Old Fools Journal: Is it 2009 already?

2009
Written from January 8 to the 11th.

The first thing I want to address this year is that when I become the “All Powerful Benevolent Ruler Of All Things In The Universe” I am going to change the way years are numbered. I want the years to start when the earth formed. It's hard but it can be done. For now we have an arbitrary number applied based on a fictional birth date of a Christian icon. OK Jews do it different and so do the Chinese but here in the US of A we are stuck with 2009 years since the arbitrary birth date of JC or Haysus to some.

I had a great plan for my first post of this year but that got blown all to hell by a email through a www.oldfool.org comment from an old friend. If you have read these post then you have already seen him in the words I spoke for Bob Moore when he passed. The person I consider my dearest friend was coming to visit. We have known each other for 37 years and we have been through a lot, some of it together and some of it not but still shared. This man knows things about me that my mother never knew and my wife doesn't know now. We had not seen each other in at least 15 years and it didn't matter as we took up where we had left off just like it was yesterday. Of course we have been in communication over these years on a more or less regular basis. He hand writes letters to me and I type letters to him. He is the last person that I communicate with in that old style. I would like to handwrite letters as he does just to keep that art alive but my penmanship is so shaky now that it looks like code. So we knew what was going on in each others lives but visual contact and being in the same air is different. It ain't going to be that long again if I have to skateboard to his place in Florida. Now there's a scary thought.

He and his bride had to go so the visit was not near long enough but they had their reasons and I understand them. If we live I will see them again. If you just have one true friend you have all you need. I have that and a little more.

Xmas or whatever you want to call the holiday season (fill in the X to suit yourself) that just past was uneventful and kind of sparse. Being heathens we celebrate winter solstice and Santa Clause Day. I pretty much stay undercover for fear of being blown up by the neighbors and others who celebrate by getting drunk and setting off explosives just like all other holidays here. From the middle of December until after January first and the kids are back in school it sounds like a war zone around here. We used to see the occasional nativity scene but I think they all got blown up.

The one outstanding and delightful thing that happened was that the grandkids, their mother and her significant other came on Xmas day and we (SWMBO* and I) had a very pleasant time. The first I can remember in a long time. The holidays are usually marked by argument and depression. Not this time however as love reached into every dark corner and chased the demons away. Nothing was done to excess including eating and everyone seemed to be happy to be with each other. I only remember one other holiday years ago (I think it was a thanksgiving) that was like that. It is unknown if drugs were involved. Seems I married into a dysfunctional family and coming from a totally functional loving family I was unprepared. I was in shock for several days. I am usually happy if no shots are fired. I went to bed xmas night with a satisfied mind. I wonder if someone slipped me a mickey.



What's with this tomato (on the right)? It's January and this dead plant has risen from the dead. Lazarus shall be its name. This thing was over four feet tall when the cold weather hit it and I thought it had died dead. I set it in the ground a week before hurricane Gustav (last week of August) and it stood unprotected through that storm. It grew up strong an gave us more than a dozen nice tomatoes then after the cold weather it turned black, withered up and died I thought. I was out the other day cleaning out the last years tomato beds and when I come to this one I had a resurrected Plant. It's alive, it's alive. I trimmed all the dead stuff, shaped it's eyebrows and put some lipstick on it, talked to it about the meaning of life and promised plant food. Being coy it didn't say anything.
The picture on the left is sometime in September before it started producing.





After a couple of weeks of unsuitable weather and holiday magic I'm back on the bike again at least for today Here's a shot of a beautiful day from a half mile east of downtown Bayou Blue, La on hwy 182 on one of my shopping trips. A shocking shopping trip as I found everything I came for including a pair of much needed goggles and some surprises.




These will be handy when the wind is blowing the dirt and/or it's cold. The sight of me on the big yellow bike makes little kids run and hide. My “dog etiquette device” (cable with two heavy locks at the end) has the same affect on dogs.






I have discovered a steady supply of yard eggs not three blocks from my house. They are cheaper than the grocery store and they are so good. What a find. I love eggs and these are the real deal. Look is similar to those long haul eggs from far far away that are in the grocery store but the taste is rich and the color of the yolk doesn't appear bleached out. Now if I can just grow enough of something to trade.

Bread is food
That may seem obvious but the stuff in the grocery store labeled bread is not food. There are things in it that I can't pronounce and all that for more than 3 bucks a loaf. SWMBO* treats bread as an edible paper plate but I treat it as food. It's not called the staff of life for nothing. You can live on nothing but bread and water. So I bake bread. I have been pretty lax over this last year but I am back in the swing of things now. My sourdough starter Fred is back up to full power and my yeast bread skills are up to snuff. Yeast rolls are light and fluffy, the sourdough is sour and the artesian bread is crusty and chewy. I have learned to make the sourdough in a pressure cooker and the artesian in a dutch oven. Good eats.

Think you are unique?
If you think that you are unique just Google your name. You will find that there are a lot of “you” all with the same name. For myself I found 15 “me” on Facebook. My full name, at least the alias I go by, is all over the place. I'm a doctor in Colorado, a real estate agent in Texas, killing bugs illegally in Florida and contributing to the republican party in Virginia and that's only a partial list. There are hundreds of me and possibly thousands of me. That's depressing or maybe not. Maybe they will be blamed for my sins.

Dark Depths of Winter
January 11, 2009 Sunday/ Dark, cloudy high temperature 52*/this time yesterday it was 75*
February is looming just over the horizon and I am dreading it as it has always been my worst time of year. It's when dark and foreboding thoughts invade my mind. It all starts before the end of the year and I am sure it's caused by the decreased amount of light. For some years know I have prepared for it by using a lot of bright electric lights starting when the days get down to 12 hours of daylight. When I get up in the morning I turn on all the lights and leave them on until it is bright outside. I do it even if I feel just fine and that has made the affects of winter less pronounced but even with that February is still a bad month filled with dread. I am normally not a depressed person and it's a good thing because on the few occasions I have had that ailment I haven't dealt with it very well. This year I am trying to do something creative everyday and that seems to help. I also have resolved to talk to the ones I love and to force myself to write. These activities I avoid when I am down for fear I will bum someone out. I think it will have a positive affect on me which should not bum anyone out. The writing is going to be hard.

Meanwhile I just got an email from my daughter. Any communication with her always makes me feel good. Her mother had that affect on me as well. I have lots of indoor projects including a new wool kilt and in a few months I'll be worrying about about hurricane season and winter will be a dim memory.


* SWMBO – She Who Must Be Obeyed