50 years ago today, after killing his wife and his mother, 25 year old Charles Whitman ascended the University of Texas clock tower with a shitload of firearms, and spent about an hour and a half shooting people before the cops managed to kill him. 14 dead, 30 wounded in what the news keeps telling me was the first mass shooting on a college campus (I don’t condone his actions, of course, but I support his right to bear arms – lots and lots or arms). See, we need to have various categories for these things. First mass shooting at a college, first at an elementary school, high school, movie theatre, McDonalds…. So if you want to be a pioneer in the field of mass shootings here in the US of A, you need to get creative.
Perhaps the need for creativity has spawned all the new laws that allow guns in class, bars, parks and any other place that almost any vaguely reasonable person would think they should not be.
Maybe some day we’ll move beyond all this. But in a nation where roughly half the voters (apparently) seem ready to vote for a piece of shit like Drumpf, I’m not particularly hopeful.
I hope you’re doing OK, Sue. At least as best as you can be. As you get older, you lose people (and critters) that are important to you. Just part of being human, unfortunately, But the thought of losing Granny…. Well, I just can’t think about it. I wish there were words that could help, but I know there aren’t. But for what it’s worth, there are people here who care.
We all love you. I wish I could have known Mike.
SP is indeed loved by all here!
Mikey was many things to me but most of all he was my best friend. Losing him is a horrible, disorienting experience. Lola is having a hard time, too. And yet most people and other creatures have the experience. Grief should be illegal.
In this new reality, I am trying to put one foot in front of the other and do the things that need to be done. I’m more successful at some times than others. I really don’t like mornings, but fortunately Lola likes breakfast and will bark until I get up and give it to her. She has no shutoff switch or snooze button. Clifford also participates by walking on me and sticking his face in mine.
Some neighbors have been very nice and brought me food. Mostly ziti for some reason. But, no matter what or where I eat everything seems to taste like cardboard with the exception of chocolate chip cookies.
I have no plans for the future beyond today, but everyone else seems to have some for me. I’ll decide what I am going to do when I can think more clearly. Yesterday, I finished the crossword puzzle for the first time in many weeks. I enjoy that puzzle and when I don’t get to do it, it means my life is a chaotic mess.
I have become a genius at losing things: papers, glasses, cell phones etc. Even when I find them I immediately lose them again.
There has been an upside to all this in that I have not paid much attention to the election. It seems Donald is continuing to act the way he has always acted. He’s a conman with a fatal flaws: thin skin and a fragile ego. Have I missed anything?
I am grateful you guys are still here. Your special friendship is a gift.
Sue, thanks for your checking in and talking about it. I know it has to be a very hard time for you but it helps that you express it and the rest of us that you are comfortable including us.
Brilliant Jill lost her mate a while ago and still grapples with it. She has eventually moved to NC from NJ. It is not a bad thing to let things settle for a while. I know there are probably lots of trivialities you have to address for now.
I hope your memories, bittersweet as they might be, offer you some solace.
As said before
Can’t imagine at all what you’re going through. Losing my mom almost a year ago was/is gut wrenching. You told me it gets easier but you don’t miss them less. You were right. You’ll do or make changes when you’re good and ready. Tell everyone to go pound salt until then!
As for the election, I think Drumpf has some cognitive impairment and a mini mental exam should be promptly administered. I’m sure there’s some dementa going on – the anger, the short sentences, minimal words used, mixed up frequently, doesn’t remember what he says from one day to the next. Hillary will be fine unless she f’cks it up.
You haven’t missed a thing/