Hear here

The mouse is still winning.

I know I fussed because we had a lack of rain but now we are getting more than we can use. No complaints from me, though.

I finally surrendered after five years of nagging from Carolyn and ordered myself a cheap hearing aid. Now, maybe I can hear audio on TV movies without raising the volume so much and save myself from many of her elbow in-the-rib punches.
Happy is the hearing man; unhappy the speaking man. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

You ever have those days when you don't want to do anything except maybe roll up like a pill bug and await better times? Don't feel like staring at a TV or PC monitor, reading or even porch sitting? Lately, I am having some like that. I'm in a Dog Days slump, I think, but I trust it will soon meld into alertness.

Pillow talk

For most of m life I’ve comfortably slept on a feather pillow but the one I have been using is worn out and cannot be fluffed anymore. In its place I am using a foam pillow which I detest. It sleeps well enough but it cannot be folded or punched or wadded onto submission the way I would like it. Also, the worn feather pillow was probably exacerbated some of my eye allergies which have not been as bad since I stopped using it. Is nothing sacred? Seems like all my past is like the pillow; worn down from much usage and ready to be discarded.

Blues

The boys, especially Sammy, have been very sick for the past week. I haven’t had the heart to blog while they were unwell. Sammy ran a fever of more than 1oo°F (37.78°C) for four days. His face was was swollen and he was covered with red spots, all due to fever. Mason and Jaden both have runny noses.

Carolyn made goulash for supper yesterday and blackberry dumplings for desert. Also, she is once more in a war with a mouse … or mice, spending a small fortune on various traps and such. So far the rodent is winning. I was a casual observer until the critter got into my stash of marshmallows which I keep in a drawer beside the bed so now I am hoping for his exit in whatever form it takes. Don’t fool with my stash, Rat!

I watched a very interesting documentary on Roku PBS channel about the new pope and how and why he got to be the church leader. Seems like the Vatican hierarchy is corrupt to its very core, even to the point that it could go bankrupt or worse. Pope Francis wants to reform the church but has been told by Rome police that if he tries to fix the failed banking system that the mafia may try to kill him. He appears to be a good man and I think he will try to get his house in order even it does kill him.

Johnny Winter died yesterday. He was one of my favorite blues guitarists.

Summer breezes

It rained forty days and forty nights in just one hour early this morning. My world of East Tennessee is once again green.

Sammy had a great birthday party. He didn’t pay much attention to his Batman mug but he very much liked the little picnic table we gave him. He had a doctor checkup Monday and is fine, weighing in at thirty-seven pounds.

When Jaden watches Sammy and Mason romping about, his arms and legs begin flailing and a yearning brightness comes to his eyes. He badly wants to get down and mix it up with them.

July and summer are whizzing by so quickly. Carolyn and I are thinking about taking another short-stay trip to Chattanooga on Labor Day weekend. She desperately needs some down time away from home. I am also thinking about going to West Virginia and revisit some of the power houses where I worked on construction back in the seventies. From there maybe to Morehead, Kentucky  to pay homage at my friend Fred’s grave. I also want to visit some of the Civil War battlefields in Pennsylvania and Virginia. Time.

Trainsience

July 3rd. … first day of Dog Days. It has been too hot and dry for several weeks. Hopefully the hurricane now off the Carolina coast will bring a bit of rain but it is probably too far away. I suppose I should be wary of what I wish for, though.

Is anyone truly surprised by the recent Supreme Court rulings? If the misdeeds of this high court can ever be undone, it will take many, many years.

Medicare for all Americans is a fair and just proposal.

Sammy’s birthday presents from granny and me came via FedEx yesterday. We got him a picnic table and a Batman coffee mug, both made in China. He loves that darned bat!

Tomorrow is Independence Day in America. I find it very difficult to celebrate in this age of corporate ownership of We The People.

Happy Birthday to a Wonderful Young Man

Sammy 1yr. old

Sammy 3yr old

June the last

Last worsh day in June; this month has gone by like a like a hound-chased ‘coon and now it is treed.

Sammy is having his third birthday party at our house Saturday; he said for me to say “y’all come!”.

Sammy finally has me figured out; he told his granny yesterday that “Papaw’s crazy”. Mason is now  growing a bit taller instead of spreading out. Jaden seems like he is about ready to crawl.

Yesterday was my Bride’s and my fiftieth wedding anniversary.

Things

This morning while porch sitting I finally saw a honey bee on the white clovers in the yard. One only but I was very thankful for it to be there.

The boys were here yesterday and are present again today. I don’t get much time for net stuff except what they deem necessary: Batman and Thomas the Train.

We need a good soaking rain. Been hot and dry for weeks. I remember last year how the yards and fields stayed lush and green up until frost. Now they are brown and spotty.

Monday muse

Trying to recuperate from a day with Sammy and Mason. Sammy wasn’t bad but Mason wanted to get into everything and he also wanted to dissect everything. He managed to spill my glass of tea into my lighted keyboard and it no longer functions. I am now using an old one but the keys and letters are small and my eyes are weak.

After they left last evening, Carolyn and I sat on the porch and watched some major thunderstorms just beyond the mountains toward Boone, North Carolina. Didn’t have a camera with me.

Is anyone watching soccer? I don’t know how to play the game nor do I know any of the players which leaves my interest lacking. Shucks, I haven’t watched NBA basketball since Michael Jordan retired.

Seems like Polish politicians are learning the hard way that freedom is not a one-way street. Watch what you say and where you say it, boys.

Cometh Summer

This morning and for the first time in my life, I awoke with a blonde in my bed. I hope it’s true that blondes have more fun but she’s never been one to kiss and tell so I suppose I’ll never know.

The boys are doing well. Chris and Ashley had a yard sale at our house Saturday and both boys were in the sun most of the day. Sammy is as tan as a beach bum and mason is a shade darker than usual. Jaden is learning to sit alone and is always smiling. Sammy loves to play Batman and Mason likes to watch Thomas The Train on my PC but only if he sits on my lap. Sammy will be three years old in two weeks; where did time go? He is such a big boy now with a soul so gentle. Mason has to dismantle everything including his food. He has talent of a mechanic or engineer.

My eyes are still improving but still cannot stand much bright light.

Solstice is in three more days. I don’t look forward to shorter daylight but at least this year I have had plenty of porch time. My hide is tanned in places and has peeled twice already.

Only the pure in heart can make a good soup.

This birthday thing is out of control. From now on I will count my existence as scores of years. I am three-score and nine at present and I think that sounds much better than saying that I am sixty-nine years old. Sixty-nine sounds ancient but three-score and nine has a lighter note to it. Besides, saying it in scores instead of continually progressive years should make people stop and think a moment when they hear or read it. Stopping to think is good as long as you don’t do it while driving down the street. Verily, I will celebrate my next natal anniversary when I become four-score.

My heart doctor summoned me for a checkup which I was supposed to have attended just after my knee surgery last July. He tut-tutted at me and then told me what I already knew; my heart is doing fine for a man three-score and nine years of age. As soon as I left his office I went and ate a huge celebratory cheeseburger and french fries. If you are three-score and nine years old you should have learned over the decades that greasy burgers are good for ones mental health just as ice-cold beer is good for the kidneys.

Do you know me? Do you know that my favorite desert is blackberry dumplings which barely edges out banana pudding or brownies? Do you know my favorite meal is brown soup beans, mashed taters topped with peas, spinach greens, fried country ham with red-eye gravy over biscuits, green onions, and iced tea with a slice of lemon? I’ve been eating such fare for most of three-score and ten years. Heart-healthy grub and fine country cuisine.

Do you know that each evening after leaving the office I go to the kitchen, get a small or medium size tomato, grab the salt shaker and stand at the sink and feast? Now you know.

Title quote by Ludwig van Beethoven.

Tennessee

"This is the original version in original length and unaltered. Tennessee is one of Hans Zimmer's finest piece in his career in producing movie soundtracks."

Chewing cud

My eyes are at last clearing a little. I owe some of you folks email and I will get to them in a day or so … I hope.

I watched (as best as the eyes allowed) a few movies last week. I always like Morgan Freeman flicks so I watched The Magic of Belle Isle. It wasn’t a great movie but it was worth watching. I also watched a documentary about Edward Snowden and the content of the NSA  documents concerning domestic spying by our government. I also saw two of my favorite movies from the eighties: The Gods Must Be Crazy and The Blues Brothers.

We got the Escape repaired. It had bad wheel bearings. Hopefully I can soon get out on some weekends and make a few photos. I haven’t driven a car in nearly two years but I think it is time. The mountains call me and I damn sure need to find a bit of contentment in their shaded slopes.
We also got two medical bills paid off from Carolyn’s hospital stay back in 2009. We still like two more.

For me. growing old has been like a happy drunk stumbling around in the dark and suddenly finding myself up to my nose in a cesspit.

Where have all the soldiers gone ...

D-Day June 6 1944

 Where have all the soldiers gone, long time passing?
Where have all the soldiers gone, long time ago?
Where have all the soldiers gone?
Gone to graveyards, everyone.
Oh, when will they ever learn?
Oh, when will they ever learn?

Lyrics by Pete Seeger

Summer begins

Evening conversation

My eyes are still messed up; will post a blog when ever possible.

Good bye, Mr Anderson

Eye drops

I feel better today than I have since before the pneumonia. I slept well last night with the help of a Xanax tablet and my eyes are allowing me to write this short blog post if nothing else. The weights on my knees are working but I don’t know how far they will go with straightening the leg. Anyway, I was able to walk better this morning and I can tell the leg feels stronger.

I’ve had some good porch time the past two mornings. The worst distraction is that there is a patch of white clover blooms in front of the porch but I have yet to see a honey bee on any of them. When I was a lad, white clovers with their attending honey bees were a bane to this barefoot boy; it was normal to be stung on the feet several time each week. Alas, the bees are all but extinct from some places and it is saddening that we so much ignore our natural world.

The title is my favorite quote from the movie The Matrix.

Mid-May already

Feeling pretty good except for my blurry eyes and perpetually sore knees. I bought ten pounds (4.5 kg) of weights to place on my new knee while the leg is stretched between two chairs. Doctor wants me to have the knee crushed again but as long as soreness from fluid is there it won’t do much good because I cannot do the exercises properly.

Have you heard the old saying “he looks like he is knocking on death’s door”? I don’t think I have been knocking on his door but I do believe I have been slumming around his neighborhood too much recently.

The boys are growing. Jaden is at eighteen pounds (8.1 kg), Mason is thirty-four pounds (15.4 kg), and Sammy is thirty-five pounds (15.9 kg). Sammy’s hair has turned a dark copper color.

When a fifteen month old little boy (Mason) walks into a room full of unused but familiar laps and comes to me to pick him up and then puts his head against my chest and his arms around my neck, it makes me feel like I have been doing something right with my life.

A plague of locusts. That is about all that is left to hit California where Jeremy and Courtney are living. So far this year they have had earth quakes, drought, flash floods, wild fires, and searingly dry winds.

May flowers

Here is my annual tribute to the best love movie I’ve seen–The Notebook–and to the song writer Dave Loggins and to the performance by Three Dog Night.

I seem to have overcome this last bout of pneumonia and I say it is the worst one I’ve ever had and I’ve had many. It took a trip to emergency room to get me on the path to being rid of it, at least for awhile. I truly thank Alice, Jola, Sandy, Mark, and Maggie for your concern and get well vibes. You all are blessing in my life.

Sunday I got a bit of a surprise. An old friend I haven’t seen in many years called me and within a few hours he and another friend from back in the day were sitting with me at my house. It was Ken Moore and Mike Townsend. Our relationship goes back to the nineteen seventy-three. I was very happy to see them.

Still here

Beginning to feel better from pneumonia. Thank all of you for your care and concern. I will answer your inspiring comments as soon as possible.

Feeling putrid

Haven’t been blogging for awhile. Going to doctor tomorrow. Probably have my annual case of pneumonia.