Welcome, loyal airmen.  Don't know how long, or short, this week's log entry will be.  All depends on how many times I have to stop and blow my nose.  Achoo!!!  We're right dab in the middle of pollen season here in the North East and this year it has been particularly brutal.  Both Valerie and I have been bothered by our allergies and life is pretty miserable when all you want to do is get outdoors into that wonderful, warm weather, and you cannot.  Unlike the middle of the country, we've also been bone dry the past few weeks, which hasn't helped the cause in the slightest.  The weather men are predicting rain during the weekend, which would hopefully wash a lot of this away.  We'll keep our fingers crossed.

We attended the funeral of a dear woman we knew slightly this past week.  She was the relative of a relative, if you understand that.  We had only met her on a handful of occassions and enjoyed those meetings a great deal.  She was in her 80s, a native of the Boston South End where she lived most of her life as a devoted wife and terrific mother of seven.  When she passed away of cancer this past week, over a thousand people came to pay their respects.  At the church service, both the priest and one of her granddaughters spoke about this woman's most remarkable talent, her ability to listen.  Long ago I read somewhere that God should have added an eleventh commandment, Thy Shall Listen.  If you think it is an inconsequential gift, you are sadly mistaken.  Whenever this dear lady encountered someone, she would immediately drop everything she was doing ( & thinking about ) and give them her complete, and undivided attention.  She would look at you as if you were the most important person in the entire world, and to her, at that moment, you were.  She wanted to know about you, your life, your hopes and dreams…and so she would listen, and listen well.  In my 61 years of living, I've only ever met two or three people with this selfless ability, she was one of that select group.  So, though I'd only ever spoken with her all of four or five times, I cherished those memories at her funeral.  Truly knowing I'd been blessed by those encounters and realizing I'd been taught something special, how to listen better.  In her memory, I'm really going to try and do that a whole lot more.

Every once in a while a movie comes along that gets very little advertising or marketing.  One day it's at the theaters an the next day its gone.  One such gem was a sword and sandle action flick that came out last year called, THE LAST LEGION.

It tells the story of how King Arthur's magic sword came to be in England in the first place and sets up all the marvelous legends we know of in that particular myth.  I've been a huge fan of the King Arthur tales all my life and really enjoyed this movie a great deal.  It has an international cast, moves along at a fast clip and was filmed in some truly beautiful locations.  It is available on DVD and if you see it, at least rent it and check it out for yourself.  I think you'll find it a fun experience.  Speaking of sword & magic, the second of the big budget Narnia movies, PRINCE CASPIAN, opens nation wide today.  We hope to catch a matinee showing either tomorrow or Sunday.  If it is as good as the first one, we're all in for a treat.

LOST continues to be my all time favorite television series.  In two weeks, season four wraps up with a two hour finale.  I'm biting my nails here.  This has truly been the best season ever!   Meanwhile, in the real world, the Red Sox have lost their last four!!  The pitching is falling apart right in front of our eyes and it hurts.  Here's hoping their return to Boston and Fenway Park puts a stop to this slide and they can start getting back on to the winning column.  And lastly, I've added a couple of pulp-covers-in progress to our Gallery section.  If you haven't checked out the art there, now would be a good time to do so.  These are really beautiful pieces.

All for this week.  Got to stock up on tissues.  Ha.
Ron – Over & Out.