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 |   On a daily basis... things that bump around in my head and make me go... hummm! |
My new blog:
This is not just a collections of personal musing but it is a place where I can vent. Talking about daily events on the local, state, and national scene is my way of letting off steam so I don't come home and kick the dog! We are all the Captain of our own "Ship of Fools." We go where the current of the times take us and we do what we must to be able to sleep at night. Now this Captain will speak his mind about that current and about the ocean on which we each sail....... ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** {image: ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** PLEASE MAIL ME YOUR VOTE FOR BLOGGER OF THE MONTH OF AUGUST. This is a shot of Me and Mel at our wedding. We were married in a simple ceremony on a deck overlooking Lake Livingston. ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** I am so proud of my new Siggy which was made by the very talented vivacious   . Thank you so very much for all the effort that went into this.** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** This was taken from the wall in the Blogville Post Office. If you see this fugitive, please do not approach, he is armed and stupid. Contact the Blogville sheriff's office at once, then take cover! ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** } ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** |
Blame it on the fact that I go to work late today if you want to but, for whatever reason, I find my thoughts turning onto a more philosophical road today. Have you ever wondered where the arts would be without love? If we didn't have that particular emotion we would be bereft of beautiful poems extolling the feeling, nor would we have all the wonderful music dedicated to the finding or losing of that warm wonderful and sometimes scary state of being. How about what we would lose in literature...think about all the many volumes written down through the ages that have dealt with Love. It has always amazed me that, for every good thing that has come from this emotion, there have been as many bad things happen too. Jealousy and Strife have, for centuries been companions of Love. How is it possible that murder has been committed in the name of Love? But it happens on an almost daily basis doesn't it. I think most of the bad things that happen that are blamed on Love are really the fault of another emotion; Lust. Throughout history man and woman have constantly confused Love and Lust. Lust has always had the ability to override our natural thought processes and convince us that what we feel when we are exposed to Lust is, actually Love. Lust is a wily emotion that is able to fool the human mind most of the time and when it can not masquerade itself as Love, it can even convince us that the mere lusting for the physical body of another is just as good as Love….The greatest lie ever imposed on man. Lust is merely the chemical and biological reaction between males and females implanted in our brains to assure the continuation of the species, nothing more. Men react to a certain set of physical points in a female; breasts, hips, legs, all meant as indicators as to the woman’s ability to have and raise children…though, of course men don’t think this on a conscience level. The same is true with women. They tend to react to certain physical attributes of men; shoulders, chest, waist….all of these things point to the male as being able to provide and protect. Again, this is on a sub-conscience level. What both men and women feel is Lust, the overriding feeling of I WANT THIS! From my now comfortable distance of age I can now see the difference in these two emotions and I can see ruefully where the confusion between the two has led me to many a bump in my personal road of life. I have lusted after many beautiful women in my life and I have had a few but what I have never experienced is true love with one of them. You see, Love, unlike Lust, has little or nothing to do with the biological urge to mate. Love resides in the soul, Lust resides totally in the body. I did not come to this conclusion until fairly recently in my personal history for, like the rest of humanity, I was ruled by the biological rather than the spiritual when I was younger and even when I was not so young. Where Lust fades with familiarity, Love abides. Love grows with time and knowledge of your mate. Love abides even with the knowledge of all your mate’s flaws…Love grows. Love is a warm glow that sustains life while Lust is a fire that consumes and leaves only ashes. Now all of this is by way of introduction to what happened at work the other day. I started to write about this two days ago but it was eaten up by the Gods of Electricity, my power went off before I could save it….you all remember that entry I am sure. Well a couple of days ago I was at work, standing at the door and greeting customers as they entered to shop. One of our young cart-pushers (boys whose job it is to bring the shopping carts from the parking lot back into the store) came inside and was standing and talking to me. While we were talking the door opens and in walks this young lady, maybe twenty or twenty five. This girl looked like she had just stepped off the cover of a magazine; long blonde hair, just a shade under six foot tall with a body to die for. She wore those low riding, tight jeans the girls love so much and a little sheer crop top which exposed her mid drift. As she entered the store I said: “ Good morning ma’am. Good to see you today.” This is how I greet all the customers. I pulled out a shopping cart and pushed it out for her to take and she gave a small nod in acknowledgement of my greeting and took the cart. She walked on past us and as she did, the sway of her hips became just a bit more noticeable. This was a girl who knew what effect she had on men and she enjoyed it. As she disappeared down the main isle I turned to Glen, the cart pusher and had to laugh at his expression. The poor boy looked as if he had been hit with a club between the eyes. He was staring fixedly at the disappearing figure of the girl…. “Oh my God,” He exclaimed. “That has to be the most beautiful woman I have ever seen in this store.” I couldn’t help myself. I started laughing out loud. “What?” He asked, confused. “Just stay here a bit,” I replied, “and I will show you something about that.” So Glen stayed there with me and in about five minutes or so another lady walked in the door. “Watch closely.” I whispered to Glen. This next lady to enter was of medium height, maybe a few pounds overweight. She had short, straight hair, kind of a dull brown in color and a face that would never be described as “beautiful” by anyone. “Good morning ma’am.” I spoke to her in the same tone and with the same words I had used in greeting the girl. “Good to see you today.” She turned to us and she looked into our eyes and she smiled a smile that lit up her entire face. What was once plain, became radiant. As she took the shopping cart I offered her she said: “Thank you so much and how are you doing today?” Her voice was soft and sincere when she spoke and we had her undivided attention. We passed a few pleasantries before she too took her cart and walked away. “Did you see that?” I asked Glen after the lady had gone. “See what?” “Did you see the difference between those two ladies?” “Uh….yeah, the second one was nothing compared to the first.” I shook my head sadly. “No, knucklehead.” I told him. “The second lady was beautiful in all the ways that matter.” Glen looked at me like I had lost my mind. “Let me explain.” I said. “That first girl was in love with her looks, she never smiled and if truth be known, she probably never even SAW us…she was on display.” “So?” Glen answered. “So, the second lady smiled and when she smiled the smile was real. It reached her eyes and she actually saw who she was talking to. That, my friend, is what beauty is all about. It comes from inside, not outside. Just remember, when you look for someone to spend your life with, look for the woman who smiles with her eyes and her heart…not just her mouth. That will be a truly beautiful woman.” Glen didn’t really get it and that’s ok, he is after all a young man and he has yet to go to that particularly tough school that teaches the difference between Love and Lust and the real nature of Beauty. He will get there sooner or later…after his own bumpy road of experience. Personally I finally graduated from that school of experience not so long ago and my reward was meeting my wife…NOW I know what real beauty is about and what Love really means. We all, if we are lucky, get there sooner or later. |
| For four years all I have heard from Mel is: "Oh, honey I wish I could do what you do. I just can't write, but I do love to read." Well for the past two months, since I dragged her kicking and screaming in here, she has been doing a blog. In that time she has done 39 blogs....yes 39 blogs in 60 days...a lot of black days there. Now in those two months of blogging and only 39 entries, she has managed to garner about HALF the views of my own blog and I have been doing this for almost eight months and with very few black days. This means that she has built a large readership within WDC...actually much larger than my own. Now after watching her blogs for these two months my suspicions have been proved true....Not only can she write but she can do it well enough to be published! This means all this time she has been faking it! Now the truth is out in the open and she can no longer tell people "I can't do that." I wondered, as I reviewed the evidence arrayed against her, if maybe I was wrong....maybe I was just viewing her blog through the eyes of a husband and thus I was biased. So, I tried just reading them like a stranger's blog...just consentrating on the sentance structure, the word pictures offered and I discovered that even if I had never met this lady, I would have been drawn to her blog for the pure pleasure of the read. Every one of them are either informative or they powerfully evoke strong emotions. To sum it up...Mel is a Fake. As much as she would have you believe otherwise....SHE is the real talent in this family and I am overjoyed to discover her obvious fraud. I stand in awe of her talent and I am so damn proud of her I just want to shout it out sometimes. I think that everyone who writes rejoices when they discover unknown talent...even when that talent outshines their own. I have done that twice now. First with our buddy CC, who for four years swore to me that he had no talent when it came to writing...I think you all know by now what a huge talent he has when it comes to comedic writings. He is a diamond in the rough and if he put his mind to it he could write comedy that would sell. And now I have found Mel's hidden talent and even though she may argue that I am wrong...I think those of you who have read her work can see I was right. THE BIG FAKER! I do love her. |
| Ok, we are all friends here...I can let down my hair so to speak and actually tell you my true feelings....can't I? Uh? WELL OK.....HERE IT IS....I AM SO DAMNED MAD I COULD CHEW NAILS AND SPIT SHRAPNEL!!! The %$#@^%$ computer is about two inches from being ripped off the desk and thrown through the nearest damn window!! I have just spent the last two hours composing my dang blog. I had just finished it and was letting Mel read it before I hit "save" (I was doing it in word) I had just highlighted the text and copied it prior to placing it here in WDC and BAM!!! The Goldanged, gooberheaded, slut souled, trash mounded, gangrene rancid ELECTRICTY BLINKED OFF THEN RIGHT BACK ON!!! I LOST IT...I LOST EVERY DAMNED WORD OF IT...IT'S GONE INTO THE ETHER!!! OMG it was a classic. I was going for a special three in one blog today. I couldn't decide on what subject to write about so I wrote on three distinct wide ranging subjects!!! TWO FREAKING HOURS I WORKED ON THIS CRAP!!! 1. Woman, the Weaker Sex? 2. Government: All we have to do is change it? 3. A Preception of Beauty That was the three subjects I wrote on and by god it was BRILLIANT! It was INSIGHTFUL! It was HUMOROUS!! AND NOW ITS GONE!!! You know it is at times like this I really wish I lived within driving distance to my good buddy CC cause if I did then I would drive over to his house and partake in a bit of stress relief by kicking his scrawny butt till his ears bled!!!! CC....I WILL PAY FOR THE PLANE TICKET...COME TO MY HOUSE!!! I seriously need to strangle something now! |
| Friendship is a label thrown about casually by many people and that is something I have always had a problem with.... I have always had a problem with people who SEEM to have a ton of friends. You know the type I mean, the "glad-handers we call them here. These are men and women who call everyone they interact with "friend". To me that just cheapens the term. We all come in contact every day with scores of people, through work or in businesses we use and we may get along with these folks and we may laugh and joke with them.....but does that make them FRIENDS? True friends are people who know you well enough to see your warts but like you anyway. You may not always agree with a friend but you know you can damn sure count on them if you need them and they can count on you. With true friends you are not afraid to show weakness or fear. You can be honest with them and not have to worry about that honesty hurting your relationship. Maybe its just me. Maybe I have standards of friendship that are too high. Maybe it is because of my past that I find it hard to make friends. I once had five true friends....like brothers but maybe closer. The six of us, one cool winter's night in San Franciso, set around a table in bar and drank ourselves into partial oblivion while we discussed deep philosophical questions such as life, love and the nature of man..... Then we staggered up, walked down the street and stumbled into a tattoo parlor and had two simple words placed on our left shoulder....DEATH'S TOOL. In our deep discussion we had all come to the conclusion that we had each become a tool of death....it only seemed natural at the time to have it emblazioned on our body. The next day we winged our way to Southeast Asia....13 months only two of us remained....then five years ago one of the last ones died in a car crash...then there was only me. No friends....I had friends once and then they were gone.... Then I got on the internet and for the first time in many, many, years I found myself getting involved in the lives of others and suddenly I discovered the ablility to make friends again... Instead of being afraid to get close to someone for fear of them dieing and leaving me alone, I was able to overcome that wall and I made friends again. I met hundreds of people online but I made a few TRUE friends. That has been such an eye opener for me. To be able to let down the barriers and be a friend and have a friend....the internet has done that for me. Suddenly I find that I don't have to meet people to be able to consider them friends...I have learned their heart through their words, even more and faster than I ever could had we met first in person. See that list over there on the left....they are my friends and there are a few more which I have met in other places online....I am proud of that list, it shows me that I am not too old to have my heart softened by good people. As for the people around me in my everyday life....well so far none of them, over the past thirty five years have gotten as close to me as that list of folks over there on the left. Not one. So I just wanted to say: Thank you....each of you on that list and those others from online not on the list for letting me open my heart to you. I think you have added years to my life. I KNOW you have added happiness to whatever years I have left. |
| First, I want to post this link again and please, all of you need to click on this and join. http://groups.msn.com/WDCChatCommunity/messages.msnw I promise this will in no way take away from WDC and the things we do here. This is just a place for us to get together from time to time and talk to each other. That's all. No one will be leaving here for there...I am certainly not, thats for sure. Just think how neat it would be if we can have a spot to go to and ACTUALLY talk to each other about things like the projects we are working on in WDC or contests and stuff we are entered in. I want this to be something that will add to our experience not detract from it. Yes, there is a message board there but you don't have to spend a lot of time writing there. Use it if you want to. The main thing I wanted was a place we can get together and talk and visit. I think all of us can set aside an hour, once a week or every two weeks to get together and TALK to each other...think of it as a conference call on steroids! Ok, c'mon Dan...join already! I promise not to take up any more of your time than nessary. Oh and Forever and Red....you gotta join us too. And anyone else who wants to....JOIN and we can start figuring out a time for our first big TALK party! Ok, this is the last I will mention it...if you have any questions please email me or Mel.... |
| We interrupt your blogging experience for this important message: Listen up fellow bloggers! Mel came up with a good idea today so I thought I would share it with you. Mel thought it would be really nice if there was a place where we could all meet up and have a nice evening of chat...get to talk to each other in real time....visit. So to this end, she went into MSN and opened a Community called WDC Chat Community. Right now there isn't much in there. There is a message board and a chat room. I thought it would be great if we could pick a certain day and all meet in that chat room to have a chat party....what do you think? Now what each of you will need to do is click on this link: http://groups.msn.com/WDCChatCommunity/_whatsnew.msnw Go there and apply to join the Community (you have to be a member to chat). Me or Mel will approve your application, then, on whatever day or night we decide on, we will all meet up in the chat room and have a party! You will have to download MSN chat which will only take like two minutes AND ITS FREE! Now, besides having chat parties, there is a message board for all of the members to use...post messages and stuff to other members or make Siggys, or whatever you want. We have a photo album where you can post pictures...its a lot easier than in here. If everyone wants to do this then we will have a contest to name the Community...give it a real name, what we have now was just spur of the moment. SO TELL ME...WHAT DO YOU THINK? IS THIS WORTHWHILE? IF YOU WANT TO JOIN THE PARTY PLEASE LET ME KNOW! btw...this will not be one of those X-rated chats..we will keep it fun and clean and something you won't mind the kids seeing.....uh...well that might be overstatement! LOL LOL! Anyway, you get the idea. |
| Well, I managed to enter a chapter in Duck Wars this morning so I think I am ahead of the game. I have read my favorite bloggers who have posted already..well most of them have anyway. Now all I have to do is this thing of mine then I will be off to capture some hummingbird action. I want to get a picture of the little birds landing on Mels hands to drink their nectar....should be interesting and I will post the pic as soon as I get it. As I wrote my entry in Duck Wars today I was remembering all the other wars that went before this one. I don't know if any of those are saved anywhere on the other sites they took place on but maybe CC can do some exploring and maybe find one for us here....OMG they were very funny. Not only the wars but there was the time CC and I went to mars to repair the Mars Lander...now that was "interesting". Then there was the war that involved the nija gators, lightning donkeys, carrier possums and attack monkeys....that one got nasty! You know, if you guys would pester CC enough he would have to go back and find those things....make him do some work for a change! On the personal front I think that in a couple of weeks Mel and I are going to travel up to the Dallas area and get in some R & R time visiting Dan and Linda. Dan has commitments for the week of Oct. 5 so it will probably be the week after that. Just think of it CC...me and Dan together and able to plot against you for a few days!!! THIS IS GONNA BE FUN! Ok, sorry for the scattered blog today but I figure one rant a week is enough and I just felt like Gabbing with you all for today. I hope each and every one of you have a wonderful day and I hope that each of you are as blessed as we are here..... |
| I think it was Thomas Edison who said that inventing was 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration. Well that holds true for writing also. There are times, for all of us, when the one percent inspiration evades us and without the inspiration all the perspiration in the world will not result in a story being born. I seem to be at that point now. Nothing comes to me when I sit at the computer....no inspiration. It isn't even there on stories which I have already started. Now this is not an uncommon state of affairs. The dreaded block has happened to all of us at one time or another and it ends....when it ends....not before. All we can do is wait it out and wait for that ellusive inspiration to make its appearance. This is what I am doing now...waiting. In the meantime I plan on doing the blog and answering others just to keep the writing muscle strong for when I am able to write my stories again. I refuse to moan and obsess over my inability to write, that would be pointless. No, I plan on simply, out waiting the block and being ready when it breaks. ************************************************ Now, since this blog format allows us to put forth our own thoughts and opinions and since I have noticed that others feel right at home doing this, I want to state my own humble opinion on the aftermath of the two hurricanes which have ravaged the Gulf Coast. Since comming back online after Rita's passing I have read thousands of words...many by people who weren't even there...condemning the government for not being on site eariler to help everyone. I have to tell you first of all, I am sick and tired of people trying to blame a damn political party for a natural disaster. I do not believe any government, Republican or Democrat, could have done much better than what was done in the aftermath of Katrina...it was just too big and there was too much damage done. We discovered, for the first time, that nature can throw things at us that no government can overcome in a short period of time. I know that it is a shock for many when they discover that Big Brother Government can't take care of EVERYTHING instantly. I personally have never looked to government to ride to the rescue. I have always believed that we must help ourselves FIRST and then, if outside help comes and we still need it, we accept it gladly. I can speak only of my own small town. We were hit hard by Rita, losing all power not only for the city, but the entire county. Homes were destoryed and, errily reminicent of Katrina, our dam was damaged and extensive flooding caused. At this writing power is still out, a week after the storm, to a large portion of the county. People are still without power, water or food. On top of all this we are covered up with evacuees from east and south of us. At one point we had over two million Houstionians passing through our town and many stopping. Most of those folks have since made it back home. We still have probably 30,000 or so folks from towns East of us still here in our town...a town of 6,000 inhabitants. The difference here is that every day things are getting a little better because we have rolled up our sleeves and helped ourselves and others stranded here with us. FEMA? Oh they got here, finally and they started to help...but we were already working. We told them "Thank you, and pitch right in" and they did. If I blame the government for anything it would be their constant reinforcing of the idea that we, the people, are INTITLED to "from the cradle to the grave" care by ANY Government instead of being required to help ourselves. I really hope anyone who WASN'T in one of these two storms never has to go through one. But, if you do, I wonder if you will just sit and bitch and moan about the government failing to rescue you or will you buckle down and at least TRY to help yourself. |
| As most of you might know by now, we have just finished our little dance with the lady called Rita and though Mel and I escaped unscathed, there was extensive damage to the rest of the county. I have decided to post just a few of the pictures I took on Saturday, the day after the storm passed. What can't be seen are the deserted roadways, we were almost the only car on any of the roads we traveled and we had to weave in and out of fallen trees and downed power lines as we made our way around Livingston and then out into the country side and to our final destination: Lake Livingston Dam. They said the dam was going to break so of course I had to go see for myself. They were wrong, the dam is still intact but a lot of folks were flooded out because of all the water that was released from the lake. ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** This shot was of the dam. At the time of the shot the river had risen at least thirty or thirty five feet above normal levels. This next shot is one of our home. I was standing in the front yard and looking back at the house. Note the large limbs laying on the right of the house...this is where our cars normally sit. Fortunately we moved the cars just before the storm. ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** This next shot was taken in Wal-Mart's parking lot. the Row sign was set in concrete but that didn't help against Rita's wind. ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** There were countless homes damaged in the storm and many of them were completely destroyed...this picture is of just one of them. ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** This last picture I just couldn't pass up. Now you know what happens when a SUV tangles with a pine tree..the tree wins every time! ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** I hope you have enjoyed this pictorial journey through the remmenants of Hurricane Rita. I will be very happy NOT to see her likes in these parts again! |
| Society is covered by a thin blanket of civilization. The blanket that covers our society is made up of equal parts Electrical Power, Gas, Food and Water. This past week, during the hurricane That blanket began to unravel. First the threads of Electrical Power came loose, torn free by the high winds and falling trees. This was quickly followed by Gas which could no longer be pumped without the power. Within a day's time Food and Water became the last of the threads to pull free as they became scarce county wide. When our blanket began to unravel our comfort level was invaded and we began to lose our cover of civilized behaviour. People began to panic. For the first time in their lives they were unable to jump in their cars and run to the supermarket to resupply their large refrigerators. In fact those appliances no longer worked at all and everything began to spoil. To make matters worse water supplies were interrupted then, finally, the mere act of driving from place to place became almost impossible....gas was no longer available. So people were forced to sit in their hot houses that once had been protected by air conditioning and for the first time in their lives they started to suffer from hunger and thirst. So the blanket of civilization slowly peeled away from the approxemately 30,000 people and they quickly began to react on a more primal level. For years now Science Fiction writers have written about this scenerio. There have been countless books devoted to the "What If" idea. I myself have used this same scenerio but I have to tell you that writing about it as a "What If" and seeing it happen with my own eyes are two totally different matters. I watched people, many of whom I have known all my life, succumb to the panic. I watched as fights broke out over silly things that in another time would never have caused a raised eyebrow. Houses began to be broken into and food and water stolen, if they were found. People were stopped on the roads and cars were stolen by people who had become stranded without gas on the highways. We were lucky this time, help was near enough to come to our aid quickly. Slowly, over the last two days, the blanket has been stitched together again; Power has been turned back on to some and more importantly, to most of the gas stations. Now gas is becoming a little easier to find. Food and water has been able to be delivered....but had it been a month.....what if... Even in a place as hard hit as New Orleans at least there was a promise of help coming soon...of order being restored in the form of troops and law officers. What if there had been no hope of help coming? What if the people of the Gulf Coast: Texas, Lousiana, Mississippi and Alabama had absolutely no one to look to for help...ever? Chaos, that would have been the result and now I know that the theory used by writers is more than a theory...it can happen. We were close. Luckily now the blanket of civilization has been repaired and we are beginning to calm down. We are once more acting in a more civilized manner and I have even seen what looked like embarrasment on a few faces for the way some reacted to the emergency. About two thirds of the county is still without power at this writing, probably close to 17,000 people county wide but at least now they can get gas and food and water and even though it is still rough, they have hope of it soon being better. As I write this, 29 employees of our Wal-Mart store are unaccounted for. Hopefully they are ok and just scattered to different cities as they tried to flee the storm. But there is hope. I have learned a few lessons from weathering this storm. I learned not to overestimate our ablility to cope with disaster. I learned not to trust to the innate goodness of man when those men are deprived of basics. I have also learned that sometimes, some people will rise above their fear and their discomfort and they will pitch in to help others...this was a good lesson learned. I was proud of the people who work in my store. Our Wal-Mart employes over 300 people and except for the 29 we can't find, all the rest reported for work. Even though most of them still have no power they show up for work each day just to make sure the store will remain open so that others will have a place to go to get the much needed supplies to live. I am proud of our manager who saw to it, by hook or crook that those employees had a hot meal to eat each day...out of his own pocket. He didn't have to do that. He also made arrangments to have a simi trailer full of Ice brought to the store and then he threw the doors of the truck open and GAVE AWAY the ice instead of selling it. Yeah, I learned some lessons this past week, some good some bad and some downright scary. I think though, the biggest lesson I learned is that if another storm this big targets us......I'M GONNA MOVE THE HELL OUT OF TEXAS AND BECOME A YANKEE!! What I have written here are just a few of my own personal observations. Just thoughts by someone who has lived through it and maybe seen this type of disaster at a bit closer perspective than others. I will deal with other aspects of the storm experience in future blogs....till you guys tell me to shut the heck up! |
| Well, as you might have figured out by now, I AM BACK! I say this with a mixture of happiness and wonder at the things I have seen and the things I have been through these past four days. First of all, before I deal with "ISSUES", just let me say that had it not been for all the prayers and well wishes of my friends here I really do not think that I could have presevered to the extent that I did. Each and every one of you lifted me and Mel up with your thoughts and your prayers. There were times, when I was hot and tired, discouraged and even a bit frightened that I could actually feel your love and your good will. Saying "Thank You" seems to be rather lame to me but I can not find any better words for what you all did for us. Oh and I discovered, just before I started this blog, that Schip had awarded me with a Merit Badge!! Thank you Schip for that thoughtful act....I LOVED IT. Wind, I want to say a special THANKS for the review you did of "A Letter Concerning Me". You went to a great amount of trouble to do such an in-depth review and your suggestions are very very welcome lady. I plan on working on that piece as soon as I catch up on all the blog stuff and interactive AND THE REST OF MY MAIL! My mail box was full!! Give me a day or so and I will catch up, I promise. ************************************************* Now, where do I begin? Well let's just start with a bit of tidying up shall we. I have come back to discover that there has been a brand new NEWS SERVICE concocted here at WDC and it was no big surprise to me that my GOOD buddy CC was at the root of this little endevour. It would seem that, in my absence, CC and his side-kick PlannerDan have been having a field day at my expence.....SO WHAT ELSE IS NEW! Yes, I have read with some interest the antics of Edward R. Stoopid and Geraldo Goofy (CC and Dan) have been littering up the blog pages with bogus "News" reports as to my phyical well being or lack thereof. Well, as for CC, his motives are painfully clear to me. In fact, he is very much like all the other news services...he is flinging wordage flappage to boost his flagging ratings (WDC Blog stats). Dan, on the other hand, is a little harder to figure....maybe he was just doing something to try to help readers of CC's blog...like INTERPERT the dang thing for them! Though I did run across some flappage coming from Dan that stung a bit...like the whole washing, stinking, loss of memory about a certain phone conversation...those things were totally uncalled for you big dummy! OH,and By the way....What the hell were you blathering about? What was I supposed to have seen? Are you sure we were even HAVING a conversation????? Anyway....I can see right now that I will have quite a bit of "cleaning" to do and I shall probably have to devote quite a few blog entries to this job. Let me just say that, in closing, not all the news, nor the news gathers are what they seem. AS for CC, well when this hurricane first blew up in the gulf I called CC and told him that me and Mel were coming north to visit him during the storm. You might be interested to know that the dear, cuddly, sweet natured little goof ball you wimmen love so much, told me "NO WAY YOU IS COMING TO VISIT ME YOU PERVERT!" So, in a way, your little CC manufactured the near disaster which he has so diligently reported upon these past few days! NOW WHO IS THE LORD OF DARKNESS???? Just Saying.....!!! (tor looks over at CC's blog and sticks out his tongue) LOL LOL LOL! |
| For about an hour the clouds have been scuddling past, their bellies leaden with rain. First just a few appeared and then they started backing up. Just a few moments ago the rain began. You want to know something funny? My first reaction was one of relief...its started. I have always been like that I guess. Back in the old days, when I knew an attack was emminent, I use to get antsy waiting for it and if the enemy delayed too long I would start looking for excuses to go find them. This was not bravery...it was just someone who hated waiting. I hate waiting for bad things I prefer to get it over with, to meet it head on and be done with it. Now, maybe it has finally begun. As if the damn storm wasn't enough, let me show you what I found on a local message board that serves our city: But, the reality of the situation in Livingston and other places is substantive. There are hundreds/thousands of people here, in Livingston, without resources and/or place to go. Desperation will soon set in. When I came in this morning, first checking the status of our shelter, then to the shop, there are people stranded everywhere. Over at this gas station (which is not open) there are hundreds of vehicles lined and parked all over. I am sure the same/similar picture is available at other gas stations, parking lots, streets, etc. This is far beyond the scope of Livingston/Polk County resources to deal with. Delivery trucks will not be able to make deliveries, leaving untended thousands of people. Soon, the weather will become a mitigating factor, as well. The pot is beginning to boil. Desperate people will do desperate things. Pay attention. The writer of this was a local businessman and since its posting there have also been reports of people being stopped and robbed on the road by people who started out as evacuees. These are people who have run out of gas and are desperate to get somewhere safe. So now I have my shotgun out beside me and I don't expect to sleep any tonight. This is getting almost surreal in its weirdness. The sad thing is, if these people would come to my door and ask, I would drain gas from my car to give them and feed them too....if only they knew they really don't need to steal. Well, this is it for me...I'm going offline. I am exhausted and now I just want to wait for it to do what it will do. Maybe Mel will give another update before we lose power... but I think I'm just out of words. |
| Well this might get a bit boreing but I want to try to keep everyone updated on what is happening...as it happens here so there may be multipule entries today. Time is 12:37 and the wind has picked up considerably. This is the outriders of the storm probeing our area well in advance of the vanguard of the hurricane. Activity on my little road has become frenzied. This road is a connecting road between Hwy 59 and Hwy 146...two major escape routes. Just a few moments ago I had a man in a truck, pulling a trailer of livestock pull into my drive way. We were sitting out on our porch. He was frantic to find another route to 146 because, he said, they had the road blocked where our road connects with that highway. I told him about a backroad that would take him around the roadblock and sent him on his way. Its getting like that now. People are running out of places to hide. If needed I will start to bring folks into my home...we have room on the floor and it is dry...right now. Another interesting exchange I had, this one with a neighbor from down the road. We had never met. He drove by on the way home, saw us setting on the porch and he stopped. "I live just down the road, the yellow house." His voice was matter-of-fact. "You folks need anything at all, just come on down there." "Thanks," I told him. "If it gets bad at your place you just come on up here, I got room." He nodded and put his truck back in gear and eased off down the road. Thats how folks are around here. Ok, I will add more when the storm gets closer...you folks take care now. |
| This will be a short entry today...I need to attend to last minute things for the storm. My mind is scattered today and I am unable to really concentrate on any one subject anyway. I do want to address one thing that I have read in the last few days.... As for us getting out of the way of the storm... Had we chose to try to do this back on Wednesday we wouldnt have been able to get very far. Even then, the roads were gridlocked. Two major freeways out of Houston and Galveston, 45 and 59. Over these two roads almost a million people from Galveston and a large precent of the 3million or so people from Houston were trying to flee....many are still on the road at this writing. Hwy 59 is about five miles from my house...it looks like a parking lot...many folks will be there when the storm hits. Hwy 146 out of Galveston is less than a mile from me...same story. So, even if I had wanted to get out...it would have been impossible. Then there are my animals...If we had tried to flee we would have had to leave them behind...Well no, that I could not do. I did try to make Mel leave but you know how hard headed a Yankee is? She refused. So, If there had been any way to do it...I would have gotten her out of here...but she wouldn't go. I am afraid that is on my head. I do worry about that. As it stands right now we will begin to get the first of the hurricane force winds..the leading edge of the monster, about 3 P.M. From that point on it is gonna be anyone guess as to how long we will have power. So, I guess for now that's all I have. I will stay online as long as I can and maybe I will be able to post another entry later, who knows. If not, well then I guess we will talk to you all in a few days. DANG I HATE HAVING "BLACK" DAYS ON THE CALENDAR!!! |
| This is truly Random Thoughts today. Everything is ready, all preperations are made and now all there is to do is to wait for Rita's arrival. I hate the waiting, I always have. The very worse part of a battle is the wait, just before the first shots are fired. Thousands of things go through your mind. Did I do all that was needed? Have I covered all the bases? Will there be any surprises? I really hate the waiting and the second guessing that goes with it. All my children are relatively safe now....they have all checked in with me to let me know their plans and their whereabouts..I can stop worrying about them for awhile. There was a question about my youngest son for awhile. He lives in Galveston, at ground zero as it were and I could not reach him by phone. I was at the point, last night, of loading into my car and driving there and looking for him. I was hoping I would be able to find him before the storm hit and get him to safety. But, thank God, he called last night. He is out of Galveston and he is safe. I was not looking forward to heading into the storm to look for him. Well, like I said, everything is done and now all I can do is wait for the opening shots to be fired by Rita herself. If I have any regrets it is that I was unable to talk Mel into leaving town for a few days. I don't mind staying here and watching after the animals and stuff but I do hate that she refuses to leave me here and get to safety. I said, long ago, that I would never be responsible again for the safety of someone else, I would never again have another life dependant on my actions......but now I do. I just hope I do a better job of it this time. Where we are located we really don't have to worry about storm surge or flooding that much from the hurricane. The things we will experience is tornados and high wind spawned by the storm. We live out in the country and our home is surrounded by very large, very old trees so if we take a hit it will be from one or more of those trees coming down on top of the house itself. You can't really protect against that no more than you can protect against a stray bullet...if it happens it just happens. ****************************************** I have read in the blogs today some very interesting comments about the importance of writing every day in your journal and why we should or should not worry about doing that. Well the way I look at it, writing in the blog daily is like exercise to an athlete, it keeps us in shape for when we decide to write the other stuff we feel the urge to write. Another reason is, wither anyone ever reads it or not, we have set down our thoughts on the screen. Someday, someone, somewhere might just stagger across what we have written and might find some enjoyment in the reading or might even find some answers to their own questions in our words....Maybe it is a form of immortality...we are leaving our mark for better or worse. I rarely have that much to say that is either entertaining or informative...but they are MY words and as such they are a part of who I am. Today is Thursday.....by tomorrow evening I should be FINALLY engaged in the battle with this bitch...I hate the waiting. The best part about the storm finally hitting is that I will no longer be forced to listen to these damn talking heads on TV as they run the whole thing into the ground with their endless over stating of the obvious. Well.....I'm still here...I will try to make another entry tomorrow..not sure after that. God Bless each and every one of you. I do want to say one thing before I leave here today...You people here on WDC mean the world to me. I have developed some wonderful friendships in this place and please know that I am thinking about all of you today. Thank you for being here. |
| It is now Day two of my hurricane watch and the shopping panic has intensified ten fold since yesterday. It was eight hours of complete hell...but I don't want to talk about that in this blog today. I want to talk about my brother today. I read PlannerDan's blog and he was talking about sleeping in his contacts and had gummy eyes....this triggered a memory for me that made me smile. Now when I was a kid, in high school, I wore contacts and I had many adventures dealing with losing them or mistreating them in one way or another. The biggest mistake I made with those things was the weekend I spent playing a marathon poker game and never taking them off. I was maybe sixteen or so...Friday morning I put my contacts in and went to school. After school I played a football game and after the game, me and my "posse" met up and took off for the woods to spend the weekend at a camphouse owned by the father of one of my friends. We, in our infinite wisdom, decided to have a marathon poker game that weekend. After all, we had all the things required for this endeavor, we had chips, we had dip, we had beer and we had a ton of match sticks to use for poker chips (none of us ever had much money). Well, we started playing Friday night about midnight and we sit at the table, drank beer, ate chips and dip all that night and all day Saturday and into Saturday night. Sometime in the wee small hours of Saturday or early sunday morning I either fell asleep at the table or passed out(all my matchs were stolen while I was out.) I woke up Sunday afternoon when my buddies dumped me back at my house. I dragged my sorry self into my room and fell on the bed and slept until monday morning when it was time for school again. Well needless to say, I had the king of all cases of "Gummy eyes" from keeping the contacts in so long AND sleeping in them. Then it happened: My eyes became so irritated from the overuse of the hard contacts that I could barely open them and both became swollen. My mom took me to the doctor who gave her some salve to apply to my eyes and he put patches over both my eyes and said I would have to keep these on for 48hours to rest my poor eyes and give them time to heal. So in effect, I was BLIND. My mom drove me home and helped me out of the car. I heard my little bother at the front door asking if I was ok...he is five years my junior. Mom assured him I was fine but just couldnt see for awhile. Then I heard mom say: "Now that's strange." "What?" I asked her. "Your brother just ran back into the house and shut the door." I had a bad feeling about this. Now I wasn't worried about finding my way around. I knew the layout of the house very well. I knew where all the furniture was and the doors and stuff. So, while mom grabbed some bags out of the back seat...she had been shopping before my doctor's appt....I headed on down to the house, slowly feeling my way along the sidewalk. I opened the front door and stepped confidently inside the living room. THUD! My leg and foot got tangled in some dang piece of furniture that SHOULD NOT have been in front of the door and I hit the floor like a sack of mud! I slowly pulled myself up and made my way over to where my favorite chair was located and I ploped down to rest.... THUD! The chair was not where it was supposed to be! Then I heard giggling. It dawned on me then that I was in big trouble...the little jerk and hurridly rearranged the furniture in the living room! "I'm gonna bust your butt you little turd!" I yelled at him. "Come get me you big turkey!" He yelled back with confidence. I gauged, by the sound of his voice, that he was standing in the doorway leading to the hall so I lunged toward him, my arms reaching out to throttle his neck. THUD, BANG, PLOP! I ran dead on into the hall door he had eased shut, then fell over another chair and bounced once on the floor! It was at this point that mom came in and saved his sorry life. She helped me to my room and made me lay down and she bannished my brother to the barn to feed the animals. Thankfully she kept a eye on the little devil for the next two days until I was once again able to protect myself. This small and funny event marked the beginnings of a practical joke war that has waged ever since between the two of us. Of course we became good friends as well as brothers, but from that day forward one of us, either me or him, was always planning "Payback" for some pratical joke or another. Needless to say, it has made our lifes interesting and neither of us would ever change a thing. Maybe on another day I will relate some of the practical jokes we played on each other over the years. Thank you Dan for triggering that very funny memory. |
| THIS IS A PUBLIC SERVICE WARNING....THE FOLLOWING BLOG ENTRY IS A RANT SO IF YOU DON'T WANT TO READ A RANT, STOP NOW! I have just finished a day from hell and a good 80% of that day was totally uncalled for. Picture, if you will, any large chain store two days before Christmas when it is completely awash with paniced shoppers trying to finish their Christmas shopping. There, got that picture? Ok, if you have that mental image, then let me tell you that today was about twice THAT BAD! Middle of the month, middle of the week and no holiday in the near future. In other words it should not have happened....but there they were, people coming through our doors by the hundreds. This started about seven this morning and did not let up. As I was leaving this afternoon about three o'clock there were folks actually almost coming to blows over bottled water. Why is this happening? Simple. Hurricane Rita is now in the Gulf of Mexico and looks to make landfall in Texas, more specifically, Houston. You would think that the people along the Texas coast had never lived through a hurricane before but we have....many many times these things have blasted our coast. So, why is the panic setting in now? Easy....Television coverage of Hurricane Katrina has scared people to death. Not only coverage of that event, but now when they talk of this new storm and they have talked about it for a week now, they never fail to give the "worse case scenerio". "Ifthis hurricane reaches catogory 4 or 5..... and if it makes landfall at Galveston and Houston.... and ifa half dozen other things fall just right....THEN HUNDREDS OR THOUSANDS COULD BE KILLED!" People sit at home and watch and listen to this. They have spent the past month being bombarded by pictures of New Orleans and the distruction and now their trusted talking heads are telling them "HUNDREDS AND THOUSANDS DEAD!" You see, that is all they really hear....what the death toll could be. It's great for the TV stations, ratings are high....but what about all these people who are running around scared out of their wits THREE DAYS BEFORE THE STORM HITS...IF IT HITS US AT ALL! I have always said that the News Media overplays the drama of a storm for ratings...this is proof of it. The funny thing is those pictures and stories out of New Orleans show damage that was caused by a LEVEE breaking...not a hurricane. The real damage caused by the hurricane was in Mississippi and Alabama and we have heard or seen few scenes from there...go figure. So, here we are on Tuesday....the storm is supposed to hit on Friday or Saturday, and folks are going crazy. This morning, about 9:00 a.m. we recieved a shipment of bottled water, a whole truck load, 24 freaking PALLETS of CASES of the stuff. By 1:00p.m. it was gone. We got another small load in just before I left...I am sure it is gone by now. Canned goods....we had two isles of canned goods and stock in the back of the store....the shelves are empty! Everything gone. Now the thing that gets me is that these are hardy, strong, independent people. They are use to hurricanes. They KNOW we arn't below sea level and we CAN'T be flooded by a levee because WE DON'T HAVE THEM! So why are they now crumbling into panic? Easy. These are not the people of the last generation. These are people who were raised on TV. Tv was always there to tell them what to think, what to do. The man on the TV has told them a bad bad thing is coming.....so they panic. Thirty or forty years ago you wouldn't even have seen a raised eyebrow from these people over the news of a hurricane....but not now. Now they seem to feed on the panic, they embrace it. When I was a kid we lived through Carla. Then later we had Celia which destroyed a few towns, Corpus Cristi for one. There was no panic. The women and kids were sent to safty if there was time and the men stood and faced the storm. When the storm had passed, the women and kids came back and they rebuilt...simple. Not today. Well I will NOT panic buy. I will not rush around frightened of my shadow. I WILL send Mel away...if she will go. I WILL face this silly storm and I WILL rebuild if I have to....or I will help my neighbors if it is required. TO HELL WITH TELEVISION AND THEIR SPREAD OF FEAR. So there you have it..my rant brought on by a very hectic day...sorry to bend your ears. I will be here to watch the storm come in and I will report what I see as long as I have power to the computer. In the "Just my Luck" department....the hurricane is supposed to come ashore on Friday or Saturday...MY TWO DAYS OFF! I might not even get a storm day outta this damn thing! GO FIGURE! btw...this entry has 983 words...983 being a prime number....Am I safe now???? |
| First off I would like to take a moment to thank each and every one of you who replied to my last blog entry and I especally want to publicily thank PlannerDan for the merit badge he gave me for this piece. Dan, you did it; I was struck speechless when I saw that thing. You deserve some kind of medal yourself for achieving that effect in me. LOL! I am not sure why that story came to me when it did, maybe it was because I have been watching men come into the store for a week or so getting ready for hunting season, maybe I started remembering what that was like. I just wanted all of you to read about a dog that once blessed my family with his loyality and his love. Oh and I did what you all suggested; I put the story in my port. Here is the link for those interested, even though you have already read it here....
I put it in the folder I have started of letters to the future generations of my family. Thank you again for your support of my writing attempts, I don't know where I would be without all of you. There have been times, here in WDC, when I have hit the stone wall of Writer's Block and it has been this blog and you readers who have managed to help me loosen the logjam of words within me.....Thank You. |
| My father always had the knack of running into great deals or finding something neat others may have overlooked. No were was this more evident than the day he acquired Jake, a two year old Pointer. Back in the early 70's dad got in on a bird hunting lease up in North Texas. The lease was beautiful land that lay on the outskirts of the small town of Throckmorton, Texas which is about two hours north of Dallas. Deer, Hog, Wolves, Quail and Dove abounded on this land and though the members of the lease got the land primarily for the Quail hunting, they also took some of all the other game with the exception of the Wolf. None of these hardened old hunters could bring themselves to shoot that beautiful creature and I think that says a lot for the men. Now the first time dad ventured up north to hunt his new lease, he took me with him. I was young, in my very early twenties and dad was trying to get me interested in hunting again. It seems that when I came home from the service I was no longer able to hunt with any pleasure and dad, in his own way, was trying to bring me back to where I had been before. Well, when we got to the lease all the other members were already there and to our surprise all of them had Bird Dogs but us. You see, down in East Texas, where I am from, quail hunting is not that big and no one really cared to go to the expense of buying a high priced dog just to hunt the little birds. Not dismayed in the least, my dad and I set out to hunt the old fashioned way...we would walk across the valleys and draws and up the hills and mesas scaring the birds up ourselves and shooting them. Well this method was "hit or miss" at best since we did not have the benefit of the extremely fine nose of a pointer or setter to guide us to the covys of birds. That evening, when we returned to the camp, our game bags were sadly lacking. While the other men had piles of dead quail to clean, dad and I had just a handfull. Well, the next morning, while everyone else took off for the hunt, we decided to drive into Throckmorton and have a look at the town and maybe meet some of the locals. Our first stop was at the one Cafe in town where we ate a large breakfast and where dad struck up a conversation with a local rancher. The rancher was a very nice man who told us all about the land we had leased and where the best places on the lease was to find different game. During the conversation dad happened to mention that we had no bird dog and we were really at a disavantage on the hunt. The man thought a moment then he told dad that he had just what we needed. It seems that the man owned a pointer that was about two years old at the time and he had never been trained to hunt, he was just a pet who rode around in the man's truck. The rancher told us that since he didn't have papers on this dog and would never be able to show him or use him in the field trials he just didn't bother to train him. The three of us walked out to the rancher's truck and sure enough there was this big, chuckle-headed pointer laying in the bed of his truck. The dog stood up as we approached and I was struck by the beauty of the animal. He weighed maybe sixty pounds and had a wide, deep chest, denoting a deep wellspring of stamina and strength. His eyes were bright and inquisitive as he surveyed his master and the stranges standing with him. His body was snow white with brown blotches spread across his back and stomach. The rancher told us that we were welcome to the dog since his two kids had moved away from home and left the "pet" with him anyway. He warned us that the dog was fiercly independent and hard headed, like most of his breed and if the dog took a dislike to you he would not mind you at all. Besides, he said, he might not be worth a damn at actual hunting. My dad looked at the dog and the dog looked at dad. I could almost hear something "click" between these two very hard headed and independent beings as they exchanged looks. Dad told the rancher in a very soft voice, never taking his eyes off the dog: "I think I want this dog. I think I want him very much." The rancher dropped the tailgate of his truck. "Well this is the first test." He told dad. "If he don't like you, he ain't gonna load up in your truck, no matter what you do." Dad just turned and walked to our truck and lowered the tailgate. "Come on Jake." He called to the dog. "Load up. Let's go hunting." The dog kind of turned his head to the side and looked at the rancher, then looked at dad. Then, with a bound, he jumped out of one truck and into ours, turned around twice, layed down and looked up at dad as if to say: "Well come on then, let's get to hunting!" We bid the rancher goodbye and headed back to the lease to try out our new dog. Now the man who kind of ran the lease was a very rich guy who had paid big bucks for a champion hunting dog, a pointer like Jake. The dog's name was Snowman because of his color. He was snow white with no other colors on his coat, rare for the breed. This dog had won ribbons at shows and field trials and the man who owned him was a bit overbearing with all the bragging he always did about his great hunting dog. Now make no mistake, Snowman was a beautiful animal and he was a great hunter...he just hadn't met our "junkyard" dog yet! The man who owned Snowman told dad that he would accompany us on the hunt that afternoon so we could see how a REAL dog hunts. He said he wanted us to see how much training we would have to put Jake through to make him any kind of real hunting dog. Well that afternoon the three of us set out over the lease with the two dogs bounding ahead. Now the thing is, with bird dogs it is very important when two dogs are working together, that if one dog finds the covey of quail, the other dog must "honor" his point by stopping BEHIND the dog that found the birds. It is very embarrassing to the ower of a dog to have his dog always BEHIND another dog. That means his dog is less of a hunter. Snowman's owner warned us not to get too down if Jake spends the day following Snowman around. We should just think of it as Jake's schooling. Dad didn't say a word, he just unhooked Jake from his leash and told him softly: "Go find some meat, boy." The first five coveys that were found that afternoon were found and pointed by Jake! Snowman spent the whole afternoon following our "Junkyard" dog around the lease! Snowman's owner was FURIOUS! He could not believe some damn dog with no pedigree at all could beat his champion like that. Dad was walking on air he was so happy with Jake. That began the legend of Jake. Dad often told his buddies that old Jake might not be no purebreed, show dog but he was damn sure a "Meat" dog. If there was game out there, Jake's nose would find it. One year, dad shot a turkey on the lease and he told Jake to go retrieve it after the bird had flapped out of sight into a brushy draw. None of thought Jake would actually find and retrieve a turkey, pointers just weren't meant to do something like that. Dad turned Jake loose then sit down on a rock to wait....sure enough, about ten minutes later here comes Jake out of that draw with this huge turkey clamped securely in his jaws. The turkey was still alive and ever few feet he would flap his wings and break free of Jakes grip (bird dogs will hold game in their mouths without biting it) and when this happend, Jake would recatch the turkey and continue on his way. Jake didn't stop until he was standing at dad's feet, then he spit the turkey out to land on the ground in front of dad, just like it was the most natural thing in the world for him to be doing. We hunted with Jake for years and dad would never hear of buying another dog, even when Jake begin to get up there in years. Dad would tell me that he was getting old just like Jake so he would slow down his own hunting before he would replace the dog. In August of 1981 my father passed away, the victim of a tumor on his liver. Cancer. I think, as hard as dad's death was for the rest of the family, it was harder still for Jake for over the years those two had become inseperable. They had become more like two old buddies than Master and Dog. After Dad's death, I would stop by the house to visit mom and I would find old Jake, now quite old, laying on the back porch looking forlorn and lost. A couple of months after the funeral Jake took ill. I carried him to the vet who informed me that the dog had a terrible case of Heart Worms and, due to his old age, the only humane thing to do would be to put him down. I could not bring myself to do that for, in fact, with Jake still there it was almost like having something of my father still with me. November came and Jake seemed to take a turn for the better. As the weather cooled and the leaves fell, Jake started to greet me in the driveway when I came to visit, he would dance around my feet like a puppy. I wasn't sure what had gotten into the old rascal. Finally I talked to my brother about Jake's behavior and Rick told me something I hadn't even thought of. "He know's quail season is almost here." Rick said. "I think, as sick as he is, Jake wants one more hunt." It made perfect sense when Rick said it, why hadn't I thought of it? Now my brother and I had decided not to hunt that year. Neither of us could bring ourselves to go out to that lease that had been so much a part of our father but after talking it over we decided....why not? Why not one more hunt for Jake and for us to say goodbye to the father we both missed so damn much. So that Novemember we loaded up Jake and we set out for the day long drive to the lease. We spent the next three days hunting like we had never hunted before. Jake was like a young dog again, bounding through the draws and canyons and up the mesa sides in search of quail coveys. The game was there in abundance and neither of us had ever shot so many birds. Finally, on the afternoon of the last day of the hunt Jake seemed to be slowing down. His head would hang, his breath would come in gasps but he would not allow us to leave the camp without him. He would set up such a fuss we had to untie him and let him go. I asked Rick if he minded taking his new dog and hunting with him and letting me take Jake this last time. He understood. As the sun was setting that day, Jake and I made our way up the side of a mesa we had not hunted before and when we got to the top the sun was almost down, it washed the flat top of the mesa in deep red and orange from it's dying light as Jake plunged, that last time, into covey after covey....I had never seen so many coveys on one mesa in my life. Later Rick told me it sounded like a war from where he was, my shotgun was firing almost continueously. When Jake and I came off the top of that mesa my game bag was full of birds, but halfway back to camp Jake collapsed...he could go no further. I picked him up and carried him back to the camp, the tears were running down my cheeks and I could barely see where I was walking. When we got home the next day Jake was still alive, but barely and I could tell he was in pain. I took him to the vet and told him it was time...Jake was ready now. The vet told me to just leave Jake on the table and he would give him the shot. I told the vet that unless HE wanted that shot, he would let me stay with Jake. I climbed up on the table and held Jake's head on my lap and softly stroked his head. Jake looked into my eyes and I could almost hear him telling me goodbye. The vet gave Jake the shot and I watched as the life slipped from his eyes... My father's grave was at the back side of the cemetary, next to a chain link fence that marked the property. I buried Jake on the other side of that fence, directly behind my father. I like to think he followed dad to a better hunting ground. I never again hunted quail or owned a bird dog...I hunted with the best so I was done. |
I believe I am going to start a new feature on my Blog page. Today, and every Saturday from now on I want to plug some things written by a few of my favorite bloggers that some of you might not have read before. Each of these pieces that I have highlighted I have also read and found to be really good. So, without further ado, here are my picks of the week, as it were. Please find the time to read a few of them and I promise that you will enjoy the read.
And, last and probably least....one of my own little stories....
That's it...the first of Tor's Weekly Picks...Enjoy! |
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Congrats on 500 entries, and we are all looking forward to the sequel.
