"Twinkle, twinkle, little bat, how I wonder where you're at……"  L. Carroll

Belfry….a bell tower or steeple housing bells…

bats in the (or one's) belfry…from the olde French meaning just what you think it means…'cept, of course, I don't have a belfry…nor any tower atall…..I got an upstairs, more or less, sort of a converted attic really….three rooms 'n a bath (unfinished bath at that)….and evidently, a house guest of sorts….a squirrel(s) is my eddicated guess, who sounds as tho' he (or she, or they) may be remodeling….

Mostly, I tend to take a live 'n let live attitude to all God's critters…not a Buddhist, mind you, altho' I think that's a fairly noble attitude for them to take….s'long as it's them that's taking it, it's okay with me…if you recall, earlier this year I had a minor bone of contention with some pesky yellowjackets…I had left them alone until they got it in their minds that I wuz the trespasser 'n they attacked 'n stung me several times at which point, I took umbrage 'n proceeded to dispossess them….

Now, I don't spend a lot of time upstairs ( hardly ever) 'n pretty much adopted the live 'n let live attitude to my uninvited house guests but I'm a quiet man, a peaceful man….I enjoy the peace 'n quiet of my easy chair after a day spent pursuing the various 'n sundry things that come up in the course of the day 'n whatever the remodeling project that my guests were pursuing quickly became a source of exasperation necessitating drastic action involving poisonous pellets 'n peanut butter….

"Sentence first, verdict afterwards!"  L. Carroll

Ol Scudder Moon......

I think President Obama cud testify that "it ain't what you don't know that gets you into trouble, it's what you know for sure that just ain't so." stolen from Mark Twain

There's a big ol Scudder moon t'nite….when I wuz a boy, at this time of year, there'd be bonfires on the ridgetops….not all of 'em, mind you, but from the ridge overlooking Beattyville, you could look out 'n see 'em scattered thru the hills…..well Heck, it wuz that time of year…y'know what I'm talking about…Hallowe'en with all the ghosts 'n goblins, the kind of chilly nights that saw the Banshee's fly 'n bonfires wuz a  necessary thing…'n a comforting thing too….'n you knew without ever chasing back thru the hills that wherever there wuz a bonfire, there wuz celebrants….

Times have changed, of course, as they are wont t'do….(I'm minded of that old aphorism that, 'the only thing constant is change')….nowadaze people celebrate Hallowe'en with lawn decorations 'n spooky parties…seems like ever'where you look, there's a Pumpkin Patch or a corn maze 'n Trick or Treating, that's a really big deal t'day…it's organized!  Modern people love to organize….they'll gather and/or march (or protest) for durn near anything…stores sell bags 'n bags of candies, mostly small candy bars that are made 'specially for trick or treating…when I wuz a boy, only the little kids went trick or treating 'n they only went to a few homes where more'n likely, they got a piece of home-made candy or fruit 'n not much of that…t'daze kids carry pillowcases 'n if they don't fill 'em up, they're disappointed…

The bigger kids went out but didn't ask for treats…they were out for…'n let's be kind 'n call it mischief….'n of course, for the even bigger kidz, it wuz just a time for boys 'n girls t'get together 'n hang out at night….anyway, it wuz a more innocent time altogether….

Usually, there'd be a Hallowe'en Dance at the high school where everyone showed up for various games 'n such….I doubt that there's many people that actually remember 'bobbing for apples' but that wuz a Hallowe'en staple…

T'day, mainly because of political correctness run amok, schools (if they celebrate it at all) call it a 'Harvest Dance' 'n carefully edit out any religious aspect….I got to say that I think that most people are genuinely tired of PC..it's a bore 'n only really boring people are really concerned with being politically correct anymore…..

"All generalizations are false, including this one."  Mark Twain

Let rainy day dogs lie….

Sumtimes, a dogs life ain't so bad…

Still, they have a lot to put up with dealing with us unpredictable human type mammals…I b'leeve they ain't all that given to deep thoughts but given the somewhat quizzical looks they send my way ever' now 'n then, my guess 'ud be that they're just trying figure out what in the H E double L our human is doing now….

"He generally gave himself good advice tho' he very seldom followed it."  L. Carroll

"Water, taken in moderation, can't hurt anyone." Mark Twain

"George Washington, as a boy, wuz ignorant of the commonest accomplishments of youth.  He cudn't even tell a lie."  Mark Twain

Woke at 4:30 in the a.m. t'the sound of the never-ending rain…it ain't really never-ending, of course but come December when the rain stops 'n the fog rolls in, it'll have felt like it…

Over the long, hot, dry summer, L'il Willie must'a forgot all about rain as he seemed positively puzzled by it this morning…he stood on the porch for a long time, looked at me 'n shook his head before proceeding (gingerly…almost never get a chance to use that word in that context) off the porch…'course, once he found out that the raindrops bark wuz worse than their bite, he promptly forgot about the whole thing 'n proceeded as tho' the sun wuz still shining here in Ol Fair Oaks….

Rain or shine, we still gotta go for 'The Stroll'….Willie went gamboling (a word you don't often hear) happily thru the puddles, while the older, wiser Poodle-Dogger looked before he leaped, stepping somewhat daintily around the pools…at first, anyway, but when we discovered that roosters tend to congregate in dry doorways, the natural desire to chase chickens became far too strong to resist, sort of Damn the puddles, full speed ahead…I c'd almost hear 'The games afoot' as they charged into the first group of feral fowl….

Great fun!  And irresistible as we discovered more birds huddled in more doorways…

But when we got home 'n they both looked like castoff ragamuffins 'n I had to sit on the porch 'n towel both of 'em into a reasonable dryness before Millyrose 'ud let us back in the house….ahhh well, fun is where you find it…..

"Soap 'n education ain't as sudden as a massacre, but more deadly in the long run."  Mark Twain

Ol Buttermilk Sky...

"Which form of proverb do you prefer; Better late than never or Better never than late?" Lewis Carroll

A grey sky, a late sun, puzzled roosters (I'm guessing about their state of mind)…it's a quiet Sunday morning in these waning warm October daze….they tell me (the tee-vee oracles) that it's gonna rain 'n I believe 'em…well, 'way too much past experience tells me that even a broken clock is right twice a day…I know it's gonna rain, 'n that when it does, the temperature'll drop 'n we'll go right into norCal winter…happens durn near ever' year 'n it's like the weather is on some kind of automatic timer system…

Nabor Doug likes the automatic timers so's he don't have to go every day 'n bend over 'n open the valve by hand…

The vacant house next door to him has a small lawn area a little larger than a 6 x 9 rug 'n Douglas made a deal with the new (supposedly) owner to keep it green 'n he has  to do it by hand, so to speak, like they use'ta do in the not-quite olden daze of yore when you stand there hose in hand (gonna refrain from snide comments) 'n let the water run…..

'Course, if someone wuz to pay him, he'd just as soon put in an automatic watering system, that is if someone wuz to pay him…as it is, he'll just stand there 'n water by hand, that it, as long as someone pays him….

Kind'a quiet out 'n about Plaza Park this a.m.  Couple other dogwalkers but the cooler mornings keep the regular denizens away until the sun comes out…me 'n da boyz went along, kicking thru the leaves…durn leaves all falling all over the place…(reckon if that's why they call it Fall)  (Ah, prob'ly not)….

It don't really matter all that much anyhow 'cuz in a few daze, it's gonna rain 'n our little corner of the world'll go all green again….well, underneath the leaves anyway…until the Park mowers come along anyway...so long as waters flow, the grasses grow 'n growing grasses need t'be cut, at least in civilized society, it seems….

"Everything's got a moral if only you can find it."  Lewis Carroll

October morning....

I've been told that my spelling is unpredictable.  It's good spelling but it's unpredictable 'n the letters get in the wrong places.

The nights are stretching out a little longer now that it's October…Facebook friends in other parts of the country are talking about crispy cool fall daze….(can't help it, sounds like a do-nut)…northern California takes a little longer to get there but according to the local weather guru's, we're gonna get some weather…next week…maybe…well…pretty sure…

with a big temperature drop and 'real' rain…for all those living elsewhere than norCal 'n maybe unaccustomed to virga, what they mean by 'real' rain is stuff that actually hits the ground 'n forms puddles 'n stuff like that…here in norCal, on a rainy day, you can walk bareheaded to the mailbox 'n back 'thout actually getting wet…

Anyway, it wuz darker a little longer this morn (even the roosters slept in) but as I wuz working on my morning coffee, I heard sounds of Nabor Doug 'n his leaf blower…I told him yest'iday that he had one of the finest leaf collections that I'd seen so far this year…I prob'ly shudn't have praised him so much but I sumtimes wish that I c'd get him to bring that noisy contraption down to my south forty…

Down in the City of Sacramento, the people gather their leaves 'n pile 'em on the street in front of their homes 'n the City comes by with a monster machine they call 'The Claw'  'n scoops up the piles, masticates them 'n spits them out as mulch…I don't think they sell the mulch but given the state of financial disarray, they should….Once upon a time, the rice farmers of California burned the rice hulls until they were forced by law to find another way to dispose of them…now, they sell them…at a profit…go figure….

"What I say is that weeds are flowers too, once you get to know them."  a.a.milne

Just flip the damn coin again.....

Ol Dan Tucker was a fine ol man, 

washed his face in a frying pan,

combed his hair with a wagon wheel,

died of the toothache in his heel." D.D.Emmitt

October 2009

Just flip the damn coin….

It ain’t a personal thing, y’understand...I don’t personally dislike Obama, I just didn’t want him for President. I tho’t he was too young, too inexperienced and ‘way too Chicago t’be President of the ‘hull damn country...on the other hand, he won.

Which he ‘n his posse are ‘way too fond of saying.....I tho’t he’s a smart guy, he’s just a lot more political than he pretends ‘n the job tends t’make the man more than the man makes the job....I tho’t that one of the best things that would come out of his presidency would be a lessening of the racial divide that has been a curse on the USA for far too long....evidently I was wrong for the racial divide, rather than easing seems to have grown ever wider with even more confrontations...

it may be, just possibly, that more confrontations is exactly what we need to finally see once and for all that ‘the Colonel’s lady ‘n Rosie O’Grady are sisters under the skin’....

There is after all is said ‘n done, only one race of humanity.....

Now, it's October of 2012 'n we're coming down to the wire on our newest election…the country seems t'be p'ertnear an even split with Romney having a slight edge at the moment…

After almost four years, there don't seem t'be a lot of doubt that the country is more divided than ever 'n I blame Obama for that…uniting the country wuz supposed to be a big part of his job…..another big part of his job wuz getting Congress to put aside bi-partisan bullshit 'n work for the good of the country 'n he ain't done that either….

He likes to blame the Republicans for the divide but it wuz his job to build the damn bridge 'n neards as I c'n tell, he never tried at all…

Seem's like his main talent has been to get hisself out in front of the parade so that it'll look like he's the one leading 'n anything that goes wrong is always the fault of someone else….

"There ain't nuthin' more powerful than the odor of mendacity." Big Daddy (Tennessee Williams, Cat on a hot tin roof)

"Apparrently, there is nuthin' that can't happen t'day."  Mark Twain

Cops on the street this a.m. ~ What it is, I think, is that we got ourselves a new realtor taking control of the foreclosedupon properties on our little street…'n they took it upon theirselves to lock some doors 'n gates on a place that has been scavenged so many times that there ain't nuthin' left to steal…'course, for many of those night-time shoppers, finding a locked door means there is sumthin' behind it that might be worth sumthin'….

Locked doors keep relatively honest people relatively honest but they present an almost irresistible lure for those among us who are, let's be frank here, less than honest…

As to how to keep empty houses from being scavenged…well, that ain't my purview, thank the good Lord but calling out an overworked deputy Sherriff after the fact is just tiresome….

Entrepreneurship is mostly viewed as a good thing but coins have two sides 'n when hard times are upon the land, sumtimes enpreneurship c'n take on a decidedly darker meaning when the have-nots decide they want some of what the have's have!

That said, work crews are progressing at minimal speed in the heart of the Village…little dots of brightly colored spray paint mainly signifying, I s'pect, that there really is a plan that is being followed….a stretch of new sidewalk, a paint crew (4 grown men) with a huge machine striping the intersection….

Ah well, Rusty 'n Willie don't give it a second tho't…they're anxious, straining at the leash as it were, t'get across the street 'n into the park where they'll sniff 'n pee, pee 'n sniff at all those old familiar places that they visit daily….life is sumtimes complicated for people but not so much for dogs….eat, sleep 'n use the world for a bathroom, it's that easy!

Hump Day!

So, this morning we got a letter to the editor writer who doesn't trust Romney because he's been known to change his mind on an issue; another one who doesn't like him because he wants to stop subsidizing a successful business where the CEO gets a larger paycheck than the President; and a third one who doesn't like him because he's an anti-American Republican who has been working against Obama-nomics for the duration of our revered leaders term in office….and in Ol Fair Oaks, the roosters have successfully motivated the sun to rise once again….Ain't life amazing?

T'day is one of them there whatchamacallit daze I've had marked on my calendar for awhile…I'm going to see my oncologist becuz 5 years have passed since I completed the chemotherapy that kicked my cancer in the butt…I had a talk t'other day with a woman who is doing the chemo thing now…according to her Doc, she probably won't lose her hair…I told her that wuz a good thing for more than the obvious reason 'cuz winter is coming on 'n if you ain't ever been naked all over, you can't imagine how cold it gets…I had a lot of support when I wuz going thru my little spat 'n I'd just like to encourage any of you who might know someone who is dealing with cancer that it never hurts to tell someone that you're praying for them…(end of sermon!)

I c'd probably natter on but as the Duke use'ta proclaim in his movies, "We're burnin' daylight!" 'n I got dogs waiting to go to the park... 

"The time has come, the walrus said, to speak of many things......"  L.Carroll

Monday morn….already had toast 'n coffee, read the 'what passes for a newspaper t'day' and listening to the roosters yelling for the sun to get up 'n get started…

Saw in the Irish Times where Candada is running help wanted ads, telling what a wonderful, friendly, fuzzy place to live Saskatchewan is….I'm wondering if Canada will erect a fence to keep job-hungry Americans from border-hopping…

Hugo Chavez won again….think that election only proves that it ain't who you vote for that counts, it's who counts the votes that matters…I wonder if Chavez studied politics in Chicago…..

Sacramento City is looking to float another school bond…haven't even come close to paying off the previous bonds but politicians love to brag about saving schools…our children are our future 'n we must educate them, otherwise how are they going to fill out their applications to get on welfare…..maybe they c'n jump the border to Canada 'n get on welfare up there…Canada already has free gov't medical so it'ud be a win-win, wudn't it?

And The 'A's got their back to the wall…dropped 3 straight in Detroit…guess those Detroit cops wudn't fooling when they warned tourists that Detroit wuz a dangerous place to visit….

Governor Moonbeam just made it easier for undocumented (illegal) non-citizens to cast a vote in the upcoming election…the 47% in California are already more like 67%…no wonder we don't get any sustenance from the super PAC cash cows….there's no need for the Democrats to spend 'n a waste of money for the Republicans…'course, if California wudn't a 'winner take all' state for our electoral votes, they'd have to spend here….I'm just saying'…

The roosters got a reg'lar chorus going 'n the sun is peeking over the Sierra 'n I b'leeve I got one more cup o' coffee…'n it's still Monday…..

'If you don't know where you're going, any road will get you there.'  L. Carroll

2:30 in the a.m. 'n I hear snuffling in the fog 'n I feel a bump against my back 'n then I wake as the bump disappears, followed by a loud thump as Willie hits the floor, having fallen out'a bed…I open an eye to darkness, decide if he's dumb enough to fall he should be smart enough to get back or spend the night on the floor….but he just sits there, snuffling 'n whining (the little crybaby)….'n now Rusty noses over to investigate 'n they're both just there 'n I'm awake so of course, being an old man awake in the middle of the night, I have to pee also….durn dogs….

It's cool outside 'n there's a full moon…or close to a full moon…it's moonlite brite anyways 'n I don't really need the little flashlite (just bought 2 news ones, $5 at Big Lots) but the tho't of maybe a meet 'n greet with a coyote or p'haps a cougar causes me to shine the lite 'round 'n about as Rusty 'n Willie circle 'round to find the perfect spot to pee…

So, since I'm up anyway 'n it's only 2:50 a.m. 'n that's a perfect time to check fb for other sleepless souls 'n while I'm at it, I may as well check out Drudge 'n The Daily Mail (gotta luv the British gossip rags)…follow that up with just a couple games of Solitaire….

Rusty, the common-sense old dogger, went back to bed while Willie curled up at my feet 'n sleeps the sleep  that only comes to the innocent 'n carefree whils't I check the 'puter timepiece to find that it's 3:02 a.m. now….(yawnnnn 'n borrrrring)….

"I am old, I am old, I shall wear my trousers rolled….but there ain't a peach in the house 'n I don't live anywhere near a beach…..sighhhh"

'But I don't want to go among mad people.' said Alice.  'Oh, you can't help that,' said the cat.  'We're all mad here.'