The end of the road? My last blog
How cool is that to be able to post on my blog from the afterlife!
I guess I spent too many years in that cabin in the woods and learned to ignore pain and discomfort because apparently the pain I have been experiencing over the last few days was a serious indication that I was in real trouble.
Then again with the coronavirus pandemic in full swing one just does not call up and go and see his doctor…. either way I messed up and hopefully my thick headedness will be an example to all of you my fellow readers to not delay is and when you think something is wrong with your body.
I’ve had 74 years of walking this ‘road of life’ and have seen and done a myriad of things some good and some not so, but the all add up to a life that I should not in totality have any regrets. I tell you typing with this pain in my left side of my chest can be a problem but let me continue. Actually its not my heart but surgery for a gallbladder that may be what takes me down.
I am thankful for my family and my friends all of whom made up a wonderful life. From marrying Teresa twice, the second time for 28 years, ( I had to get it right so I did it twice) to the birth of my children Anthony and Tricia and grandchildren Sky, Sophia, and Kai you all have made this old man very happy and proud.
My friends Chet, Claudia, Rose, Kara, Jerry, Sam, Paul, Bill, Clara, Floyd – though just a few named here – I think should be cherished all the more because they were always there whether for a conversation or some help, they made the latter part of my life all the better.
I only wish there was a way to reach out back to you all to let you know what to expect at the end of that road, but alas we have to accept that end on faith.
The one thing I know about my end of the road it will not be like I have said about other days definitely not SSDD.
Here’s hoping I’ll see you all past that end of the road.
Pete.
Time Together
As my dad would often say- value the time you have with each other-
you don’t know when it will be the last time.
The last phone call.
The last dinner together.
The last beer out with friends.
The last walk through the park holding hands.
The last time you play together on the street, the court, the field.
We never know what the future holds for ourselves, and for those who we hold close to our hearts.
This is Anthony, Pete’s son.
Dad is in Comfort Care, per his own request, with multiple organ failure.
His children are by his side. We have all prayed together. He has been blessed.
We talk to him, sometimes he moves his hands, a flicker of a smile, or peaceful snoring.
He will soon walk again in peace with his wife, Terry.
But he is still with us as we say our goodbyes.
Join us in prayer, in whatever faith you follow, for a smooth transition.
And think of those times we did spend together, enjoying each others company.
Two plus two…. equals sex, racism and bigotry
….far far away during a different time in my life I was sitting in an elementary school classroom and all of the sudden pain shot across my knuckles like it was hit with a hammer, however this was the result of no hammer but a ruler and a diminutive 5 foot teacher.
I was not the sensible ‘not get into trouble’ guy that I am today, in fact back in the late 50’s I was a bit of a troublemaker and was forever being punished. Of course back then corporal punishment was a normal part of home and school life for those who dared to disrespect their parents or teachers, and it was at the that time totally legal for them to give us a swat when we needed it!
Yes those were the good old days… when going to school meant you were taught the subjects needed to deal with everyday life: arithmetic, spelling, English, history, geography and science. There was no sex education or (crt) critical race theory to replace these essential subjects and without crt no subject to “shade” history or geography.
It was and is the responsibility of the parents to teach their children about their sexuality not have it coming from a teacher who may like the one here in one the Texas school district who had brought in some books to the school library with graphic sexual images.
…and above all else let us not forget the parents responsibility to ingrain in their children the two principles that must be part of the very foundation of their lives, respect and morality.
I’m just saying
the
United States
at one time
had a school system
the world aspired to emulate
now
no matter how much money
we put into our schools
with the new curriculum
and
‘woke’
teachers and administrators
our schools are devolving
into
third nation status.
You never know…. when chickens will fall from the sky
…if you take a cup of coffee and pour in cream you loose the rich fullness of its flavor, which is akin to what I see happening to our nation, so maybe I’ll write about something else that I can ‘grump’ about ;-(
A friend of mine from Alaska remarked in his last email to me that, “You sound particularly positive and energetic”. Now that is hardly normal for this old curmudgeon who normally walks around with a scowl that would frighten little children even when it wasn’t Halloween, but I have been on an upswing lately buoyed no doubt by the visit of my daughter and a Halloween with the hole family.
Her visit may have been the catalyst for me to resume my walking routine and I managed almost an entire week of half mile walks everyday. In fact I mentioned to my son when asked about getting outside in the nice weather that I indeed was and in fact was gout free for a couple months.
But (and here’s the rub) never give in to overconfidence when you do reality has a way of dumping on you. On Sunday I decided it was time to increase my walks to a mile a day getting close to my old routine of 2 miles a day and the walk was not bad. My COPD was almost nonexistent thanks to a new maintenance inhaler and no discomfort anywhere on my body.
Waking up today the chickens had come home to roost and both my big toe and ankle were echoing back to my worst gout days, was it a change in my diet, the walk or truly gout? I opted to take the gout Rx and hope for the best.
Because
the best time
to go out and walk
is in the
cold
60˚
Texas winter
Light at the end of the road…. ?
I have two granddaughter’s, a grandson and two children and I think it is wrong to condemn them to a life of poverty for the overspending this nations leaders are currently doing and planing to do in Washington. Yes poverty is the best I can hope for them because at the other end of the spectrum of life in the future is homelessness, if the new ‘two’ spending bills are passed.
Think I am wrong just look at other countries that have overspent their income like Brazil and Venezuela. In oil rich Venezuela, for instance, its leaders have over decades wildly overspent what it took in in taxes, and of the profits of their oil production very little was put back in for maintenance until now their oil industry income is not enough to get them out of debt, and their people have to deal with inflation that runs at times in the thousands of percent.
However on Tuesday there was additional reasons to hold out hope for our children and grandchildren. We already know that a democrat Senator Joe Manchin has been the main hold out against the ‘build back better’ bill and I pray he has the strength to keep holding out. But maybe the election Tuesday will help him by worrying more middle of the road democrats that if they pass the bill and lay the responsibility for paying for it on our children they too will be replaced if they do not vote against the bill.
The election of not only Virginia’s Governor, Lt Governor and attorney general but the closeness of the Governors race in a state solidly democratic like New Jersey must give our nations Senators and congressman pause with the realization that the adage of ‘letting sleeping dogs lie’ could mean the populace of our nation is awakening to the fact that their leaders are not listening to them.
So I say
to the newly elected
moderate and conservatives
thank you
for leading the way
to a hopeful
mid-term
election
A message to my friends…. redux
It appears that my ‘message’ may have been misunderstood by some to mean I had decided to stop writing, when what I wanted you to understand was my long absence from the blog. I must thank my daughter for the proverbial ‘foot in my…’ I mean the gentle nudge to quit moaning and get back to writing.
Though easier said than done when each day brings new (or old) physical challenge’s I am indeed trying to organize my thoughts through the varied physical aggravation’s. Also a tip of my hat to those who had kind words for me though not necessary because none of my aliments are overly serious at the moment. Plus one has to factor in at 75 the cataracts, copd, gallbladder and heart are nearing their expiration date anyway.
No folks it is more my realizing what my children and grandchildren will have to face in a nation with restricted oil and gas use, borders that are only a memory and a ruling progressive/liberal class that continues to spend more money then it takes in.
The physical ailments
are only icing on the cake
its watching our leaders
continue to spend
until we can no longer
print enough money to cover
our debts
and
America becomes another
Venezuela.
A message to my friends….
On November 23, 2009 I sent my first blog posting over the amateur radio airwaves, now 11 years 966 postings, with 915 followers and over 106,000 hits later I think I have reached the end of the road.
Yes I know I have been long absent from my blog of late but I have a good reason…..depression and I can trace the trigger’s for this dark state to two things, my physical health and watching my country become a third world nation.
These are not idle or over the top assumptions… when you add up my weight gain because I quit smoking, cataracts, a weak heart a dead gallbladder, and COPD we have the foundation for one very dark cloud, but wait there’s more….
We once had a populace that was proud to be called American, maybe because those who lived here thought it was worth the effort and sacrifice to do it within the rule of law. Now we have an administration that has given our country literally no Southern border and its being flooded by (some) people who ignore that ‘rule of law’ (by the very fact that they crossed the border illegally), and are only looking for the advantages that only those living in America can get.
Every news report now is no longer a seed for a potential next blog, but an announcement that the America the world once looked to as a shining light of freedom and a chance for anyone to succeed was now being watered down by people who have no respect for rule of law.
Our nations leaders are
trying to spend trillions they do not have
and if they succeed
our children and grandchildren
will face
the impossible burden
of paying it back…
To those in Washington I ask
why must
‘we the people’
have a balanced budget
but our nation
can spend money
it does
not
have?
We have not forgotten…. but our leaders have!
Never forget
that for the second time in history
on September 11, 2001
the United States was attacked by cowards
Photography by Gulnara Samoilova – https://www.gulnara.com/
2749 civilians
343 fire fighters
23 policemen
were murdered that day
Photography by Gulnara Samoilova – https://www.gulnara.com/
We vowed to ‘never forget’ instead
20 years later
we gave the terrorists
that sheltered the mastermind
a country
why?
Texas death panels…. ‘aka’ critical care guidelines
…when the Obama administration was pushing to pass the ‘socialized medicine’ bill we heard much talk about the death panels every hospital would have and it looks like at least here in Texas, we are about to see them in action.
Because of the delta variant of the COVID virus and millions not getting vaccinated our hospitals are operating at full or over capacity. In some areas of Texas hospitals have had to close because they could not properly treat that many sick people, due to a shortage of qualified personnel or equipment.
To someone at the hospital in charge of these things the solution seems obvious only treat those with the highest chance of survival, and to that end the evening news presented a check list for who would best benefit from continued hospital care.
It appears that this policy has already gone into effect because doctors at Starr County Memorial hospital are already applying a “critical care guideline” to see what patients they will treat and which will not.
A Star county health official said at a news conference, ‘unfortunately we only have limited resources and our doctors are going to have to decide who receives treatment, and who is sent home to die with their loved ones’
One omission from the list
of those who
do not
qualify for help
is anyone
who did not
bother to be vaccinated
“We have no capability to rescue Americans”…. but I still won’t take questions from the media and i’m going back on vacation!
Benghazi redux
….”the demands of the office appear to be too much for the 78-year-old president. Vacation time would seem to be what’s called for. But there’s a problem: By the time the president is rested and refreshed, the world will have been turned upside down”.
*Come on folks even if you voted for him be truthful and think back to when he is making a speech, (aka reading of the teleprompter), he looks totally lost, and un-animated like a man on drugs just doing what he is told.
In all of history only a few national leaders have made their country look this and weak and inept but here we are akin to the fall of Rome, where Caesar played his violin and Rome burned down around him, we have a President who appears to be afraid to take questions from the press pool because he knows he will quickly flounder so he goes back on vacation while Americans are trapped behind enemy lines and he hopes ‘someone’ will figure out how to resolve the situation.
Yes he did come back from vacation, days after the Americans were trapped and told to “shelter in place”. He held what was labeled as a press conference that was touted in advance to be about the rescue of Americans stuck behind enemy lines, I call it a Presidential address because he took not one question from the pool of reporters. So did his ‘address’ speak to how he would fix the crisis…NO because his address was limited to information about COVID and the third injection of the vaccine and not on the situation in Afghanistan.
It was once again smoke and mirrors, getting you to look over here and not over there at something he can’t handle. Just like yesterday’s news where he is focusing on passing a bill having all school children ware mask’s and no new actions to save trapped Americans. I think maybe now those who voted for him over Trump are realizing what a mistake that was.
We have a president
that just can’t handle stress
and has thousands
of
Americans
in harms way
and he keeps running away
without doing anything
to save them
***UPDATE…the blog was started on Monday and this paragraph list actions taken since then.
A short while ago after almost a week since Kabul fell to the Taliban President Biden held a press conference, where he was flanked by the vice-President and Secretary-of-State and spoke of the progress to get Americans and Afghan supporters out of the country.
More than a decade ago I wrote an article bemoaning the lack of respect that American travelers in foreign nations sometimes encounter. I compared it to the time when the Roman empire ruled the known world and any citizen of Rome would merely announce that he was a citizen of Rome and no one would dare do him harm.
For many decades after the first world war citizens of the United States were also treated with this same ‘hands off’ respect, because everyone knew if they were harmed no matter how inconsequential the full might of the US would come crashing down on them.
Over the years much of that respect has gone by the wayside and now Americans can be kidnapped or assaulted in nations even those supposedly friendly to the US.
Today however we are faced with actions that the government has taken that will alter the way the world views our nation from now on. Knowing that the Afghan military would collapse the minute the US military left President Biden ignored the consequences of this and called for the quick removal of all US forces… and now we see the results.
Lets not only focus on the thousands of Americans told by Biden’s state department to “shelter in place” and await news of when they can leave or Biden’s telling everyone there that there will be no American citizens first to board the airplanes, but the tens of thousands of women who for a brief time, under the umbrella of the US military were for the first time allowed to go to school, run business or even walk by themselves down any street in their city.
Thank you President Biden for
2,372 soldiers killed
trillion’s of
our tax dollars
wasted
and the horrible fate
awaiting millions
of
Afghan women
Is the Texas voter bill equal to the Jim Crow laws…. nope just equal to what Biden’s state of Delaware has for voting regulations.
….has anyone against it actually read the complete bill, I think not, because they would see that it is almost equal to and in some parts better than the voter laws in the Presidents home state. Don’t believe me click here and read it for yourself. Yes it does tighten up the requirements for voter ID, but only those who want to flood the elections with illegal or even dead voters would complain about the new bill.
And don’t get me started about those worthless Democrats who fled the state capital while it was in session. First they should absolutely not be compensated for their travel to Washington or their lodging and meals…. why should they, they are no different than any working citizen and if we were to walk off the job because we disagreed with what our boss wanted we would be fired… hey now theres and idea!
Lastly a few words about ‘Jim Crow’ laws
The Texas law and ones passed by other states have been called laws that are the same as ‘Jim Crow Laws’ by every democratic talking head and the mindless followers of these democratic lies buy into it, but lets take a look at what are the Jim Crow Laws as referenced by the liberal left leaning Wikipedia…….
‘Jim Crow laws were state and local laws that enforced racial segregation in the Southern United States and elsewhere within the United States. These laws were enacted in the late 19th and early 20th centuries by white Southern Democrat-dominated state legislatures to disenfranchise and remove political and economic gains made by black people.’
So is requiring ID to vote
the same as
the above laws enacted by Democratic’s?
Is the President treating people differently based on ethnicity…. or is it just that his COVID policy for the US is discriminatory?
….in the preamble to the constitution of the United States, it states “we hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal”, which many of those in congress seem to have a problem with, as witnessed by the non-enforcement of laws and regulations in reference to allowing people into the U.S. during the pandemic.
The President has once again extended the closed border with Canada based on the pandemic and today has leaked word he is getting ready to mandate all foreign visitors be vaccinated or they can not enter the US.
Also the President and the White House staff can be seen on every major newscast insisting we must get the vaccination in order to stop the COVID resurgence, yet illegal immigrants are not tested before they are released into the United States.
So what is wrong with this picture
when the President
does nothing
to close our Southern border,
or when the President
will not mandate
all those crossing
that border
be tested
or
vaccinated?
Is there a reason for his actions,
and is this not
discrimination?
The aha-wokening Olympics
….I am sure I ‘woke’ up in some parallel universe somewhere where one can no longer enjoy just watching sports for the excitement of seeing your favorite team or player go that extra mile, no now we have to endure personal and political demonstrations by a number of disenchanted athletes.
Also gone are the days of continuous sports reports and replays of their amazing feats during a competition seemingly replaced by hours of talking heads analyzing why an athlete would take a knee or turn their back during their national anthem, and how at the olympics it showed true courage to do this in front of the whole world.
Common sense says that
it is disrespect
not
true courage
to disrespect the nation
that made it possible for them to compete.
….world leaders and ambassadors are saying (in public) to reporters that President Biden is a positive step forward compared to President Trump, in private its a different matter.
For a while now the leaders of NATO and G7 have been questioning the ability of President Biden to lead the free world and the meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Geneva on Wednesday only confirmed their fears.
First…. President Biden told the world it is his staff who tell him who to call on for softball questions, (Before taking any questions, Biden acknowledged that his staff had told him ahead of time which reporters would get a crack. “As usual, folks, they gave me a list of people I’m going to call on,” he said. This leads one to think that the President of one of the most powerful nations in the world is not mentally capable of choosing which reporters he would field questions from.
Second…. At a press conference hours after President Biden’s meeting with Putin the President is forced to use teleprompter ( because he has already forgotten what transpired during the meeting? )
Third…. I truly believe that world leaders are quite uneasy with a leader who can not manage his anger as seen in President Biden’s outburst at a CNN reporter.
Fourth…. And finally who ever heard of a world leader that must take weekends off?
This posting
is just food for thought
when you realize
who will become President
when
President Biden
is ruled
non compos mentis
Is Texas part of an alternate reality…. or an example of what is in store for America?
….just a few short months ago Texas was thrust into a life ending emergency when cold weather and lack of fuel shut down some electric generating stations. This emergency caused the death of 111 Texans and $200 billion in damage from water pipes bursting because they were frozen from lack of electric heat.
Now here in June the evening news is once again reporting the shut down of four power plants and an urgent “request” for Texans to cut back on energy usage, or else we may once again have those extended rolling blackouts!
I ask you what is wrong with this picture….. and the answer is simple math, the electric companies can no longer keep pace with the demand for electricity, and yet we see no call to slow down the expansion of building new homes and businesses.
Texas is one of the fastest growing states in our nation and no Texas mayor is willing to step back and say they should maybe slow down with the expansion…. because that expansion brings with it tax dollars and consumer and business spending, but at what cost?
Here in North Texas the cost is obvious the power grid as it stands can not handle the increased demand and we the consumers will suffer.
111 people died here
in the February cold snap
now with temperatures in the high 90’s
and a heat index in the mid 100’s
no doubt
more will die.
********
Still just imagine
if most Texans changed to
electric cars
with the rolling brown outs
you wouldn’t be able to use them
and how many more people
would die
because of increased demand?
When it’s 95+ in Texas… I think back to cooler times
Yes when the temperature is 95 degrees and the heat index is 104 or higher I look back fondly to the 20 years I lived in Alaska and spent hours walking through the many ice sculptural’s at the Fairbanks International ice carving competition. In the future I will try and put together additional video of the carver’s creating some of these interesting works.
So if it’s warm when you are
take a minute
and enjoy!
b
As I was falling to sleep I heard the talk show host’s comment positively on a major sports event. It seems that no players took a knee or raised their fist but respected the crowd when they brought the house down signing the national anthem.
You know it makes one feel good
to once again see people
proud to be American
Memorial Day…. The true cost of freedom
To the vast majority Memorial day means a backyard BBQ
but to those that understand the true meaning of Memorial day
any words I use will never be sufficient so I humbly offer
this picture and one thought…
Freedom is not free
….as I walked across the parking lot I first noticed that something was wrong when I glanced over at my truck and it looked like it was a boat rolling up and down on the waves, then came a weird feeling in my body leading me to think I was having a heart attack which at that moment would be very apropos.
I have often thought about the saying that “those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it” in reference to the state of our nation today. I know what you are thinking but no for the first time in a long while I am not talking about politics but about; the almost total lack of responsibility people have for their actions, the loss of respect we have for those in authority and the way many people now see this country.
I also know it sounds trite but if one actually gives it a good bit of thought there were many things ‘from the old days’ that were better than they are now. Take for instance the bulwark of our society the family, and please I am not saying women belong only in the home, however for decades women ruled when it came to anything in the home…. no matter what any man says.
Today with more than 70% of married women working and over 50% of those have children one can expect parents to have problems nurturing the traits of respect and responsibility fully in their children. It is far easier after a long day at work to just let their children ‘go play’ unsupervised as long as they are ‘quiet’ and do not disturb their parents. It should be noted that the ‘go out and play’ of today bares no resemblance to the ‘good old days’ when our mother would tell us to go out and play and be sure to be home for dinner or your father will not be happy. Today’s go and play for the most part consists of our children burying their heads in a smart phone, tablet or computer and either LOLing with their BFF’s or staring blindly at a monitor while killing as many people as they can, but of course we know from the ‘experts’ that this behavior does not promote the desensitization towards violence…. yeah right. Just like it is far easier for that parent to ignore any acts of disrespect their children may do instead of confronting them and showing them their actions have consequences like punishment for that disrespect.
But I digress because part of the focus of this posting was the sentence, “those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it” and if you are older you learned in school about the rise and fall of the Roman empire, where you could travel the known earth and never fear of being attacked because you were a Roman and any attack on its people would bring immediate and devastating punishment. Rome ruled the known world until it became so decadent and immoral with Romans concerning themselves with only their own pleasure and without respect for their fellow Romans that the rest of the world took notice and the mighty Roman empire became a thing of the past.
That should sound familiar because for a time America was the shining light of freedom every other nation looked to for help when needed and its citizens were rarely mistreated anywhere on the planet. Then came the gradual erosion of the truth in what our leaders said and our allies could no longer depend 100% on our support plus our enemies saw that we were becoming week and unless we had an overwhelming force, (like in Iraqi), would not engage in any conflicts.
Finely add to that the fact that here at home the concept of family with a mother and father teaching their children respect, responsibility and that actions have consequences has now been relegated to little or no respect for authority and that their actions even to the point of rioting, burning and looting have no consequence… as witnessed by the police in Washington state standing by as rioters destroyed many small business almost on a daily basis, and if you step back you can see a repeat of the decline of the Roman empire right here in America.
….so to finish the incident in the opening paragraph it is a good example of the consequences of not paying attention to things that happen in the past. Moving to my remote home in Northern Alaska I traveled as little as I could to Fairbanks the closest town, a 130 mile round trip, and because of this for a couple decades I failed to attend church on a regular basis. However when the Army was sending me to the Seattle VA hospital for some testing on my heart I thought it was time to return to church… just in case.
At 1:12 Alaska time on November 3, 2002
as I walked across
the church’s parking lot
after confession
The largest recorded earthquake
in 37 years
made my heart race
and
turned my legs to rubber
Only after
the earth stopped moving
did I think maybe
just maybe
this earthquake
was a
reminder
to not delay my
next visit to
church.
Even at 75 with all the aches and pains…. one can enjoy a bit of humor and irony in a birthday wish
My daughter sent me what we used to call in the Army a care package which is now for me in reality birthday gifts. I have always held that ‘we the people’ should not be dictated to by the card and gift manufactures as to when ‘we’ give them to our loved ones. I always thought a gift or card should be given when one is merited, or when we are motivated, that said my daughter has an uncanny sense to pick some fairly offbeat cards… but ones that match my slightly abnormal psyche.
The birthday card that I copied for this posting was not only different but after a week of relentless hip pain it was a much need good moment of humor that I immersed myself in. I wanted to share it with you my readers and hope that you also will at the end have that interior feeling of wellbeing and for the briefest of minutes be removed from the immoral and disrespectful world around us.
©Hallmark.com
A guy your age found a frog in the woods.
“Kiss me” said the frog,
“and I will turn into a beautiful Princess
and do anything you want”
The man picked up the frog and put it in his pocket.
“Hey” the frog yelled “I said I’ll do anything you want”
“Naaah” the man said,
“at my age, I’d rather have a talking frog.”
….something I read yesterday that resonated with the way I have been feeling lately and I wanted to share it with you.
Is it the ‘slowness’ ?. I am not able to walk as fast as I used to. I am not able to work as hard as I used to. There is forced retardation to our youthful pace. The joints creak. The back hurts. Is this what we dread?
Is it that point where the generations that came after you seem to be operating in a different world that you are not able to easily fit into, or even relate to in terms of technology, lingo, or living values?
Is it the passage of time that does not allow you to pursue certain things because the window of opportunity has closed?
Beyond a point, you don’t get ‘do overs’, second chances.
So one more time..
a reminder..
that it is the journey..
not the destination.
*The text was “borrowed” from an interesting blog at
https://filtercoffeeandfrenchtoast.com/2021/04/03/old-by-navina-anand/
The day before yesterday I was quietly digging through the news for items of interest when I heard a sound I later realized was the last gasp of a dying computer and just like that my computer screen went black. I franticly checked to see if it might be the circuit breaker or even a power outage, (Texas has been known to loose power once in a while), but no there was power throughout the house.
So after 14 years my faithful servant was dead, now to figure out what to do. Obviously by the nature of this blog I found a quick fix, though getting it back to where I was with my old computer, (like right now I have no access to photographs), may take a while and during this time I ask your patience. I know I have been very lax in my current postings but I can only state the facts and they are that right now I am sliding down a tunnel of depression and for the most part just do not want to do anything.
That said first off this new WordPress interface sucks! then again maybe I am just old and can not deal with change but either way I want to leave you with this thought….
Pete's Alaska 