Again We Sorrow

Good evening Friends:

I am sure that anyone reading this is as Heartsick as I am over the unspeakable tragedy that occurred last week at the school full of little Children in Connecticut. I guess I'm just like almost everyone else, in that I cannot, for the life of me, understand why anyone, even a Madman, would wish to harm innocent children, who as we all know, are not capable of doing anything harmful to a grown person, and thus cannot be guilty of any behavior or actions that would engender a standing enmity to cause one to perpetrate such a vicious, filthy,Irrational and sick Act, as this was.

I cannot wrap my mind around this. I keep getting a mental image of Twenty Small Coffins, Twenty growing lives and minds stilled forever, accompanied by Six Adults, who gave their lives to protect these beautiful, innocent Children. Perhaps I am not supposed to. I know many people would say that we cannot understand God's purpose in allowing such Acts, I would say that this cannot be the Act of God, but the act of a perverted madman, who abused the free will we are all given, but shed the cloak of love and caring which we are all also given.

I Do Not and Cannot understand this, and I never will. Perhaps I am not meant to.

I have written before that there is NO reason any civilian should have to own an Assault Weapon. They have only one purpose, and that is to Kill Human Beings. PERIOD.

I have been a Gun Owner since I was about Ten years old, or so, and never as a Civilian have I ever pointed a gun at an innocent Human Being, and I cannot believe ANY sensible Gun Owner, be they Sportsman or Collector or Scholar, would have any objection to the complete Outlawing of Civilian Ownership of Assault Weapons.

A gun is nothing more than a tool, and as such can be misused such as most tools can, but a gun is of a much faster and easier Lethality than most any other tool, with the possible exception of the Motor Vehicle, which also is responsible for the Death and maiming of too many beings each year. Just as No One other than a member of the Armed Services or Police Officer has any conceivable need for an Assault Weapon, neither does anyone have any need for an Automobile capable of ridiculous speeds, but many such vehicles are sold each year.

I believe that it is long past time that we all stop and say, this is too much, No More, and make the changes anyone of average intelligence should realize are necessary to protect the innocent.

Remember always these Precious little Children.

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Request

Good Evening:
I am writing this post to request that anyone reading this will do me the great favor of sending all your Prayers upward for John B. Turner, whose blog is John three Sixteen. This good man has recently been diagnosed with Multiple Cancers, of the Brain, Back and elsewhere. Joh needs all the help a Merciful God gan give , and I'm sure that the more prayers for him the greater his chances for a recovery.
John, even tho I've never met him has helped me a lot in the past by helping me to start and maintain this blog, and by setting an example of what a good person is. So come on troops, lets all say a bunch of prayers for John.
Thank You and God Bless

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Good Afternoon:

As you can see by the salutation, I have changed the font and font size on my Blog.
This is in response to Google's new format for Blogs. I do not understand when they(google) had what I considered to be a real good format, they had to change it.
Maybe I'm just an old fogie but I believe in the old saying, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it". Let me know your thoughts.
If any of you have read my past posts, you will have seen when I reported that our Youngest Son had published his first book.
For those who like to read the work of a new Author, the title of the book is: Kingsnake, descendents of Iniquity
Author: Christopher Piper. I think it's a really interesting book about some of the Near and Actual Outlaws who live in the Southern part of Illinois, some of whom we've known. We will appreciate your feedback on this as well, if you are so inclined.
I have been doing a little writing. Just for my selfish enjoyment, will I'm pretty sure never be published, but I've enjoyed writing a lot more when I write just for myself. I am writing a series of stories about a small rural town, and the "Characters" therein.
Its Fun

Stay Tuned
Stay Well, Stay in Touch and Stay Positive.
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Too long a silence

Folks, I'm Sorry.
Or perhaps I should say Folk (singular), as I don't know how many if any people have ever been interested in this Old Man Blog, but just in case there are more than one, I figure I had better explain myself. My last Post was quite some time ago, and it was about the Death of a Dog. Our Dog, Our friend, our companion, and our source of almost constant joy.I have heard from several folks who felt just as my wife and I did, about Their Doggie friends.
At the same time we lost our dog, we had and are having some difficulties that have made our days stress-filled and difficult, due to the misbehavior and lack of purpose on the part of some of those who are very important to us, and it is slowly eroding our souls.
All my life I have regretted any form of waste, and for a person to waste the gift of an absolute gem of a brain, one that has shown in the past that it is capable of outstanding achievements is just so damned sad that I just don't know what to do. The sadder part of this is that the person who owns this brain is a parent and a grandparent, and those decedents, I fear, are emulating this person in some,too many, ways. Someone whose support I value has reminded me of the words of Marcus Aurelius. I remembered these words, but had forgotten the Author.
they are:
ETHICS----If its not true don't say it. If its not right don't do it.

I will continue to hope that the person of whom I am speaking will somehow read these words, and perhaps for the first time decide to change the things that have robbed themself of a successful life.

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Our Sweet Dog

Good Afternoon all.

Our Sweet Dog Scarlett, died on the Twenty First of last month, and her passing left a hole in my Heart and a rent in my soul.

Scarlett was a few weeks short of her Fifteenth Birthday. She lived with us about Ten years, after we took her from a neglected and abused life. She was way underweight and frightened when she came to live with us, and My Wife and I both were determined to improve her life and to make her happy.

We started almost immediately, taking her to a Veterinarian the second day we had her as she had a kidney infection. The Veterinarian put her on a regimen of certain medications, including Flea and Heartworm treatments, and we started, for our part in her recovery, taking her for a long walk at least once a day, and usually twice.

In just a short time, my Wife started cooking for Scarlett, rather than feeding her dog food, as advised by the Vet. Every single night Scarlett could look forward to a supper of either Steak or Chicken, garnished with rice or Pasta and Gravy..

Scarlett let us know right away that she enjoyed and appreciated her diet and her comfortable bed, inside, with us, rather than in the dirt outside, as was her bed where she used to live. She also put on about Twenty pounds, which brought her up to her proper weight.

Scarlett let us know she loved her food in a cute manner. My wife had placed a small Teddy Bear on Scarlett's bed shortly after she came to live with us and we, as silly Old Folks, called the Bear her "Baby". After she would eat her good, home cooked supper, Scarlett would often bring her Baby to us, placing it on the floor in the Dining Room, which, of course, melted our Hearts.

To illustrate how sweet Scarlett was, when we would take our walks people would frequently come to the curb to admire Scarlett and would ask (as it is wise to do) "may I pet her?", to which I never hesitated to tell almost anyone they could pet our Scarlett. Frequently the person petting Scarlett would be a small child and Scarlett was always to calm and loving, it didn't matter if the child pulled her hair or ear, Scarlett seemed somehow to know that the child was very young, and didn't mean to hurt her, and she would just stand patiently, wagging her tail and smiling.

Scarlett had at least two strokes by the time she went to sleep, and I agonize over the thought that maybe I waited too long and caused this sweet Dog to suffer, but we thought as long as she was eating and enjoying her supper, we could wait a while longer. I hope we were right, but if we weren't, I will never forgive myself, and will not expect to be the recipient of a final forgiveness.

I wish everyone could have a wonderful Dog like our Scarlett, but you know; if you treat your Dog good and love them and take care of them, chances are you will have a loving companion also. Grandma and grandpa will always miss you Scarlett,but as it said on Uncle Chris' card, the car windows are always rolled down in Heaven.

Stay well, and do let me hear about your great Dog.

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Characters I have known.

Good Afternoon all.

I'm sure a lot of you have heard of the Peter Principle, which, simply put, is the process of promoting a person to a level above his or her abilities.

Most people have known such a person in their lifetime, and I've had the unhappy experience of knowing more than one, mixed in with the absolutely great people I've worked with over the years.

The person I am making reference to worked at the same facility as I did, and in the same Technical Division. After several years this fellow was promoted to a supervisory position over the area where I worked and things started getting pretty bad pretty fast. This fellow had the ability to take a well functioning department and in short order make everyone in the department either ticked off or disgusted, or both.

It was no secret that this guy had a couple of "Toadies" in the department, who ran to him with tales of people talking badly about him or not doing their work, etc etc etc, almost anything they thought would further their warped cause and improve their status in the eyes of this person.

The crux of the problem, as I saw it, and others voiced the same opinion as me, was that the bespoken supervisor was so insecure that the only way he could tamp down the worrying thoughts in his mind, was to bully every person, every chance he got. He actually hinted to me once, and only once, that if I would come to him when I heard something unfavorable about him, that it would be to my advantage.

I told this chap in no uncertain words that I would do almost any job I was given to the very best of my ability, but that I would not, under any circumstance, become one of his "Lickspittles".

Quite possibly I would have improved my position with the Company if I had done as he asked (furtively) but then how could I have lived with myself?

I have known people in all walks of life, and of all stations, and regardless how menial the job I have noticed that the men who did their job with pride in their work were almost always well thought of by their co-workers and their superiors. And these selfsame men, whatever their station, had no need to run to the "Boss" with lurid tales, mostly of less than whole cloth ,as did the man of whom I spoke earlier.

Folks, at what is probably the tail end of my life, I've found one thing to be ever true: I've found that the good people, the kind of people who you love to work around and with, outnumber the Bastards overwhelmingly.



I guess I have been extremely fortunate, as regards the people I worked with over the years, as the great percentage of them were more than pleasant to be around and to work with.

Stay Well

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In the News.

Good Afternoon

It seems that every time I read the Newspaper lately, I find something that I would like to write a blog post about, but when I set down at the computer, for the life of me I can't remember what it was I wanted to write about.

But I'll try, all the same.

A few months ago there was an article in the paper about a young woman who stopped her car on the Interstate, dragged her two year old out of the back seat, struck him on the head with some sort of wooden folding table, rendering him unconscious, and continued down the road, dragging her five year old son, and abandoning her two year old . It was only by the grace of God that a passer-by saw the tot lying in the traffic lane of the Interstate and stopped to render assistance, and thus averted the horror of the young lad being run over by a speeding vehicle.

It seems that the woman had, before starting to drive, had snorted a product marked as" bath salts", which had the reputation of causing hallucinations, when snorted, and thus catching the attention of the Drug Community. This excuse for a human being had INTENTIONALLY snorted these salts to get high. The older child had told police that his Mother had thought that his little brother was a demon, and had tried to destroy and abandon him.

The woman's picture was in the Newspaper and has been on T.V. news several times, and lordy lordy, if one looked up white trash in the dictionary, one would find her picture.

And now for the even more unbelievable part of this tragedy. The woman was sentenced to only Ten Years in the Pen for this attempted Murder. She will undoubtedly serve part of that sentence, be released by some damn fools on a parole board, and immediately get busy having more children that she can endanger, ignore and neglect. This is absolutely outrageous!!! This this ...trash, to be kind, needs to be taken out and sterlized, forbidden, on pain of death, from having any contact with any child, under any circumstances at all, for the rest of her miserable life.

I have no doubt at all, that if some practitioner of the Evil Arts were to procure some thoroughly dried Bovine or other Farm Animals Manure, package it as ,say, hair restorer, but publicize it, sub rosa, as a maker of good highs, a large number of damn fools would purchase and "Snort" it.

Some time ago, I was speaking with an old friend whom I had not spoken to in over 50 years, and reminiscing with him about the past, he referred to a job I held, back in the day, which was, looking at it now, extremely low paying, but was thought to be about right at the time, given my relatively unimportant status with that company, and asked me if I thought those were the good old days. I replied, without hesitation, that I absolutely did. When queried by my friend "Why", I couldn't think of any reasons other than we were young at the time, and things cost a whole lot less, like gasoline, as a forinstance. We had no further discourse on this subject and went on to talk about other things, but I think if my friend were to again ask me this question, I would mail him the articles about this woman from the Newspapers .

I'm afraid, that if asked to rate our population as a whole, I would have to say that it has gotten terribly worse over the past few decades.

Maybe I should just stop reading the Newspaper.

Stay well and do at least one good deed a day.

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Proud Papa

Good Afternoon Folks:

I, with your permission, am going to depart from my "Preaching" for once in order to indulge myself in a little bit, no make that a lot, of Paternal pride.

Our youngest child, Christopher, has just signed a contract for the publication of his first book, and my wife and I are just bursting with pride.

I should hastily add this disclaimer i.e. My son, who is very talented in several areas, got none of his talents from me. My wife is the smart one in our family, but the important thing is that he has these talents and he has put them to work, in the writing of his book, and I'm so very glad he has.

It has Been suggested by a few people, mostly co-workers over the years, that I should write a book, but, due to a lack of talent, and a probable overabundance of laziness, I never have. This exercise I call a Blog is a very poor substitute, and has, in fact, been perhaps accurately called "Crap", and it probably is.

But at least, thanks to our Son, there is now one writer in the family.

"Scuse the Braggin"

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This and That

Hi Folks.

I read in a recent copy of our local Newspaper that the State of Kentucky has broken ground, so to speak, on a new level of Insanity.

Now, even though I was born in the Bluegrass State, events over the past few years have made me almost ashamed to admit this fact.

The occurance I am speaking of is Kentucky's department of Fish and Wildlife Resources have announced a hunting season on.....SANDHILL CRANES!!!. Now correct me if I am wrong, but I have never thought of these Birds as "Trophy Material" nor do I believe I have ever heard of anyone of more or less human origins desiring to make a meal out of one of these graceful creatures. Kentucky, in all its wisdom has decreed that the season will run until 400 birds have been killed, or until the director of the Fish and Wildlife department sobers up, whichever comes first.

I fully expect that these intelligent people will probably attempt to open a season on Bald Eagles soon. I guess word hasn't filtered down that This is our National Bird. Just as it hasn't seemed to occur to these numbskulls the insanity of a season on any species of Cranes, Sandhill, whooping or any others.

The only bright spot in this stupidity is that each "Hunter" will ONLY be allowed to take Two Birds.

I would like to suggest to the high muckety-mucks in Kentucky Government change one small detail in the next season on these birds, and that is their Quarry has to be taken by hand, and that for each bird that is taken, one Kentucky legislator has to just quit his job and go home. The way I figure if these clowns can do nothing better than to allow a laxity in the laws of the State of Kentucky that allows for such obvious stupidity, well...Kentucky has too many legislators, who have too little sense. Folks, the days of such prominent and deserving politicians such as Alben Barkley, who some of you may remember as Harry Truman's Vice President, and who was giving a speech after his term as Veep ended, ended the speech and his life (he dropped dead at the end of this remark) "I would rather be a servant in the house of the Lord than to sit in the seats of the mighty"--are so few and far between as to almost be an extinct species.

As an aside, years ago I attended an auction at the Home of Alben Barkley which I enjoyed, and I was able to purchase some of Senator Barkley's books and the large antique Dinner Bell which was on a post in his back yard.

I still have both items, and am rather nostalgic about them.

Stay well and do good works.

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