Quiet

On Friday I had the pleasure of working in my most favorite areas. In the lake and river areas. The snow is gone and I have seen the first crocus bloom. The deer are thick in Lake Leba and I always remember to bring my camera, not just for the deer, but many things that I see there. Saw my first Cardinal hopping through the dry grass. In the morning, to hear the birds when all else is quiet is a wonderful thing. Sometimes I take a minute to sit on someone's patio and just listen, and think. I thought about how busy life is with a 6 year old, and how I would like to write more often. I thought about my lifelong friend and how I let his birthday go by without sending him a card or text message or something. I feel bad. We aren't the kind of friends that send a card every year, or acknowledge each others day every time. Our birthdays are only 10 days apart. I think of him even if I don't get that $3.99 Hallmark sent. I have been writing his birthday on my Calendar for about 30 years. Even after I was married, his name remained on the Calendar. He's that important. I wanted to wish him a Happy Birthday this year, but the time slipped away again for the verbal or paper birthday card. I wished him a Happy one, silently in my heart, while I listened to the wind in the evergreen trees.
At the Rod and Gun Club area along the river I took time out to see what the river was up to. A few weeks ago during a thaw, the "mighty" Platte River went over its banks and did some water damage to a few cabins. Mine barely made it out without getting hit by a huge ice chunk. (Huge was 10 inches thick and 6 by 4 feet). It, and many others were piled against my trees thus saving my little cabin from being removed from its foundation. When I bought my little getaway 3 years ago, the original owner said she hadn't had any problems with the river since 1979. Except till now..(It's that damn black sand I brought back from Hawaii, that's another story).

Insight

The truth of the matter is that you always know
the right thing to do. The hard part is doing it.

H. Norman Schwarzkopf

Living in Mister Rogers Neighborhood

Did a little more work downtown yesterday, but nothing exciting. Spoke with one of the writers for the paper, ask him if the drug guy got bonded out and he didn't know. This is not a big town, really surprised he knew less than I did. (Okay, not really). Was able to see the paper, he's out on the streets again. I'm making my sign to hold while I stand in the street in front of his house, NO DRUG DEALERS IN MY NEIGHBORHOOD.

Support your local businesses

Beautiful day out today for those of us who work outdoors. Worked downtown. Visited with the owner of the T.V /stereo store. Yes, it was his store that had a 55 inch T.V stolen. Just shattered the glass on the door and out went the T.V.
Do you think that somebody might have seen 2 guys hauling out a 55 inch T.V at wee hours of the morning and found it unusual? He said local police treating it like his bike was stolen.
Joe's bar was busy this morning, god it's always so dark in there.
Take off your hat and sun glasses before entering the bank.
Went in to Concrete store. "What the hell you want" was first thing I hear. "Just gonna read your meters" I said. "Well don't bother they shut um off." "Oh sorry" I said, "gotta read them anyway" and off I went into the dark back room and into the basement. This dude is just sitting in his business in the dark, with no heat. Just sitting there.
Sure enough, Red tagged the electric meter (means shut off due to non payment). Damn, need new flashlight batteries......maybe I should remove my sunglasses.
Hardware store going out of business. Sorry, Menards has it all.
Standin in front of the Probation office, 50 year old guy that had it all, busted for drugs, second time. His lawyer must have bonded out again. Looked like he was waiting for a ride. He should be in prison. "Hey, Where's your BMW?...Laughing.."Oh yeah, that's right, the Fed's took it!"

Personal Space

The neighbor kids cannot even pick their own teams to play a game of tag. Have you listened to them? " You guys go with them" No I want to be with him", "You guys are bigger than us", "Why do you have more people than us?" "I'm not playing" Blah Blah Blah. What has happened to this generation of kids? I will tell you! The school system is to blame. They organize everything so much for these kids that they do not know how to pick teams, defend themselves, stand up for themselves. My son came home the other day with a note saying he violated someone's PERSONAL SPACE. For God's sake he's 6 years old! What the hell does this mean? It means he hugged someone, touched someone, stood too close or maybe pushed somebody. 2007 kids run to whine to a teacher about everything.
Remember in the good old days? (If your under 30 years old stop reading now, your too young) The boy behind you pulled your ponytail and you just hit him? We just took care of the little things ourselves, you did not involve the teacher in everything. You got pushed, you just pushed back and it was over with. NNNOOOO not these days. No playing tackle football, no tag, no chasing each other, no touching, no talking in line. At my son's school..you can only WHISPER in the lunchroom. The principal stands at the microphone yelling, STUDENTS YOU ARE NOT WHISPERING! Hello! Do they really want to waste so much time on this? He's 6 people! Raise your hand when your done, when you get up you must only walk to the right, follow the pattern to the trash, etc. etc. There were so many rules, I could not remember if I EVEN ate my lunch on parents day. So here I am in the Principals office, because my son likes to hug kids. Blame that on his previous daycare, Lutheran daycare where kids played and hugged each other on Friday because they wouldn't see each other for 2 days. Where they had chapel once a week, and talked about loving God and everything around you. Where they made their own choices...and became smart little loving people, until they started Kindergarten in a public school.

Dust settles

Wow. Got back from Vegas yesterday. Watched the Stardust casino come down. Amazing! They put on quite a show to a huge crowd at 2:30am. Cannot believe how loud the explosion was. Quickly afterwards, everyone was swallowed up by a enormous cloud of dirt. People were running to get away from it, but we just took it all in. Covered our faces with our shirt sleeves and walked with others down the middle of Las Vegas Blvd. The air was so full of dust and dirt that the street lights were barely visible and you could only see your shoes as you walked. We kept looking for the neon sign of the Frontier casino and could barely make it out. I felt anxious and a bit panicky but kept up the quick pace of the others around us. As we passed the Frontier casino, there on the street corner were four young adult males. Dressed in plaid shorts and shirts (Like Grandpa wore, with black socks and dress shoes) they each had a beer in their hand and were saying the world was coming to an end, After taking a better look (Not easy) I realized that they were all wearing glasses that were completely covered in dirt and they were not able to see out of. It was the funniest thing I have ever seen an regret not stopping long enough to photograph them, it would have made a great front page picture for the Las Vegas newspaper.