Let's see what you're made of

Those who visit here more than twice probably realize that I love the country our founding fathers endowed us with........even if I do rant and rave about some of the things that are going on today ...........that take us farther and farther away from the republic they established.

That ranting and raving does not, however, extend to our military personnel, who for the most part serve honorably and faithfully for a cause greater than some can see.
My Sister Juanita and her husband have had two out of three of their sons serve most honorably in Iraq and the third son will most likely ship out within the next 6 months or less. I'm unable to properly express my pride in them and my sincere thanks for their service.

While I rant and rave here, I am very bad at doing the right thing and write to my nephews while they were overseas. I hope they understand........I still have a lot of me to retrieve from my war.

They are young.....as I was......and being away from home for the first time overseas where there are people who want to, and will, kill you.........and where your friends and comrades have been killed and wounded is a hurtful thing that will cause you to build your own little wall around you. It is so nice to be reminded that there are people who support you and want you to come home safely when the job is done.

One person who always wrote to me while I was in Quang Tri was my Aunt Eloise. Ironically my second duty was postal officer. I however considered my self first and only a pilot.........so I relied on my non-com and enlisted men to handle most of that duty........I only had to sign where they told me to. They did a great job.

I want go into all the reasons I was not getting much mail from my bride of about 2 years except to say that is was always painful not to receive as many letters in return as I sent out. My Aunt Eloise always came through for me. She wrote all the time.........and would spray so much perfume on the envelope that the guys were always sure that there was a big romance going on back home. Of course I would never stoop so low as to wave the envelope under the noses of my friends.....most of whom were not married.......we were after all old men of 20 years.

All of this to say that I know what it's like to be in a bad area and wondering if the folks back home were still there and supporting us. The dumb mass media back then were just as bad are they are now about telling the truth.......remind me sometimes to tell you of how I flipped off Dan Rather and his Cameraman. I'm pretty sure that bit of tape never saw anything but the cutting floor.

The most lovely and talented and Patriotic LL has posted something that you need to participate in. A letter and Email campaign to some Marines in Afghanistan. They've recently been dissed by their inferiors on some left wing rag or other.
Follow the links in LL post and do your part to let them know that their country supports and loves them. I don't care what you think about whether we should be there or if George Bush is to blame or Bill Clinton.......you need to step up to the plate and give these guys a big round of applause. Your names will not be used nor will you email addresses be compromised...see the explanation on the link you will follow......so what are you waiting for.

God Bless you and God Bless the Service Men and Women of The United States of America.

HooRah for the Brits

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I see by THIS report that Prince Harry is going to serve in Afghanistan. This following a long tradition of service on the front lines by the second or third in line of succession to the throne of England. His Uncle Edward flew a naval helicopter in the successful defense of the Falkland Islands against the Argentinians.

There was a time in this countries history when the upper class considered it a duty to serve the country that guaranteed their freedoms and Liberty. Sadly this no longer is the case. The best and brightest consider it beneath them to soil the knees of their pants. They'd rather stay in their Ivy League castles and shit their pants if anybody looks crosseyed at them.

Just one more measurement of the slide into oblivion unless the common sense people rise up in revolt and take this country back from the bureaucratic namby-pambies who have sold us out to the overlords.

There used to be a hue and cry against the One World Government crowd. They learned their lesson and started working behind the scenes to accomplish the same thing.

Oh, you may very well argue against this thesis...........but I doubt very much you can prove it.........and would love to see you try.

One bit of evidence is the FBI wasting time investigating ROGER Clemens. What the HELL... over. Just another case of the government trying to rule every aspect of our lives. The only ones who should give a shit about his alleged steroid us is major league baseball and the team he plays for. If they want to investigate .............fine............if they find enough evidence and want to fine, kick him out of baseball or whatever........that should be between he and them.
Just another example of the stupid and very lucrative for governments of all levels......GWOD......Great War On Drugs

In my version of freedom and liberty.....the government is only supposed to protect me from harming anyone else or they me. If I were to choose to stone myself out of contact with reality and hurt no one else by either force or fraud......that should be my privilege. Some wit ........with a few wits about him.....once said that "that Government is best which governs least" They were right.. But then they were talking about a people who believed in freedom and liberty. I tend to blame this on the fact that about a hundred years ago we gave women the right to vote. Been downhill every since. Girls............prove me wrong.

I note another disturbing statistic today. How the hell did things ever reach this point. Besides having to support every Tom, Dick and Harry who choose to come to this country illegally and spawn their young for us to feed with foodstamps and provide well fare and health benefits and well as school the little bastards........we have to feed and support 1/100 of the population in jail and all the jailers and assorted caretakers that go along with them.

I'm of an age and guaranteed income level that I consider moving to another country....a lot........and it pisses me the hell off. We should make this country better.........not watch from the sidelines as it continues it's sorry, sad, inexorable slide into the footnotes of history. I'll vote in the November election......but I won't care if my candidate wins. Honest to goodness I hope it's another Florida fiasco that drags on for freaking years........at least then the government will get little accomplished.

Just my view

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The current Shrill cries and protestations from both major political parties have not lessened my enjoyment of the circus where all the candidates are promising us more circuses and bread to boot. I am just a bit jaded of pointing and giggling.... ...welllll....I'll allow as I have sometimes ranted a little.......not as excessively as beforetimes but, still.......a little.

I'll simply copy the following two passages from two of my favorite books, and let you decide if any one of the declared candidates would swear to uphold same.....and so garner support from me.

"It is not true that the function of law is to regulate our consciences, our ideas, our wills, our education, our opinions, our work, our trade, our talents, or our pleasures. The function of law is to protect the free exercise of these rights, and to prevent any person from interfering with the free exercise of these same rights by any other person."

"one may not condemn a man for succeeding because he knows how. Neither may one with justice take away from a man what he has fairly earned, to give to men of less ability".

Comments???

Road trip.........

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......Sorta.....

I'd have thought last night would have been spent in nocturnal dreams of the vague and disturbing type......especially after sliding to the floor and low crawling to the bedroom.

Not so.......for at around 12:30 I'm sitting on the side of the bed, replying to the wife's query as to "what's the matter" with a squeaky "It Hurts".

So off to the kitchen to warm the rice filled heating pad in the microwave and attempt to find comfort on the big recliner. This helps the muscles in the neck but nothing for the sharp cutting pain in the shoulder.........so off to the freezer for the ice pack.

At last........freeze the nerves in the shoulder while heating the neck......
....Hey don't look at me like that.........I'd have murdered your sister for a little relief. My way didn't require any bloodshed.

One would think that today would have been spent in taking ease on the couch watching Tim Russert pander to his masters.....(whoever they are).....
But no.......sometimes you have to get out of the confines of the nursing home.....
.....and so.....

Off to the hills to the north.

Vectoring the Red Ram up 441 through Commerce (where Bill Anderson....ol' Wispering Bill his-own-self......wrote the hit 'City Lights' while working as a DJ there long and long ago. (sorry no you tube version available)
Then up through Baldwin Ga. home of the big red apple............sadly all the once productive orchards have been abandoned to progress or simply to grow rampantly, unpruned, neglected like red headed step children.........their branches reaching skyward like witches fingers.........and you think....what a shame, no one cares for them any more. Once you could buy local apples and boiled peanuts along the road. (if you've never tried this, you have missed out on a little bit of heaven on earth.....the salty goodness of the goobers perfectly balanced with crisp, juicy bliss in a red or green skin.

Onward.........

Up 105 across 115 to 17 past the Nacoochee indian mounds. Some fool has built a house atop the actual native American burial mound, the smaller more famous mound was found to contain only two Caucasian skeletons........possibly members of De Soto's expedition in search of the fountain of youth.

Through the faux alpine village of Helen.........logging town of yore while the majestic pines, oaks and popular trees still could be found..........now a tourist trap that even on a cool winter Sunday draws the after church crowd in search of trinkets and beer.

On up the Richard Russel highway to the trailhead to Raven Cliffs..........a nice
2 1/2 mile trek which I figured, given the wife's limited lung capacity, would be shortened to about 1/4 mile. To the surprise of both the pooch and I we went the whole way. Deep dark tangles of Mountain Magnolia, Rhododendron and Sourwood trees lightened by the occasional White Pine grove. The temp was just right for a light jacket. The murmur and occasional roar of Dood creek our constant companion......... the trip could have only been better if we'd thought to bring along a little water and a couple of ham and cheese sandwiches.

Back at home..........I immediately held the recliner in a recumbent posture for two hours in lieu of supper since the Wendy's Spicey Chicken for lunch was not consumed till after 4pm. The pooch stretched out on the couch like a small shoat awaiting the ritual dunking in scalding water for the scrapping of hair and dirt preparatory to cutting into hams and porkchops......the wife off to a long hot soak.......and a hot shower for me, followed by the preemptive application of horse lineament to my, sure to be sore tomorrow, calves.

And now fortified by Hersey's Dark chocolate, furnished by a thoughtful lady, and a glass of milk, I sit here with the heating pad once more across my shoulders........fingers shaking slightly from the fatigue of the day......... thankful for the wonders of nature and the time to enjoy it.

Rumours.....

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......Of my demise to the contrary........I have not passed through the veil.....just staying behind the closed door of my muse......

Fickle wench that she is........she seems to have abandoned me for a writer....or perhaps.....writers.... much better than I. And after all who can blame her.....
In my muscle relaxed, pain pill filled stupor I must be poor company.

Growing older definitely has it's down sides.......things are heavier now....where once .....not long ago really...I could load 90 lb. bundles of shingles onto a lift all day... now I do good to lift the nail gun over my shoulder to tack a piece of plywood to the ceiling of the new shop.

Of course growing older beats the alternative.....so I'm told......I remember that few people have come back from beyond to testify as to the climate there. Warm sandy beaches with palm trees swaying in the breeze and lovely ladies clad only in whispy grass skirts beckoning me to the barbecue sounds like a nice bit of heaven.

Some wit or other once said that we make our own reality. I wonder if that is also true of the great beyond? Will we get there to find some preachers have taken a bit of poetic license with their message? Or maybe so many have shouted about laying about on a cloud playing a harp and singing hymns and hosannas all the eternity that their strident voices have shaped our future reality. Sounds very non-productive to me.....better to be given a fishing pole and led to a nice bluegill pond where the crickets impale themselves on the hook and sing siren songs to the finny submarine sailors beneath the willow trees.

Whoa..........Where did that last come from?

We had an eclipse the other night. I sat on the front stoop and watched as the dragon steadily chomped away at the moon......only to find the taste not to his liking and spitting it out and washing his mouth out under the Milky Way.

Were I a capable photog I'd make better pictures. You can spend all kinds on money on equipment and if you have no better sense of composition than I........all you have is an expensive toy. Nevertheless here is my contribution to an event that will only be experienced once in a lifetime the exact same way.



Still one can hope to be allowed to watch similar events again.....
preferably from exotic locations high in the Peruvian Andes with agreeable companions around a campfire with wieners and marshmallows on sticks.

I also notice with interest this Study
and now realize what has been the problem all along..........bad luck in the draw. Although admittedly my research was drastically limited by the amount of time I was able to put into it. How'd you like to be a research assistant on that study?

Well I'd better leave off for now. Not for lack of gibberish to spout but because I may not be able to reach the keyboard after I finish sliding to the floor.

Lonesome Blues

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I don't remember when my mother carried me and a couple of sisters to our first drive-in-movie theater. I do remember that it was at the old Lawrenceville, Ga theater...............gone lo these many years......although I can carry you to the very spot. All you see now is a fancy motel on a busy downtown street.

I think often of the first movie there that I remember........the Classic to some....to others poorly done....movie bio of Hank Williams Sr.......Your Cheatin' Heart, starring a young and not nearly so tan..... George Hamilton.

I was in my early teens......young, dumb and full of something that hadn't been reached yet.

Hank's songs and story had a huge impact on me.....still do. They ring true, from the heart and experience of a man who had his share of demons and physical problems. They still speak to me in ways I can't express.........wouldn't have the words anyway .....and so......find his a fit.

I still like.......occasionally... to listen to a few. They take one back to an earlier day, yet days which saw many of the same human conditions as exist today.

Feelings of loneliness, heartbreak, joy, optimism, hope......Love.
And I guess that's why people loved him........he sang what they were feeling and gave expression for a few moments to the longings in every human heart.

Here is just one I listened to tonight.

Beef recall

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When I first read this STORY
I recalled the several times I've visited cattle slaughter yards.......and of the one week where I worked as an instructor at a cattle artificial insemination course.

And then I looked at the inside of the wrapper of my Dove Dark Chocolate candy and read these words.............."Lose yourself in the moment". My train of thought was totally broken.

And besides...................I'm not sure the web is ready for a telling of that event.

The good life

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There is.....I think.......within most of us......an often unexpressed desire for just a little bit more adventure then we currently have in our lives. Sometimes it comes a bit later than one expects and people say...."he's having as mid life crisis".
We buy that two door car rather than going for the bigger more sedate four-door. We suddenly decide to take up sky diving or a bungee jump. They quit their jobs. (I'm lucky in that.....not having one in nearly 15 years)

But the urges are there..however expressed. Sometimes they are motivated by more than just the thrill........often there is a financial component to the restlessness.

GM is offering hundreds of thousands of Dollars to union workers to quit their jobs. Major financial giants are threatening to lay of 20 or 30 thousand workers in an effort to stay afloat during the current financial upheaval.
All of these moves by the bigger fish cause ripples that are felt by smaller fish....... The independent homebuilder or restaurant owner. Maybe Wal-mart moved out of they older location around which several smaller businesses had flourished and moved to the outskirts of a town to a super center which not only cut the traffic to their former neighbors but directly competes for their business.

Costs must be cut..........health insurance is lost....the future is even more uncertain than once believed.

And some people wake up to the idea that their feet are not nailed to the floor. While our neighbors to the south are encouraging their poor to migrate northward.......people are beginning to look SOUTH

and I wonder what it would be like?

Certainly the allure is there. Who wouldn't like to live in a tropical paradise where the cost of everything is less and you wouldn't have to put up with the general feeling that the world is going to hell in a hand basket here no matter how you vote.....and maybe you should just get out of Dodge.

On the other hand..........does the lower cost of living provide enough extra funds to either visit the kids and grandkids or bring them to you occasionally? What about the support system you have built around you over a period of years? You can hardly afford to come back to visit your favorite barber.......can you?.

Can you learn enough of the local language to tell the gardener you can now employ that you're having chest pains and a throbbing in your left arm?

Just wondering?

Fire in the belly

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I've posted more often than you probably want to hear of how I don't feel my years.

It's probably more often the truth than not unless sickness or ill health has taken it's toll earlier than we'd wish.

Still my desire to live to be 192 has not diminished with time.........contrarily..........much the opposite. This does not mean that I keep my weight at the ideal setting or munch on carrot sticks twice a day or run 20 miles a week. I'm doing good if I ride the stationary bike 5 miles a week and bend the smallest rod on the bowflex halfway. A fellow has to have a goal......after all.

And it's true that while my sisters hair has all gained beauty and color over the years their brother has begun to silver a bit on top. Every time I get a haircut I try to get the barber to only cut out the gray. He insists I can't afford the time or money for him to pick out only the ones I don't want ........ and besides.....there'd be no insulation between the sun and my brain.

Oh Well......

Anyway.......today I'm back over at Walhalla visiting my Vietnamese lady friend again. We're going over the design for a diamond pendant she wants built out of the top of an old piece filled with CZ stones and putting in new heads and real diamonds. She has a fondness for original pieces of her own design. Fortunately her late husband left her well off.........although when I gave her an estimate of $150 for the labor she screeched like a cat with it's tail caught in a wringer.

We had concluded our business and I was seated at the small table talking and doing a little business with a couple of other good ol' boys.......both of which are of an age with me, and both do a little trading to fill in their spare time........ mostly buying and selling a few shotguns and rifles from time to time.

Sue has gone to the counter to take care of a customer who wanted to pawn an item. She asked how much he needed to borrow and he of course gave a figure higher than was reasonable........so she demurred saying it was more than she could do. Well, as often happens he took a little offense at the price she put forward and started cursing in Spanish which is the first time I looked over and saw he was with 4 other Latinos. Sue proceeds to tell him not to use that kind of language in her store and you should have heard the bones in three old geezers necks pop as heads snapped around and focused on the group. One of the young men immediately raised his hands and said "I didn't do it". I know 2 of us were armed and the third guy at the table had come in to see if she wanted an old Winchester model 94 30-30....so it's reasonable to assume he was carrying also. The youngsters left with only a few mutters and their heads down...........probably were going anyway........but the gimlet eyes we had focused on them might have helped a little. Don't mess with a Southern lady........even if she was originally from South Vietnam..... which doesn't exist anymore........ Not if three over the hill southern gents are there with nothing else to do.

Like they say.......there may be snow on the mountain.......but there's still fire down below.

Can she bake a cherry pie.......

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......Billy boy, Billy boy......
Can she bake a cherry pie, darling Billy?

I started this last night when I was eating a fine bit of cherry pie.
Tonight I'm snacking on a double chocolate cake the wife made this morning. It sort of fell apart as she was spreading the chocolate icing.........so she dumped it in the cake plate cover and called it a "Dump Cake".
I don't care what you call it..........it's chocolate ......and all good to me. A little whole cow milk to help slide it down and I'm working on a gooooooddd evening.

The cherry pie got me to thinking of my maternal Grandmother last night.

Born right after the turn of the last century to a rural farming family, she was a faithful help meet to my Grandfather for the better part of 60 years.
To say that she was a good cook doesn't give her enough credit to my mind...... as I look back.
I well remember the mid-day meals (we call that dinner where I come from, it being big enough and hearty enough to sustain a farmer through the rest of the day) that she would cook.......as well as on Sundays when we grandchildren would go visit. I've written before about the Holy day meals that would be consumed at their house.

There was an old wood fired cook stove that sat in the corner of their kitchen even though she had a modern electric range and oven. That stove was huge in my memory........it had to be easily 6 feet long and 5 feet high in the back. I can only imagine the meals that were cooked there........and the labor to keep the fire temp just right. Probably burned pine because of it's hot burning temps and ease of starting. The oak and hickory were burned in the parlor wood stove. It would last all night if damped down just right.......ready to flame up in the early morning as Paw would go out to milk the cows.

I don't have enough information about her early life........I need to take a tape recorder to my Aunt Margret's before she gets any older herself........she's over 80 now......the spitting image of Grandma.

One picture I do have is one of her in the Lawrenceville Canning club.......sometime in the late 19 teens I'd guess........



She is 3rd from left second row. Maybe not a raving beauty by todays standards.... ..but beauty my friends is more than skin deep.

It seems strange to think of a canning club........but young women back then were trained in practical arts........useful things....to prepare them for the real world.........not to get them to think of themselves as only how large their bust size is, or how many paparazzi are chasing after them. They would no more think of showing their shaven genitals as they exited a car than we would think the world is flat.

And she could make a cherry pie.......or an apple pie...or pickled peaches......
.......and most especially a home and family.......and be the heart and soul of it.

I miss my Grandmother.

Helping a friend

I read these words tonight.........

"If you desire to help your friend, do so in a way that will not bring your friends burdens upon yourself".

It caused me to think upon a friend I once had who lived on the side of Pink Mountain.

Jake was a good ol' boy......originally from down in Florida.........moved north with an insurance settlement and two steel rods in his back from a truck accident.
Actually I suspect that he was also running from two disastrous marriages and 4 kids he couldn't handle.
A nice enough seeming guy........drawing a small disability check........which never seemed to stretch to the end of the month, although he lived alone in a two room with a bath and a sleeping loft cottage with a great view.

Both of us being veterans we had a little in common........although I only came close to divorce 6 or 8 times never tried to go for a twofer. We shared a distrust of all politicians and most political processes wherever they were.

He was always broke and needing one thing or another. Mostly fire wood since his only heat was a small wood burning stove and I had a sawmill and plenty of slabs to cut up for firewood. A group from church and I would several times a year make the pilgrimage up his steep ass road to stack wood in his yard. Much council was given on giving up the reefer and drugs and he would cry and swear never again......but could we see our way to a few dollars and he'd pay us back when his check came.

Time stretched to years and he took another woman........although we figured between his belly and hers there'd be be no chance in hell of ever consummating anything.

I should have known better............I've seen short legged Angus bulls herd in-heat cows into a gully to give him the reach he needed. Jake was almost as smart as those bulls.......I guess. Soon there is news of a pregnancy. This to two disabled people with the common sense quotient of a poodle between them.

You hate to give up on a friend............but when the demands on your time and generosity start affecting your own well being there is no choice left but to limit contact.

I hear his mother moved up from Fla. and bought them a house near her. Hope that works out well.

I wonder about them when I'm driving through the area........but I'm careful never to stop.

It's a three dog night

No.........it's not cold here. Quite the opposite in fact. The morning started off a little above freezing and warmed up from there. Bright sunshine made sitting on the porch of my tool building with a cap pulled down over my eyes a thing of pleasure. Hey..... I takes 'um where I gets 'um. Of course Gracie the dalmatian had to keep nuzzling my hand so I'd pet and stroke her. Damn dog loves me like I love chocolate.

The three dog night thing is because the wife's sister and her husband are going on a cruise down to the Yucatan for a week............guess who got to watch their two dogs?

Our pouch has just about got us trained the way he likes us. Of course he's really the youngest daughters dog.......but my wife stole him and here he stays. I don't really mind 'cause he and I get down in the floor and wrestle from time to time........tugging at his rope toy with our teeth until I'm pooped and give up. Even the fact that she lets him sleep in the bed with us is not too bad, because when I come to bed he gets out of my way.

Now , however we have these two other neurotic pups for a week and our dog is going out of his mind with jealousy. AND of course they will have to sleep with the wife also. Hmmmmmmm makes her sound a little perverted doesn't it.

All I got to say about the situation is they better not interfere with my sleeping or I'll have to go outside and sleep with Gracie in her wheat straw filled 55 gallon drum.

They say politics makes for strange bedfellows............but they haven't been to my house.

Wake up call

I was rudely awakened from my after supper pre-bedtime nap in the smaller E-Z chair a little while ago to hear the evening news talking head pontificate on guns.......... like he is an expert.

He was rattling on about the fact that there are over 312 million guns in private hands in this country. He may have said that there were that many handguns.......... I was two rooms away and just roused from a snoring sleep. (Amazing what these bionic ears let me hear)
Anyway, he goes on about how many people guns kill ever year....week......day. All this sparked no doubt by the recent spat of nationally reported killings facilitated by guns recently.............. but guns killed them........somehow it's apparently politically incorrect to say that people killed other people. I assume that is because people have evolved to the point that if guns weren't around no one would be taking the EDN. (Eternal Dirt Nap) or as the police and doctors are fond of saying DRT. (Dead Right There)

I wonder if he would say the same thing if I shoved this pencil on my desk into his brain through his eye.......or up one of his nostrils..............or maybe through one of his ears. Would he blame the pencil?...........or what about I hit him with one of several of the shovels I have in my tool building. The edge of the shovel across the back of his neck as he stood wondering why I dug that 3 X 6 X 4 foot deep hole he's standing beside in my back yard. Would he blame the hole? What about if I drove the phillips head screwdriver down between his collar bone and what ever big muscle is behind it......and wiggled the point around between his lungs and heart. Death by screwdrive...............somehow strangely leaving me only as an accessory.

You have to wonder if the LLM (left leaning media) is that stupid or are just parroting what they have been taught to say by their masters.

Next time we'll consider the question of what he would blame if I clamped his penis with a set of vise grip pliers and stretched it across the 100 lb. anvil and gently tapped on it with one of my 20 lb sledge hammers?

Let that teach you not to wake me up early from my nap.

1980 vs 2008

One might well look at these two dates and not see a connection between them. I think perhaps they may be closer aligned than is at first apparent.

If I might paraphrase Abraham Lincoln for a bit;

Eleven score and 2 years ago our fathers brought forth a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men (and women)are created equal. (if not anatomically the same) (Thanks, God)

Now we are engaged in a great national debate, testing whether that nation, or any nation, so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure.

........It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

For over one hundred years various group and nations have tried various incarnations of socialism or communism and even National Socialism. (think Nazis) Even the Mormons tried a version where all property was controlled by the church and given out equally and members were then judged by the productivity they attained from their land. All of these attempts to achieve Marx's dream were in fact dismal failures. Greed, or the love of power over others, and the desire of all rationally thinking beings to live a life as free of encumbrance to the demands of others... for what in fact amount to a portion of your life...... have failed........or as in the case of Venezuela, North Korea and China have failed or will fail in time, even if they do try to leaven their particular brand with limited capitalism.

The great debate we are currently engaged in...( whether you are actively participating or simply being inundated with the blathering of the media and advertisers is ( in my foolish opinion ) much adieu about nothing.

We can pretend that freedom and liberty hang in the balance, when in fact, they were scrapped to the ditches long ago by the powerful and corrupt.

In 1980 I voted in my first election. In the previous elections that I was old enough to vote in, I was in the military and going in the direction I was pointed. But in the election between Regan and Carter I could see the difference that could be made directly to my business (dairy farming) by the outcome.

I've said many times since that I almost wished that I had voted for Carter so as to accelerate the slide that I saw the country making away from Freedom and Liberty into an ever expanding circle of socialism, so as to hasten the inevitable coming time of chaos.......and then hopefully a renewal of the spirit of our forefathers.

I begin to think that this election is shaping up to be another one of those Pivotal points in our history. Whether for good or ill......I cannot see.....

I always hope that good will trump evil but we don't have to look far to see instances where it doesn't.

I have no crystal ball........ just a short time span of life to go by and the records of those gone before.

I find instructive some of the popular pundits of the day. Ann Coulter is always a pleasure to read. Some of her thoughts reflect some of mine.......not all. But judge for yourself.......HERE

RSVP if you like.

Super Tuesday

We all gathered at the local elementary school to cast our ballots this morning. First time voting since we moved. Got a few funny looks from some of the other locals .........
..we living in an area inhabited mostly by blacks. We stood out like nipples on a frosty morning. The lady who checked my registration against the computerized record looked like she was searching for a hanging chad......... then we tapped on the screen and were gone in less time than it takes to tell.

It is a sad commentary on the times we live in when you have to vote holding your nose....no matter who you vote for. Hopefully the eventual winner of the quadra-annual beauty contest will be better than we expect.........although my expectations at this point are at the point where I just hope they can chew gum and tie their shoes.

I know this sounds pessimistic........ but I'll repeat myself "keep your head down and your powder dry". Add to that........."buy more ammo and food and get out of debt"

Look at it this way........ at least the late night comedians will have lots to talk about.

I missed the rain........

.......this morning.

You know how good it feels to wake up about 5:30 of a morning to hear the rain on the roof.........splattering on the windows and gurgling down the drain. Oh yeah....
.....I missed that.

What I heard......and what I never hope to hear coming from deep within me.......were
moans of pain and sobs of agony that were as close as I ever hope to be to having kidney stones for myself.

The Wife woke me with the tearful question of "how do you know when you have kidney stones"?

My reply was "I don't know, I've never had them but from the sound of it you got 'em".

When you don't have insurance you tend to want to wait to see if the pain will go away, or if a heating pad to the afflicted area will help.......or at least cause the pain to ease ...... if only for a few minutes. Men tend to want to fix things themselves of course.......tighten it a few turns with a crescent wrench.... bang on it with a shop hammer to see if the vibration gets worse or goes away.....

But soon it was apparent that the thing to do was go to the emergency room. Youngest daughter working at one of the two local hospitals determined which one we chose.
Both are excellent but after all having someone you know there makes you feel a little less alone and perhaps she can pull a few strings.

Emergency room check in........if you're not spurting arterial streams against the wall...... are designed to make you wait......even though you're screaming inside "Hey!, these sorry ...........'s sitting out here with their runny noses and crying brats who simply don't want to go to school today.....aren't important. Get my sobbing wife into a room and shoot her up with some kind of liquid Pain Off".

Eventually we are taken back and she's checked and an hour later a doctor comes by for a minute and prescribes some painkiller. All this time she's groaning and moaning "It Hurts". And if you're any kind of man at all......you feel helpless and worthless at not being able to fix "it".

Minutes before the nurse brings in the saline drip and the pain shot, the pain eases up a little and the wife is able to lean back on the bed. Then the shot takes effect and blessings of blessings she is able to relax and even doze a little.

About halfway thru the bag of saline the urge to go comes upon her again, so, clutching the back of the hospital gown with one hand while I carry the IV and hang it on the nail over the toilet, she shuffles across. She comes back with the urine sample in one hand and the strainer in the other....and with a weary sigh says "it came out". And sure enough......there in the strainer is a small, black tiny stone looking object. If I were to judge it by the diamond gage in my pocket it would have probably fallen through the .05 carat hole.

And so.......that was that. The CAT scan showed no more objects waiting to spring upon her. An hour and a half later the doctor came by and prescribed a precautionary round of antibiotics and pain medication and signed the release form..

And so home........

Boys and girls, I'll tell you one thing.............that's as close as I ever want to be to one of those things. Whew!

Simple pleasures..............

.
..........simple pleasures people.

Today was warmer and sunny with only a few clouds.

The youngest granddaughter came to visit. We got to play outside with the dogs and dig in the dirt.........although she kept wanting to wipe her hands on her grandmothers pants. Cartoons were watched.........crayons were rubbed all over the coloring book and occasionally on the little wooden stool.
We watched a youtube video of Mickey Mouse and gang singing the Hot Dog song about a million times.............in a row..............
......even worked in a 2 hour nap together in the big recliner when she got so grumpy neither of us could stand it any more. If there is anything more beautiful than a young child sleeping so deeply they seem to be without bones I've not seen it.

Of course her grandmother got the most time with her. I just made it sound like I was really involved............no big deal to me if she comes or goes.

All in all quite a day full of pleasures of the simple kind.

Now to spend a couple hours with a new book which is supposed to be in the style of the late great John D. MacDonald. Simple pleasures.............

Hope your weekend is going half as good.