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.'