One Twinkie at a time

        While I join the chorus lamenting the going out of business of the Hostess Company and its iconic brand Twinkie I more directly lament the loss of the reported 18,500 jobs of people right before the Thanksgiving and Christmas holiday periods. While I have not had a Twinkie in ages, I have routinely had other baked products like the various breads from the Merita line, owned by the Hostess Company. Hopefully some group will buy out some of the brands and keep them going, but it will be a tough few months at least for those who have lost their jobs and probably had their retirement expectations reduced or eliminated, too.

            Perhaps that's how a culture declines, like one Twinkie at a time. I saw on Fox TV News this morning a story about misspellings on a stone carved Ten Commandments, so this probable cultural problem is across the board. Now I embrace change as usually good, though often painful too, but even I have some expectations of a better world in the future, vice what seems to be unfolding in front of our eyes.

            Said another way, I don't mind listening to people railing against the "system", but I expect the same people to propose alternatives to make things better. There's nothing wrong with complaining, but I wish our collective outcome is best determined by "us", vice some ragtag mob type of action.

            In the meantime, kind of like one Twinkie at a time, I am doing the final hookup (hopefully) today of the new wood stove, and will then burn it out to get rid of the smell that usually comes from first use of any metal wood stove. I really dislike being cold and hungry, having lived that way in part of my past.

            By the way, this new wood stove with a bimetal thermostat (the old fashioned design, like it doesn't need electricity) replaces a more primitive wood stove, which also works and will end up elsewhere. But with the more "modern" thermostat, I think the stove will go all night without people having to get up and restock the stove with wood.

            Yep, I liked a lot of Hostess Company brands, too, but being warm and fed and safe is also a big deal to me, too. Like I said, one Twinkie at a time. And it works both ways. And we all do matter and count in our efforts to make change for the better, vice some riff raff type outcome. And of course, we have Families to think and worry about, too.