ALL RIGHTY THEN! I made this one myself! Whoda thunk it?
Best get yourself a copy!
Just a Man <— click on the link to order yours!
ALL RIGHTY THEN! I made this one myself! Whoda thunk it?
Best get yourself a copy!
Just a Man <— click on the link to order yours!
My new book of encouragements is now available on Amazon in Paperback or Kindle e-reader format.
I’m not a preacher, teacher, or theologian. I am, quite simply, “Just a Man”—an ordinary man—who wants to love and encourage others.
Click on the links below to order your copy!
It was hotter’n blue blazes around this part of Texas this past summer; over a hundred degrees on a lot of days. It reminded me of this poem I wrote several years ago. It’s a true story–embellished a bit–and what happened on that long ago day had everything to do with the heat. Lord knows I wish I could say the whole thing happened in my imagination. If it hadn’t been so hot, and the logging crews hadn’t been shut down, Billy Staub might still be with us. But then again… probably not.
I was on the porch in the wood swing
It creaked and gently swayed
In a hot south wind
No workin’ in the woods on those kinda days
Fire danger and all
Didn’t matter to me
I was four beers in; two to go
And Hank Jr. was croonin
‘Bout bein’ whiskey bent
Billy Staub’s chainsaw was whinin’
Out back somewhere
An angry steady sound
Dale’s old hound dog came up and laid at my feet
I thought to shoo him
But let him be
My leg was itchin’ something fierce
No way to scratch it
Through the dang cast
Hank stopped singin’… a tree crashed
Then Billy’s chainsaw
Sputtered… and died
The old dog raised his head, listening
Somehow seeming to know
This silence was not golden
The breeze sighed then went still
And somehow I knew…
Billy was gone
Billy Staub was small in stature, but tough as nails, and had a heart as big as an old-growth fir tree. He had his faults, and one of them may have been partially responsible for his death, but he was a good man and a good friend.
I left the woods after a big tree fell on me, breaking my leg so badly it required two operations, and about two years in and out of casts. Billy was killed not long after my accident, when a big tree he was felling took an unexpected turn and landed on him. He was probably high when it happened, because he usually was. When the big tree hit my leg, I saw it coming and ran like crazy trying to get out of its way; I imagine when Billy saw the big tree coming at him, he probably just grinned and looked at it with those ever-droopy eyes of his and said, “Huh… would ya look at that…”
Copyright © C. Mashburn 2012
(Revised 11/07/2018)
This one is a bit of a rambling write, but I think y’all (especially my fellow wanderers) will get the gist of it.
We lived in a little out-of-the-way place on Lake Travis called Spicewood Beach for almost ten years, and though some days were awesome (the majority of them), some were better than others, some were not so good, and some were pretty bad, it was a season of my life worth remembering. The good times with friends were great, the battles with enemies were fierce, and, truth be known, we got outta there just in time.
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