PatrickXFCE’s Neighborhood

I've been a Treo user for about 4 years.

When the iPhone came out I will admit I was intrigued. My sister bought one and after 5 minutes playing with it I knew it wasn't for me. No buttons, slow ass internet. Sure it was a sexy phone. But functional? NO. (at least not in my opinion.) Plus I really didn't want to leave Sprint who I've been with for over 12 years.

I upgraded from a Treo 650 to a Treo 700 about two years ago when they first came out. I LOVED the Palm operating system and had spent a LOT of money on 3rd party software to use with my phone. Then the dreaded reset loop of death happened about 3 weeks ago. The phone was Kaput.

Thankfully I have insurance. This means that if my phone breaks for any reason Sprint replaces it at no charge to me. Since they didn't carry the Treo 700P anymore and couldn't get a refurbished one, I was given a Treo 700WX with the Windows Mobile 5 Operating System.

At first I was really miffed. What about all of my 3rd party software?

Well..I got by without it. Windows Mobile is a BEAUTIFUL Operating System. Way more "techie" looking than Palm.  I was a happy camper. I got a BRAND SPANKING NEW Treo 700WX for FREE. YAY!

Fast forward two weeks to Monday. Sprint released the NEW Palm Treo 800W.

Palm Treo 800W

I am mulling over some things in my head.
Reasons to move:  1) house no longer serves our perhaps (kids no longer at Union), 2) the neighbors (though we have been left alone, 3) Neither of like mowing or can do it due to allergies, 4) Apartment would be cheaper 5)  Don't want to or know how to fix the house.
Reasons to Stay: 

I recently watched the new movie about Nancy Drew.  I never read the books when I was younger.  So, I picked one up to see what they are like.  Wow!  She is way cool.  I always thought she was much younger.  I can't seem to put the books down.  There is an old fashioned charm about them.  About a simpler time.  Before computers and tv.

Since I came and updated here...Geez..

Where does the time go??

So what have I been up to??

Big changes...MAJOR Changes...

I quit smoking, AND I quit drinking. It will be 4 weeks on Tuesday since I had a drink OR a smoke.

I quit cold turkey.

I started RUNNING!! I'm doing a Couch to 5 K running program. (and I LOVE IT!!)

I am starting the 4th week of a Body For Life Challenge on Monday. Since starting the challenge 3 weeks ago I have dropped 17 pounds. (AND lost more than 3 inches off of my waist!)

Life is AWESOME. So awesome that I've just been so damn happy, and busy working on myself and my family that I haven't had time to come here and update. (I'm so sorry for that too.)

The kids are out of school still so we are spending a LOT of days snuggled up watching movies, or out in the pool, or out in nature when we can tolerate the heat.

The twins had their 9th birthday and Austin had his 11th since I blogged last. I'm still in shock that my boys are all that old..

What else..hmm.. That's about it.

I'm doing a Body For Life only blog on Wordpress.  The platform over there is nice, but not as cool as Vox, so I wish I had done it here, but oh well..too late. The link is out on too many sites now to change it.

I SWEAR I will get better at updating here...things have just been SO CRAZY this past month...you know...

I have so much I want to write about and I'm just going to have to make myself sit down and write it.

Well...we just got The Spiderwick Chronicles on DVD so the kids are bugging me to make popcorn and come watch it with them..

I'll be back soon!! (I PROMISE!!)

He had taken to his new diet like a champ.  He had fruit and apple juice today at our fave res truant.  We went to wal-mart which next door.  Jsohua had a bad case of runs in his underwear.  So, I guess he is developing a apple intolerance or maybe he just had to much from the juices.  At least I have time to figure it out before school starts.  Mom so kindly found him pizza crusts that are GFCF.  So I will try them tonight.  I have not been able to find a cheese, yet.

I am grateful for our freedom to vote.  I often have premintions (even I can't spell it).  It just dawned on me.  Way before this years election announcement of Obama's run for office.  I told my husband we would have a black man (whatever the political correct term is) before we would a woman president.  Little did I know loomed ahead a historic election that would involve both of them.  

I was born at the beginning of World War II in 1939, and was 5 or 6 years old when it finished. I can remember bits of it as experienced in my little bush town in Australia. I can remember my father listening intently on our valve radio to the war news that used to come on after the regular news. As he was a rural worker he was unable to enlist in the war. He instead belonged to the Voluntary Defence Corp, a sort of Aussie Dad's Army. I can remember him keeping his .303 rifle in the wardrobe. My elder sister tells me that my mother also had poison doses for us all if we were invaded.

 I also remember my mother taking me "down town" to see the American convoys going through town. For the first time I became aware of black Americans, and can still see their broad smiles as they drove through town. The only other thing I can remember is my mother telling me she thought the war may be over because of the cheering that came from a house we passed as we walked down town.

So, I am always conscious in Europe and the U.K. of how much more those people suffered who were at the front lines of those terrible wars. I remembered driving over the Somme in France; imagining the Nazi flag flying from the Eiffel tower; and seeing the balcony of the Summer Palace in Vienna where Hitler announced to the Austrian people that they were now part of Germany.

So, a visit to the Imperial War Museum in London was a must. It is in Lambeth Road, Southwark. That building had originally been a psychiatric hospital, Bethlem Royal Hospital (otherwise known as "Bedlam"), located in St. George's Fields. And that is where the word "bedlam" originated. You just can't escape history anywhere in London. On the way to the Imperial War Museum we passed by a building that had been the home of Bligh of the Bounty, who was also one of the early Governors of the colony of New South Wales.

This is the entrance to the Imperial War Museum:

Imperial War Museum entrance

And these are some of the planes on display including the famous Spitfire which featured in so many of my boyhood stories.

Planes Imperial War Museum

 
 
And this is a rather sad exhibit among so many sad exhibits. It is the motor cycle that Lawrence of Arabia was riding when he was killed.

Lawrence of Arabias bike

There are many displays of various battles and wars, but the two displays that stick in my mind are of the Holocaust and the D day landing. The horrors of the Holocaust are sickening to see, and one wonders how otherwise civilised people could have descended to such depths. The observation that civilisation is but a thin veneer is illustrated there for all to see.

Probably the most poignant exhibit for me was the letter written on the morning of the D day landings by a young 20 year old soldier to his sister assuring her that he would be alright. He was killed that very day.

I've been thinking about the meaning of life. And I really don't know what all the fuss is about. Philosophers go on and on, but never get there. Neither do the religious people. Oh, they'll tell you that they do, but like the philosophers, they'll go on and on, and eventually they all tell you that it's God. But what do they mean by God? It is, after all, just a word. So we all go off and put our own meanings to that word. And we're all happy. The philosophers have their God, the religious guys have theirs, and you and I have ours.

But it isn't a very satisfactory answer, is it. We're all talking about different Gods. So, I've decided to invent a new God. I've modestly decided to name it "Snowy". Snowy, the God, doesn't pretend to have any answers. The Snowy God just looks around, and says that the answers are there for those who seek them. And there isn't any best fit answer. Whatever answer makes sense to you is the right answer.

So, that's settled. Now, you may be interested in the Snowy answer. The Snowy God is the reason why we get out of bed in the morning. It's the reason why we go to work; why we spend so much of our lives despairing of, and exhalting in, relationships; and in our more reflective moments, why we wonder why.

And I'm happy to tell you that the Snowy God has it all figured out. And Snowy God reluctantly hands the baton on to a new God. It's called  "Survival". And if we reflect on our lives we find that so much of it is spent genuflecting before its altar. We endure endless crap in our jobs in its name; we endure much heartbreak at the altar of relationships; and those of us who have children tremble at the adversity that we know they will have to overcome in their obeisance to God, Survival.

And that's just the way it is. The religious guys like to think that they have the measure of God, Survival. They say that, so long as you do what they say, then they have God Survival beat. Their God overcomes Survival God when you die. Because you don't actually die if you live this life the way they tell you to. But you just have to have faith that what they say is true, because they can't actually point to anyone who has come back from the dead, except one guy 2,000 years ago, who seems to be conveniently absent now. Yeah, right...

So, I think we can dismiss those guys, because they make one fundamental error. They assume that this wondrous, mind boggling, universe was created for the benefit of human beings, on a small, insignificant planet called Earth. Such an arrogance. I'll take the Snowy God, thanks. It makes so much more sense, don't you think?