Friday Shuffle - Leftover Bits Edition

It's been a rather uneventful week in my home and so I don't have much to write about except for a few bits of this and that. One bulleted list, coming up!

• I haven't mentioned the gun massacre at Virginia Tech this week but not because it hasn't been thrown in my face every day since Monday. Like everyone, I'm sickened and sad and frustrated over it. Like everyone, I wonder how we'll ever stop such things from happening. I want to have strict gun laws but we've got them in Germany and it didn't stop a kid five years ago from shooting up a high school. And lack of a gun didn't stop a kid in Berlin from walking through a crowd in Berlin and randomly stabbing people. What I wish was that the mentally ill could be given treatment without a lot of hassle and a lot of shame and that those who are so mentally ill that they pose a threat to themselves and others could be found and treated more quickly so they and us could be protected. I don't have the answers but I can't help but think that if we can stand in one spot and push a button and destroy a place many miles away we could find a way to protect ourselves from people right next to us who plot to hurt us. Then again what sounds good in words is often a lot harder in reality.
  

• Darling Mollie graduated from Virginia Tech. I have always teased her a bit about it because my sister went to the University of Virginia and I grew up loving the Wahoos but I'll never tease her about it again. She's proud to have gone to Virginia Tech. Mollie's in Europe now visiting her brother and his family and I haven't been able to speak to her about this whole thing but I know she's heartsick over it. I could never in good conscience pick at her again about being a Hokie. When I first heard about the shootings my first thoughts were of her and other friends of mine who went to Virginia Tech. No one wants to have a place that they hold close in their hearts tainted by such a horrible incident. No one wants their alma mater to be mentioned and the first thought that pops into anyone's mind is that it was where a massacre took place.
  

• While walking the dog for the last time this evening I walked by the Nashville Saloon and it was empty. The downstairs part anyway - I couldn't see well upstairs where the "line dance bar" is located. Granted it was after 9:30pm and that's a bit late for folks to be gorging on cheeseburgers, chili and ribs but I get worried when I see restaurants empty. If they go out of business before I have a chance to go in there I'm going to be mighty disappointed.
  

• I really enjoyed the interview thing from a couple days ago. I like thinking up questions - probably because I can be incredibly nosy at times and I like answering questions myself - and I've enjoyed getting a glimpse into the lives of folks I've met through my blog. It somehow helps me see folks as whole people and not just words on my monitor. I hope we can all do better at seeing people as whole beings. I'm afraid that while our ability to easily reach and communicate with others around the world makes our world smaller, it also can make us more isolated if we don't see past words. I fear for us becoming more dehumanized and more disconnected from each other because we're not interacting with one another in a more tangible way and that disconnect will make some of us more callous. People become characters, no more real to us than images we see in films.
  

• Cleverest idea I've seen this week: On a news program I saw a story about a "Walking Bus". Often children in Germany walk to school or take public transportation to get to school. School buses do exist but they're not as common as one would find in the US. The idea of the Walking Bus sounded great to me. Adults, often parents volunteering for a rotating schedule, will gather school children in an area and walk them to school - in some cases it's a long walk. Everyone is outfitted with reflector vests for safety and the kids get in groups or two or three with one adult per six or seven kids and everyone walks to school. The parents don't have to drive their kids to school, thereby saving them time and gas, the kids get exercise and have that time to chat and get a little excess energy out before school starts and parents don't have to worry about kids being unaccompanied and vulnerable to goodness only knows what. The teachers say the kids start their school day in a calmer way because they've already had their social time with their school friends, the kids get used to walking and the importance of daily exercise and the parents don't have to take time to either walk or drive their children to school. It sounded like a good, economical way to get kids to school in a safe manner.
  

The weekend in our home has no concrete plans beyond watching soccer on Saturday, knitting on my still-super-secret project and long walks with my dog. Maybe I'll even go crazy and do some laundry.

Let's shuffle.

1. Spanish Harlem - Aretha Franklin
2. I Am The Walrus - The Beatles
3. Frauen Regier'n Die Welt - Roger Cicero
4. Love You More - Buzzcocks
5. Dakota - Stereophonics
6. She's So High - Blur
7. What To Do - OK Go
8. Mama Told Me (Not To Come) - Tom Jones & Stereophonics
9. El Paso - Marty Robbins
10. Getting In Tune - The Who

Dig on your weekend the mostest.