Snow In The South Cools The Fire In My Fireplace

Yielding A Slightly Mellower Tone...NOT!!


Dang I must have sounded more than a bit cranky last night when writing about Amtra(c)k.

I woke up this morning in time to make a drizzly trip over to Brunswick, but before I left I re-read my writing and while I still stand by 99.7% of what I said--I sure had a sharp edge on my sword an attitude on the keyboard.

Oh well...

In other news, I see where the Atlanta airport is a shambles with four hour delays as a result of an inch of sloppy snow that fell there in the past 24 hours (actually nothing new to anyone that lived there for 27 years like I did), but the good news is that Home Depot and Lowe's are still open here on the Georgia Coast as we endure frigid lower thirty degree temperatures overnight, with highs in the lower 50's tomorrow...

Bwaaahhahahahahahahahahhhhhhhaaaaaaahhhhhaaaaahhhhhhaaaaahhhhh.

Gasp...

Sorry, I lost control there for a minute.

My apologies to anyone living north of Macon, Georgia that has to negotiate the weather to attend worship services tomorrow morning, or is possibly stuck out of town traveling.

Half the reciprocal fun of personally putting up with our 100% humidity, mosquitoes, "no-see-um's" and tourists for most of the year when you live on an Island is making fun of everybody else when the weather gets cold elsewhere.

I'm fairly new to the process, but as I understand it weather effects Democrats and Republicans equally, and in my ongoing efforts to be non-partisan (on which I failed miserably last night), I have to point that out in my defense.

But Wait.....

The newspapers and TV tell us that the Poor, Women, Minorities, children, and old people are the most affected by the cold.

I'm concerned, but skeptical, because this comes from the very same people which tell me almost every week that Global Warming effects the Poor, Women, minorities, children and children of Minorities, old people, insurance underwriters, homosexuals, left handed people, philosophers, artists and people with the name Earl.

So which is it?

By the way, what are we expected as a society to do to protect people from the weather, especially when they ignorantly and constantly insist on ignoring the forecasts of the "experts" over at the Weather Channel?

I seem to remember the city of New Orleans moving a bunch of displaced minority people and their kids into the Superdome as a result of and in order to remove them from the effects of warm weather, and things didn't work too well there in the Crescent City in the end.

Further, from my experience, my wobbly middle aged white male carcass has been susceptible to the weather just like everybody else regardless of race, creed, and national origin (and sexual orientation) for most of the past 48 years, but I haven't had any phone surveys or written correspondence directed toward me asking how I handle the seasonal extremes.

As a result, I'd like to impart some of my self proclaimed expert advise and wisdom on everyone that's interested--regarding the weather...such as it is.

If it's raining outside, I buy an umbrella, stay inside, else go out and get wet if I have to change a flat tire or am just too lazy to care.

If it's cold outside, I put on a coat, or stay inside and pay my gas and power bill on time so the thermodynamic differential between the inner and outer surfaces of my abode are maintained at an acceptable level.

Conversely, if it's warm outside, I wear the minimum acceptable amount of clothing--a measure which seems to be changing each and every year as I look in the mirror.

So there you have it...a turn-key solution to handling the weather, and I know that most of you probably were already on to those little tidbits of intellectual genius long before my fingers hit the keyboard this evening. I just had to say it any way just in case some poor lost soul was wandering by here on the Internet and needed some advice.

In closing, another solution I've found quite helpful is one promoted by the late comedian Sam Kennison (this one is for you again Rusty...)

Having problems with the weather in your area?

Is it always too cold or too hot or too wet or too dry?

Here's an Idea...MOVE.

That's right, MOVE to somewhere where you can tolerate the weather.

I did about five years ago and found the results to be very satisfying.

Isn't that easy enough?

Back to Sam Kennison who was my definitive authoritative reference on this concept if you want one...

Paraphrasing the late Mr. Kennison when he was lamenting all of the US Foreign Aide Money and charitable contributions sent to the people living in the arid countries like Northern Africa because of crop failures and drought related suffering:

Sam said instead of sending them money every year, that we should instead send them ....

LUGGAGE.

Possibly an entire set...and maybe a few bus or plane tickets to go along with it.

Packing Boxes and U-Haul trucks would also go a long way...

Sam said: "You're Hungry? It's because you're LIVING in a DESERT...GET OUT...Ah ah aha ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh."

(Taking a big breath...)

Any way, I offer similar condolences and encouragement to everyone up north in places like Minnesota and Wisconsin tonight.

While we're at it, what brand do you like?

Luggage that is...

Samsonite, or American Tourister?

Just do me a favor and buy it yourself instead of voting for someone that will steal the money to pay for it though additional taxes on "the wealthy," because I secretly still intend to be one (of "the wealthy") one of these days and I already have luggage.

Now throw another log on the fire, and enjoy your evening...

and you're quite welcome for having received my keen insight into this situation.

Amtrak Apparently Paralysed Paralyzed With Rectal-Cranial Inversion

Careful--I'm Having Yet Another Highly Insensitive Moment


Sorry Folks, but this session of bitching and complaining and imparting armchair quarterbacking advice came out of nowhere this evening, and it is directed at the pseudo-government run national passenger train service known as "Amtrak."

I've had it up to here this morning (pointing to the top of my ever greying, ever balding, pony tail adorned head) with "Amtrak."

Let me tell you about what "Amtrak"'s done that's gotten my Spleen in a knot this weekend.

I guess that I missed it to begin with, and that even before you make a phone call or visit their website the name--"Amtrak"--should give you some clue that things are amiss in the United By God States of America's passenger rail service.

Regarding said name, one could be reasonably expected to guess that the "Am" portion of the moniker stands for "American" possibly, but what the heck is up with the "Trak" portion of the trademark?

Will be be riding along on on our journey guided and protected by train tracks...or Train Traks?

Maybe it's because if we buy a ticket we'll be taking a "Trek", and that's where it comes from (and the word is amazingly prophetic as I'll reveal later...)?

I think that, even though I spent twelve long years in government schools with government English teachers, that I'm going to add the word Amtra(c)k to my blogger lexicon (going along with sHrillary Clinton, John sKerry, and my other originally coined and shamelessly stolen references to things that piss me off.)

Any way...hang on...I'm just getting started here, it gets MUCH better.

I have to admit that I've never ridden an Amtra(c)k train to my knowledge, although I have jingled around Stone Mountain Park and Six Flags in Atlanta on a train, and I've whizzed around the monorails at Disneyland and Disneyworld back in the late 1960's and early to mid 1970's.

Then there was also the time me and my sister and parents plowed through a few feet of snow on a train from New Jersey to NY City a hundred years ago when I was in kindergarten, but that doesn't count because I don't believe it was Amtrak either. It was some form of otherwise efficient commuter rail that serves real cities in the Northeast and makes Amtra(c)k look like a giant system of those little miniature trains that haul toddlers around roadside Alligator Farms and fake Indian Settlements in Georgia, always running in circles and never actually going anywhere.

In addition to riding Chicago's El network and the extended commuter line in the Chicago metro area (and of course the trains in airports around the country and world) I've also owned a few dozen yards of HO and N gauge model train track and the associated accouterments, but I guess that experience doesn't count when it comes to writing critical reviews of railroad companies, but I'm going to do it anyway, and to that end, I digress...

Here's my real question and beef with Amtra(c)k this morning:

How the %$#@ can anyone go anywhere on Amtra(c)k, when Amtra(c)k hardly goes anywhere, and the few places they go take most of a week if not a month of your time in transit, at least according to what I've seen over the past half decade that I've been trying to use them on pleasure trips?

You simply can't get from here to there on Amtra(c)k, as far as I can tell.

The other thing is that when they do happen to go where I might want to end up on many of the trips I've tried to take--3 and 4 hours by air--Amtra(c)k costs 95% of the cost of the air fair and they try to make you die of deep venal thrombosis from sitting in one of their chairs for 25 hours.

No wonder they (Amtra(c)k) are almost always losing money and are constantly coming to Congress with their hat in their hand asking for more money or threatening to waste the rest of the US taxpayers' investment by further limiting service or closing down entirely.

And never mind that because of their ineptitude many people would rather ride a subway through Watts or Harlem than get on an Amtra(c)k train today--I've heard indirectly that things look like a scene out of the Star Wars bar on the run from Atlanta to New Orleans.

Any way, here's some specific examples of things I've tried to give Amtra(c)k my money to do in the past five or six years.

One winter when we still lived in the Atlanta Suburbs and Pat was working in Chicago each week, I thought about making a short economy trip down to Miami, then taking the bus on to Key West to stir up some trouble and get some sun.

Sounded like a plan, but Nooooooo...not with Amtra(c)k

In order to go from Atlanta to Miami, you have to ride an Amtra(c)k train waaaaayyyy north to Washington D.C., then turn around and ride a different Amtra(c)k train wayyyyy back south through Savannah and Jessup, Georgia, THEN on down the Florida coast to a station a few miles from South Beach.

I'm too lazy to do the search because the Amtra(c)k website keeps crashing this morning (see the next set of gripes about that), but it cost something like $300 round trip and took three and one half or four days out of my life to get there and back.

There was no time to enjoy a stay in a hotel in the sun, and besides...I could fly round trip for $450 and spend four hours in the air and a couple more hours in and around the airport and at least walk on the beach before it was time to turn around and head back to DC.

How the heck would anyone do something like that unless they were STUPID, or mortally afraid of flying?

There's a train track from Atlanta to Savannah and Jacksonville, but the Jackasses experts rocket scientists running Amtra(c)k evidently think that people in Atlanta enjoy riding 915 miles out of their way and spending a couple more sunrises and sunsets out of their mortal lives crammed into a train car in order to save $150.

Now let's talk about my latest revelation.

From what I can determine, Amtra(c)k is an island unto itself beyond a few selected bus connections here and there which they own and operate one way or the other.

Imagine if you went to the Delta Airlines website or called Delta reservations and all you could do was buy tickets to EXACTLY where Delta flies with their own airplanes?

No connections with "Partner Airlines" or "commuters", just Atlanta to St. Louis...

Delta Agent: "You're on you're own getting to Moline buddy."

Me: "Does someone rent horses or skis or roller skates?"

Delta Agent: Don't know...don't care...Next in Line...

That's the way it is with Amtra(c)k.

These idiots go to tens of dozens of cities like NY city and Philadelphia that have extensive commuter rail and bus systems, but do they provide any of that information like cost and itinerary coordination in their maps and web site based ticketing?

Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!

This morning, in addition to the Amtra(c)k website locking up every time I got close to planning a March trip to NY city and into Eastern Pennsylvania to visit some of Pat's family, they left me on my own when it came to finding which station I had to disembark at in order to connect with the commuter rail.

How the Hell can we continue to allow a so called "modern" "taxpayer funded' company, in the year 2008, surrounded by investor owned airlines employing sophisticated software to support things like seating capacity control and the coordination with connecting flights, to not have any idea how to jump off their train and get on another train in order to get to your final destination.

While Delta makes a few dollars selling Continental and American seats in addition to their own flights, evidently Amta(c)k's too stupid or egotistical to work with the "competition" riding over and around the exact same rails...

AND LOSING MONEY DOING IT.

And while I'm at it, it just came to mind to say this:

Go ahead all you Independents and Democrats. Hire yourself a new President in November, and then look over your shoulder in a few months at Amtra(c)k for a business model. Then a few years later, I'll point out Amtra(c)k as prime, brutal evidence of Government success when you cheer as they start up your new "Universal Health Care System."

Idiots... At least you can drive or fly and stay off the government trains, but try hoisting your butt into the stirrups or turning your head and coughing in a government run doctor's office five years from now.

I bet that will serve to wipe the ignorant bleeding heart liberal smirk off your face and add a new pucker to your ass.

(taking a big breath...where's my twelve step program when I need it)

Engine Flame-Out And Icing on the Wings

Eject...Eject...Eject...


Well Folks, in spite of my best laid plans, the National Weather Service decided at the last minute to cancel this week's ration of Global Warming induced havoc, instead crashing the temperature and bringing snow to everywhere north of our little Island this weekend.

Thank GOD my business in Knoxville was delayed a week at their request this morning, and since I've still not heard from the Lawyers in Atlanta I'm making an executive decision to stay home and hide here in the rainy, windy 50 degree temperatures burning fake logs in our fireplace this weekend.

Thus the beauty of being a professional beach bum semi-unemployed being your own boss...you can say #$@%& it and just sit home if you want to.

I really want to see some snow again in person since it's been five or six years, but driving across the Appalachian Trail and down I-40 in 30 degree temps isn't my idea of a good use of my time.

Oh well, there's always saw dust to make over on the renovation job site.

Last Minute Travel

Visiting Winter On Winter's Own Terms...


Besides dodging a couple inches of warm rain ( it was 70 degrees F here yesterday), joining Chili Cooking Teams, and getting another one of my Ranting Public Service letters to the local newspaper published, I've spent part of this past week trying to put together a business and pleasure trip around the southeast beginning this weekend and continuing into late next week.

Business concerns of course take precedence, but since a lawyer in Atlanta is standing between me and the scene of the boiler plant accident I need to look at, as usual things have been delayed until the last minute, making it hard to plan the pleasure part of the excursion.

If things work out tomorrow morning we'll be jumping in the car to traverse I95 northward up the Georgia Coast, then northwest across the South Carolina Piedmont on I-26 to spend the weekend with my college roommate Rusty in Greenville, South Carolina.

Then the plan is on Sunday to head north to Asheville for lunch, then on across the Smokey Mountains to Knoxville, TN for a couple of nights for a secondary business purpose.

I pray that the weather is kind to us, because I hate having to wear a sweater and jacket ... heck ... I hardly wear socks most of the time down here (don't EVEN ask about underwear.)

Finally, if the lawyers will let me visit, I'll be back in Atlanta on Wednesday or Thursday crawling around the basement of a big downtown hotel, before returning to our beloved Island in time to thaw out and return things back to our normal slow existence.

I'll probably have to take an extra long nap once the dust settles. I sure wish May would hurry up and get here.

Chili For 160 Close Friends

Or 12 Gallons Of Sample Sized Servings...


I suspect that my regular readers think that they can probably guess what we had for dinner here on our little Island last night, but you'd be WRONG if you assumed dinner consisted of CHILI.

Confusingly, I did actually cook slightly over a gallon pot of my Chili, but when it was all said and done my concoction was so spicy that I was afraid for Pat and Missy The Turbo Pup to eat it, and assaulting my own Colon with an entire meal sized portion was also a source of declining middle aged concern.

Instead, we wandered around the corner to Larry's Giant Subs and enjoyed nice safe sandwiches for dinner after delivering a sample of my first test batch of thermonuclear material Iranian Reactor Fuel Virgil's Flaming Anus Porridge Chili over to Blackwater Grill for comment and criticism.

It's really an interesting exercise trying to develop a recipe for 12 gallons of food to be cooked in a four hour window of time, in a public venue, in a safe and sanitary manner.

First of all, let me tell you that in my considered opinion the spices are EVERYTHING when it comes to making a successful product.

The other thing is texture...Chili shouldn't just be a pureed bowl of gloppy crap, nor should it be a bowl full of beans and tomato sauce with a little ground beef thrown in for good measure.

Good Chili is a complex mixture of textures and layers of flavors, and good chili has a substantial quantity of MEAT in it. Chili should also not have thin streams of semi clear juice running out of it onto your plate or bowl when you spoon it out of the pot.

Is that really too much to ask?

Any way, leave it to me as usual to turn what many consider to be a simple one pot dish into a science project. Somehow I believe that the end in fact does justify the means and I think that my efforts will yield a superior product as a result.

Take yesterday's results for example. All it needs is a little fine tuning on the spice listing and I believe I have a winner

Assuming things proceed as planned, and at the risk of someone stealing my product and beating me with it, here's the unofficial list of what will be happening in a couple of giant pots about six weeks from now:

Initial Calculations: 12 gallons = 1536 ounces, 48 quarts, 160 regular dinner sized servings.

Liquid Ingredients

(12) bottles Guiness Stout Dark Beer
(12) cans Beef Stock
(12) 28 ounce cans Pureed tomatoes
(12) 28 ounce cans Diced Tomatoes

Dry Ingredients

(1) pound Bacon cooked & crumbled with Drippings
(24) pounds London Broil Beef, cooked medium and shredded before adding to the mix
(12) 15.5 ounce cans dark red kidney or Pinto beans
(12) medium onions diced coarse
(24) cloves garlic, diced fine
(2) small cans Chipolte peppers in Adobo Sauce **
(12) squares Baker's Chocolate

Spices:

3 tsp Red pepper flakes **
6 tsp chili powder
6 tbsp cumin
3 tsp paprika
3 tsp ground red pepper **
3 tsp black pepper
3 tsp white pepper

Salt to taste

(**these ingredients will make or break the dish and injure you and your dog at the same time.)

Unless you work in a commercial kitchen, I think that you will find that list sort of amazing.

Be advised that there is a detailed process involved in how it is all put together, and I'm reserving that description, along with a household sized ingredient list, for publication in early March after our Chili Cooking Team has won first place in the Cookoff.

Time to go taste the ongoing Chili cooking again now... I'm trying to tone it down a little.

Update 1/17/08 3:30 PM

I received a comment asking about the inclusion of Baker's chocolate in this recipe, and I couldn't resist answering her question.

Since the Chocolate is unsweetened, I can't say that it does anything relative to the Tomato acidity--I use sugar in my pasta sauces for that purpose (and I don't put sugar in my Chili.)

All I know is that I've read and heard for years about people putting chocolate in their chili, and the last few batches I've made included chocolate and it does add a subtle undercurrent to the flavor, in addition to darkening the color of the mixture visually.

The same applies to using a bottle of $10 a six pack Guinness Dark Beer versus Bud Light or just plain water...I BELIEVE it makes the Chili better, so I use it.

Any more questions?

Ugly Is As Ugly Does

Entertaining...Versus Just Complaining?



You got a minute?

I've slowly been coming to a substantial realization about my blogging efforts--both political and culinary. Sit down, grab yourself a glass of your favorite beverage, and let me bounce some ideas off of you if you don't mind.

In retrospect, I think that thus far I pretty much look like a pompous, at best somewhat talented Ass....with the emphasis being on the "ass" part of the equation.

Is that not a fair assessment?

I've pretty much offended everyone out there that can be offended, even some groups and individuals that really do deserve some coddling and protection in the name of civility or based on social/mental/physical infirmity.

To that end, I realize that I've GOT to GET ORGANIZED.

If I were to sit down regularly and make some notes, thereby capturing 50% of the ideas which I come up with during an average day so that I could follow through with researching and writing something meaningful, this place and the Redneck Gourmet could become something other than just a haunt for my friends and family and a few well placed acquaintances here on the Internet.

Thus far my blog only serves as some sort of a psyco(illogical) early warning system for a few folks out there. My Mom calls if I disappear for more than 24 hours on line, while a number of people out there probably celebrate my absence, but you still keep coming back when it's all said and done.

My buddy Steve over at Hog On Ice has given up writing about Politics almost entirely because he recognises that you alienate 50% of your potential readers when you open your mouth or place your fingers on a computer keyboard to enter the political arena--even if you are right in what you say. Publication of conservative and libertarian views causes even greater conflict for some reason.

Instead, Mr. Grahm has expanded his efforts into humor and Podcasting, and I've listened to and participated in a couple of his Sunday evening shows about cooking and it's an interesting concept I agree will continue to gain in popularity.

The other thing that Steve has done is sell books. Two cookbooks and another strange compilation about torturing Nigerian Spammers, but the man has cash flowing in his direction as a direct result of his writing.

Thus this realization...

I've made money drawing things on paper and computers for years. That said, why can't I retire in luxury as a result of my writing efforts--IF I can learn to better use spellcheck and understand the difference between the proper usage of words like "that" and "which" which I constantly mutilate to the chagrin of the school teachers and English majors in my audience.

I really do love writing, and in spite of how I felt in High School and College, it really isn't what I'd consider work today to toss together four or five thousand words given the right inspiration.

Now...

While you laugh hysterically at my public daydreaming, I have to get ready to go make some more sawdust over on the Job site. Callouses aren't much use on the keyboard, but right now making them thicker is the only way I have to get the funds to pay my bills.

Have a nice Wednesday...If you will.

I'm A Chili Chef?

Strange Aspirations...


The call came in about 5 PM today, and on the other end of the phone was my buddy John that owns the local low country restaurant--Blackwater Grill.

The subject of the conversation?


Incredibly, John was asking ME to bring MY Chili recipe and my spices down to Neptune Park on March 1st and lead his team in cooking 12 gallons of chili in St. Simon Island's annual Chili Cookoff this year.

Dang I'm flattered.

We didn't make it last year, but we attended two years ago and found it to be a real hoot, featuring live music and twenty or thirty teams of people scrambling to put together their giant pots of glop while consuming mass quantities of beer and entertaining their public audiences and their own inflated egos.

So now I can plan on adding my own imminent persona to this roster, and in the mean time I guess I'm test cooking some more Chili in order to fine tune the recipe.

I'm so excited I could just bust....

I Want My "Vigorous Secondary Screening"

My Prostate and Spleen's Been Bothering Me Lately...


I swear People, the only thing that keeps me from just walking around spewing profanity at every one and every thing all day long these days is the knowledge that I never reproduced and within the next twenty to forty years nothing I think will matter...and I guess that assertion is based on the assumption that I can still think at all in the mean time.

Seriously...much of the time I just want to break into my best Walter Brennan or Sam Kinison imitation and let the world have it verbally. Here on the blog I know that it shows in spite of my best efforts to the contrary much of the time.

My eyes are rolled so far back in my head right now from the Presidential campaign bullshit I've watched that I have to lay face down in the bed on my stomach to see the alarm clock in the morning, and I know more about what is going on behind me than I do in front of me as I stagger through the day in a Turrets-like trance.

Am I somehow the only one that feels this way?

No?

Well, what really got this evening's rant started was this story about some new argument about the use of State issued ID's to gain access to commercial airline flights.

WASHINGTON - Millions of air travelers may find going through airport security much more complicated this spring, as the Bush administration heads toward a showdown with state governments over post-Sept. 11 rules for new driver's licenses. By May, the dispute could leave millions of people unable to use their licenses to board planes, but privacy advocates called that a hollow threat by federal officials.

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, who was unveiling final details of the REAL ID Act's rules on Friday, said that if states want their licenses to remain valid for air travel after May 2008, those states must seek a waiver indicating they want more time to comply with the legislation.

The deadline is an effort to get states to begin phasing in the REAL ID program. Citizens born after Dec. 1, 1964, would have six years to get a new license; older Americans would have until 2017.

Chertoff said that for any state which doesn't seek such a waiver by May, residents of that state will have to use a passport or certain types of federal border-crossing cards if they want to avoid a vigorous secondary screening at airport security.

"The last thing I want to do is punish citizens of a state who would love to have a REAL ID license but can't get one," Chertoff said. "But in the end, the rule is the rule as passed by Congress."

Would someone please give me a break here?

We're actually electing people and paying people to sit around worrying about crap like this, and argue about something as basic as being able to prove who you are when you walk up to a gate at an airport?

Where do I go to slap some sense into someone, and where do I mail my letter complaining and demanding that we all get over crap like this and get on with worrying about something that actually matters?

I swear people...we're doomed... Doomed... DOOMED to imploding just like the Greek and Roman civilizations, and there are people out there that actually want that to happen and will somehow enjoy it when it occurs.

I just want to last long enough to see the look on their faces when their government certified "screener" places the inspection wand up into their rectum in front of their kids at the airport while Mohammad and Ishmail walk unfettered past the process onto the airplane with their strap on bombs.

Idiots...

PS...I Wrote this on Saturday, and let it loose on you today.

You're welcome...

I Bought This On eBay Today

Replacement Literature


Back in the day, I had a pretty nice collection of books, including textbooks, Engineering industry specific technical literature; and stuff from my childhood which my parents had bought me to read in order to keep me from appearing to be an idiot when chronologically I should have been a literate Adult.

In anticipation of that upcoming event (finally being considered a literate adult...or an idiot, depending on your political affiliation and world view perspective), this item will be arriving at my house via UPS this week:

This edition was published in 1903. I missed one circa 1876 last week because I wasn't paying attention, and lost it by $5.

Good God the Internet is an amazing resource.

(UPDATE 7:36 PM EST. I forgot to mention to those that aren't regular readers that my house burned down back in April 2001 and took virtually everything but my ego and memories away with it into ashes on that spring day. I've gotten over the event years ago, but once in a while I find things which indirectly remind me of the conflagration, else allow me to at least partially overcome the effect of my losses ...thus today's posting.)

Scary Stuff

Thanks To Captain Ed And Chris Muir...

My Internet Blogger Friend and Idol Captain Ed over at Captain's Quarters put the original photoshop image up, and Internet Cartoonist Chris Muir over at the "Day by Day" site improved it.

Please send Fred a few dollars if you can, I did.

Head Still Spinning

Profanity Still Imminent


Would someone please tell me what the heck is going on over at the Weather Channel these days?

They've apparently shifted their emphasis from forecasting the weather (thus the name) to telling me stupid shit that could have and should have come out of Owl Gore's Pie Hole.

Climate Change Morons...can't live with them, won't live without them coming into your home on your TV when you least expecte them.

Where's my recycled Asphalt (what we call a "Butt Defect" where I'm from in Alabama) toilet paper when I see something that needs wiping ??

Dammit...