Tuesday, January 1, 2019

Backhoes, Excavators, and the Promise of a Happy New Year

by Pa Rock
Sign Reader

I have this gut feeling that 2019 is going to be a great year - perhaps one of the most consequential in history.

The political dynamics of America are about to undergo a change of ground-shifting proportions as the House of Representatives succumbs to Democratic control this week - and the Trump administration will begin to experience it's first-ever congressional oversight.  Trump will learn what it feels like to face an adversary with political teeth -and the ancients who will be leading the Democratic Party in the House will learn managing incoming House freshmen with Twitter followings in the seven-figures may not be as simple as the sheep-herding they performed the last time they had control.

Donald Trump is also sure to be lit up by Special Counsel Robert Mueller at some point during the year.  The Mueller investigation has been on-going for more that a year-and-a-half, and it has bagged some mighty big witches along the way, but sooner or later the biggest witch of all is going to be identified, and then things will start to happen in earnest.  2019 could be - and should be - the year that brings down Donald John Trump, his family, and his corrupt administration.  My gut says it will happen, and that it will happen this year.

Well, actually it is more than my gut.  Growing up in the Ozarks taught me to look for signs, or predictors of things that will come.

This morning, right at daylight, as I sat down at my computer in front of the living room window, the first vehicle that I saw barreling down my sylvan country lane was a very large backhoe. A backhoe is a piece of digging and scooping equipment that is fairly common in rural settings.  Anyone who needs a large amount of digging done or dirt moved will usually hire a local entrepreneur who owns his own backhoe.   They perform services like laying water pipes, digging a basement for a new home, or even opening a grave.  Digging by hand in these rock-infused Ozark hills is just not a practical alternative.

But the backhoe this morning was huge.  Someone down the road is undertaking a really big project,  Money is being spent, and regardless of the current drama in the stock market, the backhoe was a promising sign of progress in the new year.

The backhoe also put me in mind of family.  My youngest grandson, Sully - age two, is a fan of excavators - a big city cousin of backhoes.  He and his daddy drive around the Kansas City area looking for construction sites so that Sully can watch the excavators work.  It is their bonding moment.  So when the backhoe rolled by this morning I thought of Sully and the promise of family - and it gave me another assurance that 2019 would be a very good year.

(For those who would like a crash course in the differences between backhoes and excavators, there is a fine four-minute film on YouTube entitled "Backhoe Versus Excavator" which highlights the capabilities of the two and shows backhoes to be the more versatile option - though Sully would probably beg to differ!)

Predicting the future is fine for the old farts who sit in front of a window all day and watch the world go by, but getting involved in the world and helping to shape the future is the true challenge - and the driving force that will deliver us all to a better place.

Let's all work tirelessly to make 2019 the best year ever - and if, along the way, the bums get swept our of Washington, DC, that's just gravy!

Happy 2019!

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