Hey, Tallahassee ain't that far from Knoxville and we're gonna have a CS Picnic up here on August 16th -- Might as well come on up and meet some of the "gang" in person. (You can check things out on the "Knoxville Area get-together" sign-up thread.)
I guess it's kind've an inside joke -- I've pulled pretty much everything there is to pull, too, but I've always preferred a flatbed. I've got an older brother who's the same way but pulled a reefer for 30 years. Whenever we were within earshot of each other, we'd always explain to our respective buddies - (him)"Don't hold it against me guys, but I've got a younger brother who pulls a flatbed. (and me) "Yeah, I've got an older brother up in Idaho who pulls a reefer - But don't worry guys, it ain't contagious and I don't associate with him very much!"
Yep, really looking forward to meeting everyone m'self!
Well, we've got 10 "definite's" now (9 on the list), and a couple more "prob'ly's" with 2 or 3 "maybe, I hope so's." So it sounds like we're on the way to having some good times, though I'd still like to see a few more who live within easy driving distance sign up.
Yepper, I b'lieve we're gonna have some shinin' times in them thar hills!
"Don't Bend Over in the Garden, Granny, You Know Them 'Taters Got Eyes" (Okay, maybe that one ain't the best choice!)
Tulsa Time Della and the Dealer (and a Dog named Jake and a Cat named Kalamazoo - Hoyt Axton) Puff the Magic Dragon The Unicorn ( by The Irish Rovers) Sneaky Snake (Tom T. Hall)
Oooooh, wow! There's room here for a line about "Is 'Norm' your date for the picnic?" But this is (statistically speaking) the 90% area where I won't touch it!
1st - Where we're havin' the doin's is in a slightly different set of hills, so they ain't, technically speakin', hyar.
2nd - My idiomatic synchronizer doohickey has been slightly out of whack ever since I bumped my head on the whoozeewhatsit last week.
and 3rd - I didn't not omit "them" - "them" is the ones I been invitin' ever since we thought this shindig up! And I'm hopin' we get a whole great big bunch of "them" to meet us up in thar hills. (And I cain't help it if the computer don't always type everything my brain says it did.)
Years ago, I was in a truck stop in a tiny Nevada town off I-80. I'd been there several hours just killing time in the casino whilst taking a break on a run to Sacramento, Ca. and waiting for the snow to slack off.
There was a couple from Oklahoma there with 3 small kids in a broken down stationwagon with 4 bald tires. They were on their way to California because the husband had a job waiting for him. Seems they'd been out of work for quite some time when this job came up and they'd sold what little they had to make the trip.
They'd made it as far as Nevada when the car finally shuddered to a halt in the parking lot of the truck stop. After hearing their story, several of us started "passing the hat" to help them out. Over at the only "dollar" slot-machine in the place was a man - obviously a truck driver - nice looking and dressed in clean clothes, but otherwise non-descript. He'd been sitting at that one machine for several hours and I'd even chatted with him briefly a couple of times.
When the "hat" reached him, he turned and said, "Folks, I've been sitting here, playin' this machine for a couple of hours now and it seems like it ought to be just about ready to hit something big, but I'm down to my last 3 dollars and it's time to be going." Then he looked at the wife. "Ma'am, these last 3 dollars are yours, but it's on one condition - You gotta' put 'em in the machine and pull the handle!"
Rather timidly she responded, "Oh, I don't... I just... I'm not sure." Her husband looked at the man and then nudged her, "Go on honey, it's no bigger gamble than we've already taken."
She held out her hand and the trucker dropped the coins in. One by one she fed them into the machine and then, with both hands, pulled down the lever...
The jackpot wasn't HUGE - something on the order of about $2,500 as I recall - but it was more than enough to get them the rest of way to their destination and tide them over to the first paycheck.
As the excitement started to die down, I looked around for their benefactor (whom they hadn't had time to thank) and saw him just as he paused at the door. He turned, saw me looking, smiled and gave me a wink, then he disappeared into the night.
Yep, I believe in angels! And it's mostly because, when I trotted out the door after him (I wanted to shake his hand) he was nowhere in sight and the only fresh tracks in that snowy parking lot were mine...
Just thought I'd mention that anyone who is interested or plans on attending our little "get together" needs to hit page one of this thread and click on the sign-up button. (If you haven't already.) Those are the figures that we'll depend upon to help us plan this to-do more efficiently - I,e, food, drinks, activities, etc...
Really looking forward to this!!!!
So come on up/down/over and enjoy some beautiful scenery, good company and fun times in East Tennessee!
Oh, and - as has been mentioned elsewhere - this event is taking place the day after our (Kansan & Jackson's) first anniversary. So we're really looking forward to celebrating with friends from the site where we met!
Every time I see this thread I think, "Wait - my birthday was back in January!"
Then I think, "Oh hell! The people here don't know that my first name is Walter anyway, because I go by my middle name."
Then I think, "but maybe there's a confused bill colllector on CS trying to wish me a belated birthday!??"
Then I think, "Wait a minute - What would a lowlife like that be doing on great site like this?"
Then it finally occurs to me that the 'Walter' everyone is referring to is actually 'friendsfirst' up in Illinois and I need to cut back on my medication!
Sooooo....
Happy belated birthday, Walter! Whoever the heck we are!
I've long thought that the biggest problem with the world today is that there are too darn many people in it.
I think, statistically speaking, we have always had about the same ratio of good to bad, angelic to evil and caring to apathetic that we do now. It's just that, with the modern ability to literally broadcast events around the world in the blink of an eye, we tend to hear more about the negative than we used to.
Do we have more "bad/evil" people in the world today than 200 years ago? Sure! But we also have more "good" people in the world today than we did 200 years ago - heck, we have more of every kind of person today. The ratios have pretty much remained the same.
However, technology has made it ever easier for for "bad guys" to do bad things to "good people." But "good guys" have triumphed too - How many people's lives have been saved by the heart research of Dr. Michael DeBakey, for instance?
As a living historian and historical researcher, I don't really think there ever was any such thing as a "simple life" or "simple values." I think, instead, that the people of "yesteryear" faced the same dilemmas that we face today. It's just that our technology is different than theirs. Today we worry about the price of gas and whether we can afford to heat our homes in the winter. Back then, they worried about having enough hay and forage for their livestock and whether the wood they cut would last until it was warm enough to cut more wood.
Same basic problems, different technologies. I guarantee that starting a fire was just important a skill back then as driving a car is today and vice versa. What most folks don't understand is that most "poor" people today live better/eat more regularly than "royalty" did 150-200 years ago.
Lives have changed and technologies have changed them. The ratios have all remained more or less the same and the biggest problem with the world today is that there are too darn many people in it.
If one picture is worth ten thousand words, then one twenty-five-hundredth of a picture should be worth four words.
And if Helen of Troy had the face that launched a thousand ships, and a picture is worth ten thousand words, doesn't that mean that one picture of Helen's face should be worth ten million ships?
And if the night has a thousand eyes, and getting there is half the fun, then getting there at night would require five hundred eyes.
And if getting there is half the fun, and half a loaf is better than none, would getting halfway there with a whole loaf be more or less fun?
And if half a loaf is better than none, the night has a thousand eyes, a picture is worth ten thousand words, getting there is half the fun and Helen of Troy had the face that launched a thousand ships, then in a picture taken at night from from a ship that is halfway there, how much fun would Helen be having if she were holding a full loaf? And could you see it in her eyes?
Ok, now suppose Helen of Troy lived in a halfway house....
The_Kansan Forum Posts (3,395)
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CS Get-together Picnic, Norris Dam Park, Knoxville, TN, Saturday, August 16th
Yep! And you're not really even in the hilly part!I'm sure you won't have any trouble finding us - the place I've chosen is very simple to get to and it was chosen primarily for that reason.
...Don...