AND THE MEEK SHALL INHERIT THE EARTH

No I’m not going biblical, although I do find it an interesting book to read. I saw this headline the other day and thought that we might be at the time the meek were making their claim for dominance.

 Bunnies attack at Denver Airport

In turns out that the little fellows were hiding under the cars in the parking lots at the Denver airport to keep warm. Since there weren’t a lot of gardens out there they were dinning on the insulation wrappings of the wires of the car engines. A: Not safe or nutritious for the bunnies, and B: Not good for the cars which were shorting out. It seemed from the story that he bunnies were not as welcome as they would have been for presents on Easter morning.

The authorities are trying a number of ways to discourage the little fellows. They are installing better fences and building perches for predator hawks and eagles. I’m sure we can all see the headlines this summer. 

Airplanes Crashing in Record Numbers from Hawks Sucked into Engines at Denver Airport

Some enterprising souls got the bright idea of coating the wires with fox or coyote urine. It’s supposed to make the bunnies lose their appetite for wire insulation. Of course that brings to mind the next set of headlines.

Hundreds Injured in the Hills Around Denver Trying to Catch Foxes Urinating

Still it all makes for better reading than “Drive by shootings” or “Drone attacks on Speeders.”

Miss Me ?

Not that we’ve missed you, but what have you been doing these past few weeks?

The answer is written on the wind. No never mind that was from a song. The answer really is that I’ve been finishing up the next book with the kind assistance of M. K. Sala. This one has nothing to do with angels or young men who can stop time. Rather it follows the exploits of group of totally human writers who turn to crime solving to supplement their income from non-published books.

Personally I’ve always wanted to have an exploit. I mean I’ve had expletives that were deleted. I managed to miss being shredded by explosions that came near to me. I’ve even tried to explore the hidden mysteries of the Orient, or at least the back roads of Viet Nam, but I don’t think that I’ve ever really had an exploit.

The dictionary says that an exploit is an interesting or daring action or achievement. Well I’ve had what I thought were interesting moments, but I doubt that others would think of them as interesting. As for daring, I’ve tried all of my life to avoid being daring. Heck, I even cringed when in “A Christmas Story” the one boy accepts a “double dog dare” to stick his tongue onto a freezing metal pole. Although, I will admit to laughing at his predicament when he later appeared with a bandage on the tip of his tongue. That’s what doing daring things can get you.

The folks in this book perform daring deeds almost by accident. They solve crimes of monstrous proportions and discover solutions to problems that are so small as to slip under the radar of the most diligent police force. 

Personally I found it to be a very readable book, and I hope that all of you will as well. Take a look and feel free to tell me what you think. The title is “The SPEW House Mysteries” and if you go over to Kindle you can find it   here or you can click on the picture to the right.

Stop Bugging Me

You may have noticed my name is “Cliff.” Now those of you who have been reading the newspapers in the USA you realize that for the past month or for most of the balance of the year 2012 the papers have been crucifying me. I’ve written to the editors of the major papers and asked that they stop using my name in such a negative manner, but with no success.

“Why,” I’ve asked, can’t they simply refer to the mess that congress has created as the “Financial Precipice?”  I mean after all, as far as I know there aren’t any persons with the name “precipice.” There are however hundreds, if not thousands, of fine fellows who have been given the names of Clifford, Clifton, or even Heathcliff who have the nickname “Cliff.” Just because there aren’t any Cliff’s in congress they feel free to misuse our names.

Over across the pond they wouldn’t have chosen that word. I mean there are even more “Cliffs” in England than here. Heck they even have those “White” cliffs in Dover that they are so famous for. In America we really don’t have all that many Heathcliff’s. Actually I can’t remember meeting any Heathcliff’s. Then again I’ve never been up to Wuthering Heights. I wonder if the edge of Wuthering is at a cliff.

I can’t tell you how many threatening phone calls I’ve been getting. “Can’t you fix the mess you’ve created?” “Why have you waited so long to act, don’t you know how irresponsible that is?” As last year drew to a close I had to unplug my phone. It kept ringing. All of the newspapers placed call after call to my number asking for a progress report. Apparently the members of congress weren’t answering, and the papers felt that I should know what was going on.

I tried going over to Capitol Hill to get some information that I could pass along to the papers, but I had no luck. The few of them who were there were all in committee meetings. In room 201 the “Who can we blame for this One” committee was in session for the fifteenth time in December.  Down the hall in 205 the august members were in session discussing the ramifications of compromise. I listened at the door but all I could hear was a whining collection of comments. There was, “I’m not going to give up my deduction for the pickle growers,” and “Listen we can’t take away the depreciation allowance for oil & gas. The petroleum industry is down to its last several trillion dollars in profits. If we don’t protect them they move to another country.” I left just as someone was saying “Well don’t look at the medical profession. Those damn ‘Free Clinics’ have been ruining the profits for all the private practices. Not to mention the damage to profits the President’s bill is doing.” 

At the far end in the big meeting room at 210 the shouting was deafening. The revenue committee was in full session. “Why can’t we tax those ‘Soup Kitchens’? What have they donated to my re-election fund?” Another voice was saying, “I tell you it’s those illegal immigrants. We should be taxing them before we deport them.”  I could barely hear a very soft voice saying “We could place a separate tax on gun sales. I mean we tax cigarettes so highly because of the damage they cause society, why not guns?” Just then I heard several shots ring out from the room and I decided it was time to get out.

I had gotten nothing that I could pass along to the papers to get them off of my back. So I returned to my humble abode, and left the phone unplugged.

Time Passes

Working on the next book and taking a short bus trip certainly have contributed to a long break in adding to this blog. Of course if you’ve already read the first book “Time Out” [Side Note #1: You can get to it by going to the picture of the book cover on the right side. I guess that makes this a real “Side Note.”] you know that this wouldn’t be a problem for El, the books protagonist. He can control the time he spends in this world, so for him working on a book could be finished in “No time” at all. This blatant attempt to interest you in buying the book is brought to you by the author.

The trip afore mentioned was to Ashville, North Carolina a wonderful part of Americana. I went with a group, always a risky enterprise, which had booked several guides to the area. Its funny how doing something like that can be an opportunity to make new friends or have to endure an endless period of isolation. Fortunately for me it was a time of new friendship.

Time during the “tour” always seems to move at a different pace. When there are activities that you find enjoyable the time passes way too quickly. You find yourself commiserating with the others about how you’ll have to return to the place and spend more time to see all that you missed. I have a shoe box full of slips that are marked “return to XYZ to see more of whatever there was at the place.” Somehow there’s never enough time to get back and see what you missed. I wonder if Methuselah was able to return to all the great places he found fascinating. He certainly had enough time to do it.

Of course the opposite is also true. There are parts of any such enterprise where what is presented is unappealing and the time spent completing that part seems endless. Its too bad that there is no way to reverse the perception of time in those instances.

I have just finished with the latest J.K. Rowling book. The time spent reading it was considerably different than the time spent reading the “Harry Potter” books. I’ll not say how it was different, but I will say that time passed way too quickly while I was in the Harry Potter books. A great sadness for me personally. Still tastes vary and perhaps you all will find the book better than the Harry Potter volumes.

I hope that you’ve been able to take the time to read this little ditty and not found the effort wasted.

New Book On Angels

It’s been a while since I’ve been back here on the blog. However, thanks to the help from a friend I’ve been able to finish a new book and release it on the Kindle electronic publishing site. There should be a link to the new book on the right side of the blog. If it’s not there you can get there by clicking this http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00A6E1SYW

The title is “Angel We Have Heard on High, Antony’s tales.” The collection of stories is all about people who have been contacted by an angel named Antony, and how he influenced their lives. These are all positive stories since I do not believe in angels who perform evil. Those of us here on earth may choose to do evil, since we have been given “free will.” For those who live in a place close to God I can’t believe that they would choose to perform evil acts.

In case you’re interested [Side Note: And I really hope that you are interested, since one of the reasons that I started this blog was to promote the books that I write.] Antony is a singing angel, so many of his stories involve songs or at least singing. It’s coincidental but this is a book filled with hope and good fellowship, just the things that I think we need at this time of the year.

We have had a tough time of it lately, and for those of us on the East Coast of the U.S.A. times have been really hard.  Quite a few of us could use a good dose of hope. We’ve had to weather extreme storms that brought floods, high winds, and rain that just wouldn’t stop. Before that we had to endure an election campaign that would have depressed the “Happy Face” on the “Have a nice day posters.”

One side told us that we have been living in a hopeless morass of bad decisions that have plunged the country into a whirlpool of financial chaos that only they can save us from. The other side reminded us that before they came in the country was on a one way slide to ruin, and only their throwing sand on the slide has saved us from total catastrophe.  If you believed it all you were facing a “damned if you do” and “damned if you don’t” situation.

So send a copy of Antony’s tales to a friend who backed the losing side to console them. Or send a copy of Antony’s tales to a friend who backed the winning side to congratulate them. Either way they need it. And don’t forget to send a copy to those folks who have had to endure a storm named “Sandy.” I mean think about how bad it’s going to be for them to tell their grandchildren that they were walloped by Sandy.