One of These Days

WHEN I GET TIME...

I am going to spend a day in late October pondering why the sky is so blue that it almost hurts your eyes to look at it. And then do the same thing in late April.

I am going to try to figure out why Americans seem to have a great love affair with butterflies, but hate caterpillars. And why Americans seems to love babies, but hate adults.

I am going to peruse the why's and wherefore's of how it is that Americans, who love babies, still have denied some fifty million of them the chance to be born.

I am going to read more. Finish all those Hemingways that I have started so many times. Complete the Fitzgeralds. Read Paradise Lost again.

I am going to complete the songbook I am preparing for my children and grandchildren.

I am going to write more poetry. And this time I am actually going to commit it to paper before I forget it or get busy on something else.

I am going to enjoy raising a garden, instead of thinking of it as something I must do.

I am going to finish the remodeling of our home instead of starting so many different projects and not getting any of them finished.

I am going to have more faith in our leaders and in the American people to do right instead of them going off the deep end and having to struggle back to some semblance of normalcy.

I am going to be more forgiving of those cell phone users, those people who insist they own the entire road, those who fail to stop at stop signs, those who refuse to dim their headlights, those who will tell you right out that they are safer NOT wearing their seatbelts, those who follow too closely, those who break into funeral processions and then stop at the next red light thereby breaking the procession completely, yada yada yada.

And in all I do, I am going to glorify my God much more than I have done in the past. He is after all, my Father, and I should be more attuned to His desires for me. He has given me life and I owe Him everything for the opportunities He has presented to me. A child should do no less than this.

Give Me, Or Maybe Not

I woke up this morning about 5:30 am. But decided that I would just lie in bed for an hour or two. Finally at 6:15 am I rolled out and got the coffee going.

A while later, after breakfast, I turned on the tv and began watching the History Channel presentation of 'Revolution." I watched it off an on all day.

Made myself a cup and went outside to sit with my wife and just enjoy the mid-morning. Birds singing, flowers dancing in the breeze. Butterflies flitting here and there. Hummingbirds feeding.

Got my new string trimmer out and finished off the areas I had missed yesterday. Then mowed the yard around the house.

Came inside to cool off, drink some orange juice, and eat lunch. Watched more of the "Revolution" program.

Back outside to sit in the swing for a half-hour or so. Beginning to look more like rain.

Took mower outside gate and mowed out to the hard road and back, then beside the fence and across the road.

Back inside to cool off and drink a diet soda. Changed clothes and watched a little more of the program.

Napped a little--well, maybe a lot, but what the heck, it is Saturday after all. And I have no place to go.

Looked a lot like rain when I woke up, kept hoping it would hold off until tonight, but it did not. Kids at the soccer tournament going to get wet.

Ate supper. Hot dogs. Was going to grill chicken but never got back to store to get the chicken. Didn't think about it until this morning that we didn't have any hot dog chili either. Then discovered we had no chili beans. But we did have the dogs. But upon checking we had no onions either. But good luck--we had some chopped onions that we have had in the refrigerator since the last time we had hot dogs, and they were still good.

Went online and checked Michelle's blog. I'm going to have to sit down and write some comments for her, she has a bunch of stuff that just begs to have comments and I have been remiss in not doing so. Maybe within a few days.

Read the HD forums. Not much there. People still cannot write properly, grammar is terrible, spelling worse, logic generally missing.

And then I sat down here to write about the Fourth of July holiday. Independence Day. And this entire post is just that, a tribute to Independence Day.

You see, I am able to sit down and write whatever I wish with no fear of reprisals, no fear of being put in the lockup because of what I write or the opinions I express.

When I woke up this morning, I was thinking of what liberty means to me. All day long I have had that same thought running through my mind. And I am reminded of the words of a song from back in the 1960's, the protest years--"I had a little book was given to me, and every page spelled liberty, All my trials now, soon be over. Too late, my brother, too late--but, never mind, all my trials Lord, soon be over."

Liberty is not to be free of trials, but liberty is the freedom to do something about them--or not. That is the essence of liberty. The freedom to act, or not to act. We all seem to want to get hung up on the freedom to act and forget that there is an obverse to that.


And I never realized myself, until I retired a few years ago, that that obverse was much more important than the first part of the definition. All my life was dedicated to doing something, to protecting the rights that I had to DO something. But I now realize that in a lot of cases, most to my way of thinking, the only proper action is to do nothing.

You know, back when I was a businessman, I knew that all along, and practiced it religiously, but didn't realize that I knew it and was doing it. I just thought that I was ignoring a situation because it would usually go away or resolve itself if I took no action. And it usually did.

In the hustle and bustle of living life, we sometimes need to step aside for a moment and watch life go by. Watch the processes and the actions of others. View with a critical eye what others are doing and what they are not doing.

And that is what I do a lot of--not doing. And it makes me so very happy to be free to do so--or not.

Sufferin' Succotash

Been a little busy.

A reset in telephone repair parlance appears to be this--

Remove each device from the telephone lines within your home.

Wait at least seven minutes after removing the last device.

Reinstall each individual device, testing each for proper functioning before reinstalling the next, until all devices are reinstalled and working properly.

Hell, I do that once a year anyway. Just common sense, copper connections can oxidize.

But it still didn't take the static off the lines.


Been doing genealogy and forums work. Genealogy is easy, reforming stupid is not.

One guy says, "...I had my golf clubs Tayler Made..." Another guy says, "...dumb ass, it is Taylor Made..." So I said, "actually you are both wrong, it is tailormade---made to order." And suggested maybe they need to go back and take Sixth Grade English over again.

People seem to get upset by my use of the name Mutt for our president. So I replied that, after all the years of "...that monkey in the White House..." I vowed that payback would be sweet and long. Hell, folks, we just got started.

Had a ct scan Tuesday, another one next Tuesday and eye specialist next Wednesday. No problems just checkups. Last doctor visit about a month ago, everything ok (except lose that weight.)

Wife is now working in the yard, washing clothes and dishes, sometimes cooking. Still using cane.

Later. Maybe. Who knows?

"Heh-heh=heh, the Shadow knows!"