I've been sitting here for the last hour or so trying to put my thoughts down on this blank white screen. My thoughts are jumbled this morning and nothing is clearly presenting itself as a starting point for a post. I'm thinking about the news this morning that Bella's Gotta Brand New Blog is leaving the stream. I'm saddened by that decision because to me, on so many levels it represents a loss.

I'm real. I can't be any other way, it doesn't feel comfortable to me. I make a clear delineation between truth and fiction and all of what appears here in Raindrops is the truth as I know it. I admittedly don't always understand that others here are not the same. It would make my life easier if it were, but it's not and that is an aspect of blogging that I must deal with if I choose to continue. There are constantly questions in my mind that cause me to periodically consider whether I belong here or not. So far I have successfully dealt with those questions to my own satisfaction and found reasons and other people here that made me wish to continue.

There are admittedly stumbling blocks that I have to push aside or climb over in order to continue. One of the hardest, for me, has to do with something my Mom ingrained into my psyche. She understood that it was much easier to lower yourself to someone elses level than it was to bring them up to yours. To that end she would chastize me by saying either "You are known by the company you keep." or "If you lie down with dogs, you will get up with fleas." With those in mind, I have always chosen my real friends wisely. I stay away from those people who have shown that they're two faced or shallow or just plain bad apples. It's much harder to do that when online.

Since I am dealing with me in this post I'm not going to point fingers at the behavior of others. I choose where I go and who I talk to, and those choices are based on who I am as a person, not on a blogging identity. The person I am makes judgements based on what I value as a human being. I can't change that and I won't try. It might be easier if I could, but I'm the one that has to look at myself in the mirror when all is said and done. What looks back at me I would prefer to have some respect for. What looks back at me is not an anonymous character. What looks back at me has no desire to get along, in the blogging world, with the kind of behavior that I wouldn't participate with in the real world. Yet I have done so because I didn't understand.

I try to be respectful of everyone. This is a public forum, and all those who want to be here should be here. That doesn't mean I have to support or encourage them. It's easier for me to pass by and ignore blogs that I'm not comfortable with. I have that right, and I expect others, who aren't comfortable with me, to accord me the same measure of respect. Bloggers who create identities with fictional problems and pass them off as truth aren't going to find me visiting their blogs. I respect your right to be anyone you wish to be, however, I know real people dealing with problems of that nature, and I'm inclined to offer my sympathy to those who truly suffer those traumas, not people who fake it for the attention.

The article started out with the sentence "Remember when opening a toy package just meant opening a box lid and didn't require power tools?" Now THAT got my attention. It turned out to be a list of 25 things that people wished would come back. My question would be, if we wanted them to start out with, would they be gone? You be the judge.

25....Grape Nehi soda
24....House and Garden magazine
23....The use of vowels that texting has dismissed. (I HEAR that one.)
22....Lard ( I admit McDonalds french fries used to taste better and OH! those artery clogging pie crusts.)
21....Howard Johnsons restaurants. (Worst case of food poisoning I ever had came from their fried clams)
20....Vent windows in cars.
19....Screaming Yellow Zonkers
18....Train travel
17....Harry Potter? ( New adventures, I believe)
16....Chrome
15....Jello Salads
14....Drive In's (OH YES!!!!!!)
13....Gas Station Attendants ( The joys of having someone else pump your gas)
12....Old Fashioned Milk Shakes
11....45's
10....McDonalds Fried Apple Pie... (Yummy)
9......Cursive writing....(Elegance and readability)
8......Full sized spare tires. ( Donuts are for EATING)
7......Day games during baseball playoffs
6......Phone booths
5......Airplane travel that was fun
4......Hydrox Cookies (Made by Sunshine Bisquits they were the ORIGINAL creme filled cookie)
3......Easy to open packaging. (LOL, I hear that one too)
2......In Store Lunch Counters.
1......The Far Side Comic strip.

Every time you think you've weathered one storm successfully another one comes along to test your patience. I guess that's what life is all about. I can't change it, the only thing I can change is how I deal with it. In order to deal with it in a positive manner, sometimes you have to get the negative out before you can let the positive in.



I've learned in the last few weeks that when you are secure in a decision that you've made in life, you don't run around picking fights with people who don't agree with you. Nor do you look for them to support you when you spend your time blaming others for consequences, of your actions, that could be remedied by your own initiative. If you choose to quit your job without making sure you have enough money to pay your rent and eat, don't you think you need to get another job? What part of laying around blaming others who won't continue to support you financially when you want nothing from them except that money makes them bad people? Able bodied people can't be starved to death if they accept responsibility for their actions and seek employment.



Another thing I've learned in the last few weeks is that if you don't want people talking about you, don't air your dirty laundry in public. People sharing opinions about your situation with other people isn't slander or defamation of character. It's gossip, but if you had kept your business to yourself to start out with, there wouldn't be anything to gossip about to start out with...now would there?



In all issues there are usually two sides and the truth usually lies somewhere in between. I have a problem with people who choose to present their side and then attempt to prevent the opposition from receiving a fair hearing. It's a free country, and amazingly that allows us to speak with anyone we choose to speak with as long as we aren't threatening to overthrow the government. To attempt to control that by threatening people with court action leaves me wondering exactly what is it you're trying to hide?

I sometimes wonder if Congress didn't denigrate the meaning of Memorial Day when they moved it to the last Monday in May so that we could have a three day weekend. Before the change, we couldn't shop on Memorial Day, or buy gas. It wasn't a good excuse for a camping trip or party. It was a day to honor our dead. A day of remembrance, not just for our fallen soldiers but for all who've gone before us. A day we once set aside to tell them that they may be gone from our lives, but they are missed. We hold them in our hearts until the day that we join them.

Memorial Day weekend is considered by many to be the unofficial start of the summer season. Campers are on the move to their campsites. There they will fire up the grills, break out the hamburgers and hot dogs, grab a cold drink or two, crank up the music and party.

Others might head for the beach,

 or a cabin in the woods.

Whatever you're doing, lets kick off this summer fun with a few summertime tunes and have a happy and safe Memorial Weekend.