My Fellow Americans.......

Special Agent Dick Daring reporting in--

Ok Citizens, Listen up!


Having delved into the unrestricted confines (yes Mrs. O'Fallon; that is an oxymoron) of the Blogosphere, I have a clear, vivid picture of what this Blog can be...


Smart, witty and articulate. (Any resemblance to racist innuendo is incidental and anyway I didn't claim it was 'clean').


Properly composed, spelled and punctuated. (Thanks again, Mrs O'Fallon)


Chock full 'o' irony, Penny ante wisdom and other semi solid misconceptions.


Drawn from the inexhaustible well of things that interest ME! That's right Citizens, no more pandering to the masses, no more blogosphereical pretense, this forum will contain..... well, um... content.


Being new to the phenomena, I undertook blogging as an exercise in prosaic voyeurism, and to that end I have posted a handful of offerings so that I could stretch the creative part in me that strives to communicate well, and hoping others would appreciate my contributions.


Truly, the Lure of Comments is seductive, and I fear I became too easily ensnared by the siren call of dialogue. Heady stuff, indeed, to have peers and even strangers read your words and offer their own in return!


However, I look back at my Blog, and I find one post, the post that most aptly aligns with my values and aspirations, languishing in obscurity!


None but my dearest friend thought it worthy of note; and her with a glaring and admitted bias!


So with no more pontification, I resolve to dedicate this Blog the pursuit of intellectual honesty and liberty, mulling over the human condition and its accouterments.

Here, is a sample----


I recently had a discussion with my good friend, the En-Gen-Er, about the institution of capitalism. My point was to question the long term sustainability of our culture. The En-Gen-Er was atypically blunt in his response, like what else works?


Answer: Nothing I know of!


Can friends speak of such matters and remain long tethered by their friendship?


Can my dear sister tolerate my questioning the Governments ability to trample liberty, even if the goal is to protect children?


For me- I will question everything,and in turn be questioned by all. My opinions must stand the scrutiny of contrary opinion before they can be held in confidence.


"I have sworn on the Altar of God, Eternal hostility to every form of Tyranny over the minds of man." Thomas Jefferson

Pillow Talk

to: Agent K

re: Blog traffic

Darling, since you are the only person who reads/comments on/knows about my blog, It appears as if this has become a forum wherein we can observe facets of our personalities and publish our pathos in a medium suitable for introspection!


to: Dick Daring

re: your Blog


Honey- I'm sorry you don't have any traffic on your Blog, I'm sure no-one knows where to find it, or that you are even in the Blogosphere. Try and get some sleep, I'm sure you will be inspired to blog something wonderful to-morrow.


to: Agent K

re: wonderful blog

YOU have a wonderful blog, I have a under represented, apparently dis interesting personal perspective piece that serves only to poke irritating pinholes in my ego. The only bright spot is your feedback and the encouragement it gives me.


to: Dick Daring

re: Encouragement

Let me encourage you to stop over thinking this. In fact let me encourage you not to think about it at all! This correspondence is getting tiresome and I don't feel like listening to you whine anymore!

to:Agent K

re:Whining

I wouldn't have to whine if I could whip out a witty entertaining stream-of-consciousness piece of prose that captured the imagination of readers all across the world who tuned in and shared in a forum of co-dependent anonymity!


to: Dick Daring

re: Stream of Consciousness

Don't you have to go to work tomorrow? Maybe you should go to sleep.


to: Agent K

re: Work

Your right! I just need to work on my delivery! If I polish my thoughts, and break out my thesaurus and provide the reader with something refreshing, then they will seek out MY Blog and I will feel as if my efforts are appreciated! I'll start to-morrow, call in sick no-QUIT MY JOB ! Then I can have full time access to your blogging prowess! Yes- it will be a wonderful example to the children, why just yesterday was I not telling Headstrong Boy that " Your best effort requires total concentration"? I am Inspired! thank you Darling, for saving me from the depths of despair-and a lifetime of drudgery,plugging away at a stable,well paid,uninspiring job! I could go on and on.....


to: Dick Daring


re:concentration


ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ



to:Agent K

re: ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ



Honey? Sweety are you awake?

Do You Believe.....

Is everything truly grey? Does every person need to be free to chose? What choices are Right? Wrong? Is there such a thing? Where is YOUR line? At what point do you step across from Knowing your 'rights' to Asserting them?

Do you understand that the surest way to be free from discord is to acquiesce to the demands of Tyranny? Do you yearn for 'peace in your time'? Do you feel sometimes that your prerogatives are suspended to ease the advancement of another's? What makes their needs/wants/whims more valid than yours?

Are you one to go quietly into that dark night, or would you fight,FIGHT against the dying of the Light?

To whom have you given Authority over your Liberty? Was it given freely? Did you feel coerced by the spectre of polite society? Did you give up your supporting part in the war, for a lead role in a cage?

Tell me, Citizen, are you free? Is your liberty valued? Was it bought at great price? Is it precious? Do you advertise your freedom? Does your sign say 'Play Nice', or 'Don't Tread on Me'?

Per your request....

OK-so I wasn't real sure how my blog would fly with the ever so talented and witty circles my Farm K-Agent Chick runs with; but your comments are so nice and supportive, I just can't help but fish for more!


I have only one teeny issue- I'm under strict orders not to wield this forum as a place of incessant whining and belittling of others. ( I must use my powers for good' you see.)


Since so much of my own sense of humor stems from people watching and then parsing their behavior in humorous and cynical repertory, I find only the mundane and amusing facets of my life and that of my children. Oh how the knife cuts deep when turned inward!


Seriously, (that comma took me six key strokes to find, 'delete ;delete /delete) several years ago I found myself in a new occupation and learning a whole new set of ropes. This included Asphalt, Graders, Dump Trucks; and tricky stuff like 'blending the residual, and marrying that up, applying 'Release Agent and 'Scraping tapers'. This is all manly,manly,manly stuff and I felt I was learning from the Undisputed Leaders of Road Construction Experience.


Wrong.


I found myself transported back to Jr. High. (middle school, 7th to 9th Grade, Seventeenth Level of Hell, whatever they call it in your town.) These guys bickered over hand tools. They got cranky over tiny imperfections in a three hundred ton asphalt patch. They pitched fits over lunch boxes, and whose went where and was taking to much space and 'accidentally run over'.


They leveled accusations, cast aspersions, and sniped at each other behind turned backs.



Well, I tell you, Citizen (Hey Farm Suite, can I use commas like that?) I engaged in ridiculing my fellow worker along wid'em for a spell.


But then I thought to my self "Self, anyone who would belittle that guy when he's not around would surely cut into you when you're gone too!"



As far as I'm concerned, anything said behind my back is none of my business and I was content to leave it at that; however my sense of decency crept back and I chose the high road. The don't say anything that isn't uplifting and profitable for the other guy, road.


This is a road that leads from constant banter and humorous camaraderie to silence, awkwardness and isolation.


Thankfully I found out there were others who shared my sentiment and we all now commiserate in peace.By ourselves,mostly.In our air conditioned dump trucks. Hauling the 300 degree asphalt to our still squabbling(skwable?) co-workers to dump, spread,rake,marry-up, and apply release agent to.


Hmmm. I wonder if they know I can't hear them bitch behind my back, up here on the High Road? I think I'll just roll the window up, and keep the heat out.

Special Agent Dick Daring reporting in.....

I'm not sure how to go about this blog deal----posting everyday of my life would be quite droll and also a huge waste of any potential readers time.


Just this once I will give an account of my day and since every day is so much like the last, it should suffice in perpetuity.



Highlight of the day--waking up with Agent K. Could've been any number of a million guys but that privilege is all mine. (Suckers!)



Not so great highlight of the day? Dragging my carcass out of the sack and heading off in my never ending search for the legal tender.



As usual, The Agency has some fantastic and exciting task for me to perform you know, the kind of stuff that I could tell you all about but since this is on the Web and there is sooooooo much creepiness on said Web I choose to limit personal info. Incognito, right?


Yeah I'm paranoid.


Never forget, Citizens, just because Your paranoid, doesn't mean Their not out to get you!




Anyway. upon retuning to The Lair, Agent K gets called on an important mission and I am in charge. Of four kids. Alone. I'm trying to make a big deal about that but really, it's no sweat and my kids are great most of the time and when they aren't, let's just say I am trained in counter insurgency techniques and counter revolutionary tactics.



So, I got up, went to work, saw my Lovely for a short while and then watched my kids until bedtime so she could go out for 'Girl Time' with her friend.


And you wonder why they call me Daring?

Dick Danger Blog Launch

Um-Hi.... I started this blog so that I could make comments on my wife's blog and also on those of her co conspirators. Previously I would use her Blog identity and that was obviously quite lame, so here I am, on the Blogosphere!


Any one who Knows me will also know why I call this the Replacers- But you don't know me- I'm incognito! (hence the secret agent code name 'Dick Daring')



Lets just say that moving Twelve times in fourteen years of otherwise blissful marriage qualifies my family as Re -Placed.



I would post pictures of each new place, cataloguing all the different Places Ive lived, but that would not be in the spirit of incognitoness and would also arouse the Ire of Agent K. Suffice it to say we have suffered the arrows of outrageous fortune and some of them resemble a 30 foot travel trailer, crappy low budget shacks and public housing.



Thankfully, those days are behind us and the Agency has given us a new mission--an out of town two acre piece of heaven suitable for growing kids, chickens, blackberries and poison oak!


This would be a great segue into more pics but that is Agent K's territory and I wont intrude tonite.