I’m stringin’ together some good days. To understand that, I suppose, would require the same appreciation of Country livin’ and small-town America that I have.
I say it often, and I’ll say it again: It’s great to be here.
Yesterday afternoon, I drove over to the storage unit in Gassville to see if I could wrestle the gas stove into the bed of the truck by myself. I could, as it turns out, and I did.
Pretty uneventful, actually.
Before I was parked again back on The Mountain, I ran into a neighbor who’s aware of my situation. They expressed sympathy, then said that they hoped things worked out so that I could stay here.
“Because you’re a good neighbor.”
People, I sure try to be. Apparently, my efforts don’t go unnoticed. Hearing that meant more to me than I can say.
I pulled the Silverado up next to the front stoop and turned off the engine. After giving the dogs some love, I went back out to the truck and began cutting away the stove’s factory box.
See, the thing’s still brand-spankin’-new. It was bought on sale when the CPSC was hinting at a federal ban on gas appliances. This one rode from Home Depot in Harrison to the storage unit on January 21st, 2023.
There it sat until yesterday.
Another neighbor came up last evening and helped me get it out of the truck and into the cabin. We didn’t place it in its final position just yet — gas lines have to be run, and I need to swap the installed natural gas orifices for liquid propane. (They’re included.)
Just getting the stove here was a satisfying step forward. I mark the happy occasion by including the whimsically modified Gonzales flag that appeared in my post almost 27 months ago.
It’s passing strange that here I am, in unenviable (to say the least) circumstances that I never wished for, and yet I’m sound in all the ways that matter.
I’m neither depressed nor distraught. I’m not even unhappy. I don’t look back — I face forward and move toward whatever’s next. I feel, but in the present, not the past.
I have cares but no fear.
I’m in a better place as a man than I’ve been in many, many years.
This isn’t what’s supposed to happen. It makes no damned sense. It’s not in the script.
And yet here I am.
Take care of yourselves, Patriots. Stay calm. Stay sharp. Stay free.
#WiseUp #LibertyOrDeath #Ungovernable