To Cook, Or Not To Cook?
My friend and popular Blackwater Grill restaurant owner John called me last evening to check on my health progress.
Apparently the rumor was out among some of the other contestants that his head Chef (that would be me) was potentially calling in sick for this upcoming weekend's Chili Cookoff, and they had stopped by the restaurant to gloat and drink beer in celebration.
Well, I've got news for them...come 10 AM this morning I'll be standing in the checkout line at the grocery store with a few items, the London Broil is already thawed out, and a gallon test batch of chili will be finished in the pot in time for a 4:00 PM strategy meeting over at Blackwater in the afternoon.
The only way I'm missing next Saturdays' event is if they haul me back to the hospital...and my newly modifed colon needs some chili therapy anyway so I can kill two birds with one stone this week.
Wish me luck...If you will.
Monday, February 25, 2008
Sunday, February 24, 2008
"Here" Versus "There"
"Now" Against "Then"
Having earlier returned from the back yard after smoking half a cigar, I'm now busying myself laying on the sofa reading the Internet while Pat and Missy the Turbo Pup make a visit over to the beach to enjoy the afternoon's glorious weather.
Let's see...yep, it's now up to 72 degrees F outside, while up in Knoxville it's...
MOSTLY CLOUDY AND 44 DEGREES F (with a chance of snow Tuesday night thrown in for good measure.)
After nearly five years living here in paradise, all I can say is...
Oh the Humanity!!!
(time to go back out and finish that cigar now.)
Having earlier returned from the back yard after smoking half a cigar, I'm now busying myself laying on the sofa reading the Internet while Pat and Missy the Turbo Pup make a visit over to the beach to enjoy the afternoon's glorious weather.
Let's see...yep, it's now up to 72 degrees F outside, while up in Knoxville it's...
MOSTLY CLOUDY AND 44 DEGREES F (with a chance of snow Tuesday night thrown in for good measure.)
After nearly five years living here in paradise, all I can say is...
Oh the Humanity!!!
(time to go back out and finish that cigar now.)
Slowly But Surely
Test Driving My New Innards...
I'm finding out the hard way that it's not very funny what laying flat on your back for 24 days does to your physical abilities.
That, and having a couple fewer feet of small intestine than I started the month of February with has me dragging myself from the bed to the bathroom to the sofa and back in a daily rotation of boredom and indignation at not being able to fend for myself by myself. Of course Pat and Missy the Turbo Pup do what they can for me and their efforts are greatly appreciated..but still...
I have a literal TON of paperwork and other stuff to do around here, but it's all I can seem to do just to get through the days and not pinch my guts trying to stand up too fast. I did manage to leave the house for a light Mexican lunch (one enchilada...whoop te doo) yesterday, but most of the time the hike to the mail box is about as far as I've ventured thus far.
I hope something changes...and soon.
I'm finding out the hard way that it's not very funny what laying flat on your back for 24 days does to your physical abilities.
That, and having a couple fewer feet of small intestine than I started the month of February with has me dragging myself from the bed to the bathroom to the sofa and back in a daily rotation of boredom and indignation at not being able to fend for myself by myself. Of course Pat and Missy the Turbo Pup do what they can for me and their efforts are greatly appreciated..but still...
I have a literal TON of paperwork and other stuff to do around here, but it's all I can seem to do just to get through the days and not pinch my guts trying to stand up too fast. I did manage to leave the house for a light Mexican lunch (one enchilada...whoop te doo) yesterday, but most of the time the hike to the mail box is about as far as I've ventured thus far.
I hope something changes...and soon.
Friday, February 22, 2008
Bizarre Surgical Side Effects
Drop That Razor...
Just in case I haven't mentioned it before here on the blog, let me let you know that I'm a pretty hairy guy.
Not just pretty...not just hairy, but pretty hairy none the less.
I manage to keep most of what tries to sprout in reach on my back and shoulder blades under control, but the rest of my glorious visage is covered in a varying blanket of dark brown and increasingly grey hair.
That said, I'd like to find the person responsible forremoving shaving butchering off all of my fuzzy coat from the bottom crease of my pert "man titties" to the top of my pubic bone and give them a good thrashing.
Now I think that I know how a baby Porcupine feels the first few weeks of his life.
Just in case I haven't mentioned it before here on the blog, let me let you know that I'm a pretty hairy guy.
Not just pretty...not just hairy, but pretty hairy none the less.
I manage to keep most of what tries to sprout in reach on my back and shoulder blades under control, but the rest of my glorious visage is covered in a varying blanket of dark brown and increasingly grey hair.
That said, I'd like to find the person responsible for
Now I think that I know how a baby Porcupine feels the first few weeks of his life.
Here & There
But Not Everywhere...YET.
Good GOD!!
Or rather...
Thank God!!
(I'll let those words sit here for a minute and sink in as I contemplate my ongoing existence.)
Whether I'm thanking GOD for yet another miraculous recovery or talking about how good he's been to me to allow me to continue to draw a few new breaths here on the planet this week, let me tell you that I've been back to death's door for yet a second time in 2-1/2 years because I'm STUPID (not to mention hard headed and arrogant and have thousands of other Biblical failings I've yet to mention or completely study in my own time and mind.)
After suffering yet a second bout with ischemia of my small intestine--in layman's terms I had a number of old and new blood clots in the veins feeding my guts. Not only is it painful, but it kills something like 1/3 to 1/2 of the people that don't get it diagnosed and treated in time.
This time I was early with the diagnosis, but the treatment still involved abdominal surgery to remove 2 feet of my small intestine and the installation of 34 metal staples in my new "zipper scar" that runs down the center of my belly from below my breast bone to below the top of my pubic bone.
I'm still enjoying a dull ache and weak abdominal muscles even thought the surgery was last Friday and the staples were taken out on Monday.
All I know is, I don't want to do this again, and thus I'm following up on extensive post operative testing involving various man made "scopes" shoved down my throat and up my behind in the next few months, and I'm taking a fist full of anti-oxidant and Coumadine every day for the rest of my life.
The only problem with this scenario it that while I'll live longer, swinging like a monkey around construction job sites and banging my thumb on a daily basis is out as an a career or avocation.
It's a desk job or unemployment for me from here on out, and to that end I've done a few things over the past three weeks while lapsing in and out of consciousness.
FIRST, I accepted a contract to sell my undeveloped land in downtown Brunswick, closing the deal by the second week in March.
SECOND, I intend to take the proceeds from the sale of the lots and toss extra money at getting the renovation project finished and on the market by April 15th.
THIRD, I have negotiated a GREAT employment deal for myself with an engineering company in Knoxville, Tennessee, beginning full time work by April 30th. They want me so badly that they're willing to wait for my real estate transactions to be completed and they're paying most of my relocation expenses to get me into town and on their payroll.
Sorry I didn't mention this earlier, but Pat and I snuck off late last month for the interview and then the illness stepped in and closed the deal in my middle aged mind. If I don't re-enter now, I'll never be able to come back in and make a truly competitive salary because I'll be too old and can't give the company the time in the saddle they are looking for.
Besides, on days like today 45 hours of guaranteed pay, paid vacation, paid holidays, 401 K, and most of all...HEALTH INSURANCE...looks pretty damn good from where I'm sitting, having ran up a $50,000 tab in the past three weeks myself.
The only thing I'm wondering now is...how do you explain disappearing for 24 days to your dog?
Further, how do you justify taking Missy the Turbo Pup away from her southern coastal home (12 months on February 14th) and into a city that gets over a foot of annual snowfall?
My dog has to wear a sweater outside when the temperature drops below 50 degrees F, even though she has long hair.
Life's tough, I guess???
Good GOD!!
Or rather...
Thank God!!
(I'll let those words sit here for a minute and sink in as I contemplate my ongoing existence.)
Whether I'm thanking GOD for yet another miraculous recovery or talking about how good he's been to me to allow me to continue to draw a few new breaths here on the planet this week, let me tell you that I've been back to death's door for yet a second time in 2-1/2 years because I'm STUPID (not to mention hard headed and arrogant and have thousands of other Biblical failings I've yet to mention or completely study in my own time and mind.)
After suffering yet a second bout with ischemia of my small intestine--in layman's terms I had a number of old and new blood clots in the veins feeding my guts. Not only is it painful, but it kills something like 1/3 to 1/2 of the people that don't get it diagnosed and treated in time.
This time I was early with the diagnosis, but the treatment still involved abdominal surgery to remove 2 feet of my small intestine and the installation of 34 metal staples in my new "zipper scar" that runs down the center of my belly from below my breast bone to below the top of my pubic bone.
I'm still enjoying a dull ache and weak abdominal muscles even thought the surgery was last Friday and the staples were taken out on Monday.
All I know is, I don't want to do this again, and thus I'm following up on extensive post operative testing involving various man made "scopes" shoved down my throat and up my behind in the next few months, and I'm taking a fist full of anti-oxidant and Coumadine every day for the rest of my life.
The only problem with this scenario it that while I'll live longer, swinging like a monkey around construction job sites and banging my thumb on a daily basis is out as an a career or avocation.
It's a desk job or unemployment for me from here on out, and to that end I've done a few things over the past three weeks while lapsing in and out of consciousness.
FIRST, I accepted a contract to sell my undeveloped land in downtown Brunswick, closing the deal by the second week in March.
SECOND, I intend to take the proceeds from the sale of the lots and toss extra money at getting the renovation project finished and on the market by April 15th.
THIRD, I have negotiated a GREAT employment deal for myself with an engineering company in Knoxville, Tennessee, beginning full time work by April 30th. They want me so badly that they're willing to wait for my real estate transactions to be completed and they're paying most of my relocation expenses to get me into town and on their payroll.
Sorry I didn't mention this earlier, but Pat and I snuck off late last month for the interview and then the illness stepped in and closed the deal in my middle aged mind. If I don't re-enter now, I'll never be able to come back in and make a truly competitive salary because I'll be too old and can't give the company the time in the saddle they are looking for.
Besides, on days like today 45 hours of guaranteed pay, paid vacation, paid holidays, 401 K, and most of all...HEALTH INSURANCE...looks pretty damn good from where I'm sitting, having ran up a $50,000 tab in the past three weeks myself.
The only thing I'm wondering now is...how do you explain disappearing for 24 days to your dog?
Further, how do you justify taking Missy the Turbo Pup away from her southern coastal home (12 months on February 14th) and into a city that gets over a foot of annual snowfall?
My dog has to wear a sweater outside when the temperature drops below 50 degrees F, even though she has long hair.
Life's tough, I guess???
Thursday, February 21, 2008
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
Monday, February 11, 2008
I'm Almost Feeling Human Again
(If That Is Actually Something To Be Desired)
Well, folks, I'm spening day seven here at the beautiful SE Georgia Regional Medical Center and Massage Parlor. I have a lovely private room in the new tower, on the penthouse floor, overlooking the roof of the old hospital complex and a Herculese toxic waste disposal site.
Speaking of toxic waste, you should see some of the stuff that's been coming out of my gut through a tube they have shoved down my left nostril into my stomach. It almost glows in the dark sometimes I think.
As I suspected on Tuesday when I asked Pat to take me to the emergency room, the symptoms of my intestinal ischemia from 30 months ago had returned, although this time I caught it much earlier.
I only had to live for two days in intensive care before they moved me out into the regular population of sick people...if they only knew how irregular I really am...
The worst thing about this whole ordeal is my inability to eat, and their lack of desire to put food in my ailing small intestine. I have't seen anything but ice chips for a week now.
The good news is, as I always say...there's nothing like a good serious illness to take some weight off, and weight loss I am accomplishing through this ordeal.
They say that I might be out of here by Friday, stay tuned if you will.
Well, folks, I'm spening day seven here at the beautiful SE Georgia Regional Medical Center and Massage Parlor. I have a lovely private room in the new tower, on the penthouse floor, overlooking the roof of the old hospital complex and a Herculese toxic waste disposal site.
Speaking of toxic waste, you should see some of the stuff that's been coming out of my gut through a tube they have shoved down my left nostril into my stomach. It almost glows in the dark sometimes I think.
As I suspected on Tuesday when I asked Pat to take me to the emergency room, the symptoms of my intestinal ischemia from 30 months ago had returned, although this time I caught it much earlier.
I only had to live for two days in intensive care before they moved me out into the regular population of sick people...if they only knew how irregular I really am...
The worst thing about this whole ordeal is my inability to eat, and their lack of desire to put food in my ailing small intestine. I have't seen anything but ice chips for a week now.
The good news is, as I always say...there's nothing like a good serious illness to take some weight off, and weight loss I am accomplishing through this ordeal.
They say that I might be out of here by Friday, stay tuned if you will.
Wednesday, February 06, 2008
Under The Weather
Unexpected Bad Luck...
Well...I have some good news, and some bad news--which do you want first?
Since it's my news, I'll give the good first.
It's 2008 right now on my calendar--not 1808 or even 1908.
Wonder why I've got you asking this question?
It's because of my bad news...I'M IN THE HOSPITAL AS OF YESTERDAY MORNING ABOUT 9 AM.
Instead of spreading all of the gory details all over the Internet, let's just say that it's serious, and we don't know exactly how things are going to go over the next couple of weeks.
In the mean time, I appreciate your thoughts and prayers and will try to keep the blog updated between doses of Morphine.
Well...I have some good news, and some bad news--which do you want first?
Since it's my news, I'll give the good first.
It's 2008 right now on my calendar--not 1808 or even 1908.
Wonder why I've got you asking this question?
It's because of my bad news...I'M IN THE HOSPITAL AS OF YESTERDAY MORNING ABOUT 9 AM.
Instead of spreading all of the gory details all over the Internet, let's just say that it's serious, and we don't know exactly how things are going to go over the next couple of weeks.
In the mean time, I appreciate your thoughts and prayers and will try to keep the blog updated between doses of Morphine.
Monday, February 04, 2008
Fixing The Crack(head) On My Dashboard
Leather Mender To The Rescue
Everyone be advised that absolutely none of the late night TV ads entering my abode are immune to parody and ridicule, and this evening's target is something called Leathermender that's making my mind numb with their ads on FOX News.
What caught my ear was their claim that their product can be used to fix that "Ugly Crack on you Dashboard." The use of this terminology piqued my interest, but I'm afraid that I might be confused because this is who/what came to my mind when they mentioned having "Crack on my Dashboard":
Almost every day on my construction site I have to say no to people like this, so I consider myself to be somewhat of an authority on the matter.
That said, why would anyone buy "Leather Mender" in the first place?
(PS...Looks like my brain is waking up a little in the ranting department...)
Everyone be advised that absolutely none of the late night TV ads entering my abode are immune to parody and ridicule, and this evening's target is something called Leathermender that's making my mind numb with their ads on FOX News.
What caught my ear was their claim that their product can be used to fix that "Ugly Crack on you Dashboard." The use of this terminology piqued my interest, but I'm afraid that I might be confused because this is who/what came to my mind when they mentioned having "Crack on my Dashboard":
Almost every day on my construction site I have to say no to people like this, so I consider myself to be somewhat of an authority on the matter.
That said, why would anyone buy "Leather Mender" in the first place?
(PS...Looks like my brain is waking up a little in the ranting department...)
Physically Tired, And Mentally Dull
Living In My Own Little World...
I swear, if I commented on every silly or stupid thing that I read about these days I wouldn't ever get anything productive done.
I've become so lethargic in my interest in ranting about things going on in pop culture and the "outside world" that I actually slept through all but the final 30 seconds of the Super Bowl last night.
I was just too tired as a result of the previous two day's construction efforts and, with at least two more days in front of me slinging around 4'x8' sheets of siding and holding a pneumatic nail gun over my head, I felt that sleep when I could get it was more important than watching a game featuring gangs of overpaid grown men playing children's games while amassing fortunes equal to the Gross National product of many third world countries.
We came home yesterday to find water running down our driveway, apparently the result of a broken pipe adjacent to the water meter, so we've spent the evening with no water in the kitchen and bathrooms, although I do intend to waste some more of our "precious national resource" by turning on the valve this morning so I can wash my hands and flush the toilets.
In other local news, I'm sorry to report that after mistakenly applying my TV-Advertised, mail ordered, "Male Enhancement" product to my front yard US Postal Service Mail Box that now we can only receive "Air Mail" because the box has extended itself to a height of slightly over TEN FEET off of the ground.
While to may consumers this phenomena might be considered to be truly phenomenal, in my lethargy I simply turn my head back to my drawings and computer in order to contemplate today’s dose of making sawdust.
I swear, if I commented on every silly or stupid thing that I read about these days I wouldn't ever get anything productive done.
I've become so lethargic in my interest in ranting about things going on in pop culture and the "outside world" that I actually slept through all but the final 30 seconds of the Super Bowl last night.
I was just too tired as a result of the previous two day's construction efforts and, with at least two more days in front of me slinging around 4'x8' sheets of siding and holding a pneumatic nail gun over my head, I felt that sleep when I could get it was more important than watching a game featuring gangs of overpaid grown men playing children's games while amassing fortunes equal to the Gross National product of many third world countries.
We came home yesterday to find water running down our driveway, apparently the result of a broken pipe adjacent to the water meter, so we've spent the evening with no water in the kitchen and bathrooms, although I do intend to waste some more of our "precious national resource" by turning on the valve this morning so I can wash my hands and flush the toilets.
In other local news, I'm sorry to report that after mistakenly applying my TV-Advertised, mail ordered, "Male Enhancement" product to my front yard US Postal Service Mail Box that now we can only receive "Air Mail" because the box has extended itself to a height of slightly over TEN FEET off of the ground.
While to may consumers this phenomena might be considered to be truly phenomenal, in my lethargy I simply turn my head back to my drawings and computer in order to contemplate today’s dose of making sawdust.
Sunday, February 03, 2008
Grinnnndddddddddd....Whirlllllllllll...Wham...Wham...Wham
The Sounds Of Construction Progress
Today's a red letter day on the construction calendar, with the installation of the new siding panels on most if not all of the front of the revised building footprint.
Things have come far enough I just might post a before and after photo to show everyone what the heck I've been doing with my time the past half year.
Stay tuned...
Today's a red letter day on the construction calendar, with the installation of the new siding panels on most if not all of the front of the revised building footprint.
Things have come far enough I just might post a before and after photo to show everyone what the heck I've been doing with my time the past half year.
Stay tuned...
Saturday, February 02, 2008
Bait & Switch Weather
My Toes Are Cold...
We rolled back in here to our little Island a little before 3 PM yesterday and the temperature was 74 degrees F.
Sorry, but I just have to gloat a little.
You got to love it if you live here and have spent the past week running around with a jacket and long sleeves in foreign places--it was 27 Thursday morning and 40 when we left Vinings yesterday morning.
We ended up wandering over to our local watering hole about 5 PM in my short shirt sleeves to meet my real estate friends Bruce and Ski, and then we promptly ran back home to hide from eating out for the zillionth time in the past week.
I actually skipped dinner because I'm so full of grease and pasta and meat that I think I could hibernate until April and not eat another bite.
That's the only bad thing about traveling is the inability to just eat a little something--every plate seems to contain 1-1/2 to 2 times as much food as I'd ordinarily eat, so I end up dragging styrofoam boxes back to the hotel and then stinking up the place microwaving stuff in the middle of the night when the munchies set in.
If I stayed gone a month I believe that I'd have to buy a forklift or at least one of those stupid "mobile chairs" to move me from the sofa to the car and hire a legion of "home caregivers" to manage my blood pressure/colesterol medicine and wash the hidden folds of my bloated carcass.
Any way, I woke up about 1:30 having gotten my obligatory 6 hours worth of sleep and daaannngggg...it had cooled off a bit. I cranked on the heat and checked the weather channel, and it was 34 DEGREES OUTSIDE.
What happened to my order of tropical weather?
I absolutely have to wander over to the "job site" and get a few hours of work done and take a look at the schedule for the next couple of months. I've reluctantly decided to break down and hire myself some help in the roofing, electrical, and plumbing department because I'm getting pressure from potential buyers that don't want to wait until the return of Christ to move in.
Some people just don't appreciatefine art craftsmanship the fruits of inate lethargy.
We rolled back in here to our little Island a little before 3 PM yesterday and the temperature was 74 degrees F.
Sorry, but I just have to gloat a little.
You got to love it if you live here and have spent the past week running around with a jacket and long sleeves in foreign places--it was 27 Thursday morning and 40 when we left Vinings yesterday morning.
We ended up wandering over to our local watering hole about 5 PM in my short shirt sleeves to meet my real estate friends Bruce and Ski, and then we promptly ran back home to hide from eating out for the zillionth time in the past week.
I actually skipped dinner because I'm so full of grease and pasta and meat that I think I could hibernate until April and not eat another bite.
That's the only bad thing about traveling is the inability to just eat a little something--every plate seems to contain 1-1/2 to 2 times as much food as I'd ordinarily eat, so I end up dragging styrofoam boxes back to the hotel and then stinking up the place microwaving stuff in the middle of the night when the munchies set in.
If I stayed gone a month I believe that I'd have to buy a forklift or at least one of those stupid "mobile chairs" to move me from the sofa to the car and hire a legion of "home caregivers" to manage my blood pressure/colesterol medicine and wash the hidden folds of my bloated carcass.
Any way, I woke up about 1:30 having gotten my obligatory 6 hours worth of sleep and daaannngggg...it had cooled off a bit. I cranked on the heat and checked the weather channel, and it was 34 DEGREES OUTSIDE.
What happened to my order of tropical weather?
I absolutely have to wander over to the "job site" and get a few hours of work done and take a look at the schedule for the next couple of months. I've reluctantly decided to break down and hire myself some help in the roofing, electrical, and plumbing department because I'm getting pressure from potential buyers that don't want to wait until the return of Christ to move in.
Some people just don't appreciate
Friday, February 01, 2008
Zoommmmmmmmm
On The Road Again...
Cliff's notes for the day...sHrillary, Obama, McCain, Romney...
Read some news stories and make up your own rants this morning, I got to go.
Cliff's notes for the day...sHrillary, Obama, McCain, Romney...
Read some news stories and make up your own rants this morning, I got to go.
Thursday, January 31, 2008
Laundry Lint In My Hair
And A Smile On My Face...We're Going Home
Four cities, seven nights, I believe that's enough for now. Plus, I've run out of things to do away from home that are more important than the things I have to do at home and in Brunswick. When we arrive back on our little island tomorrow afternoon our car odometer will read almost 1,100 miles higher than when it started. a week ago.
Downtown Atlanta was as I remembered it to be in January, full of wind and cold and busses and hurrying people, and I really don't miss any of it even after nearly five years of absence (19 years if you count the last time I worked downtown.)
Meanwhile, my realtor's been begging for a key to my new front door so he can show a potential buyer my construction monstrocity, and I have numerous other tasks to get back in the middle of since I can't seem to make them take care of themselves by themselves while I'm away.
This time tomorrow night I'll probably be asleep on my own sofa...
I can hardly wait.
Four cities, seven nights, I believe that's enough for now. Plus, I've run out of things to do away from home that are more important than the things I have to do at home and in Brunswick. When we arrive back on our little island tomorrow afternoon our car odometer will read almost 1,100 miles higher than when it started. a week ago.
Downtown Atlanta was as I remembered it to be in January, full of wind and cold and busses and hurrying people, and I really don't miss any of it even after nearly five years of absence (19 years if you count the last time I worked downtown.)
Meanwhile, my realtor's been begging for a key to my new front door so he can show a potential buyer my construction monstrocity, and I have numerous other tasks to get back in the middle of since I can't seem to make them take care of themselves by themselves while I'm away.
This time tomorrow night I'll probably be asleep on my own sofa...
I can hardly wait.
Live From The Chilly City Of Vinings, Georgia
Mass Transportation On Horizion
I'd like to wrap my hands around someone's neck this morning--if I could find the man responsible.
But I'm sure that I won't be able to find him because as far as I know LAWYERS don't work at 8 AM in the morning, so those same legal scholars certainly won't be found crawling around dingy basement laundrys at that early hour.
The good news is that my request was finally answered about 4 PM yesterday after begging since September for the opportunity to make a site inspection of the accident scene I've been working on with my consulting friend. I find it difficult to do this kind of work using second hand information gathered by people with more education than I have but less actual experience getting their hands dirty on construction job sites, so today I get my remedy to that situation.
The bad news is that for some reason--most likely carefully considered rather than coincidental or accidental (excuse the pun)--they are demanding that I be there in the hotel lobby at 8 AM to join a group of professionals who will witness the dismantling of the nearly year old damaged tank.
The problem is, in order to get from the Atlanta suburb of Vinings to Peachtree Street smack dab in the center of downtown, while at the same time not having to have Pat and Missy the Turbo Pup make two round trips with meto traffic hell, I have to ride not one but TWO mass transit systems.
Both a Cobb County Transit Bus and Atlanta's MARTA Subway/Rail System will be involved in my epic journey, and because of the early hour, and calculating in an appropriate amount of time to cover traffic delays....
I have to leave the hotel at 6:15 AM.
Who in their right mind came up with this schedule?
The offices these people work in don't even open at that hour. I bet you can't find the lawyer near his phone until ten AM at earliest.
Even if you drive into the city, you have to park in a $15 parking deck three blocks away and walk to the hotel. Thankfully for me the Peachtree Center Subway station has an exit at the hotel's back door.
The big deal here is that if you are late and miss the entry procedure, you might as well just go back home because they won't let you enter into the bowels of the building--or so I'm told.
So any way, do the math with me.
Round trip to Vinings (ignoring my earlier travel exploits) = 11 hours
Round trip from Vinings to downtown = 3-1/2 hours
Total travel time = 14-1/2 hours
MEANWHILE, MY EXPECTED TIME ON THE JOBSITE?
One to THREE hours (although they've said to plan for an all day event) ...a ratio of four to one.
Oh well, I asked for it I guess, but I don't want to hear any complaining when I send in the invoice for my time.
I'd like to wrap my hands around someone's neck this morning--if I could find the man responsible.
But I'm sure that I won't be able to find him because as far as I know LAWYERS don't work at 8 AM in the morning, so those same legal scholars certainly won't be found crawling around dingy basement laundrys at that early hour.
The good news is that my request was finally answered about 4 PM yesterday after begging since September for the opportunity to make a site inspection of the accident scene I've been working on with my consulting friend. I find it difficult to do this kind of work using second hand information gathered by people with more education than I have but less actual experience getting their hands dirty on construction job sites, so today I get my remedy to that situation.
The bad news is that for some reason--most likely carefully considered rather than coincidental or accidental (excuse the pun)--they are demanding that I be there in the hotel lobby at 8 AM to join a group of professionals who will witness the dismantling of the nearly year old damaged tank.
The problem is, in order to get from the Atlanta suburb of Vinings to Peachtree Street smack dab in the center of downtown, while at the same time not having to have Pat and Missy the Turbo Pup make two round trips with me
Both a Cobb County Transit Bus and Atlanta's MARTA Subway/Rail System will be involved in my epic journey, and because of the early hour, and calculating in an appropriate amount of time to cover traffic delays....
I have to leave the hotel at 6:15 AM.
Who in their right mind came up with this schedule?
The offices these people work in don't even open at that hour. I bet you can't find the lawyer near his phone until ten AM at earliest.
Even if you drive into the city, you have to park in a $15 parking deck three blocks away and walk to the hotel. Thankfully for me the Peachtree Center Subway station has an exit at the hotel's back door.
The big deal here is that if you are late and miss the entry procedure, you might as well just go back home because they won't let you enter into the bowels of the building--or so I'm told.
So any way, do the math with me.
Round trip to Vinings (ignoring my earlier travel exploits) = 11 hours
Round trip from Vinings to downtown = 3-1/2 hours
Total travel time = 14-1/2 hours
MEANWHILE, MY EXPECTED TIME ON THE JOBSITE?
One to THREE hours (although they've said to plan for an all day event) ...a ratio of four to one.
Oh well, I asked for it I guess, but I don't want to hear any complaining when I send in the invoice for my time.
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
Pseudo-Fancy Hotels, Three Dollar Bagles, And Other Stuff
Georgia Here We Come...
Have I mentioned that I consider myself to be somewhat of an experienced traveler?
Well...I am.
That said, these days I am also a PRACTICAL traveler since I've been around some of the world and spent longer than just a few nights here and a couple of nights there.
Thinking back, I've probably spent the better part of four years of my 48 year long life sleeping in motels and hotels of various descriptions, not to mention the occasional Bed and Breakfast and some Condo's and rental Beach houses in Florida and South Carolina.
Today I truly believe that I've seen it all.
For instance, on a whim back in the 1990's when I was on my way to being rich and famous (in my mind) I once payed to stay a night in the "Presidential Suite" of a Hyatt Regency--a space the size of a small house that had a living room with a baby grand piano and up to three separate bedrooms on two floors.
Since I hadn't gained much weight then, I only bought one bedroom, but it's bathroom was the size of the average Holiday Inn room. You could have played basketball in that place.
Only trouble was, the idiots running the hotel apparently hated to have to actually prepare their expensive room for a guest or guests staying but a single night, and as a result when we arrived we found clean linens and bath, but the living space dusty, dead flowers in various vases spread around the space, and left over sticky cocktail glass circles on the piano and bar cabinetry.
No problem...a quick polite comment down at the front desk on our way out for drinks and dinner would certainly remedy the situation.
WRONG.
When we arrived back later (and I mean later) that evening, NOTHING had changed.
Needless to say when I called the front desk I was less than gracious, but even then the manager on duty seemed to feel the need to treat me like a "dog turd found floating in the soiree punch bowl", apparently because I had paid cash and only wanted one night's usage of his expensive property.
I don't know who he thought I was since I didn't bring a tuxedo. I don't know what he thought was going on in my room for one night (which was none of his business by the way), but I thought it reasonable that the imbecile could at least provide the room as advertised since I paid full price and the last time I checked CASH was still legal tender in most of the United By God States of America.
Any way, shortly he arrived at my door in a huff to personally remove the plants. He then reported that the house keeping staff had all gone home and the earliest he could have the balance of my objections remedied would be after 9 AM the next day.
Checkout was of course at 10 AM, and as a result I've never set foot in another Hyatt Regency in the past 13 years.
I wanted to wipe up the dust and stains with his shirt collar, but I resisted since I found dusty piano filled accommodations to be vastly superior to a free night in the local jail.
While I'm thinking about it, I have a similar story about Pontiac automobiles...but I digress.
The thing that is currently pissing me off is when a hotel "Franchisee" decides to take what is normally a friendly, reliable name brand and tarnish the image with petty BS like excessive charges for things that are normally free.
The place we're staying here in Knoxville is a good example.
Let's call them Brand xxx "Select" (I'll let you guess the "Inn" name), but apparently the only thing "select" about them that I've found is that after taking $149 plus tax per night and $50 in the form a non-refundable pet deposit for two nights in a "pet friendly" room, that they then "select" to put you and your "pet" on a floor with only ten rooms, in the basement, adjacent to the boiler room, laundry, andemployee lounge housekeeping.
Then they force you to buy even the most meager of snacks out of the gift shop or restaurant.
Ice is free, but there are only over priced soda machines on each floor, no snacks...got to go to the lobby gift shop and pay $2 for that--IF they're open (which they're not right now at 3 AM.)
And another thing.
Not only do they not want you and your "pet" walking through the common interior spaces of their "Select Inn" on your "Holiday", but you also have to put up with the constant din of the employees hooting and hollering in the hallway outside your room and some sort of contractors rumbling around with various forms of power tools, materials, and demolition debris.
In my opinion, any reputable manager would have closed off this entire short basement floor for the duration of the work and put their "guests" and their "pet" in a room on another floor of the partially occupied hotel.
To be fair, I have to mention that there has been the slight advantage of not having to ride the elevator to take Missy the Turbo Pup outside, but still...
I originally wasn't going to let things get to me, but this morning when I went downstairs to grab some coffee and a snack before my meeting, I found that my only options were:
A) A lovely $9.00 Breakfast Buffet (but I'm not that hungry)
B) Gift Shop Cheetos (but I don't want to get that much fatter)
C) A Bagel and a little plastic tin of Cream Cheese off the Restaurant a la cart menu
Being the light eater and frugal traveler that I am, I chose option "C", but then after retrieving my bagel myself from the aforementioned "lovely $9.00 Breakfast Buffet" display of pastries and cereal, the cash register and the woman operating it had the audacity to charge me THREE DOLLARS.
THREE DOLLARS for a dry bagel that I was in too much of a hurry to heat in the self serve toaster, a little tin of cream cheese, and no plastic knife with which to smear my bagel (or stab myself in the eye.)
Recovering from my "Sticker Shock" and taking charge of the situation, I still managed to have a good meeting after smearing the cream cheese with the handle of a spoon that I stole from the cereal bar and eating only half of my THREE DOLLAR Bagel.
Then there were the "Coupons" provided with a smile at the front desk to all of us "frequent travelers."
All I have to say is that you would have to have or otherwise be a NY lawyer to read and interpret the fine print on their "Free Breakfast", "Complementary Drink" and or "$5 off" coupons.
Last night since it was raining and we didn't want to go out, we finally managed to use one at dinner, but I hurt myself running back to retrieve the little package of paper and my glasses so I could avoid embarrassment caused by tendering the wrong "Coupon."
Just to get even, I'm tempted to go down this morning to the restaurant with the "Free Breakfast" Coupon, load up a couple of plates of food and toss a bagel on top of the pile, then walk out with my bagel, little plastic tin of cream cheese, and one of their fake silver knives.
That will teach them...
Now it's on to Atlanta to look at some exploded metal, eat at some favorite restaurants, and visit with some old friends.
Have I mentioned that I consider myself to be somewhat of an experienced traveler?
Well...I am.
That said, these days I am also a PRACTICAL traveler since I've been around some of the world and spent longer than just a few nights here and a couple of nights there.
Thinking back, I've probably spent the better part of four years of my 48 year long life sleeping in motels and hotels of various descriptions, not to mention the occasional Bed and Breakfast and some Condo's and rental Beach houses in Florida and South Carolina.
Today I truly believe that I've seen it all.
For instance, on a whim back in the 1990's when I was on my way to being rich and famous (in my mind) I once payed to stay a night in the "Presidential Suite" of a Hyatt Regency--a space the size of a small house that had a living room with a baby grand piano and up to three separate bedrooms on two floors.
Since I hadn't gained much weight then, I only bought one bedroom, but it's bathroom was the size of the average Holiday Inn room. You could have played basketball in that place.
Only trouble was, the idiots running the hotel apparently hated to have to actually prepare their expensive room for a guest or guests staying but a single night, and as a result when we arrived we found clean linens and bath, but the living space dusty, dead flowers in various vases spread around the space, and left over sticky cocktail glass circles on the piano and bar cabinetry.
No problem...a quick polite comment down at the front desk on our way out for drinks and dinner would certainly remedy the situation.
WRONG.
When we arrived back later (and I mean later) that evening, NOTHING had changed.
Needless to say when I called the front desk I was less than gracious, but even then the manager on duty seemed to feel the need to treat me like a "dog turd found floating in the soiree punch bowl", apparently because I had paid cash and only wanted one night's usage of his expensive property.
I don't know who he thought I was since I didn't bring a tuxedo. I don't know what he thought was going on in my room for one night (which was none of his business by the way), but I thought it reasonable that the imbecile could at least provide the room as advertised since I paid full price and the last time I checked CASH was still legal tender in most of the United By God States of America.
Any way, shortly he arrived at my door in a huff to personally remove the plants. He then reported that the house keeping staff had all gone home and the earliest he could have the balance of my objections remedied would be after 9 AM the next day.
Checkout was of course at 10 AM, and as a result I've never set foot in another Hyatt Regency in the past 13 years.
I wanted to wipe up the dust and stains with his shirt collar, but I resisted since I found dusty piano filled accommodations to be vastly superior to a free night in the local jail.
While I'm thinking about it, I have a similar story about Pontiac automobiles...but I digress.
The thing that is currently pissing me off is when a hotel "Franchisee" decides to take what is normally a friendly, reliable name brand and tarnish the image with petty BS like excessive charges for things that are normally free.
The place we're staying here in Knoxville is a good example.
Let's call them Brand xxx "Select" (I'll let you guess the "Inn" name), but apparently the only thing "select" about them that I've found is that after taking $149 plus tax per night and $50 in the form a non-refundable pet deposit for two nights in a "pet friendly" room, that they then "select" to put you and your "pet" on a floor with only ten rooms, in the basement, adjacent to the boiler room, laundry, and
Then they force you to buy even the most meager of snacks out of the gift shop or restaurant.
Ice is free, but there are only over priced soda machines on each floor, no snacks...got to go to the lobby gift shop and pay $2 for that--IF they're open (which they're not right now at 3 AM.)
And another thing.
Not only do they not want you and your "pet" walking through the common interior spaces of their "Select Inn" on your "Holiday", but you also have to put up with the constant din of the employees hooting and hollering in the hallway outside your room and some sort of contractors rumbling around with various forms of power tools, materials, and demolition debris.
In my opinion, any reputable manager would have closed off this entire short basement floor for the duration of the work and put their "guests" and their "pet" in a room on another floor of the partially occupied hotel.
To be fair, I have to mention that there has been the slight advantage of not having to ride the elevator to take Missy the Turbo Pup outside, but still...
I originally wasn't going to let things get to me, but this morning when I went downstairs to grab some coffee and a snack before my meeting, I found that my only options were:
A) A lovely $9.00 Breakfast Buffet (but I'm not that hungry)
B) Gift Shop Cheetos (but I don't want to get that much fatter)
C) A Bagel and a little plastic tin of Cream Cheese off the Restaurant a la cart menu
Being the light eater and frugal traveler that I am, I chose option "C", but then after retrieving my bagel myself from the aforementioned "lovely $9.00 Breakfast Buffet" display of pastries and cereal, the cash register and the woman operating it had the audacity to charge me THREE DOLLARS.
THREE DOLLARS for a dry bagel that I was in too much of a hurry to heat in the self serve toaster, a little tin of cream cheese, and no plastic knife with which to smear my bagel (or stab myself in the eye.)
Recovering from my "Sticker Shock" and taking charge of the situation, I still managed to have a good meeting after smearing the cream cheese with the handle of a spoon that I stole from the cereal bar and eating only half of my THREE DOLLAR Bagel.
Then there were the "Coupons" provided with a smile at the front desk to all of us "frequent travelers."
All I have to say is that you would have to have or otherwise be a NY lawyer to read and interpret the fine print on their "Free Breakfast", "Complementary Drink" and or "$5 off" coupons.
Last night since it was raining and we didn't want to go out, we finally managed to use one at dinner, but I hurt myself running back to retrieve the little package of paper and my glasses so I could avoid embarrassment caused by tendering the wrong "Coupon."
Just to get even, I'm tempted to go down this morning to the restaurant with the "Free Breakfast" Coupon, load up a couple of plates of food and toss a bagel on top of the pile, then walk out with my bagel, little plastic tin of cream cheese, and one of their fake silver knives.
That will teach them...
Now it's on to Atlanta to look at some exploded metal, eat at some favorite restaurants, and visit with some old friends.
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
Earmarks Smearmarks
The Status Is Quo...
I'mhappy to report sorry to say that I fell asleep about five minutes into the live broadcast of last night's State of the Union Address.
I believe that the meditation and Yoga is working--allowing me to live normally rather than ignoring parts of what would be an otherwise good life wasting time worrying about politics.
I did wake up here early and sneak a read at the transcript of the President's Address, and FOX News is about to replay it so I'll let it drone on the background while I finish up some work getting ready for what is supposed to be a full day of meetings in Knoxville.
The one thing I did hear President Bush mention before I dozed off was his intention to issue an Executive Order instructing government agencies to ignore Budget Earmarks that were not debated and voted on in Congress.
Oh BOY!!!
Actually...Big Deal would be a better response, because the wasted money will still be spent. It will just be done at the discretion of a lower paid bureaucrat rather an elected Politician.
I don't know about you, but I feel better already...NOT.
I'm
I believe that the meditation and Yoga is working--allowing me to live normally rather than ignoring parts of what would be an otherwise good life wasting time worrying about politics.
I did wake up here early and sneak a read at the transcript of the President's Address, and FOX News is about to replay it so I'll let it drone on the background while I finish up some work getting ready for what is supposed to be a full day of meetings in Knoxville.
The one thing I did hear President Bush mention before I dozed off was his intention to issue an Executive Order instructing government agencies to ignore Budget Earmarks that were not debated and voted on in Congress.
Oh BOY!!!
Actually...Big Deal would be a better response, because the wasted money will still be spent. It will just be done at the discretion of a lower paid bureaucrat rather an elected Politician.
I don't know about you, but I feel better already...NOT.
Monday, January 28, 2008
Torturing The Big Orange Students And Fans
I'm An Insensitive Visitor
You'll be happy to hear that we made it to Knoxville, home of the University of Tennessee, and now I'm walking around the area surrounding the hotel walking Missy the Turbo Pup and visiting the lobby Business Center wearing my blue and gold Georgia Tech jacket...because...
I know that nuthin' SUX like a big ORANGE!!
(this is so much fun...more exploits later...)
You'll be happy to hear that we made it to Knoxville, home of the University of Tennessee, and now I'm walking around the area surrounding the hotel walking Missy the Turbo Pup and visiting the lobby Business Center wearing my blue and gold Georgia Tech jacket...because...
I know that nuthin' SUX like a big ORANGE!!
(this is so much fun...more exploits later...)
Carolina On My Mind
Where's James Taylor When You Need Him...
Well, we're back on the road again later this morning, with what is technically a 3-1/2 hour drive from Greenville, across the narrow western part of North Carolina, and on to Knoxville, Tennessee ahead of us for a Tuesday morning appointment.
Of course, unless your butt is on fire and the only fire extinguishers are for sale in Tennessee or you're driving an ambulance on the route, I believe that it would be a complete and total shame to actually cover that distance in a time frame using less than most of a day, in the process averting the wasting of numerous opportunities to make detours to out of the way places and enjoy the views along the way.
The landmarks, topography, and scenery are just too good to do things in a rush, but the only problem for me is actually deciding what to do and where to do it. We want to be somewhere interesting by lunchtime--possibly Asheville--but then Hendersonville using back roads I'm familiar with rather than interstate is tempting and Bat Cave and Flat Rock also beckon.
Then again, a detour over toward Maggie Valley could be possible, although I think that might be a bit too far out of the way requiring backtracking to attain the final destination.
Any way, downtown Greenville has been a pleasure to visit and see the improvements made since I was last here about eight years ago, and Pat and Missy the Turbo Pup are holding up well under the multi-city itinerary.
When it's all said and done, my little pup will have visited Mississippi (where she was born), Alabama, Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Tennessee in her short little 14 month life, and enjoyed every minute of it.
She's a real little four legged trooper...I wish she could share the driving duties.
Well, we're back on the road again later this morning, with what is technically a 3-1/2 hour drive from Greenville, across the narrow western part of North Carolina, and on to Knoxville, Tennessee ahead of us for a Tuesday morning appointment.
Of course, unless your butt is on fire and the only fire extinguishers are for sale in Tennessee or you're driving an ambulance on the route, I believe that it would be a complete and total shame to actually cover that distance in a time frame using less than most of a day, in the process averting the wasting of numerous opportunities to make detours to out of the way places and enjoy the views along the way.
The landmarks, topography, and scenery are just too good to do things in a rush, but the only problem for me is actually deciding what to do and where to do it. We want to be somewhere interesting by lunchtime--possibly Asheville--but then Hendersonville using back roads I'm familiar with rather than interstate is tempting and Bat Cave and Flat Rock also beckon.
Then again, a detour over toward Maggie Valley could be possible, although I think that might be a bit too far out of the way requiring backtracking to attain the final destination.
Any way, downtown Greenville has been a pleasure to visit and see the improvements made since I was last here about eight years ago, and Pat and Missy the Turbo Pup are holding up well under the multi-city itinerary.
When it's all said and done, my little pup will have visited Mississippi (where she was born), Alabama, Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Tennessee in her short little 14 month life, and enjoyed every minute of it.
She's a real little four legged trooper...I wish she could share the driving duties.
Sunday, January 27, 2008
Obama Rama
Daaaaannnnnnnggggggg...
I took a refreshing break from thinking about politics yesterday as we traveled across South Carolina, so I have to admit that I was stunned when we turned on the TV after dinner last night and found out that by turning out and voting at nearly the same rate as Whites, the SC African American population had handed Obama a huge victory over sHrillary and Edwards.
An EMBARRASSINGLY one sided victory.
I half expected FOX News to break in with a story about lighting bolts and laser beams suddenly erupting from every orifice of sHrillary's body.
I don't really give a rat's ass one way or the other, but I will point out that this is a perfect example of how voter indifference can and will effect the outcome of an election. I haven't seen the participation figures for the primary, but I do know that when only 50% of the eligible voters show up in the general election every four years in November that our leadership actually really isn't "Elected"...
...It's DEFAULTED, and that's just WRONG.
'
I took a refreshing break from thinking about politics yesterday as we traveled across South Carolina, so I have to admit that I was stunned when we turned on the TV after dinner last night and found out that by turning out and voting at nearly the same rate as Whites, the SC African American population had handed Obama a huge victory over sHrillary and Edwards.
An EMBARRASSINGLY one sided victory.
I half expected FOX News to break in with a story about lighting bolts and laser beams suddenly erupting from every orifice of sHrillary's body.
I don't really give a rat's ass one way or the other, but I will point out that this is a perfect example of how voter indifference can and will effect the outcome of an election. I haven't seen the participation figures for the primary, but I do know that when only 50% of the eligible voters show up in the general election every four years in November that our leadership actually really isn't "Elected"...
...It's DEFAULTED, and that's just WRONG.
'
Saturday, January 26, 2008
The Ghosts Of Vacations Past
Onward and Upward on the Map
Well, soon it will be time to jump into the shower, grab our free bagle and coffee down in the lobby, then hit the road into the Palmetto State, risking life and limb as today is also the Democratic Primary in SC according to the morning TV news.
My bellybutton has been puckering and unpuckering in anticipation of the event for days now (stole that one from Alan Alda on M*A*S*H.)
I hope our route doesn't intersect with any convoys of pandering candidates and their gawking supporters. With our luck sHrillary or Obama will land on the interstate in Air Force 1-1/2 (a giant helium filled Blimp that looks like a hand shooting a "Bird") and we'll be stuck in a three hour traffic jam as a result.
I'd hate to have to slap a Secret Service guy while on vacation because he got between me and the bar.
At least we're not in Las Vegas running from hotel fires
Well, soon it will be time to jump into the shower, grab our free bagle and coffee down in the lobby, then hit the road into the Palmetto State, risking life and limb as today is also the Democratic Primary in SC according to the morning TV news.
My bellybutton has been puckering and unpuckering in anticipation of the event for days now (stole that one from Alan Alda on M*A*S*H.)
I hope our route doesn't intersect with any convoys of pandering candidates and their gawking supporters. With our luck sHrillary or Obama will land on the interstate in Air Force 1-1/2 (a giant helium filled Blimp that looks like a hand shooting a "Bird") and we'll be stuck in a three hour traffic jam as a result.
I'd hate to have to slap a Secret Service guy while on vacation because he got between me and the bar.
At least we're not in Las Vegas running from hotel fires
Friday, January 25, 2008
River Street Beckons
Dinner Ensues
Well, we made it.
It's chilly here, but it's still Savannah, one of the oldest cities in the Southern US, and I know my way around pretty well having spent a great deal of time here on business and vacation over the past thirty years.
We're across Bay Street from the main "tourist district" down on River Street in a nice little Pet Friendly Suite, and now it's time to settle Missy The Turbo Pup in with some treats and wander out onto the cobblestones.
If you don't hear from me by 10:30, somebody send up a flare.
Well, we made it.
It's chilly here, but it's still Savannah, one of the oldest cities in the Southern US, and I know my way around pretty well having spent a great deal of time here on business and vacation over the past thirty years.
We're across Bay Street from the main "tourist district" down on River Street in a nice little Pet Friendly Suite, and now it's time to settle Missy The Turbo Pup in with some treats and wander out onto the cobblestones.
If you don't hear from me by 10:30, somebody send up a flare.
We're Off To See The Wizard
So Much Fun I Can Hardly Stand It
I woke up this morning with a song in my heart, and an eager desire to avoid all forms of productive enterprise whenever possible.
To that end, I decided it's time for a ROAD TRIP.
Well...not exactly.
We already had the road trip planned last week, then postponed it due to weather. Then we had recycled and rescheduled and as of yesterday we had intended to leave for Greenville, SC tomorrow morning, continuing on to Knoxville on Monday before sliding back down I-75 to my second home town--Atlanta--on Wednesday, then back to our little Island next Friday.
The itinerary has hereby been amended as of right now.
A couple of hours from now, we'll be heading out to Darien Georgia for a late lunch, then on to Bay Street in Savannah to spend the night and consume some Seafood, possibly inflict myself on unsuspecting patrons by singing some Jimmy Buffett and James Taylor at Karaoke somewhere, then picking up the original itinerary ending up in Greenville at the Prince Hotel and Massage Parlor Saturday afternoon.
It's yet another beautiful day here on the Georgia coast, but it's still only 45 degrees F with wind chills in the upper 30's , so I can balm my conscience with the concession that the low temperature wasn't conducive to working outside at my advanced age installing windows.
I won't tell anyone if you won't.
I woke up this morning with a song in my heart, and an eager desire to avoid all forms of productive enterprise whenever possible.
To that end, I decided it's time for a ROAD TRIP.
Well...not exactly.
We already had the road trip planned last week, then postponed it due to weather. Then we had recycled and rescheduled and as of yesterday we had intended to leave for Greenville, SC tomorrow morning, continuing on to Knoxville on Monday before sliding back down I-75 to my second home town--Atlanta--on Wednesday, then back to our little Island next Friday.
The itinerary has hereby been amended as of right now.
A couple of hours from now, we'll be heading out to Darien Georgia for a late lunch, then on to Bay Street in Savannah to spend the night and consume some Seafood, possibly inflict myself on unsuspecting patrons by singing some Jimmy Buffett and James Taylor at Karaoke somewhere, then picking up the original itinerary ending up in Greenville at the Prince Hotel and Massage Parlor Saturday afternoon.
It's yet another beautiful day here on the Georgia coast, but it's still only 45 degrees F with wind chills in the upper 30's , so I can balm my conscience with the concession that the low temperature wasn't conducive to working outside at my advanced age installing windows.
I won't tell anyone if you won't.
Thursday, January 24, 2008
I'm Wasting Time
At least It's Mainly My Own...
I let another day slip by without hitting a lick at a snake today. It's getting to be a trend I'm afraid.
Everything was going fine until lunch after doing some shopping in the morning, when I ate a Gyro filled with chemical laced lettuce that proceeded to tie by digestive track into knots.
I hate places that insist on using this stuff-- Sulfiteing Agents -- to keep lettuce and other vegetables green for a MONTH, rather than cutting fresh ingredients each day and risking throwing out the left-overs.
I'm generally careful not to eat a salad at places where I know or suspect they sell "Franken-lettuce", but this place caught me with my guard down today and I'm still paying for it.
I'll probably not be going back, and that's a shame because otherwise the food is good.
I let another day slip by without hitting a lick at a snake today. It's getting to be a trend I'm afraid.
Everything was going fine until lunch after doing some shopping in the morning, when I ate a Gyro filled with chemical laced lettuce that proceeded to tie by digestive track into knots.
I hate places that insist on using this stuff-- Sulfiteing Agents -- to keep lettuce and other vegetables green for a MONTH, rather than cutting fresh ingredients each day and risking throwing out the left-overs.
I'm generally careful not to eat a salad at places where I know or suspect they sell "Franken-lettuce", but this place caught me with my guard down today and I'm still paying for it.
I'll probably not be going back, and that's a shame because otherwise the food is good.
I Don't Know
Shopping...Construction...Travel...
Battling physical lethargy and mental dullness this morning, I'm heading over to Brunswick as the weather channel threatens morning rain and drizzle that has yet to materialize.
Would somebody slap some sense into me, or at least strike me hard enough to wake me up?
Battling physical lethargy and mental dullness this morning, I'm heading over to Brunswick as the weather channel threatens morning rain and drizzle that has yet to materialize.
Would somebody slap some sense into me, or at least strike me hard enough to wake me up?
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
Good News
I Just Ordered My Own Personal Prayer Package Off The TV Preacher Show
I also requisitioned the GREEN Prosperity Cloth.
Details To Follow...
I also requisitioned the GREEN Prosperity Cloth.
Details To Follow...
More Thoughts On Fred Thompson's Plight
No...I Won't Let This Rest Until I'M Finished
Sorry Folks, but I think that this is it for me as far as this season's National election picture is concerned.
It's just not worth pissing off three quarters of the people that stop by here when I write something meaningful, and for me it's not worth bursting a blood vessel or having some kind of ventricular fibrillation moment trying to explain things to a universe full of people that would rather watch Oprah or Jerry Springer while waiting until the idiots running the editorial page of their local ten page newspaper tell them who to vote for.
Too many people out there also treat politics like clannish family issues or allegiance sporting events. Once they align themselves with a sporting team, they refuse to reconsider the performance of the team, or the prospects for the future if the team achieves their goals. Consideration of past performance (win or lose on a short term versus long term basis) is out of the question because that would require:
A: A knowledge of history
B: Critical thinking ability
C: Using the aforementioned Knowledge and critical thinking, the ability to project past next year to where things would be going using the new performance criteria necessary to manage the largest business in the world.
Now on to my point:
In my considered opinion JFK started the process of electing a "Rock Star" President , but a rifle bullet caused the trend to be interrupted by LBJ and then Nixon and Ford by default (again assisted by a SOB shooting George By God Wallace in the spine in Maryland), then Carter gave everyone a little taste ofold fashioned ignorant southern communism modern Democratic Liberalism full blown socialism in 1976 before I could vote.
Since then, I've made a point of being late for work to stand in line at the local precinct polling place in Cobb and Glynn County Georgia to make sure there was at least one more "hanging chad" in the booth when I was finished.
Yes, I even voted for some Democrats and Republicans on the same ballot. In Georgia politics, like my home state of Alabama, you can run a "yellow dog" on the ballot and people will "punch" their ticket by any name with a big (D) next to it until the early to mid 1990's.
It's just occurred to me to ask myself a question as I look at the cost of running for President, and the idea that HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS OF DOLLARS have to change hands to get someone the use of the mailbox on Pennsylvania Avenue tenders this realization:
The media is Polling us into Oblivion, and constantly beating us with statistics about who has raised the most money and who is spending the most money, but something that they never ever point out is this fact that should be obvious to you and me:
THE $#@% MEDIA IS TAKING IN MOST OF THE MONEY THAT THE CANDIDATES SPEND SO MUCH ENERGY AND TIME RAISING, WHILE AT THE SAME TIME AUTHORITATIVELY TELLING YOU AND ME WHO'S CAMPAIGN SUCKS!!!!
They tell us who is raising money, and by default who is losing support, yet they do it while paying for their own salaries and utilities using money from the candidates???
How self serving is that?
Isn't that somehow strangely convenient?
Oh...Oh...Oh...OHHHHHHH...Fred Thompson's running out of money, but by the way, but never mind that this might be even though we've (the lamestream media) spent 99.5% of our time covering Obama and sHrillary and Mitt and the former prisoner of Dia Nang.
I'm telling you people, in spite of the Internet and the Bloggers, the MEDIA is still flexing their muscles by ignoring conservative candidates like FRED which they are scared to death of in favor of zombies like McCain and the usual suspects.
I think that the Liberals/Democrats this season are indirectly using the lamestream media to assist in diluting the Reagan Conservative Movement (not the bible thumping Pat Robertson crowd) to electe a pseudo-Republican if sHrillary and Obama burst into flame and manage to lose what is otherwise a rigged event.
GOD HELP US ALL, REGARDLESS OF THE OUTCOME.
Sorry Folks, but I think that this is it for me as far as this season's National election picture is concerned.
It's just not worth pissing off three quarters of the people that stop by here when I write something meaningful, and for me it's not worth bursting a blood vessel or having some kind of ventricular fibrillation moment trying to explain things to a universe full of people that would rather watch Oprah or Jerry Springer while waiting until the idiots running the editorial page of their local ten page newspaper tell them who to vote for.
Too many people out there also treat politics like clannish family issues or allegiance sporting events. Once they align themselves with a sporting team, they refuse to reconsider the performance of the team, or the prospects for the future if the team achieves their goals. Consideration of past performance (win or lose on a short term versus long term basis) is out of the question because that would require:
A: A knowledge of history
B: Critical thinking ability
C: Using the aforementioned Knowledge and critical thinking, the ability to project past next year to where things would be going using the new performance criteria necessary to manage the largest business in the world.
Now on to my point:
In my considered opinion JFK started the process of electing a "Rock Star" President , but a rifle bullet caused the trend to be interrupted by LBJ and then Nixon and Ford by default (again assisted by a SOB shooting George By God Wallace in the spine in Maryland), then Carter gave everyone a little taste of
Since then, I've made a point of being late for work to stand in line at the local precinct polling place in Cobb and Glynn County Georgia to make sure there was at least one more "hanging chad" in the booth when I was finished.
Yes, I even voted for some Democrats and Republicans on the same ballot. In Georgia politics, like my home state of Alabama, you can run a "yellow dog" on the ballot and people will "punch" their ticket by any name with a big (D) next to it until the early to mid 1990's.
It's just occurred to me to ask myself a question as I look at the cost of running for President, and the idea that HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS OF DOLLARS have to change hands to get someone the use of the mailbox on Pennsylvania Avenue tenders this realization:
The media is Polling us into Oblivion, and constantly beating us with statistics about who has raised the most money and who is spending the most money, but something that they never ever point out is this fact that should be obvious to you and me:
THE $#@% MEDIA IS TAKING IN MOST OF THE MONEY THAT THE CANDIDATES SPEND SO MUCH ENERGY AND TIME RAISING, WHILE AT THE SAME TIME AUTHORITATIVELY TELLING YOU AND ME WHO'S CAMPAIGN SUCKS!!!!
They tell us who is raising money, and by default who is losing support, yet they do it while paying for their own salaries and utilities using money from the candidates???
How self serving is that?
Isn't that somehow strangely convenient?
Oh...Oh...Oh...OHHHHHHH...Fred Thompson's running out of money, but by the way, but never mind that this might be even though we've (the lamestream media) spent 99.5% of our time covering Obama and sHrillary and Mitt and the former prisoner of Dia Nang.
I'm telling you people, in spite of the Internet and the Bloggers, the MEDIA is still flexing their muscles by ignoring conservative candidates like FRED which they are scared to death of in favor of zombies like McCain and the usual suspects.
I think that the Liberals/Democrats this season are indirectly using the lamestream media to assist in diluting the Reagan Conservative Movement (not the bible thumping Pat Robertson crowd) to electe a pseudo-Republican if sHrillary and Obama burst into flame and manage to lose what is otherwise a rigged event.
GOD HELP US ALL, REGARDLESS OF THE OUTCOME.
A Little Internet Maintenance
I Think I Cleaned Everything Up
There was a time in my life when I promoted myself as a competent computer programmer.
That would be something like over twenty years ago, and it didn't involve the language this web page is written in.
Today I prefer to sit in front of the computer and spit at the images and story's I see, so all I need is Kleenex and limited typing ability most of the time to get through a session.
Any way...tonight I got tired of looking at my withering blog template that Blogger had screwed up when THEY made some changes I refused to pay attention to, so now after a little fiddling around things look like....
THIS
(you can feel free to slap me on the back in congrats or go the heck somewhere else...)
There was a time in my life when I promoted myself as a competent computer programmer.
That would be something like over twenty years ago, and it didn't involve the language this web page is written in.
Today I prefer to sit in front of the computer and spit at the images and story's I see, so all I need is Kleenex and limited typing ability most of the time to get through a session.
Any way...tonight I got tired of looking at my withering blog template that Blogger had screwed up when THEY made some changes I refused to pay attention to, so now after a little fiddling around things look like....
THIS
(you can feel free to slap me on the back in congrats or go the heck somewhere else...)
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
More Construction Day Dreams
"For Sale" Sign Presses Issue
I can't remember if I mentioned here that I signed the papers last week to get the renovation project on the market. Bruce, my friend and real estate broker, thought that it wouldn't be a bad idea to go ahead and get it in the MLS listings and test the waters.
The idea is to quickly get the face on the building in the next week or so and then see if we can get it under contract, thereby letting the buyer pick the paint colors and help make the final decisions if they want to.
To this end I managed to get the new front door installed this week and have completed a bunch of detailed design for interior and exterior finish trim work.
Unfortunately, today was a loss because of administrative work and some other nagging personal details that had to be handled here at home and from our litttle Island, but I've left Pat orders to have my butt kicked out of bed or off of the sofa by 9 AM tomorrow.
Hopefully we can get five or six hours of work done on a couple more windows in the front half of the house so that I can shift gears to installing external siding and trimwork before heading out of town this weekend for Greenville and Knoxville.
Time to do a little reading and some more drawing now...talk to Y'all later.
I can't remember if I mentioned here that I signed the papers last week to get the renovation project on the market. Bruce, my friend and real estate broker, thought that it wouldn't be a bad idea to go ahead and get it in the MLS listings and test the waters.
The idea is to quickly get the face on the building in the next week or so and then see if we can get it under contract, thereby letting the buyer pick the paint colors and help make the final decisions if they want to.
To this end I managed to get the new front door installed this week and have completed a bunch of detailed design for interior and exterior finish trim work.
Unfortunately, today was a loss because of administrative work and some other nagging personal details that had to be handled here at home and from our litttle Island, but I've left Pat orders to have my butt kicked out of bed or off of the sofa by 9 AM tomorrow.
Hopefully we can get five or six hours of work done on a couple more windows in the front half of the house so that I can shift gears to installing external siding and trimwork before heading out of town this weekend for Greenville and Knoxville.
Time to do a little reading and some more drawing now...talk to Y'all later.
Fred Quit
Good Guys Always Seem To Finish Last...
Here's the link to the story: Fred Thompson Quits Presidential Race
I just reluctantly took his donation link off my sidebar. I'll call when I arrive in Costa Rica tomorrow.
We're doomed Doomed DOOMED...I tell you.
Here's the link to the story: Fred Thompson Quits Presidential Race
I just reluctantly took his donation link off my sidebar. I'll call when I arrive in Costa Rica tomorrow.
We're doomed Doomed DOOMED...I tell you.
The Weather Is Here
Wish You Were Beautiful...
Missy The Turbo Pup and I just came back in after hanging outside in the back yard in the sun for about an hour.
I smoked a nice cigar while sitting in a lawn chair as she repositioned herself on top of various "stinky" spots in the surrounding grass and dirt. We had to move a couple of times to stay out of the shadows cast by the overhanging Live Oak Trees, but all and all it was a very satisfying experience.
Pat thinks we're both crazy because it's only in the high 60's here, but regardless I opted to sit there in shorts and a pair of flip flops with no shirt getting started on the 2008 signature sun tan.
When people start getting interested in tanning in May and they see my early season tan, they always ask me what tanning salon I use.
I'm proud to answer "God's"...I've never been to a tanning salon in my entire life.
If I die of skin cancer, it will be of the organic variety...thank you very much.
Missy The Turbo Pup and I just came back in after hanging outside in the back yard in the sun for about an hour.
I smoked a nice cigar while sitting in a lawn chair as she repositioned herself on top of various "stinky" spots in the surrounding grass and dirt. We had to move a couple of times to stay out of the shadows cast by the overhanging Live Oak Trees, but all and all it was a very satisfying experience.
Pat thinks we're both crazy because it's only in the high 60's here, but regardless I opted to sit there in shorts and a pair of flip flops with no shirt getting started on the 2008 signature sun tan.
When people start getting interested in tanning in May and they see my early season tan, they always ask me what tanning salon I use.
I'm proud to answer "God's"...I've never been to a tanning salon in my entire life.
If I die of skin cancer, it will be of the organic variety...thank you very much.
Monday, January 21, 2008
Crumudgeons Gone Wild
New Late Night Video Product...
Picture video footage of middle aged guys laying around on their sofas wearing nothing but old faded Pink Floyd T-shirts and their draw string cinched "lounge pants", falling asleep in front of the TV and dreaming about the days when they had a full head of hair and actually had to concentrate on trying to keep from having an erection lasting longer than four hours because they were ALONE...
Naahhhh...wouldn't sell.
Picture video footage of middle aged guys laying around on their sofas wearing nothing but old faded Pink Floyd T-shirts and their draw string cinched "lounge pants", falling asleep in front of the TV and dreaming about the days when they had a full head of hair and actually had to concentrate on trying to keep from having an erection lasting longer than four hours because they were ALONE...
Naahhhh...wouldn't sell.
Hot Is Hot
(But My Job Site's Not)
I'm lambasting myself this morning for my poor performance over the past week in the "making sawdust" department of my life over on the renovation job site.
I'd like to blame everything entirely on the rainy weather, but I ended up laying around all day yesterday on a sunny Sunday instead of making the obligatory Home Depot/Lowe's run and getting some work done.
The good news is that I have made some good progress in the design department, finalizing most of the details on the front building trim elevation and coming up with the design of a new Barge Rafter on the front and possibly the rear for the building to be installed in the near future when we put on the new metal roof.
The overall architectural scheme is a Craftsman Bungalow feeling, with the wood work being budget priced and self installed. The interior details also continue to grow as I'm considering the possibility of installing a window seat in the dining room and a faux column and knee wall to assist in separating the living and dining areas.
Best laid plans aside, there are still four windows and a new replacement replacement front door (see my earlier posting where I destroyed the new front door) to be installed in the exterior along with a thousand or so square feet of siding, then the new plumbing and electrical systems have to be in and inspected before the final interior finish and trim work is completed.
I guess it's time to start looking at things to do for TOMORROW, in the correct order of completion.
I'm lambasting myself this morning for my poor performance over the past week in the "making sawdust" department of my life over on the renovation job site.
I'd like to blame everything entirely on the rainy weather, but I ended up laying around all day yesterday on a sunny Sunday instead of making the obligatory Home Depot/Lowe's run and getting some work done.
The good news is that I have made some good progress in the design department, finalizing most of the details on the front building trim elevation and coming up with the design of a new Barge Rafter on the front and possibly the rear for the building to be installed in the near future when we put on the new metal roof.
The overall architectural scheme is a Craftsman Bungalow feeling, with the wood work being budget priced and self installed. The interior details also continue to grow as I'm considering the possibility of installing a window seat in the dining room and a faux column and knee wall to assist in separating the living and dining areas.
Best laid plans aside, there are still four windows and a new replacement replacement front door (see my earlier posting where I destroyed the new front door) to be installed in the exterior along with a thousand or so square feet of siding, then the new plumbing and electrical systems have to be in and inspected before the final interior finish and trim work is completed.
I guess it's time to start looking at things to do for TOMORROW, in the correct order of completion.
Sunday, January 20, 2008
I Need A Lawn Comb Over?
Bosley Hair Systems To The Rescue
As a young man, there was a time when I was what our home builder called a "yard queer."
You know, one of those guys that comes home in a suit after work and stops to pull the single weed by the sidewalk that popped up into view over night?
I had the $2000 (in late 1980's dollars) Snapper Rear Engine riding mower WITH the high lift deck and the front mount dethatcher. I shared ownership in a giant water filled drum type aerator, and I spent all of time when I wasn't at work or at the lake water skiing staggering around the yard pushing a spreader full of lime or fertilizer or fungicide when I wasn't mowing two days a week.
My male friends and neighbors secretly hated me because their own wives/girlfriends demanded they achieve similar results, but since they only wanted to work a couple days a month the outcome was obvious.
They stopped handing out the yard of the month award and I'd have retired it to my office if a murderous mob of beleaguered "lawn wimps" bearing torches hadn't threatened to burn an old push mower in effigy on my front lawn if I kept gloating.
My divorce allowed my exit from the situation years later, and I enjoyed watching the decline of the grounds in my absence.
Things are pretty different today. After living in a condo and watching our beloved lawn guy "Ozzie" work five days a week on the little 48 unit property, I found myself moving into a rental house with a small front and rear fenced yard that had obviously suffered under the neglect of twenty years of renters and by default "non-yard queer" type personalities.
The strange thing is that while I've managed to toss out a few dozen bails of pine straw and do some substantial pruning and raking, when you pull the weeds there's hardly enough grass to mow.
Last night another late night TV commercial got me to thinking about the possibility of installing a synthetic lawn in a fashion similar to the "hair replacement systems" offered to men frightened by the prospect of God having a sense of humor and giving them a reason to wear a hat in the sun. This situation strikes at least half the male population sometime between the ages of 18 and 98, so I don't understand what the the big deal is once you accept the situation.
(I am proud to say that I am one of those "follicular deficient" individuals that just doesn't give a damn, thus the tone I'm taking here in this discussion.)
Yeah, yeah, yeah...Eyes and Minds off of my Head and back to my lawn...
(and don't get started talking about hair on backs)
I already know about AstroTurf, but man does it ever look fake.
I guess you could call it something closer to a "Lawn Toupee" rather than a real "lawn replacement system", right?
Maybe the closest current thing going that's a "hair replacement system" for your yard would be sod, but everybody already knows about that also.
I'm not advancing science here by installing sod, and think of the cost.
No, what I want is some kind of synthetic fiber which they stick into the ground...something similar to "hair plugs" and that looks like individual blades of grass, but doesn't actually grow so I don't have to mow it.
Also, since the government water Nazi's have even put water restrictions on people like us that are surrounded with water and can't dig a hole two feet deep without hitting a gusher, with a "lawn replacement system" I wouldn't have to worry about getting up at 3AM on my weekly allotted "outdoor water usage day" to run around with a garden hose and sprinkler.
That would be a real benefit, wouldn't it?
Gee, I really think that I'm on to something here folks, and if the guys over at Bosley or the Hair Club for Men would do some work in theirboiler rooms labs and get back with me, I'd consider having their prototype "lawn replacement system" installed not only in my yard, but also on my head.
Think of it, even at the risk of looking like a Chia-Thug, with the green sprigs sticking out of my ever greying, formerly ever balding head, I'd also have the proper look to start a Punk Rock band and be lead Harmonica player and back up vocalist.
Then again...maybe not...
As a young man, there was a time when I was what our home builder called a "yard queer."
You know, one of those guys that comes home in a suit after work and stops to pull the single weed by the sidewalk that popped up into view over night?
I had the $2000 (in late 1980's dollars) Snapper Rear Engine riding mower WITH the high lift deck and the front mount dethatcher. I shared ownership in a giant water filled drum type aerator, and I spent all of time when I wasn't at work or at the lake water skiing staggering around the yard pushing a spreader full of lime or fertilizer or fungicide when I wasn't mowing two days a week.
My male friends and neighbors secretly hated me because their own wives/girlfriends demanded they achieve similar results, but since they only wanted to work a couple days a month the outcome was obvious.
They stopped handing out the yard of the month award and I'd have retired it to my office if a murderous mob of beleaguered "lawn wimps" bearing torches hadn't threatened to burn an old push mower in effigy on my front lawn if I kept gloating.
My divorce allowed my exit from the situation years later, and I enjoyed watching the decline of the grounds in my absence.
Things are pretty different today. After living in a condo and watching our beloved lawn guy "Ozzie" work five days a week on the little 48 unit property, I found myself moving into a rental house with a small front and rear fenced yard that had obviously suffered under the neglect of twenty years of renters and by default "non-yard queer" type personalities.
The strange thing is that while I've managed to toss out a few dozen bails of pine straw and do some substantial pruning and raking, when you pull the weeds there's hardly enough grass to mow.
Last night another late night TV commercial got me to thinking about the possibility of installing a synthetic lawn in a fashion similar to the "hair replacement systems" offered to men frightened by the prospect of God having a sense of humor and giving them a reason to wear a hat in the sun. This situation strikes at least half the male population sometime between the ages of 18 and 98, so I don't understand what the the big deal is once you accept the situation.
(I am proud to say that I am one of those "follicular deficient" individuals that just doesn't give a damn, thus the tone I'm taking here in this discussion.)
Yeah, yeah, yeah...Eyes and Minds off of my Head and back to my lawn...
(and don't get started talking about hair on backs)
I already know about AstroTurf, but man does it ever look fake.
I guess you could call it something closer to a "Lawn Toupee" rather than a real "lawn replacement system", right?
Maybe the closest current thing going that's a "hair replacement system" for your yard would be sod, but everybody already knows about that also.
I'm not advancing science here by installing sod, and think of the cost.
No, what I want is some kind of synthetic fiber which they stick into the ground...something similar to "hair plugs" and that looks like individual blades of grass, but doesn't actually grow so I don't have to mow it.
Also, since the government water Nazi's have even put water restrictions on people like us that are surrounded with water and can't dig a hole two feet deep without hitting a gusher, with a "lawn replacement system" I wouldn't have to worry about getting up at 3AM on my weekly allotted "outdoor water usage day" to run around with a garden hose and sprinkler.
That would be a real benefit, wouldn't it?
Gee, I really think that I'm on to something here folks, and if the guys over at Bosley or the Hair Club for Men would do some work in their
Think of it, even at the risk of looking like a Chia-Thug, with the green sprigs sticking out of my ever greying, formerly ever balding head, I'd also have the proper look to start a Punk Rock band and be lead Harmonica player and back up vocalist.
Then again...maybe not...
Another Simple Question
I just bought some of this stuff called "Extenze" that they sell on late night TV, and as soon as it gets here I'm gonna run out and smear it all over my mailbox in the front yard because the US Postal Service has been a little slow lately down here on our little Island.
Think of the savings in FedEX and UPS charges I'm gonna realize within a few days.
Stay tuned to this channel for an update...
(I really wish they'd take this crap off the airwaves, but I guess it is a free enterprise system and there are people out there which are interested.)
John McCain's Face
Like A Bottle of Aspirin...
I was just watching TV and wondering, will someone please remove the cotton ball(s)?
(get it?)
.
I was just watching TV and wondering, will someone please remove the cotton ball(s)?
(get it?)
.
Global Warming Weenies Get Dose Of Own Medicine
Sauce For The Goose...Sauce For The Gander...
I tilted my head back and laughed out loud when I read this story about an electrical blackout out in Utah at the "Sundance film Festival" this weekend.
It's a short blurb, so check the story out here in it's entirety
Lights go out at Sundance Film Fest
BY JO PIAZZA
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Saturday, January 19th 2008, 4:00 AM
PARK CITY, Utah – The Sundance Film Festival has plenty of star power, but Friday night it ran out of the electric kind.
Park City’s Main St. went dark about 10:30 p.m. because of what officials said was an overuse of electricity. They blamed the blackout on the clubs and lounges that pop up during the movie festival and host parties for the flicks.
Chaos ensued when the lights went out at Harry-O's nightclub, where more than 1,000 guests were hearing Maroon Five play. People ran for the doors.
Main St. became packed with confused festival goers.
But at the Sky 360 Delta Lounge down the street, party planners lit candles and kept the bar open despite the blackout.
Authorities worked feverishly to restore power, and 40 minutes later the lights were back on Main St.
Anybody hazard to make a guess regarding how many of these people are what could be categorized as fervent"eco-weenies" "enviro-fascists" "Global Warming Activists?"
Can you say ALL OF THEM?
And can you also guess how much $3.50 gasoline and $5.00 Jet fuel has been burned in limousines and private jets to move their butts into and around a city in Utah named "Park" which probably doesn't have a single actual public park in the city limits because of real estate values?
I'd say zillions of dollars regarding the liquid fuels, and ZERO regarding the parks in Park City, Utah.
I swear people, if we let the "Global Warming" crowd get control of our national infrastructure, YOU are going to be sitting in the dark and cold/hot wondering what has happened, just like the people out in Utah and California are doing the past few years.
I don't know about you, but I'm happy that mean old polluting places here on the east coast like Southern Company (Alabama Power, Georgia Power, Gulf Power, and a few others), Duke Power, and the Tennessee Valley Authority each year burn tons of coal, have dams stopping spawning fish, and own millions of glowing rods of uranium.
And I challenge any bunch of Hollywood freaks and their adoring fans to feel welcome to come here to our little Island any day as long as they stay out of my yard, but unless a thunderstorm or something else weird happens I have every confidence that even they can't make any part of our infrastructure fail...
except possibly the SEWER system.
That will be all for now...
.
I tilted my head back and laughed out loud when I read this story about an electrical blackout out in Utah at the "Sundance film Festival" this weekend.
It's a short blurb, so check the story out here in it's entirety
Lights go out at Sundance Film Fest
BY JO PIAZZA
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Saturday, January 19th 2008, 4:00 AM
PARK CITY, Utah – The Sundance Film Festival has plenty of star power, but Friday night it ran out of the electric kind.
Park City’s Main St. went dark about 10:30 p.m. because of what officials said was an overuse of electricity. They blamed the blackout on the clubs and lounges that pop up during the movie festival and host parties for the flicks.
Chaos ensued when the lights went out at Harry-O's nightclub, where more than 1,000 guests were hearing Maroon Five play. People ran for the doors.
Main St. became packed with confused festival goers.
But at the Sky 360 Delta Lounge down the street, party planners lit candles and kept the bar open despite the blackout.
Authorities worked feverishly to restore power, and 40 minutes later the lights were back on Main St.
Anybody hazard to make a guess regarding how many of these people are what could be categorized as fervent
Can you say ALL OF THEM?
And can you also guess how much $3.50 gasoline and $5.00 Jet fuel has been burned in limousines and private jets to move their butts into and around a city in Utah named "Park" which probably doesn't have a single actual public park in the city limits because of real estate values?
I'd say zillions of dollars regarding the liquid fuels, and ZERO regarding the parks in Park City, Utah.
I swear people, if we let the "Global Warming" crowd get control of our national infrastructure, YOU are going to be sitting in the dark and cold/hot wondering what has happened, just like the people out in Utah and California are doing the past few years.
I don't know about you, but I'm happy that mean old polluting places here on the east coast like Southern Company (Alabama Power, Georgia Power, Gulf Power, and a few others), Duke Power, and the Tennessee Valley Authority each year burn tons of coal, have dams stopping spawning fish, and own millions of glowing rods of uranium.
And I challenge any bunch of Hollywood freaks and their adoring fans to feel welcome to come here to our little Island any day as long as they stay out of my yard, but unless a thunderstorm or something else weird happens I have every confidence that even they can't make any part of our infrastructure fail...
except possibly the SEWER system.
That will be all for now...
.
Saturday, January 19, 2008
Snow In The South Cools The Fire In My Fireplace
Yielding A Slightly Mellower Tone...NOT!!
Dang I must have sounded more than a bit cranky last night when writing about Amtra(c)k.
I woke up this morning in time to make a drizzly trip over to Brunswick, but before I left I re-read my writing and while I still stand by 99.7% of what I said--I sure hada sharp edge on my sword an attitude on the keyboard.
Oh well...
In other news, I see where the Atlanta airport is a shambles with four hour delays as a result of an inch of sloppy snow that fell there in the past 24 hours (actually nothing new to anyone that lived there for 27 years like I did), but the good news is that Home Depot and Lowe's are still open here on the Georgia Coast as we endure frigid lower thirty degree temperatures overnight, with highs in the lower 50's tomorrow...
Bwaaahhahahahahahahahahhhhhhhaaaaaaahhhhhaaaaahhhhhhaaaaahhhhh.
Gasp...
Sorry, I lost control there for a minute.
My apologies to anyone living north of Macon, Georgia that has to negotiate the weather to attend worship services tomorrow morning, or is possibly stuck out of town traveling.
Half the reciprocal fun of personally putting up with our 100% humidity, mosquitoes, "no-see-um's" and tourists for most of the year when you live on an Island is making fun of everybody else when the weather gets cold elsewhere.
I'm fairly new to the process, but as I understand it weather effects Democrats and Republicans equally, and in my ongoing efforts to be non-partisan (on which I failed miserably last night), I have to point that out in my defense.
But Wait.....
The newspapers and TV tell us that the Poor, Women, Minorities, children, and old people are the most affected by the cold.
I'm concerned, but skeptical, because this comes from the very same people which tell me almost every week that Global Warming effects the Poor, Women, minorities, children and children of Minorities, old people, insurance underwriters, homosexuals, left handed people, philosophers, artists and people with the name Earl.
So which is it?
By the way, what are we expected as a society to do to protect people from the weather, especially when they ignorantly and constantly insist on ignoring the forecasts of the "experts" over at the Weather Channel?
I seem to remember the city of New Orleans moving a bunch of displaced minority people and their kids into the Superdome as a result of and in order to remove them from the effects of warm weather, and things didn't work too well there in the Crescent City in the end.
Further, from my experience, my wobbly middle aged white male carcass has been susceptible to the weather just like everybody else regardless of race, creed, and national origin (and sexual orientation) for most of the past 48 years, but I haven't had any phone surveys or written correspondence directed toward me asking how I handle the seasonal extremes.
As a result, I'd like to impart some of my self proclaimed expert advise and wisdom on everyone that's interested--regarding the weather...such as it is.
If it's raining outside, I buy an umbrella, stay inside, else go out and get wet if I have to change a flat tire or am just too lazy to care.
If it's cold outside, I put on a coat, or stay inside and pay my gas and power bill on time so the thermodynamic differential between the inner and outer surfaces of my abode are maintained at an acceptable level.
Conversely, if it's warm outside, I wear the minimum acceptable amount of clothing--a measure which seems to be changing each and every year as I look in the mirror.
So there you have it...a turn-key solution to handling the weather, and I know that most of you probably were already on to those little tidbits of intellectual genius long before my fingers hit the keyboard this evening. I just had to say it any way just in case some poor lost soul was wandering by here on the Internet and needed some advice.
In closing, another solution I've found quite helpful is one promoted by the late comedian Sam Kennison (this one is for you again Rusty...)
Having problems with the weather in your area?
Is it always too cold or too hot or too wet or too dry?
Here's an Idea...MOVE.
That's right, MOVE to somewhere where you can tolerate the weather.
I did about five years ago and found the results to be very satisfying.
Isn't that easy enough?
Back to Sam Kennison who was my definitive authoritative reference on this concept if you want one...
Paraphrasing the late Mr. Kennison when he was lamenting all of the US Foreign Aide Money and charitable contributions sent to the people living in the arid countries like Northern Africa because of crop failures and drought related suffering:
Sam said instead of sending them money every year, that we should instead send them ....
LUGGAGE.
Possibly an entire set...and maybe a few bus or plane tickets to go along with it.
Packing Boxes and U-Haul trucks would also go a long way...
Sam said: "You're Hungry? It's because you're LIVING in a DESERT...GET OUT...Ah ah aha ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh."
(Taking a big breath...)
Any way, I offer similar condolences and encouragement to everyone up north in places like Minnesota and Wisconsin tonight.
While we're at it, what brand do you like?
Luggage that is...
Samsonite, or American Tourister?
Just do me a favor and buy it yourself instead of voting for someone that will steal the money to pay for it though additional taxes on "the wealthy," because I secretly still intend to be one (of "the wealthy") one of these days and I already have luggage.
Now throw another log on the fire, and enjoy your evening...
and you're quite welcome for having received my keen insight into this situation.
Dang I must have sounded more than a bit cranky last night when writing about Amtra(c)k.
I woke up this morning in time to make a drizzly trip over to Brunswick, but before I left I re-read my writing and while I still stand by 99.7% of what I said--I sure had
Oh well...
In other news, I see where the Atlanta airport is a shambles with four hour delays as a result of an inch of sloppy snow that fell there in the past 24 hours (actually nothing new to anyone that lived there for 27 years like I did), but the good news is that Home Depot and Lowe's are still open here on the Georgia Coast as we endure frigid lower thirty degree temperatures overnight, with highs in the lower 50's tomorrow...
Bwaaahhahahahahahahahahhhhhhhaaaaaaahhhhhaaaaahhhhhhaaaaahhhhh.
Gasp...
Sorry, I lost control there for a minute.
My apologies to anyone living north of Macon, Georgia that has to negotiate the weather to attend worship services tomorrow morning, or is possibly stuck out of town traveling.
Half the reciprocal fun of personally putting up with our 100% humidity, mosquitoes, "no-see-um's" and tourists for most of the year when you live on an Island is making fun of everybody else when the weather gets cold elsewhere.
I'm fairly new to the process, but as I understand it weather effects Democrats and Republicans equally, and in my ongoing efforts to be non-partisan (on which I failed miserably last night), I have to point that out in my defense.
But Wait.....
The newspapers and TV tell us that the Poor, Women, Minorities, children, and old people are the most affected by the cold.
I'm concerned, but skeptical, because this comes from the very same people which tell me almost every week that Global Warming effects the Poor, Women, minorities, children and children of Minorities, old people, insurance underwriters, homosexuals, left handed people, philosophers, artists and people with the name Earl.
So which is it?
By the way, what are we expected as a society to do to protect people from the weather, especially when they ignorantly and constantly insist on ignoring the forecasts of the "experts" over at the Weather Channel?
I seem to remember the city of New Orleans moving a bunch of displaced minority people and their kids into the Superdome as a result of and in order to remove them from the effects of warm weather, and things didn't work too well there in the Crescent City in the end.
Further, from my experience, my wobbly middle aged white male carcass has been susceptible to the weather just like everybody else regardless of race, creed, and national origin (and sexual orientation) for most of the past 48 years, but I haven't had any phone surveys or written correspondence directed toward me asking how I handle the seasonal extremes.
As a result, I'd like to impart some of my self proclaimed expert advise and wisdom on everyone that's interested--regarding the weather...such as it is.
If it's raining outside, I buy an umbrella, stay inside, else go out and get wet if I have to change a flat tire or am just too lazy to care.
If it's cold outside, I put on a coat, or stay inside and pay my gas and power bill on time so the thermodynamic differential between the inner and outer surfaces of my abode are maintained at an acceptable level.
Conversely, if it's warm outside, I wear the minimum acceptable amount of clothing--a measure which seems to be changing each and every year as I look in the mirror.
So there you have it...a turn-key solution to handling the weather, and I know that most of you probably were already on to those little tidbits of intellectual genius long before my fingers hit the keyboard this evening. I just had to say it any way just in case some poor lost soul was wandering by here on the Internet and needed some advice.
In closing, another solution I've found quite helpful is one promoted by the late comedian Sam Kennison (this one is for you again Rusty...)
Having problems with the weather in your area?
Is it always too cold or too hot or too wet or too dry?
Here's an Idea...MOVE.
That's right, MOVE to somewhere where you can tolerate the weather.
I did about five years ago and found the results to be very satisfying.
Isn't that easy enough?
Back to Sam Kennison who was my definitive authoritative reference on this concept if you want one...
Paraphrasing the late Mr. Kennison when he was lamenting all of the US Foreign Aide Money and charitable contributions sent to the people living in the arid countries like Northern Africa because of crop failures and drought related suffering:
Sam said instead of sending them money every year, that we should instead send them ....
LUGGAGE.
Possibly an entire set...and maybe a few bus or plane tickets to go along with it.
Packing Boxes and U-Haul trucks would also go a long way...
Sam said: "You're Hungry? It's because you're LIVING in a DESERT...GET OUT...Ah ah aha ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh."
(Taking a big breath...)
Any way, I offer similar condolences and encouragement to everyone up north in places like Minnesota and Wisconsin tonight.
While we're at it, what brand do you like?
Luggage that is...
Samsonite, or American Tourister?
Just do me a favor and buy it yourself instead of voting for someone that will steal the money to pay for it though additional taxes on "the wealthy," because I secretly still intend to be one (of "the wealthy") one of these days and I already have luggage.
Now throw another log on the fire, and enjoy your evening...
and you're quite welcome for having received my keen insight into this situation.
Amtrak Apparently Paralysed Paralyzed With Rectal-Cranial Inversion
Careful--I'm Having Yet Another Highly Insensitive Moment
Sorry Folks, but this session of bitching and complaining and imparting armchair quarterbacking advice came out of nowhere this evening, and it is directed at the pseudo-government run national passenger train service known as "Amtrak."
I've had it up to here this morning (pointing to the top of my ever greying, ever balding, pony tail adorned head) with "Amtrak."
Let me tell you about what "Amtrak"'s done that's gotten my Spleen in a knot this weekend.
I guess that I missed it to begin with, and that even before you make a phone call or visit their website the name--"Amtrak"--should give you some clue that things are amiss in the United By God States of America's passenger rail service.
Regarding said name, one could be reasonably expected to guess that the "Am" portion of the moniker stands for "American" possibly, but what the heck is up with the "Trak" portion of the trademark?
Will be be riding along on on our journey guided and protected by train tracks...or Train Traks?
Maybe it's because if we buy a ticket we'll be taking a "Trek", and that's where it comes from (and the word is amazingly prophetic as I'll reveal later...)?
I think that, even though I spent twelve long years in government schools with government English teachers, that I'm going to add the word Amtra(c)k to my blogger lexicon (going along with sHrillary Clinton, John sKerry, and my other originally coined and shamelessly stolen references to things that piss me off.)
Any way...hang on...I'm just getting started here, it gets MUCH better.
I have to admit that I've never ridden an Amtra(c)k train to my knowledge, although I have jingled around Stone Mountain Park and Six Flags in Atlanta on a train, and I've whizzed around the monorails at Disneyland and Disneyworld back in the late 1960's and early to mid 1970's.
Then there was also the time me and my sister and parents plowed through a few feet of snow on a train from New Jersey to NY City a hundred years ago when I was in kindergarten, but that doesn't count because I don't believe it was Amtrak either. It was some form of otherwise efficient commuter rail that serves real cities in the Northeast and makes Amtra(c)k look like a giant system of those little miniature trains that haul toddlers around roadside Alligator Farms and fake Indian Settlements in Georgia, always running in circles and never actually going anywhere.
In addition to riding Chicago's El network and the extended commuter line in the Chicago metro area (and of course the trains in airports around the country and world) I've also owned a few dozen yards of HO and N gauge model train track and the associated accouterments, but I guess that experience doesn't count when it comes to writing critical reviews of railroad companies, but I'm going to do it anyway, and to that end, I digress...
Here's my real question and beef with Amtra(c)k this morning:
How the %$#@ can anyone go anywhere on Amtra(c)k, when Amtra(c)k hardly goes anywhere, and the few places they go take most of a week if not a month of your time in transit, at least according to what I've seen over the past half decade that I've been trying to use them on pleasure trips?
You simply can't get from here to there on Amtra(c)k, as far as I can tell.
The other thing is that when they do happen to go where I might want to end up on many of the trips I've tried to take--3 and 4 hours by air--Amtra(c)k costs 95% of the cost of the air fair and they try to make you die of deep venal thrombosis from sitting in one of their chairs for 25 hours.
No wonder they (Amtra(c)k) are almost always losing money and are constantly coming to Congress with their hat in their hand asking for more money or threatening to waste the rest of the US taxpayers' investment by further limiting service or closing down entirely.
And never mind that because of their ineptitude many people would rather ride a subway through Watts or Harlem than get on an Amtra(c)k train today--I've heard indirectly that things look like a scene out of the Star Wars bar on the run from Atlanta to New Orleans.
Any way, here's some specific examples of things I've tried to give Amtra(c)k my money to do in the past five or six years.
One winter when we still lived in the Atlanta Suburbs and Pat was working in Chicago each week, I thought about making a short economy trip down to Miami, then taking the bus on to Key West to stir up some trouble and get some sun.
Sounded like a plan, but Nooooooo...not with Amtra(c)k
In order to go from Atlanta to Miami, you have to ride an Amtra(c)k train waaaaayyyy north to Washington D.C., then turn around and ride a different Amtra(c)k train wayyyyy back south through Savannah and Jessup, Georgia, THEN on down the Florida coast to a station a few miles from South Beach.
I'm too lazy to do the search because the Amtra(c)k website keeps crashing this morning (see the next set of gripes about that), but it cost something like $300 round trip and took three and one half or four days out of my life to get there and back.
There was no time to enjoy a stay in a hotel in the sun, and besides...I could fly round trip for $450 and spend four hours in the air and a couple more hours in and around the airport and at least walk on the beach before it was time to turn around and head back to DC.
How the heck would anyone do something like that unless they were STUPID, or mortally afraid of flying?
There's a train track from Atlanta to Savannah and Jacksonville, but theJackasses experts rocket scientists running Amtra(c)k evidently think that people in Atlanta enjoy riding 915 miles out of their way and spending a couple more sunrises and sunsets out of their mortal lives crammed into a train car in order to save $150.
Now let's talk about my latest revelation.
From what I can determine, Amtra(c)k is an island unto itself beyond a few selected bus connections here and there which they own and operate one way or the other.
Imagine if you went to the Delta Airlines website or called Delta reservations and all you could do was buy tickets to EXACTLY where Delta flies with their own airplanes?
No connections with "Partner Airlines" or "commuters", just Atlanta to St. Louis...
Delta Agent: "You're on you're own getting to Moline buddy."
Me: "Does someone rent horses or skis or roller skates?"
Delta Agent: Don't know...don't care...Next in Line...
That's the way it is with Amtra(c)k.
These idiots go to tens of dozens of cities like NY city and Philadelphia that have extensive commuter rail and bus systems, but do they provide any of that information like cost and itinerary coordination in their maps and web site based ticketing?
Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!
This morning, in addition to the Amtra(c)k website locking up every time I got close to planning a March trip to NY city and into Eastern Pennsylvania to visit some of Pat's family, they left me on my own when it came to finding which station I had to disembark at in order to connect with the commuter rail.
How the Hell can we continue to allow a so called "modern" "taxpayer funded' company, in the year 2008, surrounded by investor owned airlines employing sophisticated software to support things like seating capacity control and the coordination with connecting flights, to not have any idea how to jump off their train and get on another train in order to get to your final destination.
While Delta makes a few dollars selling Continental and American seats in addition to their own flights, evidently Amta(c)k's too stupid or egotistical to work with the "competition" riding over and around the exact same rails...
AND LOSING MONEY DOING IT.
And while I'm at it, it just came to mind to say this:
Go ahead all you Independents and Democrats. Hire yourself a new President in November, and then look over your shoulder in a few months at Amtra(c)k for a business model. Then a few years later, I'll point out Amtra(c)k as prime, brutal evidence of Government success when you cheer as they start up your new "Universal Health Care System."
Idiots... At least you can drive or fly and stay off the government trains, but try hoisting your butt into the stirrups or turning your head and coughing in a government run doctor's office five years from now.
I bet that will serve to wipe the ignorant bleeding heart liberal smirk off your face and add a new pucker to your ass.
(taking a big breath...where's my twelve step program when I need it)
Sorry Folks, but this session of bitching and complaining and imparting armchair quarterbacking advice came out of nowhere this evening, and it is directed at the pseudo-government run national passenger train service known as "Amtrak."
I've had it up to here this morning (pointing to the top of my ever greying, ever balding, pony tail adorned head) with "Amtrak."
Let me tell you about what "Amtrak"'s done that's gotten my Spleen in a knot this weekend.
I guess that I missed it to begin with, and that even before you make a phone call or visit their website the name--"Amtrak"--should give you some clue that things are amiss in the United By God States of America's passenger rail service.
Regarding said name, one could be reasonably expected to guess that the "Am" portion of the moniker stands for "American" possibly, but what the heck is up with the "Trak" portion of the trademark?
Will be be riding along on on our journey guided and protected by train tracks...or Train Traks?
Maybe it's because if we buy a ticket we'll be taking a "Trek", and that's where it comes from (and the word is amazingly prophetic as I'll reveal later...)?
I think that, even though I spent twelve long years in government schools with government English teachers, that I'm going to add the word Amtra(c)k to my blogger lexicon (going along with sHrillary Clinton, John sKerry, and my other originally coined and shamelessly stolen references to things that piss me off.)
Any way...hang on...I'm just getting started here, it gets MUCH better.
I have to admit that I've never ridden an Amtra(c)k train to my knowledge, although I have jingled around Stone Mountain Park and Six Flags in Atlanta on a train, and I've whizzed around the monorails at Disneyland and Disneyworld back in the late 1960's and early to mid 1970's.
Then there was also the time me and my sister and parents plowed through a few feet of snow on a train from New Jersey to NY City a hundred years ago when I was in kindergarten, but that doesn't count because I don't believe it was Amtrak either. It was some form of otherwise efficient commuter rail that serves real cities in the Northeast and makes Amtra(c)k look like a giant system of those little miniature trains that haul toddlers around roadside Alligator Farms and fake Indian Settlements in Georgia, always running in circles and never actually going anywhere.
In addition to riding Chicago's El network and the extended commuter line in the Chicago metro area (and of course the trains in airports around the country and world) I've also owned a few dozen yards of HO and N gauge model train track and the associated accouterments, but I guess that experience doesn't count when it comes to writing critical reviews of railroad companies, but I'm going to do it anyway, and to that end, I digress...
Here's my real question and beef with Amtra(c)k this morning:
How the %$#@ can anyone go anywhere on Amtra(c)k, when Amtra(c)k hardly goes anywhere, and the few places they go take most of a week if not a month of your time in transit, at least according to what I've seen over the past half decade that I've been trying to use them on pleasure trips?
You simply can't get from here to there on Amtra(c)k, as far as I can tell.
The other thing is that when they do happen to go where I might want to end up on many of the trips I've tried to take--3 and 4 hours by air--Amtra(c)k costs 95% of the cost of the air fair and they try to make you die of deep venal thrombosis from sitting in one of their chairs for 25 hours.
No wonder they (Amtra(c)k) are almost always losing money and are constantly coming to Congress with their hat in their hand asking for more money or threatening to waste the rest of the US taxpayers' investment by further limiting service or closing down entirely.
And never mind that because of their ineptitude many people would rather ride a subway through Watts or Harlem than get on an Amtra(c)k train today--I've heard indirectly that things look like a scene out of the Star Wars bar on the run from Atlanta to New Orleans.
Any way, here's some specific examples of things I've tried to give Amtra(c)k my money to do in the past five or six years.
One winter when we still lived in the Atlanta Suburbs and Pat was working in Chicago each week, I thought about making a short economy trip down to Miami, then taking the bus on to Key West to stir up some trouble and get some sun.
Sounded like a plan, but Nooooooo...not with Amtra(c)k
In order to go from Atlanta to Miami, you have to ride an Amtra(c)k train waaaaayyyy north to Washington D.C., then turn around and ride a different Amtra(c)k train wayyyyy back south through Savannah and Jessup, Georgia, THEN on down the Florida coast to a station a few miles from South Beach.
I'm too lazy to do the search because the Amtra(c)k website keeps crashing this morning (see the next set of gripes about that), but it cost something like $300 round trip and took three and one half or four days out of my life to get there and back.
There was no time to enjoy a stay in a hotel in the sun, and besides...I could fly round trip for $450 and spend four hours in the air and a couple more hours in and around the airport and at least walk on the beach before it was time to turn around and head back to DC.
How the heck would anyone do something like that unless they were STUPID, or mortally afraid of flying?
There's a train track from Atlanta to Savannah and Jacksonville, but the
Now let's talk about my latest revelation.
From what I can determine, Amtra(c)k is an island unto itself beyond a few selected bus connections here and there which they own and operate one way or the other.
Imagine if you went to the Delta Airlines website or called Delta reservations and all you could do was buy tickets to EXACTLY where Delta flies with their own airplanes?
No connections with "Partner Airlines" or "commuters", just Atlanta to St. Louis...
Delta Agent: "You're on you're own getting to Moline buddy."
Me: "Does someone rent horses or skis or roller skates?"
Delta Agent: Don't know...don't care...Next in Line...
That's the way it is with Amtra(c)k.
These idiots go to tens of dozens of cities like NY city and Philadelphia that have extensive commuter rail and bus systems, but do they provide any of that information like cost and itinerary coordination in their maps and web site based ticketing?
Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!
This morning, in addition to the Amtra(c)k website locking up every time I got close to planning a March trip to NY city and into Eastern Pennsylvania to visit some of Pat's family, they left me on my own when it came to finding which station I had to disembark at in order to connect with the commuter rail.
How the Hell can we continue to allow a so called "modern" "taxpayer funded' company, in the year 2008, surrounded by investor owned airlines employing sophisticated software to support things like seating capacity control and the coordination with connecting flights, to not have any idea how to jump off their train and get on another train in order to get to your final destination.
While Delta makes a few dollars selling Continental and American seats in addition to their own flights, evidently Amta(c)k's too stupid or egotistical to work with the "competition" riding over and around the exact same rails...
AND LOSING MONEY DOING IT.
And while I'm at it, it just came to mind to say this:
Go ahead all you Independents and Democrats. Hire yourself a new President in November, and then look over your shoulder in a few months at Amtra(c)k for a business model. Then a few years later, I'll point out Amtra(c)k as prime, brutal evidence of Government success when you cheer as they start up your new "Universal Health Care System."
Idiots... At least you can drive or fly and stay off the government trains, but try hoisting your butt into the stirrups or turning your head and coughing in a government run doctor's office five years from now.
I bet that will serve to wipe the ignorant bleeding heart liberal smirk off your face and add a new pucker to your ass.
(taking a big breath...where's my twelve step program when I need it)
Friday, January 18, 2008
Engine Flame-Out And Icing on the Wings
Eject...Eject...Eject...
Well Folks, in spite of my best laid plans, the National Weather Service decided at the last minute to cancel this week's ration of Global Warming induced havoc, instead crashing the temperature and bringing snow to everywhere north of our little Island this weekend.
Thank GOD my business in Knoxville was delayed a week at their request this morning, and since I've still not heard from the Lawyers in Atlanta I'm making an executive decision to stay home and hide here in the rainy, windy 50 degree temperatures burning fake logs in our fireplace this weekend.
Thus the beauty of being aprofessional beach bum semi-unemployed being your own boss...you can say #$@%& it and just sit home if you want to.
I really want to see some snow again in person since it's been five or six years, but driving across the Appalachian Trail and down I-40 in 30 degree temps isn't my idea of a good use of my time.
Oh well, there's always saw dust to make over on the renovation job site.
Well Folks, in spite of my best laid plans, the National Weather Service decided at the last minute to cancel this week's ration of Global Warming induced havoc, instead crashing the temperature and bringing snow to everywhere north of our little Island this weekend.
Thank GOD my business in Knoxville was delayed a week at their request this morning, and since I've still not heard from the Lawyers in Atlanta I'm making an executive decision to stay home and hide here in the rainy, windy 50 degree temperatures burning fake logs in our fireplace this weekend.
Thus the beauty of being a
I really want to see some snow again in person since it's been five or six years, but driving across the Appalachian Trail and down I-40 in 30 degree temps isn't my idea of a good use of my time.
Oh well, there's always saw dust to make over on the renovation job site.
Last Minute Travel
Visiting Winter On Winter's Own Terms...
Besides dodging a couple inches of warm rain ( it was 70 degrees F here yesterday), joining Chili Cooking Teams, and getting another one of my Ranting Public Service letters to the local newspaper published, I've spent part of this past week trying to put together a business and pleasure trip around the southeast beginning this weekend and continuing into late next week.
Business concerns of course take precedence, but since a lawyer in Atlanta is standing between me and the scene of the boiler plant accident I need to look at, as usual things have been delayed until the last minute, making it hard to plan the pleasure part of the excursion.
If things work out tomorrow morning we'll be jumping in the car to traverse I95 northward up the Georgia Coast, then northwest across the South Carolina Piedmont on I-26 to spend the weekend with my college roommate Rusty in Greenville, South Carolina.
Then the plan is on Sunday to head north to Asheville for lunch, then on across the Smokey Mountains to Knoxville, TN for a couple of nights for a secondary business purpose.
I pray that the weather is kind to us, because I hate having to wear a sweater and jacket ... heck ... I hardly wear socks most of the time down here (don't EVEN ask about underwear.)
Finally, if the lawyers will let me visit, I'll be back in Atlanta on Wednesday or Thursday crawling around the basement of a big downtown hotel, before returning to our beloved Island in time to thaw out and return things back to our normal slow existence.
I'll probably have to take an extra long nap once the dust settles. I sure wish May would hurry up and get here.
Besides dodging a couple inches of warm rain ( it was 70 degrees F here yesterday), joining Chili Cooking Teams, and getting another one of my Ranting Public Service letters to the local newspaper published, I've spent part of this past week trying to put together a business and pleasure trip around the southeast beginning this weekend and continuing into late next week.
Business concerns of course take precedence, but since a lawyer in Atlanta is standing between me and the scene of the boiler plant accident I need to look at, as usual things have been delayed until the last minute, making it hard to plan the pleasure part of the excursion.
If things work out tomorrow morning we'll be jumping in the car to traverse I95 northward up the Georgia Coast, then northwest across the South Carolina Piedmont on I-26 to spend the weekend with my college roommate Rusty in Greenville, South Carolina.
Then the plan is on Sunday to head north to Asheville for lunch, then on across the Smokey Mountains to Knoxville, TN for a couple of nights for a secondary business purpose.
I pray that the weather is kind to us, because I hate having to wear a sweater and jacket ... heck ... I hardly wear socks most of the time down here (don't EVEN ask about underwear.)
Finally, if the lawyers will let me visit, I'll be back in Atlanta on Wednesday or Thursday crawling around the basement of a big downtown hotel, before returning to our beloved Island in time to thaw out and return things back to our normal slow existence.
I'll probably have to take an extra long nap once the dust settles. I sure wish May would hurry up and get here.
Thursday, January 17, 2008
Chili For 160 Close Friends
Or 12 Gallons Of Sample Sized Servings...
I suspect that my regular readers think that they can probably guess what we had for dinner here on our little Island last night, but you'd be WRONG if you assumed dinner consisted of CHILI.
Confusingly, I did actually cook slightly over a gallon pot of my Chili, but when it was all said and done my concoction was so spicy that I was afraid for Pat and Missy The Turbo Pup to eat it, and assaulting my own Colon with an entire meal sized portion was also a source of declining middle aged concern.
Instead, we wandered around the corner to Larry's Giant Subs and enjoyed nice safe sandwiches for dinner after delivering a sample of my first test batch ofthermonuclear material Iranian Reactor Fuel Virgil's Flaming Anus Porridge Chili over to Blackwater Grill for comment and criticism.
It's really an interesting exercise trying to develop a recipe for 12 gallons of food to be cooked in a four hour window of time, in a public venue, in a safe and sanitary manner.
First of all, let me tell you that in my considered opinion the spices are EVERYTHING when it comes to making a successful product.
The other thing is texture...Chili shouldn't just be a pureed bowl of gloppy crap, nor should it be a bowl full of beans and tomato sauce with a little ground beef thrown in for good measure.
Good Chili is a complex mixture of textures and layers of flavors, and good chili has a substantial quantity of MEAT in it. Chili should also not have thin streams of semi clear juice running out of it onto your plate or bowl when you spoon it out of the pot.
Is that really too much to ask?
Any way, leave it to me as usual to turn what many consider to be a simple one pot dish into a science project. Somehow I believe that the end in fact does justify the means and I think that my efforts will yield a superior product as a result.
Take yesterday's results for example. All it needs is a little fine tuning on the spice listing and I believe I have a winner
Assuming things proceed as planned, and at the risk of someone stealing my product and beating me with it, here's the unofficial list of what will be happening in a couple of giant pots about six weeks from now:
Initial Calculations: 12 gallons = 1536 ounces, 48 quarts, 160 regular dinner sized servings.
Liquid Ingredients
(12) bottles Guiness Stout Dark Beer
(12) cans Beef Stock
(12) 28 ounce cans Pureed tomatoes
(12) 28 ounce cans Diced Tomatoes
Dry Ingredients
(1) pound Bacon cooked & crumbled with Drippings
(24) pounds London Broil Beef, cooked medium and shredded before adding to the mix
(12) 15.5 ounce cans dark red kidney or Pinto beans
(12) medium onions diced coarse
(24) cloves garlic, diced fine
(2) small cans Chipolte peppers in Adobo Sauce **
(12) squares Baker's Chocolate
Spices:
3 tsp Red pepper flakes **
6 tsp chili powder
6 tbsp cumin
3 tsp paprika
3 tsp ground red pepper **
3 tsp black pepper
3 tsp white pepper
Salt to taste
(**these ingredients will make or break the dish and injure you and your dog at the same time.)
Unless you work in a commercial kitchen, I think that you will find that list sort of amazing.
Be advised that there is a detailed process involved in how it is all put together, and I'm reserving that description, along with a household sized ingredient list, for publication in early March after our Chili Cooking Team has won first place in the Cookoff.
Time to go taste the ongoing Chili cooking again now... I'm trying to tone it down a little.
Update 1/17/08 3:30 PM
I received a comment asking about the inclusion of Baker's chocolate in this recipe, and I couldn't resist answering her question.
Since the Chocolate is unsweetened, I can't say that it does anything relative to the Tomato acidity--I use sugar in my pasta sauces for that purpose (and I don't put sugar in my Chili.)
All I know is that I've read and heard for years about people putting chocolate in their chili, and the last few batches I've made included chocolate and it does add a subtle undercurrent to the flavor, in addition to darkening the color of the mixture visually.
The same applies to using a bottle of $10 a six pack Guinness Dark Beer versus Bud Light or just plain water...I BELIEVE it makes the Chili better, so I use it.
Any more questions?
I suspect that my regular readers think that they can probably guess what we had for dinner here on our little Island last night, but you'd be WRONG if you assumed dinner consisted of CHILI.
Confusingly, I did actually cook slightly over a gallon pot of my Chili, but when it was all said and done my concoction was so spicy that I was afraid for Pat and Missy The Turbo Pup to eat it, and assaulting my own Colon with an entire meal sized portion was also a source of declining middle aged concern.
Instead, we wandered around the corner to Larry's Giant Subs and enjoyed nice safe sandwiches for dinner after delivering a sample of my first test batch of
It's really an interesting exercise trying to develop a recipe for 12 gallons of food to be cooked in a four hour window of time, in a public venue, in a safe and sanitary manner.
First of all, let me tell you that in my considered opinion the spices are EVERYTHING when it comes to making a successful product.
The other thing is texture...Chili shouldn't just be a pureed bowl of gloppy crap, nor should it be a bowl full of beans and tomato sauce with a little ground beef thrown in for good measure.
Good Chili is a complex mixture of textures and layers of flavors, and good chili has a substantial quantity of MEAT in it. Chili should also not have thin streams of semi clear juice running out of it onto your plate or bowl when you spoon it out of the pot.
Is that really too much to ask?
Any way, leave it to me as usual to turn what many consider to be a simple one pot dish into a science project. Somehow I believe that the end in fact does justify the means and I think that my efforts will yield a superior product as a result.
Take yesterday's results for example. All it needs is a little fine tuning on the spice listing and I believe I have a winner
Assuming things proceed as planned, and at the risk of someone stealing my product and beating me with it, here's the unofficial list of what will be happening in a couple of giant pots about six weeks from now:
Initial Calculations: 12 gallons = 1536 ounces, 48 quarts, 160 regular dinner sized servings.
Liquid Ingredients
(12) bottles Guiness Stout Dark Beer
(12) cans Beef Stock
(12) 28 ounce cans Pureed tomatoes
(12) 28 ounce cans Diced Tomatoes
Dry Ingredients
(1) pound Bacon cooked & crumbled with Drippings
(24) pounds London Broil Beef, cooked medium and shredded before adding to the mix
(12) 15.5 ounce cans dark red kidney or Pinto beans
(12) medium onions diced coarse
(24) cloves garlic, diced fine
(2) small cans Chipolte peppers in Adobo Sauce **
(12) squares Baker's Chocolate
Spices:
3 tsp Red pepper flakes **
6 tsp chili powder
6 tbsp cumin
3 tsp paprika
3 tsp ground red pepper **
3 tsp black pepper
3 tsp white pepper
Salt to taste
(**these ingredients will make or break the dish and injure you and your dog at the same time.)
Unless you work in a commercial kitchen, I think that you will find that list sort of amazing.
Be advised that there is a detailed process involved in how it is all put together, and I'm reserving that description, along with a household sized ingredient list, for publication in early March after our Chili Cooking Team has won first place in the Cookoff.
Time to go taste the ongoing Chili cooking again now... I'm trying to tone it down a little.
Update 1/17/08 3:30 PM
I received a comment asking about the inclusion of Baker's chocolate in this recipe, and I couldn't resist answering her question.
Since the Chocolate is unsweetened, I can't say that it does anything relative to the Tomato acidity--I use sugar in my pasta sauces for that purpose (and I don't put sugar in my Chili.)
All I know is that I've read and heard for years about people putting chocolate in their chili, and the last few batches I've made included chocolate and it does add a subtle undercurrent to the flavor, in addition to darkening the color of the mixture visually.
The same applies to using a bottle of $10 a six pack Guinness Dark Beer versus Bud Light or just plain water...I BELIEVE it makes the Chili better, so I use it.
Any more questions?
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
Ugly Is As Ugly Does
Entertaining...Versus Just Complaining?
You got a minute?
I've slowly been coming to a substantial realization about my blogging efforts--both political and culinary. Sit down, grab yourself a glass of your favorite beverage, and let me bounce some ideas off of you if you don't mind.
In retrospect, I think that thus far I pretty much look like a pompous, at best somewhat talented Ass....with the emphasis being on the "ass" part of the equation.
Is that not a fair assessment?
I've pretty much offended everyone out there that can be offended, even some groups and individuals that really do deserve some coddling and protection in the name of civility or based on social/mental/physical infirmity.
To that end, I realize that I've GOT to GET ORGANIZED.
If I were to sit down regularly and make some notes, thereby capturing 50% of the ideas which I come up with during an average day so that I could follow through with researching and writing something meaningful, this place and the Redneck Gourmet could become something other than just a haunt for my friends and family and a few well placed acquaintances here on the Internet.
Thus far my blog only serves as some sort of a psyco(illogical) early warning system for a few folks out there. My Mom calls if I disappear for more than 24 hours on line, while a number of people out there probably celebrate my absence, but you still keep coming back when it's all said and done.
My buddy Steve over at Hog On Ice has given up writing about Politics almost entirely because he recognises that you alienate 50% of your potential readers when you open your mouth or place your fingers on a computer keyboard to enter the political arena--even if you are right in what you say. Publication of conservative and libertarian views causes even greater conflict for some reason.
Instead, Mr. Grahm has expanded his efforts into humor and Podcasting, and I've listened to and participated in a couple of his Sunday evening shows about cooking and it's an interesting concept I agree will continue to gain in popularity.
The other thing that Steve has done is sell books. Two cookbooks and another strange compilation about torturing Nigerian Spammers, but the man has cash flowing in his direction as a direct result of his writing.
Thus this realization...
I've made money drawing things on paper and computers for years. That said, why can't I retire in luxury as a result of my writing efforts--IF I can learn to better use spellcheck and understand the difference between the proper usage of words like "that" and "which" which I constantly mutilate to the chagrin of the school teachers and English majors in my audience.
I really do love writing, and in spite of how I felt in High School and College, it really isn't what I'd consider work today to toss together four or five thousand words given the right inspiration.
Now...
While you laugh hysterically at my public daydreaming, I have to get ready to go make some more sawdust over on the Job site. Callouses aren't much use on the keyboard, but right now making them thicker is the only way I have to get the funds to pay my bills.
Have a nice Wednesday...If you will.
You got a minute?
I've slowly been coming to a substantial realization about my blogging efforts--both political and culinary. Sit down, grab yourself a glass of your favorite beverage, and let me bounce some ideas off of you if you don't mind.
In retrospect, I think that thus far I pretty much look like a pompous, at best somewhat talented Ass....with the emphasis being on the "ass" part of the equation.
Is that not a fair assessment?
I've pretty much offended everyone out there that can be offended, even some groups and individuals that really do deserve some coddling and protection in the name of civility or based on social/mental/physical infirmity.
To that end, I realize that I've GOT to GET ORGANIZED.
If I were to sit down regularly and make some notes, thereby capturing 50% of the ideas which I come up with during an average day so that I could follow through with researching and writing something meaningful, this place and the Redneck Gourmet could become something other than just a haunt for my friends and family and a few well placed acquaintances here on the Internet.
Thus far my blog only serves as some sort of a psyco(illogical) early warning system for a few folks out there. My Mom calls if I disappear for more than 24 hours on line, while a number of people out there probably celebrate my absence, but you still keep coming back when it's all said and done.
My buddy Steve over at Hog On Ice has given up writing about Politics almost entirely because he recognises that you alienate 50% of your potential readers when you open your mouth or place your fingers on a computer keyboard to enter the political arena--even if you are right in what you say. Publication of conservative and libertarian views causes even greater conflict for some reason.
Instead, Mr. Grahm has expanded his efforts into humor and Podcasting, and I've listened to and participated in a couple of his Sunday evening shows about cooking and it's an interesting concept I agree will continue to gain in popularity.
The other thing that Steve has done is sell books. Two cookbooks and another strange compilation about torturing Nigerian Spammers, but the man has cash flowing in his direction as a direct result of his writing.
Thus this realization...
I've made money drawing things on paper and computers for years. That said, why can't I retire in luxury as a result of my writing efforts--IF I can learn to better use spellcheck and understand the difference between the proper usage of words like "that" and "which" which I constantly mutilate to the chagrin of the school teachers and English majors in my audience.
I really do love writing, and in spite of how I felt in High School and College, it really isn't what I'd consider work today to toss together four or five thousand words given the right inspiration.
Now...
While you laugh hysterically at my public daydreaming, I have to get ready to go make some more sawdust over on the Job site. Callouses aren't much use on the keyboard, but right now making them thicker is the only way I have to get the funds to pay my bills.
Have a nice Wednesday...If you will.
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
I'm A Chili Chef?
Strange Aspirations...
The call came in about 5 PM today, and on the other end of the phone was my buddy John that owns the local low country restaurant--Blackwater Grill.
The subject of the conversation?
Incredibly, John was asking ME to bring MY Chili recipe and my spices down to Neptune Park on March 1st and lead his team in cooking 12 gallons of chili in St. Simon Island's annual Chili Cookoff this year.
Dang I'm flattered.
We didn't make it last year, but we attended two years ago and found it to be a real hoot, featuring live music and twenty or thirty teams of people scrambling to put together their giant pots of glop while consuming mass quantities of beer and entertaining their public audiences and their own inflated egos.
So now I can plan on adding my own imminent persona to this roster, and in the mean time I guess I'm test cooking some more Chili in order to fine tune the recipe.
I'm so excited I could just bust....
The call came in about 5 PM today, and on the other end of the phone was my buddy John that owns the local low country restaurant--Blackwater Grill.
The subject of the conversation?
Incredibly, John was asking ME to bring MY Chili recipe and my spices down to Neptune Park on March 1st and lead his team in cooking 12 gallons of chili in St. Simon Island's annual Chili Cookoff this year.
Dang I'm flattered.
We didn't make it last year, but we attended two years ago and found it to be a real hoot, featuring live music and twenty or thirty teams of people scrambling to put together their giant pots of glop while consuming mass quantities of beer and entertaining their public audiences and their own inflated egos.
So now I can plan on adding my own imminent persona to this roster, and in the mean time I guess I'm test cooking some more Chili in order to fine tune the recipe.
I'm so excited I could just bust....
Monday, January 14, 2008
I Want My "Vigorous Secondary Screening"
My Prostate and Spleen's Been Bothering Me Lately...
I swear People, the only thing that keeps me from just walking around spewing profanity at every one and every thing all day long these days is the knowledge that I never reproduced and within the next twenty to forty years nothing I think will matter...and I guess that assertion is based on the assumption that I can still think at all in the mean time.
Seriously...much of the time I just want to break into my best Walter Brennan or Sam Kinison imitation and let the world have it verbally. Here on the blog I know that it shows in spite of my best efforts to the contrary much of the time.
My eyes are rolled so far back in my head right now from the Presidential campaign bullshit I've watched that I have to lay face down in the bed on my stomach to see the alarm clock in the morning, and I know more about what is going on behind me than I do in front of me as I stagger through the day in a Turrets-like trance.
Am I somehow the only one that feels this way?
No?
Well, what really got this evening's rant started was this story about some new argument about the use of State issued ID's to gain access to commercial airline flights.
WASHINGTON - Millions of air travelers may find going through airport security much more complicated this spring, as the Bush administration heads toward a showdown with state governments over post-Sept. 11 rules for new driver's licenses. By May, the dispute could leave millions of people unable to use their licenses to board planes, but privacy advocates called that a hollow threat by federal officials.
Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, who was unveiling final details of the REAL ID Act's rules on Friday, said that if states want their licenses to remain valid for air travel after May 2008, those states must seek a waiver indicating they want more time to comply with the legislation.
The deadline is an effort to get states to begin phasing in the REAL ID program. Citizens born after Dec. 1, 1964, would have six years to get a new license; older Americans would have until 2017.
Chertoff said that for any state which doesn't seek such a waiver by May, residents of that state will have to use a passport or certain types of federal border-crossing cards if they want to avoid a vigorous secondary screening at airport security.
"The last thing I want to do is punish citizens of a state who would love to have a REAL ID license but can't get one," Chertoff said. "But in the end, the rule is the rule as passed by Congress."
Would someone please give me a break here?
We're actually electing people and paying people to sit around worrying about crap like this, and argue about something as basic as being able to prove who you are when you walk up to a gate at an airport?
Where do I go to slap some sense into someone, and where do I mail my letter complaining and demanding that we all get over crap like this and get on with worrying about something that actually matters?
I swear people...we're doomed... Doomed... DOOMED to imploding just like the Greek and Roman civilizations, and there are people out there that actually want that to happen and will somehow enjoy it when it occurs.
I just want to last long enough to see the look on their faces when their government certified "screener" places the inspection wand up into their rectum in front of their kids at the airport while Mohammad and Ishmail walk unfettered past the process onto the airplane with their strap on bombs.
Idiots...
PS...I Wrote this on Saturday, and let it loose on you today.
You're welcome...
I swear People, the only thing that keeps me from just walking around spewing profanity at every one and every thing all day long these days is the knowledge that I never reproduced and within the next twenty to forty years nothing I think will matter...and I guess that assertion is based on the assumption that I can still think at all in the mean time.
Seriously...much of the time I just want to break into my best Walter Brennan or Sam Kinison imitation and let the world have it verbally. Here on the blog I know that it shows in spite of my best efforts to the contrary much of the time.
My eyes are rolled so far back in my head right now from the Presidential campaign bullshit I've watched that I have to lay face down in the bed on my stomach to see the alarm clock in the morning, and I know more about what is going on behind me than I do in front of me as I stagger through the day in a Turrets-like trance.
Am I somehow the only one that feels this way?
No?
Well, what really got this evening's rant started was this story about some new argument about the use of State issued ID's to gain access to commercial airline flights.
WASHINGTON - Millions of air travelers may find going through airport security much more complicated this spring, as the Bush administration heads toward a showdown with state governments over post-Sept. 11 rules for new driver's licenses. By May, the dispute could leave millions of people unable to use their licenses to board planes, but privacy advocates called that a hollow threat by federal officials.
Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, who was unveiling final details of the REAL ID Act's rules on Friday, said that if states want their licenses to remain valid for air travel after May 2008, those states must seek a waiver indicating they want more time to comply with the legislation.
The deadline is an effort to get states to begin phasing in the REAL ID program. Citizens born after Dec. 1, 1964, would have six years to get a new license; older Americans would have until 2017.
Chertoff said that for any state which doesn't seek such a waiver by May, residents of that state will have to use a passport or certain types of federal border-crossing cards if they want to avoid a vigorous secondary screening at airport security.
"The last thing I want to do is punish citizens of a state who would love to have a REAL ID license but can't get one," Chertoff said. "But in the end, the rule is the rule as passed by Congress."
Would someone please give me a break here?
We're actually electing people and paying people to sit around worrying about crap like this, and argue about something as basic as being able to prove who you are when you walk up to a gate at an airport?
Where do I go to slap some sense into someone, and where do I mail my letter complaining and demanding that we all get over crap like this and get on with worrying about something that actually matters?
I swear people...we're doomed... Doomed... DOOMED to imploding just like the Greek and Roman civilizations, and there are people out there that actually want that to happen and will somehow enjoy it when it occurs.
I just want to last long enough to see the look on their faces when their government certified "screener" places the inspection wand up into their rectum in front of their kids at the airport while Mohammad and Ishmail walk unfettered past the process onto the airplane with their strap on bombs.
Idiots...
PS...I Wrote this on Saturday, and let it loose on you today.
You're welcome...
Sunday, January 13, 2008
I Bought This On eBay Today
Replacement Literature
Back in the day, I had a pretty nice collection of books, including textbooks, Engineering industry specific technical literature; and stuff from my childhood which my parents had bought me to read in order to keep me from appearing to be an idiot when chronologically I should have been a literate Adult.
In anticipation of that upcoming event (finally being considered a literate adult...or an idiot, depending on your political affiliation and world view perspective), this item will be arriving at my house via UPS this week:
Back in the day, I had a pretty nice collection of books, including textbooks, Engineering industry specific technical literature; and stuff from my childhood which my parents had bought me to read in order to keep me from appearing to be an idiot when chronologically I should have been a literate Adult.
In anticipation of that upcoming event (finally being considered a literate adult...or an idiot, depending on your political affiliation and world view perspective), this item will be arriving at my house via UPS this week:
This edition was published in 1903. I missed one circa 1876 last week because I wasn't paying attention, and lost it by $5.
Good God the Internet is an amazing resource.
(UPDATE 7:36 PM EST. I forgot to mention to those that aren't regular readers that my house burned down back in April 2001 and took virtually everything but my ego and memories away with it into ashes on that spring day. I've gotten over the event years ago, but once in a while I find things which indirectly remind me of the conflagration, else allow me to at least partially overcome the effect of my losses ...thus today's posting.)
Scary Stuff
Thanks To Captain Ed And Chris Muir...
My Internet Blogger Friend and Idol Captain Ed over at Captain's Quarters put the original photoshop image up, and Internet Cartoonist Chris Muir over at the "Day by Day" site improved it.
Please send Fred a few dollars if you can, I did.
Head Still Spinning
Profanity Still Imminent
Would someone please tell me what the heck is going on over at the Weather Channel these days?
They've apparently shifted their emphasis from forecasting the weather (thus the name) to telling me stupid shit that could have and should have come out of Owl Gore's Pie Hole.
Climate Change Morons...can't live with them, won't live without them coming into your home on your TV when you least expecte them.
Where's my recycled Asphalt (what we call a "Butt Defect" where I'm from in Alabama) toilet paper when I see something that needs wiping ??
Dammit...
Would someone please tell me what the heck is going on over at the Weather Channel these days?
They've apparently shifted their emphasis from forecasting the weather (thus the name) to telling me stupid shit that could have and should have come out of Owl Gore's Pie Hole.
Climate Change Morons...can't live with them, won't live without them coming into your home on your TV when you least expecte them.
Where's my recycled Asphalt (what we call a "Butt Defect" where I'm from in Alabama) toilet paper when I see something that needs wiping ??
Dammit...
