Shakesthegrounds Rumblings

[Shakesthecoffecan]

I will be taking someone with me, hopefully to get me picture made, a la Pat Robinson at the Homested. I told my partner today what I wanted to do, his eyes rolled, he knows he is going to have to go with me but would just like to see the rodeo. Ain;t it funny how life intrudes upon the enjoyment of itself.

The highlight of 2006 huh? That is the finest compliment one can receive. Thank you Ellemeno. I think those four hours at Cracker Barrell were the best four hours I have spent in a long time.   

[Wayne]

I crawled in a car with them to drive way the hell out in the middle of no where to take pictures of waving grass.

Omigosh I done that too!!     

Yep, aught-six was a great one!  Happy New Year to you too Truman!!!   

[Ellemeno]

The highlight of 2006 huh? That is the finest compliment one can receive. Thank you Ellemeno. I think those four hours at Cracker Barrell were the best four hours I have spent in a long time.  

Well, A highlight.    I look forward to hearing all about Don Wroe's cabin.

[Shakesthecoffecan]

So I went to the Inperial Rodeo last night. It was a miserable drive to Salem, rainy. The first of three night of the rodeo it was the only one I would be able to go to, and went alone because I was anxious to be anywhere but Lightning Flat.

As I have stated before, my intention to go was to confront Bobby Rowe regarding his remarks about gays in the Borat movie. I had wondered why there was not some sort of out cry from the local gay community over this.

Never got to see Bobby Rowe, never even got to speak with anyone from the Imperial Rodeo, but from what I gathered he was not there that night. Just as well. The median age of the half full area I would put at about 16. Lots of families with kids, highschool kids with their girlfriends. All good people, no one I would want to traumatize with an agenda. Borat was mentioned once by the announcer, but in the reverb and his nonstop speil, no one really noticed.

The rodeo is indeed not what it was in John C. Twist's day. It is a package. With an adequate amount of fanfare they paraded out the stars and stripes and dedicated the eveings proceedings to Gerald Ford, whom Bobby Rowe met on several ocassions. Then came the rodeo clown, a man who had been with them 40 years as well. He and the anouncer carried on a dialogue of bad jokes via his wireless mike the whole time, jokes that were so bad you could see them coming and get out of the way. Intersperce betwixt all this was a bit of of bucking bronck  riding,  calf roping, and ladies bull riding. Not nearly enough of what I had hoped to see however.

But imagine now, you are on horse back, galloping along side a small calf, with horns, and you leap from your horse and wrestle the calf to the ground. I cannot imagine what nerve it takes to do such a thing. I admired these men and women for their resolve, and for following their dream. None of them were from west of the Mississippi, one of them had allegedly been a line backer for Virginia Tech. Yes, the longer it goes on the more it becomes like a poor imitation of the original, but I cannot leap off a horse and wrestle a calf. Never could.

In the end I realized no one was protesting Bobby Rowe but me because in a sea of information, a hundred channels of TV insanity and a billion websites dedicated to every concern imaginable, resolve has become spread as thin as the last of the peanut butter on a hot pancake. There is just not enough to go around, and you have to pick you battles, the ones you can fight, and the ones that are in reach. I can do noting about the Massachusetts legislature, but I will be ready and willing when ever it hits close to home. 

[Lumière]

Hey Shakes ..

I never watched the movie Borat.  I have seen some of his comedy skits in The Ali G show and he sets my teeth on edge, so I didn't bother to check out the movie.  I can't believe some of the things that people say on that show .. I mean, do they not know who he is or are they paid to say stupid things?  Anyway ..

You said something very crucial in your last post: "You have to pick your battles" .. so true, my friend .. so true. 

~M

[Oregondoggie]

Hey, Cowboy, I finally wandered over here from Dave Cullen's BBM site and have spent half the evening, late into the January night, grazing on your thread, cryin' a bit, as I remember last summer up on the meadow of Brokenback Mountain.  Our own stories, great clouds from the past, boiled down around us, but we were safe on the meadow, safe with each other for a little while.

What a zigzag road into our hearts this story has been!

And now there's goin' a be a big get-together in Colorado over Memorial Day Weekend with another trip up to Brokenback.  Sure hope I see you and all our folk there...and maybe even up in Alberta in July.  Time to get goin', Folks!

Larry

[Wayne]

Thanks for the update Shakes.   See you this weekend!   

And Larry!!  Hey buddy, glad to see you! It's a long drive over here from "DC"        

[Shakesthecoffecan]

I had to send out the late notices today to the renters who had not paid their rent by the 5th. A while back just for the hell of it I stocked up on a bunch of Dr. Seuss stamps just for these notices.

[Shakesthecoffecan]

Hot damn, we are leaving in the morning about 8 am to head for West Virginia. Yes, WE, my partner is going with me. I can't believe it. Sometimes he is like seeing the Pope, but we are taking his 4 wheel drive to the Charleston airport, and pick up RouxB from her heroic red eye flight from LA and then beat a path to Hico, West Virginia, to Don Wroe's cabin. There to be joined by Wayne, Lynne and Wulf.

Paranoia: "We cater to a primarily family like clientele" the website says. No fraternities, no parties, but a family? Yes, we are. We are the Twists, We are the Del Mars, but I hope they do not ask us to prove it. I would just as soon be left alone by the peeps who have our money. And anyone can look at us and tell our hard partying days are behind us. The bottle out in the vehicle is Shiraz, not Mad Dog. It will be good.

The bug, every year this time, it hits me in my head and I fight it for weeks to keep it out of me lungs and it ends up there anyway. Dang. I don't wanna make anyone sick. I refuse to let this stop me, this is one of the few moments in our seperate and unqual lives we get together. Lungs be damned, if I am diving into the darkness from wince there is no return, know I went woopin' and hollerin'!

And Lee and E. went up on Brokenback in the snow! I am eating up the reports, seeing the sights I rememory from the seat of a snow mobile, a vehicle I have never operated. Oh god, so little time, where is me list, where is me pen.....

In a dream this evening I saw my walking stick, a piece of California redwood I carried back on a plane, standing erect, singularily with the back drop of my front yard n the summer time. Nothing clouded my view, nothing competed with the sight of it in my mind, it was purity, absent of all the rigamaroll of life. Hard to describe, almost three dimentional.

See thee soon!

[Wayne]

    Enjoyed being with you this weekend buddy!!  Hope y'all had a safe trip home!   Lookin forward to next time!!