I was not aware of the exact time, nor can I be positively sure as to the day of the week; I can however assure you that the event which would follow in the next few minutes has been indelibly etched upon my faltering mental systems. I may not recall where I filed it but when I do rediscover it, it will stand out from most of the files associated with and included among the small number of such memorable events because the depth of the impression will appear so much deeper than any of the others.
We carried our own cups of freshly poured, piping hot coffee outside and sat down where we normally would around the glass-topped patio table. The retractable awning had been deployed all night long, preventing any possible dew from settling on the afore mentioned table or the chair cushions.
The sun had not yet peeped over the tree line in the distance or the horizon thousands of miles beyond that. It was pre-dawn but there was plenty of ambient light surrounding us.
Maureen lit up a cigarette, drew from it deeply, inhaled and exhaled the smoke into the slight breeze, which thankfully flowed in a direction away from myself. I don't try to get her to stop the harmful habit. She didn't treat me that way back when I was still smoking. I'm the same way about that as I have been with my own personal beliefs. I've been a Christian for 24 years now. She knows and accepts that fact. That's enough for me. I can only hope that she has been paying attention to how I've lived my life since then and that one day, she too will desire to ask Christ into her life as He wills it. I've convinced myself that He will deal with her directly in His own good time...not mine.
The coffee tasted wonderful. That first cup is so special. It has a purpose and it does it well. Slowly, we are becoming fully awake and aware of our surroundings. Few words are exchanged between us. We can hear one another taking deep breaths and enjoying the pure elation of simply being alive at such a time as this.
It was a beautiful spring day, all around us was the grandeur of God's creation. The sights, the sounds, the fragrances; surely it doesn't get any better than this was the thought that lingered in my own mind.
Then, suddenly, the faint glowing orange rim of the rising sun appeared in the eastern sky. Both of us had noticed and remained silent because we didn't want to miss one tiny bit of the experience. Her voice was first to break the silence.
"During most of my working life, whenever I tried to imagine what it would be like to be retired; this is exactly how I imagined it would be."
I can't begin to explain how I felt at that moment. I can only say that I was somewhere beyond "Happy."
I pursued happiness just like our constitution assured me that I had the right to do. I pursued it until it caught up with me one day when I least expected it.
Maureen's words impacted me with the force of a sledgehammer striking a soft, lead plate. It left a circular crater with a raised rim. Truth rushed in and filled the sudden void the blow had caused and I sat back, relaxed and realized that at that moment in time, my world was a giant step closer to completeness.
That's all I've ever asked from life. To know that in some small way, I had contributed to the reaching of a life-long goal of someone I've loved more than myself for all these years.
As the sun continued to climb in the eastern sky, I turned to gaze upon my sweet bride and realized that she was now being bathed in the shining light of our golden years together.
There was at one point in my life, a span of years, during which a day would not pass that my fertile mind did not come up with some composition of words that I felt compelled to record via a method that would result in a copy of it in one form or another.
As you can tell by the run-on sentence above, which appears to have ambition toward becoming a paragraph, I have had little if any formal training pertaining to writing. If anyone reading this post is knowledgeable concerning the proper use of punctuation, they would notice that I am ignorant about its proper use also.
The truth is, I had no business writing anything that may be read by someone other than myself.
I began as most novices do, with pencil and paper. I lost count of the number of three-subject ring binders I filled up with my jotted down words. I filled a small, portable book case with ringed binders and small note pads. After developing a noticeable callus on the first knuckle of the second finger of my left hand using number two pencils, I sought out and purchased an old, manual typewriter to do most of my writing on. I also invested in a small tape recorder that I kept in my car so I could record any thoughts that came to me as I traveled I-75 to and from my daily job up in Sharonville, Ohio five days a week. Using those recorded thoughts to remind me about what I was mulling over as I drove, I would sit down at my typewriter after dinner and compose essays, short stories or poems about any topic, but love poems to my wife were the usual muse.
As my financial situation improved, Maureen and I decided to invest in a home computer. After that, my writing production really progressed. As you might imagine, once I had a computer it wasn’t long before I discovered on-line diaries, journals and the joy of writing a Blog. Hard copies of my writing became a thing of the past. I kept many file folders in my personal documents and kept them backed up on compact disk for safe keeping. I wrote requested compositions pertaining to my family to be read at gatherings such as Christmas, Thanksgiving and funerals of friends and relatives.
On my job as a supervisor in a manufacturing plant, I always carried a small note pad in one of my pockets. I never knew when inspiration might strike and I never wanted to miss an opportunity to write it down. There were times when one of the men I supervised would present me with a challenge. I made it known that I was “A Writer,” a good writer and that I took requests from any and all comers. Once challenged, I would perform without fail and the person I wrote for was suitably impressed with the results. I even surprised myself on several occasions. It seems I did some of my best work when challenged. Most of my treasured works came into existence at those times and I still have those compositions, keeping them close to my heart as personal keepsakes and in their own folder in My Documents Files. I believe all writers have compositions they think of as “my best work.”
What writer hasn’t thought about writing the next great novel at some point? OK! Perhaps not the next great novel but a book about something at least, even poetry. I can remember the day that “my book” came to me. It came in a flash of inspiration; I saw it clearly from the first line to the last. It was the weirdest experience of my life; so weird, it could be classified as “a supernatural event.”
I guess it’s time I revealed my relationship with the God of this universe in this story, after all, if I have accomplished anything as a writer in my life, He gets most of the credit. OK! Being totally honest, I also considered my addiction to tobacco as contributing to my writing endeavors too. When I had my “Born-again” experience and invited God to take over my life and use it for His purpose, He delivered me from so many negative aspects in my nature and yet, He did not see fit to take away my desire for cigarettes until the day I was able to admit; I could not quit without His help. I had often wondered why He had done things that way. I talked to Him about it often but He was mute about the subject. The only reason I gave smoking any credit at all was the fact that when I got serious about needing to stop smoking because it tainted my spiritual witness and was slowly killing me before my predestined time and God helped me quit cold-turkey, I discovered that my writing suffered as a result.
I know…that was a terrible sentence. I hope you could follow my reasoning from it. I’m not going to waste a lot of time going back, trying to edit it. Time is one element of life that I am most unsure about. I’ve squandered so much of it along the way. I’ve given up on writing that book. I have about one quarter of it written, laying in a drawer somewhere but along the way, it lost its importance to me. It also appears that it wasn’t part of His purpose or He surely would have given me a nudge now and then about finishing it.
I may be growing feeble minded but I’m still able to understand that HE was the source of any creative writing abilities I may have possessed in the past.
It was a day or two ago, when I was perusing my Word Document files, looking for something I had not used on one of my Blog posts that the truth was fully revealed to me. I am not half the writer I was back THEN. I can go through my files of hard copies in that forgotten drawer of an old night stand stored in the extra bedroom and trace my development as a writer. Now I wish I had thought to put dates on them. It would help me to sort things out more accurately. As they say in one of those TV ads…”You’ve come a long way Baby!” I must confess; I truly enjoyed the journey.
I know I am old and set in my ways BUT…has anyone else noticed that some people have forgotten the basics they teach in driving school. Maybe I’m wrong, perhaps they don’t teach how to properly make a left turn at an intersection when there no left turn arrow lit but there is a green light for traffic in both directions.
If there is a left turn lane, does some new law I don’t know about state that one must stay behind the broad, white line at the end of the left turn lane, or is it still permitted for one to pull into the intersection and wait for oncoming traffic to clear and then legally make the left turn?
I did a search for information and found a site that related to the state of Nebraska traffic laws. It seems that no one can agree whether it is legal or not in that state or anywhere else. After reading several pages of results on the topic I have concluded that I am correct as to how it should be legally done. SO…onto the real reason I started this composition:
This evening, as I was taking my wife and sister-in-law out to dinner, we approached the intersection of Stevenson Road and Turkeyfoot Road, which is equipped with left turn lanes in both directions. Keep in mind that Turkeyfoot Road (the road I was on) is a five lane road with two lanes in each direction and a center turning lane. The center turning lane changes into a left turn only lane about fifty feet from the intersection.
There was a Water Department pick-up truck in front of me as I pulled over into the left turn only lane and the signal at this intersection was solid green in both directions. The pick-up would not pull out into the intersection and when the light turned red, he moved a few feet, then stopped and waited for the turn arrow. At that point I noticed that he had a cell phone stuck to his ear and suddenly this motto popped into my head. It was perfect I thought for use as an Anti-cell phone use while driving motto. I’ll share it with all of you. Yeah! Like it will get a lot of exposure out there on my three little Blogs that no one ever visits. In spite of that, I’m still going to make the effort to spread this little ditty around. I really believe it will catch on and get results if I can gain the attention of law enforcement in all of these fifty United States of America. Here it is!
When your cell phone is to your ear
Your driving brain is out of gear
TO: The White House and whom it may concern
RE: The current proposed health care plan
I have been a registered Republican for most of my sixty-nine years on this earth. In the last election, I crossed party lines and voted for Barack Obama because I believed he was our best hope for change in our government. Change for the better is what I was hoping for. I am not so sure that President Obama has given us that so far.
Yes! I do realize that The President inherited a too full plate from the Bush Presidency and President Obama deserves a lot of credit for standing up and stepping into the job at hand. I don’t believe he realized what was before him but now he is fully aware of the gigantic task he faces.
I wish there was a way to get the nation behind him and make it easier for him to accomplish what he would like to during his term, but so far, he has not seen his way clear to publishing the important details involved in his plans. I believe that’s all the people want from him; DETAILS.
I too am tired of hearing all the promises; promises that sound so good in the basic outline afforded the public, only to realize that there was more to the latest bill our government had passed through the Senate and Congress, making it the newest law of the land. E.g. I listened to the President’s speech to the nation the night Joe Wilson shouted out “You lie!” At first, I too was outraged at his behavior. Then, when questions were asked about his claim that no “illegal aliens” would be included in his new health care reform, it was revealed that certain other aliens; ones who were not yet legal citizens of this country WOULD be included, I was shocked and angry, perhaps as shocked and angry as those that descended upon Washington soon after, demonstrating their displeasure with President Obama’s new health care plan.
I know many of those individuals that were present that day went way too far with their accusations. What they succeeded in doing was to muddy up the water so much that no one could be sure exactly what was contained in this new health care plan and what wasn’t.
Personally I don’t believe this new healthcare bill will pass “as is” no matter how many times the President gets on TV and attempts to assure us that this bill is what our country needs at this time. He certainly hasn’t convinced me yet.
In my opinion, any person that is considered an alien with a green card and not a citizen yet should not be classified as “AN AMERICAN.” That’s what is being done when the President stands up and says his plan is good for all Americans and is secretly including that group of aliens.
Do you know who George Lopez is? Under the guise of Stand-up Comedy, he draws a crowd of fourteen thousand individuals, whom I suspect is represented by a majority of “Latinos and Latinas” as George identifies them and emotes what he sees as the brown race’s agenda, clearly and openly. I too laugh at his antics but deep down inside, I know he is describing what will one day be the truth in this country should our government continue along its established course.
It is my opinion that illegal and legal aliens are the cause of the state of California’s current bankrupt condition. It is too easy for illegals to slip into the country and become part of the Latino population, sapping funds from the southwestern border states and our federal government at an ever growing rate. What does our government do to stem the ceaseless flow? Nada! (I answered in what seems to be the preferred national language) I grow weary of our official’s attempts to grant illegal aliens amnesty when they should be doing all they can to send them back to where they came from. We do not need to annex Mexico and make it part of these United States. What have they got that we need? Cheap labor! The labor may be cheap but the drain on our total economy is intolerable overall.
We had the opportunity to round up a vast number of aliens during a recent demonstration that involved most of this nation’s largest cities and Washington too. The INS didn’t even show up. To me, that says that no one really cares about the problem.
How is it possible for hundreds of Mexican children to be bused into a Texas border town where they expect to be allowed to attend the local schools and WERE doing just that for a time without anyone trying to check them and bar them for attending. I KNOW it happened. It was covered by some of our reluctant media for reasons I am still unable to comprehend.
Our television news networks have become a battle ground upon which armies fight with verbal weapons which are just as lethal as bullets and bombs. Are you paying attention? Have you noticed that more and more we see people bearing weapons right out in the open at some of these “Tea Party” rallies and some political gatherings. That should cause a certain quantity of alarm among our law enforcement officials but so far, it hasn’t; that I can tell.
Wake up Washington! Get back in touch with your constituents, We the People. We are trying to tell you something important but you are not listening.
A concerned legal citizen
Clarence Bowles
Click on a picture to see full sized image.
The images you see above are representative of my five year journey through the Peach growing experience.
I found a Peach tree sprout growing in a small bed I created in a distant corner of our yard. Our neighbors had a peach tree just over the fence and some of the moldy peaches fell into that bed. Over time, they took root and sent up shoots. When I pulled one of the shoots out of the soil, the peach pit hull was still clinging tightly to the shoot's roots. The soil in that bed was very shallow and I wanted that little shoot to have best chance of survival, so I moved it to the bed along side the east end of our house where I was growing some Pampus Grass Clumps. It seemed to love that location and responded by quickly adding some height and a few sturdy branches with very large leaves.
After two years in that new location I decided it was time to move it to a permanent location where it would not need to be transplanted again and go about the business of becoming a mature, productive tree. I pick the spot to plant it, went about digging a large hole which would be its future home, amended the soil in that hole and then moved it to it new home along with a good sized root ball so as not to disturb the developed roots any more than necessary.
Three years later it was large enough to have the potential of producing some usable sized fruit. During the spring the threat of frost lingered far into the first quarter. The little tree put out some early blooms but the late frost killed them immediately. Later on, as the temperatures continued to climb and stay there, the little tree put out some more blooms and set a lot of bud fruit. I decided that in order to achieve as large a fruit as possible on such a small tree, I would need to thin out most of the small buds and leave only a few to mature to what would hopefully be larger peaches. It seems I made a good decision there.
I tended it carefully through the summer. I feed it with fruit tree spikes driven into the ground around the drip line of the branches and liquid Miracle Grow plant food at the same time I was feeding the other plants that were scattered around the back yard. I sprayed it with a special fungicide liquid I picked up at our local county coop store. It was said to be especially formulated for a variety of fruit trees. I couldn't help but remember all the years our neighbor's tree was attacked by an agressive fungus that turned the developing fruit into shriveled, black blobs clinging to the branches. No one was getting any benefit from that tree.
In the pictures above are two shots of the 60 peaches that little tree produced for me this year. Sixty peaches is no bumper crop but in my opinion it is exceptional for a tree as young and no bigger than this one is. I consider it a good return on my efforts and time.
Today, Gail will clean, peel, cut up, cook and use those peaches to make some pies and cobbler. I'm sure there will be enough for those plans.
I can hardly wait for next year!
I thought I would share a few songs that were recorded by various members of my family.
NO! None of them are famous or even well known, that is unless you've been hanging around this blog.
The recordings were done on regular tape recorders and then burned to a disk.
Don't consider the quality of the sound but rather the sincere effort of these few and try to take in the messages each one conveys.
Thanks for stopping by and sacrificing some of your valuable time.
Sister Phyllis, if you are reading this, could I ask you why I don't have a recording by you?
Yes! I know...Kenny Hinson is not a member of my family but he IS a brother in Christ.
He's gone on home now and is waiting for us to follow. He and my brother Karvel may be singing a few duets or solo vocals for the Heavenly Host.
