Children

Artist: Carl Vogel von Vogelstein

If I had written the Christian Bible, this would have taken care of a huge amount so scripture:

Jesus spoke to his followers saying this; “Bring unto me the children of the multitude so that I may bless them”.
And his disciples went forth into the gathering of nations and said to the many, “The Lord has commanded us to bring all the children unto him so that they be blessed by him.
When the children were gathered in front of Jesus, he called each one by name bade them come unto his bosom and he blessed them.
He said to his followers “Feed the children first for they are my Father’s children and give them drink for many are poor and have had little this day”
When the children had taken their fill, Jesus bade the disciples to provide food for the multitude and give them water to drink.
When this was done and evening approached, Jesus arose and spoke to all the nations before him, saying “Behold the children for they are first in My Father’s house.
On the day of reckoning, first judgement will be upon those who teach the small and helpless to walk in the way of worldly enlightenment and divine forgiveness.”

Happy Birthday, Jola

Happy Birthday, Jola. Hope you have many years of happy returns. Winter has been very tough but is is now time for you to step away from the cold shackles of old days and test your wings beneath warm, sunny skies. Little birds were born to fly.

I got all the taxes finished and filled yesterday. Happy it is over because the standing, pulling, and yanking my joints went through yesterday have left me in a painful stupor today. Sammy and Mason are here but I don’t have energy to play with them.

Fixing to take my weekly dose of methotrexate; I hope it will be the last one for a few weeks.

Ahhh, good times. Plenty more to come

Karma ... it comes and goes

Three well known people died this past week; one I loved, one I liked, and one I detested. Much like many other newly-teened boys, I had a crush on Annette Funicello, my darling Mouseketeer. Later on when she began starring with Frankie Avalon in Beach Party movies, I realized my dream of  marrying her were but fantasies. No wonder teenagers freak out so much. Annette died at age 70. Jonathan Winters, a comedian with wry mind and a good heart, also passed. I liked him a lot. Lastly, Margarette Thatcher passed. She was the one time Ronald Reagan clone of British politics. I won’t miss her.

Sammy and Mason are due here for the day tomorrow.

Visited orthopedic surgeon this morning; sometime between a few weeks and a year from now, I will have a new knee. If my heart passes muster the surgery will be soon but if not, it may be a year or a bit longer before the knee is fixed.

Friday the 13th comes on Saturday this month, so says Churchy’s Almanac. This is normally not a good thing unless there is a special celebration on Saturday and don’t you know, we just happen to have a birthday to observe tomorrow. We shall see.

Weekend!

Bitcoins

What are bitcoins and why do I not have a lot of them in my bank account instead of a few paltry dollars? Should I have bitcoins at all?
Hoping for good news at surgeon’s tomorrow.
Thursday!

Wilbur

I wanted to do a regular blog Saturday but the cable company had other ideas. Internet was off until late in the day and TV was not viewable until sometime that night. I was pissed about the net and Carolyn was pissed because she couldn’t watch Hopalong Cassidy. I really didn’t have much to do on the net anyway, but I get antsy when I know I can’t have it. I finally rigged up a useable connection via of connecting tablet Bluetooth to cell phone Bluetooth.  At least the tablet screen was big enough for most things.

I was offline most of the day yesterday. Carolyn drove me around Wilbur and Watauga lake areas; we both needed to get away from the house. Didn’t get any decent pics but I had my big zoom lens back on the Pentax. Since the time I was very sore last year until now, I’ve been using nothing but the 50mm; it is a lightweight and easier for sore fingers to hold. Every one of the photos I made was from the Escape window except I made a couple in Jonesborough through the windshield.

When you can’t get the photo you want, you must want the photo you get.

Seems we have jumped from mid-winter directly into mid-spring in just a couple of days. I am a happy boy in the sunshine of your smile.

Worshday!

A Summer Rose

In a vase beside me the last rose of summer dips its head slightly as I sit in near darkness of my flat. Earlier, I showered and made myself ready to meet a lady at my door and then we would proceed to swankier parts of town for our first date. We were introduced at a dinner party a week earlier, using up most of the evening in each other's company, finally making a date for this evening.

It is almost time for her arrival and I have been sitting here for more than an hour. Darkness has real presence and it is beginning to weigh on my shoulders but I cannot make my body rise out of the chair and turn the lamp on, light will be more oppressive than any heaviness dark can muster. Instead I sit with the only illumination coming between the closed door and threshold.

When the clock chimes and she hasn't arrived, I think maybe she won't come at all; I feel a sense of relief. As the seventh and final note fades, I hear the door opening at the end of the hall; I know it is her and my heart sinks. The click-click of her footsteps come nearer and finally I hear what I dread most; puk-puk, puk-puk as her knuckles rap against the wooden door. Puk-puk, puk-puk once more but I cannot move; I am emotionally frozen in time. After a minute, one more puk-puk and her shadow moves from the threshold, footsteps echo back down the hallway and the door to the outside opens and quickly closes.

I sit afraid and I have no idea of what or who I fear; I sit still for more than hour as my muscles stiffen and ache. I sit. Beside me, the last faded petal of the summer rose loosens its grip and quickly falls to the floor. I close my eyes from the remaining light and I am alone.

I am alone.

Saturday!

Twitches

Kilroy was here

I finally found the answer. Last night was bad; I was having spasms in my knee and could not sleep. When I can’t sleep I am guilty of thinking. For some reason I was thinking about shopping the net versus real stores. I like browsing small shops but the big stores are like Facebook; they give me the creeps. Because of the bad knee, my store of choice is Amazon.com. I was remembering how I used to shop with Carolyn at Wal-Mart and a few other impersonal big stores. While in the middle of a memory, I remembered the reason I quit accompanying her to shopping back before my knee turned bad. I was wondering why my bride is a compulsive shopper and will tackle almost anything that has a “Sale” sign on it. A sudden spasm caused me to vividly see her going down an aisle displaying things for sale. She would move along and all of a sudden she through on the brakes and start tossing things from both sided into her cart. A lot of merchandise was knocked to the floor during her unusual activity and she bothered not to pick it up. She would walk awhile more and do the same weird thing again. Last night I realized she was having spasms; shopping spasms. She is one of the latter-day compulsive-spasmatics. Other shoppers would cringe in fear as her arms went flailing like a Dutch windmill on steroids, hands grabbing and tossing. I kept lagging farther and farther behind her in the store, hoping no one would know I was with her. Finally she would fill her cart and holler for me to push it while she went for another one. Her eyes became glazed like that of a reefer freak and there was an evil glint in her eye that threatened “don’t fuck with this girl while I am shopping!”. Her strange behavior is the real reason I quit going shopping; the knee became a convenient excuse. Even now when we are browsing in Amazon or Wal-Mart web stores, she periodically begins twitching her arms and some of the old look comes back to her eyes. When it happens, I tell her that my hands are hurting and I am going to quit. It is usually at least a half-hour more before I can get away from her frightening shoulder twitches and shelf-roving evil eye.

Friday!

Your money's worth everyday

Spring woods

You probably already know I have previously used the above photo in this blog; I posted a larger size this time. Chilly, damp, gray day. Is there no end to the winter of 2012 - 2013? N.O.A.A. is claiming that 2012 was the warmest year on record. I claim if this be true, 2012 must have borrowed warmth from 2013. I think it is time for last year to make a big payment on account Daffodils have come and gone, red buds have been blooming for a couple of weeks, and I have my thin, springtime pants on. I know there is a very good weather forecast for the weekend, but I ain't going to jinx it with wishes, hopes, and prayers. 'Nuff said.

Where has this week gone? Shouldn't today be Wednesday? My life is screwed up enough without the gods jerking a day out from under me.

Last evening I did an edit of my little story from Tuesday. I think I have forgotten how to write ... if I ever knew how. I will chew on the changes for a few days and maybe show you what I came up with. I need to read it to myself and record it and listen for uneven word flow. Problem; I can't stand to hear my own recorded voice. I sound like a bullfrog who swallowed a fiddle.

I'm thinking of beginning an online periodical, a photographic and literary one page masterpiece to begin with. Maybe title it One Cent Pieces with a sub-title of Your money's worth everyday. I'll purchase a Wordpress domain for $25 and ask readers to donate a penny to help defray costs if they can spare it. All is flexible at the moment.

Thursday?!

Should I answer the phone?

A Facebook phone is coming soon. It is basically like any other smartphone HTC makes but this one will be special in that the home screen reflects your Facebook page and it is interactive. I don’t want one, thank you. In fact I am slowly moving to Google+. I like its setup  and its “circles” of friends. Easy to connect with other people with the same likes as you. With this phone, FB should be able to know where you are 24 hours each day, know whom you are with, and know what you are doing. Imagine if you can; in the middle of having wild sex, your phone says diddle-de-blinkity and ads for Viagra, Trojans, and a Book of Lies to Tell Your Wife pops up on the screen.

————————————————————————————————————–

I have begun my last story and this is the first written draft:

I desire the touch of a true friend to walk this last mile with me; the path is clear but old legs seem to weaken and stumble even on the commonest ground. Please take my hand in yours. I won’t bore you with endless natter about life wasted or years enjoyed; instead, I want to listen to you speak of life, the small things which is making it be “your life”. Smile and guide me by fresh morning lilacs and afternoon roses; accompany me to pale evening irises and by midnight honeysuckle. Let soft April rain cover my face with gentle, wet kisses. There; wild strawberries along the path and I must have some of them on my tongue as I hear a little sparrow singing from the bushes. When we have made our way far enough and as I begin to feel the tug of darkness which awaits, hold my hand a little tighter. No, this is not melancholy I wipe from my cheeks but only dew drops from the cooling air. I am not afraid of the unknowable where fireflies do not play; my time is nigh to be a part of the dark. Please, one last embrace, one gentle hug from you my friend before I step over the threshold of memory. Thank you, my friend; the touch of my fingers will slip away from your hand and you must turn and go. There are others who need a friend and one day soon enough you will be asking a trusted soul to walk with you. May you passage be as sweet as you have made mine.

————————————————————————————————————–

Tuesday!

Pieces of April

Mason stayed with us last night. He slept in our bed. He is a very noisy little man.

Hopefully one day this week I will pen my final story. Don’t worry as it will be very short and sweet.

Seems like spring has arrived in these hills; if the forecast holds true, the weekend coming will be glorious.

Lack of sleep and eye allergies have me grounded on this first day of April. Please be patient with my blogging; I know it must be addictive for all of you.

Carolyn says I have to have a haircut and take a bath before I have surgery.

Those who are virtuous by their own mouths have little of it in their hearts.

Worshday!

Life ain't half bad

Sammy and Mason are coming here to color Easter eggs. It is a fine day.

I am pretty well back up to par on Megashot.net. Getting some welcomes done for new members. There are now more than 6,200 registered souls on Megashot.

I am once again active on Flickr but it is limited to a few good friends. Any site can wear you down if you are on it too much.

For my practicing Christian friends, I hope you have peaceful Holy days. For my pagan comrades, carry on.

Have a good weekend!

Easter goodies

Mr Gnome likes Peeps

Meant to write a smash-bang masterpiece of blog prose on this day but I feel so lethargic after two straight nights of serious sleeping pills. Sleep or pain? No-brainer; sleep!

Have a great Friday!

Lost Highway

Had my annual P.C. doctor (hell no, not a computer doctor; ‘Primary Care’) checkup yesterday. Before she even saw me, her nurse had an appointment set up for me with a orthopedic surgeon so I can get my knee fixed. Maybe, possibly in another month or so I will be free of this pain. Walking again has become secondary to relief from this physical hurt. I haven’t slept since Monday morning; yesterday’s limited activities caused the knee to go into spasms every few minutes last night.

It is bad that we have to find out what people think about stuff by using Facebook and Twitter instead of a “trusted” news source.

One of my FB contacts posted this:
Warning…thinking out loud again…maybe those who want to force the gun issues should move to the states who allow same sex marriage and abortions…that way they could all be happy together and leave the normal people alone to enjoy their lives in peace!
I find this extremely offensive and I say she is a “Facebook contact” because there is no way I could ever know someone so hateful as a friend. She cannot be “thinking out loud” because her life learned-biases will not allow her to use her mind to think rationally yet she seems to refer to herself as “normal people”. Gods help us if she is normal people.

From today’s local rag:
Building managers and legislative staffers have sought to reassure some concerned Tennessee lawmakers that recent renovations at the state Capitol did not install special facilities for Muslims to wash their feet before praying.
“I confirmed with the facility administrator for the State Capitol Complex that the floor-level sink installed in the men’s restroom outside the House Chamber is for housekeeping use,” Legislative Administration Director Connie Ridley wrote in an email. “It is, in layman’s terms, a mop sink.” Read more: http://www.johnsoncitypress.com/News/article.php?id=105724#ixzz2OfFibFK9

Have a Tuesday!

Justified

Sammy was here all day yesterday. He won. He had Carolyn and I both ready for the knockout when he left us. We began his entertainment with Pink Floyd of course and then moved to Tedeschi and Trucks via Mark’s blog. That was fine with him. I decided to apply a bit of KISS with a closeup of Paul Stanley in makeup. That was all it took to send Sammy running to his granny’s lap. A good day for all three of us.

Rain today and snow tonight.

Fer Shur!

 

Have any of you seen the comet? I saw it shortly after it swung into the evening sky but it was a bit hard to locate. Not as bright as I thought it would be but still brighter than anything round it other than the new moon. I may have missed it if it had not been fuzzy looking.

I will wait until the last minute to file our taxes; the wars will still be in session. I don’t know what I hate most; my tax money going to pay for wars which help no one except corporations or my tax money being handed out to subsidize those same corporations.

Which paragraph above is not justified text?

Have a great final week in March!

Taking notes

Google this week released a note taking application by the name of Keep for its Android OS 4.0 and higher. I’ve  been using Evernote but it is a bit complicated for taking a quick note like when I wake up in the middle of the night with a wonderful idea for this blog. The interface for Keep is easy to use and it also links to Google’s cloud service, Google Drive. I think I will use it all the time as it also has a app for Windows which will sync with all my devices running Android.

The Boss is supposed to be here tomorrow! I miss Sammy when he isn’t here at least once a week. Mason comes over more than does The Boss but he just sleeps and eats.

Have a good weekend!

Long road

I now have my taxes about 70 percent completed; I spent nearly seven hours on them yesterday. Foreclosure on our old house is a major exercise in tax code foolishness.

New black, metal roof. Hope to have a photo later.

A couple weeks ago a person known to my daughter beat her extensively. No one has been convicted of a crime but someone is awaiting a jury trial for the deed. My daughter has a broken nose, broken cheek bones around her eye sockets, and a lot of dark bruises yet to heal. She may lose partial vision in one eye and her nose will remain crooked.

I need a Sammy fix; haven’t seen The Boss in awhile.

Snowed last night.

Have a good Thursday, my friends.

Time

Another sunny day in the hills where the gods come to play.

I’m thinking of buying a new fedora, something like this one. Don’t laugh … yet.

I am up to my ears in taxes today; took a break to dissolve some of the crap from my brain. It ain’t working; I can shut my eyes and see lines of gibberish text and meaningless numbers. Time is running out fast for tax filing and I am barely begun.

The time is gone
The song is over
Thought I’d something more to say

Have a Tuesday!

Geeking

My Droid is acting crazy; must be close to time for a new one. I’ve had it for two and one-half years which makes it at least four generations behind the times. Since I bought the tablet and since Carolyn now has a smart phone, I don’t see why I need anything more than a regular cell phone. I suppose I will try to find a good deal in something but I don’t know that it will be a contract phone. Google is rumored to becoming out with a smartphone with data usage that isn’t tied to any cellular company. It is supposed to cost about $100 for the device plus discounted data and calling. A lot of intrigue in the consumer electronics world these days.

Beautiful day yesterday; if March winds hadn’t been blowing, it would have been near perfect. Still a lot of folks working in their yards and enjoying the finery; supposed to cool down a lot this week coming. I am ready for a trip to the mountains but the knee is refusing to discuss it.

Have a good week!

Small gods

Scientists again say they have discovered the “god particle” which means the one found earlier was a “false-god particle” and we know that God doesn’t like false gods. All I can say is this: If a “god particle” is needed in the cosmos, then it does exist. If it is needed and doesn’t exist, then neither do we.

Sunshine today and warming a bit. Still not very much like mid-March would be if I was the god-particle in charge.

I am not a religious person in the normal sense of “faith”, but I know that personal prayer does no harm. It is what we expect from praying that many times leads us to doubt and self defeat.

Have a good weekend, y’all!

Pope Francis

Unknown ladies
Photo from my Grandmother

I won’t do it! I will not refer to and defer to my wife as Pope Francis because her middle name is “Francis”. Not even Pope-ette Francis. And no way is she going to make me wear a red skull cap around the house. Hell no! It’ll be a long journey for me until the next Pope is elected.

Spring will never get here. I believe the new ice age has begun but it will hopefully take a few years before the first glaciers arrive in East Tennessee. They didn’t come quite this far south last ice age but they surely will this time just because I’m here. There goes the ol’ global warming bit.

Have a tarantism Thursday!

Ides and comets and no. 13 … oh my!

Gulf Fritillary on Zinia

Portends! Portends of doom and gloom! How often do we have a great comet stealing across our evening sky at the same time the Ides of March are in their death throes?* Even worse, Friday the 13th is here today—a Wednesday. The Holy Roman Church has no leader and my roof still leaks. Fate has dealt us a losing hand this month. Portends!

Have a safe day, my friends and don’t blame the messenger if your luck turns bad.


*This happened once before in recorded history in the year 607 and we all remember how terrible that year was.

Guido Sarducci for Pope

A lot of old men are going to elect one of their own to govern the Vatican and be head of a church which has a membership around the world of 1.2 billion people. About half of the church members are women who have absolutely no say in the selection of a new Pope. It would be nice if the Catholic Church and all Christian denominations would allow women to have status equal to men. Holy men fear women. As a matter of fact, I fear women and I ain’t hardly holy!

Wasn’t Sunday a near-perfect day. If not for a bit of breeze I would have been on the porch for many hours instead of less than one hour. Bleak, gray skies today and another cold week in store. Patience, our day will come.

Happy Birthday, Jack Kerouac.

Have a Tuesday!

Moonflower

Sammy spent Saturday with us; just his presence seemed to say “things are all right now papaw, your buddy is here”.

Have a good Sunday …

One

Family;
In a crisis like the one we are now experiencing, we must be a family of One. We must pull together, hope together, and if any of us are religious, we must pray together. Togetherness is the key when one of us has been seriously hurt; if blame must be placed on one of us or some of us by any of us, it can better be done in the future when we have the gift of hindsight to guide us. Right now, one of us needs all the help and love we can give.
Daddy (Paw, Papaw, Wayne)

Around the home place

Trout fishing on Wilbur Lake

Those high winds of last week took a toll on the house’s roof shingles; we have four major leaks on the ceiling and walls. One leak is directly over my head. The landlord is supposed to have his insurance man out here Monday; he knows the roof can not be successfully patched and is hoping insurance will pay for new shingles. I’m glad I don’t have to worry about things like that.

Carolyn washed our “dry clean only” mattress pad in the washing machine; now the machine is stopped up from stem to stern with polyester filling. A new pad from Amazon came yesterday. It too is dry clean only.
Mason is here today but all he does is eat and sleep. I’d love to see Sammy, too.

Have a good weekend and Spring your clocks forward!

The comets are coming

Sunset

Snow; at least it had the decency to lay on the ground this time. Supposed to be 66°F (18.9C) by this weekend. If so, I will do a springtime Irish jig while on my crutches!

We should have a good year for naked-eye comets if you like such things and no one likes them more than I. Early next week should be good viewing of comet Pan-STARRS in the Northern Hemisphere. View west just after sunset and it should be easily visible. To add to my boyish excitement, comet ISON should be about as bright as the moon as it sweeps by the sun and earth in November. I’ve seen a few comets in my days (nights) but ISON should be the best one yet. November is the time for the Leonid meteor shower, also. However, it will peak during full moon and won’t be as spectacular as it sometimes is. Nothing arouses my senses of wondering and humility as does the night sky.

Photo is from the community where I grew up. There are only four of the old homes being lived in. This abandoned one was the Rome Sifford house; I used to sit on the front porch here and listen to school-day stories from the early 1900′s.

Have a good Wednesday, y’all!

Hot and dusty

Water-lily — Nymphaea

Cold and rainy once again; my joints are tender and sore. Snow showers for tonight and tomorrow then warming a bit. We may get more than showers if the snow front now moving toward Chicago drops a bit further south than is anticipated.

The National Rifle Association is sponsoring a NASCAR race in Texas this year. I wonder if Ted Nugent will play and sing the National Anthem while our military jets fly overhead? A bit ironic, I think. Yee-Haw for the good ol’ boys!

In a related note, last Sunday’s race was won by Carl Edwards but I had to wait until Monday to find out. The first headline I saw on Sunday was “Danica wrecks”. How come a mere wreck is more important than the race winner? How come the lone female racer gets first name treatment from the media and the 42 men who participated are referred to by their last names?

I haven’t seen Sammy in quite awhile. He had a cold and was being contrary. He must have gone to the local kid’s museum yesterday because Ashley put a couple of his pics on Facebook. Chris gave a baby shower for Mason last Saturday and he got a lot of baby-type loot; clothes, toys, and diapers.

Have a Tuesday!

Burrrp!

Washington, D.C. 1913
Women’s suffrage march on Pennsylvania Avenue

What is it with women, give them the right to vote and they think they have to scold a man over an innocent but well earned burp. A beer and pizza burp. Lots of garlic. Just as she turns over with her face toward mine in bed. I should’ve worn shin pads and face guard. A man ought to have rights other than the right to remain silent.

Lech Walesa sure screwed around with his legacy by claiming gays have little or no roles to play in Poland’s government. He is now just another old man.

We’ve had some serious weather this past week but not one bit of it was springlike. One day was wind gusts more than 70mph (113 kilometer/hr.) which ripped shingles off our roof and knocked the power out for a few hours. High winds and hard rain are not unusual for changing seasons, but the weather is usually a lot warmer when it happens and then it cools down quickly. This time it was cold before, during, and after the storm. Lots of rain this winter but there is no break in the colder than normal temperatures in sight. It has been snow showers for the past two days. I need some porch time.

Have a good Worshday, my gentle friends.

Horse burgers

Europe is undergoing a bit of panic because of horse meat allegedly being mixed with beef and being sold to the public. Well, I’m here to tell you that horse meat ain’t all that bad and when mixed with beef in the correct proportion, it is much better than beef alone. When I was a kid, there was a burger joint which sold the best sandwiches in town but it had a reputation of using some horse meat mixed with beef for the meat patties. I’m not saying it is true about the rumor but once it was out and about, the little restaurant’s business declined to where it finally had to close. After 30 years, it reopened on the same spot but by then, demographics of shifting population insured it could not succeed. However, Steve and I did sample the burgers and they seemed to taste the same as I remembered them form the 1950′s. Do I believe the food contained horse meat? I doubt it it did. Most likely the rumor sprang from a competitor and the unique flavor of the burgers came from spices known only to the proprietor but they were tasty even if they once did pull a plow.

I am about sick of the Danica Patrick hoopla. For one thing, she is a cutie-pie but has never asked me for a date. Second, NASCAR and its talking heads press corps have her on a throne–watch out Vatican, she could be elected Pope by the racing crowd. Third, she is a cutie-pie but has never asked me for a date. Actually, I think she and immensely popular Dale Earnhardt Jr. should breed up a few kids; any one of their brats could easily be a world dictator or at least King of the South. Oh Danica, please ask me for a date! Another thing, why is junior so popular? He hasn’t won many races; he doesn’t drive the Budweiser car, and he has come nowhere close to winning a championship. Of course, he is daddy’s boy and daddy had a big reputation as a red neck bad guy who gave no quarter on the track. Junior inherited the adoration of the fans when his dad was killed; he certainly hasn’t earned it. Okay Danica, you can play hard to get for now but I’ll be here when you come begging.

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!

Stormy Weather

We are under tornado watch for another hour or so; could have straight-line winds of 60 mph (96 km/h). I listened to loud winds and rain all night and I look for the electric to fail.
Here is an idea that should put hundreds of thousands of Americans back to work: Government and industry working together to put all of the country’s electrical and other utility wiring underground. Stipulate that eighty-percent (negotiable) of the materials and equipment used in the project be manufactured within our borders. Brilliant, Mr. Anderson!

Extra warm weather past two days; snow by Friday.

Have springtime thoughts on this Wednesday!

Drone on, America

Mark’s blog for today got me thinking again. My weather page has forecast for two weeks however it is only accurate for a few hours at best. We need a sky full of weather drones to go along with government spy drones, marijuana seeking drones, illegal alien hunting drones, agricultural drones, traffic drones, astronomy drones, and whatever else they can think of. Soon, we won’t be able to go outside without carrying special umbrellas to keep crashing drones and pieces of mid-air collision between drones and birds from raining own on us. We will take vacations in supposedly “Drone Free” areas just so we can see the sun in day and stars at night. There are small, personal drones on the market now; technology will rapidly make them cheap enough for all of us to have a few. Why not replace birds with drones. Some painted-on bright colors and a tweet-whistle should cause them to appear somewhat avian-like. Teach them to catch a few gnats and skeeters, have backyard feeders stocked with gasoline so they can refuel, and birds will no longer be needed.
I wonder how our elected leaders will react when We the People begin using tiny drones in much the same way we “need” and use assault weapons? Drones for self defense, drones for target practice, drones for hunting; I think the government would act quickly to make it unlawful for a private citizen to own drones, N.R.A. or not. What is to keep a citizen or set of same from stealing a few drones and flying them from several miles away into the unsuspecting heads of the president or congress members … or anyone? Taxpayers will have to provide those law-making weasels protection. The good part: most elected miscreants will be afraid to appear in the open. Drones, as terrible as their use in killing innocents is, ain’t all bad.

Have a Tuesday!

Topics of little interest

I’ve got a floater; and eye floater. I’ve had them before but this won’t go away; been jumping around for two weeks. I can blink it away and rub it away but in a few seconds it crawls back in sight. Makes it hard to do this kind of work. Drops don’t remove it and ointment won’t remove it; I feel insanity coming on if something doesn’t make it go away. Aaaaghhh!

Supposed to be 72°F (22.2°C) tomorrow. Wednesday still warm but very high winds and then cold again; the seasons are changing.

I suppose it is an honor to have my photo included in a blog tribute to the movie K-Pax and my favorite actor Kevin Spacey. I would feel honored if my name had been included with the pic. My blue jay is the only non-film photo on the page.

Carolyn mistakenly used my toothbrush again this morning; I’m sure either she or I will  be poisoned. Aaaaghhh!

Have a refulgent Worshday!

Itch

Travis and Eli

Sunny and cold today; supposed to be nearly 70°F (21°C) Tuesday but back to normal cold on Thursday. As the saying goes, “a bird in the hand is worth more than two in the bush”.

Got dry skin in the small of my back; I can reach most of it to scratch and apply lotion but there is one spot along my spine I cannot touch and it is making me crazy.

I finished reading the book Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore: A Novel. It was pretty much a let-down ending. The author built the story around seemingly sinister happenings involving a book cult and ancient printing mysteries but the affair ended undramatically with nothing afoul underfoot or anywhere else. Disappointed I was.

If Obama is a liberal, I wonder what F.D.R. was? I’ll tell you what he was; F. Roosevelt was a president that swore to keep his word to the American people and he stepped on the feet of anyone who tried to prevent him from doing so including those in his own party. He was a man of personal wealth but a president of all the people. All Obama wants to do is “compromise”. He is yet to learn that he cannot compromise with greed and pure meanness; he must stomp on some toes before he can be a successful leader.

Have a good Satidy night and a great Sunday!

Friday update

We are having freezing rain at the moment; I am blogging before the electric goes off.

Dan Brown has a new Robert Langdon novel coming out in May; it is titled Inferno. Should be a good read.
Waited all day Wednesday for Sammy to come over but he never did; I suppose I will have to buy him a car and help him get his driver’s license. Been a week since I’ve seen him.

With Mark’s help, I finally found Video-Buzz channel for my Roku; I can now easily watch my–and yours–Youtube videos on the big TV. Roku has a humongous bunch of channels that are not listed on the device menu.

Have a monstrously happy Weekend!

Bark

His Master's Voice

I’d like to have a dog if I could afford one. Specifically, a Jack Russel terrier.

Happy Days! I finished all the business taxes; they weren’t that hard to do but they take time and I’d rather spend my time playing Angry Birds. I can see the tax money in action: wars to be fought, drones to be purchased, mega-corporations to be subsidized, congressional and legislative salaries to be paid. A week off and then personal income taxes to figure; almost makes me swoon.

Very cold in the hills however it is supposed to warm up to 55°F (12.78°C) on February 15.

Have a good Wednesday!

Dark Days of Winter

I had two cousins to die over the weekend. First cousin once removed Travis Cloyd died Saturday night. It was much unexpected. He was the son of my first-cousin Vicky Phillips Cloyd. Travis was thirty-seven years old and left a five year-old son.
While reading the obituaries this morning, I saw that a more distant cousin died Saturday, also. Geraldine Garst was kin on my Oliver side of the family. She was sixty-six years old.

DuckDuckGo! Yes, you read it correctly. It is a search engine which my son turned me on to and I am using it to replace Google search. Its best attaboy is that it keeps your searches private. Google allows companies to use your search results to place ads that want to sell you something. DuckDuckGo is an add-on for Firefox and other browsers. In Firefox, click on Tools, Add-ons, Search all add-ons, and type duckduckgo. From there, you should be able to add it to your search engine list. Fun-fun-fun.

Worshday again; have a good one.

Pickled okra

Maybe a little snow tonight; temperature around 20F — -6.7C. So much for last week’s spring-like feel.

Supper last night: Hunk of mild cheddar cheese, hunk of summer sausage, pickled okra, crackers.

I’m reading a very good book titled Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore. One of the best reads I’ve had in quite awhile. I recently finished Rendezvous With Rama, a popular science-fiction novel from the early 1970′s.

Have a warm Thursday … if possible.

Sore-eyed

I’ve looked like a sore-eyed cat for the past few days; allergies are aggravating my rights to own an assault rifle.

I’m interested to see how sucky the proposed Biden/Obama gun control “laws” will be. I have a feeling that the NRA is raising hell in public but are cheering behind the scenes. Like most things Obama has “accomplished”, these proposals are likely lip-service only because he knows Congress will rip apart any meaningful legislation that comes from his office.

I am trying to update my laptop PC; it only has one gigabyte of memory which is fine for running Linux but now that I have Win7 on it is pokey slow. I found some relatively cheap memory online and I ordered four gigabytes which should make a tremendous improvement.

Have a great evening!

Rain

Warsaw, Poland

Lots and lots of rain for the past two days and more to come. Flooding again on Dry Creek where they are still recovering from last year’s flood. Schools are being closed from fear of too much water moving down the ridges into the valleys. Our electric was off nearly three hours last evening; I was reminded of what advanced dark really looks like and it looks like nothing. I spent the time on the Tab reading a novel; yes, the world really does exist when there is no TV.

Carolyn has daffodils out of the ground same as in January last year.

Samsung finally issued the long awaited (by me) update to the Android operating system on the Tab. It is an incremental change which Google has named “Jelly Bean” but for me it is like having an entirely new tablet. The home screens’ interface has been changed and rearranged and everything is faster and smoother. Also, three more Angry Birds games have been added … Yee-Haw!

Thanks to Jola for the superb winter scene photo of her hometown.

Enough for today; have a Tuesday!

No Time

Pleasant, shirtsleeve temperature today; a bit of wind makes it a bit cool for porch sitting.

Sammy was here yesterday; his cold is lingering but he finally cut loose and was his happy self for a long time. He got a toy guitar for Christmas and he tries to play it like David Gilmour of Pink Floyd. When Sammy is in this office, there must be a music video on my monitor or he will let me know that I am losing his respect. A whop from his broom trurns my attention back entertaining him.
He is outgrowing his toys and clothes at a tremendous rate

Not much going on in the world, at least not anything I care to talk about.

Have a Gee Whiz Sunday!

Seeing stars

Mild temperatures but still no sunshine so far today. Looking forward to some porch weather.

I read that there is supposed to be a very bright comet visit this year. I hope it is at least as good as was the Hale-Bopp comet in the late 1990′s. It was low on the horizon in the estern sky at dawn until it swung around the sun and then was low in the western evening sky for several weeks. On many clear evenings at dusk I would drive off and stay gone for a few hours—Carolyn thought I was whoring or bar-hopping. Actually I was alone and headed for a hilltop well away from city light pollution where I could see nearly all the night sky. I don’t amaze easily but Hale-Bopp very much stirred my imagination. For me there is a mystic, celestial magic associated with night skies. I loved laying in my truck bed on summer evenings as the comet and shooting stars passed overhead. The beauty and mystery of constellation Sagittarius with the core of our great galaxy hidden within the dust of the Milky Way’s spiral arm; the Big Dipper in the north, red star Antares toward the south, greenish appearing Arcturus nearly overhead; all there to fire my sense of wonder and help me to set my place in the cosmos.
All of Nature contains astounding beauty but none so grand as the night sky.

Have a sublime Thursday!

Cute

Cloudy and a bit cold today but better things will come. I noticed the last two evenings that there is a bit more daylight to smile about.

I got the new employee federal income tax withholding charts yesterday. Most people will be paying more taxes this year than they did last year, even the poorest paid are taking a hit. The middle-class loses again contrary to what Obama promised. Until high-income and corporate tax loopholes are closed nothing will change.

My hair is down to my shoulders again. My sideburns look like they need a controlled burning. I have to mow my eyebrows. I am so gray and so cute!

Have a pleasant Wednesday!

Day by day

The past two weeks have had an extra Monday each and there is Monday holiday coming later this month. Do they know how confusing all this is to geezers and other lovable creatures?

Armed police in schools? What next? National Guard in my bedroom? When I was a kid, we didn’t need police protection on duty in school because not every lame-dick jerk was allowed to own an assault rifle.

Google mail was not working yesterday on my Android phone nor on the Android tablet. Other folk are having trouble uploading photos to Blogger.

There is a possibility I will be using the net even less in the near future; I wish I could say it is because of knee surgery but that has been placed on indefinite hold. If I am off-line it will be due to PC surgery; I am either going to fix my slow Win XP OS which is eleven years old or I am going to have to install Win 7.
Installing a new system like Windows 7 will be expensive; the program alone is $140 plus I will need a new hard-drive which will be about $100. Then comes the headache of installing software and getting everything the way I like it. Linux is a much cheaper and better alternative but I have a couple of needed Windows programs that will not function correctly on Linux.

Have a good what-ever-it-is day!

Heart and Soul of Rock 'n' Roll

pork

Alice mentioned that her granddaughter Allie (I wonder whom she is named after?) will be eighteen years old this week. Yes, time does fly. Seems like just a month or so ago when Sammy was born but he is now nearly eighteen months old and can say the word “NO!”. I hope I see him turn eighteen years old but if not, he and my grand-kids and my kids have made me a happy man.

Speaking of aging, I have a pork-barrel project for the government to fund. I would like to know if kids born in winter time cope with cold weather better than summer born kids when they get old. I will gladly volunteer to head this project if the funding is correct.

Any special plans for New Year’s eve? It won’t be a special or social event for me in most traditions; my new year began with the Solstice.

Have a great week!

Presents and piggies

Why can’t angry birds and green piggies get along together? It is no wonder there cannot be peace between humans when critters won’t live in harmony. Yep, you probably guessed; I am for the first time in my life playing the Angry Birds game and of course, I am hooked. For years I put off playing the game, but it came preloaded on my Tab so curiosity got the best of my common sense and I began playing it last Saturday. Don’t fall into that trap or you will most likely become hooked helping the suicidal birds kill off all the green piggies in the cosmos. I now play it in daytime on the PC and at night I turn the sound off and play it on the Tab. I am so ashamed; looks like it will be Angry Birds Anonymous for me.

Chris and Kevin gave me an orange and white Tennessee gnome for Christmas along with a bag of Jelly Bellies and a box of snowball snack cakes. Sammy gave me two framed photos of himself. I was very blessed this Christmas.

Lousy weather.

Have a splendiferous Thursday, everyone!

After Christmas Sale!

Christmas Day 2008 in the mountains

I hope y’all had a nice Christians; I sure did.

There must be a British photo-theft mafia. At least three of my friends have found their photos on sites in England and some of them are being used commercially. Mark even found one of his being used by a law firm in the USA. Another country who has citizens stealing and reselling a lot of photos is Russia. Cyrus found some of his had been stolen from there and resold to an American electronics company which used them in advertisements. Maggie has some shots being used by a British company which sells gardening plants and supplies. One more friend has a costumed photo of her pug dog stolen and placed in a British publication. All this doesn’t count the many blogs, etc. which are using photos without permission.

Wind and rain have been hitting us pretty hard since last evening and they are predicting snow for tonight.

It is time to begin doing business taxes once more. I am usually swimming upstream and this year I have a fiscal cliff to fall off of.

Have a great whateverdayoftheweekitis!

Adventures in bed riding

Chris and Sammy playing

Never let it be said that I am a quitter; a few years back I fell out of bed which didn’t hurt me except for a small knot on my head and a good jolt throughout my body. To make up for that relative non-event, Saturday morning I did it again. This time I have a big knot, scrapes, and bruises on my forehead and carpet burns on both knees, one as large as my knee cap. The pisser is that Carolyn called the rescue people before I could figure out how to extricate myself. They got me back on the bed, I thanked them, and then I went back to sleep.

Hope you had a great Worshday and Christmas eve!

Happy Solstice!

We had a dusting of snow overnight. They are predicting a wetter winter than usual so we may be in for more white blankets.

As far as I know, our wayward children are ok for Christmas. Merry Christmas to Jeremy and Courtney and Keegan and Remy and Bubba.

So much for Mayan calendar technology; or maybe I should say so much for the jerks who misinterpreted their rock carvings. Well, it gave us something to distract us for awhile; sooner or later it will probably happen.

• The Christmas tree is a symbol for the Yule Log
• The first Christmas tree decorations were apples

Have a good weekend, my friends!

“I saw mommy kissing Santa Claus …”

For some reason. I am not in a depressed mood nor am I in an ecstatic mood this Christmas season; I  suppose I am floating where ever the currents of life carry me.

Very windy and wet in the hills today with some snow predicted for tonight; the seasons change.

I wish it was warm enough to go to the creek for a decent bath; with the end of the world coming tomorrow, it seems fitting I should for one last time be in the mountains immersed in a cold stream communing with trees and skies.

Have a super Thursday!

Solstice Bells

Skies are brighter today but the air is colder. Looks like it will be even colder as we ease into Christmas. Solstice will be Friday afternoon, perfect to welcome the weekend. According to astronomer Jean Meeus the Age of Aquarius begins in the year 2597 on the day of spring equinox; I will be breathlessly awaiting that particular day.

Tomorrow is shot day; I hate to go out in the cold but Nature calls. I’ve spotted a good photo op if I can get Carolyn to stop where I can shoot it. I’d also like to get some Christmas shots in Jonesborough but it probably won’t happen this year.

My Lady Vols play Baylor tonight. This game will define this young team for the entire season because Baylor has pounded the Vols the last several times they played. Baylor is also defending National Champions. The game will be in Waco, Texas.

Have a Tuesday!

White Christmas in my heart

Gray, sullen skies in East Tennessee; looks like winter but the temps are mild.

My net speed is terrible today; getting about only half of base speed. It must be a sign that the world is lowing down; it will come to zero by Saturday. Five days from today the world will end, according to translators of the Mayan “Doomsday” calendar. At least maybe my sinus ills will go away. Anyway, I will take Maggie’s advice from her blog and wear clean underwear on Saturday.

Banning assault weapons will be a good start to end some of the murderous idiocy in these here United States. If it happens, I wonder who will be the parties responsible for defining just which weapons are of the assault variety?

Mark sums some things very well on his blog today.

I wish Miracle On 34th Street would come on TV in the original black and white glory. The Turner colorized version has been on but I can’t stand to watch it.

Eye allergies are keeping my computing to a minimum today. Have a Great Worshday!

Matthew 18:3: “Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”

'Long toad six

Ask an old southerner what time it is and he might, after glancing at the sky, reply “Oh, it’s ‘long toad six”, meaning it is approaching six o’clock. It is along toward six. I don’t hear this dialect as much as I used to and I surely miss it.

Mark, if you are using wi-fi, Roku has an Android app to control your Roku box from your phone. It works as well or better than the standard remote control. It is in Google Play Store. Search for “Roku”. Good for emergency or all the time.

Have a great Sunday coming!

Live better; work union.

"Teach your children well ... "

Dedicated to the children, parents, and teachers of Newtown Connecticut
and to
all America

Live better, work union and buy union

Winter comes to Warsaw

It is time for the power of the people to once again be felt across America. I hope to see an invigorated AFL CIO lead the nation into economic freedom once more.

Al Sharpton for U.S. Secretary of State. That should gain John McCain’s interest.

I think it is about time for me to take off the old tights and cape and return to the world of my birth. I left planet Krypton as an infant many Earth years ago; I was sent here to help defend this world against crime and tyranny with Truth, Justice, and the American Way. People on Krypton don’t age as fast as earthlings therefore my parents are still alive. I have aged much faster, yet not as quickly as citizens of my adopted world; I still kick ass and take names at the useful age of 68 Earth years. It will be good to visit my old buds while I am there and pay respects to my ancestors. Don’t worry, my fellow citizens of Terra; I shall return and guard you against yourselves. Until then, Up,Up, and Away!

New Sammy video … head banging to Pink Floyd.

Photo courtesy of Jola.

Have a good weekend, my friends.

Drone on

Why does the United States need a Department of Defense and a Department of Homeland Security? Homeland Security was a way for the likes of Dick Chaney to involve the government in the everyday lives of Americans. The Central Intelligence Agency tried a similar approach during the Vietnam war but fortunately the hippie generation was able to “out” too many of the agents to allow the system work. The Department of Homeland Security is unneeded prying into our lives by any means accessible including electronic surveillance, and now, the dangerous and hated flying drones which every backwoods constable in the nation seems to have at his service.

Mr. Goodie-two-shoes Obama is the worst user of such tactics, around the world and especially on his own people. And as long as we have superficial and easily fixable things going on like “fiscal cliffs” and worker’s rights to grab the headlines, the drones drone on.

Have a great Worshday!

Tab

The rich get richer and the sick get sicker

Glad to be back blogging today; it has been an interesting week so far.
Chris was in hospital for a couple of days; her boss had to take her from work to emergency room Tuesday morning. She still has the recurring heart problems but this time they also found her gall bladder is full of stones. She needs surgery but has no insurance, so she had to check out and go home. Tennessee’s Medicare won’t cover her for some reason and Obama care is nowhere to be found. No one in the family has the wherewithal to pay for the surgery and the surgeon will not accept payments.  She also needs some heart surgery but that doctor said he would work with her on payments. I am so pissed over the American medical system.

Cloudy and cooler today but still better than this time of year should be.

Have a good Thursdy, my friends.