YES, I AM STILL HERE peeking out of the newspaper’s window on Main Street and I am impressed with the good character exhibited by both political parties locally.
On Saturday, the Republicans held a political rally at the fairgrounds and invited all candidates to speak, no matter the political affiliation. This is what the Democrats also did when they hosted their own rally earlier in the season.
“Republicans, Democrats, Libertarians, and Etceteras are welcome.”
Let me note that Republicans did speak at the Democrat event, and Democrats did speak at the Republican gathering.
For the folks in both parties — my thanks. Our representatives in Washington often are not good examples of civility, and I am so relieved that the toxic atmosphere hasn’t trickled down to the Arkansas boondocks level.
I was happy to see news stories that Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson was open to a bid for the Republican nomination for U.S. President in 2024.
He’s a ‘civil’ type of guy, not an extremist in my view. I remarked that I liked Gov. Hutchinson and one of my Republican friends said, ”Of course you’d like him. You’re a Democrat.”
That’s not really true, I’ve been called both R and D. The Rs say I’m a D, and the Ds say I’m an R.
I like to say that I vote for the candidate I like best, not based upon whether there is an (R) or a (D) after the name on the ballot.
I vote from my position squarely in the middle of the road.
The first time I voted was by absentee ballot. I was in the Navy. The Presidential choices were Lyndon Johnson (D) and Barry Goldwater (R). I voted (R). But I also voted for Sen. J. William Fulbright (D).
Those were my sorta conservative days, and I have strayed but not too far.
Also, I have watched as many of my contemporaries have swung from conservative to liberal, from R to D, and back depending upon the decade. But, as I have learned in quiet conversations, many of them claim moderate political views similar to mine.
The problem is that it is the crazies who determine who gets party nominations. A moderate doesn’t have much of a chance.
Well, he or she will get my vote in November.
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ANIMAL CRACKERS. My bluebird box is definitely in use, and these parents are the busiest I’ve ever seen. Also, one of them is the largest bluebird I’ve ever seen. He can barely fit thru the hole in the face of the box (it’s GOT to be a he).
Wrens have taken over another bluebird box in my yard. For some reason the blues have never tried to nest in that box. I’m not smart enough to know why.
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IT’S A COSMIC THING. Troubles are almost always complicated.
My normal routine on Tuesday morning is to drag the trash cart out to the side of the road before I leave for work.
Some folks put their trash carts out on the night before. But not me. No, I am afraid that some traveling homeless hound or pack of coyotes might overturn the cart in hopes of getting to some of the goodies held inside.
This week, however, I drug the cart to roadside before I went to bed on Monday night.
Why, oh why, did I tempt fate?
Of course we had a storm Monday night. It’s a cosmic thing. Winds were strong enough to overturn trash carts.
Including mine. My trash was strewn over my yard and, worse, into neighboring yards.
It’s a cosmic thing.
I went out at near dawn. Righted the cart and began picking up the debris.
It was then that I realized that yards were very very very wet from that storm. In no time my shoes and feet were soaked.
And, worse, since I groan loudly every time I bend down to pick up trash, the resounding groans echoed throughout the neighborhood.
“Hey, buddy, put on a shirt and stop that groaning,” a sleepy voice from a nearby window hissed. “If you can’t keep quiet just leave the trash and I’ll make my wife pick it up at a decent hour.”
I’m even more afraid of his wife, so I resolved to stop moaning and continue gathering the paper plates, Starz carry-out sacks, and adult beverage cans that were haphazardly and widely strewn over the several yards.
The only good thing about the storm was that the wind blew plenty of rain onto the planters which I keep juuuuust out of reach of the runoff from my roof. That means I don’t have to water the flowers again for a couple of days. Until they start to look droopy.
This is what our ancestors used to call “A Silver Lining.”
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THINGS I LEARNED from opening email: “I put my scale in the bathroom corner and that’s where the little liar will stay until it apologizes.”
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WORD GAMES. The siblings: Crime and Punishment. Your choice: It’s either the name of a great novel, or it’s “Don’t do the crime if you can’t do the time.”
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HE SAID: “Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time.” Thomas A. Edison, inventor
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SHE SAID: “Tears are often the telescope by which men see far into heaven.” Harriet Beecher Stowe, author and abolitionist
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SWEET DREAMS, Baby
