The Native Iowan

1pm on 24 December 2014. Christmas and The New Year upon us.

I sit by the pool at our compound at Tasahe. 9 yr old Mendozza is controlling 5yr old Dylan. They are both good pups. Wild enough to be fun and wise enough to not provoke the ol’hound too much.

We should be in Gizo now but plans n the isles n solair n family n expectations simply did not meet up. So we shall spend the next week here in town. Our Gizo family, Don n Pepe, with Oz n Bridgette n Mack, n Jimmy, with Paul are flying into town tomorrow. I think Santa has been informed and will be stopping in here rather than Gizo.

Which is OK. Honiara is far more boring and much less “easy” than Gizo. The pups by default spend their days here in the compound rather than raising hell in Gizo town. But that’s OK too. We like the weather n it is a relaxed environment and the pool and a multi-hour drive through stand still traffic into town usually fills a day.

Been a rather uneventful year. Other than my father, Don, passing away at age 88; the year held little to report, note, brag of or complain about. The Solos even had a national election without any real drama. No burning or looting or general public fun. What is the world coming to?

Well, the world, indeed; what is it coming to? What with the global warming burning everything and causing world-wide drought, and the axis shift which is causing world-wide flooding, and the political winter which is causing another cold-war, and the shit-for-brains world-wide electorate that continues to put shittier-for-brains leaders in control of their futures.

Many people think I am a rabid liberal. Others peg me as a crusty republican. All are wrong! I have said it before: I do not trust politicians, elected or appointed officials, CEOs, lobbyists, political advisors, Investment Banks, gov’t appt’d committies, consultants, insurance adjusters, chairmen or chairladies of any BOD… there’s so much I don’t trust.

But I have a very ol, hippy/ druid-style, TRUST in small children, almost all dogs, some cats, most old folks, all motorcycles built before 1965 ( to start n take me at least 10 miles without fail), outboard engines I have serviced, most policemen (thinking of my bro Smitty here), some tattoo artists (yo, Tu), most geeks n freaks and climatologists (WWEII), most musicians good or bad (I think of Mark B who entertained us soo, soo well), A limited number of Lawyers (hey to NM n CK n PH n AR), and, indeed yes, I have TRUST in and do BELIEVE in Human Nature.

Deep down, in all of us there remains and thrives a spark of human-ness. No matter what you do or who you screw or who you shoot or who you con… that spark THE SPARK is there.

I mentioned the passing of my father, Don, above. I can’t move on without a bit of sentiment there. I guess I see this in two ways: 1) Golly, what a good ride the ol’hound got, and golly, how lucky his tribe is. He was tangible and pertinent in all the lives he touched and that covers into and through many generations including my grand-pups. His offspring number more than 100. He was prolific. Many of the members of the “universal family” (which originates in the Solomons) knew Don well. The ol’hound was a master at mentally sparring and the likes of Ian n Willis n RG n Sirell n others got to taste the pointy end of his wit more than once. 2) Loss is always hard and missing someone is painful. Period.

So I guess a balance of the two points suits my philosophical bent adequately.

Spent a couple of hours today traveling only 10ks… maybe 6 miles this morn. Honiara is a rather unpleasant place right now. My few, recent trips back have enforced rather than dispelled this concept noting the number of vehicles on this island increases each month, as the road decrease at a similar rate.

We have been joined at the pool by Queen of the house, Gracie. and daughter-in-law, Betsy (Paul’s wife). She is carrying grand-pup #13. Lucky 13. I have named #13, Phoenix Rose. I think her parents will give her a “normal” name but I really like Phoenix Rose. 

Just had a run-in (another run-in) with one of our new puppies… Anyone who has visited knowns I am into ridgebacks. Have had an unbroken line of the big-reds from Rhodesia for a couple of decades. In 2013 two of our older hounds passed, Chewie n Jelly, so they were replaced this year by Rhett n Scarlet. My daughter, Connie, decided they were “her hounds” and now I find I am fighting a losing canine battle. They don’t think they have to listen to me. They run and hide behind Connie. They cause her unending grief. They are worse than most ill-behaved grankid… they lie, chew, steal, leave messes all over, just like any undisciplined lil-shit…

This is Scarlet,   a true bitch, but a very pretty bitch. After “hounding” her and making her listen and chasing her out of the kitchen n being bossy she, yesterday, picked up one of my shoes and came and handed it to me. I think it was a warning. Her telling me to either keep my shoes inside or accept the consequences. She has attitude and I can see she will be the alpha here in a few years.

There is something about the ridgebacks that I like. A solid hound mentality which combines faithfulness with a fuck-you attitude. A good size (weighing in at around 80lbs/ 40kgs) they are big enough to be intimidating but I can lift n carry them (as I proved last week when it was bath time). Gotta love all pups… 4 n 2 legged…

The afternoon rains have settled in.The boys had one of my ol rassling mats out and were doing some UFC in the rain. The sky is heavy n dark but the rain is slight, almost friendly.Temps just dropped 10degrees. The seas are calm.

Very nice.

The pups, 4 n 2 legged, have all gone inside to get outta the rain. I’m sitting under the leafhouse, a dry area 3×3 meters/ 10’x10′ is my “zone”. If the wind blows I’m gonna have to move.

So, in ending… A tropical cmas tail, indeed…  As I drink a shitty light beer with a mix of sprite,  It is in a cool glass and is a cool n refreshing drink but it’s old beer that has been around too long. The caps are rusty. Probably not good for me… but its beer n I am an ol beer drinker n my favourite Dr, The Fegan, tells me (as we drink a beer) we should not be drinking at our age. So not sure what the answer is…

I find the Solbrew to be too strong for me. It used to be a great beer. Was a great beer. But I can’t drink it is any longer. Not as good as it was and is simply too, too strong for me. They advertise the % by volume at 5% but I talked to a “brew master” a while back (he was all of about 28 yrs old) who reckoned it was much higher. Intentionally higher to suit the local market.

No one, but fat ol dudes like m,e drink light beer here.

SO…

Ho, Ho, Ho… big smiles n a lotta fun to come…

More later