Today, he skated with his team for the first time since the car crash that beat him up pretty good both physically and emotionally.

It does my heart good to see how his teammates, the Atlanta Thrashers' fans, and hockey fans in general (not to mention Dan Snyder's family) are supporting Heatley.

His next, and likely most emotionally difficult, challenge will be pulling on the Thrashers sweater and taking the ice as a member of the Thrashers' lineup for the first time (which could be in a little less than a month from now). But, if he's made it this far, I think he'll be all right, given the support he has.

So Bush, in Atlanta for a $2 million fundraiser, commits a "drive-by wreathing", at Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s tomb.

Considering how much his regime has done to demolish our Constitution, how much he's obliterated the civil rights of American citizens, how his regime has renegged on its pledge to introduce legislation to end racial profiling, how many more middle class Americans (a large percentage of which have dark skin) his economic policies have plunged into poverty...it's exceedingly cynical and a damned insult to the memory of Dr. King.

Now, before you Bush apologists complain that he'd be damned if he did and damned if he didn't, let me ask you...do you honestly (and I mean honestly) expect people to believe that he would have turned up at Dr. King's tomb if he hadn't been in town to raise money for his re-election? Especially considering he hasn't bothered to visit Dr. King's tomb the three previous years of his presidency.

And, I'm just guessing that, by stopping off at Dr. King's tomb, he can charge that fundraising trip to the American taxpayers, and the Republican party won't have to foot the bill for it.

Oh, and there were protesters there booing Bush and chanting at him to leave, that he wasn't welcome there. Not surprisingly--but in yet another kick in the balls to the memory of Dr. King--those protesters were shunted off into what is disgustingly called a "free-speech zone", where the president wouldn't have to see/hear them.

Here's the story in the UK's Guardian. Interestingly enough, there seems to be little coverage of it here on the "big" US news sites.

So Team Bush is flogging an initiative that allegedly promotes "healthy marriages". This election-year pandering to the fundamentalist religious right would cost tax payers $1.5 billion (yes, billion). Of course, the theme of this is "protecting the sanctity of marriage". Which means only "traditional" (man/woman) couples may apply. You know, Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve. Because gay marriage is an abomination, dont'cha know!

Now wait just a rock-pickin' minute!

Recently, Britney Spears went on a drunken binge in Vegas, married her childhood buddy (and they went to a great deal of trouble for this so-called spontaneous "joke" because they needed to get the paperwork sorted). Then immediately had the marriage anulled. Does that not fly in the face of the most solemn institution of marriage? Britney Spears and her little buddy treat marriage as a joke, and yet, the religious right is silent on the subject. Where is their moral outrage over this blatant disrespect for the institution of marriage?

And, don't look to prime time TV to show us how to respect marriage! Not when we have shows like, "The Bachelor", "The Bachelorette", "Joe Millionaire", "Who Wants to Marry A Millionaire" and on and on and on. Respecting the sanctity of marriage? They've turned marriage into a bloody game show! Where is the respect for the sanctity of marriage?!? And again, where is the outrage from the religious right?

And Team Bush? They give flap-all about this particularly demeaning treatment of the holy institution of marriage. FCC Chairman Michael Powell (a Bush appointee) is too busy trying to get the FCC to punish NBC for not bleeping out Bono's naughty word. It boggles the mind that letting the "f-word" slip out is considered obscene, but some totally lame show where a bunch of women whore themselves for a million dollars and a televised wedding is not?

The primary purposes of this $1.5 billion initiative (-cough-boondoggle-cough) are to find yet another way to remove single parents (primarily mothers) from the welfare rolls and to deny gays and lesbians the right to marry (or form legally-recognized unions). Team Bush gives flap-all about whether or not Americans live in "healthy marriages"...other than the fact that more marriages might help broaden the tax base (don't forget that "marriage penalty" that the IRS imposes). If Team Bush really had any interest whatsoever in healthy marriages/healthy families, that $1.5 billion would be invested in parenting education/support.

Woodland Park Hospital is closing down. At the time I was born, my mom was living at home with grandpa. He had gone in for knee surgery, then mom went in to have me. So our entire household was at Woodland Park at the same time! The staff would wheel me down to visit my mom, then wheel me down the other way to visit grandpa.

Kinda sad...

Three young men who went streaking through a Denny's restaurant in Spokane, WA watch as a thief steals their getaway car...with their clothes inside!

Well, the temp agency I signed up at on Monday really seem to like me. They have an admin and a techie wing and both sides have kept a steady dialogue with me this week. And I did so well on the Excel 2000 test that I got to take the Microsoft Office Specialst Certification exam. So, I'm now MS Certified (as opposed to Certifiable). So, hopefully, things are looking up on the job front. Now, if I could just track down some of those past supervisors of mine...

Unfortunately, Simon's little adventure to the vet's office yesterday set us back $63! Thirty-eight for the exam, then the vet wanted to do a test to make sure he didn't have parasites (he doesn't). She also wanted to do a blood screen (to see if there was any indication there as to why he suddenly wants to eat the Swheat Scoop), but I put the brakes on that. Those blood panels leap into the triple-digits really fast and I don't have that kind of money. The vet said I seemed to be doing everything right, in terms of trying to redirect is behaviour when he tries to eat the kitty litter (I know, I know...EWWWWW!). And she was very pleased that I got his weight down. He was nearly 16 lbs. last year...and we got the lecture and had to cut back on the kibbles. Yesterday he weighed in at a very svelte 11 pounds, 7 ounces.

So, school starts up again tomorrow, and...ROFLMAO! Right after I type how wonderful Simon's "diet" is working, he comes over and presents me with his kibble scoop! Sorry, pal...the kitchen is closed!

Anyway, where was I? Oh yeah...tomorrow I start with the speech class, and I may pop my head in to the watercolour class to say "hi", even though the Hernandezes usually have us returning students show up a couple of weeks into the term. What I really need to take is their drawing classes. I know that I could avoid so many of the technical mistakes I make in my paintings if I could just get a handle on drawing.

I think the battery on my cell phone is packing it in. It doesn't seem to want to hold a charge for more than 8 hours. It's only six months old, too. Feh! A new battery costs nearly as much as a new cell phone, too. Grrrrrr!

Oy, I think someone needs a nap!

Forgive me if I'm a little weepy this evening. The Love of my Hockey Life, Cam Neely, had his #8 retired at the Fleet Center in Boston this evening.

I knew Cam was gonna be Something Special when he was a 17-year-old playing his junior hockey for the Portland Winterhawks in the WHL. A lot of the "hockey heads" in Portland touted Kenny Yaremchuk as the player to break out in the NHL, but when I saw Cam, I saw a player who was big, who actually could skate*, about as tough as they come, and he could score goals. (*Throughout Cam's career, I always could spot him on the ice without even seeing a sweater number...just looking at the way he skated, I could spot him.) And, he was a big, sweet, goofy kid that I was immediately smitten with!

The good news was Vancouver drafted him, so he'd be close to home (he's from Comox, B.C.). The bad news was, Vancouver drafted him. And didn't really know what to do with him. So he spent part of his rookie year back in Portland, then got called up to Vancouver, but still didn't play much. He was used mostly in that tough-guy role.

June 6, 1996: Cam's 21st birthday and he is traded to the Boston Bruins. June 7, 1996: I read the transactions in the newspaper and see that Cam Neely was traded from Vancouver to Boston and let out a whoop that was heard all over Portland! My favourite player (along with Ray Bourque), going to the team I love most in all of sport! And I knew that this was an organization that would know what to do with him (after all, they had the likes of Eddie Shore and Terry O'Reilly)!

At first, he played angry and fought...a lot. Who could blame him? His father was diagnosed with brain cancer not long after Cam went to Boston, and here he was a continent away (he lost both his parents to cancer shortly after he came to Boston). Part-way into Cam's first season with the "Broons", Terry O'Reilly was named head coach. He saw everything that Cam was and everything he could be. He convinced Cam that he was even more valuable to the team on the ice than he was in the penalty box. He basically told him, "be tough, but pick your battles". And when Mike Milbury became the Bruins next head coach, he gave Cam the same advice.

Cam took the advice to heart...and made himself into the prototypical "power forward" in hockey. He never backed down from a hit, or a fight, and managed a couple of 50-goal seasons, including one season where he scored 50 goals in just 44 games (a feat topped only by Wayne Gretzky who scored 50/39). At the height of his career, you just felt it--whenever Cam Neely took his shift, something BIG was going to happen on the ice. Big hit. Big fight. Big goal.

Then came the dirty hit by Ulf Samuelsson. The more "objective journalist" would call the hit "questionable", but there is no question in my mind. It was a damn, dirty hit. I won't say much more about Ulf Samuelsson because I have nothing good to say about him. Players like him cheapen the sport. It took the better part of two years for Cam to recover from Samuelsson's hit, but the damage was done and it was permanent. A deep thigh bruise turned into a calcification (roughly the size of a brick!), injuries that left the knees wonky, and the eventual career killer: the hip injury.

5 September, 1996: Cam Neely tearfully announces his retirement from hockey. But it wasn't the way he had planned to go out...and it hurt like hell. It hurt to see how much it was hurting him. He wasn't finished with hockey yet, and a couple years later tried to make a comeback. But the hip just wouldn't let him. And he announced his retirement again. Only this time, he was mostly at peace with it.

Cam Neely found life after hockey. He married and had two children. He opened the Cam Neely House, a place for families of cancer patients to stay during cancer treatments, opened in memory--and honour--of his parents.

He has earned his place in the rafters next to Eddie Shore, Dit Clapper, Phil Esposito, Terry O'Reilly, John Bucyk, Lionel Hitchman, Milt Schmidt, Bobby Orr and Raymond Bourque. And I'll even argue that he's earned a place in the Hockey Hall of Fame.

But, then, I'm biased... ;-)

I don't think there are many creatures on the Earth that can relax the way a cat can.

They sleep the way I imagine I would sleep, if I didn't have things to worry about. Like keeping a roof over our heads and kibbles in the dishes, or have I impressed this person because maybe they can hook me up with a job, or would the guy I like like me back if I was skinny, or can I get my car to run all right until I have a job and can afford to fix it up properly, or I need to take Simon to the vet but have no idea how I'll pay for it.

Ah, to be a cat with so light a conscience that "unconsciousness" could just envelop me, like the warmest, softest, blanket.