Haiti- We have it so good

Have you been watching the news from Haiti? We should all be proud and happy to be Americans. Even before the quake these poor people lived in conditions that even the worst of Americans would look down on. Send your prayers and money if you can—they can use it.

Short Western Story

I could see a body less than a hundred feet away. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to get closer or farther away. I decided on closer but was going to be darn sure that this was a dead body, not a live one.
Fort Laramie had been abandoned for three years and I hadn’t been there in fifteen, I thought I might meet up with a few ghosts from my past, hadn’t expected a fresh one with a body attached. I dismounted and pulled my Winchester from the saddle scabbard and started toward the body. It was gone.


There you have it a complete western story in 99 words. This is also over on my western's site--but I wrote it because I got to thinking and . . . . . . .

Too Much Snow

Is it really only the middle of November? Here in the high country of Wyoming I have already scooped 30 inches of snow. Okay, I lied, I used my snow blower, sorry extremely green people but I am getting too old to shovel snow.
So—this begs the question, don’t you love it when someone says, “this begs the question?” Why do we still live here---Answer, because the rest of the year, it is fabulous.
So—how do I cope? Easy, I wear shorts and sandals year round.
* I turn up the thermostat to 80 degrees.
*I mow the grass even when it is covered with snow.
* I turn the heat on high or ultra high if I can find it, and drive the pickup around town with my windows down.
* I build snowmen and put sunglasses on them so they look cool and summery. Is summery really a word?
*And last of all (note how I cleverly did not say, last but not least) I go to Wyoming football games, set in the student section, take off my shirt, paint WYO on my chest and pretend like it is not cold.
No-Forget the last one—it was a lie.

H1Old1 flu and other lies

Getting old is usually looked at as all bad. Now, finally, some good news for those of us born before most people, nineteen fifty, that is. We cannot get the H1N1 flu. Wow finally something good about being old. Today I am not feeling so good. Think I may have the H1Old1 virus.

Snow and Green Grass

Well—it’s October and that means snow in Wyoming and green grass underneath. I really hate this time of year, the constant scooping of snow from the lawn and garden so that I can mow and weed. Then more snow, more scooping and more mowing and weeding. I tried something a little different this year I duct taped (or is it duck taped—you know the gray silvery stuff) anyway, as I was saying before I so rudely interrupted myself. I taped with that gray shinny tape my snow blower to the front of my lawn mower, looks a bit funny when I do the driveway but works like a charm on the lawn.
Despite the snow (three times so far for a total of a foot of snow) my garden still looks pretty good. Why do the weather people on TV and radio now refer to snow storms as snow events? Despite three separate snow events my garden still looks pretty good. Of course most of it (tomatoes and onions) is in the garage. I pulled some carrots today and they were quite tasty, thank you. The rest of the garden really does not look so good, its mostly dead beans, dead peas, dead radishes, dead strawberries, dead herbs of all kinds (don’t like most of them anyway) and lots of dead flowers. And so as I started—Well –it’s October and so much for gardening this year.

About Time

I have been absent for a very long time, naughty boy (oops, that’s a story I am working on for my erotica blog—no I don’t really have one). Here is the real story, I won the lottery, actually just a small state power ball and have taken the past four months to do some traveling. It is an unbelievable relief to have the money to do what I want, when I want.
My wife and I spent much of last spring in Australia and this summer in Europe and northern Africa, the whole trip was like an out of body experience. The past four months have been the best of my life. We are now building our dream home, how many people can say that? And yes, I have retired from my teaching and coaching career—more travel to come.
Daydreaming again, I wish at least part of the above was true—but sadly—none of it is. I have skipped blogging the past few months because I have been lazy. But I am back—look for more to come.
-N-

Keynesian Economics

We hear so much today about the economy and the trouble we are in world wide, reminds me of my old college days and my study of John Maynard Keynes, and his Keynesian Economics. All I remember is raise taxes when times are good to cool off the economy and lower taxes when times are bad to heat up the economy. If Keynes was right, he is dead now so we can’t ask him, then we should not have cut taxes during the high times we were all living with our MasterCard’s and Visas and times were good. Hummmm—Keynes also believed that government deficit spending might be okay in times of recession or especially depression. Maybe we are doing the right thing running around bailing everyone but me out of financial despair.
So I have been sitting around thinking some, I am good at thinking, and I believe I can solve this countries and maybe the worlds economic woes by doing the following.#

1. Every Thursday is free day at Wal-Mart.
#2. All fast food, everything is .99 cents.
#3. Congress recesses until 2012
#4. Network and Local news shows—all cancelled—replaced by Looney Tunes.
#5. Take peanuts and pistachios off the endangered foods list
#6. Instead of giving millionaire CEOs a big bonus, just let them give each other a big hug and wish each other well and then let the stockholders have the bonus money.
#7. A chicken in every can of chicken noodle and a cracker in every barrel (I have no idea what that means)
#8. Slash Green Fees on every golf course in the world by 50% (this one is personal)
#9. This one seems simple—a jobs program that works. Jobs for those that can—where, maybe in some of the failed businesses the government may eventually have to operate.
#10. Some businesses will fail, let them fail and reorganize, if they are worth their salt they can make it. Not everyone is happy all the time—and everything does not have a happy ending.
-BONUS-
#11. To save everyone a little money, let us, as consumers, choose what TV stations we want and pay for those. Skip the rest of the fluff.
#12. Required in every school—classes in manners, common courtesy, self sufficiency, basic economics, and appropriate language and dress. WOW I am showing my age on that one.
#13. Elect me, “the old guy that got to thinkin’,” President—I’ll take care of you—after myself of course!

Well there you have it; I may have been sitting and thinking too much.