That's life......

Insomnia sucks.....”I keep my eyes wide open all the time....”
Woke up at three in the A.M. thinking about a brawl in the muddy streets of Naminoue....for the uninformed, that is, or was anyway, might still be for that matter, the dirt-street shantytown home of ‘The Teahouse of the August Moon’.....a movie starring Marlon Brando as an Okinawan, a casting that insulted a lot of Japanese actors.....on that proverbial other hand, I seem to recall that the Japanese had a really low opinion of Okinawans in general ‘n would have been insulted had they been asked to portray an inferior being.....’Course that was then ‘n we are a more enlightened people t’day....(sure we are)....
Anyway.....the brawl I was recalling in my sleep took place several blocks away from the August Moon, closer to its sister (‘n financially more successful) bar, the Teahouse Moonview which has absolutely nothing t’do with the brawl.....I don’t recall the name of the bar where the brawl began but I c’n conjure up a picture in my mind....I only remember one of the participants....a friend of mine, an Indian from Green Bay who, in those pre PC days, we all called ‘Chief’....go figure.....Chief had been a Golden Gloves fighter ‘n it wasn’t at all unusual for him to be involved in a bar fight or street brawl.... the difference was this time marked an epiphany for me...as I watched Chief rolling around in the rain ‘n the mud I finally realized that muddy brawls are only funny in a John Wayne movie ‘n it was time to stop hitting people in the fist with my face ‘n move on......
Sometimes you think you’re going at life head on ‘n you get clipped from the side ‘n you c’n holler ‘Foul’ all you want but the world don’t care.....
The old joke went.....”That’s life!”.....”What’s life?”......”A magazine.”.....”How much does it cost?”.....”A dime.”......”I don’t have a dime.”......”That’s life.”

Spring weather stuff.......

Yesterday was nice.....mid-70’s....sunshiny...’n last nite a cold front moved in....woke up this morning to overcast grey skies ‘n a cool breeze....not cold cold but definitely cool cold....watching the weather report last evening I tho’t I’d get in a swim t’day but prob’ly not Sunday...well, quash that idea....I ain’t jumping in the pool t’day even if it is heated....don’t misunderstand me...I c’d swim...it ain’t the water temp that stops me, it’s the durn walk to ‘n fro the pool itself....talk about harshing a mellow...
Speaking of harshing a mellow, I watched Barry O’s performance on Leno t’other nite....I tho’t he did okay ‘n I didn’t even wince at his remark about special olympics..
guess I just ain’t PC enuff for this brave new world...
Oh, ‘n for all the nonsense about his appearance on the Tonight Show being beneath the ‘dignity of the office’...
y’gotta remember we’re talking politicians here ‘n there ain’t anything that’s beneath the dignity of a politician...
The Tonight Show is uptown compared to Nixon’s appearance on LaughIn....remember “Sock it to ME!”...
Owell, enuff political....
We’ve been watching a bunch of old Ronald Reagan movies...I mean the old black ‘n white B movies that was the basis for his career....Millyrose pointed out that Eric Close (actor on Missing Persons) looks enuff like a young Ronald Reagan t’be a brother....just tho’t I’d mention that in case you had nothing else to occupy your brain on an overcast Saturday....

The tie that binds.......

Prevarication is funny, it makes a cloudy day sunny....at least in politics....

If I said it, I probably meant it,
unless I was lying,
in which case,
you should have taken it
with a grain of salt.
for..........
I don’t always mean what I say,
and often
don’t say what I mean,
but I try always to be truthful,
except when I lie.
Usually....

There is a ‘slight’ difference between prevarication ‘n equivocation except in politics where they don’t make that distinction.....

OJT or else......

Things political 'cause I can't help it.......

Is is just me or is Barry O on the telly ev’ry other day..
I’ll tell’ya straight out that I’m still waiting t’be dazzled by the brilliance of Obama.....Ev’rybody keeps sayin’ that he’s a great orator but I ain’t gettin’ it....he talks very well when he has a prepared speech or when he’s reading from a teleprompter....Big Deal! Almost every local television news anchor reads as well ‘n they don’t get points for being great orators....’n Obamas bullshit is always the same.....it’s pretty much always Georges fault.....
When I was seventeen, way back there in the long, long ago, I went into the world a bemused ‘n gullible young man...but I didn’t stay that way all that long.....the facts of life are hard when they come at you all at the same time when you’re standing there with a grin on your face ‘n your hand stretched out in welcome ‘n the world rolls over you like it never saw you at all at all.....which, truth be told...the world never sees ya....hard on the old ego finding out that you ain’t diddly so far as the rest of the world is concerned.....but it’s a lesson t’be learned ‘n everyone has got to learn it, uh OJT.....on the job if ya know what I mean....or even if you don’t.....

Ah, it’s just another one of those three AM sugar drops,

Daylight Savings again.....

Bright, bright.....sunshiny day....Saturday ‘n it ain’t raining but we got lots of snow in the Sierra ‘n that’s a good thing....’n no matter how you feel about it, this weekend is when we do the Daylight Savings Thing again....does it seem to you that we do this earlier ev’ry year....if we do it early enuff in the Spring ‘n late enuff in Autumn, can we run it t’gether so that it just stays the same year ‘round?.....’n if we did, would some politician think that it ‘ud be a good idea to.....oh well, that’s kind of an oxymorornic tho’t, ain’t it?....’cause there’s always some politician somewhere that’ll think almost anything is a good idea if it’ll make him money, get him votes, get his (or her) picture on the news or just basically allow him (or her) to flaunt his ignorance which is what politicians seem to do better’n anyone.....
I shouldn’t listen t’the news, I really shouldn’t....Obama’s been President for a month ‘n a half ‘n the pundits are wondering why he ain’t got a grasp on the situation yet... ‘n are wondering out loud how it is that he remains popular with ‘the people’....in the meantime, the Obama apologists are still blaming ev’rything on George.... well, y’know all the things that went wrong wasn’t Georges fault ‘n it don’t matter what you think about Obama, he ain’t going t’be able to fix all the problems in the world...
Heck! He can’t even shut Rush Limbaugh up....
‘Course, I don’t believe that he wants to shut Limbaugh up....the ‘Mouth That Roars’ is too good a distraction...
as long as ev’ryone is talking about Rush, they’re not thinking about how badly Obama is failing on the economystupid thing.....to quote Caroline Kennedy, “Y’know....”
Anyways, on the water front, Folsom Lake is looking pretty good but we need more snow ‘n rain farther north.....need t’get some water in Shasta ‘n Oroville...not so much so we c’n wash our cars or water our lawns altho’ there are a sufficient number of Californians that think those things are really important...but y’know, enuff water for the farmers to sow ‘n reap (‘n employ all those illegals) but also enuff water for all the fish to thrive..
something I just heard t’other day is that during WWII, commercial fishermen quit fishing the north Atlantic because they were afraid of German U-boats ‘n during that time, all the fish in the northern sea procreated like mad (went forth ‘n multiplied)....’n since the oceans of the world are so important to the peoples of the world not to mention the eco-system, it occurred t’me that a limited moratorium on commercial fishing might give them a chance to ressurect themselves.... ah well, just a tho’t........

One does wonder.....

One wonders at four in the morning.....all the whys ‘n wherefores of all the stuff that brings you to this or that particular point in your life.....y’know the point in your life that I’m pondering at this early hour...well, not really your life...that, you’ll need to ponder for your own self...I have my very own whys ‘n wherefores to struggle with....they come trooping out of my past as I lay in that nether world between sleep ‘n awake....a rush of mem’ries, a veritable flood of them....a tableau of scenes from my life....probably what they say a person does when they’re facing death ‘n their life flashes before their eyes...all those odd moments without rhyme or reason, the triumphs ‘n tradgedies of a modest life....
it was Thoreau who said, “The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation. What is called resignation is confirmed desperation.....” He tho’t that most men were slaves to their jobs and enslaved to those they worked for......
Mostly, I think, it’s hierarchy of our birth that creates the condition of our existence....people who are born ‘n raised in developed countries are healthier ‘n live longer ‘n die with more toys so theoretically are the winners....
on that proverbial other hand, there is absolutely no proof that they are demonstrably happier.....it’s all a question of perception.....if you’re healthier and live longer and die with more toys, you must be happier...
and those people who live and die in the undeveloped countries, the people who are too busy trying to stay alive, the people who don’t have time to ponder their lives of quiet desperation.....it stands to reason they must be unhappy but they ain’t. It defies reason and logic but sometimes less is more who died of a toothache in his heel.....oops, that was someone else...
owell, it’s twenty minutes after four ‘n I’m going back to bed now.......g’nite!

Things c'd be worse......

I don’t know what was wrong with Rusty yesterday evening.....maybe hurt his back or something, after all he’s middle-aged ‘n relatively sedentary but too young to be shuffling off this mortal coil....the only upside was that he didn’t get me up in the middle of the nite to let him go pee...the downside was I got so worried because he didn’t get me up to go out that I kept waking up to check on him t’make sure he was still breathing....Life is like that sometimes....that’s why people who’re scrambling to keep their jobs ‘n worrying about their 401’s go home ‘n watch the news to see how bad all the experts think it is....reminds me of the old joke about being told to cheer up, things c’d be worse so I cheered up and sure ‘nuff, things got worse.....
Anyways the sun was shining t’day ‘n it was definitely tee-shirt weather....Rusty felt a lot better ‘n perked up well as a sedentary middle-aged poodle dog c’n perk...

Spring has sprung.....

.....a bit of a leak. Not all that unusual here in NorCal ‘n more’n welcome this p’ticklar year as we’re in a pretty severe drought situation.....so waking up to the pitter patter of raindrops ain’t what you might call a bad thing.
Last February I wrote that it felt like Spring ‘n it looked like Spring but it wudn’t really Spring...it was a faux Spring that’d do until the real thing came along...’n now here it is again....ev’ry year in mid-February this happens....ragtops drop, bicycles proliferate, blooms bloom ‘n buds pop ‘n joggers ‘n walkers come out of hibernation ‘n politics takes a temporary backseat... God’s in his heaven ‘n alls right with the world....all illusion, of course....A mirage, a magic trick by Mother Nature....but no less welcome...it’s surprising how good a few hours of sun can make a body feel... smiles come out, the DQ is crowded ‘n people feel good even tho’ the world is in turrible shape....but don’cha know the world is always in turrible shape...if it ain’t drought, it’s floods or fire or mudslides...at least here in the land of fruits ‘n nutz......’n we shouldn’t discount earthquakes...I’m told we’re overdue for a big one.....’n down there in Baghdad by t’bay, the city that put Gomorrah in Sodom (or versa vice, whatever’s your pleasure) someone as we speak is prob’ly looking to find one honest man t’convince him to pack his fam’ly ‘n head for higher ground.....if we’uz to end up with a pillar of salt atop Mt Diablo it might make believers of us all.....
But I digress as I usually do when I find m’self sitting in front of the computer listening to the durn chickens...it don’t take all that much to drive an old man batty y’know....’n especially if he happens t’be a little batty to begin with.....
I’ve been asked again (well, inquiries were made) about the name I use on this blog ‘n on FB.....when I wuz an impressionable kid back in my way back when time, there was a comic book called ‘Kid Colt’.....about a ‘good’ bad guy, sort of a precursor to the movies anti-hero thing that Eastwood does so well (comic books have always been ahead of the game).....anyways, buried in the middle of that comic book, there was always a one-page story (words, no pics) about a fictional wide spot in the almost fictional State of Texas with a cast of characters with colorful names one of which was Justin Other Smith...I don’t recall the other names ‘n don’t really remember much about the character of Justin Other Smith other than he was some kind of comic relief ‘n it don’t matter anyhow.....being an adolescent at the time, I tho’t it was a really cool name ‘n sometime in my teens I adopted it as a ‘nom de plume’....I used it to hide behind for several years ‘n finally decided that it was just too childishly adolescent ‘n dropped it.....’n the only defense that I have now in my dotage is that I don’t give a damn now whether it’s childish or stupid or anything else...it ain’t nobodys ‘bidness’ but my own..... on that proverbial other hand, thanks for asking ‘cuz it means that someone somewhere is reading this tripe ‘n getting (hopefully) a chuckle out of it.....