Family Dinner

I've been sitting on the link below for a long time, and I think it's finally time that I talk about it, and what I'm thinking about my family.

http://www.ncparkour.com/blog/275-mmx

The article itself has nothing to do with my family, in any sense of the word. Yet there is one line that stuck with me: "A family may not enjoy the presence of a particular member but he is still invited to the table for dinner at the end of the day."

I train with a lot of people, I have a Judo family, and there are members of that family I simply cannot stand, yet at the end of the day they are family, they have put in the sweat, the time, the energy, taken the falls, and been there offering me a hand up when I took my falls. I may dislike them as a person, but as a family member I'd stand shoulder to shoulder with them. I am able to distance them as a person, and their behavior from the simple fact that they are family.

I have a biological family, and in a way the biological family is, if anything, more prone to issues, more prone to fracturing yet there should be a stronger tie between the members. Yet I've found that work binds closer then any blood, any relation. I respect and love the people I sweat with, the people I fight with, next-to, and against more then most of the people I have a blood relationship to but at the end of the day they are still welcome at my table. I do not like my father, I love him, he is my father, but I do not like him. He and I have a very strained relationship, we play nice, and we get along for short periods but on most things we do not agree, however my father is welcome at my table. Any of my family, irregardless of whether I like them or not are welcome at my table. That, and that alone is family.

I just wish more of my family felt the same way.

Cats Are Like Kids

And I have two of them...

I once heard a very wise man say you should never let your kids outnumber you. I think the same applies to cats. Dealing with one was easy, a piece of cake. Dealing with two is quickly becoming a trying experience.

Soleil, the second cat is roughly a year old. he was a stray for a portion of his life and when we adopted him he had a cold. We were told it was not going to be an issue. The vet who told us that, lied.

Within a week or two Puma, our original cat, was sick and it all went down hill from there. What started as a cold morphed into a deep racking chest cough and then she contracted an eye infection, most likely from Soleil as well. By the time we took her to the vet her eye was pussing up, she was hacking horribly and had lost almost a pound of weight.

We got her on eye medication and considered returning Soleil. In the end we kept him, and she began to recover. Yet this past weekend we return home to find that in the span of 24 hours her eye has gone from fully clear to swollen shut and covered in green puss. So, off to the ER we went.

In the ER the vets diagnosis was much the same, viral URI, bacterial cold, and a viral eye infection. Keep her on the eye ointment and now antibiotics. Joy.

So, after sinking several hundred dollars into this cat she is hopefully on the mend and has reaffirmed my desire to never, ever, have kids.

My Uncle May Go to Jail....

My uncle Glen may end up in jail for possession of marijuana. Now I usually am against laws that criminalize victimless crimes. Drug possession, without the intent to sell, is as far as I'm concerned a victimless crime. So why do my views differ for this instance?

Because, Glen refuses to stay under the radar. I've spent most of my life trying to stay off the radar, I don't break the law, play loud music, harass cops, and have never been in court with the exception of a college criminal justice course. In fact one of the only things that makes me pause when considering applying for a pistol and/or concealed carry permit is that I would be on file. Just bothers me I could be tracked. As far as I know it's not so much paranoia as a healthy dose of suspicion.

How does this all relate to Glen? If you refuse to play the game the system will find a way to bring you black in line. He has flaunted the system for years, he has upset practically everyone in the family at one point or another, he is a very visible persona. Now, on their own none of this is a bad thing but when you give a very visible persona the ability to concealed carry, and a marijuana card that's just asking for trouble. Legally he can have marijuana, it's for pain control from a bad fracture sustained from a down hill skiing accident. But if your going to have a privilege like that why would you make a point of it? Keep it under wraps, grow your plants, but make sure your shit is air tight. No slip ups, no screw ups, no half measures. He screwed up and the cops knew him by first name and were more then willing to make a point of making his life miserable.

I wish him the best, he is still family, but at the end of the day I hope he cools his heels for a few years and calms down. Oh well, I guess we can all hope.