I don’t know how I missed it because the signs have been there but in the end it was Ole Rip that done it.
He came down from the hills early yesterday morning; our days are warming up a little suddenly though the nights are freezing still. He trampled around while I showed him what I have been doing on the Net lately before he exploded.
“Do you honestly want to tell me that you are wasting the most beautiful time of the year on crap like that,” was what he said before he went on, “with the stupid English race and all their petty squabbles?”
I pointed out that I am also doing some good work in America and you should have heard him then.
“Aakie,” he said [it’s the affectionate Dutch by the older and wiser person for Ike, kind of means young little Ike], “they know as little as the English. Some of them have a little more common sense, but most, … take that idiot Gore. Gahawd Ike, all he needs to know is look at the snowfall the last six to ten years on those eastern mountains to know that this “global warming” is a lot of crap. Lordy, Lordy man, a short walk up this hill right in front of your eyes you can see the Koue Bokkeveld Range covered in ten foot of snow less than forty miles from here; the darn Globe is freezing up, I am telling you. If anything it is darn well freezing up,” he repeated himself.
He ranted on about useless modern science, flawed education, the much preferable instructions in the noble lessons of nature, politicians and the mess in the world in general while he grabbed a loose bag and started throwing some of my warm clothes in there.
“Come into the hills with me,” he said, “to get some sense into your head.”
I only managed to stop him by agreeing that I will join him tomorrow.
Well, that was yesterday as I said, and yesterday’s tomorrow is now on my doorstep. Ole Rip is snoring soundly in the “out-room” while I am at the keyboard at 4:26 AM but he will be up soon and we will leave just after sunrise around eight.
I am taking a break from the trolls and all “die drolle” in the English Blogging Community. There are but a few good guys; the majority of them are compulsive liars, cheats and petty egos; if their Bloggers set the standard England is a lost race. Please don’t expect much from me in the next few weeks. There is no better cure for “cobwebs in the brain” than a few weeks in the hills with Rip van Winkel and I am off.
I shall see you when I do.
Jaksonian Philosophy 
July 21, 2010 at 5:10 am |
Really, really cool post. Thanks!!
July 21, 2010 at 7:15 am |
Thanks Nimrod
I have just about had it with the vast majority of the England children; they don’t have a clue what they want, who they are or where they are going. Ireland and Scotland would do the right thing if they were to “secede” from the UK [may as well call it the “Un-United” Kingdom] and go their own way.
You ought to thank the heavens that your great, great, …. great granddaddy emigrated when he did. I can’t imagine you as an Englishman. The Irish seem to have their identity still, and my daughter tells me the Scot is as sturdy as ever, but the cry-babies in England hate everyone including each other.
July 21, 2010 at 11:23 am |
Great post Ike. There are days when I’d like to escape into the mountains. Unfortunately, our government is claiming eminent domain over such lands. Do enjoy your retreat.
D.
July 21, 2010 at 12:26 pm |
Lady BD
I need it and have an old friend for company. We also can’t just go anywhere because of the same reason you have but we still have a lot of privately owned land with private hiking trails. Where it is required you may have to ask the owner and it would be his right to refuse but if he knows you it will often be granted. Some will even keep an eye to ensure your safety.
Don’t worry about me. I shall be back but I need some time and don’t know at this stage how long or when.
Thanks for caring. You are a precious friend. Love you lots.
July 22, 2010 at 3:42 pm |
Good luck on your journey into the mountains. The break from the rest of the world would be nice. By the time you come back I might have moved from a small town in the mountains to the chaotic crowds and urban mayhem of San Francisco.
And, as for England… Just a few thoughts of mine on that matter. The Scottish have always been a hardy, sturdy people. They have their failings and their problems but in general they’re a good lot. The English are like mush and always have been like mush. They’re not the strongest people in nature, but they’re also people that can never fully be broken. We forget that our ancestors have survived far worse things with far less. We, too, will somehow make it. English history, despite its many glories, is riddled with ineptness and doubt. Those who blog also tend to have more time to whinge. Don’t give up on England, even if it is irritating. It has been under New Labour for over a decade and is still holding together strong that the USA in under two years of Obama.
July 22, 2010 at 4:55 pm |
Christopher
Thanks for your detailed comment.
We came in for supplies; believe it or not I shall be a cave-dweller for a few weeks. Ole Rip lives there permanently and I have visited but never stayed more than one night before. It is quite an experience. I mean it is a real cave, large and cavernous you would aptly say.
We just talk, sleep and eat; oh yes, before I lie by omission; we drink a lot of wine with our meals. Had rabbit stew my first night; cooked in a black pot on an open fire.
I have always believed that “human events and affairs” [history if you wish] go round in Circles/Cycles [have several Posts on it] and yes, I am not writing England off. But they are on the road to self-destruct. Everything I read about America they are saying “we gotta fix things” while the English are going hell-bent to self-destruct. Blogging in England is a sickening mess; let’s hope that it is not indicative of the rest of the country, though I am starting to think that it probably is in which case I don’t see any solution for the mess that they are in.
Beware of SF. I have been to Moscow Tennessee but never to SF CA. It’s not my kind of town.
I appreciate your interest. Do go well.
July 25, 2010 at 9:23 pm |
Hi Ike,
Enjoy your time in the Cave, my friend. But remember that cave trolls are the worst! Take a wizard with you in case of trouble.
I agree that English newspapers have the worst bloggers, or at least, the worst commenters ; though it pains me to say so. The problem with the English is that they don’t believe in anything any more ; or they don’t believe in anything substantial. That’s why they bitch about everything, but have no ideas.
But there you are – they’re descended from drunken Saxons given to fighting among themselves. It took a long line of ruthless kings, barons and bishops to tame them – and now they’re gone!
Go well.
JM
July 26, 2010 at 2:06 am |
Thanks JM
Ole Rip is a wizard and I have him with me all the time. He is all eyes and hears for me where I lack.
Only thing is he lacks in patience for ugliness and thinks that I am wasting my time in Blogging with “the uglies” but I shall tell him about you.
I appreciate your interest.
July 26, 2010 at 5:17 am |
Hello Ike,
it’s good to see you safely back home. Perhaps it is better to have a shorter excursion than a longer one with unbearable weather.
July 26, 2010 at 6:14 am |
Yes Christopher
We had a sudden cold snap with some misty rain and more in the weather reports. It’s safe and cozy in the cave but not very pleasant for a city man when it rains.
Thanks for your concerns. I appreciate it very much.
July 26, 2010 at 5:51 pm |
I forgot to mention this before… I know San Francisco very well… I know its sights, sounds, smells, and what to avoid. It is a city that is insane but captivating. To really appreciate it requires getting to know it. In the end it is what you want it to be — it has never lost its Wild West nature. It is not as strict or rigid as one might think. (I’ve found that there is nothing more intolerant and fanatical that self-important lefties with chips on their shoulders, Berkeley, just across the Bay, is the epicentre of that) I feel generally comfortable there since I know which places to avoid.
July 27, 2010 at 1:52 am |
Thanks Christopher
Burt Lancaster made the movie Birdman of Alcatraz when we were young. I associated that with SF in my early days and always wanted to see it but in the end never did.
It subsequently became known for other things and eventually became “the city I did not want to see” if you follow what I mean.
But I missed seeing Monterey where Steinbeck spent so much of his early life. I collected and reread most of his books and regret that I never personally got to Cannery Row.
July 27, 2010 at 3:18 am
You did not miss much by not seeing Cannery Row. I have been there and it is little more than a textbook tourist trap. Monterey, in general, is nothing but a shell of what it used to be. I admit that San Francisco is suffering from the same affliction. California to-day is nothing like it used to be. The USA in general is in the same rut. People talk about solving problems but don’t really come up with any meaningful ways of doing so. Living here is extremely depressing at times. It seems that people want things both ways and can’t accept losing either or.
July 27, 2010 at 3:38 am
Thanks Christopher
Yes, I have since read that Cannery Row has changed. In fact Steinbeck himself said that when he re-visited the area of his boyhood in 1960 of which he wrote Travels with Charlie then residing on Long Island New York.
It is the same the World over, depending on degree only but that is where I am fortunate in where I now reside near my birthplace. It has also changed, but very little since seventy years ago. In fact, compared to Sodom [Johannesburg] where I spent thirty years in my career and saw it practicably “re-built” twice in that period, my present hamlet has changed very little.
You can’t no longer have things as they used to be, but where I now reside attitudes, traditional values, respect and many things I love have not changed much for the worse. Some changes forced on us have, in fact, made the resolve to retain the old even stronger. I am lucky and extremely happy with that.
July 27, 2010 at 5:13 am
You hit on something which, in a way, is an issue for me.
I do not live anywhere near my place of birth — half of one continent, a vast ocean, and a majority of another continent separate me from that. Perhaps that is why I do not have much affection for the USA and why, despite being a US citizen, I am not American. I’ve always wanted to go back home — the call of the Moselle’s flow, the rippling currents, the strange, calm, careeningly serene way it goes on its path is like a Lorelei to me. At the same time the political situation in Europe has become far too strange for me to return unless it gets a lot better. I am now looking at taking refuge in Canada, a place more Old World in its approaches and ways but politically far better.
July 27, 2010 at 5:56 am |
Christopher
I can relate to that because I nearly got to live in the States more than twenty years ago. Georgia and that area attracted me, but in the end it was not to be. Family matters had to come first.
But I can advise you to keep searching. You are young [do tell me how old you are one day when you are ready to do so please] but you have more experience than many others much older than you. You must also tell me more about your family at some stage. I find from what I have managed to glean from your writings that you have an interesting background too.
Use all those things the right way, young man and you will make a good life.
I am getting on now, but I have had a good life of variety, of the good and the bad, from the idyllic to the dark spots, but I wouldn’t change any part of it if I could do it over.
And remember our research. I want to build the Great Migrations into my novel, just a thread alongside the main theme and I may lean on you to help me. Have I told you that I invented the word Eimmigration?
July 29, 2010 at 9:27 pm |
Shave the beard off Ike it makes you look as if you are completely bonkers.
July 30, 2010 at 3:26 am |
OK Mister Anon
You caught me a little off balance earlier tonight and I called you something else in my Post:
https://ikejakson.wordpress.com/2010/07/25/2-help-brendano/
I wish to retract that and will in future address you as above because I am interested in continuing the dialogue. Really, dead serious, I would like to but you know as well as I do that you are not the person whose name you use and I happen to know and like the guy.
You may also choose any of my Posts though I suggest this one for starters because you are already in here and I still want to spend a lot of time here on wild pheasant and guinea fowl.
Unlike MyT and one other Site that you obviously also know about where the primary function of most “Bloggers” seems to be to delete each other’s Posts I promise you that I shall not delete any of your comments. I will edit them, yes, and I shall change the name but will not delete the comments as you will note from the others.
Contrary to what I said in my first response I have also decided not to report you, maybe for the simple reason that I don’t have a clue how to go about it but mainly because I find you interesting; really really I do. You seem to have some sort of gripe and I understand that too; most of the English Bloggers have lots of gripes. You are English aren’t you? I am only asking because it is interesting; you don’t have to confirm if you don’t wish to.
Now I must be off; there are two guinea fowl to attend to but I shall be back later in the day but I look forward to finding lots of new comments from you when I return.