Shaking the family tree

Not a lot happening in my corner of the universe. I’ve had recurring bellyache and nausea for about a week but it seems to lessen its discomfort each time it hits. Winter is refusing to go away. Do you remember last year when spring came at least least two weeks early?

I reposted the photo so I could name names. The little boy in the dress on the left is Claude Shipley, grandson of Elizabeth (Liza) Jane Oliver who is holding him. Liza was also my g.grandmother. Beside Liza is her daughter–my grandmother’s sister–Elizabeth (Liz) Phillips. Next is the new bride–my grandmother–Julia Ada Oliver Phillips and beside her is the new husband and my grandfather, Joseph Alexander Phillips. All  the clothing worn by the child and the ladies was homemade by them, including my grandmother’s wedding dress and hat. I well knew each of these people except little Claude who died at age seven in 1921. Memories of my grandfather are few because he died a month prior to my fourth birthday. Claude’s, Liza’s, and Liz’s clothes were most likely made from flour sacks sacks.

Have a good evening, my friends.

I missed ...

Damn, I missed the Daytona 500 race.
Damn, I missed the Oscars.
No … I didn’t miss seeing them at all.

If any of you visit Megashot.com and notice it is a bit slow (at times, a lot slow), don’t leave in a huff. Things are being worked on and changes are being made. When version two comes online, it will be worth the wait.
Speaking of Megashot, Maggie oversees one of my favorite communities titled Butterflies are free. Please stop by and take a look at all the flying flowers she has collected and is still collecting. If you are not a member of Megashot, joining is free and easy. Maggie’s community has a very good discussion group and forum about the colorful critters. Be sure to drop in and share the nectar.

Look! Up in the sky! It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s ObamaDrone! Phooey!

Hope you’ve had a great Worshday!

Gleanings

My parents and my first wife

Get ready for it folks. Being dead means being dead even if it happens by mistake in your front yard.

I know the talking heads on MSNBC are trying to at least shed some light of truth of Fox News Channel’s perverted view of the world, but that doesn’t mean they should rubber-stamp everything President Obama says and does. Wrong is wrong no matter which side of the political world you are supporting.

Mason is coming over today but Sammy is with his granddad Rollins. Hope Mason stays awake so I can get him started on rock ‘n roll.

I am almost over the stomach flu of the past few days; I even felt like shaving this morning … and I did shave, too. My bride is also feeling better.

Have a good final week of February!

Sickly

Carolyn and I have been sick with an intestinal bug since Wednesday evening. Neither of us could get out of bed yesterday except that hard-head went out and cleaned a few buildings last night. She paid dearly for being so unwise. We are feeling better today but she isn’t as tough as am I
.
I looked at some of my old postings from 2006 ad 2007 on Blogspot/Loose Laces. Lots of readers from those days have fallen by the wayside for one reason or another but some of you are still hanging with me. One thing for sure, the quality of what I write now is not near as good as it was then. I began blogging to be able to keep producing when I was having writer’s block on my short stories. I suppose aging and a couple years of mental depression have changed me; I have lost a lot of the spark that a person needs to do any kind of decent output. I sincerely appreciate you guys whom have stood by me.

Have a great weekend!

Easter dinner

When I was a kid, my Easters were mostly non-religious. My mama said that the communion was a thing of the heart and soul and should always be in the back of our minds. Where we went to church, each Sunday morning service was was ended by the Communion. However, she did like to buy me and herself each an outfit of new spring clothing which we wore on Easter Sunday; I suppose that was Dot’s Easter religion. While we were at church, many more of our clan were gathering at grandma’s house for a big dinner. Grandma, always an early riser, was up by 3:30am to start the day’s food preparations. Her day began by building a fire in the living room fireplace and then doing the same in the kitchen cook stove. She then donned a coat and used the outdoor facilities which were on the hilltop back of the house. When Dot and I got home from church at about 12:30pm, the food was generally ready, the table was taken up by men-folk, women were serving, and kids grabbed a plate and, if the weather was good, went outside to the porch to eat. In bad weather, which we had most of the Easters I remember from those days, kids were sprawled all over the living room floor while they ate and made a mess. After the meal was finished–women ate last–the entire crowd would gather inside or outside and the reminiscing about Easters past would begin. Men talked men talk and smoked and women (according to the men) gossiped. I couldn’t tell much difference between the two. Sooner or later, Jim Butler would go to his car and retrieve his guitar and a couple of hours of picking and grinning would ensue. If we were trapped inside by bad weather, kids had no choice but to endure but if we were outside, we scattered into small groups as far away from the adults as possible. Where ever we were, we managed to hide our colored Easter eggs and then tried to find those of the other kids. Many of the family would leave for home or other amusements as the afternoon dragged on, but a few would stay for supper which was leftovers usually served with fresh bread at around 4:00pm. My day normally ended by accompanying Dot back to church no matter how hard I plead to stay home “just this one time”.

Have a Tuesday!

Hillbilly News

A few stories from the local rag today:
In the name of God, gimme back my serpents
In the name of God, gimme back my water
We don’t want you Yankee dope-heads in Tennessee
Lift them up as if they were your own children

If you have an Amazon Prime account, you can borrow ebooks for Kindle and Kindle apps at no charge. There are some good titles available such as the “Hunger Games” series and thousands more. You also get free movies like in Netflix and you get free two day shipping on Prime  eligible purchases from Amazon and other stores. $79 per year. Netflix has more movie titles, mostly junk, but it costs nearly $100/year.

Have a decent Winter Worshday!

Thoughts

Mason, Sammy’s brother — born Jan. 31.

Daffodils yesterday and snow today. Early spring is so Charlie Brown.

I wonder if UFO sightings will rise because of yesterday’s meteor explosion over Russia? Close encounters, anal probes, weird sex, vivisection; legends are made of such stories.

Happy Birthday Weekend, Michael Jordan. You can never be surpassed.

__________________________________________

The curfew tolls the knell of parting day,
The lowing herd wind slowly o’er the lea,
The plowman homeward plods his weary way,
And leaves the world to darkness and to me.
—————————–
~ Thomas Gray Elegy Written In A Country Churchyard

Have a great Sunday!

Look! Up in the sky! It’s a bird; it’s a plane; it’s Superman!

I still have a quantity personal meteor shields for sale if you are interested, and after the near disaster in Russia this morning, you should be extremely interested. My shields not only protect from meteors but also from comets, asteroids, and bird droppings. Some folks have been seen using their shields as rain protection but it is not recommended for these high-tech devices. Place your order while supplies last.

Reasonably warm today but supposedly reasonably snowy tonight. Along with daffodils, the yard was host to many robins today. The lonely peckerwood is still just that; lonely.

Have a great weekend, my friends!

Sea Cruise

A song from back in the day when I was young

A lifetime of lovin’ is not enough time to love your lover like a lover should

Happy Valentine’s Day, my friends

Feed the Byrds

Friday the 13th is on Wednesday this month; odd … very odd …

Be sure to put out food for the birds in this wet weather. Robins are like the rest of us; they don’t like for their worms to get soggy and limp. They eat small pieces of fruit when normal stuff isn’t available.

Mark reminded me that anyone can be Pope of the Catholic Church, a fact I did not know until I read it in a Dan Brown novel. As big as the Catholic Church is, I have a feeling there is less known about how it works than is true of any other Western religion. I bet that most people whom have been life-long followers of the church do not really know too much concerning it. About all I know as an outsider is that it takes more than white smoke to be a Pope. Mysterium fidei.

Have a thoughtful Wednesday.

Today; don't waste it

Powitanie z Górą Strękową, Poland
Photo courtesy of Jola.-

Pretty and mild day in East Tennessee; the sunshine has that slight misty springtime look to it. Or am I just thinking wishfully?

I tuned on the radio this morning and The John Boy and Billy Big Show was on; I turned off the radio.

I wonder just what has really transpired in the Vatican? I never much liked the guy who resigned but he is whom or what he is. Dona nobis pacem.

No, I won’t watch the President’s State of the Union speech tonight. Hogwash it is.

Have a Tuesday.

Seasonish

A little peckerwood must thinking it is spring mating time; he was hammering beside my bedroom window this morning. I hope he has a lady friend before tomorrow morning. The days have been feeling springish in spite of this early date. lot of winter left to go, though.

Parts of Connecticut caught 38″ snow, nearly a meter. Marks parents got 30″. I am thinking of moving farther south; Rio sounds good.

Netflix has s series on called House of Cards starring Kevin Spacey. I saw part one and liked it a lot. Although it is a drama, it should give some insight into how power is wielded out of public sight in Washington, D.C.

Sammy is here but he is sick.

Have a good Worshday, my friends.

Satisfaction; I got some

Sammy

Feb. 7, 2013 – 5:30pm. A beautiful evening; sky is cloudy with rain imminent. Temperature is mild and the spring grass is greening. A fat male robin is making the best of waning daylight, peeping out earthworms; he is the first one I’ve seen this year. On limbs above him are two male cardinals inspecting the feeder … and each other. Close by, daffodils are blooming. A bit of wind comes from the west but the ambiance is stillness. For the short time I luxuriate in this dusky evening, I have complete serenity, a contentment I seldom find. Darkness and late winter’s cold quietly settles over the back yard …

I suppose that when America couldn’t find a fresh non-Christian foreign nation to slap around with its mighty military, it has chosen to go to war with itself. I have never seen this nation in this much deep, internal turmoil as it now is. Why is it like this I ask myself? Because the president of the United States is not a white conformist. I ‘ll admit that Mr. Obama has been a huge disappointment as chief executive, but far-rightists, disturbed leftists, and even unwavering ignorance among the middle-of-the-roaders are blaming him for every conceivable malfeasance in their pitiful lives no matter how small and unimportant. My god, the birthers are still screaming for impeachment. No one it seems, including the president, is taking our Constitution seriously. It is like a lot of Christians do with their Bibles; the scriptures mean what they want it to mean no matter how diverse it is from what is written. I think it is too late to wake up, America.

I am once again a great-grandfather. Mason Elijah _____ was born on January 31, 2013. He is Wonderful. More about him later.

Have a good weekend, my friends.

Whiter Shade of Pale

I’ve been under the weather for a few days but today is very good. Sammy is on his way over; I haven’t seen him in three weeks.

W.I.N.E. for Android is coming to a phone or tablet near you … but I have no idea when; possibly this year. W.I.N.E. is a Windows OS emulator which allows you to run many Windows programs on Linux and has been popular for many years. It is not geeky; load it like a regular program then load the Win programs to it. Not all programs work with W.I.N.E. but the developers keep updating it and it just gets better. I have used it for many years on my Linux setups and I like it. Yes, Android is a Linux based OS.

I bought myself a new keyboard. The characters are larger than on a normal keyboard and the best part is that they are back-lighted; I won’t have to turn on my desk lamp just to see to type. Now to get it filled with snacks.

We are having some sunny skies but it still isn’t warm. No robins as yet.

I hope to have an announcement on this blog within the next few days; a few things have to happen before I do my bit.

Spring fever

Jezioro Rajgrodzkie

Sitting around waiting to see if the weather hammer is going to fall. Snow for next two days. I want robins and daffodils and honeybees! I don’t always get what I want. Also, today is Groundhog Day and the sky is cloudy. That means he sees no shadow of himself and that means winter should be about over; hope the furry critter isn’t lying … again.

I’d love to be able to tramp once again; I know I disliked the journeying that I as a Journeyman Wireman had to do back in the early 1970′s,  but now the rose-colored glasses are on ant it seems much more like Camelot. It probably wasn’t as bad back then as I thought it was at the time and it surely was worse than how I am remembering it at these melancholy moments. I mostly worked in the South and in the Appalachia; I met a lot of darned good people where ever I roamed but the poorest ones in the hollers of West Virginia were the most obliging to a stranger. All I had to do was go into a country store and strike up a conversation with about any loafer, mention that my grandfather worked sawmills in the area back in the early 1900′s, and the tales would start. Everyone has a story and there is nothing better for these old men and women than to have a stranger in their presence who wanted to hear them. I was treated like a preacher on a Sunday afternoon.

Snow has begun falling.

Have a relaxing Sunday!