Wine-It’s Just My Opinion

  It was January 1983, and as a young disc jockey at a Radio Station in Corner Brook, Newfoundland, I, like many others around the world, started playing a song that would change the course of history.  That song was Billie Jean, by Michael Jackson from his Thriller LP.  Now for you young ones, who don’t know what LP is, it stands for Long Playing Record.  Yes, Thriller was first released on an LP.

Thriller went on to become the best selling record of all time, and still holds the title with over 50 million copies sold.  Everyone had a copy of Thriller.   Not only did it produce Billie Jean, but also Beat It, Thriller, and The Girl is Mine.  Aided by high energy music videos when MTV was in its heyday, Michael Jackson became the world’s greatest entertainer and was dubbed ‘The King of Pop’. 

And now he has passed on.  Like many others, I am scratching my head over what happened to this talented young man.  Everyone remembers the good looking kid from the Jackson 5 and from the music videos in the early 80’s.  From the plastic surgeries, odd public appearances, his marriages and of course his allegations of child abuse,  his downhill slide was more like an avalanche out of control.  Like the King of Rock and Roll before him, there will always be questions.

Darlene

This ought to get a few colorful comments started.  Let me start by saying, if you are easily offended on matters of Religion, stop reading now!

Many people ask me am I Religious?  To which I always reply ‘No’!  I am however, a big believer in Balance, Respect towards others, and the Ultimate Purpose of why we are here.  I consider myself more of a Spiritual person.   When I explain that to many people, I get looked at like I’m sprouting another head!  The next question tends to be ‘What’s the Difference?” 

I was raised Catholic.  And when I got old enough to start thinking for myself, I realized how much of what I was learning, I vehemently disagreed with.  I do believe in God, but I don’t believe in the Catholic Church’s viewpoints on birth control, living together, and I really disagree with covering up sexual abuse of a child just because the pervert who committed the crime was a priest.  

So here is what I think, and after all, the column is called ‘In My Opinion’.  I think a person can be ‘not Religious’, but still believe in God.    I don’t believe a person is a ‘Christian’ just because they say so.  I believe it has more to with how you live your life, as opposed to how holy you can look one hour per week in Church.  I believe the Catholic Church was at one time the ‘biggest business’ in the world, (think back 1000 years) and I believe that it is made up of human men, just men.  And all men make mistakes.  Every human being makes mistakes.

To err is human, to forgive Divine!  And remember, that’s  just my opinion.

Darlene

  Summer is finally here!  It was a long winter, and I do mean a lo-o-o-o-ng one.  With about 400 cms of snow this past winter, everyone looks forward to Summer.  As short as they are, they sure are appreciated.

I love Summer for several reasons.  Barbecues, glasses of wine on the patio, and it doesn’t get dark until 9:30 p.m. or so.  One of my favorite Summer past-times is reading.  Here are some of the books I have been reading on the patio.

   Fugitive by Phillip Margolin – a great page turner.  Phillip Margolin is one of my favorite writers.  He writes ‘can’t put it down’ type of books, and this story is no different.

  Another Phillip Margolin book.  This was I liked even better than Fugitive.  A word of advice.  Dont start this book if you have any plans for the day.   This book and Harlan Coben’s books make it to the top of the list as my all time favorites.

  This was a good book, however, highly disturbing.  It was the second one of Lisa Gardner’s I managed to finish.  I find some of her books start strong but fizzle out.  Like I said, disturbing, but it kept me interested throughout the entire book.

Some of my books that I have yet to read are ‘Salem Falls’ by Jodi Picoult, Julie Garwood’s ‘Shadow Dance’, Stuart Woods “Santa Fe Dead’, Mary Higgins Clark ‘The Cradle Will Fall’ and Tess Geritsen ‘Gravity’.

What good books have you read lately?

Darlene

       Sunday, June 21st is Father’s Day, and I just wanted to take a moment to salute all the good guys out there!   When I went to look for a picture of my dad, all I could find was this one, on the patio of my home, talking to someone.  How sad is it, that this is the only picture of my dad I have on computer.  I have others framed, in photo albums etc, but since the digital age, this is it.  I plan to rectify that in the coming year.

But I digress!   Today’s blog is to salute the man who raised three daughers and together with his wife, my mom, did it all in a small home and one bathroom.  That’s 4 women, 1 bathroom!  There’s a place reserved in heaven for Johnny!

He’ll be 79 soon, has an artificial hip, takes 1/2 pill a day, and more energy than any of his daughters.  When each of his daughters  wrecked his car, and we all did on separate occassions, the first question he asked ‘Was anyone hurt’.  He was the one who taught me ‘stuff’ is replaceable, people are not!

To the man who tolerated bad boyfriends, mood swings, bad hair days, and the pitfalls of brand name clothing.  To the man who never missed a school concert, and God forbid a sports game.  Who saw us through tough times and disappointment – and was there to celebrate with us the good grades, the seldom high scores and all of life’s good times.

Happy Father’s Day Johnny!

Darlene

I wanted to share with you my experiement.  On May 1st, all cable and sattelite systems were unhooked from my house, and I am living a life without television.  Now, let me tell you, I have a television (obviously!)  But I use it for movie rentals, if it happens to be raining on a Saturday night.  Other than that, I have not watched television in over a month.

And you know what?  I don’t miss it!  I have wanted to do this since Britney Spears headlined the 6 p.m. news as the top story of day.  I thought, with everything that is happening in the world, you have got to be kidding me!  Now that was a couple of years ago, but its been a downhill slide since.  What really pushed me over the edge was ‘Reality TV STARS!”  People, Audrey Hepburn was a star, Heidi Montag and Spencer whatever his name is, is not!   I used to enjoy watching entertainment news shows as well, being a big fan of movies, but they continued to slide downhill as well.

So, here I am, almost 6 weeks later, and here’s the result so far.  I am reading on average 3 books a week.  My house is clean, I am in the best shape that I have been in years.  You see, with no television, I have more time to work out, to clean, to correspond more with family and friends, and of course for reading.  And the thing was, I was never a big television watcher.  But if you need more time in your evenings, un-plug the tv. 

I will keep you up to date. 

Darlene