Especially for someone she never knew of until a week ago.
I asked in a previous post, what the PUMA’s would do now that Sarah Palin is now the Republican VP pick of John McCain.
I think this Column for a Baltimore Sun writer demonstrates the degree of unreasoning hatred the left has for anyone who doesn't subscribe to their vision of socialist dogma.
What ever happened to the concept of fair play?
I sat in the yard swing this evening, just at that late twilight time when the color is washed from the sky, when there is not a breath of air that you yourself didn't just exhale.
A rain crow or maybe a Mourning Dove was the only sound I could hear other than the soft squeak of the swing chain as I slowly swung back and forth.
Gracie, the Dalmatian bitch with one blue eye and one brown sat on the ground before me, cadging a rub and scratch on each forward swing. Poor girl, she sheds far too much to be allowed into the house, her domain rather the fenced back yard where she sleeps in one corner of the shop/storage building. In the summer she'll lounge under it in the cool gray dirt, during cooler weather she'll be found stretched out on the front porch soaking up the heat from a feeble winter sun.
When ever it is, she's always right at my side when I'm out there (or in my lap if I'll allow her) rubbing her head against me, keeping her bi-colored eyes fixed upon me, like a lonesome lover, begging me silently never to go away, yet knowing I will, and hoping I'll one day return. I always do............faithfulness should be rewarded.
Then a rice burner with angry exhausts snarls his way around the corner and down the road, disturbing the evening, and, after one last scratch and rub to the pooch, I walk heavily into the house.
The rest of the election season is at least going to feature a beautiful, young, moose hunting Beauty Queen........well runner up at least.
Wonder what the PUMA's are going to do now?
Or,
The pooch, the ol' grump, and I
Our tale begins in the comfort of our modest home. Two men and one Yorkie left on their own over the Labor Day weekend while the main cook and bottle washer gallivants over to Myrtle Beach with the eldest daughter, her family, SIL and her husband. For what sinister purposes one can only imagine.
Friday started out quite normally.......well, with the exception that I, aging jr. birdman of yore, had to cook the pork sausage and over easy fried eggs. Nothing fancy like Brigid’s weekend fare, but as my dearly departed mother used to say, "it fills up a hollow spot".
The weather was very nice for late August, one of those not too hot, not too cool, blue sky mornings that encourages all but the most slothful to be up adoing..... Something, even if it turns out wrong, but fills the human breast with the optimism that great things can be done.
Accordingly I slouched back through the bedroom to the bath for the ritual washing and scrapping. Unusually, I even splashed on some of my most potent aftershave, fake Old Spice in a plastic bottle ( I will never forgive Gillete for taking the American Flag off the Old Spice sailing ship. By damn, if it was good enough for my grandfathers generation they should have left it be. If I were KOTW (King of the World) one of my first proclamations would be to restore the Stars and Stripes to it's rightful place.
Refreshed and energized by the application of aforesaid smelly stuff, I ventured forth about my day, traveling NE-ward toward Toccoa, there to attempt to place a Marquise in the hands of jeweler-to-the-masses, Mr. Goldcraft his own self. My diplomacy failed, as he had found among his meager hoard of crystallized carbon, a perfect fit, dooming my mission before inception. Not altogether a lost trip though as we exchanged pleasantries and other objects of worth, (well, his will be if the check doesn't bounce). In addition I was able to feast my eyes on the vision of Portuguese loveliness that attends his counter, greeting all who wander there with her dazzling smile, long brunette hair, and eyes which invite you to dive in and thereby drown. Oh, blissful death.
Resuming my wandering I eventually arrived at the flea market in Hull, there to solve all the worlds problems in theory and convivial conversation.
And at last returning to my humble abode, and walked into.......
......heat. Heat.......not the coolness for which I exchange pictures of dead presidents with the power company, but humidity and heat which causes your shirt to stick to your rib cage and your boxers to ride up and chaff parts best unrefereed to.
What th' heck, I asked the ol' grump. Being that his ticker only pumps out about 20% of required volume, he thought the temperature was just fine. Oh no, not me. Not for nothing do I amble about from town to town picking up scraps wherever I go. I expect to walk into nothing higher than a comfortable 72 degrees and if it could be reasonably afforded......a few ticks less.
General panic ensued.......although I had brought the ol' grump some of Bill's Barbecue from Dogtrot community, he had already started on biscuits and gravy from 2 days ago, heated in the microwave. This allowed me to check the thermostat, the heat pump fan and finally open the plenum and check the fan there. All spinning merrily away and gulping down wattage to no good effect.
We were reduced to opening the windows, turning on all available fans in an effort to feel a little bit human. (How did we ever survive before A/C??)
Well survive we did, until finally the repairman came and found the culprit to be a wire burned into at the compressor, undoubtedly caused by the small cluster of fire ants found fried crisply about the end of it.
Problem soon resolved and now some 6 hours later the humidity and temperature having been returned to acceptable levels, we turn our attention to the 'Brit Coms' on PBS, our standard Saturday night fare. Peace reigns once again in the KG (kudzu grotto).
........well, except for the pooch who is hiding from a bit of thunder in the distance.
Better go roll up the truck windows.
Thursday was a break from the usual ho-hum here at the KD (kudzu grotto).
Time for a trip down to the Augusta VA to have some dental work done to maintain the sparking and rakish kudzu smile. It's a 2 hour drive and I have to be there at 9am. You can imagine my glee at having to set the alarm and then wake up to it at 6am.
After sitting on the porcelain throne and aftwards scrapping at the gray on my chin, I was able to leave at 6:30. I figured on stopping in Lexington and getting a biscuit and Mtn Dew to help caffeinate myself for the trip. I should have made it a double espresso, or maybe a triple.
By the time I made it to the outskirts I was having to pinch myself to stay awake. Don't you just love it when you have no time to take a nap. Well, there were no wrecks ahead of me and I didn't look back to check out the carnage behind, so assume the best.
I had a good cleaning to look forward to and then Dr. Pahjola was going to grind off my front teeth and paste on a reasonable facsimile of same.
I hate it when that try to stick the needle into my nose from under my upper lip. I don't care how long they numb it before hand it still stings. The up side was that the grinding didn't phase me, to the contrary, after about 15 minutes, in spite of the painful angle at which my neck was bent, I was able to Zen out the pain and noise and sleep through about 30 minutes of the abuse. As they handed me the mirror to admire their handiwork I asked, "did I snore any?". "Only a little", giggled the nurse, like no one else ever snored in that chair.
So now I have straight full length incisors the better to bite off bits of bacon in the morning.
But, as I walked out to the reception to pick up my next appointment, I had a most unusual meeting.........
In front of the window was a young man, about 30 years old, and over 6 ft tall....well he would have been if he hadn't been in a motorized chair. He was chatting up the receptionist, but moved back and motioned and told me to step ahead. Of course, I demurred but he insisted and said he wasn't there for dental work, only talking to the Receptionist. She took my paperwork and started filling out my appointments schedule.
Kdzu, I said, holding out my hand. "Wendell Foy", saith he, sending me off immediately to a long ago time, in a Quonset hut along the Quang Tri river, late one booze hazy night.
"Excuse me", I asked, "did you have a relative killed in Vietnam that you know of"?
"Not to my knowledge", he replied. "I knew a young Warrant Office pilot there, who died", I said, "His name was Walter Foy".
I asked where he was injured. "Iraq". "Thanks for your service". Thanks for yours". One says these things now-a-days. I questioned him about his status. 100% permanent and totally disabled. Said with a smile, but you had to wonder about the feelings behind it.
"Let me give you something", he said, handing me a little brochure.......a All Inclusive Jamaica Getaway Certificate good for a year at an really good rate if sent in within the next month. (How the hell did he know I'd been wondering where to go?)
He and his wife run a little travel agency. Groovytown travel. Give him a call if you have travel needs. 706 691 5300.
On the trip back I recalled the tragedy of young Walter. In the summer of '71. I was 3/4's of the way through my tour, looking hopefully to October when I'd rotate back to the world.
Walter was a "FNG" just out of flight school and Cobra training.
Our weapons platoon leader was a Captain, not long out of flight school himself, but, as things are done in the army sometimes, because he was senior officer in the platoon he was assigned leader and because of his rank, pulled it to get himself assigned to the pilots backseat position after only 3 weeks in country and no, repeat no combat pilot time.
There are in aviation, notices called hazards to airmen. This Captain should have had one issued on his ass. The most reckless pilot I'd ever seen. We older pilots didn't have to ride as his front seat, we were A/C's in our own right. The new guys weren't so lucky.
Walter and he were scheduled to cover a LRRP extraction the next day. We older guys, (Ha, all of maybe 21 years old) were teasing Walter and telling him not to fly with the Captain, that he was dangerous and was going to get himself and his co-pilot killed because he'd fly too close to the ground without good cause.
Walter assured us that if they went too low he'd pull back on the controls. The Cobras of that era had a 10 to 1 mechanical advantage to the back seat controls.
They were making a faux gun run at the request of the rangers for the benefit of some of their new guys. No hostiles, no enemy fire, a simple extraction along a treeline, easy peasy.
Their wingman saw the aircraft nose pull up and then immediately nose down just before they crashed into a huge dead tree that stuck up about 20 feet higher than the rest. Their remains were scattered over about a quarter mile. They found one head intact still inside the flight helmet. I never knew whose head it was.
Two more coffins sent home filled with sand and bits and pieces of bones and flesh.
I always wondered how the major explained that in his letters to the next of kin.
But this young Mr. Foy returned alive and seemed to have a positive outlook on life. At least I hope so. God Speed Wendell. You too Walter.
The little red hen called all of her Democrat neighbors together and said, 'If we plant this wheat, we shall have bread to eat. Who will help me plant it?'
'Not I,' said the cow.
'Not I,' said the duck.
'Not I,' said the pig.
'Not I,' said the goose.
'Then I will do it by myself,' said the little red hen, and so she did. The wheat grew very tall and ripened into golden grain.
'Who will help me reap my wheat?' asked the little red hen.
'Not I,' said the duck...
'Out of my classification,' said the pig.
'I'd lose my seniority,' said the cow.
'I'd lose my unemployment compensation,' said the goose.
'Then I will do it by myself,' said the little red hen, and so she did.
At last it came time to bake the bread.
'Who will help me bake the bread?' asked the little red hen.
'That would be overtime for me,' said the cow.
'I'd lose my welfare benefits,' said the duck.
'I'm a dropout and never learned how,' said the pig.
'If I'm to be the only helper, that's discrimination,' said the goose.
'Then I will do it by myself,' said the little red hen.
She baked five loaves and held them up for all of her neighbors to see. They wanted some and, in fact, demanded a share. But the little red hen said, 'No, I shall eat all five loaves.'
'Excess profits!' cried the cow. (Nancy Pelosi)
'Capitalist leech!' screamed the duck. (Barbara Boxer)
'I demand equal rights!' yelled the goose. (Jesse Jackson)
The pig just grunted in disdain. (Ted Kennedy)
And they all painted 'Unfair!' picket signs and marched around and around the little red hen, shouting obscenities.
Then the farmer (Obama) came. He said to the little red hen, 'You must not be so greedy.'
'But I earned the bread,' said the little red hen.
'Exactly,' said Barack the farmer. 'That is what makes our free enterprise system so wonderful. Anyone in the barnyard can earn as much as he wants. But under our modern government regulations, the productive workers must divide the fruits of their labor with those who are lazy and idle.' (Karl Marx)
And they all lived happily ever after, including the little red hen, who smiled and clucked, 'I am grateful, for now I truly understand.'
But her neighbors became quite disappointed in her. She never again baked bread because she joined the 'party' and got her bread free. And all the Democrats smiled. 'Fairness' had been established.
Individual initiative had died, but nobody noticed; perhaps no one cared...so long as there was free bread that 'the rich' were paying for.
EPILOGUE
Bill Clinton is getting $12 million for his memoirs.
Hillary got $8 million for hers.
That's $20 million for the memories from two people, who for eight years, repeatedly testified, under oath, that they couldn't remember anything.
IS THIS A GREAT BARNYARD OR WHAT?
...and the ongoing conventions.
For this week and next, if you are so inclined, you may view every night the orgasmic moaning and groaning of the two major political parties in the US at the current point in time. Much shouting and chanting by the willing Johns and Janes while the whores at the center of the commotion stare out at them with their winning smiles and their dead eyes behind which only a quest for power and influence resides.
So far I have easily resisted the siren cries of the media to look and 'watch me'.
It may be that my meds need to be readjusted to make me more pliable...........or it may be that I simply tire of the noise.
I know.......I know, I've spent hours babbling on the internet about this and that perceived right or wrong. To those that listen, I'm preaching to the choir, and to others it's just more of the same from that nutjob from Athens.
All that being said, there are voices that I feel should be heard.....or read.
Click over to Brigids for her take. If you don't like the commentary you can always whip up one of the delicious meals that she makes.
If I can remember how to post anything on here.
Hmmmmm, the soft clicking of the keys seem to ignite a flicker of memory in the burned out fire some people report seeing where my brain used to be.
It's been a week and a half.......hell, maybe another week or so before I come back. Maybe not, we'll see.
Finally we got some of the rain that Fay had promised us for so long today. For some reason people around here don't seem to pay the preachers enough and the Lord has withheld his bounty till the pastures are dry as popcorn farts.
But, tonight we've rain, blessed event, sometimes whipped along by the wind to rattle fitfully at the window panes, other times drizzling like and ol' man dribbling off the back porch. Taking so long the wife yells at him to choke it off and come back inside.
There was a tornado watch an hour ago for the Elberton area. I was down at Tiny Town waiting on far too little for such a long drive. The clouds were black and gray to the east and just above the treetops. Made me keep a weather eye out as they say. Moving to the north though so no danger unless the Fickle Finger of Fate chose to give me the ol' finger wave just for spite. Hell, bring it on.........I'm ready or not. Don't matter much either way.
I've three or four scoops of Lara Lynn chocolate ice cream in a plastic bowl along with a couple of chocolate covered graham crackers on the desk in front of me. I takes my comfort and pleasures as I can. Soon I'll take off the boots and pick up my latest Bill Lee Burke novel.
As you can see not much going on here. The spouse is taking off with oldest daughter and family to Myrtle Beach for Labor day. My job is to take care of the ol' grump and make sure he takes his pills on time. Which reminds me that I need to take mine. I may head for the hills later in the month.....try to find where the timberdoodles roost. If'n I do I'll keep a secret. They're a shy and retiring bird unless you come across them early in the evening working through a wet slough probing for worms.
You all keep Mama Kat and LL in your thoughts........that their bodies may be healed.
Redneck girls are beginning to look mighty fine right about now to those ol' country boys and those who wanna be. And those who might have had more than one or two longnecks might be singing along to the below tune.
Crank the speakers up.
Cool song
And the Redneck girls have to make a decision, wrestle 'em down and hogtie them preparatory to dragging them out to the pick-em-up truck, or tell them to kiss their country ass.
.
A funny thing happened on the way into the present moment today.
I arose to the possibilities of the new morning. Blearily, grumpily, disheveled, and bearded I stepped into the shower to try to get the bed out of my mind. Shampooed, rinsed, repeated, soaped and scrubbed, I tried not to cut my throat as I scrapped my face and upper neck. Off to meet the day.........
Missed the first guy 'cause he was off shitting in the woods. Literally.
Made the second appointment and was throughly pissed off by a guy with a 400 year old chip on his shoulder. Swallowed the bile that darkened the sun for a while. You're not allowed to carry there. Probably a good rule.
Spent the second half of the day traveling and feeling good as the stops were productive.
Got back and tried one more place trying to find a black ink cartridge for the latest printer addition. Only to spit "son-of-a-bitch" when Cartridge World didn't have it either. The clerk must have seen the red behind my pupils because he pointed a shaking finger to Office Max. Bought 2 just in case the jones' came back.
And then drove through the middle of the Classic City only to spot some asshole holding up a 'Honk if you love Peace' sign in front of the arches. Took great joy in giving him the bird and watching the look of amazement on his face. Faggot!!!!
And got home to the realization that I'm just not a Peace Lovin' sort of guy these days. If I ever were.
In the immortal words uttered by Sir Anthony Hopkins in Legends of the Fall.....
...........Scruuueemm.
.............don't do the freaking crime.
This guy was sure a big hero for raping and murdering two women 22 freaking years ago, but now is looking for any excuse to keep from paying for that crime. He deprived them of their Life and their liberty ( you have to assume that they didn't willingly go with him), two of the basic tenants of our laws.
I've got the perfect solution for him, since he's worried he might experience some discomfort. Th' big pussy, he's too ugly to live anyway.
Let me come up there with my Browning Hi Power. Have him kneel down in front of me, facing away from me, and I'll put a 9mm right through his brain stem and into the center of his sorry excuse for a brain. I guaran-damn-tee that he won't feel a thing and for sure will never fantasize about harming another woman.
And I won't even charge them mileage or the cost of the round.
Twenty two freaking years. Just damn. There is little justice for his atrocity here already.
Too fat, my ass!
Update: Oh yeah, I'd advocate the same thing for his freaking taxpayer-funded lawyer. A waste of space in the universe.....both of 'em.
DAMN! DAMN! DAMN!
In my last post I decried the very apparent lack of true leadership qualities in the Polidickheads who we've voted into office with metronomic regularity.
Now I ask the above question. Do we need leadership??
The American revolution against the relatively (compared to today) minor abuses of the colonists by the titular rulers in England was instigated by a minority (perhaps 30%) of the colonists who considered that they would not bow to those who would deny them the freedom to decide their own fate, or who told them that the state knew better than they what was good for them. Violating willy-nilly the very laws which citizens of England had secured by vigorous struggle hundreds of years before, rendering those laws inapplicable to the colonies.
So they fought, and won the defining struggle of their age, sparking short years later, in other countries, the same kinds of struggles.
Theirs was an age of thinkers. Unhampered by 24/7/365 noise from radio, TV, internet, and untold thousands of ad agencies telling them what they needed, they set out to establish a Republic, governed by laws, which supposedly would apply to all men equally. (we won't go into several of the hypocrisies in that last. Suffice it to say that we are still trying to overcome them)
These thinkers understood the differences between the Rule of Law and the Rule of the Mob. That's why we were given a Republic where the Rule of Law was supposed to be paramount.
But there is always a catch, it seems.
Alexis deTocqueville in his seminal work, Democracy In America written in the 1830s, believed that America’s version of democracy suffered from a fatal flaw, a flaw that derived from the American character itself.
DeToqueville observed that Americans had two conflicting desires: (1) The desire to be free, and (2) the desire to be led. It is America’s second desire that has now led to the undoing of the first.
Irrespective of America’s truly revolutionary Declaration of Independence and extraordinary Constitution, America today has become a debased mockery of the founding fathers’ original dream and the manifestation of DeToqueville’s dire predictions; and, this November, Americans will again go to the polls to choose “their masters”.
This is what DeToqueville said of the process:
It is in vain to summon a people, who have been rendered so dependent on the central power to choose from time to time the representatives of that power; this rare and brief exercise of their free choice, however important it may be, will not prevent them from gradually losing the faculties of thinking, feeling, and acting for themselves, and thus gradually falling below the level of humanity.
There are still may thinkers and doers in this country. The Internet acts as a forum to many of them. But, consider this. The media rails against the imposition of internet restrictions by China during the impending Olympics......and rightly so......but do little about the efforts by government here at home from trying to do the same.
Ultimately the free flow of information brought down the evil Empire of the old Soviet Union. Do you not think that our own rulers didn't see that and ponder the implications to themselves.
I am not saying Americans or others should not vote in elections; but, if they do, they should be cognizant of what they expect will be accomplished. Most Americans still hope their votes once every two or four years will correct the direction this once great nation has taken. They will not.
What will save us, if we are to be saved, is for free men and women to exercise their freedom, in all aspects of their lives, limiting, in as much as is possible in your own situation, the slavery they seek to impose on us.
Whether, or not, the handcuffs are lined with velvet.
leadership Definition
lead·er·ship (-s̸hip′)
noun
1. the position or guidance of a leader
2. the ability to lead
3. the leaders of a group
leadership Synonyms
leadership
n.
1.
The quality notable in leaders
authority, control, executiveness, administration, effectiveness, activity, primacy, superiority, supremacy, skillfulness, skill, initiative, foresight, energy, capacity; see also influence 2, power 2.
2.
The action of leading
direction, guidance, management; see administration 1
I have been a little lax in the posting department of late. Blame it on, if you will, work (too busy, although we know that's a lie), I'm lying in a vegative state in the small rocking recliner, listening to my heart beat (much more likely), or simply that the meds calm me to the point that I can't seem to get excited about anything but GOC’s Saturday postings.
The truth perhaps lies in the fact that none of the people in national politics and most of the state and local politicians have any idea of the true meaning of leadership. While I can remember JFK's leadership in going into space, and Regan's leadership into bringing down the evil empire and lifting us out of the malaise which culminated in the Carter sorry excuse for a presidency. Oh and I must not forget the Clinton leadership to a generation of high schoolers that a blowjob on the school bus is not sex. Those examples do not seem to have taught the current crop of candidicks any lessons.
In the last couple of weeks the American people have had to lead John McCain to the conclusion that it would be a good idea to drill for oil along the continental shelf and start working on extracting oil from the shale in the Rockies.
Now it seems that Obamamessia has been led by McCain to the same conclusion, Although I've not heard either one suggest we drill on a postage stamp sized bit of Anwar which is home to nothing but blackflies and mosquitoes for 3 months in the summer.
How soon before people start asking each other, "Who is John Galt?"
Me? In my mind I'm already in the Gulch.
.
.......by a Spirit being, ghost, angel or heavenly messenger?
I have. Many years ago....only a couple hours after midnight, early on a Thursday morning, I awoke to find myself sitting upright in bed, my wife sound asleep to my right side, looking at a person standing at the foot of my bed.
There was no light on in the room, yet I could see him clearly....at least from about his waist up.
We talked, yet no words were spoken. He gave me a message and some answers to questions I'd been having.
No fear, no astonishment, just a calm feeling as if we were old friends.
And then he was gone, and I sank back into the bed. And as I did, I looked to the clock by the bed to my right. 2:10 AM, four hours till time to get up, and I was once more asleep. Yet woke when the alarm went off with as perfect recall of the event as I have now. It's been over 24 years.
I wondered if there were something he wanted me to do. A little over 10 years later, I related the tale to a new friend and expressed my wondering to him. To my surprise, he turned and looked at me and said, "I know what he wanted".
And he did.
Now I wonder, which was the messenger and which the Angel?
.
........in the UNIVERSE.
At least one former astronaut who walked on the moon, says no.
Click HERE, and see what he has to say.
The following is a letter I just sent to Barnes & Noble booksellers.
23 July 2008
Leonard Riggio
Founder and Chairman
Barnes & Noble
122 Fifth Avenue, 2nd Floor
New York, NY 10011
e-mail: customerservice@bn.com
Dear Mr. Riggio,
Sir, it is not my custom to complain or get upset with the policies of the establishments with which I do business. But tonight I found an example of poor customer service in one of your stores which will influence me in the choice of book sellers which I frequent for a long time to come.
Briefly, I entered you store in Athens, Georgia this evening with the intention of buying a couple of books for my reading enjoyment. My needs are simple……I either buy novels of mystery or science fiction with a goodly helping of financial and investment advice books. My intention was to buy a couple ;of fiction novels for myself, and the book ‘Richest Man in Babylon’ for my grandson, whose 16th birthday is coming up, and I wanted a primer on wise money management to guide him into his early adulthood.
On one of the racks near the front of the store I came across books with the label
Buy 2
Get one free*
*of equal or lesser value
affixed to the front cover.
Knowing a good deal when I see one, I picked two fiction novels out for myself and proceeded to go and find the book for my grandson.
Two of the books were marked $7.99 and one was marked $6.99.
Feeling that I had satisfied the requirement of the label, there being nothing to indicate otherwise, either on the books themselves, or the stand on which they were displayed, I proceeded to the check out counter where I was informed, first by the clerk, and then by the manager, that my understanding of the English language was faulty and the label, cited above, did not mean I could buy 2 books and get one free, as long as it was of equal or lesser value, but instead that it applied only to books of that one rack. I pointed out that was not what the label said, and if the policy was different it should have been so indicated.
The Manager, Andrea, according to the name tag on her blouse, assumed the Deer-in-the-headlights look, and replied that I was mistaken.
Knowing that argument was futile, as she had no understanding of the concept of customer service, I left the three books on the counter, and exited the store.
Sir, I will gladly admit that it has been a long time since I last formally studied language and English, since I am 58 years old, a high school graduate with several hours of college credits from the University of Georgia, a veteran of war in service to my country in combat, and a self employed businessman for the last 33 years. But I don’t think the rules of language have changed that much.
I probably have been in that particular bookstore at least 3 times a month for the past two years and on average I probably spend $10 to $30 each time, so realize that I am a very miniscule portion of your yearly sales figures.
But, I must tell you sir, that in the future I will not be a customer of Barnes & Noble.
There are other bookstores in the area and I will avail myself of their services from now on.
I send this letter to you personally and to your customer service center. I will also post on my blog http://redhillkudzu.blogspot.com.
Should you wish to respond, I will also post that response to my blog, in fairness to you and your large corporation.
Sincerely,
A dissatisfied customer.
Name and address
withheld to protect the guilty.
I'll let you know if I have any response.
in the PM of an almost gone Monday, and I wonder why I'm here at the keyboard again.
We carried the Buick to our favorite mechanic this morning to have a window regulator replaced. (Don't you just love modern conveniences? If it just had regular old fashioned roll up windows this trip wouldn't have been necessary). The good thing was that when we went back to pick it up this afternoon, even though the 1 year warranty expired in May, the mechanic got them to honor it anyway and the cost was only $60 instead of $300.
The bad part was the fact the I and the old grump had to go to his rental trailer to try to find out what was suddenly causing both of the toilets to back up. Thank goodness the line to the septic tank was not far underground and didn't require major excavation. The culprit turned out to be some wire which had somehow gotten flushed down one of the toilets and hung in the line. Not too bad a job considering the temperature in the shade was 100 degrees.
We had a little light show a few minutes ago. Much noise about not so much it turned out. Only a few sprinkles to tease the thirsty ground.
If we didn't live in a subdivision with all the security lights and downtown wasn't only 3 miles away and the clouds weren't above us the night sky might look something like this......
Of course I might have to live in Death Valley where this picture was taken. Make with the clicky_clicky to embiggen.
Stars as numerous as the grains of sand on the seashore. And that's just nearby. There are also Galaxies spinning and whirling, mingling and merging, and it goes on farther than the mind can comprehend..........yet.
What wonders will open up to us in another 2000 years? Or even 200? Makes one long to hang around to see it all.
Well except for the having to listen to presidential candidates pontificate every 4 years.
That's what the LLM (left leaning media) tells us every day, about 728 times a day.
Go ahead.......turn on your TV. Turn it to any news channel. Listen less than 10 minutes and I'll bet you that message is given no less than twice and probably more.
Why, from listening to them you would think you would see little pot-bellied skinny legged children with flies swarming around their eyes would be on every street corner.
Now I will admit that I tend to only buy nice sirloin steaks when the price is better than is usual. And the last time I went to Red Lobster was sometime in the Pleistocene
era. Lunches at the local elementary school have risen from .25 cents when I was a kid to who-the-hell-knows-now.
But come oooonnnnnnn..........Check out the 2 good ol' gals in the linked
article and tell me if they couldn't benefit by skipping a couple of meals.
Of course it was reported by NPR...........I'll bet they don't even see the irony.
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...........maybe give you something to think about while you're packing widgets into those very attractive gift baskets.
I have got to expand my blogroll. There is another world out there to explore.
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Enough!!!
When attacked by a wild animal you don't negotiate or ask what rules it wants to use in the fight. You strike it down without mercy and without remorse. If you are attacked by a pack of wild animals you fight savagely and without restraint until all of them are dead or neutralized. To do otherwise doesn't mean facing ignominious defeat. It means you move down the food chain and become an entrée!
You can go HERE for the rest of a really fine, thoughtful essay.
You could easily substitute the words United States where he uses Israel.
Our leaders invoke the more liberal parts of Sun Tzu’s teaching and ignore the hard realities he also spoke.
Like my Dad would have probably said.........."when there is nut cutting to be done, just grab, slice and yank". And if I may add......."keep 'em out of the dirt and there is some fine eating to be had".
I just hate it when people write careful, well thought out essays, and my writing is just free association finger tapping.
is down now. But, thirty minutes ago you could see it going down between the short leaf pines and scrub oaks (black jacks, post and pin oaks) to the north west of here.
Shining like the proverbial big red ball, you could see a gray band of clouds striping it, as if a child had swiped it with a huge paint brush.
For some reason it took me back damn near 40 years and placed me atop one of he huge 10 ft high, 3 ft thick metal revetment walls filled with sand, grass and weeds struggling to get a toe hold, (only to be ripped out by rotorwash when they got too big) between which we parked our snakes for the night.
From there you could look west over the airfield, across the landing pad for the 18th Surgical hospital, to the mountains west of Mi Loc just NW of which was the notch in the hills that QL1 ran thru and you'd know that vehicle traffic was stopped and troops were in an RON position, possibly with the Vietnamese whores set up in their cardboard box bedrooms taking on all comers (pun not intended).
The sun would set in that notch, much the same as tonight, its blazing light damped to a reddish glow through the haze, fog, and especially dust, of war.
You'd not be able to see them, but just over the horizon would be the rockpile and the razorback, riddled with so many holes and tunnels, from which the enemy would even now be venturing, beginning their nightly trek toward Vandergrif or possibly up the steep hand cut dirt steps which would lead them to the punchbowl north of the mountains rimming Khe Shan, from there to the Ho Chi Minh trail leading them either north or south depending on whatever their orders were.
Some days it'd be the most beautiful place in the world. You had one less day to go.
Funny how just a moment in time can transport you back 70 pounds lighter and sporting a mustache so if you ever made it back to the world you'd have a chance of not getting thrown out of the bar.
Maybe I'm entering my second childhood.
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............if your can, that you, yes you, there on the other side of this screen. You a separate, individual person, complete within your skin. You think.....therefore you are. Given life by your parents (also individuals in their own right) coming together whether by intent or happenchance to create within the womb of the female (odd how that happens)(even odder looking if someone else is watching) a new......soon to be separate individual. Some say we are given life and rights by a creator. I'll leave that up to you to argue for or against.
Just imagine for a moment if you, at the end of the pay period, were allowed to keep all of what you had earned for yourself. You after all exchanged seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks or longer for your pay. Would you be willing to give part of it up?? What if it were taken from you by force? You are given no choice in the matter. Or perhaps you were given a choice and choose to keep it, yet others choosing differently overruled your objections.
Would you be resentful? Upset, perhaps?
It happens every day. Under the pretense of organization, regulation, protection, or encouragement, the law takes property from one person and gives it to another; the law takes the wealth of all and gives it to a few — whether farmers, manufacturers, shipowners, artists, or comedians.
Because Law does it, is it right?
In a previous post I gently expressed my displeasure with certain elements within the governmental system currently holding themselves up before us as governmental units and individuals with those units.
I took all the prescribed medications over an hour ago and hopefully they will have lowered my blood pressure to within acceptable limits and fed the other demons sufficient to keep them from gnawing their way out tonight.
I've taken a shower in as cool water as was bearable, the bull moose pj bottoms cover my lily white, hairy legs and scrawny ass. My purple mug of ice water is near at hand.
.........I'm good to go. Just not too far.
There was a half hour earlier of consternation when I clicked on my home page on the computer and it said it wasn't going to talk to me. At first I though I'd been sabotaged by one of those online virus' that people talk about and spammers try to get you to buy their product to prevent happening. But, in the end I just shut the 'puter down and waited through a re-run of Burn Notice on TV, came back cranked 'er up and all was restored as at first. Thank goodness too, because I'd hate to have the repair geek come by and charge me $75 for clicking a few keys.
I've a quote by ol' Teddy Roosevelt there on the left below an old, old picture of me and our youngest daughter back in my shit stomping, cow titty squeezing days.
Teddy was a good ol' boy of the finest sort if you happened to hop-nob with the wealthy set back about a hundert years ago. Called himself the Bull Moose and went around shouting BULLY at every body. Not sure whether he was insulting folks or just pointing them out so as people would give them a wide berth. But he didn't know the meaning of the word quit and he liked to walk around in tennis shoes with a big stick and all, so he sounds like a right good feller.......even if he was part politician (spit, spit, wipe my fingers on the pj'z for having to type that word).
Anyway, 'cause of my admiration of certain characteristics of the ol' boy (by no means all, I was interested in noting that John McCain is labeling himself as a conservative in the Teddy Roosevelt style.
One quote from him: to whit........
“I believe less governance is the best governance, and that government should not do what the free enterprise and private enterprise and individual entrepreneurship and the states can do, but I also believe there is a role for government,” Mr. McCain said. He added: “Government should take care of those in America who can not take care of themselves.”
especially caught my eye.
Everything was good until the last sentence.
Government should take care of those in America who can not take care of themselves.
I am all for helping my fellow man.....or woman, little children, the infirm, the mentally incompetent......but, I do not need the government to hold a gun to my head and decide for me whom I should help. I'm just not sure that is a proper function of government. I can be as free with my own money, time and efforts as I please or not. Should the government force me to, if I consider the project unworthy?
I think not.
The government, which takes by force of laws,from all of us tiny and not so tiny slices of our lives (we after all trade hours of our lives in exchange for money, whether it be earned by the sweat of our backs, our brains, or our creative efforts), should treat that portion of our lives with the dignity and respect it deserves. After all we each have only a finite supply of minutes within this mortal coil.
Should they spend it on a drug using young woman who continually gets pregnant because she trades the use of certain orifices of her body for money, which she uses to get high again, causing the "government" to have to step in and support her children because she is either not competent to, or simply shuffles off the responsibility to someone, anyone else.
Should we have to pay for the medical costs into the unforeseeable future for a young man, who in a fit of testosterone hands his beer to a friend and says "Watch this" and proceeds to dive into the shallow end of the pool, breaking his neck and severing his spinal cord at the 5th vertebra?
Do we have a responsibility to keep alive every person regardless of the shallowness of their gene pool?
I could go on and on with examples but, you probably tire of reading my drivel along about this time.
So I think I'll go check the back of my eyelids for signs of light leaking through.
I'd seriously like your ideas, if any on this subject. We may not come up with a better solution...........but then, who knows?
Oh, I'm sure I could think of more accurate and precise terms to apply to the policy wonks in our government and intelligence (a pair of oxymoron's if I ever heard one)
community.
I hold anybody who thinks of themselves as a politician, wants to be a politician, depends on politicians, works for a politician, thinks that when we vote we are voting for politicians to act in our best interests, works for the government (with the exceptions of those soldiers who aren't politicians) and any bureaucratic agency of the government (including 98% of all so called educators in the public school systems), as dipshits or worse if you can think of a better expletive.
Read this and let me know what you think. And I'm serious..........I'd like to know your reaction......even those lurkers who are out there who never comment.
I thought I was wrong once, but was mistaken. Exception for spelling and grammar which SWG corrects from time to time. With my thanks.
Whatta day.
Soon the medications will kick in and I'll be feeling mellow again.
The day was spent with my Grandson (age 8) and I (he and his older sister spending the night last night), gathering up all the accouterments of a traveling junk buyer, loading them all into the truck and setting out.
First stop Monroe, GA.
Now if any of you have or have had an 8 year old boy along with you for a ride, you'll have likely have noticed 2 things............their mouth is either yapping a mile a minute.....or they're asleep because the whine of the tires on the asphalt is like a sleeping pill on them. You just have to get them to stop talking long enough.
We talked of ships and shoes and sealing wax........and the latest bloody violent X-box game he has played. While we were in the shop in Monroe, he wanted me to buy no less than 6 different games and 4 DVD's that I wouldn't watch. (If it looked like there was war or destruction on the cover, he wanted it.)
Then it was off to Gainesville, GA. There to wait for over an hour while the owner picked out stones that mostly weren't worth much. I waited until he had finished and then told him that next time I'd be glad to separate and return to him within 3 or 4 weeks, the next time I paid him a visit. After weighing it out and paying him, I asked to see a ring he'd shown me on 2 previous visits.
An 18kt antique ring set with an approximately 1 carat Rose Cut diamond. (follow the link and scroll down.
The supposed history of this ring (if true) is quite interesting.
About 20 years ago near Dahlonega, Ga. the current (now former) owner was using a backhoe to dig the trench for a septic tank. Noticing a golden sparkle (Dahlonega was the site of the first major US gold rush back in the early 1800's and for a while the home of the Dahlonega Mint who's coins are today some of the most valuable around) he got off the backhoe to investigate and found a group of old Dahlonega gold coins and this ring. 18 kt gold with the stone of course on top. Still in good shape (perhaps as much as 150 years old, the color of the gold is spectacular. The stone has a slight bluish color and looks very clear but there is some dirt or grease behind the stone and it's hard to tell since the back is enclosed. Was it hidden from the blue bellies during the war between the states or just stored away in case of burglars or muglars and forgotten through misfortune or misadventure? If only it could talk.
Hopefully tomorrow, I'll be able to meet with an expert in antique jewelry and get his opinion of worth. He'll likely own it if he wants it enough. I have another antique platinum ring with old mine cut stones I'm sure he will buy.. If not, well then I've got a couple of conversation pieces that will turn quite a few eyes.
After that little stop we found a McDonalds and partook of some of their chicken nuggets, while we motored on over to Toccoa. A friend there runs a small jewelery store and has an attractive assistant (female for those of you who might question which way I swing). We bought some more scrap metal and picked up a few repairs for a friend of my daughter.
Then back home.......listening to an excited little boy tell me all about war and soldiers all the way.
He's been wide open every since we got back about 4:30. I wish I could bottle some of that energy and put it into pill form so I could take one every day. Might have to cut it with Valium so I wouldn't bounce off the walls too much.
And soon to bed......strapped onto the CPAP machine whose soft whine will gently ease me into the arms of Morpheus.
To sleep..........perchance to dream.......
The Supreme Court of the land rendered the Correct Decision on whether the 2 Amendment to the Constitution gives individuals the right to keep and bear arms.
But don't start cheering too loudly..............especially in this day of CCTV camera coverage of damn near anywhere you want to go. You never can tell whose data base you are in.
I mean come on.............5 to 4 in favor. Has anybody checked the brain function of the dissenting 4 judges. You can be kept alive almost indefinitely by machines but you need some brain activity to keep them from pulling the plug right after the harvested your sphincter to keep some old guy from shitting on himself. That's the problem with lawyers...........they'll twist even the plainest wording to suit their client or own point of view.
In my opinion there can be no mistaking the intention of the founding fathers if you can read on at least a 5th grade level.
My own feelings are along the lines of Charlton Heston.
"You can have my gun when you pry it from my cold dead hand"
Not that I have any of those evil instruments of destruction and mayhem.
So acting in accordance with 5 of the justices, today I went and looked at a couple of items that may be banned forever by the future court if the dimocrits have their way.
First off a Marling Golden 39A .22 cal lever action described by some as one of the best of it's kind.
Golden 39 A
Next a Chinese SKS in 7.62 X 39 mm
SKS
Originally I'd gone looking at about 8 items but the party wouldn't come off the very high price for mainly pedestrian shotguns and rifles so I countered back by asking what they'd take for these two. They really were the two best items, although clearly the guy didn't know it. So if I had bought them I'd have gotten a deal. But of course I don't own any fire arms. That would be just too politically incorrect, even for me.
Tree rats......... and other type of vermin............look out.
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Whether misplaced or not can have a huge impact on, not only our lives, but those around us.
Too much emphasis on work, for instance, can lead to the alienation of affections of our spouses and children. It might get us high marks from our employers.........but not so much from a higher judge.
Some say 'judge not, lest you be judged'. And that is the final word. Others interpret the same words as 'judge not unrighteous judgment, lest the same judgment will judge you'. I think most of us want mercy rather than judgment............even if we are not so quick to grant the same to others.
Whence cometh this bout of naval gazing, you might ask? Where indeed? sayest I.
Perhaps from Here.
Leona Helmsley had certainly been judged by others and found wanting. Enough so that she was incarcerated to teach her a lesson. Whether it changed her mind about people I can't say. But, it seemed she at least loved her dog. To my way of thinking that gives her at least a few points on the positive side of the scoreboard.
I have no idea how her family and relatives saw her. Possibly simply as a source of money when she kicked the proverbial bucket...........possibly they truly grieved as children and grandchildren. I'll bet you one thing though...........I'll bet that her favorite dog considered her it's favorite human. And grieved when the realization that she wasn't coming back set in.
My Dalmatian bitch doesn't care that I don't always speak kindly to her when I'm preoccupied with other matters...........she just eats it up when I'll take the time to sit on the steps and stroke her head and ears and speak softly to her. If I forget to take the dog crunchies out to her in the evening, she greets me just as joyfully the next morning. When I'm feeling put upon, she'll always come running up to me with a doggie smile on her face. And will climb up in my lap if I let her, just so I know she likes to be around me.
It seems that Gracie always has her priorities in order.........even when I don't.
And that's all I've got to say about that.
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In spite of all the ranting and raving coming out through my fingertips here, one fact remains..........
I love this country and all it stands for. We may have the most venal politicians money can buy and one of the largest populations of goof balls on the planet up there in the Asylum on the Potomac, but...........the country is greater than that.
Despite what the LLM (left leaning media) would have you believe about how decadent and evil we are......................thousands perhaps millions of people risk their health, their fortune, their lives to reach this oasis of freedom in a world increasingly at odds with freedom.
Today was much as any other day, here at the kudzu grotto.
Well, if you discount the fact that I made a pot of my special secret, (have to kill you if I give you the recipe) Chili. It was as wonderful as all the other times I've made it. Had a bowl for lunch. Froze 2 quarts and put another bowl in the fridge for later.
We had a few thundershowers move through this afternoon late.......then slacked off and stopped just in time for me to light up the grill and singe 2 nice sirloin steaks for me and the old grump. (the spousal unit and children down at the SIL's pool. I of course don't go as I am officially on the do not call list around here.
Over a lb. of medium rare cow will go a long way towards satisfying even the appetite of a glutton like myself. With a small baked potato topped with real butter and salted and peppered to taste I am good to go. Feeling all stuffed and willing to wish even the democrits a happy 4th of July. ( they don't like it when you keep referring to anything having to do with Independence).
Enjoy for a few moments one of the classic Independence day musical numbers.
If that doesn't get your heart to thumping, your shoulders thrown back and your feet to tapping (mine want to stomp up and down the hall), there may be no hope for you.
You others..............God Bless America.
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................Special
Some female thinks that if she has her tits cut off and takes hormones so as to have a little beard, she can call herself a man and declare that a 'man' had a baby.
Listen to me twat I've seen real women with more of a beard and they are some of the sexiest women alive. If you think that you are special because you had a baby through your altogether female organs and that doesn't make you a woman, you're living in the dream world that the pussyfied media has cooked up for you.
Why do they put so much importance on this screwed up person. Most of us could care less that you and your other female 'life partner' are going to be given the opportunity to screw up this child's life. And if you don't, by some miricle, the credit will go to the child for being able to see past your bullshit.
I guess you consider this some kind of independence day for you.
How I wish we could declare independence from stupidity.
It's a good thing that I haven't tried too hard to come up with an appropriate post for the morrow.
LL has beaten me to it and done a much better job than I. Go over there and read from a woman who loves this country.
So do I, but sometimes it's hard to look past the media and politicians. Are they lying??? Is their mouth moving??
The year is half over at midnight.
Anyone over the age of 30 is probably asking themselves, "Where the heck did the time go?".
It seems that Christmas past has just shown us the error of our ways. As usual we weren't paying attention.
Having just packed the evenings medications down with a banana sandwich and tall glass of milk, I, at least in the wanting food category, am sated for the moment. Other categories ..........not so much, maybe.
I guess it is more usual to reflect back on a full year the day before New Years Eve. Mostly Dec. 31st is getting ready to ring in the coming year with new resolutions...
... that all too frequently we don't keep anyway.
Perhaps if I start now I'll have some idea of how it's really going by the end of the year.
One thing I'll be glad of by then will be the end of possibly the longest campaigns for president in memory (mine, not yours). There must be some sort of conspiracy afoot to so numb us by these long campaigns that no matter who is placed behind the desk in the oval office the American people just wipe their collective brow and sigh, "Whew, glad that's over with". Then another 4 years of pissing and moaning about how the wrong guy to lead us is in there.
Personally, I'll stick to my habit of keeping my head down and my powder dry. I figure that if I keep wearing a tin foil hat and wrapping my wallet in lead they can't see what I'm doing.........maybe.
In tribute to our chosen gobberment offals in DC, I'll end with a Jimmy Buffet song that I found by following a Link to a dead guy. I wish I'd read him sooner.
Yeah, I know that's not right......but it is evening here and the clouds have finally rubbed up against each other for so long that something had to give.
I had debated leaving my truck windows down just to tempt nature to give us a little drink. Probably a good thing I didn't because She seems determined to throw her weight around anyway.
Sorta like the 300 # WalMartian in those tight spandex pants. You just know that something has got to give..
Anyhoo, the lightning is flashing, and the thunder is booming, and occasionally cracking loud enough to make one jump.
The trees are heaving to and fro like a drunk on a sailboat and there are sure to be green leaves in the road come morning.
The pooch, as usual, is hiding under the bed. Maybe he has more sense than he's given credit for.
But there is something awe inspiring about a storm. Especially when you see it coming and realize that you are but a bug on the sidewalk if it really decides to let loose on you.
You can look out the window and see the trees across Smokey Road but it's gray as if a very solid fog was settling in.
I've read that the average time a thunder storm cell lasts is 26 minutes. This one will probably be even shorter in duration. Kinda like you are when someone calls you and idiot and 20 seconds later, just before you really go off on them, you realize that you are. Even now it begins to abate a bit.
'Til now it has been rather a quite Sunday. I woke to the smell of fresh baked biscuits.......but upon finding that there was only lard gravy to go with them decided to pass. I never thought I'd do that........and wouldn't have if there had been chunks of sausage in the gravy.......but, I'm not going to clog the arteries further for no good meat to go with it. Of course I could have put a little apple butter on the biscuit but I'd already become a bit peckish about the gravy and acting on my pique, cut off my nose to spite my face (as my mother used to say).
I guess I'll get back to watching the train wreck of my life and try to figure out what move I'll make tomorrow.
Meanwhile you can listen to Johnny and Kris and contemplate your day.
Five minutes to 9 pm (2055 hours to those still on military time)(0255 Zulu for the aviators).
The sun has been down for a while, things are cooling off. Birds have settled into their night lauger mostly......a few seem to like the cooler temps and are flitting around after mosquitoes or other bugs. In the distance (unlike our previous abode) we can hear the whippoorwills begin to call, taking the memory back to earlier times.
Things winding down.
My self.......I'm enjoying spoonfuls of heaven ( peach cobbler) washed down with some sweet cows milk, with just an inch of crushed ice in the bottom of the glass. Were I still a child the cobbler would be hot with fresh skimmed cream poured over it.
It's a comfort thing........I've had a coolish shower and crawled into my Bull Moose PJ's.
They're watching ghost hunters on the boob tube in the other room. Can there be a greater waste of 60 minutes than watching and listening to the announcer natter on about how they are in Lizzie Borden's old home trying to talk to her ghost.
Today was kinda slow. I went and bought a little scrap to refine. Got back and discovered a half carat diamond in one of the rings. Didn't catch it earlier since it was caked with dirt. Not a very good diamond.......that's why I won't feel so bad taking it back to the young lady. Probably from her disastrous former marriage. Can't blame her for wanting to get rid of it. Maybe next time around someone will consider her worthy of a higher quality stone.........or simply won't be such a cheapskate.
Darkness is deepening as is the calm feeling washing over me. May be the meds kicking in.......or it might be result of finally taking the first tentative steps toward new life...............well, really it's more like I jumped in the deep end again. Wonder if I still know how to swim.
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........Well, at least as wild as NE Georgia gets.
Up 5 miles of gravel washboard one lane road, then turn off on another 3 miles of even more narrow and rutted road where you have to dodge the occasional downed tree, and at one point try to squeeze a Dodge Ram 1500 under one that has bridged over the road. I haven't looked at the top of the cab, but there is a reason I'm afraid to. Scrapping noises make you look up like submariners listening for the next depth charge.
Eventually we made it to our destination.......The end of the Road, as far as you can go in a wheeled conveyance. Anything past the huge pile of dirt across the path has to be done on your hind legs.
Fortunately we wanted to go no further. We were happy right where we were to play in the cool creek, look at the rushing waterfall, sit on a damp moss covered rock and let the sand trickle over our toes, while at times an inquisitive crayfish would come to nibble on the white meat of our feet.
No sounds of civilization, no radios, no engines, no hum of a florescent light or a running computer. Since my watch is battery powered....no tick of the tock to tell us when to come or go.
No breezes to stir the leaves of the tall oaks, populars, hemlocks and beech trees. Nothing to bring the scent of wildflowers to us, but, at approximately 80 degrees and the water probably around 60 degrees......our time was most pleasurably spent.
Pork sandwiches with hot sauce from the Barbecue Shack poured liberally over them. Crisp ruffled potato chips to provide a vegetable portion washed down with cool Sprite.
Thus passed a day where the only bother was the occasional inch worm, hunching his or her way from my shoulder up my neck to his or her doom.
It's better on the upper end of the food chain
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A quite morning here in the neighborhood. Of course because it is, in part, a hood....
I'm quite certain that before too long the loud thumping of 200 watt amplifiers sitting in the back of a 20 year old Oldsmobile will be heard from either near or far.
A quiet gentle rain woke me this morning......well, that and the fact that the pooch was telling me he had to go out. Then, seeing the rain as I opened the door, he attempted to pull back. Having none of that, I dragged him out and told him to get to his business.......which, reluctantly, he did. The look of relief on his face when done was almost human.
The rain has stopped for now, though the clouds persist. I've been in and out getting a few things settled. In a little while I'm crank up the laptop and put in the instructional DVD on the new White metal detector my Grandson and I traveled to Dahlonega yesterday to buy. Will be finding nails and cans this afternoon no doubt.
He was all excited yesterday to put it together and make our first uneducated foray into the wilds of the kudzu grotto. We found a piece of diet pepsi can, and digging a little deeper, (which he moaned and groaned about) the top of an old tin can.
After all a fellow has to plan ahead on how he intends to spend his retirement years.
You may spot me along the beaches, burnt by the sun, knobby knees flashing as I search for whatever may find me, or perhaps down in a sunny meadow where long ago Gray and Blue lines of men sought to slay their brothers in volleys of smoke, fire and lead.
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It the night of the full moon. For just a minute neither waxing nor waning gibbous.
A pure white light in the sky, bright enough to cast shadows here below............
below, where walk we poor pitiful creatures.....some say created just a little below angles........others.....just a little above.
Who knows? That's above my pay grade.......beyond my kin.......
Hearken back to a simpler time, a more mellow time, and just enjoy
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.......than a 2nd grader in South Africa?
Apparently NOT.
Perhaps all the banging on drums went to their heads.
As we have come to expect from the congress critters in the Asylum-on-the-Potomac, the leading dumb-o-crat in the senate harry reid (lack of capitals representing the authors disdain) has reacted negatively to President Bush's speech requesting the Congress act to allow drilling in the OCS (outer continental shelf) and ANWR (arctic national wildlife refuge) actually on .0001% of ANWR.
Showing once again that they will fight anything George W. Bush proposes simply because they don't like the fact that he won the 2000 presidential race fair and square.
What arrogance these asshats have. Despite a financial and energy crisis that will cause untold financial suffering to the people they are elected to represent, and shows the rest of the world that Americans have the spine of a jellyfish, they choose to play party politics as usual.
I rather suspect that the Founding Fathers of this once great country are spinning around on their eyebrows. Although they had not a clue about petroleum in their day, they knew that a nation truly was only as strong as the unity (in spite of differences) that it's leaders showed to the rest of the world.
I can only imagine how the OPEC nations must have felt to hear harry reid's comments, after a speech which made them, at first, sit up and take notice. But, then they knew that their flunkies in our congress were well and truly paid for.
The finest politicians money can buy
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Just a reminder that we fathers don't always have malice towards you with some of the things we do........that maybe at the time you don't understand.
And we hurt when you're not around.
But we're grateful to you and your mothers for allowing us to be Fathers.
And I'm thankful for........Hope Lane, Diana Joy, Edward Lee, and Nicole Michelle.
........as the earth turns in to one huge fireball because of global warming.
At least that is what the great High Priest of The Church of GWWAGD (global warming, we're all gonna die), Albert (load a little more pot on the boat, boys) Gore claims.
And of course we must listen to him because he is so smart and was vice president to a rapist and sex addict.....and he invented the internet, don't you know. Besides he was cheated out of his rightful role as president of all the democrits (pig piss be upon them), by a crooked Supreme Court which was bought and paid for by Big Oil.
But there is another Voice out there. John Coleman, Founder of The Weather Channel, has given a speech and pledged his commitment to fighting this Big Lie (tell it loud enough, long enough, and get hollywood (pig piss be upon them also) to support you, and the world will believe the moon is made of green cheese and only looks yellow because you're holding your mouth wrong)Crap.
Anyway, you ought to go HERE to read the speech and print it out so the next time any of your STUPID relatives or friends start spouting off about global warming, you can shove it in their pig-nosed faces and make them read it, while your punctuate the salient points by boxing their ears, right before you call them STUPID shits and smack them with a snow shovel.
reputedly was a fairly smart ol' jew boy. Certainly smart enough to leave Germany before the Nazi's had it locked up tighter'n Scrooge McDuck's grasp on his coin purse.
Anyway ol' Al is supposed to have defined insanity as doing the same thing over and over again, while expecting to get a different result. That seems to be what all the politicians in this country are doing.....with the willing acquiescence of the American people. Of course they know that Taxing and Spending as they have always done, will get the same result as before, but the seem to consider it a choice between the devil they know and the devil they don't. The devil they don't know is how they'll survive if they don't get elected again.
We voters are the same if not worse, because we keep going into that voting booth and marking down the same old thing, while expecting the politicians to really do something different.
I wonder if insanity is a curable disease?
Just wondering........
I finally got the dribble washed off my leg last night in time to get a few hours of restless sleep. I was up a little early 'cause I had some refining to do. The morning was nice and cool for a change and for just a little while I held out hope that the grass might have enough life in it to respond to the little rain we had.
It got bright and hot again though......just like the weather faces said it would. There was a small chance of rain this evening......and I actually felt about 4 drops along about dark, but so far nothing has come of it. I don't wish those people along the gulf coast any bad luck or anything but we could do with a few tropical storms to push some moisture our way. About one more day of chances of thundershowers and then right back to the drought. I'm sure glad that I'm not farming anymore, Without irrigation it would be a chancy thing to do. We here in the south may have to do like the people in AZ do and plant gravel and cacti for lawns. At least we wouldn't have to mow the grass if it did rain.
Well ladies and gentlemen, some of you know me personally and most (thank your lucky stars) have never had to meet me face to face.
I'm afraid that for the last 30 some odd years I've run off most people I meet sooner or later.
That's the good thing about family.........they have to let you in when you come knocking. They generally let me know gently that there are several subject that are totally verboten if the do let me in however. If I forget I notice that after only a short while, their eyes start to roll back in their sockets and they begin to weave back and forth like a drunk after a 2 week binge..
I really don't mean any harm.......but I am old enough to remember how great this nation was and in large part still is......and I've read enough to learn how great it started out and why. That is why I can't help but notice that there are things I notice and comment on that apparently people don't want to hear.
One of these (one of many) is the continuing assault on what was at one time the best monetary systems in the world. I could go in to much of what I know about the system we have now under the Federal Reserve, but if you want to know you have only to click your keyboard a few times to get enough information to keep you busy for years and after only a couple of hours you'll throw up your hands and start pretending you never read any of it.
I've just got one little question for you.
Have you looked at the history of bank borrowings from the Federal Reserve over it's almost 100 year history lately?
If not you might scratch you head over this Graph I ran across.
Click Here
If you will notice most recessions (the shaded areas) take place when there is a little spike up in borrowing (not all, but most).
I wonder what this means for the near future?
Thank God for Gov't. I'm sure most people are too stupid to do THIS on their own.
And even if they're not...........it's their money and they should be able to burn it in an engine if they want to.
More of our wonderful Nanny state at work.
Wow! Welcome back kdzu.
It's been a week and a half since last we heard from the intrepid Boy Sky Commander.
What wonders has he seen and what exotic locales have been visited.
Oh! you don't mean the trips in his head? Sorry. The actual going and comings, the physical happenings are not so exotic and exciting as might have been imagined.
Let's see........well, first and most important after a 2 week stay in the Howell Auto Hospital, lit'l Red was released with a transplanted transmission. No junk yard throw-away for her but a new, shiny aluminum hulled model freshly put together from parts no doubt made in China......as are most things these days. A welcome and joy filled reunion.......but, alas.........not in time to make the long anticipated trip to the wilds of West, by God, Virginia. There to commune with most of the estrogen driven clan members. Probably a good thing as aged testosterone does not mix well with chemically supplemented levels of hormones of the feminine kind.
Although I did miss out on the view from the porch.
But, I was able to travel to Monroe, NC to visit the daughter and her family, especially the two grandchildren whose birthdays we celebrated...one a little late....and the other a little early.
Here is Miss Rose primping with her new set of antique sterling silver mirror and brush. Circa; 1956......and Grandpa-and-Larry showing Sebastian the important things to look for on his 123 year old MS 63 graded Morgan silver dollar. Which item he designated part of his pirate's treasure, since he loves The Pirates of the Caribbean .
Other than that not much going on. The garden is putting up some new bean and squash sprouts. The two tomato plants continue to enjoy a cooling drink of stored rain water ever day or so.
I finally gave in to the entreaties of the spousal unit and put the yard swing up between the cherry tree and the white oak tree. With a white petunia on one end and purple on the other it's a nice place to swing in the shade of an afternoon and allow your senses to dissolve down to only the scent.
Hotter than I'd personally like to see it in the day time.......but, after all this is the south. The kudzu is growing.....albeit a little slower due to the drought.....but surely soon there will be purple blossoms there also.
So........I'm back.......if anybody cares.
I've seen the boots and the rifles
With the helmets on top
And the troops salute and march out
before the tears start
for once started they don't stop
I've heard the grief
of a mother and father
who've just heard that
their sons life was too brief
I've seen the flames
of a chopper down
and the bodies of men
red yellow white and brown
all green.... no different
when you're together on the ground
I've heard people laugh
and point and jeer
and others who stand proudly
wave their flags and cheer
I've counted crosses in Flanders field
and watched the flags wave at Arlington
the honor guard marches
and the rifles fire
a flag is given
by someone unseen
veiled from sight by a widows tears
An old man blows his nose
and weeps
at all the memories
he's doomed to keep
Ask them all
why they lay there
they'll likely say
so he... and she... and you
can live
in peace there
Or two words?
For they are much on my mind today and will consume my memories all day tomorrow. May 26th, we will celebrate Memorial Day.
It was not always celebrated on the last Monday in May as you will learn if you follow the above link.
Somewhere along the way it devolved from a day to remember the sacrifices of those who died in the service of their country into a day to go to the lake, or the park. To eat BBQ and drink beer until we're not safe to be on the highways. Blame it on the federal employees unions. They are all about getting those long weekends off with pay for the holiday.
Today the wife and I journeyed down to Loganville to be with her sister and B-I-L, several friends from their work. One.....a Tet of '68 Marine Corp vet.....and I, intrepid boy sky commander, sat in the shade of the back porch and solved most if not all of the world's problems, while the rest frolicked in the pool or under the shade of the lawn furniture.
We sat isolated in our corner out of necessity........he because last year he lost a leg above the knee from a staph infection after a second knee replacement. I.....
.....well, I because even though his loss is not combat related, it didn't seem right to desert a fellow Vet, and while others will listen to us, Comrades in arms have a rapport that transcends time and branches of service.
Maybe it is because the shadows of fallen friends, and those we did not have the privilege of knowing their names, come calling.......wishing us well....grateful that we still have solid form, and voices to speak for the dead. Remembering their names or their passage through our lives.
Names like Carl, John Paul, 1lt Hunter, Shuhada, Pobre, Foy. A hundred others.
Places like Khe Shan, The Rockpile, Firebase Vandergrif, My Loc, Hue, DaNang, Marble Mountain........
Hundreds and thousand and tens of thousands in as many places. More recent places, as well as more distant. Fathers, Husbands, Wives, Daughters, Sons.......all, at one time, loved.....missed.....grieved for........Honored........
And our lives touched, even if we never knew them, in ways we can not fully express,
or even understand sometimes.
May you have a great Memorial Day.
.
As a counter point to my post of earlier this month, I was going through some of the junk I accumulated this week.
Let's see..........8 more nice graded silver Dollars,
2 sets of sterling sliver hair brushes and mirrors
2 old India motif sterling silver cigarette lighter cases, one with lighter inside.
What's this......an old Dunhill sterling silver lighter......maybe something on ebay about that..
And I'll be damned, a couple of silver cigarette cases........one of them with an engraving of the Indian Sub-Continent before Pakistan raised a little ruckus to become independent, and one of the largest migrations in history occurred, as about 30 million Muslim people moved from the lower, newly divided, Hindu India, to be with their religious brethren. Supposedly they are now our allies......but they bare watching in my opinion.
Still it dates the case to before 1947.
So all these things were added to my piles of junk. Some to be stored in, I guess, a collection....since the time is not yet ripe to sell........and others.....just taking up space until I figure out some way to sell them, or I forget about them....
........whichever comes first.
Some wise guy wrote a book a few years ago, and made a fortune, called "Trash or Treasure. It's funny how true that is. To some it's junk, worthy only of being sweep out of the house. To others......... why they make a living, or at least a little on the side, selling these same items to others who, for whatever reason, want possession for just a little while.
Here is a conundrum for you.........Who is more free?......the one who collects items, or, the one who discards them? Why?
.I'm not sure I like it......
...........but Auto Zone has my transmission in today. $1600.00 that I wish I hadn't had to spend, with the installation still to come. That will be another $350.00.
Might as well call it 2K and be done with it.
The good news is that soon I and my beloved lil' Red will be back on the road again.
The bad news is that I've begun to get used to the Buick's rather more generous gas mileage of 29.5 MPG. That is about 13.5 more miles per gallon than the truck. With gas knocking on the door of $4.00 per gallon it will take a little readjusting at the gas pump.
With a 15 gallon tank on the Buick vs 27 gallon tank on the Dodge Ram........you can figure for yourself the additional hit to the wallet. On the good side......when the truck gas gage starts it's bleating for more and the light is flashing.......I've got at least 5 gallons in the tank. When the Buick starts to beeping........you'd be well advised to pull in to the nearest gas station. It had just got to that point the other day and it took 15 gallons to fill up. That means it was just about to leave me walking on the side of the road. Fickle bitch .
I may have to figure out how to borrow the Buick once in a while though.
It'll be a few days before the installation is completed. I'll still get to ride the Buick a few more days.
With that being said, I'd be surprised if many of you had not been considering what we can do about these high gas prices.
I, as has been documented at this Kudzu Grotto (KG), have been a little critical of our elected servants in the Nut House on the Potomac (NHotP) in the past. It takes a tremendous amount of heat from the little matches back at home to add up to enough to get them to listen to us (US). That being said though......there is an effort at American Solutions to show them the light. Take a few moments to go to HERE
and add your name to the thousands who have already signed the petition.
If you do this it may not mean a reduction in gas prices in the immediate future..
.....but, I'll just bet you it will make a few of them take notice and begin to think outside the box of blaming someone else for their problems, and making asses of themselves on national television by showing their ignorance of economic reality to the world. I'll bet the oil cartel is rolling on the floor laughing and gasping for air. Would that we had a stranglehold on that necessary commodity.
Let me know how many of you actually sign up.
.
,...........TheSky is falling.
The only thing on the boob tube is talk of the terrible weather, and the wife and ol' grump are glued to it like out of date forever stamps on an empty envelope.
It just started to rain lightly here.......although the clouds and rumbling have been moving in for a while.
The pooch is so screwed up about it he doesn't know whether to fart or go blind.
I want to strip naked and run out into the back yard and yell at the sky. Sorta like that guy with no legs in "Forest Gump" during the hurricane. I probably won't though. There is a leash law here in Clarke county.
Let the cleansing waters stream over my body washing all my sins and stains away. And if the "Guy in the Sky" decides that the next bolt of lightning should rid the neighbor hood of that crazy white guy............bring it on.......I have no idea about tomorrow other than going to Augusta to have the back of my mouth checked to see if the wisdom teeth have grown back...............and less regrets about yesterday.
There is a freedom about the rain.............It falls on the just and the unjust. The ultimate non-discrimination factor.
We just got a brief brisk downpour and the dog is running hither and yon. I think I'll lay back on the couch with a good book and lose myself for a while.
An old radio talk show host Ludlow Porch used to say that there were two kinds of sandwiches which beat all other for soothing a soul.
I'm eating one now.........A banana sandwich! Ludlow would not approve I'm sure since I'm eating it on wheat bread instead of white. I did have some "Blue Plate" mayo to slather thickly over the bread. Both sides........I don't see how people think a sandwich is complete with mayo on only one side of the sandwich.
Ludlow also liked a good tomato sandwich. Same white bread and Blue Plate Mayonnaise
........and a fresh, home grown, vine ripened in the sun tomato.
Again I go with the wheat bread.....because that is what I like. If it's done right the juice from the tomato and the mayonnaise will run down your arm plumb to the elbow.
It's your choice as to whether you lick it off yourself or let the hound dog do it for you.
These are some of what I consider "Comfort" foods. Those things that transport you to a different frame of reference.......perhaps back to your childhood.......or a less stressful time.
We need these little touches in our lives. They help to re-center us....if only for a few minutes. They are like gentle fingers on our soul. Touching us like a person who cares.
There is a primal reassurance in being touched, in knowing that someone else, someone close to you, wants to be touching you. There is a bone-deep security that goes with the brush of a human hand, a silent, reflex-level affirmation that someone is near, that someone.......cares.
How sad it is to have the feeling that, lately, you've barely been touched at all.
If that's the case..........a banana sandwich and a glass of milk will help.
Trust me. And "Whatever else you do today, you find somebody to be nice to."
