The Muse and I

My muse has been a little quiet of late....well, actually that's not exactly true. It's more like I have been ignoring her. For what reason? Damnifiknow. Probably for many of the same reasons I have been a world class procrastinator all my life.

If it's not a crisis....fuggidaboutit.

Not that there is a crisis going on at the moment...I just felt the keyboard had been a little neglected and decided to apply fingertips to remind them of their original purpose....lest they begin to think that dust and cracker crumbs are their only companions.

Well...actually the cracker crumbs have been replaced by bits of cheese, eggs, bacon and mayonnaise for the last two weeks. Mostly that is.

I have embarked on a determined (as opposed to all the other times) quest to shed the outer child of 4 years or so of age (however old they are when they weigh about 40 lbs) that hangs around my mid section.

Older age has it's benefits I'm sure, but a slower metabolism is not one of them. Of course when I was running a portable sawmill as a business and totin' 2 X 10 X 16's around or 4 X 6 X 16's, and rolling 2 foot diameter logs up the skid poles to be sawn it was a different story. The muscle is still there....it's just marbled with plenty of fat these days. I'm afraid if I don't lose a little weight that when the Obama team starts passing out the Soylent Green I'll be classified as USDA Choice #1.

(Pause to go step on the scale, trembling in trepidation and fear.)

Good.....didn't gain any after todays debauchery at the Chinese Buffet in Dahlonega.

Down so far about 14 pounds. Average 1 a day, but in actuality a couple of days didn't show any lose because I fudged a bit. (Come on...a guy need a bit of biscuit and gravy at least once every two weeks).

What you may ask was I doing in Dahlonega, GA today? Well you may ask.

The better half decided that she was not going to hang around here today and announced that she was going to the hills and if I was going to hurry up and get in the drivers seat. I started to tell her to get in, sit down, strap in, hang on and shut up......but reason won out and I kept my lip zipped.

A pleasant trip to be sure. We took US 441 up to Baldwin and then the back roads over to Cleveland and thence on hwy 115 to Dahlonega, home of the afore mentioned Chinese Buffet (where I manfully stuck to the Mongolial Beef with onions and the Shrimp with Vegetables that I made sure contained no vegatables except onions and broccli), North GA College (still a partly military school for those young men who are hardy enough and quite a few ladies who can snap to attention with the best of them) and the Crisson Gold Mine run by the lovely Tammy with an assist from her husband and Miss Jo Jo. Here I go to pick up panning supplies, the latest issue of Gold Prospector magazine and leave a few business cards since they kindly point those who want to sell any gold they find to me.

It's not a lot generally but I certainly pay more than the local pawn shops.

After leaving there we took the road up to Suches, GA a valley that is supposed to be above the clouds but today was right smack dab in the middle of them as they dropped some blessed rain.

It rained off and on after that through Morganton, Blue Ridge, Blairsville, Young Harris, Hiwassee and Helen. It pretty much petered out by the time we got within sight of The Classic City once more though. If we hadn't gotten about a quarter inch of rain last week we'd be as dry as a popcorn fart. Need some more for sure.

We stopped a time or two.....once at the antique mall in Hiwasse where we looked around and pointed out that people who would pay their prices were way too rich and moreover were a bit stupid. A for instance would be the fact that they were asking $16.00 for common date, circulated, not graded Franklin half dollars. That's only about three times the value of the silver content. If I could sell mine at that price I could make a big dent in the mortgage on the Kudzu Hovel (KH).

We got home expecting the Ol' Grump to be waiting on his supper but he has (after four years) decided to drive himself up to his rental trailer and work on it himself instead of spending a little of his sociable security to hire someone (NOT my wife, she says, and means it) to do it. So far he hasn't wrecked the car and even goes to Home Depot, where a fifteen minute in and out to grab some screws or some such, takes two hours.

Oh well, it gets him out of the house which is what we've wanted for five years.

Perhaps tomorrow if I can get the lawnmower to crank, I'll take it up there and cut his grass.

Ya'll come back. Maybe I'll tell you about the couple who passed us going south on 441 in a Ford utility van with ladder racks on the top and just married painted on the windows.

I figured it was out of convenience since if the urge struck he could just pull over to the side, move some tools out of the way on the floor in back and knock off a quickie. The wife allowed as how he'd probably won her over by saying he had a big mobile home, but didn't say it had a Ford emblem on the front.