Marie, I found out she has a Samsung cell phone, too that takes pictures. I got the iddy-biddy SGH-a127. I am glad I didn't cut my thumbnails. I guess I could use a pen cause I got big fingers. She was sending me pictures through the phone of the grand babies. Of course, they didn't look like babies. I guess she must have been feeding them good. Last night one of the aides couldn't believe I didn't know how to text on a cell phone so last night I started talking to my hand like all the rest of the nurses and aides on the cell phones after she showed me how to text. Wished it was something easier to figure out like a computer. During my break we had a nice heart to heart chat trying to resolve some grief issues. It had been two years since the passing so it is better. Sometimes you just to be like the unsinkable Molly Brown with it and keep your head above water. There sure ain't any quick fixes to it but things sure a lot better between us.

I bet if someone has had someone who has passed that it would put a different take on the show.

My grandmother on my dad's side was psychic and her husband was a Baptist minister. She was a good cook is all I remember but dad told me some stories about her that I thought were kind of eerie. I have some strange kinfolk.

I always wondered if the show was legit. I thought it was pretty entertaining though.

Even though my step daughter and me had to deal with her mother's passing separately we are doing some bonding now. She lives far away but on instant messenger it can be real close. Getting some updates on my two granddaughters and two grandsons. It is like I am all she has of her mother if that makes sense. I am the only real grandfather the kids ever had since her dad died of aids. It is almost like crossing over with John Edwards.

Aw, now. You make sure to wake up later. That way you can share your nightmares. Don't forget to feed your nightmares. They get hungry, too.

This might sound cold, Karen but I have slept with two corpses. I was watching television one night and my wife just rolled out of bed. I thought she must have rolled out of bed in her sleep. I tried my best to do cpr on her. A month later I met a lady and we had a nice month together. While I was doing oral stimulation on her she died on me. Talk about freaky. Geez. If you didn't want to be with me all you had to do was say so.

Have you seen the movie, "Death becomes her", Karen? Yeah, I know what you mean. Friend of mine after a meeting after I told her I have had two heart attacks said, "And you're still smoking?" She just gave up smoking a while back.

Hey, let me know if this approach works. I give you an 'A' in originality.

I think he is an interesting person.

Aesop (also spelled Æsop, from the Greek Αἴσωπος—Aisōpos), known only for the genre of fables ascribed to him, was by tradition a slave (δούλος) who was a contemporary of Croesus and Peisistratus in the mid-sixth century BC in ancient Greece. The various collections that go under the rubric "Aesop's Fables" are still taught as moral lessons and used as subjects for various entertainments, especially children's plays and cartoons. Most of what are known as Aesopic fables is a compilation of tales from various sources, many of which originated with authors who lived long before Aesop. Aesop himself is said to have composed many fables, which were passed down by oral tradition. Socrates was thought to have spent his time turning Aesop’s fables into verse while he was in prison. Demetrius Phalereus, another Greek philosopher, made the first collection of these fables around 300 BC. This was later translated into Latin by Phaedrus, a slave himself, around 25 BC. The fables from these two collections were soon brought together and were eventually retranslated into Greek by Babrius around A.D. 230. Many additional fables were included, and the collection was in turn translated to Arabic and Hebrew, further enriched by additional fables from these cultures.

The place of Aesop's birth was and still is disputed: Thrace, Phrygia, Egypt, Ethiopia, Samos, Athens, Sardis and Amorium all claimed the honour. It has been argued by modern writers that he may have been of African origin: the scholar Richard Lobban has argued that his name is likely derived from "Aethiopian", a word used by the Greeks to refer mostly to dark skinned people of the African interior. He continues by pointing out that the stories are populated by animals present in Africa, many of the creatures being quite foreign to Greece and Europe.[1]

The life of Aesop himself is shrouded in obscurity. He is said to have lived as a slave in Samos around 550 B.C. An ancient account of his life is found in The book of Xanthus the Philosopher and His Slave Aesop. According to the sparse information gathered about him from references to him in several Greek works (he was mentioned by Aristophanes, Plato, Xenophon and Aristotle), Aesop was a slave for someone called Xanthus (Ξανθος), who resided on the island of Samos. Aesop must have been freed, for he conducted the public defence of a certain Samian demagogue (Aristotle, Rhetoric, ii. 20). He subsequently lived at the court of Croesus, where he met Solon, and dined in the company of the Seven Sages of Greece with Periander at Corinth. During the reign of Peisistratus he was said to have visited Athens, where he told the fable of The Frogs Who Desired a King to dissuade the citizens from attempting to depose Peisistratus for another ruler. A contrary story, however, said that Aesop spoke up for the common people against tyranny through his fables, which incensed Peisistratus, who was against free speech.

According to the historian Herodotus, Aesop met with a violent death at the hands of the inhabitants of Delphi, though the cause was not stated. Various suggestions were made by later writers, such as his insulting sarcasms, the embezzlement of money entrusted to him by Croesus for distribution at Delphi, and his alleged sacrilege of a silver cup. A pestilence that ensued was blamed on his execution, and the Delphians declared their willingness to make compensation, which, in default of a nearer connection, was claimed by Iadmon (Ιάδμων), grandson of Aesop's former master.

Popular stories surrounding Aesop were assembled in a vita prefixed to a collection of fables under his name, compiled by Maximus Planudes, a fourteenth-century monk. He was by tradition extremely ugly and deformed, which is the sole basis for making a grotesque marble figure in the Villa Albani, Rome, a "portrait of Aesop". This biography had actually existed a century before Planudes. It appeared in a thirteenth century manuscript found in Florence. However, according to another Greek historian Plutarch's account of the symposium of the Seven Sages, at which Aesop was a guest, there were many jests on his former servile status, but nothing derogatory was said about his personal appearance. Aesop's deformity was further disputed by the Athenians, who erected in his honour a noble statue by the sculptor Lysippus. Some suppose the sura, or "chapter," in the Qur'an titled Luqman to be referring to Aesop, a well-known figure in Arabia during the time of Muhammad.

Aesop was also briefly mentioned in the classic Egyptian myth, "The Girl and the Rose-Red Slippers", considered by many to be history's first Cinderella story. In the myth, the freed slave Rhodopis mentions that a slave named Aesop told her many entrancing stories and fables while they were slaves on the island of Samos. Aesop died afterward by execution.

Oh ok. Hope you got a chance to get some coffee. I got some tea. Here is one. In reading them which I got from Literature.org I am finding them to be delightful.

Fables - Translated by George Fyler Townsend
Aesop
The Wolf And The Lamb

WOLF, meeting with a Lamb astray from the fold, resolved not to lay violent hands on him, but to find some plea to justify to the Lamb the Wolf's right to eat him. He thus addressed him: "Sirrah, last year you grossly insulted me." "Indeed," bleated the Lamb in a mournful tone of voice, "I was not then born." Then said the Wolf, "You feed in my pasture." "No, good sir," replied the Lamb, "I have not yet tasted grass." Again said the Wolf, "You drink of my well." "No," exclaimed the Lamb, "I never yet drank water, for as yet my mother's milk is both food and drink to me." Upon which the Wolf seized him and ate him up, saying, "Well! I won't remain supperless, even though you refute every one of my imputations." The tyrant will always find a pretext for his tyranny.

The greatest advance, however, towards a re-introduction of the Fables of Aesop to a place in the literature of the world, was made in the early part of the seventeenth century. In the year 1610, a learned Swiss, Isaac Nicholas Nevelet, sent forth the third printed edition of these fables, in a work entitled "Mythologia Aesopica." This was a noble effort to do honor to the great fabulist, and was the most perfect collection of Aesopian fables ever yet published. It consisted, in addition to the collection of fables given by Planudes and reprinted in the various earlier editions, of one hundred and thirty-six new fables (never before published) from MSS. in the Library of the Vatican, of forty fables attributed to Aphthonius, and of forty-three from Babrias. It also contained the Latin versions of the same fables by Phaedrus, Avienus, and other authors. This volume of Nevelet forms a complete "Corpus Fabularum Aesopicarum;" and to his labors Aesop owes his restoration to universal favor as one of the wise moralists and great teachers of mankind. During the interval of three centuries which has elapsed since the publication of this volume of Nevelet's, no book, with the exception of the Holy Scriptures, has had a wider circulation than Aesop's Fables. They have been translated into the greater number of the languages both of Europe and of the East, and have been read, and will be read, for generations, alike by Jew, Heathen, Mohammedan, and Christian. They are, at the present time, not only engrafted into the literature of the civilized world, but are familiar as household words in the common intercourse and daily conversation of the inhabitants of all countries.

Sorry, yeah, I know its long.

PREFACE: Aesop's Fables
THE TALE, the Parable, and the Fable are all common and popular modes of conveying instruction. Each is distinguished by its own special characteristics. The Tale consists simply in the narration of a story either founded on facts, or created solely by the imagination, and not necessarily associated with the teaching of any moral lesson. The Parable is the designed use of language purposely intended to convey a hidden and secret meaning other than that contained in the words themselves; and which may or may not bear a special reference to the hearer, or reader. The Fable partly agrees with, and partly differs from both of these. It will contain, like the Tale, a short but real narrative; it will seek, like the Parable, to convey a hidden meaning, and that not so much by the use of language, as by the skilful introduction of fictitious characters; and yet unlike to either Tale or Parable, it will ever keep in view, as its high prerogative, and inseparable attribute, the great purpose of instruction, and will necessarily seek to inculcate some moral maxim, social duty, or political truth. The true Fable, if it rise to its high requirements, ever aims at one great end and purpose representation of human motive, and the improvement of human conduct, and yet it so conceals its design under the disguise of fictitious characters, by clothing with speech the animals of the field, the birds of the air, the trees of the wood, or the beasts of the forest, that the reader shall receive advice without perceiving the presence of the adviser. Thus the superiority of the counsellor, which often renders counsel unpalatable, is kept out of view, and the lesson comes with the greater acceptance when the reader is led, unconsciously to himself, to have his sympathies enlisted in behalf of what is pure, honorable, and praiseworthy, and to have his indignation excited against what is low, ignoble, and unworthy. The true fabulist, therefore, discharges a most important function. He is neither a narrator, nor an allegorist. He is a great teacher, a corrector of morals, a censor of vice, and a commender of virtue. In this consists the superiority of the Fable over the Tale or the Parable. The fabulist is to create a laugh, but yet, under a merry guise, to convey instruction. Phaedrus, the great imitator of Aesop, plainly indicates this double purpose to be the true office of the writer of fables.

Do you thik there is such thing as a true fable or do you think that is a contradiction in terms?

So true, Bearsman. I sure don't want to forget that lest I forget the hell I came from. I am sure you understand. Been there; Done that I am sure. One thing at a time now I am dealing with a step daughter. Seriously thought I was done was with children. No such luck. I will not regret the past nor wish to shut the door on it. The promises are really biting me on the ass right now.

Some are sicker than others and I am living proof. Life is beautiful.

Just came back from the meeting with my 24 year medallion for being clean and sober for 24 years. Yay.

The Circle Of Crossfire

Joined in a group hug.
A moment of silence for the addict who still suffers.
For the addict born today and the one who will die tomorrow.
And the children caught in the crossfire.
Take my will and my life
Guide me in my recovery
And show me how to live.
Clean.
Keep coming back.
For it works if you work it.
And it doesn't if you don't.
So work it.
Because you are worth it.

The Ass and His Driver A willful beast must go his own way
The Ass and His Masters He that finds discontentment in one place is not likely to find happiness in another
The Ass and His Purchaser A man is known by the company he keeps
The Ass and his Purchaser A man is known by the company he keeps
The Ass and His Shadow In quarreling about the shadow we often lose the substance
The Ass and the Charger .
The Ass Carrying the Image They are not wise who give to themselves the credit due to others
The Ass and the Frogs Men often bear little grievances with less courage than they do large misfortunes
The Ass and the Grasshopper Even a fool is wise-when it is too late!
The Ass and the Horse .
The Ass and the Lapdog To be satisfied with one's lot is better than to desire something which one is not fitted to receive
The Ass and the Lapdog Clumsy jesting is no joke
The Ass and the Mule -An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure-
The Ass and the Old Shepherd In a change of government the poor change nothing beyond the name of their master
The Ass and the Wolf .
The Ass in the Lion Skin Clothes may disguise a fool, but his words will give him away
The Ass in the Lion's Skin Fine clothes may disguise, but silly words will disclose a fool
The Ass the **** and the Lion False confidence is the forerunner of misfortune
The Ass the Fox and the Lion * Never trust your enemy
The Ass's Brains Wit has always an answer ready

The Fox should be always cunning, the Hare timid, the Lion bold, the Wolf cruel, the Bull strong, the Horse proud, and the Ass patient.

I was the one who would always fall too easy. It has taken me quite some time since a good friend of mine said over two years ago, "I have fallen in something" but I actually get it now. Hey, even the Rainman finally gets something. I really like the comfort zone. Really nice to have a whole house that is a sanctuary after a hard night at work. From working where I do I want to know if I say, "Help, I have fallen and can't get up that someone will actually be there." Used to not have any friends but now I have many.