Yesterday I made a comment about shenanigans being permitted on St. Patrick's Day.

Mentor commented I had forgotten Halloween.

On Halloween, you have the option of trick or treat.

On St. Patrick's Day, there is only one option and that is shenanigans.

One other observation, unrelated to shenanigans or trick or treat:

Three people were killed in our capitol city over a disagreement over the $1,400.00 stimulus check.

When I was a young man, here in my hometown, a gas station attendant was killed during a robbery of $25.00.

One could say, trying to be thoughtlessly humorous, that the value of life has increased with inflation.

To me, it only shows that people still don't value human life where money, no matter how little, is concerned.

Sadly, some things do not seem to change.

The one day of the year where shenanigans are permitted.

Have a happy one!

... with mother Nature.

Throughout history, nature has, from time to time, come up with her own plan to 'thin the herd', so to speak.

In the Middle Ages, the Bubonic Plague killed 20 million (or almost 1/3) people in Europe.

Following WWI, the Spanish Flu infected 500 million people world wide, with 50 million people dying - 675,000 in the U.S.A. alone.

Then, in the 1980s, the AIDS epidemic hit.

And now, COVID-19.

So far, 120 million cases, with over 2 1/2 million deaths - almost 550,000 in the U.S.A. alone, and those numbers keep climbing as we race to get vaccines out to everyone.

Yes, there are still things new under the sun and a lot of those surprises are deadly.

~

I had not put my winter coat away yet and I'm glad.

The same storm that dumped a few feet of snow on Denver has arrived here.

Fortunately, it has only produced rain, but the temperature is hovering in the 30s.

Ah March, with it's ups and downs.

Tomorrow is supposed to be in the upper 50s.

SMH

~

DST.

15 years ago, our state changed over to DST.

It was tried for about four years when I was a kid and nobody liked it, so they switched back.

Now, everyone is bitching (except the golfers), but no one is trying to switch back.

I live in a very conservative state.

... to go swimmin' with bow-legged women

and swim between their legs.

I've had both my shots and I'm house trained.


Now all I need is a match.

... than fiction.

I should have saved the article, but I read in the newspaper where the CDC has issued guidelines for a Zombie outbreak.

Be prepared!

:O

When I was a boy, you did as you were told if you wanted to be able to go outdoors and to be able to sit down.

Telling a lie to an adult was an asset not yet perfected, but sneaking forbidden things seemed to be a natural talent all of us possessed.

One of the 'norms' of society at that time was that whites and people of color did not mix - supposedly we had that 'separate but equal' thing going on that anyone with half a brain could see was not true. People of color were expected to know their place... i.e. whites came first.

At age twelve I entered junior high school, what we now call middle school.

This being the age of the baby boomers, it seemed like new schools were being built every day. The smaller schools were being consolidated into bigger schools.

The jr. high I went to was different, in that it was located at the edge of one of the two black communities in town. made the population of the school predominately black. The few white students came from neighborhoods on the edge of town and we were bused there.

The white parents hated it, but unless you could afford the tuition to go to another school or could afford to move out of the district, this was where you were supposed to go.

I was scared to go there. I had been told so many nasty things about 'colored people' (when they were being nice, usually the 'N' word was bandied about), that I was on pins and needles in my expectations.

Well, guess what? Other than physically and musically, we all wanted the same things out of life and had been raised the same way.

I made good friends back then who are still close friends today.

When I got to high school, it was the late 1960s and there was protesting and race riots every year I was there. Mostly the cause of these things was old school thinking. My friends and I were affected, but didn't participate.

I always liked to think of myself as being open minded, but there was still one area where I needed to change my thinking.

Being gay was definitely a societal taboo when I was growing up. Almost every person I was sure was gay would deny it, even going so far as dating the opposite sex to keep their secret.

As time passed, more & more people began to 'come out'. Fine, I thought. But deep inside, I remembered my Christian upbringing and just thought: Yeah, I can work alongside these people and be friends with them, but you know they're going to Hell for their choices.

Time continues to march on and a few years ago, when an old friend I grew up with who never showed any signs of being gay came out, I did some more thinking.

Would I abandon this old friend just because he didn't like women? Could I accept him as the good person he is and, most importantly, did I want to see him be happy?

That was when I realized that I was still judging someone on preconceived notions. What he, or any gay person does with their life is their business and between them and God. I have no right to interfere.

Sure, it still bothers me a little bit when I see a couple of guys kiss or hold hands, but I am adjusting.

Times change, life moves on...

and so should I.

~

The group Bread was a easy listening band when I was in my late teens.

In those days, parties weren't huge bashes that spilled out onto the lawn.

Most were gatherings of not more than 20 people and you pretty much knew everyone there.

In the late 1960s, early 1970s, alcohol was still predominate, but sometimes pot was there as well.

Later in the night, when everyone was feeling mellow, the music turned mellow and couples started making out (as we called it then - simply kissing).

This group was a hit at that time of night and here is a fine example:


So - turn the lights down low, embrace your partner and let the kisses flow.