Hinds County Gazette: My scribblings from the Febuary 9 2012

Early morning, February, 5, 2012


It is Super Bowl Sunday! Yea!? The last big tummy stuffing day of the 2011/2012 holiday season….



It is obvious that this old person is not among the demographics, that the nice folks, who are in charge of the Super Bowl, want to make happy. The game does not start until five… For a Sunday afternoon that is late! For me, Sundays are not like the rest of the weekend, Friday afternoon through Saturday, Saturday evening and Saturday night.



Sunday is different kind of day. At 5 in the afternoon, I may still be contemplating the morning sermon. And/or reflecting on the week that was or planning for the week ahead... often my tummy is still full from an abundant Sunday lunch and I get sleepy, truth be told…it is not unusual for me to be napping by 5 O’clock on a Sunday afternoon.

But Now! When it comes to Fridays and Saturdays 5 pm is not late at all!!! I have been known to be still up and wide awake at midnight on a Friday or Saturday night….not often, but it has happened.



I said all of that to say this; if they wanted me to watch the game from start to finish…they needed to start the game by one and let it be over by 5…

But, I will be watching the game and Eli this evening, but I am sure there will be a nap before it concludes….so I am also recording it…Don’t want to miss the much hyped commercials and Madonna halftime appearance.



I am not a fuddy-duddy, what I have come to believe our body clocks are set very early in our lives…once upon a time; way back when I was coming up, a day began at dawn and was more or less over by dark….TV went to test pattern at 10 PM!

A week was Monday through Saturday… Sunday was a unique day, a day unlike the rest of the week…it was quiet….not much happened on Sunday…. Afternoon rides were about all the excitement there was on a Sunday.



Believe it or not boys and girls, there was a time when America did not operate on the mind numbing, physically exhausting life of twenty four hours a day… seven days a week….An existence that is now considered the norm. There were no little league games on Sundays, no malls to go to…in fact back when I was a kid coming up…nothing was open on Sunday…not a grocery store…not a drug store. You did not mow your lawn or even water it on Sunday. I do not recall it being a moral issue…it was more like it didn’t occur to people to give up their Sundays to buy, sell or to work the yard.



I am not saying life was more enjoyable back then…I am just saying Sundays were special. And almost certainly better…but I am not saying it…that would make me a fuddy-duddy.



Monday Morning

Well!!! There was no napping during that Super Bowl Game!!!! What an exciting game!!

The Madonna’s half time show was not nearly as electrifying as the game, but maybe you had to be there to appreciate her performance. And the commercials I was disappointed in those…the movies they were advertising seem to contain far too much violence for my taste. The Coke’s polar bears were cute…but not Super Cute…



Frankly, I thought the car commercials were way over done…In fact, this morning, I could not tell you what brand of car they were trying to persuade me to purchase.



I did appreciate the “Imported from Detroit” commercial …with Clint Eastwood.



Hey, I got to go…I have a fun and full week ahead!!

"Christiansen's Comments" from Hinds County Gazette "Scout and Gabby" came to Grandma's

Oh! My Word! It was a rough weekend here at 201….

I baby sat daughter Angela’s dogs. We each have two dogs, so that is four dogs in the house and yard, which would not have been terrible, but she has a 6 month old puppy and I have a 6 month old puppy…The puppies never stopped…they never stopped barking, they never stopped chewing, they never stopped running, they never stopped digging. I am exhausted my older dog Shelby is exhausted.



Angela's Scout and Gabby

 

My Emma

approximately 6 monthes

My beautiful quiet Shelby






The back yard looks like a war zone…. holes every where…they dumped the garbage can over… ripped in to the garbage and strew trash all around. Angela’s puppy Scout turns over flower pots, then totes the pots around scattering them to all corners….she brought one clay pot up the ramp, when I yelled she dropped it and it shattered in to a hundred pieces….what a mess.



Scout pulled the rugs off my back porch…into the yard, so she and my puppy Emma could play tug a war. I don’t know if the rugs are salvageable…probably not.



Angela’s dogs are gone now, so when the sun comes up good and it gets a bit warmer I shall go clean up the back yard…



But what Angela’s puppy Scout did here isn’t the worst performance of her short life…at her house Scout has a doggie door, one day while Angela was at work; she pulled the water hose in the house through the doggie door!!! All 50 feet! Maybe it was just 25 feet….. Still and all quite an accomplishment.



When Angela’s other dog, Gabby, was a puppy I went out and planted bushes along the back fence…Well, Gabby one by one, over time, managed to pull them all up… every one!…about the time you thought she was finished destroying bushes, she would dig up another …a few she pulled through the doggie door…one not only did she manage to pull through the doggie door, she maneuvered it through the house and up on the bed while Angela slept.



We have had lots of rain so the yard was still quite muddy….so all in the kitchen and up and down the hall muddy paw prints abound. I have called for help…Ms Addie will tend to the mud and paw prints…while I will work on the yard.



But first I got to go out to Cannada Farms, Scott just called, he has deer meat for me…I am going to try to make deer tamales…I will let you know how they turn out.



Love to all

Call if you need me

"Christiansen comments" Hinds County Gazette January 19 2012

My life is grand…Oh, there have been up and downs…peaks and valleys…but all things considered it has been good. Why I bring this up, is lately, I have been giving life “The Big Think”…as a result of this “Big Think” I have come to believe that there are two sweet spots in this life…one was my childhood.

This picture did not end up where I wanted it to...
This is down town Bolton Mississippi...

I grew up in a small town on the Nebraska plains…where we even at the age 5 and 6 we could roam the entire town….We were never bored because we had places to go and things to do… And our mothers turned us loose with no fear because the whole town watched after us. If we went to misbehaving, even mildly misbehaving, seemingly out of no where an adult would appear and tend to us…the ladies were usually wearing an apron….The men who stopped to inquiry about our activities, they might be wearing a suit and tie, more often overalls, or coveralls. Farmers hauling a full load of grain, on the way to the elevator, or a load of cattle to the stock yard, would stop and get out, to find out what we were up to…we could have pocket knives, BB guns, our homemade sling shots and bows and arrows…but you better not get caught with matches, cigarettes….or any liquid that resembled gasoline.

House I grew up in..back then the front porch was not enclosed

Main Street Palisade

Palisade from North of town

As a kid growing in Palisade Nebraska, my days were my own; there were not many demands on my time. Back then, we didn’t have soccer, dance classes etc. that we had to deal with and make plans around. Oh, once in a while somebody would have to break off, go home and get cleaned up, so they could go to their piano lesson. But life as a kid for me, was relatively uncomplicated, as long I respected my elders, behaved at school and church, and was home for dinner and supper on time,.



After childhood came 40 years that I had to be grown up, be responsible and productive, I am not complaining and those 40 years were good, and I enjoyed them.



But I am coming to realize my old age is not unlike my childhood… when I wake up in the morning…..most days are my own… I can choose what I want to do….. Make concrete leaves; hang out in my shop, play with my friends or just putter. Nobody is depending on me.



My little buddy Whit, he is 18 months old now, I am 67,   I am coming to realize he and I are not at unlike stages of life, just at opposite ends of it. My old age and Whit's childhood are alike in many ways….As long as, we don’t make a lot of noise;  behave and do not do anything dangerous. The adults of this world…. pretty much leave us alone to do what we please.

Love to all

Call if you need me

PS. My friend Alan Huffman has a new book coming out soon….The title is We're with Nobody: , The Web page for the new book is  http://www.werewithnobody.com/

Alan lives in “The Greater Bolton area, where the grass is green, the sky is blue and the water is brown”….that is what James Anderson always says about Bolton…I couldn’t help myself. But any way Alan will be in Jackson at Lemuria February 21 signing copies…he will be other places too…. Oxford, New York City, Greenwood



But if you miss those events… buy the book…I feel sure we can get it signed for you….perhaps we can arrange to have a signing off the tailgate of his pickup right down town Bolton Mississippi…”Where the grass is green, the sky is blue and the water is brown.” Again sorry I just can not help my self….anytime I say “Bolton” I have to say, “Where the grass is green, the sky is blue and the water is brown.” Sorry………



Oh!!!! There is a video trailer for the book…I am in it!!!! I am expecting Hollywood to call anytime now.