So we turned another page on the calendar this morning. My mind was revving more than it usually does when I put the last 28 days upside down and out of sight. March is a concise month. When you say the word January…and then say the word February…you notice how long those multi-syllable words are. Then you get to the no-nonsense of MARCH. It is the first of three months of the calendar year that present itself off the spoken tongue with one syllable. May and June are the others. March. The connotation of the word lends itself to March…as in March Forth! Go! Do something! Warmer weather is coming and the blankets that cover us up in the four syllable months of January and February are gone…as in G-A-W-N…gone. Time to move forward. Time to March.
On the 18th day of March I will claim 47 years on this orb. The older I get the more confusing years become. Some are easier to recall than others. Some years are less painful than others. Some years can be recalled with no hint of regret. Either memory fails of “it was a very good year…”. Regardless, we are not here to have a bad time. That my friends, is a mantra to live by.
Got an email this morning. Our church service was called off. This I found out not long before I was going to warm the car up. Email was a good thing this morning. My dear wife, Carrie, just reported a few minutes ago that there is a small sheet of ice on our concrete walk next to the house. To call it a sidewalk would be very misleading, as there is not a device with a red, yellow, and green light within 10 miles of our driveway.
On a speaktherights.com post of recent, I spoke of the one room church that is Hancock Chapel and I wrote about the outhouses that are still in fine form not far from the church’s door. This is the church where Carrie and I were married.
I got chewed a bit this week. Why haven’t you posted more stuff on your website? This is the question I heard along with a few other informal comments about my lack of recent material. I wish it was that easy.
There is a thing called Common Core in the education world. In sum, it is a national school of thought about what to teach when and how to test what and when…most states in this country adopted it. You can look it up. Indiana did not adopt the Common Core and had to jump through some federal red tape hoops to opt out of it. Well…Indiana has decided to change its testing strategy after tests have been printed. Some parts of the test will not be used. How much money has been wasted I don’t want to know. It would make me sick to know how much we could be helping kids instead of wasting taxpayer dollars. There is political jockeying going on in Indianapolis as adults act like silly children and do things that would get most of them sent to the principal’s office for not being able to cooperate. It is so embarrassing…our state is assuredly being laughed at by the feds…there are no eggs left to crack in Marion County, as they are all over the face of the Department of Education and the Statehouse. Common Stupidity replaced Common Core in Indiana. The lady the people elected to lead the education charge in this state is not allowed to do her job to the best of her ability. The culprit? Politics. What else. Down at the courthouse there is paper with my name on it that says I am a Republican. These days the only time I bring that fact up is when I feel the need to apologize for an institution I no longer have faith in…but hold out hope that one day I will again. History will tell us things have to get bad before they get better. My only question is: Isn’t this bad enough?
Justin Hayward was on PBS last night in the Louisville market. His live solo show is being shown all over the country as he is lending a hand to PBS as the pledge season for public television is in full swing. 
PBS did The Moody Blues a great service when they showed the Red Rocks orchestra show in 1993 during pledge time. It gave the Moodies a shot in the arm of their career.
Tim and Michelle Petty were guests of ours this past Friday night. As always, it was delightful to see them. Great friends and good vittles…don’t get much better than that. We also got around to exchanging our Christmas presents.
Each 4th of July Tim and Michelle host a celebration on Petty RIdge, equipped with a fireworks event that knows no rival. There is also a 4th of July Queen Contest. I am proud to say that my mother wins every year.
Here is my triumphant mother waving to her adoring crowd. Queen Elizabeth don’t hold nothing to this celebration. God Bless America!
Speaking of birthdays, my mother had one last week. She is the youngest of ten girls. Mom turned 73. Seven of her older sisters are still alive and well. They are an amazing bunch.
Waiting on younger…not youngest… brother to get to the picture.
He made it. This was taken during a recent family reunion. 2012…I think.
The safest place in America on a Fall Football Saturday.
Memorial Stadium…Indiana University. When you call the ticket office to ask what time kickoff is, they might ask you what time you can be there.
SEA TURTLES are wonderful creatures.
A few years ago Carrie and I were walking down the beach in North Carolina when we came along a set of tracks coming in to shore from the ocean and a set of tracks heading back to the ocean. A sea turtle had laid its eggs on the beach and headed back to the water.
As for your and yours…I hope you too March Forth!
And while you’re at it…speak the rights.
Danny Johnson