Those Later Years

I try to refrain from telling sad stories in my life. Life can be pretty tough on everyone at one time or another, so what do they need with my depressing events. So, I'm writing this to make a point about life, not to make anyone feel bad.

We all know that life is pretty much in stages. We have the time when we are taken care of and the food just 'magically' appears on the table, the clothes are generously supplied by various stores where Mommy or Daddy stops by to talk to the nice person at a big machine for a moment. Then there is the stage where parents start telling children that there is not enough money for things like name brand jeans and those ipoddy things. That is surely a depressing time for children these days. Then there is the joy of young adulthood where love throws a rope around us and our own 'cutest kids in the world' come along.

At some point, the simplicity goes away and people around us start getting old. It is still not so real until we start making trips to the hospital or the funeral home. "They are old and must go on to heaven." The circle starts closing in on us and the hospital visits and the funeral home visits start getting closer to home. Pretty soon half the people we know are sick or slipping toward the grave. Maybe the thought comes to mind, 'This living and dying thing is pretty serious."

In the last two years, my life has been filled with dark clouds of passing loved ones. It has not been obvious in my writing because I have been writing very little. To some that might not be important, but to writers it will be very clear. My faith has been, not tested, but used very much, as I deal with the loss of several close to me. My son, my mother, my brother have all went on to eternity. Another brother and my Dad went several years ago. Among these times, friends have left this life and gone on to discover eternity.

Life is very serious. Eternity is even more serious and should be considered in our plans.

Here is where I should write a closing paragraph of some profound conclusion of the whole thing. Sorry about that. I'm still working on it.

November 2010

In my opinion, this November 2010 is the most important election we have see in a long time. It is the election that will decide the direction our country goes in the next two years and I think beyond.

These past two years appear to be a failure for the Obama administration, on the surface. He has, however, changed a great number of things. He has lead like a dictator with the liberal Congress giving him a free reign without any regard for the traditions of the United States or the moral high-ground we have held for centuries.

In matters of war and the economy, he is inept and knows not what to do. But in matters of changing bits and pieces of the law, he has been expert. He has placed a huge spotlight on some matters while other very important matters have been handled silently.

I do not know the man, so I am not making a personal attack. I look at him as a leader who is either confused or very determined to change a country that he does not like deep in his heart.

Freedom is slipping away for Americans. We have leadership that cares only for special-interest groups. There are apparently enough of them to elect liberal leadership. Obviously, the elder are not important to them as shown by the disregard for their financial survival (no increase in benefits). Free enterprise is obviously not important to them, as they are using the government to run companies instead of letting their business sense make or break them. It has always been that good companies survive and bad ones demise. Not so these days. The government is propping up the companies that prey off humanity and putting more burdens on small business.

Yes. This election will determine if the American people are strong enough to say: "It's enough." It will determine if the American People are ready to tell Washington to bug out and let us run our own affairs. We will see if people can get off their couches long enough to go make a difference with their vote.

Give them two more years --- my foot.

Squirrel

I just glanced out the kitchen window only to see a car pass quickly and one of our wild squirrels go tumbling in the road. I really felt sad at that moment. He gave it a fight though, trying to right itself again, but the injury was too great. When I got there, he was gone.

That would not have happened three hundred years ago. I feel sure that paved road was not there and that the local traffic would have been moving much more slowly. It could still have been dangerous for the squirrel then, with all those bows and arrows around.

Rest in peace little squirrel. I hope you had a nut filled life. I know I do.

Mama Said

Mama passed away last week...

In her little book, she wrote... "You see I remember some things about my childhood. Even I stayed with Granny (Mama was always keeping the grandchildren.) I spent some times with Mama and Daddy. My sister and I had a good time playing together. We played in the playhouse we would make out of rocks. We would room them off: bedroom, kitchen, sitting room. If we didn't have enough rocks we used sticks and pine needles. We had old broken dishes and lids, anything we could find for our play house. We didn't have tea sets or pretty dolls, we had rag dolls, string balls. .... but anyway when I spent the night with mama, she would read the Bible to us, at night by lamp light."

Poke Sallet

Poke Sallet from the little book Hillbilly Cookin' by The Tates

"Sprouting poke leaves by theirselves is powerful strong. Most folks pick a bait of mustard leaves, even a mixture of cress, Then they find tender poke shoots and add them to the rest of their greens. After washin good, put in a pot or kittle and sprinkle a bit of salt. Then you cut up a piece ofhog jowl, ham or shoulder hock or maybe lean bacon, and boil real hot, Keep the pot covered."

Elections, Politics, Issues?

We hear a lot about the strategy, of the various political entities, to win this election and that election. We got to get rid of one dirty dog or another by electing someone else that we know little about except that they claim to be affiliated with the left or right, liberal or conservative.

Where are the issues these days? They use catch phrases which are suppose to tell the voters what the real deal is. The problem is that catch phrases can mean different things to different people. The other problem is that they are designed to be repeated by the media. After all, the media is famous for telling us just what they want us to know.

It is like they are telling us that some one's house is burning down but it is good because with the sacrifice of a few, many others will have a place to live when the new high rise gets built. Since when is stepping on people a good thing if something good comes out of it.

It is all spin. No wonder many people are giving up on politics all together. If a good person decides to put their life on display for the media to probe, so they can go up 'there' and do some good, we will not hear about what they want to do, etc. We will hear about way back when they tripped over the bicycle and yelled at the children.

I'd like to see some boring facts about what these men and women are going to do when they get to Washington DC or our state houses.

Political Stuff

Iraq - Obama is pulling out the troops but putting in civilian security forces to replace them. Duh! Americans are Americans. The military is volunteer just like these security forces. I believe he said 'we' would get Americans out of harms way by so-and-so. Taking away the uniform does not get Americans out of harms way.

Florida - In a recent trip to Florida to show us that the beaches were safe, Obama also went on the stump for his favorite politician. I wonder which was his purpose and who paid for the trip.

I am not disappointed to know this...I didn't expect the whole truth anyway from this bunch.