11:02 and counting down

Soon complete strangers will be kissing each other on the streets of Times Square if you would believe the popular media. Hell, I hope so. There is a need for more kissing in the world.

Fire works are beginning to pop around here, although we still have nearly and hour in the old year. It just sounded like someone knocked at the front door, and as I went to answer it with my Hi-Power held just behind my hip, I realized as I opened it that it was fireworks. I strolled around anyway, just for the hell of it. It never hurts for the neighbors to see that someone is awake and alert.

2007 has been a roller coaster ride in many ways........struggling to remain afloat for most of the year to reaching a point where at least the necessities are assured for the foreseeable future is a good feeling. We've been blessed indeed.. I've got a shop/storage building to put most of my stuff in. I won't have to sleep with the dog in her plastic barrel lined with straw if I really screw up. I can clean off a shelf and wrap up in the two sleeping bags out there if necessary. Even have a hot plate.....but I'd have to raid the house for something to cook on it.
The piddling I do to bring in a few bucks has really picked up the last couple of months. Hopefully i'll keep enough of a head of steam up to keep moving down that track.

I've written more this year than before. A little less crazy ranting and hopefully a few cogent thoughts. I really have to thank all of you who drop by for visiting and occasionally commenting. I see you out there........even occasionally a visitor from other countries. I wonder what they think in China or Norway when they stop by here. It'd be wonderful to start communicating with other countries residents and learn of what they are thinking.

We've been subjected to political campaigning from numerous candidates for president of the U.S. in 2007. I look forward to that being over with so we can get down to complaining about the final result in 2009. And you know we will........rather you know I will, because I intend to exercise my franchise and encourage all of you to do the same. Oh you can complain if you don't vote........but we'll just consider you a hypocrite if you do.


So Thanks to all of you out there in the blogosphere. God Bless us all.

Happy New Year.

Now this is just wrong

Decency (and I'm not talking about showing a little skin) used to be the standard for most Americans, especially we expected it of our law enforcement.

No more.........tactics such as these are beyond the pale. Entrapment does not begin to explain it. The entire police force in that town should be made to resign, along with the city council, the District Attorney and his or her entire staff and put on trial for offenses against humanity. The poor guy would probably have just sat and talked with her if she hadn't enticed him to go further than he should.

Makes me sick to be an American if this is what we have become.

Uh-Oh

Here it comes. The post-coi.......er Christmas depression.

All that build up to the climax of the season. The excitement......the anticipation......the frantic rushing around to get everything done on time. Gifts bought....and wrapped. Lists made and carefully checked off so as not to miss anybody. Lights to hang.......and bulbs to replace. Bows and ribbons to carefully tie which will be ruthlessly ripped apart in a joyous, eager burst of conspicuous consumption.

And now.............

Every one has gone home or at least on their way. Farewells shouted and waves waved. Newly activated Tomtoms plugged in and programmed to get us home by the fastest route......one which we've traveled many times before.

We're gradually working our way through the last of the leftovers.....the sight of 3 day old turkey begins to make us slightly green around the gills.

We begin to see the old year come to a close and a new tax year approach.....I wonder if I can claim the cost of that new outbuilding??? And I wonder if the New Year will really bring anything new.......or different? Did I do the things I sat out to do at the beginning of the old year........WHY not? Should I make new plans or just try to finish some of the old?

Over a year ago I bought an old (relatively speaking) phonograph.....remember those?....with the intention of listening to recordings of Tchaikovsky’s symphonies Nos. 4, 5 and 6 by the Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra. Events (moving to Athens) forced us to store many things in a rental storage unit for lack of room in the new abode.

Now with the building in the back yard storing all the accumulated junk which isn't in the computer/sewing room, all that sits on a shelf. I think tomorrow would be a good day to dust off the record player and finally listen to the old queers work.

The No. 6 Symphony is called "Pathetique" which appropriately describes my dedication to actually doing the things I say I want to do.

Most often my regrets are of the things I neglected to do rather than the things I actually did. I've lived a varied life doing many different things. A 'Jack of all trades, and master of........well.....a few', and I intend to keep on doing things I want to do rather than those I have to do.

I just intend to do more of them next year. So what really started off as a depressed sort of post has kinda fired me up a little.

If you have things you've been putting off, better get started. None of us know when we'll be meeting up with those who've gone before. I hope when that meeting happens and they ask "Did you do all you could?", I'll be able to say "No.......but at least I gave it a shot".

The wages of Sin

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Well I really don't know how much they pay.......but every one is always talking about it from the pulpit. I mean Jimmy Swaggart probably gave a thousand sermons on the importance of fidelity to one's wife and then goes out and hires a hooker or two. Did they cut his salary? Probably gave him a raise for temporarily increasing the number of people who tuned in to his broadcasts.......if only to point a self righteous finger or two at him.

The sin I'm speaking of thought is the sin of GLUTTONY.........

Really it's not my fault. People kept giving me chocolate kisses and Herseys dark chocolate bars (Love the dark chocolate), bags of pistachios (another real weakness), Cans of cashews, cookies, pies, bowls of home made banana pudding.......

Whewwwwwwwwwww.......... if I were Catholic I'd go say a mess of Hail Mary's or something, cause I do believe all that consuming has about caught up with me. Goooooooddddd thing I don't drink on top of all that. The projectile vomiting would not be a pretty sight to behold.

As soon as I get down off this sugar high and the blood pressure returns to something resembling normal, I'll have to hunker down and make up a bunch of New Years resolutions to never do any of this again. Ha! like that would do any good. I'll just do as always and blame my need for sweets on low blood sugar.

Hoping all your stomachs have started returning to normal.. We could take a clue from the pooch........go out and eat a bunch of grass.....

Full .....Full ......Full....

We've arrived back safely and a little bushed, but filled with the joy that a good time shared with family and friends will give you.

Gifts were exchanged...wrapping paper, boxes and kids with toys all over the floor. Even the pooch received his own stocking stuffed with goodies.

Much food was consumed...turkey breast deep fried in peanut oil...moist and delicious...ham, Elk tenderloin, deviled eggs, potato salad, all those things that make a wonderful feast. Topped off with CAKES & Pies & Cookies & banana Pudding made from scratch (two big bowls). All this blessed by our 4th grand child Lee, who did a masterful job of it, with only a little whispered help from Grandpa.

Oh Yeah! Kudos to the eldest Daughter for baking me a Japanese Fruit cake. I wondered why I was having a hard time getting the wife to look up the recipe so I could post it. They didn't want anyone else to make me one. Four layers tall it was. So high the cake plate cover wouldn't fit by at least an inch. 3/4s of it returned home with me. There goes my diet. Well there is always next year.

Through it all we were blessed with the most wonderful sweet spirit. A gift from the greatest gift of all.

Christmas Eve

Here it comes.....the big day. All the little kiddies will be all excited tonight before bed and be hard to settle down to sleep. Threats will be made and a few even carried out. Last minute assemblage of various geegaws will happen accompanied by curses that parts don't fit, and equally fervent pleas to "just read the instructions".

Cookies and milk will be left out for the fat man and someone will go to sleep with crumbs on his chin.

Last minute shoppers and travelers to Over the River and thru the Woods will be crowding the mall parking lots and the highways and byways. Travel safely if your one of them.

We're off shortly to our oldest Daughters to spend the night and tomorrow with them. Food and sweets will be eaten in abundance and for those who partake maybe a beer or margarita or 6.

There'll be laughter and perhaps a few tears. Tales of olden time and not so olden, friends present and late remembered.

But in the midst of all this jubilation and merry making, let's not forget the real reason the season was started. Whether the date is correct or not........it's the thought that counts.



Merry Christmas to all...........and may God bless us..........everyone.

Just for me

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I stole this from Sparrow, a lady of rare talent and insight. I hope she'll forgive me.

I've generally been a little apathetic about the political field before us till now.......but no longer.



If I have to tell you why...........you wouldn't understand anyway.

Freie Nacht

We had a bit more rain here last night and this morning. A little over 1/2 inch according to the ABS Jones cattle breeding gage in the back yard. I've had it for 32 years now and unless something happens will likely for years more.

This afternoon the front came through and pushed all the clouds out and the sunny clear skies were so bright and beautiful it made you draw a deep breath and almost forget to exhale. The moon is almost full, and will be full for Christmas Eve. If you have snow and clear skies be sure and look out and enjoy the beauty.

While you're at it...........say a little prayer for safety and protection of your troops in the field in Afghanistan and Iraq and other places around the world far from their homes and loved ones.

Maybe they'll hear from somewhere the strains of music being played bring peace to their hearts.



A peace which every soldier desperately wants no matter their religion. For they truly know the price that must be paid.

Happy Birthday Eve

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I'm off to my middle sister's where we'll enjoy a bit of conviviality, a scrumptious meal and a little catching up with her and her spouse, along with the youngest sister and her family.

It's a funny thing to me, I'm the oldest of six and the only one with gray in my hair. 10 years ago I was the only one with out. I want some of those fountain of youth pills they must be taking.

If any body is thinking of what to get me for Christmas, you may be guided by the incomparable Mr. Bennett

It'll never happen here

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The only two white Christmas's I've seen in Georgia in real damn close to 58 yrs now was two years when I was about 12 or 13 when we had back to back ice storms for Christmas.

But that doesn't keep everyone from saying that they wish for a white Christmas..........and it would be nice to be stranded wherever you are with a blanket of snow to muffle the sounds and make you glad to be inside with friends and loved ones
..............sooooooooooo

Let it Snow

Counting down

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Not long now boy and girls...........Soon the Jolly old elf, Santa Clause hisownself will be paying a visit to every girl and boy. At least that's what all the retailers would have you believe. 98 more hours to go........have you finished your shopping and preparing?
On the other hand Christian Churches across the land are having or preparing to have programs devoted to showing how Christ was born in a cattle shed and then laid in a manger where shepards and wise men came to pay him homage...........completely ignoring that it was more likely spring (maybe April)when he was born, and if the Star started shining when he was born the the Wise Men would have had to travel weeks if not months to come from maybe Persia or areas around Iran or Iraq to see the child.
But don't worry about revisionist history.........the child Emanuel is the point of the story.............a gift to mankind.

I love this time of the year. Cool weather.......even a little ice in the water bucket of a morning.....always makes us think that there is just a chance we'll see a white Christmas here in NE Georgia. The neighbor borrowed my ladder to hang lights along the eves on the front of his house (after much threatening from his wife). So far I haven't seen them burning........maybe they'll wait till Christmas Eve.

All my moneys are spent, I'm at the mercy of the weather and the Fed Ex deliveries until after the big day, and then another looong weekend for New Years.

So I'll be spending a lot of time roaming the blogosphere, reading about all the festivities around the country and listening to classic Christmas songs on youtube.com. I'm too cheap to actually go out and buy the CDs or anything.

So I think I'll post one of what I listen to hear each night. You will have likely heard it 10 times the day before.......but I'll tell you a secret..............I'm doing this for me.......'cause I love Christmas.

Let's try a little Sinatra, shall we?



Dang,......now I want some Egg Nog and it's to late to go to the store.

Traditions

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Ask most anyone who knows me at all and they'll likely tell you I'm an opinionated, stubborn, throwback to a different time and era. Is this a bad thing?

Do any of you remember when singers could sing and enunciate the words at the same time. I know that it's not just because i need bionic ears.........really I only got them so the wife would stop shouting at me. What I really need are mufflers for the ringing in my ears and the advertising jingles that repeat over, and over, and over, like an eight year old in the backseat of a '59 Mercury repeating endlessly "are we there yet?"...........sort of like me when I read the directions on the shampoo bottle........."Lather, rinse, repeat.......Lather, rinse, repeat....Lather, rinse, repeat.......

Anyway, I was driving the Red Ram around the highways and byways and on the radio (AM.....OK......it's my radio) comes this caterwauling and screeching like I'd never heard before. I pull over to the side and try to figure out what's wrong with the speakers.........till I realize there's nothing wrong on this end, but on the other end is some diva or other (maybe that Cilon Dejon Canadian twig) singing her version of Silent Night. Every other word....and it's in French or some foreign sounding heathen tongue (she's Canadian fer Christ's sake, an English Commonwealth country, speak English stupid)..........she's shrilling like a cat with her tail caught under a rocking chair..........hitting notes that would crack a walnut much less crystal. I mean this broad (Ha nothing wide about her) is trying to impress everyone with how long she can go between breaths.........or when we'll stuff our fingers in our ears.

What happened to the good old days when you could listen to a song and the beauty and emotion came through with the clarity of the words.

Something like ol' Bing here.........



Or even that Redheaded cowgirl, Reba



Don't go messing with my Traditions

In the Garden

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I guess I attended about half of the memorial services for the 100 or so Troops we lost from my unit along the DMZ more than half a lifetime ago. Most of them I knew........slightly or better. In an aviation unit all the pilots know each other and their crews and mechanics.. The infantry squad was less well known but familiar on sight. Being back at the base at night mostly we weren't out on patrol so were expected to attend. As is right and proper.......

But, somewhere in there, it just was enough, and any excuse could be found not to attend. That way you could pretend that it wasn't anyone you knew. One day they were there........and then.......simply not. Don't ask, Don't tell........no one needs to think about it. Higher ups who had been there any time at all wouldn't give you any grief about it although their sense of duty required their attendance no matter their preferences.

As you age you gain a perspective about the whole live or die thing and it generally becomes easier. If you're a believer it's a thing to look forward to (although you don't want to rush things. If you're not then it doesn't matter anyway except that you'll be shorter of acquaintances than before.

Whence this navel gazin' you may ask? Damn if'n I know. Not sure how I got there but for you who enjoy fine writing and story telling that'll draw you to the conclusion like a risin’ will always pop, ease on over Here and read all three tales.

Mostly I don't think you'll be sorry you did.

Perhaps you'll remember someone like the little lady who heard ghosts.

Taboos

I've often heard that there are two topics which are not to be mentioned in civil discourse or polite society as they are sure to cause conflict.

I've sometimes been called polite, but rarely civil. I'll certainly extend to you the same and more courtesy as you extend to me, but it irks me something fierce to have to put up with someone who is an asshole or claims to know better than I what is best for me.

I read somewhere that there is no sin in enlightened self interest. Probably a libertarian concept or something from an Ayn Rand novel, although it may have been addressed in The Law by Fredrick Bastait. I'll have to go back and check.

Nevertheless I look with skepticism on those who put them self forward as knowing what is best for me and everyone else and will provide same if we will only vote or follow them to the promised land, especially if it requires me to turn over control of any aspect of my life to them, the government, a particular party or cause. I know what I believe and exactly why. I can tell you the place, time and date.......and a lot of the reasons. I don't ask that you believe me......only that you accept that I believe it.

We have over 10 months till the next national election. People have been campaigning since the last one 3 years ago. Very few are putting forth radical new solutions to the problems we all face. Most are more interested in convincing us of why we shouldn't vote for the next guy or gal. If truths are distorted, or stretched, if honesty has to take a back seat, that is excused in the name of electing whoever so they can push thru whatever scheme they hatched last night or took from the communist manifesto and sugar coated it.

I looked for some one or group to break out of these norms and give me something to hope for. Still looking. But there is one group which is trying to effect change in a rational and unique way. A way that requires people to decide what is important to them and our nation as a whole.

You can read their proposed platform HERE
if you've a minute or an inclination to. If not, that's OK too. Your actions are only relevant to me inasmuch as I'll consider them when I decide what I'll do to either accept them or decide how I'll avoid the consequences of them.

Oh, yeah, the two subject are politics and religion. Mother's milk here in the Kudzu grotto.

Home again........

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...........jiggity jog.

Just returned from an overnight visit with the missus up to N.C. visiting daughter Joy and her family. An early Christmas visit as they will not be coming down here to Georgia this year because her husband has a doctors visit scheduled for the 26th. He had surgery on his neck in September to fuse 3 vertebrae damaged when another driver rear ended the work truck he was in. Several months of preoperative doctoring and physical therapy gave no relief and surgery was the only alternative. He's doing well but still not 100% with a good bit of pain yet.

Don't you just love the excitement of young children (they are 8 (girl) and 4 (boy) years old) when they get Christmas presents they really love. I had more fun watching them last night than would have seemed possible to me. Really put me in the Christmas spirit, especially listening to them unconsciously singing Christmas songs as they played.

Today we got some much needed rain which made for a dreary and cool day.

I was a little anxious about leaving so late from their home since my eyes still see halo's around oncoming car lights at night after the lasix vision correction. But we made it mostly OK.

Well.........if you discount the fact that I didn't quite get slowed down in time to miss the second deer about 20 miles away from home. The Red Ram 1500 showed only a slight bit of damage to the front bumper, but I'll bet the deer fared somewhat worse due to being smacked at about 35 miles per hour by a 5000 pound truck and then run over by the wheels. By the time we got away from the little bit of traffic and found a spot to look for damage the deer was either off to the side where we couldn't find it or made it farther than one would expect. Glad it didn't happen on I 85 while doing 70 in heavy traffic and rain. That probably wouldn't have been a pretty sight.

We did see the result of 3 different crashes on the way home, caused no doubt, by the combination of speed and wet highway. No one hurt apparently but one sporty little car in particular won't ever see the highway again.

Hope you all arrive safely if you travel during the Christmas holidays.

The back deck

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I sit on the back deck after dark, watching the stars that manage to shine through the surrounding lights of houses and security lights. The air is warm and calm, belying the nearness of official winter only 9 days away.
Airplanes pass silently overhead from west to east, flashing their lights of white, green and blue.
She comes padding silently on bare feet to lean between my legs and rest her head upon my chest. Wordlessly demanding my attention, insisting that I stroke her head and neck, she is totally mesmerized by my touch, seemingly aware only of the touch of my hand and soft murmurs of affection, she arches her back and snuggles close as if to merge our two bodies into one.
We stay like that, enjoying one anothers company, the warm night air, the leafless white oak rising massive against the night sky, two tall thin pines standing silent sentinel by the back fence.
No irritating buzz of insects as in summer, only the distant bark and call of neighboring dogs. She has no hidden agenda, no ulterior motive........wanting only to be as near to me as she possibly can, touching and being touched. Love totally communicated, loyalty eternally pledged....peace surrounds us and calm washes over us like the warm waters of a jungle pool.

As I gaze into her eyes outlined in black against her white face......smoothing the hair behind her ears.............she looking lovingly back, then........

........licks my face.


Damn dog..........I think you need a bath.

The good thing about Grand children

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It is often said that the good thing about Grand children is that you can play with them a while, keep them a while, enjoy them a while, be frustrated that an eighteen month old can be so independent, spoil them, and then give them back to their parents.

We had a great weekend for watching the youngest. The temperature was mild (got into the 70's today) not too much wind. Her mother and father went deer hunting, also the paternal grandparents, so we were elected, or blessed, take your pick.

Unfortunately both the grandbaby and grand mother picked this weekend to be sick. Wife had a sinus infection and the baby a cough and runny nose.

This didn't seem to affect Callie's desire to play and generally keep us entertained. She played so hard it wore both of us out. Naturally drawn more to her grandmother (she sees me as the one that puts her to sleep in the easy chair) she proceeded to have to be fed, play with the etch-a-sketch, blocks, demand to be read to, play dress up with strings of beads and frustrate the pooch by repeatedly telling him "NO, NO Toto" (her version of Toby) and trying to keep her treats out of his reach. The poor wife was soon down for the count and had to lie down so it fell to me to be the host.

I'm here to confess that they don't make a vitamin B12 pill strong enough to keep up with her, but finally she was calling for her baby (doll) and milk.. Rubbing her eyes in frustration for they were disobeying her by trying to close. Took me the better part of half an hour reading, singing, rocking and finally just letting her cry to get her and I an hour and half nap, only to be awakened to be sent out for burgers for supper. Bedtime was another case of letting her get so tired that she couldn't resist the sand man.

E. T. Sullivan once wrote these interesting words: “When God wants a great work done in the world or a great wrong righted, he goes about it in a very unusual way. He doesn’t stir up his earthquakes or send forth his thunderbolts. Instead, he has a helpless baby born, perhaps in a simple home and of some obscure mother. And then God puts the idea into the mother’s heart, and she puts it into the baby’s mind. And then God waits. The greatest forces in the world are not the earthquakes and the thunderbolts. The greatest forces in the world are babies.”

I'm here to affirm that when it comes to resisting the wants and needs of a small child I'm always in that proverbial tight spot between an irresistible force and an immovable object. Sweet torture. And they do change me more than I care to admit.

We hear and read on a regular basis of someone abusing a child. I'm not talking about a little spanking to get their attention, which is sometimes necessary, but acts of cruelty so horrific that even I (who sometimes wishes the darkside wasn't so alluring) can't wrap my mind around it.

Just an ol' softy noodling at the keyboard here in the kudzu grotto.

The power of the internet

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According to THIS nbc has had a change of heart. The article says nothing about what was surely a massive amount of negative emails and phone call, but you know they didn't just suddenly grow a conscience or heart.

Middle America needs to realize the tremendous amount of influence we can have on public officials and life for good. The blog world changes everything.

We ought to now email them and thank them for running the ad, and advise them that we will be watching their programing with a critical eye expecting them to cater to their base instead of trying to shovel their own ideology down our throats. We don't have to continue to eat shit and like it.

Intention

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Dr Wayne Dyer has a book out (out for a while now) called the "Power of Intention".

I've not read it but have seen parts of his speeches based on the book aired on PBS. (and you thought all I watched was Porn and Action Movies with Steven Segal or Chuck Norris) Ha.
Anywho as all who know me suspect, I don't have a real job, but I do piddle at things which I happen to have an interest in and enjoy. So.......i get up around 7:30 am most days. Occasionally a little earlier, (depends on how good breakfast smells)sometimes a little later.

This Phd (piled higher and deeper) suggests that there is a power of intention in the universe coming from God or whomever you prefer which intends for all people to have and do good. I have no idea whether he is right or wrong. I just know when I go out with the intention of having a good productive day, it seems to happen that I will.

I left out with the intention of going to pay a debt. (which I did) Along the way I stopped at a few of the places I frequent in my piddling, and as I did so I picked up about 2 lbs of silver, 1/2 lb of scrap gold and about 3 carats of fair diamonds. With these I intend to turn a profit.

Let's hope the Gods of intention are as nice to me as the Weather Gods, who intended that I have a nice sunny day...........and I did.

Hope you intend for your tomorrow to be a good one.

The day before

The day before....... we were contented enough. Work was picking up in many areas. New industries were being started to produce goods not needed or wanted a couple of years before. The government had many job programs available for those who wanted a steady paycheck. You might be building roads, parks or dams, but you had a job. Many still weren't able to say that. Farming as always was hard, grueling, sweaty work, but prices were picking up and if you didn't have too much debt or the drought hadn't run you off, you at least had a roof over your head and enough to eat......grown in your own garden.

Sure there was talk of trouble in other places, but we had the barrier of two vast oceans between us and them. Goods were sent, more promised, hopefully, that would be our contribution.

The day after.................we were at war. Out Pacific Fleet for the most part lay in ruins......smoking and sinking to the bottom of the harbor few had heard of. Men and even women were lining up to volunteer to go fight the foes of this country, and our politicians were united behind a president that had to make the most difficult decisions of his lifetime, and he rose to the challange............WE rose to the challenge.............

The challenge handed to us on Dec. 7th, 1941. A day that will live in infamy.........and honored memory for the valiant patriots that answered the call.

Today we live in greater wealth than those hardy souls of 66 years ago could have imagined. People, machines, industry, money, information move with speeds undreamed of a short time ago.

We have more of everything...................

......or do we?

Well that cuts it

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I am now offically on Owlgore's shit list as being a contributor to global warming.

They have apparently never walked under a forest covered with Kudzu and felt how much cooler the air is there. And when the kudzu is in bloom the lavender fragrance takes you away from the cares of the world and induces relaxation an such a sense of well being that actual cognitive thoughts begin to form in your brain and you realize that all these global warming nuts are full of shit for brains and will say anything to make you think that they are true conservationists and are going to save the world for the spotted owl.

Buncha freaking nuts

Taking action

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Taking action without thinking is the cause of every failure.

Your ability to think is the most valuable trait that you possess

If you improve the quality of your thinking, you improve the quality of your life......

...........Sometimes Immediately.

Shit.....

.....Now they tell me.

Family ties

One of the advantages of growing older is that you learn that most people don't expect you to hold your stomach in as far as you once did. (Not that you can anyway). The sand has a way of shifting and the cement settles lower and lower.

Another is that you have (hopefully) gained at least a little wisdom over the years, although after recording my experiences with frost and ice on the back ramp you would think I'd learned a little wisdom from that. Not so, however as my first step down it this morning dumped me unceremoniously on my ass once again, with my right elbow flung out to act as a brace, failing in that assignment and feeling all day as it it were dislocated. It's not, but lifting my arm above my floating ribs requires some help from the left arm. At least pain let's you know you're still alive.

Which brings me to the meat of the post at last.

One of the disadvantages is that you can lose contact with varied relatives for many reason, and then receive a call telling of one of your cousins who died today.

My dad came from a large family with 7 children. Maybe one of the reasons he and mom had 6. My Aunt Margret (his older sister) called a short time ago. One of my Aunt Mary Lou's children (she also had seven) died this afternoon. Cancer apparently. Of the Liver. Found earlier this year during a checkup for a hernia, he, having not insurance and money, let the disease take it's course. To, of course, the inevitable end.

Aunt Mary Lou lost her husband earlier this year. He was a Veteran of WWII and spent a year or two in German POW camps. So she has had her share of grief the last year or so.

If any of you feel motivated to, pray for her and her family. And then give a prayer of thanks for the family and friends around you. They may not be there the next time you think to look.

Tis' the season

Now that the tryptophan has finally started to wear off from the excess of gluttony Thursday past we can finally start working on the pre-Christmas rounds of snacking on all the sugary sweets that are served up by varied and sundry at get together's from now until New Years.

One of my all time favorite sweet things to eat are Sugar Cookies. These were always a favorite around the old home place at Christmas time and were always left out for Santa, along with a tall cold glass of 100% pure non-homogenized, non-pasteurized, fresh from the cows, that day, milk. My dad always called them Tea Cakes. For many years I would always make 12 or 15 dozen and wind up eating most of them myself, along with as much fresh dough as I could stand. Sometimes they're left on a friends doorstep secretly just before Christmas.

Another favorite was Fruit Cake. Many disparage the noble Fruit Cake, but I've always enjoyed it. Homemade by my mother (my dad liked it made a month before and soaked in rum) was of course the Gold Standard, however, in a pinch the Claxton Fruit Cake made in Claxton, Georgia will suffice. For nigh onto 3/4 a century they've dedicated themselves to this gooey delicacy.

The best cake for the Christmas season and the one that lingers upper most in my memory was the Japanese Fruit Cake that my Grandmother made. More like a traditional cake with nuts, raisins, and Coconut in either a 3 layer or 4 layer style, this single thing most means Christmas edibles to me.

I very rarely these days get to enjoy one. Grandmothers and Mothers pass on and if your bride considers it too much work............well, you do without. Not having a tree or lights up is no hardship since we always travel to our oldest daughters home for Christmas and her siblings have there own families and homes now. We all get together to feast, open presents, talk about hunting or the good old days. But something always seems to be missing.

Perhaps it's the cake.

Ooooohhhhhh!!

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You know you've eaten too much thanksgiving turkey when your back starts hurting under the left shoulder blade and then the pain moves to just right of your left nipple and you start wondering if you're old enough to have a heart attack. Then you count 'em up and decide that of course your are. You try to determine if you have eaten sufficiently healthy all of your life and the answer comes back.......Of course not. I mean come on.......all of those biscuits and gravy......the country ham and all the porkchops with the fat left on for the added taste.

You start taking your pulse......trying to determine if it's just a gas bubble or maybe a muscle twitch.......after all you did walk to the mailbox yesterday instead of letting the truck roll back 100 feet, get out, walk 20 ft across the road and back, then drive back up the drive.

No pains in the left arm...that's good.....take a couple asprins and some Malox. Maybe a little nap will help.

Come on sweet darkness, do your worst. Hell holds no horrors I haven't already experienced or imagined. If there is no hereafter it won't matter and if there is all will be forgiven.





(Burp)




Thanks God

For those who may have noticed..........

.
.......that I don't seem to have as much to rant about as in days of yore, you're right.

When I, after almost 6 years of service to my country, returned to the family farm, I noticed almost immediately that I had lived in a thermos container which had been tossed out, along with the other trash, onto a planet somewhere in a different dimension that was a passable imitation of the dimension I'd been raised in, but, was as different as night and day.

This may have had something to do with the large amounts of TCP which was spewed into the atmosphere in America while I was away, or the copious amounts that emanated from the pores and clothes of most of the enlisted men (this being before some wise ass came up with the idea that women could do anything more than be clerks and camp followers, with the exception of nurses, who were automatically made officer material and so, hopefully, wouldn't mix with the Hoi Poli, and could successfully hump a 60 lb rucksack with the best of them.)

Whatever the reason, I had landed someplace strange.

A land where an ever increasing percentage of the population wanted........NO.....demanded that government should take more and more responsibility for their pathetic little live and especially the education and daily care of their pathetic offspring. Where the old saying that "those who can't do.......teach but you by god better not hold my kid responsible for actually learning anything of substance, nor expect we the parents to have any control over them. But, you better not lay a hand on them if they decide to rape a 8 year old girl on the bus. You should have taught them better.

Anyway, I just don't have it in me to rant on and try to convince others that there is a better way.

Besides, there are so many others who can elucidate the problems more literately and eloquently than I.

Fred is back. Go see what he has to say HERE.

Fall Road Trip

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Today was one of those almost perfect fall days. It started out a little cool, just enough to require a light jacket, with a turquoise blue sky, and that crisp clean snap to the air that makes your blood stir with just a hint of desire to travel to the hills.



The weather has been so dry this year that the leaves are sure to put on a show. We had a little rain the other night and wind the next day so we need to go soon before the leaves are past their peak.

I've been installing plastic totes to the gutter downspouts so we can catch what little rain we can to water the dog and some of the young grass we've planted. 350 gallons each from only 3/4 inch of rain. I have two more 250 gallon each I'll place at one end of my new shop building.



So we set our course (the spouse, the pooch and I) up Hwy 441 to I 85 to Hwy 11 in South Carolina. We motored through Seneca, S.C. towards Clemson, home of the tigers, then north towards Salem on Hwy 130. (Had I known I could have just stayed on 11 most of the way up we could have shaved probably 30 minutes off the trip.)

The absence of cars along our intended route made this a distinctly pleasant trip. Much better that following everyone else up through Clayton, GA on Hwy 441 to Franklin, N.C. I can't abide crowds and especially crowds of idiots in cars.

Shortly after entering North Carolina we turned off to the right to the park, which is a part of the Nantahala National Park.

The first thing that surprised us was the fact that even though the weather has been below freezing up there, a couple of Rhododendron bushes still had blooms on them.



Beauty endures forever, even if it is a feeble reminder of the glory of days past.

The foliage on the trees above us contrasting with the blue sky put a little spring in our steps, aided of course by the pooch wanting to pull us up the trail.



The views from the overlook were still incredible though the water going over the falls is probably less than 25% of normal.



When seen at its full flow the noise is a roar that envelopes you and holds you enthralled. Todays noise was a pleasant background to the rustling of leaves and an occasional bird call.

We clambered down the 154 wooden steps to a lower vantage point ( I know, I had to climb back up). From the picture try to imagine the Cataract that would be falling if the full width of the gorge was filled with water.



Aided by our faithful pooch (who kept encouraging us up the steps) we retraced our steps to the top.



Part way down we sat for a few minutes just enjoying the view over Lake Toxaway



and raising our eyes to the heavens to witness the beauty that nature can provide even in times of need



And so home where I snored in the big black recliner while the minute hand circled the clock a little more than once around.

Hope your weekend was all you hoped it would be.

i get all bothered

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if I don't post something on this blog every few days at least.

Sundays post was a have to, because I'd just watched "We were Soldiers once" on TV. The completion of that title is of course "and young". which we were. I've always been embarrassed that some movies touch me more than I can let on and I have to shed a few private tears. Always have but we were raised to not cry or let anyone see.

Yeah, foolish I know. Goes with the "and young".

Of course I'm still sorta young to my way of thinking. When you intend to remain in this stage of life for 192 years, almost 58 is pretty young. Sorta like a hobbit. I'll begin to feel grown up about the time I reach eleventy one.

Been sorta hard to see the computer screen since Thursday when I put my precious vision into the hand of a certain colorful doctor here abouts and his bevy of attractive blond headed assistants and had interlase lasix surgery on the baby blues.

When I was still in short pants (which I never wore, so this is a bit of literary license) I had 20/15 vision in both eyes. Came in handy for spotting flies on the inside of the cockpit bubble. Since having to wear glasses for reading was a bother I thought I'd get all modern and everything and take advantage of the Star Trek technology available today. I'm proud to say that I again have 20/15 in the right (for distance) eye and 20/20 in the left (for reading) eye.

Just not at the distance which any reasonable person would sit from a computer screen. So everything on the panel is fuzzy. They say it will improve, but, as ever, I want what I want, right now.

I was glad of the Valium they gave before the procedure. Both of them. Should have made it 3 or 4 since I still hated having them fool around with my eyes.

The ironic thing though is that as misty as I get watching movies such as the above mentioned, I seem to have something known now as Dry Eye syndrome. There has to be a problem for everything so the pharmaceutical companies can continue turning out massive quantities of heretofore unheard of remedies for brand new problems. Now if they'd only come out with better pills for the nosies in my head.

But I'm much better now doc, just keep those electrodes away from the kudzu grotto.

No Words

They're for the most part meaningless.

Just Tears.

And a remembrance that for every minute of every hour of this 24 hour period, 40 young men, and some women, of all races, creeds and colors, died in a far off distant land that was our war.
And so many others in other wars that supposedly protected or furthered the interests of this country.

You may not recognize them on the street, they look much as you or I, but if you could see inside their eyes, for only a brief moment, your outlook would be changed forever.

A most heart felt thank you to all Veterans who served, some to the last drop of devotation within their hearts, and especially to those who remain.

Thank YOU.

Fall

Is beginning to really look like it around these parts.

Some of the leaves are starting to take on that dying golden tint



and will soon be all over the yard and in the gutters.



Down to almost freezing tonight, they say.

Makes one appreciate the flannel sheets on the bed.

Soon we'll be fighting to see which one of us can use the pooch to curl up next to our back.

At last.......

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........after much lifting, nailing and stretching, and once placing too much trust in a 2 x 6, which led to falling off the top and having the same (now broken) 2 x 6 knock me out on the way to the floor, I have the storage building to the point where I spent the weekend filling it half full of Stuff I hadn't seen for the most part in over a year. Which leads one to wonder what the hell I need all this for. Well, I did find a TV that I didn't remember we had, but obviously I didn't have a crying need for it. It does give me room to walk around and look at all the stuff I probably don't have a real need to possess. But It's mine, by damn and for the minor cost of renting a storage unit for 4 years I now have it right out back.

Still not quite complete,



Less than half the "stuff'



Another less than half



After I get some electricity out there I'll be prepared if I'm regulated to the dog house. Well, except for plumbing. I can always keep a roll of Charmin out back of the building on a stick.

Life, Liberty, Property

"God grants liberty only to those who love it, and are always ready to guard and defend it."
Daniel Webster

Far be it from me to try to argue with Ol’ Daniel, I'd just add that sometimes you have to love it more than TV, weekends, Nascar, or life.


I particularly like this speech

Tears of the Sun

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Just watched Tears of the Sun on DVD for the umpteenth time. We got a "new to us" JVC 55 inch TV for $150.00 Saturday. Moved the old 36 in. in to the old grumps room. The funny thing is that both of these sets came from the same guy. First he gave up the 36 in. because he was getting the bigger set. Now he's upgraded to a 62 in. plasma flat panel TV. Can hardly wait till he gets a full wall theater sized TV.

Perfect timing for the dish network to give out for a couple of days, hence the DVD.

All ways get a good feeling after watching this movie. It stars Demi Moore's ex husband, Bruce Willis. The funny thing is that I know there are really people like that serving in our armed forces. And that's a good thing and I'm really thankful that they are there.

Pray for their safety and protection. I will.

Bushed!!

No, I haven't been assaulted by the President, or anyone else for that matter.

It's just that in a 14 hour day I drove 400 miles, had 5 business meetings ranging from 10 minutes to just short of an hour.

I think I'm going to have myself a sticky bun, with a glass of milk, lick the sticky off my fingers and go to bed, where I'll put on my breathing mask and have dreams of flying a P-51 over the fatherland on the lookout for Stuka’s's or ME bf 109’s.

Thinks I hate

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Things I hate include, but are not limited to,

1. Bureaucrats who forget that they exist to serve the PEOPLE of this country.
2. Politicians who forget that they are supposed to serve.......(see above)
3. Lawyers who work to get around the guarantees and protections of the Constitution and Bill of Rights of The United States.
4. Bankers who feed us bullshit and keep us in the dark about the fact that our current money (Federal Reserve Notes) is backed by nothing and has no intrinsic value whatsoever.
5. AND ALL OTHER BOTTOM FEEDING SCUM SUCKERS WHO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF ALL THE ABOVE.

Having cleared my spleen of that, I'm of the firm opinion that if we as individuals would help one another like we are supposed to. I mean really care for one another, there would be much less want in this country.

My friend, The Lovely Livey, is in need of some new wheels. Or at least newer than falling apart around her ears old.

I propose a raising Livey a newer vehicle fund. Not many people read me, but if the idea was passed along, who knows what might happen.

Check out her blog, iffen you don't like her you don't ever have to visit again.

It'll be interesting to see where this all leads.

Or am I a Pollyanna in the Kudzu?

Does anybody know...

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.....anything about silver plate flatware?

I picked up a partial set of National Silver Co. AA Plus spoons, forks, knives plus a few other pieces from another maker today?




Have I found anything, or did I waste my money?
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Look into the light.

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That's supposedly what they'll tell you when you're having laser vision correction done.

Went to a short seminar tonight to see what the procedure consists of and how much the cost might be. I'm tired of getting a new eyeglass prescription and 2 months later my eyes have changed so that one eye is fine and the other is starting to blur or feel like it can't keep up with the other.

I can remember when one of my sisters got contact lenses and the doctor couldn't fit them in his office because she became hysterical when anybody got close to her eyes, then she got one in at home and immediately it worked it's way to the top of her eyeball and mama and I had to hold her down to get it out. Sorry Sis. I know how you feel about anybody fooling with your eyes. I'm the same way. When they had to measure the pressure on our eyeballs in the army I wanted them to give me Valium or let me get drunk first. I hated that shit!

Nowadays the ophthalmologist uses machines to map your eyeballs and vision. The results are input to a computer which plots exactly what needs to be done to give you better than perfect vision. All the doctor has to do is keep you calm with drugs and eye numbing drops and talk you through the procedure which expensive machines do in less time than it takes to tell about it.

At $2500.00 per eye, each one of which is completed in less than a minute, they can afford to have a couple of half million dollar machines and a host of cute female assistants hustle you in and out like cars on an assembly line.

All that medical stuff on Star Trek in the 60's is almost here. I'm just looking forward to the day when they can transplant brains like McCoy did to Spock. About the time I'm drooling and trying to remember how to put on my pants they can just scoop mine out and replace it with some jock's that couldn't keep his foot off the accelerator and tried to make it around Dead man's Curve.

We Got Some Rain!!!!!!!

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Hooray, Hooray!!! we got some rain early this morning while I slept. About 3/4's of an inch according to the rain gauge on the oak stump.

Yesterday while we were expecting rain I cut one of the downspouts and routed it into a 350 gallon tank. When I looked out this morning it was nearly full. Over 300 gallons from just one downspout.. Had I had 3 other tanks as I plan to, I would have about 1000 gallons of free water to water the yard, flowers, even put in a small goldfish pond if I were so inclined.

Makes one think of all the abundance that we just ignore at our peril. Cities are feuding over water around here. Seems that if the government wanted to do something constructive they would build more public lakes, even smallish ones, for the times of need.

Didn't some wise ruler once save Egypt by storing up for the lean times?

I'm no greenie, in fact I find most of them sorta foolish whining about why the government doesn't do something, when if they would only do something themselves they would accomplish more good.

We were supposed to get rain

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It would be an answer to lots of prayers here abouts. I went through a couple of years drought back when dairy farming, and it was bad. I didn't think we were going to survive for a while. We had to buy hay from Wisconsin at what we thought were outrageous prices. But we made it.

This drought is much worse. Total outdoor watering bans in most of the surrounding counties.

An eternal optimist, I plowed and seeded my yard last weekend.

It looked like rain this morning. I worried that Home Depot wouldn't be able to bring out my building supplies. All we had was dust.

I started me a small storage and shop building just after lunch.

Before picture:




By supper time:





And the morning and the afternoon were the first day.

It took them long enough.

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To confirm what Carl Sagan told us 20 years ago.

The speed of light is 186,282 miles per second in a vacuum. I've never been in a vacuum, but, I was once in an altitude chamber with the air sucked out to simulate being at over 40,000 ft above sea level. Then we took our oxygen masks off to see if we could tell when we noticed anything like passing out.


I was doing real well up to about the 4 minute mark when they told me to put the mask back on. I heard the words, I knew what they meant, but I was incapable of acting on what I knew and was told. Thankfully the government doesn't like to let all that money they spent on junior birdmen go to waste, and they put my mask on for me..

If aliens ever suck all the oxygen out of our atmosphere, we'll just quietly keel over dead thinking everything is hunky-dory as our lungs keep expanding and contracting until the brain shuts down for good.

But back to this article. Apparently anytime we look up in the sky we are looking at the past. The more distant the object the further in the past we're looking. If we find Proxima Centauri in a telescope we see light beamed earthward over 4 years ago.

Some say that pictures from the Hubble Telescope show galaxies 15 billion light years ago. Are they still there? If we could travel faster than light would we arrive where they are supposed to be, to find only rubble, the results of inter-galactic warfare perhaps?

Einstein's theories supposedly tell us we'll never be able to break the light barrier. I prefer to think that anything the mind of man can conceive, man can achieve someday.

Does this contradict what bible believers think, that the earth is only 6000 years or so old? It always strikes me as a little arrogant for anyone to claim to know the mind and will of God in as much as it relates to his purpose for us. If intelligence is the glory of God, shouldn't we best be trying to obtains as much of intelligence as possible? It strikes me as a little demeaning to think that an intelligent creator would want us to sit around on clouds singing hosannas for eternity, or to never discover how to travel to the farthest reaches of space one day.

Or should I pull the Kudzu up over my head in an effort to hide from his wrath?

Lord........what fools .........

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........we mortals be.

We have enough food to make the majority of us, if not obese, at least with a more than healthy layer of fat stored. We spend energy like it is de-valued instead of costing more every day.. We work overtime to the ruin of our health...... and families. We have at our disposal a wealth of time and effort saving appliances, and want more.

We're like the squirrel running out every limb of the hickory tree in the yard to make sure there isn't another nut that hasn't been checked.

Makes me wish sometimes to be a hawk, floating on the updrafts and currents, dipping and rolling with the pure pleasure of being alive to witness all that can be seen.

What will we see..........when we look back???

Change in the weather

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OK, OK, I know that I complain about every thing, but this mornings cooler weather has me drawing up and thinking about maybe a long sleeved shirt.

As a true blue son of the South, it takes my patrician blood a little longer to adjust to cold snaps than I'd like. A nice 75 degrees year round would be much more to my liking. Where's Noble Peace Prize winner Al Gore's vaunted global warming now?

You just know that the Noble Prize committee lost what very little credibility they had left when they hung that medal around his neck. About as much credibility as Britteny Spears winning Mother of the Year.

Old Alfred Noble's guilt for inventing Dynamite all those years ago has carried down through the years, causing great peals of laughter to ring out from thinking individuals around the world whenever they call someone like Jimmuh Carter, Arafat, or Algore deserving of that award.

Shivering like a dog passing razor blades here in 48 degree weather. Whatta wuss.

Just a little too DAMNED close

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We've been mighty dry in these parts folks. So much so that we're under a stage four or five watering ban. Which means that we're not supposed to wash our trucks or water our lawns at all. Course there may be exceptions if you have the money to have new landscaping put in. (for a 30 day period)

So it was with a grateful heart that I saw the clouds begin to build in the sky on my way home this afternoon. Even went through a couple of showers just north of town. They seemed to be moving closer to home as I arrived. They held off long enough for me to get into the house and settle down a little then started a nice slow sprinkle while I was in the back yard, which caused me to give a little prayer of thanks and welcome.

Just before supper I was sitting here looking out the window and wishing I had had time to unload the back of the truck, when KABLOOOWY right out in the yard a huge bolt of lightning cracked across the window with instantaneous thunder.

Seconds later I saw a cloud of red oak leaves fall to the ground and my tightened throat managed to croak out, "Shit, that hit something". Never let it be said that I am at a loss for words in a crisis situation.

I've never been personally struck by lightning, but, I have seen the destructive force that it possesses, having had cattle killed, equipment ruined and a quarter mile of barbed wire fence vaporized. I know enough to get in out of the rain and especially thunderstorms.

This was a relatively light strike as these things go. But consider that the following pictures are of a tree only 75 feet or so from where I was sitting.





Glad I wasn't out walking the dog. Needless to say he was looking for places to hide in the house and none of them were suiting him, so he was trotting around in circles, panting like a race horse.

Hope the tree doesn't die. Will know by next spring I suppose.

How old

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were you, when you realized you can barely change yourself, much less the world.

Fade to black.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4aNuyNk8nro

We think that it cannot happen again.

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WARNING; NSFW OR THE SQUEAMISH


But history has always taught at least one thing.

Those who do not learn from it, make a great mistake that will inexorably lead to it's repeating.

Pamela has posted a Hitchcock Film suppressed for two generations.

Does it apply today?

It does if we allow the enemy to gain the strength and authority that the Nazi's possessed.

Evil triumphs, when good men do nothing to prevent. Thanks God for our GOOD men and women.

WARNING; NOT FOR THE FAINT OF HEART. DO NOT WATCH IF YOU DON'T WANT TO CONFRONT THE DEMONS THAT LURK WITHIN US ALL.

It's Good to Know.........

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........That there are men and women like this
With all the blather about politics and war, evil doings, foot tapping Senators, kneeling interns, and which celeb is in rehab this week, showing off their shaved pudenda, or putting their big foot in their mouth, it's nice to celebrate determination, commitment and a drive to succeed at a task one sets for themselves.

It's too easy to dwell on the inane and senseless things of the world. Far better to think about the inspiring and noble things.

When all children think about is how their going to be the next NBA, or MLB superstar, or want to emulate the latest Hip-hop rapper or winner of American Idol and obtain wealth and ease with little or no effort to increase their intellect or the size of their dreams, we lose something that might have been.

How much better to seek to enrich and en-noble and leave, for a little while, the base and mundane.

Just my view from the Kudzu.

A train wreck once started

"A train wreck once started goes to completion.

And the policeman cometh. He cannot, I think, be stopped. The abolitions of the Bill of Rights, the ever increasing surveillance, the diminished recourse of citizens against the government—these are not business as usual. They have happened before, in bits and pieces, but now they become respectable. The CIA has always tortured people and the FBI has always engaged in illegal phone-tapping and political persecution. Yet in the past they didn’t want to be caught because consequences might follow. These are now federal policy, openly admitted. The government keeps records of the books you read in the airport. This is something different.

And it can’t be stopped. Actually it is wild and fun when viewed as entertainment. What a show: The United States is close to one-man rule. Congress is complicit, the Supreme Court a nursing home. No serious opposition exists. If Bush leaves office in 2008, the incoming president will continue the trends of today. The effects begin to show. People grow ever more docile, accustomed to intimidation, to searches without cause. Several writers of my acquaintance no longer question federal policy. They are afraid.

And we are going to see this show through to the end. In a dismal way it is funnier than Oprah."


I hope He doesn't go away for good, but if he does I understand. I feel much the same myself. Only I don't have the wherewithal to move to Mexico. Although if I could it would probably be Argentina.

Seems like we already tried this once.

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As a son of the South, and having read somewhat more history than most of the great unwashed out here, I find my sympathies residing with the confederacy in the War between the States. Give the times and circumstances, and the knowledge that this country was a Union of Individual States, it seems reasonable that if compromise could not be reached a separation of that union should have been possible.

Despite that I'm glad that Union was maintained. We are a better country together than we would be as individuals separated.

With the increasing encroachment of government into every part and particle of our lives today I do not agree. We lose much when we try to shoehorn every person into a homogeneous mass all thinking, acting and marching in step with the orders of folk who have forgotten they were once us.

So while I have removed myself from the dictates of government to the limited extent that I am able, I find myself almost hopeful that these groups of dreamers meet with some success. If only to cause some few to rouse themselves from their NFL, WWF, look for the weekend to Parrrr..Tay opiated dreams.

Home from War

SAFE
.

Breakfast of Champions

.

Damn the cholesterol, bring it on.

Hot biscuits, Country ham, sorghum syrup and apple butter. Not homemade apple butter but good nonetheless.

Oh boy.......or girl

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Watching the granddaughter this week while parents on Pronghorn hunt. Picked her up from day care yesterday.

Crabby doesn't begin to describe it. would not sleep with out someone holding her. Finally put her in bed with me around 1:00 this morning where she slept till 6:00.

Worse today. Found sores on her mouth, which pain her very much. Doctor visit this afternoon if her grandmother and I survive. We will. Right now she is finally eating some cream of mushroom soup. Seems to feel a little better with a little something in her tummy.

Meanderings

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...My God.....
It was a day to be alive.


Sunlight
bright enough to illuminate
the corners of your soul.

Air
that penetrated
to the bottom of your lungs

a breeze
... to bring
the rustle of the leaves
and the twitter of birds
and scratching of squirrels...

into focus.


you could feel
the pulse of the earth
beneath your feet
as it leads...

ever deeper...
into the euphoria
of just being

it is.........

almost


...enough

Stories.............

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..."the story of our life is,.... in the end, not our life.......it is our story".

Changes

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Today we had one of those early fall, near perfect, days where the sky is a perfect blue bowl overhead, the air is clear with no haze, you can still wear short sleeves without being either too hot or too cool.

It was just a pleasure to be outside. It would have been better of course if I had been in the mountains walking beside a stream or overlooking a valley from the mountain heights, or cruising a winding road punishing the tires and brakes on the curves and switch backs.

Here in NE GA the seasons sort of sneak up on you in subtle ways until you look around and say in surprise "hey, this is fall", or some other season. Of course our springs turn to summer before the official date, and we can have tee shirt weather up until Christmas sometimes. Nothing as definitive as my sister's weather up in the northern part of Maine, but then, we're not likely to get snow in September or June either.

It's way too easy to not pay attention to the progression of the days and nights. We just had the harvest moon this week. When I was younger running the dairy farm clear nights with a full moon would catch me gazing up in wonder at the sky. And as the moon waned gibbous I'd remember that man once strode (well, hopped and shuffled) across the barren whiteness of our nearest neighbor.

Will the country that set it's flag on the surface of that old moon be the ones to go back and really claim it for mankind? Or will we trade our inheritance for a mess of porridge, and cower lest someone accuse us of not caring about the children?

Is this really radical??

.
"Levees shouldn’t break. Bridges shouldn’t fall. The Detroit school system should not cheat three out of every four entering freshmen."

Stolen with h/t from Here.

Can we blame these things on politicians and bureaucrats?

Why should it take Sparrow’s company 10 to 12 months to get a new permit for something that was already permitted.

I rant and rave because, like most people, I don't believe we have to behave stupidly, and against our own best self interest. Either our own interests or our society's interests.

But WTH do I know. Pill time will be in an hour and shortly after that I'm sure I'll feel much better. Not as good as a fine Cognac, but I don't fall down as much either.

Very Easy

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It is very easy to rant and rave about all the things one thinks is wrong with the world today. At least for the part of the world that I've lived in all my life. Of course I have many years to look back and count the changes from then to now. Nearly 58 of them which I consider not too many, and my kids and grandkids can't imagine reaching.

Lord knows that I have done more than my share over the last 33 years. Once I left the army I entered a world that I didn't recognize when I returned. Some part of us always wants to live in the past, although that is never possible. All we have is today and a hope for tomorrow.

My hope for tomorrow has always been to see it be better than either today or yesterday. In order to do that we have to remember the past mistakes and successes and build tomorrow on the desire to make it better.

I have for a number of years been disgusted by the direction the political world is heading. It's kinda like coming in from the yard and smelling dog shit on your shoe.

Of course it could be said of me that my political stance is somewhere to the far right of Attila the Hun, or Timur-a-ling. So none of the announced candidates of either party have yet to do anything about the smell in my opinion. (And I stress that this is only my opinion, you can have yours, simply allow me the same privilege).

I watched this evening a recording of a speech made in Michigan recently. I link it HERE for you to watch, or not, at your preference.

Seems like we could use a few new Solutions in America. What we got don't seem to work all that well in a political sense.

You see..........

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.......you just tug gently here and the whole human DNA unravels into one long strand.





She's going to be a Scientist or Astronaut. I just know it!

We get to keep her next week while mom and dad are on a hunting trip to Wyoming for mule deer.
I taught her mom to shoot starting around age 3. She's taken more deer than me. Which wasn't hard considering I never squeezed the trigger on one.

My kids all just amaze the heck out of me.

Oh My

.
What a day!

Up at 7pm because I forgot to put the cell phone on charge and it was still in the pants pocket at the foot of the bed when Don calls to ask what's going on.

People who get up and started before 5am should have some kind of a restrictor plate put on their phone until at least 8am. It wakes us (or at least me since the wife gets up around 5 but is generally quite about it) up and forces us to start the day, which I like to put off as much as possible since I don't have to open my eyes, or think for that matter.

But I was looking forward to getting a check, which was overnighted????, from Dallas on Friday. Called post office. Nothing. Probably coming via Fed Ex or something. Called Dallas. Yes, Fed Ex. Got tracking #. In Gainesville probably arrive in afternoon, thinks I. So I can make the 100 mile round trip for the 2 hour meeting in Hartwell. Surely be here when I get back, again, thinks I.

Needless to say, it's not. Use tracking # online........not delivered due to incorrect address......WTH. Call Fed Ex. Attempted delivery to address from a year ago. Dallas used my old address............not like they don't know where I live since I communicate via mail with them nearly every week.

To make a long story short, while talking to Fed Ex I climb back into the truck and head out, balls to the wall for Gainesville only to decide about 15 miles up the road that it would make far more sense to have them send it to Athens so I can pick it up at 9am rather than make the 200 mile round trip tonight when I wouldn't be able to do anything with it anyway.

Ya see, even I can have moments of cognitive thinking. I just have to be faced with the prospect of a 4 hour round trip.

So my butt hurts from all the driving and sitting today. I'll hopefully never have to put up with drooping ass cheeks since I wear them off constantly.

Haig or Sun Tzu

If'n yo ain't reedin Kim yo r miss-n da boat. Here why I likes hem.

Him's a thanker!

Waxing Nostalgic

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Between my new kudzu header, courtesy of Lil Toni, and her new blog featuring an old antebellum home, I started noodling over some of the old houses of memory.

The first old plantation home I remember seeing and having a sad feeling about was about 5 or 6 miles SW of Braselton, Georgia. We used to go quail hunting in the overgrown fields surrounding it.

My dad loved to quail hunt. Well, I guess he probably loved hunting of all kinds. I can remember the second house I ever lived in. It was the house my paternal grand parents moved out of about the time I was a year old. We had been living in another house on the original Dunagan's Dairy Farm behind Alcovy Baptist church. We moved after my grandparents moved into the house they built up on the hill.

Mom and Dad had a fenced lot beside the house where the garden was tended. The hunting dogs pen was there as well as a chicken coop. I can remember that dad would fatten up and clean out the digestive system of the opossums he'd catch. There was a place to keep the snapping turtles, feeding them on milk soaked cornbread, he'd trap on the creeks and rivers close by. We might have been poor as far as money went but we feasted on the bounty of nature. I can't imagine what it must be like to know hunger. We live and lived in a nation of plenty........it's just that sometimes you had to go out and hunt it down.

Back to the old plantation house. As I said it was not far from Braselton, Ga, the town that later Kim Bassinger bought at the urging of her realtor brother-in-law, and later had to bankrupt on. (I doubt that he had to give back any of the commission.)

This old place was about a half mile off the paved road, and had been abandoned for long enough for it to start falling down around it's self. What had once been a large rambling two story wooden structure with a huge balcony across the whole of the front, had the porch collapsed and holes in the roof, the windows were all broken and the doors were ajar, looking like an old bleached skull, wondering where the rest of itself was. The grounds were all overgrown with kudzu which had begun to creep over the roof line, determined to hide the ugliness like a once great beauty drawing her shawl close about so you can only see glimpses of what used to be.

Many, many are the ruins of what once were dreams of young, strong builders of this country. Farmers whose children went to where the paychecks were regular and sure. Who had a fondness for the old home but neither the money or desire, or ability to keep something tax collectors were determined should not be passed down to future generations.

I've seen buildings in Germany which have been pretty much continuously lived in for a thousand years or more. Lived in, loved in, repaired, updated, housing generations of people from birth to death, they are sanctuaries for their occupants, except for the occasional war here or there.

We have many two, three, a few even four hundred year old year old structures, many of them designated historical landmarks. But for the most part, whats old gets discarded, bulldozed into oblivion, then paved or concreted over.

The natural order you may say. Perhaps? But I wonder if we're leaving a part of our soul behind in order to have the latest and newest?

Go give her some love

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Lil Toni has a new blog to showcase some of her pictures. She sho knows how to take a picture and tell a story. Go pay her a visit here.

Obama Floats Social Security Tax Hike

Isn't it amazing how many times in the past 40 years we've heard a politician, indeed most politicians, talk about how we need to fix, or improve our marvelous Social Security system in this country.

All talk, all want to raise taxes and none of them ever mention that what is paid in today is paid out tomorrow. If no SS taxes were paid into the system at all they'd probably not be able to pay benefits in a couple of months. This in spite of the so called trust fund, which in reality is a filing cabinet full of IOU's in Virginia somewhere.

Oh, I guess they'd still pay the benefits. All they have to do is print more Federal Reserve Notes. Do a little google search about the hyperinflation of the German Reichmark in the early 1920's. Or the Hungarian catastrophe of the 40's after wwII.

This while the congress critters all get a full pension after just a few terms, at their full rate of pay plus yearly increases for life and their spouses life, although I'm not sure who would get Barney Franks.

If you're old enough they send you a projected SS payment form each year showing how much you would get at age 62 or 65. Take a close look at it and then go read about the retirement plan Galveston, TX has in place. Then ask your congress critter why a county has a better plan than the whole country.

I really should know better that check on the news after 6pm each evening.

Government outrage

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We certainly ought not to just allow anyone to abuse the right to die and be reincarnated without proper government approval, no doubt in triplicate.

The government of China, which claims control of Tibet despite the region's vigorous culture of independence, announced in August that it would henceforth require Tibet's "living Buddhas" (special clergy believed to be continuously reincarnated) to get permission from China's religious affairs officials before submitting their souls to be embodied in the future. The government acted, it said, because the reincarnation process needed to be managed better. [Agence France-Presse, 8-3-07]

Maybe this would be better titled: Stupid Chinks

At long last

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I have taken a little time to update some of the sites I check. Some each day and others occasionally, but all have good things to say from time to time.

I've been a little lax lately although no more than at other times. I can only rant and rave for so long before I realize that you don't care and it doesn't make me feel any better. Just relives the monotony some what.

But tomorrow is another day. Ihop in the morning until the bank opens then garner some mammon and head out to buy a few herringbones. Boy did they go out of fashion or what? People thought you could wear them like any other necklace. Sleep in them, work in them, mess around in them, whatever, it took only a small kink to ruin them. Most jewelers and pawnshop owners held on to them way too long.

With the recent surge in gold prices people are starting to reevaluate their worth.
I don't care, they refine easily.

Of course the price is also a reflection of the perceived worth of the US pictures of dead presidents. Right now we're losing out to the euro, which makes them happy as a pig in a mud wallow. Wait until they force us to pay for oil in euros. Don't think the Fed lowered rates to help the housing market. No, it's all about them making money in the currency markets.

Funny how we spend our lives, or a great portion of it, to gain what few pieces of paper that we can, and if we do amass a large number in our bank account call ourselves rich.

At least you can eat Kudzu and make paper out of it.