A Matter of Faith

So the Catholic Church is coming up with over $600 Million in settlement money in LA to pay out to plaintiffs and make the current caseload go away. Cardinal Roger Mahony is off the hook and Cardinal Bernard Law is operating in Rome these days.
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I was brought up as an Irish Roman Catholic. Lots of guilt. Lots of terrifying doctrine. As a public school kid, I was second rate to the nuns at St. Joseph's School in Lynn where I went for my Sunday School Catholic indoctrination. We all felt that the nuns preferred the parochial school kids, who were repressed maniacs by the time they came out of St. Joseph's in the eighth grade.
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Easily the most violent kids at Eastern Junior High School were the transferees from St. Joseph's Catholic Elementary School from Green Street in East Lynn. I still have scars on my forearm from the maniac who took my ruler, split it in two, and stabbed me in the arm with one of the sharp pieces. When I proposed to meet him after school to settle up, he looked at me in a fearful and incredulous manner and asked, "What did I do?"
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That was the product of a St. Joseph's Catholic education.
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Luckily, I was never diddled by a Catholic priest. I was slammed up against the wall and slapped by a nun, but nothing that would turn me into the pitiful protoplasm of the victims who were sexually abused by the priests in Boston, LA and elsewhere.
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Those people have my sincere sympathy. As kids, they were victimized by the ultimate authority figures, priests, who used them for their temporary perverted pleasure. Dispicable!!!
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By the way, the fact that the Catholic Church has $600M to make them go away is a travesty in and of itself.
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Years later, as the Executive Director of the Lynn Housing Authority, I bought the St. Joseph's School with state funds and turned it into 40 units of elderly public housing. At the time, I didn't think of it as revenge, but now I do. By the way, the priests at the St. Joseph's Rectory during the price negotiations were among the rudest, most inappropriately acting people that I have ever encountered in my professional life.in their behavior to the wait staff and cooks of the Rectory.
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All in all, the Catholic Church has produced a completely dysfunctional social system in it's ministerial system, and wide scale reform has to occur. It's probably too late anyway, because the dogma is so non-sensical. I truly don't see how a thinking person can buy into the cosmology of a heaven, hell, purgatory, limbo, etc. Everything seems to be based upon fear and a medieval form of social control.
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This has nothing to do with belief in the divinity of Jesus Christ, his Blessed Mother Mary, or a host of other things that the Catholic Church exposed to me. The Church and my faith are distinctly separate to me, and I am certain that I will pray to Christ for mercy when I eventually contemplate my own demise.
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But I won't need a Priest to perform the Last Rites.

Thinking Ahead

Even though the sailing rig is not complete on the Herreshoff Columbia Tender, and even though the deck railing hasn't been touched in three weeks, and even though the basement tile job has slowed to a dead halt.... I'm really starting to get psyched about building the Chamberlain Marblehead Gunning Dory.
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I find myself starring at the plans in John Gardner's Dory Book every chance I get.... thinking of ways that I would approach the construction.
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Plus, you wouldn't believe how hot Nanepashemet Telecom is getting. We're pitching two major contracts in the next two weeks and pricing another. If we win all three, plus maintain the other opportunities in the air, my boatbuilding time will be few and far between.

Indian Call Centers

The people who man these things from the Indian subcontinent are persistent to say the least. They force you to be rude.
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And those who know me best, know that I'm a very polite man.
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The earth is really getting small when you get irritated by people who call you from India.

It's Not Just About You

Today was a painful day. Not a metaphor. I had stomach cramps and more all day long. But, as you know, I'm not a complainer.... not a wimpy girly man.... not a bed wetting cry baby.
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So I stayed stoic and took it like the mountain of a man that I am.
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But my tummy really hurts.
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But enough about me. Let's start all over with another story... about me.
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Despite the pain that would cripple a lesser man, I stayed the course with the Nanepashemet Telecom team that was on fire today. Processing everything. Mowing down all in our path. One ball has settled for a time, and I'm nervous about another, four other opportunities are ready to bust out, and one hits the street next week.
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All in all - good productivity

Genuine Great Time

The day went according to plan.... only better.
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Joanne and I were over to Brown's Island by 11:30 AM in the WhaleEye.
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We were able to see Katelyn, Stacey and Brian Butler as well as a bunch of Katelyn's guy friends - the Wise Brothers, JJ McBride and others and still were able to ramp with Greg and Nancy, who had hooked up with Gilly, Chris Crawford, their wives Liz and Sarah, Dave and Megan, the cutie Maddie, and Emma the dog.
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Great company, sunshine, warm sea water, cold beers, grilled chicken wings and Hot Dogs. If you can come up with a better combination to have a great time on the planet Earth.... be my guest.
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No drama, no positioning, no worries about who you can talk to without pissing someone off. I hope I wasn't missing something, but I'm pretty sure that I had a genuine great time.

Brown's Island

It's going to be a scorcher in the 90's today. We're planning to bring the WhaleEye over to Brown's Island to tie up with Bruett's Damp Yankee. There's plenty of beers on the boat, and Joanne just went down to Crosby's to pick up some natural casing hot dogs and chicken wings for the Magma boat grill.
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I wish we could take Roenick, but he would freak out. You don't see too many cats on boats. Dogs yes, but not cats. Roenick probably wouldn't get along with Nancy's dog, Emma, anyway.
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Should be an awesome Marblehead summer day! Hope you have a good day as well.

Gearing Up

Some drawings on the web of the Chamberlain Marblehead Gunning Dory that I will build.

A Fair Trade

So I get a good row in today. All the way from Riverhead Ramp through Marblehead Harbor, around Fort Sewall, into Little Harbor and over to Grace Oliver Beach, where I picked up Joanne and we rafted up with Greg and Nancy Bruett. Greg took a trial of the Tender, and I was thrilled to see how it performed from afar. It even made Greg look good.
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A nice couple of hours.
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Then over to O'Shea's pool and a trip to Beacon Hill Liquors for some Dark and Stormie supply. At the Beacon Hill counter, they sell Nancy Bruett's mystery novel, Dusting.
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A guy was looking at the book and I told him that it was a great read. He said that it should be for $14.95, and I said he wouldn't be dissapointed. He muttered something like, "What the Hell, Life is short." and bought the book.
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I'm thinking that paid for the two beers that I drank on Greg's boat, Damp Yankee, today.
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Coming Alive

Okay.

I'm going to watch one episode of Flight of the Conchords on HBO On Demand, then I'm getting into Saturday morning action.

Not Interested

Heading up the list of things I'm never going to do is running with the Bulls in Pamplona, closely followed by bungee jumping and technical rock climbing.
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I'm not as much afraid of the bulls, as I wouldn't get caught dead in one of those effeminate neckerchiefs.
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Not Ready to Rock and Roll

Did you ever wake up feeling lazy?
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That's what happened to me today. Thank God it's Saturday, and I don't have any scheduled obligations.
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I just don't feel like doing anything.... although I am blogging, so maybe I can snap out of it.
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Maybe I'll start by cleaning out the cat's litterbox. It smells like.... well.... shit. With Izzy and Roenick in and out of the house all the freaking day, wouldn't you think that they would void in the yard or somewhere. But no, they come into the house when it is time to take a dump.
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Plus I have one of those macular migranes going on, where you feel kind of whoozy and your vision has trouble with focus. It doesn't really worry me because I've had these periodically for the last twenty five years. But they are a pain in the ass.
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So stay off my back for awhile!

Small Suggestion

If you want something posted on this Blog, for God's sake, don't tell me to do it. Because that's the last thing that will ever be written about. The best way to get an entry is to secretly hope and pray that it gets in, and then maybe by dumb luck, I'll post it.
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Conversely, don't forbid me to write about anything.... because I guarantee that the forbidden topic will be posted forward, backward, and inside out.
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Enterprising Peeps have found ways to manipulate these rules, but it is not recommended.