A big yellow UFO hovered, at least very slowly moved, in the sky yesterday: for the first time this week, I was out in the sunshine, encountering no rain as I traversed the area on my bicycle. However, I'm still not in a good situation right now but that's not the only reason my thoughts are not all so happy right now... perhaps will never be this time of year. Sifting through the annals of our History forum, I encountered names of 'ex-members', some of whom were very active on here in their time. Not that long before his final disengagement with this site, something that might astonish many on here to know, one of our sometimes contentious younger members informed me that he was contemplating entering ministry in a particular (UK-originated) religious organisation; wherever his choices have led, I pray it is a good path and I wish him well, as I do with all others that have come and gone... and for everyone else here.

When the Challenger space shuttle took off (with a fellow New Hampshirite aboard), listening to the launch on the radio, I was racing it up a steep slope on route 107, south of Pittsfield, NH, on the way to my repair assignments in the Portsmouth area; Challenger exploded just as I reached the top of that hill. A time I will long remember. Some years went by, I got work in Nebraska when that NH company I'd been working for layed me off, telling me to keep in touch because they wanted me back as soon as business picked up -- it did not, they sold out to new management which further downsized. Then (skipping some major events) I returned to NH, subsequently working nights at the motel I was still working at (and for some time later, along with a couple side jobs) when this forum finally acquired the misfortune of my postings. I had only perused the old Simviation website, however, on September 11, 2001; unlike the shuttle calamity, I slept through the major events of that day and it was not my normal motis operandi to watch TV or listen to the radio before going to work where the TV was normally on in the background. I arrived at work where there were no smiles: around 2300 hours, I finally knew what had occured with a little less confusion because media had started piecing things together a little more accurately by then. Still, it is a difficult thing to forget and, an international memory, it will continue to be... especially since there are those out there to continue what those original perpetrators began; these are not specific heads of any state, a war where we may not be able to win by overrunning any particular country, and neither is the threat restricted to specific entities like Al Qaeda; 2011 is remembered by an attack upon targets within the United States of America but it was not an attack intended against the U.S.A. only -- we are not alone in this threat.

I have a definite spiritual background to which I may not follow the stereotyped norm but, because we have certain rules on this site concerning politics and religion, we are somewhat restricted in what and how we say it. Suffice to say, noting my variance of outlook, this planet was not created to be the epitome of perfection; its subsequent, imperfect 'evolution' was, and is, part of its purpose of being; that is to say that our brains are subject to ills, abnormalities and influences like anything else, organic or otherwise. Whether confronting the awry brain, whether targeted by those taught in hatred, we are in it for the long run. We have differences of opinion on this site, we have different beliefs; even aside from this site, I am not a natural proselytizer. Nevertheless, I care about everyone here but know that I can only hope and pray that no one on here suffers the mental perversion; that no one becomes the direct victim. I wish us all the best...