Second Birth

Slow day … HOT day! I did a rain dance in my head but all I got was a clouded brain.

Got my methotrexate shot this morning; I would cross my fingers and hope for the best but fingers look and feel like sausages. Speaking of sausages, I was probably 10 or 11 years old when I found out that not all sausage came in patties. In fact, a lot of things amazed me when I first went into a super market. They still do, particularly the prices.

Obama’s health care thingy is now law but it may cost him his job. I really believe that he didn’t want it to be declared constitutionally valid so he would not have to defend the unpopular law to voters this year. Without the public option which he gave away to Republicans early on, the health act will further enrichen the richest and make life even harder on the poor.

Jeremy and Courtney are leaving for the Golden State tomorrow; we wish them a safe trip and hope they have a wonderful life in California or where ever they eventually settle.
Leaving home in a sense involves a kind of second birth in which we give birth to ourselves. ~Robert Neely Bellah

Have a good Thursday, dear ones.

Title

Politician or used car salesman?

Sammy is coming so I must be quick writing this blog.

Not much happening except heat. I can't understand how it can be so hot and humid without a raindrop to be had anywhere. Mark, the Channel 11 weatherman, says we will have only a chance of the much over stated late afternoon and evening thunder showers; no steady rain in sight. My lawn is browning into summer stupor; three weeks ago it was till being mowed twice each week.

Carolyn and Chris bought me an ebook reader; actually a tablet pc. I think it was a combination late-father’s day and early birthday gift along with a get well and get out from underfoot bribe. Not many soon-to-be 68 years-old geeks are as nerdy as I. Nohow, I can read my Kindle ebooks and my Nook ebooks along with about any other format out there. It uses standard Google Android OS as does my Droid X phone which makes it easy for a forgetful old pervert to learn.

Have a good Wednesday!

"While I was musing the fire burned" ~Psalm 39:3

How come it is that only a country singer can take a gentle love song and make it sound like a funeral dirge?

Tammy, send RAIN!

Have a Tuesday!

Memories are made of this ...

Sammy's 1st Birthday studio portrait

Carolyn hounded me for a week about today being the day I’d rescheduled my family doc’s appointment; 8:20am. For some reason it did not sound right; I thought I had put the new date on my PC reminder program but it was not popping up. Well, I didn’t sleep well last night; much shoulder pain. At 7:00am my Droid alarm went off and she had me to the doc’s office on time. The only trouble was that I was there a month too early; the appointment is for July 25. When I got home, I went to bed and caught a few minutes sleep and then came to the computer; yep, there it is on my reminder calendar for July 25. Damn, I took a bath and shaved for nothing! Carolyn’s memory has just about caught up with mine. I used to be the person in the family everyone came to to find out a birthday or an anniversary. I also remembered all my friends and their kids birthdays. In the past two weeks, I wrote a Happy Name Day greeting for Jola and forgot to click the “send” button and a few days later I almost forgot Tammy’s Birthday but I think I did send her a greeting; actually I am afraid to look at my email “drafts” folder. I am afraid my message to her is still unsent. The worst part of aging for me has been the memory loss. Now, it seems to be plaguing my bride as well; don’t be surprised if you find us walking the roads and streets with a blank look on our faces. By the way, a belated Happy Name Day to Jola and Happy Birthday to Tammy and if I missed anyone else, I offer a sincere apology and a Happy Whatever it was.

This Thursday, I will once more begin taking the methotrexate injections and forgo the ten pills once per week. I went from the shots to the pills more than a year ago and had no problems until about two months ago when I felt the RA acting up; just a little at first has now bloomed into a full-blown pain crisis. I have had the disease since childhood and I have had lots of pain and soreness but never as much as I have been enduring the past two weeks. The worst part is that the shots may no longer help me and it probably will be about three-to-six weeks before they alleviate any of this … if they do work. Anyway, I will be blogging less over the waiting period and won’t be on the net much. If you leave comments, be assured I will appreciate them and that I will read them but I may not answer them in a timely manner.

Have a good Worshday!

Wings as eagles

In a few short days, Jeremy—my grandson, my friend, my brother—will be leaving us for new opportunities on the Golden Coast of California. He and Courtney, along with Queen Remy and Prince Bubba, will load up a U-Haul and leave their home in Atlanta to seek their fortune in another part of this vast, wonderful land. His grandparents are going to miss him worse than anyone else; even though we will be as close electronically as we ever were. To Carolyn and I, the crevice between generations will become like a great divide. Age becomes the greatest part of the division; with he and Courtney standing on one side of life’s grand canyon and Carolyn and I standing on the other side.

However, I many times look back at my life and say what if I had emigrated to California during the late 60′s; I passionately craved to do so. I could not take that giant step because I had a wife and children to think of. I ended up staying in my beloved hills which I now realize was the best decision for all concerned. I can never be more than a hillbilly living with the hills beneath my feet.

Jeremy has much of the hills in him, but unlike the red-tailed hawk who spends all his years in one area, Jeremy has the blood of the golden eagle and must move on to new territory, greater heights, and better hunting grounds.

“… they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.” ~Isaiah 40:31

Be safe and be well, my grandson; you shall forever be loved.

Time

Westclox "Big Ben"

I began writing this some time ago and today a nudge from a friend brought it back to my memory.

Tick … from the old Westclox Big Ben was one of the few sounds which reached my ears on a hot June afternoon in 1952. Even little boys in the wide-open countryside get bored on wonderful sunny days when there is no else around to play with and the humid air sticks to the skin and fierce sunshine tries to push the shoulders down around my waist. All I wanted was to get in some dryer shade and I moseyed into my grandmother’s living room in the small, clapboard farm-style house a mile from Jonesboro, Tennessee. Tick … Close family all referred to my grandmother as “Mom” and that suited me fine. None of her real given names were hard to pronounce–Julia Ada—but her few friends called her Ade.

Dink … the clock said “dink” every thirty minutes as it tried to get up enough nerve to sound an alarm, or maybe it had plenty of nerve but at its age a puny dink was the best it could do. Anyway, when Mom was sitting in the living room as she was this afternoon, all she had to do was look at the clock one time and thereafter the pathetic dink would advise her of time’s passing without her having to raise her eyes to the top shelf of the mantle where the aged, ivory-colored clock-face ruled over small, framed family photos.

All the windows in the house were open and sometimes a small breeze filtered through rusting screens, carrying sounds of birds and bugs and chickens and pigs as they tried to hunker down from oppressive heat. The old house was cool enough inside, particularly the north facing front where the living room and Mom’s—and mine—bedroom was located; it was the bedroom where I was born on a similar afternoon some seven years earlier. White paint on the wooden sides and a shiny metal roof sent most of the sun’s rays scurrying off to find something else to torment. Even heat from the well used adjacent kitchen dared not trespass north of its own domain.

This is all I have so far but will do some more as I feel up to it.

Swan Song

Things change in one’s life so quickly at times that it is shocking. Having said that and without going into great detail, and until things change for the better, I will be doing this blog only on days I physically feel like it; lately there have been very few of them. I will surely miss each of you on the days I can’t be here. Don’t think you can sneak off and go play somewhere else; I will be lurking about the net, reading your prose and viewing your photos and smiling a lot.

Lyrics for the video are here.

Have a good Worshday, my friends.

Sammy was with us yesterday and is here again today. Right now he is having green beans, mashed taters, and apple sauce which he doesn't care for.

Have a good Sunday!

Thursday tidbits

Blackberries from our back yard

Tammy sent Carolyn and me some more of her handmade soaps and also balm for Sammy when he has diaper rash. She sent along some of her sunflower heads for the birds and squirrels. Sorry birds; you gonna have to be quick if you want a good meal before the tree rats get it. I had fun watching the squirrels try to carry the big seed heads up the trees. I also used some more of the soap and I think I smell damn good. Thanks, Tammy.

I think I may be getting my annual case pneumonia/bronchitis. Started with dry cough but has now loosened into chest congestion. Slept only about two hours last night and I feel like I’ve been anal-probed by a giant octopus.

The first John Grisham book I read was The Pelican Brief and it is still–along with The Firm also by Grisham–one of my top 10 picks in crime fiction novels. I am rereading the book. I just finished reading Ender’s Game by Orson Scott card which is rated by some as the best sci-fi novel ever. For me, it is a decent read but nowhere near the best ever of the genre.

Have a Happy Thursday!

Shhhhh ...

Quiet today … too quiet. Haven’t heard a train since last evening; very unusual for a “normal” day of commerce. Must be a derailment somewhere. A good quietness.

This is the day we normally have Sammy as a guest but he decided to stay home until Friday. His absence is a lonely quietness.

I am eating a raw potato as I write this; Carolyn bought some new potatoes and sweet corn at market yesterday. We will have lima beans, corn on the cob (roast’nears), mashed taters, boiled cabbage, and biscuits for today’s meal … and tomorrow’s and the next day’s …

A good Wednesday to each of you.

Solstice cometh ...

Weekend was normal except that Sammy became very sick with an ear infection; Chris had to take him to hospital emergency Sunday night; he had a temp of 102.7. He got meds and felt a little better yesterday.

Heavy rain and wind last evening I didn’t hear any thunder, though. Typical weather as we get ready for the solstice turn-around in just more than a week.

So far, the smartphone is winning. Carolyn has figured out how to get to the home screen and to check her voice mail and and use her contact list to dial. She just this morning found the touch-screen dialer. I’ve not used her phone to access the net, but everything else on it works much faster than it does on my Droid X.

On this day in history, Anne Frank, a young Jewish girl living in Amsterdam, receives a diary for her 13th birthday. History.com.

Have a Tuesday, everyone.

Happy Birthday, Robin!

Attitude

 Sundays; at my age I just don’t know what to do with them.

Sammy went to the annual Covered Bridge celebration in nearby Elizabethton yesterday with his mama and granny Chris. Carolyn saw him afterward and she said he was ill as a hornet. The image is from Ashley’s FB and seems to confirm Carolyn’s diagnosis.

The Understanding Church
Sermon for Sunday, June 10, 2012 C.E.:
God gave humans a brain high in reasoning power and I suppose he meant for us to use it. Don’t be mislead by the multitudes of false prophets in their bully pulpits and shiny palaces; use your mind to think for yourself. Love.

Have a good week!

451

If you’ve never read the novel Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, you have missed a good book. Bradbury died Tuesday but his many works and words will live for a long time.
Jump, and you will find out how to unfold your wings as you fall.
~Ray Bradbury

Why would God allow a bunch of fuck-ups like we humans to ever set a soulish foot in Heaven? If I was the best, the most moral, and the most righteous person on earth, I wouldn’t be making plans for eternity in God’s Heaven; He is smarter than to allow that to happen. The only reason it is Heaven is because people or their residual souls aren’t in it. However, if you are insistent on thinking that you are going to pass through St. Peter’s Golden Gates, all you need do is love God with all your heart and soul and everything else will take care of itself.

Have a good Thursday!

Sammy is coming to my house!

Summer grasses

Have a great Wednesday!

Dark Ages

Atop Roan Mt.

I don’t have place names or even people names for the new story, but otherwise there is some decent stuff. I am glad there is very little historical information about the European Dark Ages because it allows me to keep my tale in this world and be able to lie like a politician. I will use some politics but I will keep religious involvement to a minimum which won’t be easy because as I understand the period, Roman Church suppression of learning, knowledge, and scientific advancement is why they were called the Dark Ages. We will be in the latter part of the long era, just before the Renascence and where war is war and greed is greed and human nature is much like it is today.
The gist of it all is the question of ‘what if one person or one nation controlled the total mass-production of man-made commercial fertilizer for and entire continent and beyond’ and what if that nation had become a near-Eden because of climate changes? What if the Roman Church did not have its golden power-hungry hands heavily involved in the nation’s affairs? Of course, such a nation is doomed because the Church will not rest until it owns the wealth of land and controls the minds of the people.

Yesterday I was soaking in fluid; so much in my joints that I could hardly move without grunting or groaning. A fluid pill knocked most of it out of me and a good night’s sleep–even though I still had to pee a lot–has made me feel better today; at least good enough to agitate y’all with my literary drivel.

As Mark said on his blog, the recall election in Wisconsin will set the future of America; either we continue on the path to a modern Dark Age which Conservative’s have laid out for us or middle-class tax payers will let be known that we want to control our lives and livelihoods and reinstate the sacred Constitution of the United States of America.

Sammy is supposed to honor our house with his smiling presence come tomorrow.

Have a Tuesday!

Bionic

Reasonable weekend, so far. I have a few lines written in the new story which I have tentatively titled “The New Story”.

There is a new crack in the mystic universe … Carolyn bought herself a (drum roll) smartphone! Not any smartphone, a Droid Bionic smartphone. Carolyn is a person who can barely figure out how to call out on any phone that doesn’t have a rotary dial. I can see her and Google now arguing over transferring her contacts info to the Droid; she don’t even remember her email account name or password. I know what they are but I’ll be damned if I tell her because it will open a Pandora’s Box of “Wayne, show me how’ to do this or show me how to do that. She doesn’t have Facebook, she doesn’t have Flickr, she doesn’t have Megashot, she doesn’t read my blog. All she does is blab on the phone for hours at a time; I bet her smartphone dumbs down before she smartens up. She will not use any of that stuff; she hates computers and she nor I have ever used text. Me because my clubby fingers are not conducive to working tiny keys and she because she won’t take time to learn. She should have it traded for a regular cell phone within a week or so. The new Droid will be here mid-week; anyone want to hide me out for the duration? I don’t eat much and I am potty trained but I still have all the regular male bad habits which I will try to suppress.

Have a good Sunday!