Your column is like the dawn after a great snow storm when the storm moves on to leave clear cold skies. The breaking of that dawn with a star filled sky in the west. Frost on the windows from a drop in temperature. Followed by a feeling of renewed hope and wonder for the new day. As for the Senate discussing how to address climate change, there would have to be three thousand great snow storms with snow tornadoes and glaciers before such a session would happen.
We are lucky indeed that these seemingly teen healthcare providers know precisely which buttons to push to keep our engines running, and which pills we must take to jumpstart us on these colder days. Take your homeland for example this morning....brrrr. We are well below zero up here this morning. Years ago my old second-hand straight up 51 Ford coupe would have slept outside alone, shivering as engines must. We crossed our fingers, said a prayer, and were careful not to flood the engine. We then flicked the ignition key for just a few seconds, and Lord be praised, broom-broom went the engine...and me on my way to class.
On those snowy days we often stopped to help push some poor driver out of a snowdrift. Given our Adonis statures back then, we didn't throw our back out helping someone. We called it a Spiritual Work of Mercy in our church, and it made a guy feel good about serving those in need. Today, like you, I am only a few steps short of those senior facilities you cite, safe for a bit longer because my strong and smart wife shovels our driveway, and later reminds me of what tasks I'm still able to do. More I could not ask.
All this "age of discontent" aside up here on the tundra, unlike you, GK, I do wish we were back on that gulfside sandy Florida beach sucking up the warm sunshine (and lathered with the 3 digit SPF lotions my dear spouse provides me). I am now reading a good book written by a witty Irishman. I wish I were in that recliner on that warming sand, reading and watching the dolphins play. I am told they too are quite smart. Stay warm.
I'm originally from New Jersey and I recently moved with my darling bride, who is significantly more sensible than I, to North Carolina where the weather is less angry than the tri-state area and less pretentious than those in the states you mentioned south of me. So we get a mix of everything where we are but usually above freezing. From what I am told, just the mention of snow in these parts has people stranded in their cars. Being from New Jersey, I find myself in short sleeves going to get the mail at the end of the driveway and I get looks from my neighbors who are likely poised with their cell phones in hand ready to call the nice young men in their white coats to take me away.
Twenty years ago, we bought a small off-grid farm in upstate New York, smack dab in the middle of the snow belt where lake effect snows are a real thing. And at this very moment that is where I find myself and I am watching snow fall on my new truck. Unlike me, it has never seen snow or driven in it. So it is about to get a lesson in the next day or so on how to drive in the snow, which I have not forgotten how to do. You never forget, like riding a bicycle, it comes back to you.
So though you have surrendered your Minnesota and New York driving to your more capable wife, I'm pretty sure you could navigate your way around and maybe even toss a "Gosh darn it" at some disrespectful opponent on wheels.
My dad was a truck driver in Minn. our first Xmas in NC ( i was13) was depressingly warm but an ice stint on Xmas Eve. Roads were terrible but dad proudly drove the family to midnight mass. He always blasted Southerners for their lack of driving abilities in the snow ( he was raised in the south so he could criticize). I think the only people in church that messy night were displaced Yankees with no fear of icy roads.
I LOVE your solution to the Senate deep freeze! Five southern state senators waylaid by something that we Northerners have to be prepared to deal with annually!
It reminds me of the time I was driving a Northern car on a snowy Interstate in Oklahoma. It was like driving through one of those pencil and paper puzzles of a maze with openings here and there. With my firm, snow-tired grip on the road, I zipped in and out through a maze of trucks that were all doing ten to twenty mph. It would look, from the air, like a pipe that was completely plugged. With the magic of technology and experience, I got to the "Free-Way" ahead of the first two miscreants. Then I had the road blissfully to myself all the way to Norman!
If only those of us who see the wisdom of Biden's agenda could weave our way out of this roadblock as easily!
I am afraid that I does not matter whether they have a snowstorm or not. The Congress is pretty much dysfunctional even on pretty summer days when transportation is not interrupted. Of course, the fact that they are dysfunctional is probably a good thing; they might pass some good helpful legislation, but on the other hand they very well might pass some bad legislation.
Or they might be holding "hearings" where the Congress Critters and Senators try to see who is the best at "grandstanding" for the cameras and media.
Meanwhile the majority of the Supremes want to take us back, legally and politically and socially, to the 1920's.
One more point, the Alabama Legislature is in session this week and for the next few weeks. That is always a time of great danger. In 1866, someone in New York said that "No man's (or woman's) life, liberty, or property is safe while the legislature is in session." If we are lucky, they will continue to do nothing for the remainder of the session.
Best wishes to one and all and remember to stay positive. Things could be much worse.
Washington has not been itself since its football team was stripped of its name . What word conveys "all that D.C. is to us? "Loons" would fit, but it's taken.....Hmm?
Loved this column. Humorous and right on the money. Smugness is a major problem in the world.
Your column is like the dawn after a great snow storm when the storm moves on to leave clear cold skies. The breaking of that dawn with a star filled sky in the west. Frost on the windows from a drop in temperature. Followed by a feeling of renewed hope and wonder for the new day. As for the Senate discussing how to address climate change, there would have to be three thousand great snow storms with snow tornadoes and glaciers before such a session would happen.
We are lucky indeed that these seemingly teen healthcare providers know precisely which buttons to push to keep our engines running, and which pills we must take to jumpstart us on these colder days. Take your homeland for example this morning....brrrr. We are well below zero up here this morning. Years ago my old second-hand straight up 51 Ford coupe would have slept outside alone, shivering as engines must. We crossed our fingers, said a prayer, and were careful not to flood the engine. We then flicked the ignition key for just a few seconds, and Lord be praised, broom-broom went the engine...and me on my way to class.
On those snowy days we often stopped to help push some poor driver out of a snowdrift. Given our Adonis statures back then, we didn't throw our back out helping someone. We called it a Spiritual Work of Mercy in our church, and it made a guy feel good about serving those in need. Today, like you, I am only a few steps short of those senior facilities you cite, safe for a bit longer because my strong and smart wife shovels our driveway, and later reminds me of what tasks I'm still able to do. More I could not ask.
All this "age of discontent" aside up here on the tundra, unlike you, GK, I do wish we were back on that gulfside sandy Florida beach sucking up the warm sunshine (and lathered with the 3 digit SPF lotions my dear spouse provides me). I am now reading a good book written by a witty Irishman. I wish I were in that recliner on that warming sand, reading and watching the dolphins play. I am told they too are quite smart. Stay warm.
I'm originally from New Jersey and I recently moved with my darling bride, who is significantly more sensible than I, to North Carolina where the weather is less angry than the tri-state area and less pretentious than those in the states you mentioned south of me. So we get a mix of everything where we are but usually above freezing. From what I am told, just the mention of snow in these parts has people stranded in their cars. Being from New Jersey, I find myself in short sleeves going to get the mail at the end of the driveway and I get looks from my neighbors who are likely poised with their cell phones in hand ready to call the nice young men in their white coats to take me away.
Twenty years ago, we bought a small off-grid farm in upstate New York, smack dab in the middle of the snow belt where lake effect snows are a real thing. And at this very moment that is where I find myself and I am watching snow fall on my new truck. Unlike me, it has never seen snow or driven in it. So it is about to get a lesson in the next day or so on how to drive in the snow, which I have not forgotten how to do. You never forget, like riding a bicycle, it comes back to you.
So though you have surrendered your Minnesota and New York driving to your more capable wife, I'm pretty sure you could navigate your way around and maybe even toss a "Gosh darn it" at some disrespectful opponent on wheels.
My dad was a truck driver in Minn. our first Xmas in NC ( i was13) was depressingly warm but an ice stint on Xmas Eve. Roads were terrible but dad proudly drove the family to midnight mass. He always blasted Southerners for their lack of driving abilities in the snow ( he was raised in the south so he could criticize). I think the only people in church that messy night were displaced Yankees with no fear of icy roads.
I LOVE your solution to the Senate deep freeze! Five southern state senators waylaid by something that we Northerners have to be prepared to deal with annually!
It reminds me of the time I was driving a Northern car on a snowy Interstate in Oklahoma. It was like driving through one of those pencil and paper puzzles of a maze with openings here and there. With my firm, snow-tired grip on the road, I zipped in and out through a maze of trucks that were all doing ten to twenty mph. It would look, from the air, like a pipe that was completely plugged. With the magic of technology and experience, I got to the "Free-Way" ahead of the first two miscreants. Then I had the road blissfully to myself all the way to Norman!
If only those of us who see the wisdom of Biden's agenda could weave our way out of this roadblock as easily!
O Allah! Would to Allah that it be so!
😂🤣😂🤣
Garrison,
I am afraid that I does not matter whether they have a snowstorm or not. The Congress is pretty much dysfunctional even on pretty summer days when transportation is not interrupted. Of course, the fact that they are dysfunctional is probably a good thing; they might pass some good helpful legislation, but on the other hand they very well might pass some bad legislation.
Or they might be holding "hearings" where the Congress Critters and Senators try to see who is the best at "grandstanding" for the cameras and media.
Meanwhile the majority of the Supremes want to take us back, legally and politically and socially, to the 1920's.
One more point, the Alabama Legislature is in session this week and for the next few weeks. That is always a time of great danger. In 1866, someone in New York said that "No man's (or woman's) life, liberty, or property is safe while the legislature is in session." If we are lucky, they will continue to do nothing for the remainder of the session.
Best wishes to one and all and remember to stay positive. Things could be much worse.
Just subscribed because a friend told me about this. I LOVE
Just subscribed because a friend told me about this. I LOVE being able to read your words. Almost as great as hearing you read them.
Washington has not been itself since its football team was stripped of its name . What word conveys "all that D.C. is to us? "Loons" would fit, but it's taken.....Hmm?