Trip to Paris early November 365

Notre Dame Cathederal
Let me start by throwing myself to the mercy of my readership for not having posted seemingly like since the 18th century.  It has been awhile, maybe I was busy or maybe just lazy, I really am not sure but here I am and with another trip to Europe to talk of , maybe I can nail a couple bulletins to the tree.

Great flight across the pond from Detroit to Paris on the evening of Nov. 3rd.  Arrived at the airport at maybe 9 am not sure but here we are on our long ride from airport to downtown Paris to board our cruise ship.  It was our hotel for the 3 days we stayed tied up there in Paris.  There was some strike going on in Paris as they do quite often over there.  And the streets were just plain jammed up.  I think the hour ride took us nearly 3 hours.  Maybe 6 or us in the van so we joked quite a lot about it and with 

 the excitement of getting there it was not so bad.  Any time you cross the pond and then land OK is something to thank God for in earnest.  That afternoon we took a taxi to see "Notre Dame" cathedral there.  It is a very impressive church as you can see.  Started in 1163 and maybe taking about 80 years to complete it is a real work of art and craftsmanship for sure.  Here is Susan and I standing in front.  Probably one of the oldest structures in Paris.  I have read where Paris is something like 4000 years in existance which in anybody's book is just pretty darn old.  The intrical design work as you can see below just blows you away.  You just can not quit asking yourself how they could have done this beautiful work so long ago back in the 12th century.

All those statues you see to the right here are all different. Everyone represents a different saint with a distinct face and size.  Still just amazes me and so glad that we were able to see such a church as this and such a famous one that we have all heard about.
And then as you move inside it is equally beautiful to behold.  Just the sheer height of the interior is breathtaking and again how did they do it?

One has to wonder how many people it took and how many maybe died on this job from accidents or just getting old and worn out.  It was a fun first afternoon in Paris and a great start for out trip

through France.

As in Germany all through France every town we were in had these huge gothic churches all built long ago.  So at one time I am sure they were used and well attended.  Now however they are not well attended, only a few are members of these churches.  It is a shame from my point of view how times have changed.  But that is just the way it is, and the churches now are actually maintained by the state as tourist attractions.  They still have mass in the churches they are still used but no way can such a small amount of Christians maintain such huge churches.  The state is wise I guess to keep them up as if they feel into disrepair folk would not come to see them any longer.  The view below is the back side of Notre Dame, lots of flying buttruses can be seen here that support the walls...I am glad that they are maintained as they are magnificant works to the Glory of God...Some how I never tire of walking up to and inside and then all the way around these structures and just marvel at what they represent...

363 New Indiana Princess born on New Years Eve

There she is, Miss America 2033....I will be 95 then but still able to attend the event.  She will be 19 or there abouts, I can just see it all now....

Yep she was a ready made tax deduction having been born just a few hours before midnight on New Years Eve.  Something like 6 pounds and 19 inches I think they said.  Definately a "true petite", I think she will be....

Oh her name Rylie Sheets, she resides in Carmel Indiana along with her parents Clint and Karie Sheets.

I went to her announcement party last summer and we all learned that it was to be a girl when her parent unwrapped a huge box that was filled with hot air ballons....Out they came all of a sudden and headed into the evening sky and every last one of them was pink.  So there was no doubt and her parents seemed really happy of the color of the ballons.They did not know until that moment they were having a girl. Makes for a cool party to learn that with all your friends there with you......I was happy, having already been a Great Grand Father for 3 little boys the last few years.  But this one is the first girl and as handsome as the 3 boys are this one is cute....Some  the later pics of her showed some unhappiness I think having learned that I would not be able to hold and make over here until late March of this year...But she will adjust and she does have her parents and her grand parents there...I think the Grandmother especially my daughter Suzette is pleased as punch to have this New Years Eve present of this little bundly of joy....

362 The Independant Non Party...Lets do it...

The better angels visited me last night in a dream.  Suggesting that the answer to the nations politics was party loyalty that always gets in the way of doing the right thing for the nation.  The leaning instead is to do the right thing that will benefit the party and disguise it as benefiting the people.  They suggested that the best hope was for us to elect people to all political offices by what the say and swear to uphold with no party affiliation.  It kind of sounded good to me, and I would imagine it has been suggested many times over, so my wish would be we could just get on with it and do just that.  I get calls and lots of mailing from polititions always wanting money.  I have no idea where this money goes, so I have just completely stopped giving a couple years back.  I really can not see why a candidate can not announce for an office and just tell people what he stands for and will try and do.  I don't see a reason for all the commercial advertizing that seems to have to go with politics.

Anyway I sure wish it could happen and come to pass that we just dropped the parties and elected all independants to office.  But I know it won't in reality.  But a great wish, maybe my New Years wish for 2014. 

The problem though is that people love being lied to these days. And most of those lies that they really love are what government can do to help them.  Never considering that the government help comes at a price to each of us, that includes huge administrative cost.  So there is lots of slippage, meaning that we pay far more for services than we get.  But politiians are a slick slimy bunch and they shift a lot of these cost over into the borrow catagory and then, presto it appears we get our moneys worth.  But instead about half the cost of programs are shifted to the national debt to be paid for by grand kids or never paid for and someday being the cause of our nation's collapse.

It is a sad state of affairs and one that as of this writing I have really not any huge wisdomic thoughts. But who knows those angels may be back tonight with some fresh ideas...I hope they are and if so I' will get it down on paper right away...don't hold your breath...