Old Fools Journal: Life Is Good

This post card reminds me of my last two trips into the local villages. There was not any gunfire for me but I expect it always.  I think people take a "pissed off" pill before they get into their cars. I even saw a display of  "pissed off" for showing courtesy.  I'm still trying to figure that out. "No good deed goes unpunished" seems to prevail more and more everyday.

I fully identify with Gonzo my favorite muppet

It was a quick and dirty trip to the butcher and the vegetable market. Those two stops were satisfactory as usual and I scored a dozen eggs laid by chickens that walk around on the ground. I've got to get some chickens.

I keep thinking I'll get tired of being responsible for them but I didn't when I was younger and had much less patience with things that interfered with the instant gratification of my desires.  I remember the relief when I gave them away but I also remember the regret because I knew I'd never see them again. The same with the dogs but being in my mid thirties I got on with it and soon forgot by doing what we called "chasing tail" (I don't really remember what that was all about). Forgetting turned out to be a bigger deal than I reckoned with. I still remember them all, including all the tears and joys, as if it were yesterday. There were elements of that time that cause me great pangs of guilt. Even though I made provisions for all the animals I still have the feeling that I abandoned them.  It's a terrible feeling and my only defense is I have vowed to never do anything that can be remotely construed as abandoning again.  That means we can't leave when the hurricane comes and in everyday life someone has to be here to take care of the animals everyday.  Somehow that does not make me feel trapped.  SWMBO (she who must be obeyed) agrees but she still feels trapped for other reasons.

The real score was at the thrift store where I picked up a dozen local grapefruit for two bucks. The grapefruit here is like the satsumas in being sweet and plentiful  I hope the rest of the world never finds out because they are also cheap. I also found a couple of 25 cent shot glasses that just fit my peat plugs for starting cuttings.

The bag of dirt is from Hope, Ark. I figured it must be fertile coming from the birthplace of Bll Clinton.

The firewood fairy left me a pile of gifts along side the road and I did not feel bad about talking fifteen minutes to load up. This is only a small portion of this lovely dry wood much of which is very old hardwood flooring. Apparently someone is replacing their hardwood flooring and probably with Chinese plywood and plastic carpet.  How old is it?

These nails may provide a clue.

It has been warm the last few days reaching 78 degrees F today.  Whilst puttering in the garden digging dirt for the spuds Ms. Oldfool called me over to look at the brussel sprouts which is coming right along in this moderate weather.  I sez to her "them brussel sprouts look a lot like cauliflower". She looked me square in the eye and said "no shit". She has a way with words.  When I brought these started plants home I picked out two boxes of four brussel sprouts each. I only looked at the label and only inspected them for health and signs of damage.  She notice the difference in the plants when she put them out but thought nothing of it. Fortunately we like cauliflower and had just discussed having some so there is no loss.  We will be a little short in the Brussels sprouts department this year. We get near a years supply from eight plants.  Home grown brussel sprouts make us  want to  thow rocks at the frozen kind.

Gramma's portal to the outdoors on a cold winter day.  I took this on a 40 degree F day. The sun was shinning and the tree rats and cats were doing spectacular feats in the tree. The cats get on the roof of the porch (seen in the upper right corner of the window) and also on the porch rail that comes to the right edge of the lower window and stare at us.

If I can ever get around to it I want to make this a bay window.  Since we hardly ever agree on anything I have put it off trying to avoid the stress.
I know she will like it but she will make it as difficult as possible unless she figures it was her idea in the first place.


Except for old male who died after climbing a tree and killing a squirrel we still have all the cats.

Which means we can't have anything else (a mean rooster may help). This is not Halloween decorations, this is the fairly expensive stuff I had covering my chili plants and greens during the last freeze. They must hate it because they spend a lot of time shredding it. Look in the lower right corner for the instigator.
To top it off the youngest dog, the moron, just chewed a hole in the bottom of the canvas saddle bag on my cargo bike.  I may have to rethink the never part of abandoning animals.

To whoever sent me the redone header image for this blog I would like to apologize.  I have not ignored you but you see I have lost the email and the image.  I did not think that possible with gmail but I guess it is. I remembered it  during a bottle of wine the other day but it is gone.