NO, I DON'T KNOW

I did not major in English is High School.  I didn't even minor in it.  Still, I do know a little about what is proper and what is not.  Not a lot, but a little.  And I just have to wonder, as I listen to people talk, in person and on TV shows, if what little I did learn is going by the way side. My wife and I don't like or watch most of the popular shows on TV.  We do keep up with a few.  Even a couple or three of the reality shows.  The one we have been watching, that ended last night, is "The Biggest Loser".  And so often those on the show, like the trainers, start nearly every sentence with the words   "I mean".  Since they haven't said any thing yet, why start by saying "I mean".  They don't have to explain what they mean, until they have said something first.  You know.  Or You know what I mean. No, I don't know.  If I did, you wouldn't have to tell me.  How many conversations do you participate in that has those words said ever so often.  You know.  Better than cuss words, I guess, but still, I'm sure any of my former English teachers would cringe at the current vernacular being used by so many of the masses.  Like.  How many times do you hear this in a conversation.  I often think,  " Well, it's not the real thing, just something like the real thing.  Like, you know, I mean, I think maybe the English Language needs to be made a mandatory course of study in school. I mean, You know, like, in Elementary and High School and College's and Universities.  And I have to wonder.  Are other languages suffering from the same malady?  And THAT'S THE VIEW FROM THE DITCH BANK  

YOU LIGHT UP MY LIFE

NO, I AM NOT TALKING ABOUT DEBBIE BOONE. I am talking about all those things around us that seem to have a light 24/7. Like what? you say.  Well, if you have a computer is has a light.  Even if you turn it off and shut it down, it has a light on, unless you disconnect it from from the wall socket.  And the light is still there until the battery runs down. A microwave, yep a 24/7 light. And if you live in a city, or even a small town, there are more than likely street lights that come on at dusk and stay on all night long. Do you have a cell phone?  Do you charge it?  Yep, even while you sleep, it will have a light of some kind. Do you, like me, have a rechargeable electric razor or some other kind of health and body devise? More than likely, unless you charge it during the day and unplug it at night, you will have a light on during the night. All of this has nothing to do with voluntary lights, like self installed night lights, or lights left on at night cause you like to sleep with a light on.  Does any one sleep in a naturally dark room any more.  Probably not, unless they have exceptionally heavy drapes that block out all light.  Including the moon and star light.  Could you sleep in a room that was totally dark, and quiet.  I like the quiet, but enjoy the window open and the moon or star light provided by nature.  It is all the unnatural lights that gets to me at times.  I have got to the point where I will unplug a lot of those aforementioned lights.  But some, like the micro wave and the computer are just, well, inconvenient to unplug. So, can we take back the night.  Not likely, unless you move to a cave, with no electrical power, and that's well, not practical.  Oh Heck! whose practical.  See you there . In the cave.  And THAT'S THE VIEW FROM THE DITCH BANK 

I Just Don't Understand

I WOULDN'T DO IT.  WOULD YOU?  As a teenager growing up during the 50's,  that's the 1950's, movies were a thing we went to on a regular basis.  They were entertaining and filmed in the light.  And we listened to the radio on the way to the movie and back home.  Cause the closest movie theater was a minimum 20 minute drive away.  And that was when you were in a hurry. There were actors/actresses that I liked to see.  John Wayne, Glen Ford, Jimmy Stewart, Audie Murphy, Brian Keith, to  mention a few.  Oh! and Sophia Loren, Maureen O;Hara, Rhonda Fleming, Doris Day to mention just a few others.  There were others, male and female, but that isn't the point of  this post. But before I get to the point, I will mention a few other things. I said we listened to the radio. XELO out of Ft. Worth Texas, KOMA from Oklahoma City, KWKH from somewhere in Louisiana I think.  We listened to the Louisiana Hayride and the Grand Ol' Opry.  Country music was our favorite to listen to and to dance to.  I say we, as in the general populace of the area where I grew up. Southwest NM and Southeast AZ.  But I also liked a variety of music and still do. I liked the Strauss waltzes and I liked to listen to the sultry voice of Julie London, the big band music of Glen Miller and Billy Vaughn.  I like a few of the current singers like Adele.  I enjoy watching few of the current TV shows, but I do like NCIS and wonder what it would be like to visit with Abby. (Her show name).  I was not a fan of Marilyn Monroe even when she was alive and popular.  I didn't read the movie magazines of the period when I was growing up.  I didn't idealize the stars of the silver screen or those of the golden voice we heard on the radio. I like cowboy poetry and have been in attendance to two or three shows featuring Baxter Black. I, with my family have been in attendance at concerts listening to Bill Anderson and Don Williams, both favorite singers I like, along with several others.
Now to the point of this post.  I never camped out to get in to see any of these people perform.  I bought a ticket and went to the movie, or the concert and left when it was over, happy for the time spent listening or viewing the event.  And was happy for doing so.  Well, there was a movie I walked out on and would never go back to see, but that's another story. Now, there are people in New York City, to see Justin Timberlake in SNL. Well, I would not go see SNL in any case, but I sure would not camp out in the snow for days to get in to see it or him. Or any one. And I just don't understand why any one would want too. There is no one, and I mean no one, good enough to do that for. At least in the entertainment world.  Or sports world. This speaks of idle worship as well as idol worship to me.  I may have a simple and boring life, but I think I know where my affections lie, and they are not with some "star" who just has a talent that makes watching or listening to enjoyable for a short time of relaxation in what is other wise my life.  AND THAT IS THE VIEW FROM THE DITCH BANK.

Hide and Seek

THE TAX, THE WHOLE TAX, AND NOTHING BUT THE TAX. Did you ever play hide and seek as a child.  I did.  Do kids even do that any more? Do you think our politicians are playing this.  Or some other childish game. Do you have an opinion about the sequester?  Do you even know what the sequester is? Do you know the meaning of the word sequester? I had to look it up, cause I had no idea that it had anything to do with government spending. Or taxation.  If you don't know either, let me edakate you a bit.  Sequester---Verb---To isolate or hide away, something of someone.
Noun---A general cut in government spending.
Legal--  Sequestration---The seizure of property for creditors or the state. 
Science--Bile acid sequestrant---The bile acid sequestrants are a group of resins used to bind certain components of bile in the gastrointestinal tract. They disrupt the enterohepatic circulation of bile acids by combining with bile constituents and preventing their reabsorption from the gut. In general, they are classified as hypolipidemic agents, although they may be used for the purposes other than lowering cholesterol. They are used in the treatment of chronic diarrhea due to bile acid malabsorption. 
Now, having said all that, do you understand what is going on in Washington?  Yeah. Me too. So,  here is my opinion of all this.The government wants to hide away all the money they take in so it isn't visible ten they can ask for more. That's when they have a general cut in spending so they then have to seize more to pay for the cuts. All of which causes the most of us to have a bile attack thus needing to make use of a sequestrant resin to keep us from having gastrointestinal attacks which would cause us to reach the chronic state mentioned in the last sentence in green. Then the news comes on and the President says    we need more money and the speaker says   you got more money in January, now we need to cut spending.  Well, I agree with the speaker, but.  But what, you say?  Why, when they have these spending cuts, do they always target the old, the young, as in education, and the military.  There is enough mindless spending going on that cuts to that would cure the ills for a while.  
Example.  The 60 billion for the rebuilding after hurricane Sandy.  A lot of that didn't go to the victims of Sandy.  Congress people put a lot of that money in to pork items for their districts.  Places that had nothing to do with Sandy.  If the people elected to govern would actually govern, and think not what they can do for their own pocket books, if they would actually be concerned about the country and less about their selves, things would get done.  
Maybe we can just sequester the congress away, as in this definition   Jury sequestration. The isolation of a jury to avoid accidental or deliberate tainting. A judge may order a jury to be sequestered in order to prevent others from tampering with members of the jury through undue persuasion, threats, or bribes.
Then perhaps the nations budget could go from red to green. And what does that have to do with hide and seek.  If we had congress hid, maybe they would seek the best way to solve the budget problems.
And That's the VIEW FROM THE DITCH BANK

Hollywood

WILL YOU, OR DID YOU WATCH?  Watch what, you ask. Oh, the red carpet event this Sunday evening.  AKA the "Oscars". Some of you will. Some of us won't.  When I was a young man, even a little older man, I used to enjoy going to the movies.  They were good stories that you could watch and enjoy and maybe even remember, if it was a particularly impressive movie. 
Even the "night" scenes were filmed with a filter over the lens or with enough light that you could see what was happening. Now, they seem to be filmed in the dark, even the day light scenes.  At least the TV shows are and the movie trailers that are shown on TV.  I guess they are so bad, they don't want you to know what is going on.  And most of the TV shows are so vulgar and suggestive, and the movie trailers are the same, that I don't even want to see them any way.  Dark or not. So, whoever wins the Oscar's this weekend, I just have to wonder if they even know what they won for, or was they told in the light before filming in the dark. I'm just glad I won't be around long enough to see the final chapter of this earth's demise, and I fear for those of you who might be. I can only hope that all those in the media who foster the celebrity of those who are in the entertaining arts or the sports figures who are held up as Hero's some day come to realize that the bulk of these people have a very low moral code.  And I hope that those of us who idealize them come to realize that also, before we become numb to the real values and think that their values are OK, thus leading the country further down the immoral path that it now seems to be on.  And THAT'S THE RANT FROM THE DITCH BANK.

Dancing?

WHY WOULD YOU EVEN WANT TO?  Dance?  No, most of all of us like to dance.  But why would  you want to do the "new dance craze of the week?"  Or the month? or whatever the time frame may be.  The latest craze is a take off of the gangnam style called the Harlem Shuffle.  I looked up gangnam style and it has a couple of different spellings, so if you disagree with the one I used, bear with me.  Regardless of the spelling, why would any one want to do either one of these dances and say they were dancers. Well, OK, apparently there are many who would, and do. As I, in my waning years look back on the dances that I have known, and those I have known about, I will take a few lines and comment about a few of them, according to my limited knowledge of them.   One dance that comes to mind is the Can Can.  Never did it, but I saw it performed in a movie or two.  Back when they made movies in the daylight. But that's a different blog. Of course, the can can was banned is many places and called a vulgar dance.  And then there is the waltz.  The Waltz, you say.  Yes, when it came about it was also banned in some circles. No touching your partner, or something.  I like waltz tunes and the waltz dance, even though I was never a smooth waltz dancer.  And the jitter bug.  It wasn't an accepted dance when it came about either.  I like the jitter bug and enjoyed many hours of dancing this dance over the years.  Decades, even. Don't remember that the country western two step received any unfavorable press, and it is still a popular dance in the western venue.  And then in the 50's, the 1950's that is, there came the bop.  Never learned how to do the bop very good, either.  While it was a popular dance, there was a dirty version, called, appropriately, the Dirty Bop, that I never learned at all.  And it was a scandalous dance for that time.  Heck it might even be a scandalous dance even today.  Naw, probably not.  Of course, there is the clog and square dances, which I like very much and did a lot of in my younger life. Now there are line dances, and a return of ballroom dancing.  And I won't even mention the polka, and a lot of the dances that are on the show  Dancing with the Stars.  Much of what I don't call dancing, but just moping the floor with the woman.  Now, back to my opening. All this having been said, I still can't see much use in either of the dances mentioned in the opening statement.  What's wrong with taking your partner in your arms and dancing.  As in the waltz, or the two step, or even the "Put your little foot" for crying our loud.  If you want to get on a floor and shake every thing out of your pockets or put your back out of shape, go to a gym.  And THAT'S THE VIEW FROM THE DITCH BANK.

DO YOU EVER WONDER?

DO YOU EVER WONDER ABOUT WHAT WOULD HAPPEN IF? If what?  Well, your choice.  Do you ever wonder what would happen if some current action continues?  Something you have absolutely no control over. Like, well, that's what this post is about.  So, a little back ground. Very little, in fact.
My wife and I recently took a little road trip. The primary purpose of the trip, at least the beginning of the trip, was to make a visit to an out of town Dr.  This Dr. lives in a large southeast Arizona city.  3 1/2 hours to drive from our house to his office. From a quiet little villager of 300 homes to this city involves the transition from just a little vehicle traffic to a lot of traffic.  After the Dr. was finished with us, and a little shopping, we continued on to Arizona's largest city complex.  My description, not necessarily that of the Arizona Chamber of Commerce.  Visiting family and doing some shopping there also had us spending a night in one of the cities of the metropolitan area.  And included a lot of traffic.  More traffic in an hour that our little area will generate in a month or so, I would venture a guess.  And it continued 24/7. We could not live there. We would be as insane as a hatter in about 30 days. Literal blubbering idiots. And the noise.  And the people.  We are the type that gets along with out all the people and especially with out the noise. Peace and quiet works just fine, thank you very much.  An occasional distant barking dog, people mowing lawns on a Saturday morning, the clank of a garbage truck, the sounds of someone replacing a roof on their house.  These are not sounds that bother.  But when you get up with the dawn, and can hear nothing except the silence, or the singing of the birds, that is the things that bring peace to the soul.  So, what does all this have to do with the original question ask at the start of this blog. Well, it generated a conversation between my wife and myself as we were driving back home.  Where are all these people going? And why in such a hurry. Do they ever stop to look around them?   And then we commented, multiply the traffic in these two metro areas, by the number of other large metropolitan areas in the United States, and then the world. Then add in the smaller area's, even the very rural area's. Then  consider all the vehicles that are traveling to and fro on the highways and byways, under the earth, on the earth and above the earth.  Now, consider all the petroleum that is being removed from inside the earth to create fuel for all these vehicles.  And then consider the giant hole that is being left as this fuel is sucked to the surface and transmuted into smog.  And then comes the question ask at the start.  Do you ever wonder?  Will the earth just eventually collapse into itself and leave us all asking;  What the heck just happened?  And THAT'S THE VIEW FROM THE DITCH BANK.