Beware The Ides...

...of January. 

Pretty grim stuff, but Karen reminded me of what we have waiting for us just up the road a bit:

Both encouraging and depressing, all at the same time.

Yes, it's something we look forward to, but until then we're still unhappy subjects of...

Old Man Winter

...yeah, him.

The birds don't seem to mind too much...

...if only I could tap in to their attitude.

In the meantime I'll keep doing this...

...while dreaming of this:

C'mon, <Spring>!

Speaking of winter fun, I just finished re-reading Jerry Kramer's "Instant Replay".

It's a truly fascinating inside look at the old NFL: its players, coaches and attitudes.

(A bit of triviata: the Packers, led by coach Vince Lombardi, recited the Lord's Prayer before and after every game, win or lose.)

One of the best chapters deals with most (in)famous NFL championship game of all time:

The <1967 Ice Bowl between the Dallas Cowboys and the Green Bay Packers>, played on December 31st in Green Bay, Wisconsin.

No championship game has been played in harsher conditions: 15 below zero, with wind chills as low as 48 below zero.

The defining play in the waning seconds of the game went down in history as "The Block":

Right guard Jerry Kramer and center Ken Bowman moved big Jethro Pugh just enough for qb Bart Starr to plunge into the end zone with the winning touchdown.

That's #64 Kramer on the ground after blocking #75 Pugh; #15 Starr has made himself at home on the frozen paydirt.

The video of the game is about an hour and 13 minutes and includes commentary from many of the players; well worth your time if you're an NFL history fan.

As you're putting on your coat and just before you flee the premises, let's play a little game.

Try to guess which political party, in its long and checkered history, has championed the causes of -

* slavery:

hint*

Republican Abraham Lincoln freed the slaves with the <Emancipation Proclamation> on New Year's Day in 1863;

* segregation:

hint*

Democrat Governor George Wallace of Alabama famously stated in his inaugural address on January 14th, 1963, they would have segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever;

* killing babies in utero:

hint*

A <2025 Gallup Poll> shows 83% of Democrats are pro-abortion, while that same poll shows 77% of Republicans are pro-life:

* and insurrection:

another fun filled night of anarchy in the lawless state of Minnesota

hint*

President Trump, who won the 2024 election in a landslide...

...promising to secure our borders and deport criminal illegal aliens, <recently warned them the end is near>.

Time for your answer!

Which political party has proudly embraced slavery, segregation, killing babies in utero and violently opposing both the rule of law and deporting rapists, murderers, child abusers, thieves and fraudsters?

If you answered "the Democrats", congratulations!

You may award yourself 10 points.

The good news?

You can use those 10 points any way you want to.

And remember:

21  Though hand join in hand, the wicked shall not be unpunished: but the seed of the righteous shall be delivered.

    - Proverbs 11:21

Alrighty...time for you to 23 Skidoo:

not a great pic from our doorbell video, but that fuzzy critter on the left is a mangy fox that's been hanging around lately.  we've set a havahart trap with some chicken in it as bait...hopefully we get him before he gets our pets.

lately I've been enjoying smoking my corn cob pipes...the light colored one is "the chesapeake", the other is "the shenandoah".  the chesapeake has a slightly larger bowl and is good for a 15 minute smoke, the shenandoah for 10.  love the bamboo stems; all I need now is floppy straw hat (note: not gonna happen).

sing it with me:  "I'm dreaming of some warm weather, just like the kind we used to know...when the sun was shining, and we weren't pining, because we have to shovel snow..."

ok, I'll stop now but yeah...I've got it bad

When you divorce freedom from its moral underpinnings of godliness, you're left with license:

the unbridled desire to do whatever you want without natural consequence.

Ultimately, that's both a moral and practical impossibility - in God's universe there's no such thing as "getting away with something", there are only delayed consequences.

The time inevitably comes to pay the piper, either here on earth or -

27  ...it is appointed unto men once to die, and after this the judgment:

    - Hebrews 9:27

- when we stand before our Creator.

When pleasure and greed become our <raison d'être>, rather than God and duty, the end of our freedom - indeed, the end our nation as founded - is assured.

We're at a crossroads - massive fraud is being exposed, billions of taxpayer dollars stolen - and so far, with little to no accountability or consequence.

A free country cannot survive this way.

There must be a reckoning.

As our founding fathers warned more than 200 years ago:

"Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom...(otherwise we will) end in Despotism...when people shall become so corrupted as to need despotic government, being incapable of any other."

    - Benjamin Franklin

later, mcm fans...

They're Calling It "Sleet"...

...but it's snow...and there's going to be 4" of it before the shoutin's done.

Had a week of January thaw, more or less...some rain, lots of high winds, temps even climbed up toward 60, but that was overnight.

And now it's time once again for the proverbial <lowering of the boom>:

And since I've been at this - with a few "cat interruptions" thrown in for good measure - here's what it looks like now:

I am so ready for <Spring>.

Don't usually delve into the world of pro sports on this blog; if the equipment being used doesn't look like this...

...it's rare for me to bother with it.

But today is the wild card playoff game between the Green Bay Packers and the Chicago Bears and I feel duty bound to chip in my <dos centavos>.

Why?

Because when I was a young lad rousting about the rural wilds of Pennsylvania, <Bart Starr> was one of my heros...

...and I was quite convinced I would someday be scoring TD's in the NFL just like <Jim Taylor>.

As much as I admired both those players, neither of them had anywhere near the impact on me as another Green Bay Packer.

And the true oddity is, he labored in relative obscurity for almost his entire career.

It has been well said, if you were on the lam in the 1950's/60's and needed someplace to hide where no one would ever find you and no one would know your name, all you had to do was become an interior lineman on any NFL team.

Most of those boys labored in obscurity, making so little money they needed off season jobs to make ends meet.

During the season they did the dirty work in the trenches that allowed guys like Bart Starr and Jim Taylor to become "stars".

But this particular Green Bay Packer broke that mold wide open when he published his diary of the 1967 Championship season of the Green Bay Packers:

#15 Bart Starr, #31 Jim Taylor, #64 Jerry Kramer, #63 Fuzzy Thurston

That's right guard #64 <Jerry Kramer>, leading the famed Green Bay Sweep.

His diary became a best seller...

...revealing for the first time what it was really like enduring the day to day grind of professional football.

Over time my dreams of athletic greatness foundered on the unforgiving shoals of reality - alas, you can't put in what God left out - but in their place blossomed a lifelong interest in and appreciation for good writing: the kind that puts you right in the middle of something instead of stranding you on the outside looking in.

Jerry Kramer and his book are memorable mile markers in that early phase of my life journey.

And so, even after all these years, I still harbor a modest reservoir of good will for Green Bay and their Packers...

the 1920 Green Bay squad with their player/coach, Curly Lambeau, sponsored by the "Indian Packing Company"

...as long as they're NOT playing the Lions.

And since the head coach of the Bears, Ben Johnson, used to be the Offensive Coordinator for the Lions, today I'm all in for Green Bay.

I don't begrudge him advancement in his career, but he shouldn't have jumped to a long time blood rival in the same division.

sorry, boys...you blew it and time's up

Note: the above sign has had a temporary one game license to appear in this blog, valid for January 10th, 2026 only.

Here at my home, home on the range...

...the clouds have been skydee all day, so I say it's time to 23 Skidoo:

Step 2 if the heimlich fails

a (very) rare sunny morning in January earlier this past week

an actual product advertisement, unintentionally highlighting the main problem with all of humanity

Loki, the cat who knows he's cute

In light of our inborn problem of all consuming self-love, I leave you with this command from God's Word:

14  For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this: thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.

    - Galatians 5:14

Don't fall into the age old trap that many proclaim when quoting that verse.

It neither states nor implies that you must first love yourself before you can love your neighbor.

That's utter nonsense.

Our problem is we love ourselves all day, every day, so there's no time left for anyone else.

When we're cold, we warm ourselves.  When we're hungry we feed ourselves.  When we're tired, we seek rest; when bored, entertainment; when sad, comfort; etc etc etc.

Thinking about what we want and how to get it is the way we fill our days.

God says this:

"Stop thinking about yourself all the time and start loving those around you.

"Do so with the same fervor, enthusiasm and determination you have for your own welfare.

"When you do that, you're fulfilling the law."

later, mcm fans...

We're Making A Conscious Decision...

the countdown has officially begun to when even the dumbest democrat on earth (no names, but her initials are AOC) will have to admit "socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy whose inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery." (Winston Churchill)

...to temporarily ignore current events... 

caracas burns...

...while narco-terrorist maduro enjoys the friendly accommodations aboard the USS Iwo Jima, on his way to face justice

...and focus instead on something that really matters.

It's time to de-decorate!

So we're going from this:

...to this:

From this:

...to this:

And from this:

...to this:

You get the idea.

Happy New Year, y'all.

In a brief return to reality - sorry, this will just take a minute - for the whiny libs, socialists and euro-weenies complaining about the supposed "illegality" of this snatch and grab, here are some helpful reminders from VP Vance and AG Bondi:

To his point about those indictments:

This isn't the woke, feckless dementia-fest of the disastrous Biden years:

Tens if not hundreds of thousands of Americans are dead due to narco-trafficking from Venezuela.

Biden - or more likely, whoever was actively running the country into the ground while Slo-Joe was napping and having his diaper changed - ran their mouth about standing up to Maduro, but as usual did nothing.

Trump - with the able assistance of the United States Armed Forces - just solved the problem.

It's so simple, even a democrat should be able to understand:

You kill our people, you pay the price.

I would love to bore you to tears with something -

- anything about hickory golf but alas -

- yeah, that.

Ok, not quite that much snow just lately, but winter hath made an unwelcome return so swinging my hickories will have to wait.

In the meantime, let's do that 23 Skidoo thing:

guilty or surprised?  you be the judge

and you thought California was the land of the fruits and the nuts; they got nuthin' on Minnesota and Somalian fraud

recently watched <this video> about corn cob pipes made the same way today as they were 150+ years ago.  worth a look.

and yes, I did order a corn cob pipe from them - <the shenandoah> - and have enjoyed a bowl or three of their "Missouri Pride" pipe tobacco. cigars are quicker and easier, but these corn cob pipes are sorta like shaving with a straight razor - takes some time, there's some skill involved, and you’re kickin’ it old school.

My journey through the Old Testament continues and one thing is very clear as you read through the books of I & II Samuel, Kings and Chronicles:  we're a disobedient lot, prone to self-willed wandering away from the LORD who calls us to obedience.

The consequences of our self-will are always the same and underline the truth of Romans 6:23 - the wages of sin is death.

So my prayers have turned into a plea that God will teach me humility and the fear of the LORD.

"13  He will bless them that fear the LORD, both small and great."

    - Psalms 115:13

later, mcm fans...