THE CARBUNCLE MOON
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May 25th, 2020

5/25/2020

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Sometimes you can't repay people for an act of kindness, loyalty, charity, sacrifice, or courage, but you can try -- sometimes life is in the effort...

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"He did not understand the war --

"He understood the blistering injustice of it; the stroke-like fear in the faraway sight of the raped as they blamed him for not being there; the accusing eyes of the children that leered from atop distended bellies even as they starved; the seeping lines of grief lacerated into the faces of fathers and mothers, sisters and brothers, husbands and wives who had lost all they loved; the tortured and the maimed becoming in part or in whole separate from who they once were; and the Dali-draped carcasses of the dead…
"The evil of the war bored into his heart, twisted with agony until he learned to ignore it --
"Until he could ignore it no longer."     - from The Invisible War aka The Forgotten War, a short story by Kevin O'Kendley
 
  
"He’d seen a lot of death in his life but it hadn’t inured him to the pain of it, the tragedy, the loss, the suffering.  On the contrary, it had a cumulative effect: on darker days this effect swamped him in a Tsunami of emotion, after all the smaller waves passed, a big one threatened.  He would watch it nearing shore with a rising dread…"    - from Chandler's Bar, a novel by Kevin O'Kendley


Happy Memorial Day to my father, Major Patrick O. Kendley, U.S.M.C. retired, who served as a decorated private in Korea and as a decorated lieutenant and captain in Vietnam.

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​Please give to The Paralyzed Veterans of America: VA Palo Alto Health Care System/
3801 Miranda Avenue/ Palo Alto, California  94304/ 650-858-3936/ And: 
The Wounded Warrior Project: National Processing Center/ P.O. Box 75840/ Topeka, Kansas  66675/ 877-832-6997
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May 23rd, 2020

5/23/2020

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Happy birthday Conor:


Printed originally on 7/10/2013:


​   Taken from real events the following is dramatized:

   
   We climb in our new used truck.  We close the doors.  Sniff, sniff.  Wow.  There's a jagged cloying smell.  P.U. 
    My son groans, “I can’t breathe dada.*  I can’t breathe.”
   I grab the offending deodorizer, which is hiding in plain sight and hanging from the rearview mirror, and I rips it down.
   My son yells, “No dada it stinks in here!  We need that artichoke-looking deodorizer thing!”
    I calmly rebut, “No we don’t,” and instruct the lad in a wise and fatherly way: “Roll down the freakin window, son, we live in Maine.”

* The a in the first syllable of a central Maine word for father is pronounced like the a in dad.  The second syllable in pronounced duh.  Da-duh.

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added 8/18/20: My son, Conor Finn O'Kendley, is in the Navy.  
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May 10th, 2020

5/10/2020

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                                                       "Happy Mother's Day."
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    A carbuncle is a roiled mass of skin or a beautiful gem.  The incredible gem is pictured in the logo below and at the bottom of the short story section...

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    Kevin O'Kendley is the owner of Carbuncle Moon, and the author of all original material -- cartoons, blogs, shorts, essays, articles -- on the website (there has been a very limited editorial input in some of my work).  All quoted sources are noted.  I am responsible for all posts.  The only blogs not time-dated are those advertising nonprofits.  All nonprofits are vetted, investigated, though after the summer of 2018 my vetting has lapsed: (6/1/21).  

    ​Kevin O'Kendley: P.O. Box 172, Winterport, Maine, 04496, and 200 P Street, A-32, Sacramento, California, 95814, [email protected].  


    Technical help is provided by an evolving computer genius, my son, Conor O'Kendley:  A good kid with a great heart who can be reached at P.O. Box 172, Winterport, Maine, 04496.  (Conor is in the Navy now, a swabby)

    Photography provided by a visual artist, my daughter, Caitlin O'Kendley: a young woman with a beautiful soul.  (Caitlin is in college now, a media-journalism student)

    If your nonprofit is advertised on this site and you wish to have it removed please contact me at the above listed snail-mail or email address or use the contact form on the website.

    If you download a blog, cartoon, a short story -- or for any other reason -- and wish to donate $ to this site, its author and technical support personnel, please send donations to above listed addresses payable to Kevin O'Kendley.  My family and I could use the dinero.
    All cartoons, blogs, and short stories are for sale. 

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  • Blogs & Cartoons
  • Short Stories, Book Reviews, Book Excerpts
  • Contact Kevin O'Kendley
  • Buy a T-shirt
  • Reviews of Otis Moon
  • Where to buy a copy of Otis Moon