Ramblings, Incoherent Thought and Family

It is VERY rare that I place myself in a position like this...but as I wrote a few years ago...I know what it is to be bullied and frankly...I hate bullies. The below article was posted on Saturday July 18, 2015 by a man who goes by "Davy V."  I went to his blogger page and saw his only other blog with content is called " Rochester, NY Police Department Exposed!".  This 'amateur Woodward' (as I have taken to calling him) capped off his latest post from September outlining the death of Officer Pierson with " Perhaps now, the Rochester, NY Police department, including the 7 trigger-happy cops who executed Izzy Andino, are feeling the pain of losing a loved one."...only to be followed with "The Rochester, NY Police department's Tactical Unit (ed: Which was Pierson's unit) is the most corrupt division within the RPD."  I say this to set perspective because this blogger has decided that now...Officer Pierson needs to be defended.  T...

Dearest Mom; It's been over a year since you left us. God we miss you. We've begun the process of moving on...and it hasn't been all easy...but you raised and taught us well. The kids are doing ok. They miss you a ton...especially Billy...but they still laugh and smile and when Brookie starts getting mischievous I swear that grin she gets...that's yours. You're still a presence Mom...and I don't see that ending anytime soon. I'm writing though from an airplane...because what you told me would happen has. I'm flying home from Sun City AZ...where I just spent the last week and a half getting Dad setup. It was an amazing road trip Mom...and I found myself thinking a lot about the trip we took across country in 1987. Dad and I had a blast. We kinda...pushed it. As in forgetting we stayed in Joplin MO the second night of our trip in 87...so figured we could make it from Greenfield IL to Amarillo TX in 12 hours. The answer is...NO it can't be don...

I was going to start this with a take on the Barenaked Ladies tune “One Week”…and then realized that while my tongue-in-cheek humor serves me well in times of extreme stress and anxiety…that there are times when it’s ok to FEEL the pain and the hurt and that there is value in it (with conditions)…so instead I open with this thought…   God I miss you Mom.   This past year…what a whirlwind. Every day seemed to stretch and fly at the same time like the space/time continuum was thumbing its nose at us.     Her death at 11:04 seemed to be a watershed moment for me and mine.   Like the night of February 11, 2012 for me…2/16/02, 1/19/1991 and others.   A day I’ll remember always…that was normal until something extraordinary occurred that would forever shape the days that followed.   I’m changed of course by it…and comforted by it.   I look at the recent events surrounding the death of Robin Williams...and how his children are fe...

We’d gotten the call.   After a rough pregnancy…my sister was going to deliver.     My wife at the time and I got into our car with directions on how to get to Syracuse’s hospital…and we were off.   We arrived and Mom and Dad were there along with Aunt Shirley.   The worry was evident on Mom’s face.   She’d been into see her.   My sister had had a ROUGH time.   Bloodtype mismatch, many false contractions, general moodiness (that appears to be the only holdover from the pregnancy that never left) and it was all coming to this.   The name had been picked…and so it was time.     Today was the day William Edward Lisk was to be born.   To this point…it had seemed like this branch of the Benson tree was going to not branch.   It’d been discovered a year earlier…that I was unable to father a baby through some medical jargon that was too hard for me to hear the first time…let alone rehash in writing.   S...

It was a Sunday morning.  I affected my fake Irish accent (quite well I might add) and spent the day saying 'Top o' da mornin'.  Darby O'Gill was on and I was watching it with Mom before we decided we had to get out to Betty's. So we did.  We drove out there and had a great day.  We were going to celebrate Mom's birthday...her 66th.  It was a nice day to go.  Not a lot of snow. It was also the day I'd rediscover KFC.  See...for 12 years in a show of solidarity to Debi...I'd vowed not to eat KFC as she asked me to.  I'm sure there's some humanitarian, ASPCA type reason for it...probably because they do genetic alteration to make each piece of chicken taste like a slice of heaven.  I don't know...but I do know that on this day my Dad introduced me to the KFC bowl and well...I fell in love.  How can any man resist boneless chicken, mashed potatoes, corn and gravy all mixed together.  It's like 4 great tastes that = awesome.  I...

It’s not often I get political here in my blog. In fact if you were to read it I suspect you’d find me to be pretty self-absorbed. I do that because to me sometimes…blogging is a form of therapy and a way to get my thoughts out for me to read later…publicly…ok…maybe I need to rethink this. Anyway…I’m led now to wax political. This post could offend some, not offend others and make others WISH that I was offended. What follows is my 100% opinion. I will say that publishing it could cause me to lose my standing in any organization I belong to and I do it knowingly. I write this because…frankly…I’m annoyed at the backlash and hand wringing going on around something that BOTH parties manipulated into being. I’ve followed the trials and tribulations of the latest public Christian to be ‘crucified’ by the media ‘elite’ of this country with some interest. Phil Robertson is an honest, no holds barred Christian man with (in my opinion) an incredibly sound doctrinal belief in the ...

Its November...the week of Thanksgiving. With each day we get closer to the holidays...and while I was doing 'ok' for awhile with the loss of my Mom (As much as one CAN be anyway...) I find myself thinking more and more about what the coming days will bring and mean. If anyone had a reason NOT to be thankful for the events of the past year...(hell the past two)...it'd be me. I've lost the two most important women in my family in the past 730 days. I've been between four jobs...and had countless heartbreaks pains and hurts. I've seen my family go through similar traumas...cousins dealing with things NOONE should have to deal with, aunts and uncles get sick. My father dealing with the single greatest pain I think he'll ever face (I hope)...there's SO much to be miserable about. And yet... I'm not. Not in the slightest. I'm still thanking God...I'm still thankful for this great life. That he took time at some point just about 40 years ag...