My musical tastes of late have been turning away from the West and more toward the East... Music unlocks the gates of reality that imprison me for most of the day, it makes me sane, and gathers me whole.
Yesterday, I weeded all the gardens and flower beds, cleaned, fed and mulched all the evergreen hedges and foundation plantings, hand trimmed all the edges of everything, since my string trimmer bit the dust, mowed the front half of the property, up to the brook, changed the mower blade to the heavy duty mulching blade and mowed the back wood lot. I worked from sunrise to sunset.
Today, I did nothing...
Don't I lead such an interesting life..? Aren't you jealous..? Don't you wish you were me..?
Labels: i wander..., the wasteland
4.21.2010
I am alive, if you can call this living. My high tolerance for pain is being well tested these days. More news on that next week, I hope. Not feeling much like being witty and pithy, or even complaining. Check back often, I might feel like actually saying something of worth one of these days.
Later.
Labels: i have a headache..., i wander...
4.16.2010
If you have the time, here is a video of all the speakers at the Trenton, NJ event on the 15th... Courtesy of www.newjerseyfordummies.com.
Labels: America...
4.15.2010
Trenton, NJ TEA Party, 4/15/10.
I am re-energized... and too tired to say much more. We are a great people, we Americans. Have no doubt about that...
Labels: America..., the war for freedom...
4.13.2010
I haven't been posting much lately for lots of reasons, not the least of which are my current foul mood and general lack of interest in most things politic. I admit that I am overwhelmed by what has been going on in Washington these past few months and the looming specter of darker days ahead isn't helping. I have retreated into what passes as therapy for me, a healthy fantasy life, in which I render some modicum of control over my own destiny and, in the real world, playing at gardening, grounds keeping, outdoor project planning and some woodworking. I am, however, attending the Tea Party event this Thursday, 15 April, on the steps of the State House in Trenton, NJ. I hope to see some Jersey Blogger friends there, as well as get the chance to see and hear an old friend, the Right Reverend Hugh McKenzie, late of Old Tennent Church. While our girls were growing up we attended his congregation. He is a wonderful speaker, an engaging personality and I've had the pleasure of having some high spirited (no pun intended) political conversations with him, late at night, in the church graveyard, when he would bring me coffee while I sat up all night tending the flocks, literally, of animals that were hired to flesh out the annual Christmas drive-through, "A Journey to Bethlehem". It's fitting that someone who holds such high Conservative values tended to his own flock in that particular place. The last time I spoke with him, he was reactivating himself for military service to tend to those in harm's way. Noble fellow, indeed.
I'm excited and glad to be going to Trenton on Thursday, to enjoy our right to peacefully assemble in public, to exercise our right of free speech, to remind those in public office that we, the people, stand for our great nation, shoulder to shoulder, when they choose not to and we control their destiny, and we control ours, not they. I must say, however, that I'm not happy to have to attend an event like this, because it shines a great light on just how bad things have gotten, how deep in trouble this country is mired and while I'm sure it will be a spirited time, it really should be a somber one. I almost feel like we're gathering together not to rally 'round the flag, but to communally atone for our sins, the biggest of which is falling asleep on the watch. I used to sit up all night, in that ancient graveyard, in Winter, to make sure no harm came to those Nativity animals, who trusted that I would keep them safe while they slept in the straw piled in the plywood manger, I never faltered, never dozed. They were charged to me and I kept my charge. We have charged those elected to our public offices to watch over us, but they have faltered while we slept, when it was actually the flock who should have been watching the shepherds... and now we pay. We dredge up the spirit of our brethren, who stood against tyranny, fought and died and sacrificed to found this Republic, in hopes that we, too, may make such a stand, but I wonder if it is enough. I wonder if we need to first assemble within ourselves, as individuals and as solitary Americans and sort it all out, before we play at revolution, such as it is these days, fancy silk-screened political t-shirts instead of the simple garb of the common man, pre-printed signs instead of broadsides and town criers in the night, blogs instead of muskets? I must admit, I have. I struggled mightily with myself about standing in Trenton on the appointed day, I questioned myself why I should, how I could. My answers to myself are my own. Suffice it to say they are adequate enough to me to be there. And so I shall. I'll take pictures and tell stories and post about it on my blog. And then I'm going to take some time off to think about it all. And garden and grounds keep and play at being a common man for a while, which is not so much playing, it's what I am. A common man. Exceptionally common. But that's fodder for another post on another day.
Later.
Labels: America..., i wander..., the war for freedom...
4.12.2010
Enjoy.
Stevie Ray Vaughn - Texas Flood (Live)
Labels: muzika...
4.10.2010
No "Saturday's Goth Girl" today, probably not much else... barely have a Mac this morning...
We had a short blackout here in town yesterday and when the power came back on, my admin password was no longer recognized. Not good. Had to delve into the operating system, trick it into rebooting like it was reading a start up disc (it wouldn't read from the real start up disc, for some reason, just sat there, whirring away). Once I figured that out, I basically reinstalled the operating system from the mirror I made, which I configured to save everything in a partition as a backup, so I really lost nothing except my Firefox bookmarks, a few hours of my time and gained more than a few grey hairs. Didn't configure it as an admin based system this time, just as a casual user, no password log in, no nuttin... being fancy almost toasted by ass.
So, today I'm off to help a friend do some yard work, I'm banished from my house while Mrs. SOG has some girlfriends over for lunch and hanging out.
Talk to you later.
Labels: i have a headache...
4.05.2010
4.04.2010
4.03.2010
Here's the cut "Goodtime Ride" from the album "Friends and Strangers" by Ronnie Laws, released in 1977, the year we were married. I guess if Mrs. SOG and I have "our" album, it's this one. Enjoy. If you want the full album, drop me a line.
Labels: muzika...
4.02.2010
the weather today was just about perfect for yard work. i replaced the worn out old tires and wheels on the wheelbarrow with some fancy new shoes i bought at the local hardware store. one of these days i have to replace the slightly bowed axle, although i sort of like the loping gait it has, it makes it feel well used. many's the load that old thing has carried to and fro, and well.
i also dragged the old lawn mowing machine out of the shed, cleaned it off, made sure there were no mouse nests under the cowling, changed the oil, cleaned and gapped the plug, knocked the dirt out of the air filter. i check the bolt that holds the blade in place, filled it with gas and the damned thing started on one pull. i adjusted the height to just knock the tops off the grass and did a quick back and forth on the back door yard, just to tidy it up a bit. some folks don't like mowing, but i enjoy pushing the thing around. i didn't go near the eastern side of the grounds, they were still full of dead fall and debris from the storms of late, especially those annoying seed balls from the Sweetgum trees that line that side of the property line. they're not a lot of fun to walk on and they shoot out from under the mower, usually at me, and they sting like hell when they hit.
i spent the rest of the day cleaning out the flower beds, turned all the mulch in the evergreen beds and along the hedges in the front, then spent a few hours picking up all those branches and raking all those seed balls into nice, tidy piles that i'll pick up and throw into the brush pile out back tomorrow. while i was raking the fellow from the little shop across the street came over and we had a chat for a while, traded winter horror stories and complaints about the lack of interest the county shows for the drainage problems he has on his land and other neighborhood business, such as it is around here. he's a nice fellow, the son of the man that owned the business when we first move in here thirty some odd years ago. his father passed away and he's taken over the business. they drilled our deep well for us and we've purchased two water conditioning systems from them over the years. nice folks. good neighbors.
so, tomorrow i'll run my usual morning errands to the post office and the town dump and maybe go mooch around the big orange box and maybe even buy myself a new hand cultivator, mine is about shot. it was my father's, i ended up with it somehow many years ago. it's missing one of it's five fingers or tines or whatever they are. it's handle is worn. it's a bit rusty. i remember using it as a kid, turning the soil in the perfect circles that were around the base of every tree and shrub in his yard, and in the rock gardens and the one hundred foot long bed of mums that ran along the North side of our land on which my childhood home sat. i won't get rid of it, i'll hang it in the shed somewhere, where i can see it and be reminded of him and his love of gardening.
the hour grows late and i'm feeling a bit tired from being outside all day and my tasks. funny, but it seems that with every turn of the year, my outside tasks get done a little slower, and i take a few more breaks than i used to, but, that aside, i seem to also be enjoying it more. i seem to be savoring a lot of things a little more these days than i did when i was younger. when i was young, i did things to get them done, but now, i do things for the doing, if that makes sense. no matter, i know what i mean...
so, my fellow wanderers, i bid thee good 'eve, it is time to sail off to the Land of Nod. fare thee well.
Labels: i wander..., this old lair..., weather
