Prudentia Sit

Dear Fans, Friends, Fiends and Foes,

I have been busy.  Being a land baron requires physical labor commonly referred to around my circles as "Man-Work."  The property had been owned and loved by the same woman for about 40 years and while she was well and able to get around and inspect the work done by various craftsmen and hired hands you can see evidence that she required a job well done.  I think this property would be a lot worse for wear if that had not been the case, but

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Sure and there's a wee bit of the Irish in all of us and double sure there's some of the blarney.  One bit of blarney (Actually this has nothing to do with B. Hussein Obama although ‘tis sure he's full of the Blarney Stone itself) I have read over the years was by new, "Authentic" Irish musicians is that they don't want to do "That Tin Pan Alley stuff." 

Well, I think it is equally authentic because the Irish in America, who faced discrimination and persecution as so many other immigrant groups, did their best and overcame in a great way.  Anyway, I walked into the ARC thrift store

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Dad's birthday was on the first and Sunday was Mother's Day and I just haven't felt like writing.  I haven't spent a whole lot of time online anyway since we are trying to get the house ready for my youngest daughter's graduation.  This is the daughter who lettered in Academics and who will be going to the Colorado State University at Pueblo http://www.colostate-pueblo.edu/ .  I am really proud of her, but it means we have to finish moving in and make sure the grounds are presentable for her party.

This is important.

Getting a ticket for daughter and grandson to visit for the event is important also.  They moved away to St Joseph, MO and Douglas had to go, too.  I miss him, but

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Welcome to the world, Trent Urijah!

6 pounds 15 ounces and 19 inches long by "C-Section"

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Wow!  Okay.  So here's the deal.  As a conservative I was tepid about McCain, planning to vote for him only because he wasn't the Black Irishman, Barry O'Bama.  But now that he has picked Governor Sarah Palin of Alaska, already commander of the Alaska National Guard, to be the next vice-president, I am jazzed!  A Blue-Collar, working hockey-mom who likes mooseburgers and is happy to shoot her own!  I was energized and enthused by her speech

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Camping was pretty fun.  I love living in Colorado and having some of the most beautiful scenery in the world right at my back door.  We went up into the Pike National Forest and stayed at a "developed" site called "The Crags."  This was to celebrate

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* Edit/Add:  Fixed the problem with viewing the results, at least for now and added "Steve" as one of the names to choose from. * 

 

Well, Old Mister Herb had troubles all his own
He found a little yella kitten that wouldn't leave home;
He tried everything he knew to get the cat to stay away
He even took him up to Canada and told him for to stay

But the cat came back the very next day
Thought he was a goner
But the cat came back
‘Cause he wouldn't stay away.

"If a man could be crossed with a cat, it would improve the man but deteriorate the cat."  -- Mark Twain

This puny little orange Tom kitten has been coming around and talking to our cats at the windows.  He might be 6 months old at the most.  Ours are all fixed, but they find his conversation interesting.  He is all bones and if he belongs to someone they haven't seen him in a long time or they don't care.  He is really scrawny and pathetic.  Carter says I'm a sucker (Although he and I both know someone who fed a stray cat in an alley behind a Laundromat in a small town in Montana because he felt so sorry for it).  I'm thinking, only thinking, mind you, it's just a sort of an idea, kind of, that's just a thought really, but I've been thinking, when we get the check, that I should probably take him to the vet and have him checked to make sure he doesn't have any diseases that he could give to our cats (even though they have all talked to him through the screen door) and er, well, um...you know...We don't have all the critters we used to have and this one is quite small...

I started talking like that and Margaret said we needed to make the sign you see above and post it around the neighborhood.  "What if some little child is missing their kitty and here you are, big mean man, keeping the kid's cat?"  To which I replied that the kid couldn't have cared too much because he didn't make any signs himself and post them around the neighborhood and besides, his parents couldn't be teaching him to care for the cat very well since it's so scrawny.  To which she said that not everybody had access to a computer to print a poster.  Anyway, there is the sample of it sans phone number.  I tried like crazy to get a decent picture of him, but you can see by clicking here that that didn't work too well.

My quasi-hero in the literary/writing world is, as many know, Edgar Allen Poe, who is said to have done his writing with a cat perched on his shoulder and known to have a cat named "Catarina" and nicknamed "Catters."  Catters was said to snuggle with his wife to keep her warm when she suffered with Tuberculosis.  "Catters" might work, but this is a male.  The name of the cat in his famous story, "The Black Cat," was Pluto.  Hemingway (not a particular literary hero of mine) had 30 cats, one, also yellow-eyed, named Mr. Feather Puss, was so trusted that the Hemingways would allow him to babysit their infant.  Winston Churchill had several cats including Nelson, who went to cabinet meetings with him.

As I was thinking about Poe I wondered if any of the muses had a name that was manly enough, but the one muse that I would like and would be appropriate for me is Calliope but that hardly seems right for a male cat, although "Cal" might be okay.  Of course there are names like Tuffy or Tom but I don't know.  When he comes to the door begging for food I say "Alright Mister Big Yellow Kitty" but that's a little long.

He has a mark on his ear that looks like he may have been in a fight, like someone bit his ear and held on.  Oh!  Wait.  You know who he does kind of remind me of?  When I put down food for him he scarfs it down in a mouthful or two and acts a bit paranoid or schizo so maybe I should call him "Bill" after "Bill the Cat" of Bloom County fame.  My brother's name is Bill, too.  He (the cat) is way too skinny to be called Garfield.  In keeping with Tabitha's "Cinnamon Bear" program (all 26 episodes are available for download here http://cinnamonbear.co.uk/ if you want a sweet little Christmas story. A 30's radio serial for children.) Theme we could call him Cinnamon Bear or Paddy O'Cinnamon.

Not that it matters.  I mean, we are NOT getting another cat.  We are NOT.  Not getting another one.  But, okay, well, I decided to create two new polls.  Just to test the software, you understand, but please take the time to answer anyway and please feel free to comment. If you have a suggestion that isn't in either of the lists you can add it in the comments.

 

I was over at Beej’s Blisteringly Brilliant Blog and red her story about her teary eye and was reminded of a story of one of my daughters.  She was maybe two or three,

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Thanks to Nicole for letting me say these things.

Nicole's remarks in the little sidebar chat thingy on this blog, which may have disappeared by this time, where she says "The jokes are daddy's, well I guess they are mine now." Got me to thinking about and remembering D.W. Hollingsworth.  He had a terrific sense of humor and published a daily joke e-mail called "Colorado Comments" that was full of old and new jokes that all had one thing in common; they were clean and they were funny.  Nicole has her dad's quick wit and sense of humor among the many other things he put in her, and she is going to be sharing some of her favorite jokes and stories from "Colorado Comments" from time to time as she feels like it in my joke blog, http://herbshumor.blogdrive.com/.  In fact, it was his daily dose of humor that made me want to do it.

Not knowing who may read this entry I guess it is safe to say that you may not ever have heard of him, which is too bad for you because he was a really great guy.  He was always jovial and friendly, even after being diagnosed with terminal cancer.  He would be so weak and in so much pain toward the end, but he never quit putting out his newsletter and he never missed coming to church whenever the doors were open.  This was always his way, driving 35 - 40 miles in all manner of weather to make sure his family made it every service, even special revival services.  The times that they missed in the 16 years my family has gone to the First Pentecostal Church of Colorado Springs you could count on one hand.  In the end he could no longer drive and had to let his wife drive, but he loved God and he loved the Church so much that he had to go where he belonged.

Respected and liked by the other men in the church, toward the end they had to carry a recliner into the service since the regular pews were not made for the comfort of a cancer patient.  He could have stayed at home and listened to sermons on tape, of course, but it was important for him to be at church.  He could have possibly gone to church closer to home, but he was a loyal man.  Loyal to God and church and pastor.  When I was a scout leader one of the laws we tried to teach the boys was being loyal.  Here was a living, breathing example.  His body would be so exhausted and wracked with pain sometimes that he would occasionally doze off, but not too often because he didn't want to miss anything.  Without disclosing his personal business I will tell you that he was a devoted family man and every thing he did, his reason for being, was his wife and kids.  He was quick to laugh, to smile, to forgive.

A heroic man to the very end.  When you watch someone who is genuinely sick, not just a sniffly cold; when you see a man make church attendance mandatory for himself; when you see a man who will sacrifice his personal comfort for the betterment and future care of his family; you see a hero.  Such a man was Brother David Hollingsworth.  The Scripture talks about different kinds of men, righteous men and good men, here was both a righteous man and a good man.  A good man that loved God, Church, Family and Country.

I had considered trying to write about the question of why such a good man would be taken and many lesser men, starting at myself, would be left, but it is something I don't understand.  The Bible book of Ecclesiastes has the answer, but you have to read the whole book through as a sermon.  It is not exactly like the Proverbs, where you can pick out a verse or two and get wisdom, but rather you have to read it as a complete book, a complete sermon from beginning to end to really "get" Ecclesiastes.  Anyway, the answer is in there and far more eloquent and articulately written than I could ever hope to be.  Read what the Good Book says for yourself.

Well, Tabitha, who's nickname is "Tab The Bad Cat," made it home after her adventure.  She and Sis. G. got to the airport and made it to Denver before they had any problems.  While they were in the air, with 4 dollars apiece, on the way to Colorado Springs the captain announced that they might be detoured to Grand Junction because of the weather!  They were pretty upset, but then it was decided they could come on, so they were just a half hour late here.  She learned the age-old truth, it's nice to go away but it's nice to come home again.

They had a less-than-favorable impression of the city of Fresno, but otherwise had a good time.  Overpriced hotel food, sleeping in a strange place, staying up late and getting up early, all make for a good convention time.    My daughter and her other accomplices, (a bunch of young gals led by the notorious Ashley herself) who went to this conference to learn to be better Christians, broke curfew the last night and while they didn't actually fib to the hall monitors, they did, er, misrepresent themselves a bit.  Apparently the chap asked their group as they were wandering the halls after the approved time, if they were all over 18 and one of them just answered him in a vague sort of affirmative for the whole group.  Of course, Tabitha's idea of being bad and taking advantage of the situation was to stay up and talk until 3:30 in the morning with a bunch of girls, woo-hoo.  Naughty Kitty!
 
Remember, as the Good Book says...Well, what do you know, I forgot what the Good Book says.