Fundraising Fury Part I

Money does not grow on trees. Even though it grows on trees since it comes paper which comes from trees. 

Fundraising is increasingly more and more difficult in current times. And right now, that is what I am having to do for my sledge hockey team. The team has gone through a lot of super highs and super lows. Especially through last season.

Last week, I set up an account on a fundraising website. The funds raised are going towards getting myself some brand new equipment (Sled, sticks, etc.) since most of these things are loaned to me. And I feel that if something should happen to the team that the program is gone, I would not be able to keep up with the sport on my own. And to be honest, with all the things that happened last season- it was a real fear for me that it would happen. After we lost our ice, the only time we ever got back on it was when we hit the road.

The site began off with a surprising BANG. It received four donations within the first 24 hours. But since that time it has not received another donation. And I believe that’s just the way it goes. I was totally shocked of learning that I had what I had in the first place. I didn’t think that I would receive the first donation for a month. And in reality, I received the first in one hour!

Fundraising is all about who you know. And with that, brings me to the meat and potatoes of this blog post.

In 2009, the whole world was introduced to a woman who later would be known as “Octomom”. This woman from southern California was pregnant with octuplets. It was truly a wonder to behold that someone was carrying that many children in her womb. People reached out and she nearly became an overnight sensation.

She now has a total of 14 children. All of them were born through IVF.

Last night, as I was looking at the website in general, I saw a fundraising campaign that had the name of “Octomom” with it. I took a look at it and what did my eyes behold…. a fundraising campaign for her to pay for a new house for her children. Her goal is $150,000.

It stumped me. I was completely floored.

What happened to her? What happened to all of the fortune and fame that she has been receiving in the past three years?? What’s been going on with the children???

At first, I thought that this was a scam. But as I investigated further I would realize that there was a chance that this was for real.

This morning, I received that confirmation as I went and searched for her. At the top of the search results were articles about how she posted on a fundraising site to get money for a new home. It’s REAL!

I became more baffled as I would also find that she filed for bankruptcy because she owes nearly $1 MILLION in debt. And part of that is $30,000 in back rent on the house that she was living in. NOW, that that house has been foreclosed on.

How in the world does a woman who receives overnight celebrity status suddenly owe that much money? And what in the world has she been doing with all that fortune and fame over the past several years?

The last bit of news that I actually paid attention to, she was stripping in clubs. She’s put out a music single. And she got paid to do a semi-nude photo shoot to go along with an interview for a British magazine. Although she did decline a million dollar offer to do a porn film. However, Wicked Productions has worked with her on a solo/masturbatory film, which has yet to be released.

What happened to all of that money? Why aren’t the bills being paid??

And is there anyone in the world that is thinking the same thing that I am at this point… that she rode the celebrity party train until it derailed, rather than doing the right thing for her children?

I will say this: I do not put ANY of this on her children. She had eight children at once, which is a bit of a fascinating medical miracle. They are the first set of octuplets to have survived their infancy in history. And yes, I believed that at the time of their births, she was going to need all the help she could get. She went from six children to 14.

What drives me batty is the fact that she went through IVF treatments in Beverly Hills, California. She’s a single mother of all these children, and the fact that she remains a recipient of food stamps and Social Security disability. Even through all of the things that she received from strangers worldwide, the different deals she was given to make money…. now you are trying to tell me that she is broke and thrown out of her house and begging for money on a fundraising website?

These children didn’t ask for this!

And so the conniption fit ensues.

My opinion is that she became this well-known mother of many children, was in our faces for days and weeks back in 2009, and yes- thankfully, these children survived. But through all of the things that she was given or offered which gave her fortune and fame, she’s broke. Filed bankruptcy. And my opinion is that she totally couldn’t handle it and pissed it all away.

Let me repeat that fundraising is all about who you know. EVERYONE knows “Octomom”. But not everyone knows ME.

And that is the difference that she has received (at last check) $1,787 out of her $150,000 goal in the first 3 days. Meanwhile, I am still steady with the four donations that I have received in six days. And those four people who did donate have been personally given my words of appreciation.

I do not know what kind of mother she is to her 14 children. Neither do I know the full extent of her situation. I do not know what it is like for her behind closed doors. It just appears on the surface that she is back in the news because she’s experiencing rough times because of her own decisions and receiving the consequences. And quite possibly, biting into the vein of charity because of it. So yeah, I am admitting that there is a chance that I am 100% wrong about all of this.

And ending on a personal note: Thank you to my wonderful friend Lisa, who allowed me to get out the initial venting and frustration about all of this very late last night. The conniption fit here in this blog post probably would have been a lot worse if I had not got some of this out. I do apologize for drawing first blood on the F-bomb.

 

 

 

 

 

Proof Positive

“It’s definitely a struggle to prove yourself just as a good human being.”~Tina Yothers 

There simply is nothing that you can do about the idiots of the universe. The one and only thing that we as human beings can do is take care of ourselves.

Earlier, I had posted a comment on Facebook, to which caused the person to send me a nasty message in my personal e-mail. It came in such recording timing that I think it should be added as an Olympic sport in 2016.

The comment was actually a simple, but genuine compliment. But here they were, barreling down my throat about it because they were sick and tired of OTHER people’s behaviors and maliciousness.

Did I deserve it? I don’t think so. But I got it anyways.

This one woman simply had compared my compliment to another person’s compliment and basically did whatever she could to de-value the sincerity.

I was unaware of the similar comment that was made by someone prior to mine. And by the time I had seen it, it was far too late.

The previous comment that had been made by someone else was almost mirrored to what I had said. With the exception of one sentence that they made the impulsive and selfish remark that they wanted to do things to her that just shouldn’t be told in children’s stories. Much less, shouldn’t even exist on the Internet.

Her personal message basically stated that she was sick and tired of being told by ugly men about what they wanted to do with her. And they don’t even know her.

Yes, she is single. Yes, she is physically attractive. Yes, she hears a lot of sexual advances that are uncouth, but from other men.

And as for myself, I am constantly finding myself in an uphill battle with women in regarding relationships with them that always seems to be this tango of trouble. All because of what someone ELSE has said or done.

I could be greatly offended by this woman’s message and I would have every right in the world to just hit REPLY and give her the proverbial bitch-slapping of her life for attacking me for what I would see as “no good reason”. But I have not, and I will not.

Why you may ask?

My comment (which would eventually be deleted among all of the rest of them) was made with pure and good intention. There was nothing about it that implied that I was flirting or hitting on her or making sexual advances. These were done already by people who had commented before me.

Those who know me, know that I believe in the power of compliments without powdering it with bullshit.

And yes, I complain A LOT about how difficult it is to maintain certain relationships with people. Especially when others are acting like the royal douchebags that they are. As they say, “its a tough act to follow”.

The colossal asshat who started this mess, is someone that I prefer to avoid on the Internet. Sometimes I am successful, and other times not so much. I recognize that he has his own agenda and usually that doesn’t nothing to turn women on. I can see that, perhaps he cannot. And well, that’s just too bad.

But honestly, relationships in fact are difficult. And you must think to yourself and question whether or not the relationship is worth being in.

Could I have gone off on this woman? Of course. And no jury in the world would ever convict me for doing so. But instead, I have to remind myself of taking a different approach when I somehow justify the relationship is worth fighting for.

PROVE YOURSELF.

No matter how stupid or ugly or inconsiderate others are being, if you stay true to yourself and stick with it then eventually the fires will go out and you will still be standing. Those who have made fools of themselves will be nothing but smoke and dust.

Prove to the people that you find worth fighting for that you are NOT “all the same”. The same goes for women over their relationships with men. If you have the strength to take all of the shit that is poured upon you, then they soon will see that you are in fact someone genuine and not fake. They will come to realize in their own time that you ARE someone who has been in their corner the entire time, and without an personal selfish agenda. They will realize that you are true to them and they will see that you are someone that they would want to keep in their lives.

Naturally this woman got so pissed off and offended by these other comments that were made. She went off on me personally for no good or apparent reason. But I think that by dusting my shoulders off from her vomited mass, that it will pass and things can carry on as they had.

I really feel sorry for these people that I feel that I have to avoid. I know for a fact that I have in recent times proven to be a valued and trusted person to others. And that all had boiled down to the fact that I had the courage and strength to stand up as well as stand out in a good and positive light.

Good things do come to those who wait! The rewards of being able to handle the blitzkrieg of personal drama and every day life will always be greater in the end.

Now I will go and see if I cannot find what is left of my head.

 

 

 

Nom, Nom, Nom Nonsense

“All the world is birthday cake, so take a piece, but not too much.”~ George Harrison 

The story that I am about to tell here is 100% true. This is going to go down as the funniest moment in the month of July 2012 where I live.

On the last Wednesday of the month, we celebrate in a collective spirit all of those neighbors who celebrate a birthday in that particular month.

Luckily our glorious new social worker found a company or a business who actually will make a cake for us and then donate it to our monthly gathering of people.

This cake was chocolate, with a mint green color butter creme frosting.

But there was some left over.

This afternoon, it was set out for anyone to enjoy. I noticed it sitting there and I thought that I was going to grab a piece of this cake for someone. Obviously staff wasn’t wanting any leftovers and so it was, what I call “free range”. Any and every man for themselves!!

As I sat down with my piece of cake, I began to feel a little tired from out of nowhere. So I poured a cup of coffee. But by the time I had finished my cake and coffee and was ready to rinse out the cup in the kitchen, I did notice that there were at least three cut pieces of cake left.

I rolled on into the kitchen and rinsed out the coffee cup and put it away. Then I came back out.

One of the neighbors who was there in the community room already was standing by the cake box. I moved around her only to see both of her hands digging in. No fork, no serving knife– her very own hands!!

This woman was going in fist after fist of chocolate cake and literally taking “nom, nom, nom” to a whole new level.

The only thing that I could think of was the fact that there might not be a piece of cake left for me to take to someone else. So I asked her what in the world was she doing.

She backed up and smiled and laughed maniacally. When she turned and faced me, she literally had that mint green frosting and bits and crumbs of chocolate cake on all ten of her fingers. The frosting and cake was also spotted in a perfect ring around her mouth, that went up her nose and along one side of her face.

I then made the comment “You look like a seven year old celebrating a birthday!”, I was actually horrified.

Someone who was on the other side of the room shouted back “She IS celebrating a birthday this month!!”, and I wondered where that had come from.

Then she walked away and went into the women’s restroom. Frosting just oozing and dripping from her fingers and falling onto the floor. It left a nice messy trail.

I laughed for a bit, thinking that this was all silly. But I stopped laughing when I saw what she had done with the remaining three pieces of cake.

There was only left what looked like discarded frosting in clumps all along the bottom of the cake box. And one piece of cake that looked like it had been smashed and stepped on.

Given into account that this woman is in her mid to upper 60’s, I wondered if delirium had set in. A seven year old though would have done less damage similar to this. I probably should have said three.

I’ve yet to determine my feelings on this. I don’t know whether to be upset that she would do such a thing at her age OR just kind of laugh it off knowing that she is “getting up there” and what not. But I think either way, I’d be making an excuse.

I shared this story with someone else over the telephone earlier this evening and the laughed until they could no longer breathe and eventually that caused them to have to go get their portable oxygen tank and put it on so that they could restore their breathing.

Oops.

But for you dear followers, I had to share for you on this Friday for one heck of a laugh for yourself.

This place that I live in, is insane. And I’ll continue to write about the misadventures. Stay tuned.

 

Twenty-Five Years

I never would have thought that this day would come. 

I didn’t ever think that it would. But it has. And I definitely never would have been able to tell you so many years ago what I thought it would be like.

Twenty-five years ago on this day, I lost my mother to cancer. In my mind it is rather difficult to believe that it has been that long.

Sad to say that some of my memories of my mother when she was with us are starting to turn into shades of grey and white. But not all of them. I will sometimes remember certain times growing up when she was not sick.

Nevertheless, this was “the day”.

Each of member of my family remembers it in their own special way. Perhaps they don’t remember all of the finer details of that day, but we all do remember.

I wrote about it in my blog one year ago. If you care to read it, you can find it here:

https://dambreaker.wordpress.com/2011/07/25/mother/

I can still hear the voice of my mother yelling at me until it cracked. Usually that meant that I was in big trouble. And ironically it is that yelling voice in my head that comforts me to a point. Although the mental image in my head of what my mother looked like is almost gone. I personally do not own any photographs of her when she was still with us. Other members of my family however do have some photographs.

Last night, I remember feeling very cold. And there honestly wasn’t any reason for me to be that cold. That was a bit strange. But I guess that one could argue that the cold feeling that surrounded me was my mother wrapping me in her arms. Others probably wouldn’t see it that way at all.

Then I had a particular memory of seeing a photograph of my mother standing by the sliding glass door. There were no lights on and she was in her night gown. Her hair slowly starting to come back after all of the chemotherapy and radiation treatments. Half of her body was in a bright light from the natural light that  came through the glass, and the other half of her body was as dark as the rest of the house. The family dog laying at her feet, staring out through the glass door as my mother was. It was taken a few years before she would pass away. When I remembered that photograph, I cried.

Everyone handles death and grieving differently. Some cry, some weep. I tend to be the one that talks about it, over and over again.

And yet through all of the sadness and tears, I must always remember that my mother was someone who loved her children. That includes me.

There are some children in this world who have parents that don’t bother to care. I’m fortunate enough to have had a mother who did love her children very much. Even though among my two brothers and sister, we always seem to have stories or memories of our mother beating our asses when we did something wrong. Of course that is grossly an exaggeration. She did love us enough to let us have it and discipline us when we did something wrong. And now when it is talked about, we laugh… even though back then, I’m sure we all cried our eyes out when we got punished.

Today is no difference in the matters of difficulty than any other year that has passed. But I think that what I CAN remember is something that I can hold on to and nobody can take it away. I still miss my mother and I love her. It just feels strange to say that she has been gone for so long.

 

 

 

 

Causing Problems At Bars On Karaoke Night

“A person without a sense of humor is like a wagon without springs. It’s jolted by every pebble on the road.”~ Henry Ward Beecher 

I guess some drunk people just can’t take a joke sometimes. But I knew that eventually I was going to get into trouble some day.

Karaoke night. And the first thing that happened when I went through the front door was someone coming up to me asking if I was going to participate in singing karaoke. Of which I didn’t realize was going on.

Since I have done so in the past at that particular place, I agreed. Without skipping a beat, the person who was asking gave me a list of songs that I was banned from singing.

Banned.

Wow! Seriously? And they apparently were.

It was a list of pop songs with my name on it at the top a full page long of various songs that I have sung in the past and won their karaoke contests with in a landslide vote by bar patrons.

And now I’m banned from singing them ever again in that establishment. And one another has banned me from singing one pop song in particular. That is if I am wanting to be a part of their karaoke contests.

I never actually take their prizes. Usually its just free drinks or a free entree or whatever. And since I do not drink, I never use it. I always give it to someone else before I leave.

Okay, whatever. So this forced me to go through their “book” to find something to sing that I was comfortable with, and that I could work with in my vocal range.

I had one problem. One very huge problem. The book was full of country karaoke music.

But as I went through the book and worked towards the end, I saw something listed on a page that was familiar with me. It was written in the genre of country music too. Everyone who sang ahead of me were singing country.

So I selected the song, “Good Enough For Now” by none other than “Weird Al” Yankovic.

Since most of you have not been living under a rock, I do not have to explain who that is. But when you have a room full of people who are drinking tons of beer and enjoying country music, this selection was ripe with disaster. I just wouldn’t know it yet until I got settled on the stage.

I had a very tough act to follow. The guy who was singing before me, had brought his girlfriend up near the stage and he sang John Michael Montgomery’s version of the song, “I Swear”. To which brought her to tears and many people who watch this magical romantic moment.

How the heck am I going to dazzle a crowd in which the winner is chosen by applause and THAT kind of thing happens? There is just no beating that kind of act!!

I watched the crowd, and I selected two women that I would “sing to”. One extremely drunk, the other pretty wild, drunk, and dressed very slutty celebrating her 21st birthday. It was too easy to select the birthday girl for this rather amusing and funny gag.

I sang this song to the two women and I nearly was torn off the stage by them both. By the first for most of the song, and then by the second woman by the end of the song. Of which I might add was not a karaoke version. I had to sing along with the album version.

They should have realized that by the second line of the song, that this was all just a big joke.

One of them, I guess it might have been a husband or boyfriend was standing there with a beer rushed the stage and stuck his middle finger in my face and screaming with a resounding “Hey, fuck you buddy!!”. 

I kept singing. I moved away when I could but he would follow. But then when I turned my attention to the second girl (the birthday girl), he stopped. But then the second girl was throwing a fit and that was probably because she was embarrassed. She was just so awfully tempting to pick out because she was so loud and obnoxious and of course, drunk out of her mind.

I got yelled and screamed at for a while after I got off the stage A lot of people shouted their obscenities at me. Luckily nobody came after me and started a physical confrontation.

If you want to know why this caused such a problem, you can find the song on YouTube or you can Google search the lyrics.

The song came off of the album “Polka Party” which was released in October 1986. I thought for sure that many of these people would find the humor. I thought wrong. Maybe everyone in this crowd were born AFTER 1986? I don’t know.

I just know that if I am going to be “banned” from singing songs, and my hands are tied behind my back when everyone is doing country songs, I’m going to go at it in my own way. Which I did.

I even said during the musical solo into the microphone that it was just a joke. Nobody found it funny Except for a couple of people way in the back sitting at the bar who was laughing to themselves when they heard me singing the words to the song.

I wasn’t going to win. But then again I never planned to join the contest in the first place. I was just trying to get out of the house and have some fun and relax. This is probably no longer the place to do that any more.

I’m still trying to wrap around my mind of how they can “ban” me from singing specific songs.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ridiculous: Like a BOSS.

“We are all born ignorant, but one must work hard to remain stupid.”~ Benjamin Franklin

Facebook remains on top of the mountain. King for a plethora of assorted drama. A nest of narcissism. And I’m going to begin a mission to blog about it whenever it comes up and amuses me.

Recently I have found myself straying away from the idea of keeping the amount of friends l0w. I had thought that I was doing well. And maybe Facebook had a glitch again.

But I’ve found myself adding some new people and I’ve noticed that the total number of people of “friends” has been soaring.

Needless to say that some of the newer ones haven’t been all that bad. It will take some time to get to know them, and for them to get to know me. That’s just what its all about.

But I’ve also experienced some wild and ridiculous deletions, if you will.

I had stumbled across a comment feed, and I thought I saw someone that I knew long ago. I went to check their personal Facebook profile, but there was nothing that I could see because of privacy settings. It was a case that I could have sworn that this was someone that I knew. So I had sent a friend request.

A few moments later, I receive the notification that they had accepted my friend request. Yaaay!! It was time to go and investigate whether or not I was correct.

By the time I clicked on to their profile, I couldn’t see anything. All these error messages came up.  They had REMOVED me as their friend.

So I sent another request. Again, they accepted it. And then again, they removed me just moments later.

What are people trying to prove by doing something like that? I thought that this was a “social networking” site.

I didn’t bother with it, and I moved on. I later returned to Facebook to share some information with someone, and it was then that I realized that I had a hidden message in the inbox. It was that person that had accepted and deleted me twice.

“Do I know you? Who are you?”.

Okay, when that happens people….. chances are that they have NO freaking clue what they are doing and they do not know who you are. And they’re not that willing to add you to Facebook.

This story however, was a little insane. I had been off of Facebook for a substantial amount of time before I came back and then I found that message. And there was all these questions. “You wanna add me but you don’t wanna talk to me? What is your problem? Who are you?” and so on.

Then I looked and it said that I was unable to reply to this person. They went for the full-on block.

Wow.

They ask me a bunch of questions. They were assuming that I was sitting right there on Facebook and ignoring them. So then they block me. Whatever. It obviously was not the person that I thought was, because they wouldn’t gone to the lengths that they did to act like such a jerk. If it had been the person that I thought it was, I would imagine that it would have been questions like “Don’t I know you from?” and so on.

I had another example in which someone had added me. They LOVED to talk! They LOVED the attention!! But as I continued to talk with them, and I searched through their profile, I found out for myself that they were pretty fake. But I said nothing about it to them. I started a series of questions to get to know them.

That apparently was not good. And they said that I was getting out of line and they didn’t need that and so they blocked me.

I was not getting out of line, I was finding them out and they didn’t want me to.

I guess that society will forever have their idiots who wanna be fake, hide behind a computer, and cause mass hysteria for others and not care what happens.

So all of this has become funny to the point that I am going to make an effort to share the stories of these stupid people. And who knows, maybe you know a few of them yourself.

 

Nightmares With Don Music

“I don’t know anything about music. In my line you don’t have to.”~ Elvis Presley 

Since I’ve noticed that you faithful readers love to read posts about what was then considered “painful”, but now is absolutely funny, I’ve decided for this post to oblige you one more time.

If you know my family, you can ask them and they will confirm that this character on the children’s program, “Sesame Street”, scared me to death!!!!!!

As a child, I had a lot of difficulty with a lot of things because they were extremely sensitive to my young hearing. Mainly loud noises such as sirens, jet planes, church bells, whistles, air horns, thunder and so on.

Yet I was terrified and terrorized by this muppet from each episode of Sesame Street that he appeared in. It got to the point where I would immediately begin to cry whenever he would show up on the screen and my mother would have to come in and hold my ears until it was all over.

This character was a composer and he would always struggle to find the last few lines of any simple tune, such as “Mary Had A Little Lamb” and “Twinkle, Twinkle”. Kermit the Frog would always be standing there by his piano as a reporter and whenever the piano player would get stuck trying to come up with the next line, he’d take his frustrations out by slamming his head onto the keyboard.

I think that it was the abrupt noise of hands being slammed down on the piano that got to me. I don’t know or remember.

This muppet always made me cry!

How funny that I would never learn until tonight that the character’s name was Don Music. However soon after the debut of Don Music on the show, reports of children imitating him and getting hurt by pounding their heads on pianos caused the producers to take him off the show.

As a kid, I probably didn’t care. I just didn’t want him to do what he always did. Slam his head on the keyboard.

Eventually by the end, he would be able to get the song that he was struggling so hard with, and then a chorus of others would come into the room and join him in singing whatever song he was trying to get.

I came across a photograph of him earlier today and I swam in the memories of being in total fear. And then I just laughed my butt off.

I’m not quite sure when or how old I was when I finally would LAUGH whenever he would bang his head on the piano, but I would get over my fear of it. And the extremely loud noises that bothered me as a child would soon pass away.

Oh, the things that scar us when we were younger!

 

 

Secrets Of World War II

“Settle matters quickly.”~ Winston Churchill 

I found this story rather intriguing and interesting. I had never heard about it before until yesterday. And that is the story of what was called Operation: Catapult which happened early during the second world war.

The Germans were marching across Europe seizing nation after nation. France was soon to be under attack by the invading Nazi forces.

This caused great concern for the British Empire. They feared that because of the fact that the United States had not entered the war, that if the French were to have fallen into the hands of the enemy, that Great Britain would most certainly become next. Winston Churchill was convinced that if the French forces were to be taken by the enemy, that Britain too would fall and the war would be lost.

In 1940, after the Fall of France and the armistice between France and Nazi Germany, Great Britain became concerned about the possibility that the Germans would acquire control of the French fleet. The combined French and German naval forces would mean that the balance of power at sea might tip in Germany’s favor.

The British government feared the possibility despite the fact that the Armistice terms at Article 8 paragraph 2 stated that the German government “solemnly and firmly declared that it had no intention of making demands regarding the French fleet during the peace negotiations” and similar terms existed in the armistice with Italy.

Furthermore, on 24th of June, Admiral Darlan had given assurances to Churchill against such a possibility (a later German attempt, made in violation of the Armistice terms, resulted in the French fleet scuttling itself in Toulon in 1942). Winston Churchillordered that the French Navy (Marine Nationale) should either join forces with the British Royal Navy or be disabled in some way to prevent the ships from falling into German or Italian hands.

The French fleet was widely dispersed. Some vessels were in port in France; others had escaped from France to British-controlled ports, mainly in Britain and Alexandria, Egypt. Operation Catapult was to take the French ships into British control or destroy them.

What would happen would be chaos.

In the first stage, the French ships in the British ports of Plymouth and Portsmouth were simply boarded on the night of 3rd of July in 1940. On the largest submarine in the world, the Surcouf, which had sought refuge in Portsmouth in June 1940 following the German invasion of France, the crew resisted; two British officers and one seaman were killed. One French sailor was also killed. Other ships were then captured.

After several attempts from the British to take control over the French naval fleet, the French were given an ultimatum to surrender control to the British or be under fire. The French did nothing.

Off the coast of what was then known as French Algeria, at Mers-el-Kébir, the British naval forces actually fired upon their own allies in an effort to sink the resisting French naval fleet after the French denied the British to take control over the fleet.

The British under the guise of not wanting any French ships to be controlled by the Germans would continue concentrated fire power on the French vessels.

At the end of it all 1,297 French sailors lost their lives and 350 were injured. The French suffered the loss or damage of  eight ships in the attack. Only two British servicemen were lost on the other side of the fight, and six British aircraft were gone.

This would obviously cause a lot of pain and friction between the French and the British. The Germans actually had used the attack as propaganda against the British and its allies.

It has been also reported that Winston Churchill came up with this attack because he wanted to show the United States that the British Empire was serious in the efforts of fighting off the Germans to the very end. Churchill had begged the United States President Franklin Roosevelt to send the British some battleships. So depending on one’s point of view, it can be said that the British forces attacked their allies only to gain the support of the United States.

It would work because the United States would send warships to Great Britain. And then a year and a half later, the United States would enter the war after the attack on Pearl Harbor in December of 1941.

 

 

 

 

Excited For A New Day

“In this business, life is one long fund-raising effort. “~Alvin Ailey 

Happy to say that now since the Independence Day holiday is over, that reminds me of two very special and important things that are about to happen.

One, would be the approaching Halloween season, and I have to keep reminding myself that its coming and if I ever wanted to have my dreams come true of working at the House Of Torment, I better get my game face on.

But then “game face” reminds me of the OTHER special and important thing that is soon to happen. And that is the 2012-13 season of sledge hockey!!

Needless to say that our team is still beaming with tons of pride over the fact that we claimed third place in our first ever tournament. Yes, its still being talked about. And we have every stinkin’ right to do so and be very proud of our accomplishments.

And we now are looking forward to perhaps doing it again in the upcoming season. However, it will not be as easy for us as there is talk about it being in Pennsylvania in 2013. Philadelphia, maybe????????????

I know that the StarSkaters program in Houston is considering going. They are fully aware that they must get out there and do whatever they can to fundraise.

This actually is the time now to do fundraising for sledge hockey. At least for MY team. We lost our ice rink at the end of 2011 and we never got back on the ice to practice in our hometown. Each time we got on the ice after the closing of the rink, we had gone out of town.

So there’s the need to raise money for ice time. There’s one ice rink left in town and that’s just flooded with so many different other programs that it feels like we’re being squeezed out of it. Unless we wanna practice in the middle of the night, during the middle of the week. We had become used to our practices on Sundays.

There had been rumors of a brand new ice rink being built. But there was no clear evidence of it. Just a hole that was dug in the ground. Okay, now what? There’s still no rink.

But recently I was told that it was actually going to happen. A new rink was being built and they are expected to be open for business at the beginning of this upcoming season.

Can I get a “AMEN” anyone?

But with the good came the confusing and the potentially bad. The 501(c)3 that our team was beneath the umbrella of no longer exists. And that could possibly be a problem.

I need to find out just what is going on. We could be still under the protection of a 501(c)3 that I am not aware of.

With the financial support of other people that I am connected with, they have said in the past that the sledge hockey team needed to have their OWN non-profit going on. Suddenly I am aware that if this is true and that we are not a part of any, then we could start.

And that’s all fairly technical. I know. The team still goes on with the memories of our first tournament and the burning desire to go to Pennsylvania soon.

I spoke with the leaders of the Houston program. I asked what the magic number was.

$30,000.

They are trying to do their best with a budget without really knowing exactly when and where the tournament will take place. The idea is that with travel and lodging and everything else in between, it might cost around $2,000-3,000 per player. And Houston is wanting TEN solid players to go.

I am guessing that $30,000 is a conservative figure. It really could be a lot more. I am not sure.

So I’m set and ready to go for this new season. And I am in FULL funding mode!

I am open to any and all ideas of how this goal could be achieved. Because I do believe that it is possible. Even though it is a lot.

Both hockey programs, here and in Houston, ARE non-profit.

Any little idea that anyone can think of, please let me know in the comments. We need to get a good start at this before we attempt to hit the ice. Anything and everything is appreciated!!!!!

 

 

 

Brick Walls

“If at first you don’t succeed….” 

Yeah, I know… “try, try again”. Shut up!!

There comes a time when a person will fall to humiliation and defeat. And its all up to that person of whether or not they get back up and dust themselves off.

Then there comes a time when you shrug off so much dirt and dust that you learn that you are strong enough to do it again.

And then there comes a time where you fall and it just gets plain stupid and often, funny once you’re able to look back at it and laugh.

I think that throughout my life I’ve hit the brick wall so many times and in so many different ways that it is almost comical.

But I have to say, that things are different now than what they used to be ten or more years ago. My own shyness was killing my social life. I wouldn’t go up to anyone and talk to them.

As of most recently though, running into that brick wall has been one giant bruise after another. I’m like a disaster waiting to happen.

I was just out and about and I went up to a woman and started to talk to her. It started out innocent enough and then the conversation kept expanding to other topics. Eventually, I thought that this woman might be someone that I could be interested to talking to again. And then it went south and that wall was waiting for me when I reached the bottom.

About the time that I actually had moved closer to her, she moved back a little. At the time I was talking about sledge hockey and I guess it was difficult for her to envision me playing a sport. So then I asked if maybe she would be interested in watching me play and that’s when I moved closer.

Yeah, I probably did invade her personal comfort zone. But women don’t have a visible force field or a sign that says “DO NOT CROSS THIS LINE!”.

Within five minutes of that, a man came up from behind her and picked her up and swung her around like a helicopter blade.

Hmmm.

I had already said and done what I did, and wouldn’t you know it she’s got one HELL of a jealous boyfriend. He wanted to kick my ass apparently. I said “nice to meet ya” and got out of there.

There’s been other times where I have actually had the testicular fortitude to say to someone “let’s meet here at this place and time”. And sure enough they would show up. I had met one woman in this manner. After only talking two days online I said she should meet me at this local beer joint. She and I for those previous two days would learn a little bit about one another and I would always hear about how she had this male roommate in the apartment that she lived in. And she had been considering moving out to be on her own.

But when I was face to face with her (and she had a few beers in her) the term “roommate” changed to “boyfriend”.

And there I was in a small bar with her, having drinks. Ugh, the humiliation!

What is worse than falling down in these types of scenarios are the times where you realize that you’ve made a mistake, and you just cannot seem to find a way to retreat out of it.

This seems to happen to me most when I am in Houston. Because its happened more than once.

Okay, okay…. more than twice.

I was talking with a woman and she smiled and I liked it, so I started to flirt. But nothing happened. So I turned up the juice. Flirting and complimenting was getting nowhere.

Then I had abandoned that for straight up hitting on her.

There was nothing still. I had said and done all that I could think of. And then days after I had been home, I was informed that the woman I was speaking to was married. WHERE’S MY ABORT BUTTON?!?!?

I should probably count my lucky stars though. I’m still alive!

I can see how it could put a damper on ever trying that again. Ever! But then I have to remind myself that life is short. And eventually there will come a time where the brick wall of humiliation, despair, and self-cringing will not be there.

Being single can get lonely and it can get very difficult. Being physically disabled adds a whole new level of difficulty when you are single. But not TRYING can be just as devastating. Each and every time this has happened to me, I refer to them as “war wounds”.

I think that what can be given to me as credit is the fact that I am able to look back after awhile and just laugh. Granted that I may or may not make the exact same mistakes, but I can laugh.