Cowboy Without A Horse

What happens when you don’t have a car?

Do you realize how much an automobile is engrained in our society? Think about if your car has to go to the shop and you don’t have a rental? Will your neighbor pick up your laundry or take your dog to the vet? What do you do when someone calls and invites you to a party? Maybe you’ve run out of feta cheese for the salad and need to run to the store.

You are not going to run. You are going to grab your keys, hop in the car and drive to your local tummy temple trying to avoid being wrecked while complaining about the other drivers to park in a lot and come back out finding a ding in the door from the fellow who parked too close to you.

In the winter you fret over trying to dig out or find alternate transport. The morning commute just slows the travel down and buys fuel.

Unfortunately the shiny new automobile you purchased at the price of my house devalues when you drive it off the dealer’s lot. Is that a good investment?

Yet these horses seem to be popular, yea necessary to live. The street in front of my house has turned into a parking lot. There used to be one car per household because it was a status to have an automobile, just like a refrigerator, television and a telephone. Today it is nose-to-tail row of trucks and SUVs. The more horses the better?

As the calendar pages fly by, so do the thoughts of a solution for transportation. Public transportation, taxis and trains have served well to get from point A to B. Inexpensive yet not immediate availability.

Life has led miles of one foot in front of another without a total that would amaze.  

Age may slow down riding two wheels. Walking doesn’t seem as enticing as once was an inevitable option.

Until another decision of time, my ponies will carry my needs and take me on the deteriorating roadways dodging the massive metal mobile machines.

Summer is over

So now what?

How many vacations did you take? How many books did you read? Better yet, how many books did you write? What did you buy? What did you eat? How many parties did you attend? What did you wear? What movies did you watch? How much did you drink? How far did you drive?

Summer is suppose to be when people slow down and do all those adventures called vacations until the leaves change color and the chill is in the air and we hibernate into binge watching. We put away our flowered shirts and little boy pants and pulls out the woolies and stocking caps.

Still no one discusses how many times they cut the grass or had to take the dog to the vet or how they entertained the children away from school.

Summer here has been hot (hotter than normal whatever that is) and dry. This year was too hot to do much more than sweat. This may become the trending future so try to adapt. Hope you got your air conditioning adjusted in your house and your car and don’t worry about the power grid.

So now it is time to put skeletons and spider webs in the yard and start gorging on turkey and cranberry sauce and waiting for Santa and the champagne.

Then it will be time to start thinking about checking hotel rates and flight schedules for the next summer get-a-way.

Cha-Cha-Cha-Changes

Yes, I’ve lived a good life. I’ve lived in a safe neighborhood, had a long career that I was good at, had plenty of food and lots of attention. I can’t complain.

But listening to the children, I haven’t done enough.

When I say “I” I mean “We” the Baby Boomers haven’t done enough.

After our parents won a World War, our country bloomed into over excessive indulgence and “We” all enjoyed our privileged lives. “We” had public education (separate, but equal), countrywide transportation, department stores, television, telephones (from party lines to cell phones), computers, clean streets, police, EMS, churches and breweries on every corner.

When a president was assassinated, got a couple of days out of school. When a preacher was shot or a candidate for president was shot or a president quit or protesting students shot or boxes of soldiers sent home or all the rest of the newspaper headlines that faded away with the nightly entertainment and TV dinners. Only when the towers came down did we come out of our haze of global consequences.

So through the years of business expansion from automobiles to refrigerators to real estate spreading across the farm lands with driveways and backyard pools, the poles and lines and concrete paving of paradise and bulldozed forest to displacing our neighbors for a patch of green lawn “We” forgot what our children will endow.

“We” might have felt the last of the hippie smoke or got sucked into the corporate temptation for more cars in the driveway and bigger television screens. Rome had the same problem.

So “Boomers” while we were enjoying ourselves, we forgot about the children. All the plastic and the trash and the air pollination and traffic jams and violent society and dysfunctional political structure, “We” stumbled.

Now the children are saying, “I didn’t agree to be born to a dying planet” and what can we say? “We” have been called and we have no excuse.

Would you give up your automobile(s)? Would you shut down your air conditioning and open your windows? Would you tear up your lawn for a flower garden?

Probably not, but the next generation will not have so many babies or buy a car. Still they will have to deal with our mess.

“How Dare You”

They Work For Us

As social media starts getting fired up for the next election complaining about issues not discussed in debates over the blah-blah-blah of campaigns, you stand at the voting booth and choose ‘Eeny, meeny, miny, moe’, then continue to complain when the chosen arrive for his or her SoundBits.

“We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America”.

We have forgotten, these folks work for us. We pay them with taxes. We give them cars and nice offices and pay their phone bills and travels expenses. We pay for their meals and their holidays. We pay for their security and their haircuts.

They should be thankful for what the American public gives them, but they want to keep their job and feeling of privilege (as anyone would in that position) so they are constantly campaigning rather than doing what their job description requires.

Perhaps if We The People only gave candidates a fixed amount of cash to spend on their campaign could balance the presentations and messages? We The People all know there will always be the under-the-table deals by corporations as a promise of rewards.

If our representatives are not doing our bidding, what is there to do?

We The People can wait until the next voting session to select another person to fill the office and then cross our fingers. We The People can walk the streets with placards and chants. We The People can post memes on social media hoping to become influences.

Those who have been chosen must feel like too many plates spinning trying to cover all the topics, but that is what the job requires. Every agenda from global warming to local pipelines and streetlights has to be dealt with. War, education, hunger, money, violence, religion, the list goes on and on.

So if We The People decides what they voted for did not deliver, what is the return policy?

The Caboose

NOTE: What follows may be offensive to some. Sometimes truth is turn away. Make your own decision.

I’m a butt watcher. No matter how anti-monogamist we attempt to appear, our eyes wander.

During the mid-20^th century, the focus was on the breast. Low cut cleavage and pointed bras taught young people to present as much as make-up and hair spray.

Below the belt were layers of pantaloons, stockings, girdles and straight-line skirt that disguised any shape or form.

Now with everyone wearing yoga pants, leaves little to the imagination. I suppose they are comfortable and some will cover their derriere with a sweatshirt or sweater around the waist but you can’t hide an impressive booty sway.

We all have buns. The cushion for sitting down is our gluteus maximus. Whether called the backside, behind, bottom, breech, bum, butt, buttocks, can, cheeks, duff, fundament, hams, haunches, heinie, hunkers, keister, posterior, rear, rear end, seat, tail, we all have them.

As we age, cellulose likes to accumulate on our fanny. Sitting on beanbag sofas, binge watching movies and eating snack food helps to expand our rumps.

I still may stare at a good rack or set of hooters, but my preference is a nice tush. A set of tight cheeks will give me praise to the maker for a divine job.

No, I won’t pincer or pat or even compliment avoiding the possible slap, but I will look and appreciate your caboose.

It’s a scam

On this Climate Strike Day where all the folks are marching with placards and chants for change hoping politicians will pass a bill to adjust the cultural mentality of plastic people. You’ve forgotten Earth Day?

Sure it is getting hotter. If you don’t believe the scientific evidence, come sit with me outside. It is hotter this year than last year and that year was hotter than the year before. The rain, when it rains, is heavier than ever before and the snow isn’t as deep. Hiding in your climate controlled mobile machine or electric sucking heat pump only continues to raise the cost.

How many plastic water bottles will be left on the streets after the protestors go home? How much trash will have to be picked up?

 We’ve been talking about all this ‘take care of our planet’ for eons but it is easier to put the plastic, bottles, cans, cardboard into the recycle bin to be picked up and hauled away. Out of sight – out of mind.

Now doesn’t that make you feel you are doing your part to save the world?

And where do those plastic bags and bottle carrier rings go? Are they melted down and made into something new? How many times can that happen? Are they ground up and miraculously converted to shoe soles or dashboards? Where does Tupperware come from?  

Just like that big truck that would dump out blue top recycle bins and give us that warm fuzzy feeling of ‘saving the earth’ all that would be dumped into a storage container and shipped to China. Why?

China would take the metal and melt it down and combine it with other metals and make it into toasters and microwaves to resell to us. The quality was lacking but it was cheap.

Then finally China got tired of filling their landfills with our trash and it was not profitable to take it any more. So who else wants our trash?

There was a time when crackers came in a tin. Coffee was ground at the store into a paper bag and put into a permanent coffee tin in the kitchen. Cola came in glass bottles (so did milk) and were sent back for pennies to be rewashed and reused. Grocery store bags were brown paper reused for book covers and trash (though they did leak).

Not everything was so earth friendly. The automobile and the highway taught us to just toss trash out the window and it was someone else’s problem. Cigarettes were an example of just dropping the butt on the ground and stepping on it, then walking away.

So is our self-righteous ‘Climate Strike’ protest going to shock us into changing our ways?

Tomorrow the sun will rise, the cars will fill the highway, the water will continued to be poisoned, the plastic will be eaten by the fishes who will be eaten by us and all the solar panels and windmills cannot feed our cry for more electricity.

I’ll still fill my recycle bin to the rim and feel I’m doing my part, but I know it is going to the landfill just like the other trash to sit for hundreds of years.

What Would You Die For

You’ve heard the term. That menu made a meal that was to die for or those shoes are to die for.

Perhaps the ultimate extreme wanton description is to die for, but what would you die for?

Maybe you’d die for your children? Would you die for your car? Would you die for your job? Would you die for the country?

Unfortunately your obituary won’t tell anyone of any of these declarations. Only name, timeline dates, titles and accolades and family (pass and present).

Will anyone know about your bad haircut days or your school bully or bad fashion chooses or addictions? Will your obituary tell about your first time or cheating or speeding tickets or barfing? Who will remember your crush that never worked out or why you got divorced or special vacations? Is there a record of how you raised your children or your favorite books or how your parents were treated? Will your eulogy tell the audience about your favorite tie or your real hair color or how much money you made?

These are all part of your life’s legacy and in the end; it is what you die for.

Influencer

In our work-at-home gig workforce, there seems to be a new job description.

An influencer is a person or thing that influences another. That seems pretty simple. Friends give us advice or suggestions that might influence.

The new marketing presents a person with the ability to influence potential buyers of a product or service by promoting or recommending the items on social media.

Advertising has always used some attractive person whom is a spokesperson presenting the qualities of a product or service to persuade the purchase. Movie and television celebrities have held cigarettes or hair gel or can of soup; the public will be swayed toward that brand to emulate a star.

Now strangers show up on social media touting products and if they get enough followers, these influencers can make a livable salary. Why go to college and try to find a life while paying the bills when you can sit at home promoting a product like an infomercial.

It is just a different way to ask for your money.

Convenience

Have we gotten so lazy to live by our phone? It is convenient.

Call for delivery of food, clothing, even dating. It is so easy.

Remember when that bodega appeared on the corner with all the snack food, cigarettes, last minute drinks and those weird overcooked rolling hot dogs. On a hot summer day nothing was better than a slurpy. Movies required traveling to a warehouse to rent VHS tapes and pizza could be delivered.

Now if you need to travel, don’t buy a car. There is an app for that. Want to be entertained, just scroll down to stream you favorite pick. What are your friends and neighbors thinking? Click here and join in.

In the office confined in cubicle cages, face the screen with hundreds of drop-down menus to avoid the Fomo. Don’t take a break for you are being watched.

Is life too convenient now? Just Google it.

-->

Sanctions

Sounds like the U.S. has sanctions on just about everyone. So what the heck is a sanction?

Trade sanctions are a subcategory of economic sanctions, which are commercial and financial penalties imposed by one or more countries, and targeted against a country, organization, group, or individual.

Trade sanctions have the express purpose of making it more difficult if not impossible for the nation(s) bearing the sanction to trade with the nation imposing it. Trade sanctions act as a sort of stick and carrot in foreign and economic policy, in international politics and trade. Governments impose sanctions with the express purpose of changing the behavior and policy of another government or state.

Sanctions, in law and legal definition, are penalties or other means of enforcement used to provide incentives for obedience with the law, or with rules and regulations. Criminal sanctions can take the form of serious punishment, such as corporal or capital punishment, incarceration, or severe fines. Within the civil law context, sanctions are usually monetary fines, levied against a party to a lawsuit or his/her attorney, for violating rules of procedure, or for abusing the judicial process. The most severe sanction in a civil lawsuit is the involuntary dismissal, with prejudice, of a complaining party’s cause of action, or of the responding party's answer. This has the effect of deciding the entire action against the sanctioned party without recourse, except to the degree that an appeal or trial de novo may be allowed because of reversible error.

Sanctions are a threatened penalty for disobeying a law or rule.

Synonyms:

penalty · punishment · deterrent · punitive action · discipline · penalization · correction · retribution · embargo · ban · prohibition · boycott · barrier · restriction · tariff

Sanctions are measures taken by a nation to coerce another to conform to an international agreement or norms of conduct, typically in the form of restrictions on trade or on participation in official sporting events.

The sanction philosophy is a consideration operating to enforce obedience to any rule of conduct.

Synonyms:

authorization · consent · leave · permission · authority · warrant · license · dispensation · assent · acquiescence · agreement · approval · seal/stamp of approval · approbation · recognition · endorsement · accreditation · confirmation · ratification · validation · blessing · imprimatur · clearance · acceptance · allowance · the go-ahead · the thumbs up · the OK · the green light · say-so · permit · support · backing · approval · seal of approval · agreement · acceptance · recommendation · advocacy · championship · patronage · affirmation · confirmation · authorization · authentication · ratification · warrant · validation · license · rubber stamp · the nod · the thumbs up · the OK · authorize · consent to · permit · allow · give leave for · give permission for · warrant · accredit · license · give assent to · endorse · agree to · approve · accept · give one’s blessing to · back · support · give the thumbs up to · give the green light to · OK · approbate

So if you are not following the rules, you get punishment called a sanction. If you follow the rules, you get a good sanction.

So a parking ticket or DUI arrest or public nuisance warning is a sanction for not obeying the rules where a raise is a sanction of approval for good work with a possible promotion sanction.

Now if the ‘rules’ are created by society for the public good and we all agree on them, a sanction tells those who disagree or go beyond the majority guidelines they will be punished.

As politicians work so hard to avoid any laws that would reduce mass murder or semi-automatic weapons try sanctions?

Federal law highly regulates the manufacture, sale, and ownership of fully automatic weapons in the United States. For those unfamiliar with firearms nomenclature, a fully automatic weapon is one that is capable of firing multiple rounds with only one pull of the trigger; a semi-automatic weapon will fire only one round per trigger pull while preparing the gun to fire another round when the trigger is pulled again. The main federal law governing fully automatic weapons is called the National Firearms Act, or NFA. First enacted in 1934, this federal law regulates fully automatic weapons, suppressors, short-barreled rifles and shotguns, and destructive devices such as bombs or grenades. Then the Firearm Owners Protection Act subsequently modified the NFA in 1968 by the Gun Control Act and in 1986.

So is there a sanction for what people don’t approve of, should there be a sanction on automatic weapons? How about tobacco? What about opioids? Child abuse would be a good one. How about animal abuse? Go far to create a sanction on the climate change.

So many problems and worthless laws as we destroy ourselves with straws and verbiage.

Public Nuisance

To be a nuisance is an act, condition, or thing that is illegal because it interferes with the rights of the public generally.

Tort Law

1.    Public authorities that are responsible for protecting the rights of the public. These include state and federal agencies such as parks departments or environmental protection agencies; and

2.    Those individuals who suffer a particularized harm from the nuisance. This means a harm different in kind than that suffered by the public at large.

So what annoys you?

Loud music? Barking dogs? Speeding cars? Droopy pants? Bad haircuts? Fashion faux-pas?

Certainly understand not cutting your grass or not keeping your house tidy could become a public nuisance.

If you fly a flag or paint your house black or make obnoxious Halloween or Christmas displays are you creating a public nuisance?

Monogamy

Monogamy is the practice or state of being married to one person at a time.

Monogamy is the practice or state of having a sexual relationship with only one partner.

Monogamy is the habit of having only one mate at a time.

Monogamy (/məˈnɒɡəmi/ mə-NOG-ə-mee) is a form of relationship in which an individual has only one partner during their lifetime—alternately, only one partner at any one time (serial monogamy)—as compared to non-monogamy (e.g., polygamy). The term is also applied to the social behavior of some animals, referring to the state of having only one mate at any one time.

Is this term still relevant?

Back in the day when men were expected to sow their wild oats while girls were told to keep their knees together and stay virginal until marriage, it was culturally acceptable.

At the same time, at puberty couples starting pairing off to become boyfriend/girlfriend (or whatever variation you wanted), going steady, becoming significant other until marriage sealed the deal.

Even when the thought that this person was the ‘one and only’ each wondered about others as a possible mate.

That is why they created ‘divorce’.

Whether a judge approved an infidelity charge of expecting a zucchini but settling for a cucumber only to get a gherkin.

How much one wants to invest in a relationship helps Monogamy.

You can’t always get what you want, but if you try sometimes, you get what you need.

Fountain Pens

It is back to school time, so my thoughts turn to writing instruments.

Writing used to be important. We learned writing cursive on special lined paper with a #2 pencil raising our hand for the teacher to allow us to leave our desk for the crank pencil sharpener on the wall.

Other than Crayons, the pencil was our writing (and drawing) tool.

Then came along the Sheaffer writing pen.

Now remember the pencil was the tool to reproduce words… except for adults. They used pens. Fountain pens that had to be dipped into a fountain and scratched across the paper until it went dry and then double dipped. It was a process like filling a pipe or opening a bottle of wine.

Suddenly kids could write in ink without a dipping. The little cartridge slide down the plastic tube then screwed on the point that would puncture the cartridge and with a few shakes would scribble permanent lines on paper.

You could always tell those who put their Sheaffer pens in there pocket by the leakage staining their shirt as a passage of ink.

Then the BIC pen came out.

A simple plastic tube with a replaceable snap-off cap and a large ballpoint that would spread the ink quickly at a cheap price was all the rage.

I must admit pens have always been presented to me as a social badge. Every Christmas one of my presents was a Cross pen. They were purchased in a jewelry store in a cushioned box. Then silver tubes with a twist to show the replaceable and quickly emptied ink cartridge. The next Christmas, I might get the gold version or the special set of pen and mechanical pencil.

With my fascination in this industry I followed the trail to Rapidograph technical pens, Magic Markers and even Sharpies.

Not sure if kids even know how to write anymore without a keyboard?

No Open Carry

Would you want to get behind these guys who are buying beer at your local consumption distributor? Supposed you bumped them with your cart? Supposed your screaming kids annoyed them?

Not sure what the intimidation of bringing a weapon to a crowded family oriented that should be as friendly as a temple though you don’t know all the parishioners. Will you get a better slice of beef or a larger loaf of bread while packing heat?

Since the politicians don’t want to rock the boat restricting weapons, then businesses must take a moral stand listening to their customers.

“Kroger is respectfully asking that customers no longer openly carry firearms into our stores, other than authorized law enforcement officers. We are also joining those encouraging our elected leaders to pass laws that will strengthen background checks and remove weapons from those who have been found to pose a risk for violence.”

The announcement was made hours after Walmart said it would no longer sell “handgun and short-barrel rifle ammunition, while requesting that customers not openly carry firearms in its stores, even where state laws allow it,”

People are scared of guns (as well as they should be). Guns are dangerous. You can read every morning all the folks who were shot the night before.

If we are to become the ole west and by carrying a weapon makes you feel like Wild Bill Hickok, remember when the police arrive you are just another guy with a gun.

I personally do not have a gun. I know how to shoot a gun. I’ve been trained.

If someone breaks into my house, I will to get away and call the professionals who are paid to handle these situations. If it comes face-to-face, I’ll deal with it.

There are enough pills and needles to do harm without adding gunpowder. Guns are too easy and many times bullets don’t go where you think they are pointed.

Even when an officer of the law walks into a diner, I’ll leave.

I appreciate businesses taking the high road of protecting the public.

 When I go to the Tummy Temple tomorrow I will still be aware of the rolling carts around me. Those who are in a hurry, I’ll get out of the way. Those who seem frustrated or confused, I’ll avoid.

I don’t know how many are concealed carry.

September 7, 1979 I bought this house

What else was going on forty years ago?

·      The United States and the People’s Republic of China establish full diplomatic relations.

·      The State of Ohio agrees to pay $675,000 to families of the dead and injured in the Kent State shootings.

·      The People’s Army of Vietnam and Vietnamese-backed Cambodian insurgents announce the fall of Phnom Penh, Cambodia, and the collapse of the Pol Pot regime.

·      Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi flees Iran with his family, relocating to Egypt after a year of turmoil.

·      The Pittsburgh Steelers stake their claim as the NFL team of the 1970s by beating the Dallas Cowboys 35-31 at Miami’s Orange Bowl in Super Bowl XIII.

·      Cleveland Elementary School shooting (San Diego): Brenda Ann Spencer opens fire at a school in San Diego, California, killing two faculty members and wounding eight students and a police officer. Her justification for the action, "I don't like Mondays", inspires the Boomtown Rats to make a song of the same name.

·      Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini returns to Tehran, Iran after nearly 15 years of exile.

·      Ayatollah Khomeini creates the Council of the Islamic Revolution.

·      Iranian Revolution: Supporters of Ayatollah Khomeini take over the Iranian law enforcement, courts and government administration; the final session of the Iranian National Consultative Assembly is held.

·      Iranian Revolution: The Iranian army withdraws to its barracks leaving power in the hands of Ayatollah Khomeini, ending the Pahlavi dynasty.

·      ‘This Old House’ premieres on PBS.

·      Philips publicly demonstrates a prototype of an optical digital audio disc at a press conference in Eindhoven, Netherlands.

·      The first fully functional Space Shuttle orbiter, Columbia, is delivered to the Kennedy Space Center, to be prepared for its first launch.

·      In a ceremony at the White House, President Anwar Sadat of Egypt and Prime Minister Menachem Begin of Israel sign an Egypt–Israel Peace Treaty.

·      America’s most serious nuclear power plant accident occurs, at Three Mile Island, Pennsylvania.

·      Iran’s government becomes an Islamic Republic by a 98% vote, overthrowing the Shah officially.

·      A Soviet bio-warfare laboratory at Sverdlovsk accidentally releases airborne anthrax spores, killing 66 plus an unknown amount of livestock. It is a violation of the Biological Weapons Convention of 1972.

·      Margaret Thatcher becomes the UK’s first female prime minister

·      The Salvadoran Civil War begins.

·      Dan White receives a light sentence for killing San Francisco Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk. Gay men in the city riot.

·      American Airlines Flight 191: In Chicago, a DC-10 crashes during takeoff at O'Hare International Airport, killing all 271 on board and 2 people on the ground in the deadliest aviation accident in U.S. history.

·      McDonald's introduces the ‘Happy Meal’.

·      Los Angeles’ city council passes the city’s first homosexual rights bill signed without fanfare by mayor Thomas Bradley.

·      The first direct elections to the European Parliament begin, allowing citizens from across all then-9 European Community member states to elect 410 MEPs. It is also the first international election in history.

·      Jimmy Carter and Leonid Brezhnev sign the SALT II agreement in Vienna.

·      The Sony Walkman goes on sale for the first time in Japan.

·      NASA’s first orbiting space station Skylab begins its return to Earth, after being in orbit for 6 years and 2 months.

·      The Sandinista National Liberation Front concludes a successful revolutionary campaign against the Somoza dynasty and assumes power in Nicaragua.

·      The Disco music genre dominates and peaks on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, with the first six spots (beginning with Donna Summer’s Bad Girls), and seven of the chart’s top ten songs ending that week.

·      Iraqi president Saddam Hussein arranges the arrest and later execution of nearly seventy members of his ruling Ba’ath Party.

·      Michael Jackson releases his breakthrough album ‘Off the Wall’. It sells 7 million copies in the United States alone, making it a 7× platinum album.

·      The controversial religious satirical film Monty Python’s “Life of Brian”, premieres in the United States.

·      The first cable sports channel, ESPN, known as the Entertainment Sports Programming Network, is launched.

·      Federal Reserve System changes from an interest rate target policy to a money supply target policy.

·      National March for gay rights takes place in Washington, D.C., involving tens of thousands of people.

·      Iranian Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini urges his people to demonstrate on November 4 and to expand attacks on United States and Israeli interests.

·      In Greensboro, North Carolina, five members of the Communist Workers Party are shot to death and seven are wounded by a group of Klansmen and neo-Nazis, during a "Death to the Klan" rally.

·      500 Iranian radicals, mostly students, invade the U.S. Embassy in Tehran and take 90 hostages (53 of whom are American). They demand that the United States send the former Shah of Iran back to stand trial.

·      The radio news program ‘Morning Edition’ premieres on National Public Radio in the United States.

·      The NORAD computers and the Alternate National Military Command Center in Fort Ritchie, Maryland, detect an apparent massive Soviet nuclear strike. After reviewing the raw data from satellites and checking the early-warning radars, the alert is cancelled.

·      In response to the hostage situation in Tehran, U.S. President Jimmy Carter orders a halt to all oil imports into the United States from Iran.

·      U.S. President Jimmy Carter issues Executive Order 12170, freezing all Iranian assets in the United States and U.S. banks in response to the hostage crisis.

·      Iranian leader Ruhollah Khomeini orders the release of 13 female and African American hostages being held at the U.S. Embassy in Tehran.

·      ‘The Wall’, a rock opera and concept album by Pink Floyd, is first released.

·      Eleven fans are killed during a crowd crush for unreserved seats before The Who rock concert at the Riverfront Coliseum in Cincinnati.

·      Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini becomes the first Supreme Leader of Iran.

·      The world premiere of ‘Star Trek: The Motion Picture’ is held at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.

·      The Soviet Union invades Afghanistan.

·      The One-child policy is introduced in China – it contributes to Missing women of China. It was loosened in 2013.

·      VisiCalc becomes the first commercial spreadsheet program.

·      Chrysler receives government loan guarantees upon the request of CEO Lee Iacocca.

This day was the end of the seventies and an end of a marriage and a big move.

It was a busy day as I recall. The real estate broker took me to a lawyer’s office to sign a stack of papers from the city and the banks signing off one house and signing onto another house. Didn’t read any fine print but just wrote my name. It was fairly an emotional day but I wasn’t thinking logically.

When you sign over your house to another person it is like handing the keys of your car to someone else. If you leave your golf clubs in the trunk, they are now the new car owner’s golf clubs.

Well my first wife hadn’t found a spot yet and our arrangement was to divide the furniture and I was moving that day. I had a gentleman’s agreement with the new owner to store her furniture in the basement, but that required another trip to a lawyer to sign some more papers releasing responsibility for my wife’s stuff.

After the hand cramps from all the autographs going back to the old house when there was a moving van loaded with all the new owner’s stuff. Yikes!

I had thought about taking the rest of the day to leisurely drag my stuff out before leaving the rooms vacant, but suddenly I was on a emergency deadline!!

Luckily my friends who volunteered to help me move (bless them) took all this calamity in vain.

Had to rent a truck to move my junk. Do you know how hard it is to rent a truck when you don’t have a driver’s license? Somehow we juggled the legal requirements and filled the truck with boxes of records, books, book cases, plates, clothing, guitars and amplifiers, etc.

Good-bye old house.

Backing the truck up on the lawn, breaking the sidewalk and getting attention of the neighbors, the ramp went to the porch and within an hour all the stuff was piled inside the empty rooms (except for one leftover beer stein). I think I had a case of beer to repay them for their efforts on a clear Friday and knew I was endeared to helping them move several times as payback.

It took time to make a house a home, but it was shelter with more than enough room for one person.

Just four blocks from where I grew up, the neighborhood hadn’t changed much. Still within walking distance to shopping districts and restaurants and very bike friendly was the draw to move back. Also it is quiet and safe at night.

Employment was easy to reach by a block away public transport or even close enough to walk to. Luckily the career stayed downtown so I never had to move.

Over the years I saw trees cut down for three story houses to replace them, ice cream trucks, antique fire engines, fireworks, car crashes, wild lawn parties, screaming children, domestic disputes, robberies, deer, raccoons, possums, flying squirrels, hawks, owls, bats and rats, and neighbors coming and going.

The neighborhood was fairly middle class for young married until they had children and moved to the county but then people started renovating and expanding their homes and the prices soared.

To see what the interior looked like back in the day:

https://nimrodstudios.blogspot.com/2010/02/30-years-ago-in-black-and-white.html

-->

Then the lawn changed into a forest and a garden and a sanctuary.

Would I sell? Though the assessment is 5X what I paid for the lot, it is only a good investment with still plenty of room and the biggest chores are washing the dishes and picking up leaves.

The house is somewhat stable through hurricanes and winter snows, the heat works, the water works, the refrigerator and stove work, the washer/dryer work and best of all the studio will keep me alive through the hottest July and the coldest February. So much can be ordered online and delivered that transportation can be spinning outside in the fresh air for exercise.

Plus travel doesn’t need to take place due to social media. When the electricity dies (but quickly comes back due to our position on the grid) there is still a rocker on the porch to watch my shade tree grow.

Got’ta live somewhere, so until mobility become difficult or the property taxes become impossible, I’ll stay put. When and if I ever move out (either vertical or horizontal) someone will tear this place down, cut down all the trees, scare off all the critters, and return the spot to match the rest of the neighborhood.

Home Sweet Home for 40 years.

-->