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....




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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......