ALL'S NOT QUIET

I spent some time one recent Sunday morning basking in the quiet of the day. It did not last long, of course, for everyone is so busy they end up doing some yard work on Sunday since they aren't able to do it all on Saturday because there is shopping and soccer and a bunch of other things that need doing. A lot of that is carry over from the week when no one is able to get it all done for they are too busy with work and such.
The mowers, edgers, chain saws and tractors usually begin to crank up in my neck of the woods around about 11 on Sunday. They go pretty good the rest of the day. A "peaceful" Sunday is a thing of the past.
Too bad, for me and for those using the power equipment; none of us get our proper time off. It's part of the hefty price we pay in the name of progress.

MEMORIAL DAY BLOG SCRIPT

When I began to write this I did not, as is my custom, begin with a title. It is what it is because I did not have anything better, more concise, more fitting to the day. How can you, after all, summarize all that Memorial Day means in just a few simple words?

Every so often I get to thinking about all the men and women who died in wars of the past and present. Oh I’d bet they were handsome men, lovely women for war comes in and snatches only the youngest, it seems, that time in life when we are at our best.

Some come home alive and well, of course, and they are the ones we often see at Memorial Day parades marching in line as best they can. Others come home too beaten up to do much of anything and still others come home in a flag shrouded coffin to take their final resting place on a quiet hill, at peace for all eternity.

So, this is one of those times when I think of all those men and women and I lack the words to thank them properly let alone sum up this day in a few words. Maybe I’ll just say thanks and let it go at that. They might well be too embarrassed if I tried to say more.

SAME OLD, SAME OLD

The headline on the Associated Press wire this afternoon (Tuesday) says oil prices have closed at a new record, above one hundred twenty-nine dollars a barrel. I don't buy my oil by the barrel, it's more by the quart, enough to keep my vehicles engine from freezing up.
Given that I'm not sure I really care a whole lot about the oil prices; I guess I should but I don't. I can't do much about those prices for they are controlled by people who deal in shiploads of crude compared to my few quarts every so often. So, I'm not interested when crude hits a new high, that's not news.
Oil prices dropping, now that is news,

HERE WE STILL GO

Another day, another disaster.
I look at the wire service reports each day and list in my mind the latest badness to beset the world. A typhoon and earthquake have led over the past several days but each day gives me more reason for sadness for, each day, reports from both areas tell tales of individual human misery pulled from an already thick volume of sadness and despair.
In those stories I see people, just people. Really, save for the fact that I know where they are, these folks could live a couple states away. They grieve for their children and families, their cries of anguish understandable given that their hopes and dreams have been crushed beyond repair and I'd probably do the same.
They say these things happen for a reason though I am hard-pressed to come up with one that fits here. I'm now grasping at the notion that perhaps some of us around the world will suddenly realize that despite our leaders penchant for painting pictures of an enemy to be reckoned with there are mostly just people over there, like us. They may not follow our way of life but, when push comes to shove, we all cry the same kinds of tears.

WHEN WILL IT END?

Before you acuse me of being unpatriotic, Dear Reader, let me say up front that I hold democracy and the freedom it gives me in only the highest regard. I cherish it and I hope it never goes away nor do I forget those who have given so freely of themselves even paying the ultmate price to defend it.
But, having said that, I now must ask when will this election thing conclude?
Is it just me or does it seem like we've been electing a nominee, just a nominee now and not the President, forever and day? I can't go to the news anywhere without running across the latest Democratic/Republican doings. Yet, despite it all, I'm not hearing what I want to hear as in, "Mike, I understand your position completely; I just took my truck down to the gas station yesterday for a fillup and I almost overdrew my credit card." Or, perhaps, "Three seventy-five for a head of cauliflower! I went shopping last week, bought a few bags of stuff, and it cost me over a hundred dollars. Mike, I feel your pain."
See, that's what I want to hear. I'm tired of speeches, promises, points made while all of us sit and stew over a choice between fuel or food, medicine or shelter, a decent salary or upper-level poverty.
I tire of it all and I do so want it to be over.

JUST HOW OLD AM I?

I am a frequent visitor to a fast food restaurant right down the road from the station. I like the food because they serve some healthy stuff and it's also convenient. I am entitled to a Senior Discount when I go there but never ask for it.
Thinking that through, I've decided I don't particularly want anyone to know I'm entitled to it even though admitting to my age would save me a few pennies. I'd prefer keeping it my little secret and quietly sitting down to eat at least a little bit poorer for maintaining my vanity.
That's what it is, I guess, vanity. I never thought I'd get this old but now that I have I don't intend to make the fact public by asking right out for my Senior Discount!
Now, if they ever start offering ten percent off on gasoline, well, that's a different story.

HELLO, HOW ARE YA?

When you live in the same town for a long time folks get to know you, maybe even consider you a native.

A few days ago I went into my local diner for some breakfast and said hello to five or six people from the time I went in to the time I left. They know me not because I work in television but because I do business with them, see them at the park, because our kids went to school with theirs or were in Scouts together. Lots of reasons.

Anyway, I realized again how good it is to have a place to call home, a place where everybody knows your name, where they care about what happens to you.The world is a hurry-up kind of place and we pass others like ships in the night, never really getting to know somebody before they're gone. I don't have that problem in this place I call home and I find I'm very glad about that.

TELLING TALES

I believe I could do a good job as a pundit, "One who gives opinions in an authoritative manner, usually through the mass media" according to Merriam Webster.



This presidential election year seems to be the Year of the Pundit for they are all over the place. People I never heard of and probably won't again come in to television stations and networks to offer opinions on the three candidates, their chances of winning, the likelihood they'll lose if the turnout in the third ward of a county in the northwest corner of Indiana is less than 53%. I don't know as how any of them are making anything more than a guess.



So, given that background, is it no wonder I see the field of Punditry as my future. I can be as authoritative as the next guy and I can have an opinion on almost anything from dollars to donuts, rockets to reactors, spaghetti sauce to spaghetti making. The fact that I know almost nothing about any of the topics in question need not be considered. It is my opinion and I'm sticking to it and, as long as I am and can shout down anybody else who has a different view, I think the least that should happen is I get paid for my talents. We all need to help the economy; I heard that today, from an economic pundit.

JUST A FEW BILLION MORE

ALLENTOWN, Pa. (AP) - A state transportation official says it would cost $11 billion to fix the nearly 6,000 bridges in need of repair in Pennsylvania.
ATLANTA (AP) - The jackpot in the multistate Mega Millions lottery drawing has grown to $120 million.

Maybe, just maybe it wouldn't be such a bad idea to have some of the PENNDOT higher ups go out and play the lottery, in the name of bridge repairs, of course.

Hey, 120 million here, 100 million there, pretty soon you're talking real money. It won't be enough to fix everything, for sure, but every penny helps.

I'm just sayin'

SOMETHINGS ELSE THAT'S NEW

NICE...
At the risk of swelling the heads of the folks who put together and manage our Web page I must say they did a great job with the new one. True, there are likely a few bugs yet to be found but it looks just fine to me. I don't know the first thing about making up one of these things but I know a lot of training, time and effort goes into it.
Now, if I could just get them to make me look a few years younger.