Hurricane Near-Miss Elicits Whimpering

There's Still Hope For A Politically Convenient Disaster...


I've set back this week and watched with some humor the reaction of the national lamestream media and the sniveling, booger eating, tye died, patchouli stinking tree hugger eco friendly greenie weenies to this season's first real Hurricane...Earl.

These Man-made Global Warming zombies appear to me to be morbidly gleeful with the approach of this first real storm on the Atlantic Seaboard.

It's understandable that NBC's "The Weather Channel's staff is finally happy to put on a colorful raincoat and hold their hat while standing around broadcasting live on location on the Outer Banks of NC, but even FOX News can't resist sitting around offering near non-stop wild eyed coverage of what is going to end up being pretty much a non-event in spite of their best efforts.

Of course, as is usual, I feel that I can genuinely comment with this type of disdain and contempt for this current generation of government educated idiots' hysteria every time a blip forms on the radar and satellite picture...

because me and my family have been living with the effects--potential and actual--of hurricanes for the past 170 years as residents of the near gulf coast region of southern Alabama.

Long before there was anything like "The Weather Channel" and NASA's and NOAA's Weather Satellites, we were pounded every five or ten years with storms with virtually no warning, and without the demands or expectations of FEMA assistance.

Further, in my lifetime spanning 51 years as of today, my immediate family has been pounded with a half dozen storms with names like Eloise and Opal. And I, personally, have spent a half dozen years living within a mile of the coastline in Mexico Beach, Florida and on the Georgia Coast.

I absolutely for the life of me cannot understand the current mentality of the media, politicians, and general public over something which has been going on since Noah built the first wooden cruise ship and loaded it full of animals.

The only explanation I can give is that people have been raised, conditioned, and educated over the past twenty or thirty years to believe that they should be allowed to build a house--vacation or otherwise--and then under the umbrella of Federally subsidized flood insurance and political gifts like FEMA emergency housing and Debit Cards expect to be left unharmed and made whole when the inevitable happens...as it probably will several times again this season and again every year from now until long after the North Koreans and Iranians have blown up the civilized world.

Does anyone but me not understand that until the Johnson/Nixon congress passage of the National Federal flood Insurance program in 1968 THERE WAS NO INSURANCE AGAINST FLOODING?

Until then, if you wanted a house on a beach or sand dune or island, you had to be able to not only pay CASH for the structure, but then if it blew or washed away every five or ten years you had to be prepared to pay CASH again to rebuild it else enjoy your water front property sitting in a tent swatting mosquitoes and sand gnats and roasting weenies on a campfire.

Let's call government flood insurance what it is...

a taxpayer funded incentive for stupid, ill advised behavior.

I'm too lazy to Google the details right now, but I'm pretty sure that there are at LEAST four or five times as many people living on the Atlantic and Gulf Coasts of the US today than there were in 1968.

Why?

Because people want to enjoy the benefits and glamor of living there, and today they only can afford to live the lifestyle because the Federal Government is subsidizing their poor personal decisions on the backs of everyone else that lives away from the reach of Hurricanes in Atlanta and Chicago and North Dakota.

Don't get me wrong, I've also taken advantage of flood insurance when I could so I guess I'm a bit of a hypocrite by writing this rant, but still...

I WISH THAT THEY WOULD GIVE IT A REST ALREADY and focus the news on things which really matter and even then do accurate and fair reporting on the lunacy happening in every State Capitol building and in Washington DC.

You know?

"ID Hell"

Dealing With the Government and Government Employees...


"Joy, Joy, Please Lord keep me from killing someone..."

My prescription "Drivers License/Government ID" which currently allows me to do things like cash a check or get on a commercial air liner under the auspices of the FAA and the so-called Homeland Security Administration's expert airport "security screeners" expires on my birthday.

That would be...

T O M O R R O W.

So this morning about 6:30 AM I'm heading over to the local Department of Motor Vehicles office to stand in line in anticipation of their opening at 7 AM, and hopefully I'll be home sometime between then and next Thursday.

Isn't it amazing that people will hand over important tasks to the state and federal government--things like retirement and medical benefits--to a group of people which can not design an infrastructure to handle a known quantity of "customers" and simply take their money?

When they have a MONOPOLY on providing the services which they are supposed to provide?

I mean...it's not like I can drive down the road the other direction and come home with a drivers license from Lowes or Home Depot or possibly Kroger...you know?

The local Rooms To Go Store doesn't have a special selling a sofa and love seat with two end tables and a coffee table with a free government recognized identification card thrown in...all purchased under a contract with "six months same as cash" terms.

So I have to go now and shave and shower and practice biting my tongue so I can come home without a felony charge of ripping someone's arm off and beating them to death with it...either some idiot standing in line with me or one of the insolent government employees I expect to encounter in the next four hours.

Regards Y'all...

Drainin' The Swamp

Cooking Gator Tail...


Well, I have Good News...and I have Bad News...

(and of course there is also just the usual blogger type blitherings)

First of all, the GOOD NEWS is that I have a fairly reasonable semblance of a functioning computer back in our Server PC position here at the Turbo Pup Compound on the Banks of the Mighty Tennessee River.

It took probably twelve or fifteen hours to accomplish over the past week and one-half, but still...

The BAD NEWS is I'm still stuck using Windows Vista as my operating system because of the scheme or schemes of collusion or contempt shown to computer users by companies like Hewlett Packard and Microsoft.

The way things work as I understand it is that Microsoft, in their efforts to continue to earn record shattering profits every single year, maintains a program of forcing computer users to buy whatever product it is that they want to sell at any given time on the calendar.

To that end, they force users that know better--people like me which have been dealing with Microsoft since the inception of DOS 1.0...

People like me that know that all Microsoft products have been flawed...intentionally or unintentionally..through the ages since the early 1980's...

People like me that know that virtually the minute you turn on a computer and boot any given Microsoft operating system the people out at Microsoft in Washington State are planning on making you download an X.1 or X.2 version of the program while at the same time ultimately planning on SELLING you yet another and Another and ANOTHER properly working version of the product which they already sold you a year or so earlier...

So any way, in late 2007 when I ordered what I call our "Server PC" from HP and had it built, the only operating system available at the time was an incarnation of Windows Vista.

"But What if I want Windows XP Professional..."

"No...its Windows Vista or nothing...you'll have to go buy some stupid crappy computer from the local computer shop smelling of exotic incense...staffed by people wearing strange clothing with red dots on their foreheads..."

So I took a big breath and bought the HP computer I wanted and closed my eyes as I clicked the little button that said "OS Windows Vista Home Premium Edition."

And so here I am almost three years later still not only suffering from the decision to let HP install the Vista Virus on my computer...

...but also finding myself WILLFULLY INSTALLING the exact same software back on my own computer because the way HP and Microsoft have it worked out...

...previous versions of Windows...

...stable operating systems like XP Professional...

...won't work on my Server PC because there are no XP compatible drivers for half of the accessories like the Lightscribe DVD/CD drive and other important crap.

So after about ten days I finally gave in and drank the Coolaid and here I am this morning happily typing away with a catatonic stare of a Vista Zombie.

I got the TV tuner card software re-installed and MS Office and AutoCAD and PhotoShop CS3 and another zillion things I use on a daily basis, and I JUST DON'T CARE ANYMORE because...

...I REFUSE to pay Microsoft for Windows 7 which is apparently the only way I can "Upgrade" my computer operating system.

Sometimes a man's gotta do what a man's gotta do...you Know?

And in other news, my back up external hard drive...the only hard drive in the/ON THE ENTIRE FREAKING PLANET which held all of the crap I lost when Vista lost it mind...

...the hard drive which also decided to stop driving or writing or reading or whatever it is that hard drives do...

...the hard drive that decided last weekend that it didn't want to talk to or listen to my Server PC any more...

...is sitting at the local computer shop getting an haircut and pedicure and possibly an enema but they tell me that the problem was in the case of the external drive unit and that the drive itself was preliminarily A-OK.

So I ran out to Staples and picked up a new 1 Terrabyte Segate external drive for the low, low price of $79.00 plus tax and later this morning they are supposed to let me have 34 months worth of photos and data and business correspondence back into my office.

I may just have to take a shower and go to bed and sleep with it...I'll be so happy to have the information back.

Needless to say, if you understood HALF of the past million words of rambling, I'm one tired but happy middle aged Redneck Injuneer this morning.

And on that note...Regards Y'all...

Up To My ASS In Alligators

Don't ask...


News continues to break here at the Turbopup Compound on the banks of the Mighty Tennessee River.

The kind of news which starts out as rumors and fears about things out of my direct control, but which could end up having some aggrivating consequences if and when things come true in the next couple of weeks...

But...

In my normal devil-may-care manner, I'm forging ahead because I have no other choice.

Unfortunately the situation makes me mentally uninterested/incapable of writing a whole lot here on the blog for the time being.

I'll wander around the Internet and see what else is going on besides the liberals bashing Glenn Beck and get back to y'all later I guess.

A Year Of Living Dangerously Day Of Doing Not Much Of Anything

Successful Smoking and Cooking...


I'm pleased to report that I had a pretty good Saturday here at the Turbo Pup Compound on the Banks of the Mighty Tennessee River.

If yours was half as good as mine was you should have already had a pretty good weekend.

I was just worn out and tired and mentally out of steam and worst of all I knew that I had yet another busy week ahead of me...a week critical to the ongoing progress of building my new business enterprise...and I had to get my attitude adjusted in order to face the tasks before me.

Of course there was the obligatory trip to Home Depot to pick up some odds and ends needed to finish the installation of a new range hood vent fan over the oven in my kitchen, and for dinner there was the preparation of some Prime Beef and Sea Scallops for dinner which didn't get finished until nearly 9 PM last night.

I came up with a new recipe using, in addition to the Tenderloin and Mollusks, sliced fresh mushrooms and wilted baby spinach which ended up laying in a nice satisfying pile on a couple of plates.

I'm too lazy to write down the recipe right now, but will probably cook it again later this week and then publish it here on the blogs.

Any way...while I was sitting around outside on the deck smoking my weekend cigar, little Missy the Turbo Pup spent a couple of hours lounging around in her pool...




and resting in the shade on her personal beach...



At this point in life I'd gladly swap places with that little dog, because she is definitely spoiled rotten and doesn't have a care in the world most of the time.

I miss my old cats which have gone on to Kitty heaven over ten years ago, but as Canines go I'm blessed to have the company of such a fine little animal.