In the Garden

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

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

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

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

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

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

Taboos

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Home again........

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The back deck

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

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

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


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

The good thing about Grand children

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The power of the internet

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

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

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

Intention

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

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

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

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

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

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

The day before

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

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

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

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

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

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

......or do we?

Well that cuts it

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

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

Buncha freaking nuts

Taking action

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Taking action without thinking is the cause of every failure.

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

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

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

Shit.....

.....Now they tell me.

Family ties

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Tis' the season

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

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

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

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

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

Perhaps it's the cake.

Ooooohhhhhh!!

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

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

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

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





(Burp)




Thanks God

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

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

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

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

Whatever the reason, I had landed someplace strange.

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

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

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

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

Fall Road Trip

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



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

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



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

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

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

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



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

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



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



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

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



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



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



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



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

Hope your weekend was all you hoped it would be.

i get all bothered

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

No Words

They're for the most part meaningless.

Just Tears.

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

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

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

Thank YOU.

Fall

Is beginning to really look like it around these parts.

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



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



Down to almost freezing tonight, they say.

Makes one appreciate the flannel sheets on the bed.

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

At last.......

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

Still not quite complete,



Less than half the "stuff'



Another less than half



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

Life, Liberty, Property

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

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


I particularly like this speech