Gentle readers, I had to make a little visit yesterday to get a follow up XRAY on my fractured ribs. By the way, I am doin’ fine, sleeping in a chair for the next few weeks does not make me a HAPPY JACK, but it is what it is. Back to the imaging center. After I signed in and took a seat waiting my turn, I again was almost “flabergasted” at the number of folks peering into their little magic boxes. There were old folks like me, middleagers and young folks to boot. Nine of 10 were captured by their iPhones. I always enjoy visiting with folks in these situations when possible, but it sure wasn’t gonna’ be possible this time. We have simply just lost a very important part of our culture. Yes, we still communicate but in a different way. We do it by misspelling words to take short cuts as our time is of such great value. We are like a little child that has discovered where mom hid the chocolates and by golly it’s necessary that we devour the very last one before she finds out.

Did you ever sit on the front porch on a warm summer’s eve and just absorb all that evening was about with a family member or friends? Now friend, that is a satisfying feeling. We are losing that a wee bit at a time and it’s like we just don’t care. I believe that there is a generation of kids going to grow up who will never, never know the value of conversation. Conversation about anything at all. Just having the pleasure of looking another in the face and expressing, agreeing with someone, disagreeing, or telling a cute story or joke. IT’S ALL GOOD!

How about taking the challenge and just put that phone down and visit, visit, visit? I wouldn’t expect the younger ones to participate but that may be a lesson too late for the learning!

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Ah ha! I see where Disney made a slight inquiry about moving into Colorado. Our openly gay governor got excited about the prospect. Sixty thousand new jobs! Sixty thousand more cars on our roadways. Let’s just crowd everyone in here and be one happy family. I have lost all respect for the Disney that I knew as a kid growing up. They are a bunch of “loony tunes” as far as this old cowboy can surmise. I don’t mean that in a complimentary way either.

Cowboys still saddled up in Nebraska, Wyoming, Kansas, Utah, Oklahoma and the panhandle of Texas this morning and went out to gather and brand a calf crop. They live in the real world and will speak their own language and do their own thing as they have done for the last hundred years. They will put in a full day’s work and when it’s done, they will be satisfied with what their pony contributed or not. They may not be satisfied with the effort they put in. Cowboys are always wanting to do better, be better and at the end of a long day, they want to unwind and feel good about what the day offered up.

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As far as our intimate affection for our electronics, I have no idea where it will all end. I think not so good as we may have shot ourselves in the foot trying to prove how lazy we can be and how smart we are looking back to where we came from. I know this: There was not one cell phone in use working cows unless someone suffered from “Mad Cow” disease and got run over or bucked off and was seriously hurt.

Yes, I, like you, am so ready for this relentless wind to stop and hear those rain drops on my metal roof. It’s very, very dry and I hope we all can find relief in the very near future.

With that, stay tuned, check yer cinch on occasion, remember that many times fear does not stop death, it stops life. I’ll c. y’all, all y’all.

Oh yeah, isn’t it all about the quality of life and how we live it that matters?