At least it’s not cold outside.  It is raining but the warm air makes things a bit more palatable on the porch where I sit with the dog.  Both of us are a bit lonely.  Because Betsy is in Atlanta visiting her son, his wife and their new baby boy.  It’s raining there too.  She called awhile ago to give little Owen a chance to talk with his crazy grandpa and we had a great conversation.  He’s two months old and I am sixty plus so it went very well.

But now they are doing something else and I’m trying to understand why a U.S.  drone was flying over Iran when it decided to land itself and surrender to the Iranians.  Perhaps it has a message for the Ayatollah.  “Take me to your leader!”  I can see some dusty goat farmer looking out his back window and this thing is sitting there looking grim and needing a better paint job.  Clearly my assumption that someone, somewhere is in control of things is wrong.

I have this vague yearning for several drinks since I’m “on my own” and there’s no one around to remind me it would be imprudent to imbibe.  I used to write more after having one or two frosty beverages.  But then the blog crashed because I had one or two of them and clicked on a few things in the cpanel  I really didn’t understand.  So it would be better to walk even if it is raining!

You have to fight for your life sometimes!  Because it can slip away.  Today I have been putting the old blog back together on a new host.  And Bluehost has something very nice going for it.  For about one dollar per month they back up your blog EVERY DAY!  And you can get it back in parts or the whole thing without a problem.  My old host, Hostgator, did not have this.  And I doubt many other hosts have it.  Having your blog, your photos, music and anything else that is important in a cloud somewhere is an excellent thing.  And having lost photos, music and pieces of blog  in the past makes one more appreciative of this fact. 

I was fixing some of the slideshows today because they are all on Picasaweb so it’s just a matter of slamming them back into the posts where they used to be.  It’s tedious work but at the same time it was cool because these things represent some of the high points in the past few years.  Betsy and I have enjoyed some great times up and down the east coast.  All the way from Martha’s Vineyard to the Bahamas and it’s great to have a record of of all.   Blogging is really about this and losing a blog or a life because you enjoy drinking is not so cool.

And I’m sure Betsy will read this because it’s going up on FB and that’s the plan, really.  I want all my family and friends to read it!  You are all here in this room!  It may be raining outside and the ABC store (that’s where they put the vodka in Virginia) is only a mile away  but that doesn’t mean I can amble up there and bring back a small bottle to mix with the grapefruit juice already cooling right nicely in the fridge downstairs.

So I put my blog back together and I can still write.  Or take a walk in the rain.  Or sing along with Radiohead in the rain.  Or meditate in the rain.  And forget about all the things that have fallen apart in the past.

The former governor of Ohio,  “Blago”, as he is known is in the news today along with the errant drone.  He has been sentenced to fourteen years in the slammer and his wife is standing next to him with tears running down her face.  Clearly this in one blog who should have stored a little wisdom up there in the clouds.  Because now he has crashed and burned.  He should have been more careful.  I don’t know if he became reckless because of alcohol or pride or both.  Probably pride.  But he managed to pretty much destroy himself through little acts of stupidity.  And now he sees it.  Today.

It’s better to act before the fall.  It makes more sense to learn from our mistakes. 

Walk.  Past the store.  Let go.  Be empty.  Grow.