Dampness kept me inside today. Forgot to bring the swing cushions inside so they were wet. Not many birds today. The cardinals cleaned up the deck floor where Grandpaw raccoon, looking for sunflower seeds, had raked out millet from the bird feeder. Penelope pestered the cardinals all afternoon barking at the glass door every time she walked by. She’d wait till they were comfortable then let out a rabid bark and they’d up and fly away. She can be a mean girl.

I found myself watching Super Nanny today and wondered what our tv program choices mean. Last night I watched Hunting for Bigfoot and then a couple episodes of Blue Bloods that I had taped. Last year I binged watched Downton Abbey just to look at the china and crystal and the beautiful clothes. I couldn’t even tell you the characters name but I remember the dowager sat in a chair just like one that sits in my living room by the fireplace. It belonged to my great-grandmother Handley.

Course my first choice on tv is always a western. I guess they’re called westerns because they always take place in the American west. Smile. I was trying to list all the western shows I watched when I was growing up. Gunsmoke, Maverick, Have Gun – Will Travel (I think I called this Paladin, the main character’s name), Rawhide, Wagon Train, The Rifleman, Wanted: Dead or Alive, Bonanza, Laramie, The Lone Ranger, The Virginian, and Roy Rogers. I’m sure I left some shows out but those are the ones I remember watching. Westerns ruled television in the 1950s and 1960’s. They helped define America.

I guess to be a western you have to have cowboys, cattle, ranchers, guns and horses. Throw in a few farmers and Indians, the occasional miner, wagon trains, sheriffs and Texas rangers. And don’t forget the beauty of the western landscape, the mountains and valleys. And a good saloon with pretty girls and a gambling table.

Male characters in westerns were always rugged individuals, hard working, going through their daily routines with a great sense of freedom. The women were always slaves to their wood stoves and meager gardens or bound to their saloon jobs. If they had a man, he was gone, had been shot, or put in jail. Or like Miss Kitty’s man, married to their job. Poor Ben Cartwright and his three sons could not keep a woman. Their women either died or jilted them for someone else. A woman would have changed the dynamics of the show. Every time one of those Cartwright boys would lose their woman, I shed tears with them, too.

I tried to watch Yellowstone but just can’t get by the language. I read somewhere that Yellowstone has been described as Bonanza Meets the Godfather. Sounds like my kind of show! I loved Longmire on Netflix. I think I’ve watched the entire series three or four times.

Many times I’ve stayed up all night long watching the movie Lonesome Dove. That’s my most favorite of all western movies. Broken Trail comes next. Course anything John Wayne is in is on my list too! I think they portray the west as it might have really been. It was cruel and vicious but in the end good usually prevailed over evil.

The world would be a nicer place to inhabit if good always triumphed over evil. But we know that doesn’t always happen. Television newscasts always place the disparaging news at the beginning of their newscasts. We all want to know every nuance of the latest murder or shooting. Chief always said they give so many details of the crimes it teaches someone else how to commit a similar crime.

There is so much good in this beautiful and wondrous world. We sometimes forget to be grateful for all our many blessings, both large and small. We spend so much energy trying to change things we have no control over. Just to wake up with breath for another glorious day is something to be thankful for.