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Out in a little town, in the middle of nowhere, close to somewhere is Mama’s store.  Here is a collection of old stuff, for she rents space to a variety of people.  Even the store is old.

In the old days of saloons and pool halls this shop thrived.  Pool balls made great missiles to be launched at the enemy.  Even the ceiling had it’s stories.  There and here was the occasional bullet hole. 

 

The clientele has changed, it is now mostly the wives of the pool players that wander the aisles. No longer to the six shooters thunder forth, or dodge the lost pool ball.

The floor can still be heard shuffling some soft shoe.  The hair from the barber getting mixed into the floor.  His chair long gone, but a memory.

The bar, cabinets and stools still await the thirsty traveler.  One can belly up to the bar.

I  stop in for the iced latte, maybe a shake just for  the ambiance.  Walk the aisles, hear the memories whisper to me.

Rodeo Time

 

The Ranch Rodeo and Bronc Riding was this past weekend.  Got out there for a part of it.

First round was in the evening, second day was afternoon….. Temps went over the century mark…… lots of drinking….. well ya….. water and…. hehe.

 

Not all the riders had a good grip.

Hope you had a good weekend and  may the Lord bless your week.

Thoughts ----- Random……. From Somewhere or Nowhere

 

 

It feels kind of nice to be able to sit and type for a bit without lots of pain.  Oh I could load up on pain killers and type wack-a-do……. hehe.  I can kind of walk, boy do I wobble though.  With a four wheel drive walker I can go pretty good.  I will probably never walk all that great again ever.

My arthritis has caused me problems for years and it is now my big problem.  The injury and way I sleep aggravates the arthritis in the back.  Boy does that make me hobble.

Any way I am doing better and the battle is mine.

Ranch Rodeo this weekend.  See if I can get some good shots of the wild cow milkers.

Passing of time

Time has passed and I missed it.  Being laid up in the  hospital and convalesce for about two months I lost track of time.   All of sudden it is Memorial Day and here is summer. 

People are flying down the road in their campers.  Summer vacations are under way and the heat is rising.  Looking for cool spots is the game of the day.

All I wanted was the pain to go away, be able to stand with no pain, sleep without drugs.  My focus was on myself and healing.  Time was but the change from light to darkness.  The nurses would ask what the day was, where I was.  That was my only reckoning with a time space movement.

With time though I am slowly healing.  There are less pains and less pills.  Small steps are easing across the floor without the walker. 

During this period most everything was blocked out.  Politics became irrelevant, daily news was ignored.  It was a battle with pain. 

Today the reality creeps back into life.  It is summer.

Everyone enjoy the moments of the time.

Gone Looking for a cold melon……. Like a slice?

One Belly Flop… To The Ground

The dive was great, it was the ending that wasn’t so great.  Leaving the comfort of the ladder and with nothing below is an empty feeling.  I was stepping up to the scaffolding and as I pushed off from the ladder there was nothing.  The ladder was headed off for somewhere over there and below I saw nothing but barren rock hard dirt. 

What had been a short distance now appeared to be a continent away.  In slow motion I headed downward.  Belly first I drifted.  Omph, no longer was there a steel plate below the belly.  It had become a sponge that did slow down the impact.

I had met the ground, in a way I had not desired.  Arthur was bouncing around in side my tail bone.  The one thing I was worried about let me know I was having a painful moment.  I was laying on the arthritis and the pressure was…… well it hurt.

I was next to a fence and was able to grab that and pull my self up and over to take the pressure off the arthritis.  The pain subsided as I laid there waiting for the ambulance.  That was another adventure in pain management.  Their training is to immobilize in case of.  As they were trying to do that they were hitting the pain points of the arthritis.  With some conversation I was able to get on the backboard and into the ambulance.

Off to the ER we went and from one gurney to another I went.  Pain was slowly teaching me how to move and roll to avoid major pain bursts.

Off to a scan I went.  Pictures were taken and back to ER I went to wait the results.  Pain killers had been dumped in me among other things. 

I was so focused on the back pain I did not consider anything else.  OI was expecting a major bruise and overnight stay at the hospital.

The doctor came in and said I had three small fractures of the right pelvis.  One being in the cup where the hip articulates plus a large hematoma there.  Into another ambulance they place me and off to the big city hospital I was headed.

After getting checked in that started talking about surgery, pins and screws.  Oops I kind of like my rump the way it is.  I prefer not to have surgery.

They put me on therapy and shortly I am motoring around on a walker.  At the end of the week I am headed for home, rump still intact and me on a walker.

I was doing pretty good at home getting around.  The second night I was going up the hallway after letting the dogs in.  Taking a step my should let loose, I had pulled a tendon.  No longer could I put put pressure on my arm to use the walked.  I was stranded.  No longer could I motor around. Taking small steps and enduring some pain I made it to a chair, sat down and called 911 for an ambulance.

Back to the ER I go and into the hospital I lay again.  It was like this sprain set me back to square one.  Therapy was begun again and up and down the halls I waddled with the walker loaded with pain pills.

I finally got to the point where they kicked me out and I went home with a friend to take care of me.  Currently I am still attached to the walker but the pain in the ass is subsiding.  It will be a few more weeks until I can fully function again. 

Then I hope to get around and visit.

Hopefully there will be no more trips to the ER an hospital.  It has been almost a month and a half since the accident.

Until later, I hope every one is having a good summer.

Thanks for everything and May God Bless You.

Earth…. Terra Firma

 

Earth Day has came and went.  In the little home town burg it was not even noted.  I only remembered  it because I read about it from others.  What does Earth Day mean any more? 

Forever the landscape changes.  Man moves and rearranges the shapes and Nature battles back to reclaim the changes.  Pyramids, monuments to these changes.  Man’s quest for immortality. 

Raging torrents, smoke, flames soar over the sky.  Remodeling at work.

Litter used to be a bane, nowadays it is part of the landscape.  Have the environmentalists went to far and lost sight of daily life.  Even in the little burg there should have been a simple litter pick up.  Has the battle over global warming… oops I mean climate change pushed the little things off the table.  As we litter it points to bigger problems of pollution.  There is lots of indifference in society today in regards to the environment that we live in.

Like many things greed sets in and no longer is the cause noble, it has become a green chase for big bucks.

People today, walk into their home, flip the switch and expect the light to turn on.  Turn the television on, check the mail on the computer, play e-games, cook on a stove and the list of gadgets goes on that we expect to be powered.

No longer does one have to render the tallow and make candles, find oil for the lamp, gather wood for the stove.

Is man willing to give up this lifestyle and turn the clock back over 100 years and have to gather all the little necessities to live by.  Overheard a comment, he wanted the land returned to the way it was 100 years ago.  Thought to my self, wonder if would be willing to be a lemming and jump off the cliff.

There were only 100’s living back then, not millions.  Lots of people would have to die to return the land to the way it was a 100 years ago.

Yet the earth needs to be tended to and taken care of.  Not jawboned about something that is maybe.  Stewardship of the earth is not easy and the reality of things need to be looked at not imagined things or in theory.

There is but one earth to live on.

Going Nuclear

There have been a couple of stories that I have read recently that caught my interest.  The surprising one is Bill Gates promoting nuclear power.  The other is the a nuclear process developed by the TVA back in the 50’s.

Bill Gates being a liberal, one would think he would be very anti nuclear.  Instead he is pro nuclear.  He sees electricity as one of the key elements in the Third World’s development.  Low cost electricity for developing/poor countries is very critical, as he sees it.  Looking at that, one can see how it would affect the creation of jobs and how poor people live.  Even in the USA, utility bills impact the poor and elderly.  Good low cost energy is critical for all people involved and Bill Gates sees this in the development of a new nuclear process.

The process that the TVA developed was put into moth balls and the back shelf, as a result it was forgotten about.  Probably some political skullduggery involved.

The TVA process used an isotope that had a life of about 100 years and very little by product.  Disposal was not a problem for in a 100 years it would be harmless.

With these things I wonder why nuclear power is not in use more.  What nuclear power plants that are in use today are very efficient and produce a low cost product.  Surprising, the USA gets about 25% of its electricity from nuclear power plants.  Then there is the Navy, how many of their ships are nuclear powered I’m not sure, but I would venture a guess that it is a vast majority.  The carriers and submarines are the most oblivious.  I see the spent cores from some passing through here on the railroad occasionally.

But why are so many people anti nuclear?  First thing that comes to mind are the bombs dropped on Japan, WWII.  Then there have been the accidents in the past that have caused some problems.  Then there are the anti mind set people.  If one side of the fence is for something this group will come out against it.

This small group of anti people create lots of problems for being such a small minority.  As a result things tat could be of great benefit to society is ignored because they raise such a ruckus.

One of the anti groups, the Sierra Club, bragged on their web page they had stopped over a 100 coal fired power plants.  That is a lots of lost electrical power generation. If your electrical rates are going up, this is one of the reasons.  And, Yes Coal is dirty, but there is a scientist who has developed a process to clean up coal fired plants.  The anti people do not want to hear this, they do not encourage his research.  There are others out there doing similar research but the anti groups cloud things in legal lawsuits. 

As I look at the costs these anti groups are causing to consumers, it becomes frustrating.  For this anti mind set is part of the reason Nuclear power is so frowned on.  Yet in nuclear power there appears to be some hope.  With the proper mind set it could probably be developed and used in a safe manner. 

It would be nice to see the anti people try to help society rather then being a hindrance.

One of the things that has happened is the power companies are switching to natural gas to keep the nay sayers off their back.  This is also pushing up the cost of energy.  Everything that is produced in the US is rising in cost because of the rising energy prices.  People focus on the price of gasoline, as that increases so does the utilities increase.

Jobs are lost, homes are lost and people tend to become poorer because of rising energy costs.

So is nuclear the answer, only partial but it should be looked at.  Particularly after the calamity of the tsunami in Japan.  There were problems at their plants but they were fixable and life goes on.

Look at how many nuclear power plants that are operatizing in the United States. 

Rather then being so negative, the anti people need to become part of the solution rather then being s problem. 

Wind power is 30-50 years in the future and is not reliable.  Solar is someplace in its infancy and it is also not reliable.

Overheard a comment from a nay sayer, "Return the land to where it was a 100 years ago.”  Wonder if he realizes how many people would have to die to get the land back to how was 100 years ago and what all would have to be destroyed.

Stewardship of the environment is a major job.