"Joe" wrote in message
oups.com...
On Jul 3, 10:51 am, "Capt. Rob" wrote:
Ahhhh...feeling quite manly today!!!

Mixed and poured concrete to modify steps at side of house. Then, to
be more manly I took a sledgehammer and wedge to break up two tree
stumps and pound them from the ground. To wrap it up and gain the
ultimate manly mannish machismo rush of hooh ahhhh!...I fired up the
chainsaw and ripped into the remaining timber behind the house. Loaded
it all into the roller and towed it down our trail with the new Honda
ATV into our woods. While I did all of this, Suzanne had finished the
lawn off with our new electric start mower and was now using the weed
whacker to trim. So along with our use of the cars earlier, we started
6 gas engines today before noon!!! Gadamn!

Went back inside the house, slipped off my rugged topsiders and
crunched my little toe into the edge of the coffee table.

I managed to stop crying after about 10 minutes.

RB
35s5
NY

Manly?

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you
But make allowance for their doubting too,
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:
If you can dream--and not make dreams your master,
If you can think--and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it all on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings--nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much,
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And--which is more--you'll be a Man, my son!


--Rudyard Kipling

I have a first edition somewhere with that poem.