The increase in cellphone usage is as you know annoying to me, seeing as the majority of cellphone calls are not about a deal, or a life saving liver transplant, or a "I am stuck on the side of the road with a flat tire can you help me" kind of thing. No the majority of cellphone calls go like this (phone rings) "hey" "hey whatcha doin" "oh nothin, I'm at the grocery store, whatchoo doin?" "oh nothin, I'm watching tv" "so what's up" "oh nothin whats up with you" "oh nothin" if not that it is a blow by blow account of an encounter with a female that was supposedly trying to move in on a male that was already taken "so I told the bitch, you better back off cause I will take you out bitch" which you know, as you all know me, is like so pathetic it is not even funny, there are 27 billion men on the planet, why the hell fight over one of them? If this one doesn't work out there are 27 billion more where he came from. Anyhoo, I am sure you are wondering why today I am going on about cellphones (again) well it turns out that cellphones are screwing up bees radar. I know, I know, you are sat there with your computer, your cellphone, your blackberry, your ipod and you are thinking "why the hell should I care about bees" I suppose I should say that basically you shouldn't unless you want to eat. Bees pollinate crops, so basically we are saying that without bees you can say goodbye to tomatoes, cucumbers, strawberries, corn, and any other amount of crops and fruit that rely on bees to pollinate them. Albert Einstein, (who as you know was perhaps the smartest human being that ever lived) said that if bees became extinct then he would give human beings four years. Forget about global warming people, this is coming NOW, this is not in decades or in centuries, this is happening now, cellphone use is causing the bees to lose contact with their hives and the hives are being abandoned. For every hive we lose, we lose thousands of bees who will pollinate crops. Take the time to read the article, inwardly digest it, and the next time you are tempted to pick up the cellphone and say "hey, whatcha doin" THINK AGAIN, the human race depends on it.
http://news.independent.co.uk/environment/wildlife/article2449968.ece

I went to the courthouse this morning to do my normal stuff and the buzz was on among the paralegals - friday is paralegals day, no attorneys go to court, its just us paralegals, (all of whom I consider dear friends) my boss is retiring. What would I do? I was honest with them, I don't know, I really don't. They all felt for me, they all understood the need to get out of a business where the stress levels are beyond what a human being should be subjected to. One of them said "but I know you want to take photographs" April said "but I know you want to write" and I admitted that yes I want to do both. But what do I do? I guess time will tell. Time will tell me what I need to do, and what I need to do to accomplish my goals. I suppose if the book (once I get it published) is successful then it will be a moot point, I will be able to fulfil my dream, but until then, it is all just conjecture. "What are you going to do Dawn?" I don't know, I really don't right now, all I know is that this life of stress is going to be behind me and I will be able to CHOOSE a way, CHOOSE a path, and that is a good thing. It is kind of exciting to have an unknown road ahead of me, a complete blank slate, a nothing. The last time I felt like this was when I got out of the Royal Navy and came over here, no career, no idea what I wanted to do, as it turned out I applied for a legal assistant position for a military attorney and here I am now 16 years later, a paralegal. Who knows what occupation I will fall into next? Although I have to say that attendant at Pender Pines Garden Center sounds really good right now :)

NC State Senator Harry Brown is introducing a bill to fund three "technical" high schools in NC which would teach trades that kids actually want to learn. Thank the lord! For so long now the State (NC that is) has taken the road of "everyone has to go to college and get a degree" and if you don't want to go to college then to hell with you. I have been saying for years that not everyone is going to go to college and get a degree, and thank god for that, it is great cranking out a nation of doctors, lawyers, professors, engineers etc., but I ask you this, where the hell are the doctors etc., going to live, there has to be someone to build their house, what are they going to drive? there has to be someone to build their cars, what are they going to drive on? there has to be roads, and guess what? someone has to build those roads and it is not going to be someone with a college degree. Where is the doctor going to eat, cause if everyone has a college degree then there will be no cooks, no waitresses, no bus boys. What are the doctors going to wear? Cause without factory workers to make his clothes he will be walking around naked. What is he going to buy in the grocery store - oh I'm sorry there will be no grocery stores because everyone has a college degree therefore there will be no people working in canning plants, there will be no cashiers, there will be no stockers, there will be no baggers. So basically if everyone has a college degree (which apparently is what the State of NC wants) we will all starve, live in cardboard boxes, walk to work naked(if we even have work to go to), it is about time that the State recognized that there are kids in schools that are not bound for college, they will never be bound for college. Harry Brown in a very eloquent statement said the following (as a background he owns a car dealership) "my mechanics and technicians earn $25.00 to $30.00 an hour and I can't find them, if these kids graduated high school as a qualified mechanic they could walk into a job making that amount of money, as it is they are graduating them with no skills and they are earning minimum wage" There is one "technical" high school in NC their graduation rate is 97.7% compared to 68% of regular high schools. Kids are fighting to get into this school, teachers are fighting to be hired by this school, Harry Brown has got it right, it is about time we started teaching our kids how to make a living in life as opposed to how to pass college entrance exams. Not everyone is going to go to college, thank god, cause if they did we would all be walking around naked and starving.

This whole Imus thing has got me annoyed. While I decry what he said, I will defend to the death his right to say it. We do not have thought police in this country, we do not have censorship in this country (or the old country for that matter) as far as I am aware the Supreme Court has ruled that you cannot yell "fire" in a crowded theatre but you can say pretty much anything else. While I do not agree with the KKK and their ignorant white trash statements about the supremicy of the white race I do not recall anyone ever being prosecuted for spouting such nonsense. Don Imus said something stupid, (albeit nothing worse than has been said by dozens of rap "artists" in numerous recordings) and he is fired? It has become that one simply cannot say anything without offending someone, and then being chastized for it. It makes me long for the good old days, the days of "The Comedians" on tv, where if you took out all of the stereotype jokes the show would have consisted entirely of a comedian saying "hello" and "goodnight" and 15 minutes worth of commercials. If the comedians couldn't say "did you hear about the irishman that thought Sherlock Holmes was a block of flats? (condo)" What is next, blonde jokes? Is it now going to be considered politically incorrect to tell blonde jokes? How about lawyer jokes, everyone loves to tell lawyer jokes, well how about the lawyers all get up in arms and demand the firing of a comedian that tells a lawyer joke? How about female bad drivers? How about red neck jokes? The sad part is that the majority of the above (ie blondes, lawyers, female bad drivers and red necks) can listen to the joke and laugh at themselves, in fact they will even tell the joke. It has become a sad world indeed when someone is crucified and fired for making a joke, albeit a bad one.

(which is you know always a bonus, it beats the hell out of the alternative of not waking up in the morning.) Anyhoo, I went to the toilet, as one does, and I heard Cueball crying. Not his normal, scratching at the bedroom door because he wanted to get in crying, but crying for some other reason. As I was naked (I had not yet put on my bathrobe) I could not rush into the living room to see what was up as I did not want the neighbor walking his/her dog to spy through my living room window to see me prancing around the living room naked. I went in the bedroom and put on my bathrobe and slippers and went out into the living room. To begin with the living room door was wide open, which meant only one thing, the boxers had figured out yet another way to get out of the deck. I also saw almost immediately why Cueball was crying. Cueball was crying because the possum that he had brought into the living room to play with him was refusing to play with him and was in actual fact lying there dead. It was a very damp possum, having no doubt been licked to death by Cueball in an attempt to get it to play. I gingerly moved toward the possum and noticed breathing, so, thank heaven the possum was not dead, but was in fact putting in an Oscar winning performance of playing possum. I put Cueball in Cueball "jail" (up the staircase with the baby gate in place) and got some leather gloves in an attempt to carry the possum outside. By the time I returned to the possum to carry it outside it had woken up and was puttering around by the computer center. "Oh great" thunk I "now do I get a hold of it?" I got a broom, and gingerly tried to push it toward the open door. At that point my husband woke up to go to the bathroom and stuck his head out of the bathroom door. Seeing me with a broom in my hand at 6a.m. obviously cooked his noodle and he looked at me "what is the matter" I pushed the possum again with the broom "nothing there's a possum in the living room, don't worry about it" "do you need my help" he called from the bathroom "hmmmmm not sure, it won't leave" He got dressed and came out to assist with the broom pushing thing and eventually we got the possum to leave the house, slobbered on but apparently no worse for wear. Last I saw him he was slowly ambling to the bird feeders under the tree, no doubt looking for some breakfast. I swear sometimes my house is like wild kingdom.