Author: Rev. Joe Dirt

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Going, Going, Gone

On Jan. 20, 2017 I put the “Not My President” bumper sticker on my truck.  I also put the American flag in the distress configuration on it.  For the first few months afterwards I was getting flipped off regularly.  Then it more or less stopped.  The flipping off restarted the couple months leading up to the election.  I got where I did not flip them off in return, but held up my thumb and forefinger about one inch apart to represent my estimation of their manhood.  I don’t recall a woman ever giving me the finger.

With Joe Biden set to become the 46th President I feel I can take the bumper stickers off.  I feel like I am waking up from one the worst nightmares of my life.  A nightmare that has gone on for 4 years.  I know we have a couple more months of the Orange Monster, and that he can do much damage in the that time period. But I can see daylight.  I can see a time when I might start feeling some pride for my country again.

I cannot express the relief that I felt with the election of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.  And at the same time the disappointment I felt in so many of my fellow citizens. In my life time of presidential elections there has never been a clearer choice between good and evil.  Yet almost half the country chose to vote for Darth Vader over Yoda.  I do not really understand why anyone would have voted for Trump in 2016, but I more or less excused them as buying into to his bull.  This time around it is incomprehensible for me.  They have had 4 years of watching his incompetence and malevolence, and they did it again.  Oh well.

Going, going, and soon to be gone.

Keep well.

 

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My Mossy Address Book

“A rolling stone gathers no moss”

If you were to sum up my life in one phrase the above aphorism might just be it.  I spent the first 18 years of my life more or less as a military brat.  I literally had 13 changes of schools before I graduated high school.  This includes one school that I was in for a single day.  I have described the last 30 years of my working life as that of a computer gypsy, moving around to take different jobs in Information Technology.  I did have a stable period in between (at least as far as physical location) when I lived in Arkansas and we were getting kids through school.

In such a life people come and go.  It is just a fact of life that you get used to.  I do not know how many times I have said to someone, “have a good life”, knowing I would never be seeing them again. I have on occasions tried to maintain relationships over time and distance, but this must be two sided and has very seldom worked out.

I have now reached the age where many of my relatives, friends and acquaintances are passing away.  This is sincerely a sadness just in itself. If a person truly touches you, they take up residence in some part of your psyche.  I have sometimes described this as feeling like I have ghosts running around my soul.    At times it has felt a little crowded in there.

And now add an additional sadness  due  to this technical  age.  After the fact of someone’s death, sometimes much later, I will come across their information in one of my address books or contact lists.  I have such a hard time deleting the information, it feels like deleting the memory of that person.  Sometimes the address\contact card will remain in there for years.  I just cannot delete it.

On the positive side, it does make you stop for a minute and remember the person when you stumble across it.

Sigh.  We march on.

Keep well.

 

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Me gustó mucho esta cita

As someone who has been studying Spanish for a while, I occasionally get frustrated with my language learning journey.  As one of my instructors said to me, “you will always speak Spanish with a Gringo accent, but if your pronunciation and grammar are correct, don’t worry about it.  The idea is to communicate.”  That I can do as long as we are not chatting about the theory of relativity, the philosophy of Descartes or other such esoteric subjects.

In my case that Gringo accent has a strong southern component to it…picture Gomer Pyle speaking Spanish, instead of “Golly, Sargent”, it is, “¡Caramba! Sargento.”  I came across this quote that I can really relate to.

“Do you know what a foreign accent is? It’s a sign of bravery.” — Amy Chua

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Rev. Joe’s Random Thought #6,761

yeah I know you did not ask!

I don’t know whether to admire women for their forbearance, feel sorry that this is the female burden in life or go WTF… why do they put up with it.

I met 3 friends this weekend south of Memphis for a couple days of golf.  One fellow has an RV and he drove it to the campground at Sardis, MS.  That is where we stayed for two nights.

Now just to give you some perspective I was the youngest at 68.  So picture 4 grumpy old men chilling and sleeping in a fairly tight RV.  Now we are only grumpy by spells, but  sometimes the adjective used  probably needs to be whatever the next level past grumpiness is.  I let you decide what that is.

Add to that 4 OLD men marching to the RV bathroom frequently during the night.

Add to  that morning sounds that old men make.  I am sure any seasoned wife could  go on in great detail about those rude noises.

I’ve decided women are either saints or  crazy for putting up with us.

The bespectacled Señora Weinhaus just told me that most women know they are marrying men… and jump off that cliff anyway.

 

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Marching to a Theocracy

When the Founding Fathers spoke of Religious Freedom, what they really meant was freedom from religion. They were very adamant about avoiding what was so common in Europe at the time, state sponsored religions. There was a very strong push in the infancy of our country to set up a state church.  Fortunately, we more or less escaped that calamity.

I have always thought of the United States as a religiously diverse country.  This belief arose because there are so many different protestant religions in this country.  The reality is that, according to the Pew Research Center, the United States is around 78% Christian1.  This puts us in the middle of the pack as far as religious diversity is concerned.

Some 223 years after our constitution went into effect; Continue reading “Marching to a Theocracy”

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Quote for Señora

A recurring feature on Curmudgeon Alley is Quote of the Day.  Okay they are not daily as I do not want too get to many quotes on the same page of my blog. However, I did come across one today that perfectly describes Robin aka the enduring Señora Weinhaus.

“If you have been brutally broken but still have the courage to be gentle to others then you deserve a love deeper than the ocean itself.” -Nikita Gill

Poet Nikita Gill

Apparently Keanu Reeves has paraphrased this quote and made his version very popular too.

“If you have been brutally broken, but still have the courage to be gentle to other living beings, then you’re a badass with the heart of an angel.”

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Quote of the Day — Mark Twain

“Loyalty to petrified opinion never yet broke a chain or freed a human soul — and never will.”  ~~  Mark Twain

 

 

 

To see more Quotes for Day, visit this link: Quotes for the Day

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Rev. Joe’s Random Thought #6,094

yeah I know you did not ask!

People have been telling me for years that I look like Sam Elliot.  I even had a complete stranger at a Quick Trip in Tulsa, OK walk up to me to tell me I looked like him.  I absolutely do not get it, but I take it as a compliment as I know he is considered ruggedly handsome.

Another trait that Sam and I share in common is a low, deep voice.  However, his is a million dollar fine instrument, mine is more in line with a cheap kazoo from an arcade claw machine game.   Thinking of the voice similarity, the low, deep part, I begin to wonder about something.  The enchanting Señora Weinhaus frequently  “tells” me to speak up as she cannot hear my low, deep kazoo of a voice.  I wonder if Sam Elliot’s wife tells him same thing???