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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 ** |
| You lucky people get a second blog today because I forgot to place one little item in the first one. ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** I also wanted to let any of those interested that I have a new chapter done in Bygone Heart. You might want to look at it. Ok, now I'm done...go back to your weekend. LOL! |
| Well a new month has begun. Another chance for me to be "All Blue" has presented itself and I promise to do better this month. From the looks of things, everyone has taken the opportuny to get a start on a long holiday weekend here in the US, so I am going to keep this short today---Do I hear a great sigh of relief out there? First of all, I just read Scarlett's blog and I was intrigued. She wrote about the Most Viewed Author list here in writing.com and the fact that, out of 15,000 some odd writers, she was listed as number 836. Now to me that is quite an accomplishment. So anyway, you know me, I'm a glutton for punishment. I decided to go on a search and discover where I was listed. Well let me just say that it was a looooong search. In the process of finding my own position, I noted the places of some of my favorite writers. I decided to save you guys the search and I will list the ones I found. 1. Mavis Moog..#710 2. Scarlett...#836 3. Forever....#905 4. PlannerDan....#942 Now, you guys won't have to go through the search. I think the above listed folks deserve a big round of applause! They are all in the top 1000 authors on this site. You are all the BEST. What? You want to know if I found me? Uh....well...yes I did. you see there are 326 pages of authors listed, but actually there are 327 pages. The last page has only two words on it: AND.......TOR! LOL LOL LOL! Now, finally, for the last item I want to bring up today. As some of you might know, I am something of an adventurer in the kitchen. I love to experiment with new dishes...much to my wife's chagrin. What I would really like for you guys to do is give me one of your recipes and I will try to make it! I would especially like some from those of you from different countries....I want to see what a redneck can do with totally foreign dishes...hehehee! Ok, that's enough for today...you guys go have a wonderful weekend and I think I will spend mine writing...and possibly COOKING! |
| Another day of Retail servitude is behind me and I am now relaxing at my desk and letting the cares of the day flow away by reading my favorite bloggers. This segment of writing.com, the blog, is really a wonderful addition to the site. Everyone uses their blogs for different purposes, I use mine as an exercise to keep my mind sharp and ready to write my stories. Whatever your use of the blog might be I think it is important to keep writing them. A fairly amazing thing happened the other day as I was perusing blogs. I ran across a person who described herself as a member of the "Make Love, Not War" generation and she was an activitist, from the way she wrote. Now on the face of things, that might not sound so amazing. After all, I am sure there are still a lot of those out there somewhere. What was amazing is that I have never been confronted with one and I have often wondered what my reaction to them would be. You see I came from the polar opposite of These people who became famous protesting the war in Vietnam. I was a part of what they were protesting. It was me and guys like me who got the eggs thrown at them and were called "Baby Killer" and other colorfull terms when we came back home. We were opposites in other ways also. In most cases the protesters were all college educated, some were from well to do families and almost none had ever heard a shot fired in anger, much less AT them. In many cases my group were High School dropouts from low income families. We had spent at least a year in a free fire zone doing what our country asked of us. So you can see how we would mix something like oil and water. It took me years to reconcile my own personal experiences with these folks and I still wasn't sure how I would react if I ever came across one of them. You can imagine my surprise when I opened one of my favorite bloggers blog and read her words....she was truely a member of the protesters and liberal activist whose actions I had spent years trying to put behind me. My reaction was not what I had expected, maybe it was my age now, maybe I have mellowed to the point of acceptance, but whatever the reason, I found myself not getting angry but instead I gave her words a full measure of my thought. I actually understood where she was coming from and I admired the fact that she had the courage of her convections enough to put them forth in a public forum. I read the blog, I replied. She answered my reply and posted in my blog. I still do not agree with a lot of what she said but I respect not only her right to have her opinion, but also the talent of her writing as she set forth her ideas. She is still one of my favorite bloggers and I will continue to read what she writes because she is good, but I will disagree with some of her conclusions as she will with mine....and that is a good thing too. That, my friends, is one of the greatest things about blogs. You can exchange ideas and allow others to have beliefs that radically differ from your own. Sometimes you can BOTH learn something. So, I have met an old enemy and I have found common ground.....writing.com. I think, for now, that is a beginning. |
| Tor enters--stage left dragging a large blackboard on wheels. He walks to center stage then stops. Tor turns to the blackboard and takes a piece of chalk from his shirt pocket. He writes his name: MR. TOR on the board in large letters then turns to the audience..... Ok guys, put away all the tomatoes and fruit. I decided not to bring out the soapbox on the subject I said I would write about today. Today I want to talk about Education. What has happened to educatation in America? At what point did our schools turn into assembly lines turning out Buger flippers for fast food joints? Now let me say right up front that it is still possible to find thoughtful, intellegent and motivated young people graduating from high school. The thing is that today those types are the exception and not the rule. You want a good laugh? All you have to do is find a recent high school graduate and sit down with him/her and pull out a map of the world with all the countries removed. Now, ask the student to put in the names of all the countries they can......It is not only funny to watch, but it is very sad also. I have done this and of course I expected most of them to miss hard to find smaller countries like maybe Zimbabwe for instance, but hell, many of them actually missed countries like CANADA, MEXICO, GERMANY AND FRANCE! Ok, France can be excused...but my God, the rest of them????? It is the same when you produce a blank map of the United States.....most of these kids have no idea where most of the states are! Now I figured that maybe our schools were just weak on Geography so I tried Literature....I discovered very quickly that if Stephen King didn't write it, they had no idea what the hell it was. So, what are our schools teaching these kids? I will tell you what they are teaching.......ONE TEST. You see, here in Texas, and in most other states, the schools are required to give students a standardised test once each year. This test is used by the Federal Government to judge how well the teachers are teaching and wither or not the school district will recieve Federal funding the following year. The trouble is that the schools are given the questions that will be on the test at the beginning of the year and they then spend the rest of the year TEACHING THE TEST to the students. They want the students to do good on the test so that the school will not loose federal funding. They forget about actually teaching a course. Heck, if they just did that then maybe little Johnny might fail it.....that would cost them money! Their method is flawed to say the least. The schools get their money....and little Johnny has no idea where Canada is. The problem does not stop with High School. Our colleges are just as bad. I have a brother-in-law who was, until this year, a professor at a very large college in Colorado. This past year he failed a full 30% of his students because they didn't know the subject. One day he was met outside his classroom by one of those students he was going to fail. The boy was the son of a very rich alumni and the boy pulled out five hundred dollars. He told my brother in law that if he would just give him a C he could have the money! My brother in law told the boy to keep his money. He had not bothered to learn the subject so therefore he could not get a passing grade. Two days later he was called into the dean's office and informed that the college would not be offering him a contract for the upcoming year! He was too hard on his students. Oh, and the subject........Aeronautical Engineering! I don't know about you but I damn sure don't want to fly in a plane designed by some idiot who couldn't pass the course in college. It doesn't matter if it is in High School or College...failure to teach our children is just further softening of America's core. Tor replaces the chalk in his pocket, grabs the chalkboard and exits.....stage right. |
| Tor walks up on the stage carrying a large soapbox. He steps out to center stage, pauses and looks out over the crowd, then he carefully places the soapbox down on the stage floor and mounts it..... America is the most powerful nation on the face of the Earth. Unfortunately, at its core, America is soft so all the strength in the world will not stave off it's destruction one day. Militarily and technologically our country can not be beat in a war. Unfortunately, another country does not have to beat us, all they have to do is cause us a large loss of life and the promise of a prolonged struggle.....we will fold like a cheap tent. I say "we" meaning, of course, our government. Don't get me wrong, there are plenty of people strong enough to carry on a fight, but these are not the people who are represented by our government. No, it will be the liberal, left wing sect that will clamor for peace at any cost. Now I am not talking about some mythical war in a faraway land. I mean that one day and sooner rather than later, we will finally face a war on our own shores. Think about it a moment. Not since the War of Northern Agression (civil war) has America fought on it's home soil and the last time a forign power invaded our shores was back in 1812. We are due. If history teaches us anything at all it teaches us that peace on Earth is not the norm. It has been sixty odd years since our last global war and we are overdue. Only this time, when it happens, I don't believe America will be spared like it was twice before in history. The next time war comes, I believe it will come to American shores with the same fury which struck Europe in the last war. When it happens I am afraid that our country is too soft to survive it. Do you disagree? Well, let's look at just one aspect of a war then and see what you think. Electrical Power: The United States has only five or six major power grids that support the whole country. If any ONE of those grids was bombed and taken offline, the other grids would overload and finally shut down also. If this happens think about what it would mean.....absolutely no power for six months or a year! If this happens in the summer think about facing the heat with no AC. Think about no refridgeration for keeping food and in many cases no way to cook the food. Think about no TV, no radio, no COMPUTER. There would be no exchange of news so very few would have any idea what was going on. How long would it take for our gadget driven, overfed, pampered socity to fall apart? How long would it take for civil order to break down? Not long, I think. In WW2 every one of Germany's major cities were bombed to rubble and they kept fighting. How long would we resist if New York was laid waste, or Houston, or Los Angeles? We drive our big SUV's and we whine and complain when we have to pay over two dollars a gallon for gas. We live in our climate controlled homes and we whine whenever the power is off for an hour. We shop in our giant malls and we buy anything we can afford and we whine when our store is out of our favorite blend of coffee. How long would we last with none of this? Not long I am afraid. This imaginary war will come my friends, if not today, then maybe a year from now, but it will come sooner or later. Today I have pointed out what, in my opinion, are our physical weaknesses, tomorrow I would like to talk about what I see as our mental and spiritual weaknesses that we will have to overcome when the dark times does overtake us. Tor steps down off his soapbox, picks it up and exits-stage left. |
| I know, you guys thought you were rid of me didn't you. Well, you are soooo wrong! I have returned from an extended weekend with my batteries recharged and raring to write. Not only write, but now I have a whole new avenue of artistic expression open to me....My Digital SLR ROCKS! With this baby you can do everything that was possible with the old 35mm. SLR.....and a whole world more! AND NO FILM TO DEVELOP!!! Ok, enough about the camera, I will elaborate on that later, right now I want to tell you about my weekend. Melinda and I left early friday morning and drove up to Marshall, Texas. We went directly to Caddo Lake when we arrived in Marshall and we stopped at the Caddo Lake State Park. We figured that we could go ahead and do a short canoe trip then, since it was only about one in the afternoon, then we could take the Steamboat ride around the lake that evening which didn't leave the dock till 7 P.M. Here are some of the shots I took with the new camera.....whatever degree of professionalism might be discovered here is mainly the fault of the supurb camera I was wielding, not me. ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** For more explaination of these pictures go here: "Caddo Lake Images"  I have started a new folder and will be putting in more pictures I took on the lake soon.The State Park rents out canoes and the prices were very reasonable....$23 for a half day...so we paid our money, loaded the camera equipment and ourselves into the canoe and away we paddled. Ahh...NATURE! paddling through the cathedral like stands of giant cypress trees, the boat cutting through a carpet of giant lilly pads, the great blue herons watching our progress with interest, all these things came together to give us such a sense of comfort and belonging to nature. Then we realized a very important fact. We had not made it into the river yet and the park ranger had told us that the best photo opportunites were two miles up the river!!! Well we were feeling so damn good, just being there that we thought little of a two mile trip UP river to an even more beautiful destination. Then we hit the river........and the speed boats....and the Ski-Do's. Their wake, as each roared past us, almost washed our poor canoe onto dry land and threatened to capsize us each time. It was after about an hour of fighting the current and the passing boats that we suddenly realized how far that "Two Miles" really was when measured on the water. We also realized something else...No matter what our brains said, our bodies were insisting they were over fifty and not twenty five anymore! So, we limped back to the park station where we had started. We did manage to get some good shots on the way back. We gladly turned in our canoe and drove back to Marshall where we got a really nice room at a Holiday Express. We cleaned up and headed back to the lake where we took a really nice two hour steamboat ride over the lake and got even more great pictures. We made it back to our motel room Friday night shortly after 9 P.M. and collapsed into our comfy, oversized bed and slept like babies in a room cooled to about 65 degrees!! AHH...CIVILIZATION!! |
| Ahh, my dear friends. I come to you today, the bearer of sad news. I have been the target of a conspiracy. Yes, there has been dastardly deeds formented against my person. I know you are all shocked to hear this....well SOME of you are shocked anyway, I will get to that in a bit. Seems that today, while I was at work and minding my own business, My dear better half got a call. Long distance. From a 13 year old girl in Quebec! They have plotted against me and now it is done. My wife has been convinced to take me on a little road trip starting tomorrow. We will be spending the next two days on Lake Caddo, tooling about in a canoe and taking photographs of the local Flora and Fauna. So you see how really terrible this is? I will be totally AWAY from any form of the internet for at least two days. Yes, thats right, the calendar will have at least TWO PALE BLOTCHES IN IT! I will not achieve TOTAL BLUE CALENDAR THIS MONTH! I think I can almost hear fake sobbing coming from up in North Texas now, not to mention the pitter patter of crocodile tears falling. So, it seems that Dastardly Dan has won this month...but look out July...I will be back with a vengence! ******************************************** Seriously....Melinda and I are going away for a two day R & R and we look forward to drifting on the quiet waters of the lake and communing with nature. I will miss all of you (even Dan) and I look forward to coming back and diving into my writing once again. |
| Today's blog will be short. In fact, I am doing a blog today more to keep up the requirments for the "Blue Calendar" which my buddy Dan expects of me. LOL! Melinda came home today so....uh...I am gonna be busy! I promise, tomorrow, I will do a serious blog entry. Well, even though I have an excuse for being lazy today that doesn't mean the rest of you do.....I want to read your blogs...so I will check back in here off and on this evening to see what you have for me. You guys have a good evening....I know I will. |
| Title: Who knows, I havent decided what to write yet. Date: 6-21-05...Ten more days to go before achiving "all blue" calendar. Thought: Haven't had one in years, so quit waiting for it! Ok, now I have decided what to write about! Please forgive that stuff up there but it is in keeping with my material today. I want to touch upon a subject that my buddy, Plannerdan wrote about in his last blog entry..... Actually meeting some one in person you have come to know online. So I decided to do the beginning like Dan's too...since I am borrowing from his fertile mind. Now this is something my wife and I have done many, many times. We both once belonged to an online community called "The 40s Bar & Grill." This was a thriving site with, at one time, over 900 members. Through the message board and their chat room we got to know many of these folks very well. The way we both looked at it, meeting with these folks was as natural as meeting people in any other social venue. The one possible exception was that here, we got to talk for months, sometimes years, before we actually met them and trust me, you can learn a lot about a person after talking to them daily for that long. I guess I looked at it this way: Its not like I had anything they could take from me, so what was the danger in meeting them. I needn't have worried, the people we met were all geuine, warm, friendly folks...just like they seemed online. People, it all boils down to using what common sense God gave you. After prolonged contact with anyone online most of us have enough snap to figure out if that person is someone we would want to actually meet. Just go with your gut feelings. Not only do I believe that people can go from being Online Friends to Friends in the real world, but I also believe it is possible to find love online. Ok, I will pause here to give some of you time to crawl back in your chairs and stop laffing...... There, comfortable? I will continue: My wife and I met online almost four years ago. At the time we both had people we knew and family, warning us both that we were asking for trouble talking to strangers....so of course we ignored them. It worked VERY well, thank you. We also know probably six other couples who met the same way and not a horror story between them. I think the trick there was the fact that neither my wife nor I were LOOKING for love when we met...it just happened. The same can be said with the other couples. Also, we were all about the same age....that helps...not putting down the young, but the older you are the less likely you are to fall into some very nasty personal traps....see, age does help sometime! I guess what I am getting at is......A friend is a friend, is a friend, no matter where or how you meet. As long as two people are capable of being open and honest with each other...there is a basis for friendship. How deep or how lasting? Well that is just the same as always....it depends on the people. I look forward, one day, to meeting some of the people I have grown to respect in this site and if the chance ever presents itself, we will not hesitate to make it happen. Scarring you ain't I. On the bright side for you folks at least, Mavis, Scarlett and Rebecca are moderately safe from incursions by the Texas gang as my row boat is no way up to a trip across the big pond yet. So, for now, especially those of you over on the left margin of this page will remain "online" friends and people I have grown to like and respect. Who knows.......maybe one day......YOU BETTER GO OUT NOW AND BUY BIGGER LOCKS!!! LOL! |
| Spousal abuse, what a horrible thing. No matter what form that abuse takes, it is always terrible. Unfortunately, of late, I have become a victim of that dreaded abuse. That's right my friends, my wife abuses me. I'm not proud of it, but there it is. For those of you who might harbor some doubt as the validity of my accusation, I have gathered some evidence to prove my point. *************************************************** As many of you know from reading my blog, my wife, Melinda (hereafter known as "Mel")has been on an extended trip to visit her family, first in Missouri, then on to Michigan where she and the rest of the clan attended her nephew's graduation from college. It was while she was in Michigan that her really cruel streak became sadly apparent to me. On the day she arrived there I was being the good husband and I was out mowing the yard. Now in Texas, or at least my part of Texas, we have had almost two weeks with the temperture over 95 and the humidity about 70% with a heat index well over 100 degrees. Yes, I was out in THAT kind of weather mowing almost an acre of land with my puny little PUSH mower! I had just finished the yard and crawled back indoors where I collapsed in front of the air-conditioner vents when the phone rang. It was Mel. She asked me what I had been doing that day and I informed her that I had taken care of the yard. I said this in a voice very much reminicent of a death rattle so as to impress her with my self sacrifice. She listened a moment then replied, "That's nice hun. Oh did you know it MIGHT get as high as 70 degrees here today?" I did a small moan just to let her know the pain that caused. She seemed not to hear as she continued.... "Anyway," she said lightly. "We are going to take the boat out on the lake in a few minutes and go joy riding, I sure wish I had brought my JACKET." Picturing her out in the boat with the cool breeze whipping her hair caused my moan to become a rather pitiful whimper. She must not have heard my distress at her end because she then said: "Oh, hun, be sure to use the trimmer around the flower beds before you finish...we don't want to accidently cut the flowers do we." "We?" I managed to croak. "You planning on COMING HOME AND HELPING?" "No silly," she retorted. "I told you we are going boat riding. Bye sweetie." My moral outrage was answered by an uninterested dial tone. So, you see how she is? SPOUSAL ABUSE! ************************************************** The abuse continued a couple of days later when I recieved a phone call not long before retiring for the night. It was Mel. "Hi honey!" She sounded excited. "You will never guess where I am calling from." "Ok," I replied sulkily. I was still pouting about the boat ride. "I give up. Where are you?" "Remember that really fancy restraunt I told you about in South Lyon?" she said. "Well Jeff (college grad)has taken us all out to eat there. I am calling from my cell phone to ask your opinion." "My opinion on what? World peace? The price of tea in China?" My scarsm was wasted as she happily continued. "No silly, on what you think I should order. I can't decide between the stuffed shrimp and the twenty ounce New York Strip steak." I looked at the phone for a moment in disbelief, wondering if death rays could be sent from one's eyes, over phone lines and directly into cruel spouses. Finally I found my voice and answered her quietly. "Honey, sweetiest, snookums." I grated each word between clinched teeth. "Do you have any idea what I HAD for dinner this evening? No? Well let me tell you. I had a DANG BALONEY SANWICH and some POTATO CHIPS!" A moment of silence from the other end, then this: "Well that's nice hun but what DO YOU THINK I SHOULD ORDER." The last was spoken loudly and slowly, as if she was trying to make herself understood by the slow witted. I lay my head back on my pillow, closed my eyes in dispair...The woman had no pity. It was useless to try to make her see what she was doing to me so I just answered her quietly... "The steak dear, order the steak." I told her. "and if there is any of it left FedX it to me here and let me chew on a bone." "Oh thanks hun." Again I was greeted with a dial tone as my dear wife went off to merrily devour red meat. I was left with a lingering case of heartburn from my simple baloney sanwich and the mental image of her out enjoying a night of fine dining. Spousal Abuse......You see how she is? What is a man to do? I sit here, hovering at death's door from the effects of near heat exhaustion and starvation and she is out having the time of her life. She has been luxuriating in a mild, cool climate and eating extravant meals and being a social gadfly. SPOUSAL ABUSE! Is there like a 800 number I can call to report her? I know her, she is going to expect the house to be spotless when she finally arrives home. Well I got news for her....I AIN'T GONNA VACUM! There, that ought to show her whose boss! Ok, I guess I have whinned enough. Before I close this I do have a question for all you smart people out there. IS THERE A WAY TO MAKE PEANUT BUTTER TASTE LIKE STEAK? Well, I was hoping......... |
| Today is Father's Day and I took a moment this morning to wish my dad a happy birthday. I wished him the happy father's day quietly, as I sit in the breakroom this morning, before I clocked in for my day's work. This year marks the twenty third time I have had to do that. Twenty three years and not a day goes by that I don't find myself thinking about him in some way or another. This year though, I thought I would do something just a little different. I want to tell you all about the man I was lucky enough to have for a father. Growing up in East Texas, on a sandy-land farm, I was like other boys my age. I had all the standard movie heros to look up to and to try to emulate but I also had something else....I had my dad. I can not remember a time when he did not top my list of heros. He was the strongest man I ever knew and I don't mean in the phyical sense. He had a strength of character about him and an iron moral code that I have found in no other man. He honestly was the type of man John Wayne always portrayed on the silver screen. In fact, I believe that is the reason I found the Duke's movies so appealing. It was like watching my father on the big screen. Dad was not an imposing phyical presence, he stood barely five foot nine inches tall but his body was like coiled steel from a lifetime of work as a roughneck in the oilfields of Texas and around the world. I was told, many times, that in his youth my dad had a hair trigger temper and was something of a brawler but by the time I reached the age of twelve or so he had mellowed to a great extent and I rarely saw that temper in evidence. When WW2 broke out my dad was already married and had a small child, my older brother but that didn't stop him. When the country went to war so did he, joining the day after Pearl Harbor. He spent the next four years in combat in one theatre or another as a tail gunner on first a B-17 then a B-29 bomber. He never spoke of the war with his children, that was not his style. He was a quiet man who kept everything inside. I do remember my mom saying, on more than one occasion, that the damn war had changed him. She never really told us more than that. I can also remember his nightmares, he had them right up until the day he died. After the war dad headed out to the wild jungles of South America to work the fledgling oil fields that had just started to be established along the Amazon. I do remember my Uncle Frank telling stories about that adventure...they both went....and it sounded a lot scarrier than any war. Dad finally came home and settled down to work in the local oilfield, farm and then, finally to go into business for himself. Dad raised his three sons much the way he himself had been raised: Hard, straight, and in black and white, no shades of gray. He went to great pains to drill into us certain values he had lived his life by. He told us to remember the famous quote by Davy Crockett: "Be sure you are right, the go ahead." He told us that a real man never looks for a fight but if a fight becomes nessassary it is important to get to licks in...THE FIRST ONE AND THE LAST ONE. He told us that if you have to fight a man...don't ever talk to him...just do the job. He taught us to never strike a woman. He told us that women were phyically weaker than men and therefor only a coward strikes anyone who is weaker than himself. He always said: "Treat every woman you meet with the same respect you would want others to show your mother." Most importantly I believe he taught us to be true to our friends. We should stand by them no matter the personal cost because one day we might need someone to stand by us. And lastly he taught us that our word was our bond. He said never shake a man's hand unless you intend to keep your word because the handshake was sacred. Unfortunately, like many fathers and sons, my dad and I didn't get along very well when I was growing up. Mom told me once, after he and I had a large argument, that the reason we didn't get along is because I was so much like him. She told me that when she looked at me, she saw him at that age. I did not understand what a compliment that was until much later in my life. My father and I really reconciled our differences about a year or so before he died and during that time we became as much friends as father and son. I will always be thankful for that. *********************************************** So now you have met my dad. He was not a perfect man, he had his faults. He was not a rich man, or terribly sucessful. He was just a man. He was my Father. I miss him every day and I love him. HAPPY FATHER'S DAY DAD! |
| Happy Saturday everyone! Well, here I sit again, staring at my computer screen and silently willing words to come out in some sort of an order. I know I have to make a blog entry today. I have to keep my calendar blue if for no other reason but to make my buddy PlannerDan growl....lolol! I have an idea that I have been kicking around the past few days and I want to run it past those of you who regularly come in here to read this thing. I have been trying to come up with a way for some of us to mentor some of our younger writers, there seems to be quite a few in here. I was thinking of maybe starting a forum dedicated solely to helping these young writers. I am looking at my list of member blogs that I visit everyday and I see a bunch of talented people who could really help kids who have discovered a love of the written word. So, if any of you who read this would like to be a part of this forum thing let me hear from you. I especially want to hear from you guys whose name appears over there on the left. I KNOW what talent is in that list and I think each of you would be a great help to the kids. Oh, before I forget it....I just posted chapter 13 of Bygone Heart into the port...if any of you are interested in reading it. Now I have to go check out Dan's port and see if HE has a new chapter of his book for me to read...just saying..... |
| Good morning folks. I hope everyone is having a Happy Friday. This morning I was talking to my wife on the phone...she is still off on her family reunion....and she reminded me of my "Bow-hunting story". She urged me to share it here with the rest of you so that's today's topic. Gawd, I still cringe when I think of that episode........ **************************************************** Back in the dim, dark ages when I was in my early 20's, my brother, Mongo (his nickname is the stuff for another blog)decided to take up Bow hunting. Now Mongo always managed to rope me into his goofy hobbies and stuff so this was no exception. He convinced me to go with him and buy all the equipment needed to hunt the old fashioned way. Mongo was very excited, he kept telling me what thrill it would be to go out and stalk and kill game the very same way the ancient Indians did hundreds of years ago. Well, I don't know about you, but I am pretty sure no Indians ever used a compound bow with steel arrow heads that could puncture a 2X4 board at thirty yards. Anyway we got all outfitted. The salesman who made his monthly commision off of our combined purchases tried to sign us up for lessons at a local range since we had never fired a bow before. We assured him this was not nessary, I mean how hard could it be? You notched the arrow, pulled back the string, aimed and fired. No problem! A week later we were in the wilds of the Colorado Rockies just in time for Mule Deer season. Early on the first morning of the hunt we took off from camp full of confidence in our ability to outwit and bag our quarry. An hour into the hunt we had our first opportunity. We were crossing this open meadow and nearing the edge of the aspen forest when out steps this monster buck! We froze in our tracks. Here was what we had come for. The huge deer had a massive set of horns that looked more like a rocking chair on his head. He stood broad-side to us and calmly stared into our eyes, like he was daring us to distrub his morning. Mongo was shaking so bad he dropped his bow. The deer continued to stare. I took the opportunity to get off the first shot. I calmly notched my arrow, pulled the string back to my cheek, took close aim and let the deadly shaft fly! I Killed an Aspen tree twenty feet left of the giant buck! By this time Mongo had recovered his nerves and his bow and he let fly his arrow. HE killed another tree ten feet to the RIGHT of the deer! Instead of being startled by the two madmen who were trying to skewer him, the buck looked to his left then his right, as if admiring our tree killing skills, then he simply dropped his head and began to graze on the tender grass shoots in the meadow. Mongo and I both loosed another arrow.....KILLING TWO MORE TREES! Then, to make matters worse, two more deer ambled out into the clearing. It was if the buck, wanting to share the fun with friends, had sent out a call to have the other join him in a leasurly breakfast complete with entertainment: Two guys killing trees! Now we had multipule targets.....More trees died! We were both reduced to the point of tears. Finally we just gave up. The deer seemed disappointed to see is leave. We trudged back to our camp, packed up our belongings, and headed back to Texas. We made a pact between us never to share the experience with the rest of our Bubba friends and to this day, we have kept the dark secret of our Tree killing expedition. Maybe one day I will share with you how Mongo and I once went Quail hunting and ended up buring half a county...not to mention the truck of our buddy's. |
| A few days ago my good buddy, and fellow Texan, PlannerDan wrote a great blog about labels. How we tend to label people in order to dismiss them. Also about what labels we wear ourselves. It got me to thinking(that's dangerous, I know)about my own labels for me and what is it that I stand for. Anyway, I thought I would use my blog a bit to let people see what I truely belive in. My first topic is America... Things I would love to see this country do. ***************************************************** Ahhh...What a simple thing it would be if only the country's name was United States of Tor! But, since it's not, then here are a few things I would love to see but I know I never will..... I would love to see America worry about its friends and let those countries who are so busy hating us, fend for themselves. I would love to see more of the Monroe Doctrine and less of the "Global Village" crap. I would like to see America say: "You don't have to like us but you damn sure better respect us." I know, I know, you're probably saying: "Oh no, what would the world think of us if we did that?" My simple answer to that is...I don't give a flying cow paddy what the rest of the world thinks about us. Personally I think America should take to heart that old saying that they are using in Iraq: "NO BETTER FRIEND, NO WORSE ENEMY." You know it has been sixty years since Europe went at each others throats and that is some kind of record. The next time it happens I would love to see America STAY OUT OF IT. We should just let a Boy Scout Troop from Belgium overrun France....hell everyone else has. I am tired of seeing America being everybodies whipping boy...until they need foreign aid...then they hold out their hands and demand we give to them. I would love to see America have trade agreements with their allies.....and NOT their enemies. Americans need to find the intesinal fortitude to wean themselves from foreign oil. It would hurt but it is needed to be truely independent. ********************************************** So, there is your first label for me...I am somewhere to the RIGHT of Attila the Hun. The above is what I truely believe, though I would never belittle anyone for disagreeing with me. Everyone has a right to their own opinion....even middle aged, white, Americans. Maybe tomorrow I will deal with Religion and really let you have something to growl about...LMAO! |
| When I was a kid, back in the dark ages, Saturday afternoon movies were a way of life. We grew up watching the likes of John Wayne, Audy Murphy, Gary Cooper and other heros. As a result of this there was a whole generation of young men who grew up with a warped sense of what war was. We grew up thinking it was heroic and glorious. We watched hour upon hour of men killing each other and rarely ever even saw a speck of blood. It was all clean and quick and the good guys always won. Even when the good guy died, it was always bloodless and in some heroic last stand. When we grew up, many of us learned the truth about war and some of us even survived the lessons. Today I see the same thing with video games. Today kids grow up shooting and being shot, it's all a big game to them. Granted, the games today show alot more blood and guts than the old movies we use to watch, but they still give the kids the impression that killing is nothing....simply pushing a button. My son got an Xbox for christmas and he kept bugging me to play the game with him. Interestingly enough, he had a game based on Vietnam. It was very realistic, I could almost believe I was back there. Like I said, the game was bloody, there was bodies everywhere and the sounds of war were deafening. After one very tough segment of the game, where my son's character got killed very quickly, he turned to me and said: "Dad, was that what it was really like over there?" I smiled at him and said: "Yes, Rick, that is what it was like with one very major difference." "What's that dad?" he asked. "In the real thing there is no "ReStart" button. When you died.......you stay dead." I told him. He thought about that a moment and I could see that I had gotten through to him. He was actually picturing what it would be like....for real. "How on earth did you live through something like that?" He asked, his voice kind of soft. "Just luck of the draw, son." I replied, "Just luck of the draw." What they should make, if they want to do today's kids a favor, is a video game where, when you get shot...IT HURTS! Make it hurt alot, just short of death. Then maybe we won't have another generation that grows up thinking life is cheap and dealing death is easy. Even better idea....Next time we have a war I think they should send old farts like myself to fight it and save our younger generation that pain which we already know only too well. Just my opinion. |
| June 19th is a holiday in the state of Texas. This was the date that word finally made its way all the way out to Texas that the slaves were free. Every year there is a big celebration on that day and rightfully so. That date is important to me too, but for a totally different reason. June 19th is my wife, Melinda's birthday. Melinda McClain is one of the most exceptional women I have ever known. She was married, the first time, at an early age and she had a son. When the marriage dissolved, she very quietly, and strongly, picked up the pieces of her life and she went about the business of raising her son alone. She remained single and she raised her son for the next twenty years. Then she met me. Melinda gave her heart to me and she has loved me completely and without reservation for the last four years. I can not say what, if anything, I ever did to deserve the love of this woman, but I thank God each and every day that I was lucky enough to be the one she loved. God knows I am not the easiest person to live with and if she were any other woman she would have kicked my ass out of the state a long time ago, but she didn't. All she does is love me. I am not now, nor have I ever been, deserving of her love. Let me give you some idea of what kind of woman she is... I am writing a story now, some of you have read what I have so far. Its called Bygone Heart. Now the main female character of this story is based on a real life person. Melinda has always known this but she has never said a word, even though, reading the words hurt her to her very soul. Today I told her I was going to shelve the story...I could not stand the hurt I knew it caused her. She told me "No. Go ahead and write your story, I will be fine." That's the way she is. She is strong enough to put hurt aside for the sake of others. A big thing with her right now is her weight. She actually apologizes to me because she is not small and thin and pretty.....that breaks my heart. I told her today that I don't care if she weighs 110 or 510, it is what she is inside that I love. I hope to god she takes those words to heart. So now you see what kind of woman I love. Yes, June 19th is important to those who were once slaves and it is right that they celebrate, but for me, June 19th has a much more important signifence. It is the day that the woman I loved was born. I will spend the rest of my life trying to be worthy of this woman's love and I will thank God each one of those days that my heart found her's. |
| Not only am I angry today but I am sickened to my very core. As most of you no doubt know by now, Michael Jackson has been found NOT GUILTY on all counts against him. It has always been said, in this country, that Justice has a price. No where was it better shown than with the trial of Michael Jackson. This pervert is absolutely no better than the thousands of child molesters now living in our country's prisons. The one way in which Jacko differes from most of the CONVICTED child molesters in prison is the amount of MONEY he had to throw up a defense. Make no mistake about it...Michael Jackson bought a not guilty verdict. Less circumstantial evidence was used to convict That idiot, Scott Peterson of murder. They even had the VICTIM in the Jackson case pointing the finger and saying: He did this to me! Not so with Peterson. The major difference in these cases was that Jackson had the money to hire the high powered defense attorney to get him off. THAT IS THE ONLY DIFFERENCE. Ok, that covers the corrupt justice system that set him free, but how do we explain the people outside the court CHEERING THE PERVERT? Already, media talking heads are discussing HOW Jackson will make his big COMEBACK! Do we accept this so readily? Do we flock to his conserts or send our kids to them? From what I have seen, yes that is just what most of the fools will do. I am sickened by our judicial system that sets these fools free and I am sickened by the American public who rushes to welcome them back into the mainstream with open arms. If my views anger some of you....oh well. At this point I could care less. America has become like a beautiful mountain lake, covered by a thick scum of stinking perversion that is allowed to grow on the beautiful lake by politically correct liberals and is ignored by the rest of us, in hopes it will cure itself and we will once again have our beautiful mountain lake back again. We, as a people, have lost the courage to do whatever is needed to clean up our land, to make things right. Not only do we lack the intestinal fortitude to change our judical system, but we lack the same courage to better ourselves, to make the hard decisions. This is not just about California, which I have ranted about before, but this is about our whole country...all of us have been shown up as morally bankrupt by allowing this mess not only to happen here, but in fact, to be EXPECTED! Many of the media expected this verdict, or at least they expected him to get no more than a slap on the wrists. Ok, I can't write about this crap any longer. Today has proven to be a hallmark in the great lists of Crappy Days and I think I need to just step away and listen to some music or something. Remember this: If we can not be true to our hearts, what can we be true to? I think we need to ask ourselves what is it we WANT to be true to, is it justice, is it honor, is it right over wrong? Maybe it's just the status quo we want to be true to.......God help us all. |
| It is Sunday afternoon and I just got off work. Today I came home to an empty house, well, empty that is except for all my animals. The wife has gone to MO. To visit her family who are having a big gathering of the clan there. My vacation situation was such that I was unable to get the two weeks off to accompany her so I have been left in charge of the animals and the home. Poor dogs are very frightened right now...LOL! She left me a lists of "Do's and Don'ts" I know she did. It is here somewhere.....MAYBE THE DOG ATE IT! She will belive that won't she? Anyway, I plan on relaxing and spending a little quality "Me" time. I think maybe I will start with a long hot shower to wash away the retail scum, then something tall and cold in a glass while I reaquaint myself with my recliner. I believe I will spend that time listening to a little Tchikovsky and Puccini, or maybe some Rachmaninoff and Chopin. Then, after the soul is suitably nourished, I will dive into chapter 11. I would like to thank all of you who have read the book as I have written it and have kept my feet to the fire as far as the writing Thing goes.....Thanks Guys. |
| Well the trip to the lake went fairly well. I got some good shots inspite of the fact that it has been twenty years since I took any serious pictures with a SERIOUS camera. Even though the dang camera has about a galzillion buttons and dials I managed to simplify matters for the time being....I found the button to snap the picture and the focus ring. I figured I KNEW how to shoot the damn thing so I would just start there for now. I have posted two of the pics in my port but I am going to try to post the pics in here. I am sure it won't work but heck, I gotta try. This was my first attempt, with new camera, to stalk the dangerous killer rabbit...this savage creature was busy mauling some innocent grass when I spotted him at the state park! OK......THAT DIDN'T WORK! DANG! So, I guess I will give you the links and just let any of you who want to, go look at them....btw if anyone knows how to post a pic in a blog...please clue me in.
I took about a half dozen shots of the sunset, with the sun at different levels to the horizion. I never realized how much I truely missed taking photographs until I started playing with this camera. I really had a ball. I had forgotten how soothing the act of taking photographs was. When I am out trying to get a shot it is just me, the subject and the camera, nothing else matters. The worries and the conserns that may have been hammering me all day just seems to fade away while I consentrate on "getting the shot." Back in the day, when I was doing this all the time, I remember one particular shot I made....It was of a wolf. I spent a week tracking the animal, figuring out his routine and where he went to water. Then, when I was ready, I made my way, just before daylight, to a small stock pond where the wolf went to water. I eased into the water up to my chest, hid behind some cat-tail rushes and waited. Just after daylight he appeared. One moment the bank of the stock pond was empty, the next second he was there. I never heard him. He just appeared. The wind was right and he didn't see me as he eased down to the water's edge. I took a deep breath, slowly raised my camera to my eye and looked through the view finder. When I focused the image I found myself looking directly into the wolf's eyes...somehow he had sensed my presences and was looking right at me. I snapped the picture and quickly lowered the camera and was just in time to watch the beautiful animal disappear over the bank of the pond. I was alone once more...he had come and gone like a ghost. It took me a good ten minutes to get my heart rate back down to normal, but it was worth it...I got the picture. I am now looking forward to more experiences like that one above just to get the blood flowing again like it use to...to prove I can do it. |
| Today, not long after I finished my blog, my camera was delivered! I have spent the entire day trying to figure out how to use the dang thing. I have been shut away in my bedroom studying like crazy on the owner's manual and only stopped when the wife threatened to take the door off the hinges if I didn't come out soon. Now, in a couple of hours I am going to take my new baby and head out to the lake, in search of the perfect sunset! Now I tell you all this because I have an extreme case of guilt over not working on my novel today like I had planned. Please forgive me but I haven't been this excited over a present since I was a kid. Anyway, to assauge my guilt over not writing a chapter or two, I am going to put in a second blog for the day. I was saving this one for Sunday, but what the hey! Hope you enjoy..... **************************************************** THE FOLLOWING ARE HEADLINES AND NEWSTORIES I WOULD LOVE TO SEE, BUT KNOW I NEVER WILL. CANADA REPEALS "STUPID" LAW:Canada's parlement today repealed that country's immigration law against stupid Americans, thus opening the way for a mass migration from trailer parks in the States to the open spaces of Canada's western provinces. In a related story today, UPI reports that the national IQ of America has risen more than twenty points after Canada opened it's borders. ************************************************ LARGE GROUP OF STARS AND ENTERTAINERS HOLD PRESS CONFRENCE. A large group of so called, activist artist today held a press confrence to publicly apoligize to America. The group's spokesperson, Barbara Strisand tod the gathering of reporters: "We want to set the record straight. We, as a group, had no business using our star status to attack this country's forgin policy. None of us, not a single one, have the slightest idea what 'Geopolitical' even means, much less what the nation should do about it! In the future we pledge to all of you that we will leave politics alone and stick to making bad movies." At that point Brad Pitt grabbed the microphone and yelled to the reporters: "Yeah! And just to set the record even straighter...I did Anglina! Not only that but I did her mother too, and her brother!" The L.A. Times today reported that a large shipment of marijuana has hit the streets of that city and it is reported to be laced with a dangerous insecticide. One of the many side effects of this insecticide is that it causes anyone who injests it to have the overpowering urge to tell the truth. Wither or not this story is related to the above has not been proven. ***************************************************** Now those would be some stories worth reading wouldn't they! |
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Congrats on 500 entries, and we are all looking forward to the sequel.