First Day in Retirement

My final paycheck did not auto-deposit yesterday. Welcome to retirement© I run out of money by the end of next week. SNAFU FUBAR

Feh.

Thirty years of indoctrination for excitement over having a three day holiday weekend, and it was immediate that I began to think nothing of Monday being Labor Day. There are gray curling whiskers scumming my chin and neck following the contours, my cheeks - not so much. I am mowing the lawn every day while commuters rush past my street and the neighborhood is empty. Nearly every square foot of the house is loaded with boxes moved in haste from D.C. and I am also curiously unconcerned yet. I will take a box at a time and gradually fill the back of the pickup with the detrious of a lifetime spent in random accumulation and when it is full go dump it. Then start again. Such is life I think. Or perhaps it is how life should be I think. Chop wood, carry water. Do it again.

About mowing ... my gas Toro was turning snickery on me so I gave it away on Freecycle along with the moss-covered red plastic gas cans which sat in my yard for the past few years. I want to keep gasoline and this old, sappy, roughcut lumber all wood farmhouse as far apart as I can make it. So I bought a rechargeable Black and Decker electric mower thinking it would also be as carbon-footprintless as Dominion Power can devise. At least over pouring two gallons a week into the atmosphere after passing through a combustion engine. It has the added advantage of also running out of charge after 5,000 square feet of turf so while I manage a very good sweat and heavy breathing it shuts me down just when I should take a break.

I already have my flagpole and stars and bars flying twenty-four hours a day so think there is not much else to do for this most blue-collar of USA holidays. Other than work up a sweat myself. Or post my Obama-Richardson campaign sign out front once all this political posturing silliness subsides. Is it just me or is it terribly, terribly sweet irony that the parade of departing despots from this corrupt illegal administration from Rumsfield to Rove to Gonzales to Snow has now been extended to Closet Cocksucker Craig? (Not that there is anything wrong with that. Just don't lie about it.)

Then, to top things off, Senator John Warner of my beloved adopted state of Virginia calls it quits. On the steps of the University which Thomas Jefferson founded. “There is a fullness of time when men should go and not occupy too long the ground to which others have the right to advance,” Warner said, quoting Thomas Jefferson. What a goddamned Class Act. The Royal Opposition. A Worthy Opponent. A man who wore the uniform and went off to fight for this country. A guy with thirty years of Senatorial moderation is not soon replaced, but this does present us a rare opportunity to try and do so.

I am more than extremely proud that last November, Virginia, birthplace of the American Spirit and the world's greatest democracy, elected Senator James Webb who had less than zero chance of defeating the incumbent good ol' boy redneck closet racist Governor George Allen until Mr. Allen called an American born brown man a monkey. Jesus, these powerNazis just assplode! What the hell took America so long to catch on to them is all I want to know.

James Webb, a Marine, a man who fought for this country and left some his flesh in Vietnam. Whose flesh is still at risk as his son serves in Iraq. Read his books if you wish to know what a hero is.

The very first weekend liberty I had when I first arrived here in Virginia twenty years ago, I drove to the replica House of Burgesses in Williamsburg so I could stand in the virtual spot where Patrick Henry, speaking to pursuade the reluctant to stand up for their human rights and challenge British rule, stated: "Give me Liberty, or give me death!" I kept a Kerry-Edwards sign on my lawn long after the election of 2004 until some asshat removed it, and if I had it today I would still be displaying it, only with neon lighting. Last year on Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday I stood on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in D.C. looking out over the Mall while I listened to "I Have a Dream" on an ipod.

My only contribution to Wikipedia was to give a citation last year for James Webb telling President Bush to shut the fuck up since only people with skin in the game get to speak about the honorable men and women who pour their blood out for the freedoms of this country. The man who did more to butcher the Constitution and Bill of Rights than anyone in history needs quite severely to recognize the quiet rightgeous anger of true patriots.

"I asked you: 'How is your son doing?'" Mr. Bush, with a snippy attitude.
"That is between me and my son," Webb said "Mr. President."

How these arrogant pricks seized control of this country and ruined the goodwill American people earned around the planet is going to be the historical debate of the entire century.

http://www.snopes.com/rumors/winston.asp



























One last thing - I have a fourpound pork roast rubbed up waiting in the reefer for the coals tomorrow along with a double buttload of summer squash, zuchini, poblano and bell peppers, red potatoes, Vidalia onions, salt butter, and sweet corn waiting for the foil.

Is this a great country, or what?