Greetings earthlings. Are you keeping your stick on the ice? Are you walking on sunshine? Feeling the Moonshine? Hello lamppost. Smell the roses. Stop! and smell the roses. Third star on the right. Sometimes I want to vent and rant because we people are so divided. Why can't everyone just see things the way I do? No matter what I do ..or don't do..... I am hurting someone somewhere. You can't be on the "right" side of everything. That's what religion has tried to set up for thousands of years. It don't work. I think of myself as a "good guy". I don't cheat on my taxes. I don't cheat on my wife. I believe in kindness and tolerance .. and the golden rule. Yet in some cases I am a "bad guy". Lloyd you don't believe in God? Correct. Ok Lloyd, you don't believe in religion, but everybody believes in God! No I don't. But Lloyd do you believe in something bigger than yourself? Yes. Very much. Let me think of an illustration : Ok. I pick guitar a bit. Just a three chord strummer. Always acoustic, always steel six string. I'm having trouble getting to my point. You plug in a Fender Telecaster, tune it, and hand it to me. I'm gonna smile and feel the now, and I'm gonna play an A chord. Not up the neck. Ballad style. A second fret, one finger, master bar, A. I will play and sing one of two songs: "From a Jack to a King" or "The Battle of New Orleans". "In 1814 we took a little trip. Along with Col. Jackson down the mighty Mississip. We took a little bacon and we took a little beans and we caught the bloody British in the town of New Orleans." The song is about Andrew Jackson and a battle that took place at New Orleans. Col. then General
Jackson had defeated the British and the war was already over for two weeks! I still haven't made my point. I've been singing the song for 59 years. Jackson became the seventh president of the U.S. When I was 11 years old I used to get Jackson- "old hickory" confused with Col. Francis Marion- "the swamp fox" of the earlier Revolutionary War. Another song: "Swamp fox, swamp fox, tail on his hat. Nobody knows where the swamp fox at! Swamp fox, swamp fox ridin' through the glen. He runs away to fight again!" A Disney series I think. Still I can't get to the point.
Andrew Jackson later in his career when he was in fact President was responsible for the infamous and barbarically cruel relocation of the Cherokee Tribe from their legal homeland. A 1000 mile death march of men women and children. 4000 Native Americans died. Growing up I never knew about this. Sheltered life. Or poor student. Or both. In 1973 with the Wounded Knee uprising and Indian affairs resolutions I became aware of what President Jackson had done in 1838. And the last Indian Wars battle was in 1890. Somehow I didn't connect it to "Old Hickory" where they ran thru the briars and they ran thru the brambles! So now the protesters want to take down the statue in D.C. of "Ole Hickory". My hero from 11 years old until I was about 20 on the green pastures of the University of Maryland. I'm sorry but my old hero Andrew Jackson is a bad guy. And many of our Founding Fathers owned slaves including Patrick Henry and George Washington. In their case I will just say that for blacks those were bad times and to blacks they were bad men. No men are perfect. No political system is perfect for all. Still have yet to make my point. So for 400 years in North America, Blacks and Native Americans have suffered severely at the hands of the whites. And it still goes on. Ok here's my point and you've heard it before. I love America from sea to shining sea. I love the flag. The Constitution. Thine alabaster cities gleaming. The lady of the harbor welcoming the tired and poor longing to be free. The star spangled banner in Triumph Shall Wave. O're the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave. America is not great. Never has been! She's a noble experiment. The Fathers knew that! We all know that! That doesn't mean she can't be great! She's only as rich as the poorest of the poor! Only as free as an iron prison door! Only as strong as our love for fellow man! Only as tall as we stand! Stand beside her and guide her! Beauty that words cannot recall! Her power shall rest on the strength of her freedom! Glory shall rest on us all! On us All! Thanks readers.. I love you.. LLITTY :::::+:::::
Saturday, June 27, 2020
Thursday, June 11, 2020
Common Sense
greetings friends... hope you are well. We've gone about 9 days here without rain... but it's raining now as we speak. I want to talk about our country. But it's hard because I've had to stop watching tv due to stress. Stress can raise blood glucose levels and make me sick. But I don't have to read my BG meter to see that the news of the day, or the "crisis de jour", makes me sick. To get rid of the feeling of the world falling apart, I work on projects, play a little guitar, (actually my guitar is normal sized) maybe watch a Hallmark movie or read. The media did show marchers saying "give me liberty or give me death" and I told wife it was Thomas Paine that said that. But I looked it up and it was Patrick Henry. Both active Patriots in the American Revolution. I read Thomas Paine's famous pamphlet from the era. It was excellent. The pamphlet was called "Common Sense" and I had read it in Jr. High. Paine pushed back real hard on the Monarchy that was oppressing the colonists. He talked about different forms of government. And their various flaws. Just like we all do today. Paine summed up all of my feelings about our country's problems with leadership, covid19, racial strife, economic inequality, and police brutality. What I'm feeling is the same as many in our country. He summed it up for me from 250 years ago. In three words! "I detest cruelty".
In the course of my reading last night I wound up googling up the events and incidents that took place from 1770 to 1776 in the colonies. There was the "stamp act". There was the "Boston Massacre". The Boston Tea Party, etc. But a year before the tea party there was the Gaspee incident in Rhode Island. A cool story about a sleek British Navy schooner that was chasing a patriot colonist vessel accused of defying revenue laws. The British ship "Gaspee" ran aground on a sand bar in Narraganset Bay. Some Patriots met and organized in a Tavern and before dawn when the tide would have set Gaspee free, 10 or 12 longboats went out and colonists boarded and captured and burned Gaspee to the waterline. This was about a year before the tea party. As I read the story last night I noticed the date of the battle: June 10th 1772. Looked at the date on my computer screen. June 10. !
LLITTY :::::+:::::
In the course of my reading last night I wound up googling up the events and incidents that took place from 1770 to 1776 in the colonies. There was the "stamp act". There was the "Boston Massacre". The Boston Tea Party, etc. But a year before the tea party there was the Gaspee incident in Rhode Island. A cool story about a sleek British Navy schooner that was chasing a patriot colonist vessel accused of defying revenue laws. The British ship "Gaspee" ran aground on a sand bar in Narraganset Bay. Some Patriots met and organized in a Tavern and before dawn when the tide would have set Gaspee free, 10 or 12 longboats went out and colonists boarded and captured and burned Gaspee to the waterline. This was about a year before the tea party. As I read the story last night I noticed the date of the battle: June 10th 1772. Looked at the date on my computer screen. June 10. !
LLITTY :::::+:::::
Monday, June 1, 2020
Shenandoah
Hello readers. May you be happy in the face of these troubled times. While still being respectful of lives lost or ruined. And still thankful to be kicking and sometimes smiling. I decided not long ago that I am insane now. I don't think I can accept any responsibility. They say I'm not old. That 70 is the new 60. I am mentally and physically and emotionally worn out. I'm not complaining. Some part of me is happier than I have ever been before. I'm plenty thankful every single day. Usually I'm depressed when I wake up in the early morning. I think of sad fears for the world. Of hardships and potential troubles. As the day goes on it's likely I will get better. I have a simple life and a wonderful wife and son... so no excuse to be worried. Might be that all of us should be worried! Today I woke worrying about a stupid errand I needed to run. A first world problem of no consequence. I could not get back to sleep because I was obsessed with getting the errand over and done with. I was insane. So I got up tired in a bad mood. I started getting ready to go into the outside world. Wallet, keys,
shoes on, sunglasses, mask! , etc. Wife is talking to me about plants that have grown , a racoon that is hanging out sometimes, some deer nearby, squirrels, butterflies, etc. It is in fact a beautiful late spring day...couldn't be better. I can't or don't see it. I'm still thinking about my stupid errand. Have to take back to Lowes a tree pot that wound up in a curbside order from two days ago. Wife had not ordered the pot...it was filled with small things...plant food, spray cans etc. which were part of our order. So when I took that load home two days ago in my truck hauling a 200 lb. cabinet kit I just put the pot and it's contents into the truck. Apparently I had "stolen" the tree pot! Really? Lowes doesn't know about this. But wife and I do. The irony is while I am trying to do the right thing somehow, they are looting stores and burning them all over our country. So I get the pot into my little white car and wife makes me some coffee and I'm still dismal. I take my coffee and my Atkins drink and one of my favorite CD's homemade by wife and start up north to Dover. You may have read my post a month or so ago about Rt. 13. So now I'm driving north having some coffee and I have to admit that the weather is nice and I so love my little car. I've got Bobby Darin playing and I start seeing the scenery. All the big fields to the east on my side of the road have beautiful stands of tiny corn plants that go literally for miles in straight rows. Little old cottages from older days. Little mom and pop car lots with like 8 cars. Some guy's purple mid sixties GTO. Modern subdivisions with matching ranchers fill the landscape then disappear. A huge JD dualie with folded disk rig taking up the whole highway. My mood is shifting and this is more like it. Mid shores on the Delmarva. Then one of my favorite songs comes on. It's "Somewhere Tonite" Paulette Carlson. I'm bouncing in my seat and singing in the now. When I get to Lowes I pull into the curbside pickup. I see an employee. A young fellow walking by. I holler "Hey" and he comes over. I jump out and put on my mask quick. Pull the tree pot out of the trunk and give it to him and try to explain what happened. He says you will have to talk to the service desk for a return. I say I can't return what I never bought. I said just put it back on the shelf and all will be well and I know you can't take a tip, but please, and I held out a five and he took it. Now back south on thirteen and the song "Shenandoah" I'm smiling and singing and a first world problem is solved. This post is about nothing. But I feel good again. I didn't think I ever would. LLITTY :::::+:::::
shoes on, sunglasses, mask! , etc. Wife is talking to me about plants that have grown , a racoon that is hanging out sometimes, some deer nearby, squirrels, butterflies, etc. It is in fact a beautiful late spring day...couldn't be better. I can't or don't see it. I'm still thinking about my stupid errand. Have to take back to Lowes a tree pot that wound up in a curbside order from two days ago. Wife had not ordered the pot...it was filled with small things...plant food, spray cans etc. which were part of our order. So when I took that load home two days ago in my truck hauling a 200 lb. cabinet kit I just put the pot and it's contents into the truck. Apparently I had "stolen" the tree pot! Really? Lowes doesn't know about this. But wife and I do. The irony is while I am trying to do the right thing somehow, they are looting stores and burning them all over our country. So I get the pot into my little white car and wife makes me some coffee and I'm still dismal. I take my coffee and my Atkins drink and one of my favorite CD's homemade by wife and start up north to Dover. You may have read my post a month or so ago about Rt. 13. So now I'm driving north having some coffee and I have to admit that the weather is nice and I so love my little car. I've got Bobby Darin playing and I start seeing the scenery. All the big fields to the east on my side of the road have beautiful stands of tiny corn plants that go literally for miles in straight rows. Little old cottages from older days. Little mom and pop car lots with like 8 cars. Some guy's purple mid sixties GTO. Modern subdivisions with matching ranchers fill the landscape then disappear. A huge JD dualie with folded disk rig taking up the whole highway. My mood is shifting and this is more like it. Mid shores on the Delmarva. Then one of my favorite songs comes on. It's "Somewhere Tonite" Paulette Carlson. I'm bouncing in my seat and singing in the now. When I get to Lowes I pull into the curbside pickup. I see an employee. A young fellow walking by. I holler "Hey" and he comes over. I jump out and put on my mask quick. Pull the tree pot out of the trunk and give it to him and try to explain what happened. He says you will have to talk to the service desk for a return. I say I can't return what I never bought. I said just put it back on the shelf and all will be well and I know you can't take a tip, but please, and I held out a five and he took it. Now back south on thirteen and the song "Shenandoah" I'm smiling and singing and a first world problem is solved. This post is about nothing. But I feel good again. I didn't think I ever would. LLITTY :::::+:::::
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