Oh gaw bless, Izs Friday,,,

Shortish day, 6 hours, lost my bet, Dood showed: no biggie, only $5, and the guy I bet feels superior to me,,,, for now. He’ll be broke again come monday where I will still have all of this paycheck and 1/3rd of the prior one, and no delinquent accounts, as well as a growing savings (that has an investment goal,,,) I don’t welch on bets, and I don’t piss away my cash in wild endeavors of wishful thinking and poker machines,,,,

Nuff said about that, eh?

He isn’t the first we’ve had with that issue, certainly won’t be the last either. In his defense, he is a hell of a worker, with minor supervision, but that seems to be because his mind is working on the next “easy money” tactic and not on the task at hand.

Its kinda funny that three best workers that need zero supervision are all former Veterans, two with combat experience. (And the one without missed Desert Storm because he was on Parris Island at the time and left service before 911.)

The other workers that don’t need it are all older than I, and mostly former deep miners for black rock. They know a thing or two about getting shit done too. And they come from a time where, here in the Appalachian hills, things never really improved from the Civil War times even past the Great Depression and the workers were one meal above slave labor in most cases.

People in these parts still fit certain molds. Super slim and wirey men, usually with a limp or some other deformity from something broken and horse doctored. Women tend to be heavier, often obese. The whole Jack Sprat and his wife thing. You don’t see it as much in the 20sumpins now, but 35+ its so common its obvious. And even the 60sumpin men, with the limps, canes, and broken down bodies will out work, out whoop, and humiliate most 20 sumpins in the day to day. They don’t really know how to ‘not work’, and in some cases, many really, ‘retirement ‘ is a terminal thing. They quit work and within a couple months are being laid in the ground. UL is one such: 71 y.o. that won’t ‘sit this’un out’ and supervise. He has to have his paws in it or he gripes and bitches to no end. Old deep miner, dropped out of school at 9 because he “knew it all” and went to work in whatever paid cash with fewest questions. We all know when he stops coming in, we will be burying him soon after.

What changed here over the years so that drug addiction is rampant and work ethics went down the drain? I want to blame education more than anything, but talking to some, the welfare state is more to blame. Failure is rewarded and the evidence of ‘working hard’ hobbles around in plain sight. And believe me, those educated to undermine a country are more than happy to point out that shit and make it an issue.

Bossman was one of those that didn’t do the ‘this is just how it is’ myth. He was raised a coal miners son. In a house provided by the company, and fed by food from a truck garden or bought at 200%markup at the company store. He talks about cracks in the wall of his and his brothers bedroom you could throw a cat through and waking up to get ready for school and needing to break the ice on the water to brush his teeth.

This was in the 50s. When ‘leave it to Beaver’ is what people remember (or Happy Days, or ,,,,).

He went to school, got a degree in engineering and took a job with state (still welfare mind, but from a different angle) he started and ran several small businesses along the way, and the current one has been going since 82. He told me he would NEVER let his family be slaves to a company like his daddy was.

When the social bullshit starts getting a claw in me and I start feeling the ‘woe is me, I’m entitled,,,,’ urge, I go and talk to some of these gimpy old timers. When I start feeling financially pinched, I talk to Bossman. Even UL, drop out, illiterate and ornery cuss he is, teaches me things about where we were, how far we’ve come and just where we are headed if things keep a-goin’ the way they are.

And one other common thread the old timers all seem to have, distrust of Guvment, and BANKS. Cash is still king and will talk far louder than any silly debit card or platinum CC.

If The Fraud had waited another 15 years, people like Bossman and UL would have passed out of this world and the lessons they carry would have been lost to all but a few like me. The Fraud could have waltzed right through all the BS they just rammed down all of our damned throats (for pure hatred of ‘Orangeman Bad’) and all the rest they are trying to push would have been frosting on their ShitCake .

More than a few of these older peeps are gaining ears willing to hear and to heed. Even some of our local poli’tickians are getting nervous about pushing crap ideas and a couple of the more unscrupulous have resigned or retired for ‘reasons’, usually not stated, or glossed over in speak-easy language.

So when I read some of the doomer posts, about how this train wreck is only just begun and we are looking at decades of recovery, I tend to tighten the filters. I see that things are gonna get rough, for awhile, and yeah, big cities and rural America are gonna have to duke it out, but decades? Don’t think so. Maybe a few years max, but then the rebuild. And that is where I get nervous. To many future tyrants in waiting just looking for a void to fill and worn tired people will hear promises they want to hear, but not the snake oil beneath.

But its Friday and I have my escape hatch to load onto the truck for a relaxing day with water. More tomorrow when my foggy brained self has some clarity of solitude.