Promises

They are made each New Year to reform your bad habits. Knowing you guys, there are many. Then there is the old saying…the road to you know where is paved with you know what.

So here is my promise to you (note: I did not use the word resolution for they are to simple to break) A promise isn’t. Therefore, I promise not to expound! Just think of that, cutting to the quick… elimilintating many adverbs and adjectives in these blogs will be a tough road to hoe.

So there you are, my one and only New Year’s resolution is to cut the B.S. Gad what will I have left?

The holiday hum bugs…

It’s great getting ready for the season. Some people just can’t get enough of the “good” feelings that mount with the approach of the Yule Tide season. There are a ton of things to do decorations, a tree search, present for people that you had no idea of what the want of really need. Most of the time it’s a hug, slap on the back and in many a case a kick in the ass.

The older I get the more wonder I have lost in the season, it’s only when I get back to the basics do I feel some type of warmth. No, this is not negative… it is what it’s all about, a simple look at the season.

There are many ways you can take the Christmas season - ho, ho ho with brandy Alexander, spiritual zeal or a hard line approach, attending church three times daily To some, they look the other way- no cards in the mail, no thoughts of others, the Scrooge tin type., hum bug!

Well, I was taught moderation… you only have 6 high balls before having a night cap prior to hanging the stocking, you pass out without a thought of the ghost of Christmas pass. Then Christmas AM you stuff the bird pop it in the oven then only have a modest breakfast, flapjacks, bacon, sausage, and half a dozen “fried” eggs. Then to the presents and a short nap before killing off the bird. This truly is an old fashioned Iowa Christmas which in some form has been imported back into other parts of the country via Chicago, Milwaukee, and parts east and west… Finally my present to you this season… a tip…try baking soda (half a teaspoon in a glass of water prior to bird time)

Paper or plastic?

Its like at the market....rushing into line they stop you cold with a simple question, "paper or plastic?" For many a year we use to go out in the cold to find the perfect Christmas tree- straight, multi branched, and just tall enough to get it into the house. Now, we all have a choice a paper (the real McCoy) or plactic in our Christmas trees.

I switch over sereval years back when I looked at the tree stump that was left and started to think about what I had just done... and which is done millions times over world wide each year. I "KILLED" a living thing! a living thing that would have produced thousands of cubic feet of fresh air yearly. Then I thought about the poor people in Iowa and New Hamshire who really need a breath of fresh air...

So as we decorate our plastic tree breathing deeply raising a glass of egg nogg, we wish you a Merry Christmas, deck the halls.

The most wonderful time of the year ….
Fa, fa, laa and deck the halls.

I’d show you a picture of our Christmas tree but it’s plastic and still in the box. No, I haven’t started Christmas shopping, I couldn't get the car started ... it's really cold outside, -18, Even the bark on the trees is freezing and falling off. There is not a bit of wind... if there were I wouldn’t think of moving from the fireplace.

Yes, another grey day here in the north and the only sounds you hear is from the lake. It’s the sound of the water protesting from becoming ice. Even as our dog sticks it’s head out the door it wants immediately back inside. This sure is an early one , yet I think I said the same thing last year. I tried calling our travel agent for tickets anywhere south but the phone froze to my ear. Now if I could only get my rear off this computer chair I could haul in some fire wood.

SO much for good intentions… I might as well break out something worth while… that being great, great grandfather’s secret formula for high powered egg nogg... it meltsa frost bite.

It’s bend over time…
Stick out your tongue. Why do all doctors take a look in your eye balls, make you cough and hit you on the knee with a lead pipe? That will be $950. Gee I only had a cold and needed a strong Rx.

I also took my car in for it’s annual check up. The wrench did the same thing to my car, drop trow and then listened to it’s cough. The verdict was the same, a major overhaul. Trouble is I can get rid of the old heep but not my body which is in worse shape than my car. Plus, I'd only be worth a plug nickel on a trade in.

Rosebud tried to donate me to your local Thrift Shop but was rejected. I mean it’s a sad state when your knees make more noise than the TV set. On my passing (it could happen) I’d donate my body to science or a medical college but I know they’d reject it . Maybe a junk yard would take it for salvageable metal parts.

So, yesterday I walked out of the medical clinic with a semi clean slate. Another words they didn’t have a clue why the aches and pains. So into the aspirin bottle morning and evening with light lunch in-between. Hang in there kids, your time will come and may spring as well.

Heaven forbid…
This Sunday I have to get up in front of a large group of people, 12, and explain the subject matter of a series of stain glass windows that I designed for our new church.
This will be like going to the dentist or accompanying Fred to Mayos… I’d rather be in Philadelphia. I mean for crying out loud, how do you explain abstract art? Or that the Sun isn’t the center of the universe, everyone knows its Disney World.

So I took some liberties with the window subject matter. Its called symbolism and an artist’s creative liberty. Inside my designs are many things of wonder. However they are all apart of God’s universe. i.e. the Packer logo, a tic-tack-toe game board, a computer screen, the ying and yang sign, a flying cow, a rattle snake, poison ivy,
a wood tick, and a mosquito.

What do any of these items have to do with the old of new testament? As my older brother would say, “That’s a very good question!” But there is an answer, you’ll just have to give it a little thought or come to the grand unveiling of the windows next Thanksgiving. However, I wouldn’t walk by them on the outside walkway, would you trust my workmanship?

Go figure… 12/8

We have an Omaha connection and recently it hit home. West Roads Mall is a two minute walk from my mother-in-laws residence. I mean all the signs were there that a young person was in need of help and no one took the extra moment to help him along the way. My son’s family were headed to Van Maur’s to visit Santa when desperation took over the young man’s reality.

Friends and family saw it coming but said nothing. May we can all learn from this and take a moment in the day to talk with others and ask them, “How is it going?”

A second of kindness can mean a world of difference.

Turning 60...

This subject sucks. I’d really go into it but a just can’t remember back that far.
Then some nice person stated, “Age is meaningless.” That person was 21 and without a lost hair or a wrinkle.

The only pleasure a person “Our Age” has is watching other people hit the wall as well. But that’s not nice. Us older folks should be thinking about other things other than losing teeth, hearing and lost car keys. We should be trying to figure out where the bathroom is or how to tie our shoe laces.

Yesterday a got into a really good novel. I knew I was in trouble after I had reread page 12 five times. Something kept coming up then I’d get back into it and start reading. After the third or forth time you’d think I would have noticed, but no.
Brain fade? Could be. But I still remember our dog’s name, it’s Claire or is the a daughter’s name? Any who, the really joy was’ my twin brother’s surprise 60th birthday party. I was held last August which was a really surprise for their birthday is actually in November. Why the wrong date? Don’t ask it’s a Coleman deal.

Now then the point being we are all growing older - it’s a fact!!! So from this older statesman my advise is just hold on and enjoy the ride for you never know when the conductor will boot your ass off the train.

It's about what?
The last blog and the pix...
those are Iowa seals resting on the beauitful Mississippi River beach - note their shades and the bottle of sun block, ah the sunny south with oak trees swaying in the sourthern breezes.

Cornish and I don’t mean hen.
I am bullish on corn.

It’s the state I am from, Korn, and I just can’t get it out of the old blood stream.
I've lived most of my life chasin’ wood ticks off my dog and splitting wood for winter fires up here in the northland. But you can take the boy from Iowa but not Iowa from the boy. No, the land corn stalks isn’t as flat as you would think, Dave. Only parts of it.

Rosebud’s families, both sides, are from the corn state and were farmers for generations back. I only happened to be born in Iowa due to the fact that my folks were happening through Iowa in covered wagons heading east?? My folks always seemed to go against the flow. Up is down and right is left.

This past summer was our annual trip back to the Hawkeye state for Rosebud’s family reunions. This annualreunion brings back all of her thousands of cousins. The result??? With all this weight in one spot, it has caused the earth to tip so say the learned scientists from Ames. “The earth has become‘unbalanced’ thus there is a lot more hot air over Iowa causing global warming.”

Back at the reuion... “Robin, you remember cousin Waldo.” it’s a demand not a question from Rosebud. Oh, sure I can remember the names of half the state’s residents and thousands of other cousins that have return for the big event. The problem is that each has brought a “dish” to pass for a very LIGHT luncheon. This in its’ self is enough to cause global warming or solve our neural gas shortage.

So here we are in a small town hall just west of Death Moines, Iowa and it 100 degrees thankfully the air is working and I have a supply of Rolaids. It’s been going on 40 years these family reunions and it’s amazing how many of Rosebuds cousins I can recognized but can’t remember their names. Or, it the advancing years?
Next year we all are going to carry around name with “I am with her or him” with an arrow just like this family gathering on a San Diego beach.

Oh, well the day was short and we headed down the road west to another adventure but I can’t remember where we were headed, maybe on the next blog?