Travel Blogging Again…

Orlando Here We Come.


Well Folks…once again I’ll be away from my keyboard for awhile, as we will be spending some time in St. Cloud, Florida, a little bit south of Orlando, traveling there after lunch today to spend a long weekend.

Of course I, personally, will be in withdrawal because of the lack of high speed internet access in our host’s home, but I’ll try to make do.

Hopefully the visit with some of Pat’s family and the mini dachshunds Olive and Otis, along with a little time day boating on the adjacent lake Weekiewackahackahackahockekokeockie (OK, its really called East Lake Tohopekaliga…really…it is…look it up on the map), will help motivate me into getting something done all day once we return back here to our little island.

My little girlfriend Olive and I will probably get some quality time in together sleeping on the sofa (Olive actually weighs less than 10 pounds—I’ve had many bigger CATS in my day.)

Hopefully the hurricanes and other natural disasters will stay out of our way and everyone will return on Monday safe and sound.

(And to my regular readers...don't worry, I'm getting up a good head of steam on a couple of subjects and I feel pretty certain that some kind of explosion is about to happen.

Stay tuned to this channel for further developments...)

Hair Brained Idea #243

Basically--I Don’t Know What I’m Gonna Do When I Finally Grow Up


OK…it’s employment update time, so let’s take a quick look at the list so far this summer.

Rocket Scientist…OUT

Brain surgeon…OUT

News Reporter…OUT (after giving the Senior editor of the local newspaper a piece of my mind for their coverage of my K-Street Tree Project)

Fry Cook Chef…OUT (after Allan re-hired a previous experienced employee that became available at the last minute--no hard feelings, however.)

Now as to my latest enterprise...

Yesterday I learned that “Miss Property Manager”, the lady that owns the company which oversees the daily operations here in our condo development, was convicted in State Court of numerous counts of theft by taking, intellectual property theft, and a number of other misdeeds.

Needless to say that all of my fellow Condo board members heads are about to explode because of the news.

As a result, today at 2:00 PM I had a meeting with a friend of mine that has his Real Estate Broker and Real Estate Property Management licenses and we talked about using little old ME as a new employee to bid on offering replacement property management services to our condo property.

I've previously mentioned that I’ve been effectively running and managing this place for the past two and one half years for free, haven’t I?

So far I’ve done everything but sign the checks and empty the trash cans, and we currently pay Ozzy for the trash services.

Any way, Bruce and I are talking and, since I’m already here 24/7, it makes sense to make an offer and try to use his existing Real estate company as a vehicle to get us started in the property management business.

When you look around down here, everyone in that segment of the market basically SUCKS, while at the same time they’re busy as heck because of the limited options available to property owners.

I just might be on to something here…

Hey Mr. Trump, you better be lookin’ over your shoulder.

Things Are Warming Up A Little

Don't Worry...I'm Watching Out For Everyone...


I just got this in an E-mail for NOAA National Weather Service in the past hour this morning, and I thought that I would share it with eveybody so that they would officially know what a useless nerd I am:

000
WTNT44 KNHC 230842
TCDAT4
TROPICAL STORM DEBBY DISCUSSION NUMBER 7

NWS TPC/NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER MIAMI FL AL042006

500 AM EDT WED AUG 23 2006

THE SATELLITE APPEARANCE OF DEBBY CONTINUES TO IMPROVE AND A 0331 UTC AQUA MICROWAVE OVERPASS DETECTED A FAIRLY WELL ORGANIZED SYSTEM...WITH WELL DEFINED BANDS AROUND THE CENTER.

DVORAK INTENSITY ESTIMATES ARE 45 KT FROM SAB...AND 35 KT FROM TAFB AND
AFWA.

THEREFORE...THE INITIAL INTENSITY IS INCREASED TO 40 KT. THE INITIAL MOTION ESTIMATE IS 295/14.

DEBBY IS CURRENTLY BEING STEERED WEST-NORTHWEST TO NORTHWESTWARD AROUND THE SOUTHWESTERN PERIPHERY OF A MID-TO UPPER-LEVEL RIDGE CENTERED NEAR THE AZORES.

THE RELIABLE TRACK MODELS ARE TIGHTLY CLUSTERED...MAINTAINING THIS MOTION THROUGH THE NEXT 48 TO 72 HOURS. AT DAYS 4 AND5...GLOBAL MODELS DEVELOP A SIGNIFICANT WEAKNESS IN THE RIDGE AS A MID- TO UPPER-LEVEL TROUGH AMPLIFIES OVER THE CENTRALATLANTIC. THE TRACK DIFFERENCES SEEN IN THE THE GLOBAL MODELS APPEAR TO BE THE RESULT OF DIFFERENCES IN THE FORECAST STRENGTH OF THE TROPICAL CYCLONE.

THE UMKET MODEL DEPICTS A MUCH WEAKER SYSTEM AND IN TURN TRACKS IT MORE WESTWARD...WHILE THE GFS AND GFDL MODEL SHAVE A STRONGER CYCLONE WHICH FEELS THE EFFECTS OF THE TROUGH AND TURNS NORTHWARD NEAR THE END OF THE PERIOD.

THE NOGAPS TRACK SEEMS UNREASONABLE BECAUSE IT RESULTS FROM AN UNREALISTIC DISSIPATION OF THE LOW-LEVEL CIRCULATION AND REFORMATION OF THE SYSTEM FROM A MID-TO UPPER-LEVEL LOW TO THE WEST. THE OFFICIAL TRACK FORECAST IS VERY CLOSE TO THE PREVIOUS ADVISORY THROUGH 72 HOURS. THEREAFTER...IT HAS BEEN SHIFTED SLIGHTLY TO THE RIGHT IN GENERAL AGREEMENT WITHTHE GFS...GFDL...AND THE FSU SUPERENSEMBLE SOLUTIONS.

DEBBY WILL BE ENCOUNTERING DRIER MID-LEVEL AIR AND SLIGHTLY COOLERSSTS OVER THE NEXT 36 HOURS OR SO...WHICH SHOULD KEEP INTENSIFICATION SLOW IN THE NEAR TERM. THEREAFTER... THE CYCLONE WILL BE PASSING OVER WARMER SSTS...BUT SHEAR IS FORECAST TOSTRENGTHEN WHICH MAKES FOR A DIFFICULT INTENSITY PREDICTION.

THE NHC FORECAST BRINGS DEBBY TO HURRICANE STRENGTH IN 4 DAYS...WHICH IS VERY CLOSE TO THE CONSENSUS OF THE GFDL AND SHIPS...BUT IS LEVELED OFF IN DEFERENCE TO THE POSSIBILITY OF INCREASING SHEAR.

FORECAST POSITIONS AND MAX WINDS INITIAL

23/0900Z 15.9N 30.1W 40 KT 12HR VT
23/1800Z 16.9N 32.2W 45 KT 24HR VT
24/0600Z 18.2N 35.0W 50 KT 36HR VT
24/1800Z 19.6N 37.9W 50 KT 48HR VT
25/0600Z 21.0N 40.8W 50 KT 72HR VT
26/0600Z 24.0N 46.5W 60 KT 96HR VT
27/0600Z 27.5N 51.0W 65 KT120HR VT
28/0600Z 30.0N 53.0W 65 KT

FORECASTER BROWN


I sure feel better knowing all of that, don't YOU?

Live Blogging From "The Cone Of Death"

Well...Actually...We're just Almost In The "Cone of Death"


I guess that Al Gore and the balance of the liberal eco-tree-hugger-global-warming nuts all have their panties boxers wet now, because the first major blip on the radar of the Cape Verde part of the summer hurricane season has recently formed and is moving this way as I write.

Here's the latest map of its predicted progress:

Of course you do realize that this is just Tropical Depression #4 of this Hurricane season that began in late May or early June?

What’s up with that?

Last time I listened to the blithering mainstream media idiots and the other liberal nay-sayers, they were guaranteeing that Condi Rice and President Bush would by now be personally responsible for pounding every third world island in this hemisphere and every minority neighborhood within 100 miles of the coast of the southern US with Katrina-like monsoonal flows of wind and rain, all the time parking fleets of school buses within arms reach just to show their contempt for minorities and other “po folks”?

FEMA and the Red Cross would have orders to look the other way.

I guess that their celebrations can now begin...

Being the pompous, middle aged, white male that I am, I believe that I’ll just sit here luxuriating (or is that "luxurinating") in the knowledge that this storm will probably either:

A. Fizzle out.

B. Turn further north and attack Bermuda

C. Turn south and assault my blog buddy Steve down in south Florida

D. Screw around with all of you kids up in NY and Connecticut.

E. Scare the heck out of me if it makes it this far across the Atlantic.

My point is this...I really don't care, because I've lived in the south, adjacent to the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexica, all of my life.

Nothing has really changed.

There are still drunken kids on vacation driving sports cars up and down the beach roads threatening the safety of pedestrians and other drivers.

There are still people piloting boats offshore and in the inland waterways that have no practical seamanship skills or nautical knowledge.

There are still the usual arrogant assholes stumbling around acting like they own the place when they visit great grandmama's condo for a long weekend every other year.

Where's the medias' warnings and outrage over those hazards?

In my view, the only thing that's consistent, is the consistent inconsistency.

So why should you and I get all worked up?

Just go with the flow is my motto.

After the last hurricane season, there were all kinds of dire predictions about “killer storms” and some kind of relationship to “global warming” increasing the frequency and intensity of the resulting storms.

I’ve been saying a hearty “bah humbug” to everyone running around out there screaming such nonsense, while at the same time realizing that the southern Georgia coast and specifically St. Simons Island is statistically DUE to bear the assault of a hurricane in the coming years.

The last one was in 1964, the last real scare was in 1999, and in the late 1800’s the entire island and the city of Brunswick was under over a dozen feet of water as a result of nature’s wrath.

Excuse me, but maybe I'll think about wandering around locating my flashlight and some batteries now...

I Guess That I've Acted Myself "OUT"

And Thereby Built My Own Purgatory


I’m getting all antsy these days—wanting to get back up on stage and do some entertaining.

The only problem is, my harmonicas sit around the condo in what was once a hard plastic case for my pistols, and almost everyone that I’ve met down here in the “community theater” business is either a total lazy asshole of a man, else they are a big giant sweating overweight woman going though menopause that thinks that they can act, sing, and dance—and regardless of their ability, they (the aforementioned hairy assholes and psychopathic sets of mammary glands) exercise control over most of the theater stages around this part of the Georgia coast.

I’ve learned to not get in their way over the past couple of years, doing things the hard way.

My problem is that I know that I can’t dance and have no intention of learning, but that I want to learn more about acting and want to have the opportunity to do same, and I guarna-damn-tee you that I can out sing virtually every single body that shows up at an theater audition with men’s sized shoes, bearing a set of Testicles somewhere between their knees.

Doesn't matter...you got to PAY to get up there on stage.

You got to be willing to put up with INSANITY.

In my experience, it's worse than being married to a half dozen crazy women, and possibly a couple of "straight" guys.

I say "straight" because if the guys were GAY, at least they would smell good (and they could definitely dance and possibly sing while they're at it...)

But I digress...

I also screwed up the pre established, yet hyper-ineffective, pecking order a couple of years ago with my efforts in the theater set construction department.

Therein lies my current problem.

See, if you actually know SOMETHING about what you're talking about or are attempting to do most of the time, you get into trouble around here. I, on the other hand tend to avoid interjecting myself into the process when I know beforehand that I'm totally USELESS.

Everyone else seems to not know ANYTHING about the proceedings, but though the process of knowing all of the correct PEOPLE and endlessly hanging around the building; running all of the other much more qualified persons away, they manage to get their ill-fated opportunities…BY DEFAULT

Thus, my dilemma...I sit here at home for most of the theater season, wasting away hiding my talent(s) under a bushel basket, while our local theater companies stage musical plays featuring a boat load of untalented idiots that can’t act nor sing nor dance.

Isn’t the world a strange place to live in?

So sorry…I was just suffering from a moment of weakness and self pity…

It Would Seem That Sir Winston Is Writing About ME?

If The Shoe fits...


It was a pity that one, thus gloriously free from the ordinary restraining influences of human society, should have found in his own character so little mental ballast.

His moods were capricious and uncertain, his passions violent, his impulses sudden and inconsistent.

The mortal enemy of the morning had become a trusted ally before the night.

The friend he loved to-day he loathed to-morrow.

Scheme after scheme formed in his fertile brain, and jostled confusingly together.

All in succession were pressed with enthusiasm. All at times were rejected with disdain. A temperament naturally neurotic had been aggravated by an acquired habit of smoking; and the General carried this to so great an extreme that he was rarely seen without a cigarette.

His virtues are famous among men; his daring and resource might turn the tide or war; his energy would have animated a whole people; his achievements are upon record; but it must also be set down that few more uncertain and impracticable forces than Gordon have ever been introduced into administration and diplomacy.

Here...Read This...

Good God I Wish That I Could Write Like Sir Winston Churchill


Here's Sir Winston's description of some British military operations conducted in the late 19th century in the northern African Country of the Sudan, adjacent to the Nile River:

As the severity of military operations increases, so also must the sternness of discipline.

The zeal of the soldiers, their warlike instincts, and the interests and excitements of war may ensure obedience of orders and the cheerful endurance of perils and hardships during a short and prosperous campaign.

But when fortune is dubious or adverse; when retreats as well as advances are necessary; when supplies fail, arrangements miscarry, and disasters impend, and when the struggle is protracted, men can only be persuaded to accept evil things by the lively realisation of the fact that greater terrors await their refusal.

The ugly truth is revealed that fear is the foundation of obedience. It is certain that the influence of General Gordon upon the garrison and townspeople of Khartoum owed its greatest strength to that sinister element.

'It is quite painful,' he writes in his Journals in September, 'to see men tremble so, when they come and see me, that they cannot hold the match to their cigarette.'

Yet he employed all other methods of inspiring their efforts. As the winter drew on, the sufferings of the besieged increased and their faith in their commander and his promises of relief diminished.

To preserve their hopes--and, by their hopes, their courage and loyalty--was beyond the power of man. But what a great man in the utmost exercise of his faculties and authority might do, Gordon did...


Ten thousand men had thus been killed in the space of three months in the Eastern Soudan. By the discipline of their armies the Government were triumphant. The tribes of the Red Sea shore cowered before them.

But as they fought without reason, so they conquered without profit.


Do these word's not adequately describe some of the goings on which we all see in the world today?

I think so, but Sir Winston wrote these words way back in 1902 in a book called THE RIVER WAR--An Account of the Reconquest of the Sudan.

Click on the link and go LEARN something this morning, if you will...

Note To Self…

What’s Not To Understand here?


My eyes have glazed over and my brain has just about shut down from listening to the latest chapter of the JonBenet Ramsey Saga.

Why are we all being tortured this way?

No matter what happens, this cute little girl is dead, Dead, DEAD, and absolutely nothing can change that FACT after almost TEN years.

I want Gretta Van Damn Sustren and the rest of the media to give it a rest already.

Just like the more recent Natalee Holloway sensation, in both stories, the only thing that we are missing is the WEAPON.

I, personally think that the MURDERORS were each girl’s parents—specifically the so-called MOTHERS. They forced or otherwise allowed beautiful young girls to flounce around on the world stage like trollops, and—like flies to honey—the predators arrived and swept their children away.

Now, instead of enjoying the college careers of their daughters, ( JonBenet would be 16 years old this year and Natalee would be 20) Mrs. Beth Holloway Twitty and the recently departed Patsey Ramsey have nothing to show for their parenting efforts, and the rest of the world is collectively scratching their heads and asses trying to figure out what went wrong.

It seems pretty simple to me…

Parenting looks so easy from a distance.

I just barely managed to live thorough my own childhood, and would have never made it if it were not for my own wonderful parents.

At least I've had enough sense to not reproduce myself and, as a result, I don’t have any kids of my own to place at risk because of my stupidity…

But then again, in the end, without the responsibility and experience...who am I to argue?