Therein lay the first disappointment of the week. The movie was a fun adventure for those who had not read the book. Sadly some of the most key elements to the story like what Abe Lincoln's mother said to him before she died, how Henry aided him as a vampire hunter and various friends and associates that he met in his journey to become President were totally left out or completely corrupted, I would guess to make it more viewable for audiences. Sadly it doesn't make it more watchable, the movie is just a shadow of what happens in the book.
Yesterday I came home from work and took my little dog out for a walk around the yard. Suddenly she starts barking fiercely. Two of the neighbor kids walked over to talk to me. The young boy who is about eight and his ten year old sister were asking if I had seen their brochure and they would like to do work around my yard for free...or for a donation if I so desired.
Those of you who have not met me may not understand this but I am severely introverted. It is not that I hate people, but I am uncomfortable around most people and treasure my private time at home. My home is my sanctuary and I am very touchy about neighbors running around in my yard or mowing into my property or walking their dog in my yard to leave me a poop present. Home is my time to recharge my batteries from the drudgery of my employment.
I told the kids to wait outside and I would look at their pamphlet. I found the pamphlet on the back door to the house...we have three ways into my old farmhouse and a circular driveway so I can understand why people have trouble deciding where to spam me with stuff. I read the piece of paper. We are Jesus' Warriors. Our names are Luke and (two other siblings whose names I forgot because I am an introvert and don't pay attention to that sort of thing). We want to help our neighbors. We will do any kind of work for FREE! You can choose to donate to us if you want though.
This is all the pamphlet has on it. No list of appropriate tasks. No suggested value for those tasks. It didn't even have a note from the parents saying this was okay with them. I wound up giving them my pop bottles which are worth ten cents a piece for recycling. In Michigan you can take them to any corner store to redeem. It was a small task and more or less just eases my house cleaning. Well, now the kids feel like we have some sort of contract. I like these kids. They are nice, very polite and I want them to like me. However I don't have kids of my own, my dog (Jack Russell) and I are both uncomfortable having them around and I don't want them working with me on other yard tasks. That time is my time to be alone and recharge my batteries. Also as a staunch atheist I would have a hard time not correcting their Southern Baptist beliefs which is not my place nor my desire to do. So while the idea of two or three indentured servants has its appeal to my dark side, the introvert in me just wants to find a nice way to find them someone else to help...so of course I sent them to my mom's house. She lives across the street and is nearly blind and deaf. Hopefully she will keep them busy full time and since she believes in Jesus they will all be happy. I am not sure how I will handle things if they come back...probably poorly.
Finally I've been annoyed by some really stupid things I've seen on the Facebook stream from some gaming friends. One that bothered me today was a picture of some American soldiers with a comment, Get behind them or stand in front of them...implying support the war effort or stand in the firing squad. One of the real hobgoblins of small minds is the my way or the highway mentality. I do feel we should give our support to our volunteer army yet the wars they are thrown into are mindless or wrong. We are the most aggressive country in the world and I do not support our militarism which is supposedly only to stop unseen bogeymen instead of a more likely push to grab our world's diminishing resources. So I go to this guy's profile page and it says he studied homeland security and he has been in the military until about three years ago. No employment history since then. Then I notice he has a favorite quote. "Give me liberty or give me death!"--Benedict Arnold. First, the quote belongs to Patrick Henry not the guy who committed treason. Second, this misguided ownership of the founding fathers through poorly understood history and misquotes is one of the things that is killing our nation. We are becoming so uneducated I fear for where that will lead us. Only a day earlier a similar personality from facebook was asking us to boycott Starbucks coffee because they had adamantly refused to support the troops. Sound false? Well that is what an analytical mind would think, and a quick view of snopes confirmed that not only was the rumor false as of 2004 but Starbucks gives lots of support to the troops through various foundations. I informed the guy he needed to think before posting garbage. Did he apologize for being lazy or even get mad that I would presume to show him facts? No, instead he just keeps posting new unsubstantiated drivel. He also has aspirations for Homeland Security work. Just love the term homeland...it is so Adolph Hitler. Well off of my soapbox for now...pray for the children who encounter me on a bad day.