bobberdilly.com

I thought about turning this drawing so it was Horizonal, but why, I asked myself? Why don’t I just leave it along? It doesn’t matter?

Then I thought about all the problems people around Marcella and I. Not the problems out of human control, but rather the problems, people generate for themselves. We get these phone call, and we hear the chit-chat and we wonder why people put up with so much crap when they could just make some reasonable, sometimes hard choices and put all that behind them? They can’t seem to get rid of a troublesome pet, or they need some new gaget, but they don’t have the money so they just make the debt bigger on the credit card… and then, to make matters worse, they call us and tell us about it and (Phew!) all Marcella and I can do is … Nothing? We just say one important prayer at the end of each day that goes like this…. “Thank you, thank you, thank you god that we don’t have to live that way!”

And then… How much money does a person need? I’ve seen rich people with gigantic problems and they just keep on doing the same thing that keeps generating the problems. Why don’t they just quit and drop off the radar? How much baggage does one need to do that? Look at where O.J. Simpson is? Look at all the crap Tiger woods is putting up with. Why do they keep wading around in it. Don’t they have enought money to just take it and run and have a life?

Marcella and I are cleaning out our attic, and basement and garage and we’re demateralizing. We’re making like simpler and it feels great. We say thank you to god, were making the house lighter and we have all the money we need, because we’re as Dave Ramsey says everyday on the radio. “Debt Free!” and that makes us rich.

I drew this last night during Star Trek. I just love the way colored pencil works so well with Sharpie Pen.

Wow! I wish I could just hop on a train or subway and be transported off to the big city. I wish this country would have decided on a mass transit system in the 1950′s instead of the interstate highway. I really loved it when I was in London and could go all over that city by the underground cheaper and faster than one could drive. I really loved being able to go places in New York city that way. Still I don’t understand why there was still no subway from the air port in that town. Maybe its on it’s way as I write.

I was hoping someday that a president will finally get our silly budget balanced and clear and declare this country create a national mass transit system instead of highways full of cars. I wish they would creat a super elevated rail system that would take us two hours to places like Kansas City and we wouldn’t have to take a four hour trip by car. Wow! one half a day to Chicago or a day trip to California. Where are our bullet trains? This country could save billions on oil transport with a mass transit system, but we have to get our congress to stand in the middle of the room instead at the edges making faces at one another.

Something happpened and maybe, just maybe I’m finally coming out of it. I just couldn’t get myself motivated. I was struggling with keeping up my letter writing. I just had the hardest time trying to put out the letters I was supposed to be writing. Then at the same time, I just couldn’t make myself draw anything and I guess you’ve noticed this blog hasn’t been progressing very well.

This has happened before, but never this long. Maybe it has a scientific name like “Writers bock”… I just don’t know. I was trying to write a short story and I finally finished it, but I don’t think its all that good so it’s just lingering there waiting for me to re-read it and do some editing and then I hope I don’t just tear it up.

I’ve had some good ideas lately, but I haven’t carried through with them on this blog. I guess I just get overwhelmed with all the crap I hear and I just feel helpless… Well, I’m going to try to ignite a revolution. I’m sick and tired of watching that mess in the Gulf of Mexico. Congress is trying to squeeze out some confessions from those responible for the accident and no one wants to be the fall guy. Well… do you know who I think is to blame for this whole crappy mess? Well, I’m gonna tell you. We’re to blame for the mess. Us little guys all over this country. We gotta have our gas and our airconditioners, and light bulbs and on and on and on. We gotta light up this country so much at night that you can see the shape of this county from outter space. I’d say thats’s way too many goddamned night lights. We wouldn’t hace a whole gulf full of foul smelling oil if we’d just turn off half of all the damned lights shinning (for nothing) in the middle of the night. What the hell is the use of a lit up sign on the highway advertizing carpets if the business is closed and its three oclock in the morning? Why do we need a goddamned yard light on in the middle of the night and one and on and on. I challenger the world to turn off all the lights they don’t absolutly need. It would be wonderful to see the sky and the stars again at night. Turn off half the lights in this county and we wouldn’t have oil Crisis. I want to hear those power companies howl when the load drops and they start losing money and we take our darkness back. Do it!

And as for the stupid racist law the state of Arizona has enacted… I think everyone, and especially the Hispanic people, should put on a back pack, drive to the boarder and go hiking. I think those border cops need something to do with all their time. Just think of the trouble they’d have if they had to chase down legal American Citizens out for a nice refeshing hike in the desert. Millions of people should think about a nice hike this weekend. I would sort of be like the bus boycotts in the south of the 1950′s and 60′s. Do it!
Wow! now, I feel much better.

3/6/2010

I have been writing this rambling nonsense diatribe for the fun of it. It is based on the old concept of giving a room full of chimps plenty of typing paper, typwriters. The chimps begin to play and type and as the chimps play around on the typwriters they accidentally type out a complete novel.

Well, I’ve been doing that since the beginning of april and in the middle of all that activity, our family North of town eruptes again. So, today while I’m writing at my mindless diatribe, I think of that tribe and the family tree I once attempted to construct.

I thought it might be possible to write and create a family tree from all the “Going’s on” that goes on in that family. Well I worked it trying to make a coherent workable diagram, but the family ramblings, marriages, breakups and re-joining defied my efforts. Still, I’m the sort of guy when confronted by confusion, and more confusion, I can always fall back on my imagination.

I present:

The Bramble family tree

No magic or extraordinary life here, because Gerald wasn’t the oldest nor the youngest or the one squeezed in between. Gerald was just number five in a family of eight brothers and sisters. The only thing evident in his teenage years and on into high school years, was that Gerald was not cut out to be a farmer. His oldest brother, Jerome later became an auto mechanic; Ervin, the next oldest, became a shop teacher in a high school; Lucille, his oldest sister, married a farmer; Theresa, his next oldest sister, became a nurse; Norman, his younger brother, became an airline pilot; Marcella, the next to the youngest in the family, became a school teacher while Rita, the youngest, became a Catholic Dominican sister.

Gerald really didn’t become anything. He tried to be a farmer, but simply, it wasn’t in his blood. He just couldn’t stay on that tractor seat in the hot sun and listen to the pounding of a tractor engine day in and day out. He just couldn’t go out before sun up and roll over those hay bales to make them dry and then put them up in the loft for the winter. He put off becoming a farmer, until just before he was going to get his draft notice and decided to join the Air Force.

Then things were doing pretty well for Gerald. He had a bunk, three square meals a day, a job and a purpose in life. He went on liberty to the nearby town and met a girl. She was a young mother, recently divorced and with three children to feed, educate and keep from harm. Gerald wrote home about his new girlfriend, Mary Ann Wolford and how he’d met her in a bar off base. His parents were not happy. She was divorced. She left her former husband, because he beat and abused her. She had three children of his and her doing. She worked in a bar. She was not a Catholic and then when Gerald wrote home that he was going to ask her to marry him, his mother and father hit the roof. Then, in desperation, Gerald’s parents made phone calls to Gerald and the Airforce base chaplain, begging Gerald to come to his senses and not to marry the woman. The base chaplain was able to have Gerald transfererd to Alaska and Gerald’s parents breathed a sigh of relief. Gerald took Mary Ann and her children with him on the transfer and of course, deliberately failing to mention this fact to his parents. Gerald got married anyway.

1960 Gerald Birzer marries Mary Ann Wolford. He becomes husband to Mary Ann Wolford and stepfather to Cletus, Dorothea (Dot) and Vicky Wolford. Mother and Father Birzer are very unhappy at Gerald’s choice of life mate and told him to not come home. But as life goes on, years passed and Gerald’s father contracts a deady case of blood cancer and now needs help on the farm. None of the other offspring were disposed to come and work the family farm so the father calls Gerald and tells him, all is forgiven only if he will please come home and take over the family farming. Gerald, Mary Ann, Cletus, Dot and Vicky come to Ellinwood to work the farm and to make this story short, father and mother Birzer move into town. Father dies of his cancer. Gerald tries farming for a while, but never having favored the knack for the trade, he quits and pursues the trades of roofing and later radiator manufacturing and repair.

In the meantime the family grows Cletus, Vicky and Dot into teenagers and beyond. They all do poorly in school. Gerald and Mary Ann, not content with three children decide or by accident, have one more child and they name him David. The children all struggle with school and despite the chaos, poor examples and simple neglect of their well being in their day to day family life, they graduate anyway. Then they each get married or keeping it simple just decided to move into together and breed. They brought forth a host of offspring that I will enmumerate to you below:

Cletus marries Robin Tesch and they have Amanda. Cletus and Robin get a divorce or break up (which ever conditon applies), Robin keeps Amanda. Clete doesn’t send any child support and Robin dies from something. Amanda is now abandoned by Cletus and goes to live with her Grandmother.
Dorothea marries Randy Slack and they don’t have any offspring, but they soon divorce. Then, Dorothea meets this guy named Schwarz (his last name) and they have a child from a one night stand. They name him Cody. Cody Schwartz or Slack, who knows at this point, is born with a birth defect and will require special education and care for the rest of his life. Dorothea continues to experiment with various loser men drifting in and out of her life.
Vicky hitches up with a smooth talking dude named Elbert Dewberry who, from unknown reasons dies, but not before he breeds and multiplies. They have two daughters. Tanya and Jennifer. They both have the name Dewberry (I state this because it is important to understand the family tree). Then for some reason, who knows? Ole Dewberry dies. Then, I guess, because the man of the house is missing, Vicky can’t control Tanya and so Tanya is farmed out to eventually become the adopted child of her Aunt Dorothea. Why, this arrangment, I have no idea!
Tanya Dewberry will be now be known as Tanya Slack after Dorothea Slack. Meanwhile, Jennifer Dewberry, Tanya’s sister grows up to meet Terry Zebala who at the same time is fathering children from another marriage.

Terry Zebala and Jennifer get married and have Michael Lewis Zebala, Gabi Lynn Zebala and Angel Lynn Zebala. Michael and Gabi have since been taken away by the state. Angel is still at home and her mother (Jennifer) is now expecting twins. Meanwhile, Vicky Dewberry is moving on with her life. She marries Terry Jackson and they have Kimmy Jackson. Kimmy Jackson (half sister to Jennifer and Tanya) grows up and marries a guy, Frank Cherbon and they have children, Gerald Francis and Francis Jason Cherbon and then Terry Jackson dies, so Vicky moves on. Vicky Jackson, then meets and marries Harold Alexander, she then is Vicky Alexander and again creates more children. Harold Alexander Jr. and Ashley Alexander. They then become, half brother and sister to Tanya Dewberry Slack, Jennifer Dewberry Zebala, and Kimmy Jackson Cherbon. Are you confused yet? Well it isn’t over!

Then Tanya Dewberry Slack has problems with Dorothea Schwarz Slack, her adopted mother, and is then shipped out to the farm to become the daughter of Grandfather Gerald and Grandmother Mary Ann. Tanya, later marries, meets, and-or shacks up with a guy named Chris West. They have a child they name Laura West. She is born the day after Christmas if that means anything. They break up and the child is taken by the state. Tanya Dewberry Slack West, has Laura’s name tattooed on her arm as if that means anything. Tanya, then meets Matt Winger and he’s a “Humdinger”. They have a courthouse, “Maybe” marriage, but break up without children (thank god). By this time however, Tanya Dewberry Slack West Winger has already met up with a certain, Jason Glickman. Mr Glickman is an involuntary patient (not worker) at the State Mental Hospital. He made her laugh, Tanya claims – good reason to shack-up, a good reason to begat a new child, Emily Glickman. Emily’s first birthday was on the same day her father was sent back to the nut house for a second stay. Emily was taken by the state. Then, to sum up the family Bramble tree, Tanya meets and marries Chris Gross (a fitting name). They breed and have another child. This child they name Ariana Gross and she too has been subsequently taken by the state. At present, Chris Gross is in jail for domestic battery.
Post script:

• Robin Tesch Wolford, her daughter Amanda Wolford and Gerald Birzer have all died.

• Cletus Wolford has moved back in with his Mother at the family farm. Clete brought his dog, Killer.

• Tanya always said, that “After grandad dies (Gerald) we can have a dog in the house!” There are now twenty dogs in the house and I’m certain, as many cats and one ferrate. (none, of which are neutered vaccinated or house broken.) Two dogs chained up outside (killer and Cujo), two horses and one donkey. The kids leave them off when they get a new apartment and then they don’t come back. If they want a new dog, they go get a fresh one. Grandma gets all the left overs.

• Mary Ann is at present, not doing well. Gerald, before his death in 2002, decided to save money by installing a wood burning stove in the house and not use the gas furnace. Mary Ann began a disasterous practice of sitting up on the divan and feeding the fire all night long. She has not actually laid down in a bed since that stove was installed and so, the practice of sitting up twenty four hours a day and night have taken their toll. She can no longer walk on her own.

• Vicky and Harold Alexander then came to the farm to aid in the care of Mary Ann. That was the official reason. They actually came, because it was a way to have a house without paying rent and they could also help live off Mary Ann’s social security check. They brought their dogs and cats. Then Vicky buys a donkey for fifty dollars, because Mary Ann once said she would like to have a donkey. It was fun for about a month and now it just exists out there and they might feed it if they remember. The neighbors have been seen coming over to keep care of that poor abandoned beast. Then the rest of the family have since dropped off their unwanted livestock, pets and etc. to be cared for, out of Mary Ann’s social security check. Harold had a job as a car crusher operator in Salina.

• Cletus finds a girl friend (Dawn) and she lived at the farm for a time. Dawn actually cleaned Cletus up for a time. He took a bath and had a hair cut. Cletus even tried working for the same junk yard car crusher operator as did Harold. They eventually walked off the job, because according to them, the boss tried to cheat them out of some hours in their pay. Cletus had a car that worked, but eventually he, “Blew the engine!” as he described it.

• Tanya lived at the farm for a short spell. While there, she contributed to the dog population, lost her temper and threw a phone through the back porch window, lost her and threw a hamburger paddy against the kitchen wall, lost her temper and drove Mary Ann’s car down the road with the hood not latched and ripped it off. Then later in the same year, Cletus went out to push the hood down, because it was sticking up from the botched repair. He bent the whole thing and completely ruined any hope of restoration.

• Harold Alexander Sr., Harold Alexanders father lived at the farm for a time and soon left for his own place in town.

• Harold Alexander Jr. comes back from the foster home and is now living at the farm.

• Now all the kids are asking Mary Ann if they’re on the will.

(This is a true account. none of the above was made up. This is a true account of the bramble bush family tree)

Lest we be judged by the least among us!

4/20/2010
Robert Joy

If by pure happenstance, we should be visited by a superior life form, from out there outside the Milky way. From some far corner of the cosmos hidden by the blackness of billions and billions of miles of supposed empty space. From a group of intrepid explorers having chosen this small blue sphere from billions of blue spheres scattered randomly about the universe. If by pure chance (and that is the only means one could choose among the billions of possibilities that exist) the superior intelligence should stumble upon a small square of earth located a mere five miles north of Ellinwood, Kansas and discover the least among us and thus form a conclusion based up on that encounter.

“The horror! The horror!” I use the immortal words of the dying Colonel Kurts in the classic film, “Apocalypse Now! The horror if some traveler should land at that particular farm and they meet those particular inhabitance. Meet them in that smelly, dog-shit, litter filled, fly and cockroach infested domicile, experience the interior of that house and then go back from whence they came and then, base all their conclusions of our small planet on that particular encounter. “The horror! The horror!”

I could relate a novel’s worth of stories, but I haven’t the time nor the strength to relate the full horror. It is bad enough that Marcella and I have been the recipients of numerous phone calls requesting favors to the tribe up north. They are family. It’s the family of Marcella’s deceased brother Gerald. They are marooned out there on that farm and existing on wood stove heat, fed by Mary Ann (Geralds wife) and her son, Cletus and her daughter Vicky and her husband Harold and their son Harold Jr., none of which have a job or are looking for employment. Oh, did I forget to mention the twenty dogs (at last count) and not counting the twelve new puppies and heaven’s knows how many cats. Hundreds maybe! Then there is the Ferret, two horses and a donkey. All of which (minus the two horses and donkey) live untrained in potty habits inside the house.

“Could you lend us three hundred dollars so we can move to Russell. Could you come out and drive mother to the doctor in Ellinwood. Could you take Vicky to town to buy dog food” and on and on and on. We provide one service and it leads to the next. It’s bad enough we’ve chosen to be nice to them and not ignore them like the rest of the family. It’s bad enough that we get taken advantage enough without the slightest utterance of “Thank you” for a deed done. Its all bad enough, but they don’t seem to understand we aren’t really their caretakers. We are friends and the lord willing, someday they might recognize that, but I seriously doubt it.

We’ve been caught in a cycle of transporting Mary Ann to the doctor for various conditions. They call us when they need to be transported. Marcella the saint, continues to say yes. I am at the point I don’t want to do it any longer, but I don’t interfere with Marcella’s missions of mercy. Well, they take advantage of the free service not because it deliberate. They take advantage, because they’re mindless about the matter. When they need a ride, they call us, because that’s who you call when you need a ride. We’re the taxi. They call 911 when they need to go to the hospital, emergency or not. 911 is the hospital transportation system. It’s the taxi for hospital emergencies.

They asked Marcella to take them to the hospital today. Be over at two fifteen to take Mary Ann to her appointment. So when Marcella drives out to the farm, there is another car in the drive way. The perfectly runnable vehicle belongs to Kimmy the granddaughter. Kimmy is going to ride into the hospital when they take Mary Ann. So, why in hell didn’t anyone dial our home and tell us that they could simply have Kimmy drive Mary Ann to the doctor. Well, I’ll tell you why; because the thought never entered their brains. Nothing seems to enter their brains. “The horror. The horror!”

Maybe everyone is gone and no one is reading this any longer. I wouldn’t be surprised. Well, anyway if you happen to stumble onto this site, here’s my latest drawing.

I was saying to Lisa that she wasn’t doing well on her blog site and then she reminded me that I wasn’t actually doing so well on my own. Well, that woke me up.

Its been a good two weeks since I’ve even drawn a picture of anything, but today I finished one and its sort of different from the most recent fare. Could this be the future? anyway here it is.

Then the next big news it that the Old Guy #32 is out Yesterday and is on a record sales streat. So far its at about ten issues. Most to the time that is usually the whole months run. This time, however, the subject is Marty… A Great Bend Lawyer picked up by the cops and is caught crossdressed. I must admit it was one of the most exciting issue I’ve done so far. Marty hasn’t made any indications that he’s hired a hit man, so far so good.

I hope the Old Guy picks up a few more loyal readers after this run has been completed. I guess next month will tell if the readership is up.
Your old guy friend Bob

I just haven’t been keeping up very good lately. I promised to be a better poster, but I guess I’ve failed all my readers. I’ll try to do better in the future.
Anyway… I put up a small show at the Barton College. Its in the hall way of the Fine Arts Auditorium. I named it “Under the influence of Alice. The drawing were all inspired by Rose Dudek. Also I would like to share with you the response I received from Mr. Sam Brownback for the E-mail I sent some time ago. Now the guy didn’t answer anything I wrote, but of all the congress men I wrote… so far this is the only one who responded. I have to give him some points for that… but not much more.

Okay… Here is what I sent: Dear Mr. Brownback

I am a registered, life long native Kansas Republican. I was watching the State of the Union speech the other night and I was appalled at the conduct of our Senators and the Representatives in our congress. There seemed to be a total lack of civility in that room. I have never witnessed a room so full of seemingly educated men and women acting so childish… Right down to some of our supreme court justices. I was so depressed and embarrassed that it took some jokes from Jay Leno, the next evening to make me smile again. It’s really sad when its a comedian makes more sense out of our government than the those in the government.
Saddened, but I am going to look for a party that will try to represent me in the middle of the room instead on along the outside edges where nothing useful is happening.
I don’t care if you respond or not, I’m so disappointed in you all. Robert Joy

And here is what I got back: Dear Mr. Joy:

Thank you for contacting me and for sharing important information on the issues that concern you. There is no better guide to tough decision-making than the views and concerns of my fellow citizens, and I genuinely appreciate your taking the time to contact me. This type of information is helpful to me as I consider the issues that matter to you when they come before the United States Senate for consideration.

I was elected to Congress on a platform of Reduce, Reform, and Return in order to restore the American dream for Kansans and all Americans; and I continue to base my service upon these principles. From taxes to welfare reform to education to matters of fiscal responsibility to defense and all that comes in between, I cast my vote with these principles in mind.

Again, thank you for taking the time to share your views with me. As I continue my service in Washington on behalf of all Americans, please continue to keep me informed on issues that are affecting you. I encourage you to visit my website at brownback.senate.gov to learn more about issues on which I am working. You are the reason that I am here, and I look forward to hearing from you in the future.

Sincerely,

Sam Brownback
United States Senator

I feel so much better now!