Jan 31 2008
Life’s Long Walk
my friend spadoman is on hiatus while he participates in the longest walk. he has graciously opened his archives and dusty has graciously let me post them. spadoman does not know how long he will be on the longest walk, but has assured me he will return- hopefully having found what he is seeking. betmo
This was originally written on March 11, 2003 on a laptop computer as I recovered from my second heart bypass operation.
I was 36 the first time it happened- around July, sometime in 1985. I was playing softball in Hinckley. I played for the Alpine Inn team and we had a game one evening. I had been the pitcher and batted cleanup for all the time I had played on the Class B Minnesota State Softball Association sanctioned league. Danny ‘what’s his name’, the owner of the Pine City bakery where Barb worked, had played for the Alpine Inn team for a number of years. I guess there were plenty of teams around. guys getting together to play softball, having fun, re-creating. But there were only two really well known teams in East Central Minnesota, Alpine Inn and Bob’s Standard. Bob’s Standard, sponsored by the local Standard service station, was a really good Class B team. Nobody hardly ever beat them. Alpine Inn, the other well known team was good too, no-one hardly ever beat us either except Bob’s Standard! I always thought of Bob’s as a really serious team, and Alpine as the bunch of guys who wanted to have fun, laugh, joke around, go out after the games and get drunk, that sort of thing.
So Danny, the bakery owner, had seen me play on a very recreational church league. He played left field for the Lutherans. I played wherever the born again christian Evangelical Free Church would ask me to. At one of the church games, Danny was in left, and i was up to the plate, I whacked one over his head for a homer. Next time I was up, he backed up, and I whacked another over his head. This happened a third time and I wish I could remember a fourth, but definitely three times in a row. After the game, Danny asked me if I’d be interested in playing for the Alpine Inn team. I was flattered. things like this happened rarely in my life and I enjoyed being appreciated.
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I know that I said, yesterday, that I am sick to death of politics. No…no, that wasn’t a lie.
With the news that every working American will get a rebate check from Uncle Sam..eventually, it made me wonder just how far $600 is supposed to go to ‘fix’ our economy? To some of us, the economy has been in the crapper for quite awhile now. Choosing between paying bills, filling the gas tank, buying medication and putting food on the table has been the problem of many American’s for some time now.
It’s still January and yet, I am sick to death of politics.
usually folks ‘feel blue’ but i feel pretty gray- that washed out feeling that comes two weeks into january when there’s nothing to look forward to but more gray. georgie porgie had his last ’state of the union’ speechifying but i would hazard a guess that he lied in it- i never watch him. i haven’t since he literally ‘took office’ and i have never identified him as ‘my president’ because he isn’t and hasn’t been. anyway, the state of the union and the state of the world got me thinking- on top of personal life which has a way of narrowing the focus- about why we are headed in the direction we are. it has always baffled me that some folks really don’t care. not one whit. and these folks are our neighbors and family members and co workers. i mean the folks in the EPA and Halliburton all are a part of someone’s family and circle of friends, right? so, theoretically, we are part of the problem, right? perhaps not. depends. typical wishy-washy answer from a left wing whack job with a psych degree- some would say. ok- i am dancing around the point- so let me get to it- how can we expect to effect the world when we all know someone who isn’t interested in helping; doesn’t think there’s a problem, or is part of the problem? if the people who are closest to us lie to us; steal from us; hide things from us- how are we supposed to expect anything difference to occur? i live in a small urban center in a rural part of new york state- i cannot tell you that things are any different here than they are in new york city- except perhaps the pavement and housing are newer. the homogenization of america- the sameness has taken hold. we see the same strip malls and outlet centers in every city in america- we see people all wearing the same styles; watching the same shows- we are sheep. the individuality and uniqueness that made america has been replaced by commonality and selfishness. folks think nothing of lying, cheating, stealing from people they have shared relationships with- decades long in some cases- and feel justified doing it.
My internet connection was down on Sunday evening/Monday morning, so I was unable to get out my round-up in a timely manner.
Page, AZ - I’ve always had a great love for travel. There’s something comforting about feeling the miles unspool under my feet. For me, the destination has no real point, I’m all about the journey.
There is something to be said for the healing properties of a little music, a lot of laughter, and excellent company. I’m still not a hundred percent, but I am feeling much better today than yesterday.
I took a road trip right before Thanksgiving. I didn’t keep track of how many miles and miles per gallon like I usually do. This was a different kind of trip. A trip I was going to take no matter what the logistical outcome. It wasn’t a matter of could I afford it, but rather how I would afford it. My wife and I left Ashland, WI, where I live now, on a Wednesday morning. We drove across the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and crossed the Mackinaw bridge. We took Interstate 75 South down to US Highway 23. We followed 23 all the way down through Ohio, Kentucky, Virginia, Tennessee, and into North Carolina. We used another road, Interstate 26 through North Carolina down into South Carolina and ended up using two-lane State and County roads to weave our way into Augusta, Georgia. We stayed in Augusta, but our destination was a scant 12 miles North of there, just across the Savannah River, to a small town called Clarks Hill in South Carolina. The Savannah River is damned at Clarks Hill and makes a lake that used to be called Clarks Hill Lake. It is now called J. Strom Thurmond Lake after the long time Senator from South Carolina. We got there on Friday in the late afternoon. I called the contact number I had, a woman named Shirley who had found my name on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall website.
Never one to do anything half-way, I am preparing to work for the next three days and still feeling like Mother Nature does not like me very much. But, the show must go on, as they say.
I have the so-called MSM listed as “traditional” media in the title because there are other ways to get our news now, and for that I am so friggin grateful.