A new beginning (again).....

On this, the first day of the new year, I find m’self afflicted (as usual) with a most noxious case of PAS (Pompous Ass Syndrome)....not too surprising since it goes around ev’ry year ‘n like the Great Flu Pandemic of 1918, seems to attack every last one of us to greater or lesser degrees.....to wit; the compulsion to tell the world about our successes ‘n failures of the year past ‘n our aspirations, hopes ‘n dreams of the year future...(ain’t we just full of ourselves?)
The similarity to the Great Flu Pandemic continues as the verbal diarrhea flows thru the Great Void of the Blogosphere like the River Ganges which miraculously cleanses itself of all pollution deposited therein because of the very purity of itsownself (sighh...take a breath ‘n move on)....
Moving on, I have not counted out my life in coffee spoons (prob’ly ‘cuz I take my coffee black) but I have spewed it forth into the Blogosphere where (if I live long enuff) I s’poze it lies in wait to bite me in a vulnerable place (use your imagination, people).....
Like Peter, Paul ‘n Mary of yore, I have t’lay it between the lines, not becuz the radio won’t play it (there seem t’be no limits on any media these days) but becuz I evidently have a terminal need t’play cutesy with words, especially when I’m filling in the blanks as I go (making it up)...just following that old dictum of letting BS make up for a lack of brilliance....
Sometimes it seems that age puts us on a downhill slope where we just go faster’n faster ‘til we fly out over the edge ‘n disappear into the great abyss (of which the blogosphere is just a faint intimation of things t’come) that waits for all of us but so far as we know, this little blue marble of wonderment is still spinning at purty much the same rate as it did before we came along to pollute it ‘n it’ll prob’ly keep spinning long after all us Lemmings have gone past the point of no return...
So lift your glasses high, m’friends....eat, drink ‘n be merry for none of us know what the morrow may bring...
Happy New Year

So, now y'know.....

December Thirty-One, Nineteen Hundred ‘n Fifty-One...
Out with the old, in with the new....just layin’ around waitin’ for ‘fifty-two....
I remember being sick or maybe it was just sickish.....at any rate, I didn’t feel good.. or didn’t feel well, take y’r choice, whatever...it meant that I spent New Years Eve alone... piled up on the sofa...can’t really remember the sofa, what it looked like way back then, but it was against the wall that hid the stairwell....
funny I haven’t tho’t about that house for years.....it was a two-story house across the road from the Post Office...sat below the road so that the second story was level with the roadway.... There were two bedrooms upstairs and an attic space that was used for storage and also where the model railroad was setup on plywood...I had the large room all to myself simply because it had a closet and the brothers three were afraid to sleep in a room with a closet - only reason I had a rooom to myself but I appreciated it...s’funny, but I don’t remember the closet...I kept my clothing in a wardrobe (armoire for those with a taste for things a la francaise) ‘cept if mem’ry serves ‘n it generally does ‘cause it’s my mem’ries anyways....ever’body called ‘em shiffarobes ‘n I ain’t got the slightest idea of the derivation of that p’ticklar term...anyway, it was a nice one with one tall side where y’could hang up stuff that needed hanging ‘n t’other side with a mirror ‘n flat top over drawers....I wish I had it t’day but if I did, I’m sure some one of my children would have appropriated it by now....
Anyway, it was a large room, the living room, with a door leading into the kitchen ‘n the sofa was against the wall that had the door to the stairway ‘n across the room was a gas stove...I c’n remember the front glowing red ‘n the yellow flame almost like a fireplace.....we weren’t all that far away from having heated the previous houses with coal stoves so the gas was a step up...anyway, Mom ‘n Dad ‘n the brothers three had gone to a New Year’s party...don’t remember where it was but South Portsmouth wasn’t very big so it was probably at my Aunt Billie’s house....
I was downstairs on the sofa rather than upstairs in my bedroom ‘cuz the downstairs had ‘the radio’....
Teevee’s were rare back then and most homes had a radio....ours was a Philco floor model with push buttons t’change the stations...one of the buttons was marked ‘television’ (Philco looking to the future, I spoze)... Anyways, I found that I c’d listen to 1952 coming in again’n again on it’s westward march..from Times Square in NY on eastern standard to St. Louis on central standard to the West Coast which is on Mountain standard (go figure)...’n on the West Coast, I found KRAK (which is still in operation t’day) in Sacramento....I was fascinated...I knew, of course, that Sacramento was the capitol of California...
(they taught geography in Kentucky schools even back then) but like most people in the east, I had no concept of what California was really like....(things haven’t changed, California is still a puzzlement to the rest of the world) They had a reporter riding with the police thru the nite, chronicling the local happenings in the city of Sacramento...
That kind of stuff never happened on WPAY out of Cincinnati which are the only call letters that I c’n actually remember from way back when ‘n that ain’t no wonder for it was a very long time ago.....It’s a small thing ‘n I only bring it up at all becuz one of the stocking stuffers I got for Christmas was a copy of Paul Harvey’s “The Rest of the Story.”..... so now y’know.....

Chok'lit goobers.....

It’s early morn ‘n I’m staring at an empty box of Nestle Goobers.....(some people claim there’s a woman t’blame but I know, it’s my own damn fault)....I managed t’make it to the pool yesterday...kind’a like swimming thru a forest since we’d had a storm ‘n Fam’ly Fitness, for whatever reason, hadn’t got around to sweeping out the pool ‘n it was full of debris (leaves, pine needles, pine boughs ‘n other stuff that I pushed aside or swam thru - kind of hairpin I’m thing if you remember Cagney)...anyways the sun was shinin’ and it wasn’t freezing ‘n I ‘uz feelin’ fatter than a Christmas goose...I been blaming the prednizone ‘n other chemos for the thirty pound weight gain but it’s way past time t’look m’ownself in the eye ‘n shoulder some responsibility ‘n put the blame squarely where it b’longs.....Nestle Goobers! ‘n maybe cheesecake ‘n pecan pie ‘n fudge ‘n corn pudding ‘n far too many intimate friends t’mention by name......
What it means is that like ever’body else (well, those of us who are obese, overweight, overstuffed ‘n over anything else you might want’a bring up) I’m gonna have to face up t’the fact that I’m fat ‘n need to go to the gym....’n more than just go, I ackshully need t’get on the treadmill ‘n trudge, I say trudge ‘n more....I need t’work those other machines as well....’n then I c’n hit the steam room ‘n the pool...
Yup! That’s what I gotta do.....take the bull by the horns, nose to the grindstone, old shoulder t’the wheel.....sucky time of year for teevee anyway.....gotta do it, gotta get out there.....gotta make another pot of coffee cuz the new year is approaching...........

Rooty-toot-toot...

‘n Rummy-tum-tum......

It’s been a loong Christmas day ‘n I’m headin’ off for bed.....
It was a fun fam’ly Christmas ‘n the best part (I think) was after it was all over, after all the food ‘n drink, after all the ‘presents scattered ‘round the horn’ midst love ‘n laughter-glow.....after all that, we got to pack up ‘n go home ‘n de kidz are left with the left-overs....T’is the luvliest of traditions, don’cha see....as us ‘older folk’ become more ‘n more redundant, we do less ‘n less of the cleanup....’Course Millyrose worked very hard at the preparations but as the celebration began to wind down (‘n I napped a time or two)....it was ‘time t’go’.....so, we went....straight home without passing go...the dogs were really glad t’see us as they evidently thought that this time for sure we had totally abandoned them ‘n were never returning (which tho’t crosses ev’ryone’s mind now ‘n then, I’m sure, but no one other than Paul Gauguin ever successfully did it ‘n in the end he had t’give up ‘n return to France which should’a been punishment enuff but one must suffer for one’s art, mustn’t one) ‘whew.....what an aside......but that is prob’ly what rummy tum-tum is all about anyways.....
Take a short break, smoke ‘em if you got ‘em, the New Year is on it’s way.......

Let it be.......

“Speaking words of wisdom, let it be.” The Beatles

O it’s a rainy, rainy Christmas Eve, ‘n I just got back from walkin’ the dogs....Rusty seems able to maintain without getting too awful wet but poor ol Willie is built so low t’the ground ‘n he gets in such a fret over the chickens ‘n pigeons ‘n squirrels ‘n cars that he chases back ‘n forth thru the leaves ‘n wet shrubs ‘n puddles, his short little ol legs churning furiously while Rusty seems at times bemused but occasionally gets caught up in the spirit of the moment, I guess, ‘n then he yips ‘n charges a few steps ‘til he figgers out that they ain’t no there there....then he stops ‘n looks at me ‘n I just shrug ‘n we go on....nuthin’ much seems to faze Willie ‘cept maybe Kellyes cats ‘’n they don’t run from him....t’is a puzzlement.....’Course, Willie is in his own time zone so he don’t let it bother him for long.....
Dogs live life in the moment mostly, at least I think they do...y’can’t ever be sure what evil lurks in the minds of men or animals, unless maybe you’re Lamont Cranston ‘n we don’t know if he really knew or was just faking it for the radio.....I know dogs have memories ‘n I know they dream...sumtimes Willie cries in his sleep ‘n if he gets petted a bit, I swear he’ll sigh ‘n snuggle down.....it’s pretty easy t’tell when a dog is happy or sad...they seem to wear their hearts on their sleeve as Grandmaw Smith was fond of saying so many years ago....she was fond of saying a lot of things, a trait that she seems t’have passed on.....one of those ‘gifts’ that keep on giving.....
‘N if you don’t mind me getting possibly a little maudlin, I woke up tonite thinking about a gift that keeps on giving...when I was diagnosed with cancer, while I was waiting for an appointment with an Oncologist, I had an appointment with a Nurse Practioner for a vitamin shot.....she was a tall, blonde lady with an easy smile ‘n on the chatty side...
so we chatted a bit (as I’m wont t’do on most any occasion) while she prepared my injection.....I spoke of my cancer diagnosis ‘n how I wasn’t really worried about it since I’d done all I c’d do so far ‘n we agreed that was a healthy attitude ‘n God willing ‘n the creek don’t rise, etcetera ‘n so forth ‘n as I got up to leave, she hugged me......I can’t say that I’m a stranger to hugs...I’ve been hugged before but generally by someone I knew at least a little bit ‘n I’d never been hugged by a nurse...not ever.
But it felt really good ‘n I told Millyrose about it ‘n we both agreed that it’d been a nice thing for her to have done......A few days later, we went t’see the Oncologist.....a nice young lady about the same age as our youngest daughter ‘n she told me about the treatment she had planned for me ‘n what it would probably do for me ('n to me) ‘n she remarked that I seemed to have a pretty good attitude going into this treatment ‘n that was a good thing.....’n I told her about the nurse hugging me ‘n how it was the first time I’d ever had that happen ‘n we chatted a bit more ‘n when I got up to leave, the Oncologist hugged me.....’n then she hugged Millyrose ‘n I remarked that I’d never been hugged by a doctor before, so she hugged me again.....One of the really interesting things about that period of my life, at least it was interesting t’me, was the strength of the people I met who were fighting cancer...’n I ain’t talking about me but people who were a lot sicker than me with a lot worse odds of winning.....lot of courage.....and a lot of hugs....and a hug is a very simple gift that keeps on giving.....Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas to all.......

December 25, 19anyyear
Justin Other Smith

Picture,
if you will.....
a cold, cold morning and misty fog
yellow cat eyes and steaming glog
empty cups and paper torn.....
presents scattered ‘round the horn
...of turkey picked and dressing crumbs
crying children and hungry bums
...Santa sleeping off the jag
and empty sleigh.....
....and an empty bag.

'n to all a good nite.

T'was a dark 'n stormy night.....

A dark and stormy night, wild it was with driving rain and wind, the unleashed hounds of hell rattling the windows of the old house on the hill, and in the heavy darkness the banshees keening and hobgoblins moaning as they searched for the mortal souls of any hapless wretch who happened to be abroad.
So I woke up in the middle of the nite again with that stupid sentence running thru my head...lucky I am that I ain't a broad.
”Do not send to ask for whom the bell tolls....” At this hour of the morning, I haven’t the slightest idea of the origination (‘n no inclination t’find out) of the above quote...Ol Hemingway used it ‘n made it his own anyway.....
I was wand’ring thru the ‘blogosphere’ when I stumbled upon someone by the name of Stone Cold Button....I’m assuming it’s a nickname (like Justin Other Smith) ‘n he appropriated it from the ‘Rassler but since he’s located in Texas, y’never know...it might be his given moniker....I don’t know many Texans ‘n all of ‘em that I’ve met have had the good sense t’move somewhere else....’Course, that may be a misnomer also.....mebbe the smart ones stayed home 'n the rest of the country got the strange ones.....
Wanderers become wanderers for many reasons...Some, I imagine, go searching for their fortune (like Uncle Wiggly Longears)....others go searching for the supposedly mythical ‘River of Life’ while some just want t’get lost.....sometimes the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow seems tantalizingly close ‘n the philsophers will tell us that all life is illusory....

“I’ve looked at clouds from both sides now, from up and down and still somehow, it’s clouds illusion I recall. I really don’t know clouds at all.” Joni Mitchell

Shoofly pie 'n...

Apple pandowdy....

“Shoofly pie ‘n apple pandowdy, makes your eyes bug out ‘n your tummy say howdy.....”

Millyrose’s cousin, Connie, lives in Pennsylvania where shoofly pie seems t’be about as common as.....well, oranges in California.
A couple years ago she was visiting us ‘n somehow the subject of shoofly pie was brought up ‘n I mentioned that I had never in my whole life or otherwise, tasted shoofly pie...not even the southern version...which may or may not be absolutely factual as memories of my way back when days tend t’be on the spotty side....
Anyway, this was a grand year for pomegranates ‘n we had a slew of ‘em....or maybe two slews, I dunno.....so Millyrose boxed up a bunch of ‘em ‘n sent ‘em off to Connie who had just happened t’mention that she loved pomegranates but that they were expensive back home in Penn....
So, t’other day, Mike the Mailman deposited a box at the side door from Connie in Penn...when it was opened, it contained four (4) shoofly pies from Pennsylvania with instructions on how to freeze ‘em ‘n nuke ‘em later....as my Grandmaw Smith would’a said (and often did, come t’thing on it) “That was very thoughty of her.”
So for those of you who don’t have someone ‘thoughty’ living in Pennsylvania, I have included a recipe for.....
Pennsylvania Shoofly Pie
ingredients
Crumb:
2 deep dish pie shells, unbaked
2 1/2 cups flour
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup softened butter
1 teaspoon cream of tartar
1 pinch of salt
Filling:
2 cups hot water
1 cup mild molasses
1 cup brown sugar
1 beaten egg
1 tablespoon flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
Directions
1. Combine all crumb ingredients and mix until ataining even consistency.
2. To make the filling take a different bowl, combine the hot water, molasses and brown sugar. Stir until sugar is dissolved. Add the egg, flour and baking soda.
3. Pour 1/2" filling into a pie shell and cover with crumbs. Continue to alternate between filling and crumbs until pie shell is full.
4. Bake in a preheated oven at 350F for 45-60 minutes until golden-brown. Insert a toothpick and when it comes out clean, remove from oven.
‘N since the song ain’t complete without.... 
Apple Pandowdy
here’s the recipe for that also.....
INGREDIENTS:
• 4 apples, cored, peeled, thinly sliced
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 cup molasses
• 1/3 cup hot water
• 1 cup sifted all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 5 tablespoons shortening
• 4 to 6 tablespoons milk
PREPARATION:
Arrange sliced apples in a buttered 11x7-inch baking dish. Combine sugar, cinnamon, and salt; sprinkle over the apples. Combine molasses and hot water; stir to blend. Pour molasses mixture over the apples. Bake apples in preheated 400° oven for about 20 to 30 minutes, until apples are tender.
Meanwhile, make a soft dough. Sift flour with baking powder and salt; cut in shortening until mixture resembles meal. Add milk, mixing with a fork, enough to make a soft dough. Knead lightly for about 10 seconds. Roll dough into a rectangle 1/4 to 1/2-inch thick, to fit over the 11x7-inch pan. Fit the dough over the cooked apple mixture and pierce all over with a fork to let steam escape. Bake at 400° for about 20 minutes longer, or until nicely browned. Serve warm with cream or ice cream.

Raindrops are fallin.....

I seem t’have a bit of a hitch in my getalong t’day....ah well, truth be told, I seem t’have one most days ‘n ever’ once in a while, in the middle of the nite...I’ll wake up ‘n toss ‘n turn for awhile trying t’find a comfortable spot but it’s almost always hopeless...that’s how come I end up at 4 o’clock in the morning writing on this blog....
Sometimes I wonder how many people actually read all this stuff...I s’peck that Kellye might be a little sorry that she suggested it...well, at least part of the time...
It’s raining t’day.....a slow, steady, gloomy old rain that appears to have settled in for the rest of December...
They say this is the front of one of those famed ‘Pineapple Express’ that dampen our shores from time to time....we need the snow on the mountain ‘n to get it, we must put up with rain in the valley....T’would be nice, I spoze, if all we got was a week or two of drizzle, get everything good ‘n wet ‘n allow it to soak in....that’s what we need but we’ll prob’ly get a whopper of a storm that floods ev’rything....
It’s cold ‘n damp, a good ol lazy Sunday for napping... that’s what the dogs are doing anyway ‘n what I should be doing if I had the sense....I like to think of m’self as a rational, considerate man possessed of inate common sense.....that’s prob’ly a common failing for human beings ev’rywhere.....Even the most rational among us do some pretty irrational things at times.....SonDave bought a ‘Corvair’....Spock would’a told him that ‘doesn’t compute.’
I recall that Sandy (cuzzin Richards 2nd wife) once owned a ‘67 Corvair Monza Spyder convertible...it was blue ‘n a fun car t’drive....
Back in the sixties, Winding Way still had 25 & 30 mph speed limits but there wasn’t near as many stop signs along the length of it....’n from Fair Oaks Blvd to Hazel Avenue, it was truly a winding way....great fun t’drive fast.....I had Sandy’s Corvair up to 70 mph at spots....Millyrose ‘n I saw a young(ish) man at the wheel of a Nissan ###X sports car that was traveling about that fast ‘n I remarked that “He’s nutz!”
On that proverbial other hand however, he did seem t’be enjoying himself.....
So, you can bemoan this rainy day or you can embrace it...
either way, you gotta get thru it....
“better not pout, better not cry,
better watch out, I’m tellin’ you why,
Santa Claus is comin’ to town.”

What the hell happened?.....

A rainy Friday ‘n it’s the last day of school for da Gurlz..
Xmas vacation starts t’day....
Anyways it’s warmer t’day what with the Pineapple Express bearing down ‘pon us....if you’re unfamiliar with the term, what it means is that we have a ‘tropical’ storm heading for central California....lots of rain, snow in the mountains, all that wet stuff that we need ‘cuz we’re in a drought here.....’course, we more or less been in a drought for the last thirty years.....makes for nice winters ‘n long, hot summers with dried up lawns......if you got a lawn.....I ain’t had one since I don’t know when....
So what’s gonna prob’ly happen when the rains come is lots of flooding ‘n mudslides.....we’ll see teevee people wading thru intersections ‘n houses sliding downhill ‘n every station will send people up to Blue Canyon to stand in the snow.....Millyrose ‘n I went to Blue Canyon once’t....
Akshully, we went twice’t....once in the winter t’play in the snow (it was piled higher than the car) ‘n once in the summer t’see what the place really looked like (a few cabins midst the pines).....
We never go to play in the snow anymore tho’ I suspect Ashby ‘n Kellye’ll take the kids ‘n that’s fine by me...I like snow better, I think, when it’s on television ‘n I have my feet up ‘n the dogs vying for attention.....
‘Sfunny how one day you’re going along having a good time, minding your own business, running here ‘n there, getting the job done.....or whatever it is that occupies your time ‘n then one morning you crawl out’a bed with a hitch in your getalong ‘n just the idea of hitting the ground running is anathema...(that’s a two dollar word for don’t want’a do it)....
In the movie, “The Sand Pebbles”....Steve McQueen was killed 'n his final line was, “What the hell happened?”

Birthday Breakfast Bash.....

“T’was a long time ago, longer now than it seems,
in a place that perhaps you’ve seen in your dreams.
For the story you are about to be told
took place in the holiday worlds of old.
Now, you’ve probably wondered where holidays come from,
If you haven’t, I’d say it’s time you begun.”
Anon (meaning not me)

T’day we did the Birthday Breakfast thing for Sophie Claire at Brookfields..(Millyrose likes their fried potatoes)...it was a beautiful sunny morning but not the clouds are rolling in....(there’s a storm coming, I’m told)..
‘n it’s getting cooler...well, cooler in a cold type way not cooler in a cool way ‘cuz gloomy is only cool in movin’ pitchers, doncha know.....
So we took a drive out Hazel Ave t’find a store that was just a bit out’a the way....when we got to Loomis, we turned around ‘n headed back...it was an ok drive ‘n the dogs didn’t seem t’mind but after we crossed Douglas Blvd on the return trip, we looked over t’the right ‘n there was the store we were searching for....hiding in plain sight....
Afterwards, we stopped at the new Peet’s Coffee in Orangevale ‘n tried their brew...not bad. Millyrose was afraid that it might keep me awake tonite but that’d be a first....what might be a first lately is if I c’d sleep past four in the AM...which is prob’ly when I’ll finish this.....(actually, I'm an hour early)
I ‘uz just outside with the dogs...’n it’s chilly out there... should’a put on a jacket but I didn’t ‘n it’s too late now...
there’s a big ol’ full moon tonite...the biggest of the year they say...
‘N now at three in the AM, there is no moon atall, atall... the nite is dark ‘n if it weren’t for all the ambient lite of the urban jungle, t’would be like days of old....well, maybe not really like days of old but at my age ‘n at this time of the nite, the ‘old’ memory starts to wander....
the world use’ta be a darker place ‘n you c’d see more stars....I remember coming down off the hill behind the school, feeling my way in a dark so complete that I could literally hold my hand in front of my face ‘n not see it, stumbling along over the ruts....when we got to the clearing where the school sat ‘n the starlite provided just enuff lite that we became shadow figures moving along, the school building looming darker in the nite....
‘n behind us, moving with us, stopping when we stopped to listen...undoubtedly a curious bobcat but in our eleven year old imagination.....ah well, that part I can’t remember....at least not on a conscious level.....
I remember reading some overeducated idiot theorizing about prehistoric humans, fearful of the dark, huddling around the recently discovered fire in small, family groups waiting for the light.....I think that there are still a lot of overeducated idiots waiting for the light, but most of us know that the monsters waiting for us are out there in the daylight ‘n not under our beds.....

Birthdays 'n snow days.....

Ah, it’s three in the morning.....back in my way back when time, it was, as the ubiquitous ‘they’ used t’say, just the shank o’ the evening....’they’ said it, not me nor anyone I knew talked like that but it was a nice time of nite anyway....the bars were closing ‘n they didn’t care where you went s’long as you went somewhere.....
T’day is Sophie’s birthday....Millyrose ‘n I went to Alabama for her birth....it snowed.....we flew into Nashville, rented a car ‘n drove to Tuscaloosa (Loose tooth)....it was cold ‘n overcast in Nashville ‘n the weather got worse as we headed south....when we crossed the state line ‘n got in Alabama, we ran into sleet ‘n a little futher on, snow.....Southerners have an interesting reaction to snow....the kids, of course, play.... but the adults rush out t’the grocery stores ‘n buy ev’rything on the shelves as there ain’t gonna be a tomorrow....’n they can’t...’scuse me...cain’t drive in the stuff....almost nobody has chains, they slide all over the place ‘n worst of all, they slow to a crawl.....driving down an Interstate highway at twenty miles an hour, in the center of the lanes, hunched over their steering wheels as tho’ they’re facing Armageddon.....’n then (wait for it)
.....then they closed the Interstate! And it ain’t like they had a foot or two of the white stuff....it might’a been an inch....maybe two.....but, they closed the Interstate ‘n forced us off.....
There was an Alabama State Trooper directing traffic as I pulled off so I stopped beside the road ‘n walked up to him.....”Scuse me” I said, “but I’m from California...”
“And you don’t know how to drive in this stuff” he interupted me....”Nah!” I replied, “I know how t’drive in snow. It’s just that off the Interstate, I don’t know how t’get to Tuscaloosa.”
So we followed his directions to “go down this here road for ‘bout a mile, hang a right ‘n that’d be the ‘old’ road, y’see...runs parallel t’the Interstate.”
Which is what we did, stopping for lunch along the way, having a very good chickenfried steak which they do very well all over the south ‘n got to Tuscaloosa in time to take a picture of Ashby ‘n Kellye carrying home a very tiny Sophia Claire Lawson with snowflakes flying all around....
And it don’t seem all that long ago.....Happy Birthday, Sophie Claire.....

gov't by the numbers......

D’ya find it the least bit ironic that Congress is telling the auto industry to shape up or ship out...that they’ve been paying themselves far too much money to run their business into the ground.....well, way back in 1990, the Government seized the Mustang Ranch brothel (a landmark business, iconic, some might say) outside Reno, Nevada for tax evasion and, as required by law, tried to run it. They failed bigtime ‘n it closed. Now the people who couldn’t make money running a whore house ‘n selling booze are advising the auto industry......
And speaking of cars.....California is the model of a modern major general SNAFU with the Legislature seemingly incapable of agreeing on anything atall,atall...‘cept maybe when it comes t’lining their own pockets...with the state facing a twenty billion dollar (a billion here, a billion there) deficit, our elected officials are going to the trough yet again for NEW CARS.....I haven’t read the entire list but at least a couple of ‘em are going for the high-priced models.....(of course)....the pigs said it best in Animal Farm, “Some animals are just more equal than others.”
What the heck? It’s gonna be Christmas pretty soon, peace on earth, good will toward men.....

Musical Comedy.....

....Murders of 1940


Sunday eve ‘n we rushed dinner (a nuked hot dog ‘n diet coke made w/spenda) walked the dogs, ‘n hopped in the Matrix for a trip to Davis....t’see a play....ackshully, t’sit on folding chairs in a cold auditorium ‘n watch a Jr. High play....C’mon, that’s what parents do...you knew that....
We always have a good time at these plays...Gina always puts on a good production...something of a fam’ly thing too as Andrew contributes a lot along with Kellye ‘n Cary ‘n Millyrose ‘n da Gurlz....’n our should’a been adopted daughter, Rachel the outstanding Puppeteer....
The temperature when we left was (according t’the thermometer in the Matrix) forty-six degrees which don’t seem so cold ‘specially if you’re back east where it’s really cold but when you’re used to those warm California days ‘n then you have a week without sunshine ‘n the forties seem really cold.....anyways, when we left Davis t’come home, I f’got to check the temp (not that checking it would have changed anything)....the fog was low, maybe a quarter-mile visibility ‘n wet....ran the windshield wipers all the way to Sacramento....had the heat turned up too...getting old ain’t for sissies but you sure need t’keep a supply of heat available....
Anyway, all’s well that ends well ‘n that’s a direct steal from the Bard of Avon.....g’nite all

Acorns are fallin'......

Acorns are fallin’ on my head day ‘n nite......well, not literally but they’re sure fallin’ on my roof....’n in my yard ‘n my driveway.....hundreds of ‘em....more’n I’ve ever seen before.....this year seems t’be a bumper-bumper year for acorns.....sometimes it seems like someone is knocking at the door, acorns bump-bumping on the roof ’n Willie ‘n Rusty runnin’ t’the door...it’s bad enuff when the squirrels ‘n chickens tease ‘em but now Ma Nature has the live oak jerkin’ them around also....
And y’can’t walk out’a the driveway without crunching acorns underfoot...’n since I got a gravel driveway, I can’t sweep ‘em out or blow ‘em out with the leafblower...
My little old leafblower is electric anyway ‘n hardly has enuff power to move leaves ‘n it darn sure ain’t gonna move an acorn out from among the gravel....ah well, obla-dee, obla-dah.....
I’m tired of the fog....it crept in here a few days ago (seems longer) a la Sandburg ‘n just keeps hangin’ on ‘n on...I do wish the sun ‘ud come back....
gettin’ closer ‘n closer to Christmas.....

Karma's a bummer......

What goes around, comes around...or so I’ve heard ‘n I think I believe it....it’s hard not t’believe in karma, at least once in a while...This week the world, or at least our part of it, got t’see the face of man who stumbled over his own karma...OJ Simpson almost had it all... a poor black kid with athletic grace, more charm than he c’d carry.....a football star, he parlayed his talent, his good looks, his charm ‘n dash into millions....rich ‘n famous, he rubbed shoulders with other rich ‘n famous, untouchable by mere mortals....oobla-dee, oobla-dah......
’n de world goes round.....

The tree.....

So this’s the year that we wuz gonna go to a man-made imitation faux manufactured pre-lit Xmas tree that you take out of a box ‘n put in your front window for two or three weeks ‘n then pop it back in the box ‘n store it under the stairs ‘til next year.....
That’s what we were gonna do ‘n I ‘uz gonna get some that spray scent in a can that smells like fresh-cut pine or spruce or whatever smells most Christmasy.... that’s what we were gonna do.....
Trouble was, when we got to Costco (box store of choice) they only had one left ‘n they didn’t have a box for it ‘n what good is a man-made imitation faux manufactured pre-lit Xmas tree if you can’t put it back in the box ‘n store it under the stairs ‘til next year.....so we talked to Customer Service ‘n they got on their computer ‘n said we c’d go to Citrus Heights or down to Arden Fair.as each one of 'em had multiple man-made imitation faux manufactured pre-lit Xmas trees...well, it didn’t take a lot of brains t’ choose Citrus Heights over Arden Fair 'specially cuz of all the traffic at Arden Fair this time of year 'n the fact that Citrus Heights is closer.....
They had three or four man-made imitation faux manufactured pre-lit Xmas trees at Citrus Heights but wudn’t you know, they didn’t have any boxes ‘n what good is a man-made imitation faux manufactured pre-lit Xmas tree if y’can’t put it back in the box ‘n store it under the stairs ‘til next year....
So we bought a real seven ‘n a half foot Noble fir ‘n loaded it into the Matrix ‘n brought it home ‘n stood it up in front of the window ‘n strung it from top to bottom with a ‘hull bunch of new cheaper to operate LED mini-lights ‘‘n plugged ‘em it ‘n now Da Gurlz (who by the way are growing up go figure) went upstairs ‘n dug out the boxes of ornaments from years gone by ‘n are happily hanging ev’rything on the tree which suits me just fine ‘cuz I never got a big thrill out of that part of Christmas anyway.....
It's been a busy day......

Pants on fire.......

We hold these truths to be self-evident......or do we?

Jim Carrey made a movie called, “Liar, liar”....wherein his son made a wish that his father wouldn’t be able to tell a lie for a whole day....cute movie but it made me think that if they ever passed a law to put truth into politics, that’d be the end of politics.....
Truth be told (satiric ha ha) we are a devious species...we dissemble as a matter of course ‘n the best dissemblers among us get to be our leaders.
You’d think it ought’a be the toughest or the cruelest ‘n generally speakin’ it is but mostly it’s the best liar that comes out on top in the eternal struggle to be first in line...
We have great universities that strive mightily to produce large numbers of liars annually. The best of these, the shining examples so t’speak, go into ‘public service’....politics ‘n diplomacy mostly, but since we are a nation of law, by far most of them end up in our courts... In our system of justice where the law of natural selection holds precedent, meaning that the best ‘n the brightest never see the inside of a courtroom... Rather, they make the laws...They write the rules...(sounds like a Barry Manilow song, don’t it) that the rest of us must live by. The Supremes! Long live the old farts....




*

**

September, 1942......

The war was not quite a year old, not that I really remember of course but that was the year I started school....we lived next door to the Bradley’s in a little shotgun style house that has since been torn down...... There was a road, the railroad tracks ‘n a field that was crisscrossed by numerous paths, one of which led to the school......Fullerton Elementary, where I went to the first ‘n second grades....
Reba Warnock lived next door to the school in a tall victorian....she was prob’ly born there because way back in 1937 most children were born at home...anyway ‘n even tho’ I don’t remember, that would have been when I first met Reba ‘n most of the other people that I consider my friends t’day......
Reba married my cousin, Richard, in ‘56 I think...I don’t recall how long they were married but they divorced ‘n Richard ended up in California...
Reba died suddenly in October ‘n Richard died three weeks later.....

Get thee behind me......

It has certainly been some kind of year, my friends, ‘n there were times when it seemed much longer than just a year.....I imagine that there were people who were able to ignore politics but for the rest of us, God help us, we may never be the same....I know I’ll never feel the same about the appellation, ‘my friends’ ...John McCain has ruined that phrase for the whole of the western world..... it got to the point that I felt like smacking him in the mouth ev’ry time he said it....
Ev’ryone ‘n their brother has been calling it a ‘historic’ year...well, what the heck, maybe it was but it ain’t over yet altho’ t’is close, us being into December already....’n though I, for one, am somewhat apprehensive of the coming months, I ain’t in the least saddened by the end of the incessant campaigning....I’m thinkin’ they should all take a long vacation somewhere....maybe India....
And I ain’t poking fun at India.....what happened there was a tradgedy...murder for the sake of murder is just really stupid ‘n it don’t serve any cause at all.....India is the largest democracy in the world....did y’know that? I guess I did.......just never gave it a tho’t.....’n it’s a huge country of extremes.....old ‘n new side by side, wealth ‘n poverty....
One of the things that I’m really tired of ‘n saddened by ‘n wish they would all just go away is the Obamainiacs who seem to have a compulsion to not only reiterate the big lie that won him the presidency but now feel the necessity to expand on it....There was a columnist in the Bee that claimed Obama has won the war in Iraq ‘n he ain’t even President yet... I ‘member in my way back when time that everyone made fun of the Russsians ‘n their over the top attempt at revisionist history...(it was a running joke on Star Trek).
I c’n understand lying if you have something to gain...I don’t think it’s good policy but I understand it...far as I’m concerned the election is over now ‘n there ain’t no more reason to lie....Obama c’n tell the truth about how he really ack’shully funded his campaign....what he said was that he was getting all his money from the ‘little’ people who wanted t’get away from the lies of the Bush regime...
When it looked like he was using the money of small donors to buy the election, the media ‘n the LE tho’t it was okay ‘cuz that $600 million came from the ‘little’ people...now that we know that it wudn’t true, that he got his money the same way that politicians have always got money, from rich people ‘n special interests...
That do kind’a put his victory in a whole ‘nother light, sort’a like the Delta Dawn song, “He’ll come back ‘n marry me....”
Somehow I get the feeling that all you daydream believers are gonna find yourself standin’ at the altar wonderin’ what the hell happened?.......
Obama is a bright fellow who has never made a mistake, or at least, he’s never admitted making a mistake.... if he’d been the one the snake tempted, why we’d all be in Eden still......

Memorable days.....

“Those were the days, my friend,
we tho’t they’d never end......”

I’ve always said that time flies whether you have fun or not.....’n you don’t get do-overs......
T’day is November 29 ‘n I just heard that Cuzzin Richard died....his daughter, Tracy, called to tell me. He lived not too far from me but I hadn’t heard from him or spoken to him for about two years....I haven’t seen him in longer than that. Not my decision but his. He withdrew from the family a long time ago.
About three weeks ago, Reba Warnock Dameron died.
I guess she’d been sick for a little while but I hadn’t heard so it came as a shock. Reba ‘n I were close in high school and she was Richards first wife. Well, so far as she was concerned, she was his only wife but there were a couple more.
I tried to call him but got a disconnect ‘n didn’t know how to reach him.
Aunt Bill ‘n Uncle Fred lived down the street from us when we lived in Beattyville. ‘N for a few years, we were more like brothers than cousins. Roaming the alleys of Beattyville ‘n the riverbank or crawling around the honeysucle covered hills. He was a year ‘n a half older’n me, give or take, ‘n a year ahead of me in school. Bigger’n me but kind’a uncoordinated, we learned to swim at about the same time. Bob Dameron (older brother) was a good athlete (basketball mostly, where we grew up) and the coach eyed Richards height as we grew. I think he ended up about 6’2” but he couldn’t run....so the coach had him skipping rope. He got pretty good at that but if you ain’t got the eye hand thing naturally, you pretty much ain’t gonna get it.
Bob was a good athlete, a fighter. And popular. Richard was aloof, standoffish. Nobody picked on him because Bob would’a kicked their butt so he never had to fight like I did. Not that he couldn’t. He fought with me ‘n he was big enough that he could’a whipped me but he never did. Probably would have had to ‘cause I wouldn’t quit but Aunt Bill stopped it ‘n made me go home....in my teens I changed schools ‘n we didn’t much hang out t’gether after that.
He didn’t live very far from here, couple miles I guess ‘n I only heard from him once in a while, Xmas card mostly with no return address.....I always figured that some day he’d show up on my front porch ‘n decide that he wanted t’be part of the family again...would’a been alright with me.
I never expected him to die so soon or so suddenly. I never expected Reba to go so soon or suddenly either. Heck, maybe when I go, it’ll come as a surprise to me. I’d guess that wouldn’t be so bad.

Best wishes.....

For ever’body that might be wonderin’ about son Dave, he left India last week ‘n went to Australia for a couple days before flying back to the States.....he got in SF late Tuesday ‘n has been coping with jet lag since....at any rate, we were certainly glad that he wasn’t anywhere near Mombai (Bombay, f’r oldtimers)....”India is a large country” sez Dave, “It’s like 9/11 was here. For the most part, India is a very safe country.”
‘Course, those of us who only know those foreign countries by what we see on the telly are forced to sit ‘n wonder when we know that people we know are anywhere near danger. Like, when there’s fires ‘n or flooding in southern California....friends back east always want’a know if that’s happening close to where we are...use’ta be someone would say, “We’re gonna go to Disneyland, maybe we’ll come ‘n see you.”......not knowing that Disneyland is 8 to 10 hours away from Sacramento..
Ahhhwellll....
The turkeys are baking, the pies are baked ‘n the rest of the ‘fixin’s’ are getting....fixed....the sun is peeping thru the cloud layer ‘n we’ve got a lot t’be thankful for on this Thanksgiving Day....
Best wishes to ev’ryone.....

Thanksgiving surprise.......

Surprise! Surprise! or so Gomer Pyle use’ta say.....The California Legislature failed once again t’do anything other than what they allus do.....which mainly consists of taking their paychecks, their per diem, ‘n all the gratuties they c’n grab off while sitting on their butts complaining about the ‘other’ party......
It’s a good thing they ain’t the U.S. Congress or the ‘hull darn country ‘ud be in trubble.....oops! My bad! The ‘hull darn country is in trubble ‘cuz the Congress ain’t any better than the California Legislature......One ain’t any better than the other one....
I wuz gonna say that one thing we c’ud be grateful for is that when the Legislature comes back, there’ll be a bunch of new people to sit around ‘n do nothing ‘n maybe, that’s the best we c’n hope for....(the premise being that a do-nothing Legislature won’t cost us as much as one that actually does stuff)....
Ah well....Thanksgiving is almost upon us ‘n we should prob’ly be grateful for what we got....’n if we’re truthful about it, s’far as family goes, we all got it pretty good....There’s a sappy, saccharine song from days gone by called, “Count your blessings”.....’n even tho’ my choice lost the presidential race, most of my kids choice won so, I s’poze that’s alright.....’n Dave made it back to California in time for Thanksgiving dinner which means I get t’do the bbq turkey thing ‘n I s’poze that’s alright too.....’n the weather guys say it’s gonna be dry this week ‘n I know that’s better than wet outside even if t’is a little chilly....well, chilly for us but would be positively balmy for those of the family that are stuck in the ‘cold weather belt’ back east.....
Ah well, tomorrow is another day if we’re lucky.....’n even if we’re not, the day after is (wait for it)....TURKEY DAY!

Change t'believe in......

"The world is the same, you'll never change it,
as sure as the stars shine above....."

I saw on the evening s’news where some of them smarter than the average bear Democrat pundits are calling for Bush & Cheney to resign immediately so that President Elect Obama c’n begin saving the world.... It was Chris Matthews, I think, that was feeling something in his jeans ev’ry time Obama spoke....I dunno if he tho’t up this idea all on his lonesome or maybe he had help....
Maybe the Dems are operating on the assumption that since stupidity got us into a mess, more stupidity will be sure t’get us out......I’ve been studying on the Democrat Party ‘n the Republican Party ‘n it’s my belief that each one of ‘em is worse than the other......
And as far as this bailout goes.....if the Bush bailout works, it’ll become the Obama bailout....’n the additional bailout that Obama is talking about....if it don’t work, it’s just one more example of the failed Bush policies.....
O....’n this New Deal that’s coming....Well, lemme just tell you about that.....Y’see, I was born during FDR’s second term ‘n I grew up a Democrat...The Depression was a big part of my life ‘n I was told that FDR saved our butts by introducing his ‘New Deal’....No more Republicans, no more Hoovervilles....do away with the breadlines ‘n soup kitchens, prosperity is just around the corner, two chickens in every pot, pennies from heaven ‘n blue skies forever.....
‘Cept it was all a fairytale....the New Deal didn’t work ‘n neither did any of the other political solutions, Democrat or Republican......what brought us out of the depression was Hitler, Mussolini ‘n Tojo....World War II, the big one (according to Dobie Gillis’ paterfamilias)...
When we geared up for war, we went back to work ‘n out-manufactured everyone....we built ships ‘n airplanes ‘n tanks ‘n all the assorted war materiels that the world needed to break the Axis.....
So, it didn’t really take a lot of bailouts to save the world during the last great depression....all we had t’do was kill off maybe a hundred million people ‘n create a little order out of chaos.....
During the 1800’s Great Britain had a problem with Ireland....They called it their ‘Irish’ problem...they solved it by starving over a million people to death and forcing the evacuation of half the remaining population of Ireland....just a matter of creating a little order out of chaos.....
Some things never change...

Idlers vs lazy bums.....

Blowing leaves ‘n cleaning gutters on an almost sunny Sunday afternoon.........Boy! It don’t get much better, do it?
‘Less’n, of course, you have more tomorrows ahead of you than yesterdays behind you in which case, almost anything c’n be better than yardwork, housework, all that gotta do it t’get by work...
There’s an old Irish saying that “work is the curse of the drinking class”....I dunno what old Irishman said that but it’s a pretty sure bet that he was of a class known as ‘Idlers’....Idlers have lots more time on their hands than drunks, y’see....Drunks devote a lot of time ‘n tho’t to booze...the anticipation of the next drink, the regret of the last drink, the unsettled time inbetween drinks....it takes time ‘n effort t’be a drunk while Idlers.....well, the whole secret t’being a world-class Idler is t’do nothing at all....’n that’s all the effort it takes.....
Once upon a time I had aspirations of being an Idler....I just cudn’t make it stick somehow....I’d be idling really well....lost in a reverie ‘n something would come along ‘n I’d be off ‘n doing it....’n that kind’a defeats the whole purpose.....
To be a really good Idler, a world-class Idler, I s’poze... you’d have t’be born to it.....wanting t’be an Idler just ain’t enuff...for almost all of us, something’ll come along that you just feel like doing ‘n next thing y’know, you’re not idling, you’re busy doing something.....
It don’t have t’be anything really important, y’know....it c’n be something as simple as deciding to take a little walk, maybe go for a swim...maybe get sidetracked by a pretty girl.....maybe get sidetracked by an almost pretty girl or even by an ugly girl....anyways, the point is if you get sidetracked for almost any reason, you’re not a real Idler....you c’n still be a lazy bum but that don’t have the same cachet....gesundheit!

Various 'n sundry......

Turkey day is comin’....
it’s comin’ ‘round de bend,
‘n I ain’t had no turkey
since.....
well, last year t’be precise
’n I was doing chemo then....

Chemo, of course, don’t do a heckuva lot for a bodys appetite ‘n it don’t matter if it’s a holiday or not......
Anyways, it’s Friday nite ‘n the start of the weekend before Thanksgiving......Millyrose is gettin’ antsy already
planning a menu, no doubt...’n wantin’ the house t’be just so ‘n wash all the dishes that we don’t use except on holidaze....Dave is comin’ home for Thanksgiving...last we heard, he was in Australia ‘n lookin’ t’get his flight moved up....looking forward to seeing him ‘n listening to his tales of “The Adventures of Another Dave Smith”...
When we first came to Sacramento, I was the third David Smith in the Sacto phone book...now there’s at least forty ‘n that ain’t counting the unlisted or the ones who only have cells......maybe we should have a club...Nah!
So, it’s five in the AM ‘n one’a the things about getting older is the number of times you get up during the nite to go to the bathroom (euphemism for pee)...Rusty the Poodl’us Minor is getting older along with me.....I’m not sure how old he is but I’m thinkin’.......8 or 9, I’ve never been able to get a handle on that dog years thing....
anyways (sigh) he’s been getting me up two to three times a nite to let him out (better than him going in, doncha know ‘n besides if I get up with him, I might as well go also)...Willie just raises his head ‘n looks at us...no way is he gonna get up in the middle of the nite but then he’s a young fella ‘n he don’t hafta....
I wasn’t really asleep anyway...was just lying there wond’ring about various ‘n sundry....insomniacs do that, y’know...toss ‘n turn wond’ring about the various ‘n sundry things of life....

Ol whatsisname....

"Here lies Ozymandias, King of Kings!"

Life is fleeting 'n too soon over so we must make the most of what we have when we have it. Don't sweat the small stuff 'n ev'rything is small stuff.....The value of a Liberal Arts education is learning how to rationalize lifes disappointments.....
Sonuvagun! It’s Friday again ‘n so long as we keep having Fridays, God’s in His heaven ‘n all’s right with the world.....or so I’ve heard stated.
The sun is shining, temp is rising (inta the 60’s, I’m told) so I’ll get in my swim later t’day....I like it when the sun hits at least a little of the pool....T’day is a ‘cardio’ day which means I have t’spend time upstairs in the gym.... stationary bike, ellipitical thingy, ‘n maybe the watchamacallit...the treadmill.....Senior moment, I guess..just cudn’t think of the name of the darn thing.....
Too bad life doesn’t come with do-overs....it’s a lot more fun when you’re young enuff that you don’t need to exercise.....when you c’n run or swim just for the heck of it....ah well, I ‘member growing up ‘n swimming in ‘The River’.....(we had the hills ‘n the river).....Dave told in his blog about visiting Varanisi in India ‘n the River Ganges...
it’s considered a ‘holy’ river in India ‘n people go there (when they c’n afford it) to burn their dead ‘n dump the ashes so they c’n go to Nirvana...’cept, the thing is.... y’see.....children, pregnant women, holy men ‘n animals are considered ‘pure’ enuff that they don’t have t’be burned in order to get into Nirvana so their bodies get dumped whole into the ‘holy’ river....along with all the sewage from one of the oldest cities on the Indian sub-continent...anyways...there was a show on one of the myriad channels that teevee affords us t’day that showed a group traveling around the world a’la Dave except they get t’do it with money ‘n more comfort...
They showed on film what Dave described in his blog...the body of a baby floating in the river, a dead cow floating, people bathing, swimming, drinking ‘n playing in the river......
Anyways....back in my way back when days, we (the denizens of Beattyville) played ‘n fished in the Ohio River which was also used as a sewer by every community that was built on or near the river or any creeks that flowed into it....(YUCK!...sensibilities have changed over the years) Cleaning up the environment has got t’be a good thing.....there’s just too darn many people in this world t’day to go on fouling our own nest any longer.....
The economy is a big problem ‘n Obama is not going t’be able to fix it...McCain wouldn’t have been able to fix it either...as a matter of fact, it’s a problem that is so big that it’s unfixable.....but, not to panic....everyone has problems that are too big for them to fix...the only thing y’can do is fix the problems that you can ‘n let providence take care of the rest....

Just when you tho't....

it wuz all over......

“I don’t give a damn about a greenback dollar,
spend it fast as I c’n........” Kingston Trio

So, is Obama the new Lincoln or the new F.D.R.....if he’s the new F.D.R.....well, the problem is the old F.D.R. didn’t do too well getting us out of the old depression.....it took a world war t’do that.....
‘N if he’s the new Lincoln, who’s he gonna ‘manicipate....
the Gays? Gavin Newsome already proclaimed that on national television....'n speaking of the esteemed Mayor of Sodom by the bay, all he needs t’do now is stick his head in a toilet and flush it ‘n keep repeating it ad infinitum ad nauseum...Hopefully, he’ll have flushed his gubernatorial aspirations as well....
On the gay marriage thing.....I personally don’t really care what other people do s’long as they don’t dance on my toes..
I don’t favor or deplore ‘gay’ marriage ‘n given the divorce rate in this country, I’d think most people should mind their own bidness ‘n take care of their own marriages....
That said, after watching the truly obscene demonstration of intolerance ‘n bigotry of the less than truly gay community, I find myself rooting for the Moral Majority...of which I’m not sure is either moral or in the majority but that’s a ‘hull ‘nother story.....
The Republican party is tearing itself apart but not to worry, they have four years to pull themselves t’gether again....but all the King’s horses ‘n all the King’s men cudn’t put McCain t’gether again...Pore Ol John...I blame those private schools his parents sent him to...had he gone to school up the hollow like I did, he’da known better than to let a gal do his fighting for him...not that Sarah didn’t do a good job...she did, but it never looks good for a guy t’hide behind a gal...even one that c’n skin out a moose......

Anybody's guess.....

I’ve been told that the best thing about ‘old age’ is that it don’t last too long.....offhand, I can’t say that I agree totally with that statement...the problem, as I see it, is that ‘old’ age is finite....it has a definite end altho’ a lot of people think of it as a transition.....I mean, you transition from childhood to adolescence to young adult and ‘middle’ age until you get to ‘old’ age....’n where y’go from there is anybody’s guess....
Mortality weighs heavy in the wee hours of the morning, when it seems like ever’one else is asleep...I know I ain’t alone...that there are a lot of kindred souls out there in the dark staring at computer screens or televisions or just twiddling their thumbs...ransacking the fridge or maybe just staring blankly into the nite.....
Here in old Fair Oaks, the damn roosters are complaining...prob’ly over the SacBee delivery person...I remember when the papers were delivered by kids on bicycles in the afternoons...Back in the good old days, that was almost always the case...at least it was for most of the country...most of the country at that time being outside of the cities.....Cities, at least in the movies, had large populations ‘n newspapers were always rushing out extra editions to corner kiosks where people were waiting to get the very latest news......But not where I lived.....The very latest news where most of us lived then was in the form of ‘gossip’ and the newspapers came in the afternoon, delivered by the paperboy, usually via bicycle tho’ not always.....Brothers John ‘n Jim delivered the Portsmouth Times around South Portsmouth with Jim getting the easy part of the route (well, he was younger) ‘n John taking the outlying customers....it was two-lane blacktop from the end of the bridge (the Ulysses Grant Bridge that spanned the Ohio) all the way thru So. Ports...it was a dangerous road, narrow with hardly any shoulders, snaking along t’wixt the hillside ‘n the railroad...it’s a wonder more pedestrians weren’t run over tho’ I don’t recall a lot of people being hit by cars...
‘Course, during the war years, there weren’t a lot of cars on the road, gas ‘n tires being rationed like they were....anyways, John ‘n Jim didn’t deliver the papers during the war years...Richard Noel delivered the Times in Beattyville when we first moved there...he was older’n me but I tagged around with him thru the streets ‘n alleys....He cut his foot on his bike pedal ‘n died of the dreaded lockjaw...You never hear of lockjaw anymore... nor polio though I knew several people who had that also....I never knew anyone who had to live in an iron lung but the March of Dimes was a major charity then dedicated to eradicating polio...most of the diseases of my childhood seem t’be pretty much gone now tho’ with the influx of immigrants you just never know what’s gonna pop up on the evening news.....
Oh, and big Bob Savage passed away, peacefully I hear, surrounded by his family...

Gettin' old.....

ain’t for sissies.....part two:

Big Bob Savage is dying....he has cancer ‘n a blood clot in his leg ‘n it’s a toss-up which’ll get him first....
He’s in hospital ‘n the Dr. asked if he wanted t’be resuscitated if he had a heart attack from the blood clot...his reply was “why wouldn’t I want t’be resuscitated?”.....
Some miscommunication there, I suppose....his cancer is so advanced that there’s little hope but he evidently hadn’t understood that....
I c’n testify that people usually only hear what they want to hear....when my oncologist told me that my cancer had progressed to stage four, I didn’t hear that at all....
Millyrose heard it but not me....I was much too focused on the fact that I had cancer in the first place.....I expect that’s where Bob’s mind has taken him....
It’s okay to ask for miracles ‘n sometimes people return from the brink.....mostly, I believe that an easy transition is what most people actually pray for...
‘Course, Bob Savage is a big man...he may have been praying for a hospital bed large enough to fit him...most things are made for medium-size people ‘n when you’re oversized or undersized, it’s a life-long problem....
He has a big, old house in Virginia....a three story brick mansion that he remodeled to fit himself....his kitchen counters were so high that Millyrose had to stand on a footstool to work at them....
I sat with my Dad while he was dying ‘n Bob will have his wife and children with him.....I don’t think anyone can ask for much more.....

Gettin' old.....

ain’t for sissies.......

or so saieth an older friend......I laugh ‘n agree with her but since I seem t’be in a state of total denial, it can’t possibly apply t’me....
‘Course, ev’ry time I look around, the ranks are thinning..
Reminds me of the first twenty mile hike with full pack I took in basic training....We trudged thru the New York State night, about a hundred and fourteen of us as I recall.....’n I kept slowin’ down ‘n moving farther back in the column....from my vantage point at the rear, I cudn’t help but notice that the ranks were thinning...that the carryall (military terminology for a stake-side truck with canvas tarp) kept stopping to pick up those lesser souls that, for one reason ‘n another, fell by the wayside..
My buddy, Denver ‘Bud’ Mullins was one of the first...we were marching side by side in what they termed, route step.....when he stepped in a hole...his hands were hooked inside the straps of his pack ‘n he went face down like he’d been poleaxed....which in a way, he had.....his helmet tipped forward ‘n cracked him across the bridge of his nose ‘n that was the end of his hike.....
We’d only marched a few miles at the time ‘n I helped him into the back of the carryall....he was bloody awful cheerful about it when I staggered in at the end to find him sitting there with a big grin on his face.....
It was summertime ‘n we’d just got out of high school, good old McKell High.....we weren’t doing much of anything.....well, heck! There weren’t a lot of jobs t’go around....or more aptly, there weren’t any jobs t’go around....not then, not around South Shore, at any rate....
Bud ‘n I ‘n Sonny Thompson (Leon to his parishioners) had got some beer ‘n we went fishing out on Shultz Creek.....wasn’t really any fish in Shultz at that time, not to speak of anyway....basically, it was just an excuse to hang out ‘n drink our beer on a warm afternoon....
Sonny was older ‘n was able to buy beer legally 'n now that I think on it, quite possibly with malice aforethought, so I blame him for what happened that afternoon...we should'a been happy, just an idle, carefree summer afternoon but Leon hadda carefully steer our innocent ‘n under-achieving conversation around to matters military.....’n it all ended with the three of us joining the USAF....no wonder Leon went into the church business.....he had a lot to atone for......

Who'll stop the rain.....

Who’ll stop the rain.....
not I, said the fly...
nor me, said the flea......

Speaking of things the world will little note nor long remember...
When a spokesperson for a California Stateworkers union opined that the almost 80 million dollars that the State would save by cutting two holidays wasn’t “enough to make a difference”....it reminded me that a once upon a time Congressman, Senator Everett Dirksen, famously stated that, “a million here and a million there and pretty soon, you’re talking real money.”
We get similar reactions from every agency that is facing cuts, that cutting their particular budget won’t be enough to make a significant difference.
Except, we got into this budget mess by spending a million here and a million there until we’re now facing a 15 billion (that’s billion with a B) dollar deficit.
And the way to get out of it is by cutting a million here and a million there....
Herbert Hoover was elected President in 1928. Good times in 1928. Then came ‘29 and the stock market crashed. Hoover was considered to be smart and astute and a failure. He’s consistently ranked as one of our worst Presidents by virtue of having been in office when the economy tanked.
FDR got credit for leading the US out of “The Great Depression” but the truth is the New Deal tactics didn’t work. Between Hoover and Roosevelt, they managed what should have been brief downturn in the market into ten years of massive unemployment. Eventually the market corrected itself and with the advent of World War II, entered a fifty year era of prosperity.
But bubbles burst. T’is the nature of the beast.
This huge buyout (the 700 billion plus) engineered by the White House and Congress amounts to nationalization of our banks, our industries and our manufacturers. The politicians who think they know how to get us out of this mess are the self-same politicians that got us into the mess in the first place.
California, the ubiquitous ‘they’ say, is where it happens first..... and the California Legislature is gonna push the state into bankruptcy....the state is facing something like a 22 billion dollar a year deficit and no matter how Arnie begs, the legislature remains obdurant....with neither the Republicans nor the Democrats willing to compromise at any level.....someone, I disremember who, once famously said, “How General Motors goes, so goes the nation.”......Quite possibly, how California goes is the blueprint for the nation....the future looks bleak and, as Pogo once wisely opined, “I have seen the enemy and he is us.”
Who’ll stop the rain...
not I, said the fly.....
nor me, said the flea......

Trouble with Liberals......

“The trubble with the dang liberals ain’t so much that they’re ignorant, it’s just that they know so much that ain’t so.”

Now, I’d just like t’point out that I didn’t make up that little bit of philosphy. It’s been credited to Ronald Reagan but Ronnie stole a lot of lines from movie scripts and scriptwriters stole from anyplace they could....I like Will Rogers but he stole a lot from Mark Twain ‘n Ol Sam stole from lots of people. Ol Sam was an ‘eddicated man’ in a relatively un-eddicated era so he didn’t bother with attribution in a ‘hull lot ‘o cases.....Well, it’s a fact of life that writers steal from wherever they can ‘n most of them only admit it when they absolutely have to....theys tell themselves they’re only paraphrasing....
‘Course, there’s a lot of writers who for one reason or another, didn’t copywrite their work....’n whoever gets the copywrite, gets credit whether they created it or not.....’n they call it ‘plagirism’.....‘n it’s a crime, usually with little or no punishment..mostly 'cuz they don't get called on it.....
Now, politicians ain’t above a little plagirism now ‘n then...take our ‘esteemed’ vice President elect Biden who has been guilty of plagirizing the speech of another man who actually stole the gist of it from someone else in the first place......gets confusing, don’t it? That’s why there’s little or no punishment....Well, that 'n the fact that people kind'a expect politicians t'do stuff like that......
John Kennedy, who gets undeserved credit for being one of our ‘greatest’ Presidents...took credit for being the author of a book that he didn’t actually write ‘n the most famous line from one of his speeches, “Ask not what your country can do for you but what you can do for your country.” was plagirized....(or was it just paraphrased)
First off, lemme say that I’m just so durn tired of the election that I can’t hardly stand to turn on any news show right now on the off chance that sumbody, sumwhere, is still runnin’ for office ‘n I don’t think that I c’n take it.....
‘N in the second place, well heck! There ain’t no such a thing as ‘second place’....’ceptin’ maybe in horse races ‘n that ain’t the same thing at all....”Shoot fire” as my old man used t’say, “horse players die broke but ev’rybody dies.”
‘N in the third place, we got ourselves 535 incompetent Congressmen (women).....sum of who has got t’be part of Obama’s posse which means we got sum new up’n coming crooks.....’n it ain’t just ‘dem Dems, y’know....it’s ‘dem Republican’ts too.....’n ‘dem Independents ‘n Greeners ‘n all the rest of ‘em.....You know who I mean, the Orwellian animals who think they were created just a little more equal than the rest of us......
Do I sound bitter? I sound bitter, don’t I? I don’t mean t’be bitter....It ‘s just that sometimes it’s hard t’find the punchline....
Sabatini said (‘n it was the best line in the ‘hull darn book) in the potboiler, ‘Scaramouche’....”He was born with the gift of laughter and a sense that the world was mad.”


..

Great pretender

“I play the game......”

When in the course of human events it becomes necessary t’get your butt kicked, it also becomes necessary to pick yourself up, dust yourself off, ‘n start all over again.....(ain’t it wunnerful how old pop songs just ‘pop’ inta your mind..c’d it be that’s really why they call ‘em ‘pop’) .....Nah! I don’t think so either....
I heard that song at an early age but I also learned how t’get my butt kicked at an early age...I believe you learn more from losing than y’do from winning but somehow I never learned how t’be a good loser...Oh, I learned how to paste a smile on my face ‘n pretend but it was a fake smile...inside, where it really mattered, I wasn't smiling.....
Inside, where it really mattered, I was seriously pissed ‘n I carried my losses around for a long time....I come from a clannish people ‘n I bear grudges.....’N I was a long time growing up ‘n figuring out that the least amount of hate is far too heavy a load to carry... ‘n carrying heavy loads will break a body down ‘n make you old before your time....hating ain’t a good thing!
If you watch television, as most of us do, you see hating in action every day....the gay marriage thing here in California is a really good example...’n the opposing sides have come face t’ face on the evening news.....(the media reminds me of schoolkids on the sideline egging on two young people who didn’t really want to fight in the first place)...’n what is gonna come out of the ‘hull thing is hard feelings ‘n grudges ‘n a long time healing.....
Way down south, they’ve had a long, hard time getting over the war to end northern aggression (Heck! It’s only been 140 years but who’s counting).....’n this past election season has been the most divisive since the one that preceded that war so it’s hard t’say just how long it’s gonna take for ev’ryone to play ‘kiss ‘n makeup’.....
I guess we’re all gonna have t’do what kids do ‘n just put a smile on our faces ‘n pretend that we're doing well......

"They're writing songs......

...but not for me"

I’ll be frank.....I ain’t at all happy about the election... I don’t like losing....never did altho’ I’ve certainly had a lot of experience at it ‘n one thing I c’n say for sure is that it never gets easier....I’d like to blame John McCain for losing but that won’t help....’n I ain’t gonna blame George for it either....I know he’s unpopular but the people who voted for Obama because they dislike George Bush should learn how to read....’n it don’t do any good to tell ‘em that Bush ‘n Cheney ain’t responsible for them getting wet from standing in the rain. Folks, I got news for ya.....Obama, Pelosi ‘n Reid ain’t gonna hold an umbrella for you either....you’re gonna continue to get wet until you smarten up enuff to get yourself out’a the rain.....Nah! Obama won the election using the tried ‘n true strategy of the Democrat party.....Divide ‘n conquer using class warfare....promise the working class, the recent immigrant, ‘n the rebellious young that you’re gonna take from the rich ‘n give to the poor...Wall Street nabobs become King John ‘n the nobility, George Bush becomes the Sherrif of Nottingham ‘n Obama is Robin Hood riding to the rescue.....it’s the same tactic the Democrats always use ‘n this time the magic worked....fortunately, it doen’t alway...

All American......

"After the ball is over......"

Remember when we were all Americans.....Has it been so long ago that we’ve forgot?
I recall when I was a boy, I was a Kentuckian ‘n I teased brother John ‘cause he was born in Ohio...it still upsets him that Mom ‘n Dad were visiting Dad’s parents in Ohio when he was born...
I can’t recall anyone identifying themselves as anything-American....
The population wasn’t as large then but the country itself was pretty much the same size.....well, the lower 48 at least. We added Alaska ‘n Hawaii which turned out t’be a good thing for Sarah Palin....
But going back a couple hundred years, anyone born in this country was considered t’be an American....’n anyone who immigrated here from any other place in the ‘hull world ‘n could take a citizenship test ‘n become an American....’n millions of people did just that....
I don’t know just when we began identifying each other as hyphenated Americans ‘n I don’t think it matters much long as the hyphen goes before American ‘n not after....
If you want t’be African-American or Arab-American or Irish-American, that’s okay with me. If you stay off my toes, I’ll sure try ‘n stay off yours....
I purposefully left off referring to American Indians as Native American because it’s my belief that anyone born here is a ‘native’ American...
As opposed to a ‘naturalized’ American who, common sense should tell you, was born somewhere other than this p’ticklar country. ..
Like the Governator....Arnold was born in Austria but he’s as American as apple strudel. I suppose that in some realm of imagination, y’might refer to him as an Austrian-American but you might want to make sure that you were smiling when you did it....
Now, I’ve made no secret that I believe the Democrat Party’s strategy of class warfare is a bad thing...the fact that they been doing it since Tammany Hall don’t make it right.....
And tho’ it has evidently been a successful strategy for the Obama campaign, first against Hillary ‘n then against the Republicans, it still don’t make it right....
Once upon a time, Americans believed that it ‘didn’t matter whether you won or lost, but how you played the game.’ Perhaps that was never really true, Perhaps winning is all important. No matter the cost. Damn the torpedos, full speed ahead. There’s no such thing as second place....
Of course, the bad thing about an all-out war is that no one wins. Everybody loses. And this campaign has split the country right down the middle to a degree not seen since the great Civil War...
Ah well, there was a time when we were all.....just Americans....
And if that’s too damn sappy for you, why you can just go piss up a rope.

Eek....Egreck....Zed.....

or how I learned to stop worrying ‘n love the bomb! (O heck, that’s been used before.) There’s a line in Dr. Strangelove that asks what use is a doomsday machine if no one knows about it....Just wondering....has nuthin’ t’do with rest of this post.....

And for those of you who might be unfamiliar with the Alphabet de Francais....eek, egreck, zed....translates at X, Y ‘n Z.....the end of the alphabet and in this case, the end of the mother of all campaigns.....
Unfortunately, in this case ‘n I ain’t checked lately, how much does La Streisand weigh now....’n when Fat Barbra sings, will that signify the end of the Obama campaign that has so definitively split the USA.....
T’will be innarestin’ t’see if the country can ever unify again....Red ‘n blue combine t’make purple, which just happens t’be a very ‘in’ color this election year.....purple is s’pozed t’be a ‘royal’ color, Queenly, I imagine ‘n yeah, for those who might wonder, that was a slur. Sumtimes, I just get mean.
The ‘hull country has been so divided by this campaign that ya just gotta wonder what it’s gonna be like after.....y’know, day after tomorrow.....like, Wednesday....that’s assuming that the votes will have all been counted (what’a you wanna bet there’ll be less votes than voters...or versa vise).....It’s a possibility that Obama c’d very well win the popular vote ‘n lose the electoral vote....wouldn’t that be a kick in the....pants? Can’t y’just hear all the Dems screaming....not only the ones who screamed about George stealing the election twice but all those screaming fanatics around the world that believe that Obama is the 2nd coming.....’n if he is, then there’s a ‘hull lotta people better look out ‘cuz Obama seems t’be really big on payback...on t'other hand, Obama's been like the Charles Durning character in "Best little whorehouse...." He's very expert at 'doin' a little sidestep' so no one really knows what he stands for.....
But, there I go again...just can’t seem to quit bitchin’ ‘n whinin’........
C’est fini, mon Dieu ‘n about time sez I......
“They seek him here,they seek him there,
Those Frenchies seek him ev’rywhere.
Is he in Heaven, Is he in Hell,
That demmed elusive Pimpernel.”

What ev'ryone knows......

Leonard Pitts is an extremely erudite columnist who just happens to be an Obama supporter....that he happens also to be black is, I’m sure, of no particular consequence. He would no doubt support Obama if Obama was white. (I mean, who wouldn’t support a brilliant young white man with similar credentials.)
A poor boy with a single mother who handed him off to her own parents to raise; a smarter than average child who attended a number of diverse schools; a graduate of Harvard Law, etc. etc....a community organizer, a member of the Chicago Democrat machine, Illinois State Senator and, movin’ on up, junior senator to the U.S. Congress and on his way to becoming one of the youngest, most inexperienced Presidents ever. And he’s black. With a funny name.
Still, I’m sure that color has nothing to do with Leonard Pitts support for Obama. That might be construed as racist and everyone knows that Blacks (African Americans, Negroes, and a long time ago, People of the colored persuasion) simply can’t be racist. Only whites can be racist. And are. All whites. Even the ones that don’t wanna be. Like Bill Clinton, this country’s first ‘black’ President.
Or like so many American whites who, justifiably or not, carry the guilt of the white hypocrisy that created the system that created slavery in the first place.
(Has Snopes.com ever got around to debunking that urban myth?)
Ah well, Leonard Pitts is very good with words but I’ll remind him that those who deniy reason cannot be conquered by it.

November........

I’ve looked at clouds from both sides now
From up and down, and still somehow
Its cloud illusions I recall...

Making six cups of coffee gives me two mugs....eight gives me three.....it’s a no-brainer to figure out that as the weather turns cooler, I’m gonna have t’make twelve cups just to kickstart myself.....
So I’m thinkin’ that I only had three cups of coffee this morning but since my fav’rite mug evidently holds more than two but less than three (you figure it out, too complicated f’me this early in the day)......anyways, what it is, dieticians come unglued if you tell ‘em that you drink eight to twelve cups of coffee on a daily basis... I had one tell me once that I should only eat half of a banana....I tried it, but then I ate the other half as well...couldn’t tell any difference......
T’other day, she told me that eating a large pear was the equivalent of eating two slices of bread.....with or without butter, I don’t know, I didn’t ask her....
I like bread ‘n I s’pect that I could eat a couple slices no problem, especially with a cup of coffee (or two) altho’ normally I would toast the bread ‘n add a dollop or two or three of butter....(maybe apple butter, I like apple butter, it’s a comfort food for me) but I like pears also...especially Bartlett pears when they’re in season....
S’funny if you come to think on it, when I was younger I used to really enjoy having stuff like pears or strawberries p’tickly when they were out of season... When I was a boy, only rich people could afford out of season stuff but times changed....store freezers are stocked with all kinds of stuff no matter the time of year....’n for the most part, pretty reasonably priced...but the funny thing is...I almost never buy stuff out’a season anymore...
I kind’a like looking forward to stuff comin’ into season....like strawberries...not in the stores but when y’can buy them right out’a the fields....they are so good fresh-picked that you can’t hardly get enuff of them (at least for a couple weeks).....
Teevee movies are the same way....years ago I bought a bunch of movies so that I c’d play ‘em anytime I wanted...then I found out that I didn’t want to play them, I preferred to wait until the powers that be decided to program them.....like the faux scary pics they program around Hallowe’en ‘n the sugarplum fantasies of Xmas...
I think it has t’do with getting older...a time for ev’ry season kind’a thing...’n it’s just possible that the weather, the change of season thing, is making me pensive.....
Years ago, way back in my way back when time, I used to take my shotgun ‘n wander the hills and the riverbank...I never really shot anything tho’ I suppose I tho’t that was my intention at the time...anyhow, way back then, I wrote a poem.....not a very good poem but thankfully a short poem....not quite sure exactly how it went but something like this:

November...
The air is crisp ‘n clear,
the hills are brown ‘n sere,
‘n I lay in the dry grasses,
dreaming......

Now, I told you it wasn’t very good but at least it was short....
And I gotta tell ya....T’day is the first day of November, 2008 ‘n there ain’t anything crisp ‘n clear about it...not here in northern California anyways.....it’s raining, a steady downpour from sodden skies...well, shoot fire, (as the old man used t’say) we need it. After two years of drought ‘n increased population using more water than any time in history, we’ve a severe water shortage to add to our list of trubbles here in the golden state....ah, the price of paradise.....
Back in the 80’s, son Dave gave me a fly rod ‘n I took up fly fishing for awhile...It’s a grand sport whether you catch fish or not ‘n I used to take my dogs ‘n walk down to the American ‘n spend an hour or so casting.....I never caught anything ‘n when the price of a fishing licence got too high, I gave it up....But I figured out why I used to take my gun ‘n go wand’ring ‘round the hills ‘n the riverbank.....
“Ommmmm........”

No resolution....

Okay! I’ve had enuff.....I’m officially tired of this never-ending election.....The Obama lunacy that dominates the television and newspapers has gone on far too long....The Obama candidacy has been a disaster for the United States.....not ‘might be’ or ‘will be’ but ‘is’ the most divisive since that most uncivil War between the States....
Obama has run the most racist and negative campaign on record.
I don’t know the person or group of people behind his candidacy. For all I know, for all any of us might know, Obama himself may just be a front man. He is indeed, a man of mystery, a ‘Jay Gatsby’ character that for all the public knows has been cut from ‘whole’ cloth.
What we do know is that this endless campaign has sown the seeds of discord that threaten the very fabric of our society.
Once upon a time, there was a shot heard ‘round the world that signified the birth of the grand experiment that has been America. History will mark the start of the twentyfirst century as the beginning of the end of that experiment and Obama, not as a Messiah, but as a modern Nero, a harbinger of impending doom.
The strategy of divide and conquer is working far too well to the detriment of our country and will not end with the election no matter who the elector. There is no resolution in the coming election; no winner in this internecine conflict....only chaos.

Hollow Weenies......

Hallowe’en is upon us once again...truly a holiday for young ‘n old alike unless you’re Seventh Day Adventist which views it as ‘The Devil’s Holiday’....ah well, live ‘n let live, I guess....Hallowe’en is pretty much an Anglo-Saxon, Scotch-Irish kind’a thing but the USA is so diversified and it’s such a kid thing that it’s been adopted by almost ev’ry culture that resides here, ‘cepting for the aforemention SDA’s.....
It ain’t changed a whole lot over the years ‘cept t’get fancier....it was wartime when I was a little boy, WW2, y’know, but little kids still liked to dress up ‘n go trick or treating...we didn’t have the commercial costumes like they do t’day, we had to make do with old bedsheets or g’parents old clothes...that was alright....imagination allowed a stick to become a horse or a towel to be transformed into Superman’s cape...or a forefinger ‘n a thumb to be a blazing sixgun....’n the treats were apt t’be a piece of fruit or, sometimes, home-made candy... fudge or taffy or suchlike....Heck! It was wartime ‘n sugar was rationed.....’n besides, trick or treating was just for little kids anyway....the bigger kids just wanted to play tricks....which mostly consisted of knocking on doors ‘n running to hide in the dark...maybe soaping windows...nothing really destructive ‘cause people didn’t really have a lot of stuff so private property was pretty much sacrosanct...well, except for maybe the occasional outhouse that got overturned......not that I ever did that myself but I heard stories.......
It’s a big deal for kids t'day....lots of nice costumes and lots ‘n lots of candy....bags full of candy...support your local dentist....’n you get lots of big kids knocking at your door looking for candy...well, any tricks that they would play t’day would prob'ly border on vandalism ‘n that would bring the cops....
What blows me away however are the decorations ‘n the parties.....all the lawn thingies started, I believe, in the South but it has spread all over the country....not quite as big as Xmas but still a big deal.....and the adult parties, well....One of my favorite bartenders used to tell a joke in a Swedish accent....it was the only faux accent he c’ud do ‘n he didn’t do it all that well anyway...

“Vell” he’d say, “First I t’ink Vell, den I t’ink Hell, den I t’ink, Vell, wot de hell!”

Maybe gonna rain....

I think it's gonna rain.....
Overcast ‘n cloudy.....maybe gonna rain...been a long time since we’ve had a real honest to goodness rain but it’s the end of October.....November is ‘pon us ‘n it’s time for rain.....
what it’s time for is for da gurlz to get out’a school (they get out early on Thurs) which means it’s time for me ‘n da boyz (Rusty ‘n Willie) to go to O’vale....

And so the rain came to Fair Oaks.....late in the day, from low’ring skies....a soft rain, gentle and unassuming, making the blacktopped streets shine and glisten with reflected lights.....Well, heck! It’s been a long time since we’ve had rain so I feel just a little bit entitled to ramble on.....
Rain in northern California ain’t like the rain back east...
for one thing, it ain’t as wet....well, all water is wet of course but back east when it rains, it rains all over you and you get wet....really wet.....here, the rain is more like a mist that just floats around you...if you stay in it long enuff, you’ll get wet but if you’re just walking from the car to your front door, you won’t really notice it....
Anyways, it’s Thursday evening ‘n it’s raining.....Da gurlz are watching my teevee......
Y’know, one ‘a the things that I forgot about the rain...
walking the dogs in the rain is an adventure all by itself but it don’t end there.....becuz when y’get home, y’gotta dry off their feet....’n in the case of Willie, cuz he’s built so low to the ground...y’gotta wash off his belly as well...
ah well, dogs.....y’gotta love ‘em if you’re gonna put up with ‘em....
anyway, it’s a quiet rainy evening ‘n I’m gonna watch some teevee ‘n go to bed...make an early nite of it....

And it dripped all nite...
Ev’ry time I woke, it was dripping....Ol Edgar rapping, tapping at my chamber door....but it didn’t seem t’bother the chickens...I didn’t hear any of them until morning...a grey and somber morning but that didn’t stop them from crowing....
Ah well, coffee’s on the boil, our sad excuse for a morning paper is here ‘n the dogs are circling...they want Millyrose ‘n me t’be in the same room....nuthin’ like t’getherness on a damp Friday morn.....

Falling leaves 'n other thot's....

These Autumn days are, as Lawrence Welk used t’say, “Wunnerful, wunnerful.”.......Cool nites ‘n warm days, changing leaves....’n changing time this weekend...Fall back, r’member....Spring ahead ‘n Fall back.....that means early dark ‘n in this age of gas ‘n eco-conscious people, that means more hard t’see pedestrians ‘n bicyclists on the streets....’n you don’t get ‘extry points’ for runnin’ down Hollow weenies either....
‘Course, y’just gotta enjoy the ‘in the meantime’ days of falling leaves...I’m making a little more coffee in the mornings now....movin’ up to 8 cups ‘stead of 6...like to linger over my coffee on these fall morns.....only dim spot is my morning paper...The Sacbee seems t’be going steadily downhill...it’s a smaller paper these days, reminiscent of those regional newspapers in Alabama ‘n Virginia...they’re asking people to vote on their favorite comics this week...kind’a pointless, I think, since they offered only what they now carry...mostly I find myself going to the internet now to find my favorite strips... kind’a funny, I s’poze, that at 71 years old, I still like to read the comics.....I have the Sunday comics from the Bee way back when it was a ‘real’ newspaper in the ‘thirties.....they were large, easy to read, colorful (better than t’day) and so far as comics go, the old days were demonstrably better.
Hallowe’en is upon us ‘n I was just wondering if placing the presidential election so close to Hallowe’en was done on purpose...Probably not since I can’t imagine politicians having that much sense of irony.
And as sick as I am of this never-ending campaign, I find myself compelled to make an observation:
A judge in Ohio has ruled that a homeless person can claim a park bench as a residence for purposes of voting. I wonder if they’re following in the footsteps of Alabama ‘n Mississippi...Ohio has a population of a little less than twelve million ‘n they’ve already registered more than fifteen million Democrat voters.....’n a goodly number of ‘em live under that same bridges as John Edwards homeless veterans.

Hanged as a horsethief......

'n I use that title in lieu of one that is coarser 'n much more offensive....

I promised m’self that I wasn’t gonna talk about politics ....at least, for awhile.....but it’s so hard not to comment sometimes.....About Colin Powell, f’rinstance.....a man spends his ‘hull life as an honest, hard-ridin’ cowboy ‘n only steals one horse to get hisself hanged as a horsethief....
‘N Tina Fey who doesn’t think she’s smart enuff t’be in public office...just goes to show ya how insecurities c’n mess up a body’s game plan....
And y’know, Tina’s not the only one I’ve heard comment that they think people elected to office should be smarter than plain ol’ folks....
I gotta take umbrage at that. And not becuz I’m smarter than the average bear, I’m not....I’m just one of them plain ol folk ‘n most of the people that I know are plain ol folk ‘n most of ‘em seem not only smart enuff to run this country at least as well as all those ‘superior’ types that Tina Fey wants to kowtow to but smart enuff to do a better job. At least they all manage to live within a budget without stealing from their neighbors. Y’know, I really don’t understand where that attitude came from anyway...I can’t ever remember anyone I grew up with saying that they tho’t someone was better or smarter because they went to an ivy league school...
The only thing proved by attendance at such a school was that more money was involved...’n having more money didn’t make anyone smarter....at least, not back then...
‘n I don’t think things have changed that much...reminds me on an old Tom T Hall song....’faster horses, more money, younger women’.....’cuz if you got more money, y’can buy faster horses ‘n younger women.....still, the old aphorism of getting what you pay for applies....I expect that if you believe that people with more money are smarter than you, they probably are....but that don’t mean that you’re smarter than people who have less than you.....what it means is that you’re a shallow person with a lot of insecurities....too bad for you.
Feels good to vent.....especially at three in the AM....

Early morn, again......

T’is Sunday.....5:30 in the AM ‘n still dark outside.....well, inside too except for the ‘puter screen.....Chickens are screaming ‘cause the newspaper lady (?) woke ‘em up ‘n they don’t like for anyone else to sleep in if they have t’be awake......
There are people like that....y’know the kind I mean, the ones that get really ticked ‘cuz they haf’ta wake up ‘n they want’a take their spite out on someone, anyone else...it’s one of those ugly parts of childhood that most people grow out of fairly quickly but there are those who walk among us that carry their childhood resentments all the way to the grave......
Em’ly had a b’day last Thurs.....yesterday (Sat.) we had a breakfast celebration at Brookfields....Millyrose likes their fried potatoes...my gums are still a little sore so as I’m still having ‘soft’ food, I t’uk the opportunity to have a short stack....I don’t have pancakes very often ‘n these were pretty tasty....only problem was what they did to my blood sugar ‘n that wasn’t pretty at all...guess I’ll skip the flapjacks ‘n syrup in the future.....pity!
‘N Dave is comin’ home for T’sgiving....if you’ve been reading his post (nokilli.com/rtw/) you’ll know that his adventures have taken him to fabled India, land of contrasts ‘n other amusements.....
‘Comin’ up on six AM ‘n the chickens are still angry...too bad Old Coyote cudn’t climb trees...they’d make a lot of tasty meals for him.
This ‘chicken thing’ is getting way out’a hand....there are several hundred at any given moment wand’ring ‘round Fair Oaks Village....they’ve crossed the river now...there was two of ‘em sightseeing at Brookfields yesterday morning ‘n that’s gotta be 3 or 4 miles away and heavy traffic.....there just ain’t enuff of ‘em getting ran over...
‘n over in Orangevale at the up ‘n coming ‘Upscale Safeway (oxymoron ?) Shopping Centre.....there’s a hugmongous chrome sculptured rooser at the entrance...
I’m told that chickens are descended from dinosaurs...I wish they’d hurry up ‘n turn into oil...
Vote for McCain/Palin ‘n keep Tina Fey working.

To view or not to view......

My current schedule has me watching ‘The View’ .....not on a daily basis but pretty often....I think Bexar is an idiot ‘n the token Republican is out-numbered....Sherry (?) is....has a great smile....we’ll discount Barbara ‘n that leaves Whoopi as a voice of reason...who knew?
Anyways....this entertainment (?) show has become something of a forum on politics this year...fortunately, they all tend to talk at the same time which makes it more laughable than serious...which brings me to this morning when one of their guests was Richard Lewis, a comedian who was funny years ago for discussing his neuroses....He still wears black, still wears his hair in a sixties ‘do’ and is still discussing his neuroses tho’ they seem t’be wearing a little thin....So the big topic t’day among almost everyone is what has become known as ‘the race card.’......And primarily, the entire Liberal Elite thinks that if Obama should somehow lose (gasp) the election, it will be because of race. It don’t matter if you think that McCain is simply, ‘n obviously, more qualified....a vote for McCain is racist. Ah, the Liberal Elite.....ya just gotta love ‘em or else you’re a redneck dolt clinging to guns ‘n religion.....And while it may seem like I’m digressing here, the truth of the matter is that Richard Lewis spoke the most racist line I’ve heard on television this political season......to wit: he.....”doesn’t care who gets elected President as long as he’s an African American.”
Now Richard Lewis is a racist boor whose neuroses have taken him completely out of reality. I don’t expect the Ladies of the View to take him to task for his statement but, then he definitely ain’t Sarah Palin.

Faith, Hope 'n Charity......

...three broads from Pomona.

After the debate......
......which I don’t think changed many minds (if any) I took the dogs for their evening constitutional....it was later than normal ‘n with the reported Old Coyote lurking in the ‘hood, I took ‘em one at a time ‘n I carried a big flashlite ‘cuz it wuz dark....Dark don’t really faze dogs tho’....they’re just as curious whether they c’n see or not...’n who knows, maybe they’re like cats ‘n can see in the dark...Nah! Rusty has enuff trubble seein’ in the daylite....he always runs with his nose to the ground except somehow he manages t’see Neighbor Doug up to a block away...Doug was putting out his garbage (tomorrow being pickup day) ‘n Rusty had to stop ‘n say,,,well, whatever it is that he says ev’ry time he sees Neighbor Doug ‘n he always says it loudly....
I told Doug about the Old Coyote sighting ‘n his response was that there are a lot of houses ‘tween here ‘n the river ‘n it seemed unlikely that a coyote would come so far for a little cat food ‘n that he’d believe it when he saw it....On the proverbial other hand, it c’ud happen ‘cause you just never know what a wild critter’ll do...anyway, he said he’s grateful to the cat ladies for putting out the sumptious feast for the wild things ‘cause the family of skunks that had taken up residence in his back yard has moved to the basement of the garden shed at the Catholic Radio Station thank god for small favors.....Doug said he’d been talking to the cat ladies ‘n had been surprised to learn that they bought all the cat food themselves (he’d tho’t it was donated)...I said I’d never given it a thought one way or the other, I was just amazed that they would drive their round twice daily when they had to pay for their own gas.....Both of us said that we’d told the cat ladies that most of the food they put out was going to the skunks ‘n raccoons ‘n ‘possums rather than cats but it seems that none of ‘em believed us.....well, those involved in charitable work need tunnel vision, I suppose.....faith, hope, ‘n charity...’n the greatest of these is.......
It’s four o’clock in the morning ‘n philosphy will help a body while away the hours.......