Scary Moments

Some things are just scary to think about. There are lots of things in the world that will scare a sane human. One thing I'm remembering is when I was a younger man and spent time on the ranch with some pretty wild cattle. One time we had one big wild bull that did NOT want to be herded. My dad got a rope around his neck and that made the bull mad. That bull charged dad and his horse several times before I could get a rope on him and pull the other direction. We rode for a couple of miles pulling that bull between us. A pretty scary couple of miles.

Another scary memory is the time I had dropped off a date in Pima and was headed back to Thatcher in my '69 Thunderbird. I was traveling a dirt road at a rather high rate of speed when I realized that the road ended at a T junction. I foolishly slammed hard on the brake pedal and slid for what seemed like 300 yards. I slid through the intersection and stopped with my front tires just inches from the concrete ditch at the edge of the farmer's field. Sat there for a few minutes, put it in reverse, backed out and drove slowly home. SLOWLY home.

I remember when I was very young watching "Frankenstein" for the first time. Mom told us not to watch it but my brother, sister and I thought we were tough enough to handle it. By the time the monster made his first appearance it was late at night, dark in the house and I was hiding behind the big chair in the living room, scared to death. I still don't like scary movies; my blogger name not withstanding. (Actually that comes from a murdercycle I put together from several different corpse bikes which I then called FrankenBike. One of the guys who heard what I called it said that must make me FrankenStan. I liked it so I kept it.)

Now for the scariest thing ever to be seen on the earth: I bought a pair of shorts. I'm even gonna wear them. I expect global warming will increase due to the reflection of sunlight back into the atmosphere from my white legs. When I'm wearing white socks you can't tell where the socks end and the legs begin. But regardless, I'm gonna wear 'em. Only around the house at first; it may be some time before I have the total disregard for my fellow human beings to wear them in public. Plus I'm not sure it's legal for me to be seen in shorts; somebody check up on that for me, eh.

I've gotta start wearing my glasses for doing more stuff than just reading.

Most of you remember that my black Pomeranian has diabetes and is blind. That means that he eats meals twice a day at 7:30 in the morning and 7:30 in the evening. No deviations; has to be regular. When he's fed he gets a dose of insulin. To facilitate the regular feeding time we give him canned food. Tonight I'm by myself, Lela was up for the weekend but left a couple of hours ago, Mindy is working, and Linda is gone for a couple of days. That leaves me here to feed the dog. Every now and again I figure I ought to eat something myself, so tonight I figured while I was feeding Barkley I'd warm up some refries and have a tostada. Ever notice how much canned Alpo and Rosarita refries look alike?

Of Oil Ice and Thunderbirds

Linda doesn't like oil. Oh I guess she likes vegetable oil in the right places, peanut oil when frying meat for fondue, and coconut oil for the popcorn, but I'm learning that she doesn't like large puddles of oil which emanate from underneath the Thunderbird. We've been working on the interior for some time now but every day we work on it she mentions the oil. And I mean she mentions the oil. She says I need to take care of the leaks. I'm focusing on things like the interior. I know I can replace a bad hose or tighten a fitting; you know, mechanical stuff. But the other items are a learning process, I have to figure it out as I go. In order to keep my focus I have to go slowly and work on a solution to the repair while I'm taking whatever it is apart. So here's how yesterday went; I got up thinking that Linda and I would be working on the Thunderbird. She said she'd do some other stuff while I worked on the oil but I needed to work on the oil. We're making pretty good progress. The interior is out and we (mostly Linda and our good neighbor Todd) have put down a material that is a sound and vibration suppressor. The fender is back on and most of the body work is done. The door panels are off and Lin and I are working on rebuilding them. They are a challenge mostly because I'm cheap. I prefer “frugal” to “cheap” but that's just a euphemism and the truth is I'm cheap. New panels are nearly $800.00 for a pair but I bought some plastic caps which go over the cracked vinyl for about $120.00. Of course they are LOTS more work but I'm willing to have Linda do it. But I digress; I also needed to clean off the deck a bit. It involved spraying down the boards which of course meant that there was water all over the brick pathway down below. So I went down below to turn off the water and drain the hose. What happens to water when the temperature is below freezing? It freezes of course. What happens to people who walk on frozen water? They fall of course. The first time, I hurt my pride and right wrist pretty badly. The second time I hurt my knee and my chances of making it into heaven. It's the first time I've sworn about living here in the frozen wastelands of Arizona. Oh, I whine about it all the time, but yesterday as I lay on the ground writhing in pain and getting colder because I'm laying on the ice, I swore. I mean worse than “Egg sucking dog” kind of swearing. Let's just say that I even mentioned my heavenly father's name one time. It only took one time before I regretted it but none the less I did it. And don't get me wrong; I love Arizona, but I prefer the part where it's warm!

So what does this all have to do with oil? I'll just say that the oil is still under the car because I spent a good part of the day sitting in the chair with ice on my wrist and knee. The wrist is better today but the knee is quite stiff. I'm not dead so I'll be fine. We did accomplish quite a bit with the door panels and the more I work with Linda the more I appreciate her talents. She came up with several ideas and then put them into motion. I think the panels will look really good when we get them painted and installed. Now if I could just get her to get under the car and fix those leaks.......

Been thinking about my black dog. It started because a good friend also has a Pomeranian with health issues. Her Pommie should recover, and I send best wishes for that to happen; but it made me think about Barkley who has diabetes and Cushing's disease. It doesn't seem to bother him too much. He's not angry about being blind. I think he just wishes the stupid humans would turn the lights on. He goes about life just the same with the exception that he is a bit slower so he doesn't run into the walls. And he doesn't go down the back stairs off of the deck. He still barks at motorcycles and kids on the sidewalk. He still wants a taste of whatever I'm eating. (He doesn't get ice cream anymore.) He's basically the same dog. Still my companion. Tonight I got in the hot tub to ease the tension. When I got out, Barkley was laying on the pillow which has worked it's way under the rack where the towels are kept. He was waiting for me, knowing that after the hot tub I rinse off in the shower and then get in the bed where he joins me. We enjoy each others company. I'll make the best of the time we have left together. Life is good.

Of Rain and Dogs

You know that great smell when it hasn't rained yet but the air is saturated with moisture and the inclination to take a deep breath to is irresistible? Why is it that that is the time when the dog laying next to me in bed becomes flatulent?

Sink the Bismarck (Politically speaking, that is.)

One of the (few) advantages of being an old guy is that I can read a book that I read years before and not remember a thing. I'm re-reading William L. Shirer's "The Rise And Fall of the Third Reich." I read it in high school when I was danged sure I knew everything about everything. Now that I'm older and am only pretty sure that I know something about a few things I find that what I'm reading makes quite a bit of sense but now it scares me. A little background before I offer a quote. The German political, economic and hierarchical systems were in a bit of chaos during the 19th century. Otto von Bismarck worked to unify the various German provinces into a cohesive state. He was successful and established an empire of which he was the chancellor. There was an expense though. An excerpt from the book: " The middle classes, grown prosperous by the belated but staggering development of the industrial revolution and dazzled by the success ofBismarck's policy of force and war, had traded for material gain any aspirations for political freedom they may have had. The German working class made a similar trade. To combat socialism, Bismark put through between 1883 and 1889 a program for social security far beyond anything known in other countries. It included compulsory insurance for workers against old age, sickness, accident and incapacity, and though organized by the State it was financed by the employers and employees. It cannot be said that it stopped the rise of the Social Democrats or the trade unions, but it did have a profound influence on the working class in that it gradually made them value security over political freedom and caused them to see in the State, however conservative, a benefactor and a protector." (Italics are mine.) I can't help but make comparisons to today's political climate. What are we willing to give up in order to have security, both financial and political? What is being forced on us in the name of security and for our own good by those who feel superior to the masses? I'll admit that I'm a little concerned. Back to reading.