Demise of an Icon

 

On my blog headers I post pictures I have taken.  Usually they are old buildings of some sort.  On Wordpress I posted a picture of an old abandoned gas station in a ghost town.  I went through there a few days ago.  My gas station has collapsed.  The posts that held the canopy rotted out and the roof fell over the little station.

The highway was rerouted in the 40’s, so I’m guessing this old station was built around 1910-20.  There weren’t many cars traveling the prairie back then but they did need supplies and little stations like this popped up to meet needs back then. 

After the highway was moved the town did not survive much longer, businesses failed and people moved.  A few hung on working for a rancher or neighboring town.

When I saw the roof collapsed a twinge of sadness crawled over me.  Here was an American icon fading into the pages of history, soon to be forgotten.  The Golden Belt Route did not have the fame of Route 66 but it had the character of early Americana.

This little town originally was a stage stop in the 1860’s.  It survived Indian attacks, the Dust Bowl and other ravages but it could not survive the government.

Well I shall jump in my Model A and get ready to go cruising for the weekend.  May your weekend be blessed.

Winter….. It has Returned

 

Way back in Sep we had some snow and in Oct a bunch, enough to open the ski areas.  Then the snow god closed the window.  We got little spurts of snow but mostly nice days and decent winter temps. 

The past couple of weeks it has changed.  A storm has been rumbling through about ever 3-5 days.  Not real bad but enough to make travel a hazard and close roads for a few hours at night.

Today is another small blizzard cackling outside.  The snow rolls, sun peeks then hides and wind puffs again.  Couple inches of snow, not much, just enough to make things uncomfortable with the wind.

Standing in the window watching the snow swirl in the headlights on the far highway would reflect off the flakes.  Beyond them was a larger glow.  The horizon was aglow, lights reflecting off the snow. spinning into the gloom of dark.  Patterns twisting over the approaching light.  Turns out the headlights of the train were shining on the snow just right to create a kaleidoscope effect. 

 

Even small blizzards are no fun.  The wind whips around, tossing the snow, making drifts.  A pattern that is ever changing and is a delight to  look at after it over.  During though, the warmth of inside is so inviting.

Like all things it to shall pass and another weather pattern will replace this one.  In the meantime, another cup of hot tea n lemon-honey. 

Have a good week.

Big Bills of Medicine

 

Friend has been battling kidney stones this past year and it is not over yet.  I asked him what the bill has been so far.  He said over 400K.  I almost fell down.

Some doctors are going to have nice vacation villas and nice boats to cruise in. 

What puzzled me, after I sat down, why so expensive?  The machines for testing, the hospital stays or is there and large group of hands out wanting a share of the pie.

Yet I can see why those who are not insured would go moaning to the government.  Yet my friends insurance is government, Medicare.

Personally I feel that is part of the reason things are so expensive.  Most government agencies just pass costs on through and expect the taxpayers to cough the money up.  They seldom questions high costs.

Stop and think,a nice income is 40k a year.  400,000 would support 10 people.  My friend is a small industry but for only a few.

Or make it 50K a year, how many does that support.

Money has a way of multiplying and so often the average joe plods along.

 

4 Trillion dollars in debt we go.  How much money is that?  How many wages could be paid with that at what income level.

The root of all evil……… money, so the saying goes. 

The way the politicians toss money figures around I don’t believe there is any root on money any more.  Greenbacks slide right through my fingers into in the government’s coffers and I get a tad for a bottle of curds.

How did the IRS come into existence and why do we fear them so much?

 

Have a good week….. please.

Looking for Cheese

 

I post on a couple of other forums plus facebook.  One of the things that has been popping up is how easy people whine anymore.  They act so helpless.  It is almost as they expect someone to fly over and sprinkle fairy dust on them and all will be well.

There is some turmoil in the local schools over money cuts and programs.  Again lots of griping but few willing to bite the bullet and deal with the issues.

Geography is another trouble spot.  So many ask where is it.  Rather then doing some looking, they whine expecting me to tell.  Well the door is well marked: MEN.  Then they ask, where is it?  I slowly boil up into an aggravating chuckle and……. guffaw.

History is the other pet peeve.  It’s like the schools want to avoid teaching some history for it will upset their agenda.  The world according to, GARP.  So many do not know to get a book out and look up information or they do not want to.

Yet here on the internet is one of the fastest tools for looking up info. 

Now the circle, what are the schools missing?  By all test scores and standards that have been set forth, all the government programs have been failures.  Graduation rates are lower, students are less educated.  Oh there are exceptions but overall.  So when will people admit that big government in schools is a failure?

Look at how successful schools were in the early 20th century.  These little schools produced the people that invented the phone, light bulbs and even the computer. 

So when I hear whining I wonder who failed?

Such is life, there are foibles and successes.

So often the focus is on the failures and the successes are just there.

Wonder if there would of ever been an apple if Steve Jobs would have been a whiner…….?  His mother chose to not have an abortion and gave him up for adoption.

Snow Day

 

The snow gods are smiling upon us at last.  I know, I’m an oddball,  I like snow.  I love watching it rearrange in patterns on the landscape, cover things and kind of make life miserable for a short time.  Yet it is this white stuff that brings the flowers of spring and the greenery.  The nourishment of the land.

Like many, I do not try to fight it.  For it happens no matter how hard the combat zone is, nature will run its course.

The soft lacy flakes lay out their pattern.  Making the nuisance tumbleweed a bit of beauty for a moment.   Soon the beauty will fade into a memory and life will move on.

In the future the green shoots will usher forth from the ground.  While man struggles against the snow.

Vehicles slip and slide, visiting ditches,bouncing off curbs.  Backs will ache, coated shovels mute in their work.  Prints across the white mantle, wildlife searching out a tiny morsel.

Business cry because of lost job time, others shout with joy for the extra work they will get.  Banged up cars, more snow shovels/blowers, wreckers towing more cars.  Life evens out, no matter the noise.  Man struggles to control nature, the leash is broken as nature scoots along.

What is so important in life to go do battle with the snow storm.

 

May you have a blessed day.

Windy Times

 

Would make a good headline for the political debates and campaign trail.  So much hot air spews forth from Campaign trail it becomes a load to beat. 

What this is about is the wind is a blowin, not bad, 30 to 60 mph.  Enough of a breeze to move things around, like trash etc.  As fronts pass through the wind kicks up and the neighbors lose stuff sets sail.  One thing about living in the country is learning how to deal with the elements.  Make sure lose things are secure or anchored someway. 

60mph is not bad, I have been heavier winds, over 120mph.  Those get serous and cause major damage.  Major hurricane and tornado winds, batten the hatches down and ride it out. 

Nature has a furry that has no equal.  Yet man tries to duplicate with its bombs and machinery of destruction. 

When I lived in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains, winds of 100 mph were not unusual and gusts over 120 occurred at times.  Had a friend who built a house by the Air Academy.  He built it using concrete and stucco, to withstand winds of over 150mph.  The Air Academy has clocked winds over 120mph so he wanted to be relatively safe.

Out here on the prairie the wind does not howl quite as fast.  It do blow a lots though and the tumble weeds get re arranged a lots.  Usually they get bound up in the fences and if it snows, makes for a big snowdrift. and repairs later. 

Like so many things in the country, the wind gets griped at yet what good does it do.  The wind will blow where it pleases and when it pleases.  Not much man can do about it but complain.

The wind also makes a good metaphor, the hawk. the wayward one…. or your choice.

Things that had been on the north forty are now on the south 100. 

Horrors….. gone shopping

Watched a horror program the other night.  It wasn’t so much a scary story as it was a scary mind trip.  The mind has so much capacity to create it is beyond comprehension.  And that’s what this show was about, the travels of the mind.

Where does the inner thoughts lead a person, what is real, is there a distortion, what am one seeing?  In the magic of video and acting the mind trips can be recreated to flirt with reality.

 

Deep within the dark recesses of the mind lies unfathomable stories of horror, real or imagined.   It is on these thoughts that the craftsman plies the word craft. 

Edgar Allen Poe is one of the more famous ones, then there was Mary Shelly’s tale and the king of horror, Alfred Hitchcock.  Their stories play out on our fears/phobias.  Monsters lurk around corners, fly with the full moon, walk darkened streets or are crafted in a laboratory.

Dreamscapes paint pictures brought to life with the pen of writers.  Generation to generation tales were passed on.  Evil spirits roamed the country side looking to wreck havoc on the unsuspecting passer by.  The mind’s eye creates fear that rises to the bait of the craftsman.  A ringing bell at midnight, clouds passing over the moon, loud footsteps on the walk, distant howling and so forth, evoke a level of fear in many.

The spinning of a story to scare……… begins in the eye of darkness.  Which direction will the screw turn, when will it turn, what is on the other side?  Are there ghosts, spirits of the dark side, what travels in the mind’s eye?