Something about Nothing

 

I received an E-mail entitled: why men are never depressed. WE men have so much going for us, one of the points was:

xx. The world is their urinal.

She had a point there. But she over looked some things when she said:

1. Men can’t see wrinkles in clothes. (Yes we can, we just don’t care about a small wrinkle.)

2. Three pairs of shoes are all we ever need. (Who would need more, and why?)

3. One wallet any color. (We are too lazy to carry all that other stuff around, it isn’t efficient. If everyone wore Jeans with pockets, anyone could carry a wallet. What has color got to do with it?)

4. Three types of clothes 3,2,1!. Work (3), casual(2) & Dress (1-suit). (More?WHY?)

Things are changing, manufacturers have hired some ladies who are ‘upwardly mobile’ and THEY have decided to change the MAN outlook. I think they had conspired with some Rappers to help. Until a few years ago men would stretch their budget to buy ‘Levy’ jeans that were about 20% higher than LEE or Wranglers. That made Levy’s about $15 and the other about $9-$13.(Roughly).

NOW there are name????? Jeans out there for $40-$100, and these promoters have sold many of my brothers on this, especially the young. I can’t imagine crawling under a car with $100 jeans on!

With the help of Rappers they have the ‘Below the crack (some below the lowest hanging part) pants that are lost in reason and efficiency and sell for $80-$300. A useless addition to some of men’s wardrobes.

WE have men buying clothes with someone’s name emblazed across them. It was Nike, and then they changed to a check mark and charged more. There is Abercrombie and many more. When I was in business companies gave me hats and shirts that had ‘their’ names on them? WHAT? If I wear a name it is going to be MINE!

Sherry came into my office one day smiling and stuck a ‘Maxine’ cartoon on my bulletin board. When she left I read it, Maxine said, “The only way I will wear a shirt with Abercrombie on it, is if my name is Abercrombie!”

Sherry knows me.

One of my grand kids wanted some Michael Jordon shoes once, I remarked, Michael doesn’t need my money, he keeps his own, I think I will keep mine. Someone has sold America a bill of goods with the help of celebrities. Kids bats in little league must be special. My remark is: Babe Ruth hit many Homers with a Louisville Slugger, the same bat used by the guys batting 125. It is Skill, that you cannot buy!

Thanks for reading this junk.

Nite Shipslog

PS:

  You're never too old to learn something stupid.
**********************************
  To be sure of hitting the target, shoot first and call whatever
you hit the target.

Fruit and hiking

 

I love fresh fruit. I buy grapes when they drop below $1.50 a pound. Then the stores are just trying to cut their losses. Sometimes I get great grapes sometimes we lose some.

I like my apples hard and crisp. I also like salt on them every once in awhile, especially if the apple is green or tart. I guess my favorite apple is the Delicious (red or green). When I was little I didn’t know one apple from another and preferred any kind, GREEN. I loved what mama called cooking apples. They were hard and cracked when I bit into them.

We still have orchards here in NC mountains that have ‘pick you own’ orchards. We have only done that once or twice. We have picked citrus in Florida, but the ‘U-Pick’ groves are getting scarce, the owners are leery of law suits. That is a shame.

Hunsader’s Farms, near Bradenton, Florida still have u-pick fields for strawberries, tomatoes and Bell peppers. The best deal we ever got and the best oranges were there. WE picked several bushels for $1 a bushel. You can pick a bushel in a couple minutes.

I love grapefruit; Southern Texas and Florida have the Best Ruby reds. Now I noticed on this medicine I just started that I cannot have Grapefruit nor the juice. Bummer.

I think fruit is important. Several times when we were hiking, we bought an extra bag of apples and hung them so hikers could reach them; an apple is a pleasant treat as you walk thru the woods.

True story: Damascus, VA. The AT goes right thru town. It is a friendly trail town and they have Trail Days every year. Hikers from the past come back to celebrate and talk to the current year’s crop of hiker who have made it this far. They have many vendors and lectures, and display the latest in hiking gear. We attended a lecture by what I call a tree hugger (I love our environment, and try not to do too much damage to it.). This lady had a couple points to make. “NEVER, NEVER throw an apple core down in the woods. Animals will eat it and get used to the free food and forget how to forage for it.” I casually asked my neighbor, what about all those apple trees we pass hiking, shouldn’t we destroy those?”

“The lady also thought it a good idea to take a short piece of 4” PVC pipe with one end having a cap on it. You should ‘poop’ in it and carry it out to a proper disposal point.”

I got the idea she didn’t think Bears actually did ‘poop’ in the woods. Some folks are extreme to the ridiculous.

Thanks for reading this stuff.

Nite Shipslog

PS:

'The Piper Cub is the safest airplane in the world;  it can just barely kill you.' 
- Attributed to Max Stanley (Northrop test pilot) -

They are destroying Some of Sherry’s past!

We don’t always keep up with what is going on here in Belmont. My cousin in Las Vegas many times calls or e-mails to let us know something about our family in NC. Sherry has a cousin in Georgia that keeps her up on her family and doing here. A few days ago he told her they were tearing the old Imperial Mill down. Sherry spent many years on the Imperial Mill Hill because her Mom, Dad, and brothers worked there.

So we decided to drive over and see for ourselves. I planned to get a brick from the old mill and fix it up for Sherry. I did get one. Yep. There she goes. The mill has been dormant now for years although it was very active during the years 1907-1995.

(This was taken in front of Sherry’s house on the Imperial. The mill houses you see are gone, Yeah that is my girl on the right)

(The new neighborhood is called Hawthorne, This is in the area of Sherry’s house. you can see the mill on the nest hill in the background)

The mill houses are torn down and Very Upscale houses and Condos built there. As we stood there she pointed out where her mother worked. One of her sisters would take the baby, little Johnny over to the mill for her to nurse him, then take him back home. Also she knew where her dad worked of course.

Her dad is on this picture of the employees when he was about 12 years old. No one considered it cruel, during those years every penny earned counted to feed a family.

Me, I just learned about the mill after meeting a pretty girl. She wore her hair with bangs and a long brunette pony’s tail. She also had a knock-out smile. Her dresses were down to her ankles with several crinolines underneath. Oh she had bobby socks and penny loafers I think.

She sat in front of me in French Class. I knew I didn’t have much of a chance with her because she was a grade ahead of me.

BUT she did and we started going steady (do people do that anymore?). I lost my driver’s license due to a little driving mishap, so I walked to her house, and floated back to mine late for a few weeks. I went down the hill from her house and back up by the Imperial. I jumped the rail road tracks and floated on home, dreaming about that Girl’s kisses. WOW. So yes, I remember the Imperial too.

Sherry wanted a picture of me (floating) running up the hill from her house. The road used to go strait behind me and up to her house.

Nothing stays the same, and time continues to move on. Progress they call it. But the 20+ mills in this town supplied many a job for working folk. They were called cotton tops, lint heads and mill workers, but as a whole they were hard working honest folk.

So Goodbye to the Imperial, thanks for my girl.

Nite Shipslog

PS:

  A diplomat is someone who can tell you to go to hell in such a way that you will look forward to the trip.

Dog Poop and stuff

As we travel I see folks walking their dogs, picking up dog poop, and talking to the dog.  I say to my self, “that looks like a pain in the PA toot.”

(If you can picture this dog with one million cuckle-berries(the ones like little porcupines, it is a grown up sand spur) in his ears and the backs of his legs, I have sat for hours taking them out, That will teach you patience)

Pets, it doesn’t take long for me to remember the greatest dog that ever lived, Ace. He was a Black English Cocker Spaniel. He was the love of my life until Sherry came along. Hahahaha!

(Hendrix & Layla, grand dogs (Sherece))

I don’t know whether I have told this or not, I would be amazed if I haven’t. But my aunt Annie Mae Harbinson, gave me a little black puppy at one of my low times as a child. I named him Ace and he changed my attitude fast. He was beautiful and a great dog, that was a friend.

He would listen when no one else would. Once I got put out back of the house to live. I had my own little home-made 8’x8’ trailer made of masonite, Ace lived with me. We had our own radio and he would listen with me to all the radio programs, until late at night, sometimes we were awake until eleven PM. LOL. It is amazing how real ‘Mr & Mrs North’, ‘The Squeaking Door’, the ‘Green Hornet’, ‘Long Ranger’, ‘Beulah’, (Was there a Green lantern?), ‘The FBI in Peace and War’, ‘Matt Dillon’ (who handled the killers and spoilers), ‘Can You top This’ and ‘If By a Stroke of Fate’ were. Ace could keep me warm, he did give me a funny look when I laughed during the funny ones, Ace smiled but did not laugh..

Ace went everywhere with me. In the summer time, even to church, at least to the door. He would lie at the side door of the church with his head inside (I thought about Ace when Paula told about their church dog down in Texas). You probably know that in the 40’s & 50’s, most churches were not air conditioned. He was just accepted as part of the church and family. He loved to swim. When he and I went fishing, he was glad when they weren’t biting, because we would go swimming.

Ace lived off table scraps, and when there was not enough for him and the hog, he got Dash Dog Food. Yep, he ate chicken bones about every Sunday. Now my kids and grand kids say dogs aren’t supposed to eat Chicken bones. I am glad Ace didn’t know that.

Thanks for coming by the log.

Nite Shipslog

PS:

WHY ATHLETES CAN'T HAVE REGULAR JOBS...
Shelby Metcalf, basketball coach at Texas A&M, recounting what he told a player who received four F's and one D:
    "Son, looks to me like you're spending too much time on one subject."

And finally grand dog, MJ

What scares YOU?

Amazing how public opinion sways our lives, political and personal. Who pays for all these surveys? This one caught my eye:

What scares Republicans?

What scares Democrats?

WHAT SCARES YOU?

We love surveys. Americans live by surveys. I love this one. The one that asks what scares Republicans, Democrats or YOU. I guess YOU can be a democrat or Republican.

So do snakes scare you?

 Snakes care _47% Republicans and _51% Democrats. Together they care _46% of us.

Spiders scare __41%__ Reps, 39%---Democrats and -39%---- of us.

Democrats ain’t afraid of spiders but snakes bug them.

Republicans are scared of spiders but not snakes as much.

9% of democrats are scared of democrats,

While 16% of republicans are scared of Republicans.

18% of democrats are scared of the dark while 24% of republicans are.

19% of republicans are scared of Clowns while only 16% of democrats are.

This is important stuff folks, a psychiatrist could have a ball with this and probably have.

21% republicans are scared of the dentist while only 17% of Democrats are.

60% of Democrats say that Republicans scare them while the same amount of Republicans are scared of Democrats. Folks we don’t trust one another!!! News??

The Tea Party is the largest big deal. Only 18% of Republicans are scared by the Tea guys while 54% of the Democrats are scared of them.

45% of Democrats are scared of getting high, while only 35% of Republicans are. Now I may have miswritten that, it is the fear of heights. I don’t think either of the party leaders is scared of getting high.

WHAT SCARES EVERYONE SHOULD BE POLITICIANS, OR ALL COLERS SUITS AND SHAPES.

Now a survey on what makes you happy, would not stir half the attention, that attitude is thanks to the News Media where Bad is a FAD (always it seems)

Thanks for coming by the Log.

Nite Shipslog

PS:

Some people hear voices. Some see invisible people. Others have no imagination whatsoever.

17 million Americans (Democrats and Republicans) are still in debt for last Christmas purchases, and are about to buy more? That is crazy!

Now this is what should scare you!

(Just a joke Woody, don’t send the hit squad!)

So it is Thanksgiving and I am thankful:

For so many things…………

**For life

**For health.

**For a wonderful family.

**For Great… Grandkids, even though some are scattered.

**For my Sister Shirl, she and I are all that is left of our family of 9.

**For God’s many blessings to me, I am HIS favorite.

**That our Thanksgiving meal is cooked and being supplied by our son, Jack., AT our Son Mark’s house.

**That the weather will be great (rain or shine) to enjoy our family.

**For friends near and far, the ones we know personally and the ones here on this internet.

**Most of all I am thankful for a wonderful, loving, beautiful and caring wife. Without which most of the above would not be. Once I had a friend who said to me, “You won the lottery when you got SHERRY!” She was right, but that did not half describe my luck. That is honestly the truth. Sherry is the best.

I wish all who read this, and those who don’t… A very Happy Thanksgiving.

Thanks for taking the time on this occasion to stop by, I know there is much more you could be doing, so thanks.

Nite Shipslog

PS:

Regrets?

YES! I miss daughters-in –law. I have none left. Most did not last long, but they gave us some wonderful grandkids. I wish Carol, Corinne and Cindy the best in life. (I just noticed all the names begin with ‘C’) I especially miss Corinne. And I am sorry I hurt her feelings awhile back. Corinne stayed around the longest of the daughters-in- law. She had become like the daughter we never had. And like the rest, I do wish her the best in life, she deserves it.

I only correspond with one of the ex-DIL’s, Carol. We have a good relationship now, but she is in UTAH with Ben and Corey and the grandkids & GGK’s out there. She is not feeling too great this Thanksgiving due to an injury, hope she is well. It did take a long time, maybe it is the same with the rest. I don’t like hard feeling; it is not part of my makeup.

But all in all Life is good, but I cannot wait to get on the road again!!!!

What is your Morning ritual?

 

My girl goes directly to the obits (using the net) in all the local papers most every morning. It is a ritual. Then she checks the bank to see ‘What Else Jack has ordered!’ Then she reads Blogs, checks out face book, and then goes to the hiking journals.

I generally go directly to my e-mails, answer all the important ones, you know the ones from a congressman or the president who need some advice. Then I make sure I check our investments to see how they are doing. (I forgot, we don’t have any investments, so skip that). I read any comments on the blog. I check the Amazon sales of my books (sometimes I actually sell one), I have collected as high as 7.76 in royalties. (LOL).

BUT TODAY I went to the local obituaries. To be honest I didn’t know anyone. Sherry commented she knew ‘of’ one of the men who had died. But As I looked at the faces there were some young, some old, and some old with young pictures. (However there were no young with old pictures, just to clarify that.) That is an option only the old have. Facts IS facts.

As I looked at the faces I thought, one day a face on there will be mine. Sherry will decide whether to use the young marine or the old Salt she last slept with.

Either way, the face shown will have no problems. He will not have one ache or pain. That guy will not have to worry about family troubles anymore. He will not worry if the crack in the windshield is gonna spread. He will not worry about noises other people hear that he does not. That guy in the picture won’t have to be concerned if he heard and understood something correctly. AS A MATTER OF FACT WHEN MY PICTURE IS SEEN IN THE OBITS, THE ONLY FOLKS WITH TROUBLE AND SORROWs, IS THE FAMILY. Because ‘I IS GONE’, along with all MY self generated stress.

At one time I was a pretty religious person. Some of you know I was even considered a preacher at one time. So yes, I still believe in heaven. So if my belief is right, I will be one happy dude living somewhere with the good guys that went before, I can’t name them all but naturally, family. But Sonny who has beaten me there is worried I am taking so long, he might think I didn’t make it.

Do I have to worry about there being no heaven? NO I DON’T. If there is no ‘after life’, I will still be gone from here and that picture in the obits will be only a memory for awhile for the folks that are left.

Someone will say over breakfast, “Honey, Jack Darnell died yesterday. HE SURE WAS A GREAT GUY! I NEVER KNEW A BETTER MAN. He was honest, good looking, understanding, intelligent, I thought he was going to live forever. I bet the world falls apart now.”

(Okay maybe they won’t say understanding, LOL)

Thanks for coming by the log.

Nite Shipslog

PS:

  If you are supposed to learn from your mistakes, why do some people have more than one child ?