Blogging

     Many people start up a blog with all good intention.  But they don't realize that unless one loves to write, a blog is hard to keep up.  Usually a blog is based on a single or two ideas.  When they start with only that, they run out of gas very fast.  They could save themselves some time posting to Facebook or Twitter.  I think the blog landscape is littered with permanently abandoned and inactive fragments of interesting quotes if expanded and explained.  Approaching the numbers of discarded beer can pull tabs in beaches used for spring break weekends.   A big waste of brainpower.
     Once you expound your original premise; what's next.  I try to be aware of changes and perceptions of my surrounding environment during the day.  Pay attention to input from other people, TV and radio broadcasts and external events.  By noon, I have today's blog subject. 
      I have been remiss in learning all about Google blogging.  Some ideas I have might already be standard practice.  For example, abandoned blogs should just disappear.  I am always admonished in regard to my libido "use it or lose it." This reference to genitalia should also apply to blogs.  If there are no posts for six months.  Zap it out of existence, but keep a list of abandoned topics.  Reference to this list would spark one through a dry spell, a dearth of ideas.  Just my opinion.


     

No Home

       There's much written about homeless people.   At any given time, there are approximately  three million people without a home in this country.  These live on the streets, under bridges and overpasses or sheltered in tents, makeshift shacks or lean-to's.  Many caring individuals sincerely want to help but too many see them as potential converts to their particular brand of Christianity or Cult.  Bread in one hand and a bible or beads in the other.  Take one and you are obligated to take the other.
         Homeless shelters are too often a joke.  Don't go near one without your possessions firmly secured to your body.  Theft is rampant not only among the population but the staff is not averse to picking up some loose pretty bauble.  Even sleeping on one's shoes is not enough.  They need to have laces tied together and looped over the neck so attempting to remove them can't be done stealthily.
      This subject is too long and involves so many facets it can't really be done justice in a short blog essay.  At the behest of a dear old friend, I have created a new blog at  *(forthi567.blogspot.com )* to address this issue fully on a daily basis.  I will start with my own experiences and move on to a current person's daily life.  I haven't read up on this method so what I write is original thoughts , ideas and current situations.  I have made it public so if you want to check it out you can.



 

Marriage

          All civil contracts are not marriages but all marriages are civil contracts.  Over the years, strange customs have evolved concerning marriage rituals and forms.  In early America, usually lacking a judge, minister or registrar, jumping the broom was accepted as a legal marriage.  This involved the bride and groom grasping opposite ends of a broom and jumping over it to be legally married.  In early New England, they practiced shift law.  If the bride was naked or clad only in transparent under wear, the new groom couldn't be held responsible for her debts or if a widow, her dead husbands debts; kind of a rudimentary consumer protection law.  In present day Texas, if someone introduces another person as their mate and if the other person does not object,  they have formed a common law marriage and henceforth can file joint tax returns and enjoy any benefits accruing to marriage partners.
     Strangely enough, marriages arranged by parents or marriage brokers make for lasting bonds. Those marriages based on capricious love end in divorce 50% of the time and 60% when they try it again with a different partner.   On the other hand, arranged marriage success reaches well over 90%.
     I have been married 4 times with my present contract lasting for over 30 years.  I think that the worst scenario and bar to success is sleeping in the same bed together.  People snore, snort and make all manner of disgusting sounds and strange habits while in bed asleep or half awake.  All kind of destroy the mystique around one's partner.  Separate bedrooms are the way to go.  Both are happy and guilt free and will more willingly make the trek across the hall a little more often.  And enjoy it more.

Ghosts

     I think what people believe are ghosts or supernatural sightings are actually tricks of our own mind to explain anything that has no discernible cause.  In my own experience, I once heard a front door open and footsteps sounded going past where I had been sleeping.  Nothing was there and I was alone in the house.  Did I hear a ghost, a disembodied spirit, or some other unknown sound that my brain interpreted as a known sound; a door opening and footsteps?  I will never know.
     I don't think that when we die, we go wandering around in what seems like us in a dream and somehow are able to re-enter the natural world to contact anyone or influence some natural event.  I do believe we are transformed into some entity that can exist in another dimension while it waits to move on or be reborn into the present natural world.
     I certainly don't believe I will stand like a prisoner in the dock and be called to account for anything that might have displeased a heavenly judge.  If virtues don't outweigh transgression, I will be sentenced to everlasting punishment.  It's kind of satisfying to imagine evil people getting what they deserve.  Unfortunately, that's not going to happen according to what I believe.  It's why we make laws and try to punish prople while we can get our hands on them.  We, deep down, think the heavenly powers might screw up so we get them while we can.
     In short, ghosts and spirits are figments of our imagination, no matter how real and solid they appear to be or how much proof is proffered in defense of their existence.

Farmland

     Farmland?  We're running out of it.  When my forebears came to Texas in the late 1800's there was a plethora of arable land for the taking.  All they had to do was drive 4 stakes into the ground and anything inside that perimeter up to 640 acres became his farm.  Each of these early settlers paced off a square mile and claimed it.  What started out as free land now is worth in excess of a million dollars.  To farm this land, all one needed was a plow and an ox or mule to pull it.  Now, it takes nearly a half million in equipment to raise a decent crop of anything.  A majority of these family farms no longer exist having been absorbed into agri-businesses farming extraordinary acreages. Super farms as it were.  As the population of the world increases, food production must keep pace or too many people will die of malnutrition and starvation. Wars will be fought to gain more  land to grow turnips and cabbage.
     This quest for more land has decimated the massive rain forests of the Amazon River.  You would think it's just a bunch of trees that were cut down.  Unfortunately, that bunch of trees supplies over 20% of the world's oxygen supply. 

Cold ?

     First of all, there is no such thing as cold; there is only the absence of heat.  Heat is a thing, cold is not.  Heat is a measure of the activity of molecules in any substance.  This activity may be measured in different scales, all tied to water changes.  Most common in the US is the Fahrenheit scale.  Water turns to ice at 32 degrees and turns to steam at 212 degrees.  I learned this in science class,
      In real life, I learned that men and women run on different scales.  Women get cold when men are comfortable.  Men get hot when women are comfortable.  I suppose transsexuals are either always cold or always hot.  I don't know any of them so I really don't know.  I might know one because I don't think they walk around announcing their proclivity to the world.  Unlike gay people who seem to insert their gayness in any reference to themselves.  I never know if they want a medal or a kick in the rear so I just buy a ticket to the gay pride parade.
     Normally people judge the climate with analogies like "hot as hell" or "cold as hell" depending on the temperatures.  How hot that is "you could fry an egg on the sidewakl" or "colder than the nipple on a witch's tit, whatever either means.  I have never understood why weather people announce the temperature and then say "feels like ?"   I always think it feels like what it is.  They should say "the wind chill factor is ?"  Do they think we're too stupid to do simple math?  Probably.  As Kurt Vonnegut  observed "Welcome to the Monkey House."





    











lass.   

New Year

     It's January 1st, the first day of 2016.  As is customary, time for new year's resolutions.  Twenty million people will resolve to quit smoking and at the end of the first week, 16 will have kept their resolve.  Another twenty million choose to lose twenty pounds.  Probably the odds will be better and 75 will actually do it.  And so on down the list.  I will cut back on visits to fast food outlets and eat healthier victuals.  I will bathe or shower every day.  I will put the toilet seat down so females don't inadvertently sit down on cold, hard porcelain.  All on the list will probably last anywhere from 2 to 5 days.
     For myself, I will only make resolutions I know can be kept for  the whole year.  For example, I will not pick fights with trees, motorcycles or thunderstorms.  I will not jump on stage at rock concerts.  I will not bang a tin cup on cell bars and demand release.  I will not streak naked across fields at football games.  I will not pee on my next door neighbor's sidewalk or lawn.  I will not wash stranger's feet.  All these are negative things.  On the positive side of the ledge, I will vote for Bernie  Sanders for president. I will continue to love my wife of 32 years.  I will sleep some every night.  I will be grateful for this extra day of life. 
     At the end of this year barely begun, I will have no regrets and feel anticipation for 2017 and a new chance to make resolutions.