Wednesday(2014)

Happy New Year to all of you who manage to wade through my rambles and thoughts. I want to wish all of you the best for this next year as well as your families. This blog is still pretty much family oriented about my daily happening and as of late some of my inter most thoughts on the future(as I see it)for our nation that I served both as an airman in the military and as a law enforcement officer. I often reflect back on one of the nations most beloved presidents when he said "ask not what your country can do for you, but what can you do for your country". That mindset(to my way of thinking)is long gone as we enter another year where the mantra has become "let someone else do for me what I should be doing for myself ".  I fear for what my grand children will be faced with in the coming years with the lack of personal restraint, being held responsible for your actions and doing what is right and caring for others. Oh well it seems the further we get away from the Judeo-Christian principles which by the way our founding fathers was insisted upon in the formation of our relatively new county have been tossed out and are no longer an influence in the basis for our society.

Tuesday started out much the usual with my self programmed alarm clock waking me around 5:30 'ish. I started the day with my usual routine of; cup of green tea, a few quiet moments after posting this ramble, a glass of orange juice(leftover from Christmas breakfast) and then a ride out to the rec on my bike for some 2 hours of pickle ball. I needed a flannel shirt as the outside temperature was probably in the low 50's, but a stiff northern breeze made it feel even colder with the overcast skies. We had only 4 players for the morning and one of those wasn't a regular as we hijacked the young attendant for the rec for about 30 minutes or so. We mostly played 2 on 1 for nearly an hour but I did manage a good sweat and then I headed into the weight room for about 30 minutes on the treadmill to finish off the workout. I stopped off at the library to pick up a read as it will be closed on Wednesday.

I came back and worked in the garden giving all of my plants a good liquid fertilizer feeding. The romaine is starting to bolt(mature) so I cut a couple heads and cleaned that for salads. I picked a couple pink tomatoes before the bugs got into them. This cooler weather has helped with slowing their destruction on the ripening fruit. Everything is looking good especially the green beans which are about 2-3 inches in length and the bushes are just loaded. The sugar peas are about 2 feet in height on the chain link fence as well as the Brussels sprouts are setting small itty bitty balls on the stems. I bought some high second number fertilizer for the onions and have been using in on some of the flowering plants and believe me when I say it works as the blooms are twice as many on each plant.

Amy, GG, Ava and Sam came for lunch and GG made an brought a delicious ham salad. We had that on fresh rolls and I finish up the last of the pasta fousle soup. Yeow what delicious eatin'. I retired to the reading room for the next couple hours while Nancy took her mom GG shopping and ran some errands. We were heading up to neighbors Dan and Carole for a supper of homemade tomato and basil soup with a hoagie type sandwich for supper and then to play games and watch the ball drop at midnight. I made a bowl of 3 avocado guacamole to snack on before eating. Yeow was that ever tasty and good for you as well. We played Phase 10 and Golf with the Triplett's winning both games for a change. We watched the Fox News network for the big moments when 2013 left us for 2014. What a year that was and let's hope we all become aware of the forces that are changing us(USA) and I'm afraid to say not always for the best.

Well enough said as I want to wish all of my pickle ball friends that your play improves, to my gardening friends that your plants stay healthy and keep you filled with their bounty and to those who ascribe to my philosophy of "treat others as you want to be treated" a great and healthy and prosperous New Year, LATER