Willing to do anything -- almost

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It’s that time of year when all the big and small towns across our land celebrate the Christmas miracle. Back in my parents’ hometown in Kansas, the 300 residents have been celebrating for years with the Christmas Madrigal Pageant Extravaganza.

This extravaganza is a community production which strives to revive medieval song and spirit. Folks wear period costumes so that the attendees can have a true cultural experience -- or something like that.

It’s an experience worth having so I planned to visit my parents the weekend it was scheduled. Plus, given that I have had a long year of hunting and fishing across this great land, I  decided that I needed a little R& R. (Trixie laughs when I tell her how tired that makes me and reminds me that it is a self-imposed torture. I do realize that but, after all, somebody has to do it, right?)

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Black Friday Madness

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I recall with shock and awe the first day I arrived in Texas for the Fall Season only to find the Christmas decorations and wrapping paper already on the shelves. This was the first of October, mind you, and Halloween hadn't even made its own scary appearance. 

It used to be people went out and got a few bags of candy for the Trick-or-Treaters and called it good. Nowadays, there are huge yard displays of every type and imagination including giant inflatable haunted houses and spooks.

But the rush past that and onto the Christmas Season seems to be coming earlier each year and I fully expect it to start earlier and earlier until the sales offered today are for the Christmas a year and a half later. 

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Put a Motor on it

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Looking back through my treasure trove of old pictures from the early 1900s and beyond, I was reminded again and again just how difficult life must have been for the people who lived in that time period.

Most activities were done with manual labor. Anything from digging ditches to washing clothes required hard physical effort on folks' part. 

I cannot imagine sawing all the lumber for a house with a hand saw or digging the basements or foundations with a pick and shovel since I was raised in the generation where there was an automatic tool for just about every task.

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One Bottle Too Many

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Most of my readers know that in addition to being a Dad, I am also a granddad and I dote on them all with equal enthusiasm. Trixie, not having any children of her own, has to endure my constant bragging and occasional baby-sitting duties.

Now, I understand how daunting it is to be around kids. Just last week Ol' Dutch was called into emergency baby-sitting service for my two granddaughters, ages 3-year-old and 4-month-old.

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I was just thinking

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Back in the day when I was enjoying the life of ignorant wedded bliss, we were fortunate enough to have a house with a full basement.

For those of you who have lived in Kansas or are familiar with the tornadoes in that part of the country, you may assume that a basement’s primary use is that of shelter from the storms. And while that is what your spouse tells you when building a house, I soon found out that isn’t the primary use at all.

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Staying Busy Doing Nothing

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All my life I had looked forward to the day I could retire and get to do exactly what I wanted to do. When that day suddenly came at an early age, I found out what other men had told me was true: it can be boring.

I now find myself on the road full-time in an RV visiting different parts of the country fishing and hunting where I go plus visiting friends and family as I choose. The good thing is about the time I start to smell like old laundry to my family, it’s time to move on to a new location.

The RV parks are in and of themselves remarkable small villages of interesting folks. My typical arrival at one of these parks goes something like this.

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Ebola Coming and You Better Stay Home

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Sometimes things happen in life and either you learn to laugh at the ridiculous or fall into utter despair at the impossibilities we face. I think the Dallas Ebola outbreak is just such a time.

While it’s a horrible threat to the entire world and may be the ultimate pandemic in the end, the media’s response borders from absolute stupidity to insanity.

I got a Facebook post that shows a man in a lab coat and it says “How come all the Zombie movies always start with a man in a lab coat assuring us things are under control?”

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