all that money going overseas, there has to be tremendous job loss in America. Areas like Detroit are not in recession, but in depression, and they have been there for a while without anyone being able to come up with a way to help them. It's okay to spend trillions to protect our pride, but nothing can be spent to help hundreds of thousands of people who aren't working. That would be a handout. Handouts-baaaaaad. Torturing and slaughtering nameless faceless strangers--gooooood.

We do live in the last days of the Roman empire.