The UN has a tradition of having at least one unhinged national leader speak each year, this year filling the role was non-other than President Agent-Orange-Julius-Caesar Dumpster-Fire-and-Fuhrer The-Radish-Shaped-Ruler The-Mini-Peach-Putin Von Trumplestillskin. He managed to call another leader “the rocket man” and threaten to destroy North Korea if they tried to touch our cookies. If you didn’t know, Trumplestillskin was offered the role of president in the movie Sharknado…can someone please check to see that he doesn’t think he is starring in a really long movie? I mean it, he can’t really believe that this is reality, can he?
The “Family Values” party, the Grand Old Party, has a new website run by the republican governors’ association. It’s set up to look like a news website, you know like government news, or what one might call propaganda. This won’t bother most people because it isn’t that different than Faux Newz, but I’m continually bothered by the blurring of the line between the truth and whatever it is that we are currently living through…when will Manafort come out of his hidden storage locker and say, “Agent Orange made me do it”? Can we just hit fast forward and get to the trial?
Another of the GOP’s finest, South Dakota State Rep Lynne DeSanto, posted a gif that said, “All Lives Splatter.” The GIF showed the protestors getting run over by the white supremacist in Charlottesville. Yep, our elected representatives are now the ones posting opponents getting hit by golf balls, slamming news agencies in a WWE wrestling ring, and laughing about the death of a protestor. I’m not saying that democrats haven’t done a few stupid things, but I am saying that it’s about ten to one on the stupid scale. As the philosopher Forrest Gump said, “Stupid is as stupid does.”
Why is my page titled South of the Strait? Well I live in a far corner of the United States. I live in a small town south of the Strait of Juan de Fuca. If I was going to throw a rock across the strait it would land in Canada. I used to be an English teacher. I have worked in Westport, Port Angeles, and Sequim, Washington... and I did two years of substitute teaching in Coalinga, California.
I've moved around a lot, living in: Sterling,Kansas; Chicago; Jordan, Montana; Lemoore, California; Auckland, New Zealand; Spokane, Washington; Gambier, Ohio.
What do I write? For WordPress I used to print once a week for general comments. I wrote reviews of music concerts my daughter made me attend. (Each month she would want us to drive to Seattle to see a music group. I usually stood in the back watching weird stuff.) I also wrote about trips I have taken in Europe where I liked getting lost. I also wrote during the few months when my son was treated for cancer. (He is officially free of cancer of five years.) About three years ago I decided to stop writing blogs so I could concentrate on writing a few books. I have completed three books...or maybe four. I have now compiled my short stories poems and memoirs on Amazon. You can get it at Amazon now..."A Work In Progress"--Jon Eekhoff. I have been very close to getting a printed book called "Lost Summer" but I was never offered $1,000,000.00. (It's set in Paris, 1920's, with baseball, writers, artist, and actually true stuff.) I wrote a book about college basketball called "Laidlaw." It's kind of a mix of "Moby Dick" and a coach who is about to get fired so he takes his team out for a free drive around the West. My most recent book is "California Tales." These are connected stories about the missionary churches in California. They are sad, funny, inspiring, and odd. I had the entire book done in my head and had just one section to finish the next day...and that is when I fell 20 feet from my roof and landed on the cement. (Like a lot of men, I thought I could maintain my own roof instead of leaving it to the professionals.) I don't remember anything about my accident but I am told I was flown to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle. Though conscious and responsive after surgery to remove part of my skull, I don't remember anything from my first month there. I spent another month of Harborview working on walking, speaking, and writing. That was two years ago. As a TBI (Traumatic Brain Injury) survivor, I could have quit writing, but I am not going to quit. I work with the University of Washington Speech and Hearing Clinic.
So, here I am. I am married and live here in Sequim with my wife Cheryl. Our kids live in nearby cities. Writing is now an exhausting exercise, but something I plan to keep working on.
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