Friends

My Dad has been a Mason for quite a few years now; he joined sometime when I was in early high school or there-abouts, and used to be a fairly active member of the Lodge in NH, and both he and Mom were in Eastern Star. We did quite a few events, and he did alot of charity work. I can't remember all the positions he filled, I know he did a couple. I left my own mark on the Lodge; I couldn't get the title of 'Worshipful Master' in my head, so when I was finally introduced to him, a very nice elderly gentleman, after a few bits of prompting as to who this was, the 'head of the lodge', etc, I piped up with, 'Oooooh, the Master-dude!'. This tickled the older gent, and he giggled about it for years.

Anywho, my Dad moved from NH to Virginia a couple of years ago (2003?) now, and with working eves it's made it really hard to get in and meet the local Lodge, just because he can seldom attend. He's missed it.

One thing many people do not realize, is that Masons Do Not Recruit. They don't drive for members, they don't solicit interest. If you want to join the Fraternity, You have to ask Them. They have a slogan, often seen on bumper stickers and t-shirts, 'To be one, ask one.' You will -never- be bugged to join a Lodge. You have to find a Masonic brother, and ask them about it. Many of the Lodges are in dire need of young blood, so if you have any questions, or want to know more about it... let me know. I am not a Mason myself (I lack vital organs, or I would have joined years ago), but I know a fair few, and can put you in contact.

But, beyond Masonry, Dad likes Motercycles. And like peanut butter and chocolate, the two go great together.

Meet The Widows Sons, a Masonic Riding Association. To be a voting member, you need to be a Master Mason, but anyone can be an associate member, including daughters and wives, etc. Dad's trying to put together a new Associate chapter for his section of Virginia, but there are chapters all over the US and overseas.

The Widows Sons goals are:

1. Introduce the sport of motorcycling to our Masonic Brothers.

2. Raise Masonic Awareness in the world of sport motorcycling.

3. Contribute to the relief of our Widows & Orphans.

4. Support the Blue Lodge through regular attendance, and assisting with or attending lodge events.

In short, drum up Masonic support for the local Lodges and charity work, all while riding their bikes.

He loves showing his 'colors'. What you can't see here is that blue 'rag' under his helmet has a big Square and Compass that sits on his forehead, like you'd see a Harley Davidson or such on others.

Finally, Dad saying, 'Hurry up, I wanna go for a ride!'

If you're reading this than you're one of the handful of friends that most likely isn't at Anthrocon. Though with wireless internet these days it's hard to tell. Anyway, I had Friday off from my job so I had planned to do some cleaning and have some fun, but I only managed to get the former part done. Sure, I managed to get the dinning table cleaned up nicely and took out the trash and washed-n-changed the bedroom sheets and did my laundry and vacuumed the rugs (Which badly needed it) and organized a tool box full of RPG equipment so that I've got more space and took Arianna for a walk outside when it was nice out... but there just isn't any time for *ME*.

I haven't played GalCiv2 in nearly 3 weeks.
Withdrawl! D:

I got a little time playing PS2, but that involved giving Ari a controller and sitting her on my lap so she thinks she's playing the game. ...or rather she drolls on the controller and thinks shaking it is how you play. Maybe she's mistaking it for the Wii? I dunno. Either way, moist controllers feel icky.
(My complaint about playing video games with Ari is that's she too young to really know how to play so I can't truely enjoy a 2 player experience with her yet).

Thankfully Ari is busy watching some cartoons and playing her piano this morning so I get a moment to check my emails and write back to the short list of people who write me regularly. My inbox in unloved. Ari's piano has some sort of short in it though as the 4 and 8 keys don't play their note and any time the piano's little self-playing feature is turned on it dies if it attempts to use either of those two notes.
I'd take the piano apart, but the screws are difficult to get to and I don't have the right tools for it. Ari is unhappy with that. But then, she's been unhappy about a lot of things Friday.

In the words of Francis: "I hate three-day weekends"

Happy Birthday America.

P.S.: One spot of good news is that the gaming group might actually get together and finally play OPRI. Yay...