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There was a post on Facebook this morning that asked the question of “When did you feel old”? I have been feeling old for quite some time. Cant do some things that I used to do on a regular basis. That was and is a clue that things have taken a turn for the worst. However, yesterday was a pivotal day in my aging process. Last week, Dorothy was balancing our bank account and noticed that one of our regular debits for a life insurance policy had not been paid by the bank. She called the administrator for the policy and was told that the policy was terminated for non-payment. We had been making the policy payments by automatic bank debit for as long as we could remember. The policy had been in effect for over 40 years. They would look in to the problem and let us know. They called back yesterday and advised that the policy had been cancelled because it had run its course. What the hell did that mean? Well. Sir, in a word, you turned 80 years old and that terminated the policy. WOW.

This policy was a small policy that was being administered thru the Texas State Society of CPA’S. It had been lessening in value over the years after I turned 65. I did not pay much attention to it. The premiums had increased but were manageable . Kinda like a comfortable pair of old shoes, the coverage was just there. Until it wasn’t. What was also missing was any type of notification from them that the coverage was soon to terminate. Age discrimination came to mind. I have been a member of the Texas State Society of CPA’s for more than 40 years. They have accepted annual dues for that period of time. Consideration received, none.

Yes, I am now over 80, no , I didnt die at a young age. Yes, Insurance company, you won the race. You get to keep 40 yrs of premiums and you dont have to pay the policy.

Disgruntled to say the least.

I recently attended a multi-year class reunion for the graduating classes of 1959-70/’. It was put on in connection with the 60th reunion of the class of 1963. It was very well planned and took a group from that year a great deal of time and effort to make it a pleasant meeting.

I had a good time but came away a different person than before I attended. I have lived most of my life in a state of nostalgia. I felt the era in which i was a youth was the best of times but realized I have probably wasted a good part of my life thinking like that. Friends that I made during my formative years were good friends at the time but friendship sometimes fades with the passage of years and the new life experiences that we are forced to deal with. In other words, we go on with our lives and outlive our life in the past. It is probably meant to be like that. Maybe that is the definition of progress. It might be the definition of maturity.

I will cherish my past because of the things it brought to my life but i am no longer going to look back as much as I have in the past. Its a bit late but I am going to look forward to new things. I am going to concentrate on the new people that I meet, on my relatively new great grand sons , and cherish the new experiences that come my way.

San Francisco is in the process of passing city legislation aimed at reparation to all eligible blacks, the sum of $ 5 million each. I almost dropped my uppers when i read this news brief. This is mind blowing. There are not enough Cadillacs and Buicks being made to cover that kind of windfall. The manufacturers of gold chains better ramp up production.

Of course, you have to figure that California is on the cusp of such a movement. I just cant get a handle on why that state ends up doing some of the things it does. I guess if you are under the constant threat of earthquakes, droughts, wild fires, snow storms, floods, tsunamis that you might be a bit edgy. I understand there has been some movement by residents of that state towards the eastern part of the USA. I hope they all stop in Arizona.

Low and behold, Dallas has released ZEK. After 7 yrs in the NFL, all playing for the cowboys, Ezekial has been terminated. Jerry has said he feels bed about it but I both doubt that statement and find the statement a bit confusing. For the last two years ZEK has not been able to run thru a line of girl scouts selling cookies on the street corner. He has tripped on the turf as many times as he has actually been tackled. Some say his legs were gone. I say it was his heart. I wonder how much of those millions he has stashed to cover his golden years.?

Chewy

We dont subscribe to the daily newspaper so each morning I depend on my news apps on my telephone to keep in tune with the world. Sometimes that is a good thing, other times, not so much.

One of the top news flashes this morning was a headline stating that Banks were set up to lose $ 427 million from the country of Ghana. It seems that Ghana is making a move to restructure its debt in order to finalize a $ 3 billion bailout by the IMF. This makes this my WHOA NELLIE award winner for the day, maybe the week. First, where is Ghana? What makes Ghana worth loans of $ 427 million? And why in the name of big boondoggle banking flim flams would you lend someone that kind of money, know you are running a pretty good chance of losing it and then turn around and think about bailing them out to the tune of $ 3 billion? Ive heard of some pretty loose lending practices before but this does take the cake.

In December of 2022 the top imports to the USA from the country of Ghana were petroleum, cocoa beans , cocoa butter, paste and powder. Why did we need crude oil from this country? Why the influx of cocoa products in the dead of winter. We dont drink that much cocoa and its the wrong time of year to suntan. I guess Hershey is a big end user of Ghana cocoa. This country has a GNP of some $ 77 billion dollars and they are needing a bail out of $ 3 billion. What they need to do is lend them some folks to run things over there. Sounds like some graft and greed going on to me. They have a few billionaires in Ghana so its not like they are sitting around a mud hut starving to death.

I read yesterday where the Kardashians are losing their hold on the media of the world. I could not be happier. I am sick and tired of my morning news journey being flooded with the exploits of a family that has no known talent except for their desire to be famous. This goes for many people in the entertainment business. i did not watch the Oscars because I had not seen one movie that was being honored. A vast majority of the actors and actresses were people I had never heard of. They are able to generate headlines even after the affair is over. From some starlette wearing a transparent dress with built in pasties to Tom Cruise not going to the ceremony has kept them in the spotlight. I would have questioned why he wasnt there.

Pullin on the reins

Chewy

I havent blogged in a long while and Im not sure why. Maybe everything has been going so well that I had no comments to make. I dont see that being the reason so we’ll just leave it at that.

This last few days was a bit scary, given the bank failures. It gives you reason to think when things like that happen, after you have in effect taken your last bat. Being retired and not having a job to go to and a paycheck coming in fresh every two weeks is kinda like you have had your last at bat in the bottom of the ninth. I guess I could set up a table at the mall and do tax returns but I sure would hate to start over. Besides, being an uber driver for my wife keeps me kinda busy. Hopefully our elected representatives and the folks that run the systems that keep us happy and prosperous will have enough sense to keep out of things.

There is not much exciting happening in our lives. We have a family dinner on Wednesday nite of each week, where we get to have the great grandsons and their parents over for dinner. We sure look forward to that every week. Those two little boys are the apples of our eyes and can hardly wait to see what they have learned new. One is just learning to crawl and he will be in everyones business for that point forward. They are both smart as they can be so look forward to watching them progress for as long as Im around.

The grads of Pecos High are having a multi-year reunion in April, 2023 and we sure look forward to attending that little shin-dig. I dont know why I like class reunions as much as I do but I sure enjoy seeing everyone that attends. We will be on the old end of the spectrum at this reunion so I will have to strain my brain to remember some of the younger ones.

One of the drawbacks to getting old is that you are exposed to new trends and fads that you never thought you would have to face or look at. I am particularly bothered about the this new path of evolution that they call trans-gender. I hear some young folks want to be referred to by the use of their pronouns. I always kinda figured he, she, it covered all the bases. Apparently, that is not so. We have run into some furrbys up here in the big city. Young folks that identify as a furry animal. I always thought I was fairly intelligent but I cant get my mind around that business.

I shudder to think what would have run thru Frank Kellys mind if one of the Pecos gals (or guys for that matter) would have showed up on the steps of ole PHS wearing a transparent dress with built in pasties. Hell, I remember when there was talk about lewdness of the girls wearing levis jeans.

Ill let yall know, on occasion, what is unsettling me. If you want to suggest a topic to discuss, write me back. If I dont have an opinion I can surly make up something.

GHC

If we can hunt them down why could we not prevent it in the first place. That place has become the sight of a “Mexican Victory”. For those of you who dont know what that is, its a fight where you come out alive. We, however, cant get out without losing people. We are fighting the same people who we helped when the Russians were in there trying to get out without losing face. Extremely frustrating.

I have not posted in a long time simply because getting upset with covid was just counter productive. I guess getting upset about anything that you have no control over is in that same category.

We moved to Ft Worth earlier this year in anticipation of moving to a new home. It was supposed to be ready in April/may. Because of covid, wood shortage/ monsoon season we were moved back to May/June, then June/July and now we are looking at September. The latest delay was due to a bathroom shower glass issue. It seems that the local glass blowers union has a rule that if you are not ready when they have blown the glass then you go to the back of the line and start over. Im not real fond of plastic shower curtains so here we sit. Our new house is in a new sub-division in north Ft Worth. It is a diverse neighborhood where many ethnic groups have chosen to live. Our next door neighbors are Sikh’s, a monotheistic religion that originated in the 15th century in the Punjab region of the Indian subcontinent. Their house is built with their kitchen in the garage. Yep, full kitchen and dining room right there where the ole Maserati auto is supposed to be. When Kyle mentioned it, the head man advised that they do not cook in the house because of the spices they use in their native dishes. I am going to venture a guess that the ole grandmother that lives with them can make some curry dishes that will blow the bottom out of your britches. I have resolved to not accept a dinner invitation from them.

I have always tried to stay away from political discussions because they are so derisive. However, this Afgan situation has just got me totally flummoxed. The talliban used to be the mujahadin, who were the guys fighting the Soviets for 30 yrs. We were on their side. We gave them billions in aide, ammunition and boots on the ground. Now we jump up in the middle of the night and leave the country, leaving enough Humvees over there to let everybody in Kabul drive a bulletproof humvee. Saving grace is the fact that only certain folks are allowed to drive under the Talliban set of rules. Sorry ladies, over there you cant even take an Uber to town because of rule 12.5 B, stating that no female can be alone in the company of any man not a blood relative. Oh, you cant go to school, you have to wear a tow-sack dress that covers your erotic regions, meaning an area from the tips of your toes to the top of your head. I cant imagine what dating is like over there. Oh, they buy wives. Hmm, I would not buy a wife that was not unwrapped. I just dont know what we were thinking when we got involved in this matter. Maybe Joe will bumble our way out of this without just totally making us look any more foolish that we are already looking. Oh, there is probably going to be a glut on the military weapons market in the very near future. When our ole buddies use up all the ammo we left over there then they will begin to sell the weapons we left . Im gonna hold out for one of the mighty fine military grade drones mounted on a trailer, that i saw sitting on the tarmac. I can reconnoiter my new neighborhood every evening,

I have lived thru a couple of dust ups and thought I had outlived some of the problems our nation has been faced with but this latest one has me rethinking a lot of things.

As with most of you who read my blog, I was raised in a small west Texas community that for geographical reasons was not confronted with many of society’s problems.  We had race issues because we were raised in a divided system and lived thru the end of some segments of that separatist system.  We, I guess , were the lucky ones.

We also lived thru the civil unrest that led to the civil rights act.  None of the conflict of this step towards equal rights ever effected me in any way that I remember.  Who rode the bus didnt make me any difference because I didnt ride the bus.  Again, privilidged and lucky, I guess.  I did participate in some protests at UT Austin where a group of us stood in front of the tower and repeated the words inscribed over the tower’s main entrance.  This action was met with a reaction from almost all fraternities on campus.  ” YE SHALL KNOW THE TRUTH AND THE TRUTH SHALL SET YOU FREE”.  Well maybe, but not guaranteed.

I have lived my life trying to be as fair with my fellow man as I could be.  I think I probably avoided situations that would go against my beliefs.  I guess that is not the way I should have done it.  I guess I should have been more proactive.  I guess I should have spent more time trying to find a cure for what has our populace torn in half.  I just cant bring myself to get involved in a situation where one person, who is reported to have spent his entire life breaking the laws of our land but his death becoming the trigger point for so much social unrest.  Its just too much for me to comprehend.

All I can say is you dont have to burn my house down because the fire department wasnt able to save your’s.

GARY

Yellowstone is a made for television serial type show that is set in the Yellowstone region of Montana.  This makes the panoramic views just short of breathtaking.  They use these views for effect and are absolute masters of that technique.  Dark, ominous clouds hovering over distant mountain peaks while a pivotal point in the plot is unfolding.  I near soiled myself with glee.

The show has so many subplots that I almost have to keep a score card.  However, even with these subplots the show is basically about a ranching family.  This family has values that kept many families of a hundred years ago intact and in some cases invincible. Many of the family members hate each other, but, make no mistake, when the family is attacked,  all rally together .  They are formidable. Most of the family have no qualms about killing their attackers if it prevents the family from being harmed.

The show is also about loyalty.  Again, loyalty to the family.  One of the central characters , and one I like the most, is a ranch hand who has been on the ranch since he was a runaway teen.  He killed his drunken father, who had killed his sainted mother and his little brother.  He stopped by the ranch because he had no place else to go.  He was given a chance to remake himself and to become a man.  His character depicts a man whose very core of existence is summed up by the phrase “He rides for the brand”.

The show is now in off season.  Damn.  I may start outlining thoughts on what direction season three should take.  It will provide me with some direction in my life now that I am retired.

Friends, Family and Loyalty