Regel

Perhaps the idea of my childhood being entirely unhappy was starting to creep into my parents mind, but the truth was that while aspects of my life in the east end were (to say the least) unpleasant, it wasn't a bad life. I grew up thinking that the way I lived was normal. That it was not any harder than the next guy, after all I was faster than most of my tormentors and those that were as fast really didn't want to catch me by themselves. Soon after the last showdown in my backyard I heard we were moving. They couldn't wipe the smile off my face. While I didn't cheer openly I was cheering on the inside. It was still two months away but just the thought of starting fresh somewhere else had changed my mood into something much more positive. I got an 86 in math and a 93 in grammar. My parents were delighted with my vastly improved marks. I had watched my best friend move away the year before and I really had no one left that I would miss. Finally the day arrived. That morning I got early and helped carry the last of our belongings into the big truck. The house was empty. I walked through the side gate into the backyard. The peach trees in my backyard had reached maturity as had the pergolino which supported several grape vines. I left our beautiful gardens and backyard cold, lifeless and covered in snow. They would be bare and dormat until the spring which would be several months away. I thought I would miss something about the old neighbourhood but there really was nothing. The only part of my life I truely loved from that time were my sister, parents and cat. They were all packed and coming with me. We were all packed up and ready to go. I walked through the empty rooms and listened to my foot falls on the hardwood floors. Standing alone in her empty bedroom I found her crying. My mom was crying. I was already as tall as her at eleven. I walked up and put my arm around her and I asked her "..why are you crying mom?" She tried to turn her face around and smiled through her tears but I remained unconvinced. "I'm ok she said." She quickly wiped her tears and we went out the door. I didn't understand at the time. What I was leaving was a house, what she was leaving was her home.

I have several but from one of my female clients spoken from the back of her paint store to the front counter where her customer stood she screamed "Hey Harry, Don't forget to shake those cans until your balls rattle!" In context it made sense to her. To her shocked and embaressed customer it did not.

Walking in the evening woods Stars and moon retired By boughs of trees that have withstood The ravages of fire He turned off his light a while ago Not waiting for his eyes A dirt road suits him traveled so Leaves rustle about like lies Lost in his thoughts this night And far he is from home Silences roars and without his sight How far does he dare to roam.

It's always good to see you. You sound busy but happy which is also a good thing. Happy Thanksgiving.

I quite enjoyed your piece. The setting in stark contrast with the feelings and emotions your character is experiencing. Peaceful, soothing and at rest is the ocean. Your character is not at peace. Face to face with the harshest critic she will ever know, herself.

Dear Jason, WHat hurts us the most are the losses we can't accept. I am sorry about your mom. It's a hurt we learn to manage but it never really goes away. That morning a client my father had came tapping on the door at 7:15 am ( we only lived three doors down from the beauty salon). She was not upset but she was worries that my father had simply over slept. My mother (who snores) had slept that night in my old room. My mom discovered him on the floor. He wasn't breathing. She freaked and call my brother at the fire hall. My brother Phil a firefighter from the London Fire Department raced over and immediately began CPR. He was there with my mother when the paramedics came in. Seeing Phil in uniform and recognizing who there were working on they gave it there all. He had been down and not breathing too long and 20 minutes later they pronounced him dead. As they raced my father away in an ambulance my brother phoned me in Kitchener (approximately an hour away). His voice shaking his message was short " Joe, come quick, it's dad. He on his way to the hospital. It's bad..." That's all I remember. I barked to my young family to get in the car and within three minutes of receiving his call we were rolling. Somethings never go away. I knew what he was saying was "Dad is gone." I knew it even though I wouldn't allow myself to believe it. I wept as logic fought with hope. His phone call played over and over in my head. I spoke very little in that hour. The day was as beautiful as any fall landscape you could possibly imagine in direct proportion with how horrible I felt. I left them in the car and ran into emerge. I identified myself and was directed into a waiting room were I found my brother weeping and four of my fathers five brothers. They simple said two words "He's gone." Thank you for your story it was very much appreciated. I hope that with time God gave you the grace to accept your loss like he did for me. Peace.

The dilema is the same as a leg hold trap. Escape at what price? You escape death at the loss of some of senses. Your eye sight is dead or your hearing is dead, part of you is still dead.The question to me is have you escaped anything? Eventually we will all die. Illness is something we all eventually die of. The span of ones life is not always as important as the quality of that life. I have known people who would chose to live (and die) with the illness. I have reached a point in my life where this doesn't offend my sensibilties. So that makes 2 for deafness 1 for blindness and 1 for acceptance.

I hear your pain. I have lived it and some days I am still able say I came to realize the simple truth that the touch I long for is still there and it has never really left. My memories are intact and still quite strong. My love will let them go because they won't be forgotten. God's peace my friend. Nicely written and heartfelt.

How people make up their mind and decide on a candidate is a complete mystery to me. I don't think there could be a more important event about to happen in a few days. It makes me sad that most of the people I speak to about these two men see parties they support before the see the individuals. These two men have the ideologies that their respective parties want them to have. My own personal ideas on what constitutes a reason to send young men and women in harms way is obviously not relevant. I am not a U.S. citizen. It bothers me the the United States of American has the most powerful military machine in the world and people stay home when they are sick instead of seeking medical help because they can't afford it. Our neighbours and I say friends need to remember what a terrible price people have paid to allow them the right to vote. To see apathy and poor attitudes about voting is disturbing. What difference will it make? They are all the same. Well they couldn't be more different. It's your country and your decisions will affect more than just your own people, it will affect us all. So vote! Vote for the kind of country you want the USA to be. If you think things are going great. You'll vote one way if you aren't so happy you vote for change. But if you don't vote shut the hell up. Now you really don't count. Good luck to all of you.

Something in that last paragraph that is warmly nostalgic to me. I quite enjoyed the playful way in which you moved this story and I believe I will have to read it again in a day or two and see if the images it conjures remain the same. Nicely done.

Hello Joat, or should I call you 116? It's been to long since last we spoke. Although you were always an eccentric AM player you won my friendship and my respect but a simple act. You help me out of a tough jam and I have never forgotten that. Hope that all is well with you and everyone you care about. Your old friend Regel

Tapping into every parents worst nightmare. P.S. I was that kid.

Ah..... a wordsmith. Welcome, Drummondo!

Thank you to which ever elder fixed the multiple posts.

Easily the fittest man I ever knew, His age was sixty five, Grandfather friend and father too, Stunned disbelief he’s not alive. His smile and warmth will linger on In memories handled fondly We’ll remember Ron’s compassion And his steadfast love for family. Checked himself in for surgery, Among the simplest of operations, Sounds just like a very bad joke, He died of complications.

Well I said goodbye to being 40ish this passed August. 50, yes half century, five decades, 602 months.

Regel pulls up a chair and waits to hear more.

A very nice theme. I enjoyed this very much. Touches on several very interesting questions. Ones own sense of self worth, a persons past experience with close relationships and their sense of trust. All those things and more. I have the visual of you extending your hand to a person drowning but it's their decision to take it or continue to struggle on their own.

It touched me. Seems like the kind of goodbye we all would hope for.

O.C.C. : Bright purple skin and a paper note on my back with the words "Weinie!" is how I feel most days anyway so .... Melvin thought to himself "I must be having an acid flash back, I could swear I hear that seagull talking.". Vinnie looked at Mevin and said".. at least we don't eat trash and shit on windshields. Stupid talking shithawk!" "You heard that?" asked Melvin. "Of course." quiped Vinnie. "Like they have never seen bright red skin before!" Melvin looked incredulously at Vinnie and said " We're bright purple man!" "Hot chicks in bikinis always do that to me." smiled Vinnie. Melvin was about to fire off a verbal dart at his purple friend but the words died in his open mouth as he look in awe and amazement at the vision that approached.

As a child I believe I was both charmed and cursed. In the space of four years I had accumulated so many person injuries it was alarming. Along with the scars was the reputation of personal carelessness. One serious injury after the other. The most damaging was the result of my attempt to walk a garden hose (my tight rope) along side an open stairwell. I lost my balance (due to an inner ear infection) resulting in a fall of 15 feet down the backside of a stairwell. Some how I managed to land on my left arm and not my head. I had lost conciousness briefly but when I awoke their was a dull pain coming from my arm. It looked odd and something wasn't quite right at what I was viewing. There was a huge lump in the crux of my arm. Slowly my 10 yaer old mind came to realize that I was looking at my dislocated elbow sitting in a very unnnatural position. The result of this was a disfigured arm and a four inch scar that resembles a crude caterpillar. I have often wonder how different my life might have been with out this crooked arm I was left with. I recovery most of my mobilty and strength but because the bone was offset I was never able to lock my left arm. When I tried people would gawk and I felt very self concious. If I was to go back and change that simple act my arm might be straight today but there is no way to be sure that anything else in my life would still be there. I am sure that I would have been stronger as a teenager and certainly more confident. I was a late bloomer in that area perhaps that would have come sooner. A more confident version of myself would have acted differently and could see that I could have gone off in an entirely different direction. If I was suddenly placed in that moment approaching that fall the question facing me is would I allow myself to fall like I did the first time. I am not sure that I could deliberately go through that again but if I didn't I would erase everything I have become and changed the course of other peoples lives. I would not be able to foresee the consequences, what a dilema.

Dear friends, I do not sit in judgement here and I must agree with this wise man. The problem with the written word is simple, you can't see my face nor posture nor hear the tone of my voice. No visual clues, no auditory clues just the stripped bare words on the page. So I would like to begin again. I recently I watched two movies one the highly acclaimed movie Monster and the second was called The Butterfly effect. I was deeply disturbed by the theme of both movies but in a thought provoking way. (The old there but the grace of god go any of us.) In "Monster" Charlize Theron's character was forever changed by an event that was out of her control. Sexually molested by a close family friend as a child she found her family siding with the family friend and not her. She ends up running away as a fifteen year old surviving the mean streets by prostituting herself. Her world spirals downward eventually turning her into a monster that kills to survive. I went away from viewing this saying "..she never had a chance." The second movie was equally thought provoking and quite likely the reason the question formed in my head. A young boy discovers he has inherited his father's ability to view an image or reread a diary recalling a moment in time and returning to that exact moment. Decisions he made as a child were tempered by his older selfs experience and intellect. The changes he made (even the smallest ones) created huges changes in the courses of peoples lives. Without giving the entire story line away the title is based on Chaos Theory principles. http://www.imho.com/grae/chaos/chaos.html I thought that it would be extremely interesting and revealing exercise to entertain the mind and inspire some interesting writing. So here was the idea I passed along to Salinye. Once again I do apologize to those of you I obviously offended. My intention was only to challenge you to think of how these events might have influenced you and perhaps inspire some interesting fiction.

First of all suspend your disbelief. The question as stated wasn't answered by some of you. Zadown answered the question and is now able to move on to the second part of my question. (Coming soon.) Quite an interesting comment I might add. Peredhil says he wouldn't change anything but doesn't tell us he has never had any regrets. Wish you had answered it this way " I regret this but after careful consideration I would not change anything" Aardvarks first comment is one I happen to agree with, but an honest answer that allows him to answer the second part. Wrenwind, Finally something with some meat on it. Thank you. In this situation you will have the power to go back. Finnius answered the question. The Butterfly Effect was also suggested in his statement The Big Pointy One answered the question. I very much like his response because it wrestles with the crux of the matter. Lady Celes Crusader didn't answer the question. Please suspend your disbelief and try again. Katzaniel answers a question with a question. Then dodges it altogether and says wouldn't change a thing. Ozymandias the Elder said You answered the question very well. Crichon's answer straddles the issue sidesteps and then bails with An small example, one of many I could site I would consider changing. An afternoon playing soccer at a field that was several blocks from my home. I met my cousins and we played soccer there all afternoon. They brought the family dog Butch with them. When the game broke up the cousins turned for home but Butch stuck with me. Try as they did Butch wouldn't leave my side. We decided to let Butch go home with me and they would pick him up later that night by car. On the walk home Butch encounters an aggressive dog. During the scuffle Butch the bigger and the stronger of the two chases the dog in front of a bus. I watched in horror as the bus destroys the animal in front of my very eyes. I was sick with grief. I have wondered how different it would have been if I had discouraged Butch from following me home. Perhaps another dog might have chased him in front of a bus? If you haven't answered yet try and give the premise a chance and please feel free to post again if you like.

Thank you for the birthday greetings Ayshela, Salinye, and Gwaihir. Very much appreciated and thanks to those of you that PM me greetings as well. Half a century of living and still learning, that's what 50 feels like. It does make you appreciate the people that show their love and affection but it seems like much to do about nothing. It's just a number after all. I remind myself I would only be 7 in cat years. Have a great weekend everyone.

Congratulations to you and your wife. The rest of your life will be forever change. I hope it goes well for your little lady.