Free ride.....

“T’is a cramped ‘n lonely place,
this little blue marble that we stride,
spinning itself to death in space,
so all of us may ride.......”

Ev’rybody wants a free ride but back in those halcyon days of hippiedom when personal freedom was the goal, seems like ev’ry psychedelic VW van wore the same motto...”gas, grass or ass, nobody rides for free”.....
which was actually a fairly clever way of stating that life is really pretty much a pay as you go state of affairs...
ah well.....I don’t really believe those long ago hippies were thinking that deeply....possibly becuz ‘clouds’ got in the way...
‘N clouds may be getting in the way of Obama as more ‘n more (seemingly anyway) of the national media are beginning to question some of his campaign rhetoric...I guess it didn’t matter to them until after the election ‘n now some of ‘em are having second tho’ts....well, sweeping rhetoric is nice s’long as there is someone coming along behind to sweep up things....talking about clean ‘n green is nice but someone has t’pick up the trash ‘n you can bet the farm that it ain’t gonna be Obama or Gore....f’r that matter, don’t look t’see Joe Biden out there either...or any other of the 535 members of our ‘do as we say, not as we do’ Congress...Heck! We all know who’s gonna be the ones to actually do the grunt work...
(You already knew the answer to this one, didn’t you)....
That’s right! The invisible people who can’t get their green cards.....mostly Mexican but what the heck, we won’t discriminate...anyone who sneaks into the good ol US of A illegally is qualified t’do stoop labor....cuz, y’know, there ain’t no such thing as a free ride.....
y’know.....

'n if the whisky don't kill me, I'll live 'til I die....

S’trewth be told, the old man said, “I’m sorry I’m old but it’s better than dead.”

Ol George (George Herbert Walker Bush, that is) said t’other day that all his friends were dying alphabetically. I remember like it was yesterday when he said he didn’t like brocolli ‘n since he was President of the USA he didn’t see why he should have to eat something that he didn’t like. ‘N brocolli farmers ‘n health nuts marched on Washington ‘n threatened to secede from the Union ‘n the State of South Carolina offered to fire the first shot.....at least, it went sumthin’ like that as near as I c’n recall....he’s 88 or 87 years old ‘n likes to skydive on his b’days ‘n there’s just a ‘hull lot of people that’d like the chance to throw anybody named George Bush out of an airplane...we c’d sell lottery tickets ‘n put all the money raised against the national debt... that’s what I’d call redistributing the wealth....
ah well, it’s just a tho’t......
Parson Vic told me that multiple seers ‘n predictors agreed that the world as we know it is going to end in 2012...none of us here was around when the world (as we know it) began but if we could stick around ‘til it ended, at least we c’d get some closure......

Puerility for it's ownsake.....

"In the soft twilight of the evening when the stillness comes to lie upon the land and the shadows ease into the coming dark; in that half-world where humans cannot tread, that land of spells and magic.......
Dorgon led the beast into the orchard. The humans were gone, snug in their homes, their doors barred against the coming night. Dorgon kicked here and there, turning over the occasional fruit. Once bruised, it wasn’t good enough for the humans. Except in time of need, of course. In hard times, humans would eat anything. Well, anything they could see and catch, Dorgon thought. “Have no fear” he said to the beast. “I’ll not let the humans eat you.”
The beast was far too busy sniffling the fruit in the tall grass to pay him any attention, any attention at all."

It’s three o’clock in the AM ‘n I’m wondering why in the world am I awake ‘n writing such puerile nonsense....It ain’t the first time that I find m’self doing this ‘n hopefully, it won’t be the last...

Ponzi, Ponzi, Ponzi....(sigh)....

Y’know I almost miss the good old days of the never-ending campaign...key word being almost...I gotta say tho’ that having Illinois politics in the news is a welcome change from the everlasting joke of our California situation...I understand that the old joke about fruits ‘n nuts ‘n California never gets old back in the colder half of the USA ‘n I can live with that the same as I live with the incessant earthquakes, fires, mudslides ‘n illegal immigrants...but anyone that follows California politics at all knows that poor ol Arnold is being lobbed back ‘n forth like a shuttlecock in a never ending game of Badminton...our California Legislature has an approval rating just slightly higher than the Congress which is easy to understand since for some reason we keep electing the Al Frankens of the country to represent us.....Minnesota is a lot funnier than California...They had Jesse Ventura ‘n now they got Al Franken plus they got mosquitoes bigger’n our California condors...The only place worse right now is Chicago...I don’t think I c’d take living in Chicago....no wonder Mike Royko died, the politics just plain wore him out....
Anyways, the question raised was....”Somehow we have to find a way to reform campaign finance! We can’t keep shaking down state contractors, foreign donors, and city employees!”.......And the answer is.......wait for it..... straight from the Democratic Party playbook....wait for it....wait for it...”We’ll just shake down everybody else...well, everybody but us cuz, y’know, somebody has to run the darn thing.” Y’know, the famous Ponzi scheme actually worked until Albert Ponzi began to believe his own scam ‘n darned if I don’t believe that our wunnerful politicians have hoisted themselves on their own petard.
Let’s give it up for Blago!

What makes'em tick.....

"Ya gotta know when to hold 'em,
know when to fold 'em......"Kenny Rogers


I’m a terrible poker player...I have trubble enuff trying to figure out why I do what I do, let alone what makes other people tick....on that proverbial other hand tho’... I do so enjoy watching other people tick....
I get scraps of songs that pop inta my head for no apparent reason....”I don’t get nearer nor futher nor closer than a country mile....” Now, I just happen t’know how long a country mile is ‘n I’m pretty sure that most people younger than me ain’t got a clue...(I googled it just t’make sure)....most folks just assume that it’s a ‘long way’....’n in a way, of course, they’re right! ‘n just for their information in case it should ever come up as some kind of trivia question....a country mile is a quarter mile longer than a regular mile.....might come in handy if you ever find yourself wand’ring ‘round ‘n about the twists ‘n turns of the Kentucky hill country where there ain’t no street signs ‘n directions are liable to consist of being told t’turn left ‘just past the old Leadingham place’ or ‘cross the crick at the old ford ‘n take the first dogleg t’the right’......’Course as with any ‘furrin’ country, it helps if you can speak the language...
Now what that has t’do with what makes people tick escapes me altogether...it’s just my way of explaining why I don’t play poker....

Java jive......

"I love coffee, I love tea,
I love the java jive and it loves me
Coffee and tea and the java and me
A cup, a cup, a cup, a cup, a cup (boy!)

“I’m glad I never got hooked on the fancy latte’s etcetera... I c’n remember when coffee was a nickel a cup...”

On these yucky cold mornings, FB is full of people drinking coffee, making coffee, thinking about coffee, talking about coffee...’n that ain’t just the Smiths altho sumtimes it seems that way....
I first began drinking coffee when I was just a small boy ‘n I drank it the way my Grandpa Smith did....hot ‘n black ‘n served in a saucer...I haven’t heard of anyone ‘saucering’ coffee for a lot of years ‘n I bet there’s a lot of folks out there in the Blogosphere that ain’t got a clue what it is....(but they c’n figure it out for themselves ‘cuz I ain’t gonna s’plain it)
Anyways, my Mother was a dedicated coffee drinker ‘n she passed it on t’me..She took her coffee with cream ‘n so did I for a lot of years...then restaurants switched from cream to half ‘n half ‘n so did I....then at home I began using milk...(whole milk, not that junk I drink now)...
THEN the restaurants switched to (gasp) non-dairy creamers ‘n they tasted so bad I went back to my Grandpa’s straight black coffee (tho I didn’t saucer it)...’n I’ve been drinking it straight ever’ since...
When we lived in northern Ohio, Millyrose ‘n I drank Maxwell House but when we came to California, we switched to Yuban ‘n we stuck with Yuban for decades....
Yuban (back then) was Colombian coffee ‘n that was pretty much all we drank... altho I used t’drink a lot of coffee at Denny’s...they served Kona Coffee which was ranked at one of the worlds best coffee, right after Jamaican Blue Mountain which costs a nominal egg ‘n I’ve never really tasted....sort’a like Dom Perinon Champagne which was always so expensive that I never got around to trying it...got no one t’blame but m’self for that.....
I blame Kellye for hooking us on Starbucks French Roast ‘n grinding our own beans which kind’a spoils restaurant coffee....
On t’other hand, when buying coffee ‘on the road’...I’m told that Dunkin Donuts has a good brew ‘n I c’n testify that McDonalds Bold brew is pretty darn good....a lot better than most restaurants...say, like Denny’s which used to serve a really good coffee at a reasonable price but now pours crap ‘n charges way too much for it...bad ‘cess t’ya, Denny’s.....
S’funny, I drink Starbucks at home but I don’t like the blend they serve at their outlets...I tried Peet’s the other day...it’s pretty good ‘n I like their French Roast ‘n also their Italian Roast but I don’t like paying three bucks for a cup of coffee no matter who makes it....

Baby, it's cold outside....

The sun is shining bright which is very strange as it is the middle of the night....or maybe it’s the middle of the morning ‘n it just seems like the middle of the night ‘cuz “Baby, it’s cold outside.”.....I mean, like twenty-six (26) degrees cold ‘n that’s pretty darn near cold anywhere y’go....’n especially so here in Ol Fair Oaks where the durn chickens are really complaining about sumthing this mornin’.......prob’ly the cold....I wonder how the little hen with the dozen chicks is doing this morning.....bet they’re some cold little bug-eaters.....Willie got too close to her ‘n her brood yesterday down by the Catholic Radio Station (which ain’t really a radio station a’tall, just where they do all their paperwork - disappointing) ‘n she came out of the bushes (the Mother Hen I’m talking here) doing the old broke wing thing ‘n leading Willie away from her chicks huddled in the shrubs....Willie was so excited he was almost beside himself what with twisting ‘n turning ‘n twisting again....I laughed so hard I almost dropped the leash ‘n Rusty cudn’t quite make up his mind if he wanted t’play or not...anyways, betwixt the two of ‘em ‘n my own ineptitude, we managed to wrap both leashes around ‘n about all three of us ‘n cudn’t quite chase the Mother Hen who got so agitated that she cudn’t lead us away that she ‘bout had a conniption fit....(‘n if you’re too young t’know what a conniption fit is, look it up or use your imagination)......
Anyways, it’s cold here this AM ‘n Millyrose went back t’bed......Rusty ain’t sure if he’s s’pozed t’go back t’bed or not so he’s sleeping in the doorway....Willie’s keeping an eye on me just in case I go off ‘n get sumthin’ to eat (he don’t like t’miss a chance to eat)....I think I should follow brother John’s lead ‘n make another pot of coffee....