Generational differences.

A tragic accident a few days ago claimed the lives of a young Iraq war veteran and his two year old son.  I came across the obituary  and was struck by the fact that the two year old has three living great-great grandparents. 

It’s interesting how  generations can line up from one person to the next. My great great grandfather was a veteran of the war of 1812, my great grandfather was a Civil War soldier and my grandfather was born the year after the Civil War ended.  Of course, I’m 68 years old and can remember when the last Civil War veteran died.

I tried calculating how old my great great grandfather, had he been alive, would have been when I was two years old and I came up with an age of 162, give or take five years or so. 

I guess a generation is something different for everybody.

Incidentally, I hesitated to even write this post for fear it was not something that I should write about so soon after the accident but I mean no disrespect for the accident victims or their families.  I am really sorry when bad things happen to good people.

Don’t let them know.

I decided this year that I would plant some asparagus so that Susie and I could enjoy this delicious vegetable(?) for six or seven weeks every summer. I was just reading up on the care of asparagus and have discovered that asparagus has a natural enemy in the asparagus beetle.

I have fought with the potato bug, the cabbage worm and the zucchini cutworm and now I find that asparagus beetles are a problem also.

I am wondering how this particular beetle is going to find out that I planted asparagus. If no one says anything, will it ignore my garden or is there some sort of beetle newsletter that lets them know where the new plots are. Perhaps they even have a homing device like Sheila, my GPS. 

Whatever, this is the last you will hear from me on the subject.  I don’t want to keep it in the news that I have some juicy asparagus plants.  What THEY don’t know won’t hurt them.

Actually, I was just kidding. I don’t really have any asparagus. Yeah, that’s it. I was just kidding.

Saturday morning at Grandma’s.

Riley Marie spent weekdays during the summer at our house and after she went back to school, we missed having her here during our breakfast hour. On Friday after school, she came to the barn and then spent the night with us. The following morning Susie and Riley Marie prepared a nice breakfast with pancakes smothered in fresh blueberries and strawberries. Naturally, with me watching my waistline and my blood sugar, I didn’t eat any of that stuff. I stuck with my oatmeal. None of that colorful berrry stuff for me. I eat it gray.

Presentation is everything

Maybe this is the way Paula Deem got her start. She still uses a stool to work at the chopping block but it seems like it was just yesterday that even with the stool, she could barely see over the top.

It will not be very long before she can stand on her own.

Times have changed.

With all the political furor swirling around our country, my stomach is in a constant uproar. It is not a good time to be a truthseeker or an admirer of objectivity. 

Now, another occurrence that has me pondering our ever changing world.

A few days ago, I could not find my hairbrush and finally found it laying on a pile of stuff that we are going to get rid of (hopefully) at a garage sale. 

“Why is it here?” I asked Susie. “Are you planning to sell it?”

“Riley Marie brought it out here.”

“Why?”

“Its funny.” she said. ” Our kids used hair brushes as microphones when they were playing rock star.”

“Yeah-h-h-h.” I agreed, remembering the seventies when I couldn’t find a hairbrush because our kids were being budding Sonny and Chers.

“Riley Marie has an entirely different use for your hairbrush.” She told me.

“What’s that?”

“She uses it for a scanner when she’s playing garage sale.”   

Now I wonder if she will grow up to be a regular conductor of garage sales?  Of course, none of the kids turned out to be rock stars, so maybe not.

I smell a rat.

WordPress is the host for this and a couple of million other weblogs. One of the features of their log on page is a randomly selected list of different blogs in different categories that changes every time you come into the page. There is also something called the ‘hawt’ (hot, i assume) post which again features a random blog.

The last couple of times I logged on, this hawt post contained a blog that was attacking Sarah Palin, the GOP VP nominee. Out of four million blogs, that can’t be coincidence.

These two bloggers are vicious in their rumor mongering. One purports to be a writer from Alaska and the other says he is a maharishi/actor who lives in L.A. That’s the beauty of blogging. They may be who they say they are but they could also be pimply faced twenty somethings living in the basement of their parents home in Columbus, Ohio or Scranton, Pa while they wait for their big chance to break away from making grape slurpies at the 7-11. They could even be the same person.  Still it is amazing the number of people who take their anonymous or semi anonymous posts as gospel.

Anyway, it’s very strange that WordPress gives them all that exposure.

It’s a sad day.

The Carmel (indiana) dad’s club, an organization that sponsors youth sports,  has announced that it will no longer supply shirts with first names on the back to any participants in any of the programs.  This is being done to prevent sexual predators from approaching a child and being able to call them by their name. 

Paranoia??  Perhaps or perhaps not.  Either way, its sad.

fifty years

It has now been a month since I attended the fiftieth anniversary celebration of my high school graduation. I have gained a few pounds since that evening because I don’t have that upcoming event to hold me back when I sit down to eat. Luckily, I have the threat of diabetes hanging over my head to control my impulses.

We had a graduating class of twenty eight and 17 of the 21 survivors attended the festivities. We had a really good evening in large part because we have all reached the age where rank and status are not important anymore when we get together. I no longer have to pretend that I own a fleet of semi trucks which was a relief because it was really beginning to wear on me.   

Good looking bunch, isn’t it? 

All of the deceased members of the class were male. I don’t know what to make of that.

A proud grandpa.

At last thursday’s Colt’s Game, our Granddaughter, Riley Marie, was asked to lead the team onto the field before the game. She was driven out on the field in the Lucas Oil motorcycle.

Riley Marie took it all in stride. She has had a lot of experiences already in her short life but I expect this is one she won’t forget.   

Hello, again.

It has been quite some time since I have done anything on this web log and I have let it languish because of several things.

1. While we were in Washington State, a hiker, a woman in her early fifties and wearing a pink jacket was shot to death by a fourteen year old hunter; a boy who mistook her for a bear. The boy had been dropped off by his grandfather who planned to return later to pick up the boy.  

The senselessness of this whole thing really got me down.  I’m neither pro nor anti gun. I don’t own one but I don’t have any objections to other people having guns. It just took me a while to get the whole terrible thing out of my mind. Terrible things happen to good people all the time and I don’t know why this one affected me the way it did. 

2. The political climate that we’re in today. There are so many things that we could talk about in this arena but this isn’t that kind of web log. I also don’t feel that I’m qualified to offer opinions on the subject.   

3. There are now almost 4 million web logs on this provider alone. When I joined up a couple of years ago, there were a shade less than a million.  They all have something to say and much of it is useless banter and I don’t want to add to it. In the last few days, I have also seen some of the most vile, vitriolic attacks by bloggers on Sara Palin and her family. I don’t know if she is a good candidate or not but I do know these people are kooks and in some cases, perverts but still the attacks made me sick to my stomach. I was ready to give up the whole idea of blogging altogether. I didn’t really want to be included in being associated with them and I still don’t.

I was pleased when Barack Obama said that families are off limits.  He was very gracious.  

4. I have also been busy with getting a second book ready to go. The book, ‘Good Times and Bad’ is at the publishers now and I now have a little bit of time to think about working on this weblog.  This book is somewhat like the first one although I can see changes in the way that I write.  There was a lot more thought went into this book and I worry that maybe I spent too much time worrying about what went into it and not enough time making it entertaining.   I read sometime back that writing is a very lonely occupation and I have found out that it is. I have also found that it’s not something that a person wracked with self doubt should be doing.  Not that I’m that person or anything.