DEAR PAUL TUETAL, The Burden I Carry Is Heavy....

Again I had the urge to Email a celebrity; this time it was Paul Tuetel; so, again, I figured out that the best way to handle that was to make the contact right here!. Roommate and I were talking about Orange County Choppers and Paul Senior and his book that he recently published and we were both in accord that we coveted his man-toy possessions--property, a business, cars, trucks, motorcycles, and pygmy horses. I said that I liked the way he had apparently pulled himself up by the bootstraps. Roommate, constantly the one to challenge whatever I say, retorted "How do you know that! Maybe he was born rich!" I don't know that Paul Teutal wasn't born rich--I would guess from his muscle tone that he wasn't--but what Kamaroh does believe in with every minuscule part of his being is in the triumph of the common man; and, if Paul wasn't born rich, then more power being to him and his hard nosed success is my way of thinking about it.

Always I have been piqued by the Teutals' direct, in-your-face, confrontal style; I actually admire it and think it a strong, alpha male, male approach to relating to one's lads--forget the pouty stuff I see going on. Anyhow, where I meant to go with all this is that Kamaroh has been watching the recent Chopper episodes in which there is a split between Paul Senior and Paul Jr. and it hits close to home for me and I was able to value Senior's pain; and so, Paul Tuetal Senior, since I am a better lyricist than fabricator this is what I came up with: Lord, this burden I carry in my heart is heavy, and Lord the burden it ain't my my sins and it aint my brother; it is my son. #

USMC:SWIMMING WITH DEATH,

(THIS IS MEANT AS AN ADDENDUM TO MY POST: "USMC: Swimming With Sharks! ")

I met up with a friend, Tom, at Moonbucks Coffee Palace the other morning. He's a former Marine also; younger, more solidly employed, and far more gung ho than me. I told him my story about meeting up with the upitty former Marine at the supermarket; and then he related a story similiar to mine about an experience he had with a Marine motorcycle group member in Sacramento . He totally understood my indignance and he understood where I was coming from. I said to him that I know I am out of touch with what is going on for new Marines and that I had the notion that maybe they were becoming elietists and that I didn't really know what they were thinking about? His response was, "Killing...." He paused for a moment as on that note as my eyes locked in on his in exclamation. What! He continued on by saying he had observed in the fellows newly back was that killing was a subject they talked about extensively. #

CHESLEY B. "Sully" SULENBERGER

My heroes are mostly go fast individuals; I haven't a clue what kind of vehicles Captain Sulenberger has in his garages at his home in Black Hawk; but, for sure, his history as an USAF F4 Phanton II fighter plane pilot qualifies him to run in the air with Larry & David Ellison and some others; probably not Chuck Yeager. However, I am not going to put him on Kamaroh's hero list. Clearly what he did was clear headed; he was able to sidestep his emotions and extract from his brain what he needed to do when he realized that this incident was, indeed, the real deal--"...controlled and professional." What bothers Kamaroh about him is that he doesn't appear to be a man Kamaroh would encounter and befriend at the YMCA ; he doesn't have the bodily connection that is clearly evident with all Kamaroh's Heroes. His is a cool story but, as Roomate says, what is not factured into the story is (beside the protectioion offered by God) his good luck; Rooomate says that he kept the nose of the plane up as any pilot in the world would have attempted to do but had a second wave or a big gust of wind appeared, or anything, it could have gone much differently! Because, I as well as all foks need heroes--especially we men--if I ever see him in pulic I will give him my world famous 'two thumbs up sign'; and, I will yell enthusiastically, "Hey, Skully!" and with that familiarity, to my mind, I am complimenting him ... but hey! Chesley B. Sullenberger just doesn't make Kamaroh's list.