i'm thankful.

what am i thankful for?

well, i am thankful for my family and my great kids.

i am thankful for having a paying job to enjoy and a life to live.

i am thankful for little puppy dogs and good southern sweet, sweet tea.

i am thankful people too old to do so, say stuff like 'dawg' and 'fo true' and i can be around to have a laugh.

i am thankful for my i fear of the flying monkeys and an america i am still independently free to love jesus and listen to motley crue's 'shout at the devil.'

i am thankful for john wayne and the american fighting man and woman.

i am thankful, yeah.

happy thanksgiving, ya'll.

peace.

my body is turning on me ...

it is sad to say, but i am falling apart ... now, this is not in the sense of a leper or the reanimated dead.

this is more in the sense of, 'i am staring 40 years on this earth down the throat and my past bodily abuses are having the last laugh.'

when i was younger, it was nothing to climb a tree and jump out. it was nothing to strap a 'swiss seat' around my own american seat and rappel down some cliff stupid enough to be there. it was nothing to party hard for three days, never sleep and take turns with a buddy (or buddies) punchifying the general areas that need punchifying. it was nothing to play a weekend softball tournament, going 36 hours straight in nonstop beer-belly-jiggling fun ...

it was nothing.

now it is something.

for the past five days i have been in periods of agony, periods of frustration and periods of laying in the bed like a kafka cockroach, stranding on my posterior, screaming out to God, Athena, Jackee Harry, anyone who might hear, that i have fallen (asleep) and can't get up ... in short, my neck -- and subsequently, shoulder -- have been knotted up, arthritic-ized, turning their metaphorical backs on me.

por que? because at one time (two times, actually) it was 'nothing' for me to attempt Evel Knievel's snake river jump ... first, at age 10, on a bicycle, over a small creek on the 'nature' trail that once existed behind my boyhood school and the secondly, at age 35, on an electric scooter off the curb on main street ... both were unsuccessful, or if measuring by Evel's standards of outcome in most of his jumps, very successful.

the neck injury from the bike jump went untreated as i was more scared of my mother than of long-term side effects ... the shoulder injury, well, it was treated but i think just short of what was needed.

now, i suffer bouts of stiffness, turning my body like a robotic santa that once graced the window of the hometown drugstore. incidentally, that santa always scared the eggnog right out of me ... he was creepy, with his one good arm and the constant turning and whirring waving.

but the short of it is this, getting older -- while rewarding in that i know nearly everything now -- can have it's drawbacks. i know medical science is doing wonders these days with face and hand transplants. i wonder how they would feel about a body transplant? here in kentucky we have jewish hosptial, which i think led the way on hand transplants ... maybe that would be a good place to start.

here are my requirements for the donor body ... male, caucasian (no bigotry here, i just want it to match the dome), semi-fit, reproductive function is optional (i have three crumb catchers already) though it would nice if the mechanics were there, preferably a nondrinker and nonsmoker (i want to corrupt it myself, thank you) and no stupid tattoos ( i can take care of that, as well).

so if you know where a new body may be lying around (preserved) or wish to donate your body, just holla ... i am waiting for your call, while staring straight ahead.

peace.

it started with a rake, a bic and a dream

i have spent the past couple of days cleaning up my yard ... and it's not just any yard, it's a kentucky rental home yard.

now, for those of you who maybe have never lived in a kentucky rental home, let's just say this ... people don't really take care of things like it's their own. this is probably true all over, but i am using kentucky as an expert reference ... i reckon i could throw texas and colorado in there too, by qualification, but my time in those states would skew the results and is not relevant.

at any rate, this yard ... lord, it is work.

lots of raking, burning, disposing of old meth lab glassware ... not sure if that last part is exactly true, just an educated guess.

so i've got seasons of thatched-in leaves, grass clippings, pill bottles (again with the kentucky drug abuse), mountain dew labels to rake through, giving the ground aeration it has likely not seen for years ... or more.

so far, i am winning ... yes, the blackness in my nose is a bother and we'll see when the blisters start forming or i once and for all cut off the tip of a finger, however, for now, i am enjoying the challenge and clandestine drug factory scavenger hunt.

peace.

the intelligencia of politics ...

don't think for one minute just because a guy or gal could talk a sweet game, sweet enough to get elected, that your political leaders are smart cookies ... and if they all were smart cookies, don't expect all to be the same flavor ... some would be snickerdoodles, other sugar cookies, still others danish wedding cookies with insanity icing.

now, for another minute, don't think i am talking about anyone specific as you read the following words ... i am thinking about specific folks, not necessarily those in my current life, but i won't be talking about them ... at least by name.

i'm not that reckless.

in my career path, i have had the fortunate and unfortunate circumstance to meet a lot ... a lot, i say ... politicos and civic leaders ... and rising to leadership does not leadership skills make.

and i will certainly agree, political service is a tough game to enter ... i know this by having friends and family who have been, or are in, the game. it is supposed a selfless endeavour, a labor of love for community, country and major kickbacks ... wait, did i just say that? at any rate, good people often get in over their heads and end up looking like doofuses.

whether it is jumping head over heels into a civic project with no thoughts of the forefront events or just simply saying things which are inappropriate and inconsiderate, our political leaders can get into a mess of problems.

and when they do, we are all quick to jump on them and lay blame and say things like 'kill the bum' and 'run him out of office' ... yet when time comes to give the people, us, a choice in voting, no one will step forward. certainly our system of government is designed for all of us to have a shot at leading, if we so choose it, but few ever do ... if i didn't enjoy talking about them so much, i might run for office ... but i like getting paid to seem smart, rather than taking a chance at looking dumb.

whether our current president or a seemingly whacko u.s. senator, people are always quick to support or lay waste to a person's character, upbringing, mental state or motivations ... same goes for those who will quickly to their support, no matter the reasoning.

if there were a point to this piece, which i am struggling mightily to reach, it would be this ... education and research, both in the leadership arena and in the area of electing said leadership, is the utmost in import.

researching a project, even something as small as a streetscape project, or researching a candidate, right down to the local level, will help us avoid those moments where we want to beat our heads against the wall over shortsighted legislation or lack of action by our representatives.

we will be frustrated by politics ... it's the nature of the beast, but we do have recourse. and that recourse are elections and even when the people speak, we will get it wrong sometimes ... but there is always another election and chance to make the wrongs right.

peace.

in a surrounding of talent, i feel solely inadequate ...

been ages ... 'bout time.

we'll talk about talent today ... not necessarily, my own personal talent, 'cause i just don't see much in myself ... but the talent of my friends, my family, those people in my circle ... which by it's very nature, is a small circle.

but i know some talented people, which in turn, can have the nice little effect of rubbing off on me ... well, maybe not rubbing off on me, but i do get to brush by it from time to time.

i am fortunate in knowing people who are musicians, painters, sculptors, writers of all sorts, photographers ... and that is just the so-called creative types ... there are also the hard workers in the industrial arts, such as welders, drivers, heavy equipment operators ... all these folks have varied interests, yes, but they do inspire me at different times ... they make me thankful that i have such an assortment of talent surrounding me.

there is no greater joy in my life, outside of my children, than being allowed into my friends' creative circles ... whether it is hanging with my friend josh and his bandmates, listening as they work out new songs for their setlist, or reviewing another's photographs and being asked for my critique, it is so nice to be included.

sure, my friends value my 'creativity' from time to time, and that is nice, but i much more so enjoy them ... i enjoy where their ideas and creative flow comes from, for it is always from a place much different than my own ... i am inspired by them ... at times, some tell i inspire them.

but perhaps that is what trying to create is all about ... gaining and growing from the products of others' creative spirit ... our own personal flow can become muddled sometimes, yes, but i can always count on my circle of close people to provide a spark of genius.

peace.