Part Two

`Tis the Sunday before Xmas and Casey is here doing a leaf blowing job so that Santa won’t get lost in the leaves. It is too wet to blow them in my neighbor’s yard so we had to bite the bullet and get them cleaned up. It was also possible for the Scotties to go out in the back yard and hide. They could not be found under all those leaves. He has finished just before dark and he and Anita are now checking the tire pressure on the mdx. We haven’t checked the tires in some time and it is now time for that to happen. It will give the air compressor in the garage something else to do. Goodyear tires are not high on my list this year so I will do my best to take care of them. We will also have to change two lights in the garage as they are becoming unreliable; will see to that as well. My being reduced in what I can do leaves a good bit for Casey to help us with.

I heard from one of my best Springhill neighbors. They are coming over and we are going to share in our pizza party. I think they would like to open a new political party in LA and why not name it the Pizza Party since it has such great potential as to the toppings. In all of the holiday time we are not lacking in governmental taxation problems. Going somewhere to be taxed has a familiar ring to it these days. Holding on to this holiday must feel something like attempting to hold a birthday party in a hurricane.

Many people state their uneasiness with what our collective future will turn out to be and what our medical future will be as well. The daily reports of the national bartering between parties have many a person hoping that there just might be a Santa. Once again when the things we have believed and valued are threatened and changed, then the chaos isn’t funny anymore. And it looks like Santa isn’t the only target on the board. I hope that we will bring our doubts and worries to our faith and allow scripture, faith and the presence of God confirm for us that the very things that we think are being threatened will turn out to be the very things that will prepare and enable us to face what is in our near future.

I just made another error in the text above this one. I began typing without finding where the cursor was and I made some alphabet hash out of what I thought I had finished. I will get started here and then try to go back and fix it. If the above makes no sense, then you will know that I need to work on it again. I want to tell you about Christmas and Charlie Horse. When I was a freshman in high school, I was fortunate to have my dad buy me a young horse named Charlie; he was half quarter horse and half Tennessee Walker and Dad paid the whopping price of fifty dollars for him. It was the best Xmas gift ever. Charlie Horse and I became constant companions even though I was busy with sports, high school, grades, and just trying to grow up without falling off the tracks. I rode him every weekend until I graduated from high school and went off to summer school at lsu after graduation. One of the hardest things in growing up was having to say good bye to Charlie.
I kept Charlie in E. B. Smith’s pasture and I would go out and get him every Friday after school let out. We had a small chicken shed behind the garage that I converted into a stall.

The first thing I had to learn about Charlie was how to catch him in a big pasture with other horses and one Brahma bull. Charlie would not let you get close to him if he saw anything in your hand that looked like a rope, halter, etc. And you could not take food into the pasture to entice him because that only got me a lotta bull and that was not a good thing to have to face when he so often had a attitude problem; can you imagine that, a Brahma bull with a bad attitude. I always had to know where he was any time I wanted to catch Charlie and ride him home.

I think that there were five horses in that big pasture. So my method was to follow the fence around to where they were. I could not just strike off across the pasture because of that bull. He had hooked two of the horses and so his mean attitude was a real thing to be considered. I had to stay close enough to the fence to escape if that became necessary. He did put me to flight more than once. There was a palomino mare named Dolly that was approachable and she and I were friends. I would walk out to Dolly, ignoring Charlie, and begin petting Dolly.

After a time, Charlie just couldn’t stand it anymore. He would walk up behind me and nudge me in the back. I would be in no hurry to acknowledge him, and he would nudge me again. I would then pat him on the neck, slip off my belt and ease it around his neck. This method worked every time and in an open pasture it was the only method that worked. Some people are like Charlie. If you are too direct in approaching them, they will run. I guess we all have ways that are more likely to get our cooperation than some others. I know that I am like that. I even think Brahma bulls can be that way too. In all the time I rode Charlie by the railroad tracks, we only had one encounter with a train. Much of my riding was done along the right of way of the railroad. The LA Arkansas Railroad went from Little Rock to Shreveport and was lightly trafficked. One Saturday afternoon I was riding Charlie and got caught in a section of railroad that was fenced in by pastures. It was a long distance but good riding. As we were on our way back from riding the Arkansas line I heard a diesel freight train coming along behind us. I had nowhere to go so I turned Charlie around so that he and I could watch the train approach.

I was concerned that the engineer would blow that diesel’s road horn but that did not happen. So I was greatly pleased that Charlie and I just sat there and watched the freight train go by. I rode Charlie every weekend that I could during my four years in high school and he never bolted at anything. He was steady and dependable and loads of fun. He would occasionally blow his disapproval at something but he didn’t get us in trouble one single time. And he and I went everywhere. We would often leave early Saturday morning and rove around the country all day, ending up back at the house around sundown. I realize now just how idyllic those years were in a most innocent time. I guess I grew up in some of the best times this nation has known. I still think of Charlie and me every now and then and it never fails to help me smile.

On New Year’s Eve the paper mill in Springhill would blow their huge steam whistle as the announcement of the arrival of the New Year. You could hear that steam whistle for miles and it was a truly great sounding steam whistle. On a cold clear night you could be outside in the yard as I always was and could hear that sound. It would echo in a haunting way as it moved through the air of the countryside. That too is a fine memory and I remembered that sound as the New Year came around just a few weeks ago. You don’t hear steam whistles much anymore, but they really had a great sound. Here’s to the great old sounds of steam whistles and here’s to a really whistling New Year of ten.

It is now the middle of January. Football is over for colleges and the pros are in the playoffs this very day. It is amazing how time can sweep along and take us with it. Sometimes it seems that the world is getting too crazy for many of us. Hold on tight and don’t let your children out of your sight. That could pass for a modern motto as the world of politics and change go roaring along. I just might be getting too old for all this confusion. How about you and your handling of the confusion factor?

We have just about done with this month and February is near. My holidays turned out much better than I expected in that I managed my emotional level better than previous years. I hope I continue to be able to adjust to this blind world and learn how to live in it as best I can. That will take attention and work, but me and my team ought to get it done. So on we go in ten and here is to all of us living ten as well as we can. I will now start some extraneous thoughts for February. I hope that the you all group will stay in touch.