It was raining when I got up and since Susan is still in Connecticut, I skipped my morning walk. Pat didn't get up until noon and wasn't settled in his chair in the living room until after 3:00. I then drove up to Target and got new gardening gloves and a foam kneeling pad.
In the meantime, I composed a letter to the Press of Atlantic City regarding a recent article on the Gosselin ("Jon and Kate...") family. I related their situation to that of the Dionne Quintuplets, who were born 70 years earlier to the month than their sextuplets.
Saw, also in the A.C. Press, that Betty Donahue's house on Buffalo Avenue in Ventnor was sold. Betty was my mother's friend for more than 70 years and was a young widow when my parents introduced her to my father's college roommate and good friend. At that time, my "Uncle Bob" seemed ancient to me, but was probably in his early fifties. By all accounts, they had a happy marriage until Bob died 10 or so years later. Betty lived with her son, Joe Clark, who was an attorney in Pennsy. Sadly, he was found dead in the house a few years ago.
Pictures of sister Betty, brother Frank, and me were taken in front of that house shortly before our eighth-grade graduation. Our father had just been killed and the pictures seem to show Betty and me dazed and Frank sullen.
Or maybe not. Our actual feelings are probably hidden by time, faulty memory, and the conventions of the day. Just as well, I guess.
Wider: Chris Floyd, in "Empire Burlesque" quotes a Canadian columnist:
"As in Iraq, profound ignorance and gung ho military arrogance drive U.S. Afghan policy. Obama's people have no understanding what they are getting into in "AfPak." I can tell them: An unholy mess we will long regret."
Of course, there's much, much more and the piece should be read in its entirety at http://www.chris-floyd.com/.