Tag Archives: senior citizens

Never trust a Free Mason who doesn’t look older than you.

Posted on October 24, 2013 by | 7 comments

At least don’t trust them more than you’d trust anyone else.  Josephus Minimus 

Hi readers.  Thanks for coming by for a read.

Free Mason who didn’t look a day older than me sidled up to me in the hardware store parking lot yesterday.  “I want to sell you a ticket to a fish fry.  I hope you’ll come join us for a while.”  He gestured with a packet of tickets.  “We’ll have a lot of prizes to give away in drawings.”

Respectable enough looking guy, but too damned young to be a Free Mason, thinks I.  For something to say courteous to him, “What’s the cost?”

He told me and I’d run spang out of conversation pieces.  There’s a fish fry I might attend for the Harper Fire Department in a week or so, but I didn’t figure I’d care to drive to Kerrville for one.  “So when is it?”

“Ah.  That’s the catch.  It’s in March.”

“March?  I figure I’ll be dead or somewhere else in March.”

He shrugged.  “I wish I could join you.”

Two things seem clear to me. 

  • The guy was older than he looked.  A lot older, assuming he’s a Free Mason.  Probably uses some kind of Free Mason black magic keeping himself looking young like regular people. 
  • Secondly, he was trying to trick me into having to stay around here until March, 2014.  Likely has some sort of Free Mason conspiracy doings.  Wanting to tanglefoot me into them.

Anyway, having deftly sidestepped the Free Mason Conspiracy I had a good trip to town, generally.  Got me a water pump to get water from a container on the ground up into the RV tank.  Impeller with hose bibs on each side, shaft to turn it fits into the chuck of an electric drill.  Moves 250 gallons an hour.  That thing’s going to save me some heavy lifting in the future. $6.95 US.  2013 dollars.

Also picked up a set of fancydancy 21st Century screwdriver heads of all different shapes and sizes to foil the efforts of engineers everywhere.  And a damned cheapass volt meter.

Then down at the Dollar Tree store picked up all manner of things a person needs to get by in this life, each for a dollar.  A person can spend a $20 bill in there and come away with $100 worth of groceries anywhere else.  [32 oz box-like containers of MSG-free beef or chicken broth for $1 US each.  I bought 128 oz, two of each.  Stocking up for The End of Life as We Know It – TEOLAWKI.  MSG free TEOLAWKI won’t bring back telephones, computers and radiation levels people can survive in, but it beats boiling 2-headed mutant horses to add flavor.]

Stopped on the way home to talk to the guy up the hill.  He told me about the Marfa Lights, which I’ve heard of over the years, but never seen.  Came away entertaining the thought I might swing out that way and have a look when I get out of here.

Lessons in life, flashes of insight about things I haven’t done yet, and busted a Free Mason conspiracy.  All in one day.

Life is good.

Old Jules

7 Comments

Posted in 2013, America, Human Behavior, Texas

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Cargo trailers, self-imposed deadlines and season changes

Posted on October 17, 2013 by | 7 comments

cargo trailer2

Good morning readers.  Thanks for coming by for a read.

That cargo trailer’s being a Communist.  Not a Joseph Stalin, more on the order of, say, Fidel Castro.  But enough to force me to think up all the ways I’m grateful for having it, repeating them to myself.

That rear door, the first time I fixed it, decided to show me why it had a problem in the first place.  Explained to me that the bottom frame member and the bottoms of the two vertical side frame members were rotted badly.  Not rotted enough to make them easy to remove once the bottom piece fell off when I opened the door after the first fix.  Just rotten enough to justify another fix.

Been working on that, trying to do it without pulling the door off to make it easier because I figure getting it back on will be a bear if I do.  Lots of hours and needs to remind myself how grateful I am to have that trailer.

Meanwhile the earth reached the place on its circuit around Old Sol, started throwing rain at me.  I’m not one to ever complain about rain, but I do enjoy avoiding working with extension cords and power tools when I’m likely to fry myself.

I’m still thinking I’ll make my self-imposed deadline to get out of here before October takes a bow to the audience, but time’s squeezing up on me, conspiring to make it more a challenge than I figured on.

Old Jules

7 Comments

Posted in 2013, America, Transportation

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401Ks and IRAs touring Atlantis

Posted on October 13, 2013 by | 8 comments

Speaking of savings and shell games.

Privatizning the Social Security Administration ought to seal things up. Close the doors and call the law to get the vagrants off the streets.

Privatizing the Social Security Administration ought to seal things up. Close the doors and call the law to get the vagrants off the streets.

My friend Rich worked most of his life for one of the phone companies going around testing and fixing whatever the hell goes wrong with them.  Spang came nigh unto getting runned over by out-of-control cars, getting electrocuted, all the dangers of being a working man.

But he was prudent.  Constantly did the wise, advised thing every month, investing in 401K and IRAs just as wise advisors said a person ought to so’s to have some security in old age retirement.

Had himself a comfortable pile of money in there when it came retirement time, looked forward to his remaining years without financial worries or woes.

Then he noticed his money was going away without him touching it.  Spang, suddenly the value of his 401Ks and IRA shrunk, then shrunk some more, vanished into the Twilight Zone.

Hell of a bargain for him because he didn’t have to go to the trouble of spending it.  Whatever the hell happened to that money, evidently someone somewhere else who didn’t go to the trouble of saving it must have stuck in his pockets, bought a new Mercedes, snorted some really good stuff.

So now old Rich draws his Social Security pension and tries to live on it, same as so many others.  Doesn’t have to worry about what kinds of things he might buy if he had that money.

All he has to worry about now is whether the US government will keep paying him his Social Security pension, or whether they’ll turn it over to the same people who handled his 401Ks and IRAs.

Life goes on.

Old Jules

8 Comments

Posted in 2013, America, Current Issues, Education

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Wild as a Texas blue norther

Posted on October 6, 2013 by | 6 comments

Hi readers. Thanks for coming by for a read.

This norther turned out to be not all that wild, but it spang brought the first taste of fall.  Caught me not knowing exactly where I’ve got my sleeping caps stored away.  Had to settle for a sweatsuit jacket with a hood.

Cats mostly stayed in the RV with me during the night, though they had to trip outdoors occasionally to make certain things were going okay out there.  Didn’t take them long to decide everything was hunkie dorie enough to scratch on the screen and trust to the Universe to protect things from the space aliens sneaking around out there.

Heluva a fine morning out there.  More stars than I’ve seen for a while, Orion and the Pleiades romancing.

The Toyota RV should be gone from here within the next few days, along with the old 4 Runner and the pickup-bed trailer, got a guy wants the chainlink dog-runs I used for a chicken pen, too.  Put my Toyota RV Onan generator up on Craigslist a few days ago, but it hasn’t drawn any excitement.  Might have to lower my expectations about the value of it.

ONAN RV generator sell or trade for Moped – $275 (Harper, Texas)

http://bigbend.craigslist.org/rvs/4111000059.html

So here I am being methodical about running off into the sunset, which represents something of a behavioral change for me.  But I’m getting a bit long in the tooth to be responding to the wild as a Texas blue norther side of my youthful character I’ve always tried to nurture.

I’m figuring by the end of October I’ll be somewhere I don’t need to be wild to still have a few challenges and healthy moments of self-doubt.

I still have to figure out some way of getting a mailing address in the neighborhood of the Texas/New Mexico boundary, which is probably going to be challenge enough for most usual purposes.

Old Jules

6 Comments

Posted in 2013, Adventure

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The European circumcision crisis

Posted on October 5, 2013 by | 3 comments

Hi readers.  Thanks for coming by for a read.

Most of us probably go through life without doing a lot of thinking about circumcision.  I know I have, though I recall being fairly pleased I’d been through it as an infant when my old friend Vic had to have it done at the age of 30.

But in Europe I suppose someone decided just anyone ought not go around cutting the foreskins off male babies unless they’d had a bit of medical training.  They passed a law saying so.  Which thoroughly pissed off Israel, who pronounced it racist.  Evidently Jews and Arabs do it all the time and it’s worked out more-or-less okay.

I suppose if I had to choose and someone was going to take a knife to my pecker I’d rather they knew a little something about what they were doing, but I honestly don’t have a clue.  Mine might have gotten chewed off by a space alien for all I know.

Back in the 1960s there was a joke about a guy, said he got a job at a hospital as a circumcisor.  Said it paid 30 skins a week and a chance to get a head.

And during the ’70s Homer Henderson and the Dalworthian Garden Boys recorded a song, Hillbilly Pecker, about a kid who wasn’t circumcised.  Experienced some trauma when he discovered everyone else was.

HOMER HENDERSON Hillbilly Pecker .

But other than that I haven’t done much thinking about it.  Don’t know whether it’s racist, or not, just anyone taking a blade to a foreskin.

Likely there’ll be shots fired over it before the Europeans and Israel get it worked out.

Old Jules

3 Comments

Posted in 2013, Current Issues

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Good solid evil just isn’t that easy to come by

Posted on October 1, 2013 by | 6 comments

Hi readers.

The old Satanist wearing the Vietnam Veteran cap I wrote about a couple of weeks ago was at the coin laundry again.  He was telling me the difference between Satanists and devil worshipers, which he isn’t one of, he says.

“Even the devil worshipers,” he explained, “Just aren’t all that evil.  They try, but it’s mostly just waving a bloody shirt at it.”

“Devil worshipers try but can’t pull it off?”  Me, thinking this over.

“That’s right.  You’d think there’d be plenty of evil for them to get into, but the really evil people don’t want anything to do with them.  Not even the somewhat evil people, Catholics, Jews, Baptists and Muslims.  They find out a person’s a devil worshiper they think poorly of him.  Even when they’re jumping the hurdles for award-winning evil.”

Shaking my head.  “I never knew that.  You’d think especially Catholics and Zionists and Muslims would open their arms and their hearts to honest-to-goodness no-shit devil worshipers.  Why is that, do you think?”

He shook his head, too.  “I don’t know why it is.  I’m not a devil worshiper and I’m not any of those others.  I’m just a Satanist trying to get through life as best I can.  But if I wanted to be really evil I’d have one hell of a time managing to do it.  I wouldn’t know where to start.”

Old Jules

6 Comments

Posted in 2013, America, Spirituality

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Where’s the goat with the gold plated horns?

Posted on October 1, 2013 by | 17 comments

Hi readers.  Thanks for coming by for a read.

The hmmm government is shut down.  Federal holiday of sorts, I reckons.

NSA’s almost certainly still bugging your phone today. Homeland Security people are sitting around backyard barbeques bouncing around ideas for the next terrorist scare.  The war profiteers are still working three shifts trying to find computers fast enough to tally up the money they’re making, but months behind in doing it.  International Bankers are sitting around boardrooms thinking up reasons they need bailing out with a government injection.

But, the hmm government’s shut down.  Scary stuff. 

Imagine all the stuff government does that won’t get done today.  Without anyone noticing it, all kinds of stuff I can’t think of right now isn’t getting done, and if I had any inkling what it was it would probably rattle me down to my bootheels.

Heck, what if that stuff doesn’t get done tomorrow?  Or ten years from now?  Hells bells, eventually someone would notice.  Scaryscaryscary.

But what’s going on is intended to fill the heads of people who pay attention to what the government is doing.  Assume, for the sake of the argument, this whole thing is theater.  An illusion of drama to keep everyone focused.

Where is the goat with the golden horns?  What is ACTUALLY going on someone doesn’t want you seeing because you’re too busy worrying the FDA and US Department of Agriculture are home not protecting you from genetic modified food grains and Monsanto?

Where’s the goat with the gold plated horns?

I don’t know the answer and I’m not searching for one.  But if I were I’d stand as much chance for success as I’d have going to Israel collecting money for the Palestinian Relief Fund.

Likely as not it’s something fairly large though.  The dust will settle, the government will go back to work, and you can bet there’ll be something brand, spanking new crept onto the scene when you weren’t looking.

Old Jules

17 Comments

Posted in 2013, America, Government, Human Behavior

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Minneconjou Lakota Texan – another busted stereotype

Posted on September 29, 2013 by | 2 comments

Long memories

A few old guys of the same species sitting around Kerrville, Texas wondering where the world went.  Each too different from the others to guess which parts they missed.  Old guy the others knew walked up and sat down.

Silver gray hair in a ponytail, 70ish, shorts and sandals with athletic stockings, heavyset.  We shook hands and I studied his features.  In Texas he looked definitely out-of-place, though he could have been Hispanic throwback gene pool.  But something in the features and skin pigment had me suspecting he was a Navajo or Apache.  A curiosity because Native Americans aren’t much drawn to Texas as a home.

Finally my puzzlement got the best of me.  “Where are you from?”

He grinned at the others, then at me.  “I’m Swedish.”

“Yeah, but what TRIBE Swedish?”

Minneconjou Lakota, it turned out.  Born in a US Public Health hospital on the Rez in Minnesota.  Mama a party woman, no idea who his pappa was.  Reared by his grandma, then sent off to Indian School.  Learned to be a welder and pipe-fitter.

By 1970-or-so he was up in Alaska on the North Slope a few years building the first Alaskan pipeline across the permafrost.  Had a few stories to tell about that, then all of us began picking his mind for all manner of details.  “How deep did they have to go setting the pilings holding up those pipe joints?”  “How were you housed?”  And so on.

Turned out all the oil from that field was shipped directly to Japan.  US refineries weren’t tuned to that sort of crude.  But the fields are still producing.

Guy has a tribal census number, but never went back to live on the Rez, but visited his grandma there until she died.  Brought tears to his eyes thinking about her.  Never used the free health-care/dental-care for life benefit available to him because of the tribal census number US Public Health Service offers.

“I worked hard all my life and settled here.  Paid my own way every step along.  Making a lifetime job of being an Indian didn’t appeal to me much.  When they quit shooting us they tried to offer that as the next best thing. 

“They’re still trying, got all those liberal white people to worship blanket Indians.  Better than getting shot, but not as good as kicking the whole damned mess.”  He shook his head.  “Damned white people and their congratulations for being victims will finish off all the ones left.”

Nice meeting him.  I hope I see him again before I head for the tall timber.  Being born into a trap doesn’t mean there’s no escaping it, I reckons.

Old Jules

2 Comments

Posted in 2013, America, Human Behavior, Native American, Native Americans, Texas

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Denouements

Posted on September 29, 2013 by | 3 comments

Good morning readers.  Thanks for coming by for a read.

Certain types of problems seem to follow us through life, probably so’s the Universe can teach us whatever lessons it is we’re supposed to be learning during this one.  Frequently we’re slow coming to an understanding as to what ours are.  Mine, I suspect, probably are a consequence of karma acquired during a previous lifetime involving motor vehicles.

Which I hadn’t realized until I began looking at all the posts here involving transportation during my stay here.  One piece of that saga was the Toyota 4 Runner that carried me to this piece of real estate in 2008.  And became a subplot microsaga:

 Got me a new truck!

 Confession Time

The New Truck Resurrection

The Communist Toyota 4-Runner

A long one.  And one I’m finally going to apply a razor to.  I’ve found a guy who’ll follow me back out here next time I go to Kerrville, and put that 4 Runner onto a car dolly, pull it out of my life.

I went out and put the wheel back on it, took it off blocks and pushed it up the hill with the Toyota RV far enough so’s we’ll be able to get it onto the dolly.  Gale and the guy up the hill came out and improved the road enough yesterday with some machinery so’s a regular person will be able to get in and out of the valley without blowing a tire.

It’s not easy for me to part with that 4 Runner.  Lots of life history events trapped in it, but it’s clear enough the time’s come for a denouement.  Turns out I’ll be doing something similar with the Toyota RV, because Jeanne’s son, Michael’s decided it’s not the best option for him.

I’m willing to believe, for the moment, that when the 4 Runner goes out of this valley I’ll have poured enough of the life-ingredients into it to have filled whatever hole it was the vehicle challenges demanded of me this lifetime and I can have some other kind for a while.

Gracias, Jack

3 Comments

Posted in 2013, America, Texas, Transportation, Trucks

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A place to live if the RV breaks down

Posted on September 14, 2013 by | 7 comments

Hi readers. I swapped Gale for this trailer, finalized it yesterday.

In addition to giving me the means to get my stuff out of this valley and into storage in Harper, I can live in this thing if the RV breaks down somewhere up the road. It’s light enough so a half-ton junker pickup truck can pull it.

It takes a considerable load off my mind. Both Gale and Raymond, the guy up the hill have pointed out if that RV quits I’ll be dead in the water. I tried not to let it bother me, but couldn’t help it nagging me some.

But with a Coleman stove and oven, my diesel burning heater, a bunk, I can live in this thing. Better than almost all my ancestors almost certainly lived before they left Europe. And certainly better than any Native American ancestors did.

The DuoTherm heater began life in the late 1940s or early ’50s as a kerosene trailer heater. The man up the hill had it, but we couldn’t get the carb to work. Eventually replaced the carb with a needle valve and converted it to diesel fuel, which is cheaper and more easily available.

Besides, if a person doesn’t have much he doesn’t have much to lose.

Old Jules

7 Comments

Posted in 2013, America, Texas, Transportation, Trucks

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