Wilderness Blues- Ramblings from the Great Land

   It's the time of year when so many people start to decorate their homes and lawns with Halloween themes. We drove down a street today just looking at new areas, and one house we passed was covered top to bottom with witches and tombstones, spiders, pumpkins, cob webs, ghosts and Lord knows what all else. I don't really know what pumpkins have to do with Halloween, except that they are harvested this time of year. It's funny that a holiday that is supposed to be spooky utilizes one of the same icons that Thanksgiving is known for. Does anyone have pumpkin pie for Halloween? I wonder how that would go over. The neighborhood kids knock on your door and instead of bags of candy corn or popcorn balls, you give them a piece of pumpkin pie. Would they soap your windows or string toilet paper around your trees if you didn't top the pie with whipped cream? It's hard to say. Kids can be vindictive. I'm reminded of a conversation that I had with some friends from my nei...

     Let's face it, we're all going to die some day. Who knows, it could be today. I'm fast approaching the age of seventy, and with all the pains that have become a part of my every day life, I'm constantly reminded that I'm not going to live forever, nor do I want to. I haven't got the strength. My wife and I had long ago drawn up a will. We didn't want the state determining where our estate would go. We still need to sit down and come up with a list of existing bank accounts and where our 401K and IRA's are located, and I suppose I should commit to paper where I would like some of what I've treasured in this world to end up. I won't give my wooden fishing boat to either of the boys, I don't want to burden them with that. I do have quite a bit of commercial fishing gear though that they could keep or sell. Then there are the tools and books and other odds and ends. I've already told my granddaughter that she can have my stamp collecti...