"O frabjous day, calloo, callay..."

"Some people walk in the rain, others just get wet."  Roger Miller

For the most part, gettin' old ain't nuthin' t'brag about…it ain't like you have to try really hard or practice every day t'get good at it…Heck! You don't even have t'be good at it…you just have to hang around long enuff 'n one day y'look in the mirror 'n find out that you've done it without hardly any effort at all…

A big ol storm moved into northern California t'day…we had lots of warning…every weatherman on every local teevee station has been almost gleeful talking about it for durn near a week now…

You know they have t'be truly gratified becuz it came in just as they all said it would do 'n not only that, but they even called the time right, too…well, pretty near 'n if they didn't get it right on the minute, why that's okay…kind'a like horseshoes, y'know, all they got t'do is get what a reasonable person 'ud call close…

So, me 'n da boyz slept in…well, that's one of the perks of being a dog (or an old retired person)…

I finally cudn't stay in bed any longer 'n took da boyz outside where they didn't really want to get off the porch (they did)…but they ain't been pestering me for their morning walk…

what they are doing,being practical dogs, is after they had some breakfast, they went back t'sleep…'n me, being an old retired person,glanced at the SacBee snooze-nooze before I sat down at the computer with a 2nd cup of coffee…

"The best thing y'can do when it's raining is to let it rain."  Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

            

Christmas lights....

"Mail your packages early so the post office c'n lose 'em in time for Christmas."

Well, I bowed to the pressure…again…Heck!  You'd think that after 53 years of marriage, I wudn't even bother t'put up any kind of struggle atall but hope springs eternal they say 'n I'm a slow learner…anyhow, I put up 'the lights'…I knew all the time that I wuz gonna do it, I 'uz just draggin' my feet out of plain old cussedness…that's what my Momma wud have called it 'n she wuz most always right…

I wuz tired of those durn silly stringy lights that're supposed to look like icicles (they don't) so I went to Lowe's (use'ta shop at Home Depot but they made me mad) 'n I bought 80some feet of what they call 'energy efficient mini lights'…SMUD won't care, my 'lectric bill is gonna go up anyhow…

Anyway, it wuz a beautiful day here in Ol Fair Oaks…me 'n da boyz took 3 walks t'day, the first one, of course, into the Village 'n around the park…they get really excited about that 'n they pretty much take the lead 'n just drag me with 'em…

We stopped at the same trees 'n nosed around the same garbage cans…spoke to pretty much the same people also…My south Vietnamese friend who seeks my advice (you'd think he'd know better)…he's considering a move to NYC (too cold,I said)…'n Dan, the garbage man, who keeps busy making the rounds of the parks of Fair Oaks picking up after the turistas who leave detritus in their wake like a daily tsunami (according to Dan anyway)…

Anyhow, as I wuz sayin'…I bowed to pressure 'n hung the lights cuz Christmas is comin' to town 'n there ain't a darn thing anyone c'n do about it...

"From a commercial point of view, if we didn't have Christmas, it'd be necessary to invent it."

Dreamcatchers 'n rainbow riders.....

paraphrasing Mr. Twain….

"A man who is a pessimist before he is 50, knows too much; if he's an optimist after age 50, he knows too little."  

I have two dreamcatchers hanging on my bedroom wall….t'ain't that I believe in 'em, of course, I ain't superstitious at all, knock on wood, but I just figure that stayin' on the good side of Providence can't hurt….

Brother John sez, "If you don't buy a lottery ticket, you can't win."  I tell him that if I don't buy one, I can't lose my dollar.  Not that my dollar is worth all that much these days, be sort'a like maybe a nickel (a dime, at most) back when I wuz a boy…

Back then, a nickel 'ud buy a 12 ounce bottle of Pepsi-Cola, which was the cola of choice in Greenup County, Ky….

The reason Pepsi wuz the cola of choice in that corner of the world wuz two-fold…Coca-Cola didn't think there wuz enuff business there to bother with 'n Gaylord Smith (dad's cousin) drove a Pepsi truck 'n he knew everybody in Greenup county…I think Gaylord prob'ly ended up in sales becuz of his Uncle B.D. Parsons…

Uncle B.D. wuz a horsetrader 'n seems like he always had a smile on his face 'n a hand in his pocket ('n if you wudn't careful, a hand in your pocket as well)...

Uncle B.D. taught me a lesson about gambling when I wuz still a little boy 'n most of my uncles 'ud let me win at pitching pennies….not Uncle B.D….he kept my pennies 'n taught me about losing….

Some time after that, I learned while the race might not always go to the fastest or the battle to the strongest, that's the way to bet….in other words, odds!  And with Uncle B.D., the odds were that if you gambled with him, you'd lose...

Odds are that if you bet with the odds, you'll win more often than you lose…it's got to be a wonderful feeling when you bet on a longshot 'n you win big bucks…trouble is, it don't happen very often…that's why they call 'em longshots…'n betting against the odds is what allows big money to build fancy casinos so's you can lose your dollar in sumptious splendor…as a matter of fact, it's your dollar ('n those of a lot of other people) that pay for those sumptious splendiferous casinos, but you knew that…..

'n again paraphrasing Mr. Twain…."I am now rising from affluence to poverty."

To be or not.....

Getting old seems t'be mainly a matter of luck…whether it's 'good' luck or 'bad' luck depends a lot on your individual point of view….

I'm kind'a poky in the mornin's, definitely not a multi-tasker…seems like I'm becoming a creature of habit…of routine, if you will, get up, make coffee, check blood sugar 'n shoot up…never ever tho't it'd come to this but I've found that you make concessions to age whether you want to or not…

Two little dogs keep a close eye on me as I go thru all the mundane tasks that it takes to get me mobile…they don't say anything but they're watching all the time…

 After I've showered 'n shaved 'n stuff 'n got my pants on, they begin to get a little antsy…When I open the sock drawer tho' is when they start to become a little unhinged 'cuz they know, y'see, that it's time for THE WALK…'n they can't hardly wait, Willie 'specially…Rusty is a little calmer but not much…. unlike T.S. Eliot who 'counted out his life in coffee spoons, it seems my life is pretty much defined by walks around the park…..

We humans are kind'a narcissistic, like to think of ourselves as individuals 'n don't want to be regarded as 'cookie-cutter' beings, peas in a pod automatons marching through the days, but that's pretty much what we do, ain't it? 

Must be in our DNA 'cause we all do it…we begin early, developing our routine 'n as the years pass, circumstance changes but the routine goes on…well, until we die, of course 'n none of us knows what actually happens then but given our history on this planet, it's a pretty safe bet that we'll continue to follow what seems t'be a pre-ordained routine…

I ain't really crazy about the idea that after I die, I'll just trade my daily stroll around Plaza Park in my little village to a daily stroll around some heavenly park in the hereafter but that's one of those things that's really out of my control...

"What I'm looking for, I think, is a blessing not in disguise."  Jerome K. Jerome

Encouraged by an affirmative action President with his me-first attitude, I suppose...   

The leash law is supposed to apply to Dumbocrats as well as reg'lar people but since they've re-elected their Fearless Fosdickhead…but, I digress…ever'thing ain't p'litical…Forrest Gump sed, "Stoopid is as stoopid duz!" (I think he said that, maybe…I've heard that he said it but I watched that movie once a long time ago)…..

At any rate, me 'n da boyz walked thru the park t'day (lotta street work goin' on in the village 'n I don't think they're gonna get it finished before Xmas no matter what they say)…so there's lots of different kinds of equipment, rolling 'n otherwise, that you gotta walk around 'n with da boyz, they just have to stop 'n sniff 'n pee 'n…well, they're dogs after all is said 'n done 'n that's what dogs do…..anywaze, it's seems like lately it's been almost daily that we run into at least one person that thinks the leash laws just don't apply to them 'n their dogs…'n they're almost always relatively large dogs (I really hate when they let small dogs run free)…at least this one t'day was well-trained since he wuz about three times the size of Rusty or Willie….I didn't even bother to call this guy an idiot…since the election, I've become so dis-spirited about the whole thing that now I just shake my head 'n move on…..

"My Mama was a great one for giving advice 'n I've found I enjoy possessing that same quality…She told me I should always try counting to ten when I was angry but if I was really pissed off, swearing 'ud do the job better."

"If you can't dazzle 'em with your brilliance, baffle 'em with your bullshit!" W.C.Fields 

 Seems t'be a credo for Barack Hussein Obama who, often touted as 'brilliant' demonstrated in the first debate that he was more clever (not a compliment) than brilliant.

And now, it appears that he probably cheated in the following debates by wearing a wireless hearing device.  

I'm ready to believe that he's a cheater because he demonstrates all the characteristics of a street hustler, an actor with his practiced smile and gestures, reciting his memorized lines, a puppet, if you will, dancing on the strings of an invisible puppeteer!  

It could be George Soros pulling Obama's strings…I don't know but a lot of people do believe it.  Could be true.  What I do know, however, is  that without a teleprompter, Obama couldn't hold a candle to Romney in their first debate and in their second and third  debate, Obama's words came not with his usual smooth delivery but in bits 'n pieces with pauses between phrases as though he were collecting his thoughts (or listening to instructions). 

And in other venues, where he's spoken without benefit of 'the teleprompter', he's been darn near as inarticulate as Caroline Kennedy, stumbling 'n stuttering 'n repeating himself.  

Without benefit of the teleprompter, he sounds very much like a junior college professor pontificating in front of an inattentive class. 

He lies with all the aplomb of an actor also, as if nobody was actually listening and keeping a record of what he says.  He is a monumental, self-serving egregious liar with a me-first attitude and the voters don't seem to care.  It is truly amazing.  

Romney is a truthful man, bound by the tenets of his religion to speak truthfully and Obama is a noted and conspicuous liar, yet Obama calls Romney a liar and the voters believe Obama. Incredible!

But the voters have spoken.  The results are clear and specific.  And so it ends.  This dream.  This grand experiment.  This land of the free…Two hundred and thirty-six years from birth to death.  

This land of the Pilgrim's pride wasn't brought down by a foreign power nor from barbarians hammering at the gate.  Rather, it was destroyed from within.  By Americans!

Whether you believe the hypothesis about the takers versus makers or not, it is the American electorate that dictates the course of the country and they have charted, what for many of us, seems to be a perilous journey away from the ideas so carefully crafted and fostered by our founders…

"You c'n fool some of the people all of the time,

'n all of the people some of the time, 

but you can't fool all of the people all of the time."  A. Lincoln

  "It's a poor sort of mem'ry that only works backwards."  Lewis Carroll   

'Way back in my long ago time, I use'ta wander the hills 'n the riverbank a lot…I wuzn't alone, of course, all my friends did pretty much the same thing…there wudn't any tee-vee back then…we had radio but it wudn't anything at all like radio t'day…

back then, radio had soap operas during most of the daytime…I imagine they might have had some news breaks but kids didn't pay any attention to that stuff…that hasn't really changed all that much, I guess…in the evenings, they had mysteries 'n music 'n game shows…

Anyway, we didn't have video games…..Heck!  we barely had comic books 'n they only cost about a dime back then…'course, you needed to have a dime to buy one 'n dimes were scarce 'n hard to come by…

I don't really think we missed out on anything…the kids t'day don't seem t'be having any more fun than we did…what they may have gained in material things, they don't come anywhere near having the kind of freedom that kids had back in 'the good ole daze'…..

We c'd leave the house in the morning, wander the hills 'n the riverbank all day long just as long as we got home for supper…

T'days kids don't have supper….if they have a family meal in the evening, it's called dinner 'n that's if they have a family meal at all…mostly, t'days kids seem to eat on a catch as catch can basis….pizza, sandwiches, microwave whatevers eaten standing up or watching teevee….I'm not saying that what we had back then wuz somehow better….y'know, times change 'n there ain't a thing you c'n do about it 'cept go with the flow….

"I can't go back to yesterday ~ because I was a different person then."  Lewis Carroll

I may be a flip-flopper but I'm old 'n don't care.....

"It is by the goodness of God that in our country, we have those three unspeakably precious things; freedom of speech, freedom of conscience, 'n the prudence never to practice any of 'em."  Mark Twain

Growing up, I considered myself to be a Democrat. The first time I voted was for Adlai Stevenson against Dwight Eisenhower. Eisenhower was a big hero of WWII.   There were only 48 states back then and 'I like Ike' was extremely popular, even among Democrats. Adlai was photographed with a big hole in the sole of his shoe, I suppose to make him more identifiable with us common folk.  I voted for him 'cuz I was a Democrat but Eisenhower won in a landslide.

The next Presidential election was 1960 and I voted for JFK.  Contrary to what a lot of people might believe today, it was a close election.  JFK joked about his father buying the election for him but didn't want to buy any more votes than was absolutely necessary.

A close re-reading of history might show there was a lot of truth in that joke.

I remained a Democrat, however, until the election of 2000, when I felt that I couldn't with any conscience, continue to support the Democrat Party and changed my registration to Republican.  

I would have registered as a Libertarian but wanted to continue to vote in the primaries here in California.

I am still a registered Republican, but with strong Libertarian leanings and, in normal times, cast my vote for the person that I feel is best suited for the job regardless of party affiliation.

But these don't seem t'be normal times and the Democrat Party has become so corrupt, at least in my eyes, that I find myself unable to cast a vote for anyone who identifies as a Democrat.

There may not be such a thing as 'normal' times but I've been around a very long time now and I've never seen such blatant division in the populace of this country.

The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (also known as the USSR or Soviet Union for short) consisted of Russia and surrounding countries that today make up Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Estonia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan.

The USSR was founded in 1922, five years after the Russian Revolution overthrew the monarchy of the czar, and was dissolved in late 1991.

The Commonwealth of Independent States was a somewhat unsuccessful effort by Russia to keep the USSR together in an economic alliance.

Of the fifteen constituent republics of the USSR, three of these countries declared and were granted independence a few months preceding the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991. The remaining twelve did not become independent until the USSR fell completely on December 26, 1991.

I see the European Union coming apart at the seams, with Belgium, Italy and Spain on the verge of breaking up into smaller countries much as the Soviet Union and I must confess that I fear a re-play of 1860 in the United States.

I've had many people tell me that such a thing could not happen here, not in this day and age but I'm reminded of that old aphorism that 'the only constant is change.'

"It ain't best that we should all think alike; it's the difference of opinion that makes horse races."  Mark Twain