The Doldrums...

"Start ever' day off with a smile 'n get it over with." W.C.Fields

I ‘uz almost worried there for a bit ‘cuz of the weather, it being so dry ‘n ever’thing but it seems my worries were all for naught...Rusty, being the elderly poodle gentleman he is ‘n subject to the standard foibles of the senior class woke me so’s that he c’d make a wee foray (wee forays being a natural state for the elderly) into the night wherein I discovered that the natural, normal state of valley weather has returned...in other, more mundane wordage, the fog has returned...

The week betwixt ‘n between Christmas ‘n the New Year is akin t’being adrift in The Doldrums...’n that’s a colloquial expression derived from historical maritime usage for the place where the Atlantic ‘n Pacific Oceans meet ‘n the weather there is affected by the intertropical convergence zone...that’s clear, right? What it means is that if you wander into that p’ticklar zone, y’can be subject to squalls, thunderstorms ‘n hurricanes...or conversely, periods where there is no wind atall, atall, which wuz kind’a problematic for sailing ships back in the greener daze of wind power...When the winds are gone, the sea has no swells ‘n on a clear day, the color of the sky is reflected in the water...at night, with no clouds or moon, you have the same effect which makes it seem as tho’ you’re floating in space...kind’a like the p’litical process in the USA during this period of doldrums that we’re goin’ thru at the moment...Gawd knows the Ioway Caucus is replete with squalls, t’storms ‘n hurricanes, not to mention the famously chilly weather of Iowa itself...tho’ you’d think that with all the hot air provided by the politicians that the Ioway countryside would be experiencing a false Spring while the rest of us ‘ud just be floating in space waiting for the wind to tell us how we’re going to vote in the coming elections...well, I already know I’m going to cast a ‘protest vote’, California being a winner take all state ‘n San Francisco ‘n El Lay will make sure that the state goes democrat...ah well, even tho’ the majority of us who occupy the great central valley of California c’n call ourselves protestors, it won’t matter in this neo-age of mob rule where votes are bought not with bread ‘n circuses but with the welfare dollars of entitlement...

I’m told that a smart person knows what t’say ‘n a wise person knows whether or not t’say it...’course, when a body gets old enuff, oldtimers kicks in ‘n all those rules get forgot...

gettin’ old seems t’be the only available way t’live a long life...