I am not sure of the ramifications of “going over the cliff” but I can assume that the results are not something that cant be corrected retroactively.  Politicians seem to like to scare us in to believing that the job they do is one of much difficulty, requiring massive brain power and only able to be performed by wizards.  I do not believe that for a minute.  I know there are many people in Washington for all the really good reasons but there are more than enough up there who are just interested in getting their back patted and their pockets lined. 

We have been told that unless a deal is made by 12/31/12 then we are facing massive tax increases, devastating scheduled spending cuts and unemployment. Lets dissect those a little bit.  For a family with total income of 50k to 75k the taxes will be increased by about $ 2400.00.  Most of this is simply a return to the level of social security taxes that were being withheld just a couple of years ago.  I know this may be a lot for some people but it can’t be something that people can’t live with.  They were doing it prior to the decrease.  Massive spending cuts?  Pleeeze.  Someone please tell me how massive spending cuts by the federal government is going to be a bad thing.  Is it possible that such spending cuts would cause a decrease in the amount of taxes they need to collect?  No, that will never happen.  Once they have started collecting a tax, well it is there forever.  We are all aware of that little truism.  Unemployment?  Maybe they think a politician will be put out of a job?

Here is the simplistic approach to the solution to these problems.  Lets cut government spending by enough to balance the budget.  Then lets put together a budget that is 10% less.  Cut spending by 10% more.  This will automatically cause us to start looking at bigger spending cuts and could lead to tax decreases.  Lets cut the military budget.  We have to keep a strong force to prevent countries from kicking sand in our faces.  Bull droppings.  We need to tell the third world countries that they need to leave us alone, live with us peacefully or take a real good look at what a Walmart parking lot looks like.  We have the ability to turn their country into one of those, all we would have to do is to paint the parking stripes on after the smoke clears.

Unemployment.  We reinstate the civilian conservation corps., a really good organization from the depression era.  If you have ever been to a national park you have probably seen some of their work.  This puts millions of young people to work, teaches them a trade, provides the country with improved roads, bridges, parks, national monuments while providing these workers with money, insurance and uniforms while they are becoming tax paying citizens.  The abosolute best of all worlds.  It could also require the employment of some of us old retired guys who have a talent that could lend to the project.  Would beat being a Walmart greeter.  We might not be able to haul rocks but we would make damned good foremen, time keepers or records clerks.  We could also be role models for young men who may have missed some fatherly advice while growing up.  I can’t see a downside to this plan.

I for one am willing to “go over the cliff” if it somehow makes us take a good look at ourselves, maybe pull up our big people panties and get on with some type of program that is positive for our country and our grandchildren.  Dorothy told me today that I got a $ 15.00 raise in social security.  Well, they can have that back if it will help any at all.  However, I think the solution is more about them finding a way to cut out the fat, trim the budget and get the tax basis expanded.

Chuy the problem solver

1 Prime rib roast-gently cooked to a medium rare
1 Big bowl of Mashed potatoes
1 Gravy boat of roast gravy
1 Huge bowl of squash casserole
1 xlarge bowl of spinach salad/w bacon dressing
1 Very good looking buttermilk pie.

3 Family members, Dorothy, Christi, Mother
2 Very good friends, Mike and Linda

I dont know what the rich people are eating today but they cant be dining any finer than the Cowans

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL

GARY

There were 18 fallen angels at the altar of the Son
There were 18 fallen angels in the valley of the gun
They knew not why, they knew not who, they werent allowed
to even run, but they were welcomed with open arms at
the altar of the Son.

If you looked at the darkened sky on this dismal night
You would surely see some new made stars that give out
new light. These 18 fallen angels will shine brighter
than the sun, cause they are kneeling at his feet at the
altar of the Son.

The sadness will linger for many months for those who
have a heart and for those who dont, we pity you as only thru
him can life start. So step outside tomorrow night, look up
and simply stare, for the 18 fallen angels will show you that
they care.

GHC

It doesnt appear that the Mayans knew so much afterall. I was a bit cautious about their calander thing simply because you would think that if they were so smart, well what happen to their civilization and where did they go? Anyhow, I am going out today and buy Christimas presents, I had been holding off just in case.

I am cooking a Christmas lunch today for some fellas who are mostly drug addicts and just plain ole drunks. They work for a client of mine and they seem to have very little in life. However, they do have manners. Every time I see them, all 5, they greet me as Mr. Cowan. They inquire as to how I am doing, what I think of the weather and generally seem interested in my life. They are freindly. I have often felt like I should do something for them but know any type of monetary gift would simply be used in a manner that would further the decline of their situation. I know that they subsist on a diet of Keystone beer and gas station hot dogs so, today, they are going to get a meal of pulled pork, baked beans, and fresh veggies, with New York cheese cake for dessert. They are gonna eat on Christmas plates, have decorative napkins and genuine metal utensils. I know from how they treat me that they will appreciate the meal. If they do enjoy then I will have received about as good a Christmas gift as I can receive.

GHC

Chuy has been officially passed by time. It is a good thing that I am in the last quarter of the game of life. I am not sure Chuy can stand much more of this.

I went to a sunday school party Saturday night and was sent to buy ice. Another fella and I went to the local gas station. When we entered we saw a lady, late 20’s I would guess, standing at the counter. I can only guess that Crisco lard was somehow involved in her putting on her pants for the evening. Her legs, and there were a lot of the two of them, were stuffed, and I do mean stuffed into a pair of boots that rose up past her knees and had 9″ stilleto heels. I am sure each of you have heard the expression “muffin top”. I could only think “muffin tin” cause there was more hanging over than one muffin cup would have ever held. Tip for baking, Never fill a muffin cup more than 1/2 full or things are gonna get messy. Her dress however was not the main thing Don and I noticed. She had a small girl with her, age 4-5, dressed in sequin strapped high heeled shoes, a white crocheted dress, lipstick, eye shadow, and mascara. Ears pierced, not once but thrice. My question is, when the little girl comes home at age 12 and tells her mother that she is going to have her own baby, what is the mother gonna think. Will she know where she went wrong? I doubt it.

Saturday morning at the mail center I saw a young man, age 10-12, that had his left ear pierced. I asked him if he was going to grow up to be a pirate and his grandmother looked at me like I had assaulted the child. Question to the parents of that child. When he gets grown and chops up a few folks with a pirate sword, what are you going to think? Where did you go wrong? I will tell you, it was the moment you bought that kid an earring or possibly the moment you bought him the latest video game entitled “The Blood sucking zombies from Albuquerque vs. the United States Marine Corp, rated XXX for violence, mayhem and some nudity. I have a vivid picture of what would have happened had I gone home and asked Homer and Lou Cowan if I could have my ear pierced. I would have been able to write a book entitled ” What it is like while you are in a coma” or ” What I missed during my teen years while in a coma”.

At the party Saturday night i was introduced to chocolate vodka. Chocolate vodka!!!!. When and why did they invent such a thing? Had it been around during the late 50’s, early 60’s I know several people who would now be living along the banks of the Pecos river, picking up cans for money to buy more chocolate vodka. Hell, we thought sloe gin was the best thing since the invention of snow cone syrup. What do you mix chocolate vodka with? I can only assume you mix it with chocolate milk. What dip goes best with a “chocolate bomb”?, well, silly, a chocolate doughnut.

Again I say, I have been passed by time. I am more than content to sit in my bedroom, watching the food channel, occasionally shuffling to the kitchen for a handfull of oreo cookies and now, a chocolate bomb.

Chuy

We have again been assaulted from within.  A person amongst us has attacked and killed our children.  Why did he do it?  No one is sure as of yet.  Most of us cant comprehend any reason why such a thing would happen.  How mad does a person get at a situation that he feels that the only way to solve the problem is to kill innocent people, then kill himself.  Why involve the innocent, if things are that bad, well make sure your take yourself out first. 

We have already heard cries for gun control.  It always happens after any incident where a gun is involved.  But, was it the availability of the guns or was it the fact that this individual spent untold hours playing violent video games that sell violence and death like cotton candy at a carnival.  Maybe it was a combination of both.  These are problems that are going to be difficult to solve. 

I personally think that we are all responsible to some extent for most of the problems that we are currently faced with.  We have allowed ourselves to get away from our core values.  We have let the family fracture and have turned over the rearing and training of our children and grandchildren to others.  We rely on the schools to set our children on the right path.  All this, and then we wonder where our children, our peers, etc. go wrong. 

I have told you in previous posts that I am a gun owner.  I will continue to be one.  My sons are also gun owners.  To date, I have not killed a human being and do not intend to do so.  I have been asked why I own weapons and my only answer is that I dont want the bad guys to be the only people with a gun.  What I do want is for each of us to think a few minutes about how we can repair what we have allowed our children to be exposed to on a daily basis.  As hard as it will be to accomplish, I am going to try and expose my grandchildred to a good book.  Not a violent one but one that tells about the history of our country from a non war standpoint.  Maybe the book about Lincoln.  I am not sure yet how to do this but I am going to try.  I will also take my grandson hunting when the chance comes that we can get off.  I want him to know about life, not so much about death, and the difference between the two.

Gary

Tom Brokaw has written of the “Greatest Generation” and I certainly agree with his assessment.  My Father’s generation did things that forever changed the world.  They made the world a safer place and performed deeds that had not been done before, and to some extent, since.  I think the greatest thing they did was to produce us, the Privileged Generation. 

That may sound selfish but it isnt, for reasons which I will elaborate upon.

Men and women returned from WW II wanting a better life, a better education and a better world.  I was fortunate to be one of those who benefitted from this desire to make things better.  My grandfather made my dad quit school during his 9th grade year and go to work.  Because of that, my father did everything he had to do to make sure my sister and I had an education opportunity.  I was also given a work ethic, a religious foundation and most of all, a loving family.  Being one of many who were raised in a small west Texas town that nurtured all those opportunities.  Pecos has been many things.  It has been a place that was feared for its lawlessness.  It has been used to scare children into a less sinful life and it has been a place of ridicule for the actions of some of its citizens.  It is now a skelaton of itself as we knew it but it can still stir memories of better times.  And the hopes of better times returning.

Our home town was a place without locked doors.  There was no latchkey program because there were no locked homes unless the family was on vacation to Grand Canyon.  Neighbors knew who was out of town and who could and should be around the neighborhood.  You could tell who was where by simply looking at the cars parked outside.  The only home invasions was sand from the occasional sand storm.  No drive by shootings because everyone would have known who did the shooting withing 15 minutes.  County jail was no place to be.

All this has changed and we were unable for the most part to give our children the opportunities to live as we did.  Too damned bad, I say.  I have tried to tell my children and grandchildren how we were raised without cell phones, gameboys, x boxes and etc.  They look at me like I am from another planet.  I simply smile, look back at them and think.  If you only knew how privaleged we actually were.

Gary Homer Cowan

My wife suggested that one of the reasons she asked me to codify some of my ramblins was to include some of the meaningful things i have written. Therefore this is a rerelease from the year 2002.

The opening of service in Nature’s Cathedral is nothing like the sounds emitted from the bell towers of more well know churches.  It has a more subtle opening.  It can be the soft flutter of a mourning dove, the whispered call of a Bobwhite or even the muted grunts from the family of javelinas that has come in to see if corn has been spread.

There is a choir to herald the opening but one must listen carefully.  All the notes of the music scale are there but there are no lyrics that man can understand.  The music is soft like the sound of waves at a sheltered part of the beach.  Sometimes the music is almost a sigh.  Oh, on occasion a raucous crow can be heard but one overlooks such an intrusion.  You can sit back and listen to what truly is the purest of heavenly sounds. 

The lighting of the candles consists of a softening of the night, fading starlight and an awareness that night has ended.  Even the sunrise is gentle, not harsh and sudden.  The light of the new day grows steadily as the service continues.

Services last all day and change as often as the wind.  Services can be of the hell fire and brimstone variety during the heat of summer or it can be as gentle as the opening of new buds in spring.  Nature’s catherfral has scheduled something for everyone.

Closing of services comes almost as quietly as the opening.  Dimness starts to spread and one feels a settling of the day’s activities.  This is not a time to rush out of the cathedral for other activities but is a time to sit and reflect on the message of the service, which is a message from within.  The message in Nature’s Cathedral is not written by man but is truly written by someone with more of an understanding of what man really needs.

I like the service in this Cathedral.

Many of our modern medicines are now being introduced to our bodies through the use of epedermal patches.  The use of these patches  are currently used  in pain relievers.  I suggest that scientist get on the ball and develope food patches.

A patch that when attached to your body would make you think you are eating strawberries and shortcakes for the duration of the patch.  Tiramasu patch?  Liver and onions with brown gravy patch. 

These patches could be sold at the local vitamin shop and you could go by and pick up an assortment of the patches, housed conveniently in a nice teak box, much like the one you see that has tea bags inside.  Having a party, pick up the number of patches needed for the number of guests you have invited.  Get the combo patch, which will make each guest think they have eaten a variety of chips, dips, sliced meats, coucous, hummus and other nibbles.  Serving drinks, get the liquor variety packs.  Vodka anyone?  A nice red?  Jack Black?  No problem.  Just hand the guests a glass of water and a patch.  No more DUI, no one has to be the designated driver.  NO one makes an ass of themselves, up chucking on your new sofa, none of the bad things about having a party.  Everyone thinks they are drinking but are simply having a nice glass of spring water.

Now, there are some drawbacks to my plan.  There are certain people who would starve themselves to death because they would put the Scottish butter cookie patch on every morning and simply not eat.  She knows who I am referring to. 

I am certain each of you have a favorite thing in this world that you would love to taste all day.  Tuna noodle casserole?  Pinto beans( no gas)? Peach cobbler?  Send out some hints.  This thing could catch on.

Chuy the inventor