Tee shirt winter....

"If you don't learn to laugh at trouble, you won't have anything to laugh at when you're old."

Me ‘n da boyz wuz strollin’ down the street when Nabor Doug comes out of his abode declaiming that it’s another beautiful day in paradise...I agree with him but add the caveat that it’s a progressive liberal Spring ‘n that we’re gonna have to pay for it come the long, hot summer...

In this world wherein we dwell, we got more grasshoppers than we do ants...’n for those of you not up on your basic moralistic fairy tales, a little more p’litically incorrect way of stating it is that we have more Chiefs than Indians...

So I been lookin’ around for an old pick ‘em up truck for me ‘n da boyz...I tho’t maybe an old Toyota ‘til I ackshully looked at one...they’re kind’a popular ‘n way overpriced ‘n worse than that, they’re small...a little snug for an old fat man ‘n two little dogs...what I need is an old Ford or Chevy, sumthin’ that I’ll be able to get into ‘n out of without turning m’self into a pretzel...

It wuz mentioned t’me that I’m lookin’ at about 8 miles to the gallon but if I don’t really go anywhere, I’m thinkin’ that miles per gallon don’t matter a whole lot...’course, with the price of gasoline going up day by day, the little Toyota in my driveway may turn into the same kind of coatrack as the treadmill in the basement...

"Money can't buy happiness but it sure makes misery easier to live with."

“Il n’ya pas de quois”

“Everybody, sooner or later, sits down to a meal of consequences.” RLS

...is one ‘a the phrases that I learned in French class back in the middle of the last century...translates as, ‘it is of no consequence’....

Now, I live on an inconsequential street in a time-warped village on the edge of Sacramento county...the street is only two short blocks long ‘n one of ‘em is basically an alley that narrows down to one lane...Ever so often we get a stranger come wand’ring who’ll say, “Why, I didn’t even know this street was here.”...I’m only pointing this out becuz evidently Sacramento country Waste Disposal dudn’t always know that this street is here cuz I’ve got a lonely trash can standing as a mute sentinal in front of my driveway for six daze now ‘n it looks like it’s gonna be there for three more daze when, I’m hopeful, it will be picked up...Now Millyrose ‘n I have made numerous pleas which sadly were ignored...well, I say ignored but t’be truthful, the last person I spoke with at Sac Waste told me that she’d pray for us...I’m a great believer in the efficacy of prayer but I believe that she might’a been speaking facetiously...

What really irks, howsomever, is the fact that the County c’n force the citizenry to pay for a service whether or not that service is provided...just another example of ‘Progressive Liberalism’

“But you can’t make people listen. They have to come ‘round in their own time, wondering what happened ‘n why the world blew up around them.” Ray Bradbury

It wuz a good day...

“East is east ‘n west is San Francisco.” O. Henry

Yestiday, Thursday...wuz a good day for me ‘n Millyrose even tho’ it commenced a little bit on the early side with an insufficient amount of coffee...for me, at least, since Millyrose no longer drinks the foul beverage having switched to that Witches brew, tea...

The three of us (did I mention that son Dave went along) climbed into the little car ‘n pointed it west on the Interstate on a bright, sunshiny day...our destination wuz the Portuguese Embassy in San Francisco...

The first time I saw SF wuz back in ‘56 when I wuz 18 years old...I tho’t it wuz the purtiest city I’d ever seen...’course, my experience with cities wuz fairly limited...I’d visited New York ‘n D.C. ‘n I’d passed thru Chicago a couple times...

anyways, the train brought me to Oakland, California where I got on a ferry boat ‘n crossed the bay to SF...the sun wuz shining as I recall, much as it wuz yestiday ‘n I tho’t SF wuz a magical place...’course, when you’re 18 years old, there is magic all around you in ev’ry new thing that you run across...the magic fades with age but once’t in a while, you still get the occasional glimmer ‘n since I didn’t have t’drive at all, I had the chance to look around ‘n marvel at the magic of San Francisco...crowded, narrow streets full of cars ‘n trucks ‘n buses ‘n sidewalks full of people going hither ‘n yon...(one duzn’t often get the chance to use hither ‘n yon in a sentence these daze)...Dave whipped the little car thru the canyons of Sf as if he’d been born to the job ‘n when the bizness at the Embassy wuz finished, we went lookin’ for sumplace to eat...I b’leeve we ended up in the Mission District at a place called ‘Jim’s Diner’...a simple meal, very good (better’n Susie’s Country Oaks ‘n cheaper) where we were serenaded by a Mexican street musician ‘n the view from the window wuz of a busy, crowded street ‘n more buses in an hour than I’ve seen in the last year in Ol Fair Oaks...I’m fond of telling people that I like San Francisco best in old movies but yestiday wuz that exception to the rule that crops up once’t in a while in life ‘n should always be appreciated...

I think it wuz the late Herb Caen that remarked, “Ain’t it nice that people who prefer Los Angeles to San Francisco live there.”

A p'litical rant....

Posted this on FB as a comment but it seems t'have disappeared...maybe sumbody didn't like it...

California Democrats are rejoicing because they’ve scarpered the Republicans in the redistricting thing...’course, being Democrats they’ve already begun to fight amongst themselves which is the only amusing aspect of this suspect p’litical rigmarole...the Democrat leadership is already counting the golden state in the Obama column ‘n hoping to put the nightmarish Pelosi back into the Speaker seat that she lost in 2010...

What is really amazing also is that the Democratic sheep are rejoicing but I think that may be premature ‘cause they haven’t been sheared yet...that time is coming as California appears t’be on a fast track t’become the USA version of Greece...what the entitlement society doesn’t seem to understand is that after they’ve been sheared ‘n the wool has been sold, about the only thing about them that’ll still have worth is the meat...When the last buffalo was slaughtered for their hide ‘n the meat left to rot in the western sun ‘n their bones were gathered ‘n ground up for pet food, the indigenous tribes of the American west were finished ‘n when the last viable honest t’goodness business packs up ‘n leaves the golden state ‘n the only employers left are taxpayer funded, who’ll stop the rain?

A soft 'n gentle rainy Monday....quiet too

“The best thing you c’n do when it’s raining is to let it rain.” Longfellow

Waking up to a rainy day ain’t too awful bad...sumtimes...it all depends on your viewpoint, I guess...anyways, it’s quiet on rainy mornings with the mournful sound of the neighborhood roosters crying in vain for the sun to come up...

The little dogs are quiet also but that prob’ly has more t’do with the fact that Millyrose is still pounding her ear ‘n we ain’t...Willie has an ever hopeful gleam in his eyes that maybe the next time he goes out it won’t be raining...the look of disappointment on his face when he’s standing on the porch staring out at the raindrops is durn near priceless...’course, if he gets off the porch, he finds out that he’s pretty darn near t’being waterproof ‘n he’d be off ‘n running if I’d let him...the poodle is a little more fastidious ‘n while I don’t mind walking in a nice soft rain once’t in a while, I don’t want to do it before I have my coffee ‘n biskits...which is where I’m going now if you’ll excuse me...or even if you won’t...

‘n for my more genteel readers, Mae West (just gotta luv her) said, “Save a boyfriend for a rainy day...’n another, in case it doesn’t rain.”

Too much information or....the meanderings of a bored insomniac

I’ve just been reading an article by a pompous ass by the name of Mark Z Jacobson who claims that the three major problems of the world consist of air pollution mortality, global warming and energy security.

You might not know but I bet you could guess that Mr. Jacobson is located in that bastion of incoherent intellectualism, Stanford University in (gasp) California and that he has a vested interest in (wait for it) environmental studies.

My grandpa was, among other things, a trainer of mules. One of the ‘tools’ that he used in that pursuit was headgear that obstructed the side vision of the mule. This type of headgear was called ‘blinders’ and it’s purpose was to eliminate distraction and force focus on the mule.

Focus can be a very good thing when it comes to achieving a specific goal but there are negative side effects as any divorce attorney can testify. Keeping your shoulder to the wheel, your ear to the ground, your eye on the ball and your nose to the grindstone makes for a very uncomfortable working position.

Now, I believe that air pollution is a serious problem and that, on the whole, clean air is important to all of us.

The jury is still out on global warming and I suggest that energy security is a governmental problem.

As I see it, the three major problems for ordinary people are what they have always been...eating, sleeping ‘n sex ‘n Mr. Jacobson obviously doesn’t realize that he is just another soul lost in the wonderland of academia....

If this's still Tuesday, it must be February...

COFFEE &....

“Timing has a lot t’do with the outcome of a rain dance.”

Woke up this morning to a rainy day...

ah well, it’s been a dry, sunny, tee-shirt winter so far...normally, we’ll get rain ‘long about the end of October ‘n it’ll alternate with dreary daze of dense fog for November, December‘& January tho’ generally in the middle of February comes a spell of faux Spring...

This’s a different kind of year tho’...one of the driest on record...they been keeping a record of the weather here in California since 1850...there’s an old whatever you want’a call it that sez about California that “the miners came in ‘49, the whores in ‘51 ‘n when they got t’gether.....” Anyways, I guess in that interim year, somebody wuz bored enuff that he decided to begin keeping track of the weather...I only wonder why he didn’t give it up in ‘51...

Anyhow, I’m so bored with interminable politics that the most innarestin thing that’s going on ‘round Ol Fair Oaks t’day is the weather...Mark Twain or Will Rogers (prob’ly both of ‘em) said, “Ever’body talks about the weather but no one does anything about it.”

Didn’t really rain much here, just enuff t’get the weeds damp or maybe dampish...I could’a prob’ly counted the raindrops on the street when me ‘n da boyz took our morning stroll but counting raindrops is only slightly more exciting than the endless presidential polls that the talking heads are constanly pointing out in their less than quiet desperation...

“and remember, you’re never too old to learn sumthin’ stupid.”