I found a piece of old America this past weekend. I wish I had a better flair for words. Something easier to experience than describe.
A beautiful day – clear, sunny, highs near 90 and dry. Warm enough to seek shade for lunch; cool enough to not be sweltering in the heat as we wondered about.
This small, one traffic light town closed down Main St and turned it into a pedestrian/vendor walkway. Little kids running around the park – parents only paying half-attention. There was no fear, no violence, no “teens” mass-mobbing, no LBQWTF issues (or booths) – just a wonderful day in the park and town.
The farmer’s market was adjacent – it’s harvest time ’round these parts. Fresh beans, peas, tomatoes, cucumbers, peaches, pears, apples, apples, apples … and zucchini. (even I can grow zucchini – but why?)
The usual types of vendors presented their wares – gaudy to great … and maybe not so great but part of the flavor of the event. Some offered food and drink. Actually, many offered food and drink of all sorts. Both political parties were present (though one had far fewer visitors than the other) as was Miracle Ear, a variety of insurance hucksters, a few other companies whose names and products I didn’t pay close attention to but they help cover the cost. Small town, small resources.
The Fire Dept and EMS were present: partially to be in service, partially to let the kids crawl around the engines.
Crafts of all sorts: glass-blowing, photos and prints of all types, cotton candy, ice cream, sno-cones, BBQs, local arts and crafts. Candles, face-painting, bean-bag toss, laser-cut signs, tables from tree slices. A variety of jerkys, quarter/half sections of beef fresh from the ranch, hams, pulled pork sandwiches. Hot dogs, hamburgers with all the fixins.
Can’t forget the fudge and homemade jams, jellies, and misc baked goods.
Scarecrow contest, pumpkins, hay bales/ hay rides, pumpkin patch.
It was crowded (for my taste) but I enjoyed spending a pleasant afternoon even though surrounded by people. I felt to be in my own country again.
But it’s Monday now and the world came back in.
Such a tragedy in the southeast … but I’m sure Kamealot has a plan …
ghostsniperSeptember 30, 2024, 1:40 PM
luvlay, no?
And they want to take all of that away.
….over my rotting corpse they will.
John A. FlemingSeptember 30, 2024, 12:49 PM
Remember how they were going to get T by linking him to Epstein? I think there’s a new October surprise cooking. They arrested that hip-hop producer who made a blackmail industry of Hollywood orgies, lots of underage boys and girls. There’s pictures out there of T hanging with the hip-hop dude. Yeah, they arrested the guy to get ahold of the videos. The Feds are eagerly combing through all the videos to find one with T in it. If they don’t find it, oh well, at least they have compromat on everybody else, just like Epstein’s videos.
They arrested him a) to get evidence on T, and b) to accumulate compromat. That’s how they retain their Deep State power. Same as it ever was, our government has turned into every other corrupt one.
Man, if T gets in, he’s got to force the fibbies to disgorge all the compromat, make it all public (best case), or at least permanently purge it all, rob them of their deep-state power.
ghostsniperSeptember 30, 2024, 1:38 PM
You might be on to something.
OK, I’m a hick, a little slow at times, and I resist change, and I ain’t a slick urban hipster.
It’s been around a long time, think I first heard of it maybe 30-40 years ago, but never took it very seriously.
But what’s up with all this kiddie pr0n stuff that I keep hearing about?
You know, child trafficking, sex with kids, etc.
Is this really a thing?
Just yesterday there was a local (30 miles away) article about some sort of sting operation that captured 30-40 doods aged 20’s- 50’s in a child pr0n deal. All doods, whites, negros, messicans, no females and none that looked like tranny’s. They showed all the mug shots.
Now, I’ve read in the past some of the ways these “sting” things happen in this regard.
The authorities have people on the payroll that cruise the online sites trawling for nibblers and then using deception they reel them in closer and closer. Nothing “physical” needs to happen. It’s all fictitious, which supposedly implies consent. A meeting place is setup between the fictitious “bait” and the “nibbler” target. Then, when meeting time occurs gov’t thug criminals jump out and capture said target.
Bear in mind, up to this point NOTHING has happened. It was all pixels on screens. One of the lures the trawler used may have been a random pr0n pik of some skank snagged off the web. To the target the skank looked about 24 years old, but the trawler will some how claim the skank was under the legal age.
There are many ways in which the gov’t criminals portray this stuff.
There is a part of me, a large part actually, that just doesn’t believe this child pr0n stuff is a big deal with most doods. I’ll go so far as to say 99% of all doods are against such a thing. In my 69 years I have known thousands of doods and never even once has any of them mentioned anything untoward regarding sex with children. Further, I’d even say that they were much like me in that if I gained knowledge that such a relationship was going on in my sphere of influence I would use extreme violence to deal with it, then I would contact the authorities. Yes, if I had direct, immediate proof, I would apply justice first, then arrest 2nd.
My highly cynical self is highly skeptical about all this child pr0n stuff that’s been bantered about by the gov’t and especially so regarding doods with money enough to have Penthouse Centerfold strumpets in their stables. It just doesn’t make sense to me, unless you take into consideration that the entire US gov’t system is the most criminal enterprise the world has ever known and uses it’s power in ways most of us cannot imagine. In light of that fact, yes what John A Fleming proposes is a very real possibility.
“Patriots, bear your strops to edges, and bide thine time for the day of work and justice lies just over the rise in front of you.”
–gs, 2099
ghostsniperSeptember 30, 2024, 2:13 PM
In the words of Dan Quayle:
“The mind is a terrible thing.”
Sitting here working on the wet bar design for a custom home in SW Fla. and my mind is drifting to and fro as it is want to do. Your comment, John.
In my other comment on this you’ll see I make several mentions that the whole thing is fabricated by the gov’t criminals. No physical proof exists.
If the gov’t invents a scenario to trap T in a child pr0n sting, T can simply say he was not at that location at that time.
But.
If the gov’t criminals can force Diddy (WTF kind of a name is that anyway?) to provide written statement that he will testify in court and provide video proof that T was directly and physically involved in sexual assaults on minors this thing could have enough traction to be the monkey wrench in the election machine, especially if T is arrested at MAL and imprisoned.
To what extent?
I don’t know.
Would that mean the reps automatically forfeit the election to the dems?
Not according to the constitution.
But. What if Diddy has “proof” on a couple of the rep SC justices too?
Man, wouldn’t this be an Oct surprise to remember?
I need to get stroppin’….
CaseyOctober 1, 2024, 4:41 AM
Isn’t the Peeditty thing already in the past? But, I’ve an open mind to your theory.
My own feelings about The October Surprise run less towards the magical (not your comment-I’ve seen everything from the rapture to Walz and Xhina) and more towards the obvious and the clearly present. The LA port, plus the entire West coast, plus Shanghai, went completely to shipt in Brandon/Brenda’s first year in office, or was it second? It was I think as the fake-demic was wrapping. It was a mystery (newsmen phoning it in) but as far as anyone could tell, the administration had a useless buff-uker for a transportation secretary and regulations and I think even covidz restrictions all contributed to the log jam of transport and you felt it at the pump and on the grocery aisle. Does anyone think Trump would’ve allowed regulation to foul the whole Pacific shipping matrix?
So, plainly in front of our face is the Eastern seaboard dock strike. Some wag on X thinks it’s so Kamala can ride in and negotiate an end to the strike, and look good to the voters. That is an example of magical twist thinking. Who will the strike hurt? Kamala is who. Did the GOPe cause it? In my lifetime and that of my dad and granddad, dock constituency ran politically to the communist left. I have no idea if the East has that history like we do in the West, but anyway the strike is unions (Leftist) and it hurts Harris. Whatever the backroom deal is, the logical thinking at this point in time is that Harris is likely to take it in the backdoor over this.
What else is there? Well, a new war front in Lebanon. However, that’s no surprise. An October Surprise, by what I define it as, is an unpredicted and clearly definable event or situation that scuttles the other party’s presidential chances. I believe the dems would like to engineer a surprise, but they lack imagination and influence outside of regulation and legal shenanigans. Anything they try will be aimed at Trump, and they seem to have fuqued that up so far. The storm, well that was an act of God, but He’s actually already made His appearance in the race with the head turn.
I’ll be watching the news for a potential surprise, but right now the crooked polls are trending for Trump, and that aint on plan for Harris, is it? She couldn’t coordinate a poop in a bucket, in my estimate. Obama was an anti-leader, and Biden was a non-leader, but KH is a good old fashioned poor leader. Perhaps the October surprise will be Trump polls over the flood line and inundates the Harris campaign with votes.
John A. FlemingOctober 1, 2024, 12:03 PM
I had thought that an October surprise was something that is sprung on a political opponent in the last two weeks. It’s notorious enough that it has immediate legs, and causes even the candidate’s supporters to feel disgusted and dispirited. Like most things, there’s more to the story, but the campaign doesn’t have enough time left to respond.
I’m pretty sure that the FedGov is going all out to stop T. “All out” though, isn’t much for leaderless and drifting organizations riven by mediocrity. We’ll see soon enough. They’ve got two weeks to spring their surprise.
Casey KlahnOctober 1, 2024, 2:18 PM
Yes, I’d say an OS could be either generated or manufactured by democrats, or it could also be an organic event that the political & media complex used to try to scuttle a candidacy. It’s nefarious.
Mediocrity: how true. Dems could package and sell mediocrity. They probably inject it amongst themselves. There’s a prize for the most mendacity amongst them, and mediocrity is their drive wheel. They ooze insufficiency. Exhibit A: Biden was their president!
AnneOctober 1, 2024, 9:13 AM
I believe that even though Iran does not want Trump in office, they will have to do something to the US as a response to Israel’s attack on Lebanon. That will be your October surprise. Make sure you and those you love have food, water, and gas.
AnonymousOctober 1, 2024, 1:37 PM
From Citizen Watch Report
A lot of big names have been killed in the Middle East during the past 12 months, but the death of Hassan Nasrallah is something completely different. As you will see below, he was believed to be a direct descendant of Muhammed. In Shia Islam, this is a really, really big deal. An attack on Nasrallah is literally considered to be an attack on the family of Muhammad himself, and this is why we are witnessing so much rage in Islamic nations all over the world right now. I don’t know why hardly anyone in the western world is talking about this. For Shia radicals, there must be vengeance for the death of Nasrallah. There simply is no other option.
A lot of people in the western world seem to think that Nasrallah is just another terrorist that died and that he will soon be forgotten.
That isn’t how it works in Shia Islam.
As the Jerusalem Post has accurately observed, the death of Nasrallah is “nothing short of a seismic event in the Middle East”…
The strike on the bunker of Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah is nothing short of a seismic event in the Middle East. With Israel having shifted the rules of the game, what comes next? The risk of a broader conflict has risen, but there are also opportunities for a comprehensive settlement—everything now hinges on Hezbollah’s response.
The central headquarters for Hezbollah was way underground, and so the IDF had to use more than 80 one-ton bombs to destroy it…
According to Israeli media, over 80 one-ton bombs were used to “dig” deep into the ground and reached Hezbollah’s high command bunker, located under six apartment buildings that were completely flattened.
If you are convinced that Hezbollah will back down after this, you don’t understand how they think.
Nasrallah was greatly loved by his people because they believed that he was a direct descendant of Muhammad. The following comes from Wikipedia…
Nasrallah was often referred to as “al-Sayyid Hassan” (السيد حسن), the honorific “Sayyid” denoting a claim of descent from the Islamic prophet Muhammad through his grandson Husayn ibn Ali.
To those that believe in Shia Islam, Nasrallah was a living, breathing link to the founder of their faith.
Nasrallah had three sons, and he actually named two of them after his very famous ancestor…
Nasrallah is survived by his wife, Fatima Yassin. He also has three sons Jawad, Mohammed-Mahdi and Mohammed Ali, and a daughter Zeinab, as well as several grandchildren.
In Shia Islam, there is a widespread belief that an apocalyptic figure known as “the Mahdi” will appear in our day and time.
It is also believed that the name of “the Mahdi” will be “Muhammed”, and so that is why so many Islamic parents give that name to their male children.
Following the death of Nasrallah, Joe Biden used the term “justice” to describe what just happened…
The White House has finally put out a statement by early Saturday afternoon. President Biden has called Nasrallah’s death ‘justice’ for the hundreds of Americans who perished over what the US called a ‘four-decade reign of terror’.
“Hassan Nasrallah and the terrorist group he led, Hezbollah, were responsible for killing hundreds of Americans over a four-decade reign of terror. His death from an Israeli airstrike is a measure of justice for his many victims, including thousands of Americans, Israelis, and Lebanese civilians,” Biden said. The White House says the Pentagon has been ordered to enhance America’s defense posture and readiness in the Middle East.
There are thousands of Shia Muslims in the swing states of Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania that will never vote for Kamala Harris after reading that.
Joe Biden doesn’t seem to understand that this wasn’t just the death of yet another terrorist leader.
The death of Nasrallah changes everything.
Hezbollah isn’t going to back down after this.
Instead, they are going to go completely nuts.
On Saturday, Hezbollah caused “the broadest rocket alerts Israel has seen during the war so far”…
Large parts of the nation were targeted by Hezbollah rocket fire on Saturday, causing the broadest rocket alerts Israel has seen during the war so far, following the Israeli strike that killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in Beirut, Lebanon on Friday evening.
Starting hours after the strike on Nasrallah Hezbollah began firing small rocket barrages at northern Israel. On Saturday morning, they sharply intensified their attacks by launching two ballistic missiles and multiple rocket salvos.
Of course it isn’t just Hezbollah that is steaming mad.
On Sunday, thousands of Iraqi protesters tried to storm the U.S. embassy in Baghdad…
Thousands of Iraqi protesters attempted to storm the US Embassy in Baghdad’s highly secure Green Zone on Saturday, soon after Hezbollah confirmed the death of its leader Hassan Nasrallah in Friday’s major Israeli airstrike in Beirut.
Iraq’s Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani called strike on Nasrallah “a crime that shows the Zionist entity has crossed all the red lines.”
In Pakistan’s largest city, police were desperately trying to keep a mob of crazed rioters from overrunning the U.S. consulate located there…
Clashes took place Sunday evening in Pakistan’s largest city of Karachi as local police tried to disperse protesters who marched towards the city’s US Consulate to mourn the death of Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah.
Video on social media showed police firing tear gas and warning shots, with protesters throwing stones and trying to cross barriers blocking access to the US Consulate.
The protests were led by the Majlis Wahdat-e-Muslimeen, a Pakistani Shi’a Islamic political organization which told CNN that their nationwide protests were “peaceful.”
And the Iranian government is vowing that there will be revenge…
Iran’s supreme leader has said the death of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah “will not go unavenged”, a day after he was killed in an Israeli air strike in Lebanon.
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei announced five days of mourning in Iran in response to what he called the “martyrdom of the great Nasrallah”, describing him as “a path and a school of thought” that would continue.
Iranian media reported that a Iranian Revolutionary Guards general was also killed in the Israeli strikes in Beirut on Friday.
Of course Israel is not going to back down either.
In fact, the IDF took out yet another “high-ranking Hezbollah official” on Sunday…
The Israeli military said Sunday it has killed another high-ranking Hezbollah official in an airstrike as the Lebanese militant group was reeling from a string of devastating blows and the killing of its overall leader, Hassan Nasrallah.
The military said Nabil Kaouk, the deputy head of Hezbollah’s Central Council, was killed on Saturday. Hezbollah confirmed his death, making him the seventh senior Hezbollah leader slain in Israeli strikes in a little over a week. They include founding members who had evaded death or detention for decades.
And the Israelis also just hit the Houthis really, really hard…
Israel said it bombed Houthi targets in Yemen on Sunday, expanding its confrontation with Iran’s allies in the region two days after killing the Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah in an escalating conflict in Lebanon.
The airstrikes on Yemen’s port of Hodeidah were in response to Houthi missile attacks on Israel in recent days, Israel said, amid fears that Middle East fighting could spin out of control and draw in Iran and Israel’s main ally the United States.
There is no turning back now.
All-out war is on the doorstep, and the U.S. State Department has just issued a very ominous order…
The US State Department on Saturday ordered the families of embassy personnel in Beirut to leave the country and authorized the departure of some staff, as the Israel-Hezbollah conflict escalates.
The department ordered the departure “due to the increased volatility following airstrikes within Beirut and the volatile and unpredictable security situation throughout Lebanon,” it said. All US citizens were urged to leave “while commercial options still remain available.”
They know what is coming.
This is the big Middle East war that I have been warning about, and only one side will be left standing when it is all over.
When there are two opponents that are willing to do whatever it takes to win no matter the cost, that creates a situation where events can spiral out of control very, very easily.
We should all be deeply saddened by what is about to happen, because very large numbers of people are about to die.
ghostsniperOctober 1, 2024, 2:56 PM
Cite?
azlibertarianOctober 1, 2024, 4:26 PM
“…The US State Department on Saturday ordered the families of embassy personnel in Beirut to leave the country….”
If you were a .gov employee stationed at the embassy in Beirut, what would possess you to take your family to your assignment?
ghostsniperOctober 1, 2024, 5:57 PM
If you were a normal human being why would you be in Beirut at all?
azlibertarianOctober 1, 2024, 4:17 PM
So who’s going to watch the VP debate tonight? I plan to, and here are the rules to Matt Taibbi’s Debate Drinking Game…..
“The rules:
DRINK EVERY TIME…
1. Walz mentions Project 2025.
2. Vance questions Walz’s military record.
3. Anyone says “Proud of my service.”
4. Vance accuses Walz of favoring socialism or having ties to the Chinese Communist Party.
5. Walz accuses Vance of fomenting anti-Haitian bigotry.
6. Vance mentions a colorful family member. Double if the relative is armed or high or both.
7. Walz brings up January 6th or claims democracy is on the ballot.
8. Vance brings up the Minneapolis riots.
9. Either candidate mentions the middle class or the working class. (Do not do shots of hard alcohol for this rule.)
10. Either candidate uses folksy rhetoric or Midwestern slang, or the word “folks” is uttered, at all.
11. Anyone says, “Right here in New York City.”
12. Either candidate mentions Hurricane Helene or the situation in Asheville, North Carolina.
13. Either candidate accuses the other of being insufficiently protective of Israel or Ukraine.
14. A moderator fact-checks either candidate.
15. You feel like driving off a cliff in despair.”
I’m pretty sure that I have enough booze on hand so that I won’t have to drive to get more, but number 15 might put that in question.
ghostsniperOctober 1, 2024, 5:56 PM
If you’re talking 1 shot per, I won’t make it very far.
I already had 4 shots of Fireball.
“Tastes like heaven, burns like hell.”
========
In light of all that, fukket, “Joe Kidd” is on Grit TV and makes more sense.
…and I have a front elevation I’m working on for a new crib.
But yeah, watch it, and fill the rest of us in tomorrow.
azlibertarianOctober 1, 2024, 9:07 PM
A couple’o comments, post-debate…..
* Dunno how CBS might explain this, but the 90 minute debate went an extra 10 minutes long.
* I admit my bias, but Vance looked cool-bordering-on-comfortable, while Walz wandered a bit.
* There were relatively few questions on foreign policy…mainly focused on Iraq and Israel….nothing (to my memory) on Ukraine or China.
* They’re still arguing about changes to Obama care and of course THE WORST MOMENT OF OUR HISTORY, EV-AR, J-6.
I watched the debate on YouTube via Racket News with Matt Taibbi and Walter Kern. You can watch the whole thing if you want….it runs 2:50, so settle in for a while. If you’d rather just hear their comments after the debate, I’ve got that cued up at the link below. https://www.youtube.com/live/Wfsec8HlpNM?t=7359&si=Hzlh0dkcqC0yU85X
CaseyOctober 1, 2024, 8:12 PM
I did the drinking game for the last debate. FSR never thought of it this time.
Just watched it. The loser was CBS news. They stated that the rules are that no fact checking will be done except among the candidates themselves. Then: they fact checked the fuck out of Vance! They didn’t even know they were doing it. They need to be punished. Their viewership is low, so that isn’t getting the message across to them. You can’t do legal things to the news – not in the great scheme of things. What needs to happen is a counter media hailstorm of invectives. Meme the living daylights out of CBS. Drag the media whores through the mud.
I liked when Walz admitted a couple of times that his mouth is ahead of his brain. He tells tall tales.
I don’t like late-comers to the Trump train. They’re not smart. I believed the media lies, says Vance. And he wants to be second to the president? He’s figuratively Joker (he had the same job in the military as Matthew Modine did in Full Metal Jacket). But, he did good in the debate.
John A. FlemingOctober 1, 2024, 8:55 PM
Well, why aren’t everyone including us calling him “Joker”? Every Marine a rifleman. No shame to be a Marine PR flack, right? He’s a Marine first and foremost. I know a Marine who was in the sandbox for GW1. After that while still in uniform he was an IT guy, kept up the Corp’s systems. I guess he’d had enough of war after GW1, but at any time the Corp could have put him back on the line.
John A. FlemingOctober 1, 2024, 10:14 PM
If Vance is Joker, does that make Walz who looks like Don Rickles, Crapgame from Kelly’s Heroes or Mr. Potato Head from Toy Story? I never got Rickles brand of humor, so all you Rickles lovers out there don’t hate on me, I recognize he was a very successful and accomplished guy, and it’s probably a cheap shot on his memory to compare him to that jerk Walz.
And also, if we’re picking up nicknames for V, what do we call T? The left like likes to make up names for T like drumpf, or Chimpy McHitlerburton for the Shrub, so if the only way out is through, somebody on T’s side has to come up with a name that sticks before the left fills the void. Vote for Mr. T and Joker?
CaseyOctober 1, 2024, 11:07 PM
Don Rickles! He does look like Rickles, but no where near as fast of wit. Where do we get politicians like this? It’s atrocious how inept they are.
Don’t take too much offense at my Joker reference. They had the same job, and it’s a literary reference. My actual complaint is towards those late to the Trump movement. They didn’t like his personality (as if it’s a high school class president’s campaign). They were fooled by media depictions of him. I just wish people would see more strategically and more clearly. Trump has proven to be a political force unseen maybe in our whole history. Those who saw this early were correct, and those who didn’t need remedial education.
But, big tent here. Unity needed and Trump forgives Vance, so I do too. I even forgive him for being a marine.
John A. FlemingOctober 1, 2024, 9:26 PM
The seasons are beginning to turn. Except for the poor souls down NC way, who suddenly experienced warm flood season. No part of our country is immune to the vagaries of nature. The seasons of Ecclesiastes happens to us all. Flood, fire, drought, earthquake, blizzard.
The bright sun and warm days of glorious summer are already fading into memory. It was a good summer. We did a lot. The forests are turning silent, preparing for winter. The summer grass is golden, the flowers have all gone to seed. Soon comes the fall rains and winds that flattens summer’s bounty, then the first snows cover it for winter’s sleep. The nights are cool now, the first morning fog has already arrived. I’ve been trying to get caught up in all my outdoor chores, put off while I was involved in our big summer activities. Now I’ve not a day to lose, and yet each weekend there’s something to do with my community organization. Me personally, my actions prepare our family for one year out. My work with the community organization is to prepare the next generation for the futures to come and to make.
I hope before I’m done, that I can make more trips into the autumn natural world. Why should the hunters have it all to themselves? I haven’t had a weekend free since the last big trip in August, and I’m booked up till Thanksgiving. And then, there’s the big push to get all our end-of-year accomplishments at work done by Dec 20th. Same as it ever was, and always will be.
Snakepit KansasOctober 2, 2024, 4:58 AM
I made scaffolding a few months ago and have been painting the back of the house, replacing old cedar trim and had a major window replacement. All done with some help from a few friends and son when the lifting got too much for me alone. Maybe I know my time is limited. Almost 60, which will soon put me into the fourth quarter. When you are consciously aware of limited time you are a bit more motivated to get things done. In his later years, Dad had everything in the house fixed, upgraded and working well for his eventual passing. He was quite handy with wood working. Maybe I am doing the same thing. Kitchen needs new countertops which I will subcontract out, but I can do all the backsplash and cabinet refinishing.
Crabgrass quit growing and pepper plants are trying to put out a few last chilis. Seasons are certainly changing. Went to the rifle range last night to check zero on my Ruger #1 for an elk hunt at the end of this month in CO. Had my son shoot 150 rounds of 9mm as he will be headed to Army boot camp in a week. He was dead set on this decision and we are proud of him. We will shoot AR also a few more times in the coming few days. Funny, but when he was a kid I would blindfold him and have him take apart an AR bolt assembly and then reassemble.
Good reads above and too much to reply to. Those comments will be a good start to my day. I will also get in a chapter of Deuteronomy, then off to the fun factory.
Casey KlahnOctober 2, 2024, 6:22 AM
Best wishes to your son. My advice is for him to run a lot. 1 and 2 mile runs.
Last month I clocked the double 6. At 66 there’s no more denying that you’re old. Yesterday I had two service guys to the home, one for the stove and one delivering diesel. They both still had spots! Always happy to see young people working, though.
Your to do list makes me ache just looking at it. Glad you’re thinking legacy, Kansas. Your’s is a very fine legacy I am sure. As for me: I’m still “in the fight”.
DTOctober 2, 2024, 4:18 PM
66 isn’t bad. Wait until there’s a 7 in front. Still not used to it. I wonder if I’ll feel the same way (50-ish) when that turns to 8 – If I survive until then.
“…my son…will be headed to Army boot camp in a week….”
What an exciting time for you, your family and especially for your son. Most in this position will send a son to boot camp as a son, and the Army will return him as a man.
Please send him my best, and remind him that our service members are always in our prayers.
Real World Address for Donations, Mash Notes and Hate Mail
Gerard Van der Leun
1692 MANGROVE AVE
APT 379
Chico, Ca 95926
Green Pants Interior by Klahn
Who Am I? by Carl Sandburg
My head knocks against the stars.
My feet are on the hilltops.
My finger-tips are in the valleys and shores of universal life.
Down in the sounding foam of primal things I reach my hands and play with pebbles of destiny.
I have been to hell and back many times.
I know all about heaven, for I have talked with God.
I dabble in the blood and guts of the terrible.
I know the passionate seizure of beauty
And the marvelous rebellion of man at all signs reading “Keep Off.”
My name is Truth and I am the most elusive captive in the universe.
Duty, Beauty, Liberty, Country, Honor, Family, Faith — Plus a few simple easy to follow rules for guys
Men saw the stars at the edge of the sea
They thought great thoughts about liberty
Poets wrote down words that did fit
Writers wrote books
Thinkers thought about it
Take it where you find it
Can’t leave it alone
You will find a purpose
To carry it on
Mainly when you find it
Your heart will be strong
About it
Many’s the road I have walked upon
Many’s the hour between dusk and dawn
Many’s the time
Many’s the mile
I see it all now
Through the eyes of a child
Take it where you find it
Can’t leave it alone
You will find a purpose
To carry it on
Mainly when you find it
Your heart will be strong
About it
[Chorus]
Lost dreams and found dreams
In America
In America
In America
Lost dreams and found dreams
In America
In America
In America
And close your eyes
Leave it all for a while
Leave the world
And your worries behind
You will build on whatever is real
And wake up each day
To a new waking dream
Take it where you find it
Can’t leave it alone
You will find a purpose
To carry it on
Mainly when you find it
Your heart will be strong
About it
[Chorus]
Change, change come over
Change come over
Talkin’ about a change
Change, change
Change come over, now
Change, change, change come over
I’m gonna walk down the street
Until I see
My shining light
I’m gonna walk down the street
Until I see
My shining light
I’m gonna walk down the street
Until I see
My shining light
I’m gonna walk down the street
Until I see
My shining light
I see my light
See my light
See my shining light
I see my light
See my light
See my shining light
Gerard Van der Leun
appaloosa?
I found a piece of old America this past weekend. I wish I had a better flair for words. Something easier to experience than describe.
A beautiful day – clear, sunny, highs near 90 and dry. Warm enough to seek shade for lunch; cool enough to not be sweltering in the heat as we wondered about.
This small, one traffic light town closed down Main St and turned it into a pedestrian/vendor walkway. Little kids running around the park – parents only paying half-attention. There was no fear, no violence, no “teens” mass-mobbing, no LBQWTF issues (or booths) – just a wonderful day in the park and town.
The farmer’s market was adjacent – it’s harvest time ’round these parts. Fresh beans, peas, tomatoes, cucumbers, peaches, pears, apples, apples, apples … and zucchini. (even I can grow zucchini – but why?)
The usual types of vendors presented their wares – gaudy to great … and maybe not so great but part of the flavor of the event. Some offered food and drink. Actually, many offered food and drink of all sorts. Both political parties were present (though one had far fewer visitors than the other) as was Miracle Ear, a variety of insurance hucksters, a few other companies whose names and products I didn’t pay close attention to but they help cover the cost. Small town, small resources.
The Fire Dept and EMS were present: partially to be in service, partially to let the kids crawl around the engines.
Crafts of all sorts: glass-blowing, photos and prints of all types, cotton candy, ice cream, sno-cones, BBQs, local arts and crafts. Candles, face-painting, bean-bag toss, laser-cut signs, tables from tree slices. A variety of jerkys, quarter/half sections of beef fresh from the ranch, hams, pulled pork sandwiches. Hot dogs, hamburgers with all the fixins.
Can’t forget the fudge and homemade jams, jellies, and misc baked goods.
Scarecrow contest, pumpkins, hay bales/ hay rides, pumpkin patch.
It was crowded (for my taste) but I enjoyed spending a pleasant afternoon even though surrounded by people. I felt to be in my own country again.
But it’s Monday now and the world came back in.
Such a tragedy in the southeast … but I’m sure Kamealot has a plan …
luvlay, no?
And they want to take all of that away.
….over my rotting corpse they will.
Remember how they were going to get T by linking him to Epstein? I think there’s a new October surprise cooking. They arrested that hip-hop producer who made a blackmail industry of Hollywood orgies, lots of underage boys and girls. There’s pictures out there of T hanging with the hip-hop dude. Yeah, they arrested the guy to get ahold of the videos. The Feds are eagerly combing through all the videos to find one with T in it. If they don’t find it, oh well, at least they have compromat on everybody else, just like Epstein’s videos.
They arrested him a) to get evidence on T, and b) to accumulate compromat. That’s how they retain their Deep State power. Same as it ever was, our government has turned into every other corrupt one.
Man, if T gets in, he’s got to force the fibbies to disgorge all the compromat, make it all public (best case), or at least permanently purge it all, rob them of their deep-state power.
You might be on to something.
OK, I’m a hick, a little slow at times, and I resist change, and I ain’t a slick urban hipster.
It’s been around a long time, think I first heard of it maybe 30-40 years ago, but never took it very seriously.
But what’s up with all this kiddie pr0n stuff that I keep hearing about?
You know, child trafficking, sex with kids, etc.
Is this really a thing?
Just yesterday there was a local (30 miles away) article about some sort of sting operation that captured 30-40 doods aged 20’s- 50’s in a child pr0n deal. All doods, whites, negros, messicans, no females and none that looked like tranny’s. They showed all the mug shots.
Now, I’ve read in the past some of the ways these “sting” things happen in this regard.
The authorities have people on the payroll that cruise the online sites trawling for nibblers and then using deception they reel them in closer and closer. Nothing “physical” needs to happen. It’s all fictitious, which supposedly implies consent. A meeting place is setup between the fictitious “bait” and the “nibbler” target. Then, when meeting time occurs gov’t thug criminals jump out and capture said target.
Bear in mind, up to this point NOTHING has happened. It was all pixels on screens. One of the lures the trawler used may have been a random pr0n pik of some skank snagged off the web. To the target the skank looked about 24 years old, but the trawler will some how claim the skank was under the legal age.
There are many ways in which the gov’t criminals portray this stuff.
There is a part of me, a large part actually, that just doesn’t believe this child pr0n stuff is a big deal with most doods. I’ll go so far as to say 99% of all doods are against such a thing. In my 69 years I have known thousands of doods and never even once has any of them mentioned anything untoward regarding sex with children. Further, I’d even say that they were much like me in that if I gained knowledge that such a relationship was going on in my sphere of influence I would use extreme violence to deal with it, then I would contact the authorities. Yes, if I had direct, immediate proof, I would apply justice first, then arrest 2nd.
My highly cynical self is highly skeptical about all this child pr0n stuff that’s been bantered about by the gov’t and especially so regarding doods with money enough to have Penthouse Centerfold strumpets in their stables. It just doesn’t make sense to me, unless you take into consideration that the entire US gov’t system is the most criminal enterprise the world has ever known and uses it’s power in ways most of us cannot imagine. In light of that fact, yes what John A Fleming proposes is a very real possibility.
“Patriots, bear your strops to edges, and bide thine time for the day of work and justice lies just over the rise in front of you.”
–gs, 2099
In the words of Dan Quayle:
“The mind is a terrible thing.”
Sitting here working on the wet bar design for a custom home in SW Fla. and my mind is drifting to and fro as it is want to do. Your comment, John.
In my other comment on this you’ll see I make several mentions that the whole thing is fabricated by the gov’t criminals. No physical proof exists.
If the gov’t invents a scenario to trap T in a child pr0n sting, T can simply say he was not at that location at that time.
But.
If the gov’t criminals can force Diddy (WTF kind of a name is that anyway?) to provide written statement that he will testify in court and provide video proof that T was directly and physically involved in sexual assaults on minors this thing could have enough traction to be the monkey wrench in the election machine, especially if T is arrested at MAL and imprisoned.
To what extent?
I don’t know.
Would that mean the reps automatically forfeit the election to the dems?
Not according to the constitution.
But. What if Diddy has “proof” on a couple of the rep SC justices too?
Man, wouldn’t this be an Oct surprise to remember?
I need to get stroppin’….
Isn’t the Peeditty thing already in the past? But, I’ve an open mind to your theory.
My own feelings about The October Surprise run less towards the magical (not your comment-I’ve seen everything from the rapture to Walz and Xhina) and more towards the obvious and the clearly present. The LA port, plus the entire West coast, plus Shanghai, went completely to shipt in Brandon/Brenda’s first year in office, or was it second? It was I think as the fake-demic was wrapping. It was a mystery (newsmen phoning it in) but as far as anyone could tell, the administration had a useless buff-uker for a transportation secretary and regulations and I think even covidz restrictions all contributed to the log jam of transport and you felt it at the pump and on the grocery aisle. Does anyone think Trump would’ve allowed regulation to foul the whole Pacific shipping matrix?
So, plainly in front of our face is the Eastern seaboard dock strike. Some wag on X thinks it’s so Kamala can ride in and negotiate an end to the strike, and look good to the voters. That is an example of magical twist thinking. Who will the strike hurt? Kamala is who. Did the GOPe cause it? In my lifetime and that of my dad and granddad, dock constituency ran politically to the communist left. I have no idea if the East has that history like we do in the West, but anyway the strike is unions (Leftist) and it hurts Harris. Whatever the backroom deal is, the logical thinking at this point in time is that Harris is likely to take it in the backdoor over this.
What else is there? Well, a new war front in Lebanon. However, that’s no surprise. An October Surprise, by what I define it as, is an unpredicted and clearly definable event or situation that scuttles the other party’s presidential chances. I believe the dems would like to engineer a surprise, but they lack imagination and influence outside of regulation and legal shenanigans. Anything they try will be aimed at Trump, and they seem to have fuqued that up so far. The storm, well that was an act of God, but He’s actually already made His appearance in the race with the head turn.
I’ll be watching the news for a potential surprise, but right now the crooked polls are trending for Trump, and that aint on plan for Harris, is it? She couldn’t coordinate a poop in a bucket, in my estimate. Obama was an anti-leader, and Biden was a non-leader, but KH is a good old fashioned poor leader. Perhaps the October surprise will be Trump polls over the flood line and inundates the Harris campaign with votes.
I had thought that an October surprise was something that is sprung on a political opponent in the last two weeks. It’s notorious enough that it has immediate legs, and causes even the candidate’s supporters to feel disgusted and dispirited. Like most things, there’s more to the story, but the campaign doesn’t have enough time left to respond.
I’m pretty sure that the FedGov is going all out to stop T. “All out” though, isn’t much for leaderless and drifting organizations riven by mediocrity. We’ll see soon enough. They’ve got two weeks to spring their surprise.
Yes, I’d say an OS could be either generated or manufactured by democrats, or it could also be an organic event that the political & media complex used to try to scuttle a candidacy. It’s nefarious.
Mediocrity: how true. Dems could package and sell mediocrity. They probably inject it amongst themselves. There’s a prize for the most mendacity amongst them, and mediocrity is their drive wheel. They ooze insufficiency. Exhibit A: Biden was their president!
I believe that even though Iran does not want Trump in office, they will have to do something to the US as a response to Israel’s attack on Lebanon. That will be your October surprise. Make sure you and those you love have food, water, and gas.
From Citizen Watch Report
A lot of big names have been killed in the Middle East during the past 12 months, but the death of Hassan Nasrallah is something completely different. As you will see below, he was believed to be a direct descendant of Muhammed. In Shia Islam, this is a really, really big deal. An attack on Nasrallah is literally considered to be an attack on the family of Muhammad himself, and this is why we are witnessing so much rage in Islamic nations all over the world right now. I don’t know why hardly anyone in the western world is talking about this. For Shia radicals, there must be vengeance for the death of Nasrallah. There simply is no other option.
A lot of people in the western world seem to think that Nasrallah is just another terrorist that died and that he will soon be forgotten.
That isn’t how it works in Shia Islam.
As the Jerusalem Post has accurately observed, the death of Nasrallah is “nothing short of a seismic event in the Middle East”…
The strike on the bunker of Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah is nothing short of a seismic event in the Middle East. With Israel having shifted the rules of the game, what comes next? The risk of a broader conflict has risen, but there are also opportunities for a comprehensive settlement—everything now hinges on Hezbollah’s response.
The central headquarters for Hezbollah was way underground, and so the IDF had to use more than 80 one-ton bombs to destroy it…
According to Israeli media, over 80 one-ton bombs were used to “dig” deep into the ground and reached Hezbollah’s high command bunker, located under six apartment buildings that were completely flattened.
If you are convinced that Hezbollah will back down after this, you don’t understand how they think.
Nasrallah was greatly loved by his people because they believed that he was a direct descendant of Muhammad. The following comes from Wikipedia…
Nasrallah was often referred to as “al-Sayyid Hassan” (السيد حسن), the honorific “Sayyid” denoting a claim of descent from the Islamic prophet Muhammad through his grandson Husayn ibn Ali.
To those that believe in Shia Islam, Nasrallah was a living, breathing link to the founder of their faith.
Nasrallah had three sons, and he actually named two of them after his very famous ancestor…
Nasrallah is survived by his wife, Fatima Yassin. He also has three sons Jawad, Mohammed-Mahdi and Mohammed Ali, and a daughter Zeinab, as well as several grandchildren.
In Shia Islam, there is a widespread belief that an apocalyptic figure known as “the Mahdi” will appear in our day and time.
It is also believed that the name of “the Mahdi” will be “Muhammed”, and so that is why so many Islamic parents give that name to their male children.
Following the death of Nasrallah, Joe Biden used the term “justice” to describe what just happened…
The White House has finally put out a statement by early Saturday afternoon. President Biden has called Nasrallah’s death ‘justice’ for the hundreds of Americans who perished over what the US called a ‘four-decade reign of terror’.
“Hassan Nasrallah and the terrorist group he led, Hezbollah, were responsible for killing hundreds of Americans over a four-decade reign of terror. His death from an Israeli airstrike is a measure of justice for his many victims, including thousands of Americans, Israelis, and Lebanese civilians,” Biden said. The White House says the Pentagon has been ordered to enhance America’s defense posture and readiness in the Middle East.
There are thousands of Shia Muslims in the swing states of Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania that will never vote for Kamala Harris after reading that.
Joe Biden doesn’t seem to understand that this wasn’t just the death of yet another terrorist leader.
The death of Nasrallah changes everything.
Hezbollah isn’t going to back down after this.
Instead, they are going to go completely nuts.
On Saturday, Hezbollah caused “the broadest rocket alerts Israel has seen during the war so far”…
Large parts of the nation were targeted by Hezbollah rocket fire on Saturday, causing the broadest rocket alerts Israel has seen during the war so far, following the Israeli strike that killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in Beirut, Lebanon on Friday evening.
Starting hours after the strike on Nasrallah Hezbollah began firing small rocket barrages at northern Israel. On Saturday morning, they sharply intensified their attacks by launching two ballistic missiles and multiple rocket salvos.
Of course it isn’t just Hezbollah that is steaming mad.
On Sunday, thousands of Iraqi protesters tried to storm the U.S. embassy in Baghdad…
Thousands of Iraqi protesters attempted to storm the US Embassy in Baghdad’s highly secure Green Zone on Saturday, soon after Hezbollah confirmed the death of its leader Hassan Nasrallah in Friday’s major Israeli airstrike in Beirut.
Iraq’s Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani called strike on Nasrallah “a crime that shows the Zionist entity has crossed all the red lines.”
In Pakistan’s largest city, police were desperately trying to keep a mob of crazed rioters from overrunning the U.S. consulate located there…
Clashes took place Sunday evening in Pakistan’s largest city of Karachi as local police tried to disperse protesters who marched towards the city’s US Consulate to mourn the death of Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah.
Video on social media showed police firing tear gas and warning shots, with protesters throwing stones and trying to cross barriers blocking access to the US Consulate.
The protests were led by the Majlis Wahdat-e-Muslimeen, a Pakistani Shi’a Islamic political organization which told CNN that their nationwide protests were “peaceful.”
And the Iranian government is vowing that there will be revenge…
Iran’s supreme leader has said the death of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah “will not go unavenged”, a day after he was killed in an Israeli air strike in Lebanon.
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei announced five days of mourning in Iran in response to what he called the “martyrdom of the great Nasrallah”, describing him as “a path and a school of thought” that would continue.
Iranian media reported that a Iranian Revolutionary Guards general was also killed in the Israeli strikes in Beirut on Friday.
Of course Israel is not going to back down either.
In fact, the IDF took out yet another “high-ranking Hezbollah official” on Sunday…
The Israeli military said Sunday it has killed another high-ranking Hezbollah official in an airstrike as the Lebanese militant group was reeling from a string of devastating blows and the killing of its overall leader, Hassan Nasrallah.
The military said Nabil Kaouk, the deputy head of Hezbollah’s Central Council, was killed on Saturday. Hezbollah confirmed his death, making him the seventh senior Hezbollah leader slain in Israeli strikes in a little over a week. They include founding members who had evaded death or detention for decades.
And the Israelis also just hit the Houthis really, really hard…
Israel said it bombed Houthi targets in Yemen on Sunday, expanding its confrontation with Iran’s allies in the region two days after killing the Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah in an escalating conflict in Lebanon.
The airstrikes on Yemen’s port of Hodeidah were in response to Houthi missile attacks on Israel in recent days, Israel said, amid fears that Middle East fighting could spin out of control and draw in Iran and Israel’s main ally the United States.
There is no turning back now.
All-out war is on the doorstep, and the U.S. State Department has just issued a very ominous order…
The US State Department on Saturday ordered the families of embassy personnel in Beirut to leave the country and authorized the departure of some staff, as the Israel-Hezbollah conflict escalates.
The department ordered the departure “due to the increased volatility following airstrikes within Beirut and the volatile and unpredictable security situation throughout Lebanon,” it said. All US citizens were urged to leave “while commercial options still remain available.”
They know what is coming.
This is the big Middle East war that I have been warning about, and only one side will be left standing when it is all over.
When there are two opponents that are willing to do whatever it takes to win no matter the cost, that creates a situation where events can spiral out of control very, very easily.
We should all be deeply saddened by what is about to happen, because very large numbers of people are about to die.
Cite?
“…The US State Department on Saturday ordered the families of embassy personnel in Beirut to leave the country….”
If you were a .gov employee stationed at the embassy in Beirut, what would possess you to take your family to your assignment?
If you were a normal human being why would you be in Beirut at all?
So who’s going to watch the VP debate tonight? I plan to, and here are the rules to Matt Taibbi’s Debate Drinking Game…..
“The rules:
DRINK EVERY TIME…
1. Walz mentions Project 2025.
2. Vance questions Walz’s military record.
3. Anyone says “Proud of my service.”
4. Vance accuses Walz of favoring socialism or having ties to the Chinese Communist Party.
5. Walz accuses Vance of fomenting anti-Haitian bigotry.
6. Vance mentions a colorful family member. Double if the relative is armed or high or both.
7. Walz brings up January 6th or claims democracy is on the ballot.
8. Vance brings up the Minneapolis riots.
9. Either candidate mentions the middle class or the working class. (Do not do shots of hard alcohol for this rule.)
10. Either candidate uses folksy rhetoric or Midwestern slang, or the word “folks” is uttered, at all.
11. Anyone says, “Right here in New York City.”
12. Either candidate mentions Hurricane Helene or the situation in Asheville, North Carolina.
13. Either candidate accuses the other of being insufficiently protective of Israel or Ukraine.
14. A moderator fact-checks either candidate.
15. You feel like driving off a cliff in despair.”
I’m pretty sure that I have enough booze on hand so that I won’t have to drive to get more, but number 15 might put that in question.
If you’re talking 1 shot per, I won’t make it very far.
I already had 4 shots of Fireball.
“Tastes like heaven, burns like hell.”
========
In light of all that, fukket, “Joe Kidd” is on Grit TV and makes more sense.
…and I have a front elevation I’m working on for a new crib.
But yeah, watch it, and fill the rest of us in tomorrow.
A couple’o comments, post-debate…..
* Dunno how CBS might explain this, but the 90 minute debate went an extra 10 minutes long.
* I admit my bias, but Vance looked cool-bordering-on-comfortable, while Walz wandered a bit.
* There were relatively few questions on foreign policy…mainly focused on Iraq and Israel….nothing (to my memory) on Ukraine or China.
* They’re still arguing about changes to Obama care and of course THE WORST MOMENT OF OUR HISTORY, EV-AR, J-6.
I watched the debate on YouTube via Racket News with Matt Taibbi and Walter Kern. You can watch the whole thing if you want….it runs 2:50, so settle in for a while. If you’d rather just hear their comments after the debate, I’ve got that cued up at the link below.
https://www.youtube.com/live/Wfsec8HlpNM?t=7359&si=Hzlh0dkcqC0yU85X
I did the drinking game for the last debate. FSR never thought of it this time.
Just watched it. The loser was CBS news. They stated that the rules are that no fact checking will be done except among the candidates themselves. Then: they fact checked the fuck out of Vance! They didn’t even know they were doing it. They need to be punished. Their viewership is low, so that isn’t getting the message across to them. You can’t do legal things to the news – not in the great scheme of things. What needs to happen is a counter media hailstorm of invectives. Meme the living daylights out of CBS. Drag the media whores through the mud.
I liked when Walz admitted a couple of times that his mouth is ahead of his brain. He tells tall tales.
I don’t like late-comers to the Trump train. They’re not smart. I believed the media lies, says Vance. And he wants to be second to the president? He’s figuratively Joker (he had the same job in the military as Matthew Modine did in Full Metal Jacket). But, he did good in the debate.
Well, why aren’t everyone including us calling him “Joker”? Every Marine a rifleman. No shame to be a Marine PR flack, right? He’s a Marine first and foremost. I know a Marine who was in the sandbox for GW1. After that while still in uniform he was an IT guy, kept up the Corp’s systems. I guess he’d had enough of war after GW1, but at any time the Corp could have put him back on the line.
If Vance is Joker, does that make Walz who looks like Don Rickles, Crapgame from Kelly’s Heroes or Mr. Potato Head from Toy Story? I never got Rickles brand of humor, so all you Rickles lovers out there don’t hate on me, I recognize he was a very successful and accomplished guy, and it’s probably a cheap shot on his memory to compare him to that jerk Walz.
And also, if we’re picking up nicknames for V, what do we call T? The left like likes to make up names for T like drumpf, or Chimpy McHitlerburton for the Shrub, so if the only way out is through, somebody on T’s side has to come up with a name that sticks before the left fills the void. Vote for Mr. T and Joker?
Don Rickles! He does look like Rickles, but no where near as fast of wit. Where do we get politicians like this? It’s atrocious how inept they are.
Don’t take too much offense at my Joker reference. They had the same job, and it’s a literary reference. My actual complaint is towards those late to the Trump movement. They didn’t like his personality (as if it’s a high school class president’s campaign). They were fooled by media depictions of him. I just wish people would see more strategically and more clearly. Trump has proven to be a political force unseen maybe in our whole history. Those who saw this early were correct, and those who didn’t need remedial education.
But, big tent here. Unity needed and Trump forgives Vance, so I do too. I even forgive him for being a marine.
The seasons are beginning to turn. Except for the poor souls down NC way, who suddenly experienced warm flood season. No part of our country is immune to the vagaries of nature. The seasons of Ecclesiastes happens to us all. Flood, fire, drought, earthquake, blizzard.
The bright sun and warm days of glorious summer are already fading into memory. It was a good summer. We did a lot. The forests are turning silent, preparing for winter. The summer grass is golden, the flowers have all gone to seed. Soon comes the fall rains and winds that flattens summer’s bounty, then the first snows cover it for winter’s sleep. The nights are cool now, the first morning fog has already arrived. I’ve been trying to get caught up in all my outdoor chores, put off while I was involved in our big summer activities. Now I’ve not a day to lose, and yet each weekend there’s something to do with my community organization. Me personally, my actions prepare our family for one year out. My work with the community organization is to prepare the next generation for the futures to come and to make.
I hope before I’m done, that I can make more trips into the autumn natural world. Why should the hunters have it all to themselves? I haven’t had a weekend free since the last big trip in August, and I’m booked up till Thanksgiving. And then, there’s the big push to get all our end-of-year accomplishments at work done by Dec 20th. Same as it ever was, and always will be.
I made scaffolding a few months ago and have been painting the back of the house, replacing old cedar trim and had a major window replacement. All done with some help from a few friends and son when the lifting got too much for me alone. Maybe I know my time is limited. Almost 60, which will soon put me into the fourth quarter. When you are consciously aware of limited time you are a bit more motivated to get things done. In his later years, Dad had everything in the house fixed, upgraded and working well for his eventual passing. He was quite handy with wood working. Maybe I am doing the same thing. Kitchen needs new countertops which I will subcontract out, but I can do all the backsplash and cabinet refinishing.
Crabgrass quit growing and pepper plants are trying to put out a few last chilis. Seasons are certainly changing. Went to the rifle range last night to check zero on my Ruger #1 for an elk hunt at the end of this month in CO. Had my son shoot 150 rounds of 9mm as he will be headed to Army boot camp in a week. He was dead set on this decision and we are proud of him. We will shoot AR also a few more times in the coming few days. Funny, but when he was a kid I would blindfold him and have him take apart an AR bolt assembly and then reassemble.
Good reads above and too much to reply to. Those comments will be a good start to my day. I will also get in a chapter of Deuteronomy, then off to the fun factory.
Best wishes to your son. My advice is for him to run a lot. 1 and 2 mile runs.
Last month I clocked the double 6. At 66 there’s no more denying that you’re old. Yesterday I had two service guys to the home, one for the stove and one delivering diesel. They both still had spots! Always happy to see young people working, though.
Your to do list makes me ache just looking at it. Glad you’re thinking legacy, Kansas. Your’s is a very fine legacy I am sure. As for me: I’m still “in the fight”.
66 isn’t bad. Wait until there’s a 7 in front. Still not used to it. I wonder if I’ll feel the same way (50-ish) when that turns to 8 – If I survive until then.
“…my son…will be headed to Army boot camp in a week….”
What an exciting time for you, your family and especially for your son. Most in this position will send a son to boot camp as a son, and the Army will return him as a man.
Please send him my best, and remind him that our service members are always in our prayers.
Thank you both.