This isn't so much a review of what happened this year as it is my thoughts about the year and some of its happenings. The reviews here are those of the author alone.
-- I guess Rahm Emanuel finally confronted a crisis that he couldn't use to his advantage. Pesky little thing having a cop mercilessly gun down an unarmed teenager, on camera, right before an embarrassing runoff election in a town thought to be his. I can't wait for him to be anointed as Cankles' running mate.
-- I'm not sure which was a bigger waste of bandwith, printer's ink and airtime: The unfortunate shooting by a dentist of a lion in Africa or the courageous transformation of former Olympic gold medal winning decathlete from a man to a...well, I'm not quite sure.
-- Using a riding lawn mower was more fun than I ever expected it to be.
-- Visiting Kentucky anytime of year is fun.
-- The President's policy toward ISIS was embarrassing in the extreme. For someone who has the intellectual arrogance that he does, it's surprising he can't see the forest for the trees.
-- For that matter, why the POTUS persists in calling it ISIL is beyond me. If he wants to be perfectly correct, it should be Daesh.
-- Continuing that theme, I'm interested to see what Anonymous has up its sleeve for next year.
-- I'm not necessarily comfortable voting for Donald Trump for president, but he's far less offensive to me than Cankles.
-- I can't deny it: Practicing law is fun to me.
-- My only regrets about getting married this year is that I didn't find Karen early enough in life to have a family with her and that Mom wasn't here to know her.
-- One of these days, it would be nice to see the western half of this country.
-- On that note, why would anyone willingly choose to live in California, given its ever-present threats of wildfires, mudslides, droughts, earthquakes, illegal immigrants, crazy Ninth Circuit rulings, Jerry Brown and Hollywood?
-- Chris Rock is irrelevant but hasn't gotten the memo. He should have realized that after Grown Ups 2 was released.
-- No matter what year it is, New Year's Eve is nothing more than Amateur Night.
-- If a white actor had said something as provocative as Samuel L. Jackson recently did about the San Bernardino massacre, there would be boycotts nationally of the movies in which the actor appeared.
-- Likewise, I'm tired of liberal blacks tarring conservative blacks for being conservative. Just like feminists, I thought the idea was to allow people -- blacks and women -- to think for themselves.
-- Books are the ideal Christmas gift for me.
-- Nothing is so fun and interesting as local radio during long car rides.
-- The quality of television shows back in the 1970's makes me cringe.
-- For the first time ever, I saw Rocky Horror Picture Show this year. Other than seeing Susan Sarandon in her underwear before she became an obnoxiously outspoken political activist, I don't understand the attraction.
-- It was amazing to see brainless actresses stand up in support for Planned Parenthood descrying the attack on women's health when the wretched videos surfaced of Planned Parenthood executives showing negotiations for fetal body parts.
-- Seeing D.C. for the first time was interesting, but it didn't compare with being at Gettysburg.
-- The Black Lives Matter movement was hijacked by the likes of Al Sharpton and was just as quickly abandoned by them once it became apparent that the BLM movement had ulterior motives that had little to do with social justice.
-- That so many women are ready to vote for Cankles despite her obvious lack of achievements and ethics must make Susan B. Anthony spin in her grave.
-- The number of Arab immigrants in Europe is an invasion.
-- I'm almost done buying gun parts for my AR-15. I need to win the lottery so I can buy another rifle and get enough ammunition.
-- People really need to learn how to drive in bad weather. Or good weather for that matter.
-- College campuses have become about the most intolerant places in the country.
-- How the MSM keeps a straight face when it tries to sell itself as unbiased and impartial is beyond me. Consequently, it represents the gravest threat to this country.
(c) 2015 The Truxton Spangler Chronicles
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Thursday, December 31, 2015
Monday, December 14, 2015
Best Weekend Ever
Life is short, as we all know. It's filled with successes and failures, highs and lows, the expected and the unexpected. When the positives occur at the same time or one right after another, we often say that the planets aligned properly. When the negatives happen together or successively, we look for a full moon. Both phrases, I'm sure, are rooted in paganism to some degree. Whatever the reason, this past weekend is by far the best weekend of my life, for the simplest to the grandest of reasons.
Simple things make me happy. So do the more complex, but more for their complexity, typically, than the end result. In a way, that speaks volumes about me, but it's true. I don't care for the elaborate, the ostentatious, the grandiose. I remember a scene from the third Indiana Jones movie where the real holy grail had to be chosen from among various vessels, and Jones has to choose the one chalice correctly:
But I digress.
My fantastic weekend ended with finding a brown sweater. I've been looking for a brown sweater -- that isn't a cardigan -- for nearly two years. Like Little Red Riding, every brown sweater upon which I came was either too small, the wrong kind or unavailable in my size. No longer. I found my brown sweater and even had a $20 coupon to use on it, making the purchase even more palatable. About the only downside to the purchase is that I can't use it yet, despite this being December 14, because it's over sixty degrees outside. Nevertheless, my quest for the brown sweater has ended.
The bookend to the best weekend ever happened last Friday. Against high odds, the Chicago Cubs outbid their rival St. Louis Cardinals and several other teams for the services of Jason Heyward. The signing is excellent on several different levels. First, the Cubs get an excellent player at the beginning of the prime of his career. Second, they didn't overspend to get him. Third, they took him away from a hated division rival and in so doing, weakened it. Fourth, it gives the Cubs a good player who does things they need done well.
For those of you who haven't been or aren't Cubs fans or don't understand baseball, all I can say is: 1908 and 1945. We haven't won a World Series title (championship) since 1908 and not even been in the World Series since 1945. Since 1984, we've been mildly competitive a time or two, but nothing that's set the sports world on fire. In part, this is due to the feckless ownership we had. Another reason is that we've had incredibly bad luck. Either way, the Heyward signing, combined with the team's unexpectedly premature performance this past season, has us inching our way closer and closer to the promised land. I just wish my Mom and Grandma were still around to see it.
Neither of those results, however, compare with what happened in between. For I married my one true love, the light of my life Karen, on Saturday. The event didn't go off without a hitch, of course, but we just laughed off the glitches. The ceremony was quaint and meaningful to us, surrounded most of the people who mattered to us. The reception afterwards was a throwback to an easier time, almost European in its structure. No fanfare, no fancy food, no ceremony. Just food, family and friends in a convivial atmosphere.
Karen and I have known each other for around six years. I fell in love with her the moment I heard her voice and talked with her. I knew that I'd found the right person for me, albeit in trying circumstances. We've weathered many a storm together, some medical, some financial, some personal. Yet there's no better person with whom I'd rather go through life. Smart, beautiful, fun, playful, generous, kind, supportive -- there's no use listing all her wonderful attributes because I could fill the page with them and still need more pages.
She is the best thing to happen to me. I am undeserving of her, but God has seen fit to give me to her. Accordingly, it is my responsibility to take care of her as best I am able. I will love her and nurture her and comfort her and lift her up. I will be there for her, however she needs me, whenever she needs me. Since I've known her, my life has unalterably been improved in ways seen and unseen. I am truly the most fortunate of men.
So now I have someone with whom I can wear my much sought after brown sweater and with whom I can cheer my Cubs on to the improbable victory that has so far best the law of averages. I will go to my final resting place confident in the knowledge that I will spend all eternity with the best person whom I've ever known.
And I will love my Karen Sue beyond the end of time.
(c) 2015 The Truxton Spangler Chronicles
Simple things make me happy. So do the more complex, but more for their complexity, typically, than the end result. In a way, that speaks volumes about me, but it's true. I don't care for the elaborate, the ostentatious, the grandiose. I remember a scene from the third Indiana Jones movie where the real holy grail had to be chosen from among various vessels, and Jones has to choose the one chalice correctly:
But I digress.
My fantastic weekend ended with finding a brown sweater. I've been looking for a brown sweater -- that isn't a cardigan -- for nearly two years. Like Little Red Riding, every brown sweater upon which I came was either too small, the wrong kind or unavailable in my size. No longer. I found my brown sweater and even had a $20 coupon to use on it, making the purchase even more palatable. About the only downside to the purchase is that I can't use it yet, despite this being December 14, because it's over sixty degrees outside. Nevertheless, my quest for the brown sweater has ended.
The bookend to the best weekend ever happened last Friday. Against high odds, the Chicago Cubs outbid their rival St. Louis Cardinals and several other teams for the services of Jason Heyward. The signing is excellent on several different levels. First, the Cubs get an excellent player at the beginning of the prime of his career. Second, they didn't overspend to get him. Third, they took him away from a hated division rival and in so doing, weakened it. Fourth, it gives the Cubs a good player who does things they need done well.
For those of you who haven't been or aren't Cubs fans or don't understand baseball, all I can say is: 1908 and 1945. We haven't won a World Series title (championship) since 1908 and not even been in the World Series since 1945. Since 1984, we've been mildly competitive a time or two, but nothing that's set the sports world on fire. In part, this is due to the feckless ownership we had. Another reason is that we've had incredibly bad luck. Either way, the Heyward signing, combined with the team's unexpectedly premature performance this past season, has us inching our way closer and closer to the promised land. I just wish my Mom and Grandma were still around to see it.
Neither of those results, however, compare with what happened in between. For I married my one true love, the light of my life Karen, on Saturday. The event didn't go off without a hitch, of course, but we just laughed off the glitches. The ceremony was quaint and meaningful to us, surrounded most of the people who mattered to us. The reception afterwards was a throwback to an easier time, almost European in its structure. No fanfare, no fancy food, no ceremony. Just food, family and friends in a convivial atmosphere.
Karen and I have known each other for around six years. I fell in love with her the moment I heard her voice and talked with her. I knew that I'd found the right person for me, albeit in trying circumstances. We've weathered many a storm together, some medical, some financial, some personal. Yet there's no better person with whom I'd rather go through life. Smart, beautiful, fun, playful, generous, kind, supportive -- there's no use listing all her wonderful attributes because I could fill the page with them and still need more pages.
She is the best thing to happen to me. I am undeserving of her, but God has seen fit to give me to her. Accordingly, it is my responsibility to take care of her as best I am able. I will love her and nurture her and comfort her and lift her up. I will be there for her, however she needs me, whenever she needs me. Since I've known her, my life has unalterably been improved in ways seen and unseen. I am truly the most fortunate of men.
So now I have someone with whom I can wear my much sought after brown sweater and with whom I can cheer my Cubs on to the improbable victory that has so far best the law of averages. I will go to my final resting place confident in the knowledge that I will spend all eternity with the best person whom I've ever known.
And I will love my Karen Sue beyond the end of time.
(c) 2015 The Truxton Spangler Chronicles
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