Halloween, 2023

HAPPY HALLOWEEN 

Oh how we love pumpkin season. You did know this gourdish squash has its own season, right? Winter, Spring, Summer, Pumpkin . . . . .We anxiously anticipate it every year.

                                                            Trader Joe’s Fearless Flyer

Be sure to go to the Google Search and click on the picture. Then advance frame by frame by clicking on the arrow down in the lower-right corner. A very cute Halloween card.  If you don't have the picture, Click Here

Have you missed me? I've really missed sharing with you, but I've been catching up on some things I've neglected too long.

Daughter Kathy told me about the new cell phone company she switched to, and I found that my smart phone is compatible. You know how I've searched and searched and finally gave up and bought a temporary flip phone until I had a chance to look for a new cell phone which would work with a company besides T-Mobile. The company is Mint Mobile, and I signed up for 5GB per month of internet, unlimited talk and text, and it's only $15 a month. Woo hoo!

Now I'm working on leaving cable TV, and I'm almost there. Just have to watch two more episodes of Aerial American which I have recorded, but can't access on YouTube. More on this next time.

And I've been bonding with my new vacuum and mop. If you're in the market for either, let me know, and I'll tell you about them.

I wanted to show you a few photos of the fall color. Not a great year for leaf peeping. You just never know from one year to the next. It all depends on Mother Nature.

Take time to relax and enjoy Ernesto Cortazar's rendition of Autumn Leaves with accompanying fall color. Much better than my photos. Click Here You might want to lower your volume - it's rather loud.

I'm trying to stay true to the promise I made to myself to work on some of my cardmaking "stuff." Sometime ago Friend Katie sent me this cute "thank you" card.

And since she generously shares her designs, I made some of my own.

And I want to share something I received from Friend Linda in Kansas.  It was written by Don Feder.

Men, like nations, think they're eternal. What man in his 20s or 30s doesn't believe, at least subconsciously, that he'll live forever? In the springtime of youth, an endless summer beckons. As you pass 70, it's harder to hide from reality.

Nations also have seasons: Imagine a Roman of the 2nd century contemplating an empire that stretched from Britain to the Near East, thinking: This will endure forever. Forever was about 500 years, give or take. France was pivotal in the 17th and 18th centuries; now the land of Charles Martel is on its way to becoming part of the Muslim ummah.

In the 19th and early 20th centuries, the sun never set on the British Empire; now Albion exists in a perpetual twilight. Its 95-year-old sovereign is a fitting symbol for a nation in terminal decline.

In the 1980s, Japan seemed poised to buy the world. Business schools taught Japanese management techniques. Today, its birth rate is so low and its population aging so rapidly that an industry has sprung up to remove the remains of elderly Japanese who die alone.

I was born in 1949, almost at the midpoint of the 20th century, the American century. America's prestige and influence were never greater. Thanks to the Greatest Generation, we won a World War fought throughout most of Europe, Asia and the Pacific. We reduced Germany to rubble and put the rising sun to bed. It set the stage for almost half a century of unprecedented prosperity. We stopped the spread of communism in Europe and Asia and fought international terrorism. We rebuilt our enemies and lavished foreign aid on much of the world. We built skyscrapers and rockets to the moon. We conquered Polio and now COVID. We explored the mysteries of the Universe and the wonders of DNA, the blueprint of life. But where is the glory that once was Rome? America has moved from a relatively free economy to socialism, which has worked so well NOWHERE in the world. We've gone from a republican government guided by a constitution to a regime of revolving elites. We have less freedom with each passing year. Like a signpost to the coming reign of terror, the cancel culture is everywhere. We've traded the American Revolution for the Cultural Revolution.

The pathetic creature in the White House is an empty vessel filled by his handlers. At the G-7 Summit, "Dr. Jill" had to lead him like a child. In 1961, when we were young and vigorous, our leader was too. Now a feeble nation is technically led by the oldest man to ever serve in the presidency. We can't defend our borders, our history (including monuments to past greatness) or our streets. Our cities have become anarchist playgrounds. We are a nation of dependents, mendicants, and misplaced charity. Homeless veterans camp in the streets while illegal aliens are put up in hotels.

The president of the United States can't even quote the beginning of the Declaration of Independence ("You know, The Thing") correctly. Ivy League graduates routinely fail history tests that 5th graders could pass a generation ago. Crime rates soar and we blame the 2nd Amendment and slash police budgets. Our culture is certifiably insane. Men who think they're women. People who fight racism by seeking to convince members of one race that they're inherently evil, and others that they are perpetual victims. A psychiatrist lecturing at Yale said she fantasizes about "unloading a revolver into the head of any white person". We slaughter the unborn in the name of freedom, while our birth rate dips lower year by year. Our national debt is so high that we can no longer even pretend that we will repay it one day. It's a $30-trillion monument to our improvidence and refusal to confront reality. Our "entertainment" is sadistic, nihilistic and as enduring as a candy bar wrapper thrown in the trash. Our music is noise that spans the spectrum from annoying to repulsive.

Patriotism is called insurrection, treason celebrated, and perversion sanctified. A man in blue gets less respect than a man in a dress. We're asking soldiers to fight for a nation our leaders no longer believe in. How meekly most of us submitted to Fauci-ism (the regime of face masks, lock downs and hand sanitizers) shows the impending death of the American spirit.

How do nations slip from greatness to obscurity? Fighting endless wars they can't or won't win. Massive debt far beyond their ability to repay. Refusing to guard their borders, allowing the nation to be inundated by an alien horde. Surrendering control of their cities to mob rule. Allowing indoctrination of the young. Moving from a republican form of government to an oligarchy. Losing national identity. Indulging indolence. Abandoning faith and family, the bulwarks of social order.

In America, every one of these symptoms is pronounced, indicating an advanced stage of the disease. Even if the cause seems hopeless, do we not have an obligation to those who sacrificed so much to give us what we had?

I'm surrounded by ghosts urging me on: the Union soldiers who held Cemetery Ridge at Gettysburg, the battered bastards of Bastogne, those who served in the cold hell of Korea, the guys who went to the jungles of Southeast Asia and came home to be reviled or neglected. This is the nation that took in my immigrant grandparents, whose uniform my father and most of my uncles wore in the Second World War. I don't want to imagine a world without America, even though it becomes increasingly likely. During Britain's darkest hour, when its professional army was trapped at Dunkirk and a German invasion seemed imminent, Churchill reminded his countrymen, "Nations that go down fighting rise again, and those that surrender tamely are finished." The same might be said of causes. If we let America slip through our fingers, if we lose without a fight, what will posterity say of us? While the prognosis is far from good, only God knows if America's day in the sun is over. 

https://ronaldyatesbooks.com/2021/06/is-the-american-empire-finished-how-nations-slip-from-greatness-to-oblivion/

Here's the link referenced. Click Here.

I wanted to show you the Halloween photos I've taken along the way.

Over in Friend Katie's neighborhood.

My neighbor

And this guy hiding in the corner

He even put a spider on the island in front of our houses.

  

These are from a house up by the entry to my subdivision.

There are two corner houses which are diagonally across from each other in an old section of Nixa. They always decorate their yards, but this year they really stepped it up.

The first guy is into pirates and clever signs and gravestones.

The sign says, "Walk the broken plank", so kids can walk out and get a better look at the area.

Here the owner was fixing the witch who got windblown.

This is a large house, and all you see are jack-o'-lanterns and skeletons from every angle. The house starts here.

And goes around the corner.

To here

There are skeletons going into the pot

with buckets of bones

in cages, on the ground and in the trees

on pitchforks

run over by lawn mowers

with piles of bones

carrying coffins

riding bikes

on the roof

and jack-o'-lanterns everywhere

it even spilled over to next door

Kudos to the owners of both houses for all the work. This didn't happen overnight.

A sad sight - a for sale sign went up on neighbor Lana's house. She's been my neighbor since I moved in back in 2005. I know it's a good move for her, as she'll be near her daughter and grandson, but we'll miss her. 

Don't eat too much Halloween candy. 

THANK YOU FOR SHARING MY LIFE