Coretta Scott King has died. I was born the year her husband was killed. I wonder what the world would have been like had he survived the shooting.

Went to Topeka yesterday to do some research. Managed to keep myself busy by looking up various dates, like the Shuttle explosion from 1986 and a few other things. Mom kept busy looking at old census files. She did find a few things but not as much as she would have liked.

It was a nice day to go with the rain. We got close to an inch, glad we got some rain since we really needed the moisture.

Have been having some strange dreams lately. Walking in fields, driving in strange towns, driving over odd bridges and going through some odd maze like route to get out of a hotel. The latter usually involves me trying to get away from someone.

My pick for Superbowl winner is Pittsburgh.

Will be going to Topeka again tomorrow so mom can do some genealogy research. It has been awhile since she wanted to go and who knows when we will get another shot.

Kiska has been doing well since her surgery last week. She will need to have her stitches out next week.

A cousin of my moms past away earlier this week. I think I might have met him once or twice at a family reunion, but I don't recall much about him. My mom's side of the family stopped having reunions, so far as I know, years ago. We speculated about his wife. He hadn't gotten married until late in life and was very into African Violets. Not to say that a straight man couldn't wait until late to get married or wouldn't express an interest in African Violets but he may have been pushed to get married. And that's all I'll say about that.

Chris Penn, Sean Penn's brother, died. He was a good actor and sort of lived in his brothers shadow. Sad he died so young.

Kiska had her surgery and is doing fine. Sergi got loose while we were trying to get both dogs in the car, we wanted to go ahead and get Sergei's shots for the year. He ran off but came back quickly. Once he was back, we got him in the car and off to the vet's office we went. It was a lot to have Kiska's surgery, shots, exams and heartguard for both dogs. But if we're lucky, we wont have to take them back again for a year. Although Kiska will need to go in next week to have her stitches removed.

Wilson Pickett, Tony Fransisca and Shelley Winters passed recently.

Will be taking Kiska in to the vet's office tomorrow to be spayed. We will take Sergei in so he cant get his yearly shots, when we pick up Kiska tomorrow evening or Thursday morning we will make sure she gets her yearly shots. Then we can go ahead and license them for the year.

The pictures are of Kiska at five months, the Christmas tree and one of Kiskas favorite hobbies-biting Sergei.

Had a winter weather advisory yesterday. South of us got more snow and a bit more rain then us. We got a little more than a dusting, others got as much as a couple inches. Accidents galore because idiots in SUVs and ugly big trucks think they can drive fast, while they can they just cant stop on a dime if they need to and then they crash. If mom hadn't needed a couple things we wouldn't have gone out after she got home.

My thoughts and prayers go out to Art Bell whos wife has died. May she rest in peace.

/rant on

Pat Robertson a so called man of God is giddy about Sharons' stroke. I don't know how this loser is able to go out and say crap like this without people coming down hard on him and doing protests and what not. I mean this jerk has also called for assassinations of people. Is he getting this message from God? This is why when people ask me about my beliefs in religion I say "I believe in God, I don't believe in religion", and that's the truth. Its bad enough idiots like Robertson have an audience who think he's the greatest thing since sliced cheese, but you have the people in the cult known as Scientology that spout crap like "Aids is a state of mind".

When religions can get there act together and say "Okay, we've worked everything out and we are all together on this. This is what we now are going with as a belief structure and so on" I might listen to them. You have one book called the bible, but you have like (this is an exaggeration) 2,000 religions based on that book.

/rant off.

First tragedy of the year. Several miners in West Virginia die after being trapped in the mines for some hours. One miner survived and the family's of those who died at first thought their loved ones survived only to be told that wasn't the case.

May the miners who died rest in peace. May peace come to their families.

Happy New Year. May this be a better year for us all.