tladotse

08:15 am: Wintertime in Coffee Springs

It is one of those cold mornings down here in Coffee Springs. I just looked at the outside temperature and it was reading 20 degrees F. That is just about as it usually gets around here. We need the cold to kill the bugs and rejuvenate the year. Gardens and everything grow better after a cold winter.

I don't have much on my mind as of yet. I haven't even looked at the news yet and probably I will be more cheerful before I do see it. The so called news is just a soap opera of junk that we fill our minds with every day. No wonder there is so much depression and so many physiological diseases to make money for the medical and pharmaceuticals industries now a days. Hope there is a spell checker on here. There is lots of talk and a big push about ADD attention deficit disorder now a days. I find it hard to believe some of the statistics they quote in their advertisements. Well if I remember right my dad had a way to solve attention deficit. He could get your attention if he wanted it. The right instrument applied to the right part of the anatomy works in a large percent of cases. But alas the majority of youngun raisers are plugged into the don't discipline and no physical punishment song and dance so they can't adequately get the attention of their younguns. And some don't even care.  Here I go again on the old soapbox. But I always believed that all kids need a spanking every now and then to grow up right. I guess if some children got any attention at all it would make them feel better. This age is the age of in most cases, "The dollar takes precedence over the children."

In any case we could take Saint Paul's advice that whatever things  are lovely, true, and of a good report we could think on those type of things. But I guess there is no virtue and praise for this generation. Why, we fill our minds with garbage that is ugly, false, and of bad report. No wonder we are so messed up these days.

05:15 pm: This Time of Year You Almost Get Depressed

It seems that about this time of year I get a bit of depression. I guess it is because of all the hustle and bustle that has been going on and then it gets quiet. Then the cold and dark of winter sets in and there you go. I can't believe that only a month ago I wanted all the rat race to be over and now it is do quiet. Oh, well I guess I should count my blessings

12:59 pm: Time Marches On
I just returned home from the Coffee Springs Tuesday Bible Study and the Senior Citizens Center where I ate lunch. I also played a bit of dominoes. I enjoy playing the dominoes. Someone reminded me that it is already the 18th of the month and I could not help but think of hig fast life is passing by. But, it is something that we can not continue to dwell on or we will not enjoy the time that we already have. Fall is in the air now and in certain places around here it was in the 50's this morning. I like fall the most of any season of the year.
We are studying in the book of Job in the bible study and I didn't know it contained so much wisdom before.
I didn't do much hamming this morning because propagation was so poor. I did however hear 3B7C on 17 meters pretty well but I was never able to work them.

Send me your comments if you would like. 


E-MAIL Kennon

Tags: non illigitimus carbarundum

10:21 am: After A Long Time Gone

     Well I have been off for a long time without writing anything and I fear that I have gotten kind of rusty on my writing. Hopefully I will get it back up to speed before long and won't have any of that trouble. Now it is hot weather in south Alabama and we can expect it for quite a while now, probably at least until middle of September or first part of October. I hear lots about "Global Warming" on the news and other scuddle but around. Well, looking back on my past I have seen hotter days than I am seeing now. Back when I was a teen ager about 15 to 16 years old I was helping my grandfather on the farm and we were harrowing corn back down in the bottom next to the woods. It was an oppressively hot day and not a single breeze was stirring.  It was so hot that it made one think that they had died and gone to hell. Big drops of sweat would roll down  old Charlie's (Pa Smith's old horse) belly and accumule at the bottom and finally when they got big enough would fall off onto the ground. I would watch them intently to get my min off the heat. It didn't work for long and I would be back praying for rain or even just a little cloud to come over. But unfortunately no cloud would come up. It was rough but I seem to have lived through it. 
     Another hot time that I can remember back to is in cotton picking time. That time of the year started in about latter part of August and went through October or even into November depending on how much of the cotton reminents that we wanted to get out of the field. What I mean by reminents is the boles that opened up since the last picking and if there were enough of them it would be profitable to go through and pick the cotton again.

to be continued......

09:02 am: July 7, 2006- I think of the phrase "hiding something in the open." When I was a teen ager I had a chance to practice that. It was with my mother who was a very loving and trusting person. At that time Dale county was dry so everyone who drank went up just across the Barber county line to get a brew to drink. Some of us boys decided to go up there and get a brew one time. Well, I thought that every time I do something I get caught so I better defuse the situation before the fact. So I went into the kitchen where mama was and I should have been ashamed of myself but I did it anyway. I said, "Mama you know what we are going to do?"
"No, What?"
"We are going up to Tillman's and get a beer."
"Course you are," she laughed.
I knew that I had it made then as I left the house.
Then Joe and Bill came driving up and we got into the car and drove off. Yes we wound up at the beer joint. After having a few we went by the creek for a swim as we often did. After a very pleasant afternoon, one of the few when I didn't have some work or chores to do I finally returned home.
Mom asked me if we had a good afternoon and I proceeded to tell her exactly what we did. Although I told the truth she never believed the part about the beer joint. That is what I call "hiding something out in the open.

09:00 am: July 27, 2006 Today it is quiet as usual in Coffee Springs. Only the sound of the birds having their usual morning concert. I like it that way. Quiet is a blessing. I keep my mind occupied lots more since I have gotten my ham radio station. It is very good to have something to do that you enjoy and I very much enjoy getting on the radio, mostly with Morse code, and talking with people all over in different parts of the country. I certainly meet some interesting people on the bands.
The big thing in the paper is the city counsels around the country's campaign against yard sales. It is a good thing to divert people's attention from them important things that they are not doing. Nothing like having a "red herring" to drag across the trail of incompetence that most of them have. Also, it hurts them to think that there is something that people can do for free and they can't get their grimey hands on more money. I say,"Leave the yard sales alone!" If someone abuses the privilege and is really running a business then penalize that person. The political mentality makes me think of when I was in high school or the Army. If one person or a few do something bad, punish everyone for it. It sometimes get results but it is the height of stupidity. However, one should not wonder at this mentality since the schools promote it so much.
Now that we have had some rain showers several times we have very high humidity and coupled with the heat makes for a miserable climate. But the rain is a blessing and has helped our garden. However for some of the vegetables it is getting late in the year and especially the tomato. They are producing smaller fruit and lots more of them are spoiling. We do have enough for us to eat and they are extremely good. It is hard to beat a tomato sandwich with fresh home grown tomato and good fresh bread. The cucumbers are about to play out also but the pepper plants are coming into their heyday. Peppers get better when the seasons get along toward the fall and the days get cooler and shorter those peppers get very good. It is nice to look forward to fall when one is suffering through a hot summer. In any case autumn is my favorite season which I love very much. Well, it will soon be time to plant a fall garden; turnips, collards and rutabagas.

10:54 am: Better write some more
Well this blogging business is great in that it keeps one writing on different subjects although some of them might not be relevant. However, if one writes at least a little it should be sufficient to keep the old creative juices flowing. Winter has been light here in "lower Alabama" and one can already see signs of spring around. Buds are budding and even some flowers are already blooming. Especially those are blooming that are the early bloomers such as the pear and peach trees and of the flowers the daffodills. They always come out early and they are the first harbingers of spring. The only dark spot on the horizen now is filing income tax return. There needs to be much simplification to the tax system and it not to be such a factor controlling ones life. It is ridiculous and a shame such a screwed up system. Many do not pay their fair share and many others pay way more than their fair share. But in the real world there is never going to be a fair system. I would like to see it better though.
Both Ellen and I have doctor's appointments today. I am going for a follow on check up for the pneumonia that I had last month. Hopefully he will not find any problem. I know that I feel lots better if that is any indication of the state of things.
I took a couple of pictures this month and posted some of them on this URL
some recent February pictures

10:25 am: News From Coffee Springs
Well it is a shame to have been as lazy as I have been and not to have written any thing for my blog but sometimes things just don't work out where you can do it. Both Ellen and I have been sick with a bug which has been a real toughy. I took two rounds of antibiotic and finally it seems to be coming under control. One of my big goals for this year was to get my exercise program back off the ground where it has been for some time. So far I have not made much progress with that but maybe it is still not too late. I guess that the year is still young yet.

10:04 am: Fishing in Coffee springs
This is a picture of the largest bream that we caught. It was winter and they were biting slowly today but we had fun and
caught 16 all together. That makes a good mess or makes the grease hot as they say. I think that bream are the
very best fresh water fish that a person can eat and they are healthy for you.

http://www.snowhill.com/~w4tki/catch/images/large%20shelcracker.jpg

01:29 pm: Christmas Conversation 2004
Today I was talking again with my curmudgeon friend Joe. I enjoy talking to him because he helps me to put everything into perspective. He helps balance out my other friend Ben who is always overly optimistic. Put them together and perhaps we would have a happy medium. We were talking about the Christmas Season, which he calls the season of avarice and greed. I said, "Joe wonder why it is like that at this season of the year?" Well the driving force is the greed of merchants who want to make more and more that they can't seem to make during the other six months of the year that are not included in the Christmas Season. "That's who thought up the idea of a mythical character called Santa Claus you know," he said.
"Who?"
"Those greedy merchants and none other."
Well, I tried to think of an appropriate answer.
I told him that I am not that much into Christmas because I grew up not emphasizing it so much. We were lucky to get anything and we did not have to have all that junk at Christmas. And, truth be known I was just as happy as any kid is today.
"Christmas today just teaches children to be greedy so that they can follow in the steps of their parents and work to fatten the pocketbooks of the merchants of Avarice and Greed." He snarled out in his customary way.
"I propose that we make a new holiday which will serve what Christmas does now. We can use that holiday to get together and have peace on earth and good will. We could eat and enjoy ourselves and just have a nice holiday. This holiday could be around June. Then we could make the original Christmas completely commercial and just be honest about its being all about greed."
"Well, I don't know" I said.
"Neither do I. Probably wouldn't take long till the moneygrubbers spoil it and make it no better than the original one."
"Yep you are probably right, they are already starting on Valentine's Day in January."