There are website out there for people who “Couch Surf”. It’s just what it says, people post on a website if they will offer a couch to sleep on for some travelers. People send them and email and make arrangements for them to stay 1 or 2 nights. It’s as simple as that.

I keep up with a photographer who has spent 24 months doing this and he claims that his life has been enriched by doing so. He says he has made life long friends from all walks of life. He’s taken hundreds of photos and is publishing a book next year. He says people are not always what they first appear to be. He said that he’s stayed in rich peoples home and was basically allowed to sleep the night in a guest room with a private bath and then dismissed early the next day without him getting to know the people. He also tells how he has stay in a home made or corrugated metal and the people were the nicest people in the world.

I encourage my sons to do something like this, to explore the world and meet new people from different countries. To eat foods they’ve never heard of, and become humble to others. I thought for years that I’d pack my motorcycle (when I was early to mid 20’s) and ride. When my destiny brought me somewhere that I loved that is where I’d call home. I guess that is sort of how I got here. Life never takes you down the path you think it will, there are so many 90 degree turns… but that is life.

I learned this at the very young age of 19. At age 16 I moved out and moved in with my grandmother. For over a year I didn’t communicate with my parents at all. Then we got on a friendly relationship after that. I moved back home sometime after I had already graduated high school so I was in my mid 19’s.

When I moved back home for the first couple of weeks it was good, but then I got the feeling I was a stranger that had out stayed their welcome.  I felt as if I was disturbing their normal life and that I was an outsider. That is when I realized what was meant by, “You Can Never Go Home Again”. I had grown accustom to my freedom and they had gotten use to the fact I wasn’t around anymore.

If I could do it over I would have never moved out of home. I would have stayed until I was kicked out. Free rent, free food, laundry done for me, no electric or cable bill, life was great. All I had to do is help out a little and follow a few rules.

I wonder how many others have felt the same way I did when they went back home after a long absence.  To have the feeling of family, and the feeling of belonging and to go to feeling like an outsider.

So to all the young people out there… When you get pissed for taking out the trash and think, I’ll just move out. Do yourself a favor, Take out the trash, do the dishes, and wash your parents cars! (without being asked)

My wife care is in the shop so I had to ride my bike in this morning… what a great ride it was. Even though it only lasted 20 minutes it was refreshing as hell. There was no traffic and I was able to just relax. Besides being 50 degrees, and my bikes low fuel light came on, it was one of the best rides I’ve had in a very long time. The amazing part is it was only about 20 minutes long.

Well I get some gas on the way home and it’ll be warming, if I make it through the day. Gary is still crazy and I’m unarmed today, so I feel like a target. Our phones and internet just went down as well, maybe the little nut job is on the attack!

I have two printers and neither one will work…hmm…it’s a conspiracy!  We finally got email and phones back, my lunch tasted like crap, so what is next?

I’m trying to get ready to teach my class all day tomorrow and then go camping with my sons afterwards. I’ll probably just meet them at the campgrounds at 5:30 or so. Hopefully they’ll have the site already set up when I get there. We’re having fried fish for dinner. I’m taking a bag of fish just in case they don’t catch any.

I’m doing my “Manly Video”  tomorrow night and Sunday morning. We’re going to eat fish we caught, build a fire, sleep on the ground, ride my bike there, cook a manly breakfast, and many other manly things that only men do. lol Damn it’s going to be a long day tomorrow. I need some beer to help me get through it. Especially if Shannon and the kids are leaving Sunday afternoon to head to West Virginia. It will be just Richie and I all next week.

It’s Pizza Monday, Taco Tuesday, Dirty Rice Wednesday, Taquitos Thursday, and Fish Fry Friday.  We only use 1 plate each, 1 tervis each, 1 fork and spoon each, and we each clean up after ourselves.

REASON #1: Talking to the police CANNOT help you. – If the police are talking to you you’re a suspect. They’re just fishing for more information and something that can use as a confession.

REASON #2: Even if you’re guilty, and you want to confess and get it off your chest, you still shouldn’t talk to the police. – Ask for an attorney and do it through them. There will be plenty of time for a confession, take some time to think.

REASON #3: Even if you are innocent, it’s easy to tell some little white lie in the course of a statement. You’re nervous and could be confused and it’s easy to make a mistake or leave something out. If the police have evidence of that lie, it makes your entire statement look like a lie. The prosecutor will ask: “Why did he lie to the police? Why indeed would he lie to the police, unless he were guilty?”

REASON #4: Even if you are innocent, and you only tell the truth, and you don’t tell any little white lies, it is possible to give the police some detail of information that can be used to convict you.

For example, a suspect is being questioned about a murder. He is truly innocent of the murder. But in the course of explaining his innocence, he makes the statement that he never liked the victim, because the victim was not a nice guy. A statement like that could be used to prove motive.

REASON #5: Even if you were innocent, and you only tell the truth, and you don’t tell any little white lies, and you don’t give the police any information that can be used against you to prove motive or opportunity, you still should not talk to the police because the possibility that the police might not recall your statement with 100% accuracy.

REASON #6: Even if you’re innocent, and you only tell the truth, and your entire statement is videotaped so that the police don’t have to rely on their memory, an innocent person can still make some innocent assumption about a fact or state some detail about the case they overheard on the way to the police station, and the police will assume that they only way the suspect could have known that fact or that detail was if he was, in fact, guilty.

REASON #7: Even if you’re innocent, and you only tell the truth in your statement, and you give the police no information that can be used against you, and the whole statement is videotaped, a suspect’s answers can still be used against him if the police (through no fault of their own) have any evidence that any of the suspect’s statements are false (even if they are really true).

REASON #8: The police do not have authority to make deals or grant a suspect leniency in exchange for getting as statement.

You hear all the time that someone gave a statement to the police because the police told them that they would be better off if they confessed, better off if they admitted what they did wrong, better off if they cooperated. The police will make vague statements that things will go easier on the suspect if he simply admits what he did wrong. The police will also make vague statements suggesting that they will do what they can to help the suspect, that they will put in a good word for the suspect, if the suspect will just come clean.

Number One thing to remember: The police do not have authority to make deals, grant immunity, or negotiate plea agreements.

REASON #9: Even if a suspect is guilty, and wants to confess, there may be mitigating factors which justify a lesser charge.

REASON #10: Even for a completely honest and innocent person, it is difficult to tell the same story twice in exactly the same way.

If you tell your story one time at trial and you tell the truth and you’re innocent, there’s very little the prosecutor can do by way of cross examination. But if you’ve told your story twice, once at trial, and once previously in a statement to the police, many months apart, the chances are very high that, even if you are telling the truth, some little details in your statement are going to change.

A good cross examiner will pick up on these changes and will relentlessly question you about them in an effort to make it look like you are lying.

When they tell you that you have a right to an Attorney… ask for an Attorney and don’t say another word.

My wife just found out that my niece boyfriend has some issues in his background. It’s bad enough where she is not going to be able to see him anymore. I feel bad for her because other people have to make that decision for her but that is simply the way it is.

This made me think… in history how many people would do some horrible things and all they had to do is move a few counties away and use another name and nobody would ever know. They could simply start over again and all that would have been in another life. Now of days that doesn’t work. Everything you do will follow you forever. You make a mistake at 18 years old and that mistake is going to follow you until you die. One stupid mistake and you’re marked forever … now is that a bad thing. I mean if someone at 18 is caught molesting a child at what age do you trust them around kids again (now these are your children I’m referring to)

I’m not sure and I’m thankful that isn’t something we have to deal with but I was just thinking about how mistakes follow you throughout your lives now. I saw on FaceBook where this girl admitted to being a racist, that she “hated blacks and spics”. Now even if this is her hanging out with a group of friend acting tough… that has marked her for life. It wasn’t something she said in private with the group of friends she put it out there for the world to see and record.

I truly think this is the first generation that a lot of them really don’t understand what being racist is. That one race isn’t better than another race of people. Than being gay isn’t a shame and you don’t have to like a life of lying to yourselves and everyone else.

We still have hatred, we still have bigots, and there are many homophobic out there, but I have to admit we’ve came a long way since 1969.  Remember the 70’s shows, What’s Happening, Good Times, The Cosby Kids, Sanford and Son? When they played these shows and others I sort of thought that’s how all black people were. Then came the Cosby Show, Fresh Prince of Bellaire to show us that people are all the same but with different skin. I’m white and I have relatives like Fred Sanford. lol But sadly have relatives like Archie Bunker. Times are changing all of us

I don’t care who you are you have to admit Buck Wheat was funny as hell and the star of the show.