Monday, June 27, 2011

A NEW SEASON

Summer is upon us all.

We have closed the Northern Camp…visiting the Holy Land of the North occasionally this year…
Leland/Traverse City to visit and Copper Harbor to visit and to attend an Iron Man Triathlon Dear Son is participating in.

We will be staying in familiar places but not in our camps.

The particulars of the closing are not important, but suffice to say we will be catching up on downstate needs…and they are many.

The koi pond is reclaimed with new statuary and landscaping and fences are being replaced.
Since reclamation, what I will call a toad or two have taken up residence and are singing their hearts out, swollen throats and all.
Superb!

An oft-retained tree company will undertake tree modification throughout our modest property.
And we will paint and varnish and prune and attend to our modest downstate affairs.

Spiritual beverages and cigars have never tasted better…and they will help us find our way.
As will fellowship with friends.
And book club and dinners in and out will also ease the pains of labor [not labor pains].

And all the while we look out upon our world.

b.o. confounds his military over Afghanistan and pleases his base.
Mrs. b.o. is in Africa.

New York redefines marriage.

Lybia defies understanding…a b.o. war of choice.

msm fixates on polls…as it is now accustomed to doing…and largely ignores the gritty details of important issues which few of us understand …

b.o. seems to be a part of most reporting on msm…
We wonder if the person of the President was always so oft mentioned in days gone by.

The nation's news should not really always or even largely revolve around the person of the President or the institution of the Congress.

Fixation on the national government diminishes the locals ..... and there are consequences.
Do you know them?
Does anyone care?

Rain is expected tonite…
Dear Grandkids arrive in morning for the day…an unexpected visit…

They will accompany us on our errands.

Dear Lord, we will be busy this day.
We may forget thee.
Please do not forget us.

Take good care.

Monday, June 6, 2011

ITEMS

Item: It appears that at least some of the dictators being so roughly handled by their people in North Africa and the Middle East these days are no friends of the enemies of our country.

There is an old axiom in diplomacy:

The enemy of my enemy is my friend.

I hope that wise old heads in our government are keeping this truth in mind as they watch the dominoes fall.

Item: He talked through the national anthem. A while back, she hugged. And then there was the matter of the gifts.
No prob 'tho.
Why should anyone care about the courtesies due to a foreign leader, especially one from that country?

Item: cnn anchor eliot spitzer reporting on tony weiner. What could be better than that? What kind of a news network could employ spitzer? What kind of an electorate could elect a piece of work like weiner?
What kind of viewer could enjoy watching a piece of work like spitzer?

Item: The Royal Navy (British) and the French Navy are to share an aircraft carrier.
Just announced.
How about that?

Item: 6 June is the 67th anniversary of the Day called D. Did you find many references in your nightly news? In your newspapers?
'Tis ok.
It happens.
The years pass...as do the generations that remember. Those who were there or who knew those who were there pass on or ... get busy with other memories.

That is the way of life. That is the way of death.

Perhaps it is just as well, as long as a core of rememberers remain...remain always ... to remind the rest when the rest need reminding.

Young folk often make the mistake of thinking that what is going on now is more important than what has gone on before.
They do not know that their now is their tomorrow's history... that the one sets the trajectory for the other.
Young folk almost never know that simple truth.

Lots of old folks wish they had known that simple truth....while they were still young.

JAMES ARNESS R.I.P. 3 JUNE 2011

And so another bit of one's youth passes on over.

Our family watched his character Matt Dillon and his fellow actors on Gunsmoke weekly for years.
We loved most every one.

And, coincidentally, Mr. Arness was a veteran of the Day called D....
He died just a few days short of the 67th anniversary.

He was wounded during the invasion.

Thank you, Sir, for your service.