SONNET #4

               When time, like stagnant waters, becomes stirred,
              what spring will feed the rain clouds with its dew?
               What seas will wash the shores with foaming brew
                 and turn the tide to one that's never heard?
                   When ages flow like blood upon the sand,
                what Winter thaw will fill the running stream?
                   What dam will burst the unforgotten seam
               and flood the fertile fields that we had planned?

                    The rivers of my past flow without end,
                 a trickle of its source that can't be found.
                   No hurried waters pass around each bend,
                  and only God above knows where it's bound.

                     Every river flows with every season,
                 find their source and you will find their reason.

This is one of my poems that I wrote a number of years ago. It was a prize winning poem and has been published in a book of poetry. Even if you don't like poetry, please take the time to read it and let me know what you think of it! Thank you.

                           THE MASTER OF THE WEB

                 So why does the master of the web still hide,
                      now that the helpless fly has died
                       upon his slender strands of doom
                    that stretch across this darkened room?

                       Why does he choose to stay away?
                           Waits he for another prey
                       to make the same mistake the fly
                          made as it was passing by;

                       or has he found some other place
                      to string again his murderous lace,
                           or is he only fast asleep
                     and knows not what his web does keep?

                     What cruelty there within that breast?
                    What murderous soul that cares not less
                     that the innocent victim of his lair
                    had struggled long before dying there?

                       Why does he linger without shame?
                      Why does he play this waiting game?
                       What evil madness makes him hide
                     long past the time the fly has died?

                    But wait, another creature's flying by
                    and now is trapped, just like the fly,
                  and I watch as wings beat from the strain.
                        Alas, I know it's all in vain.

                       And still I see not hair nor hide
                       of where the master now resides.
                       Can he not, from his hiding place
                     feel the strands move there in space?

                       How can such cruetly linger long?
                     Does not the master know it's wrong?
                     Come out! Come out and halt this pain
                   that courses through your victim's vein!

                       Yet now I see that it's too late,
                      the helpless moth has met its fate.
                      It lies there still, beside the fly
                       just waiting for the time to die.

                      No, this must stop, I now demand,
                   as I reach out now to clutch the strands,
                      and with a sweep of my right hand,
                     I destroy all of the master's plans.
                                        
                     Then from his darkened, hidden place,
                       the unseen monster shows his face
                     and stares out at the missing strands
                       that he had once at his command.

                    What thinks he now, seated there?
                      Does he know who crushed his lair?
                        Should I strike one final blow
                       and kill him now before he goes?

                      Think of the creatures I would save
                      if I should put him into his grave.
                          Think of what a noble cause
                     this would strike for man's own laws.

                         No more to hear the dying cry
                     and flutters from some helpless fly.
                      No more this monster would he hide
                        behind the veil of insecticide.

                      And so I stretch out my right hand
                        prepared to carry out this plan
                        to strike the final, fatal blow
                         that will kill this evil foe.

                   But wait! The master of the web now turns
                        as if my final blow he spurns,
                       and he is spinning another lace,
                     weaving a thread in that same place.

                           Is he a fool to carry on,
                      knowing that I'm much more strong?
                         Does he not know what I'll do
                        whenever he spins his web anew?

                        Yet on he spins without a care,
                       building his near invisible lair,
                         as if the only goal embraced
                      is weaving that one tortured lace.

                       I stare with wonder at the sight
                      of silvery web, shimmering bright,
                      its weaver spinning into the night,
                       as if his purpose makes it right.

                     And as the minutes slowly passed,
                        I knew what I would do at last.
                   So, staring up into the craftsman's eye,
                     I bid the master of the web goodbye.

                        For who am I to cast that stone
                        that I, myself, do not condone?
                           No master of the web am I
                      that I would crush some other fly.

                   Weave on, weave on, that slender thread.
                     Weave that web that cloaks the dead.
                         Do what nature's laws intend.
                        Weave on, oh master of the web.

                                                 Tim Hunter
                                                  1983

Hi!

First I would like to say a brief word about the affliction I have. It's called Trigeminal Neuralgia. Many of you know about it already but for those who don't it is an extremely painful neurological problem that is incurable. I got it about seven years ago while I was in Virginia. It causes extremely (and I use that term loosely because it is actually worse than extremely) painful nerve pains on the right side of my face. At first it would go away for six months or four months at a time, but now it is extremely intermittent and doesn't go away for more than a week at a time and sometimes less. It renders me incapable of working so I get a pension from the Veterans Administration who, although several neurologists from the VA itself have told me it is caused by the Agent Orange I was in contact with in 1969 and 70 while serving in Viet Nam, will not admit it because it is not on their list of afflictions caused by Agent Orange. Of course the reason for that is that should they admit it they would have to pay me about three or four times the amount that they pay me now. Am I bitter about it? Damn straight. Can I do anything about it? Of course not. So, I live on practically nothing and have all I can do to survive each month. Ok, so it's happened, and there is nothing I can do about it, my pills don't work anymore so I live with it. OK!
Now the reason for all of this background about my problems is because I want everyone of my friends here to understand why sometimes it takes a while for me to answer your messages and comments that you post on my page. And I wanted to let you know why and to apologize for that. I am doing the best I can and I hope you understand that.

Secondly, I want to thank my daughters and my granddaughters, my stepson Jack, my son in law (the best son in law anyone could have, by the way), my daughters boyfriend, my unofficial granddaughters Lindsey and Loren, all of the friends whom I met through my wonderful daughters, like BJ (l love you dear), Nicole (love you too) and Leah (your a wonderful person), Jessica (who has always been like a daughter to me), Becky (who has also been like a daughter to me) my nephew Scott and his daughter Channy, and Courtney, whom I tutor and is like a niece to me, and her friend, as well as Dakotta, who is also like a niece to me, and one of my best friends ever, Tim Baldwin (by the way, check out his music when you have time by going to his site...great stuff), another friend's daughter, Jennifer, a very intelligent and pretty girl from California, a student at UC Santa Barbara, a couple of nice friends who I met here on myspace, Carol from Presque Isle and Andi from NH......my granddaughter Kasi's boyfriend, and I have probably forgotten someone and I apologize for that. And of course my musical friends.If not for all of you, I would be totally lost and lonely.
Here I get to stay in touch with my family and all of you very nice friends. You have all been so nice to me. This is my chance to thank you all and to let you know that I think all of you are very special people.

It's a real blessing to have friends, especially for someone like me who lives alone and in pain a lot. Your support and your messages are what keep me going. Remember that. Without you all I would be like a fish with no water, a car with no gas.......so this is a thank you. It's the best I can do but it is important for me to let you know how I feel about you all. You are all angels to me, especially my two fantastic daughters who keep me going. And again, if I left someone out, I am so sorry, it wasn't  intentional. I have 48 friends and my memory isn't the best so forgive me if I have forgotten any of you. Oh yes, my brother Tom, who has yet to write....hey bro, I would like to hear from you!!!
All of your kind words are so nice to hear. So please never stop. I think I have the best friends that any one on myspace could have! And I certainly mean that from the bottom of my heart....
Thank you all, and may God bless and keep you all, always!

My greatest wish would be to see you all in person and thank you personally. Perhaps I will get to do that someday. I hope so anyway.
And those who have taken the time to read this, thank you so much. You are truly my friends and my saviors. Love you all!

Tim

Yesterday, I spent about five hours redoing my myspace page. It was tedious, time consuming and frustrating at times, but this is my page and I wanted it to better reflect who I am. So instead of grabbing a premade code for the page, I decided to try something different and used a program to create my own background, etc. for my page. All I needed really was a good background. After thinking about it for some time, I thought, I spent most of my young life in the army, 12 years to be exact, and as a part of the 101st Airborne Division, including the two years that I spent in VietNam. I am proud of that. And I am proud to say that I have met a number of World War II veterans who were members of the 101st as well as those 101st members who are now or have been in Iraq. So I decided to find a good picture of that somewhere, and at first I thought about using just the patch, the screaming eagle, but it just didn't look good, but finally I came across a picture on the net that I really liked, so I put it in to see what it would look like. I liked it. Then it was a matter of adding the proper colored text, the right colored boxes as well as the right thickness for the boxes and there were a few other details to work out. It was actually fun to do. You should try it yourselves. With the program, you can see each detail as you do it so that you can go back and correct anything that you don't like, then when you are done you just click and button and voila, the code is made. It was great,

Then I found a video program and free videos to download that I could put on the page. Now, I thought, this is much better than just a regular song clip. People can actually watch a video. Now, the choices are limited unless you are a hip hop fan, which I can deal with but prefer something more country. I found the one I have and liked it. Then I put that in, got rid of some stuff, added some other things that I thought would fit the mood of the page and there you have it. And I like it. Maybe others won't but that's too bad, is all I can say.

Now I am left with one last task, and that is to update my pictures. I want more of the fancier stuff from a certain website and I have many more pictures to add, so that is my next project. Yeah, it took me a long time, but what I have is me, and that's what I was looking for. I see a lot of pages that I don't think reflect the real person whose page it is, simply because they can't find the right one that they like or they hastily throw something together and call it good. Well that isn't me. I am a perfectionist, I know, and that can be a fault at times but at other times I think it is a good thing to be.

Anyway, I hope you all like the new page. If not, well, I am sorry as it is going to stay this way for a while this time.....five hours is ok for once a month or more maybe, but not every week. By the way, the video will keep playing over and over unless you click the off button. I am sure most of you are familiar with the square symbol that does this, or you can mute it if you prefer. But it's a great song and a great video. I may change that from time to time, but for now it fits my disposition so it will stay.

Well that's enough for this tme. Just wanted you all to know why the change in page graphics and how it came about. It wasn't a ready made one. And that I like. It is like no one elses! It is mine and reflects who I am.

Anyway, hope you like it.If not, then I am sorry, but that is who I am......

Until the next time then, take care, hope you will continue to read my blogs and come to my page.

Thanks,

Tim (Great_Grampa)

 

Ok, so I decided to get a page here because my two daughters are on here, and my three granddaughters, and my son, and a bunch of good friends, but whew........never thought I would get this wrapped up in it all! But, hey, it's fun so far. Now that I have my page about the way I want it, maybe I won't have to be here so often........Naw!!! I'll still spend a lot of time here. Who am I kidding? Besides, I need to keep up with what my granddaughters are doing! Yes?

But it is a blast so far. This is better than sitting around feeling sorry for oneself, I think! And I am good at that. Still having a lot of pains but I will get through it. I usually do. At least I hope so....

It's nice to have such wonderful daughters and granddaughters. I miss them a whole lot, but being on here and getting to see what they are up too is really a great thing. Don't know who though of this MySpace thing, but they really knew what they were doing. I am thankful to them for the communilty, that's for sure.

Well, that's enough for now, I think. Don't want to write a novel.....not yet anyway. Give me time!

First Blog

Well, this is my first blog on MySpace. I have left it open for the public for now, since I am new and am not yet familiar with the ins and outs of this site yet. Hopefully, my daughters and granddaughters that are here will help me with that....But I am open to others helping me figure out what to do here. For instance, how to add music to myspace here, or how to add other things I have seen on other peoples myspaces!

Since most of the people here are young people, they probably know a lot more than I do about how to do this kind of thing, so I am asking for their help getting my page looking as nice as my granddaughter Kasi's! I am basically here because of my children and grandchildren, but I hope to add to the education of some of you younger people, by adding a little wisdom from time to time, or at least my life's experiences. I am a huge music fan so hope to add some information on that subject as well, and perhaps post some of my poetry for those that like poetry.

Anyway, it is nice to be here and hope my daughters and granddaughters will add me to their friends lists and help out their old dad and granddad! :)