PAGE 10 - The Malakoff News - Friday, August 4, 2006
i
with Emily Lundy
What's under that water anyway?
One way my summers were
fun in the fifties was water ski-
ing. Fortunately, I had an aunt
and uncle who taught my
brother and me how to glide
across the lakes when we
were preteens. Then my par-
ents had family friends who
owned a boat and skis: We all
went camping and we younger
ones skied as much as we liked,
even in the moonlight.
My grandchildren, as far as I
know, have not ever followed
a boat on thin boards, staying
in the wake of the boat for
smooth riding theia eventually
crossing the small crests both
ways with a thrill of adventure.
Boats in the backyards
now are for fishing.
I suppose skiing has lost its
appeal, its fleeting
exhilaration, but that freedom
of balancing on one ski and
crossing the wave behind the
boat without a spill was an ex-
perience I haven't
forgotten. One equal as I wax
nostalgia is skiing all over the
lake, then reIeasing the tope
handle and gently falling back
into the water, floating until get-
ting picked up by the boat.
Today I'd worry about
what's under the water. Today
my knees wouldn't hold my
body up even'to pretend to ski.
Today I couldn't balance. And
I would know not to let the sun
bake me, even though the cool
water of a deep lake could
soothe my soul like no
other adventure, saturating ev-
ery pore until Nature and I
were one.
Whether the sun shinned or
not, its rays did its job on ski-
ers in the fifties and today.
Many times I came in on Sat-
urday afternoon with a back
redder than Siren lipstick. We
used the incorrect term "blis-
tered," (which happened once
or twice), but usually I had one
wicked sunbum which I await
to pay for any day.
Fair skinned and freckled,
with the appropriate color of
eyes, blue, I should have
known better, but no one did.
Now in my sixth decade of life,
taking blood thinners, I don't
like how my arms or legs look
at all, bruises from the tiniest
of contact, spots I can't iden-
tify, little warts, cuts I cover
with band aids. One day I put
a wide bracelet over some
tacky bruising near my wrist,
and removal of the braqelet
showed it, too, had turned my
skin varied shades of blue. One
doctor said nothing could be
done for fair skin except pro-
tect it, adding that the thick-
ness, excuse me, the
thinness of my body covering
couid not even be measured.
Thus, I avoid the sun totally
today. But back when my hus-
band and I were newly weds.
adventuring to West Texas to
work, making money, not hav-
ing a debt pile, delaying having
a family until we had a washer
and dryer, we were kind of
free. Thus, one day we bought
a second-hand boat, located
the nearest lake for skiing, and
if we couldn't find someone
to accompany us, w[ want
alone. Many words were ex-
changed between the driver
and the skier as we took turns
pulling one another on Lake
!
Texoma. I accused my spouse
of finding rough water on pur-
pose. He had directions for me
on how to drive the boat.
My husband's
explanation for the lake expe-
rience went like this: "We live
in the middle of the best water
spots in Texas--65 miles west,
65 miles east, north, and
south."
Once, with the rope wrapped
around him several times as my
spouse prepared for takeoff, I
started to pull him up too soon.
He said later he walked on
water for at least ten feet.
We taught several friends
the art of skiing, found others
who shared the sport, but one
6' 7" friend never mastered the
routine. Our boat wasn't big
enough to pull him up; he skied
all over one West Texas lake
squatting over the skis as we
tried to control our laughter.
Then we were early skiers
on Cedar Creek Lake when
we came in on vacations. We
knew what lay at the bottom
of this lake as we had grown
up knowing all this land as pas-
ture.
Good thin*gs do come to an
end even though' other good
begins unknowingly. Other ac-
tivities took over our lives,we
realized the expense of our
hobby on water, and as we be-
came parents, taking the chil-
dren on any outing meant Dad
had to work really hard, and
this man rediscovered his love
of fishing in creeks.
When we came East from
West, the boat did not come
with us. Sometime I really re-
gret that.
Administrator:. Karen Abbe, RN
If illness or injury made everyday life difficult for you or
someone you love, professional home healthcare services can
help. Our skilled, helping hands are dedicated to nurturing people's
health and wellness needs in the comfort of their own homes,
providing physical and emotional support when it's needed most.
Skilled Nursing Care - Home Health Aides
Speech Therapy - Physical'Therapy
Occupational Therapy
Cedar Lake Home Health
& Hospice
Malakoff - 903-489.2043
Gun Barrel - 903-887-3772
Athens- 903-677-5999
Fogy
by Jeff Davis
'Black's white today and day's night today'
A woman blows the whistle
on a government agency that
is breaking the law. The gov-
ernment vilifies the woman
for leaking classified informa-
tion and thus breaking the law.
Is this a Catch 22 or what?
If the government brehks
the law in one of its opera-
tions, classifies the operation
as part of national security
and a whistle blower leaks the
crime, which law breaker
should be prosecuted?
Should reporting the com-
mission of a criminal act be a
crime? What is to prevent an
agency of the government
from doing anything it wants
in the name of national secu-
rity?
An agency could, for ex-
ample and heaven forbid, se-
cretly take prisoners to hid-
den detention centers where
they could have their way
with them with no humanitar-
ian restrictions.
They could be breaking the
laws of both man and God but
without someone breaking
national security laws, the citi-
zens would never know.
I interpret the expression
"loophole in the tax code" to
mean a technical way to
avoid paying the taxes that a
tax bill intended you, a per-
son or a corporation, to pay.
Also, in my naive way, I
supposed that closing a loop-
hole would be the correction
of an error so that a taxpayer
would be paying the correct
amotmi and not sleazing out
of their obligation on a tech-
nicaUy.
But on the Senate floor I
hear that closing a loophole
is a tax increase. I don't get
it.
What in the world does the
oxymoron "Preventative
War" mean? Well, I suppose
I kind of know what it means.
If I say, "I don't have no
apples", you aren't going to
ask me for an apple.
My error in the understand-
ing of "Preventative War"
was in not realizing that the
circumstance to be prevented
wasn't specified.
I kept thinking that war was
the thing to be prevented;
how could a war prevent a
war? It didn't make sense.
I finally saw that whatever
the war was preventing, it
wasn't preventing war; nor
did the name "Preventative
War" claim it was.
There is also the concept
of "preemptive war" which
seems to be an 'Tll get you
before you get me" philoso-
phy.
Since we have started one,
I guess it's OK, but for the
sake of consistency we
should revisit the way. we
deal with women who pre-
emptively kill their abusive
husbands.
I guess I don't understand
why one is OK and the other
sends the woman to prison.
The following was e-mailed
to me:
Minister Joe Wright opened
a session of the Kansas Sen-
ate with the following prayer:
"Heavenly Father, We come
before you today to ask your
forgiveness and t9 seek your
direction and guidance. We
know Your Word says, 'Woe
to those who call evil good,'
but that is exactly what we
have done.
"We have lost our spiritual
equilibrium aod reversed our
values.
"We have exploited the poor
and called it the lottery.
"We have rewarded laziness
and called it welfare.
"We have killed our uhborn
and called it choice.
"We have shot abortionists
and called it justifiable.
"We have neglected to dis-
cipline our children and called
it building self esteem.
"We have abused power and
called it politics.
"We have coveted our
neighbor's posse.ssions and
called it ambition.
"We have polluted the air
with profanity and pornogra-
phy and called it freedom of
expression.
"We have ridiculed the time-
honored values of our forefa-
thers and called it enlighten-
ment.
"Search us, Oh, God, and
know our hearts today;
cleanse us from every sin and
set us free. Amen!"
Thus Spake the Old Fogy~
Networked Digital-Solutions
To Sim Office Applications
COPY / FRINT /
Introducing the Bizhub C350.
It's the hub of your business.
You have important work to do.
And now there's an imaging solution
that will help you and your team do
everything better: the new bizhub
C350. It's where affordable, high
quality color meets black & white.
And you can print, copy, scan, fax,
e-mail and more. From a single
resource that also centralizes and
manages your documents.
See everything bizhub can do. bizhub .8 KOINIO MINOLT/
Steve Tardiff &
214 S. Terry - Malakoff 903-489-3258
. ~ 4 . .:
. ~
)
* Expanded
Physical, Occupational &
Challenging
Special
Program *
PRIVATE PAY
ir h :
