On the Eve of Fall 2007

Greetings Readers

Once again we are at the time of the year. We are on the eve of fall and the season has come to Colorado in the past two weeks. Pretty soon I will have to put the towel at the front door so I do not track in the rain and snow onto the carpet when I bring my bikes in.

I am not sure what to write. I having something to share. Okay, The days have gotten shorter, which means I am almost to the favorite part of the days. I like the early morning and sunset rides. The sky is dark, but the only light is coming from the orange "glow" on the horizon. Sure it is a bit dark, but this is time of tranquility for me. As I have written before - This is my time.

In addition, after the sun peaks over the horizon or just about to set I like seeing my long shadow on the ground. For me to my shadow on the ground stretched longer than me is pretty cool. I actually get to see what I look like on a bike. More importantly I like looking at my bike(s) in the shadow.

I guess I do have something else to say. Can you say "Finally" Jeeze-fucking-Louise I am not sure how long the Columbine Memorial took, but sure has been many, many years. And I do not mean to disrespect anyone, but how many people showed up at the opening on Friday? I think someone estimated about a thousand another journalist said a couple hundred. Thinking about this I would think there would be more, but then again I think the whole thing was a crock. One delay after another and then "they" got their act in gear when the "Soldier statue" was put up faster than the Columbine Memorial. I will go see the Memorial, but only when I am in the area, which I have not been for quite a few years. I do not care the way the Memorial looks. I think it is nestled in some hills, or perhaps in the ground. "Rings" are the designs and I do not think that there are any crosses. Readers - I trying to find some "clear" picture of the Memorial, but alas I am having trouble. There are videos and video, but I fucking could care less. I posted a partial view of the Memorial on today's post,

Well, another short entry, but I guess I need to get going so I can take advantage of the nice weather in Colorado. Tomorrow the cold and rain in suppose to move in.

Update: The Columbine Memorial was 8 years in the works. That is a fucking a lot of time for an event that was the worst school shooting in history. In my personal opinion, the Memorial is not something that makes me want to go and see it right now. Matter of fact I can not see any clear pictures of the Memorial.

Until the next time

Daryl Charley
The Fallen Athlete

What is up with the Damn M&M's ?!

Greetings Readers

I do not eat the Blue M&M’s. Period.

I do not have to tell you the reason why I do not consume the Blue M&M’s. I do not have to give an explanation to anyone. Nor do I “owe” you readers an explanation. I have my reasons. I can tell you - go fuck yourself. I can tell you it is none of your god-damn business. I can and have the right to ask you why do you care. I can tell you there are more portentous items than why I do not eat the Blue M&M’s.

I do not care if the M&M’s are plain, peanuts, peanut butter, or dark chocolate. I just do not eat the Blue M&M’s. I am not saying that I have not eaten a Blue M&M in X amount of days. Sure it happens that I might grab a handful of M&M’s and eat them all without segregating the M&M’s by color. But very, very rarely does that happen.

Yes readers, I divide my M&M’s by color before I eat them. And! I am not the only person on planet Earth that does this segregation. Matter of fact, the person who instigated this blog – LaMont does the separation process that I just mentioned. I am not sure if he does this subconsciously, but I was witness to this incident.

I do have a reason why I do this particular ritual, but I do not owe anyone a reason why. I will admit to you readers though this would not be an uncommon element in my existence. I am very, very analytical about most factors in my life. There has to be an unfluctuating order in my life and any “chaos” that I can elude - I will do. Hah hah. Readers, there are others who would declare “Damn that is one fucked up guy to do that!” You readers are entitled to your opinion and I would think not one thought about what you think. Believe me, there are many things other people do that are more fucked up than what I do. Hah hah.

You bet readers. How many of you readers put your pen in your mouth at work? Well, consider this. I bet none of you put your pen in a place that no one would use it by chance. Perhaps leave the pen laying on your desk/table, or put in the pen holder when not using the pen, or someone borrows your pen for a moment when you are not present. Who knows what/where that pen might be picked up by someone. Could that person put a portion of your pen in their mouth? Or chew on the pen cap. Perhaps the person who borrows that pen washed their hands in the restroom, but did not use a paper towel to open the restroom door thus acquiring other germs? Or maybe that person wiped their nose with some part of their hand / fingers. You just do not know or do not know to care.

I am thinking about all those things, but I bet most of you readers are not. So – who is more fucked up? Will I sleep better for watching myself about those things I mentioned? You bet. Will you readers sleep better not even thinking about that? You bet. No one is right or wrong in their view. We all have heard that phrase “what you don’t know can’t hurt you.” Well, what I know that you don’t know may hurt you. Think about that the next time you use your pen.

Getting back to the M&M’s. In my opinion – yes, there is a slight taste/texture to each of the M&M’s colors. I could care less about what the chemical make up of each color is. For example, I think I heard that a color red dye had a hazardous substance to that particular number back in the day. There may or may not a reason, but I organize my colors into each of their own color piles. No, I do not have a particular color that I must start with or end eating with. Just as long as I eat all the same color before moving onto the next pile of color.

Again readers, I do not condone the people who eat M&M’s what I would call - recklessly. These are most likely the same people who do not think about other things I do not take for granted. How filthy money is. How dirty restrooms are. What could be / is on the salt & pepper shakers at the restaurants. Who sneezes/coughs without covering their mouth. Or they sneeze in their hands and then grab a door handle. Yuck, yuck and yuck!

These are things that I think of constantly. Do I let that ruin/lead my life? No. I do take whatever steps to avoid those things. Yet, there is the extreme. There are people that have to wash their hands 20 to 50 times in one day. Or people that have to check the door locks 10 times or more just to be sure that they locked the door. There are others that have to use a new bar of soap each time they wash their hands. You could say OCD. Would I? I would not say it was not OCD, but I also would not say it is OCD. I definitely do not consider myself an OCD.

Do not concern yourself about why I separate my M&M’s into their own solid color of piles. And do not worry why I do not eat the Blue M&M’s. I have my reasons and they are none of your fucking business.

You can take that a face value. You can take that personally. You can laugh at me. You can think whatever you want about me. Does not matter. I sleep like a baby who goes to sleep content.

You readers can ponder, wonder how this came all about. Who knows. I can tell you readers I was fortunate to be raised in a lifestyle wealthier than most of you readers did when growing up. I did get what I always wanted… well I would have to say that I almost did get everything I wanted. I was not spoiled, but did have the benefit of having a preference about things, in general. Was I born with a silver spoon? Perhaps. Do I currently eat with silver ware? Oh yes! Only the best in that department.

If I did not like a certain food when growing up, I had the choice not to eat that food. There was always something else to be eaten or could be made for me to eat. Or I just did not eat at all.

I remember this tidbit from my youth – approximately 1st to 3rd grade for me. I loathed green olives, but I loved the red thing that I could slurp out of the green olive. So, my parents bought me jar of olives and let me only eat the red portion of the olive. I did not have to eat the green olive itself. That was a choice. Not stuck up. To a child that is choice and not a “problem”. Also back in the day there was no one saying “there is a whole village in Africa that is going hungry and you just threw away a week’s worth of food that could feed an entire village on the Serengeti.

Presently, I do imply that saying. Famine is everywhere and I hate wasting food. Now, I really do know that there is a starving village out there in Africa.

The Blue M&M’s that I do not eat, I often give away. If not, then yes I will throw away the Blue M&M’s. Those Blue M&M’s are my leftovers. Those Blue M&M’s are my “rejects”. Those Blue M&M’s are not good enough for me to eat.

Do not bite the hand that feeds you or offers you a gift. Yes, a gift in my view, but in your eyes you may see that as “my leftovers.” I do give the Blue M&M’s to the fortunate / unfortunate people and if you decide to throw them away – so be it. Not my concern. I could care less. At least I was thinking about other people than just me. I every now and then do show some non-selfish qualities about myself.

As I stated in my opening line and will use as my ending line - “I do not eat the Blue M&M’s. Period.”

Changing topics, if you readers can not guess from the blog pic that graces this blog, well I have made the community news blog front page. I guess my "Soldier Statue" blog from this blog was something worthy of front page news. As my favorite Simpson would say again - Woo Hoo!

And the Season Finale of the Amazing Race - All Stars. A very tough choice to pick a winner from the three that are left. I think that almost all of us faithful viewers do not care for any of the teams that are left to win the million dollars. My co-worker chose the "Beauty Queens" and I chose "Charla & Mirna" I agree with my co-worker that the Beauty Queens have an 80 % chance to win tonight. Yet, something inside of me is rooting for Charla. Charla has so many things and because of her size I see her as the underdog. As with most "underdogs" I want them to finish first, to win. I could care less about Mirna.

Until the next time readers

Daryl Charley
The Fallen Athlete

100th Blog Post - A Milestone

Greetings readers.

Let me start off with an article that I have found from the www.rockymountainnews.com website regarding the "Soldier Statute" that I had mentioned in my blog the day before. I guess this news was a bit old since I see that the print date was 04/07/07.

Let the hero tribute stand
Critics of statue miss the point
STORY TOOLS

April 7, 2007
By any definition, Petty Officer Danny Dietz of Littleton is a hero. The Navy SEAL, who was killed in action in Afghanistan in 2005, was awarded the Navy Cross - which ranks second only to the Medal of Honor.

He has certainly earned a prominent and lasting memorial to acknowledge his service, a memorial the Littleton City Council authorized last year.

The council will place a life-size bronze statue of Dietz at the edge of Berry Park, which will be dedicated on July 4, exactly two years after his body was recovered. And since the private fund- raising drive for the memorial has exceeded expectations, surpassing its $30,000 goal by more than $12,000, there may be enough money to also place a flagpole and a separate plaque on the site.

Even so, a smattering of parents have objected to the statue's location, which is within a few blocks of three schools and two playgrounds. Their complaint?

The statue is based on a photo of Danny Dietz that shows him in full field gear, rifle in hand. The protesting parents say that a sculpture depicting firearms should not be publicly displayed in areas where kids play.

Some have said a "peace memorial" should be erected instead. Others composed a letter that they've sent to community organizations and residents, urging them to ask the city to reconsider the location of the memorial. "In light of our community's experience with the Columbine tragedy," the letter reads, "and the clear message of non-violence that we teach in Littleton schools, what is our city thinking?"

It's thinking a lot more clearly than the protesters, that's for sure.

For one thing, trying to conflate the horror of Columbine with the courage of Danny Dietz is insulting. The Columbine killers cowardly mowed down unarmed and innocent classmates and a teacher.

By contrast, Dietz was wounded behind enemy lines during a special operations mission that was intended to apprehend a Taliban leader. When he and his three fellow SEALs were trapped by Taliban forces, Dietz and another wounded comrade stayed behind and provided enough cover fire to let another team member - the mission's sole survivor - elude capture.

Reasonable people might disagree about the artistic standard of the statue. But that's not at issue. And Dietz's family affirmed Friday that they remain very happy with the design.
Nor did the council approve this proposal in secret. It was authorized during the normal public process, and a model was displayed at a council meeting.

Danny's widow Patsy Dietz framed the dispute just right when she urged parents "to teach their children the difference between two thugs who murder their classmates and a soldier who died fighting for their freedom."

The distinction is so obvious it's hard to believe a debate is taking place. Littleton is right to stand by its decision.

As you can read, the organizers did everything that was required. And can you believe that they raised over $ 12,000 more than they needed for the statue. I think that shows some people care about this. Granted, I do not know how much the Columbine Memorial is costing, but if these people can raise the funds like this - for one person. Then the Columbine Memorial committee should be able to raise the funds for the people that died at Columbine. I know that the Columbine People do not want to people to "never forgot" but sheesz. If they can not raise the funds then something is not right.

Perhaps, I can weight on this. I am tired of Columbine. Sure it was unique thing to happen at the time, but I was not emotional about it. I could care less about the endless vigils, the endless "I saved myself from being killed", the endless "I knew them", the endless "Tonight the killers speak beyond the grave", the endless commentaries, etc. These people also have gotten Colorado Motor Vehicles Division to issue a special license plate with "Remember Columbine" plate or something to that effect.

Now, as I mentioned in the previous blog. It is about - "Oh we need more money to finish the Memorial". "Oh we are still healing" "Oh we want all the documents to be released regarding the Columbine incident" In my opinion, they should have left the white crosses that were erected somewhere over there and left them in the ground until the official "Memorial" is built. I do not know, but again that is my opinion. Also, I am making my opinion on little facts I know about this Memorial. Sorry readers, I am not interested in going into this item, since I could care less.

Sure this was a tragic event, but all in all the Columbine event was an isolated local event. This event has no bearing on the world outside the community of Columbine. All the students should have been local and there were no out of state travellers, or basically people beyond the doors of Columbine. As such as the 9-11 event, The VA tech incident, Oklahoma Bombing, Katrina, all these events involved people who were beyond the doors of where the event happened.

I might be reaching, but a person from Seattle would not come to Colorado to see the Columbine Memorial. I am sure that he/she saw the news on tv and read about it, but that's it. Yes, it happened to kids, but the it was kids that did the event. Not a terrorist, not mother nature, not a radical, just kids who not with the "in crowd". If that Seattle person were perhaps near the Columbine area when visiting our state then he/she might go and see for him/herself. All in all, in my opinion, the Columbine event really is not an event that is a must see in person thing.

I have run out of time readers, so I am going to have to close this blog out. As you can see I am starting to get involved about this item, now of interest.

until the next readers.

Daryl Charley
The Fallen Athlete

Number 99

Greetings readers

I am not sure if you care or not about "99". I do not think that I care, but it is sort of an amazing thing. 99 is the number of blogs have been posted to this blog. I guess this is the last of the double digit blogs for me on this particular blog. I hope that I have kept you readers entertained and informed perhaps on some level.

Of course, you may be thinking this guy had 99 fucked up things to say and there is no end in sight. Which I have to agree - I do not see an ending, so far. I am not hear for you to pass judgement on me, I am here on blogging since I have come to be comfortable about blogging. As you can see in the beginning I did not know how to start, but then in the last five months I started to get into a rhythm. A good thing.

Which brings me to my next topic, I think, LaMont and M & M's.

La Mont had something yesterday and really provoked me thinking about what was talked about last night between. I am not sure what to call this or even how to start. But I think this "issue" is something I am going to write about. The working title that I have been throwing around since yesterday evening is "What is up with his Damn M & M's". It is not an isolated case, but something that is probably unique. However, on a lower level than me LaMont is still guilty of the same thing with me and my M & M's.

Anyway, this is a topic that I am going to write about - and soon. It is funny, but also not. You could bring up so many things about me, or you readers. I have not stop thinking about this so I am going to write about this as soon as I organize some thoughts.

Oh news from yesterday, Rosie announced she is leaving the View, Adam Baldwin rant is still in the news, Brittney and Lindsay both out of rehab, Richard Gere in trouble with India, and in closing I have no news to report on the VA Shootings. Can you believe that?! I have been able to avoid the news regarding that. I do care, but in this current year somehow news reporting and gotten to an high time about who can report first, more and the breaking news to us viewers. At least this event, in my opinion, will overshadow the Columbine incident. Woo Hoo. At least we, meaning Colorado, will not have the "braggers" about we are known for the worse tragedy in education history.

Let me tell you readers out of state from Colorado. People come out of the woodwork. Saying this, saying that, remember-never forget, give us money, he/she was a hero, etc. I will be looking forward to next year when the focus will really be off Columbine and onto VA Tech. Of course, we are going to hear something to the effect - It was a real tragedy about VA, but don't forget Columbine. P.S. give us more money for the memorial that has not been built yet.

I will tell you readers right now. No one really cares anymore, except the community. If someone really did care, then the Columbine Memorial would have been completed already. I think I saw a picture, an overhead picture of the sight, and it is a picture of dirt here and there. Basically, all that has been done is Landscaping. Get the fuck out of here! Hah hah. If they are really complaining about that - start a volunteer program to get the landscaping done. This could be irrelevant since I really do not know nor care. Save the Memorial money for the actual Memorial.

Although, the community near Columbine did get in a uproar last week or was it two weeks ago about a statue of a fallen soldier from Iraq. It was a statue of a Soldier holding a machine gun with his Gulf war uniform on. Long story short, from what I remember from the news, is the community, some or few (who knows) do not want a "machine gun statue" so near the Columbine site. In my opinion, they are upset that there is a statue/Memorial and the Columbine Memorial has not even been started. Who knows readers. Perhaps I might do some research on this so I can get the facts on this case. I think I have something that is now starting to get interesting to me.

From The Blogs: Group Protests Statue for Soldier Killed in Action
Hero's Statue: Should It be Built?

by DavidM
A group of parents in Littleton has expressed concern about a statue that is going to be built in honor of Danny Dietz.
He was a Navy SEAL who died in Afghanistan while saving the lives of his other team members, the U.S. military said. He received the Navy Cross for his actions.
The parents group says the statue depicts Dietz clutching an automatic rifle. It will be built in Berry Park, which is within a few blocks of three schools and two playgrounds. The group says the statue glorifies violence.
Dietz' family members say they are upset about the uproar. So are the people who raised $42,000 for the statue.What do you think? Should it be built? Should its design and/or location be changed?

You see readers, sometimes I do not want to write about something, but as the words start flowing I start to see a path or two that I want to run down and see where they end up.

time for me to bring this blog to a close

until the next time

Daryl Charley
The Fallen Athlete