With my not being scheduled to play at one of the churches this morning, left me footloose and fancy free to do whatever came to mind once I had my Sunday morning contemplative session completed, and once that was done, I decided to get some yard and garden work completed before the temps started to rise.
After about three hours of dealing with those wicked gnats, I finally called it quits, but to my delight, after getting the weeding done and sticks picked up, I decided to check on the size of my carrots, and would you believe, I managed to get a good half-dozen of beautiful eight inch-long harvested, which looked even better than any I’d planted in previous year. Yes, all the rain we received, definitely helped with all our root crops.
Before heading to my next project, I spent about an hour getting cooled-off and since I was back in the downtown, I decided to pay a visit to Birdsall’s Ice Cream parlor which I hadn’t purchased any ice cream from in a good five or six years. Oh my gosh! When I went to pay for my one scoop of ice cream on a sugar cone, my bill was somewhere around three dollars and sixty cents, which just about floored me. I dare say it didn’t taste any different than what I had years before, and after I finished it up, all I could think of, was the cost of a half gallon of my all-time favorite Tillamook Ice Cream being about $6.50, along with considering how many scoops I’d have out of that tub. Wow! I sure hope they can keep their doors open because I don’t think I’ll be spending that kind of money for a single-scoop ice cream cone anytime soon. Oh, and what I thought would hit the spot while at Birdsall’s, was ordering a hot fudge sundae malt, but there was no way I would’ve paid over six dollars for a small one. Sorry, that would’ve been too rich for my blood.
The remainder of my day was spent working over at my little/big project which kept me away from the gnats and blistering heat all afternoon, and luckily I did manage to get accomplished what I’d set out to do, so I was left feeling I had a darned good day of it.
While I was on one of my little breaks, I decided to call a friend of mine, just to have a little chat about several happenings within our city’s administration which was recently published in the Globe Gazette. I dare not even go there regarding the our thoughts about it all, but I can say it was just one more example of how freely and willingly our City spends our hard-earned tax dollars. I couldn’t help adding, “Just remember, the rich will continue to get richer, while the poor will always be with us.” How sad, but true.
I’m sure a few of my ‘reli’s’ ears were burning late this afternoon, and only because my long-time friend/client began asking me questions about them, so I went ahead freely and willing sharing the cold and hard facts. I was glad to find she’d also lived thru a great deal of extra stress and heartaches when handling the affairs of a relative. My gosh! I can’t believe how many people I’ve worked with in the past, who’d gone thru similar trying times. But for me, I’m ever-thankful for permanently closing, bolting and welding the doors to those who’d created an unforgivable number of hardships for yours truly. My friend starting acting a bit sorry for me, but I abruptly interrupted her and stated, “In spite of what happened, I consider the end results a blessing in disguise because since the time those doors were closed, I felt as if a ton of baggage had been lifted off my shoulders.” As a footnote, I must insist that if you feel someone is dragging you down or metaphysically abusing you for whatever reason, get them out of your lives as quickly as possible, and this time I really mean it!
While driving down 1st St. NW late this afternoon and nearing the corner of 1st NW and N. Pierce, I was reminded of a horrible accident an old schoolmate of mine was in, which was caused by a guy rear-ending him at that stop sign which is not visible until you’re very near that corner, which in my mind, is something that should never be at any given intersection with a stop sign. The reason for that sign being a half-hidden stop, is because the trunk of a very large maple tree is blocking it from full view. After that accident, I’m surprised our City didn’t have it cut down, but of course there are all the many more stop signs around town which are hard to see due to either tree trunks or large tree limbs hanging down in front of them. There’s no question our city needs to hire a real-live arborist instead of freely and willingly throwing our tax dollars to the wind. Like I said many-a-time, they build-out all these so-called draws for tourists and small segments of our population, but they can’t seem to take care of them as they should be. Like my old ones used to say from time to time, “If you can’t take care of something, you have no business having it.” How much more true can those words be?
Tonight’s One-liner is: Evil is knowing better, but willingly doing worse.
