"If I agreed with you we'd both be wrong."

The Great FDR was President of these United States when I was a boy....an unprecedented four terms did he serve ‘n died in office...

American school children were taught that He was a demi-God of a man...almost, but not quite a King...

cuz y’see, America don’t have Kings...no royalty for us here in Fortunes Favorite Land where ‘all men are created equal’...

‘n of course, it goes without saying that we were all, all of us, young democrats becuz FDR was a Democrat...ackshully, more’n a Democrat...FDR was ‘The Democrat’ that had saved our precious country from the misguided politicians that had preceded him in office...not that they had been evil...No! They had merely been wrong. FDR was a forgiving man...a wise ‘n counseling Father to our country...a man who spent his evenings sitting by his fireside, his little dog Fala at his side, dispensing fatherly wisdom over the airwaves to his children...

Or was that Judge Hardy explaining to his son, played of course by that lovable scamp Mickey Rooney...oops! Wrong script!

Anyways, that’s what we were taught to believe...his picture hung in ev’ry classroom across the nation, his words rung in ev’ry ear that had access to a radio, ev’ry newspaper printed his speeches (modestly edited, of course) as if they were gold...He was an orator beyond compare...His ‘Day of Infamy’ speech has gone down in history, second only to Abe Lincolns Gettysburg Address...except...except...

Historians, while they do tend to color history according to their own personal likes ‘n dislikes, do still manage to look at things from a more balanced perspective than you c'n get from current events...(t'is said that time heals all wounds 'n wounds all heels)

And from a more balanced perspective, we who were propagandized during our youth have come to view FDR as....well, not quite a god, more of an astute ‘n conniving politician who wrote, directed ‘n starred in his own personal movie...’n like movies before ‘n since, the recipe calls for a dash of reality, cover liberally with bullshit ‘n pray for rain ‘n sunshine to do the rest...

If this sounds familiar, just remember that from the beginning, when Hollywood had a script that worked, they recycled it ad infinitum, ad nauseum...’n in politics as in life, there is ‘nothing new under the sun...

"How is it one careless match c'n start a forest fire, but it takes a whole box to start a campfire?"

Just another Maltese falcon story....

"There comes a time when you look in the mirror 'n you realize that what you see is all that you'll ever be. And then you accept it. Or you kill yourself. Or, you stop looking in mirrors." Tennessee Williams

Hoo Boy....thank Gawd for the delta breezes...if we didn’t have it, Sacamenna ‘ud just be another Modesto cuz the delta breezes stop at Stockton...I use’ta spend a lot of time in the central valley back in the day...I only see it on the nooze nowadays ‘n like almost ever’where else in California, there’s a lot more people now ‘n a lot more drugs ‘n driveby shootings....driveby shooting seems to be a really popular sporting event these daze, at least here in sunny Cali...’n as ever’one knows, what happens in Cali doesn’t stay in Cali...The whole world is watching...or seems t’be ‘n I guess driveby shootings will one day be as popular in the rest of the country as it is here...’course, the main reason it began here is the average Californians love affair with the automobile (if you can’t do it in your car, it ain’t worth doing)...

On the p’litical side of things, Californians achieved semi-permanent gridlock long before the rest of the nation but it seems the federales are catching up with us...

We recycled Governor Moonbeam here ‘n I’m wondering if maybe the rest of the country might try ‘n recycle Bill Clinton...ah well to quote Sam Spade, “It’s the stuff that dreams are made of.”

"Everybody wants different, nobody wants change."

Sunday morning coming down.....

“If you don’t take the money, they can’t tell you what to do.”

Ahhhh.....a quiet Sunday morn here in Ol Fair Oaks...a few roosters crowing off in the distance, the pack of dogs across the street must be sleeping in or maybe, more likely, there hasn’t been any foot traffic on our little street to liven up their day...s’hot all across this fair country of ours, so hot that exhaustion sets in ‘n ever’body is just too blamed tired to argue much about anything...(on a side note, when tempers do flare in these temps, people do tend to kill each other...just sayin’)...All them p’litical folks on Capital Hill have air conditioning ‘n worker bees to bring them iced coffee (or whatever) so they can continue their schoolboy arguing....(did too....did not)...I spec’t they’re so wrapped up in themselves ‘n their little worlds that they don’t realize how utterly stupid they appear in the eyes of those of us who actually have to live in the real world....I mean, it’s a pretty simple issue for durn near everyone...however much money y’got coming in ev’ry month pretty much determines how much money you get to spend ev’ry month ‘n if you run out of money before you run out of month....well, welcome to the real world....

In the real world, people make do...

if they can’t afford a new car, they fix the old one ‘n make it last ‘n if if don’t last, they ride the bus or walk or whatever it takes to get around....sure, they may cry ‘n complain about it but since they live in the real world where there ain’t no goose laying golden eggs, they get by...

In the real world, when the evil bankers foreclose on your home, you live in your car ‘n if they take your car, you steal a shopping cart ‘n live on the street ‘n you don’t even get to watch the teevee arguments about taxing the rich to pay for your cart....

In the real world, when you get old you die ‘n it just doesn’t matter who pays or doesn’t pay for your medication ‘n it don’t have a damn thing to do with dignity...

I could go on ‘n on in this p’ticklar vein but I’m already bored with it m’self ‘n I’m sure you are too (also?)

Anyway, I’ve finished my coffee ‘n finished that excuse for a Sunday paper that the SacBee has become ‘n it’ud seem that I’ve finished this quiet Sunday morning rant...

Relax, stay cool...’n remember, you c’n be miserable or not...it’s your choice.....

Monday morning....

"The superiority of women is a biological fact 'n a socially acknowledged reality."

A. Montagu

Way past time for us t'be at the pool this morning....no excuse for it, I guess, just that it's a nice, cool morning 'n I slept in...well, me 'n da boyz, that is...'n now I'm just feeling pokey 'n slow...I saw a little of Obama's press conference...sumtimes, y'get to wishing he'd just say something different....not that he doesn't say different things all the time, I mean, what he said as a Senator 'n what he says now as Prez are different but I guess as the character Moustache use'ta remark in the film 'Irma La Douce'.."But, that's another story!"

After the break from the nooze over the 4th, I find m'self more that usually impatient with our esteemed politicians...I don't think that we should hang them all but sumtimes, I really believe that we should fire all of them....replacing all 535 of 'em wouldn't be a big deal...when McDonalds c'n get as many applicants as they did recently, we have a huge pool of qualified people that couldn't possibly do any worse...

Four cups of coffee in my coffeemaker translates into two mugs (I been cutting back a little bit)...Once a body is retired, Mondays don't have the same cachet as when you gotta get up 'n go to work but sometimes the old mem'ry kicks in 'n even tho' I've had my two mugs of coffee, I'm finding m'self really ambivalent about what's for breakfast......

If you spend your life worrying about dying, living ain't gonna be much fun.

“I’m pretty sure that there are a lot of people t’day that are alive only becuz it’s illegal to shoot them.”

So I tho’t all morning long that t’day was Satiday...

Flabbergasted t’ find out that it wuz still Friday.....not quite sure how that happened, losing a day like that, ‘specially a day like Friday cuz, y’know,Fridays are important daze...well, the younger y’are, the more important they are...they become less important the older you get ‘n the longer a body goes without a job...after awhile, one day kind’a blends into another to the point where y’need some outside stimuli t’know the difference between a weekday ‘n a weekend day....y’know, one ‘a them talking heads ranting about a major holiday ‘n what gas prices are gonna be ‘n where the cheapest gas is... most of the time, that’s enuff to make you check the calendar ‘n scratch your head wond’ring where the time went ‘n how’d it get t’be July anyway ‘n next thing y’know, July is gone ‘n the dog daze of August are upon us...I swear, time flies whether you have fun or not....

T’other day, I was sitting around the courthouse with a few of my fellow draftees...we’d been ‘instructed’ that we were NOT to talk about the case we were listening to ‘n since that wuz durn near the only thing we had in common, it tended to put a damper on the conversation ‘n as ever’body knows, I ain’t much of a one for damp conversations ‘n being the oldest in the group I felt it incumbent to generate some noise...

we talked about cars ‘n motorcycles ‘n jobs ‘n we talked about the lack of jobs ‘n somewhat about the current recession...I tried to stay away from politics ‘n was almost successful ‘til I mentioned that we were a two-party country, the ‘silly’ party ‘n the ‘stoopid’ party ‘n nobody tho’t it was funny...then I told them I c’d say that because I was a confirmed libertarian ‘n I found out that liberals ‘n conservatives alike tend to discount darn near ev’rything that has a libertarian slant to it but if you’re a libertarian, you c’n damn both parties ‘n nobody gets mad about it....

“There are many definitions of stupidity; one is in believing that what you already know is enough!”

Venting, venting on a summers day.....

So, we went wireless....or, t'be more precise, we ATTEMPTED to go wireless....evidently AT&T doesn't like the fact that we bought our wireless hardware from Apple...'n don't ask me why becuz they wudn't tell me...I had some help from Ashby setting it up...he only spent a couple hours with the techs from Apple 'n AT&T (10 min with Apple, the rest of the time with AT&T)....the very next day, AT&T refused to recognize Airport...I spent about 30 or 40 mins with an AT&T tech who explained that we had to do a whole brand new password 'n recognition code in order for AT&T to work with the Apple hardware...the next day we did it again...'n the day after that, I went thru AT&T techs before I got so frustrated that I hung up 'n sulked for about an hour before calling back...

I berated the new tech at the get-go before calming down 'n apologizing for venting on her...she laughed about it 'n said that she got that 'all the time 'n it was no big deal' ...then she proceeded to walk me thru the entire setup scenario again...then we went away for the Fourth 'n when we got back....guess what?

Tues, Wed 'n Thurs, AT&T grudgingly 'n sporadically recognized the connection 'n now, t'day, on Friday...AT&T adamantly refuses to recognize the connection no matter what....I know there must be another internet provider that would like my business 'n I don't really need to keep AT&T for the landline service...I'm pretty sure that AT&T needs customers more than customers need AT&T....

When all is said 'n done.....

"If you understand, it is what it is; if you don't understand, it is still what it is."

Joory Dooty is over...got a well done from de judge 'n a handshake from the defense atty who made the claim that constructive feedback is a good thing 'n always welcome.... 'course, that's a crock.....nobody wants constructive criticism or any other kind of criticism...they only say that becuz they've been taught the value of appearing to be modest...what they really want t'do is a victory dance in the end zone 'n bragging rights that they kicked the butt of their 'esteemed' opponent.....what they should've learned in grade school is that no one actually wins in a fight.....it's only that one side loses a little less than the other side so that when someone is celebrating a 'win'....what they're actually celebrating is the fact that they didn't lose badly enough for the world to laugh at them.....Now, I wudn't allowed to talk about the case while it was ongoing 'n I've been told that I'm not allowed to sell any information about the case for 90 daze but the real truth of the matter is that no one wud be interested in the details of this somewhat tawdry affair....what it wuz wuz four persons barely out of their teens who went to a New Years Eve party 'n did what people normally do at such parties...and while on the way home in the wee hours made what is prob'ly the only sensible decision that people of that age group c'd make 'n pulled over to the side of the road 'n stopped their vehicle....what they did after stopping is open to speculation but what the police 'n the prosecution did wuz confuse what should have been basically a straightforward 'n uncomplicated case of four young people who were found on a public highway suffering the side effects of too much New Years....

Anyhow, after being called for jury duty, I actually sat on a jury rather than spend my time on the plastic chairs of the spacious 'n less than plush waiting room provided by Sacramento County..the cafeteria food sucked, the cafeteria coffee wudn't bad 'n the entire building is air-conditioned 'n relatively comfortable during our present warm daze....it wudn't bad 'n it c'd have been much worse...I had some friendly conversation with my fellow jurors'n when all is said 'n done....the goal is to exit as gracefully as possible.....

Hot Daze 'n Jury Dooty.....

"Some people are like Slinkies...not really good for anything but you can't help smiling when you see one tumble down the stairs...."

The hallways of the not so venerable Sacto courthouse look, in many respects, like an advertisement for Men's Wearhouse....the cookie-cutter look among attorneys seems, to say the least, popular...not so much among the women attorneys who have their own fashion foibles...

y'know it's a foible when no matter what they're wearing 'n no matter what color they're wearing, you c'n take one look 'n recognize them as attorneys....I s'poze it could be the look in their eyes or p'haps their posture as they parade back 'n forth...reminds me of Kid Sheleens statement, "When you see a man set on a bias with a steely look in his eyes, y'know you're lookin' at a gunfighter...."

They say that women will never be equal to men until they can walk down the street with a bald head 'n a beer gut 'n still think they're sexy....I don't know if that's true for attorneys or not...I'm just wondering....

Anyways, it's hot out there, friends 'n neighbors, but it's cool inside the halls of justice 'n the jury seats are relatively comfortable...not the ones in the courtroom itself 'n certainly not the metal benches in the hallways nor the plastic institutional seating in the cafeteria where the overpriced coffee ain't too awful bad altho' there is no need to go into the quality of the food...I could, of course, but I really hate to go into so much negativity in this tiny space.....

And the jury seems like a pleasant enuff bunch altho' we all seem t'be taking the Judges admonition not to talk about what's happening which is the only thing we all have in common 'n that kind'a makes for a big hole in the conversation...

Anyway, with the heat 'n the long daze, I'm sleeping well at nite...they say that's a sign of a clear conscience or maybe just a bad mem'ry....

Happy Fourth of July!

"Humans are the only critters able to behave irrantionally in the name of reason." A. Montagu

Looooooooooooooonnnnnng weekend! 'n hot! 'n no power hookup so hadda run the durn generator almost all the time....well, they wudn't let me run it between 10PM ' n 7AM....park rules, doncha know...howsumever, heat 'n dust 'n coin-op showers be darned, it was a purty good time as times go 'n as times go, it went 'n we're home again...I went 'round 'n round with AT&T...'bout an hour, maybe a little more, 'n three diff'runt people cuz since we went wireless here, AT&T dudn't want to recognize my IP address....'n even tho I'm now on the 'net again, I keep getting a message that sez, "Sorry, you are not connected.".....'n now that I've had a chance to think about it, that just might be the story of my life 'n I just didn't know it....

Anyways....jury dooty t'morra....prob'ly a good thing that it ain't a death penalty case cuz I ain't feeling all that charitable on this hot afternoon.....

'n remember while celebrating the Fourth, don't drink 'n drive cuz you might hit a bump 'n spill something......