Glory..........

In all the history of Mankind, there has existed only one great thing for a person to discover, create, conquer, or control.........himself.

Having done that, by comparison, whatever else he may accomplish is mere past-time.

Thus endeth the entry..........

Giorgio Armani...........eat your fucking heart out!

What did I tell you?

Manly sartorial splendor, or what?













Ladies, I have no real use (at this time) for addresses, phone numbers or used panties...........but flattery and cash are always welcome, and, as proposed a few entries back, I will post pictures of your breasts without judgement, commentary or comparison.

Stay tuned for pics of the family Thanksgiving............. Shylar Ann's (new Grand-niece) first appearance here........

.....And, Turkey gets the once over, stuffing magic, and a salad that will change your mind about cranberries in "Cooking with Gutz".

Should, of course, the spirit move me this weekend........

Thus endeth the entry..........

"Don't let it be forgot............."

It was about this time of night.

The sky was roiling with thick clouds, cast in a macabre light by the fading sun. It was the gloomiest November night I can recall.

A stinging mix of ice and rain, given force by a bitter wind, lashed my face and brought new tears to eyes already wet.

I trudged from house to house weighed down by the heaviest bag of papers I ever carried.

I laid bad news on doorstep after doorstep.

Banner headlines screamed:

"JFK SLAIN BY SNIPER IN DALLAS"

Forty-one years ago today, November 22, 1963.

"Don't let it be forgot,
That once there was a spot,
For one brief, shining moment......
that was known as Camelot"


Thus endeth the entry............

G. Q.........................

Throughout most of the year, I'm comfortably, and simply clad in jeans, colored t-shirt and a pair of Dexter Navigators.

In fall, however, when the weather gets crisp, I turn into a regular clothes horse.........adding a leather jacket, an Akubra fur-felt fedora, a pair of 6 inch Red-Wing hikers, the occasional pair of pleated front khakis (both light and dark tan), turtle neck shirts, henley style shirts, and a variety of long sleeved flannel shirts.

An on line acquaintance once asked me, by way of small talk, if I had a favorite shirt.

I replied that there were several shirts that I wore often and liked, but I wasn't sure if any one of them really qualified as a "favorite shirt".

That was right at a year ago and since then I've given thought to the question from time to time............(odd, how meaningless little things like that will just keep cropping up in your head, isn't it?)

Well, I've got it narrowed down to the four shirts that I like the best........




........but I still can't decide which one is my favorite.

Thus endeth the entry...........

Happy Birthday Emily...........

Tomorrow.......that is to say Nov. 17........is Emily's 21st Birthday.

Emily writes the delightful Les Aventures de Fille Chaude.........

.......from the time I post this, until at least Midnight on the 17th, I would like everyone who reads this (whether friend or stranger) to navigate to Emily's site and leave a Happy Birthday note in her comments.

I've never actually met Emily nor have we ever actually spoken......and yet we have an ongoing correspondence and a mutual regard and esteem.


We were introduced nearly two years ago..........through a series of the sort of serendipities that seem to be grist for the internet mill.
For nearly a year now, we have exchanged the occasional e-mail and chatted in the wee hours of the morning from time to time on instant messenger.

She is quick and lively and fun,and witty and smart and pretty...........
She has an admirable integrity and character.....
She has, I believe, the determination and strength and courage to define herself on her own terms......and make of her life what she wants it to be.
Her life is full to bursting with the things that consume people of that age; school, work, boyfriends, family, self, good times and bad, doubts, worries and questions,
.....and sometimes make them wonder why people my age insist that "these are the best years of your life".

She has never been compeled by any obligation to include me in her thoughts.......I am not a part of her family, or culture, or social circle.........just an old guy who stumbled into her path more by accident than design.
Yet, she has been consistently kind and considerate........
From the time I began this online diary, she has been a faithful reader and a consistent and supportive commenter......
Though at times beset, to the point of being overwhelmed, by the troubles and difficulties that are bound to arise in any young life, she has sweetly concerned herself with the things that devil me.........

Aside from my children and grandchildren........she has been a rare "bright spot" during one of the most trying years of my life.

Along with my children and grandchildren, she helps me to believe that the "Sun will come out tomorrow"........complete with dimples and an orchestra.

She strengthens my faith.........

In short, she is a sweetheart who has shown me more kindness and consideration and thoughtfulness, and decency than mere courtesy requires..............
and I wish I could send her a pick-up truck load of fresh mountain flowers.

Instead, I'm going to ask the frequenters of my little corner of the blog-o-verse to help me wish her a Happy Birthday.........she deserves that and so much more.

So, please..........leave Emily a Happy Birthday.

*Bisses* sweety.........Happy Birthday!

Thus endeth the entry............

Waiter, there's a tempest in my teacup............

Comments, questions, and speculations about my last post (both on and off the record.......i.e. email included), call for their own "observations".

I believe I'd stated, in some past entry, that I'd read,and studied blogs for about a year before I decided to publish my own.

In that time I came to some conclusions as to how I would govern myself in regards to comments............
I was certain that I would get the usual "right ons" (write ons?) and bon mots from friends and well wishers.......perhaps a gentle criticism or two.

Given that I am opinionated and a bit sarcastic at times, I was equally certain that, as I inevitably networked into the world of "those-who-know-me-not-at-all, I would also attract an occasional detractor or even a *gasp* "flamer".

Like all bloggers, I love comment........it is the one sure sign that one is being read.
Like all people, I love the nice comments people leave.........

.......but really, folks, where is the fun in saying controversial things if no one gets in your face about it a little bit? I enjoy a good difference of opinion with someone who can actually spare two neurons to rub together to start an intelligent and pertinent verbal fire..........I look forward to it. The possibility of trading barbs and witticisms with strangers and friends was one of the incentives of starting a blog........the anticipation of dialogue and contest as I slowly build up a network of readers, is among the things that make it worth the time and effort of continuing.

Among the blunders (or what I regarded to be blunders) that I saw other bloggers get drawn into, were "knee-jerk" reactions........allowing the detractor, essentially, to take over the blog, set the tone, choose the topic, and direct the debate.....in short, bait the blogger. Thereby giving them way too much credence,their words an undeserved weight and an unearned podium (my personal blog).........and power, and becoming their willing stooge or foil.
It always seemed to me the best response to such, is no response at all.

Likewise, the deletion..........
Deletion also gives the critic credence.........once people have seen the criticism you can't really erase it or pretend it never existed.

So, I determined that I would never either debate with an idiotic detractor, as though he or she were actually someone that I cared about, or regarded as worthy of being taken seriously, or delete their words.

The best way to expose an idiot, is to let their words stand and let others see that they are an idiot and tell them so.........in the same forum they have chosen to display their stupidity.

To do otherwise would be to give them importance, credibility......to let them, and anyone else who saw the criticism, know that they had gotten to you. They win!

To delete a serious and well thought out criticism, on the other hand, or to ignore it, or to attack them in a personal way such as calling them names or refusing them a podium (or both), is to show the world that you can "dish it out", but you can't take it.........that you don't have the courage of your convictions or the intelligence or the strength to back up the things you have pronounced. They win!

To become a "name caller", to resort to the argument "ad hominem"......is, in the case of the idiot, to reduce yourself to their level........
In the case of the honest critic, it is to become, yourself, the idiot...........
In either case, it is the worst response imaginable. They win!

If I deserve a slap, or have done an unintentional hurt or injustice, tell me........I'll be the first to acknowledge it, or apologize for it, if it is called for.
So, I'll always respond to a serious question raised about the opinions that I put forth here..........to a point. It is my blog, and part of its function is to serve as an outlet for my thoughts and points of view. Some things,of course, even if begun publically, are personal........and should be retired from the public arena and handled as such.

I'll never respond to a moron or a flamer...........my readers have, for the most part, proven themselves discerning, and intelligent, and articulate,.............I'll let them have their fun with him/her until he/she retires from the field bleeding.

In that context, I'll never delete a comment.........

If I am that thin skinned, I should just keep my mouth shut in public altogether.
If there is something I simply must say "out loud".......I should just get a paper diary and never, ever, under any circumstances,let anyone else see it, lest *horror of horrors, gasp*, they disagree with me.

So, sorry to disappoint all those who came to the door to see what all the commotion was about but it was a false alarm. You can relax.........

We will now resume our regular programming.........

Thus endeth the entry.........

An observation..........

Have you ever noticed how often it turns out that those quickest, and loudest, and most vociferous, and public about offering up their criticism of others (however undeserved, unfounded, uninformed, asinine, or contradictory to the obvious) are those least tolerant of any criticism, or question whatsoever (however justified or deserved) of themselves??

.....and how often they will foolishly expose themselves and prove the point?

.....and how deliciously amusing it is when they do so?

Thus endeth the entry (lesson?)............

A Little Reminder...........

I am stumbling about the warm comforts of my hovel after the usual, semi-productive, exercise in futility. Further, deponent sayeth not. Re-fortified with cheap analgesics, I am about to toddle back off to bed, what dreams may come, and the likelihood of losing yet another round in the nightly struggle for a few scraps of sleep.

Before I go, I'd like to remind regular readers (and irregular ones, for that matter) that I have been striving right mightily on Cooking With Gutz lo these many days.

I have now finished entries on: a rather unique turkey salad (that I am right proud of), monster apple pies that compare favorably with sex in terms of pure indulgence,(and are reason enough alone to kick yourself should you pass it up entire), and a simple, quick and tasty turkey dinner entry (in which I begin to unravel and expose arcane secrets of gravy making passed down to me by the ancients themselves).....and there is more already waiting in picture and outline form.

As when I first launched that effort, I've got a ton of ideas to feed it.......I believe I can sustain it at this point.

Insofar as my cooking blog has been dormant since late July, I feel I can honestly refer to these occasional announcements as "reminders" for at least a couple more weeks. After that, it would cross the line into undignified begging for readership.

I'm not really sure what compels people to whom I'm not related to read what I write .......but you must be getting some strange (and pleasurable) kick out of it or you wouldn't do it. If "Cooking........" didn't offer up another forum for the same kind of madness, I wouldn't bother you with it.

I have even moved the sidebar link to "Cooking....." from its bottom of the list obscurity, to a more obvious place adjacent and to the left of the most current entry. So, please, bear with me until I feel you've had the chance to get in the habit, once again, of checking there for a new entry when you visit here.

I promise to stop before I lose all semblance of manly integrity.

Macbeth doth go to murder sleep..........

Thus endeth the entry........

From the Halls of Montezuma...............

When Viagra was first introduced there was some speculation as to whether its ability to facilitate stimulation and improve circulation in certain parts of the male body might have other beneficial effects. For instance, might it not be possible that it would also heighten mental acuity and physical stamina.

This, naturally, was of great interest to the defense department, so they decided to initiate a 30 day trial and study the results.

They chose 100 men from each branch of the armed services, Army, Airforce, Navy, and Marine Corps, so as to achieve the broadest possible sampling, and gave each man a pill a day for 30 days. At the beginning and the end of the trial, they ran the men through a battery of physical and mental tasks to see if there were any changes and measure them.

Sure enough, at the end of the thirty days, the men of the Army, Airforce and Navy all had shown a significant improvement in mental acuity and physical stamina as a direct result of having taken the Viagra.

The Marines just got taller..........

Happy 229th Birthday to all my Marine brothers. For those in harms way, may God grant you a safe return home...... if not, may you take a hundred of those sons-of-bitches with you, march them to hell in chains, crying like babies for mercy and their Mothers all the way, and take their place for all eternity in a warrior's paradise, claiming all their virgins as a righteous victor's prize...........Ooooorahh......Semper Fi!

Thus endeth the entry...........

Someone's In the Kitchen with Dinah...................

At long last, another entry in Cooking With Gutz.

I started around 2:30 this afternoon, and by the time I'd gone back and forth and proof read and edited and tweaked 'til I was satisfied with it, it was nearly 9:00pm.

I'd forgotten how much work it is to post a picture blog .........I'd also forgotten how much fun it is.

I should get another post up tomorrow and one a couple of days after that.

Then perhaps I can settle into a schedule of sorts that my faithful readers here can begin to anticipate and count on.

So, come on back to the kitchen..........I'll tell you stories, I'll pontificate, I'll rhapsodize, ...........I may bore you or piss you off.

........but I'll wind up feeding you........body, mind and soul.

For those of you that have encouraged me to return to it........I thank you.

To those of you who have waited, and waited and waited.........I apologize for the delays and thank you for your patience and forbearance.

So, come on it to the kitchen...........somethings cookin'

Enjoy........

Thus endeth the entry...........

Bob and Willy and Me...........Summer's End.

The trouble with waiting all (insert descriptive term for time period of choice here,ie: summer, semester, etc......) for anything to happen is that it eventually will happen...........and that right soon. The long awaited event will come to pass, and then be over, and the semi-void of anti-climax will drift in and settle over you like a Los Angelean Smog.

Don't get me wrong. This, in no way, takes anything away from the fun or quality inherent in an event. It just leaves you kind of deflated.........
I think that's where I've been for most of the past 60 or so days.

Bob Dylan and Willie Nelson together........in fucking Peoria, Illinois, no less...................at an outdoor concert!!!
Every last strand of culturally recombinant Hillbilly/Hippie DNA that serves to define my basic genetic make up was literally vibrating at the news.........

I couldn't wait to get tickets. I got tickets for each of my kids and their significant others......and an extra for each just in case they couldn't get a sitter and had to have a ticket for a grand-baby. I even got an extra ticket for myself, on the odd (and unlikely) chance that I might encounter someone I could stand to spend that much time with that:
A) wasn't related to me,
B)wasn't actively engaged in providing me with some form of sexual stimulation,
C)I wasn't bound by a blood oath not to do bodily harm to without serious and justifiable cause
D)wouldn't confuse my enthusiasm for the event coupled with their involvement in it for "significance"......
The latter eventuality did not prevail (said without any real chagrin)........

It was a drizzly evening, but August-in-Illinois warm.........very much like the misty dampness that greeted me most mornings when I ventured out of my assorted Bed and Breakfasts in Ireland. In a leather coat and a broadbrimmed fur-felt fedora, I was nearly impervious.......hardly needing the umbrella I carried.


Casey and Dianne at the concert...


Cassie and Hans.....

The concert, as I mentioned was open air.........held in the outfield of O'Brian Field, Peoria's minor league ball park.

The opening act was Hot Club of Cowtown, a sort of fiddle anchored, bluegrass-cum-country-rock outfit from Austin, Texas that, in and of itself, would be a hoot to go and listen to in a club or at a party somewhere..........enthusiastic, tight and having fun with each other and their music.

The intervals between acts, as one outfit tore down and the other set up could have been a little better organized.........bit too much "down-time".....but it's been a while since this old-timer has been to a concert so perhaps I'm suffering a perception error due to memory parallax.

At any rate, Casey kept me supplied with over-priced beers....which I was grateful for but weakly protested on general principle......ie:

That listed among the things you are better off passing up is...........

I) any draft beer for which you have to pay more than $2.00,

II) any episode of casual sex in which you have to invest more than: a)two hours of idle chat, b)4 draft beers or the equivalent number of "foo foo" cocktails.....(let's face it, if he or she thinks no more of themselves than to be willing to risk a physical intimacy indulging in something that is as meaningless as a hollywood kiss, with someone they don't know,don't like, don't want to be with and don't care if they ever see again, how much better than mediocre, assisted masturbation is it likely to be?)

........And then came Willy.


Willy.....arty, eh??

Willy was great..........as I would have expected him to be. Mother Nature seemed to be in on the act as lightening forked between the clouds at what I would have sworn were pre-arranged and appropriate moments in the program.......
and, of course, there was "Blue Eyes Cryin' in the Rain". Hell, it was like a CMTV video..........I loved it.

However much I might have anticipated Willy Nelson, the desire to hear Bob Dylan exceeded that anticipation at least ten-fold.

I grew up with him........in a real sense. Through his music, from the "stand back, look at it, toss it all out and start all over again" beginnings, through all the evolutions.........to that final (and still fine-tuning) fuck you........this is where I ended up because this is who I am.

Dylan rocked..........and I mean rocked everything. Even the "old standards" came across as barely recognizable........dressed up in happy new rock and roll clothes.
Gone were the whiney, angsty tones of the prophet of cultural doom. Here was the celebration of music and lyrics that helped to define a base line split in the way people looked at things and accepted things both within and without.......and, for better or worse, challenged a generation to make up their own minds, and make their own mark.......and their own stupid, fucking mistakes.
I was absolutely delighted with it........hearing the old tunes tweaked was almost like being let in on a secret......one that you could share with a wink and a grin, right under the noses of the uninitiated........like the secret handshake of a fraternity that identifies a brother.

I didn't get a picture of Bob Dylan.........my camera batteries picked that instant to shoot craps and I didn't have a spare set with me. Perhaps a serendipitous lapse at that. A picture may have been just a little too cliche a thing to take away with me.......or even a somewhat blasphemous or profane thing to be tempted to post here......outside the sanctum sanctorum.

Thus freed of the obligation to take pictures,I danced my way through the Dylan set, in my understated old-guy way........rythms tamed in the passage and mellowed in the outward expression, but no less pagan in their origin..........

Kids........your wildness isn't freedom.........it's license. Sorry, but all the senseless, unrestrained self-indulgence, retro clothing, token new-age babble-osophy, and veggies grown with semi-slave, migrant labor, in labratory extracted and certified virgin elf-shit, on giant, corporate factory farms won't make hippies out of people who haven't a clue what a hippie was or is. It wasn't a destination, a designation, or a definition.........it was a journey, a trip (if you will), that began with a revelation.
Not a revolution so much as an evolution.

Kerouac wrote about the wasted dregs, the 4F's in Ozzie and Harriet's army..........Dylan sang about an optimistic vanguard, those who saw and sought some acceptable and viable alternative to a dogmatically, moralistic cultural jingoism, and inspired us all.

The absolutists are still at it, kids........and they are organized. They will never give up. The fight is yours.......they'll not get me, but look around you......

........I digress.

It was a night with two of the best story-teller, balladeers of our time.........(all that was missing was a walk on by Kristofferson).

Men that are, on the face it would seem, dichotomies in genre and style, but in reality a musical segue of life, love, the universe and everything..........

I shared it with my kids........all their lives really.......but, at last symbolically enough, on a sodden ball field in Averagetown, USA.

It was, as it was intended to be, the capper of the summer........(the capper di tutti capper???)........after that, for me at least, it was a matter of assessing realities and battening down the hatches (sorry for the crypticism decipherable only by the cognoscenti).........

I'm not ready to go quietly to that good night..........
I still rage against the dying of the light......

Thus endeth the entry...........

More Summer Fun......................

Happy 1st Birthday Hallie

The Saturday following Cassie's Birthday Bash, we gathered once again at Casey's outpost for Hallie's 1st birthday........

The weather was perfect..........and the Manse was decorated to the hilt.
Balloons festooned the mailbox and the trees and the columns of the house were twined with colorful crepe.

A small crowd was gathered on the front lawn.........mostly consisting of Diane's family..........I really don't know how they feel about the internet in general, so I've generally avoided direct shots of them here.

It's the first time I'd met any of them, and they struck me as solid and good people.........different, in the sense that I believe they are a bit more traditional and straight-laced than I am, but then most people are, I suppose.
By no means do I mean that in a dismissive sense........I liked them......
but at some point I think I'd shock them. I was on my best behavior......I'm pretty sure I didn't say "fuck" even once that afternoon.

There was even an old-corps Marine in their midst whom I greeted with the traditional "Semper Fi" and swapped stories with for a time.

The birthday girl was at her cutie pie best .........little kids learn way early when they are the center of attention.





The birthday girl...........

We gnoshed on Brats and Dogs and salads in the best of Midwestern fashion and Hallie was esconced in the middle of a pile of presents. At one point Hallie headed for a rocking chair and hoisted herself into a standing position.......she's not far away from becoming a very mobile mini-screamer.
Cheyenne was in constant attendance.....she's 4 now and understood that it was Hallie's day, but she does like the spotlight.










After the presents were all opened, (and of course, Hallie had to take a little time to play with each one before the next was thrust upon her) it was time for cake.

The theme of the party was "rubber ducky" and Dianne had made Hallie a little cake all her own that was a rubber ducky in a bath-tub.....this sequence was just too precious!








"Also Cake Zarathustra"




I was right in there taking pictures, and you can imagine the scene, with everyone gathered around, praising Hallie and gushing as she tore into her cake with both hands, it was cute beyond doubt.........but, it was at this point, I could almost sense Dianne getting "antsy", see the "psychology" bubble up into her as the awareness dawned on her of an infant girl being given the highest hosannahs for stuffing herself with both hands on cake........too much Oprah and Sally Jesse had taken its toll.
That "Oh my god, what have I done??" sort of fear that she had somehow imprinted an association of approval with appetite that would haunt her girl child forever....

I wanted so much to tell her; "Dianne, darlin'..........relax."......but when a mother is aroused, a man's best course of action is simply to step aside and cover his goodies.







The cake show was swiftly brought to a close soon thereafter......

Dianne, sweety.........you're as good a Mom as any I've ever seen and I love you for it, and Casey is a good Daddy as I always knew he would be.
You guys are a great couple and good for each other, with complimenary strengths and weaknesses........and Hallie is a happy and well-adjusted little girl and always will be because of all those things.........every thing else is superfluous.
Relax..........you're doing it right, both of you.

There had been other little kids invited but again they would have had to come from pretty far away. So, in true Bozean fashion, Dianne had over-provided rather than to be caught short........(you delight me darlin').

This was a boon for Cheyenne, as she got to grab the center of attention and be the star for a while trying to pin a beak on the duck ...........(and of course rake in all the little prizes for it) and trying to break an honest to god pinata chuck full of candy............I swear, there was enough candy there to have treated every child in the little town they live near.
Cheyenne was, of course, in a four year old version of Heaven..........







The party ended soon after, Hallie went upstairs for a sugary nap, the adults ate cake and chatted.......and Casey and I managed to slip around back for a beer or two.

Another great day............another day passed into the recesses of memory.

I hate that I don't get to spend the time with Hallie that I did with Cheyenne...I'm happy that her and her parents situation provides that such is not the case.........which is a confusing and conflicting sentiment, I know. I wouldn't change a thing..........I'd likewise change everything.

Close or distant guys.........remember that I love you and I miss you........that Papa loves Hallie.

Happy belated blog birthday Hallie Bearie.........

Thus endeth the entry.........

I'm even starting to exasperate myself...............

Now that I've finally gotten myself fired up and motivated to make a dent in my pile of "back-posts" and breathe new life in Cooking with Gutz, it only stands to reason that small and pesky things would conspire to complicate the effort.

After two hours of fighting with a computer that has chosen today to be cranky, slow and uncooperative, I'm going to take my own oft-repeated advice and "Be Kind to Myself."

Perhaps it is just as disappointed and let down about yesterday as I am........

I can't help it, every election is like my very first. I finally went to bed around 4:30 this morning......by that time, it was just me and Larry and Wolf hanging around with "what-the-fuck" looks on our faces. I had covered two or three sheets of paper with arcane scribbles and figures and little wisps of smoke were issuing from my calculator....(I set it on a saucer before I retired so it wouldn't catch anything on fire.) I don't know how they are going to elect a President after I'm dead.

I'm sure I'll have more to say about the election, the process and the implications.......with a swipe or two at the men who bequeathed us the electoral college.
I have a few choice words for the democrats, too

not to mention the damnfools who think there is some moral or intellectual superiority involved in "voting for the man and not the party".

........but for now, I'm going to hang it up and find something mindless to watch on T.V...............*GASP* (yes, it's that bad!)......I'd rather lose a wife or a girlfriend than an election. (Think about it.)

So any projection I may have made about the schedule of entries both here and in "Cooking with Gutz" is hereby and forthwith to be considered in a temporarily delayed status.

Tomorrow is another day.........

Ta.

Thus endeth the entry............

Who are you really voting for ................?

I read with interest that Chief Justice of the Supreme Court Rehnquist was recently released from the hospital after treatment for cancer. Justices Stevens,O'Connor and Ginsburg have also had bouts with various forms of cancer.

Ginsburg is 71, O'Connor is 74, Stevens is 84, and Rehnquist is 80...........

Are we getting the picture yet, ladies?

Rehnquist was appointed by Richard fucking Nixon............over 30 years ago.

It was the Supreme Court,four years ago, that gave us George Dubya and the assorted thieving assembly of dogmatic, anti-american, foaming-at-the-mouth right-wing fascisti and corporate cocksuckers that make up his puppeteers and minions.

Of course, you have to give some credit to the Sainted Founding Fathers......who neither liked nor trusted each other and trusted the judgement of the American people even less. They assumed that the rabble would be so regionally factionalized that no one man could ever win a majority of the electors, So they created a convoluted system for electing a Chief Executive that they were certain would consistently hand the decision over to the elitist gentleman lawmakers of the U.S.Congress.........but that is another rant.
Original meanings my history reading ass!

......... I digress.

The man you elect tomorrow will likely appoint replacements for at least the four justices named above.................
will it be a man and a party completely beholden to the religious right and the pro-life movement?

No law or decision of the court will give you true equality or parity until you have exercised the collective political strength at your disposal to remove the last threat to the tentative hold you have over the control of your own bodies.

Yoda told Luke Skywalker that there is no such thing as trying..........there is either doing or not doing.

In that same light and applying that same logic, there is no such thing as doing nothing............you either choose to act or you choose to not act.
Either way it is a clear choice that you make.
In that very same vein...........if you fail to go to the polls and vote, you essentially cast your ballot for whoever wins.........if you didn't vote against him, you voted for him by default.

Smart man, that Yoda.

I will be voting tomorrow...........I will vote for my two grand-daughters.
Someday, for reasons that are theirs and theirs alone, they may need to have the right to make a decision that is entirely and properly personal and private and likewise theirs alone to make.

Thus endeth the entry.............

Bring back those lazy, hazy, crazy days of Summer................part one

PROLOGUE

I don't know why I've put off posting these things for so long.........maybe it's because I knew it was kind of a "last hoorah" for me, for a while, before a long and dreadful winter set in.
Posting just seems to close the events out.
They were great times with my kids, and their kids........too rare, it seems.

On the one hand, one might reason that, considering the light hearted,off the wall, left handed drivel with which I normally clutter my little corner of the internet, something as important as a family event would deserve a place of glory........take a priority, as it were.

On the other hand, it almost seems too personal to part with even this bit of it......kind of a funny reaction I suppose..........

.........but a promise is a promise, however hastily or long ago made, and I promised a posting of these events.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CASSIE

We gathered at Casey's place on the 14th of Aug. to celebrate Cassie's 22nd Birthday.

You are familiar enough, by now, with my son's Mansion among the corn, that I don't have to post any more pics of it..........

It's a great place to party.......no neighbors to speak of, just corn......but it's damned far away from anyplace that anybody is. All their friends are in Chillicothe.........and its nearly 45 minutes drive to Casey's.
This may seem a small thing to my Texas and points west readers.........places where it takes a half tank of gas to get to the nearest gas station, but, up here, even in the country, a "far neighbor" is still only about 2500 yds away.

So, though we invited anyone and everyone, we didn't have any idea what kind of crowd to plan for.............as a result, Napoleon's army could've stopped by on the way home from Russia for a quick meal and a pretty fair beer buzz.
I cooked 12 pounds of chicken wings alone.

Now, keep in mind that this is the middle of August.........a time when our part of the country is normally sweltering in the sort of heat that you can scoop up with a shovel and tote around in a wheel-barrow.
We thought ourselves blessed with the fair skies and temperate afternoon we were enjoying..........
and then it started to cool off.
People, it got god-damned cold.......not unseasonably cool, not chilly, but down right fucking cold.

The bon fire that was supposed to be a symbolic throw back to drunken neo-lithic pagan revelry.........became a life giving refuge of warmth. Still I shivered, looking for all the world like a homeless derelict (a foreshadowing??) under a moth eaten quilt I found in the trunk of my car.

I didn't get a lot of pictures.......we gnoshed on the wings in the afternoon, crowded around the bonfire until it gave its last bit of absorbable radiance in the evening and then went to huddle around the gas cooker for hambugers, mega-dogs and cake much later........around midnight!!!

It was a good time, a small and close family time........who is to say it would have been better had a pile of out of control people gathered there.
It's not as though it was warm enough to give way to running around naked brandishing buggy whips and cans of motor oil, with clothes pins dangling from the naughty bits anyway.

Here are a couple of token pictures..........(I really am sorry I didnt get more)

One of the Birthday Girl and her significant other, Hans........and one of the chicken wings.........(am I a foodie or what?).







Cassie was born August 15, 1982.......in the neighborhood of 8 pm.
At the time I was stuck on a train, on the wrong side of a washout, in Eton, Missouri.
It seems such a long ago yesterday.
Since that time, we have had our close and distant days......but like my son and grandchildren, there has not been a waking second of all that time that she has not been a part of everything I've endeavored.
Adorable infants, delightful and shining children, perplexing and challenging adolescents.........
she and her brother have grown to be that best of all things........good people.

Happy belated blog Birthday, Sweetie............Daddy loves you.

Thus endeth the entry..........