SUPERSTITION

ARE YOU SUPERSTITIOUS?  That is a question I ask my Dad when I was growing up.  "Nope" was his answer.  "Nope, I am not superstitious".  And he stuck to that statement all his life. At least, if he ever changed his mind on that, I never heard it.  But one day, when I was in my teens, we were going to the woods to get a load of firewood. He ask (told) me to go to the wood pile and get the ax and meet him at the pickup, where he would be loading the saw and gas. As I left the woodpile, I could see that Dad had not yet left the house, so I, for whatever reason, walked into the house through the back door, and on into the front room where Dad was.  I don't recall exactly how the conversation went from there but is was something like this. Dad,  Why did you bring the ax in the house.  Me.  Well, you weren't at the pickup yet, so I came in.  Dad--(Visibly upset) Take the ax out of the house, (and as I headed for the front door) No, do not take it through the front door.  Take it back out the back door.  When I ask why he said "It is bad luck to bring an ax in the house, but if you do, you do not take it through the house, you take it back out the same door you brought it in.  I remember grinning and saying " I thought you were not superstitious."  He replied  "I am not, but don't bring an ax in the house."  That's his story and he stuck to it.
So now I ask again.  Are you superstitious?  I will say   I am not.  I have worked with people who were and they stuck to it.  I have walked under a ladder, broken a mirror ( not on purpose) and had black cats run, or walk, in front of me.  The number 13 is just a number between 12 and 14 and Friday the 13th is just the day between Thursday the 12th and Saturday the 14th.  Just another day.  I once worked with a woman who, when I bent down to pick up a penny from the ground, said loudly, "do not pick up that penny". I stood up and ask Why, is it yours.  No she replied, it is tails up.  So What.  Cause she said, if you pick up a penny that is tails up, that is bad luck.  I bent back down, pickd up the penny, put it in my pocket and said,  Well, I guess it is your bad luck, cause I have the penny.   I have picked up literally hundreds of pennies over the decades, many of them tails up.  If I have had bad luck because of it, I don't know what it was.  Or any of the other things I mentioned.  I don't hesitate to step on a crack in a sidewalk and my mothers back has not suffered because of it as far as I know.
I know that there are many people who are superstitious and some are very much so, to the point that they have a hard time living life because of the things they feel can effect their lives.
Many follow their horoscopes and live according to them.  I don't, although I do read the one that is in my month from time to time.  I haven't noticed that my life has been effected one way or another by what someone said was in the stars.  I know who is in charge of the stars, and it is not the horror scope writers. 
The problem with walking under a ladder is you could knock it down on you, or if you break a mirror, you could cut yourself.  Cats, black or otherwise, do as they please and don't cause bad luck.  And the number 13.  Well, that's just a bridge to get from 12 to 14. 
So, no I, like my Dad, am not superstitious, but don't bring an ax in the house.
AND THAT'S THE VIEW FROM THE DITCH BANK

NUMBERS

DO YOU FACE BOOK?  I don't have a face book page, but my wife does.  So, I snoop on hers from time to time.  OK   all the time.  Recently there was a face book thing going around like a contagious disease. It was someone posting a number of things about themselves that they assumed most people wouldn't know.  As this ailment went viral, one of my children posted some things that they thought people wouldn't know. OK several of them posted things about themselves, and the one common thing seemed to deal with a fetish with numbers.  Along with some other people who had posted things about them selves, it seems that most of them also had a thing with numbers.  Some don't like odd numbers.  Some don't like a particular number.  Some count things in their mind as they go along.  And to add to all this, members of our extended family also posted their thing with numbers.  Members of the family from both sides of the family.  Mine and that of my wife's.   Although we didn't post it, my wife and I also admitted to each other the not so unique things we have or do with numbers.  Ha!  Wouldn't you like to know.
So, what do you do with numbers? Do you have a fetish?  Do you use them to count your money? Or other possessions? Or your blessings? How many friends you have that are actual friends, or just face book friends. I have a grandson who is a pilot and he uses numbers to calculate what ever it is that pilots have to calculate. 
People use numbers to determine what time it is, what day it is, how many days it is until their birthday, or Christmas, or what ever holiday or event date they are waiting for. So, yes, numbers play a large part in our lives.
It is just the way so many of us use numbers that actually have nothing to do with the statements in green that we all had a chuckle over. So go your merry way, count your steps and don't be embarrased if someone sees you counting, cause they are likely doing the same thing.
AND THAT'S THE VIEW FROM THE DITCH BANK

DO YOU HAVE A BUDGET?

AND DO YOU USE IT? Not really asking for any personal information from any one.  This is a question for thinking about.  So, now that you have thought about it, do you have a budget and if so, do you follow it?  Exactly as you have it planned out.  All who do raise your right hand.  If not, raise your wrong hand.   This really isn't a post about your budget, just something to dither about. But think about it.  If you do have a budget, you probably are like the bulk of people in America, or even the world.  And you have a budget because you have a finite amount of money to use.  Whether you spend it all as soon as you get it, whether you spend some and put some in savings, or whatever you do with it, it is a finite amount that you have to deal with.  If you get a raise then you have more funds to budget with.  Obviously we do not all have the same amount to budget with, but we budget according to what we have.  So, on to the purpose of this post.  The Government.  As if you didn't already know what was coming.
The government recently went through a shutdown.  Or a partial shutdown.  There are many theories or thoughts about all of that; who caused it, why it was caused, who gets what out of the resulting back to work.  I am not going to go into that, except to say this:  The solution will only last until early 2014.  Then here we go again.  And congress wants to balance the budget by a series of methods.  Raise taxes, cut spending, ( yeah! like that is going to happen) but one of those cuts is one that will seriously affect senior citizens.  Of which I and my wife are two. Now, I have paid into the social security system since the 1950's when I was still in high school and got a social security card and a job.  I have paid into the medicare system since it went into effect.  My wife and I have $104.00 a month, each, held out of our social security checks to continue to pay for medicare.  Now, the government says this is an entitlement and cuts need to be made to them.  Well, I guess it is an entitlement, cause I have paid, and am still paying, into this system, so I am entitled to it. 
My version of an entitlement government program is one that the government pays to someone who has not paid into the system in any way.  And while that will hurt someone, if any cuts need to be made to entitlement programs, then those are the ones that need to be cut.  Not that I am suggesting that.  There are so many ways to balance the budget without cutting these programs that the House, the Senate and the President just won't look at that it is mind boggling, to say the least. Not that I would stop at the least.
So I guess what I am asking from this post, if any one actually reads it with a serious state of mind, please pay attention to what your legislators from your State are doing and then let them know that they need to do what is correct for the American people.
And one of the best ways to get these things done is to get the people back to work, in actual paying jobs to grow the economy, not government jobs that require their pay from the taxpayers.  I realize the government needs paid employees, and I am not saying that it does not, but I am saying that the economy will grow only when the american people get back to work. And paying taxes to pay the debt down.  In case you missed that, I said PAY THE DEBT DOWN.
Now, back to the budget.  When I have a budget, I have to stick to it, or, like the government, I will be in the RED.  The difference, I can't raise my debt limit and keep borrowing.  I have to pay it back.  Encourage your State Politicians to do this, or vote them out of office.
AND THAT'S THE VIEW FROM THE DITCH BANK

WHAT IS TODAY FOR?

TODAY IS VETERANS DAY.  No, I am not a veteran.  I will not go into the reasons here for not being, just suffice it to say that I am not.  However, I have many relatives who are.  Brother's Brothers in Law, Grandsons and Granddaughters married to vets, Son in Law, Daughter in Law etc.  So, while I don't share that brotherhood with any of them, I do respect them for what they did, or what they are doing. 
I would wish all people would feel the same way I do about this country.  Show respect for the Flag and the constitution crafted by our founding fathers.  Sadly, many do not.  Many who were born and raised in this country want to pull it down.  There are many who want to come here.  If the media is to be believed, there are 11 million already here that aren't here legally.  Many more that are not here who are trying to get here by legal means.  maybe those who don't like this country should trade with those who do and then we will all be happy.
So, this will be a short post on this Veterans day.  I encourage all who happen to read this post to pay attention to what your elected leaders are doing, in Washington, in your State Capitol and in your County Seat.  Or City Hall.  If they are not doing the things that build this country up, then vote them out of office and elect someone who is interested in serving the country.
AND THATS THE VIEW FROM THE DITCH BANK

THE SUN ALSO SETS

THE END OF AN ERA:  I retired from my job as a miner in an open pit mine at the end of January 2009.  Since some of my children were writing blogs, they encouraged me to start a blog of my own. I said no.  I didn't feel that the world was interested in my daily activities, and I sure wasn't wanting to tell the world about them any way. Not that the world would be or is reading my blog.  However, on December 12, 2009, I started this blog, with the intention of posting my uneducated opinion of the things going on around me, with no posts about myself.  For the most part, I have stuck to that theme.  I have now decided to end that theme.  After a lot of thought, and I mean a lot, I have decided to end this blog theme.  No, not the blog, just the theme.  Well, not end the theme, just amend it a little.  So, in the future, the few of you that actually read this post, will see an occasional post that is of a more personal nature.  Maybe even a few pictures that I have taken, though not of family.  We will just have to see how far down I actully fall from the "lofty" ideal I set for myself when I started this blog nearly 4 years ago.  I say that a little tongue in cheek.  

Now, back to the business at hand.  Politics is always good for a post. Along with all the other things in the news.  Such as K Mart's announcement that they will open a 6 a.m. Thanksgiving morning and stay open for a long time to get a jump on Black Friday.  Others following suit. And that is just wrong, wrong,wrong.  I think all businesses should shut down on Thanksgiving day and not open until Friday Morning.  Black or not.  On the other hand, if people did not support these stores, they wouold not open.  So, stay home with family on Thanksgiving day, Sunday, or other  holidays and then the businesses will not open.  Yea! not gona happen.  Unfortunately.  So for now,  THAT'S THE VIEW FROM THE DITCH BANK

THE SUN ALSO RISES

CAN I BE SUED FOR PLAGARISM?  Probably not, after all these years since that novel was written.  And did the title intrigue you?  Again, probably not.  So why use it for a blog post title?  The answer, cause it appealed to me.  So, what is the actual point of this post?

Well, it is November 1.  Halloween is over, Thanksgiving is coming on faster than a speeding bullet, and we are in the throws of a government sponsored event.  No, not the health care plan, but something thatr has been around for, well decades.  Many of them.  I think even Benjamin Franklin suggested something like this.  What is it? Time. As in what the clock says.  Do you have a clock that sounds like a fox?  But I digress.

In two days most of the world will set their clocks back 1 hour.  A couple of States in the United States won't, cause they didn't set them forward to start with.  And, as far as I know, one State in Australia won't set their clocks back for the same reason.  And maybe other places in the world that I am not aware of.  But for much of the industrialized world, clocks will change back one hour at Two a.m. Sunday morning, their local time.  But, the Sun will still make it's appearance according to it's time table, not what is on the hands of the clock.  Cows will still need to be milked, eggs gathered, stock fed, and people's lives will continue on.  The only thing that actually changed was the hands on the clock.  Well, for those of you who don't know about hands on a clock, the numbers on your cell phone or digital clock will change, or have to be changed. 

And in four short months, the government will have us change back to the daylight savings time by changing our clocks again.  Forward this time. And we won't actually save any time. Just continue doing things according to what the clock says.  And the sun will continue to do it's thing, regardless of what the clock says. Or the fox.

As my wife and I went for our morning walk this morning, starting prior to the sun coming up and finishing after it was up, I realized in a few days we would do the same thing, but the clock and the TV news programs would be in a different place.  But not the sun.  It rises, unperturbed by what governments do.

And We could take a lesson from the sun, and go about our business and put government where it belongs, and not let it regulate our lives to the point of distraction.  Ours, not them.

AND THAT'S THE VIEW FROM THE DITCH BANK