I Think

1345a. My sister and some other relatives post extreme conservative messages on facebook. I have tried to not be controversial on that site, but I sometimes lose my reserve and post a few liberal thoughts. I hate that people I love can be so shortsighted. My sister posted one this morning that calls Obama a tax-and-kill-jobs-president. I typed the message: Show me one job the Bush tax cuts created. But I deleted it. I hate facebook for making everyone's thoughts to be magnified beyond their actual importance. Hysteria lurks behind the most innocent post at times. On a2k, disagreements and arguments can be expected, but friends here can get over it.
1346a. Yesterday and the day before, we got all the bluster of dark clouds, thunder and lightning, but no rain. Just now a nice shower has crept in unannounced.

That's because ignorance runs its course in the events of religion and politics.
When people say "Obama tax and kill jobs president," it's based on nothing more than what they hear from their party officials. They never research for the truth or facts.

I heard one conservative pundit saying on tv that Obama promised to reduce the unemployment rate to x percent, but it's still at 8.5% after he's been in office for three years. He broke his promise as far as he's concerned, but the conservatives have been killing government jobs by the thousands, and they want to kill more jobs by letting the wealthy pay less (%). Some people need to learn how to seek the truth; many are just too lazy and susceptible.

Agreed.

1347a. I forgot to buy new razors. The ones my wife picked up are so poor of quality, I went through at least three and still did not get a close shave. I always prefer Gillette, because that's the kind that used to sponsor boxing matches. He he. Honestly, Gillette always delivers a good shave.
1348a. I better sweep the pine needles off of my roof today. This is the season of bottle rockets and the neighborhood behind my property has deep pockets. They scare the **** out of me most years, because there is a cul de sac on the other side of my back fence. Just the right spot for launching fireworks.

I mowed last night, and have been watering everything extra heavy as a precaution.

world war 3 has already broken out over in town. we are under county rules. until you hurt someone or start a fire, most anything goes.

I'm waiting for the fire...

I don't obsessively rake my yard, as do the neighbors. Life is too short and I'm too old. Plus, I don't give a ****. This makes for the "perfect storm" if the rockets come in just right.

1349a. The 13TH will be my 20YR anniversary at the apartments. Doing well at my job is not so easy. To last twenty years is to care enough to have put the well-being of the residents before your own, in many cases. When I was young, before I took my job, I looked down on maintenance men, who worked at apartment complexes. I did not consciously choose to do so. There was a very subtle snobbery within me that their presence stoked. Once I joined the ranks, I began to unlearn my prejudice. Our ranks are filled by wide-ranging intellects, from downright mean and stupid, to intelligent and dedicated, same as most vocations. It is how you choose to be that matters in all situations.
1350a. I came around the house and startled a blue jay. It dropped a large chunk of fig on the ground before me. But, I no longer begrudge sharing with it this season. I have already gotten more from that tree than I will be able to eat. Not into making preserves. I am content.

re: 1349a. I learned that lesson when I was a young teenager when my siblings and I had to go out into the farms to work during the summer to earn money, because we were so poor. We worked with blacks and Hispanics on those fields (I don't recall any whites doing what we did), and they were always hard workers; they had to be. Lugging 12-ft ladders around harvesting fruit was very hard work. I even did swampping (loaded the boxes full of grapes onto trucks to deliver them to the wharehouse). No slackies there!

Even our friends in school were minorities growing up in Sacramento.

Attended our 50th grade school reunion, and most turned out to become professionals. I believe most of us learned early about good and bad people; it's not about their labor that determines it.

I can see where you might think I referred to race, when I wrote that. But, no, twenty and more years back, lots of wasps were doing maintenance work at apartments, in Houston. Quite a few are, still. My first lead man was German and the man that worked under me for eight years was Irish. Race prejudice has never been in my makeup.

I wasn't trying to refer to "race" in my last post; just how it was back when we were youngsters growing up in the neighborhood of Sacramento where we grew up.

One more edit: I remember a Chinese guy in our grade school class who spoke at our reunion who said, he "didn't know what white folks looked like until he went to high school."

I misunderstood. In Fresno, CA, the schools were mixed. A wide variety of ethnicities. It was not until we moved to Texas, in 1957, I encountered overt racism. By then, it was too late for me to be like that. I had been friends with more minorities than whites in California. I was as poor as the poorest among them and I worked in the fields a bit myself - picked cotton, worked the apricot sheds, cut grapes - Nobody was lower than me and I acted it. I never truly learned what it is to be of a so-called "superior" race.

That's **** all ed. When I was a kid my Dad spread mustard on his tongue on cold nights so we could sit round it a keep warm.

Lying bastard.

I'm not kidding ed. But it wasn't minus 10 so often. We made a hole in the kitchen wall, behind the cooker, and we used to dip our bread in next door’s gravy, and leave the doors unlocked so a burglar might come in and lose some of his change.

1351a. Funny thing happened at work, yesterday. We could not find the regular furniture dolly. (Somebody had left it out and another employee hid it from us to teach us to be more conscientious) The other dolly needed a wheel. We fixed up the one we had and proceeded to haul a washing machine down some stairs. But my coworker had neglected to put the pin in that secures the handle. He lost the washer and I at the bottom tumbled with it to the bottom. I made the quicker time, allowing the washer some space for momentum. It slid onto my head. Coworker could not believe it when I popped up, just fine and ready to continue. From then on, every time I tried to move anything, when I placed a ladder for exterior light fixture replacement, he pushed in front of me. He feared I could be in shock from the washer incident. When finally I got to go up and begin installing the new fixture, he conceded I was all right and went away. That evening, my knee did hurt a little. I half expected stiffness out of it when I awoke today, but it no longer bothers me. End of story.
1352a. When in the coarse of human events -
1352a. I had to station a long rod of wire on the porch. Every night, a spider strings its web across the entry. I use the wire to take it down. Sooner or later the little **** will get tired of it and practice its industry elsewhere.
1353a. The biggest of the moringa trees is now as tall as to measure against my mid thigh.
1354a. We goin' to barbecue pork ribs this day.

Happy 4th of July.

Glad your ok after that dolly accident. Iff it were me, I'd sure would have a word with the one that hid the dolly.

I'm glad to hear that you had some success with those moringa trees.

Hope you have a good 4TH, ragman.

Thanks. You too and same to all readers of the postings!

1355a. Yesterday was so like a Sunday to me. I made progress on my book and we had a barbecue, just the two of us. Aside from the booming fireworks, it was perfectly staid old-folks. I did take a hoe and pull down the growth wanting to climb the wall out back.
1356a. Fireworks started several grass fires that were put out before real damage was done.
1357a. Contemplating last night - I am still the same re politics and views toward society as when I rode the trains and when I attended war and civil rights demonstrations. Its just, older people have fewer options when it comes to life style. I could not survive long if I lit out at the drop of a hat. There were times I owned less than a dollar bill that I relocated, say, from Long Beach to Kansas City. But I am still that rebel, just gone into hiding.

I hope no Kalihari bushman comes on taking that line ed.