Howlin' at a blue moon.....

Once in a blue moon is just a way of saying that something is rare ‘n it’s relatively rare to have two full moons in the same month....but it happens....what really is rare however is to have a blue moon on New Year’s Eve....but guess what....2010 is coming in on a blue moon....December 2nd was a full moon ‘n come Thursday, the last day of 2009, we’re gonna have another full moon....just in time for the countdown in Times Square...
the ball-dropping blue moon event...wonder if our Prez’s voice will drop an octave or two...ah well, prob’ly not...guess I’m just howlin’ at the moon....
Sorry ‘bout that...I don’t want t’get political here ‘n now...tell the truth, I’m getting really tired of all the politics...ANYWAYS the New Year’s Eve blue moon will be visible all over the US of A ‘n Canada....also Europe, South America ‘n Africa...but not in Australia ‘n Asia altho’ I have no idea what that portends...nor do I care....

A foggy morn.....

A foggy morning in the village....a great morning for sleeping in....even the squirrels 'n chickens are slow in getting up 'n out 'n about this morning....dunno why I'm up 'n moving....oh yeah, the dogs had to take a look around before going back t'bed.....
ah well....twice as much coffee this morning cuz I ain't planning on anything more strenuous than folding 'n refolding the newspaper 'n since it's a shrinking thing anyway, that won't require much effort.....
Well, I didn't lie about the paper....I swear it's just sad...anyways, looking out the back window I c'n see traffic down on Sunrise but it's a world away (feels like anyway)...Mike, the mailman is back on the job...he always runs early, his replacements always run late 'n later....he has two that I know of, neither of which speaks (the guy waves but the woman seems intent 'n preoccupied 'n seems to maybe have tunnel vision...some people just seem so serious it almost seems like you're intruding if you smile 'n say g'morning to them....brrrrrr, I think I'll have another cup of coffee....

Fuzzy moon.....

Got a 'fuzzy' moon t'nite.....'bout 3/4 full, I'd guess....I b'leeve this is a 'blue moon' month 'n it'll be full by the end of the year... the decade is closing fast...prob'ly cuz I'm on a downhill slope 'n no brakes.....I remember when I was a boy running the ridgetops of Kentucky (my Dad use'ta say you could follow the ridgetops all the way to Virginia 'n I spect you still could as far as that goes)..
the ridges are steep 'n the hollows for the most part, narrow....you could stand on top of a ridge 'n talk to someone on the the neighboring ridge 'n never have to raise your voice....well, not very much anyways....'n standing on top of a ridge, you could see way off into the blue distance, ridge after ridge, as far as the eye could take you.....it was easy to imagine Dan'l Boone or any of those old long hunters standing in the same spot 200 years before....They have blacktop roads cutting through the hills today and the woods are full of deer 'n wild turkey....folks talk that there are panthers roaming the hills again but there ain't been a lot of proof of that....don't make any difference whether there's proof or not, it's a fact that the wildlife is coming back to the hills 'n if there aren't any panthers yet, there will be one day....'n wouldn't it be great if the great Chestnut tree could make a comeback..
all things cycle, y'know....that's what life is all about....in the great scheme of things, politics just ain't very important at all.....
I remember a book from long ago.....not a very good book, as I recall.....about a Kentucky family who had to leave the hills and go into the wilderness of civilization searching for salvation.....I don't remember much about the book....as I said, I don't think it was very good but the title stuck with me all these years anyway...."Those Enduring Hills"......ah well, with a waxing moon I tend to wax nostalgic 'n you just have to put up with me...g'nite

Inbetween time.....

Ahhhhhh.....so yesterday was cold'n gloomy all the live-long day 'n Ma in her kerchief 'n me in my cap pretty much napped the day away....'cept when I had t'take the dogs outside, o'course 'n then there being absolutely nuthin' to watch on the telly....we just about exhausted the cache of old black 'n whites that I had TIVO'd and resorted to reading....What's that? you ask....Oh c'mon, you remember books.....anyways, I stumbled off t'bed somewheres around tennish 'n shuffled off to Dreamland until Rusty decided that he needed to take a short tour of the porch.....well, it's raining 'n he being a reasonable intelligent if somewhat dour Poodle-dog had t'give some consideration to the idea of stepping off the porch into the rain which he finally did 'n I appreciate the fact that he did so.....anyways, it's a gentle northern California rain 'n the temp is somewheres in the mid-fifties so it ain't all that bad out there...it's quiet 'n the drip-dripping of the rain from the eaves is relaxing.....yawnnnnnn......g'nite

T'was the nite before Christmas......

Well, here t'is Christmas Eve 'n it didn't sneak up on me this year, it came in a George Armstrong Custer damn the torpedos full speed ahead all out hell for leather charge.....'n danged if it didn't catch me flat-footed...Heck! I was just getting used to the fact that Thanksgiving had come 'n gone so quickly that I barely got to taste the turkey....'Course, time speeds up with age 'n it seems like I get a year older ev'ry few months now....ANYWAYS it's a nice sunshiny day, a little on the coolish side 'n downrite cold at nite...well, cold for northern California anyway...I still have geraniums on my front porch even if the blue potato tree has quit blooming....I don't know if it quit blooming cuz I ain't been watering it or what....still got oranges hanging on the tree altho' truth be told, they're just a little on the tart side...I bought some navels t'other day....reminded me of a former brother-in-law who had an avocado tree in his back yard but bought them from the Chinese grocer next door...at least until he figured out that the grocer was selling him his own avocados....
I was remembering Christmas, 1949.....I was twelve years old 'n my dad was laid off from the N&W (not unusual in those days) 'n he was working for the C&O down in Lexington...At that time, Lexington was several hours away on a good day but dad had to work on Christmas Eve 'n he wasn't gonna try 'n make the drive late at nite after working all day....Being the oldest, I stayed up after my brothers were all in bed to help my mother put the presents under the tree...It was the first time I'd ever done that 'n I recall that it was around 11:30 or thereabouts 'n we were just finishing....I had just told mom that it'ud be nice if dad had made it home when the door opened 'n there he was...I remember that brown leather coat he wore back then...it was cold that nite 'n he was wearing a scarf 'n gloves...they'd let him off early 'n home he came...said there was a lot of fog 'n not much traffic but slow-going anyways...That was my last being a kid Christmas 'n they come to ev'ryone sooner or later....
I've always liked Christmas....considered it my favorite holiday 'n I've never had a bad Christmas tho' the one I spent in Okinawa was on the lonely side....
All things considered however, Christmas is pretty much a good time of year....Happy Christmas to all 'n to all, a good nite!

Whatever floats your boat.....

Festivus, Smestivus! Y'can celebrate any day y'want as a holiday....that's one'a the benefits of living in America, well the good ole US of A anyways....I 'member I used to celebrate Tuesday as Red's Tamale Day...But holidays come 'n go, doncha know.....we used to celebrate Washington's B'day 'n Lincoln's B'day but now we put 'em together 'n call it President's Day...they're all made up to fit the moment anyway....I'm a little tired of all the idiots railing about Christmas 'n how it's unfair to other cultures....it ain't unfair at all....any culture c'n have any holiday they want 'n nobody else gives a damn..why should they care that Christians celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ....Christians don't ask anyone else to celebrate, it ain't a law....it's a Christian holiday 'n Christians celebrate 'n the rest of the world should just get over it....And as far as atheists go, they should get a life.....no one cares if you're a non-believer in anything...that's the problem with being an atheist. There ain't any holy days when you don't have a god...it's like when you're retired 'n don't have a job anymore, Saturdays 'n Sundays pretty much cease being 'the weekend' when you can call every day Saturday. Or whatever!

Happy Winter Solstice to you too.....

So the 'Freedom from Religion' bunch has gone 'n bought themselves some billboard ads across country....ads like...."Yes, Virginia, there is no God!" and "Reasons Greetings"...'n that actually is okay by me, I mean I don't give a damn what they spend their money on, I s'poze it might even help the economy a little bit 'n I don't think they're gonna convince anyone t'become an atheist...well, if someone becomes an atheist becuz of a billboard, they didn't have much going for them anyway.....anyways it reminded me of a poem that I wrote some time ago....


Basic Belief
(for Pat)

“Do you believe in God!” he said.
It was not a question,
at least, not a question directed at me.
But after he left,
after he had filled the night
with statements disguised to his satisfaction,
after he was gone,
I asked myself,
“Do you believe in God?”
and had to truthfully, honestly say
that I don’t know what I believe except
that I don’t believe that I’m so very different
from anybody else,
and I find it’s difficult to deny God
just in case He does exist.

It's a scientific fact.....

Father Christmas
by Robert Service

My Father Christmas passed away
when I was barely seven.
At twenty-one, alack-a-day,
I lost my hope of heaven.

Yet not in either lies the curse,
the hell of it’s because,
I don’t know which loss hurt the most,
my God, or Santa Claus.

The Truth about Christmas
by Justin Other Smith

“Whatta ya mean, there’s no Santa Claus? Of course there’s a Santa Claus. I’ve talked to him. Sat on his lap. Wrote him a letter at the North Pole. Mailed it up the chimney. My Mom helped me. And Mom’s don’t lie.”
Uh-oh! Trauma time! Why do adults persist in perpetuating the myth of Santa Claus? Every year, millions of good little boys and girls are traumatized when their classmates tell them, “There ain’t no Santa Claus, you dope.”
Every year, some mean-spirited yahoo (euphemism for you know what) has a pressing need to tell children the TRUTH about Christmas. Last year, it was a grade school teacher. And her employers, the parents, weren’t even allowed to fire her.
Of course, when the kids get a little older, these same grinches tell them the same truth about God. They tell them the truth about Evolution, how we all crawled out of the slime together. And that’s the TRUTH!
Now, they all admit that they weren’t there themselves, but Darwin figured it all out and it’s the SCIENTIFIC TRUTH!
I’ve got to be truthful and state right up front that I’ve only read a tiny little bit of Charles Darwin, mainly because he was a really boring writer and I kept losing my place and falling asleep, but I’m sure that all the teachers who preach Darwinism as gospel never had that problem. I’m sure they could quote chapter and verse where God said, “Now listen up, Chuck, and I’ll tell you the real story. None of that Adam and Eve jive. Just the whole truth and nothin’ but...”
We say that people who believe implicitly whatever they are told are naive. Whether you accept the biblical view of Creation or Darwin’s theory of Evolution, or Clement Moore’s Night before Christmas, it seems to me that they are all arguable concepts. You should believe whatever you want. It’s nobodys business but your own.
But, if you’re at all interested, I believe in Santa Claus. I like to believe in him. It makes me feel good to believe in him. And I think I’d be a fool to give up a belief that makes me feel good about myself, my family, and my fellow man.
Merry Christmas to all.

It's still raining.....

'n like that line from the old song, "it feels like it's rainin' all over the world.."
That's cuz when I checked the obits in the Portsmouth Times this rainy Sunday morning, I found an old friend listed therein....
We were both born in South Shore 'n I was older by, I think, forty-one days.....we started grade school t'gether 'n we graduated high school t'gether....Hack was a comedian as funny as any stand-up I've ever heard....he'd riff about anything 'n crack up everybody....Somebody told me once that the best thing about old age was that it didn't last too long...in a sense, of course, they were right....life is itself short....it's like being a parent, when you begin to know what you're doing 'n you start getting good at it, your kids are grown 'n they move away....you have all this knowledge that you can't use....life is pretty much like that also....when you live long enuff that you begin to get a good grip on things, old age kicks you in the butt 'n stops your clock for you....reminds me of that old, old joke...."That's life!" "What's Life?" "A magazine." "How much does it cost?" "A dime." "I haven't got a dime." "That's life!"......
Ah well, it rains on the just 'n the unjust alike.....

Baby, it's cold outside....

There’s a storm brewing.....well, I guess it’s already brewed ‘way north of here ‘n it’s on the move, headed this direction....gonna have some rain ‘n snow, maybe even snow down here on the valley floor...now, that don’t happen often....I was trying to recall the last time I saw snow here in Ol Fair Oaks ‘n I can’t....I remember back in the late ‘90’s that I saw blowing snow over in Roseville but none here in Fair Oaks....anyways, it’s beginning to feel a little bit Christmasy partly due to the weather turning cold ‘n I guess, partly due to putting up the Christmas lights ‘n the Christmas tree...Millyrose always wanted to put the tree up early while I always wanted to wait until Christmas Eve so we compromised....I refused to put the tree up until after Thanksgiving ‘n Millyrose is OK with that.....anyhow, if it snows here, we’re all set to go....I was watching the weather channel ‘n it looks like snow ‘n cold over most of the USA... prob’ly gonna be a white Christmas for much of the country.....
Y’know, I’ve never had a white Christmas....once as I recall, it was a cold Christmas day ‘n we were getting ready to go to my G’parents for dinner and it began to snow....not those big soft flakes that are so pretty to watch but those hard little pellets that fly thru the air ‘n sting when they hit you in the face....ah well, that was my ‘white Christmas’ such as it was....snow pellets flying in the frosty air.....
Christmas of 1955, I was in hospital in Cheyenne, Wyoming with strep throat ‘n there was a lot of snow on the ground ‘n promise of much more ‘n if I didn’t get out of the hospital in time for Christmas leave, I was bound to spend the holiday in a drafty barracks....so I did what any red-blooded American boy ‘ud do....I lied ‘n said, “I feel great.” Anyways, they let me out ‘n I got my Christmas leave, got on a slow train ‘n headed for Kentucky....Christmas that year of 1955 was warm ‘n balmy....drive around with the windows down on the car warm ‘n balmy....’n I was told when I got back to Ft. Warren that it had been unseasonably warm ‘n sunny in southern Wyoming....I dunno, but it snowed the very next day with the temperature dropping below zero...
So I kind’a like my white Christmas the old fashioned way....on the teevee with der Bingle ‘n Danny Kaye.... Actually, I prefer Holiday Inn with Crosby ‘n Astaire but that’s a personal thing.....anyways, here’s wishing ev’ryone whatever kind of Christmas they want.....