Hollow Weenies......

Hallowe’en is upon us once again...truly a holiday for young ‘n old alike unless you’re Seventh Day Adventist which views it as ‘The Devil’s Holiday’....ah well, live ‘n let live, I guess....Hallowe’en is pretty much an Anglo-Saxon, Scotch-Irish kind’a thing but the USA is so diversified and it’s such a kid thing that it’s been adopted by almost ev’ry culture that resides here, ‘cepting for the aforemention SDA’s.....
It ain’t changed a whole lot over the years ‘cept t’get fancier....it was wartime when I was a little boy, WW2, y’know, but little kids still liked to dress up ‘n go trick or treating...we didn’t have the commercial costumes like they do t’day, we had to make do with old bedsheets or g’parents old clothes...that was alright....imagination allowed a stick to become a horse or a towel to be transformed into Superman’s cape...or a forefinger ‘n a thumb to be a blazing sixgun....’n the treats were apt t’be a piece of fruit or, sometimes, home-made candy... fudge or taffy or suchlike....Heck! It was wartime ‘n sugar was rationed.....’n besides, trick or treating was just for little kids anyway....the bigger kids just wanted to play tricks....which mostly consisted of knocking on doors ‘n running to hide in the dark...maybe soaping windows...nothing really destructive ‘cause people didn’t really have a lot of stuff so private property was pretty much sacrosanct...well, except for maybe the occasional outhouse that got overturned......not that I ever did that myself but I heard stories.......
It’s a big deal for kids t'day....lots of nice costumes and lots ‘n lots of candy....bags full of candy...support your local dentist....’n you get lots of big kids knocking at your door looking for candy...well, any tricks that they would play t’day would prob'ly border on vandalism ‘n that would bring the cops....
What blows me away however are the decorations ‘n the parties.....all the lawn thingies started, I believe, in the South but it has spread all over the country....not quite as big as Xmas but still a big deal.....and the adult parties, well....One of my favorite bartenders used to tell a joke in a Swedish accent....it was the only faux accent he c’ud do ‘n he didn’t do it all that well anyway...

“Vell” he’d say, “First I t’ink Vell, den I t’ink Hell, den I t’ink, Vell, wot de hell!”

Maybe gonna rain....

I think it's gonna rain.....
Overcast ‘n cloudy.....maybe gonna rain...been a long time since we’ve had a real honest to goodness rain but it’s the end of October.....November is ‘pon us ‘n it’s time for rain.....
what it’s time for is for da gurlz to get out’a school (they get out early on Thurs) which means it’s time for me ‘n da boyz (Rusty ‘n Willie) to go to O’vale....

And so the rain came to Fair Oaks.....late in the day, from low’ring skies....a soft rain, gentle and unassuming, making the blacktopped streets shine and glisten with reflected lights.....Well, heck! It’s been a long time since we’ve had rain so I feel just a little bit entitled to ramble on.....
Rain in northern California ain’t like the rain back east...
for one thing, it ain’t as wet....well, all water is wet of course but back east when it rains, it rains all over you and you get wet....really wet.....here, the rain is more like a mist that just floats around you...if you stay in it long enuff, you’ll get wet but if you’re just walking from the car to your front door, you won’t really notice it....
Anyways, it’s Thursday evening ‘n it’s raining.....Da gurlz are watching my teevee......
Y’know, one ‘a the things that I forgot about the rain...
walking the dogs in the rain is an adventure all by itself but it don’t end there.....becuz when y’get home, y’gotta dry off their feet....’n in the case of Willie, cuz he’s built so low to the ground...y’gotta wash off his belly as well...
ah well, dogs.....y’gotta love ‘em if you’re gonna put up with ‘em....
anyway, it’s a quiet rainy evening ‘n I’m gonna watch some teevee ‘n go to bed...make an early nite of it....

And it dripped all nite...
Ev’ry time I woke, it was dripping....Ol Edgar rapping, tapping at my chamber door....but it didn’t seem t’bother the chickens...I didn’t hear any of them until morning...a grey and somber morning but that didn’t stop them from crowing....
Ah well, coffee’s on the boil, our sad excuse for a morning paper is here ‘n the dogs are circling...they want Millyrose ‘n me t’be in the same room....nuthin’ like t’getherness on a damp Friday morn.....

Falling leaves 'n other thot's....

These Autumn days are, as Lawrence Welk used t’say, “Wunnerful, wunnerful.”.......Cool nites ‘n warm days, changing leaves....’n changing time this weekend...Fall back, r’member....Spring ahead ‘n Fall back.....that means early dark ‘n in this age of gas ‘n eco-conscious people, that means more hard t’see pedestrians ‘n bicyclists on the streets....’n you don’t get ‘extry points’ for runnin’ down Hollow weenies either....
‘Course, y’just gotta enjoy the ‘in the meantime’ days of falling leaves...I’m making a little more coffee in the mornings now....movin’ up to 8 cups ‘stead of 6...like to linger over my coffee on these fall morns.....only dim spot is my morning paper...The Sacbee seems t’be going steadily downhill...it’s a smaller paper these days, reminiscent of those regional newspapers in Alabama ‘n Virginia...they’re asking people to vote on their favorite comics this week...kind’a pointless, I think, since they offered only what they now carry...mostly I find myself going to the internet now to find my favorite strips... kind’a funny, I s’poze, that at 71 years old, I still like to read the comics.....I have the Sunday comics from the Bee way back when it was a ‘real’ newspaper in the ‘thirties.....they were large, easy to read, colorful (better than t’day) and so far as comics go, the old days were demonstrably better.
Hallowe’en is upon us ‘n I was just wondering if placing the presidential election so close to Hallowe’en was done on purpose...Probably not since I can’t imagine politicians having that much sense of irony.
And as sick as I am of this never-ending campaign, I find myself compelled to make an observation:
A judge in Ohio has ruled that a homeless person can claim a park bench as a residence for purposes of voting. I wonder if they’re following in the footsteps of Alabama ‘n Mississippi...Ohio has a population of a little less than twelve million ‘n they’ve already registered more than fifteen million Democrat voters.....’n a goodly number of ‘em live under that same bridges as John Edwards homeless veterans.

Hanged as a horsethief......

'n I use that title in lieu of one that is coarser 'n much more offensive....

I promised m’self that I wasn’t gonna talk about politics ....at least, for awhile.....but it’s so hard not to comment sometimes.....About Colin Powell, f’rinstance.....a man spends his ‘hull life as an honest, hard-ridin’ cowboy ‘n only steals one horse to get hisself hanged as a horsethief....
‘N Tina Fey who doesn’t think she’s smart enuff t’be in public office...just goes to show ya how insecurities c’n mess up a body’s game plan....
And y’know, Tina’s not the only one I’ve heard comment that they think people elected to office should be smarter than plain ol’ folks....
I gotta take umbrage at that. And not becuz I’m smarter than the average bear, I’m not....I’m just one of them plain ol folk ‘n most of the people that I know are plain ol folk ‘n most of ‘em seem not only smart enuff to run this country at least as well as all those ‘superior’ types that Tina Fey wants to kowtow to but smart enuff to do a better job. At least they all manage to live within a budget without stealing from their neighbors. Y’know, I really don’t understand where that attitude came from anyway...I can’t ever remember anyone I grew up with saying that they tho’t someone was better or smarter because they went to an ivy league school...
The only thing proved by attendance at such a school was that more money was involved...’n having more money didn’t make anyone smarter....at least, not back then...
‘n I don’t think things have changed that much...reminds me on an old Tom T Hall song....’faster horses, more money, younger women’.....’cuz if you got more money, y’can buy faster horses ‘n younger women.....still, the old aphorism of getting what you pay for applies....I expect that if you believe that people with more money are smarter than you, they probably are....but that don’t mean that you’re smarter than people who have less than you.....what it means is that you’re a shallow person with a lot of insecurities....too bad for you.
Feels good to vent.....especially at three in the AM....

Early morn, again......

T’is Sunday.....5:30 in the AM ‘n still dark outside.....well, inside too except for the ‘puter screen.....Chickens are screaming ‘cause the newspaper lady (?) woke ‘em up ‘n they don’t like for anyone else to sleep in if they have t’be awake......
There are people like that....y’know the kind I mean, the ones that get really ticked ‘cuz they haf’ta wake up ‘n they want’a take their spite out on someone, anyone else...it’s one of those ugly parts of childhood that most people grow out of fairly quickly but there are those who walk among us that carry their childhood resentments all the way to the grave......
Em’ly had a b’day last Thurs.....yesterday (Sat.) we had a breakfast celebration at Brookfields....Millyrose likes their fried potatoes...my gums are still a little sore so as I’m still having ‘soft’ food, I t’uk the opportunity to have a short stack....I don’t have pancakes very often ‘n these were pretty tasty....only problem was what they did to my blood sugar ‘n that wasn’t pretty at all...guess I’ll skip the flapjacks ‘n syrup in the future.....pity!
‘N Dave is comin’ home for T’sgiving....if you’ve been reading his post (nokilli.com/rtw/) you’ll know that his adventures have taken him to fabled India, land of contrasts ‘n other amusements.....
‘Comin’ up on six AM ‘n the chickens are still angry...too bad Old Coyote cudn’t climb trees...they’d make a lot of tasty meals for him.
This ‘chicken thing’ is getting way out’a hand....there are several hundred at any given moment wand’ring ‘round Fair Oaks Village....they’ve crossed the river now...there was two of ‘em sightseeing at Brookfields yesterday morning ‘n that’s gotta be 3 or 4 miles away and heavy traffic.....there just ain’t enuff of ‘em getting ran over...
‘n over in Orangevale at the up ‘n coming ‘Upscale Safeway (oxymoron ?) Shopping Centre.....there’s a hugmongous chrome sculptured rooser at the entrance...
I’m told that chickens are descended from dinosaurs...I wish they’d hurry up ‘n turn into oil...
Vote for McCain/Palin ‘n keep Tina Fey working.

To view or not to view......

My current schedule has me watching ‘The View’ .....not on a daily basis but pretty often....I think Bexar is an idiot ‘n the token Republican is out-numbered....Sherry (?) is....has a great smile....we’ll discount Barbara ‘n that leaves Whoopi as a voice of reason...who knew?
Anyways....this entertainment (?) show has become something of a forum on politics this year...fortunately, they all tend to talk at the same time which makes it more laughable than serious...which brings me to this morning when one of their guests was Richard Lewis, a comedian who was funny years ago for discussing his neuroses....He still wears black, still wears his hair in a sixties ‘do’ and is still discussing his neuroses tho’ they seem t’be wearing a little thin....So the big topic t’day among almost everyone is what has become known as ‘the race card.’......And primarily, the entire Liberal Elite thinks that if Obama should somehow lose (gasp) the election, it will be because of race. It don’t matter if you think that McCain is simply, ‘n obviously, more qualified....a vote for McCain is racist. Ah, the Liberal Elite.....ya just gotta love ‘em or else you’re a redneck dolt clinging to guns ‘n religion.....And while it may seem like I’m digressing here, the truth of the matter is that Richard Lewis spoke the most racist line I’ve heard on television this political season......to wit: he.....”doesn’t care who gets elected President as long as he’s an African American.”
Now Richard Lewis is a racist boor whose neuroses have taken him completely out of reality. I don’t expect the Ladies of the View to take him to task for his statement but, then he definitely ain’t Sarah Palin.

Faith, Hope 'n Charity......

...three broads from Pomona.

After the debate......
......which I don’t think changed many minds (if any) I took the dogs for their evening constitutional....it was later than normal ‘n with the reported Old Coyote lurking in the ‘hood, I took ‘em one at a time ‘n I carried a big flashlite ‘cuz it wuz dark....Dark don’t really faze dogs tho’....they’re just as curious whether they c’n see or not...’n who knows, maybe they’re like cats ‘n can see in the dark...Nah! Rusty has enuff trubble seein’ in the daylite....he always runs with his nose to the ground except somehow he manages t’see Neighbor Doug up to a block away...Doug was putting out his garbage (tomorrow being pickup day) ‘n Rusty had to stop ‘n say,,,well, whatever it is that he says ev’ry time he sees Neighbor Doug ‘n he always says it loudly....
I told Doug about the Old Coyote sighting ‘n his response was that there are a lot of houses ‘tween here ‘n the river ‘n it seemed unlikely that a coyote would come so far for a little cat food ‘n that he’d believe it when he saw it....On the proverbial other hand, it c’ud happen ‘cause you just never know what a wild critter’ll do...anyway, he said he’s grateful to the cat ladies for putting out the sumptious feast for the wild things ‘cause the family of skunks that had taken up residence in his back yard has moved to the basement of the garden shed at the Catholic Radio Station thank god for small favors.....Doug said he’d been talking to the cat ladies ‘n had been surprised to learn that they bought all the cat food themselves (he’d tho’t it was donated)...I said I’d never given it a thought one way or the other, I was just amazed that they would drive their round twice daily when they had to pay for their own gas.....Both of us said that we’d told the cat ladies that most of the food they put out was going to the skunks ‘n raccoons ‘n ‘possums rather than cats but it seems that none of ‘em believed us.....well, those involved in charitable work need tunnel vision, I suppose.....faith, hope, ‘n charity...’n the greatest of these is.......
It’s four o’clock in the morning ‘n philosphy will help a body while away the hours.......