They steal my shiny things...

When an incredibly stupid person says something that is incredibly stupid and incredibly hurtful, is it better to attempt to specifically educate them or just tell them to shut the fuck up? (because they can instantly understand that)

Once again I made my annual pilgrimage to my home town of Willits, California and my sister's place at Trinity Canyon Lodge.

It was very different this time around.  All of my friends were gone.  My friends Allan, Michelle, Darlene and their families all moved away.  Friends who I wanted to come couldn't.  My childhood best friend -- who I should have visited last year but didn't -- passed away a few months before.

After hugging my parents and baby sister goodbye, getting into my car and driving away, for the very first time I stopped a block away and cried my eyes out.  With so much death around me this year that it has hit me hard that sometimes when people say goodbye, it's permanent.  All regrets become meaningless at that point.

For better or for worse, I do my best not to discuss many of the things going on in my life anymore.  I have my reasons and I'm truly sorry.  Still, I do hope I was able to convey to my family this time around how much I really do love every one of them.

I spent the last week or so visiting my parents and sisters in California.  I'm home now.  May follow up with more later.  I'm glad you're feeling better, Amber and I am very incredibly happy for how things have turned out for you, Danielle.

I'm very curious about something.

When I was a little kid growing up in Detroit we had what now seems like an odd tradition.  When we went over to a friends house to play we didn't knock on their front door to get their attention.  Instead, we would stand on their front porch, or in their front yard, and just scream out their first name (with a little added melodic inflection) as loud as we could.  When our parents wanted us outside, they might encourage us to "go call out your friend so'n'so."

This worked best with two syllable names but with a careful linguistic massaging, you could do almost any name.

Calling out my friend Ronnie would be:

Raaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhh-Neeeeeeeeeee!!!!!"

Calling out Mike would be:

Miiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii-iiiiiiiiiiiiike!!!!!

So, here is my question:  Was/is this just a Detroit thing or is/was this done in other parts of the country too?

cluster fuck

noun;

1.  any operation with too many leaders leading too many people at cross purposes and laboring under the illusion that there is a unified purpose and a brilliant plan.

"The planning for this was a complete cluster fuck."

Related words: a mess

I'm not feeling that funny today yet I still can't believe that someone on latenight or talk radio has not commented that today New York lost a Spitzer and four years ago New Jersy lost a swallower.  That's all I have to say.