Politick … tick … tick … tick

Democrats are as blind as Republicans. Some of my FB pals are blaming G.W. Bush in entirety for T.A.R.P. bailout of Wall Street. They don’t seem to remember Obama and McCain both making big productions of sacrificing campaign time to rush to Washington, D.C. to vote “YEA” for the giving away of America’s future. These Democrats are more worried about a vote for the Green Party hurting Obama than they are about what is right and what is wrong. If Obama loses, he will have done so on his own merits.

I decided I would vote this year; I was so pissed in 2008 that I pouted and did not do so. This year I am still mad at the political setup and I am still pouting, but I will vote for the Green Party anyway. In Tennessee, it won’t make any difference; whichever Republican runs for president will get the state’s electoral votes. Mine will be a vote of protest against an archaic and failed system.

Have a fine Thursday!

Tuesday

Our wandering kids in front of L.A. skyline

Jeremy and Courtney seem to be doing fine in their California digs. He is having a good time with his music where it is having an impact on the local scene. We love ya, young'uns!

Not much else going on today in the hills; hot outside with rain again possible.

Have a Tuesday!

Rosa Parks we need You

This country needs a new-era Rosa Parks; someone who has enough gumption to lead the non-wealthy from the grimness at the back of the financial bus to a place of equal opportunity for anyone willing to work for it. Americans have for many, many years worked harder and produced more per capita than any other nation in the world and we need someone to stand up and show the public why our so-called ‘Free Trade’ policy has not and will not work unless it encompasses Fair Trade. If free trade should become fair trade, of course prices will rise but so will job availability and wages. We will once again be able as a nation to compete with anyone in the world.

I think Carolyn has given up; she decided she wants more television channels especially after I told her the Republican convention would probably be on all the main local networks this week. She has decided on the most inexpensive cable package with internet and phone; we don’t need the phone but it is the cheapest way to go and after a year she can drop the phone part of the package. We don’t even own a land-line type telephone.

My new shoes are getting the last laugh; I now have an infected blister on my right bunion and am having a heck of a time getting it to heal.

Have a splendiferous Worshday!

Dust in the wind

Sammy was over yesterday to use his swimming pool; he had a lot of fun and Ashley made a few photos of him. Earlier, he made his first visit to the fair and he was not impressed. H paid no attention to the animals and rides and didn’t even like cotton candy.

The passing of Neil Armstrong is being noted and lamented around the world; he was the right man for the time.

A bit of good news on our economic situation; one of Carolyn’s old accounts wants her back. It is only a three evening per week job but right now, every little bit helps. She has only three more payments and her work van will be free and clear. That is another $400 per month we hopefully won’t have to worry about.

Yesterday I downloaded The Lord of the Rings all in one volume. Haven’t read it since high school. A couple of weeks ago I read Ghetto Diary by Janusz Korczak, a beautifully written account set in WW2 of the final sad days of most of the remaining Warsaw Jews in Nazi death camp. This is a heart-breaking story we should all read and understand. I also read The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin. It has good lessons for all of us.

Have a good week a-comin’!

Summer's end

One of the bridges which is located in a part of Warsaw’s Łazienki park called ‘Ogród Belwederski’. Jola’s photo.

 

I like making photos in late summer. Weather has usually moderated to where it isn’t too hot to spend some time in the sun and humidity isn’t so oppressive to keep us reaching for a hanky or bandanna to wipe our faces. And then there is the sunlight which speaks of summer’s end. The lower seasonal angle of the sun along with thousands of leaves have softened the bright sunlight and bestowed that peaceful, easy feeling that is the hallmark of warm weather. Lots of open lawn, a whispering stream with hungry ducks, and kids to enjoy it; what could be better for soul-survival of young and old? Thank you Jola for allowing me to use your fine photo.

I bought Sammy his first real book; Shel Silverstein’s A Giraffe and a Half. Now to get him still long enough to read it to him.

Not much planned this weekend; I am have a bit of fluid buildup and do not feel the greatest but it ain’t near as bad as it was when the RA pills were not helping.

Have a great Saturday!

Cool

Saturday Nite Bluegrass

Nights are cooler and days, though still hot, are milder than what they were. It all must mean something.

Sammy has a unique way of hugging me … he does this to no one else. Instead of putting his arms around my neck like he does everyone else, he grabs my hair on each side of my head and pulls me forward to where he can lay his head on mine. I figure the harder he pulls my hair the more lovin’ he is giving me. I call it his “papaw hug”.

Until he was here Wednesday, I had never been able to pick him up from the floor or someone’s lap. RA had me so weak and sore that some days I could not lift a fork to my mouth to feed myself; I basically bent over like a pig at a slop trough and did the best I could. Sammy and I were alone in the office Wednesday and something in the hallway slightly frightened him; it has happened before and he always crawled to me for me to pick him up to protect him and I was never able to do so; I had to call out to Carolyn to help me. He couldn’t understand why I didn’t pick him up and the way he looked up at me with his pleading eyes broke my heart. But this time when he came to me, I easily picked him up and he immediately grabbed my hair and gave me a “papaw hug”. The RA shots are finally working for the most part and I’ve had a pretty good week.

Got my shot yesterday and also my blood work in preparation for my RA doctor checkup next Friday.

 Have a good weekend!

Sammy walks

Floods and flops

Sunday, Carolyn and I revisited the scenes of the Dry Creek flooding. I could have made some pics of the work going on for people to rebuild their lives; I could have made pics of them sitting in front of their tiny, temporary camper homes. I could have made pics of their facial expressions as another idiot with a camera gawked by, I could have tried to capture the strained emotions on their faces, and I could have tried to catch the glimpses of hope as they waved when we drove by. Instead, I kept the camera in my lap and they kept their dignity. Many agencies, both government and private, are helping out in making homes once more liveable or even replacing the ones that could not be fixed. Jerry has applied for assistance in getting his HVAC unit replaced; he has already spent $350 of his own on it just to find out it is not repairable.

Augusta National Golf Club has finally admitted female members. If I were a woman, I would be so pissed at the club I would tell them to fuck-off! Really, who these days cares if some rich old bastards elect some rich old bitches to membership? They never did invite me to join.

Have a Tuesday!

“Back To The Island” … for Brenda and Ken–they lived their dream

Back To The Island lyrics

Now the day is gone and I sit alone and think of you, girl
What can I do without you in my life?
I guess that our guessing game just had to end that way
The hardest one to lose of all the games we played

But the time is past for living in a dream world
Lying to myself can't make that scene
Of wondering if you love me or just making a fool of me
Well I hope you understand I just had to go back to the island

Chorus:

And watch the sun go down (sit and watch the sun go down)
Hear the sea roll in (listen to the sea roll in)
But I'll be thinking of you (yes, and I'll be thinking of you)
And how it might have been (thinking how it might have been)
Hear the night birds cry (listen to the night birds cry)
Watch the sunset die (sit and watch the sunset die)
Well I hope you understand I just had to go back to the island

Well all the fun has died, It's raining in my heart
I know down in my soul I'm really gonna miss you
But it had to end this way with all the games we played
Well I hope you understand I just had to go back to the island

 Have a good Worshday, gentle friends.

Coming down

The annual Appalachian District Fair begins tomorrow; it draws folk from most of northeast Tennessee plus many from western North Carolina, southwest Virginia, and southeast Kentucky. I want to ride the Tilt-A-Whirl; I enjoy that infernal machine. I also like the Ferris wheel (London Eye) but no way will I ride anything that turns me upside down and there is a loud “hell no” to riding a roller coaster. I’d as soon dare ride on an airplane.

Tammy is making soaps for Christmas orders; I highly recommend them.

Will Tampa Bay Bucs football ever be a consistent contender or are they the Detroit Lions of the South?

Less than two weeks until college football officially begins its season. I hope my Rocky Top Vols can make some kind of positive showing this year. If I could walk well, I would attend one of the home games. One-hundred thousand people clad mostly in orange and white and singing Rocky Top as loud as possible is something to behold. I haven’t attended a game in Knoxville since 1983.

Have a good Sunday!

Dixie skies

Watauga Lake

Sullen, gray, foreboding, lowering, threatening, ominous; today’s local sky.

I’ve restarted occasional emailing to some political cronies who live on the west coast. When my friend Dave died last winter, I got out of the habit of commenting on their thoughts and arguments. I did keep up with their goings-on, though. Of course we discuss more than politics; they must have found out that I am from the South and they began a discussion saying the North would have been better off if they had allowed the South to secede in 1860. I realize they were baiting me but they grabbed the wrong bear by the ass this time. I am no history expert, but I have extensively read, studied, and thought on the matters of why the southern states left the Union and why the North–especially Abraham Lincoln– could not allow it to happen for any reason or excuse. Following is part of my reply; I kept it simple because, like I said, they are all west coast men and really very ignorant of the South. They are all well educated but have chosen to believe the southern stereotypes. They are all–less one tea-partier–Obama-crats.
Me: Had the South’s nullification and secession attempt succeeded, it is my opinion as a Southerner that some of the wayward states would soon have reapplied for admission back into the Union. My home state of Tennessee may have been the first to do so; most of the population of the eastern, mountain dominated section of the state were die-hard Unionists. … It is my belief that the Confederacy would never have held together and slavery would have died out as the industrialization of the continent progressed.
>This is part of one of their quotes and my response:
They: ” … we would now be faced with huge numbers of marginally illiterate southerners flooding over our borders … .”
Me: Easy to speculate here but hard to put a handle on in reality; time stands still for no man or nation. The world was changing fast and the South would have been forced to keep up or possibly fall into anarchy or come under heavy influence from outside; they would not have had the money to keep up and I don’t think the North would have allowed too much help for Dixie from outlanders.
I can think of many reasons why the nation had to remain united and these guys have yet to show me why the states should have parted.

Enough of my drivel that no one is interested in anyway; have a great weekend!

“They didn’t want it good, they wanted it Wednesday.” ~Robert A. Heinlein

Sammy was here for a few minutes this morning and then he took Carolyn shopping. He is happy and growing; I hope to spend more time with him Saturday.

Our weather still isn’t settled; rain nearly every day or night or both. Some fair skies are mixed in but it is hard to decide what is going on.

I am very much liking the Samsung Galaxy Tab 7 tablet. Typing is still a chore but not a heck of a lot worse than using my PC keyboard with crooked fingers and is much easier than using the Droid X keyboard. Reading books, etc. is much easier than with the Droid  and; I’m not forever tapping for the next page.

The phone company this month raised my internet access bill by thirty dollars; it is now seventy-five bucks per month to have net access. I will not continue to pay it; Americans pay the highest prices in the developed world for only mediocre service. For thirty bucks per month, I can use my wireless phone service as an access point and for a few dollars more than that, I can have net access through the TV cable.

Have a gentle mid-week crisis, my friends.

Worshday political Rant

The tea party express is heading for D.C. this fall and I don’t see much in the way to stop it. Obama cannot stand on his record for it is tainted with Republican idealism and backroom sellouts. Obamacare is just that; a tool for reelection. Without the public option such as Medicare for all, it is more mind-numbing bureaucracy for millions of Americans who need basic healthcare the most. Americans want and insist on easy fixes and the economy is not fixed nor will it ever be unless we strengthen its foundations; Obama has not the moxy to take on the hard jobs nor does the middle-class voters. National infrastructure is four years older and in graver danger of collapse for the most part. Our service people are still dying in Afghanistan, a place completely lost in the middle of the nineteenth century. Its top exports are heroin, terrorists, and foreign causalities of war. Obama nor Romney have no definite plans to withdraw from a place where the Red Army gained sense enough to know they could not win a war, and the USA plows on like victory is just days away. Young lives are cheap when you are the sitting power in Washington, D.C.

Maybe the surprise of the Democratic convention will be when Obama tosses Joe Biden and takes Hillary Clinton as his running mate, to have and to hold.

Phooey.

Did you attend church today?!

Jola's Amsterdam

Lovely day so far in East Tennessee; Carolyn is working and I ain’t. She took off Friday night and is making it up today. I planned to have her haul my butt around for a bit and see if I could find some more quilted barns to shoot for my gallery on Megashot but that project will have to wait.


Carolyn fixed a meal for the family last evening. Chris and Kevin, Ashley, Sam, and Sammy came to eat with us. Jerry was up to his ears trying to get his outbuildings and area cleaned up after the flood damage so he and Tami didn’t come. It was good to have something other than a sandwich for a change.

I am cutting down on my Facebook usage; I’ve never spent a lot of time there but I am becoming bored with some of the stuff I post which is mostly shares about politics or religion; too much of either one is enough. I will still check in on my family and you, my dear friends.

Have a great week a’coming!

“No individual raindrop ever considers itself responsible for the flood”

Quiet and beautiful street in Amsterdam, Netherlands
Thanks to Jola for allowing me to use her photo

What is it with the internet? If it gets any slower it will be going backwards; if so, maybe we can see if Al Gore really did invent the net.

Jerry was over yesterday to get the pressure washer; he has a lot of cleanup to do. Tennessee Emergency Management is doing their thing in Dry Creek where he lives and where the most damage was done and Federal Emergency Management is due at any time. Though no human lives were lost in the flooding, many pets and farm animals died. One family lost twelve miniature horses along with other livestock. Dry Creek has changed its channel in a place or two because of the massive movement of soil by water; a fish pond belonging to Jerry’s father-in-law is gone. Jerry’s worst loss was his heating and cooling system for his house; it quit working soon after the flood water receded.

Dog Days ended yesterday and school is starting. Long, frosty nights and days of little sunshine are just around the corner. I need a long vacation away from this desk; do I hear Florida calling? Not likely, probably just the wind around the shutters teasing me a bit.

Out yesterday getting my shot and running errands. Carolyn had a craving for a fish dinner at Long John Silver’s so off we went—against my better judgement. LJS used to have good food back in the 70′s, but now it is nothing but grease bombs. Carolyn is more tolerant of it than am I, so after eating I became sick at my stomach and she didn’t.

Have a good weekend!

Just Wednesday

Emergency management crews are in the flooded areas, assessing damages to property. Jerry has several thousands of dollars in damages but like nearly everyone else in the United States, he has no flood damage insurance. I don’t know if there will be any government aide for these people, may of whom lost nearly everything. One family lost at least a dozen miniature horses and other livestock. Was all this an act of God or just Nature doing her thing?

Sammy was over yesterday and he is walking. He walks some, crawls some, and as with most toddlers, he prefers to be carried. I hope to get a video of him walking and dancing when he returns.

Have a great Wednesday!

Dry Creek flood

Jerry called us at about nine o’clock last evening saying that they were flooded by the heavy rains. He had no power and water was a few inches below his door. Later he called back and said the flood was receding a little. We drove down to Dry Creek this morning and it is a mess down there. He is very lucky the water didn’t come up another foot. In just a sort time last evening, they had six inches (15cm) of rain fall. This flood was more severe than the one I witnessed in 1980 when many of the bridges washed out on the same stream. They were replaced by better structures and most of them seem to have held. A few houses, mobile homes, and out buildings were washed off their foundations with one house ending up on the main road atop a car. The mayor of Washington County was in the area this morning handing out bottled water and the Red Cross along with other emergency services were in the area. The worst damage to Jerry’s property was muddy water getting inside a couple of his vehicles, including his nice Camaro, and his work and storage shed were also flooded. I got a few pics with the Pentax and 50mm lens but nothing of real importance.

Have a good Worshday!

Blowing my top

Sunlight strikes the retinas of the eyes which instantly message the brain to send excruciating pain signals to the areas of the head just behind the eyebrows, feeling like twin earthquakes rumbling through and a moment later a volcano dead-center between the eyes blows its top. Thus was my day yesterday and once the mess began, I could not control it. I even threatened to get drunk just to ease the pressure. Today is easier but there is room for improvement. Such is life …

Congratulations to Mark for acquiring a beautiful ride. I hope it brings him many years of of carefree driving. I suppose there won’t be any stump-jumping or swamp music for this black truck.

Most of the time it is best for a man to sit with his mouth tightly shut and nodding approval of every inane word his loving bride says to him.

Thank YOU!

Thank each one of you for your many birthday greetings; they are appreciated and I love all of you. Thanks to my Megashot friends, my Flickr friends, my Facebook friends, and especially to my blog friends for making this a joyful day for me … and Sammy. He was with me for a few hours.

Have a great weekend!

Texas tales

I found a new word, at least one I don’t think I’ve run across before—smarmy. Sounds sort of like British origin. Now that I have it I must think of something to do with it. Should be great in politics. Smarmy: smug or sleazy.

In her blog, Courtney is describing her and Jeremy’s pilgrimage from the deep south to L.A. Hooray to Remy for putting her paw down and saying she wasn’t going any farther in one day; they were deep in the heart of Texas.

Have a good Thursday!