Fancy Pants

Dawn's Christmas present to me was a pair of Cycling Pants. These pants overcome that skinny seat on indoor exercise cycles that can hurt so much when spending one hour on the bike. Ordinarily, a thick pad is slid over the seat to give it some padding. The pants are padded in the places that rub on the bike seat and are very comfortable. I have been using the pants since I got them. One day, one of the ladies in the class noticed that I did not have one of the seat pads and remarked that I must be sore. I told her about the padded pants, whereupon she asked; "How soft are they?" I told her she could feel for herself and turned to let her feel. She started to reach for my seat and pulled back slightly embarrassed. I encouraged her to, "Go ahead and feel." She then slowly reached forward and touched my seat. I told her she had to feel how thick the pads were to truly understand the comfort afforded. She reached again and this time felt the thickness of the pad, all the while looking around to see if anybody was watching her grab at my rear. She was surprised at what she felt and pleased that she had accomplished this awkward grope. She said she was going to go out and buy a pair of pants just like them. We parted, but as I was going down the hall I could here her talking excitedly to some other women. Since then I have noticed some ladies giving me long looks. I am a popular guy.

Oprah

Americans spend their money any way they like and Oprah is doing the same as anybody else. She has been criticized because she is building a school in South Africa instead of doing something here with her money. A TV segment I saw showed what a nice school she has built there, very impressive. She was cutting a ribbon for the opening when I realized how amazed I was at how black she looked. Not only black but really, really black. I couldn't get my eyes off her. She does not have that color on the Oprah Show, or in pictures of her. I recall that she once had a magazine picture touched up to show a greater weight loss than she had truly achieved. Does she do this also for her show? If so, why do we say "black is beautiful" if black people do not want to be shown as black? Is brown more beautiful than black? Should we be saying "brown is beautiful" because blacks want to be seen as brown? I remember a lady that was working for me in Mississippi chastised me because, in referring to her, I said she was black. She immediately said: "Marcel, look at me, do I look black to you? I am brown and not black." She was proud to be brown. Hmmmm, does Oprah want to be brown ........ like Michael Jackson?

Military Service

Barbara Boxer today slammed Condi Rice because she did not have children or relatives in the military service. That set me to thinking about John Doyle and his wife Traci who do represent our family and are alternating four month tours in Iraq. Can anyone think of anyone else that is in the service from our family?

Respect

My grandson, Ryan, recently quit his job as a bagger at Engles because the customers did not give him respect. He cited the story of one customer who, after Ryan had bagged all his groceries, put them into a very full cart and hesitated about putting one more bag of a single jar of pickles and searching for a spot to do it, the man suddenly grabbed the bag from his hand and stated, "give me that, you don't know what the hell you are doing" and walked out. The lack of respect was too much for Ryan, even though he needed the job. Where does this "respect" idea come from? We hear of blacks that shoot one another because someone disrespected them. Why is that? My upbringing on respect was to respect your elders which was accomplished by standing in order for the elderly to sit. To say, "Yes sir or Yes ma'am" to inquiries from elders. To shake hands when meeting someone. Take a hat off when in the presence of a woman. To seek a chair for an older person and make them comfortable. I have observed Ryan come into the house and leave his cap on. He sought the large easy chair to sit in and left his grandmother standing. While eating, he does not look around to see if his table-mates need anything, he instead concentrates on his own food. What is wrong with this picture?