Mi Familia.
My Clan.
My Support system extraodinaire.

I am a family man, it extends well beyond traditional boundaries and genetic lines, across the span of the country and back again. I think it is a factor of friendship, lots of love, emotion, joy, caring, responsibility, duty, and maybe just a little tinge of destiny. I'm not sure that's all that encompasses them, but it sure is satisfying and wonderful that they are there.

Flame and I were friends for a long time before we married. My three sons have become friends. Now that's a remarkable feat, since I worried, grew frustrated, was scared, and just a tad PO'd at them all at one time or another. They are adults now, with family's of their own and I am so very proud of each of them.

They were raised on three continents. Their experiences are part of their makeup and they have apparently stood the test of teenage angst, college screwups, poor decisions, painful lessons and are now Gentlemen. I will explain more about that later.

Mi Familia. It extends from Florida to Washington State, from California to Maine.
It includes, Sisters,(both genetic and of the heart) Mothers (genetic and of the heart),1st, 2nd, and 3rd cousins on both sides of my family tree, room mates from school, military friendships, neighbors of old and new, and each and every one of them can be named "Friend".

I am awestruck when I think of these wonderful people, kith and kin. I am blessed. I know as one of my friends said" I would drop everything and hop on a plane and say What can I do to Help?" if it came to that. I would do it, I know they would do it, my sons would do it, because that's what we are...collectively. We didn't start out that way, but that's the way it happened. How Marvelous!!!!!

I am a proud man to be a part of such a mixed bag of wonderful, wonderful friends. So Happy Father's Day, Happy Flag Day, Happy Birthday US Army, Flame, Happy Aniversary.

Reading. A solitary exercise in entertainment or study. I discovered a number of years ago, that it need not be solitary. I read to my sons. It was fun for them and absolutely marvelous for me. I searched for books to capture their attention, keep their interest, and encouraged them to read. Today, we all have libraries that are eclectic, entertaining, and enthusiastic. We chat on the phone and mostly discuss new books, screenplay, movies, and swap titles when we can. I hate to get rid of a book, I might want to read it again. Space being what it is, I occasionally have to purge my stock. Never fear, I always have a son that will take what I get rid of.

Newly arrived in the reading department are the wonderful Books on tape, CD, or MP3. Wow, what a concept, and again it's not solitary. I am growing a larger collection than ever. It makes trips seem short. In fact, Flame and I have to watch the gas gauge carefully or our inattentiveness will leave us stranded. We sometime arrive at out destination, having been immersed in a mystery, or science fiction novel, and have to drive around the block for that last chapter.

The good news, it's still cheap(relatively), entertaining, and always educational. It is one of my favorite pastimes, and I have so many choices of media. Wow

As this is my first blog, I am tempted to just tell everyone about myself, my life, family etc... But then I decided to vent. I don't intend to use this blog to rant and rave and generally impose on anyone, but some things have to be aired out so to speak and I am gonna get right to it.

New Mexico, The Land of Enchantment, is my home and generally I am pretty satisfied with it. It is beautiful, it has charm, good food, and some of the most hospitable weather around. That is if you don't mind DRY. We have no Hurricanes, Earthquakes (ok, small ones and rarely), Floods, tornados (again rare). We do have FIRES.

We also have some of the most inventive politics I have ever seen. Some Good, Some Stupid. Some come under the heading of this post. Our legislature in its infinite wisdom has enacted a new law raising, I say again, raising the dollar amount one may shoplift before it becomes a felony. It was $250.00 before and now its $500.00.

Why, you may ask, well its simple, inventive and borders on the incredulous. It seems that some one figured out that this law has not been updated since 1975 and the cost of living and the price index has risen a lot since then so they changed the law to keep up with the times.

Helll0oooooo, I feel sure that the local retailers have massive headaches from slapping themselves on the forehead and screaming,
" You've got to be kidding?"