Right on cue, as if to mock what I said yesterday, actual snow came to The Mountain this morning. By the time the Heeler and I ventured out (she let me sleep ’til 5am today), every surface was iced in white. And it was still snowing.
When it quit a couple of hours later, we’d gotten less than a half-inch. Purely decorative.
It all melted away by this afternoon (cloudy, 41°F). Had any of it lasted, it wouldn’t’ve survived tomorrow (sunny, 55°F).
We’ll remember this day, though. It’s the first snow we’ve seen as permanent residents of The Mountain.
After today, Deb has a four-day weekend comin’. I brushed off the Wrangler this morning and she set out for work in Mountain Home, along the way reporting what she saw.
Does and yearlings on both the subdivision and county roads. Less snow on the ground once she was out on US 62, passing through terrain 400 to 500 feet AMSL lower than The Mountain. Fellow commuters driving cautiously on the wet roads.
I kicked back, sipped coffee and looked out over the valley at the snow-dusted mountainsides.
Talking yesterday about Facebook deleting my account in 2021 got me looking back at what I said in the wake of it. I rarely think about that transparent attempt to silence me, so revisiting those posts felt like reading a history book.
I haven’t drifted off the beam — where I stood then is where I stand now. Take this passage from a post published a week after I got swept up in The Purge:
“This is America versus the Left. It’s Liberty versus its archenemy. It pits their hysteria against our Reason, putting their transformation at odds with our foundation.
“The Left has political power. It controls the Permanent State. It dominates popular culture. And despite that, it can’t silence us. Still we refuse to bow.
“Is it any wonder that they hate us?”
At the time, Deb and I were living in central Ohio, chafing against state WuFlu mandates and in the final weeks of preparing the motorhome for its “shakedown cruise.” Our nomadic odyssey hadn’t yet begun, and we had no inkling that a year later we’d call The Ozarks our forever Home.
I was posting daily principled rants, wondering if anyone was listening. Someone definitely was, and it wasn’t a like mind.
I’ll never forget what Deb said when I told her that my account had been erased:
“We knew this day would come.”
It was inevitable. Like so many other latter-day Patriots who’ve been banned, canceled and exiled — but not silenced — I knew that standing up to and speaking out against power carries a cost.
This time the price was small. Soon — very soon, I believe — it’ll be much, much more dear.
Are you ready for that?
“I will run my fucking mouth until the day I die.”
Aaron Lewis (July 2nd, 2022 in Columbus, Ohio)
See, they’re coming for us anyway. If we’ve learned anything over the last four years, it’s that traditional Americans can’t comply their way into being acceptable to the Left. No apology, epiphany, conversion or collection of good works will make them hate us any less.
Myself, I’m a big ol’ basket of deplorable and unforgivable sins. I’m a Patriot who stands on Founding Principles and individual Liberty. I know, among other things, that there are only two sexes, that the 2020 presidential election was rigged, that January 6th was a staged ambush, that WuFlu was an engineered exercise in control, and that all gun laws are unconstitutional.
I’m Country. I live in The South. Worst of all, I’m a heterosexual white male.
Sure, I could soft-pedal my principles and go all mealy-mouthed-moderate on that shit. Or I can stand and speak.
You know which path I’ve chosen. Damn the cost.
I’m tellin’ you, 2024 is the year you’ll be forced to make your own choice (if you haven’t already).
I hope you get something out of my ramblings, I really do. If what I say informs you, encourages you, inspires you, validates or guides you — whether on matters of Liberty, Country livin’, travel or something else — then Ubi Libertas Blog is worth every bit of energy I invest.
Tell a friend.
Seldom do I say anything like that. I don’t make money from your clicks, nor does my ego need a boost. The reason it’s important, the reason I’m asking you to pass along a link to this blog to someone of like mind, is to stretch the radius of Patriots connected by the principles discussed here.
There are others who do the same, deserving of your attention. I’ll continue to share those on this blog.
Ubi Libertas, Ibi Patria. Tell a friend.
Take care of yourselves, Patriots. Stay calm. Stay sharp. Stay free.
#WiseUp #LibertyOrDeath #Ungovernable
#LetsGoBrandon #FJB