Resident of Texas!
I have always wanted to claim that I'm a Texan.
No particular reason other than watching a lot of cowboy movies when I was a child and was impressed with the authority they seemed to have when they would say, "I'm from Texas."
Now, I think that was supposed to mean something special because it seemed to carry some importance; just being from that Great State. No one ever questioned it and no cowboy ever got any back-talk by openly declaring his statehood.
"Yep, he's from Texas. Better leave that hombre alone, I reckon."
Powerful medicine, being a Texan. I never heard anyone say, "I'm from Connecticut," or, "I'm from Nebraska." They would sound passive and weak next to the big, square-shouldered cowpuncher from the Great State of Texas, especially the ones from down around Eldorado or up on the Pecos. Those are powerful names and those cowpokes were someone to be respected.
Nope, no one ever messed with those Texans, especially the ones chewing on a nail instead of a wimpy smoke. Real men, they were.
Then, back in January, 1976, there was an opportunity for anyone to live in Texas when the Sunday Doonesbury cartoon strip gave an address to send in a boxtop coupon of any kind (if you had one) and Texas would send you an official Certificate of Residency! This was finally my big chance!
Now, that did sort of come as a surprise to the Texas government when they read it in the Sunday paper, too, but, being Texans, they decided that it was a Good Thing, and not just another regular good thing, so they decided to honor the few requests that may trickle in.
I mailed mine the next morning and it was among the first 30,000 requests the Texas Comptroller's office received.
Being a good ol' Texas boy himself, Comptroller John Sharp paid the bill from his own campaign funds, and they printed my certificate.
I waited with increasing excitement for two weeks and then, sure enough, the official letter came from the Texas State Government.
Everyone knows you don't mess with Texas, and I'm an official, by-decree, Resident of Texas, so keep that in mind.
I have to go out now and punch a cow.
About Me:
My Writing:
- Losing Shirley
- Jules, Freddie and the Monkey Man
- The Foot
- Beans
- Timeline
- The Time Tree
- The Little Lake Without a Name I
- The Little Lake Without a Name II
- Dog Friends – Inza
- Dog Friends – Sara
- Dog Friends – Millie
- Philonous, Where Are You?
I lived in Texas for about 3 years.... so you'd think I should get some kind of certificate after putting up with the heat and mutant bugs... but no one has ever offered me a certificate.
I do love Texans!
Of all the places I've lived, they seem the most genuine when you talk to them: when they ask how you are doing you feel like they really mean it. And no, wouldn't want to be on the wrong side of certain Texans either: it's a tough state, and it makes some tough as nails people.
The marine from the book "sole survivor" was from Texas and during the book he talks about the training he got from a local spec-ops veteran, who evidently trained scores of special forces recruits and added to the long-standing tradition of some of our nation's most elite warriors coming from Texas.
Ahhh, what's living in Texas for three years compared to the anxiety and stress of waiting for your Certificate of Residency for two whole weeks? Besides, I think you qualify as being a Texan if your heart's desire is to return to the Great State!
Living there does make you tough in several, very real ways. First, you begin to learn that you are a Texan as you begin to absorb the history of the great people who carved out the state. Second, as you learn about the patriots Texas has fostered, the pride of being associated with them steels the nerve, strengthens the soul, and focuses the mind on why Texas is the real America.
Of course, being a certified resident, I may be biased ;)
haha.
I am not sure I want to go back, though...
although some of the best food I have ever had was from Texas... and when you order out at a fast food joint, you get enough food with one order to feed the family.... and the best whiskey I have ever had is locally distilled in Texas...
ok I guess I could be convinced to go back.
Wow did I really just say that?
You did say that, and I agree with it. There is much to be said for having good food and drink, relative safety, and being surrounded by neighbors with a "don't bother your neighbor" attitude.
hahaha! Praise God another Texan! howdy today @willymac..I had no idea they had this program, I wonder how many ended up being Texans?
This is classic Texas all the way, thank you sir!
Howdy, Mr. Jonboy! Yep, I thought a little humor might lighten the load.
I told you I'd always wanted to be a real Texan, and this is my best claim on that honored title so far. I never hears what the total count was, but it's the kind of thing where there probably are not many of the certificates still around.
It was a good trick because the cartoonist just ran it and Texas found out when everyone did. Really gracious of them to go along with the joke becaause it must have make more than jus tme happy about it. After all, at least 30,000 people wanted to be Texans, too.
These days, I keep wanting to make it a real move but inertia (and real estate) have me tied down and the next six months look pretty bad for the economy. All that's got me in a HODL frame of mind lately.
I understand that you are making @glenalbrethsen chase you in the statistics race. Don't you ever take a day off to build fences or punch cows?
Okay, so it's getting around that janton is making me chase him? Hunh. :)
He told me last week he was going to be doing some yard work. Didn't mention any cow punching. Something about some acreage that needed tending to that he was putting off by being on Steemit. Anyway, my guess is, he's decided to postpone it for another week, if I'm suppose to be chasing him in the standings. :)
haha! that's pathetic if someone is saying that, that's the first I've heard of it. Like I told Willymac you don't chase anyone nor need to chase anyone. yes, this week I am saying again that I gotta some work done outside next week! we'll see what happens. I'd love to break that 1,000 comment number.
Okay. So, it did get postponed. :) I was starting to wonder since I've ran across posts where they're saying you're everywhere in the comment section. I know I see you regularly, so it must be true!
I haven't necessarily been chasing, but I wouldn't mind keeping up. No way I'm staying with you on the comment front, though. That's just an amazing amount of comments.
well sir, that's what I can say about you as far as the comment lengths, that's an amazing amount of typing. my high volume of comments is just because I have a hard time making long comments so I have to make it up in volume.
haha! thanks for getting back to me willymac. that Texas citizenship thing was such a hoot and a great post! You mentioned that the next six months look bad for the economy, of Florida?
why would that be? I thought it was booming over there?
As far as the highly esteemed @glenalbrethsen goes..I don't think he chases anyone or needs to chase anyone. He's the real deal being an actual author and writer, I'm just a friendly guy who asks alot of questions and people are kind enough to talk to me.
I just saw Glen's comment lol. yes sir, I am pitifully far behind on work that needs to be done on our property. Thank goodness it's been dry and hot because the grass stopped growing. I haven't had a day off, at least not a full one, in decades. thank you sir for the excellent comment!
I hate that "I'm behind on things" feeling. Five years ago, I was going to put in a wide gate in a fence and I got the posts and gate and they have been waiting so long to be installed the gate is rusting! I'm going to get it done but it must not have been as needed as I thought! It's the other things that pop up. Things like replacing the septic tank drain line and patching holes in the driveway and cleaning up fallen trees (and homesteading new dogs) that keep moving the to-do list on down.
The external worries are about the country and world's economy getting trashed. Inflation is bound to kick in and the US is looking at a one TRILLION dollar deficit on our credit card this year. That kind of thing can't go on when we already owe 60 trillion and don't have a prayer of a chance in paying it off, even if we wanted to, which we don't. On top of that, the banks have a QUADRILLION dollars worth of derivatives and there ain't that much money on the planet. Guess what's going to happen to them when the cookie crumbles?
yes sir, when you look at all the insanity and the cliff that we are on financially and knowing that something could trigger a collapse of the whole house of cards it's not a stable feeling. I have no idea what's going to happen.
I got into the financial part of that when I was working on my MBA and it has been a point of fascination ever since. The simple fact that the US does not have its own money is mind boggling! The Dollar is an IOU issued by the Federal Reserve Bank (that is neither a Federal bank nor does it have a reserve) and it is not an obligation of the US!
Treasury bills are IOUs we issue to get cash to spend. Everything goes on our credit card and we make interest only payments with no possibility of paying anything on the card balance!
Pure financial insanity, and people don't pay any attention!
On top of that, we are going to "borrow" another trillion dollars more this year than we will have in revenue and no one blinks an eye that we already are 20 trillion in the hole - 60 trillion if you include the obligations the US has that don't show on the books! We even borrow the money every year to pay the interest on what we already owe! How's that going to work out?
You could not have all that as a believable plot in a bad movie!
I'm proud to see that the Great State of Texas has started its own central bullion depository in Leander where you can deposit your gold and silver to back verified transactions when the Dollar becomes useless and the banking system implodes one Friday night.
HODL and keep on stacking!
howdy today @willymac! yes sir, Texas has been working for a long time to be able to stand on it's own if things collapse such has having their own Fort Knox with actual gold in it and our electric grid stands on it's own in case the rest of the country goes down.
yes I understand about the finances, and it seems like I read that with derivatives included in the debt it's something incomprehensible like 200 trillion or something like that! lol.
and so it is your opinion that it could collapse at any time?
Yes, any time. More closer than farther away. When the Dollar loses reserve currency status, maybe this fall.
With derivatives, it is one quadrillion dollars, since all banks will be caught when the dominoes fall in a few minutes. That is why it is beyond belief. Anyone with money in a commercial bank will have zero. It actually is not theirs anyway, even if it was real money in their bank, and that is something else people don't focus on.
Texas will have a depository with real gold, as opposed to Ft Knox that once had gold before it was all re-hypothicated out.
That, along with a disconnected power grid, a decent sea port, oil and nat gas. And Texans!
It really is frightening to see how fragile it all is and how massive a failure would be.
And that's my positive outlook for it :)
This is awesome! I wish I had been aware of this! Of course back then, I wasn't quite aware I would want to be a Texan. Now, I'd love to be, especially if I could live somewhere greener for most of the year. :)
You just have an interesting life. Keep writing about it. I know I want to keep hearing about it.
No one ever accused me of having an interesting life. I think "boring" is the most common descriptor.
However, that has not prevented me from writing about things that got my attention and I do tend to add in some fact-based "color" from time to time if it seems appropriate. My real limitation is my typing speed (either that or my brain speed) that limits how many words I produce. I'm amazed at how easily you seem to make words flow.
I did a lot of work-related writing but the style was developed to include a straight-line, unambiguous thought process with the least words possible to just convey facts. I can't seem to access the more descriptive phrasing I'd like to have.
My other millstone holding me back is all the other things I want to do and/or need to do, and I feel like creative writing is a luxury item I haven't earned quite yet. Rainy days and dark winter days are best because I don't suffer from the "I should be doing something productive" feeling.
However, I shall continue to persevere.
Hey, @willymac. There have definitely been times where things flowed. It generally takes a few days of sitting down and pounding out pages of the same story, though, where I've become familiar with the characters, their motivations, and I know more or less where the story is going. These short stories are a little harder to get going and to move along because there's supposed to be a lot of information in a short period of time.
I was a newspaper publisher, and I for part of that, I also wrote articles for different events, which included City Hall and sports. So, I know all about the concise writing style. I used to be much more flowery in my descriptions than I feel I am now. If anything, I think I've been trying to find a balance between the conciseness of reporting facts and the descriptive prose you will find in novels. I like to paint a background or a skeletal frame and let the reader fill in with their imagination.
I'm not that fast of a typist myself. I need to work on the ergonomics of my work area, too, because it hasn't been conducive to speed, accuracy, good posture or anything else for years. Since I've been writing so much more, I can feel its effects again.
We don't have acreage, so I don't feel the pull, but my wife likes to get me out there from time to time in the garden or flower beds. I've got a fence I should be doing something with here at some point.
Well, I've enjoyed what you've shared so far. It's amazing how we can consider are lives to be be humdrum, and in many ways maybe they are, but others will find them fascinating. Especially descendants. They seem to hold onto every word like it's life and death. And so do we with our ancestors.
I really don't mind working at something that will create something new but I hate maintenance work. Fixing a fence with a hole in it is one thing, but having to paint one or re-string wire or picking up pine cones is a royal pain and feel like a waste of time because nothing new has been created. Still, it has to be done so it goes with the good parts, no matter how large or small the place.
I think Steemit is the best opportunity available to collect and preserve information about ourselves and our lives. Almost everything we type is reflective of our personality or experience and are the kinds of things that would not be important enough in itself to sit down to put on paper. Doing it in conversational style makes it much less formal (and maybe boring) but here and there will be tidbits of information someone may find interesting in the future. I still envision a fifth generation, future descendant browsing through a conversation thread to extract information on a long-ago relative. The thought would be more energizing for me if there were going to be any descendants, but that's just life. Or lack of it. I can be part of the background noise in some of your legacy writings. Hope you don't mind.
As far as being concise, my absolute favorite of all is Ernest Hemingway's classic:
Baby shoes.
Never used.
That is one of the saddest things I have read and it is perfect in style and content because no details leave everything to the reader's imagination. Descartes' "Cogito ergo sum" is more concise but does not spark my curiosity or wish to inquire.
My computer ergonomics improved greatly when I got special glasses focused at 24 inches so I can see the screen without tilting my head to accommodate bifocals. I use a posture chair with arms, and it's quite comfortable to sit straight and type.
Physical tasks take more of my energy than I have available at times (strange how that happens now that calendars wear out so much faster than they used to) and I enjoy writing more and more because I can concentrate better and have less desire to work on the things at the bottom of the to-do list than I once did.
...he says as the little dog just sat down next to him and began staring without blinking, sending thought beams that say "I want to go O U T"
Quick BTW: Can you use your considerable influence to get @lynncoyle1 to post about her most interesting writing experience? Inquiring minds want to know.
I'm not sure what considerable influence you're talking about—on Steemit, with @lynncoyle1, or even at home. Everyone pretty much does what they please and then blames me when things don't go the way they wanted it to, even though I might have told them all that. I'm talking about my family, not necessarily Lynn or Steemit. Steemit maybe. :)
Is this like a writing challenge or something you're trying to rope her into, or is this just your own personal curiosity? Is there actually more than one mind inquiring?
That is pretty sad about Ernest Hemingway and the baby shoes. He's looked upon as a man's man and an author's author, but there was still a lot of tragedy in his life, or surrounding it.
I have a desk right now that I'm using that is low, but the lowest setting of my chair is too high to get down far enough. So my wrists aren't ever really at the best of positions for typing, especially the right one. I'm hoping to get one of the motorized desks so I can adjust it up and down and do some standing in the process.
I like the "calendar wears out faster." If mine wears out any faster, I'll need to buy them a decade at a time.
A few panels and posts along the backend were leaning toward the neighbor's property. There's a significant amount of erosion on a downgrade that previous owners dug out rather than leaving as a slope. When we put the posts in originally, we dug down a foot and a half and poured cement, but it wasn't enough. So we had to dig up one and reposition the rest, adding more cement.
We then ended up reinforcing the rest of the fence by adding 2 x 6 x 8 sections along the top, and then adding some more boards underneath it. Or I guess, it was the other way around. At any rate, there supposed to be reinforcing everything. We still have at least the side facing the road to finish and my wife wants a different gate on the driveway side because the one we have is rather clumsy and droops. So, there's all that to figure out. I was supposed to get to it last year, but I didn't and now there's Steemit. It would be advantageous to get working on it before summer is completely over and my son goes back to work at school, since it'll go a lot faster with two people working it than it will with just me.
Well, I like the stories you write and I feel influence waves emanating from you because of that so I thought @lynncoyle1 may feel them too. Besides, I thought it sounded like a supportive statement since everyone likes to feel like they have influence, and since influence can exist without the influencer's knowledge that it does, you should keep on doing what you are doing and keep radiating.
All three, except more of a writing request. I'm curious about other's experience and mindset when they have written something they thought was really special or when the writing seemed to take over the process and be driven by something outside the author's conscious creative center.
Probably. My left brain and right brain need to know what goes on in a creative mind, and I'm sure that yours and Lynn's do too. I don't need scientific mumbo jumbo, but am just curious how you felt when a magic moment occurred where you felt the story was in control.
What happens when in your mind when the story begins to write itself?
** Hemingway did lead a strong, manly life, including drinking to excess and writing with passion, but those are the things that made him enviable in many respects. One does not become an idol by being average.
** I have a $99 secretarial posture chair with a big screw underneath that I can move the seat up and down with. I have it adjusted so the chair arms are at the bottom row of keys on the keyboard, making it easier to move my hands and fingers without too much muscle stress. That has been working pretty well.
Okay. I will see what I can do. If you've asked her though, it's hard to believe she wouldn't want to post about it. As far as influence goes, I appreciate the thought. I do like to write from more of an authoritative position with certain topics, but people can judge for themselves if I have any influence in the matter or not. Small fish are still small fish, and ultimately the influence is with the bigger fish.
Then let's see if she will think it worthwhile. All worthwhile ideas require a pregnant pause while they are hatching.
Believe it or not @willymac, I've never written that much. Little bits here and there, mostly for teaching. I've written more on steemit than I have anywhere else though :)
So are you saying that I've influenced you? Because that is really something, if so.
Why should that be surprising? If I think you did, then you did. It's best not to pick some things apart; just take them as they are and run with it.
I'm simply curious about how you feel when you are writing and the story seems to be guiding itself and you start to feel as if you are typing a dictation of it as if it is flowing faster than you can focus on the words.
I wonder what happens as a person is writing to create that moment when you start to feel you are being guided and don't have time to think because you are typing.
Or, you could just say willymac asked me (all that) and he's a little nuts, so I'll just tell him to go away. That alone is pregnant with possibility for creative writing ;)
@willymac Thank you for not using bidbots on this post and also using the #nobidbot tag!
hmm, texas is like another country altogether. everything about it is big. the steers are big, the cars are bigger and the food servings are enormous. The people out there are larger than life and are quite open hearted.
It is just that you need to have tied down guns and comanchero spurs!
enjoy yourself @willymac
Ahhh...merely one of the cultural adjustments required to become a real Texan. It would take a while to adjust to the attachments, but with the steers and horses and rattlesnakes, those things come in handy!
We all need our fantasy lives and mine happens to have originated with black and white cowboy movies from the 1940's. It never hurts to hold some things as true, especially when good always prevailed and the good guys won and still said "Howdy Ma'm" as they tipped their hats to women.
Now that is funny:) It's true though isn't it? "I'm from Nebraska" doesn't carry near the bravado as "I'm from Texas" does!!!
See? We all have an instinctive image of Texas as being different in some special way.
For me, if's the remaining piece of the real America we started out to be, back before we lost our vision of who we are.
I know things and perceptions change, but those things at our core should not be thrown out, so I like to keep a few anchors in place, and Texas is one of them.
I'm holding on to honesty, hard work, faith, trust and our Constitution as guideposts. You know...Texas!
As an outsider (Canada) I always find the concept of "real America" so interesting. It's like the rest of the country is a farce or something 😅
..you mean it's not? Who would have guessed?