Home Alone

For the last week and a half, I have been without my spouse, who is visiting our daughter, son-in-law and grandson in Dallas. Not a lot to say about that. Sucks. 'Bout sums it up.

Mood Haberdashery

Don't believe for an instant that I wear a hat. I'm not a baseball cap sort of guy, nor stocking cap, beret, fedora or cowboy. I simply prefer hoods. Hats make my head itch. Making that clear, I wear all sorts of hats. Depending on my state of mind, my head coverings, though symbolic, represent an array far exceeding any less spectacular physical cap in existence. Run the emotional gamut from joy to rage and you'll sense my mood from white to red, though way, way beyond the limitations of physical color. While I can't fully explain my cornucopial psyche in technicolor, let it be known that my mind knows what it's thinking and my reaction relates the thoughts. Blue mood. Red rage, pastel passivity, yellow.......... well, I don't really know what yellow represents- canaries? Some might see purple rage- I see grape. Colors from the spectrum lay out a weak representation for emotional content and hats do little more than give a lame example of the same. A black ski mask might suggest different symbolism from one to the next. A blue beret has little meaning to me, but might influence another. A Nazi helmet with a bullet hole it it will always procure positive connotations in my mind, and a dirty girl scout cap will always cause me to worry. If I find one on my head, I'm certain to be REALLY worried. Nuff said.

I'm Back!

Just a reminder that my new year's resolution did not include not posting on this blog. JUST YOU WAIT! (and not for long)

New Year, New Year

For those of you insulated from the cold, the recession, the job losses, the war thing(s), Tiger Woods, the benching of Payton Manning, girl's basketball at St. Vincent's, our dumped governor, Stephen King's 1,100 page book, kooks taking up their own plan to kill and terrorize in the name of al qaeda, probably unknown to them, Mayweather's ploy to sabotage a fight he's scared to make, Downey Jr.'s brilliance, Tasmanian Devil's fight with cancer (yes).........yada, yada, yada..................... consider this your year to find the time in your busy lives to collect diverse information from around the world. Make what's happening out there part of your collected intelligence. Then you can consider yourselves a part of it. Awareness can prohibit the rise of ignorance. Don't turn from events that you believe have nothing to do with you. The only way to really survive in this world is to know it. Otherwise, like voting, if you don't, you affect nothing, and as a result you're simply a supplicant. Either be aware, be involved or be nothing.

Be Prepared

......................for new year posts, including rants, raves and recipes, opinions that may startle, shock or even awe......... Evidence of my right wing/left wing spinning teeter-totter leanings......... An amalgam of trivial information, a plethora of useless quipping and a boxcar load of random witticisms. Stay tuned as the new year, the new decade, AHA!, the new dawn comes. Ciao

Winter's Caustic Embrace, Business Morass

This January marks my 25th year in business, varied in capacity and definition, as a building contractor. I still wield a hammer, at almost 52, with more weight to sling around, I can yet climb a roof, flip a sheet, cut 100 rafters in a day, and make good time doing it all. I'm certainly better at physical execution than I am at business execution. How I got three kids through college is still a mystery to me. As much as I'd like to claim to be impervious to any economic downturn, it appears that I am not. This past year has proven that even good guys can go down. I feel somewhat punch drunk, but I have a good chin and will go the distance.
One thing has changed. I must accept the notion that Amy's yearly fall complaint " I hate the cold! Did I tell you? I hate the cold!" Now followed by "This year I'm notkidding- we're finding a way to spend winter in Dallas (or Hawaii)" has started to get to me. I am beginning to hate the cold. I, unlike most others I know- who have hated the cold they've had to endure travelling from their front door to their car from their car to their office,- have an outdoor work zone for some 8 hours a day. Those inside folks can cry a river on my shoulder- likely to freeze on my Carhartts. Maybe for me, a change will occur, but not this winter, not after this year. I'll have to see what comes of 2010. I'll have to try to punch back more. I'll probably need to alter my fight plan. I don't want to look back and think "I coulda been a contenda". Actually, I'd rather not look back at all. At least not to 2009. I'd rather look ahead. With a plan. Or a dream- hopefully not laid out in pipe. Merry Christmas, everybody.

Melting! It's All Melting!

Certain phenomena occur in nature. Simply study earth history. Most climactic changes appear to be cyclical, and they are. The ice caps are melting, and whether your particular scientist or your particular region recognizes a temperature rise has nothing to do with the facts. Whether we humans have contributed to this trend and how much is purely speculative. If we are, largely, the culprits, we cast a far darker shadow over the future of this planet than I thought. More likely, we contribute in a more minor role- one which we can reduce- than some think. Others believe, as I do, that the planet adjusts continually, regardless of our welfare, through natural progression. (sounds a lot like natural selection, and that would be on purpose). The earth has survived many a cataclysmic event, and I'm sure it can survive man.
So........... in our convoluted world we play politics with it all. Conservatives play it down and liberals play it up. Ultimately, we'll have little or no influence when nature plays it out.