This and That

Mrs Vache Folle and I went to see The Hangover last night. It was among the funniest movies I've ever seen. Three men take a bachelor party trip to Vegas with the groom and wake up the next morning with no memory of what transpired and with the groom missing. They follow various clues to figure out what happened and where their buddy could be.

My mother survived the Holocaust, but she was way too young to remember anything about it. I wish I had discussed it with my grandmother and recorded her experiences. "What was the Holocaust like, Maw?" "Well, Dagwood (she sometimes called me that), we here in Whitfield County didn't even know there was a Holocaust going on until the war was over. It was a hard time, though, because all your uncles were off fighting in World War II, and I worried about them night and day. I'm sure the Jews had it a lot worse, though."

My neighbor was flying his Confederate Battle Flag the other day, but I don't know the occasion. I don't think it was the race thing. NASCAR races on weekends, doesn't it? Anyway, it seems so out of place in the Hudson Valley. I have mixed feelings about the Confederacy. I'm pretty sure my poor illiterate ancestors in the Confederate Army were hapless dupes who didn't see themselves as fighting for slavery. At least I'd like to believe that. I don't like it when anyone pisses on their graves so to speak by attributing motives to them that I doubt they had. On the other hand, they were traitors, just like their ancestors before them in the Revolution had been. The Revolutioners succeeded, though, so we call them "Patriots". The Confederates didn't, so they're just traitors, or more charitably "Rebels". For the most part, flying the Confederate Battle Flag these days is taken as an expression of racism. Even if you're intention is otherwise, you have to expect that it will be interpreted as racist.

I went to the gym today for the first time in weeks only to find that it was closed. The sign on the door said "temporarily" and laid it off to a landlord dispute. I went on line and found out that the chain was in Chapter 11. You wouldn't know it from the Sport & Wellness websites. They make it seem as if it's business as usual when clearly it's not. A reputable company would have some FAQs about the bankruptcy and information about how it was expected to play out on its websites. So I'm assuming that the club is not going to reopen unless somebody buys it. Here I was feeling guilty for the last month about not going to the gym when it was closed the whole time.

My nutcase neighbor who was disappointed in the election last November finally took down his sign that decried the Unites Socialist States of America and referring to Obama as Redistributor-in-Chief. It doubled for a while as an advertisement for Free Kittens. They really need to spay their cat. They still have their harpoon cannon aimed across the road.

I skipped church today. The choir is on hiatus for the summer, except for the women who sing on Father's Day. They get Mother's Day off while the men sing. In summer, the music is more ad hoc with small groups singing. In August, we have church outside under a tent. Anyway, I might not go to church all summer. I'm just not into church services if I have to be a spectator. I'm not a big fan of sermons and would just as soon skip that part.

My friend who was in the horrible car crash last summer finally had his innards reattached and enjoyed his first bowel movement in eleven months. I can't tell you how relieved I am that his recovery has gone so well. He's going to be in a lot of pain for a while yet. I didn't visit him in the hospital because I am phobic. The level of anxiety that being in a hospital as a visitor creates in me is intolerable. The place is crawling with sick people and germs. The only thing I hate worse is going to a funeral home.