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Chris Heston
Dear Friends,
So, here’s an odd way to start,
I spent a little time recently watching a few movies I hadn’t seen in a spell. The one I’m gonna talk about now is “Tombstone." Have y'all seen it? Might’ve been one of the best westerns ever, prolly was Val Kilmer’s best flick and that’s saying something. Spoiler alert: towards the end and right before the last actual gunfight, Wyatt Earp (Kurt Russell) was having a bedside conversation with his ailing and in reality gravely ill friend Doc Holliday (Val Kilmer) This is roughly how the script went when they were speaking about one of the main antagonists:
Wyatt Earp: What makes a man like Ringo, Doc? What makes him do the things he does?Doc Holliday: A man like Ringo's got a great empty hole right through the middle of him. He can never kill enough or steal enough or inflict enough pain to ever fill it.
WE: What does he need?
DH: Revenge.
WE: Revenge for what?
DH: For bein’ born.
Speaking of not so nice guise,...
It’s about this dude from Tarsus, which from a map standpoint is a pretty furr distance from Germany. And this guy may not have had a whole lot of money either ‘cause I guess he couldn’t afford a hoss or even a beat up Volkswagen, so he had to roll around on a donkey. So! Anywhich dude was on his way to Damascus and wouldn’t you know it, a lightning bolt or something came right out of the sky, which at once knocked him off his aß which caused him to land on, well, his aß. Leastwise that’s how I heard it. As this story of Saul goes, to say he wadn’t a nice guy is an understatement, amongst other things he sat idly by whilst an innocent man was executed, and he had some other folks put in jail simply for going to church.
Annnnd this is as far as I…….
Got when I first started this a day or two ago. Then a really bizarre thing happened- I’m having some really weird network issues. Literally every device I have connected to my fiber world got root kitted or something, and every Apple anything I own is bricked. About the only thing I’ve got working right now is this old laptop that I loaded with Ubuntu and even it acts like it’s on safe mode, and on an air card with lousy reception. I’m not complaining about that part since right now it’s about my only link left to civilization. I’m pretty sure this isn’t supposed to be even possible but here I am trying to sort it out. Funny thing is, I thought I was relatively computer savvy, but these days? I’m like a grandpa with a VHS. I know I’ll suss it all out sooner or later but I have a feeling a visit to the Apple store is in my future, which should be a real fun place to be just ahead of Christmas.
Right after Thanksgiving this year…
K says to me we gots to overdo it with Christmas glitter and lights in the yard. Like err'body else, she's seen that Clark Griswald movie and on toppa that she knows I’m a sucker for extremes so I’m thinking well OK kewl, err, wait, your crazy cousin isn’t planning to show up, right? What she really meant was she wanted me to go to on a safari to Home Depot and score every light in the place whilst she sipped a latte on the couch and hogged all the big pillows. After I got back from the big orange box place, yeah buddy we gots lots of decorations and this is gonna be oh so, so lit and I’m all over it. So! I’m climbing up and down this ladder, stringing lights and I start out feeling skippy. In front of my house I noticed there were a few chirren going up and down the street in this little battery powered car, I remember thinking at the time ‘Gee that would’ve been a been a lot of fun when I was a kid!’ Well, maybe not quite as cool as one of those go-karts we weren’t allowed to have for the longest time but hey. After awhile though, I’m startin' ta get tired, this ain’t going up as quick as I thought it would, and wouldn’t you know it I stepped in a big pile of fire ants - which means I need to change clothes pronto and pour vinegar all over myself. Next thing you know I’m back at it outside trying to untangle all these lights, there’s knotted up wires and dropped extension cords everywhere, confound it why ain’t some of these silly things working? Fumbling around with those little plastic clips that go on the gutters but you need 3 hands while balancing on the top step. Not only that but this ladder I’m climbing up and down and jockeying six feet at a time for some reason is an awful lot heavier than it was last year. If that ain’t enough, at the time we were in the middle of a hot spell and it was even worse in the sun. Now it's getting a little late in the day, I’m nowhere near as good at this as I used to be, I’m tired from schlepping this ladder, hot, sweaty, with ant bites all over me, not feeling’ the love and It was right about then two of the children playing outside, couldn’t have been more than 4 or 5, walked a few steps up my driveway, looked at me and with absolutely the sweetest and most sincere voice said “Can we do anything to help you?” Talk about melt your heart! Remind me to be a little more generous with the Halloween candy next year.
Sorry this ended up bein’ so breezy….
Have I mentioned it’s my favorite time of year? Very many times? No doubt like everyone else, maybe the best Christmases were either as a child, or spending it with children either your own or grand children, altho sharing time with inlaws these days complicates that calculus. Strangers are nicer to each other. Even cranky people have less edge to ‘em and manage to crack a smile ever onced in awhile. Time to get the honey out and put the vinegar away. Maybe too it’s like Thanksgiving, cause it’s one of those odd things that make you feel good without the super secret high falootin elixirs. It's a reminder for me at least that literally anything is possible in God’s world. That feller Saul? Ended up changing his name to Paul, and with God’s help he became one of the most well-known and respected men and greatest writers in all of history. A few years ago I wrote a little diddy about ‘One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.’ Thing is, sometimes it's like all you hear is one war after another, all the discontent, seems like there’s no shortage of Mildred Ratcheds in life, Lawd help us all if you run into the next Johnny Ringo. Best I can do is stay in my own lane and away from the negativity and try to look be grateful for lifes’ blessings. Because you never know, at any given time God will send a couple of little angels to help you with your lights and cheer you up when you’re feeling a bit discouraged, I just need to pay attention. If you’ve made it this far reading I really appreciate it, it’s been fun doing these over the years and I’m so honored that I can still call y’all friends after all this time. Err’body hunker down, by the sounds of things it’s gonna get nasty cold, even this far south. Oh, one more thing, if you hear that somebody in south Texas melted the power grid in some power surge lithium fire, it really wadn’t my fault! :) Merry Christmas, happy celebrating another lap around the sun, and as always May God Bless,
-Chris
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