Blog Topics

As you might know I am really almost never without something to say.  My problem is to limit and focus. In the world of things there is much to talk about, a bit to reminisce, and so many things that I wish to explore.

The only time in my life when I knew everything I was only seventeen.  Now as I get older, with each passing day, I am discovering that I know less and less.

   There are several reasons that I blog.  I can.  That is one for sure.  I am alive and well and strong.  Two years ago I was about as close to death as one can get and still be able to creep back from the edge.  So, blogging is in celebration of life, living.  Screaming into the fire with the notion that I am not ready yet!

   Blogging is a journal for me.  I can look back to see what was consuming me in the past.  I can hunt for inconsistencies, attempt at discovering a pattern and examine my garden from year to year.  I can look back and discover the eggs of ideas that could have been incubated. 

   I like teaching and clearly attempt that from time to time and it is not all about politics.  I have written extensively on tomatoes, on my steel creations and offered a detailed description of my stone posts, enough to allow for easy copying if anyone should want to.  Clearly I like discussion and comments and disagreements always lead to a better understanding.  I don't know any truths whatsoever!  Except maybe it is nicer to appreciate a night sky than to attempt to understand it.

    You can meet people from all over the world in the blogging universe and a few will become your friends.

Some, I could end up at their front door one day and they would feed me and that is a wonderful feeling.

People from all over the world have the same concerns, the same pains and frustrations, similar interests and aspirations.  The Beatles had it right:  We Are One!

   I get ideas right out of the newspapers and always want to know, as Paul Harvey used to say, "The Rest of the Story"?  I am pretty convinced we are not told "the Truth" about anything.  Some is by design, the truth would destroy profit and in other cases we just don't know the truth and mostly don't care to find out.  We are a lazy lot and wish not to investigate any consequences.   I am a "list maker", have been all of my life.  School teaching demanded it, the lesson plans, goals and methods to achieve them, contingencies when things went astray and the necessity for alternative plans.  The construction industry was the very same except when things went wrong I lost money.  That is the source of my "conservative side".  Any mistake I ever made cost me money and sometimes a lot of it.   It costs the employer about $20 dollars an hour to pay an employee $12 dollars per hour.  I had sometimes nine employees, $180 dollars per hour. A mistake would cost me $3 dollars per minute until I solved it.  You learn fast.

   Some of you reading this blog may think that I am a flaming liberal and I am not.  Oh, socially I may be but fiscally I am about as conservative as you can get.  I am not in favor of a Government that gives everything away.  I think that rewards laziness and I hate lazy people.  I think we should all pay taxes equally, what ever that might be.  If every dime of the working man is taxed for Social Security, then I think every dime for everyone should be also.  I am not after the money of the 1% but I want them to pay the same taxes as I have all of my life.  The same.  Equal.  I want "Capital Gains" to be taxed as wages.  Some may say oh they won't invest and risk their money if that were to be the case!  That is garbage.  Everyone, even you and I almost always invest any surplus money that we may have.  That is what a bank account does.

   I Blog because I don't write letters and I seldom use the telephone.  I don't have a cell phone but if I did 100 minutes would last me over a year for sure.  I am about the worst there is on the telephone, quickly get tongue tied and run out of things to say.  Me?  Yes, for sure, I am no good on a telephone.   There are some people I care about though and keep in contact with them through this blog.  If you want to know what I am doing, how my garden is doing, the weather in Oregon or what I am thinking, this is the place to find out.

     The blog world is interesting and slightly mysterious.  The cyber world is way beyond me.  Somebody or something is always listening, noting key words and phrases, hunting for something.  I get advertisements on my screen that theoretically are geared toward me.  I don't know why.  I couldn't afford a "Hot Russian Babe" and my wife would laugh at me!  I go to the grocery store, the hardware store and the local steel scrap yard and that is about all of the shopping that I do.  Sometimes I buy sanding disks or ornamental iron on line and I use my Amazon credits from my credit card to do Christmas shopping.  That is about it for on line shopping.  I have never set foot in a Target Store or Best Buy or Sam's Club or most of the big box stores.  I have been caught in the local Walmart, "China Incorporated" from time to time and always sneak out, guilty as hell.

    I get "hits" from Russia, sometimes over a hundred in a week and it always leaves me curious.  Why?

Did I say something interesting and why would they never leave a comment?  In any given year I have more visitors from Russia than here and they have never left a comment.  Maybe they are not allowed to?  Maybe Hot Russian Babes in search and quickly moving on to more desirable waters?  One of the mysteries of life.

I have had hits from Arab countries and would love to have them stop by for a chat!  Are they really after Democracy or do they want flat screen televisions?  And us?  What do we want?  If we can get 50% to turn up in an election we consider that pretty good!  Newspapers used to be "The Fifth Estate" telling us the truth in a deceiving world and that has all changed with the times.  We don't seek any truth anymore.  Sound bites.

   My world revolves around my little one third acre near the downtown of my little city.  I have control here.

I can turn the water on or off and almost control the weather.  I have my garden, my tomatoes and flowers, the shop and my little studio.  One day I can bang steel together, grind and make fire and on another I can dig and work in the dirt, putting my hands deep into the Earth.  On some occasions I may paint, work in my quiet studio and apply color to canvas just for the hell of it.  Because I can.

   I am always thinking of the next project, inventing something or improving on what I did.  I always get up early and still make lesson plans, list of this or that, what things I may need, how to acquire them, what to do.

The difference now is that I am retired and I know these lists have no importance and I can toss them at a whim.  Like going to Seattle on the spur of the moment to help a friend.  That was simply great.

   Now you know.

Who is in Russia?

   I wonder sometimes who is clicking on these posts, who is visiting me?  The "stats page" tells me where and sometimes even how they found me but it never tells me who.
   Yesterday, RUSSIA!  How cool is that?  Over 30 "hits" from Russia!  But not one message, no comments, just "hits".  I wonder about their Internet, can they surf but have a fear of being found out, a fear of their opinions?  Hahahaha!  That is so funny, we do too!
  Oh, we don't have secret police.  I don't think anyway, at least not on the street corners yet, although everyone knows that all e-mails are in the ethernet forever and subject to review.
   Sometimes we don't comment because we do not want to go on record, fearful of offending someone, of being misquoted, fear of taking a position, maybe even a fear of being caught on company time!
   I wonder about Russia though and can imagine a whole Junior High School class investigating me, that might account for my 30 "hits".  It can't be the Russian Secret Police.  I don't know anything.  That is why I am always asking questions.  There is no need to torture me, I would just lie.  Tell you anything you want to know.  Make up stories.  Switch sides back and forth in order to confuse you, fall into a Southern Accent and tell you I am from Georgia.  No, not that Georgia, we have one too!
   In fact, we have a lot in common.  The same "Western Expansion" experience except yours was towards the East.  The same abundance in Natural Resources, the same towering fir trees, open spaces, wealth of land.  Huge countries, both of us.
   And we have probably both made mistakes, could have done something different than we did.  We have been allies and enemies, times when we didn't even talk.  Competitors.  Sports or politics, always something.
   McDonald's is there now, the biggest one in the world and I wonder what you must think of us?  How are images made?  How are opinions formed?
   My "Russian Connection" is pretty much limited to tomatoes.  Years ago I found a Siberian Variety, one used to colder nights and it does well in my garden.  No need to torture me, I'll tell you everything I know!
   30 "hits" in one day!  I wonder if it is "Hot Russian Babes"?  I have never seen one but I know about them.
Well, I don't really but I could imagine that I do.  I know there is more to Russia than Vodka and girls and Sputnik.  We use your rockets now!  That is sort of embarrassing.  The United States of America can't afford a single rocket to get us to the Space Station!  Well, that tells a lot about us.  We are going broke!
   Anyway, if you should stop in today, say "hi" and we can talk about tomatoes or art, share adventures and dreams, how to fix the back porch, or even what is for dinner?  Just talk and blog, it doesn't have to be serious.

My Other Blog is HERE

A Way with Words...

     There are ten trillion brain cells and we don't use most of them.  There are only 20,000 words in the English language yet mostly we use the same 500 every single day.  Synopses in the brain are like little relay switches, some are much like a computer, on or off, zero or one.  When they are not used they wither and when used often new ones can appear.  Our brains can grow!
    A lot of this is just an excersize, learning a new word a day, reading a whole book from cover to cover,
having a great conversation with someone you are in disagreement with, finding Libya on the map!
    What really happens is we get into a comfort zone of daily routines, things we think we have to do and we narrow our attitude to support our behavior.  I am such an old fashioned guy.  I still read the newspaper from cover to cover!  I read the sports page and I hate sports!  I read the business section and I am happily retired.  I read all the news "that is fit to print" and most importantly, I read the editorials, especially those I may disagree with!  I don't watch much television but caught myself the other day watching MSNBC and couldn't believe what was being passed as "news"!  Talk radio is much the same, both the liberal and the conservative programs are out to add fire to the flames!  They appeal to our emotions because they know.
They know that we have become too lazy.  What the Hell is happening in Sudan and who gives a crap?
     When I raised my daughters (sounds like cattle, huh?) I had no idea of what they were to become.  If they wanted to become beachcomers that would have been okay.  I would just encourage them to become good beachcomers!  The biggest single restriction put upon us is our own fear.  Fear of not being able to do something, fear of failure, fear of losing our footing, of what is comfortable and familar, and even, a fear of success!
    I hope I do "have a way with words", that would be a great thing.  I would rather open synopses, expand horizons, and in the process lose a fear of heights than have today be just like yesterday.  I don't know all of the answers, or any answers for that matter! That would make life pretty simple, I would just pass on what I knew and it could be added to and the world would get better and better!  It doesn't seem to work this way.
Every generation must start from scratch.  I know you have to ask questions to get answers. That's all.
My Other Blog is HERE