First off I would like to.....

thank Sue, who stopped by after visiting Lemur Boy's girl , for saying she liked the skinny columns that my blog has decided is best for me. I wonder, if she knew how to fatten them up would she tell me?

Secondly, please forgive me if I seem to be a bit doltish. My daughter told me that I MUST turn of the comment button to receive responses to my blog. She did not, though, tell me that this must be done EVERY time one publishes. I assumed it was a set and forget chore. Perhaps the internet has not yet caught up to my expectations. Anyway, I get it: EVERY time.

Having a bit of trouble typing today. Might be the Chilean wine I drank with the Italian spaghetti this afternoon. Do those two countries have good relations? An extradition treaty? Never mind, I'll mull through even if I have destroy the ' backspace' key.

QUOTE OF THE DAY:

Timing has a lot to do with the outcome of a rain dance - Ken Hubbard


MEXICO (as I see it):

Mexico is upset about the proposed methods being considered by the U.S. Government to control its borders. Walls, troops,etc.. So much so that they are planning to sue the U.S. Government in the U.S. court system.

Let me get this straight. In order to maintain the current level of illegal immigration Mexico will demand, in U.S. court, that any move to outlaw illegality will be met with severe legal reprisals?! Is that about it? Talk about your ' cojones'.

AND

Some of our city stop signs are so routinely blitzed that
authorities sometimes change the signs from the offending street
and put them on the cross street instead, hoping a new look will stem the tide of lawlessness.

It's a sort of Mexican style democracy based on negative
majority rule.

THE SERIAL: Oxygenated Water

Where we left off:

We all agreed that we sure didn't want to go to her house to clean up Darrell. We had to get him spruced up enough so he could sneak his sorry ass in there without fire and brimstone breaking out.

"I recognized that we still had a serious problem,
bullet or no. I said, 'How the hell are we going to get
all the blood out of his clothes? His wife's going to
see that his levis and sock are stained purple and she
ain't apt to mistake it for red pop. You can't get
blood out.' I did not tell that I knew all this because
my mother had told me so.
"One time I had come home with a bloody nose or
something and my shirt was soaked with my own juice.
Well, she went to hollering about how I might as well
burn the shirt because no matter how many days she
would work on that shirt, it wouldn't ever again be
worth a damn. She told me if it ever happened again I
was to soak it in cold water right away. She meant the
shirt, not my nose.
"By God if I didn't start going on just like my
mother had, 'Shoot, we'll never get all that blood
off Darrell; hell, he must have a pint of goo in his
clothes.'
"After that the car got quiet as we all considered
what I had just told them. Out of nowhere the old wino
says, real calm like, 'I can get the blood out.'
'What?!' I demanded.
'That's right, kid, I can get her out.'
'How's a guy like you know anything about it?'
Darrell asked.
"The three of us were probably thinking the same
thing. How's this rummy know anything about getting
blood out? It didn't look like the old fool had washed
himself in thirty years let alone worried over stains
on his shirt. Well, he didn't waiver none; he guaran-
teed us he could not only sterilize Darrell's wound but
that he could get the blood out of his clothes at the
same time.
"It wasn't as if we boys were so smart that we
were confidant about everything We were all pretty
scared and about out of ideas, so we said to the old
boy, 'All right then, go on and do'er!'
"At that, the wino announces that we needed to go
get some 'oxygenated water.' We three just looked at
each other stupefied. He might as well have called for
'Kryptonite' for all we knew. Darrell, being the most
involved in the plan, said, 'What in the corn bread
hell is oxygenated water?'
"Our combined education in those days was not much
to talk about. Mike and I had nothing more than eighth
grade and nobody knew much about Darrell's
accomplishments except it was a sure bet he was not
earning big bucks with a diploma.
"The old man was not set back one bit by our
skepticism and said, 'It's good stuff, boys, and we can
get some at a pharmacy. But we best hurry before this
boy catches something bad.'
"Like I said, Phoenix always has been an 'Open 24
Hour' type town so it didn't take but a minute to find
a drug store. We also found out that the stuff was
not very expensive which was fine with us. What with
buying malt liquor, whiskey and a pinch of gas for
Darrell's car we couldn't scrape up another dollar
between us. There was no more whiskey money and I was
hoping that we wouldn't lose our wino; especially since
he was now in charge of the whole show. He had already
asked to have a look at Darrell's half-pint.
"It was plain the old boy knew something about
what he was saying because I had gone in the pharmacy
with him and, sure enough, he ups to the counter and
says, 'Gimmie some oxygenated water.' The pharmacist
didn't bat an eye and out we walked with a jar of the
stuff.
"Darrell was still plenty suspicious though; you
know, after having been roughed-up and wounded several
times during his life he insisted on knowing exactly
what you're putting on him. Darrell was real candid
with the old fella, he reared up on one elbow and said,
'What the fuck is this stuff and how do you know about
it?'

continued....