OY Vey! (Macbeth, I believe)

While driving in the car to Duffy's last night, I mentioned to Rhoda that it might be nice if we drove to Montana sometime in August or September to visit Robin and see her house and ranch spread. However, then the price of gas came up and with the cost of Motels, food, and excursions along the way, the cost would be extraordinary...and then, of course, there's the return trip. Doing the math, if it cost me $11 just to go from Delray to West Palm Beach...so, to drive to Montana?? We will also have just come back from our cruising in Scandinavia where the American dollar is not worth too much anymore. How did we ever get into a mess like this? What has happened to this country? Who's in charge here? And why and how did he let America come to this crisis in her history? The America I knew was a country always on the move; if not trekking around this continent, then vacationing in Europe. The airlines are also in trouble, and in order for them to function with the cost of fuel, ticket prices have to be raised. And every time Rho and I go grocery shopping and check the prices, we get culture shock. And the war in Iraq and Afghanistan? 4000+ American dead? Trillion dollar debt? Is there any escape or are we going to be like Sisyphus pushing the ball up the mountain? Let's kick the incompetent culprits out of office, and get some fresh brains up there.



I don't like to sound as though I'm whining, but give me a break. Into this impossible boiling cauldron, toss in our problems with immigration and health care and what have you got? Hopefully a new administration. Oh, well, just deal with it. Make wise choices. Now, let's get in another chapter of Bobby's life in the county jail.

MY LIFE in the COUNTY JAIL PT.IV by Bobby Ross

I think there is only ONE Sheriff, the elected official, and all the officers are called Deputies...anyway...One of the Deputies called me over during breakfast and asked if I wanted to go into town with him on an errand. I was wondering what the catch was, I was a trustee by this time, and we had a real good rapport and I said sure, I would love to get out of camp for any reason! He took me to see my sister Bonny in her shop while on his errand and parked his black and white squad car right outside her front door of the DOGS ETC. grooming store! I don't remember if I got out of the car, or had handcuffs on and he let me go into the store or what; maybe Bonny remembers, but it was refreshing to get out of there, seeing the same things over and over again! Then he took me to Carl's Jr. and 7-11 and I had some real food!
It was suddenly clear to me what I missed and what other freedom I lost while in Camp. The ability to come and go as I pleased. To go to 7-11 if I wanted to get a soda, any soda. Or to go to Carl's Jr. to get a sandwich. Any sandwich I wanted, and there were SO MANY choices.

Freedom of choice, yeah that's it...

So, it was Rosh Hashanah, a Jewish holiday and I wanted to go to temple. In Camp Snoopy there was one little chapel and no one I knew/knew I was Jewish. I sneaked a look at a list of inmates a friendly deputy left for me and saw no Rosen or Goldberg or Bloom. I saw the chaplain the next Sunday and asked if I could talk to him privately. Yes, I some fear about others finding out I was Jewish, meeting up with the "Arian brotherhood" and the "neo/nuvo nazis" and any other anti-Semitic group that had a beef with the chosen ones was not something I was about to handle alone. I met the chaplain in the chapel later that day and asked him if there was a Jewish temple I could go to so I could pray. He said "You could pray here, in this chapel and God will hear you and your prayers. Jesus loves everyone and does not care if you are Jewish or any other religion." So I thought, what kind of trouble could I get into if I got into a theological debate with this guy.
I mentioned that Jesus was born Jewish and when he died, all of a sudden, he was there for the Catholics or Protestants or Methodists and part of some sort of "trinity" with a holy ghost! When he died, we all set our calendars to zero and started counting the years as though Jesus' death began time! The Hebrew calendar was in the 3000 plus years or so and we weren't about to erase 3000 years because a Jewish carpenter died. "I want a Rabbi and I want one now..." The Chaplain had absolutely nothing to say about my theologic assault/tirade and suggested I make a formal request for a Jewish Chaplain to come to camp to visit with me. Not wanting to single myself out, possibly being the only Jew in jail, I decided against such a request. I remember saying as I left the chapel, "freedom of religion, yeah right"...