Every Cloud has a Silver Lining, I hope.

Big news. My cousin's 25 year old son was just promoted by the electrical company he works for to Linesman and was promptly sent to South Florida for an assignment with overtime.

Good thing it was only a tropical storm.

My mom chuckled over the news. An able bodied single guy will be very handy helping to restore power. Hurricane Irma covered Florida as a hurricane, and my state, Georgia, as a tropical storm. We watched the trajectory which caught my house, my brother's house outside of Carrollton, GA and Mentone, Alabama which is my mother's old hometown.

It was interesting to experience those sustained winds as Irma passed over. I slept through the heaviest of winds. About 40 years ago, I slept through a storm where huge Pecan trees where lifted out of the ground and laid down like match sticks by the wind about 100 feet behind the room I was in.

Irma's rain was the sort my grandmother loved which was a light steady rain that would soak in the ground. My grandmother farmed through the dirty thirties and the 40's during the Big War. I remember going to tell her how bad DDT was when I was a teenager. I stopped; she had a wistful look and said that was some good stuff. Some good stuff that controlled insects and almost decimated several bird populations. Everything is a matter of perspective.

I posted a picture of two of my dogs on Facebook. Louise seemed mystified by what was going on. I opened the back door to let a dog back in and heard a bird crying. I checked again with the resolve to rescue the animal. I could not easily find it. I went back in and when I came back out, I heard my favorite birdsong, so mom or dad must have been retrieving their youngster. I know what the bird looks like and it's song. I just don't know it's name yet.

Louise and BoDuke are cool with the power out. But what's with all that wind?

As bad as Irma and Harvey are, it's the floods that do the most damage. We will have some flooding in central Georgia; but, it will be manageable. Who I worry about the most are people out West with the fires. This is a year to remember with natural disasters.

Last Tuesday, the storm had blown away. The birds seemed happy in the sunshine. A sassy lizard ran the driveway away from the house. We had a lot of leaves and branches broken from the wind. The horse farm next door had an old barn to collapse. There are a few trees uprooted in the Pecan orchards. Being within weeks of harvest; nuts fell from the trees. Hurricanes this time of year wreak havoc on Pecan production.

There were tremendous trees blown over. Leaf and twig debris was everywhere. Mother nature prunes with a vengeance.

It was strange to have a curfew Monday from 2:30 am until 8 am the next morning. With so many Florida evacuees, all of the first responders, law enforcement and firemen and women burned the midnight oil for us all. It was appreciated.

There are some cultural differences between South Floridians and central Georgia. We talk to everyone. My sister had a doctor's appointment on Tuesday. Since the doctor was in, we went and stopped at a Chinese restaurant we enjoy.

I chatted up a few of the Floridians. They were cordial; but, they initially had that look like "Are you speaking to me?" I wasn't trying to agitate anyone. I only spoke to those who were carrying a heavy load on their face. Actually, I talked up a bunch of folks.

The day without power and the days without internet wore on me. However, I had my comfortable bed to sleep in each night. Plus I cooked a good dinner the day before in case the power went out. I can't imagine sleeping in my car or a motel in Atlanta only to join grinding traffic to go back home and see what is left. They were smart to evacuate. They saved their lives and possibly the first responders who would have helped them.

The traffic was heavy but flowing. I don't know what caused this back-up. This was my exit.

The funniest thing that happened as we were returning home. The Interstate was backed up and we went off a side road that had a huge truck stop. People were trapped and couldn't get out. So I stopped and let a long line of them out until; I got honked at and passed by a line of about four cars with Florida tags followed by a local who also honked at me.

So I waved at the one in front of the trapped cars and went on my way. No use holding up a lane of traffic if the traffic was going to drive around me. All I could think is the people who passed me chose a difficult road to find their way back to a highway going South. The first car that passed me, the guy was running his mouth and shot a bird at me. I can imagine the aggravation he was feeling. And this crazy car just stops and lets a whole line of people out.

And yes, we laughed about it might be cultural to deliberately stop traffic to let people out. I don't know. People did it all the time when I lived in the Atlanta area. Atlanta is quasi Southern. It's only the South when people feel like it. Even then, they have to read the Atlanta Journal Constitution to know for sure what Southerners are like. I mean I was always surprised to learn about Southerners in that paper at times. We can be an interesting lot with plenty of blarney to spare.

I remember one car that saved my life as I merged from Interstate 85 to I-475 about 30 years ago. They were working on the interstate and there was a narrow area to merge. As I merged, this car changed lanes where I needed to go. I slowed for them and was scared. It was the concrete median or the car behind. Luckily, the car behind saw the situation and made me a space.

I changed lanes and drove down to look at miscreant that almost killed me. She had a look that she was incredibly lost in her thoughts. Driving is a poor place to daydream.

Consideration in metro Atlanta traffic had more to do with accident avoidance. 

But hey, do you stop traffic so people can get out? Do you live in an urban, suburban or rural area?

Hell was open this Wednesday. These two trees had to call attention to themselves.

Yep, we got enthusiastic rock painters here too. 

Mornings can be magical.

Sometimes its me.

What a bummy thing to realize. For my friends who are not Ciudadano de Estados Unidos, bummy as in a bum living off handouts not what we all sit on.

I've gotten a bit outspoken. I know I have always been plain spoken. But lately, it's me.

At first I thought it could be because of my writing passion. I find myself organizing my thoughts, having an opinion, re-organizing and having another opinion. I worry about being more hard-headed. All of your gifts from God has an edge. One of my gifts is having a strong will and a sense of determination. Their dull and grating edge is a hard head.

Then I thought, it could be my home life. I have no regrets about my choices. I know the consequences and they are using those two gifts. I understand the loneliness of the young housewife. I've always had a career. The career was not without it's problems but it checkmated my independent drive. I always had to consider the other point of view.

And that is the crux of the problem. Keeping that social point of view.

My mom likes me to handle things. When the neighbor called the law on Christmas Eve because Daisy the 9 pound chihuahua decided to chase horses that day, the sheriff deputy found himself lost for words when my mother who was only about 84 at the time came out to defend Daisy with a forceful push of her walker. That is when I told mom. She was in charge of some things.

Age gives privilege. I do meet sweet younger souls who defer to my age. My true nature instinctively wants to turn and snarl when I figure it out. Thankfully, I'm usually in the car on my next part of the journey when the realization hits. I appreciate the special treatment.

But sincerely, 61 is not that dang old.  I've never been a sun worshiper and genetics are in my favor; I don't have crow's feet of yet. It's that silver hair of mine that's to blame. It has been this way for almost 20 years. I remember when I stopped coloring my hair. Floating black hair is not my thing.

I'm going to start walking with my camera again. This morning a thick fog hung over the overgrown pasture in front of my house. I noticed it was extended up the small rise to the neighbor's horse farm. My driveway had a misty bridge of the condensation over my driveway. I did not try to retrieve a camera. I knew the freshly risen sun would have it burned off probably as I walked under it.

The other night I corrected a woman who wanted to write race and racism in the South. I shared three facts with her. She had no knowledge of what she was writing which was true. She should never use the N word no matter if it was used liberally at one time in history. She should set her lynching in Southern Illinois where she is from because they weren't the hotbed of civil rights she thinks it would be. "Sundown towns" comes to mind.

At one time, I would have just listened.

What is wrong with me? It does not matter. There is so much being written and not read. What does it matter?

I was the only Southerner in the group. I did not get a negative reaction from anyone. What bothered me about what I said is that sort of talking can make people uncomfortable. But like that mist this morning, it is over and done with. I hope to see another mist. Unfortunately, I'll probably open my mouth and insert my foot again.

So make me feel better. When have you blown off when you should have kept your mouth shut. Or what cool things did you see this morning.

Cheers, Ann

Fall comes a bit early

This morning, the air was cool and crisp. Fall was in the air a week early. Usually the temperature drops the second week of September to a tolerable level. I know this because of all the years I taught in schools with no air conditioning.

For a fleeting moment, I thought wonderful hurricane weather. Then I thought the price and regretted that thought. I certainly feel compassion for all the suffering.

On CBS evening news there was a woman whose child had cerebral palsy. His medicine had gotten wet when they escaped the flooding, and he was having seizures. If I could wish them into my home safe, I would get in the car and pick up his medicine. Mom and child could get cleaned up and have a warm meal.

I still remember the elderly woman who died and someone had covered her head with a coat during the Hurricane Katrina aftermath. No water and probably no medications, the stress was too much.

As troubling as the news is, I avoid as much of the news as possible. It gladdens my heart to see all the pickups towing boats going to Houston. I pray for the best for those in the Hurricane's path and their helpers. We all know some very sad outcomes are happening.

At one time, I would keep up with the news. With the turmoil in the country, I have started to avoid all media references to politics. I've felt a lot better since then. My last political beef was something I read about the five different Beckys of "white privilege"which is just another way of telling women to shut up.

I read comments. I've tried to scan them. I do wonder about some people who comment so hard and heavy on one specific topic like in real life. The more fictitious their name is; the less I care what they think. The comments are a great source for creepy statements for your writing. I do enjoy writing some things I think but would never say. However, none of these thoughts reach the creep level of some comments.

My favorite station is Channel 13 and is a CBS station. I've noticed that the nightly news is more palatable than say a friend's Facebook highlights of "The Golden Child of Wisdom Sitting on the Rail Giving A Patriot Review of American Values Right Now dot com".

I used to watch the true crime shows on the ID channel and fall asleep. But CSI or the fiction shows would wake me up with terror when I fell asleep. I guess if it bleeds it leads goes into overtime with fiction shows. The same probably happens with "The Golden Child of Wisdom Sitting on the Rail Giving A Patriot Review of American Values Right Now dot com".

I do pray for the people of Houston and coastal Texas and Louisiana. Rough days are here and ahead for them.

The eclipse came and went without me. I spent that time cooking dinner and spending time with my mother. Mom still loves to cook and still does a little. My mother is all fired up for me to get a ten dollar box of okra at Brown's market this Friday. We'll come home, wash them and get them into the freezer. We go to get her shoes Friday morning and Browns is along the way.

I had every intention of going to the Indian Mounds to view the eclipse. They were giving away 50 eclipse glasses. Then it was 600 pairs. Then I knew what a crowd. It was that frustration. I should have gotten some of those protective glasses several weeks ago. I had planned to view this eclipse. Why didn't I do it.

So I watched the eclipse party in Illinois on television as the okra fried. My brother kept looking at me. That is what he does when he is expecting me to do something. It dawned on me to tell him since he was sick we were not going. No big whoop to him. The fact there was an eclipse did not register with him. I noticed my sister going outside to keep up with the eclipse. The biggest surprise is that it did not get dark. However, the air temperature outside went down by 5 degrees.

There will be another one in 2024. However, I will have to travel. It will be a big coincidence as I see it. I will content to be alive during the next one.

I can't say I missed the eclipse. The eclipse didn't miss me. We just both had our own schedules to keep. Cleaning up after dinner, I was glad I didn't follow my impulse to drive to the path of the total eclipse. It would have been a six hour round trip.

As my mother ages and with my sister having had a stroke, we are getting increasingly housebound. We get out to a restaurant about twice a month, and grocery shopping on Wednesday. I used to get out in the evening some and I need to make time to do that some more.

You cannot have your cake and eat it too. I would grieve about it but I am way past that. I spend a way too much time on the computer dawdling. When I see people sitting together scrolling on their phone, I feel like slapping my hands between them and say, "Be careful, life is going to pass you by as you sit there reading some insipid text." There are lots of eclipses that don't involve the sun and moon.

New week, the news has to get better. You can unfollow people but remain friends on Facebook. Right now my Facebook feed is about Genealogy and the local paper. I miss the days of the cat video sharathon.

The fact I have taken in a new stray dog puts me at ten dogs. I got too many dogs and the shelters are full this time of year. Living in a rural county, there is no animal control. The dogs are chasing something back into the woods. I'm hoping it is not another dog. They are cutting the pines down on the property behind me. Maybe it is a deer.

There are tons of chicken trucks delivering birds to the chicken processing plant nearby. My mom and I discuss the urge to set them all free. We had chicken last night for supper. So, I am a hypocrite. We also drive by unkempt grape vines and have the urge to start pruning them.

I've done my first binge watching of a television program. It was Orange is the New Black. I asked my sister if something was in the book. It turns out the book was about 200 pages long. I watched all five seasons this past week. I will say as the seasons progressed, they got duller.

I'm glad I caught them at one time. What cliffhangers, and the characters are very endearing. The bad, bad guys are awful and all three worst got killed. It was supposed to be dramedy. However, the comedy was not real strong for me. It had a more surreal quality. There are some things that I know are supposed to be funny; they just don't strike me that way.

It is not realistic in that all of the prisoners are swell folks deep down inside. All of their meanness is due to bad things in their lives. I used to subscribe to that notion but it is not always true. Some people are plain mean. Evil exists.

The character Poussy is unfairly killed by a guard in a crackdown on prisoner rebellion. That guard goes into a deep dark soul searching depression over the incident. I can see where something like that can eat at your soul. However, most people go for self preservation.

It is a show that is best enjoyed by not thinking too hard. It is pretty ham handed over the injustices of the prison system. They also go overboard with the lesbian content. There is a a lot of soft core porn inserted in shows. I fast forwarded through some; but, some serious dialog happened during the scenes like people discuss the vagaries of life during sex.

Disney movies actually make more money than any other type. Orange is the new black is not Disney material though. Orange is the New Black is about as realistic as a Disney movie.

The main character Piper Chapman is not a likeable character. I loved the characters they created. There was Flaca and Maritza who represent youth and innocence. There are the mothers, the hoodlums, the skinheads, people divided by race with the elderly forming their own group.

A 79 year old inmate plans to stab a really mean and vicious inmate who has caused a lot of problems. She stabs and kills another inmate in that she doesn't wear her glasses because they make her nose look big. Just a reminder that the gals may look harmless but they might not be.

A sad part was a woman with dementia is given a compassionate release. She is taken to a bus station with a ticket. The woman obviously does not have the wits to get on the bus or go anywhere. It reminded me of a man who drowned in the Ocmulgee River about a year ago. He had signed himself out of an nursing home several months before and had been homeless.

It's a good show. It is not as good as the Sopranos. I watched the Sopranos long after the show had ended. It was as good as they said it was. I've tried to watch Breaking Bad. I can't get into it in that I can't buy into the premise of a nice man making meth to rescue his family from doom. I think his family can fend for themselves after his death from cancer. And good people don't make things that will destroy other people and their families.

I am still watching the news. I'm taking a break from thinking about the news. They have started the Civil War back up again. We as a nation are in la la land when the most current thing in the news is something that ended in 152 years ago. But I do pray for reason. I read an article about what Andrew Young had to say about current events. It is a shame we don't hear more reason in the world. But I do thank God that we have had people like Andrew Young to lead and there are younger people leading the world with reason.

Andrew Young's statements in the Atlanta Journal.

I'm one of those people who is actually neutral about the statues. Time will be taking quite a few down soon. There is no fight like the one a family can have. What I wish people could take from the civil war is such a huge price in lives and misery was exacted from the War Between the States.  We should all take a step back from the noise and seek reason.

This letter from a civil war soldier should give us all pause to stop and think.

In God we Trust, everyone else pays cash.

I taught a Russian child whose parents and he were living in Canada. When he was returning to the USSR which was Russia at that time, I put my arm around his shoulder like I would any other kid and wished him a safe trip and a happy life. His doubtful eyes are in my memory. He is one of the children I wonder what happened to them.

That particular child could be difficult. The guidance counselor could calm him down in a minute. She had a note he had written that he would not want his parents to see. The Canadian kids were kids. One time the Russian child challenged me in class.

The little Canucks thought we would have a regular USA versus Russia rivalry. I wound up giving the class a lecture that the disagreements between countries had no role in people not being able to get along. I guess not wanting another class lecture, the kid gave up. He was not that popular and getting a teacher from the South lecturing the class again was not the greatest mantle to wear.

(I was never a disciplinarian. I'm like my parents in that I believe in someone having free will. It's an old Baptist belief. My parent's were not missionary Baptists which most Baptist's are today. It's interesting how beliefs of Quakers and Puritans can reach their hands across centuries and affect us in the present. I went for control to teach class. But kids could have their opinion. When I taught at an evening school, I was careful in asking opinions. You did not always want to hear what a life hardened 17 year old had to say.)

Which leads me to a serious matter. People who underestimate that Russia is an enemy to the United States. I read one blog about the Christian nature of Russia and how the blogger prays for Putin. She looks forward to hearing his Christian message.

As a former KGB agent, I doubt Vladimir Putin has a good message for the United States. Putin may be a practicing Christian. But we know how all of us interpret the message and filter it through our own perspective of the world.

The United States has been the world's policeman for a long time. Small countries all over the world have petitioned the United States for help and many have gotten that help.

If the United States loses it's credibility and leadership, there will be vacuum to fill. Emmanual Macron, President of France and Angela Merkel of Germany have been attempting to fill that gap.  It is inevitable the the United States and Western Europe will lose leadership of the world. But I do not anticipate the coldness and callousness of Russia and China.

In China there is a special uncontaminated food and water supply for their oligarchs. I can't imagine the Flint, Michigan water crisis becoming the norm in the United States.

I listened to Boris Johnson speaking to the Australian media. Johnson pointed out that the actions of the United States are stable although the rhetoric appears destabilizing. Boris Johnson is a conservative MP who was born on the Upper East Side of New York City and an architect of the Brexit.

Boris Johnson's quote My chances of being PM are about as good as the chances of finding Elvis on Mars, or my being reincarnated as an olive. summarizes my opinion of thinking that Putin is our friend and has our best interests at heart. Yeah, pray for him, pray for your enemies. The Bible admonishes us to do so. But the Bible does not direct us to deceived by our enemies.

The business of politics is beyond the scope of most of us. It is an intellect honed by fire. I am not that smart and neither are most people or you. Trump's true weakness is he has lived in a world of privilege where people do exactly what he says. Despite what his "hardcore" followers want, we live in a democracy not a dictatorship. There is a dimension of the "Art of the Deal" that Trump will need to acquire if he wants to govern effectively.

What is interesting to me is that most people are in agreement about certain items but can have different political ideologies. We've become tribal in our politics. Actually, it is our nature handed down over the centuries to us. Some of the lies and/or propaganda used during the American Revolution are surprisingly modern in tone. I'll dig my favorite book up and share a few next week. The book is the American Nations: A History of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures of North America by Colin Woodard

I am a Christian and an American. As an American, I believe we all have a right to serve God in the way we want. I am not afraid of someone having a different belief system as myself. I want the right to believe as I wish. Quite frankly, so many people speaking the mind of God are actually speaking their mind and unaware. In some cases, they are aware and in my belief system they have a lot to fear when they meet the Almighty.

It doesn't take Einstein to know what my message is. The old Soviet Union is the United States enemy. Russia is not concerned with our welfare. They would like the United States to be weak so they can control more of the world. Putin is no one's friend, not even Russia. He squashes political dissent. You may think he agrees with your values. Think again, he is a trained KGB agent. Once he gets what he wants, the heck with you.

What made me aggravated to write this post are the sonic attacks on embassy personnel in Cuba. The cold war has only thawed. Why is North Korea threatening? They perceive as being weak.

When I lived in Canada, I met all walks of life. The frustration of sleeping beside an elephant was how they felt about sharing a border with the United States. A friend shared this article written in 1973 at the close of the Vietnam war. Our country was torn by discord. We are torn again. But the American people have a promise to keep and I hope we keep it.

That song is driving me crazy.

My tour of hell yesterday was not painful. We only went to one store. The new tradition of eating a Chick Fil A sandwich before we go in the store not only saves me from cooking dinner but takes a bite out of the shopping. Except for two packs of strawberries, my mother did not purchase a lot of what we cannot possibly eat. That was my job.

My sister had an appointment with the eye doctor. Riding into town, I was bee bopping to a Tom T. Hall tune on Willie's Roadhouse. I love Sirius radio. Then all of a sudden, the DJ starts talking and he keeps talking and then he says, "If you want to hear my opinion, It was like turn the channel please.  And this is why with all the politics, you really don't want to put your opinion on Facebook. Opinions can be very very very borrrrrinnnnnng. Like a bolt of lightning, I got the message.

I've been reading "Story Grid" by Shawn Coyne. It has been interesting; but, I haven't got past the part of the sales pitch. What is it writing books. Why do they persist in spending the first part of the book about why you need to take them serious. Why else would I be reading the dang book.

I've also been reading some cozy mysteries by Sheila Hudson.

My favorite radio station on Sirius is Willie's Roadhouse. I would not listen to country music with my dad as a teenager. Now I love that music. I remember dad liking Tom T. Hall. Man what a long list of songs and ballads he sang. This is the one that played yesterday. It has a jolly sound.



Tonight I go to a Marty Stuart performance. I've seen him before and he is a great showman.

This Tom T. Hall song was released in 1972. As the Bible says, "There is nothing new under the sun." I like the King James version of the Bible. The old language is what I grew up reading and still enjoy.

Ecclesiastes 1:9King James Version

The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun.