SOMETIMES, BLOGGING...IS NOT PRETTY...
...and this would be one of those times...
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Whilst online this morning, I visited the website of the newspaper that serves the area in which I used to live. Whilst reading that site's blog, I came across a hot flash news item. I later came across the same item whilst reading a newspaper. Newspaper? You know, that thing you used to read before you canceled your subscription, 'cos yer now getting all your news online. Here's the scoop: In one area in this great country of ours, a man and a woman were convicted of trying to sell their Baby. AND THEY WERE ONLY ASKING TWENTY-FIVE DOLLARS. I guess the Mother didn't want to charge for "labor", heh heh. That would've upped the cost a bit. Oh the pain, after all. I've had the process of "childbirth" described to me...it's evidently like swallowing a bowling ball and trying to get it to pass thru your digestive tract before...uh...well...I'm sure you can figure the rest out...Gosh, I've painted a word picture that's put me in a corner...help...

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Obviously this is a serious situation and it's actually pretty horrifying. But forget the humanity, in this situation, if you will. There are buyers and there are sellers in our world, and if you don't have something buyers want, you ain't gonna make a sale. That's the way things go in our quasi-complicated, micro-managed business world. But I found the answer. It makes so much sense. In a separate article in the aforementioned newspaper, I ran across a story that informed me of a lady, in another part of this great country of ours, that wanted to be a mother so bad, that she began reading the "births" section of her local newspaper. She selected a mother who'd just had a baby. And she went to the mother's house, STABBED her and her hubby, and attempted to take the kid. Yeah, yeah, I know that's awful, but just hang on a minute...

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I bet this crazy woman would've paid twenty-five dollars for the kid that the couple mentioned earlier in this post were trying to sell. And she would've saved herself an assault charge. An assault record, after all, is not the thing to have if yer gonna be a Mom. The child-protective-agencies in this Great Country of Ours kinda frown upon that. And best of all, there would've been no reason to go out and stab someone. An extreme "win win". Getting the Goods to the people who want those goods. Yeah, I know selling and buying a kid is illegal, but everyone woulda been happy, at least for a while, until the kid's parents and the wannabe Mom's pictures showed up on "America's Most Wanted".

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So how do these situations come about? It sure is a crazy, wacky world we live in, after all. How do these people meet, in the first place? You've surely read about two people who met, quite by chance, and separately, they both were quite crafty and conniving, but together, they became one endless source of Bad News. You know, 'bad times two'...and once again, in today's newspaper, I found the Root of All Evil. It was in another article in today's paper...

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A couple got married in the LIQUOR AISLE OF THEIR LOCAL SUPERMARKET, said the newspaper. After all, that's where they met. {I have no idea if they'd just met or if they'd known each other for a while}. Still, can you say "Third Rate Romance"? I knew yuh could. I'm not saying this particular couple wheels and deals in human beings on a regular basis, but ya never know. It's a wacky, wobbly world out there. So maybe couples who meet in the Liquor Store, or in Joe's Bowling Alley, or at the door of a back-alley dentist who doubles as a bookie, might not have a chance to turn out as fine and upstanding as, say, the average All-American Couple who attend church five or six times a week, faithfully tithing ten percent and getting a tax break because they do so. {Did I just write that? How Cynical...}

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In closing, I am quite sure that I will be riding the Hot Rails To Hell for writing this post. But someone had to do it. Sometimes...Blogging...Is Not Pretty.

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NEW MUSIC CHANNEL: "FAB FOUR RADIO", which plays Beatles music along with Other Music Beatle-people would {hopefully} like. It's in the left margin.

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ARE THEY WORTH A THOUSAND WORDS?
...if not individually, hopefully cumulatively...

I am in a blogger's drought. I honestly can't think of anything to write about. As I close in on 1,000 postings, it's as if there's Nothing In The Tank. I'm Runnin' On Fumes. So I turn once more to the wide, wonderful world of Photography. I can totally sluff-off (as I'm doing with this post), and still include a little something of interest.
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For sheer beauty, it's hard to beat an ocean sunset. And when I can see the sunset, that means there is actually some open sky for the sun to shine through, and for me, anytime the sun's out, it's a Holiday here on the Oregon Coast. The temperature here never gets very hot, but sometimes it can be rainy and drizzly for days on end. Nice To See That Sun!
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These first two photos were taken May 10th...I'd been on the Beach all afternoon, and it was the kind of day where the Cumulus Clouds looked like big puffs of white candy-cane floating way up there in the atmosphere. And, when the sky is like this, the Sun is gonna play tricks with those clouds, painting all kinds of wild colors in the atmosphere...
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Usually when I take a sunset photo, I've been taking pictures all day, which means that I'm fervently hoping the camera batteries still have some juice in 'em. I bring two spare batteries just in case, hoping that the Re-Charger has worked its magic, so I can grab these photos and take the Sunset home with me. The horizon is about 25 miles away.

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This last photo was taken on the Summer Solstice (June 21st). And actually, the sun set a bit earlier than normal, due to a line of very imposing clouds on the horizon, but at this time of year, the Sun, even disguised by clouds, is still setting at around 9pm. And so, I think these photos provided for a neat post.

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In case you're interested, I've been using a little Canon Powershot A470 camera with 7.1 pixels and a 3.4x optical zoom. I don't know what the numbers mean, but that's the True Facts. It's been a good little camera. I marvel at the freedom a Digital Camera gives vs. the the old Polaroid I used not long ago.

I'M STILL OUT OF FOCUS...And So Are My Eyes...

...fun and games in the vast intricacies of the eyewear industry...

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Blogger's note: To fully appreciate what I've written here, you might (or might not) wanna check out my eyewear-related postings for May 21st, May 5th, May 3rd, and April 21st...they're in the archives. Now, back to our blog, already in progress...

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Two weeks after my last visit to the Eye Clinic, I went back in today for yet another eye examination, after which I'd finally get new eyeglasses according to the results of today's exam. That's what I was told; that's what I was led to believe. After I'd been told the last time, that yes indeed, I could get a pair of multi-purpose glasses using the traditional "lined bifocals" format, today, I was told, No, No, No, and the young lady who is some sort of an intern at the eye clinic told me That Last Pair of eyeglasses should have never been made for me (a pair that didn't work; remember, I was seeing "one and a half of everything" according to a post underneath this one). Two Weeks ago, it was the Optician who told me that the Optical Doctor computed the numbers wrong, the numbers that resulted in that erroneous prescription. At least that's the way I understood it, although I can be a blockhead and misunderstand things.

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The eye-intern lady sent me back over to the Optical side of the operation. I then spoke with the same Lady Optician that I spoke with 2 weeks ago. And once again, she was talking about Prisms that have to be put into the eyeglasses in order to correct my vision, and how terribly far apart my eyes were in terms of function, and how They Just Couldn't Do What I Wanted. I told her that, what with all this vision equipment and qualified eye doctors and opticians, all I was hearing from the clinic was No, No, No. No, this isn't gonna work. No, we can't do that. No, your eyes are so messed up that we can't, Can't, CAN'T can't make you the eyewear that you need based upon what you've told us you want, which is, I Want A Pair Of Glasses I Can Use EVERYWHERE.

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I was told This Just Couldn't Be Done. Since the first part of April, I've bounced back and forth like a ping-pong ball, between the eye doctors and the opticians. Each time, I've been given hope that I could get what I needed as I seemed to find out something "new" each time I went in for consultation. They were gonna re-examine me today, I was gonna have new, spiffy glasses in another couple of weeks, but today it was no, No, NO. Nope. Negatory. Nix-Nix. No Way, Jose. You get the picture. So today, I finally exercized The Final Solution, which was quite severe. After speaking with the optician (who is a very, very nice lady), I told her the only thing I could do was to just cut my losses, get my money refunded, and just leave. Which is what happened. I've had a tough financial year, and the money I spent at the Eye Clinic Really Set Me Back. So I'll get a check for $720 dollars from them in a couple of days, and then we'll be DONE.

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Done? Huh? What? Of course not. Did you think this was gonna be EASY??? Just before I left, I told the Optician Lady about a pair of no-line bifocals I had made 5 or 6 years ago; glasses that worked great. Thing is, they're almost too scratchy to see out of (doggone plastic lenses). But I can still use 'em for distance. Plus the lens tint cuts down on glare. So, I put on this old pair of glasses, kept my eyes focused on one location, moved my head up and down and could see perfectly out of 'em, near and far. I'd still be using 'em if they weren't so badly scratched. (Never, EVER, clean plastic lenses with your shirt! And, keep 'em away from BEACH SAND!) The Optician-lady then told me she wondered how those glasses could've been made with my eyes being so bad. She wants to examine that old pair Just To See How It Was Done. So I asked her, "what, maybe you could make me a pair of new glass lenses from those old glasses, I was told, "probably not". Not a "nope" but not a "yes" either. I still wonder, if those glasses were made for me then, why can't similar glasses be made for me NOW? You know, what with technology advancing and all that. Is technology NOT advancing with the passing of time? Maybe we're all being fooled...

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The dust has settled. I am back to wearing the old glass-glasses I got a few years before the plastic-lens bifocals (referred to in the preceding paragraph). I can actually read with the distance-only glass-lenses; all I have to do is put a pair of 5-dollar Reading glasses on my nose along with my old "glass" glasses, and, voila, Instant Closeup Vision! Maybe if I tilt my head just right, my head could receive radio signals, what with all this extraneous metallic-framed eyewear? Anyway, as far as the Eye Clinic is concerned, I'm sure The Answer Is Out There, but I Just Don't Know What or Where It Is. It's as if I'm not asking quite the Right Question, and face it, if ya don't know how to question something, you won't find out any more about it.

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After proofreading this, I'm thinking that whoever came up with "The Peter Principle" got it right. According to that axiom, The Human Race is as good as it Ever Will Be, and that we, collectively, are now on the downhill side of things and with the advancing of technology, we'll only get worse and worse. So there ya go. The Eyes Have it. No, wait, they don't.