A Blog By Wessley
So, here it is – 2012. I can’t believe we are twelve years into the new millennium already! Holy cow!
Thinking back on 2011, there was a lot going one – some good, some bad. I have high hopes for 2012. We might be getting a new president in the November elections and surely the economy will start getting better.
Happy New Year to all my family and friends!
This time of year is when some of the fast food places sell their eggnog flavored milkshakes. I am a big fan of the eggnog shakes, but I can’t afford the extra sugar and calories. But to celebrate the holidays I will allow myself one or two eggnog milkshakes before Christmas. I am heading to the Steak ‘n Shake this afternoon for their “Happy Hour” deal of buy one and get one free. anyone else want to go with me for an eggnog milkshake? Since I’m getting one, yours is free!
If you have some cash and want to buy a motorcycle, December is the best month of the year to get a bargain on one. The guys who have motorcycles aren’t riding them much in the winter and sometimes they need to raise some cash. Winter riding is more dangerous, with wet leaves, ice, and its just plain cold.
So they are more likely to put a used bike up for sale at a good price to raise the cash and since they aren’t riding in the winter it’s not such a big sacrifice to them. If you are a motorhead and can work on bikes, you can score some bikes for a cheap price, work on them each weekend over the winter, and then sell them for a good profit in the spring when people get the urge to start riding again.
The Ryman Auditorium is the best place in Nashville to hear a concert. It is not a big arena like the football stadium where you get seats so high up and away from the stage that the band looks like tiny ants. In the Ryman, even the seats in the last row are decent seats and the sound is fantastic wherever you sit.
They’ve been booking some big names at the Ryman. The only problem with that is the seats are limited and the good shows sell out within an hour or two of the tickets going on sale.
My buddy, Owen, invited me to go shooting at the farm his parents own up in Sumner county. They bought about 60 acres a couple of years ago and plan to retire soon. They are renovating the old farm house to make it ready for them to live there full time. The deal is that we can out there and shoot skeet or targets as long as we check out the place for signs of vandalism or any storm damage.
We try to get out there about once a month, but if I can’t go Owen gets another buddy to tag along. Its a lot of fun to spend a day on the farm, but sometimes I can’t be gone from here that long. The drive up takes an hour and a half, and its easy to see 3 or 4 hours slip away while we are having fun. The next thing you know its getting dark, the day is gone, and we still have an hour and a half drive to get back home. Long day – but always a good time.
Simple little ditty, “Spring forward and fall back” is how I remember that in the fall we have to set back our clocks an hour. So at 2:00 am the clocks go back to 1:00 am and we all get an extra hour of sleep. Of course, we lose that hour in the spring. But i’ll take an extra hour of sleep any time I can get it.
My neighbors are good people. Although we don’t get together have a big block party or neighborhood yard sale, we all do know each other. We look out for each other, too.
My friend Selena has lived here as long as I have. We actually both moved in to our homes the same month, although she moved in the weekend before I did. Neither one of us has any interest in moving away, either. There’s a lot to be said for people who like where they live and don’t think about moving away – unless they have to.
This time of year I start craving ham. This is actually hog killing season, and farmers are putting up hams to cure, making bacon and fresh sausage. If I can find someone selling fresh sausage, I will buy at least 40 pounds of it and put it in the freezer. In the meantime, I’m holding off the cravings with a ham sandwich.
Came across a documentary on cable that told the story of the making of the movie, Dances With Wolves. It was pretty interesting to find out that none of the big movie companies would agree to make that movie. The only way the movie got funded was from Kevin Costner’s own money and then a few other Hollywood individuals who believed in Costner. It was a huge risk for everyone – Costner was young and just getting established as star, with no reputation for being a director yet. And he decided to both star in the movie and direct it.
Another thing that interested me is that they strove hard to be as historically accurate as possible, taking great care in the selection of shooting locations, costumes, etc.They used real buffalo, and during the filming of the stampede, Kevin Costner had fallen off his horse and been trampled slightly. Luckily he was not badly hurt.
They even cast real Native American Indians as the Indians, however the tribe that was called for in the script did not have enough Indians to fill all the parts. So instead they went to the Lakota Sioux and used the Lakota for all the Indian parts in the movie.