Dog On A Root

- jim Young 190130 “Oh the weather outside is frightful, but the fire is so delightful, And since we've no place to go, let it snow, let it snow, let it snow.” by Jule Styne, Sammy Cahn So, who says we're not entitled to a snow day anymore just because we're retired? As usual, it was dark when I got up this morning to put the first log of the day on the fire. But as I turned the outside lights on, I noticed there was snow trapped on the screens of the sliding glass door and windows of our sunroom. I knew that I hadn’t had the snowblower aimed at the windows while I blew the snow off our deck yesterday. And I was even more intrigued to find there was also snow blown over the screen of the front door.  Who ever heard of the wind blowing from both the west AND the east at the same time? But as the daylight gradually began to show me the outside world I quickly realized that we must’ve had quite a storm blowing last night. Quick action was required and altho...

- jim Young 180203 "A dream doesn't become reality through magic; it takes sweat, determination and hard work." - Colin Powell The problem with living in the city is, you put your garbage out at the end of the driveway and just like magic, it disappears. However, like every other magic trick, it's just an illusion. It doesn't really disappear. The truth is, nothing ever really disappears whether it's a rabbit or your garbage. It just goes someplace else where you can't see it. (I apologize for neglecting a spoiler alert there.) I think having no garbage pickup is an advantage of living in an unincorporated township. I don't see taking my garbage to the dump every week as a hardship. Nor do I see garbage pickup in the cities as a benefit. Every visit I make to the landfill site, I am reminded of the importance of the 3 R’s, recycle, reduce, reuse. I think every citizen wherever they live, whose taxes contribute to garbage pickup, should...

- jim Young 920218/080301 I have flown t o star-stained heights o n bent and battered wings i n search of m ythical kings. - Dory Previn We used to discuss religion a lot in the sixties. "Isn't it more reasonable," Graham pondered "to think that instead of one religion being right that they're all wrong?" I should have asked, "Doesn't it seem even more likely that all of them may be a little bit right?" Whatever your concept of heaven and hell may be, wouldn't the guy that follows whatever his beliefs, in a loving and kind manner on a daily basis, at least have a shot at heaven? I believe that the roots of almost all religions are pretty much the same.  Two Mormon missionaries came to visit me one night about 20 years later. I related to them this little story. My two children, Michael and Angela had been estranged from myself for several years. No one was even sure why any more. I think they disobeyed me one ...

- jim Young 170824 ”The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting.” - Sun Tzu Over the past few years, the red squirrel in my backyard and I have enjoyed a very fragile but peaceful coexistence. But it wasn’t always that way. I remember it well. It was a time of turbulence. It was the summer of 2014. We were at peace. Mostly. There was free trade amongst the foxes, the chipmunks, the birds and their various tribes as well as the rest of the wildlife nations. We provided humanitarian aid to those in need whenever we could. But there were 2 exceptions. Lines were crossed, sides were drawn and My Shirley and I found ourselves forced to consider the very real possibility that we might have to be prepared to take more aggressive action against the red squirrel than we were really comfortable with. But drastic times call for drastic measures. We were already losing a battle on the Northern Front with a rogue tribe of birds, the dreaded pile...