Let 'er rip......

It was in Montana during the 1800’s and they were hanging an outlaw named Helms. When asked if he had any last words, he said, “Let ‘er rip.”......

So I went to the dentist t’day...(did I mention that he looks like the actor, Christopher Walken.)...I lay back in the chair ‘n tho’t...”Let ‘er rip.” “Course, I never said it. A little too macho ‘n a little too childish....
Speaking of ‘macho’...years ago I was faced with a problem involving a large Marine...He invited me to ‘step outside’ to resolve our difficulties...I complied, with great trepidation of course, simply because I could find no way out of it...
Going to the dentist seems always to involve ‘great trepidation’ for almost everyone ‘n I’m certainy no exception...I didn’t bother to check my blood pressure before but would bet money that it was elevated...and even tho’ I give myself insulin injections four times a day and prick my finger at least that many times, I never get used to it ‘n can’t get over an innate fear of needles....Ah well....I don’t know how many times he stuck me with the needle to deaden the pain but needles always hurt...when he pulled the six teeth, it didn’t hurt as much as the needles did.....
And of course, I gagged when he placed the denture in my mouth...that’s gonna take a little getting used to but what can’t be cured, must be endured....what my Mama always said her Mother told her...
At any rate, I seem to have endured...my smile is greatly improved ‘n in a few days I hope t’ be able to eat something other than pablum....
Millyrose is walking the dogs this evening by herself ‘n she just informed me that it’s raining....early but not unheard of ‘n besides, I love a rainy nite.....

The inevitability of Obama.....

Not long ago the nation was mesmerized by the approaching hurricane Ike. Millions of people were too fasicinated to look away from their television sets as pundits and talking heads labored and belabored the impending destruction.
“Death is imminent” warned the experts as they importuned residents to flee inland. And hundreds of thousands heeded the warning. But tens of thousands staunchly refused to budge. News people, for whatever personal reasons unimaginable, placed themselves in the path of the storm, standing rain-soaked and wind-blown to repeat over and over their dire predictions as debris flew through the air.
Impending doom has an hypnotic effect; the space-time continium slows, the focus intensifies on the coming tsunami, a rising tide that will swamp our feeble levees and drown our economy... destruction looms.
Hurricane Obama swirls, the mounting winds of change grow stronger, building the momentum to sweep out the old, to scour the landscape and bring a more perfect world.
Of course, there’s many a slip t’wixt the cup and the lip and most hurricanes falter when they come ashore, the big wind blowing itself out, the giant wave battering the shore but eventually receding, leaving in its wake not change but detritus, flotsam and jetsam left bobbing in the surf.
The campaign grows tedious but recalling Ozymandia, "This too shall pass."

But I digress.....

‘n the most amazing thing is, I seem t’do it more’n more....
writing, conversing, even daydreaming......’n don’t even go to nighttime dreams......I refuse to take responsibility for whatever passes thru what passes for my mind when I’m sleeping......
There’s a deer under my back deck......well, t’be precise, a doe ‘n prob’ly her fawn......when I took the dogs to the backyard yesterday, she confronted us.....well, she confronted the dogs ‘n I happened t’be there...not wanting to disturb her nap, I took the dogs away ‘n didn’t bother her (them) ‘n altho’ I told Millyrose that we had a deer in the backyard, I didn’t tell her that she was napping thru the heat of the day underneath our deck.......that wuz obviously a mistake, an ‘error in judgment’ as our politico’s are won’t t’say......I say obviously ‘cuz Millyrose took the dogs out yesterday evening ‘n wuz surprised by Mama Deer who kicked Little Willie’s butt.....fortunately, Willie wuzn’t hurt tho’ it seemed t’give him some scary dreams last nite......
The last few nites have been warm so I’ve been running the AC all nite.....(cooler nites I just run the fan)...this morning I awoke to the Eau de Cologne of a skunk...had me worried for awhile but it went away...my neighbor Doug came down this morning bearing a gift of dog treats ‘n told me that he’d had a run-in with a skunk yesterday evening also.....we live close to the American River so curious visitors from various animal constituency are not really uncommon.....mostly I don’t mind but I draw the line at lions...rather not have too many visits from big cats......
On politics......neck ‘n neck ‘n neck ‘n neck, s’almost s’bad as the Dem primary....confess to not understanding the appeal of Obama....reminds me of the old Redford movie, The Candidate.....wind him up ‘n watch him dance......I swear, I can’t see any there....there.
SIL Ashby is spozed t’be returning from Tejas for only a nite or maybe two but then he has t’go back...Ike kicked butt down there ‘n they need all the help they c’n get...Kellye ‘n DaGurlz are coping.....Dave’s still wand’ring round India...last I heard with two girls from Portugal...
Cary stops for coffee occasionally ‘n Gina’s researching her next play by watching old movies.....ain’t got the slightest idee where she gets that from......

Big C Bummer.......

I haven’t written anything about cancer for awhile now but Paul Newman just died from cancer.....it’s been a long time since I believed that actors were the people that y’see on-screen...but Paul Newman wuz an exceptional actor who seemed able to separate himself from his roles...he had a life off-screen...he raced cars, he created businesses (donated the profits which wuz admirable).. and he didn’t have to re-invent himself ev’ry few years...
I guess what I’m saying is that cancer don’t respect anyone...’n all over the country, heck, all over the world, people are fighting for their lives against cancer...more than one friend of mine from my school days, a college roomie of Millyrose, members of my extended family, too damn many people that I know are fighting cancer ‘n it’s frustrating......
I got a little experience with the big C......I wuz lucky ‘n I beat it.......at least, so far’s I know......I have to keep goin’ back for CT scans for a few years t’make sure it don’t come back on me but I wuz lucky ‘n I got a lot of support from fam’ly ‘n friends ‘n ..people I never met ‘n don’t really know and I’m grateful for that support.........
I guess I’m saying that I believe in the efficacy of prayer ‘n for all those who pray.....thank you.

End of season.....

End of season, ratty old shorts.....at least according to Millyrose.....”Are you wearing those ratty old shorts again?”
Well heck, it’s still warm here in northern California..we generally have a nice long autumnal season.....but, there’s change in the air ‘n I ain’t talkin’ politics....as the weather cools, I’ll swap my summer wardrobe of shorts ‘n tee’s for a winter uniform of jeans ‘n sweatshirts....’n (sigh) Seasons come ‘n seasons go.....I guess I’ll have to toss at least some of my shorts ‘n tee’s ‘cuz they’re getting entirely too ‘ratty’ for Millyrose... They’re a little frayed around the edges ‘n the tee’s do tend to gather spots....but I’m a little frayed around the edges myself ‘n I prefer to call my spots freckles even tho’ I know that ain’t the case...’n even tho’ the dermatologist asked me if I even knew what sunscreen was for.....duh!! Still ‘n all, I don’t expect Millyrose to toss me.....On that proverbial other hand tho’....one never knows, do one?
Hectic times round the ol homestead...Cary ‘n Millyrose are packing ‘stuff’ to ship off to India for Dave....who knew it was so pricey to ship a few pounds of stuff to foreign lands.....’n so much trubble....
Back to my ratty old shorts ‘n tee’s....I tend to hang onto stuff f’rever....clothes, books, etcetera ad infinitum, ad nauseum....In a corner of my bedroom stands a Red Ryder BB gun that I got for my ninth b’day....as I recall, I shot Bob Sanders with it ‘n had it taken away for awhile....I have held onto books that I got as an adolescent ‘n clothing that I got as a teen.....when Dave was....I dunno, somewhere in his teens, I gave him a pair of motorcycle boots that I’d got in highschool...fashions change all the time but they come back.....doesn’t do me any personal good however as there is no way that I c’d fit into those old clothes...fortunately, my kids ‘n their friends have been into retro for a long time.....that’s prob’ly the only reason I have any closet space at all....
Too bad they don’t feel that way about all the other junk that I’ve held onto over the years...like the 64 Falcon that lives in my driveway.....
Still, y’know, sometimes it’s good to hang onto things.... friends, mementos of times gone by, golden mem’ries of a childhood shared.....Sometimes, it’s good to let things go....bygone slights, hard feelings over forgotten incidents....There’s a pop-culture saying, “Let go ‘n let God.”......That’s prob’ly a good idea.....I’m a believer in Karma.....You get out of life what you put into it....What goes around comes around.....that’s kind of a scary tho’t...
I ain’t led an absolutely blameless life ‘n Karma c’d be rough....
But, y’gotta hope for the best ‘n have a little faith that things will work out for the best....sort of a Panglossian theory on the evolution of life.

Good B'day.....

B’day’s are good for you, the more of ‘em you have, the longer you live.......at least, that’s the premise......
Slept in this morning....mostly ‘cuz Rusty woke me in the middle of the night ‘n wanted t’go outside....I tried t’go back to sleep but couldn’t...finally got up, played solitaire, read the news, just totally bored with politics at the moment, couldn’t stand the tho’t of late nite teevee ‘n finally picked up an old book.....didn’t go back to bed until after four in the AM.....’n that’s more’n you wanted t’know about me sleeping in on this my seventy-first birthday morning......
When I finally did crawl out, Millyrose fixed me a hugmongous breakfast of bis’kits ‘n sausasge gravy, after which I dared to eat a peach....(I grow old, I shall wear my trousers rolled, I shall walk upon the beach, do I dare to eat a peach..) well, it was a big ol freestone peach from Apple Hill ‘n it wuz delicioso...(just gotta love them freestones...)
Anyway, it’s a lovely day for saying it’s a lovely day... sunny ‘n mild, durn chickens complaining as usual but the Chicken Fest is just a mem’ry (at least ‘til next year) ‘n Fair Oaks is quiet, calm ‘n peaceful....at the moment, anyway....Rusty is sleepin’ but Willie is standing guard at the open door (fifteen pounds of alert protection ‘gainst the threatening horde......)
The Durn Chickens are like presidential politicians, after awhile they become just background noise.....
Son in law Ashby left this morning for Houston...Kellye told him not to come back ‘til all those people had their power turned back on....lots of people in Texas without power but according to the paper, Ike cut rather a large swath across the US leaving people without power in a lot of states....man-made disasters on top of natural disasters (should we call man-made disasters, unnatural disasters?)....are we in a depression yet? Reminds me of that old Johnny Cash song....”How high’s the water, Mama?”

Chicken Fest......

T’day is Chicken Fest Saturday.....the third annual, ackshully.....’n our little ol street has been filled with cars ‘n trucks ‘n people pretty much all day...parking, unparking, searching for a parking spot...Crestline is really only one block long, (the alley don’t really count, don’cha know)...we’ve had people walking up the hill ‘n back down, kids ‘n kids in strollers ‘n kids on skateboards....young people, old people, people who should know better.....all come to gawk at Fair Oaks Famous Feral Fowl....sheesh!
Rusty ‘n Willie have been busy all day, running from door to door, barking ‘n growling, doing their job of protecting the manor house from the hoi poiloi....(hoi poiloi is French, I think, meaning mass of persons)...
We didn’t take an early walk t’day, too many persons of interest...I took ‘em out in the south forty instead....but they are so used to the evening stroll that we had to take it.....Willie was so excited that I tho’t he'd blow a gasket, he fairly danced at the end of his leash ‘n I couldn’t let him all the way out....’course, that had Rusty on edge also.....the chickens were already upset, sort’a like celebrities with paparazzi, I guess ‘n the evening cat was nowhere t’ be found...on the plus side, the skunks were in hiding also (ev’ry cloud has a silver lining, they say)......
I didn’t bother t’go downtown....the music was much too loud ‘n I don’t like crowds anymore now than I did last year....Millyrose went however....ackshully, she went twice....she’s a lot more sociable than me....
I didn’t used t’be unsociable ‘n I really don’t think I’m actually unsociable now, it’s just that I prefer friends in smaller groups these days.....
Ah well, t’morrow is my b’day....I never tho’t I’d last this long but since I have, I think I’ll try ‘n emulate the wonderful one-hoss shay....’n that lasted a hundred years ‘n a day.....Happy B’day t’me.....

Apple Hill......

We took a trip to Apple Hill on Friday...not quite like stepping back in time....there’ve been a lot of changes in the years we’ve been going there...mostly in the highways ‘n housing....lots more people now....bigger, faster highways but just as much congestion in Placerville as ever there was.....the freeway, highway 50, cuts thru Old Hangtown but it ain’t non-stop...two or three stoplights gaurantee that everybody slows down...
all the growth is outside of Placerville, the surrounding area looks like the surrounding areas of every other California community but Placerville itself, Old Hangtown, Old Dry Diggin’s, whatever y'want'a call it....looks much the same...same narrow street running along the bottom of a canyon, same crowded buildings...I didn’t see the hanging man ‘n I don’t know if they still have him there or if they bowed to the pressure of political correctness ‘n removed him...
Apple Hill is still the same narrow, crooked roads...lots of new homes, they seem infected by the same McMansion fever as ev'rywhere else.....more vineyards than ever but, that’s California...if y'got a big enuff yard, plant a vineyard...that bubble'll burst one 'a these days too.....
We stopped at the same places that we usually stop with only a couple exceptions...We skipped Larsen’s ‘n whichever one it is that has the maze....we tasted apples, bought a couple gifts, some fudge at the Fudge Factory next door to High Hill ‘n stopped at Boa Vista to buy a box of apples....Millyrose is busy at this moment cooking apples for apple butter...also, a half-flat of strawberries ‘n a few freestone peaches...
Y’don’t save money by going to Apple Hill...kind’a pricey this year...guess it wasn’t the best year for apples that they’ve ever had but, it’s the trip that counts....forty miles each way on a relatively new divided highway...I was recalling the way it used t’be when we first went there....two-lane blacktop back then ‘n a lot of the back roads were gravel....’Course, Apple Hill was just getting started back then...didn’t have near as many vendors peddling the same stuff that y’find at ev’ry little street fair ‘n festival.....a lot fewer locations back then also...
It was smaller, homier, I guess you’d call it....folks there are still friendly, the apple desserts are still good ‘n the visitors still seem t’be enjoying themselves.....
Autumn is a good time of year.....

October surprise!!!!!

The Dems have been promising an October surprise...
many people think it has to do with Sarah Palin but many people are wrong......the Dems October surprise will counter Sarah Palin ‘n the boost she’s given to the GOP..
the October surprise will be Joe Biden withdrawing from the race...(health reasons....yeah!) ‘n being replaced by Hillary Clinton as Veep.....’n it might work.....maybe....
‘Course, it might work better if the Dems ran Hillary on the front of the ticket.....
Ah well....hope I’m wrong...I’m still gonna vote McCain/Palin.....

September song.......

and the days grow short......

Time passes, y’know, whether you have fun or not...
the tide rolls in, then it rolls out again....on the old Howdy Doody show. there was Princess Winterspringsummerfall.....at least, that’s the way I think her name went..... the only time I ever watched any of the show was when I stopped at Denver Mullin’s house on the way to school in the mornings and his younger brother would be watching.....Rodney, his name was ‘n he was a friend of Willy.........
Anyway, it’s almost seven o’clock in the morning ‘n it’s still not quite daylight yet plus it’s getting dark earlier in the evening now....the days are growing shorter here in the middle of September....
It’s a nice month as months go here in northern California....coolish nights ‘n pleasant days.....Kellye just had a b’day ‘n mine is upcoming....we had a fam’ly celebration at Serratella’s Red Devil Pizza.....there was a banner on the front of the restaurant that they were celebrating forty years of being open.....it’s prob’ly been thirty years since the last time Millyrose ‘n I ate there..
That would’a made me around forty then.....can’t recall exactly why we quit going there...sumthing about their hiring practices, I think...made Millyrose angry ‘n she boycotted them.......
I don’t boycott many companies.....pretty much only Nike ‘n that’s becuz they’re easy to boycott ‘n it don’t really cost me anything.....
Brother John boycotts Shell Oil, not becuz of their current policies which has a lot of people boycotting them, but becuz of their billing practices years ago...’n us Smith’s have long mem’ries...’n we carry grudges....
I think carrying a grudge is prob’ly not a good idea...it’s prob’ly better to forget ‘n forgive.....I just find it easier to forgive than to forget ‘n of course, if I remember someone doing me a wrong, well.......I don’t have to go out of my way to get even but I don’t have to give them a chance to get me a second time...Karma is a bummer ‘n I believe in Karma.....that’s why it’s a good idea to apologize to people that you’ve wronged (if y’can, if y’can’t.....watch where y’step)
Oh, just for the record.....I don’t believe that hurricanes, tsunami’s ‘n cyclones ‘n other weather disasters are cosmic payback....
Also for the record......re a recent discussion about evolution vs creation......I think evolution has been scientifically proven but when ‘n how did it begin?
Quoting King Mongkut, “T’is a puzzlement.”

Monday mornin' sugar fix....

...or not

Monday, Monday.....
....went to the Dentist this mornin’.......he’s working hard on making me some new teeth ‘n he wants ‘em to fit....
well, that’s kind’a important....he has a small office, him ‘n one assistant ‘n a Receptionist/Office Manager (or reverse).....I think I’ve mentioned before that he looks like the actor, Christopher Walken....that in itself, is durn near scary...heck! most dentists are scary anyway...
I think that’s why so many of them over-compensate by affecting a super-nice persona.....on the other hand, it c’d be that they really are super nice people ‘n it’s just my inherent fear of dentists making me think that they’re over-compensating....
Anyway, his R/OM (or reverse) is very flirty, always with a big smile ‘n perky-cheery demeanor.....that’s alright with me....I’m from the south where almost all the girls I grew up with were flirty.....Heck! Most of the southern US is like that.....
On the way home, I tho’t I’d stop by Mirabelles ‘n pick up some pastry so I called Millyrose ‘n asked her what she’d like.....she wanted a Russian teacake ‘n I got a huge, beautiful cinnamon roll.....Mirabelles is a Russian tea ‘n pastry shop ‘n when we first began going there, it was because they had all these awesome pastries....one of the first times that I ordered a cinnamon roll, they took it out of the case ‘n then refused to sell it to me because it had gone stale.....I was impressed ‘n we went there fairly regularly for a long time....we haven’t been going so often of late because of the cancer ‘n other reasons so I tho’t t’day would be a really good day for a cinnamon roll......As I stated, it was huge ‘n beautiful ‘n too much for me to eat so I cut it in half....’n found out that it was stale....I nuked it for a few seconds which softened it a bit but it was still too stale to eat ‘n I threw it away.....Millyrose said her cookie was stale also but she ate it anyway....I guess we won’t go back to Mirabelles anymore.....kind of a shame ‘n I imagine if I went back ‘n complained, they would try ‘n make it good..
But I’m not gonna complain, I’m just not going back.....

Laidback Autumn.....

Autumn in northern California kind’a sneaks up on you...
it’s very subtle, y’know....a California thing....the laidback lifestyle...the leaves are very shy about changing color as tho’ they don’t want to give up on summer...they do it reluctantly as if they’re embarrassed, clinging to the tree ‘n only letting go in the middle of the night to float to the ground ‘n lying there as if they’d been there all along ‘n nobody had noticed.....
The days are still warm but the nights are cooler, coming earlier in the evening ‘n hanging around just a tad longer in the mornings.....it makes it harder to get up or easier to lie in bed, your choice.....
But Autumn is coming...you notice it in little ways, like the hesitancy to shave in the mornings.....must be a primal thing, needing a beard to keep warm in the long winter ahead.....and storing all the nuts ‘n berries (figuratively, of course) necessitating a trip to Apple Hill for the baskets of apples ‘n jugs of cider, gotta snug up the old cave against the winter rains....
Yesterday evening when we went for our little stroll, there was almost a full moon, almost a ‘Harvest Moon’ dipping lower to the horizon......Yep, Autumn’s coming, I c’n feel it in my bones...

Monkey on my back.......

Everybody has some kind of ‘monkey’ on their back....
Sex, drugs, ‘n rock ‘n roll.....dope, alcohol, whatever.....or maybe something as mundane as chocolate covered peanuts or soda pop...
Actually, quite a lot of people are addicted to Coca-Cola or Pepsi-Cola...or the sugar ‘n caffeine they contain.... American soft drinks used t’be made with cane sugar but that’s been replaced with the ubiquitous high fructose corn syrup which is a fancy way of saying ‘corn sugar’ as opposed to sugar from cane or beets.....corn sugar is, or has been, so cheap that companies added it to almost everything, not only soft drinks but cereals, candies, cookies, breads....pretty much you name it....and it tends to be addictive, y’know, and what manufacturer wouldn’t want his product to be addictive....I don’t care what all those tobacco companies testified to Congress, cigarettes were made more ‘n more addictive as the companies used more ‘n more additives.....I mean, if you grind up a little tobacco ‘n wrap it in a piece of paper, why would you add more expense by putting other stuff in.......ah well, I used to be a smoker so I know a little about addiction, cigarettes were hard to give up....I always said that I’d quit when the doctors told me to quit....’n after they told me, it took me five years.....remember that classic line, “I c’n quit anytime I want, I just don’t want to.”.....or one of my long-ago buddies that told me, “Marijuana ain’t addictive. I’ve been smoking it for twenty years ‘n I ought’a know.”
Y’know, I went for a long time without drinking soda pop, patted m’self on the back for having kicked an expensive ‘n (bad) tooth-decaying habit.....To tell the truth, I was feeling a little superior (maybe)...ah well, pride goeth before a fall ‘n I’m back on the juice.....not quite sure how it happened but it did.....I’ve been drinking diet Coke with Splenda....a couple almost ev’ry day...on the plus side, my coffee consumption is only averaging about six cups a day (most days).....
Y’all know, of course, that the way to kick an addiction is to replace it with another addiction....of course, you knew that......
I like old movies....’course, you knew that too...and in old movies, people smoke.....I also like Brit shows ‘n I’ve been watching one called ‘Gavin and Stacey’....and Brits smoke....a lot....I haven’t smoked in a long time, ten or fifteen years at least but in a dream t’other night... guess what?.....I was smoking....
Now, smoking in a dream has a lot of advantages over smoking in real life...it doesn’t hurt your lungs....’n you don’t have the odor...you don’t have to clean out the ashtrays....’n you don’t have to go stand outside ‘n have passerby’s sneer at you.......
And when you’re doing something that is as politically incorrect as smoking is t’day, you just know that everyone that passes you by is sneering at you....you just know that behind their bland appearances, their feigned indifference, they’re all looking down their noses at you...
And deservedly so ‘cuz you’re a wimp that can’t quit smoking.......
“She says, hey babe, take a walk on the wild side...”

Pig in a poke.....

Pig in a poke.....

Obama stepped in it.....I never wuz a ‘farm boy’....c’mon, I grew up in a tiny village down the road from a very small town.....South Shore, Ky...(where I wuz born) had a population of about 1200, give or take a few ‘n not counting transients....still, I know what a pig sty is ‘n I know enuff to watch out where I walk, either around a sty or thru a pasture where you got cows ‘n horses ‘n suchlike wandering around ‘n about.....
I think Obama is pretty smart....maybe even as smart as he thinks he is....’n I c’n see where somebody might have tho’t the remark about pigs wearing lipstick wuz a clever rejoinder after Sarah’s claim of the difference between a hockey mom ‘n a pit bull wuz lipstick...’n if McCain had made the remark (as he did against Clinton).
I’m pretty sure nobody would’a tho’t much of it....but he didn’t....he made it against Sarah Palin ‘n ev’rybody understood, at least ev’rybody in his audience understood...’n it got a good laugh....but the fact remains, he called Sarah Palin a ‘pig’....’n it wuz dumb, dumb, dumb../
Obama should’a known better.....

Willy-Bill's BBQ

Saturday afternoon Willy had a fam’ly bbq.....well, actually there was a b’day party for his grandson, Eric....
(he’s four) ‘n afterwards, a bbq ‘cept he didn’t burn the burgers the way Pop did.....David didn’t make it of course, he’s in India or Nepal, one t’other....’n Gina.....
Gina ‘n Andrew went to San Francisco for a whatever ‘n Gina had shrimp salad ‘n ended up sick....I never touch sea food of any kind m’self....I keep tellin’ ev’ryone that it’s bad for you but......
Had a fun time...got a chance to discuss politics with my liberal son-in-law.....he thinks I’m somewhere to the right of Attila the Hun...S’funny, I think I’m a centrist, that’s what I keep tellin’ m’self ‘n ev’ryone else...I was raised a Democrat ‘n I don’t feel like I’ve changed all that much over the years...I think the Democrat party moved away from me.....
I’ve been listening to the Dems slam Sarah.....well, everyone one ‘cept Obama, he’s been very careful not to be too negative about her....well, mostly.....I think slamming her is a dumb move ‘n Obama has been wise not to say much.....until yesterday when he made the remark that if you put lipstick on a pig, it’s still a pig....now, all his apologists are saying he wasn’t referring to Palin at all....’n maybe he wasn’t...I don’t care...I’m tired of all of them right now.....
It’s September but it still feels like summer....well, maybe late summer....still, there was an article in the Bee t’other day about Apple Hill ‘n t’days mail brought an L.L.Bean catalog so I guess it’s Autumn.....time keeps chuggin’ right along no matter how I feel about it....it’s like my opinion doesn’t even matter....I’d feel bad about that except I’ve been ignored so long that I’ve gotten used to it.....ah well, it’s a big club, ain’t it.....
Dave’s back in India but he sez he’s going back to Nepal...my guess is (‘n since I haven’t heard from him, it’s only a guess) that he’s buying the Enfield ‘n riding it back to Nepal.....seems to like Nepal ‘n I’m looking forward to another blog from him......

All's okay.....

It’s a warm ‘n sunny Saturday evening.....Millyrose is in the kitchen ‘n all’s right with the world.....well, in a manner of speaking, that is...prob’ly more like, all’s okay with the world here in Ol Fair Oaks.....Willy is having a bbq tomorrow to celebrate his grandson Eric’s b’day (big four) ‘n Millyrose is making potato salad.....’n can’t be drawn in to the evening stroll down to the Catholic Radio Station and back....so, me ‘n Rusty ‘n Willie head off down the street....Rusty stays pretty close but Willie is always excited...he’s on extended lead, coursing back ‘n forth across the street chousing chickens right ‘n left...it’s his almost favorite thing....well, Willie has favorite moments every day, be it chickens or cats or strangers walking strange dogs on ‘our’ street...or maybe, a leaf, a piece of paper, anything that catches his doggy eyes....’n he’s a very observant dog...
At the end of the street, I make ‘em both wait on a short lead so we c’n cross the street t’gether.....I figure if a nut speeder is gonna get us, he might as well get all of us at once....Rusty is patient...he knows where we’re going ‘n he purty much knows what he’s gonna do when we get there...Willie, on the other hand, is fairly dancing with anticipation....he knows what’s on the other side also....There are chickens........’n sumtimes skunks....but mostly, mostly there’s The Evening Cat....The Evening Cat, always impeccable in his charcoal pinstripe is too cool....he almost (I s’pect he’s a he but I ain’t positive) almost always occupies the same spot, sort’a like his favorite booth in his favorite restaurant....I mentioned, didn’t I, that there are six women that take turns delivering cat meals to the Catholic Radio Station....well, not actually the Radio Station itself, but to the narrow strip of trees ‘n shrubs that act as a border....anyway, this evening, the Evening Cat is not in his favorite spot...
Willie runs to the spot, circles frantically, sniffs the air, the earth, the shrubs....he knows the Evening Cat is s’pozed to be there...he gives up finally ‘n allows me to pull him away ‘n we move to the grass strip at the rear of the property.....And there, in the shadow of a rather large eucalyptus tree, lounging somewhat languidly, it seems t’me....the Evening Cat.....Willie is elated, beside himself, dancing on his back legs pulling on his lead, his mouth open, his tongue lolling, there is nothing quite so enthusiastic as a young dog faced with a CAT......especially this cat.....the Evening Cat....
The Evening Cat yawned, stretched, ‘n at the last moment.... ‘n disappeared.
I tried to explain to Willie that it wuz all smoke ‘n mirrors but he wudn’t listen...he durn near bent himself double in a futile search for the Evening Cat ‘n I had to apply some little pressure on his lead to make him give up the search ‘n head for home...there were some chickens on the way back but Willie only made half-hearted attempts, I don’t think his heart wuz really in it
Rusty walked along beside me, glancing back ‘n forth from Willie to me from time to time as if commiserating with both of us.......
ah well, HBO is free this weekend, the temperature is s’pozed to drop to a more pleasant clime ‘n we’re going to a bbq tomorrow.....God’s in his heaven, I’m told, ‘n all’s purty okay in Ol Fair Oaks......

All lies 'n jest....

“...Such are promises
All lies and jest
Still, a man hears what he wants to hear
And disregards the rest.” Paul Simon

Political conventions are a hoot, y’know? It seems t’be important which convention drew the most viewers...like the Olympics...the more viewers, the higher the rate for commercials....Wow! D’ya think it’s all about the money...maybe? Ah well, it’s all for show, ain’t it? I mean, does it really matter which side wins...don’t we all lose no matter what?...
Life picks at all of us, just ‘n unjust alike...there wuz a character in ‘Little Big Man’ Mr. Merriweather whose ev’ry appearance wuz marked by the absence of another body part...As Jack Crabb said, "It didn’t faze him, tho, deception wuz his life’s blood".....Mr. Merriweather said of moral order in the universe, “There isn’t any. Those stars twinkle in a void ‘n the two-legged creature schemes ‘n dreams beneath them, all in vain.”
I’ve been fortunate in my life....as my buddy, Vic sez....”I’ve got my threescore ‘n ten so all the rest is gravy.”
Life picks at all of us...it takes hair, teeth, body parts...if y’get the chance to hang around long enuff, y’gotta pay whatever toll it demands ‘n it don’t do any good to cry about it....
The little village of Beattyville which I’ve spoken of many times is a prime example...ev’ry year the Ohio River takes a little bit more of it ‘n one day it’ll all be gone...brother Jim likens the Carl Perkins Bridge (construction of which took away about a mile of South Portsmouth, homes, hillside et al) to the Alaska ‘Bridge to Nowhere’....not nearly enuff traffic back there to justify the expense ‘n besides, it’s named after a politician ‘stead of the more deserving rock ‘n roller....just another example of change that ain’t really progress..."all is vanity."

Schoolhouse Hollow.....

We moved to Beattyville right before I started Third Grade.......It was wartime ‘n a lot of people who had lived there were gone...the men either in the military, or away working in war industry. A lot of the women, also...
Anyway, from the Third Grade thru the Ninth, South Portsmouth School played a big part in my life.....as it did in most peoples’ lives back in those gritty days.
There wuz no television tho’ radio wuz popular...movies were a once in a while treat ‘n then not for ev’ryone....
I remember Mom crossing the street (would’a been an alley almost anywhere else) to play Bingo at Granny Williams’ little house....I c’n still hear Granny Williams calling out, “I thirty-dirty” followed by a laugh....ev’ry time.....’n there were quilting bees ‘n such, but mostly there wuz Church ‘n The School......
Now, Church wuz big back in the ‘forties.....durn near ever’one went ‘n not just once a week....there were meetings, ‘n socials, ‘n war drives of ever kit ‘n caboodle.(now there’s a phrase you don’t hear these days) but, the really big social events, the ones that almost everyone attended, the ones that got hashed ‘n rehashed wuz the events that happened ‘round the schoolhouse hollow at the South Portsmouth School.....
There wuz the Halloween party ‘n the Christmas Pageant ‘n other doin’s around almost every holiday there wuz but, there wuz ballgames......Basketball games.....’n they were packed....full houses every game.....See, basketball wuz a year-round sport in eastern Kentucky, heck, all over Kentucky ‘n Indiana....it wuzn’t just folks in Beattyville....there were basketball hoops dangling from barns ‘n garages ‘n poles ‘n almost any place you c’d hang one......no netting, of course, just hoops
‘n kids played year round....there wuz great basketball played in rinky-dink gyms in little ol schools around ever’ second or third corner.....way back then.....a much more innocent time......
‘Most ever’one walked to school...’course, ‘most ever’one lived close enuff to walk plus there wuz the added incentive of gas rationing....During the war years, a lot of people put their cars on blocks ‘n hung the tires on the walls of their garage.....if they had a car ‘n if they had a garage....’n even the few people that had both car ‘n enuff ration tickets to buy gas wudn’t about to waste either on on taking a kid to school...nope....kids walked.
Wudn’t a long walk for me ‘n my brothers, across the tracks, along the two lane blacktop that was Route 23, around the curve ‘n up the hollow......when I wuz a boy, that hollow wuz about a mile long but when I wuz grown, it shrank to maybe an eighth of a mile...funny how things shrink when you grow.....
At the mouth of the hollow was a triangular-shaped field where the bigger boys played baseball in the Spring...
there wuz a creek (crick, back then) that ran the length of the hollow...it wuz off to the side ‘n wuz a playground of sorts.....we’d play Tarzan (Johnny Weismuller, the ‘real’ Tarzan) ‘n swing from the wild grapevines that grew along the side.....sumtimes they’d hold but more often than not, they’d turn loose ‘n we’d take a tumble....
we took a lot of tumbles back then....every game we played seemed to involve tumbling of one sort or another....what with King of the Hill, crabapple fights, ‘n a running game of football that resembled nothing more than a gang fight.....
‘Course, when y’ don’t have teevee or video games to occupy your mind ‘n your time, you’re apt to come up with some doozy games....
I remember one afternoon that we spent half-naked, knocking down a huge hornets nest......I don’t remember anyone going home in tears but I c’d be mistaken in that memory......memory plays tricks like that, y’know....it did to me ‘n my friends ‘n it’ll do the same to you.

Stuff happens......

whether you're ready or not......

I’m not ancient but I'm purty darn old 'n I’ve been around quite a long time now and I know that in the long run, many of the big things that you think are important, simply ain’t. And the really important things in life are often those that you pay the least attention to....there’s a lot of truth in that old bromide that ‘the best things in life are free.’
This election which so many people are so passionate about is one of those ‘big things’ that will, over time, fade like old denim. It’s always been ever thus. (I never tho’t I’d have a chance to say ‘ever thus’ in any context)
When I wuz a young man, in my teens, the country was obsessed with ‘Reds’..(commies... for the ill-informed)..
tempers flared, lives were wrecked, people went to jail ‘n Dalton Trumbo had to write movies under a series of assumed names, alack-a-day.....I knew about it but basically I didn’t care as I was obsessed with girls....’n cars ‘n rowdy friends, but mostly girls.....
When I went off to play in the USAF (I like Ike wuz Prez ‘n there were no jobs for unleveraged hillbillies) the ‘Cold War’ wuz heatin’ up, the French got their butt kicked in French Indo-China (soon to become Vietnam) spies wuz spyin’ 'n lyin' 'n ever'one wuz lookin’ for an edge but, again, I basically didn’t care as I was obsessed girls ‘n cars ‘n rowdy friends, but mostly girls......
It wuz an interestin’ time in history when I came home...Lebanon was boilin’ over (‘n they say a watched pot never boils) I like Ike chose a side in Vietnam, I think ‘cause MacArthur told him not to, there still wuzn’t any jobs for unleveraged hillbillies ‘n a whole bunch of us out’a the military (‘n outa jobs) went off to college.....basically, I wuz still obsessed with girls ‘n cars ‘n rowdy friends but mostly one p’ticklar girl......
In the sixties came Kennedy ‘n Camelot, missiles in Cuba ‘n the Bay of Pigs ‘n Vietnam really hotted up but by now I wuz busy with stuff that really mattered......
Lotsa things happened over the next fifty years....situations got out'a hand, tempers flared, lives were wrecked....the old military term SNAFU pretty much covers life in all varied forms but the man who keeps his eye on the prize 'n his nose to the old grindstone is gonna be uncomfortable.....
‘N that’s pretty much the way of the world.....at least, from the point of view of a still unleveraged hillbilly.....

"Like a circle in a circle....

or a wheel within a wheel...”

Ev’ry litter bit helps.....We been sending our recyclables to the County....we wash ‘em out, make sure there’s no food items in there & tho’t we were doing our part.....
The last time (a few years back) I took our recyclables back to a pickup center, I got about $.67 for my trouble ‘n decided I’d let the County have it...what the heck? I pay Sac County fifty-some bucks ev’ry couple months to pick up my trash & recyclables......Now I find out that other people turn their can’s ‘n plastic bottles in for anywhere from seventy to a hundred fifty bucks....who knew they pay a nickel for a plastic bottle.....well, I knew that I paid a deposit but it was ‘way too much trouble to try ‘n collect from the stores......
It’s hard to not believe in recycling when you’re faced with it in so many ways t’day.....And it makes so much sense. Landfills c’n be messy places...brother John reminded me (‘n he’s still pissed) about a place called Buck Hollow.....we used to camp there when we were kids....it’s just up the hollow from South Portsmouth School which all of us attended in our way back when time....well, Buck Hollow wuz turned into a landfill for Portsmouth garbage.....John recalled how he used to play behind the school and how he wuz able to drink from the springs that fed the creek that ran out of the hollow....
groundwater’s gotta be contaminated now...Heck! I wonder with all the people in the world throwing their garbage wherever, is there any place left where a kid c’n drink from a free-flowing spring? I’m sure that there are places in the high country where people don’t go that the water is fit to drink but that ain’t the same thing at all......
We keep recycling politicians even tho' we ain't thrilled with the jobs that they're doin'.....The American Presidency, called the most powerful job in the world....ain't. I mean, they're purty limited in what they c'n do....'n it seems Congress ain't limited enuff.....I wonder, when nobody will 'fess up to liking any of our legislators, State or Fed, how do they keep getting elected? T'is a puzzlement.
In my way back when time, politics only came around ever’ four years or so.....I mean, you c’d count on the back roads of Greenup County getting a fresh coat of blacktop courtesy of the local pol who needed to keep their job.....the only thing that has seemed to change is now it’s purty much all the time ‘stead of every four years...’n frankly, ev’ry four years wuz enuff......