2. The Man in My Back Yard

My house sits on an acre of land in Whites Creek, just north of Nashville, still sort of Nashville.  The houses on my side of the road are all 50s ranch houses with two bedrooms, one bath, all with the same layout, though some have full porches and some have fireplaces and some are mirror images of their neighbors.  And over half a century, they have come to take on their own personalities, with additions and coats of paint and the deaths of the original owners.

I bought my house from the nephew of the original owners.  His aunt is still alive.  His uncle has been dead a while.  His shed in the back yard still has his small animal traps, rusted, but hanging on the wall.  His work bench still has drill bits and chisels.  The cabinet above the sink still had his two white glass mugs.  And we found jars of honey from when he used to keep bees.

The nephew told us that, towards the end of his life, his uncle went blind.  So they draped ropes and wires all around the back yard so that the uncle could still get outside and walk around and, following the ropes, not get lost.  Because he didn’t want to be cooped up in the house.  He wanted to be out in the yard that he loved so much.

Often, when people come to visit, they come in the back door and they ask, “Is that your dad out in the hammock?”

And I say, “No.  There’s no one here but me.”

But I hope I’m wrong.

One Question

Regardless of all the other stuff a person might say about a post like this, aside from it all, how is “I’m upset that I can’t expand the government?” in any way conservative?

(Okay, one small thing. Campfield wants to make it easier for the state to steal your children!!!!! Good lord. That’s a platform he’s going to run for State Senator on?)

The Map is Kind of Interactive!

Okay, assuming that works right, it should be the map for the stories, with the spot for the first story center frame.  If you click on it to make it take you to a larger map, you’ll see that, on the little pop out for the first story is a link taking you back to the story that has been published.

Tell me that is not the coolest fucking thing.

And we owe it, if it works, all to Polerin, who should have a song written in her honor.

Eh, Kleinheider

I’ve said my piece in various comment sections. I just want to say two more things.

One, if there’s any way something you write or do could be construed as you saying “Ha, remember when we could do what we wanted to you with impunity and you just had to take it?” without any hint of sarcasm, you should not write or do it, if you want the people who are of the group who just had to take it to not be upset with you.  It doesn’t matter what’s in your heart. You wouldn’t ask someone you just accidentally hit in the face to understand where you were coming from.

We’re not all going to get that right 100% of the time. But that should be a baseline for civil discourse. The apology should have come as soon as Kleinheider got that people were upset and why.

Which brings me to my next point.

Two, instructing someone to “to stop pouring fuel on the fire with his responses” while at the same time trying to tell yourself “that a serious discussion about race was beginning to happen” doesn’t jibe. Either there’s a discussion in which all parties are free to talk (even if one of the parties talking is making a complete ass of himself and your company) or there’s a bunch of folks growing even more concerned and outraged because they’re experiencing what took place in that thread as them being ignored by the person you have told to stop responding.

“White man does something stupid, seems to ignore concerns of people who call him on it” is not a serious discussion about race. It’s business as usual.