Mood:  silly
Topic: a chuckle
Why did the lazy zoo keeper get fired?
He sat on his 'ocelot'.

Power of Fred Langa's newsletter
My webpage, AT LEISURE https://jim2jak.tripod.com/ was one of Fred Langa's links on his weekly newsletter yesterday. I have gotten approximately 800 hits from that in one day. I don't know if that's good or not, but for me it's lights out. I doubt if I will get anyone to come back from time to time, but it was a lot of fun. Anyway if I did have a hight volume page, think of all the extra work and worry it would cause me. As it is I really enjoy doing what I do with it. I like the idea that someone might be reading one of my stories, I suppose that's ego, and maybe making a connection with some material I put up. If I could make a webpage wish, I would wish for a few more comments, letters, whatever you want to call them. It reminds me that there are other human beings out there.

Nostalgia
Topic: Nostalgia
The holidays are coming and it is putting me into a period of nostalgia for times past or perhaps never were but we wish they were. I have included some of my thoughts and others on the subject. But before you go on, if you are of a certain age you will remember these soda pops. My favorite was grapette which I am pretty certain is no more.





Memory is often less about
the truth than about what we
want it to be.


-David Halberstam, New York Times



Nostalgia: a longing for pleasures, experiences, or events belonging to the past. Oh those memories, they are brought on by an aroma, a song, a picture, and can send us back many, many years. The memories are not always pleasant. It may bring back a memory of a husband lost in the war or being hungry as the depression was ending. And as it is with nostalgia, it brings it back, fully staged and choreographed with the people and events of that time. Also, with the fullness of time, the rough edges, the not so nice things are sometimes minimized or forgotten. We are left only with a memory that can cause our eyes to glaze as a feeling of wellbeing comes over us. It brings that comfortable feeling of being again in familiar places with those people we loved.


____________________________________________________________________________
In the darkness of the night
light and shadow play
on the back of the front seat of the car
As we drive somewhere -
to some aunt-and-uncle dinner
or
back from some drive-down-to-the-coast day trip -
I lay on the back seat
of our '55 medium green and white two door Buick Special
and watch the sagging 'phone and electric wires shadow
play up and down,
and the light and dark
like a window shade opening and closing
as we travel between the telephone poles.
Oh, joyous memories, I am yours.
- David Komisar, 3/10/98

Topic: Observations of a old guy
I miss taking long walks with Hazel because as they say, 'the wheels are the first to go'. Yep, they're right.

If youth but knew; if age but could.
- - - - Henri Estienne

What are the meaning of dreams?
Topic: Dreams
As you know by the title of my blog, I am a retired old guy and enjoying it. Except I seem to have a recurring dream or variations of the same. It is not a nightmare, but it is disturbing as I remember it each time I have the dream when I waken. It goes something like this, each time a little different but the same theme: I show up at my former working place, or I suppose that is where it is, it's never exactly the same, and become part of the group, but I never know what they are talking about exactly and I know I should know these things, but at the end of the meetings I really never know the answers to anything. Secondly, when I am out in the field I forget why I'm there, but the distressing part is I know I should be doing something, then I forget in the dream where I am and eventually wake up distressed. The dream seems to go on all night, but as I have read it only goes on for a very short time, but it's long enough to distress me at waking.

I don't have nightmares and am under no stress, but this dream has dogged me now for more times than I like.

Louie
Topic: Animals
A GIFT OF LOUIE
By Jim Kittelberger


This is a new direction for me in two ways. First I want to tell you about someone I once knew, who I miss very much. Secondly, The subject is not a person, but an animal. Now I like pets a little, but I am one of those who really cannot accept animals as animals. I want them to act like humans and behave properly, eat properly, and please do not do any of that animal sniffing in inappropriate places thing. In short, I really should only let animals like Asta, Eddie, Lassie and Rin Tin Tin in my house through the medium of television. I really love other people's pets and thoroughly enjoy petting them, throwing sticks so they will fetch them or watching them go through any of their other tricks. But then they always have to revert to form and do a bathroom thing, which, if I am `walking' the dog, I then have to watch or pretend I am busy looking at my hands like I just discovered them to divert my sight from the "natural" dog habits. And then, if I am civic minded, and of course I am, I must retrieve their droppings and stow it away in a bag, which I must carry with me until I can dispose of it. Oh, the indignity of it.

Now, all you animal lovers, please do not get angry with me, I told you at the outset I am not an animal person. Walking the dog is another subject I question, I never had a dog I walked, they always walked me, straining at the leash and walking in circles until I was tied up neater than a rodeo cowboy ties up a lassoed steer. But once and only once, I was given the gift of Louie, a gift selected for me by the God of animals, so I would know the depth of feeling one can have for a non-human creature. I know he was God given because of the way he was introduced to us.

While driving to the local mall one bright shiny day with my wife and son, my son spotted this cat sitting by the side of a country road and determined quickly that it was a `lost' cat. My son speaks up, "It's lost dad, can we take it home?"
Giving it not one seconds thought, my wife retorted with parental wisdom, "If God wants us to have that cat, he will be there when we return from the mall." Thinking, or not thinking which was certainly a possibility, that it would of course not be there. Now don't get ahead of me.

After spending a bit of time at the mall, we started our return trip home, and as we approached the spot where the cat had previously sat and certainly would not still be there..Well you know the rest, there he sat. Now what was I to do, he was skinny and looked like a lost cat and I did more or less put it into the hands of God. On the trip home, the little God-given cat laid contentedly on my son's lap, as if he had returned home after a long tiring trip. Not being prepared for cat ownership, we had no place for the animal to do his thing, if he indeed had to do it at all. Then the little skinny `lost' cat endeared himself to us and ensured himself of a home for the rest of his days when he centered himself on a flowerless flowerpot and did his business. My wife and I proclaimed this kitty a gentleman with good manners.

Any question of him not belonging was dashed with that one act forevermore. He became everything a non-animal person could want. He was obedient and anxious to please. He would demonstrate throughout his life that he was a gentleman through and through. On holidays, he would docilely agree to our putting a red bow around his neck and would accompany us to the door as guests would arrive, as if he knew each one and was part of the welcoming committee. He was known as Louie and he became beloved by all who knew him. He spent many years with us, until his kidneys failed him and I had to do one of the hardest things I have ever done, have him put down by the vet. It was not a quick decision. We prayed that he would die a peaceful death in his sleep, but it was not to be. Then on the last day, his kidneys failed completely and he urinated on his jerry-rigged bed in the kitchen, an act the gentlekitty Louie, we believe, found intolerable. The plaintive cry he produced seemed to say, "Please, I have to leave you now." At the very end, he knew better than we what had to be done, when we were so reluctant to do it.

Louie sleeps now beneath a very old maple in our back yard. He died with the unwritten epitaph, Much loved, very much missed, and never to be forgotten. Could any of us hope for more?



Epilog.

We have never `replaced' him with another. We all agree that God's gift of Louie and the memories we have of him are one of a kind. We were lucky to have had him for thirteen years.

Politics and Nature
Topic: Politics
Those who contemplate the beauty of the earth find reserves of strength that will endure as long as life lasts. There is something infinitely healing in the repeated refrains of nature-- the assurance that dawn comes after night, and spring after winter.
- Rachel Carson


The quotation by Rachel Carson I think is especially appealing for the season and for the election tomorrow. If it doesn't go the way you want it, keep calm and know that life goes on and just like locusts and dental appointments, those politicians will come around again long before you're ready for them.

Adventures of Elderly Man
Topic: Writing Fiction
What the heck do you do with yourself all day? The adventures of elderly-man

If you're retired, you've heard this question a dozen times. I
Sometimes wonder the opposite, what did I do before I retired.
Since retirement, wonderful new worlds have opened up for me,
Almost like a renaissance of a sort. My wife and I, separately or together
Seem to need more time each day to do whatever it is we do.
Of one thing I'm certain, each day brings that feeling I used to
Get when I had a snow day off from school, unexpected freedom
From worry and stress, at least for another day. Except in retirement
It is every day. How many times during your working life, did you
Look outside and see the snow piling up or the rain coming down so
Hard you knew you'd drown in it, and you wished you could just put
On another cup of coffee or tea and open a book and settle in and
Ignore the outside. Well we do have that freedom, and the feeling
Is exactly the same, wonderful unscheduled time to go where ever
Your heart and mind leads you.

What you have read above is exactly the way it should be. You have worked hard and earned your time for relaxation, travel, or whatever you most enjoy. It is not the time to be taken advantage of. If you and/or your spouse have a problem you cannot handle because of your age, contact me, elderly-man and I will set it right and I will enjoy doing it. I can be contacted at the following number. When life no longer seems fair, contact Elderly-Man and he will make the difference.

Till then,

Elderly-man stands ready to fight all foes, right any wrongs,

"What the devil are you doing Bruce?" Her brittle voice jolted him back to reality. "I thought I told you to take the garbage out; it's starting to stink, and when you get done with that I've got something else for you to do," exclaimed Helga, exasperated once again at having Bruce under her feet all day now since he retired and losing patience with his ineptness at almost everything he has tried since then.

Well, in real life I'm not exactly your everyday superhero, but in my mind I could live a different life, Bruce thought. For example, just yesterday as I was running an errand to the supermarket, I witnessed a bus driver berating an elderly woman about being too slow to exit his bus. I morphed from Bruce into elderly-man and presented myself at the bus door. As I stood there looking in, the driver in his most bully-loud voice asked if I was sightseeing or was I getting on, I was holding up his schedule. In my greatest duke/clint walk, I entered his bus, and to the drivers great surprise and subsequent fear, lifted him out of his seat by the lapels of his jacket, and proceeded to educate him about the etiquette required from him from this point on to all senior citizens. Further, if I got any report of his belligerent talk, and impolite attitudes, he would be eternally sorry. Of course, he cringed like a beaten dog and acknowledged his wicked ways and promised to correct them. I smiled the smile of righteousness and thought it would be nice and proper if he stood and apologized to all his passengers for his misdeeds, which of course he did. The folks on the bus gave him the look that promised if he did not change they would again contact elderly-man and he would be forever sorry. Then they all stood, smiling and applauded him for his good work. Elderly-man puffed out his chest, smiled the smile of right and good, gave them a wave and off he went, another bad mannered ruffian set right.

"Well," she shouted, "are you going to do what I asked or do I have to do everything around here? You're such a wuss."

Oh if she only knew, he thought, and he smiled that elderly-man smile.

Seasons

This is one of the nicest autumns we have had here in our neck of the woods for many a year. It started early and has been putting on a glorious show of color every day. The trees are now dropping their leaves as autumn wind gusts blow through. Bordering our driveway are several trees, maples, a magnolia, and a red japanese maple. As we were leaving today for a shopping run we noticed the driveway looks like a mosaic painting. Fallen yellow leaves, turns to red leaves, back to yellow again, a true portrait of nature. Of course they will have to go, but not for a while.

The picture above is from a little walking expedition Hazel and I went on a couple days ago. The photos are courtesy of her. I would like to put all of them up, but with a digital camera she can and does take massive amounts of snaps, so it's choose the one that best expresses the moment.

The election is finally coming to an end.
I have been away from the blog for a while. Even old guys who are retired from the daily grind of making money like to get away from anything that smacks of a duty. But now I am back to comment on, what else, the election. I am sure most of us made up our minds long ago who we would vote for. I did after the debates, but it is a daunting experience having to listen to these two guys snipe back and forth. Nobody is listening anymore except the undecideds, that small group who will most certainly decide the election. Kazillions of dollars have been wasted by these guys in stating that only they have the answers to all that ails us. They carp and they snipe and spout hate at each other until I cannot stand much more. It would never stop if the election process went on for years. These guys are so diametrical opposites politically they cannot agree that blue is blue. Bush believes that no government at all is the best government and Kerry believes government is necessary to make life more equitable for all the citizens. They will never agree that there is a middle ground there somewhere. Until politicians come along that believe that's the case, times will get rougher and we will become more polorized, left and right. I hope I live long enough to see the left, and right come together somewhere closer to the middle. Until then please get out and vote and hope it get's completed in one day.