Val Strate

For the Muses... You know who you are Wild Horses by The Rolling Stones Childhood living is easy to do The things you wanted I bought them for you Graceless lady you know who I am You know I can't let you slide through my hands Wild horses, couldn't drag me away Wild wild horses couldn't drag me away I watched you suffer a dull aching pain Now you decided to show me the same No sweeping exits or off stage lines Could make me feel bitter or treat you unkind Wild horses, couldn't drag me away Wild wild horses couldn't drag me away I know I've dreamed you a sin and a lie I have my freedom but I don't have much time Faith has been broken tears must be cried Let's do some living after we die Wild horses, couldn't drag me away Wild wild horses we'll ride them someday Wild horses, couldn't drag me away Wild wild horses we'll ride them someday

Have I been summoned? Yes I'm around... Barely, or you could say 'Bearly' *giggles* sorry nature pun. I will try to keep tabs and be here.

I know when I wrote with Valerie it was like music, the story would flow from my heart and my mind. Many times when she was writing with another muse in an emotionally charged moment my body would sometimes shake. Sometimes I would cry at some of the scenes wrote. When music was combined with writing, it felt like art, like painting in my mind. My point is... it's been so long since I wrote like that. There was a time I could write such emotion on my own and it's not that I can't do it anymore, I'm sure I can. It's just that, I haven't made time for such writing and now I find a lot of my emotions are reserved for my life. I find myself reserving emotions for my husband, my parents, people at church and my job, and honestly it can be overwhelming. To release into a muse may not work the same way it did when I was a student in college. I feel like I have to have a different angle to work with Valerie, but I haven't found what that was, and I miss the intensity of writing that I use to have when I was writing in college. Lately, I have pondered that angle. I have even made an attempt to re-direct with Valerie and write with "Pines and Principals". I often wonder if that is a vain attempt or if I can keep going. I do have thoughts to progress the story; I just haven't 'connected all the dots' yet. Muses are speaking now whether I can listen and can produce is another thing.

A few days ago as I was driving down the local highway in the company vehicle, a similar sound floated on the radio waves and the tune from the local classic rock station sent a pang in my sentimental heart. The song that played was called "Wild Horses" and was performed by the band "The Rolling Stones". I felt my lip quiver and I could have cried but I knew I needed to keep my composure because I was picking up two of my "clients" in about a half hour and confidence is of the essence in my line of work. For it was about five years ago, I was sitting in a tiny dorm room, curled in a blanket and typing the Romance of a muse whom I adore. I could only dream of her life, and so I did in fan fiction. I met brilliant writers in Hnet and had been writing along side them about five years before that moment. We wrote, we composed masterpieces of computer written adventures that lived in our heads and were expressed with the tales and myths we wrote of the world of Hazzard and all who lived there. Some of the fables that were expressed were so soul filled that they needed background music as we wrote. One such song that was used with my muse and another was that very song, "Wild Horses". I could feel the muse that was buried inside my mind cry with tears. She ached for the love of her craft and for the fellow muses and their talents. I hope to return to writing but the life that I currently live has little time for my muse. However there is time for her, someday.

I love it! So enjoy your work!

I have recently had a very unfortunate event happen to me. I was a victim of crime. This event has happened to me before and I realize that I need to be more careful, maybe it's a warning from the powers that be that I need to be more careful and less trusting of the world. However... with that being said, I currently work in a line of work that I have to deal with budding criminal minds every day. I have to help them complete their court ordered obligations so they can begin the rehabilitation processes. Now, after being a victim today of crime... I am reminded how different I am from criminal minds and how much the same I am. I want justice to be served, at any cost. I am rational about all this but inside, I am pissed and want to vomit at the very thought that I could be working with individuals that could have done the same type of crime that I am a victim of. I feel anger and violation that leaves me feeling embarrassed, stupid, exposed, and naive. I hate the feeling and it's happened before. Unfortunately... I know it very will happen at some point in my life again. I hate that possibility and wish I could do everything in my power from it happening again. I didn't grow up on the wrong side of the tracks and I don't give a crap if someone else who did and feels they have the right to victimize me, or feel that they can just do what they want to because they were raised wrong. I don't give a crap if the world is ugly. I know for a fact, it's not all that way all the time! Why? Because I LIVED IT! I did live in a world of "Mayberry or Hazzard County" I lived in a world that even though you get lemons sometimes there is always lemonade. Not a world where people have no respect and have the right to make a conscious decision to commit a crime and have no regard for their victim. You know what, sociopaths like that can be disposed of... I don't care how, but it's sad that they have to exist in this world. If you have no respect for your fellow man and feel the world owes you everything, you can take a hike and get the heck out of town because you don't belong in "Mayberry or Hazzard County", and if you want what 'we' "Mayberry or Hazzard County" have, they you sure are not going to get it by trying to take it from us. Oh, sure, we're suppose to be understanding. We're suppose to do things that can protect ourselves and our property from your diabolical habits. After all, you can't help yourself, you're a criminal! All of the good, honest, honorable, hardworking, self-respecting people should bend to your life because you just can't help but commit crime. Who cares if you cause heartache, pain, suffering, hey the world owes you right, and that sucker shouldn't have been there in the first place. They had it coming... WRONG! What gives you the right to think that way? What gives you the right to make a black and white world gray? You can justify your actions to yourself all day long but in the end... YOU ARE WRONG! We all are. We all are sinners to some degree. The difference between you and me is the fact that I try to respect others, I try to live in "Mayberry or Hazzard County", and I put myself through hardships in order to obtain reward. I have privilege because I earned it! I learned the difference between right and wrong, and I played the game by the rules and I'm finally winning at it. It takes honor, guts and bravery to live life with respect and to not be a coward and do the evil thing, or the thing that is wrong but you make it right in your mind. I also know people who have less than I and live in the world I do and have way more than YOU, and I'm not talking about material wealth. People tell me to start seeing gray in the world; no it's about time that the world started to go back to black and white. Now yes, I know that the world is gray, but if I see the world your way, 'gray', I will lose my world of black and white, which you have already stepped on and attempted to destroy. Now for everyone out there who wonders who I am talking to...? It's the criminal mind out there. I just want all those who think that way... I am really starting to have a hate for you. Yes, it's a strong word but after what I have been through with the criminal world, I have that right. Sincerely, Valerie M. Strate

Daisy stopped and paused mentally examining him for the moment. The sound of his voice echoed the foreignness of his presence here but to look at this young fellow he blended right in. Cooter’s voice came back into her mind and she suddenly could feel her gut wrench, “Boy, where exactly are ya from?†Joel bit down on the French fry that he held in his fingers as his eyes widened at her question. He slowly chewed on it as if time was dragging to a screeching hault at any moment. He swallowed then wiped his hands off on a napkin and cupped his hand over his mouth as he spoke till the food was gone from his palette. He knew this question would be coming. Something told him it would happen after Daisy hung up the phone, “I’m from Ohio, my folks farm is ‘bout an hour from Nellsonville.†“And what ya doin’ all the way down here?!†Daisy asked now changing her stance and crossing her arms. The hazel eyes now hardened slightly and the young man swallowed slightly before he spoke, thinking about his words carefully, “I’ve been hired to do a job here, then I’m headin’ back home.†“What kind of job?†Daisy asked sharply. She knew, the logger knew, that she knew and was trying to pin him down. Joel’s jaw locked for a moment and he just stared. Suddenly he realized more eyes were on him and Daisy. Joel consciously made his movements measured. Sliding his hand across his thigh where his napkin was placed, he pulled it away and wiped his face and tossed it on the counter, “Ya know, I always thought the South was suppose to be friendly to anyone but apparently you folks got a bug up your tails. “ The young cowboy pulled out his wallet and took out ten and placed it on the counter, “Keep the change.†“Whoa, whoa, ya ain’t answered my questioned!†Daisy snapped picking up the ten and putting it under the counter then rushing around the bar to confront the young man as he was walking away. Joel stared at her and could now see similarities in the young woman, something about her manner and that phone call made him now see the blond that punched him in the jaw. The redhead could feel himself boil slowly, “There is nothing to answer… You know who I am and what happened. You already have your opinion and now I’m not welcome here. So if you don’t mind ma’am, I’m going someplace where I can rest and maybe find something to eat in peace.†Daisy’s face fell, confusion now ragged in her, “Now just wait a cotton pickin’ minute!†“Ma’am please… just let me go; your family did this to me because of my hot temper… I don’t want to get into anymore with you.†Joel said as he gently touched the small gash by his eye that he cleaned up earlier before coming to the Nest. Daisy could now see the wound more clearly that she looked at him more directly. His eye was starting to swell just slightly. A part of her wanted him out of her face, a part wanted him to stay and tell her more, a part was just confused and wanted to scream; so she did none of it and just stared at the red-haired man as he replaced his hat and walked past her out the door.

Oh wow! Thank you so much guys! I guess I definately need to pop in here more. I do love the dukes still and have the full box set at home. My husband and I love watching the DVDs on the few nights that we do have time together. I tell you, bliss for a Duke fan is marrying a Duke fan. Thank you so much for this honnor. I have wrote duke fan fiction, specializing in Enos fiction. I find writing calming and exciting. Thank you so much for the congrads everyone. I'm sorry I haven't been around as much but I hope to return and continue my writing.

Oh boy, first cars! My first car was a 1989 charcoal Chevy Capric Classic. It was a boat of a car, and built like a tank. I had it for only a week after my driver's test and I ended up putting it in an 18 foot drainage ditch after going home from a 4-H meeting. It was late and another car was coming at me down a narrow country road and I over compensated and put the car down in the ditch. I had my seat belt on but was trapped in the ditch and water was just starting to leak in. I probably could have climbed through the window but my folks told me to remain still in a wreck and try to get help, (that's an oximooran right there if I ever heard one). So trapped in the ditch in the late hours of the evening, I simply screamed for help until the nearest farmhouse resident came and shined a flash light down in the ditch and found me. They told me to wait there and 911 was on the way. I was then helped out of the car by a friendly fireman and examined by EMT's. The only thing the emergency room found wrong with me was a case of new driver bruised pride and some black and blue marks that showed up a day or two later. I was told because I wore my seat belt, I was alive and not eject out the window and possibly under my car. Yes, seat belts save lives and that's not the first time I can thank a seat belt for saving me, and it won't be the last. So remember your seat belt! Buckle up for safety Buddy Roe!

That is long overdue, however Captain, I'm pleased to salute you on Fan o' the Month! All the woodland creatures of Hazzard forest give you their best! You give great comentary and are an excellent debater. Congrads! Val

Soon Joel was pulling into a gravel lot in front of the roadhouse. He noticed the hand painted sign with the wild pig. Something told the young man that he would be able to find local Southern hospitality and a hot, home-style meal. Joel got out of his truck and walked to the door, the air was hot and muggy and the noisy from inside could be hear vibrating through the door. It was Friday and getting close to the supper hour, the parking lot was packed and Joel hoped he was right on his instincts. Daisy was busy bussing tables and taking checks when she glanced up from a pile of dishes in one hand and a fist of money in the other to notice the long tall cowboy with the white Stetson walk into the Nest. Daisy smiled and called to the young stranger as he caught her glance, “I’ll be with ya in a sec but just come on in and make yerself at home sugar!†Joel hesitated but moved slowing inside more with his thumbs in his belt loops. He found a stool at the bar and took a seat. Daisy came back around the bar and wiped the spot in front of him down with a towel, “What can I get ya sugar?†The waitress was definitely friendly and attractive, he blushed slightly then smiled, “Well, I could go for some good Southern barbeque and the best cole slaw you got.†Daisy grinned and picked up the northern accent right away, “Ya a long way from home ain’t ya sug?†“Yes ma’amâ€, Joel smiled politely and removed his hat to sit on his knee, exposing the soft red wavy locks of hair. His hazel eyes grew soft and gentle, gaining a green hue to them. The young man watched Daisy move and she could tell his eyes were on her; however she didn’t seem to mind. He gave off a harmless and gentle vibe to her. She picked up a menu and handed it to him, “Here this might help ya… And ya said ya want slaw... Any taters to go with that sug?†“If you got French fries, I’ll take’em.†Joel answered looking over the menu then closing it, “With a pulled pork sandwich.†“K, ya want pulled pork, French fries, slaw and anything to wash that down?†Daisy asked as she scratched the order on her note pad. “A cold sweet tea would be fantastic.†“You got it! The tallest coldest sweet tea I can bring ya!†Daisy answered then disappeared into the kitchen. Joel watched her then turned around on his stool and looked out at the patrons at the establishment, as he took in the local culture. As he was starting to get lost in the moment of relaxation, the phone behind the bar rang and it caused him to turn around. Daisy quickly came out of the kitchen and picked up the receiver, “Hello, Boar’s Nest, Daisy speakin’?†The waitress paused and listened to what was being said on the other line. Her face started to go into an expression of shock, “Well, is Enos ok?!†Another pause and Joel started to watch her closer. Daisy twirled the phone cord between her fingers nervously, “Well that guy got some nerve! How much is bail?†Bail? Obviously, this waitress knew some folks that were in trouble, probably legal trouble which now caused Joel to take more interest. Daisy bit her lower lip as she gazed at the ground, “You tell Uncle Jesse to sit tight and I’ll… But Cooter! Fine! But if I see that fella I’m gonna give him a piece of my mind! Causing trouble in traffic then startin’ a fight with the boys!... I don’t care if Bo started it Cooter. No pushy Yankee is gonna cause trouble for my family!... I will not!... Cooter!†With that Daisy frowned and looked at the phone in disgust and hug up. Joel suddenly put two and two together and realized this waitress probably had connections with the boys he encountered before. He took a deep breath then decided to play things cool. The waitress then disappeared into the kitchen and came back with Joel’s meal and drink. She sat the items down before him, “There sug, you just enjoy yourself and if ya need anything just holler.†“Thank you.†Joel answered then took a sip of ice tea, “Actually there is… can you tell me how to get to the Hazzard Hotel?â€

i1976, I've always loved your portals of Daisy and Enos. You are not a fool. Brian is right and the fact that you keep on with your creativity makes you a true artist. You give something you love, your own look and style. I love your style. I know my own is different but that's the beauty of being a fanfic writer and an artist. You develope a style which is a sense of giving the world a peice of yourself. I love your work and would love to see more.

Oh Roger, I'm rolling on the floor laughing at all the pics and feeling younger and younger by the moment. I love the pictures, flapjacks, flash, buzzards, buzzsaws, pony and Judas Priest, all of it. It's enough to make a 30 something go to 3! Ya'll are great friends for pick me ups. Yeah, Roger, I'm around but I'm in short supply these days. I wish I come around more. I know I need to write. It would help me go back to that youthfulness and get rid of stress. Thanks guys.

For all of those who have been around here a while and maybe some new folks that can shed light on this dilema... Why is it, I feel old? Does anyone look in the mirror and go, Gaaaahhhh! in the morning and say, 'Where did the time go?'. I talk to people younger than me all the time and they tell me they love the Dukes but can't tell me a thing about the show. Yes the Dukes of Hazzard is Iconic we all know and are greatful, but as a fan of the orginial, do you ever get that longing, mid-life crisis feeling of 'I wish I could see John and Tom as Bo and Luke again!'. I guess I came up with a solution answer to my own question, 'Pop in a DVD'. But then when it's over you have that Napoleon Dynamite voice, saying, 'Gosh! I am so old..." Just a reflection here in the perverbial pond of life... Tossing a pebble in to see the ripples it may create or will it sink into the bottom of the pond without hardly a sound? Maybe I'm having "Cabin Writer's Fever".... Who knows... Hooo.... hooo! Rosco P. Coltrane... That's Who! *laughs* I crack myself up... into tiny peices. Ooo one fell on the floor. Opps, made a mess.

I'd love to attend the 17th however the 'Strate' family is having their annual Christmas party at 4pm EST and I don't know when that will end. Could be 6pm but it could be 8pm. So I may not be able to attend. On the 20th, I am out on patrol till 7pm EST and have to come home to supper. So the earliest I could come on is again, 8pm EST. See a pattern? I'd love to attend and see everyone but I don't think folks will be sticking around till that late if you start at 6pm. Just a suggestion but some of us second shifters can't make that.