HAPPY BIRTHDAY SOPHIE, KELLI GABEL 'N ALL THE OTHER POOR SOULS THAT HAD THE MISFORTUNE TO HAVE BEEN BORN IN DECEMBER

“Birthdays are natures way of telling us to eat more cake.”

The ‘TREE’ is up...’n it’s a CHRISTMAS TREE...(Happy Birthday J.C.)...’n for all the idiots (I’m thinkin’ Lincoln Whatsisname in Rhode Island) out there in neverland searching for their fifteen minutes of fame, holiday means Holy Day ‘n I’m pretty sure almost all religions have holy days...’cept for those religious zealots that call themselves ‘Atheists’...they don’t have holy days...I mean you simply can’t identify yourself as an atheist ‘n then demand that you get a ‘holy day’ all for yourself...that’s what puts the moronic into oxymoronic...

I got up this morning to sneak a look at the ‘red’ moon...wuzn’t red at all...I wud have been disappointed if I hadn’t been so tired that I just shrugged ‘n went back to bed...the local snooze-nooze showed a photograph of the moon that had kind of a rusty tint to one side of it but I never saw that atall...all I saw wuz a bit of a dark smudge, y’know what I mean, the kind of smudge that shows up on the front of your clean tee shirt (at least, when you’re wearing a light colored one anyway ‘specially yellow)...I don’t know what it is about yellow shirts ‘n me...I c’n wear almost any other color ‘n never get a smudge but let me don a yellow shirt ‘n first thing out’a the gate, I’m gonna get a smudge of some kind...coffee, chocolate, jelly...it don’t matter, I’ll get one right away...I c’n go the rest of the day ‘n never get another one but that, of course, don’t make any difference when I’m walking around with a big spot on my yellow-clad belly...

So we’re coming up on Sophie’s birthday..

y’know, it almost ain’t fair for a kid t’be born anytime in the month of December but it’s just a classic example of ‘stuff happens’...maybe it’s karma from a previous life, I dunno...stranger things, Horatio...anyways, looks like we’re gonna have a Dim Sum Birthday Brunch ‘n that’s gonna be a first for this old man...on the positive side, since I don’t really care for Chinese food, I won’t have to deal with leftovers ‘n I don’t really care for leftovers either...

“Birthdays are good for you. Statistics show that the people who have the most live the longest.”

A Date...

...that will live in infamy!

I’m sure that I don’t really remember December 7, 1941 but I think I do...

I wuz four years old at the time, well actually fourteen dayz shy of being four years ‘n three months...what I do recall is it wuz a very traumatic day for my parents ‘n ev’ry adult that I knew...that kind of trauma stands out in a childs mem’ry even if you can’t really remember the actual event...

I remember the war years very well, howsomever...ration books, shortages of all kinds...people putting their autos up on blocks ‘n hanging the tires on the walls of their garages...well, the people who had garages...I remember the ribbons in the windows of people who had sons or fathers in the military ‘n I remember the black wreathes that were hung when those people weren’t going to come home...the daily newspaper tracked the armies with maps ‘n stories from war corespondents such as Ernie Pyle ‘n Bill Mauldin...comedies were popular in the movies at that time but there wuz always the newsreels showing war action around the world...I sometimes wonder what it would have been like if we’d had television the way we did during Vietnam that brought the war to our living rooms on a daily basis...

I’ve heard World War II referred to as ‘the last good war’ but the people who do so are wrong...During our War between the States, General Sherman famously stated, “War is Hell!”

“And that’s the truth!” Edith Ann

Early morning p'litical rant...

“A joke is a very serious thing.” Winston Churchill

So Obama came out of the closet yestiday when he went to Kansas to give a speech that he more or less plagirized from Teddy ‘Big Game Hunter’ Roosevelt on the basic ‘unfairness’ of a capitilistic system that encourages robber barons that exploit the poor by offering them jobs at such a low rate of pay as to make them virtual slaves to that system...

Obamas ‘hope ‘n change’ for the Twenty-first century seems to be rooted in the arcane ‘n disproven theories of nineteenth century Marxism ‘n his virulent tirades promoting class warfare are becoming ever more strident. The ‘defining issue of our time’ he says, “a make or break moment for the middle class.”

He ignores the fact that the middle class virtually disappeared in those bastions of hope ‘n change popularly known as The Soviet Union ‘n The Peoples Republic of China.

Obama went on to say, “This isn’t about class warfare, it’s about the nation’s welfare.”

Of course, if you’d rather read the condensed version, you could just go to your local library ‘n request a copy of George Orwell’s ‘Animal Farm’...or google it or download it on your kindle or whatever...I’m just sayin’...

“A politician needs the ability to foretell what is going to happen tomorrow, next week, next month, ‘n next year. And to have the ability afterwards to explain why it didn’t happen." Winston Churchill

Chilly nites.....

“Snowmen fall from Heaven...unassembled.” Joy Smith

In Kentucky, in December, we always looked for snow...seldom ever found it but we always hoped...when it did snow, I used to stare at the sky to see where they were born...I c’d do it for hours...well, minutes anyway...but it wuz always the waiting that wuz the most fun.

It never, well almost never ever, snows here in Ol Fair Oaks...the snow is pretty civilized in northern California ‘n stays up on the mountain where it belongs but once’t in a while it’ll get chilly ‘n the nighttime temperature’ll drop to about 30o or thereabouts...

If it got down to freezing ‘round here last nite, it wudn’t down there very long, not long enuff to harm any plants anyway...’n t’day, the sun is shining bright...brightly...ah well, a nice crisp day it is...hadda purchase a new refrigerator...tho’t I had a good buy at Home Depot on a Hotpoint...Hotpoint is made by GE ‘n I ain’t crazy about dealing with GE these daze but there wuz a double discount that took about 20% off ‘n we decided we c’d live with a GE product but when we went to close the purchase, the double discount melted away like magic...dunno why Home Depot tho’t that I’d still buy from them when that happened but the cashier just shrugged it off...Lowe’s, on that proverbial other hand, seemed genuinely happy to have our bizness ‘n we ended up with a Whirlpool...interestingly enuff, the two machines look like twins ‘cept for the name...

Not much happening on Crestline Ave these cool December daze...The Chicken Whisperer ‘n her neighbor doppelganger’re still spreading goodwill (birdseed) amongst the feral fowl of Fair Oaks...’n she’s still agitating for a community chicken coop where all the birds’ll be able to roost at night so’s the coyote don’t get ‘em...’n down at The California House where a skunk fam’ly has been living under the garden shed for a couple years now, I dunno what happened, if maybe somebody put out some skunk poison or what but the whole entire corner seems bathed in skunk scent...when me ‘n da boyz go walking in that direction, we make a wide loop...’n evidently, I’m gonna have to stroll down Bridge Street to have a looksee at what’s going on down by the river...neighbor Doug sez they’re plotting to build or maybe they’re building a drinking fountain or somesuch...I tell’ya, those who would be movers ‘n shakers just can’t be content with the world ‘n the way it is...sort’a like Liberal Progressives (or vice versa) in that regard...

“Nuthin’ in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance ‘n conscientious stupidity.” Martin Luther King, Jr.

A Tale of Two Beards....(more or less)

I'm just sayin...

And this ain't by way of being a complaint, mind you...

It's just that somehow I've never been able to grow what I'd call a 'respectable' beard...'n yeah, I know life is inherently unfair in many respects...

"Old ain't one of the things I wanted t'be when I grew up!"

Pre-Christmas chorzzzz....

“The days grow short when you reach December...”

Well, the outside lights are up...not the white icicly things from the last couple years...cudn’t find those...lost in the landfill, I reckon...prob’ly show up some day...in the meantime, we’ll make do with colored lights...they’re prettier anyway...at least, for a change...

And the tree is up...I figure I’m ahead of schedule...not Millyrose’s schedule, mind’ya but my drummer is a lot slower than hers ‘n I walk pretty darn slow these daze anyhow...

Yestiday, Fair Oaks Village had a Christmas Tree lighting...they put the lights on the tree a couple weeks ago but it takes time to organize a parade ‘n stuff...got a robocall invite from a local politician who wanted to meet ‘n greet...I passed on it but Millyrose strolled down ‘n took a looksee...

Then t’day was the California Marathon... it started up in Folsom, wuz a downhill run thru Orangevale, Fair Oaks ‘n Carmichael ‘n into Sacramento...was kind of a chilly start for the runners but it didn’t bother me cuz I didn’t participate...Heck! I didn’t even walk around the corner to watch ‘em pass thru the village tho’ I did walk the boyz in that direction...

Lots of turistas lining the sidewalks to watch the runners run past...not sure why they do that...watch the runners, I mean...I know why runners run...it’s kinds of a masochistic thing, I believe...

When I wuz a boy, I ran for fun...’n it wuz fun, ‘specially when you got a brand new pair of tennis shoes ‘n it wuz mandatory to run as fast as you could...

somewhere along the line, it quit being fun...I use’ta fun 5 miles several times a week...I got slower ‘n slower ‘n one day I twisted my knee ‘n I quit running altogether, darn the bad luck...still, I don’t mind if other people run...luck is a funny thing...some people complain that if it wudn’t for bad luck, they wudn’t have any luck atall but I think believing in luck is kind’a like believing in Santa Claus...’n my mother always said, “If you don’t believe in Santa Claus, he won’t believe in you.” I never wanted to take a chance on not believing, but that’s prob’ly just me...

Y’know, I ‘uz just thinking about this progressive liberal idea that every mothers son deserves a college education...pretty soon this country’ll become so educated that ignorance’ll be a novelty ‘n if I live long enuff, I’ll belong to a select few...

Fair warning, this's p'litical...

“Individual rights are not subject to a public vote; a majority has no right to vote away the rights of a minority” Ayn Rand

Back in the ‘olden days’...those golden days of yore...when America was truly America from sea to shining sea, back in those misty days of yesteryear, candidates for president criss-crossed the country on trains, making speeches from the rear platform...they called it ‘whistle-stopping’ back then...t’day, they do much the same thing ‘cept nowadays they do it on television...they still criss-cross the country, mostly by aeroplane but occasionally by bus...often, they send the bus ahead ‘n catch up with it via jetplane...ah modern times...anyway back in those ‘radio’ days, the country’ud listen to the speeches ‘n maybe even see parts of them in the newsreels...(if you remember them, you’re old)...they all made speeches ‘n made their promises to those who supported them ‘n then when the campaign trail began to grow weary, they had (‘n still do) NATIONAL CONVENTIONS where the parties would choose their nominee ‘n it was an exciting time, lemme tellya... the suspense was excruciating sometimes...sort’a like watching the superbowl ‘n the world series all rolled into one...

Now there ain’t no excitement left for the Democrats...it’s a given that Obama is gonna be their candidate again...so all the excitement is with the Grand Old Party ‘n the pundits are getting really antsy ‘cuz there is no clear leader in the race...”they’re coming around the far corner heading for the stretch ‘n nobody is leading the pack...gonna be a photo finish fer sure fer sure”...

In those olden daze, the candidate wuz chosen at the convention by the delegates...the rules haven’t changed...the media doesn’t make the rules ‘n doesn’t decide the winner no matter what NBC thinks...

“I am not a member of any organized political party. I am a Democrat.” Will Rogers