Rob Darnell

I posted this on Facebook after Grandma’s funeral in September, but now that I’m using my website again, I want it on my blog. The handwritten version of the song is in the purse she has with her. I think this song is the most important thing I’ve ever written.

It’s a chapter that will be hard to close.
Life won’t be the same as it was before.
Today we’ll bury a piece of our hearts,
But your touch will always linger.

We’ll have the memories,
And you’ll be with us in some sense.
But your laughter and your southern drawl
Will be something we’ll hear only in our hearts.

I will bear the weight of your casket,
My brother and I, and our cousins.
We’ll carry you from the hearse
To the place where Grandpa waits.

We’ll always have the memories,
And you’ll be with us in some sense.
But your laughter and your southern drawl
Will be something we’ll hear only in our hearts.

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Work in Progress

Novel #1
Genre: Thriller
New Words Inserted: 497
Total Wordcount: 68,836
Total Pagecount: 280

Short Story #1
Genre: Supernatural Horror
New Words Inserted: 164
Total Wordcount 6,742
Total Pagecount: 28

The Tardis is turning up everywhere. I mean EVERYWHERE! On your boss’s desk, your kitchen counter and where your refrigerator used to be. Sometimes when I look out at my backyard, I see the Tardis. Countless memes featuring the Tardis or the Doctor himself are going around. And check this out. The other day on Facebook I saw a picture of Michael Knost and his daughter standing next to a real live Dalek. I kid you not. The expressions on their faces told of the horrors they were about to suffer. I hope the Doctor showed up before the Dalek fixed its plunger on Mike’s face.

And remember, don’t blink. You can never be sure about the angel statues you see at church or the gargoyles perched on buildings. Even the little Cupid statue peeing in the pool might charge you if you’re not watching it.

If the Empty Child is behind me right now, I am going to scream.

Needless to say, Doctor Who is more than just a British TV show. Doctor Who is a culture. Fans of the show can be found around the globe. If there is another TV show that has a cultural impact as massive as Doctor Who, I haven’t heard of it.

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Work in Progress

Novel #1
Genre: Thriller
New Words Inserted: 209
Total Wordcount: 68,339
Total Pagecount: 278

There’s been a lot of sticks and branches falling out of the trees and landing on my lawn. I have a barrel in the backyard for burning sticks and leaves, but some of the branches are too big for it. I could break them into smaller pieces, but I can’t fit a whole lot into the barrel at once and that means the process of burning yard waste is much slower than I would like.

For the last week or so, I’ve been thinking I ought to have a firepit. It would make the burning of yard waste easier. It would also be nice to have a fire once in a while, just to sit around and shoot the shit over beer.  When I first moved into this house, my mom had suggested a couple times that I make a firepit for the purpose of having people over and hanging out in the backyard at night. But I wasn’t for it at the time, partly because I didn’t feel like making a firepit and partly because I don’t have people over very often.

I’m still not likely to have people over much, but I think a firepit would be nice. However, if I’m going to make a firepit in my backyard, I want it to be something I like. I don’t want to just dig a little hole and surround it with rocks. What I want to do is build an outdoor fireplace in my backyard. Something a little more fancy than the usual hole-and-rock style firepits.

Click picture for larger version.

Yesterday, after playing around with a tape measure and making crude sketches, I figured out exactly what I want to do. I will dig a hole twelve inches deep and make it perfectly square, with thirty-two inches on all sides. I will also make the floor of the hole flat. So, twelve inches deep and thirty-two inches on all sides, and a flat floor. That’s the first step.

Next, I want there to be a wall of concrete blocks surrounding the hole. This is as much for safety as it is for looks. A concrete wall should reduce the chances of the grass catching on fire. The wall will be twelve inches high. So, the wall twelve inches high surrounding the hole twelve inches deep, that means the overall depth of the pit will be two feet. 

I looked on HomeDepot.com. They’re selling concrete blocks sixteen inches long, eight inches wide and eight inches high for $0.98 each. These concrete blocks are perfect for what I have in mind and they cost a lot less than I was expecting. I’ll need ten of them. Two sides of the pit will have three of these concrete blocks. That will make the walls forty-eight inches long, which is sixteen inches too long. But then the other two sides of the pit will only have two concrete blocks each and everything will come together.

 But the concrete wall will only have a height of eight inches and I want it to be twelve inches. I also don’t want there to be square holes in the top of the wall where spider webs will start appearing. Home Depot is selling these solid blocks that are sixteen inches long, eight inches wide and four inches high for $1.04 each. I’ll need ten of them, to place on top of the first layer of concrete blocks. The concrete wall will have a height of twelve inches and there will be no holes except for the firepit itself.

So, that’s what I want to do.

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Work in Progress

Novel #1
Genre: Thriller
New Words Inserted: 632
Total Wordcount: 68,130
Total Pagecount: 277

Short Story #1
Genre: Supernatural Horror
New Words Inserted: 94
Total Wordcount 6,578
Total Pagecount: 27

I’m sure some people are relieved to hear that. In particular, my gay friends, who probably feel much better knowing my ugliness won’t be chasing after them anytime soon. Yes, I’m very supportive of the gay rights movement. I feel strongly that they should have the same rights as everyone else. It’s because I believe in the Constitution, Human Rights and God. All three say pretty much the same thing when they’re talking about the human race. It all boils down to Live and let live.

Sometimes I make jokes that probably give people the impression that I’m gay. There was a time when I would be offended if someone thought I was gay. There was also a time when I was not a supporter of gay rights. I was, in fact, against gay rights and gay people. But over the years I’ve moved away from that way of thinking.

These days I don’t even mind if gay men find me attractive, and they’re welcome to say so too. My reply will probably be a simple thanks.

I love guns. I don’t know why, they’re just fascinating. If I had the money, I would collect guns. I like all kinds of guns, from the early muzzleloaders to the heavy duty assault rifles. I think the AK47 is beautiful, a lot nicer looking than the American invented M16, but I like the M16, too.

Perhaps the Colt Peacemaker would look good on me, because I often find myself between opposing groups and trying to reason with them both. In the midst of a shouting match, the Peacemaker ought to be the gun that fires a round into the ceiling so everyone will shut the hell up. It’s a Peacemaker, that’s what it’s for.

Okay, Wyatt Earp is out of my system.

I think there are four groups of people.

1.People who treasure the right to bear arms. Gun ownership is very important to them and they will do all they can to retain their right. Their guns are not only necessary for survival and sport, but are also part of their culture.

2.People who feel that no one anywhere should have a gun. They act as if a gun is a thing that will eventually process your mind and convince you to shoot people for fun. They also seem pretty sure that a good guy with a gun won’t have a chance in hell of stopping a bad guy with a gun, and that all the good guy is going to do is shoot an innocent bystander.

3.People who, whether they support gun ownership or not, are willing to listen to both sides of the argument and try to understand where each side is coming from. They’re open to giving up ground in order to find a place in the middle that would give both sides an even half.

4.People who don’t give a shit one way or the other. They decline to have any part of the argument and whatever happens is fine with them.

I’m in the third group. I’m willing to give up ground to find a middle. I give up ground grudgingly, though, because I don’t think it matters what kinds of guns are available for private ownership. In my opinion, all that matters is who owns the gun. An assault rifle isn’t going to be more dangerous than a single barrel shotgun if the owner is responsible with it. But at the same time, I don’t think it’s the end of the world if we give up ground.

I believe in leaving the Constitution alone. It’s why I support the right to bear arms. It’s why I think religion should have no part of our government, it’s why I believe in equal rights for all.

You know the original version of the Pledge of Allegiance was written in 1892 and it did not contain the words “under God”.

The original Pledge of Allegiance said, “I pledge allegiance to my Flag and the Republic for which it stands, one nation indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.” The conservative in me says that was fine, we should have left it alone. Why? Because it respects the fact that some people don’t hold to the Christian belief, and we were supposed to be a nation where religion and government do not mix.

I don’t think too many people had complaints about the original Pledge of Allegiance, except maybe those who want this to be a Christian nation. And they got their way. They changed things. How very liberal of them. I like the original Pledge of Allegiance, for the reasons stated above, and because it was the original and it worked. There was no reason to change it.

The same is true of “In God We Trust”. Again forgetting that the Unites States is a country of mixed races, cultures and religions. Both, “In God We Trust” and “Under God” were inserted in the 1950s.

I think religion is one of the things that makes it so hard for the government to function. We have people who claim to hold true to the Constitution, but they’re trying to keep certain groups from enjoying the same rights that they do. All because their religion tells them it’s wrong. It’s fine to believe what you do, but the government shouldn’t heed to religion when it has a lot of different cultures to consider.

If you want to uphold the Constitution, then by God, uphold the Constitution. Hold it up high so everyone can see it, and don’t put your fingers over the parts you don’t like.

Equal rights for all. That should means just what it says. Gay people must be allowed to marry under our Constitution.

For the record: I’m not an atheist.

I don’t subscribe to the cynical belief. Kinda ironic, I think, because I often feel anger toward a lot of people. I have trouble forgiving, and man, I can hold a grudge. If someone treats me disrespectfully, I’ll never forget it. And there are people who I hate with passion. But even so , my faith in humanity has not diminished.

I believe the majority of people are good. And I don’t mean they’re good in order to make themselves look less evil, like a cynical person would believe. But rather they are good because that’s who they truly are. I don’t mean they’re saints, because even the best of people have their failings, and some very good people can do some very hideous things.

I guess what I’m trying to say is, the good comes before the bad in most people. They’re good, but they have their moments where they think bad thoughts or feel greedy or selfish, etc. But the good in them heavily outweighs the bad.

Sure, there’s people who have more bad than good in them, but that’s not the majority of humanity, not in my opinion. I really cannot see things from a cynical point of view. I find a cynical person’s way of thinking disturbing, and ridiculous. And it’s funny, because I’m often accused of being a negative person, but I think my way of thinking is less negative than a lot of people I know.

Yesterday my dad, my sister, my nephew, my neice and I had Chinese food. My mom had to work the night shift, so she wasn’t with us even though it was Mother’s Day. I love Chinese food, but I’m frustrated every time we get Chinese because I don’t know what most of that stuff is. I mean, I know it can have beef, chicken, shrimp or pork in it, but the titles that cover the meals that have those familiar pieces of meat in them, I don’t know what the titles mean.

Usually I’ll have someone else choose my meal for me, because whatever it is, I’ll eat it. I can’t think of any food I don’t like. If it’s cooked right, it’s good. Yesterday I just told my dad I wanted something with beef and rice. I always get the fried rice and an egg roll with my meal, but that’s as far as my knowledge of Chinese food goes.

Though I enjoy whatever it is I eat from the Chinese restaurant, there are some meals that I’d really like to have again, but I don’t know what they’re called. My favorite, which I can’t find because I don’t know what it is, is this stuff that I think is chicken. It’s incredibly tender, it feels nice in your mouth and it tastes sweet, and I guess, spicey too. I have to try describing this stuff, but no one seems to know what I’m talking about.  I might have to get something different from the Chinese restaurant every time until I figure out what everything is.

So, we ate, and then it was time to fulfill a tradition. No Chinese meal is complete without the fortune cookie. Now, I’m not a big believer of these things. Especially considering that my fortune teller is a factory worker, or machine, that puts those little pieces of paper into the cookies. But I usually keep my fortunes anyway, for luck, and because they kind of uplift me in a weird way. Or at least inspire me to be like it says on the paper. I await the day I get a fortune from a cookie that says, “Get your affairs in order, you’re going to die one year from today.” because that would be funny.

Yesterday, after breaking open my fortune cookie, I found that my fortune was ripped. All that was left was the ending of a sentence: “has been completely changed.” I don’t know if a ripped fortune is bad jo-jo or not, but it sure is mysterious. What has been completely changed? I’m guessing my life. If that’s the case, I hope it’s changed for the better and that I achieve great shiny success a short distance down the road.

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Work in Progress

Novel #1
Genre: Thriller
New Words Inserted: 508
Total Wordcount: 67,498
Total Pagecount: 273

Short Story #1
Genre: Supernatural Horror
New Words Inserted: 189
Total Wordcount 6,484
Total Pagecount: 27

*sigh*

Today I took it onto myself to remodel my website. All was going good, I liked how it was looking. And then, just when I was almost done, I did something that screwed everything up. I don’t know what I did wrong. Pretty much all I was doing was switching things around, but I wasn’t changing the codes much.

I went over everything several times trying to figure out where the error was. I could not find it. I tried a bunch of different things, but nothing would fix the problem. Finally I decided to wipe the site and start over from a scratch. I saved some of the blog entries, but I let other entries get deleted after deciding I didn’t need them.

After the wipe, I spent hours putting everything back together and reinstalling the plugins I use, and this and that.  And now I’m done.

I’m happy that Denard Robinson has found a home in the NFL. Since the college football season ended, I had been wondering where Robinson would go. I’d hoped it would be Lions, but that was a matter of decisions to be made by both Robinson and the team.

Come football season, I will watch the Jaguars when I can, just so I can see Robinson play. As I understand it, he won’t be a quarterback, but will most likely play as a running back. And that’s cool. It was his rushing that I loved most when he was Michigan’s quarterback. So as a running back for the Jaguars, he’ll be making a lot of rushing plays. Yeah, he made some nice passes as a quarterback and I will miss those, but at least he’s still playing football.

In sports, I’m a fan of a few teams. The Detroit Tigers, the Detroit Lions and the Michigan Wolverines are my favorite teams. But it’s usually just the teams that I’m a fan of. There are some players who I like a great deal, but I wouldn’t say I’m fan of theirs. Most of the time I can’t keep the names of the players straight. But Denard Robinson is an exception. I plan to follow his professional career. It’s my belief that he will be a benefit for every team he plays on.

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Work in Progress

Novel #1
Genre: Thriller
New Words Inserted: 792
Total Wordcount: 66,990
Total Pagecount: 271

Short Story #1
Genre: Supernatural Horror
New Words Inserted: 237
Total Wordcount 6,295
Total Pagecount: 26