Has It Really Been That Long?
Well folks, 1418 Posting later, and what began as a series of essays delivered to my friends as E-mails in July and August of 2004 is now what you see here today.
I didn't really understand what I was getting into at the time, but I did know that the other side of my brain--the half which I had ignored as a math/science based engineering nerd for forty plus years--was looking for an outlet and words were trying to burst forth out of my finger tips onto my computer keyboard.
On August 10th, 2004 I decided to begin assaulting the world with my rantings, and 34 thousand hits later, here we all are today.
I admit that I do look at the hit counter, but I don't really write to get hits or readers...what I have to say is what I have to say at any given moment of any given day. I've also thus far avoided making you look at advertisement and ads on my site. It's tough passing up 39 cents a day in easy income, but I think that I can make it without making you endure commercialism here in my little part of the Internet.
I'd like to think that some of what I have to say is original and thought provoking, even if the only thoughts I provoke are of you getting onto an airplane and flying to the Georgia coast to beat me to death for my inane stupidity.
Regardless of what you think, thanks for stopping by here once in a while to see what's going on.
You can expect to see some changes and improvements in the blog format later this year, and with the new and improved kitchen facilities here in the new house you'll probably see the resurrection of frequent postings over on my cooking blog, The Redneck Gourmet.
Until next time...
Regards Y'all
.
Friday, August 10, 2007
Still Beating A Dead Horse
The City Of Brunswick Sanitation Department Sucks...
This morning, being well rested and somewhat settled into our new home here on our little island, I feel like turning my attention back across the Torras Causeway to the mainland, taking a few shots at the government of the City of Brunswick, Georgia in the process.
Don't get me wrong here--I don't dislike the City's government as a whole.
In fact, I think that some parts of it are actually pretty effective. Take my friend Mayor Brian Thompson for instance.
Brian's a real capable, likeable, stand up kind of guy. Further, Brian's willing to stand up and take endless abuse and and allow total strangers to make infinite demands on his time and energy, all for the sum of about $13,000 per year in salary.
How he makes it all work I'll never know.
And, for those of you that are thinking that I'm overstating my relationship with Mayor Thompson, let me say that I've actually been to his house for a party last Christmas, I have his personal cellphone number in my phone, and his wife Heather and I have worked on a number of theatrical & art projects and shows together over the past couple of years beginning long before his election to his present office.
With that and $0.75, I can probably get a cup of coffee at the local Waffle House, but connections are "connections" and I'll take mine where I can get them.
But I digress...
The current problem I have with the City of Brunswick government is with the "Sanitation" Department. That would be the "Departmente de Lempio" for my Spanish speaking readers (if I remember things accurately from my Junior year of High School.)
Any way, when I bought a rental duplex and a couple of vacant lots in the "New Town" section of Brunswick back in 2004, I immediately realized that there was a "little littering" problem in that section of town.
Maybe instead of calling it a "little littering" problem, I should call it a "big littering" problem.
Thinking a bit further, maybe it would be more accurate to say that we have a DUMPING PROBLEM in much of downtown Brunswick, Georgia.
But wait...
The City of By-God Brunswick, Georgia, USA forces everyone that has City water service to also pay for City supplied SANITATION SERVICE...for the ridiculously low price of about $8 per month.
Seems like a good deal to me.
But wait...
IF everyone has government mandated and government supplied "Sanitation Service," why is there litter strewn up and down the street and on every street corner?
Further, why is there wholesale dumping of giant piles of junk curbside, on a continuous basis, on my property and my neighbors' properties over the past 3-1/2 years?
Seriously, if you own property in downtown Brunswick and you don't police it on a monthly if not weekly (or even daily) basis, you will come back to find a giant pile of things like yard debris, sofas and other furniture, children's clothing, and virtually everything else imaginable laying on yourgrass weeds dirt, curb, and even part of the street.
One time I even had most of an upright piano laying on the edge of the alley behind my duplex.
Right now I have no less that two sofas and another bunch of crap that has clearly been dumped by someone, but not by average citizens that the City of Brunswick has forced to pay for "Sanitation Services." It's not the kind of stuff that people generate from cleaning out their kitchen and bathroom trash cans.
Could people be driving over from Alabama or up from Florida to dispose of their refuse?
Possibly, but probably not.
What I have laying around on my property is stuff abandonded by tenants which have been evicted from or otherwise move out of local rental properties and that is either dumped by the landlord else hauled and illegally disposed of by the landlord's representative(s.)
What we have going on is not people emptying their cans full of paper napkins, chicken bones and watermellon rines onto my curb (although I have had a bunch of bananas and most of a watermellon dumped out there once).
What we have going on is people that should know better using the streets and alleys of Brunswick as a landfill, thereby avoiding paying the local dump fees or tipping fees for bulk items that won't fit in their curbside city supplied trashcan.
I'd like to ask the "Officials" of the City of By-God Brunswick, Georgia, USA one question:
"Why not employ the current logic and just add a couple hundred dollars of dump fees onto everybodies' water bill or property tax bill and see if any better results can be attained--because your current program obviously isn't working?"
I'm waiting for an answer...
[que the sounds of crickets chirping here...]
Any way, you'd probably like to know what the "Sanitation Department" of the City of By-God Brunswick, Georgia actually does have to say about all of these goings on?
Well, first of all, in mid-May they said that they would come out to look at my current pile of trash and quote me a fee to remove it. This after they've already cleaned up similar piles of junk and debris in the past for free and often without me having to pound my fist or even lift a finger to dial the telephone.
After several missed appointments and games of playing "phone tag", now that I'm interested in developing and selling the property, the city has started taking a coy, hardball attitude with me for some unknown reason.
I've already paid a private contractor $300 to have the vacant land cleaned up and the litter removed, but I refuse to pay the additional $700 that my contractor wants to charge me to remove TWO DUMP TRUCK LOADS of crap that is not mine and was not placed on my property with my consent.
Finally in late May I got the head of the "Sanitation Department" to meet me on the property and agree to remove the debris at no cost...BUT, I'd have to wait until the new fiscal year began in June so they could put in a work order and have the money in the City's budget.
Looking at the calendar, it's now August 10th and tomorrow I expect to go over and yet again view the lovely festering, 30' x 20' x 5' high pile of crap that continues to grow as I write (it was still there two Monday's ago.)
I've called the "sanitation department" office several times a day several days each week for the past three weeks and my voicemail messages have as yet gone unanswered. Apparently the "sanitation department" can't afford a secretary or administrative assistant either.
Regardless of the final outcome, I'd like to point out that this is a perfect example of government ineffectiveness and ineptitude. Further, in this case it is also an example of the government attempting to supply a necessary and increasingly expensive service at an artificially low price.
Ten years ago in Atlanta I paid over $30 a month for trash service that didn't include the removal of yard debris, and today the City of Brunswick is trying to provide mandatory trash service for $8.00 per month.
In this case, apparently the low cost of the "sanitation service" is intended to balm the wounds of those that feel put upon by the mandate that the "sanitation service fee" be included in the water bill.
Glynn County does a little better with their $200+ fee included in the annual tax bill, but again the level of customer service verges on abysmal because the real cost of the service is apparently greater than the fee being charged.
The difference is that the county passes the costs directly to the property owner, where the City charges the end user--the tenant or resident--directly. (Too bad that the county politicians don't realize that the end users still end up paying their fee because the landlord just raises the rent to offset the increase in the tax bill anyway.)
What both the City of By-God Brunswick, Georgia and the government of Glynn County officials don't realize is that by meddling in the free market--by forcing everyone to buy "sanitation services" from the government or a government anointed contractor, they are actually preventing the free market and associated competition from competently providing a needed service at a fair cost.
Notice that I didn't say low cost or cheep cost?
That's because everything can't be cheep, other than the quality of the service that you get when you attempt to get something for nothing.
This morning, being well rested and somewhat settled into our new home here on our little island, I feel like turning my attention back across the Torras Causeway to the mainland, taking a few shots at the government of the City of Brunswick, Georgia in the process.
Don't get me wrong here--I don't dislike the City's government as a whole.
In fact, I think that some parts of it are actually pretty effective. Take my friend Mayor Brian Thompson for instance.
Brian's a real capable, likeable, stand up kind of guy. Further, Brian's willing to stand up and take endless abuse and and allow total strangers to make infinite demands on his time and energy, all for the sum of about $13,000 per year in salary.
How he makes it all work I'll never know.
And, for those of you that are thinking that I'm overstating my relationship with Mayor Thompson, let me say that I've actually been to his house for a party last Christmas, I have his personal cellphone number in my phone, and his wife Heather and I have worked on a number of theatrical & art projects and shows together over the past couple of years beginning long before his election to his present office.
With that and $0.75, I can probably get a cup of coffee at the local Waffle House, but connections are "connections" and I'll take mine where I can get them.
But I digress...
The current problem I have with the City of Brunswick government is with the "Sanitation" Department. That would be the "Departmente de Lempio" for my Spanish speaking readers (if I remember things accurately from my Junior year of High School.)
Any way, when I bought a rental duplex and a couple of vacant lots in the "New Town" section of Brunswick back in 2004, I immediately realized that there was a "little littering" problem in that section of town.
Maybe instead of calling it a "little littering" problem, I should call it a "big littering" problem.
Thinking a bit further, maybe it would be more accurate to say that we have a DUMPING PROBLEM in much of downtown Brunswick, Georgia.
But wait...
The City of By-God Brunswick, Georgia, USA forces everyone that has City water service to also pay for City supplied SANITATION SERVICE...for the ridiculously low price of about $8 per month.
Seems like a good deal to me.
But wait...
IF everyone has government mandated and government supplied "Sanitation Service," why is there litter strewn up and down the street and on every street corner?
Further, why is there wholesale dumping of giant piles of junk curbside, on a continuous basis, on my property and my neighbors' properties over the past 3-1/2 years?
Seriously, if you own property in downtown Brunswick and you don't police it on a monthly if not weekly (or even daily) basis, you will come back to find a giant pile of things like yard debris, sofas and other furniture, children's clothing, and virtually everything else imaginable laying on your
One time I even had most of an upright piano laying on the edge of the alley behind my duplex.
Right now I have no less that two sofas and another bunch of crap that has clearly been dumped by someone, but not by average citizens that the City of Brunswick has forced to pay for "Sanitation Services." It's not the kind of stuff that people generate from cleaning out their kitchen and bathroom trash cans.
Could people be driving over from Alabama or up from Florida to dispose of their refuse?
Possibly, but probably not.
What I have laying around on my property is stuff abandonded by tenants which have been evicted from or otherwise move out of local rental properties and that is either dumped by the landlord else hauled and illegally disposed of by the landlord's representative(s.)
What we have going on is not people emptying their cans full of paper napkins, chicken bones and watermellon rines onto my curb (although I have had a bunch of bananas and most of a watermellon dumped out there once).
What we have going on is people that should know better using the streets and alleys of Brunswick as a landfill, thereby avoiding paying the local dump fees or tipping fees for bulk items that won't fit in their curbside city supplied trashcan.
I'd like to ask the "Officials" of the City of By-God Brunswick, Georgia, USA one question:
"Why not employ the current logic and just add a couple hundred dollars of dump fees onto everybodies' water bill or property tax bill and see if any better results can be attained--because your current program obviously isn't working?"
I'm waiting for an answer...
[que the sounds of crickets chirping here...]
Any way, you'd probably like to know what the "Sanitation Department" of the City of By-God Brunswick, Georgia actually does have to say about all of these goings on?
Well, first of all, in mid-May they said that they would come out to look at my current pile of trash and quote me a fee to remove it. This after they've already cleaned up similar piles of junk and debris in the past for free and often without me having to pound my fist or even lift a finger to dial the telephone.
After several missed appointments and games of playing "phone tag", now that I'm interested in developing and selling the property, the city has started taking a coy, hardball attitude with me for some unknown reason.
I've already paid a private contractor $300 to have the vacant land cleaned up and the litter removed, but I refuse to pay the additional $700 that my contractor wants to charge me to remove TWO DUMP TRUCK LOADS of crap that is not mine and was not placed on my property with my consent.
Finally in late May I got the head of the "Sanitation Department" to meet me on the property and agree to remove the debris at no cost...BUT, I'd have to wait until the new fiscal year began in June so they could put in a work order and have the money in the City's budget.
Looking at the calendar, it's now August 10th and tomorrow I expect to go over and yet again view the lovely festering, 30' x 20' x 5' high pile of crap that continues to grow as I write (it was still there two Monday's ago.)
I've called the "sanitation department" office several times a day several days each week for the past three weeks and my voicemail messages have as yet gone unanswered. Apparently the "sanitation department" can't afford a secretary or administrative assistant either.
Regardless of the final outcome, I'd like to point out that this is a perfect example of government ineffectiveness and ineptitude. Further, in this case it is also an example of the government attempting to supply a necessary and increasingly expensive service at an artificially low price.
Ten years ago in Atlanta I paid over $30 a month for trash service that didn't include the removal of yard debris, and today the City of Brunswick is trying to provide mandatory trash service for $8.00 per month.
In this case, apparently the low cost of the "sanitation service" is intended to balm the wounds of those that feel put upon by the mandate that the "sanitation service fee" be included in the water bill.
Glynn County does a little better with their $200+ fee included in the annual tax bill, but again the level of customer service verges on abysmal because the real cost of the service is apparently greater than the fee being charged.
The difference is that the county passes the costs directly to the property owner, where the City charges the end user--the tenant or resident--directly. (Too bad that the county politicians don't realize that the end users still end up paying their fee because the landlord just raises the rent to offset the increase in the tax bill anyway.)
What both the City of By-God Brunswick, Georgia and the government of Glynn County officials don't realize is that by meddling in the free market--by forcing everyone to buy "sanitation services" from the government or a government anointed contractor, they are actually preventing the free market and associated competition from competently providing a needed service at a fair cost.
Notice that I didn't say low cost or cheep cost?
That's because everything can't be cheep, other than the quality of the service that you get when you attempt to get something for nothing.
Thursday, August 09, 2007
Don't Blame Me
I Didn't Write This...I Just Pointed It Out...
Turn up the volume on your speakers, click on the big arrow button in the middle of the screen, and prepare to be entertained or pissed off, depending on which side of the political spectrum you and your brain reside on.
Seems like a good representation to me, and the only ones I saw missing in the montage was Michael Moore and possibly Ward Churchill.
Heh...
.
Turn up the volume on your speakers, click on the big arrow button in the middle of the screen, and prepare to be entertained or pissed off, depending on which side of the political spectrum you and your brain reside on.
Seems like a good representation to me, and the only ones I saw missing in the montage was Michael Moore and possibly Ward Churchill.
Heh...
.
All Our Crap Is In One Pile Now
Will Someone Please Help Me Unpack It?
This morning I was relieved to find that I didn't need my arms to fly up over my head to don a bandanna and shirt in anticipation of spending five or six hours outside running back and forth in the near 100 degree heat loading things like plants, lamps and mirrors into the Suburban.
I told Pat that if she bought one single other plant and mounted it in a 30 pound ceramic pot I was moving to a Monastery and taking some sort of oath or something. Based on a quick count that I just did, we have no less than FORTY plants here residing in artificial containers full of dirt and water.
I only claim the two sweet potato plants and the single jalapeno pepper plant our neighbor gave us while we were moving. Wasn't that nice, instead of moving the plant with her stuff, she gave it to me to move with my stuff.
Any new plants around here will be installed in the dirt outside, attached to the ground, and will most likely be left here when we move again in thirty or forty years.
I have the kitchen unpacked and pretty well organized, and the great room is in functioning order, but both bedrooms and both offices are still a nightmare of open boxes and misplaced items including one door that has to be moved through the rubble and remounted on its hinges after making way for a huge two piece office desk that someone else gave us during the move.
I think that when people find out that you have a truck showing up at your house on a given day they do an inventory and attempt to avoid a trip to the dump or otherwise discard things that their spouse has that they don't want to have to fool with the next time they have to move themselves.
I swear that I could have doubled our furniture inventory if we had accepted all of the offers our friends and sometime total strangers made when we announced that we were transplanting ourselves four miles south on our little island.
Now I have to shift gears and get back into the engineering consulting business and the construction business and while I'm at it build a giant pyramid for a local marching band to play music around in the middle of a football field at halftime.
See y'all later...
This morning I was relieved to find that I didn't need my arms to fly up over my head to don a bandanna and shirt in anticipation of spending five or six hours outside running back and forth in the near 100 degree heat loading things like plants, lamps and mirrors into the Suburban.
I told Pat that if she bought one single other plant and mounted it in a 30 pound ceramic pot I was moving to a Monastery and taking some sort of oath or something. Based on a quick count that I just did, we have no less than FORTY plants here residing in artificial containers full of dirt and water.
I only claim the two sweet potato plants and the single jalapeno pepper plant our neighbor gave us while we were moving. Wasn't that nice, instead of moving the plant with her stuff, she gave it to me to move with my stuff.
Any new plants around here will be installed in the dirt outside, attached to the ground, and will most likely be left here when we move again in thirty or forty years.
I have the kitchen unpacked and pretty well organized, and the great room is in functioning order, but both bedrooms and both offices are still a nightmare of open boxes and misplaced items including one door that has to be moved through the rubble and remounted on its hinges after making way for a huge two piece office desk that someone else gave us during the move.
I think that when people find out that you have a truck showing up at your house on a given day they do an inventory and attempt to avoid a trip to the dump or otherwise discard things that their spouse has that they don't want to have to fool with the next time they have to move themselves.
I swear that I could have doubled our furniture inventory if we had accepted all of the offers our friends and sometime total strangers made when we announced that we were transplanting ourselves four miles south on our little island.
Now I have to shift gears and get back into the engineering consulting business and the construction business and while I'm at it build a giant pyramid for a local marching band to play music around in the middle of a football field at halftime.
See y'all later...
Wednesday, August 08, 2007
Speed Bumps & Garbage Collection
Symptoms Of Government Ineptitude
OK People, last time I checked, we as taxpayers and private citizens have allowed our government to spend trillions if not zillions of dollars improving our so called "infrastructure."
Even if you didn't know the details at the time, and in spite of things like Minnesota's recent bridge collapse, I'm pretty sure that the average citizen would offhand say that the expense has been worth it overall, because of the improvements in our collective "quality of life."
Well...I actually don't agree, and I am here to tell you that I believe that there are numerous devils in the details of our governments' efforts, and I'm getting a little tired of bumping my head into Satin and his assistant demon's horns and pitchforks over the past few weeks.
Think of it like this...
A hundred years ago, in the rural south, you probably rode a horse down a path to get from your house to town. If you were lucky, you had a dirt road that would support the passage of a horse or mule drawn wagon or carriage somewhere between you and town.
Likewise, if youwere a damn Yankee were a city slicker lived in NY city you might drive your 10 HP Model T Ford along brick or cobble stone streets from your carriage house to your office.
Fast forward to today, and probably 98% of the US population has to go out of their way to even find a dirt road to drive on (unless it is their own driveway), because virtually every road in America is paved courtesy of the local, state, or Federal Government.
Potholes are, of course optional, and by the way, we still have a number of unpaved dirt roads down in the middle of the village here on St. Simons Island.
Once the automobile arrived on the scene in a major way, things like driver's licenses and speed limits also became a government provided necessity.
You name it, someone is always willing to ask for it and some bureaucrat will stick his hand in your pocket to pay for it, and down here on a couple of streets near our new house is another government roadway improvement that I've rarely had to worry about in the past...
The "SPEED BUMP."
Yeah...you heard me correctly...
"sPeEd BuMpS"
I say that "sPeEd BuMpS" prove that the government is, in many cases, totally feckless and useless.
What total government induced, intrusive, annoying, bullshit sPeEd BuMpS are, in my Redneck Libertarian opinion.
Here's how I see things when it comes to sPeEd BuMpS.
We hired the government to build and improve our roads in the first place, right?
We got tired of riding down dusty, rutted, or muddy dirt roads at ten miles per hour; breaking things off of our car and breaking our spines and butts in the bumpy process.
So along came the government, confiscated some tax money from me and you, and paved nice smooth concrete and asphalt roads with things like curbs, storm drains, stop signs, and traffic lights.
Once things got too smooth and car engines got more powerful, along came speed limits and speed limit signs. The theory was that you were supposed to go fast out in the country and on limited access roads, and slow down on city streets and in neighborhoods like mine.
To ensure that the speed limits and other traffic laws were complied with, next the government collected yet more tax money from everyone and set up police departments with police cars and radar and laser guns to catch the people that chose to ignore the rules and to protect the average citizens while they enjoyed their nice smooth asphalt and concrete paved roads and highways.
But wait, the police can't or won't enforce the existing laws, and as a result a fewignorant inconsiderate assholes thoughtless citizens still chose to ignore the speed limit, so guess what the government does in response?
Instead of doing the job they are already taxing their citizens for--enforcing the speed limits--the government takes even more tax money and "un-improves" the nice smooth asphalt roads that they already stole tax money to make smooth in the first place.
They go out and put in "sPeEd BuMpS."
sPeEd BuMpS.
This is a totally flawed concept--treating the law abiding citizens equal with the criminals.
With the installation of sPeEd BuMpS, every single driver has to suffer the punishment that should be meted out only to those drivers that elect to violate the speed limit, just like making crappy government mandated Trash service part of the Property Tax bill punishes everyone, while not stopping the original crime.
Yes, Pat and I have to drive across at least three sPeEd BuMpS each and every time we leave our house and again each and every time we come home, yet we have already seen little punk assed morons in pickup trucks and grown men in Buicks come flying down the road doing 40 MPH in a 25 MPH zone, racing from sPeEd BuMp to sPeEd BuMp, so what has the whole process accomplished?
Actually, the installation of the sPeEd BuMpS was originally motivated to not only reduce speeds on the streets, but also as a deterrent to people that elected to cut through our neighborhood in order to avoid a major nearby intersection and associated traffic light.
Only the government would impose heavy handed measure after measure after measure onto innocent bystanders in the "public interest" and in the name of "progress."
In the mean time, I wonder if I can get the government to buy me some new filling for my teeth and new shocks and springs from my car and truck?
Probably not...
But ain't Government Great?
OK People, last time I checked, we as taxpayers and private citizens have allowed our government to spend trillions if not zillions of dollars improving our so called "infrastructure."
Even if you didn't know the details at the time, and in spite of things like Minnesota's recent bridge collapse, I'm pretty sure that the average citizen would offhand say that the expense has been worth it overall, because of the improvements in our collective "quality of life."
Well...I actually don't agree, and I am here to tell you that I believe that there are numerous devils in the details of our governments' efforts, and I'm getting a little tired of bumping my head into Satin and his assistant demon's horns and pitchforks over the past few weeks.
Think of it like this...
A hundred years ago, in the rural south, you probably rode a horse down a path to get from your house to town. If you were lucky, you had a dirt road that would support the passage of a horse or mule drawn wagon or carriage somewhere between you and town.
Likewise, if you
Fast forward to today, and probably 98% of the US population has to go out of their way to even find a dirt road to drive on (unless it is their own driveway), because virtually every road in America is paved courtesy of the local, state, or Federal Government.
Potholes are, of course optional, and by the way, we still have a number of unpaved dirt roads down in the middle of the village here on St. Simons Island.
Once the automobile arrived on the scene in a major way, things like driver's licenses and speed limits also became a government provided necessity.
You name it, someone is always willing to ask for it and some bureaucrat will stick his hand in your pocket to pay for it, and down here on a couple of streets near our new house is another government roadway improvement that I've rarely had to worry about in the past...
The "SPEED BUMP."
Yeah...you heard me correctly...
"sPeEd BuMpS"
I say that "sPeEd BuMpS" prove that the government is, in many cases, totally feckless and useless.
What total government induced, intrusive, annoying, bullshit sPeEd BuMpS are, in my Redneck Libertarian opinion.
Here's how I see things when it comes to sPeEd BuMpS.
We hired the government to build and improve our roads in the first place, right?
We got tired of riding down dusty, rutted, or muddy dirt roads at ten miles per hour; breaking things off of our car and breaking our spines and butts in the bumpy process.
So along came the government, confiscated some tax money from me and you, and paved nice smooth concrete and asphalt roads with things like curbs, storm drains, stop signs, and traffic lights.
Once things got too smooth and car engines got more powerful, along came speed limits and speed limit signs. The theory was that you were supposed to go fast out in the country and on limited access roads, and slow down on city streets and in neighborhoods like mine.
To ensure that the speed limits and other traffic laws were complied with, next the government collected yet more tax money from everyone and set up police departments with police cars and radar and laser guns to catch the people that chose to ignore the rules and to protect the average citizens while they enjoyed their nice smooth asphalt and concrete paved roads and highways.
But wait, the police can't or won't enforce the existing laws, and as a result a few
Instead of doing the job they are already taxing their citizens for--enforcing the speed limits--the government takes even more tax money and "un-improves" the nice smooth asphalt roads that they already stole tax money to make smooth in the first place.
They go out and put in "sPeEd BuMpS."
sPeEd BuMpS.
This is a totally flawed concept--treating the law abiding citizens equal with the criminals.
With the installation of sPeEd BuMpS, every single driver has to suffer the punishment that should be meted out only to those drivers that elect to violate the speed limit, just like making crappy government mandated Trash service part of the Property Tax bill punishes everyone, while not stopping the original crime.
Yes, Pat and I have to drive across at least three sPeEd BuMpS each and every time we leave our house and again each and every time we come home, yet we have already seen little punk assed morons in pickup trucks and grown men in Buicks come flying down the road doing 40 MPH in a 25 MPH zone, racing from sPeEd BuMp to sPeEd BuMp, so what has the whole process accomplished?
Actually, the installation of the sPeEd BuMpS was originally motivated to not only reduce speeds on the streets, but also as a deterrent to people that elected to cut through our neighborhood in order to avoid a major nearby intersection and associated traffic light.
Only the government would impose heavy handed measure after measure after measure onto innocent bystanders in the "public interest" and in the name of "progress."
In the mean time, I wonder if I can get the government to buy me some new filling for my teeth and new shocks and springs from my car and truck?
Probably not...
But ain't Government Great?
Monday, August 06, 2007
One Man's Trash
Another Man's Treasure...
I've really had it right up to here (pointing to the top of my ever greying, ever balding head) with trash services here in Glynn County and the City of Brunswick.
In a little over three days I already have trash overflowing out of my ears and coming out of my butt here at the new house on our little island (located in unincorporated Glynn County), and I also have a virtual landfill on the unpaved ally side of my property over in Brunswick that the head of the Brunswick Sanitation Department has been promising to remove since May.
The problem seems to revolve around government mandated monopolies--in one case one hired by Glynn County, and the second actually operated by the City of Brunswick.
Since Glynn County is the entity most recently to cause their property tax owners to fall victim to thisscam bullshit malfeasance, I'll talk about them first.
It seems that a few years ago the County Commissioners noticed there is a bit of a problem with dumping of household garbage and other refuse on private property and along the highways and other "public" property.
Rather than enforcing the existing littering and dumping laws on the members of the "public" which were guilty of causing the problem, the elected Countyassholes morons Commissioners decided to pass the responsibility and associated costs of their purported solution on to the private property owners of Glynn County.
They did this by hiring a private company to do the trash collection at homes and businesses which did not have dumpsters or other means of refuse disposal already in place, in the process adding the cost of the service to the land/property owner's annual property tax bill. (Our condo had dumpsters and it's own service personnel on site so we were exempt from this mandate.)
No if's, and's, or but's, about it, now if you own a house in Glynn County you will have government mandated trash service...even if your house is unoccupied, burns down, or due to it's condition, is otherwise un-occupyable.
Of course there was a huge public outcry and lots of gnashing of teeth, but in the end the government won out and, as a delayed result, today I had my first experience with Southland Waste Systems and their rocket scientist employees.
Yesterday I found from out my neighbor that Monday was "trash day" here on my street and further, that I had to make sure that my company/county supplied trashcan was not over filled--the lid had to close.
No problem...so far so good...
I had a trashcan sitting beside my garage when the moving truck drove up on Saturday, and we'd produced lots of trash since then so I seemed set to take advantage of the service that our landlord was paying for.
Only problem was, what my well intended neighbor did not tell me was that my "curbside" service was not actually at our house's "curbside."
Imagine that?
Oh yeah..the GOVERNMENT is involved, and that means that the meanings of ordinary words are never what you would normally expect them to be.
Evidently, by "curbside" service here in Glynn County, they mean some "curbside" other than MY curbside--a curbside that their giant truck can drive up to and pick up the can with some kind of manipulator arm to do the dumping with.
Any way, a little after noon today I noticed that the truck driver and his assistant busied themselves spending at least five minutes moving back and forth outside my driveway entrance avoiding my trashcan, even having the extra man actually exit the air conditioned cab of the truck to pick up and empty a few recycling containers, but when the dust settled and Pat came home from shopping we found that OUR TRASHCAN WAS STILL FULL.
No note, no gentle reminder, no nothing, just a can full of trash from moving and another week to wait for the next scheduled trash service.
Here's what I'm going to do.
First I'm calling in to the local Radio talk show at 7 AM tomorrow morning to tell my story.
Next I'm calling my county commissioner.
Of course all I expect to hear is lame excuses and promises to do better in the future, but in the end I will probably be told that it is my fault for not asking my landlord how far down the block and on which side of the street to place my trashcan.
I vaguely remember hearing talk show callers in the past complaining about having to have their trashcans 12 feet (or some other random number) from mailboxes, telephone poles, other trash cans) but it didn't occur to me until the damage was done.
What total bullshit.
I live on a cul-de-sac with a one way 12 foot wide strip of asphalt (which badly needs repaving by the aforementioned "county officials") that wraps in and out around giant Live Oak Trees and islands of vegetation.
My house apparently sits in a position where a $7 per hour employee would have to actually exit the air conditioned cab of the 500' long garbage truck in order to retrieve my trash can sitting adjacent to the road anywhere on the frontage.
God forbid that Southland Waste Systems should employ some smaller trucks or hire people to grab hold of an errant but innocently misplaced trashcan every now and then on some of the older narrow inner island streets here on St. Simons.
As is typical with any solution provided by the government, it's ONE SIZE FITS ALL, DAMMIT.
And is also typical with government, the customer is NEVER RIGHT.
Do I have a second on that motion?
All in favor?
Those Opposed?
The yeas have it...
(Next on my agenda...the City of Brunswick's abysmal "Insanitation Sanitation" Department.)
I've really had it right up to here (pointing to the top of my ever greying, ever balding head) with trash services here in Glynn County and the City of Brunswick.
In a little over three days I already have trash overflowing out of my ears and coming out of my butt here at the new house on our little island (located in unincorporated Glynn County), and I also have a virtual landfill on the unpaved ally side of my property over in Brunswick that the head of the Brunswick Sanitation Department has been promising to remove since May.
The problem seems to revolve around government mandated monopolies--in one case one hired by Glynn County, and the second actually operated by the City of Brunswick.
Since Glynn County is the entity most recently to cause their property tax owners to fall victim to this
It seems that a few years ago the County Commissioners noticed there is a bit of a problem with dumping of household garbage and other refuse on private property and along the highways and other "public" property.
Rather than enforcing the existing littering and dumping laws on the members of the "public" which were guilty of causing the problem, the elected County
They did this by hiring a private company to do the trash collection at homes and businesses which did not have dumpsters or other means of refuse disposal already in place, in the process adding the cost of the service to the land/property owner's annual property tax bill. (Our condo had dumpsters and it's own service personnel on site so we were exempt from this mandate.)
No if's, and's, or but's, about it, now if you own a house in Glynn County you will have government mandated trash service...even if your house is unoccupied, burns down, or due to it's condition, is otherwise un-occupyable.
Of course there was a huge public outcry and lots of gnashing of teeth, but in the end the government won out and, as a delayed result, today I had my first experience with Southland Waste Systems and their rocket scientist employees.
Yesterday I found from out my neighbor that Monday was "trash day" here on my street and further, that I had to make sure that my company/county supplied trashcan was not over filled--the lid had to close.
No problem...so far so good...
I had a trashcan sitting beside my garage when the moving truck drove up on Saturday, and we'd produced lots of trash since then so I seemed set to take advantage of the service that our landlord was paying for.
Only problem was, what my well intended neighbor did not tell me was that my "curbside" service was not actually at our house's "curbside."
Imagine that?
Oh yeah..the GOVERNMENT is involved, and that means that the meanings of ordinary words are never what you would normally expect them to be.
Evidently, by "curbside" service here in Glynn County, they mean some "curbside" other than MY curbside--a curbside that their giant truck can drive up to and pick up the can with some kind of manipulator arm to do the dumping with.
Any way, a little after noon today I noticed that the truck driver and his assistant busied themselves spending at least five minutes moving back and forth outside my driveway entrance avoiding my trashcan, even having the extra man actually exit the air conditioned cab of the truck to pick up and empty a few recycling containers, but when the dust settled and Pat came home from shopping we found that OUR TRASHCAN WAS STILL FULL.
No note, no gentle reminder, no nothing, just a can full of trash from moving and another week to wait for the next scheduled trash service.
Here's what I'm going to do.
First I'm calling in to the local Radio talk show at 7 AM tomorrow morning to tell my story.
Next I'm calling my county commissioner.
Of course all I expect to hear is lame excuses and promises to do better in the future, but in the end I will probably be told that it is my fault for not asking my landlord how far down the block and on which side of the street to place my trashcan.
I vaguely remember hearing talk show callers in the past complaining about having to have their trashcans 12 feet (or some other random number) from mailboxes, telephone poles, other trash cans) but it didn't occur to me until the damage was done.
What total bullshit.
I live on a cul-de-sac with a one way 12 foot wide strip of asphalt (which badly needs repaving by the aforementioned "county officials") that wraps in and out around giant Live Oak Trees and islands of vegetation.
My house apparently sits in a position where a $7 per hour employee would have to actually exit the air conditioned cab of the 500' long garbage truck in order to retrieve my trash can sitting adjacent to the road anywhere on the frontage.
God forbid that Southland Waste Systems should employ some smaller trucks or hire people to grab hold of an errant but innocently misplaced trashcan every now and then on some of the older narrow inner island streets here on St. Simons.
As is typical with any solution provided by the government, it's ONE SIZE FITS ALL, DAMMIT.
And is also typical with government, the customer is NEVER RIGHT.
Do I have a second on that motion?
All in favor?
Those Opposed?
The yeas have it...
(Next on my agenda...the City of Brunswick's abysmal "
Falling Down & Screwing Up
Best Laid Plans Of Mouse & Man...
Well, we're HERE.
The only problem is, bits and pieces of our stuff is...
STILL over THERE.
By "over THERE", I mean over at the Condo.
Dang it...
We only managed to make two of the five or six final trips in my Suburban yesterday, with yesterday's second excursion featuring a final visit to the swimming pool.
Pat and Missy the Turbo Pup hung out poolside because Pat's back is bothering her, and I spun around in circles moving most of the plants out onto the front patio and loading another load of boxes and the more fragile stuff on board the SUV.
The ambient temperature was about 94 degrees F, with a heat index over 104 degrees F by 6 PM. We came home, unloaded most of our booty, and I collapsed on the sofa.
Then I got back up and, after making a late pizza dinner featuring a funky "eyeballed " crust (the measuring cups got left over at the Condo), I was asleep in the bed by 10 PM.
I woke up at midnight with a huge headache and with every muscle in my body cramping--at least that's the way it felt like.
It was my own fault. I sorta forgot to drink much Gatorade yesterday, and the water and white wine I consumed poolside just didn't get it when it came to replacing the minerals lost while sweating out a couple of gallons of my insides in the loading and moving process.
After drinking a few quarts of Gatorade and jumping around the living room walking like a three legged dog for an hour or so, I finally managed to settle down about four AM and get some more sleep. Come 8 AM I was still groggy and weak and, as a result, today has been a bust when it comes to picking up and moving more stuff from point A to point B.
As a further deterrent, the Weather Channel says that today it's a frigid NINETY SEVEN DEGREES FAHRENHEIT outside, with a heat index near 110, so paying our old landlord another $34 is an acceptable penance for my middle aged slovenly conditioning.
Expert procrastination has ensued all day, using my faint heart and wobbling legs as a mental excuse. I ended up sleeping until noon, then I did manage to open and unpack a few boxes standing inside in AC comfort while Pat made a rare solo jaunt over to Brunswick to pick up some necessities.
Just now when it came time to sneak back over to the condo we realized that Georgia Power had probably turned off the electricity because we were supposed to move last Wednesday rather than Saturday.
Sure enough, after placing a phone call and enduring the inevitable English/Spanish menu questions, we learned the juice was indeed off as of about noon today, but they would be happy to turn it back on for a $22 fee.
Sure...go ahead...it's only MONEY.
So I'm going to lounge around breaking down empty boxes, pack plastic bags full of foam peanuts, and cram bubble wrap squares back into the original boxes and possibly attempt to stash the whole moving mishmash somewhere up into the attic over the garage.
Then I'm going to write myself an industrial strength rant about the stupidity of the County GOVERNMENT forcing its home owning citizens and landlords to accept paying for trash services in their property tax bill.
No competition equals crappy service, no matter what the stupid "Bureaucrats" and popularly elected "gummunt officials" tell you...
Well, we're HERE.
The only problem is, bits and pieces of our stuff is...
STILL over THERE.
By "over THERE", I mean over at the Condo.
Dang it...
We only managed to make two of the five or six final trips in my Suburban yesterday, with yesterday's second excursion featuring a final visit to the swimming pool.
Pat and Missy the Turbo Pup hung out poolside because Pat's back is bothering her, and I spun around in circles moving most of the plants out onto the front patio and loading another load of boxes and the more fragile stuff on board the SUV.
The ambient temperature was about 94 degrees F, with a heat index over 104 degrees F by 6 PM. We came home, unloaded most of our booty, and I collapsed on the sofa.
Then I got back up and, after making a late pizza dinner featuring a funky "eyeballed " crust (the measuring cups got left over at the Condo), I was asleep in the bed by 10 PM.
I woke up at midnight with a huge headache and with every muscle in my body cramping--at least that's the way it felt like.
It was my own fault. I sorta forgot to drink much Gatorade yesterday, and the water and white wine I consumed poolside just didn't get it when it came to replacing the minerals lost while sweating out a couple of gallons of my insides in the loading and moving process.
After drinking a few quarts of Gatorade and jumping around the living room walking like a three legged dog for an hour or so, I finally managed to settle down about four AM and get some more sleep. Come 8 AM I was still groggy and weak and, as a result, today has been a bust when it comes to picking up and moving more stuff from point A to point B.
As a further deterrent, the Weather Channel says that today it's a frigid NINETY SEVEN DEGREES FAHRENHEIT outside, with a heat index near 110, so paying our old landlord another $34 is an acceptable penance for my middle aged slovenly conditioning.
Expert procrastination has ensued all day, using my faint heart and wobbling legs as a mental excuse. I ended up sleeping until noon, then I did manage to open and unpack a few boxes standing inside in AC comfort while Pat made a rare solo jaunt over to Brunswick to pick up some necessities.
Just now when it came time to sneak back over to the condo we realized
Sure enough, after placing a phone call and enduring the inevitable English/Spanish menu questions, we learned the juice was indeed off as of about noon today, but they would be happy to turn it back on for a $22 fee.
Sure...go ahead...it's only MONEY.
So I'm going to lounge around breaking down empty boxes, pack plastic bags full of foam peanuts, and cram bubble wrap squares back into the original boxes and possibly attempt to stash the whole moving mishmash somewhere up into the attic over the garage.
Then I'm going to write myself an industrial strength rant about the stupidity of the County GOVERNMENT forcing its home owning citizens and landlords to accept paying for trash services in their property tax bill.
No competition equals crappy service, no matter what the stupid "Bureaucrats" and popularly elected "gummunt officials" tell you...
Sunday, August 05, 2007
Boxaphobia
Pack Me Up & Ship Me To Jamaica...
Well, ninety-five percent of our stuff is sitting here, mostly still in boxes.
Actually maybe ninety-eight percent.
Originally I was just going to move the plants and the framed photos and other flat fragile stuff hanging on the walls, but we managed to run out of room on the truck yesterday, so I inherited having to move anything left over that would fit into the Suburban.
That included Pat's desk, a bunch of chairs and patio stuff, and a bunch of "space storage" bags full of sheets and blankets...crap we'll probably never use again but every woman loves to hold onto "just in case."
So any way, we anticipate making five or six more round trips today, plus having to clean up the place, then we can focus our attention on opening all the boxes and surprising ourselves with what isn't broken and what wasn't labeled, weighs 100 pounds, and is sitting in the wrong room of the house.
I'd really like to design and build us a house to live in down here and get out of this paying rent business, but then again--when the Weather Nerds over at the Weather Channel start freaking out and NOAA puts a big Hurricane symbol on the map heading toward Northeast Florida and Southeast Georgia I'm happy that I only own the contents of the building I'm sleeping in.
Speaking of Hurricanes, the Federal Flood Insurance Program (something that I've bitched about as being taxpayer subsidised insurance for wealthy people) threw us a curve ball last week and is making us endure yet another 30 day waiting period before our coverage goes into effect.
Three months premium for one month of coverage...the government definitely put the screws to us on this one if something wet and windy comes roaring ashore here before September 1st.
Still, if the coverage is available and cheep (about $350 per year), I'm gonna sign up and send in a check.
I guess that you could call it "Just Rewards" for being a hypocrite...
Well, ninety-five percent of our stuff is sitting here, mostly still in boxes.
Actually maybe ninety-eight percent.
Originally I was just going to move the plants and the framed photos and other flat fragile stuff hanging on the walls, but we managed to run out of room on the truck yesterday, so I inherited having to move anything left over that would fit into the Suburban.
That included Pat's desk, a bunch of chairs and patio stuff, and a bunch of "space storage" bags full of sheets and blankets...crap we'll probably never use again but every woman loves to hold onto "just in case."
So any way, we anticipate making five or six more round trips today, plus having to clean up the place, then we can focus our attention on opening all the boxes and surprising ourselves with what isn't broken and what wasn't labeled, weighs 100 pounds, and is sitting in the wrong room of the house.
I'd really like to design and build us a house to live in down here and get out of this paying rent business, but then again--when the Weather Nerds over at the Weather Channel start freaking out and NOAA puts a big Hurricane symbol on the map heading toward Northeast Florida and Southeast Georgia I'm happy that I only own the contents of the building I'm sleeping in.
Speaking of Hurricanes, the Federal Flood Insurance Program (something that I've bitched about as being taxpayer subsidised insurance for wealthy people) threw us a curve ball last week and is making us endure yet another 30 day waiting period before our coverage goes into effect.
Three months premium for one month of coverage...the government definitely put the screws to us on this one if something wet and windy comes roaring ashore here before September 1st.
Still, if the coverage is available and cheep (about $350 per year), I'm gonna sign up and send in a check.
I guess that you could call it "Just Rewards" for being a hypocrite...
Saturday, August 04, 2007
Five Hours Later...
The Truck's Gone
Al and his guys have already came and raised a dust cloud, and when they pulled out of the driveway we were three hundred and twenty five dollars richer than if we had worked with our originalasshole mover that stood us up.
Time to grab a bite to eat and head back over to pick up the scraps.
I'm tired.
Al and his guys have already came and raised a dust cloud, and when they pulled out of the driveway we were three hundred and twenty five dollars richer than if we had worked with our original
Time to grab a bite to eat and head back over to pick up the scraps.
I'm tired.
T-Minus Eight Hours...
And Counting
Didn't I mention earlier that I HATE moving?
Yeah...I believe that I did.
Right now I wish that I could just leave town for 24 hours and come back to find everything moved from the condo to the new house here on our little island.
Instead, I'm still looking at filling another dozen or so boxes with last minute stuff and packing both vehicles full of things like plants and lamp shades before our truck and crew shows up at 8 AM this morning.
Missy the Turbo Pup has taken things quite well thus far--getting used to negotiating a maze of boxes here and wandering around her new yard at the other place when we go over to work or deliver stuff.
Since it's rained about four inches over the past 48 hours here, I'm really hoping that God gives us a break tomorrow for a few hours so that that our furniture and boxes don't get soggy in the process.
In the mean time the media has apparently discovered all of the facts about the condition of our nation's bridges that I mentioned earlier, the democrats and other usual suspects are already blaming President Bush for spending all of the bridge repair money in Iraq and the Global Warming Moonbats are barking about the hot weather causing the collapse.
I guess that I don't have it so bad down here after all, so I believe that I'll go back to packing now.
Wish us luck...If you will.
Didn't I mention earlier that I HATE moving?
Yeah...I believe that I did.
Right now I wish that I could just leave town for 24 hours and come back to find everything moved from the condo to the new house here on our little island.
Instead, I'm still looking at filling another dozen or so boxes with last minute stuff and packing both vehicles full of things like plants and lamp shades before our truck and crew shows up at 8 AM this morning.
Missy the Turbo Pup has taken things quite well thus far--getting used to negotiating a maze of boxes here and wandering around her new yard at the other place when we go over to work or deliver stuff.
Since it's rained about four inches over the past 48 hours here, I'm really hoping that God gives us a break tomorrow for a few hours so that that our furniture and boxes don't get soggy in the process.
In the mean time the media has apparently discovered all of the facts about the condition of our nation's bridges that I mentioned earlier, the democrats and other usual suspects are already blaming President Bush for spending all of the bridge repair money in Iraq and the Global Warming Moonbats are barking about the hot weather causing the collapse.
I guess that I don't have it so bad down here after all, so I believe that I'll go back to packing now.
Wish us luck...If you will.
Friday, August 03, 2007
Rain
Global Warming Sucks...
I have a truck coming at 8 AM tomorrow morning, having fired Mr. Moving Guy #1 and hiring Mr. Moving Guy #2 a couple of days ago.
In the mean time, the condo swimming pool is overflowing and all my outside plants are about to float away, the Weather Channel says that there is a flash flood watch in effect for our area, but things will improve later today.
Maybe a nice slow drizzle rather than a steady downpour?
I've got to go paint the foyer of the new house now.
Squish...
.
I have a truck coming at 8 AM tomorrow morning, having fired Mr. Moving Guy #1 and hiring Mr. Moving Guy #2 a couple of days ago.
In the mean time, the condo swimming pool is overflowing and all my outside plants are about to float away, the Weather Channel says that there is a flash flood watch in effect for our area, but things will improve later today.
Maybe a nice slow drizzle rather than a steady downpour?
I've got to go paint the foyer of the new house now.
Squish...
.
Thursday, August 02, 2007
Progress (Or The Lack Thereof)
Taking Matters Into Your Own Hands
I'm sitting here this morning watching the FOX News reporters spazzing out about the I-35 West bridge collapse which occurred during last evening's during rush hour, and as is usual I'm having to wince and avert my eyes from the stupidity on display by the media in the aftermath of an engineering disaster.
One of the reporters was interviewing some "bridge engineer" live on the telephone and came up with the question "do you think that this situation amounts to 'criminal negligence'?"
The self described "expert" replied..."NO."
Thank God that for once an "Expert" managed to hold his emotions and tongue in check while talking in front of TV cameras and not evoke FEMA or some other knee jerk reaction so early in the process when virtually nothing is known about the event or it's actual physical causes.
Being a fairly well educated competent mechanical engineer, and also having a great deal of practical experience working in the fields of steel and concrete structural engineering, I happen to know something about bridge design and further, about the condition of highway bridges here in the US.
My forensic engineering consulting experience has caused me to spend time reading about the history of engineering disasters, and one thing I've learned in the process is that we are all in big trouble when it comes to the condition of our nation's bridges, and your Government knows about the problem and is doing virtually nothing about it.
Here's the situation in a nutshell.
If it were up to me, I'd never drive across another bridge without first knowing that the bridge had been inspected and/or repaired by competent personnel.
By "competent personnel," I'm basically excluding the government at all levels and the associated government contractors usually employed by the "departments of transportation."
(Yes, I agree that there are a lot of good engineers and many well intended people involved in the bureaucratic process, but I'm afraid that the outcome isn't what was intended much of the time...so don't start E-mailing me saying your Uncle or cousin or mother works for the State DOT and you're coming to my new front door with a load of hot asphalt to repave my butt with...)
That said, I also admit that I cross six bridges every time I drive between our little island and the mainland, and I do this at least three days each week.
So you can feel free to call me a hypocrite because I know about and complain about the problem, but I also insist on ignoring it on a daily basis.
You see, our governments have been taking our tax money--stuff like gas taxes and car tag taxes originally designated for road and bridge construction and maintenance--and instead of fixing old bridges they're focused on building new bridges and widening existing bridges on a wholesale basis in order to meet traffic demands, when they should be spending the majority of our money REPLACING existing bridges that are in crappy, unsafe condition.
They also steal a good deal of the money intended for transportation infrastructure and spend it on "social programs"--things like providing cheese food products and diapers for un-wed mothers living on WIC and "Earned Income Tax Credits."
If you want to give yourself a good scare, go to US Department of Transportation Federal Highway Administration Website and look at the number of bridges that are identified as "structurally deficient" and "functionally inadequate."
I just did a spreadsheet to do my own calculations, and according to the data on that website 12.35% of the bridges (73,694 out of 596,808 bridges) are structurally deficient and 13.43% (80,177 out of 596,808 bridges) are "functionally inadequate"...whatever that means.
It's not like I sit around at night re-packing my parachute or stuffing my car full of life preservers each morning before I drive across the causeway over the water and marshes to the mainland, but believe me when I say that I do worry a little about the condition of things under my tires each day. I also believe that the moron's that I witness whizzing past me at 60 MPH in a 35 MPH speed zone that the government allows to keep their driving privileges represent a greater danger to me than than falling steel and concrete beams.
So any way...you can look for this story to fester and swirl for another few days, then things will go back to the status quo with the media's Barack Obama/Hillary Clinton cheer leading party and the Global Warming Hysteria Show.
In closing, just remember that we kill over 40,000 people each year in auto accidents without bridges falling on peoples heads and from under their tires. Then there is also still the risks poised by lightening and shark attacks, not to mention angry, misguided, wild-eyed, towel headed, middle eastern Muslims intent on imposing Allah's will on all of us infidels.
Y'all have a nice day now...If you will...I've got to go finish packing up my belongings...
.
I'm sitting here this morning watching the FOX News reporters spazzing out about the I-35 West bridge collapse which occurred during last evening's during rush hour, and as is usual I'm having to wince and avert my eyes from the stupidity on display by the media in the aftermath of an engineering disaster.
One of the reporters was interviewing some "bridge engineer" live on the telephone and came up with the question "do you think that this situation amounts to 'criminal negligence'?"
The self described "expert" replied..."NO."
Thank God that for once an "Expert" managed to hold his emotions and tongue in check while talking in front of TV cameras and not evoke FEMA or some other knee jerk reaction so early in the process when virtually nothing is known about the event or it's actual physical causes.
Being a fairly well educated competent mechanical engineer, and also having a great deal of practical experience working in the fields of steel and concrete structural engineering, I happen to know something about bridge design and further, about the condition of highway bridges here in the US.
My forensic engineering consulting experience has caused me to spend time reading about the history of engineering disasters, and one thing I've learned in the process is that we are all in big trouble when it comes to the condition of our nation's bridges, and your Government knows about the problem and is doing virtually nothing about it.
Here's the situation in a nutshell.
If it were up to me, I'd never drive across another bridge without first knowing that the bridge had been inspected and/or repaired by competent personnel.
By "competent personnel," I'm basically excluding the government at all levels and the associated government contractors usually employed by the "departments of transportation."
(Yes, I agree that there are a lot of good engineers and many well intended people involved in the bureaucratic process, but I'm afraid that the outcome isn't what was intended much of the time...so don't start E-mailing me saying your Uncle or cousin or mother works for the State DOT and you're coming to my new front door with a load of hot asphalt to repave my butt with...)
That said, I also admit that I cross six bridges every time I drive between our little island and the mainland, and I do this at least three days each week.
So you can feel free to call me a hypocrite because I know about and complain about the problem, but I also insist on ignoring it on a daily basis.
You see, our governments have been taking our tax money--stuff like gas taxes and car tag taxes originally designated for road and bridge construction and maintenance--and instead of fixing old bridges they're focused on building new bridges and widening existing bridges on a wholesale basis in order to meet traffic demands, when they should be spending the majority of our money REPLACING existing bridges that are in crappy, unsafe condition.
They also steal a good deal of the money intended for transportation infrastructure and spend it on "social programs"--things like providing cheese food products and diapers for un-wed mothers living on WIC and "Earned Income Tax Credits."
If you want to give yourself a good scare, go to US Department of Transportation Federal Highway Administration Website and look at the number of bridges that are identified as "structurally deficient" and "functionally inadequate."
I just did a spreadsheet to do my own calculations, and according to the data on that website 12.35% of the bridges (73,694 out of 596,808 bridges) are structurally deficient and 13.43% (80,177 out of 596,808 bridges) are "functionally inadequate"...whatever that means.
It's not like I sit around at night re-packing my parachute or stuffing my car full of life preservers each morning before I drive across the causeway over the water and marshes to the mainland, but believe me when I say that I do worry a little about the condition of things under my tires each day. I also believe that the moron's that I witness whizzing past me at 60 MPH in a 35 MPH speed zone that the government allows to keep their driving privileges represent a greater danger to me than than falling steel and concrete beams.
So any way...you can look for this story to fester and swirl for another few days, then things will go back to the status quo with the media's Barack Obama/Hillary Clinton cheer leading party and the Global Warming Hysteria Show.
In closing, just remember that we kill over 40,000 people each year in auto accidents without bridges falling on peoples heads and from under their tires. Then there is also still the risks poised by lightening and shark attacks, not to mention angry, misguided, wild-eyed, towel headed, middle eastern Muslims intent on imposing Allah's will on all of us infidels.
Y'all have a nice day now...If you will...I've got to go finish packing up my belongings...
.
Wednesday, August 01, 2007
I'm An Incompentence Magnet
Intelligent, Qualified, Conscientious Persons Need Not Apply...
I have a few questions to ask this morning:
#1. How can you run a City government when no one is there to answer the telephone?
#2. How can you run a Cable/Internet company when the person on the other end of your 1-800 telephone number doesn't know where St. Simons Island is and can't make decisions about installation schedules and costs?
#3. How can you run a moving company when you won't answer the telephone or return phone calls?
#4. Finally, how can you run a moving company and not tell your customers when you will pick up their stuff? (See #3 above)
Regardless, we'll be taking possession of the new house today, but our August 2nd through 4th moving window is now somewhereout the window later than planned (maybe the 6th or 7th?)
Mr. Moving Guy will hopefully be getting back with us sometime between now and then.
In the mean time, I think that it's time to go clean my guns now...
.
I have a few questions to ask this morning:
#1. How can you run a City government when no one is there to answer the telephone?
#2. How can you run a Cable/Internet company when the person on the other end of your 1-800 telephone number doesn't know where St. Simons Island is and can't make decisions about installation schedules and costs?
#3. How can you run a moving company when you won't answer the telephone or return phone calls?
#4. Finally, how can you run a moving company and not tell your customers when you will pick up their stuff? (See #3 above)
Regardless, we'll be taking possession of the new house today, but our August 2nd through 4th moving window is now somewhere
Mr. Moving Guy will hopefully be getting back with us sometime between now and then.
In the mean time, I think that it's time to go clean my guns now...
.
I Was Robbed
Police Department Useless...Again
I've mentioned here on the blog in the past that, although I still believe in the idea of public law enforcement and harbor a basic respect for law enforcement personnel in general, I find that the implementation of law enforcement to be quite lacking in reality.
Let's face the facts folks: The Police, being human, tend to focus their efforts on high profile crimes like murder, unpopular things like DUI, and violations which are easy to catch like speeding, while letting the majority of daily infractions go undeterred and unprevented.
I see more bullshit driving in one trip to Brunswick from our little island than should ever be tolerated--things like following too closely, weaving from lane to lane, running yellow and red traffic lights--but the police are content to sit by the side of the road smoking cigarettes and drinking coffee while their radar unit does their job for them.
I have a looooooonnnnnnnnggggg history of being a victim of crime, and only once have the police managed to actually catch anyone or do anything about what the vermin of society elected to do to me and my property.
For instance, in my life to date, I've survived:
1. A robbery in a Pizza Hut in Atlanta in 1979 where one of the assholes doing the robbery beat me in the head with a pistol (he broke the barrel off the piece-of-shit gun in the process.)
2. I lost a 1956 Chevy Belair that my Grandfather left me and that I was in the process of restoring. Some idiots drug it from the shed on our family farm on flat tires, onto a trailer, and delivered it to a junkyard where it was crushed for scrap.
It only had about 60,000 miles on it in 1978.
3. I've had my home broken into while in college, losing my class rings and other possessions like a TV and stereo.
4. I've had my S-10 Blazer broken into in Atlanta while attending a Georgia Tech basketball game, losing a stereo and a car phone and a $300 passenger side window.
5. I've had my Suburban broken into while sitting in the driveway of my Atlanta home, losing about $1000 worth of CD's and a neat little telescope (and a $500 side window.)
6. I've had my home broken into and the damaged contents ransacked twice after the building was basically destroyed by fire. Things like my coin collection and and antique radio were taken, even though they were black with smoke and wet with water.
7. I've had my car sitting in the driveway of the burned house vandalized in a theft attempt ($3,000 damage to a car worth $2,500.)
8. Had my rental property in Brunswick broken into three times to date, resulting in the THEFT OF MY PORCELAIN KITCHEN SINK in 2006.
The thing that each of these events had in common, with the exception of the Pizza Hut robbery, was that I had to personally FORCE the respective police/police department to even get excited enough to file a report.
Many if not most of the time I had to go to the Police Station to file the report because the police were supposedly too busy to come out and even try to look for evidence or dust for fingerprints.
Only once has anyone actually been caught and convicted (the car vandals) of the crimes which I have endured.
It was frightening how bored the police acted while taking our statements after the Pizza Hut robbery, and although I said that I could identify the robbers, I never heard another word from the Atlanta police after the incident.
The imbecile prosecutor on the car vandalization case sent me an incorrect court date via mail, and when I was unable to drive on one day notice from Florida to Atlanta to attend the hearing (after previously driving to Atlanta and filing a deposition regarding the cost of the vandalism), then the court refused, because of my absence, to award me any financial compensation from my teen aged black perpetrators.
The little bastards are probably bouncing between jail and the street today, if someone hasn't already put a bullet into the back of their miserable heads.
Now fast forward to Yesterday...
When I walked into my construction project, as usual, I was armed with tools, a couple of gallons of Gatoraid, and breakfast from McDonalds.
So far so good.
Then I decided to wash out a plastic cup and have myself a drink of Gatoraid with my bacon, egg, and cheese bagel.
What, no water pressure?
I paid the bill (I think), but I had no water.
Being the astute, prepared engineer and rocket scientist that I am, I grabbed my "tee handle" water valve tool and wandered out to the street.
Sure enough, the water was turned off.
"Certainally there is some clerical error", I thought, and with a quick ninety degree twist of the "tee handle" I'd have water again to wash my cup with.
Wrong...Mr. Sawdust breath...
I heard a gushing sound, and when I turned to look over my shoulder I saw water shooting out of the side of my building, into the air, twenty feet onto the adjacent vacant property.
Just Damn...
I turned the water supply off, and upon inspection I discovered that SOMEONE HAD STOLEN SIX FEET OF TEMPORARY COPPER TUBING CONNECTING MY WATER SUPPLY TO THE WATER HEATER.
I'm just lucky that the routing of the stolen piping allowed the water to excape outside of the building rather than inside the building, because the water meter says that about SIX THOUSAND GALLONS of water flowed out into the dirt before someone noticed the leak and turned off the valve.
I assume that by "someone", I mean that "someone" with the City of Brunswick turned the water off.
But...
Today, in attempting to communicate with the city by leaving a "voicemail" and finally talking to a human about 4:55 PM, I learned that they claim no knowledge of the leak and I'm now facing the daunting task of convincing them not to charge me for the water.
When I called the Brunswick Police's non-emergency number, I was invited to come down to the station to file a report elsewait a few weeks sit around all day die of boredom waiting for an officer to actually show up at my property to make a report of the incident.
Six feet of 1/2" copper tubing is probably worth about $0.25 at the recycler, and I hope they can afford to buy fries with their final meal before the grim reaper comes and puts them out of their misery.
I've mentioned here on the blog in the past that, although I still believe in the idea of public law enforcement and harbor a basic respect for law enforcement personnel in general, I find that the implementation of law enforcement to be quite lacking in reality.
Let's face the facts folks: The Police, being human, tend to focus their efforts on high profile crimes like murder, unpopular things like DUI, and violations which are easy to catch like speeding, while letting the majority of daily infractions go undeterred and unprevented.
I see more bullshit driving in one trip to Brunswick from our little island than should ever be tolerated--things like following too closely, weaving from lane to lane, running yellow and red traffic lights--but the police are content to sit by the side of the road smoking cigarettes and drinking coffee while their radar unit does their job for them.
I have a looooooonnnnnnnnggggg history of being a victim of crime, and only once have the police managed to actually catch anyone or do anything about what the vermin of society elected to do to me and my property.
For instance, in my life to date, I've survived:
1. A robbery in a Pizza Hut in Atlanta in 1979 where one of the assholes doing the robbery beat me in the head with a pistol (he broke the barrel off the piece-of-shit gun in the process.)
2. I lost a 1956 Chevy Belair that my Grandfather left me and that I was in the process of restoring. Some idiots drug it from the shed on our family farm on flat tires, onto a trailer, and delivered it to a junkyard where it was crushed for scrap.
It only had about 60,000 miles on it in 1978.
3. I've had my home broken into while in college, losing my class rings and other possessions like a TV and stereo.
4. I've had my S-10 Blazer broken into in Atlanta while attending a Georgia Tech basketball game, losing a stereo and a car phone and a $300 passenger side window.
5. I've had my Suburban broken into while sitting in the driveway of my Atlanta home, losing about $1000 worth of CD's and a neat little telescope (and a $500 side window.)
6. I've had my home broken into and the damaged contents ransacked twice after the building was basically destroyed by fire. Things like my coin collection and and antique radio were taken, even though they were black with smoke and wet with water.
7. I've had my car sitting in the driveway of the burned house vandalized in a theft attempt ($3,000 damage to a car worth $2,500.)
8. Had my rental property in Brunswick broken into three times to date, resulting in the THEFT OF MY PORCELAIN KITCHEN SINK in 2006.
The thing that each of these events had in common, with the exception of the Pizza Hut robbery, was that I had to personally FORCE the respective police/police department to even get excited enough to file a report.
Many if not most of the time I had to go to the Police Station to file the report because the police were supposedly too busy to come out and even try to look for evidence or dust for fingerprints.
Only once has anyone actually been caught and convicted (the car vandals) of the crimes which I have endured.
It was frightening how bored the police acted while taking our statements after the Pizza Hut robbery, and although I said that I could identify the robbers, I never heard another word from the Atlanta police after the incident.
The imbecile prosecutor on the car vandalization case sent me an incorrect court date via mail, and when I was unable to drive on one day notice from Florida to Atlanta to attend the hearing (after previously driving to Atlanta and filing a deposition regarding the cost of the vandalism), then the court refused, because of my absence, to award me any financial compensation from my teen aged black perpetrators.
The little bastards are probably bouncing between jail and the street today, if someone hasn't already put a bullet into the back of their miserable heads.
Now fast forward to Yesterday...
When I walked into my construction project, as usual, I was armed with tools, a couple of gallons of Gatoraid, and breakfast from McDonalds.
So far so good.
Then I decided to wash out a plastic cup and have myself a drink of Gatoraid with my bacon, egg, and cheese bagel.
What, no water pressure?
I paid the bill (I think), but I had no water.
Being the astute, prepared engineer and rocket scientist that I am, I grabbed my "tee handle" water valve tool and wandered out to the street.
Sure enough, the water was turned off.
"Certainally there is some clerical error", I thought, and with a quick ninety degree twist of the "tee handle" I'd have water again to wash my cup with.
Wrong...Mr. Sawdust breath...
I heard a gushing sound, and when I turned to look over my shoulder I saw water shooting out of the side of my building, into the air, twenty feet onto the adjacent vacant property.
Just Damn...
I turned the water supply off, and upon inspection I discovered that SOMEONE HAD STOLEN SIX FEET OF TEMPORARY COPPER TUBING CONNECTING MY WATER SUPPLY TO THE WATER HEATER.
I'm just lucky that the routing of the stolen piping allowed the water to excape outside of the building rather than inside the building, because the water meter says that about SIX THOUSAND GALLONS of water flowed out into the dirt before someone noticed the leak and turned off the valve.
I assume that by "someone", I mean that "someone" with the City of Brunswick turned the water off.
But...
Today, in attempting to communicate with the city by leaving a "voicemail" and finally talking to a human about 4:55 PM, I learned that they claim no knowledge of the leak and I'm now facing the daunting task of convincing them not to charge me for the water.
When I called the Brunswick Police's non-emergency number, I was invited to come down to the station to file a report else
Six feet of 1/2" copper tubing is probably worth about $0.25 at the recycler, and I hope they can afford to buy fries with their final meal before the grim reaper comes and puts them out of their misery.
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
Fix One Problem
Two More Appear...
Well, I'm back online at full speed again as of about noon yesterday. The resolution wasted about twelve hours, involved two calls to Comcast Technical Support (and at least a half dozen other "attempted calls,) and one trip over to Office Depot to buy a new cable modem.
I guess that the good news is that we are no longer renting our cable modem from Adelphia/Comcast to the tune of $5.00 a month, and I guess the $90 price tag for the new Linksys Modem is a bargain compared to the $239 we've spent thus far on the rental unit.
Of course Comcast would have replaced our old modem for free, but I managed to resist taking them up on their generous offer of sitting here in the Internet dark ages until sometime late Wednesday when a technician could stop by.
In renovation/construction news, nothing at all has happened in my absence.
Imagine that?
I've been waiting for three weeks for the City of Brunswick to pick up two giant piles of leaves and tree limbs which I placed on the curb on each side of the property.
The Sanitation Department is in theory supposed to pick up lawn debris every Friday, but three Fridays have passed and I'm getting tired of picking beer cans, discarded lottery tickets, and other trash conveniently deposited on top of my edifices by passers by. In the spirit of being neighborly, it seems that any time you build anything resembling a trash heap the locals feel obligated to assist you by adding their own contributions to the assemblage. I fill at least half my curbside trashcan each week with their generous donations.
My hired man James is appearing to be either a scoundrel else he is in Jail or something because when I left town I paid him in advance for a half day of work clearing overgrown vegetation off of the rear of my property. I also left him in possession of a cheep new digital wristwatch and over a $100 of tools like a sling blade, a machete, pruning shears, and "loppers" for his use.
From the looks of things yesterday morning, neither he, his watch, nor any of my tools had been anywhere near the place since last Monday.
Just Damn...
He was supposed to work at least the five hours I prepaid him for in my absence, and we had a deal that the entire job was worth fifteen hours of time which he could work and be paid for Monday morning upon my return from Alabama.
I'm afraid that I am about to learn a cruel lesson about human nature and the rewards of trying to assist the "downtrodden." Jessie Jackson and the bleeding heart "homeless advocates" can cry all they want to, but I've bent over backwards to give James every chance to earn as much money as he can (at $10 per hour) and he continues to waste my time and challenge my goodwill as I've rearranged my own schedule countless times to make work hours available to him--only to have him show up late or in this case not at all.
I hope that he'll show up today with some reasonable explanation and get caught up on things, but our relationship has gone backwards at least a couple of months as it appears that I cannot trust him to get anything done without employing direct supervision.
The new house is finally vacant as of last Saturday, about three weeks later than first scheduled so we're getting screwed out of a new interior paint job. We went by last evening and most of the walls didn't look too bad, but the entry foyer and the bedroom hallway will definitely need a coat of paint once we move in because of the wear and tear of the moving process.
Speaking of moving, our moving company rep managed to dodge my three phone calls yesterday and not return my request to tell me whether his truck and three gorillas would be here on Thursday, Friday, or Saturday of this week. He better call today or I'm buying another machete and driving down to Tampa for a face to face discussion on Wednesday.
I'm already virtually paralyzed in the Kitchen because almost everything relating to cooking and eating is sitting in boxes waiting to be taped closed. We're over half way through the packing process, but we've got to LIVE HERE for at least one other day beyond today, and it would be nice to know the move schedule so I don't sit around eating peanut butter sandwiches and wearing dirty clothes because we were ready on Thursday and the truck didn't show up until Saturday.
It also costs us an additional $34 per day plus utility costs to sit here beyond Wednesday, but that expense was incidental to the process--I just hate to do all of this planning and have some moron that has already cashed our $350 deposit check jplay immature games and jerk me around at the last minute.
Needless to say that my other professional endeavors are festering in nearly finished but not quite complete piles on the coffee table. If I could put the time I've put into fixing Internet related computer problems I'd be finished by now.
Now I have to go get organized to spend another half day making sawdust, praying that my hired help shows up, and that the now daily thunderstorms abate for the rest of the week so when we move the furniture doesn't warp and have the veneer fly off of it into outer space.
It is, after all, tough being me...Isn't it?
Well, I'm back online at full speed again as of about noon yesterday. The resolution wasted about twelve hours, involved two calls to Comcast Technical Support (and at least a half dozen other "attempted calls,) and one trip over to Office Depot to buy a new cable modem.
I guess that the good news is that we are no longer renting our cable modem from Adelphia/Comcast to the tune of $5.00 a month, and I guess the $90 price tag for the new Linksys Modem is a bargain compared to the $239 we've spent thus far on the rental unit.
Of course Comcast would have replaced our old modem for free, but I managed to resist taking them up on their generous offer of sitting here in the Internet dark ages until sometime late Wednesday when a technician could stop by.
In renovation/construction news, nothing at all has happened in my absence.
Imagine that?
I've been waiting for three weeks for the City of Brunswick to pick up two giant piles of leaves and tree limbs which I placed on the curb on each side of the property.
The Sanitation Department is in theory supposed to pick up lawn debris every Friday, but three Fridays have passed and I'm getting tired of picking beer cans, discarded lottery tickets, and other trash conveniently deposited on top of my edifices by passers by. In the spirit of being neighborly, it seems that any time you build anything resembling a trash heap the locals feel obligated to assist you by adding their own contributions to the assemblage. I fill at least half my curbside trashcan each week with their generous donations.
My hired man James is appearing to be either a scoundrel else he is in Jail or something because when I left town I paid him in advance for a half day of work clearing overgrown vegetation off of the rear of my property. I also left him in possession of a cheep new digital wristwatch and over a $100 of tools like a sling blade, a machete, pruning shears, and "loppers" for his use.
From the looks of things yesterday morning, neither he, his watch, nor any of my tools had been anywhere near the place since last Monday.
Just Damn...
He was supposed to work at least the five hours I prepaid him for in my absence, and we had a deal that the entire job was worth fifteen hours of time which he could work and be paid for Monday morning upon my return from Alabama.
I'm afraid that I am about to learn a cruel lesson about human nature and the rewards of trying to assist the "downtrodden." Jessie Jackson and the bleeding heart "homeless advocates" can cry all they want to, but I've bent over backwards to give James every chance to earn as much money as he can (at $10 per hour) and he continues to waste my time and challenge my goodwill as I've rearranged my own schedule countless times to make work hours available to him--only to have him show up late or in this case not at all.
I hope that he'll show up today with some reasonable explanation and get caught up on things, but our relationship has gone backwards at least a couple of months as it appears that I cannot trust him to get anything done without employing direct supervision.
The new house is finally vacant as of last Saturday, about three weeks later than first scheduled so we're getting screwed out of a new interior paint job. We went by last evening and most of the walls didn't look too bad, but the entry foyer and the bedroom hallway will definitely need a coat of paint once we move in because of the wear and tear of the moving process.
Speaking of moving, our moving company rep managed to dodge my three phone calls yesterday and not return my request to tell me whether his truck and three gorillas would be here on Thursday, Friday, or Saturday of this week. He better call today or I'm buying another machete and driving down to Tampa for a face to face discussion on Wednesday.
I'm already virtually paralyzed in the Kitchen because almost everything relating to cooking and eating is sitting in boxes waiting to be taped closed. We're over half way through the packing process, but we've got to LIVE HERE for at least one other day beyond today, and it would be nice to know the move schedule so I don't sit around eating peanut butter sandwiches and wearing dirty clothes because we were ready on Thursday and the truck didn't show up until Saturday.
It also costs us an additional $34 per day plus utility costs to sit here beyond Wednesday, but that expense was incidental to the process--I just hate to do all of this planning and have some moron that has already cashed our $350 deposit check jplay immature games and jerk me around at the last minute.
Needless to say that my other professional endeavors are festering in nearly finished but not quite complete piles on the coffee table. If I could put the time I've put into fixing Internet related computer problems I'd be finished by now.
Now I have to go get organized to spend another half day making sawdust, praying that my hired help shows up, and that the now daily thunderstorms abate for the rest of the week so when we move the furniture doesn't warp and have the veneer fly off of it into outer space.
It is, after all, tough being me...Isn't it?
Monday, July 30, 2007
Running At A Crawl
Comcast Isn't My Friend Right Now...
We made it back home to our little Island in record time today--about five and one half hours--just in time to let Missy the Turbo Pup run around in the rain to do her "business" and get everything unloaded and put away.
The rain kept coming, and it was a good thing we weren't an hour later on the road or the last segment of the trip from Waycross to home would have been very soggy. Thunderstorms lined up the entire length of US Highway 82.
Once Turbo Pup was settled in we snuck out to dinner at Bubba Garcias Mexican Restaurant, then came back home in time for my date with the sofa for a nap.
When I awoke about 11:30 PM I found that I had no VoIP phone service and no Internet,
Modem power off...reset...stand on my head...try as I might nothing worked.
Then I spent a half hour trying to call Comcast's "24 hour customer service on the back up land phone line and every time I got to the part where I could talk to an actual person in English the stupid phone system cut me off.
I finally dug around on my computer and found an unused three month free subscription to AOL that I hadn't used, so now at least I'm on line although it's at about 40 Kbaud dial up.
The real pisser is that Comcast's Website is set up for use with their cable modem service so all of the screens are HUGE and take forever to load and now I'm having trouble getting through their "chat" troubleshooting process to see if someone can help me without having to schedule a service call for sometime probably in the year 2010.
If comcast doesn't get their rental modem fixed pronto they are guaranteeing Bellsouth our DSL business at the new house.
I guess that you could say that High speed Internet is sorta like women...
Can't live with them...
Can't live without them.
Aaaaarrrrrrrrgggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
.
We made it back home to our little Island in record time today--about five and one half hours--just in time to let Missy the Turbo Pup run around in the rain to do her "business" and get everything unloaded and put away.
The rain kept coming, and it was a good thing we weren't an hour later on the road or the last segment of the trip from Waycross to home would have been very soggy. Thunderstorms lined up the entire length of US Highway 82.
Once Turbo Pup was settled in we snuck out to dinner at Bubba Garcias Mexican Restaurant, then came back home in time for my date with the sofa for a nap.
When I awoke about 11:30 PM I found that I had no VoIP phone service and no Internet,
Modem power off...reset...stand on my head...try as I might nothing worked.
Then I spent a half hour trying to call Comcast's "24 hour customer service on the back up land phone line and every time I got to the part where I could talk to an actual person in English the stupid phone system cut me off.
I finally dug around on my computer and found an unused three month free subscription to AOL that I hadn't used, so now at least I'm on line although it's at about 40 Kbaud dial up.
The real pisser is that Comcast's Website is set up for use with their cable modem service so all of the screens are HUGE and take forever to load and now I'm having trouble getting through their "chat" troubleshooting process to see if someone can help me without having to schedule a service call for sometime probably in the year 2010.
If comcast doesn't get their rental modem fixed pronto they are guaranteeing Bellsouth our DSL business at the new house.
I guess that you could say that High speed Internet is sorta like women...
Can't live with them...
Can't live without them.
Aaaaarrrrrrrrgggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
.
Sunday, July 29, 2007
Barfalotahulalula
How Do You Say "Hangover" On Maui?
Well, after so many months of anticipation, it was all over with in what seemed like a flash last evening.
My reunion, that is.
Our flower Leis were a big hit, and a LARGE time seemed to be had by all.
As is usual, there were some notable absentees that live within ten miles of the country club and always manage to come up with some excuse not to attend.
One girl came all the way from Alaska for the event, and several more like me made trips over three hundred miles.
There were also fourteen souls that had no other choice in the matter as they had left this Earth sometime since graduation. I guess that isn't that high of a number of deaths when you consider that our class had 270 members.
Once again our reunion committee outdid themselves in the planning and preparation, and I look forward to the next opportunity to see friends I've known practically since the day I was born.
Time to get on the road back toward our little island now...
See Y'all again in about six hours.
.
Well, after so many months of anticipation, it was all over with in what seemed like a flash last evening.
My reunion, that is.
Our flower Leis were a big hit, and a LARGE time seemed to be had by all.
As is usual, there were some notable absentees that live within ten miles of the country club and always manage to come up with some excuse not to attend.
One girl came all the way from Alaska for the event, and several more like me made trips over three hundred miles.
There were also fourteen souls that had no other choice in the matter as they had left this Earth sometime since graduation. I guess that isn't that high of a number of deaths when you consider that our class had 270 members.
Once again our reunion committee outdid themselves in the planning and preparation, and I look forward to the next opportunity to see friends I've known practically since the day I was born.
Time to get on the road back toward our little island now...
See Y'all again in about six hours.
.
Saturday, July 28, 2007
I Think That I'm Somewhere In Hawaii
But I Thought It Was South Alabama...
Well, we made it over to Ozark early yesterday morning with Missy the Turbo Pup in tow, and then we started realizing the obvious lessons that traveling with an animal teaches it's new pupils.
Lesson #1: Until you can check into your "pet friendly" hotel room, you will stay in your car with your AC running to avoid the ambient 90+ degree heat and a possible visit from thelunatics people at PETA or the ASPCA.
Lesson #2: You will also EAT breakfast in your car (see lesson #1).
Lesson #3: You cannot sneak in Wal Mart through the garden section with the aforementioned Turbo Pup because Wal Mart is NOT "Pet Friendly."
Thankfully I was able to sweet talk our front desk clerk at our "pet friendly" hotel into expediting the cleaning of our assigned room while we lounged at the "pet friendly" hotel's swimming pool for a little over an hour, and everyone (Pat, myself, and Missy the Turbo Pup) was basking the in air conditioned comfort of our room by 12:15 PM.
By the time we arrived at the hotel I had already received two shipments from Hawaii. The girls at the front desk were impressed.
The first package from Hawaiian Lei Company was clearly marked "flowers" and had instructions for special handling, and inside was one of these, an Orchid & Carnation "Double" Lei:
That's a little student model Soprano Ukulele--something I've thought about acquiring for several years now. It will go well with my ever growing collection of musical instruments.
So any way, with my new Hawaiian shirt on my torso, my straw hat on my head, my Kukui Nut Lei around my neck, and my shorts and flip flops adorning the lower half of my suntanned body, Pat and I hope to be be the best dressed couple at tonight's festivities.
In the mean time, I'll be skipping the golf tournament to spend yet another day lounging by the pool and tending to Missy the Turbo Pup's latest whims.
Wish me luck
Aloha
Well, we made it over to Ozark early yesterday morning with Missy the Turbo Pup in tow, and then we started realizing the obvious lessons that traveling with an animal teaches it's new pupils.
Lesson #1: Until you can check into your "pet friendly" hotel room, you will stay in your car with your AC running to avoid the ambient 90+ degree heat and a possible visit from the
Lesson #2: You will also EAT breakfast in your car (see lesson #1).
Lesson #3: You cannot sneak in Wal Mart through the garden section with the aforementioned Turbo Pup because Wal Mart is NOT "Pet Friendly."
Thankfully I was able to sweet talk our front desk clerk at our "pet friendly" hotel into expediting the cleaning of our assigned room while we lounged at the "pet friendly" hotel's swimming pool for a little over an hour, and everyone (Pat, myself, and Missy the Turbo Pup) was basking the in air conditioned comfort of our room by 12:15 PM.
By the time we arrived at the hotel I had already received two shipments from Hawaii. The girls at the front desk were impressed.
The first package from Hawaiian Lei Company was clearly marked "flowers" and had instructions for special handling, and inside was one of these, an Orchid & Carnation "Double" Lei:
The second Lei was something called a "Kukui Nut & Mock Orange" Lei that looks like this:
(That one I bought for me to wear tonight)
Needless to say that Pat was surprised and impressed, even though they let the cat out of the bag a little early and I wasn't going to tell her until time to get dressed tonight.
Finally, in my attempt to adhere to dressing in Hawaiian attire for or upcoming celebration, the second package was from the Mele Ukulele Store and it contained one of these:
That's a little student model Soprano Ukulele--something I've thought about acquiring for several years now. It will go well with my ever growing collection of musical instruments.
So any way, with my new Hawaiian shirt on my torso, my straw hat on my head, my Kukui Nut Lei around my neck, and my shorts and flip flops adorning the lower half of my suntanned body, Pat and I hope to be be the best dressed couple at tonight's festivities.
In the mean time, I'll be skipping the golf tournament to spend yet another day lounging by the pool and tending to Missy the Turbo Pup's latest whims.
Wish me luck
Aloha
Thursday, July 26, 2007
Pergatory
Internet & Otherwise...
This week's trip thus far has featured a broken home Air Conditioner and slow Internet service.
We trade slow Internet today for no Internet tonight, before moving on to a hotel for a couple of days of free high speed connection.
My fingers can hardly wait...
This week's trip thus far has featured a broken home Air Conditioner and slow Internet service.
We trade slow Internet today for no Internet tonight, before moving on to a hotel for a couple of days of free high speed connection.
My fingers can hardly wait...
Wednesday, July 25, 2007
Ward Churchill Finally Relegated To History
Two Years Too Late...
After starting an investigation in the summer of 2005, last night the University of Colorado Boulder finally decided to remove the human turd, Ward "Little Eichmann's" Chuchill, from their payroll.
BOULDER – The University of Colorado Board of Regents voted to fire Ward Churchill on Tuesday evening, prompting the promise of a lawsuit from the embattled professor.
The Board of Regents passed a motion to accept the recommendation from CU President Hank Brown to fire Churchill from his position in the Ethnic Studies department.The measure passed with an 8 to 1 vote.
The vote was made just after 5:30 p.m. and Cindy Carlisle was the dissenting vote. The move came after academic committees found in 2006 that Churchill was guilty of academic misconduct, including plagiarism.
The board's decision came more than an hour after it was initially expected. It is unclear what caused the delay.
Immediately after the decision was announced people in the crowd booed and some swore at the board members.Churchill and his supporters then participated in a Native American ceremony outside of the building."
I am going nowhere," said Churchill. "This is not about break, this is not about bend, this is not about compromise."
This whole saga has been and probably will continue to be a sad but very public example of the level to which our colleges and universities have sunk over the past fifty years.
Many of the faculty offices and desks, in my opinion, are populated by a group of highly educated misfits that in another century would be relegated to a freaking circus sideshow tent.
Now they are given six figure salaries and something called TENURE.
Tenure, many times, is just another word for "job security for a incompetent bullshit artist", in my considered Redneck opinion.
I'd love to go back to school before I die and get a Masters or another undergrad degree from somewhere famous like Harvard or MIT, but in the back of my mind I know that the political climate on most campuses and my own political views would prevent me from getting a fair shake in the grade department.
It was, after all, not easy going in the 1970's and 1980's when academic liberal bias was still in the closet and everyone believed everything that Walter Cronkrite said on the evening news.
After starting an investigation in the summer of 2005, last night the University of Colorado Boulder finally decided to remove the human turd, Ward "Little Eichmann's" Chuchill, from their payroll.
BOULDER – The University of Colorado Board of Regents voted to fire Ward Churchill on Tuesday evening, prompting the promise of a lawsuit from the embattled professor.
The Board of Regents passed a motion to accept the recommendation from CU President Hank Brown to fire Churchill from his position in the Ethnic Studies department.The measure passed with an 8 to 1 vote.
The vote was made just after 5:30 p.m. and Cindy Carlisle was the dissenting vote. The move came after academic committees found in 2006 that Churchill was guilty of academic misconduct, including plagiarism.
The board's decision came more than an hour after it was initially expected. It is unclear what caused the delay.
Immediately after the decision was announced people in the crowd booed and some swore at the board members.Churchill and his supporters then participated in a Native American ceremony outside of the building."
I am going nowhere," said Churchill. "This is not about break, this is not about bend, this is not about compromise."
This whole saga has been and probably will continue to be a sad but very public example of the level to which our colleges and universities have sunk over the past fifty years.
Many of the faculty offices and desks, in my opinion, are populated by a group of highly educated misfits that in another century would be relegated to a freaking circus sideshow tent.
Now they are given six figure salaries and something called TENURE.
Tenure, many times, is just another word for "job security for a incompetent bullshit artist", in my considered Redneck opinion.
I'd love to go back to school before I die and get a Masters or another undergrad degree from somewhere famous like Harvard or MIT, but in the back of my mind I know that the political climate on most campuses and my own political views would prevent me from getting a fair shake in the grade department.
It was, after all, not easy going in the 1970's and 1980's when academic liberal bias was still in the closet and everyone believed everything that Walter Cronkrite said on the evening news.
Tuesday, July 24, 2007
I KNEW That This Was Coming
Give Me Some Pork Fat, A Dozen Eggs, And A Glass Of Pure Cane Sugar...
I've been saying this for at LEAST thirty years, and my genius insight is proving to be true as
"scientists" have determined that "Diet Soft Drinks" can be linked to Cardiovascular health risks.
MONDAY, July 23 (HealthDay News) -- Drinking more than one soda a day -- even if it's the sugar-free diet kind -- is associated with an increased incidence of metabolic syndrome, a cluster of risk factors linked to the development of diabetes and cardiovascular disease, a study finds.
The link to diet soda found in the study was "striking" but not entirely a surprise, said Dr. Ramachandran Vasan, study senior author and professor of medicine at Boston University School of Medicine. There had been some hints of it in earlier studies, he said.
"But this is the first study to show the association in a prospective fashion and in a large population," Vasan said.
....
A variety of explanations, none proven, have been proposed for the link between diet soft drink consumption and metabolic syndrome, Vasan said. That association was evident even when the researchers accounted for other factors, such as levels of saturated fat and fiber in the diet, total calorie intake, smoking and physical activity.
One theory is that the high sweetness of all soft drinks makes a person more prone to eat sugary, fattening foods. Another is that the caramel content of soft drinks promotes metabolic changes that lead to insulin resistance. "These are hotly debated by nutritional experts," Vasan said.
You see, here's the deal with all of this food hysteria and dietary BS we have in the world today.
I say that if you sit at a desk all day and then come home and vegetate on the sofa watching Entertainment Tonight and playing Playstation games, and all you eat is McDonald's and pre-processed "cheese food" products in brightly colored packaging, you're gonna spend most of you life as a slovenly lardass.
It's just that simple.
Drinking a few diet Cokes won't make a damn bit of difference.
The same goes for your kids and your dog and cat.
The human body was designed to hunt and fish and survive on a sometimes pretty crappy diet, living and sleeping under stressful conditions back before global warming melted all of the Glaciers, and sitting in air conditioned comfort and walking from the sofa to the garage and from the car to the front door of Sears & Roebuck every weekend just doesn't get it when it comes to keeping the amazing machine that God gave us all in good working condition.
I've eaten eggs my entire life, in mass quantities, even when the "scientists" and "medical experts" said that eggs were going to kill me.
I have over two pounds of butter in my fridge and freezer right now.
When I cook bacon, I generally cook something using bacon grease within 24 hours.
I have at least fifty pounds of baby back pork ribs, a Boston pork butt, and beef tenderloin in my freezer right now, along with a few dozen pounds of shrimp, chicken, and crab.
As I've said so many times before, I KNOW that I'm eventually going to die of SOMETHING, and I want to CHOOSE my poison rather than letting everyone walk by my coffin and utter the words...
"Don't he look good?"
My funeral will be closed casket.
(Actually I'll be cremated.)
I've been saying this for at LEAST thirty years, and my genius insight is proving to be true as
"scientists" have determined that "Diet Soft Drinks" can be linked to Cardiovascular health risks.
MONDAY, July 23 (HealthDay News) -- Drinking more than one soda a day -- even if it's the sugar-free diet kind -- is associated with an increased incidence of metabolic syndrome, a cluster of risk factors linked to the development of diabetes and cardiovascular disease, a study finds.
The link to diet soda found in the study was "striking" but not entirely a surprise, said Dr. Ramachandran Vasan, study senior author and professor of medicine at Boston University School of Medicine. There had been some hints of it in earlier studies, he said.
"But this is the first study to show the association in a prospective fashion and in a large population," Vasan said.
....
A variety of explanations, none proven, have been proposed for the link between diet soft drink consumption and metabolic syndrome, Vasan said. That association was evident even when the researchers accounted for other factors, such as levels of saturated fat and fiber in the diet, total calorie intake, smoking and physical activity.
One theory is that the high sweetness of all soft drinks makes a person more prone to eat sugary, fattening foods. Another is that the caramel content of soft drinks promotes metabolic changes that lead to insulin resistance. "These are hotly debated by nutritional experts," Vasan said.
You see, here's the deal with all of this food hysteria and dietary BS we have in the world today.
I say that if you sit at a desk all day and then come home and vegetate on the sofa watching Entertainment Tonight and playing Playstation games, and all you eat is McDonald's and pre-processed "cheese food" products in brightly colored packaging, you're gonna spend most of you life as a slovenly lardass.
It's just that simple.
Drinking a few diet Cokes won't make a damn bit of difference.
The same goes for your kids and your dog and cat.
The human body was designed to hunt and fish and survive on a sometimes pretty crappy diet, living and sleeping under stressful conditions back before global warming melted all of the Glaciers, and sitting in air conditioned comfort and walking from the sofa to the garage and from the car to the front door of Sears & Roebuck every weekend just doesn't get it when it comes to keeping the amazing machine that God gave us all in good working condition.
I've eaten eggs my entire life, in mass quantities, even when the "scientists" and "medical experts" said that eggs were going to kill me.
I have over two pounds of butter in my fridge and freezer right now.
When I cook bacon, I generally cook something using bacon grease within 24 hours.
I have at least fifty pounds of baby back pork ribs, a Boston pork butt, and beef tenderloin in my freezer right now, along with a few dozen pounds of shrimp, chicken, and crab.
As I've said so many times before, I KNOW that I'm eventually going to die of SOMETHING, and I want to CHOOSE my poison rather than letting everyone walk by my coffin and utter the words...
"Don't he look good?"
My funeral will be closed casket.
(Actually I'll be cremated.)
More Computer Crap
Outsmarting Myself...
Well, I'm up early this morning, trying to finish up some of my nerdy design work in anticipation of being out of town for most of a week, and to my horror I'm finding some problems with file corruption in some of my software.
I don't know if it is systemic or related to my recent bullshit spyware/adware/malware event, and I'm still checking things looking for problems--but a week or more of design work could be lost unless I can find clean copies of the spreadsheets.
The bad news is that I've run my Norton 360 software twice a day for the past month or so and the backup feature has apparently reduced everything to the same "gobbly-gook status" in the process.
Am I a "super genius" or what???
I'm so angry I'm ready to throw the computer out into the parking lot and start using an abacus and a big fat first grade pencil again.
.
Well, I'm up early this morning, trying to finish up some of my nerdy design work in anticipation of being out of town for most of a week, and to my horror I'm finding some problems with file corruption in some of my software.
I don't know if it is systemic or related to my recent bullshit spyware/adware/malware event, and I'm still checking things looking for problems--but a week or more of design work could be lost unless I can find clean copies of the spreadsheets.
The bad news is that I've run my Norton 360 software twice a day for the past month or so and the backup feature has apparently reduced everything to the same "gobbly-gook status" in the process.
Am I a "super genius" or what???
I'm so angry I'm ready to throw the computer out into the parking lot and start using an abacus and a big fat first grade pencil again.
.
Monday, July 23, 2007
I Want The Whole Kit & Kaboodle
Comcast Apparently Sucks...
OK, I've already said that we're moving, right?
In spite of risking making my head explode, I'm also traveling to Alabama on Wednesday to visit my mother, AND attend my 30th high school reunion next weekend, and that means that nothing can be done toward packing and getting ready to move until we return to our little island on the 29th--TWO or THREE days before the movers back a truck up to our front door.
Since we were paying to live here, I made Pat wait until yesterday to start tearing the place up and putting things into boxes. We had our final dinner party Thursday night and entertained out of town guests until noon Saturday and the place looked great if I do say so myself--even though we only finished decorating and furnishing it over the past three months or so.
Any way, yesterday morning I decided to tell my utility companies about our decision, and first on my list was our cable and Internet provider, Comcast.
I logged on to their website and rummaged around to find the section of customernon-service relating to moving service addresses and was merrily typing in our new address information (Alabama Street...ironically) and when I got the to part where I was supposed to tell them when to connect the new service and disconnect the old service, I ended up sitting in stunned silence for a while.
You see, Comcast, in their infinite wisdom, requires that you provide them a five day window between the date of disconnection of your old service and the connection of your new service.
Five Days?
FIVE DAYS?
FIVE DAYS?
I screwed around for another ten minutes or so, then just logged off and abandoned my order request in disgust.
Does Comcast seriously believe that people are willing to go FIVE DAYS without cable TV?
That I can handle, but FIVE DAYS without Internet service will cause me to have some kind of a conniption fit and cripple Pat's business activities for the duration since she telecommutes from home.
Five days...
Boy oh boy, the gene pool available for doing cable installation must be infinitesimally small these days to need a five day window of time because the new house is already wired for cable and as far as I know all the guy with the tool belt has to do is show up and twist a couple of coax connectors together to get things rolling.
Five DAYS...
Here's what I'm going to do later today in an attempt to remedy this situation. I'm going to call Comcast and attempt to speak with a human in English, then I'm going to request that they establish an entirely new Cable/Internet account under my name at the new address and leave the old account active in our condo.
Then I'm going to require therocket scientists customer nonservice department to activate the new account on the appropriate day while deactivating the old account at the same time.
Seems simple enough to me, how about you?
THEN, if they still insist on making us wait and endure a five day window without service, I'll be calling the Bellsouth DSL people and the Satellite TV people and telling Comcast to kiss my grits.
Is it just ME...or WHAT?
ok, Time to get dressed and head over to Lowes to buy more lumber now.
Y'all have a nice day...
OK, I've already said that we're moving, right?
In spite of risking making my head explode, I'm also traveling to Alabama on Wednesday to visit my mother, AND attend my 30th high school reunion next weekend, and that means that nothing can be done toward packing and getting ready to move until we return to our little island on the 29th--TWO or THREE days before the movers back a truck up to our front door.
Since we were paying to live here, I made Pat wait until yesterday to start tearing the place up and putting things into boxes. We had our final dinner party Thursday night and entertained out of town guests until noon Saturday and the place looked great if I do say so myself--even though we only finished decorating and furnishing it over the past three months or so.
Any way, yesterday morning I decided to tell my utility companies about our decision, and first on my list was our cable and Internet provider, Comcast.
I logged on to their website and rummaged around to find the section of customer
You see, Comcast, in their infinite wisdom, requires that you provide them a five day window between the date of disconnection of your old service and the connection of your new service.
Five Days?
FIVE DAYS?
FIVE DAYS?
I screwed around for another ten minutes or so, then just logged off and abandoned my order request in disgust.
Does Comcast seriously believe that people are willing to go FIVE DAYS without cable TV?
That I can handle, but FIVE DAYS without Internet service will cause me to have some kind of a conniption fit and cripple Pat's business activities for the duration since she telecommutes from home.
Five days...
Boy oh boy, the gene pool available for doing cable installation must be infinitesimally small these days to need a five day window of time because the new house is already wired for cable and as far as I know all the guy with the tool belt has to do is show up and twist a couple of coax connectors together to get things rolling.
Five DAYS...
Here's what I'm going to do later today in an attempt to remedy this situation. I'm going to call Comcast and attempt to speak with a human in English, then I'm going to request that they establish an entirely new Cable/Internet account under my name at the new address and leave the old account active in our condo.
Then I'm going to require the
Seems simple enough to me, how about you?
THEN, if they still insist on making us wait and endure a five day window without service, I'll be calling the Bellsouth DSL people and the Satellite TV people and telling Comcast to kiss my grits.
Is it just ME...or WHAT?
ok, Time to get dressed and head over to Lowes to buy more lumber now.
Y'all have a nice day...
Sunday, July 22, 2007
Packing My Life Away
Arrrrrrggggghhhhhh...
I HATE moving.
I'm too cheep to pay the movers to pack my stuff, plus it's just creepy to me to have someone handling all of my stuff in the first place.
I wish I had a transporter like they had on Star Trek so that we could just "beam" all of our stuff over to the new house in one pile on the driveway.
Better yet, it would be even cooler if you could tag each piece with GPS coordinates and beam it from where it sits in your old place over to the new place, in it's final location.
Of course Pat would probably beam all my stuff into the garage or something. That would be fair reprisal for me beaming all her "nicknacks and paddywhacks"--you know...glass statues and vases and crap girls keep laying around on shelves and in lighted glass cabinets--into the back yard or onto the sun porch.
Now where's my roll of tape and black magic marker...
.
I HATE moving.
I'm too cheep to pay the movers to pack my stuff, plus it's just creepy to me to have someone handling all of my stuff in the first place.
I wish I had a transporter like they had on Star Trek so that we could just "beam" all of our stuff over to the new house in one pile on the driveway.
Better yet, it would be even cooler if you could tag each piece with GPS coordinates and beam it from where it sits in your old place over to the new place, in it's final location.
Of course Pat would probably beam all my stuff into the garage or something. That would be fair reprisal for me beaming all her "nicknacks and paddywhacks"--you know...glass statues and vases and crap girls keep laying around on shelves and in lighted glass cabinets--into the back yard or onto the sun porch.
Now where's my roll of tape and black magic marker...
.
Saturday, July 21, 2007
Bush's Colonoscopy
Exclusive Photos...
I was just sitting here reading about President Bush handing over the keys to Airforce One today while they do a little video work on his rear end, and it occurred to me to wonder what the test might find and how the NY Times would report the outcome.
First of all, here's a few photos of a normal colon:
And here's a look at the insides of our chief executive:
It's no wonder his ass has been bothering him.
(Yes, I came up with the idea all by my wittle self, and the photoshop work only took a half hour...)
I was just sitting here reading about President Bush handing over the keys to Airforce One today while they do a little video work on his rear end, and it occurred to me to wonder what the test might find and how the NY Times would report the outcome.
First of all, here's a few photos of a normal colon:
And here's a look at the insides of our chief executive:
It's no wonder his ass has been bothering him.
(Yes, I came up with the idea all by my wittle self, and the photoshop work only took a half hour...)
Friday, July 20, 2007
I'm Surrounded!!!
Nobody Move...
I was sitting here minding my own business, waiting on a friend to come in from the airport, when I looked up and found this scene surrounding me in my living room as I check the weather and write this evening (as usual, click to enlarge.):
All I have to do is bark and I cause pandemonium...
I was sitting here minding my own business, waiting on a friend to come in from the airport, when I looked up and found this scene surrounding me in my living room as I check the weather and write this evening (as usual, click to enlarge.):
All I have to do is bark and I cause pandemonium...
100 Degrees Fahrenheit
And I'll Be There...
Well, I'm getting ready to pack up a few gallons of Gatorade and swim over to Brunswick to do some more construction work this morning.
I say "swim" because the air is so thick you can cut it with a knife, and the Weather Wench on the Weather Channel just told me that the forecast high will be somewherenear the combustion temperature of human flesh near 100 degrees F today over on the mainland.
Things weren't much cooler here on our little island yesterday, as our teen aged guests and their mother (the woman that told me that they routinely had no trouble staying out all afternoon on the beach normally) were begging me to abandon our spot out on East Beach yesterday afternoon by about 12:45 PM.
What?
We only arrived at the beach at a little after 11 AM and all the veteran beach bums (including Pat) except me wanted to go home?
So we did.
As is usual, my Missy, the "Turbo Pup", made the most of the day and had the best time--sitting on all of the chairs and spreading sand on all of the beach towels.
Here's a couple of pics showing her progress getting wet and dirty (click to enlarge):
The good news is that the Norton/Symantic guy got back with me and set up a conference call for Monday morning, and he also GAVE me a free download of the new Norton AntiBot software which I managed to get installed and thus far seems to exorcised my computer's demons.
Of course I could come home this afternoon and have floating beds and rotating heads and pea soup vomit all over the living room around the computer...
I just don't know what to expect any more around here.
Well, I'm getting ready to pack up a few gallons of Gatorade and swim over to Brunswick to do some more construction work this morning.
I say "swim" because the air is so thick you can cut it with a knife, and the Weather Wench on the Weather Channel just told me that the forecast high will be somewhere
Things weren't much cooler here on our little island yesterday, as our teen aged guests and their mother (the woman that told me that they routinely had no trouble staying out all afternoon on the beach normally) were begging me to abandon our spot out on East Beach yesterday afternoon by about 12:45 PM.
What?
We only arrived at the beach at a little after 11 AM and all the veteran beach bums (including Pat) except me wanted to go home?
So we did.
As is usual, my Missy, the "Turbo Pup", made the most of the day and had the best time--sitting on all of the chairs and spreading sand on all of the beach towels.
Here's a couple of pics showing her progress getting wet and dirty (click to enlarge):
The good news is that the Norton/Symantic guy got back with me and set up a conference call for Monday morning, and he also GAVE me a free download of the new Norton AntiBot software which I managed to get installed and thus far seems to exorcised my computer's demons.
Of course I could come home this afternoon and have floating beds and rotating heads and pea soup vomit all over the living room around the computer...
I just don't know what to expect any more around here.
Thursday, July 19, 2007
The Atlanta Falcons
Crappy Then...Still Crappy Now...
Being from lower Alabama, I grew up watching mainly college football and the local high school football team because the nearest NFL franchises were in New Orleans, Tampa Bay, and Atlanta.
Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, North & South Carolina, Kentucky, and most of the rest of the Midwest and the Mississippi River flood plain had to watch pro football on television if they actually wanted to SEE a pro football game, unlike people living in Pittsburgh, Green Bay, and NYC.
Even today my great birth state of Alabama still has but three football teams of note--THE University of Alabama "Crimson Tide", the Auburn "Tigers", and most recently the NCAA Division IA Troy State University "Trojans."
I think that you'd agree with me when I say that Alabamians love their college football, although things have never been quite the same since Bear Bryant died back in the 1980's.
Georgia, of course, still has their own mediocre Atlanta Falcons team.
When I moved to Atlanta in 1977 to attend Georgia Tech, the Falcons stadium was but a few miles south of my dorm room, but try as I might I just couldn't manage to become a serious Falcons fan.
You see, the Atlanta Falcons totally SUCKED because the Smith family heir, "baby bubba Smith," had owned the team since the franchise was first awarded and the City of Atlanta stole the money from the taxpayers to build a stadium, and all Mr. Smith cared about was chasing strange women and keeping the status "quo."
Quarterback Steve Bartkowski and running back/receivers William Andrews and Alfred Jenkins had their moments, but after sitting in the stadium in a 20 degree Arctic cold blast watching their 1980 NFC Division playoff loss to the Dallas Cowboys in January 1981, I think that I've attended maybe three Falcons games and watched about the same number on television.
When "baby bubba Smith's" antics finally embarrassed his family name enough and Arthur Blank threw out enough money to cause him to sell the Falcon franchise in 2002, all of my delirious wild eyed friends lambasted me with commentary about how the Falcons were going to become a dynasty like the Atlanta Braves were in Baseball.
All I could do is yawn.
When Mr. Blank tossed Virginia Tech QB Michael Vick a ten year $130 million deal, the City of Atlanta and the Atlanta media started gassing up their cars and buying Super Bowl tickets.
All I could do was smirk.
Today, following Mr. Vick's indictment on Dog Fighting charges, I offer a hearty:
I TOLD YOU ALL SO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I've said from the start that Michael Vick was nothing but a highly overpaid THUG--sort of a version of NBA Player lite. He had enough savvy to mostly keep his mouth shut, but when it came time to perform on the field he was all smoke and mirrors, and today's Atlanta Falcon's, like the Falcons of the 1970's, still can't put together a Super Bowl Team with just a pretty good quarterback surrounded by a bunch of "has beens" and "wanna be's."
I don't just question Vick's judgment here, I question the entire culture that permeates college and professional sports.
Thugs and Gangsters...
Gangsters and Gold chain adorned Thugs.
(And one huge dumbass that's made $13 million dollars a year for the past five years and spends his time betting on dogs killing each other.)
Being from lower Alabama, I grew up watching mainly college football and the local high school football team because the nearest NFL franchises were in New Orleans, Tampa Bay, and Atlanta.
Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, North & South Carolina, Kentucky, and most of the rest of the Midwest and the Mississippi River flood plain had to watch pro football on television if they actually wanted to SEE a pro football game, unlike people living in Pittsburgh, Green Bay, and NYC.
Even today my great birth state of Alabama still has but three football teams of note--THE University of Alabama "Crimson Tide", the Auburn "Tigers", and most recently the NCAA Division IA Troy State University "Trojans."
I think that you'd agree with me when I say that Alabamians love their college football, although things have never been quite the same since Bear Bryant died back in the 1980's.
Georgia, of course, still has their own mediocre Atlanta Falcons team.
When I moved to Atlanta in 1977 to attend Georgia Tech, the Falcons stadium was but a few miles south of my dorm room, but try as I might I just couldn't manage to become a serious Falcons fan.
You see, the Atlanta Falcons totally SUCKED because the Smith family heir, "baby bubba Smith," had owned the team since the franchise was first awarded and the City of Atlanta stole the money from the taxpayers to build a stadium, and all Mr. Smith cared about was chasing strange women and keeping the status "quo."
Quarterback Steve Bartkowski and running back/receivers William Andrews and Alfred Jenkins had their moments, but after sitting in the stadium in a 20 degree Arctic cold blast watching their 1980 NFC Division playoff loss to the Dallas Cowboys in January 1981, I think that I've attended maybe three Falcons games and watched about the same number on television.
When "baby bubba Smith's" antics finally embarrassed his family name enough and Arthur Blank threw out enough money to cause him to sell the Falcon franchise in 2002, all of my delirious wild eyed friends lambasted me with commentary about how the Falcons were going to become a dynasty like the Atlanta Braves were in Baseball.
All I could do is yawn.
When Mr. Blank tossed Virginia Tech QB Michael Vick a ten year $130 million deal, the City of Atlanta and the Atlanta media started gassing up their cars and buying Super Bowl tickets.
All I could do was smirk.
Today, following Mr. Vick's indictment on Dog Fighting charges, I offer a hearty:
I TOLD YOU ALL SO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I've said from the start that Michael Vick was nothing but a highly overpaid THUG--sort of a version of NBA Player lite. He had enough savvy to mostly keep his mouth shut, but when it came time to perform on the field he was all smoke and mirrors, and today's Atlanta Falcon's, like the Falcons of the 1970's, still can't put together a Super Bowl Team with just a pretty good quarterback surrounded by a bunch of "has beens" and "wanna be's."
I don't just question Vick's judgment here, I question the entire culture that permeates college and professional sports.
Thugs and Gangsters...
Gangsters and Gold chain adorned Thugs.
(And one huge dumbass that's made $13 million dollars a year for the past five years and spends his time betting on dogs killing each other.)
Wednesday, July 18, 2007
Aviation Politics
More Bitching About Trying To Fly...
I know that I've mentioned many times before that I was once a bit of a half-assed airplane pilot.
In loosely describing myself as a pilot, I mean that I knew enough to manage to untie the airplane from the tarmac, start the engine, and flop around in the air for an hour or so burning a few gallons of 100 octane low lead gasoline.
Unfortunately, I never managed to actually GO ANYWHERE with my aviation efforts because of FAA intervention. My wife at the time was quite happy with the cost savings realized by my administrative grounding, but I was rather pissed off with the turn of events at the time.
I had the displeasure of learning that the Federal Aviation Administration--a 1950's creation of President Eisenhower--being a government entity, basically has nothing to do all day but waste money and issue mandates.
In my case, it was the "issuing of mandates" that ended my flying career.
You see, the FAA apparently hates the AMA (American Medical Association) and the FDA (the Food and Drug Administration), because if you so much as take an Aspirin or buy a tube of Preparation H and they hear about it, they will unilaterally ground your aching head and ass and on the ground you will sit for the rest of your life (unless you let Delta or United pilots do your flying for you.)
In my case, it was the anticoagulant drug Coumadine that was the source of my flying demise. That, and the crappy blood circulation problems that I've periodically experienced in my legs and abdomen.
So any way, last evening the Brazilians suffered a major airline crash at what is called Brazil's "busiest airport."
SAO PAULO, Brazil (CNN) -- A jetliner crashed and exploded into flames at Brazil's busiest airport on Tuesday night, killing at least 200 people, local rescue workers said.
As investigators prepared to open a probe into the cause of the crash of the TAM Airlines Airbus A320, questions were being raised about both the growth in Brazilian air traffic and Sao Paulo's Congonhas Airport.
The Sao Paulo fire department said at least 200 people, including some on the ground, were dead at the scene. The figure would make Tuesday's crash Brazil's deadliest air disaster.
Brazil President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva declared three days of national morning for the victims.
Witnesses said the plane skidded across a major road at rush hour. Reports that the plane struck a gas station could not be confirmed, but a massive fire broke out.
The crash happened in a driving rain, and the plane apparently struck a building bearing the airline's logo at the small domestic airport in the heart of the city. At least 50 rescue vehicles were at the scene, firefighters said. The fire continued to burn into the night.
I did a little checking and was astonished at what I found out in the process.
THESE CRAZY BRAZILIANS ARE ROUTINELY LANDING BIG AIRPLANES ON A RUNWAY THAT'S ONLY 6,362 FEET LONG!!!
For those of you that graduated from the University of Georgia, that's only a little over three football fields longer than a mile--or about 22 football fields worth of asphalt and concrete.
Most airfields serving commercial jetliners have runways that are at LEAST 10,000 feet long, and may have twelve or fourteen thousand feet of pavement, depending on the service requirements of their customers.
Further, the Sao Paulo Congonhas airport is 2,631 feet above sea level, another performance problem when it comes to pushing a metal wing through the altitude thinned air.
What amazes me is that Sao Paulo also has Gaurulhos International Airport sitting just a few miles to the northeast that has nearly double the runway--12,140 feet--and yet the other airport is the busiest.
Using Chicago as a reference, if it were me, and I were flying around in a shiny aluminum tube with wings in Brazil, I'd make a conscious choice to go into Sao Paulo's "O'Hare" rather than enjoying the convenience of their "Midway" airport if I was interested in landing in foul weather and managing to make it back home in one piece.
I guarantee you that there is some kind of government bullshit political situation behind allowing the airport with the smaller runway to handle most of commercial air traffic.
I'd be looking up the pants leg of the President and the Mayor and the so-called "aviation officials" because someone other than the pilot is responsible for setting this situation up in the first place.
I know that I've mentioned many times before that I was once a bit of a half-assed airplane pilot.
In loosely describing myself as a pilot, I mean that I knew enough to manage to untie the airplane from the tarmac, start the engine, and flop around in the air for an hour or so burning a few gallons of 100 octane low lead gasoline.
Unfortunately, I never managed to actually GO ANYWHERE with my aviation efforts because of FAA intervention. My wife at the time was quite happy with the cost savings realized by my administrative grounding, but I was rather pissed off with the turn of events at the time.
I had the displeasure of learning that the Federal Aviation Administration--a 1950's creation of President Eisenhower--being a government entity, basically has nothing to do all day but waste money and issue mandates.
In my case, it was the "issuing of mandates" that ended my flying career.
You see, the FAA apparently hates the AMA (American Medical Association) and the FDA (the Food and Drug Administration), because if you so much as take an Aspirin or buy a tube of Preparation H and they hear about it, they will unilaterally ground your aching head and ass and on the ground you will sit for the rest of your life (unless you let Delta or United pilots do your flying for you.)
In my case, it was the anticoagulant drug Coumadine that was the source of my flying demise. That, and the crappy blood circulation problems that I've periodically experienced in my legs and abdomen.
So any way, last evening the Brazilians suffered a major airline crash at what is called Brazil's "busiest airport."
SAO PAULO, Brazil (CNN) -- A jetliner crashed and exploded into flames at Brazil's busiest airport on Tuesday night, killing at least 200 people, local rescue workers said.
As investigators prepared to open a probe into the cause of the crash of the TAM Airlines Airbus A320, questions were being raised about both the growth in Brazilian air traffic and Sao Paulo's Congonhas Airport.
The Sao Paulo fire department said at least 200 people, including some on the ground, were dead at the scene. The figure would make Tuesday's crash Brazil's deadliest air disaster.
Brazil President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva declared three days of national morning for the victims.
Witnesses said the plane skidded across a major road at rush hour. Reports that the plane struck a gas station could not be confirmed, but a massive fire broke out.
The crash happened in a driving rain, and the plane apparently struck a building bearing the airline's logo at the small domestic airport in the heart of the city. At least 50 rescue vehicles were at the scene, firefighters said. The fire continued to burn into the night.
I did a little checking and was astonished at what I found out in the process.
THESE CRAZY BRAZILIANS ARE ROUTINELY LANDING BIG AIRPLANES ON A RUNWAY THAT'S ONLY 6,362 FEET LONG!!!
For those of you that graduated from the University of Georgia, that's only a little over three football fields longer than a mile--or about 22 football fields worth of asphalt and concrete.
Most airfields serving commercial jetliners have runways that are at LEAST 10,000 feet long, and may have twelve or fourteen thousand feet of pavement, depending on the service requirements of their customers.
Further, the Sao Paulo Congonhas airport is 2,631 feet above sea level, another performance problem when it comes to pushing a metal wing through the altitude thinned air.
What amazes me is that Sao Paulo also has Gaurulhos International Airport sitting just a few miles to the northeast that has nearly double the runway--12,140 feet--and yet the other airport is the busiest.
Using Chicago as a reference, if it were me, and I were flying around in a shiny aluminum tube with wings in Brazil, I'd make a conscious choice to go into Sao Paulo's "O'Hare" rather than enjoying the convenience of their "Midway" airport if I was interested in landing in foul weather and managing to make it back home in one piece.
I guarantee you that there is some kind of government bullshit political situation behind allowing the airport with the smaller runway to handle most of commercial air traffic.
I'd be looking up the pants leg of the President and the Mayor and the so-called "aviation officials" because someone other than the pilot is responsible for setting this situation up in the first place.
I'm A Terrible Employee
And An Even Worse Employer...
I hate to admit that I took an unscheduled "mental health holiday" from my job site yesterday. I was taking an early morning nap as 7, 8, 9, and 10 AM came and went and only by 11 AM did I manage to drag my rear end out of the bed and into the living room in front of the computer screen.
I feel a bit guilty for letting two days slip by without getting anything done, but when the heat index hit 110 degrees F I understood that my indiscretion was probably justified.
I'll make it up by getting a really early start this morning before eight and possibly tossing in an extra hour or so on the end of the schedule.
If I can finish the woodwork on the soffits and fascias today I'll be happy with the week's progress, because we have family coming into town and Pat has the rest of the week off and I want to be able to enjoy cooking dinner for eight family and friends tomorrow night.
I think that my soon to be famous Chicken Piccata will be on the menu, and possibly some Key Lime Pie for desert. This will be our last opportunity to entertain here in our Sea Palms Condo since everything has to be packed into boxes and moved into a truck for the cross island move we're making the first week in August.
I am NOT looking forward to this move, but the good news is that it's been over three years since the last one and the extra space afforded in the new house will certainly make things worth while once the dust settles.
I'm excited to be getting my own studio space in the new building where I can keep my photo and artwork supplies set up and at hand for use rather than having to stash the watercolors when I'm working on pen & ink drawings and having to put everything up when we have company.
I'm interested in getting into stained glass work and doing some ceramic pottery and other clay sculpture, so having the space to allow things to stay accessible for a couple hours of work each day should greatly increase my output and productivity.
I have at LEAST a half dozen artwork projects already started that need to be followed up on inculding marketing some prints of my pen & ink work and getting a few dozen finished works matted and framed for display and possible sale.
Working on the kitchen table and the coffee table just hasn't been condusive to getting past the prototype stage on my efforts.
OK, time for a quick snooze, then it's back to the grindstone for a half day...
I hate to admit that I took an unscheduled "mental health holiday" from my job site yesterday. I was taking an early morning nap as 7, 8, 9, and 10 AM came and went and only by 11 AM did I manage to drag my rear end out of the bed and into the living room in front of the computer screen.
I feel a bit guilty for letting two days slip by without getting anything done, but when the heat index hit 110 degrees F I understood that my indiscretion was probably justified.
I'll make it up by getting a really early start this morning before eight and possibly tossing in an extra hour or so on the end of the schedule.
If I can finish the woodwork on the soffits and fascias today I'll be happy with the week's progress, because we have family coming into town and Pat has the rest of the week off and I want to be able to enjoy cooking dinner for eight family and friends tomorrow night.
I think that my soon to be famous Chicken Piccata will be on the menu, and possibly some Key Lime Pie for desert. This will be our last opportunity to entertain here in our Sea Palms Condo since everything has to be packed into boxes and moved into a truck for the cross island move we're making the first week in August.
I am NOT looking forward to this move, but the good news is that it's been over three years since the last one and the extra space afforded in the new house will certainly make things worth while once the dust settles.
I'm excited to be getting my own studio space in the new building where I can keep my photo and artwork supplies set up and at hand for use rather than having to stash the watercolors when I'm working on pen & ink drawings and having to put everything up when we have company.
I'm interested in getting into stained glass work and doing some ceramic pottery and other clay sculpture, so having the space to allow things to stay accessible for a couple hours of work each day should greatly increase my output and productivity.
I have at LEAST a half dozen artwork projects already started that need to be followed up on inculding marketing some prints of my pen & ink work and getting a few dozen finished works matted and framed for display and possible sale.
Working on the kitchen table and the coffee table just hasn't been condusive to getting past the prototype stage on my efforts.
OK, time for a quick snooze, then it's back to the grindstone for a half day...
Tuesday, July 17, 2007
As Of July 17th, The 2007 Hurricane Season Is Still A Bust...
Al Gore Changing His Panties Boxers
Heh...
.
Heh...
.
Dirty Jobs
Mike Rowe I Ain't....
I just LOVE watching Mike Rowe's show DIRTY JOBS on the Discover Channel.
It's right up there with Deadliest Catch and the History Channel's Ice Road Truckers on my list of TV shows I can't pass up once the remote control has scanned across their broadcast.
Tonight Mike was doing a little work with a Terminte exterminating company and chipping hardened concrete out of concrete delivery trucks. I've also seen him squeezing poop out of baby chickens and pumping out septic tanks, but he does everything with style and a good deal of humor while telling stories about things even I have never seen or thought about doing.
It's a good thing that a TV crew hasn't shown up on my job site to film some of the things that have gone on there since I started work back in May.
On second thought, I guess that the Comedy Channel might be interested--maybe I should make a few phone calls.
I just LOVE watching Mike Rowe's show DIRTY JOBS on the Discover Channel.
It's right up there with Deadliest Catch and the History Channel's Ice Road Truckers on my list of TV shows I can't pass up once the remote control has scanned across their broadcast.
Tonight Mike was doing a little work with a Terminte exterminating company and chipping hardened concrete out of concrete delivery trucks. I've also seen him squeezing poop out of baby chickens and pumping out septic tanks, but he does everything with style and a good deal of humor while telling stories about things even I have never seen or thought about doing.
It's a good thing that a TV crew hasn't shown up on my job site to film some of the things that have gone on there since I started work back in May.
On second thought, I guess that the Comedy Channel might be interested--maybe I should make a few phone calls.
Monday, July 16, 2007
Air Conditioned Interior
Still Hot Under The Collar...
Well, I crossed yet another construction milestone on Sunday, completing the installation of a couple of tons of electric heatpump equipment mounted through the wall of what will be the living room in the final floor plan configuration. I think that the 1959 vintage structure actually shuttered with surprise as the the cool air hit it's 47 year old concrete and timbers.
There's still a breakfast bar, kitchen sink, and old refrigerator sitting around my new modern convienance--but those items will be exiting the facility in the next construction dumpster, finally completing the transition from a duplex to a single family residence.
My thinking is that with this improvement, the interior work can be completed in civilized, mosquito-free conditions. No more stopping to wipe the sweat off my safety glasses and out of my eyes every two minutes. That's the reason I changed my schedule and accelerated the AC installation by an entire month.
James and I spent the final fifteen minutes of our workday sitting in front of the AC vents, drinking a couple of cold Hinekin beers in celebaration of our accomplishment, knowing that even when our day's work involves soffits and fascias or metal roof panels outside, that we can always come INSIDE to take a break from the 100+ degree F heat index coastal weather.
Here at home on the computer front, my HP laptop is still paralysed with Internet blindness, although the CAD software and other programs seem to be working OK thus far. Needless to say I'll be on the telephone first thing this morning--I hope that they follow up with their earlier offer of personalized support assistance because their Norton 360 software absolutely refuses to find any problem currently.
Be advised that if you are one of these weasels that takes pleasure in writing maliscious software code designed to break into complete strangers expensive hardware, and I EVER find you, I will take great pleasure in risking the legal consequences of thrashing you within inches of your miserable life.
Everyone GOT THAT???
Well, I crossed yet another construction milestone on Sunday, completing the installation of a couple of tons of electric heatpump equipment mounted through the wall of what will be the living room in the final floor plan configuration. I think that the 1959 vintage structure actually shuttered with surprise as the the cool air hit it's 47 year old concrete and timbers.
There's still a breakfast bar, kitchen sink, and old refrigerator sitting around my new modern convienance--but those items will be exiting the facility in the next construction dumpster, finally completing the transition from a duplex to a single family residence.
My thinking is that with this improvement, the interior work can be completed in civilized, mosquito-free conditions. No more stopping to wipe the sweat off my safety glasses and out of my eyes every two minutes. That's the reason I changed my schedule and accelerated the AC installation by an entire month.
James and I spent the final fifteen minutes of our workday sitting in front of the AC vents, drinking a couple of cold Hinekin beers in celebaration of our accomplishment, knowing that even when our day's work involves soffits and fascias or metal roof panels outside, that we can always come INSIDE to take a break from the 100+ degree F heat index coastal weather.
Here at home on the computer front, my HP laptop is still paralysed with Internet blindness, although the CAD software and other programs seem to be working OK thus far. Needless to say I'll be on the telephone first thing this morning--I hope that they follow up with their earlier offer of personalized support assistance because their Norton 360 software absolutely refuses to find any problem currently.
Be advised that if you are one of these weasels that takes pleasure in writing maliscious software code designed to break into complete strangers expensive hardware, and I EVER find you, I will take great pleasure in risking the legal consequences of thrashing you within inches of your miserable life.
Everyone GOT THAT???
