I have to apologize to my readers for my blogging ineptness. For some reason I still don't understand, comments seem to have been blocked on my entries. I found lots of those comments and thought I was okaying them, but they disappeared instead.
Sorry, folks. It's my ineptness not my attitude toward comments. I think I now have comments turned on, but I'm not sure. I really do care about what you think, unless you're an apologist for Armstrongism and religion. In which case, you're wasting your time arguing with me and I won't waste mine by participating.
Friday, November 8, 2013
THE ETERNAL PRESENT
The weekend is upon us again. We spent the morning taking in a few sales but found very little. After brunch I've been on the computer checking the sites I check every day.
There was a dog atlas in a free box so I picked it up and it looks like some interesting reading. I'm fascinated by dogs -- all animals for that matter, but dogs are special because they are so much like humans. You can't help but feel close to them in their friendly neediness and their child-like trust. They're all napping with Phyllis right now. All she has to say is, "Want to take a nap with mama?" and they head for the bedroom. When we're going out, I say, "Little boys want to go bye bye?" and they start yelping and herding me out the door.
I doubt I'll accomplish much today. Just have no fire for it, and that's OK. At this stage in life, I really don't feel compelled to do much of anything. Tomorrow will be fine if I don't get to it today. If I never get to it, who cares? It isn't going to warp the fabric of the universe. I see those abandoned old tumble down shacks out on the desert and reflect that someone labored long and hard to make some dream come true there and soon even those scant remains of their labors will disappear. A lot of human history, dreams and struggles lie hidden in thousands of abandoned "tells" throughout the world and archaeologists labor to reveal a scant fraction of it through their excavations. Real lives were involved there and a whole lot of meaningful living.
I have the eternal present and that's what I try to concentrate on. I think I'll just sign off and mosey outside for whatever strikes my fancy.
There was a dog atlas in a free box so I picked it up and it looks like some interesting reading. I'm fascinated by dogs -- all animals for that matter, but dogs are special because they are so much like humans. You can't help but feel close to them in their friendly neediness and their child-like trust. They're all napping with Phyllis right now. All she has to say is, "Want to take a nap with mama?" and they head for the bedroom. When we're going out, I say, "Little boys want to go bye bye?" and they start yelping and herding me out the door.
I doubt I'll accomplish much today. Just have no fire for it, and that's OK. At this stage in life, I really don't feel compelled to do much of anything. Tomorrow will be fine if I don't get to it today. If I never get to it, who cares? It isn't going to warp the fabric of the universe. I see those abandoned old tumble down shacks out on the desert and reflect that someone labored long and hard to make some dream come true there and soon even those scant remains of their labors will disappear. A lot of human history, dreams and struggles lie hidden in thousands of abandoned "tells" throughout the world and archaeologists labor to reveal a scant fraction of it through their excavations. Real lives were involved there and a whole lot of meaningful living.
I have the eternal present and that's what I try to concentrate on. I think I'll just sign off and mosey outside for whatever strikes my fancy.
Thursday, November 7, 2013
REMINISCING
(From Facebook.)
Stairs are done -- even the casters. I took a look at what I had collected and I had three casters I could just mount. A little reflection and I decided that would do in a tripod arrangement -- one on the low front and two on the high back. It'll be propped against a bed anyway, so it will be quite stable. So, that project can be dispensed with.
I'll still buy casters if I come upon them just to have them handy when I might need them. When you buy cheap at sales, that system pays off more times than not. Saves a bundle when the need arises and I don't have to shell out retail prices. My collection of bolts, screws, etc. is almost endless and I make use of it frequently. Seldom do I have to go to the hardware store.
The weather is absolutely ideal right now. I had to take off my flannel shirt for a while as I was working, but it feels good most of the time. I pity those poor people up north and back east. Seems like something unseasonal keeps coming along and it horrified me to learn of all those ranchers losing so many cattle trapped on summer range in South Dakota when that surprise storm came along last month. I know from my Dad's experiences how that hurts. He lost much of his herd in 1952. Took a long time to recover. Weather is one of the most devastating variables farmers and ranchers have to deal with.
One of the things I'm thankful for is having gotten away from the agricultural life. It's not what it used to be. Not many truly small family farms exist anymore. Only the large holdings, mainly corporate entities now, have survived. I wouldn't like it. Running everything by computer calculation doesn't appeal to me.
Remembering the old days of gardens, milk cows, a diversity of production and using your own seed saved year to year gives me a nostalgic feeling. I fondly remember churning butter, cultivating the garden after a rain, etc. I'd love to see a mother hen come wandering in with her brood from a hidden nest again or watching the young lambs prancing around in their joyful play. It was a different world back then. Now, a lot of tumbledown farmsteads are nostalgic reminders of those times.
Just reminiscing. Old men and women have been doing it for millenia. It's what we have left.
Stairs are done -- even the casters. I took a look at what I had collected and I had three casters I could just mount. A little reflection and I decided that would do in a tripod arrangement -- one on the low front and two on the high back. It'll be propped against a bed anyway, so it will be quite stable. So, that project can be dispensed with.
I'll still buy casters if I come upon them just to have them handy when I might need them. When you buy cheap at sales, that system pays off more times than not. Saves a bundle when the need arises and I don't have to shell out retail prices. My collection of bolts, screws, etc. is almost endless and I make use of it frequently. Seldom do I have to go to the hardware store.
The weather is absolutely ideal right now. I had to take off my flannel shirt for a while as I was working, but it feels good most of the time. I pity those poor people up north and back east. Seems like something unseasonal keeps coming along and it horrified me to learn of all those ranchers losing so many cattle trapped on summer range in South Dakota when that surprise storm came along last month. I know from my Dad's experiences how that hurts. He lost much of his herd in 1952. Took a long time to recover. Weather is one of the most devastating variables farmers and ranchers have to deal with.
One of the things I'm thankful for is having gotten away from the agricultural life. It's not what it used to be. Not many truly small family farms exist anymore. Only the large holdings, mainly corporate entities now, have survived. I wouldn't like it. Running everything by computer calculation doesn't appeal to me.
Remembering the old days of gardens, milk cows, a diversity of production and using your own seed saved year to year gives me a nostalgic feeling. I fondly remember churning butter, cultivating the garden after a rain, etc. I'd love to see a mother hen come wandering in with her brood from a hidden nest again or watching the young lambs prancing around in their joyful play. It was a different world back then. Now, a lot of tumbledown farmsteads are nostalgic reminders of those times.
Just reminiscing. Old men and women have been doing it for millenia. It's what we have left.
ORNERY OLD NORMAN
(From Facebook.)
Well, I did it. I got the whole framework for those doggie stairs I'm making for my stepdaughter constructed out of junk wood I had on hand. Tomorrow, I'll carpet them and put on a handle. Next, I have to locate casters or slides to make it easier to move around. Plenty of time. They'll pick them up when they visit at Christmas (solstice) time. My eyes will be searching all those sales we're attending this weekend.
Got good news from my friend, Mark (Salyer) Manning. Tests indicate no cancer cells present in his lymphatic system from that non-malignant tumor removed from his right shoulder a few months back. Some light radiation treatment and rehab of his shoulder is all that remains. He's itching to get back to golfing.
Near as I know, everything is still A Ok with me. I've switched to the same doctor Phyllis has and will see him later this month. I didn't like my former provider sticking me with a PA after my former doctor retired and she having to send me to a specialist for things he did as a matter of course on my regular visits, like freezing off pre-cancerous lesions.
Come on, I can freeze them off myself with wart remover. I don't need to fork over $45 bucks to have a specialist do it! If I still lived in North Dakota, I could get the same thing absolutely free by standing out in a subzero wind and exposing the area for a few minutes! Think I'm kidding? Think again! Ornery should be my middle name!
Bedtime for this old ornery Norman.
Well, I did it. I got the whole framework for those doggie stairs I'm making for my stepdaughter constructed out of junk wood I had on hand. Tomorrow, I'll carpet them and put on a handle. Next, I have to locate casters or slides to make it easier to move around. Plenty of time. They'll pick them up when they visit at Christmas (solstice) time. My eyes will be searching all those sales we're attending this weekend.
Got good news from my friend, Mark (Salyer) Manning. Tests indicate no cancer cells present in his lymphatic system from that non-malignant tumor removed from his right shoulder a few months back. Some light radiation treatment and rehab of his shoulder is all that remains. He's itching to get back to golfing.
Near as I know, everything is still A Ok with me. I've switched to the same doctor Phyllis has and will see him later this month. I didn't like my former provider sticking me with a PA after my former doctor retired and she having to send me to a specialist for things he did as a matter of course on my regular visits, like freezing off pre-cancerous lesions.
Come on, I can freeze them off myself with wart remover. I don't need to fork over $45 bucks to have a specialist do it! If I still lived in North Dakota, I could get the same thing absolutely free by standing out in a subzero wind and exposing the area for a few minutes! Think I'm kidding? Think again! Ornery should be my middle name!
Bedtime for this old ornery Norman.
Wednesday, November 6, 2013
THE BATTLE CONTINUES
Morning again. I feel pretty good. Overall, I'm pleased with yesterday's elections and determined to keep slugging away every way I can. I know it's a minuscule effort on my part, but every little bit helps. Not too happy about Christie's win, but he is one of the least toxic rethugs. Still toxic though.
I guess we have to have this dualism of good versus evil. We're still alpha-aspiring primates with ruthless elements seeking to to oppress the majority and keep them down while they ride high.
Gets tiring though. We should be so much better off as a nation and not in danger of becoming the failed wreckage of our founders dreams. By now, we should have become the most possperous and advanced nation that would dwarf the actual accomplishments we've had in spite of all the "conservative" push to tamp everything down.
We should already have a colony on the moon and be reaching for Mars. We could have conquered even more diseases than we have if the funding hadn't been wasted on destructive wars and perks for the rich and powerful. We should be traveling nationwide on bullet trains and hydrogen should be powering our everyday transportation.
So much more could have been accomplished if those preening alpha males hadn't wormed their way into control. It would be staggering! As always, the saddest words are "could have been."
But, here we are, and we can only push for a sane future.
I'm on board.
I hope you are too.
I guess we have to have this dualism of good versus evil. We're still alpha-aspiring primates with ruthless elements seeking to to oppress the majority and keep them down while they ride high.
Gets tiring though. We should be so much better off as a nation and not in danger of becoming the failed wreckage of our founders dreams. By now, we should have become the most possperous and advanced nation that would dwarf the actual accomplishments we've had in spite of all the "conservative" push to tamp everything down.
We should already have a colony on the moon and be reaching for Mars. We could have conquered even more diseases than we have if the funding hadn't been wasted on destructive wars and perks for the rich and powerful. We should be traveling nationwide on bullet trains and hydrogen should be powering our everyday transportation.
So much more could have been accomplished if those preening alpha males hadn't wormed their way into control. It would be staggering! As always, the saddest words are "could have been."
But, here we are, and we can only push for a sane future.
I'm on board.
I hope you are too.
Sunday, November 3, 2013
ADVICE FROM A "HOARY HEAD"
(From Facebook.)
The week is off to a good start. I got a few things accomplished today but mostly took it easy.
Taking it easy is pretty much my motto anymore, even when I'm busy at something. I used to be so full of nervous energy that I literally found it hard to sit still for very long. I miss it, but there's no remedy.
Kids, use that hormone generated energy. You can't save it up, and if you don't utilize it, it will be gone forever. Now, I know what they really meant about the "juices" drying up. At the same time, try to be wise in how you use it. I'd still square dance up a storm if I could, work night and day when I needed to and reach for every goal I could reasonably reach for if I had it to do over.
I think of my grandchildren often and wonder what their dreams are, what they yearn to do in life, etc. I remember well my own dreams and aspirations, some of them based on delusion and false premises. I'd like to save them some of the disillusionment and disappointments I've gone through, and I hope my being honest about my own life will help them in that department. Don't discount the lessons this old hoary head passes on to you.
If I had been more aware of and listened to the great thinkers of the past, like Ingersoll, Mencken, Mark Twain, Thomas Paine, and a host of others, I could have saved myself a lot of false forks in the road. As an aside, I knew Thomas Paine was a great thinker and founding father, but I never read his book until I was past seventy and didn't really know he was an atheist. For some reason I'll let you speculate on, that fact about him isn't emphasized by very many people.
Read, dammit! Think -- don't assume or take some blowhards word for it! Wear out those search engines! Knowledge has never been this accessible before. I had none of those modern (and often free) tools at your ages -- not even in middle age!
Assume nothing to be true until you exhaustively investigate it and consider contrary opinions in their entirety. That's science. That's true reasoning. Anything else courts disaster, and I've suffered through a great deal of that. It's no fun and it's better to avoid it.
I had no idea I was going to say all this a few minutes ago. Just flows sometimes.
The week is off to a good start. I got a few things accomplished today but mostly took it easy.
Taking it easy is pretty much my motto anymore, even when I'm busy at something. I used to be so full of nervous energy that I literally found it hard to sit still for very long. I miss it, but there's no remedy.
Kids, use that hormone generated energy. You can't save it up, and if you don't utilize it, it will be gone forever. Now, I know what they really meant about the "juices" drying up. At the same time, try to be wise in how you use it. I'd still square dance up a storm if I could, work night and day when I needed to and reach for every goal I could reasonably reach for if I had it to do over.
I think of my grandchildren often and wonder what their dreams are, what they yearn to do in life, etc. I remember well my own dreams and aspirations, some of them based on delusion and false premises. I'd like to save them some of the disillusionment and disappointments I've gone through, and I hope my being honest about my own life will help them in that department. Don't discount the lessons this old hoary head passes on to you.
If I had been more aware of and listened to the great thinkers of the past, like Ingersoll, Mencken, Mark Twain, Thomas Paine, and a host of others, I could have saved myself a lot of false forks in the road. As an aside, I knew Thomas Paine was a great thinker and founding father, but I never read his book until I was past seventy and didn't really know he was an atheist. For some reason I'll let you speculate on, that fact about him isn't emphasized by very many people.
Read, dammit! Think -- don't assume or take some blowhards word for it! Wear out those search engines! Knowledge has never been this accessible before. I had none of those modern (and often free) tools at your ages -- not even in middle age!
Assume nothing to be true until you exhaustively investigate it and consider contrary opinions in their entirety. That's science. That's true reasoning. Anything else courts disaster, and I've suffered through a great deal of that. It's no fun and it's better to avoid it.
I had no idea I was going to say all this a few minutes ago. Just flows sometimes.
Friday, November 1, 2013
LET'S TRY THE GIRLS FOR A CHANGE
An interesting fact came out on Bill Maher's Real Time tonight. That point was that women have an easier time of cooperating and compromising than men do. I think the observation that testosterone is at the basis is likely true. We men tend to be very competitive and "alpha man" oriented. It was also pointed out that women outnumber men and could easily take over the whole country politically. I, like Nielle Degrasse Tyson, who was on the show, would frankly like to see that happen.
We've had millennia of male domination that orginated in the fertile crescent and Asia and spread pretty much worldwide from there. I believe the old saying that the proof of the pudding is in the tasting and eating. What I see in the world and have experienced all of my life leaves a very bitter taste in my mouth.
I'm not a macho dictator in my own home and really never wanted to be even when I was a slave to armstrongism. I respect women and regard them as equals. I deliberately went looking for someone on my intellectual level and knew I'd hit "pay dirt" when Phyllis came along. The retired baptist minister and fellow square dancer who officiated our wedding didn't like it one bit when we asked him to leave "obey" out of the ceremony. He just shook his head when he asked me one time how many heads there were in my home and I held up two fingers and said "two."
I'm not saying we should live in another unbalanced world where women ride roughshod over men, but history proves the opposite situation has produced a world where brute strength and macho posturing threatens to destroy us all. We should have progressed from that chimp rampaging thru the forest, banging on an oil drum to imtimidate his compatriots. Ted Cruz and his idiot minister father remind of that chimp who is, after all, their distant cousin, whether or not they like it or would admit it.
We've had millennia of male domination that orginated in the fertile crescent and Asia and spread pretty much worldwide from there. I believe the old saying that the proof of the pudding is in the tasting and eating. What I see in the world and have experienced all of my life leaves a very bitter taste in my mouth.
I'm not a macho dictator in my own home and really never wanted to be even when I was a slave to armstrongism. I respect women and regard them as equals. I deliberately went looking for someone on my intellectual level and knew I'd hit "pay dirt" when Phyllis came along. The retired baptist minister and fellow square dancer who officiated our wedding didn't like it one bit when we asked him to leave "obey" out of the ceremony. He just shook his head when he asked me one time how many heads there were in my home and I held up two fingers and said "two."
I'm not saying we should live in another unbalanced world where women ride roughshod over men, but history proves the opposite situation has produced a world where brute strength and macho posturing threatens to destroy us all. We should have progressed from that chimp rampaging thru the forest, banging on an oil drum to imtimidate his compatriots. Ted Cruz and his idiot minister father remind of that chimp who is, after all, their distant cousin, whether or not they like it or would admit it.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
