My Thoughts On The Election?

I defer To Quoting Other Men's Words...

"...democracy is the theory that the people know what they want—and deserve to get it good and hard."

 -H.L. Mencken


“The people have spoken . . . and they must be punished.”

-NY Mayor Ed Koch

Strange Women Lying In Ponds

Government We All Can't Afford To Own...

I'm up early this morning in order to go stand in line before my polling place opens and cast my vote and get to work hopefully by 8 AM. Oklahoman's are quite determined about this election with early voting lines stretching for five or six hours over the weekend. I really don't give a darn how long it takes...I'm speaking out against the insanity I've witnessed over the past four years regardless of if it costs me a half vacation day. And YOU need to get off of your ass and go vote yourself (unless you are an idiot Obamamaniac then head on over to the Food Stamp office or the Disibility office and check in...they miss you over there.)

Has My The Silence Been Deafening?

Enjoy It While You Still Can...


Greetings Ladies and Gentlemen...

yes it is I...

your lovely and talented Blogger...coming back here out of "blogging hibernation" with a few comments this morning in this corner of cyberspace.

I assure you that I've been making good use of my time out here in Tulsa...far, far away from our little island on the Georgia Coast.

Besides celebrating the end of my first year in my new position as "Lead Structural Engineer" working in the Petroleum Refining business, I've also managed to acquire a lovely new five acre property and a stone fortress of a house in eastern Tulsa which is taking a big chunk of my time preparing for our move later this month:

We still have a couple of weeks of work but hope to be settling in by Thanksgiving. Meanwhile, on the national stage, this current Presidential election has HUGE ramifications for my family and that of most of my peers who get up each morning and go to work to EARN the money they spend to feed their familys and support their lifestyles. Unfortunately it is US versus THEM come Tuesday morning... ...and things are going to look pretty Crappy in my opinion if the Leaches and Users and other members of the Democratic Base managed to vote their way into my wallet and other areas of my life (like healthcare) in the next four years. I pray that a stoke of sanity stops this Ship of Fools we've got running our country in it's tracks, and that the assholes that call themselves Republicans manage to remember their promises of fiscal responsibility and a return to whatever is left of the Constitutional Government established by our founders nearly 250 years ago. Until next Tuesday... Regards Y'all...

Views From My Auto Cockpit

How I See Things...



Yes...that would be the dashboard display on my Audi Q7 this afternoon.

Like I said...its WARM out here in Oklahoma...

Clear and Cool Hot With A Chance Of Spontaneous Combustion

"Somebody Stick Me With A Fork And Turn Me Over..."

It was predicted that the High temperature would be 115 degrees F here in Tulsa this afternoon.  The thermometer in my car red 110 degrees F at lunch.

It's been over 100 degrees F every day but two or three for the past couple of months.

Who's idea was it moving out here to Northeastern Oklahoma in the first place?

I'm Half Well Baked?

"Somebody Turn Off The Heat..."

I'm seriously considering buying a case of Depends and putting Ice Cubes in them while trying to walk and work outside.

OK...maybe not, but still...

Will Someone Please Stick Me With A Fork And Turn Me Over?

I Think That I'm Cooked "Well Done" On This Side...


OK...what to say and where to go this morning?

I KNOW...WRITE ABOUT THE WEATHER.

Did I mention that it is hot as Heck Hell Hades out here in north eastern Oklahoma these days?

Well...it is

...just in case you haven't been watching the Weather Channel.

So any way... I think that I've mentioned before that our new home out here in the Tulsa Suburbs...also known as "The Turbo Pup Compound...WEST" (conveniently located adjacent to the banks of the mighty Arkansas River) has as one of it's infinite ammenities a three car garage?

And I've been in the process of converting the shorter, smaller, single third bay into a shop/man camp/playground over the past 8 months?

Problem was, and is, my garage is "unconditioned" i.e. void of connection with the "central heating and air conditioning system responsible for keeping the rest of our lovely home operating at civilized levels of temperature and humidity.

Up until the last week or so, I found myself over the past months slowly but surely and totally losing control of the ambient conditions in this important space as summer arrived full force here in our nation's "heartlands."

An injuneering solution was definitely in order, and being an semi-eductated and self proclaimed Injuneer, I guess I had to get to work and solve this problem without expecting to get paid for my services.

Thus in my weather/heat induced insanity, I've constructed something which looks like this on the inside of the single garage bay (unfinished but operational...)

and looks like this on the outside of the building...again unfinished/unpainted but operational none the less...

...featuring two $98 plus tax 5050 BTU "window unit" type air conditioning units from Wal Mart... and producing this result at 6 AM in the morning after enduring two days of 100 plus degree F ambient (with a heat index of 104 deg F.)

In the late afternoon my new system is able to keep the temperature in my garage/shop under 82 degrees F so far without final weather stripping and paint.

All of this comfort for about $350 out of pocket not counting my tools and labor.

COOL?

I'd say so...

I'm not a GENIUS...I'm a FREAKING SUPER GENIUS...aren't I?

Home...Home On...The Range

"Would Someone Please Pass Me The Suntan Lotion?"

OK...after living here for plus or minus EIGHT MONTHS since moving out from Tennessee last fall...

basically we're still stumbling around in the middle of the "Continental United States" trying to figure out the details of how things work.

You know?

So far, so good I think.

In fact, if you consider the cost of living in general, and that we have some of the lowest gasoline prices in the entire US not to mention that they are building new houses every one hundred and twenty five feet up and down our street and the UNEMPLOYMENT RATE IS BELOW FIVE PERCENT...

...things are down right "tollerable" as I see them.

Then there is this weather forcast for this week...

Look closely at those predicted high temperature numbers.

Yep...mid 100 to 110 range they say.

I think that I'll make a giant pitcher of Iced Tea with extra Ice and hide inside for the duration.

Everyone please try to stay cool, and Regards Y'all...

They Made Me Drive It...

The Rental Car Agent Appreciated My Attitude...

OK...

So after busting my butt through three different airports in three separate cities and states...

by about 2 AM yesterday morning all I wanted to do was finish my travels and pick up some sort of functioning automobile to run around in and go somewhere and lay my head down on a pillow.

Is that simple request too much to ask?

Turns out that it was in a way...

Then the Rental company's computer was down and one thing led to another and here I am sitting around here this morning with

Yep..that will do...for now...

Regards Y'all...

Free Airport Internet

Flying Away Two Weekends In A Row


OK...Ladies and Gentlemen...

I hate to admit that even after taking nearly a dozen flights going "hither and yond" over the past six months or so...

I've never spent enough time in our new home airport...Tulsa, OK...

...to realize that they not only have really fast internet...

...but they have VERY FAST FREE INTERNET!

Love it.

I actually have time to check e-mail and Google around a few places this afternoon before I catch my flight back to Atlanta...

ugh...

and then on to Tallahassee, Florida later tonight.

(Don't ask me, I'll explain later my reason for going to that part of the world later.)

OH...

wait...

OH...

WAIT...

I almost forgot...

I finally have new house pictures taken of our place out here at the Turbo Pup Compound West conviently situated on the access road Banks of the mighty Tennessee Arkansas River on the border line between Tulsa and Broken Arrow Oklahoma!!!!!

You ready?

Here, take a look at our new abode:

From across the street...

...and a little closer...

...and closer...

...front courtyard...

...front door...

And finally...

...the recently installed swimming pool for little Missy the Turbo Pup (sans the movie stars...)

I think that you will agree that our FAMILY is truly blessed right now, and if things keep going like they are some amazing new stuff is going to happen in the next few months... ...stay tuned to this channel for the details... ...Regards Y'all...

All The Fun Stuff Happens While I'm Away...

Headin' To The Airport This Morning

Things I Want To Try...


So I'm sitting this morning with my luggage almost completely packed up in anticipation of heading to the "Atlanta Metropolitian Area" to attend the high school Graduation of one of Pat's Granddaughters tonight.

Having lived in Atlanta for 27 years beginning in the fall of 1977, and having seen the construction and evolution of the current interstate highway system and airport--Hartsfield/Jackson International...

I find myself experiencing "mixed emotions" as I complete my preparations.

One thing I'm looking forward to, besides seeing some of Pat's family for the first time in a most of a year, is the possibility of doing this on my way from the arrival gate to baggage claim:

Wish me luck...if you will...

New Woman Computer In My Office

I'm Acting All Goofy & Tingly....


I had the audacity to finally say something about the cantankerous behavior of my hand-me down corporate laptop I received when I took my new job back in October.

They offered me a high powered desktop CAD workstation but being the vagabond that I am I wanted to be able to run out the door with my computer under my arm on a moment's notice and I would need a wheelbarrow or a large backpack when attempting that maneuver with the first option.

So now six months later I've realized that the happy little laptop had become an angry beast working under the load of AutoCAD 12 and the RISA finite element software I run every day not to mention the Excel and other Microsoft Office products I tend to fire up and operate.

So any way...my boss and the IT department nerds got together and the results of their efforts arrived at my desk first thing yesterday morning...

a brand new HP Z400  CAD Workstation with...get this...
a 3+ Ghz Intel  Xenon Quad Core Processor
12 Gigs of RAM
NIVDA Quattro Graphics card with 1 Gig RAM
500 Gig Hard Drive

Needless to say things are smoking...almost catching on fire...in my office these days.

AND?

They let me keep the old laptop also.

Now this crusty old grumpy engineer is a bit less grumpy this morning, and that said it's time to hit the showers and head to the office I guess.

Regards Y'all...

My Yard & Garden Have Taken Command...

I've Traded My Entire Personal Life For Some Magic Beans?


So I had really big plans for last weekend...you know?

A page long list of projects which have been festering on the sidelines/back burner for the past few months since the weather turned nice and in some zombie like catatonic fit I started buying power lawn equipment.

Right now I can't walk into a grocery store or a movie theater or a fast food restarurant not to mention a Lowe's or Home Depot without coming home with a plant or some sort of lawn equipment.

If they are not actually selling plants in the retail establishment I'm afraid that I'm likely to dig something up and put it in a bucket and bring it home with me to plant in my own yard.

The same goes for letting me come over to your house to visit, so you better do an inventory before I back out of your driveway or your Lace Leafed Weeping Japanese Maple tree or some Knockout Roses or Azaleas might just come up missing.

And then there is my affinity for things with gas powered engines on them...so-called "power lawn equipment."

I love the crap, but in my old age much of that kind of stuff ends up hurting me and making it hard to do things like walk or even get out of bed after even a brief encounter outside my front or back door.

I actually tried to avoid ownership of such torturous infernal contraptions found in the "power lawn equipment" isles of life, but things just haven't worked out and I hate to admit that it's nobody's fault but my own in the end.

You see, in the process of moving out here to the "Turbo Pup Compound West" (or TUPUCOW--pronounced "too poo cow"-- for short) I gave away my crappy old lawnmower and two weed eaters I had bought at a yard sale in Knoxtown.

I really wasn't crazy...just lazy...and besides, the carburator seals on the old lawnmower had been eaten by the government subsidized ethanol poisoned gasoline I put in it, and I had only gotten around to making one of the two weedeaters operate over the past two or three growing seasons.

Rather than actually use my crappy old lawn equipment historically I'd been paying a guy to take care of the yard pretty much since we moved away from our little Island to Knoxtown in early 2007.

So any way, when we were moving out here to Tulsa I had the idea that either:

A.  I'd hire a local kid or landscape contractor to handle the yard or...

B.  Since the yard was the size of a postage stamp tiny I'd break down and buy some new tools and do it myself if push came to shove (excuse the pun.)

Well, upon arrival we learned that the going rate in East Tulsa/Broken Arrow to hire a pimple faced teen to mow and trim/edge a yard which required the burning one mililiter a half ounce of two or three ounces of gasoline in one or more internal combustion engines was the same as the cost of mowing a half acre in Knoxtown...

FORTY DOLLARS!!!

I thought about it for a few months through the winter, then when things warmed up over the past couple of months I've slowly added a push mower (not self propelled), a weed eater, and a wimpy electric leaf blower to the fleet of devices sitting around in my garage.

...Oh...and a little garden wagon with a polymer (plastic) bed is out there also....

Getting back to the original point of my story this evening, the way things are growing this season so far I have to cut the grass at LEAST once a week and the weed eater chores will probably soon move from 10 days or 2 week intervals down to every week.

And then there is this year's edition of the manditory vegetable garden which I have slowly been adding to since the first tomato plant went in Easter weekend.

Right now I have a half dozen variates of tomatoes and a similar number of peppers growing, and there are Yellow and Zuccini squash and eggplant and cucumbers and watermelons and cantaloupe and pumpkins...

...and on top of all of that?

Last weekend in a fit of gardening insanity I bought another six tomato plant varieties and some more red bell pepper plants and yet another variety of eggplant for good measure.

And needless to say all of this gardening and other yard work is severely limiting my time available to work on the model airplane's which can be found languishing all lonesome in my garage shop area.

That said, I guess that it is time to stop complaining and get some sleep in anticipation of another day on the treadmill.

Y'all have a LOVELY week now...

Regard's Y'all...

Watch Out Everybody

That Wild Puppy's Back In Town...


Well...we made it back home after a surprisingly uneventful flight from Houston's Hobby International Airport to Tulsa about fifteen minutes early yesterday afternoon.

The round trip from the new Turbo Pup Compound West (conviently located here on the Banks of the Mighty Arkansas River) to the Texas Gulf Coast and back represents a new travel milestone for little Missy the Turbo Pup and her family pack.

Now she can pretty much go anywhere Pat and I want to go visit by water or road and now by air in the future.  I'm making preliminary plans for a trip this fall to either the US Virgin Islands or the Bahamas (both pet friendly areas without quarantine rules) and of course there are trips to visit extended family and friends living in locartions up and down the east coast and only reachable by air without enduring a two plus day car trip each way.

Time now to pour my second cup of coffee and get some foundation loading drawings moving before the entire engineering staff from our customer's field offices shows up at my door here.

Hope everyone has a LOVELY day...

Regard's Y'all...

Galveston...OH Galveston...

Blogging Live From The Texas Gulf Coast...


I'm pleased to report that later this afternoon we're packing the Turbo Pup's lockers and sea chests up, along with our luggage, and heading back across the Bolivar Peninsula from Galveston Island toward Hobby Airport in south Houston.

You see, Little Missy made her first airliner flight with us last Thursday morning from Tulsa to Houston on our way to a long beach weekend and boy has that little dog had a good time in the process. She did fabulously on the trip down sitting in her soft crate under the seat for takeoff and landing and hanging out in the middle seat between us on the Boeing 737 in mid flight with her head sticking out the top.

So any way...regarding my blogging...or rather...the lack thereof...

All I can say is this:

New house, new yard (and new lawn mower and weed eater and leaf blower and wagon to go with it) and an incredibly busy professional schedule has left me mentally exhausted as I come up to speed with my new position as the "Lead Structural Engineer" responsible for tens of millions of dollars worth of steel and refractory structures weighing millions and millions of pounds.

But things have settled down a good deal now over the past month or so and I've even had time to resurrect an ancient hobby of mine which had sort of been abandoned over the past twenty years or so.

That's right ladies and gentlemen, I've gotten back into building (and soon flying) Radio Controlled MODEL AIRPLANES again, and what a difference two decades makes in the technologies available to today's modelers.

The days when if old guys like me wanted something that would fly we were forced to sit around sniffing strong smelling glue and paints and solvents while making tons of chips and sawdust out of sheets, blocks, and strips of balsa wood are over with unless you just like doing things that way (which I do.)

Today you can jump in the car and run down to the hobby store or dial up the Internet and get out your credit card and 24 hours later you are standing in your front yard with a fully finished working model airplane (or car or boat or whatever else you want to drive around.)

I've got a wooden glider kit with a 2 meter wingspan almost finished and two other kits...another 2 meter glider and a small nitro fuel powered trainer sitting unbuilt in boxes on a shelf, and an ever growing assortment of new and used trophies like engines and electric motors and batteries and RC transmitters I found for bargan prices on E-Bay ready to be installed so I can take to the skys at the local flying club field... the Tulsa Glue Dobbers...which I just joined this month.

The Glue Dobbers are the oldest continuously chartered Radio Controlled flying club in the entire United States, and they have a beautiful property with a paved runway and other amenities located less than FOUR MILES from my house...on the way to my OFFICE, so if you don't hear from me a  bunch again in the near future you will know where to look to find me.

Until then, good to be back writing again here on the old Blog.

Take care everybody...and Regard's Y'all...

"F You"?

Consider This Useage...




(...missing my blogging...thinking about coming back with some of my usual ranting and raving shortly...until then...Regards Y'all...)

Now I've Seen Everything!

OK...ALMOST Everything...

http://www.walmart.com/ip/Lady-de-Guadalupe-Steel-Casket/12569361

Pain In My Neck Back

Getting Old Sucks...


So far this new year--2012--has presented sort of a whirlwind of old things to finish and new things to take on.

Thus the light writing here on my blog for the past six weeks or so.

I have to say that  I do miss writing two or three essays each day while spitting and screaming at the TV or Newspaper Stories.

Unfortunately, reality dictates that I focus on other issues for most of the hours I have available.

An Evening In The Garage

Boys Will Be Boys...

Old Guys Singing

My Hair Would Look Like That If I Still Had Any...

We're All DOOMED

AhhhhhhHHHHHHHHHH!!!!

Friday Morning Cereal

You're Welcome...



Wyman Meinzer's West Texas from Wyman Meinzer on Vimeo.

I'm A Victim Of A Coronal Mass Ejection

They Took My Long Nose Pliers...


So I'm back in Tulsa Town this evening after having to wander through the "Hartsfield/Jackson International Airport" outside Atlanta not once but TWICE in the past four days.

The experience makes me remember why I moved away from the "Atlanta Metropolitan Area" in 2001 and again in 2004 after living there for most of 27 years.

I've flown on the Airlines more in the past four months than I have in the past eight years, and I've found dealing with the TSA in Knoxtown and Tulsa to be a pretty simple process.

On the other hand...

ATLANTA?

Not so much.

You see, the past few years when I was designing and building custom PLC control panels I'd taken to traveling with a nice new high tech computer case with wheels and a handle and a special area suitable for arranging and storing tools to support my field start up work.

Things like a multi meter and screwdrivers and pliers and wire cutters/strippers easily were transported and while the lovely TSA rocket scientists at the security areas in various airports always wanted to look at my tool collection I always came home with the contents intact.

The rule was nothing--in the category of tools--over 7" long in carry on baggage. (Here's the "Tool List" from the TSA website)

Axes and Hatchets No
Cattle Prods No
Crowbars No
Hammers No
Drills and drill bits (including cordless portable power drills) No
Saws (including cordless portable power saws) No
Tools (greater than seven inches in length) No
Tools (seven inches or less in length) Yes
Screwdrivers (seven inches or less in length) Yes

But yesterday afternoon at Hartsfield?

The silly black bitch with the TSA uniform pawing through my stuff pulled out my pair of 7" long nosed pliers and claimed they were longer than 6" and proceeded to confiscate them.

I was more sad than angry.

You see, this nice pair of Craftsman long nosed pliers had been traveling around with me across the country for a couple of years now, and they almost had enough frequent flyer miles to get themselves a free ticket on Delta Airlines.

But this morning they are probably laying there in a bin at the airport with all of the stolen bottles of lotion and shampoo and open bottles of mineral water collected by the idiots at the TSA in the name of "Homeland Security" waiting to be melted down or probably tossed into a dumpster.

Gee whiz...I sure feel safer when I fly with people like the silly black bitch working for the TSA protecting our traveling pubic public.

That will be all...for now...

Headin' Back To Lower Alabama

Sad Return Back To My Family Home...


I'm getting on a Delta airliner at 6:30 AM this morning flying from Tulsa toward Atlanta, then meeting my sister for the drive to the Farm in Alabama to attend the funeral of my Uncle...Mom's youngest Brother.

It's an expensive trip in both time and money out of pocket, but I simply cannot justify missing the ceremony since I've known and respected the GREAT man for 52 years.

Today I find myself in the position of rapidly assuming the title of oldest living man on both sides of my family tree--Maternal and Paternal--a title which I reluctantly assume since the alternative is definitely less attractive.

(Sorry for the light posting recently but I'm up to my eyeballs in Injuneering work and my brain is too fried to think after 5 PM CST.)

Chillin' In Tulsa This Morning

Literally...


Oh...where to start writing this morning?

I KNOW...write about the weather!

After all...

everyone talks or writes about it (the Weather)...

BUT but no one (except Owl Gore) ever does anything about it.

RIGHT?

...so any way...

Surprisingly, during our first winter out here in Eastern Oklahoma the weather has been pretty kind to us so far.

Not much different from where we came from over in Knoxtown in Eastern Tennessee.

I have to admit that we're sort of surprised...actually.

Last year they had one storm out here which dumped over 22 inches of snow on the area, but looking at the published data the average snowfall is listed at 10 inches annually, and Knoxtown's average was similarly listed as being 12 inches although we only saw anything close to that figure one year out of the five we lived there....

so I guess we're probably going to be OK most of the time.

Looking at the calendar...

...the days are getting longer.

Looking at the thermometer...

... it's about 29 deg F outside.

...and looking out my back windows of our new house there's about an inch of sloppy white snow which fell after dark but before 10 PM last evening (the first of this winter) making everything look sort of peaceful and quite now that it has frozen.

I've just re-stoked last evening's fireplace fire early this morning and finally have some off time to consider the whirlwind of my life which has happened over the past three months

It seems like just yesterday I was celebrating my birthday in September 2011 while spending time innocently making sawdust and painting/staining trim in the basement of my house in Knoxtown in eastern Tennessee.

Here now almost four months later, in January of 2012, I find myself working all day in an Injuneering office located  almost 800 miles to the West of Knoxtown...

...sitting by a fire looking at the snow in my back yard.

Who Knew?

Headin' Back To Tulsa

Knoxtown Details Tidied Up...

Sorry about the light posting folks, but I traveled back to Knoxtown late Friday night have spent Saturday and Sunday cleaning up some stuff left behind in the old house, and most of all...

signing a lease with a tenant for one year!!

After paying for two houses--one of them empty--for three months you can understand our relief in getting the property occupied.

So tomorrow I've got a little more stuff to do around the place to get it ready for the new renter's family, then it's back to Tulsa tomorrow night and back to work Tuesday morning.

Regards Y'all...

More Stolen Votes?

Iowa Caucuses Prove Feckless And Inept...


In an era of technology advancement and endless touting of our modern era having the ability to advance and improve the quality of our life...

Once again--like Bush-v-Gore and the US Supreme Court decision --here now in THE VERY FIRST guage of which candidate should represent the Conservative Republican Party tonight I see potential voter fraud and intentional manipulation of our 2012 Presidential election compromised.

Don't get me wrong here Ladies and Gentlemen.

I really don't give a green gosh darn about what the people in Iowa ceremoniously marching around in tonight's "caucus" process think about who should be living on Pennsylvania Avenue in the White House in late January 2013.

What I do care about is that when and if we re-elect the multi-cultural, multi-ethical, multi-colored "community organizer in-chief" presently residing in the oval office that he is presented with a valad opponent and here from the outset of the official process to determine a Republican Candidate the Idiots out in Iowa can't execute a process they've been doing for nearly a century without screwing things up and losing critical ballots from critical precints.

One minute they're passing laws taking our rights away from us and making it hard or illegal to own a gun while at the same time playing games and screwing around with the very process which determines who gets to pass those same laws and legislation.

I don't know about you, but Belize or Costa Rica is looking pretty good.

Come to think of it, just writing about this crap after watching it unfold makes head hurt so I have to go and do some more stuff now...