Red Mosquito

wease wrote:

spike wrote:

Anders wrote:It’s good. But they all live abroad, and sometimes both language and culture can provide obstacles. Never had an argument with any of them.

Pretty much the same for me, except English is everyone’s first language (though the Aussie accent and slang can be challenging at times). Things only get testy after about week three or four of staying with them. It’s a long time to be on top of each other.

Does your wife still have the accent or has she somewhat lost it living here?

(How did you meet an Australian gal, anyway?)

Higgs wrote:Sorry dad, don't mean to be a dick. I'm just not religious at all and here in Aus religion isn't the first, second or fifth thing you consider about a person's "worth".

I don't value people who value religion.

tragabigzanda wrote:

spike wrote:

tragabigzanda wrote:I’m very fortunate in this regard, but it wasn’t always that way. Was much harder when they lived far away and we’d be staying at their place and on their schedule…Was always on the verge of snapping.

They’ve been just down the road for the last four years and it’s awesome.

I can totally relate to their place, their schedule. It’s not that they aren’t totally welcoming or running us around everywhere, just set in their ways so you have to adjust your day to day to work around that. Nothing else you can really do but that’s why it can get frustrating at times.

I told my wife after the last visit that if we do stay with them again, could we at least rent a car so I don’t feel the need to rush any errands or outings to get one of their cars back to them.

Yeah I was in that exact place for a long time. There was never anything overtly bad about staying at their place, it was just them banging on our door saying breakfast was ready at 7am; the steady drip of pastries and refined flour; the kitchen TV constantly tuned to the news; getting car sick in the back of their car; and on top of it all, I was a daily pot smoker and couldn’t unwind the way I wanted every night.

I addressed all that stuff head on with them after I got sober and they moved here to be near their granddaughter. They’re really awesome people, exceptionally generous with their time, fun to be around. And now if I don’t feel like eating pasta and cake at dinner I can just pass or bring my own food because it’s not contextualized as a special occasion, it’s just another day in the life.

tragabigzanda wrote:I’m very fortunate in this regard, but it wasn’t always that way. Was much harder when they lived far away and we’d be staying at their place and on their schedule…Was always on the verge of snapping.

They’ve been just down the road for the last four years and it’s awesome.

Carl Sandburg wrote:There is a wolf in me . . . fangs pointed for tearing gashes . . . a red tongue for raw meat . . . and the hot lapping of blood—I keep this wolf because the wilderness gave it to me and the wilderness will not let it go.

There is a fox in me . . . a silver-gray fox . . . I sniff and guess . . . I pick things out of the wind and air . . . I nose in the dark night and take sleepers and eat them and hide the feathers . . . I circle and loop and double-cross.

There is a hog in me . . . a snout and a belly . . . a machinery for eating and grunting . . . a machinery for sleeping satisfied in the sun—I got this too from the wilderness and the wilderness will not let it go.

There is a fish in me . . . I know I came from salt-blue water-gates . . . I scurried with shoals of herring . . . I blew waterspouts with porpoises . . . before land was . . . before the water went down . . . before Noah . . . before the first chapter of Genesis.

There is a baboon in me . . . clambering-clawed . . . dog-faced . . . yawping a galoot's hunger . . . hairy under the armpits . . . here are the hawk-eyed hankering men . . . here are the blonde and blue-eyed women . . . here they hide curled asleep waiting . . . ready to snarl and kill . . . ready to sing and give milk . . . waiting—I keep the baboon because the wilderness says so.

There is an eagle in me and a mockingbird . . . and the eagle flies among the Rocky Mountains of my dreams and fights among the Sierra crags of what I want . . . and the mockingbird warbles in the early forenoon before the dew is gone, warbles in the underbrush of my Chattanoogas of hope, gushes over the blue Ozark foothills of my wishes—And I got the eagle and the mockingbird from the wilderness.

O, I got a zoo, I got a menagerie, inside my ribs, under my bony head, under my red-valve heart—and I got something else: it is a man-child heart, a woman-child heart: it is a father and mother and lover: it came from God-Knows-Where: it is going to God-Knows-Where—For I am the keeper of the zoo: I say yes and no: I sing and kill and work: I am a pal of the world: I came from the wilderness.

dad wrote:

Higgs wrote:Sorry dad, don't mean to be a dick. I'm just not religious at all and here in Aus religion isn't the first, second or fifth thing you consider about a person's "worth".

I don't value people who value religion.

All good, my dude.

I’m with you. I didn’t grow up in the church, nor was it ever a priority, or something held over me to get me to be a decent person or know right from wrong.

I used to find myself getting into arguments with friends who were religious over some of the dumbest shit. Now that I’m older - and a little bit wiser - I don’t bother. I just listen and let whomever is talking at me have their moment. It’s not my job to shake their faith.

About a year ago, my MiL asked me if she could pose questions to me about spirituality once in a while, and I said sure. There was no timeline on giving an answer, and my answer was how I felt.

Her first - and only - question was, did I believe in god.

I told her I believe there are forces at work that affect our lives, but didn’t believe a man in the sky is responsible, nor do I believe in the resurrection. Religion and god are constructs to keep people in line, but it’s perfectly fine by me if someone believes.

She’s never asked me another question about it.

spike wrote:wtf