Sawdust Flying...Mind Racing...

Small Particles And Even Smaller Progress...


I'm pleased to report that I'm now in the final trim out mode on the wood work down in the Wee Pub in my basement. 

Progress is an uneven effort because I keep changing things around in the final design and I'm working with a basic hand miter saw which is very accurate but also slow as Christmas working solo. 

Recently while reading some unrelated news stories I remembered that I once had a power miter saw a few years ago but the barbarians in downtown Brunswick, Georgia broke into my Rental  property while I was renovating the building and stole it along with most of my raw materials.

Of course the Brunswick Police department was willing to take a police report only if I'd come down to their offices (they were too busy to come out and look for silly stuff like fingerprints), but other than that they just shrugged their shoulders and mumbled something to the effect that "at least I wasn't there at the time of the burglary and didn't get shot or stabbed."

I'm getting too old to fight, and I've broken my right hand three or four times hitting people and things through the years, but this video makes me want to go back to the gun range and polish my pistol skills a little:



The sad thing is that apparently the Maryland police were only able to get there after all of the perpetrators had left the scene and now thay are claiming that it's too much trouble to try to prosecute the thieves using the video tape as evedence.

I'm telling you, Ladies and Gentlemen, this "Flash Mob" stuff with idiots without jobs or morals or reason deciding to use things like Twitter and Facebook to coordinate acts of violence and "civil disobedience " deserves a few well armed citizens to take matters into their own hands because as I've written here before:

"When Seconds Count, The Police Are Only a Few Minutes Away."

In Maryland where this event happened it is against the law to use a gun against a intruder unless they have basically crawled into your bed and put on your wife's pajamas and put a knife to your throat.

If they come into your home or business and start hauling off your property solo or in mass like in the Video you can't shoot anyone or even point a gun at them...

You just have to stand there and watch them take your stuff and hope they don't physically assault you in the process.

I call BULLSHIT on this situation and promise that if I'm in the building and able to do something besides cower behind a display of Budweiser and Potato Chips someone's at least going to have at a black eye and a fat lip at the end of the day.

Know what I mean?

Come Monday Sunday...It'll Be Allright

A Weekend Jimmy Buffet Would Be Proud Of.


I don't have a whole bunch to say this evening because I'm too lazy to think about anything to write.

I guess you can just take my earlier posting about what happened around here on Saturday, add a trip to Kroger and Home Depot into the mix, shuffle around the nap times and sunning on the deck out by the pool times , and...

You get the picture.

I'll talk to y'all Tomorrow...

Saturday Success...Simple Pleasures

I'm A Professional At Doing Nuthin All Day

I don't mind reporting to you, Ladies and Gentlemen, that I hardly did CRAP all day here on Saturday at the Turbo Pup Compound on the banks of the Mighty Tennessee River.

N U T H I N'

Not A Thing Productive.

Further...

I PLANNED my day that way more or less.

Pat wanted to go shopping in the morning over at a new "Marketplace" they've opened down the road a couple of miles in the Turkey Creek area...

so she went.

Me?

I'd have liked to have gone but they have some rules down there.

Apparently they don't let unshaven, unshowered, naked pot bellyed middle aged men in their snooty "Marketplace", and since I was too lazy to get up and shave and shower and put on clothes suitable for a public appearance I opted to stay home.

Any way, so I just stayed here and wallowed around in bed until almost eleven AM with the Turbo Pup.

Then when she (Missy the Turbo Pup) had to get up to go out and pee I got up too (because I had to also but I opted to do it inside rather out in the yard), stumbled into a bathing suit, grabbed a cigar and the newspaper, poured myself a "waker upper" drink, and set my butt down outside on the deck by the pool and didn't hardly move again until Pat came home about 1 PM.

THAT right there, in my considered Redneck Opinion, is a successful plan for a weekend day in and of itself I'd say, but then you know what?

I had another drink and sat around out there in the moderate heat until it threatened to rain, then I went inside and layed around watching FOX News and the Weather Channel and all in all a good afternoon was had by everyone here at the Turbo Pup Compound.

I did have an inkling of intention to wander over to Home Depot and Kroger late in the afternoon before dinner, but a really good late afternoon NAP ended up taking precedence.

Then Pat woke me up and threatened to go over to our local Karaoke Pub Bullfeathers and bring me back a burger.

And of course that offer forced me to get up, clean up, and get dressed so I could run out the door with my girls.  (They let the Turbo Pup sit with us there on their expansive deck, so we've taken to doing happy hour a few nights a week.)

A couple of drinks, a couple of burgers, and a couple of songs later I was back home in time to go right back to my FOX News and Weather Channel watching.

And now here I am at 1 AM Sunday morning trying to reschedule a trip to Home Depot and Kroger and try to make some more sawdust in the Wee Pub in my basement Sunday afternoon.

Hope the balance of your weekend is at least half as satisfying as mine has been thus far.

Regard Y'all...

The Utility Of Insanity

Modern "Conveniences" Will Be The Death Of Us All...

I've spent the past three days fussing over my Cable Service with lingering doubts about something going on in the background with the Cable Modem.

About three AM Tuesday morning while I was working in the basement the TV signal went of and on a half dozen times over an hour period and I didn't think anything of it.

Yet another late night "Service Interruption" for "Maintenance Purposes" I guessed and since I was busy making noise with my air guns and saws and drills and other crap I wasn't concerned because I couldn't actually see the TV picture and most of the time I couldn't hear the dialogue over my own cursing and mechanical noises.

So any way, three days...going on four now...later my home Cable TV System is in total disarray and I didn't touch anything to cause the problem.

The only thing I did was buy 100 feet of new RG-6 Coax anticipating rewiring the living room TV connection shortly for the THIRD TIME because of ongoing signal "issues" we've been having and at the same time adding another feed serving the Wee Pub behind the bar for the new TV we recently purchased.

I haven't put in the new cableing because of the problems, and now...get this...

As of right now my kitchen TV hanging under the cabinets won't work at all, the TV in the living room refuses to pick up things like Food network, the new 1080p digital TV we've been test driving (the one for the Wee Pub) in the Master Bedroom only picks up about twenty or thirty channels with no Food Network or FOX News signal, my TV Card in Server PC is in the same condition as the Master Bedroom, AND...

the crappy old 32 inch TV I have down in the basement shop picks up EVERYTHING that it picked up before the recent strange outages.

What adds insult to injury is that yesterday I spent a half hour on the telephone with some idiot at Comcast in "technical support" who was obviously reading from a script (or a teleprompter like our current president) and no matter what I said or the detail I told him and in spite of the fact that I said I was an Injuneer...

the customer service guy...probably named "Peggy"...insisted on asking stupid questions like it the cable box plugged into the wall outlet?"

..."is the TV on channel 3?"...

This after I had told the guy everything was working fine on Monday and I had wired the house myself almost four years ago and not changed anything except their stupid digital adapters way back in FEBRUARY and AFTER THAT EVERYTHING EXCEPT THE LIVING ROOM TV WORKED PERFECT UNTIL MONDAY NIGHT.

Didn't matter...

The guy either didn't have the brain cells and/or the training to help me trouble shoot what should most likely be a problem in the wiring between the house and the street or in their immense central offices located somewhere in India or Pakistan.

The final question that caused me to give up and hang up on the poor stupid bastard was this one...

"what's the serial number on your digital cable converter box?"

He asked this doosey while I was hunched over in the kitchen fumbling with the wiring which I had neatly wire clamped and tied together up out of sight behind the wine rack beside the TV under the upper wall mounted cabinets.

In order to answer that question I was going to either have to go to the basement file cabinet and get out the original paperwork, or go to the basement shop and get a sledge hammer some wire cutters in order to free the wiring and be able to look at the microscopic letters on the back of the little box with the serial number inscribed.

So I just hung up before I was arrested for making terroristic threats and possibly charged with verbal racial hate crimes.

It's truly a screwed up world we live in...Ladies and Gentlemen.

When I was four years old I spent weekends and weeks in the summer in a house hand built from timber harvested on our farm.  A house that didn't have electricity until after WWII, and had a windmill and a Hay Barn and a Corn Crib and a Smokehouse and a Sugar Cane Mill and a hand dug water well...

But no Air Conditioning or cable TV or Internet...

We drank water from a large basin in the kitchen with a communal "dipper" you sipped out of when you were thirsty.

And I was happy.

I wish I could re-gain some of that sanity and satisfaction today.

You know?

MORE AT 6:15 AM

I forgot to mention earlier that what pisses me off the most about utilities like the Cable TV or Satellite or Phone company, is that unlike the Gas Company and the Electric Power company or the people selling you water...

the cable company charges FULL PRICE every month no matter how many days or hours or weeks you signal is screwed up.

At least with the TVA or Georgia Power or Atlanta Gas Light Company or now First Utility District if our electricty was off for a while we didn't have to pay for the priveledge of having a wire connected to our house or if our water service was interrupted we didn't have to buy water we weren't using.

Dammit...

Texting 911?

By The Time I Finish Typing Someone Will Probably Be Dead...


OK.

I was just sitting here minding my own business this early morning, fiddling around with an AutoCAD drawing of my as yet to be constructed dart board cabinet down in the "Wee Pub"...

...and being pissed off because in Comcast's infinite effort to upgrade my local TV/Internet service three of my five TV's only get Basic Cable stations right now...

...and in the process of watching some stupid local late night news channel I usually never watch (CBS Late Night News) they came on with a story about the Imperial Federal Government of the By God United States of 'Merica (IFGOTBGYSOM for short) wants to make it possible to communicate with 911 via text messaging within the next five years.

OK...I understand if you are hiding under your desk while some derranged Muslim Terrorist wannabe is robbing your bank you can possibly pound out a message with your fingers and thumbs you might be able to TEXT the 911 operator rather than risking calling and screaming:

THERE'S AN IDIOT WITH A GUN HERE SHOOTING AT EVERYONE YELLING "ALLAH AKBAR"...

but still...

Anyone but me wonder how much this technological revolution is going to cost the Taxpayers?

And does anyone but me realize that all you have to do to get the police to show up at your door is call 911 a couple of times and hang up and not say a single word?

So why do we need a totally over engineered revision of the sometimes feckless and inept 911 services the cost of which have been shoved down our collective throats incrementally over the past thirty or forty years?

Why not have a few people in each 911 system have an unlimited texting $200 per month cell phone with an existing carrier?

This texting crap drives me crazy any way, as I've said many times before.

Let me restate my position here in the matter of TEXTING.

IF YOU ARE HOLDING A FREAKING $500 CELL PHONE IN YOUR HANDS, A DEVICE DESIGNED TO BOUNCE A HIGH FREQUENCY MICROWAVE SIGNAL OFF OF A 200 FOOT TALL REPEATER RADIO TOWER, REFLECT IT INTO A SATELLITE ORBITING THE EARTH, THEN BACK DOWN TO THE SURFACE OF THE EARTH TO ANOTHER 150 FOOT TALL TOWER, FINALLY LOCATING ME IN THE PARKING LOT AT THE LOCAL HOME DEPOT....

Call ME...

Don't Text ME...

Please?

Bad Weather Predictions

I'm Starting To Get Worried...

This is sort of an off the wall rant/discussion this morning but I hope you will indulge me and take it for what it's worth.

As a result I'm going to feel free to say "I Told You So" within the next six or eight weeks, but because I'm an Injuneer rather than a Meteorologist you will also excuse me if I'm wrong.

Here's the deal.

Unlike the Global Warming/Climate Change Zombies, my understanding of Thermodynamics also allows me to understand that Tropical Weather...specifically Hurricanes...is Nature's way of re-distributing heat energy from the Equator/Tropical Latitudes to the Polar regions of the Earth.

And this year's lack of any substantial Tropical activity--we're only up to five storms with Emily recently--means that the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean waters are SUPER WARM right now.

All it's going to take is some lower level low pressure to get the thunderstorms going and some favorable upper level jet stream winds which will not blow the tops off of the storms and I think that people living on the coastal areas everywhere from Texas to Virginia had better be on the lookout for one or more exciting Tropical Weather events in the near future.

And the "Cape Verde" season is getting fired up now on the Calendar so you have to look near (the Gulf/ Caribbean) and far (the shores of West Africa) for the source of bad weather developing.

I didn't read this anywhere so you can take it with a grain of salt...but I know what I know and I'd be buying stock in Plywood companies, Tarps, and portable Electric Generators right now if I were you.

Just sayin'...

Picture Me Stumbling Around In My Basement

With Sharp Tools In My Hands...


After lethargically getting mostly nothing done for the past half week, I had a burst of energy about 1 AM this morning and I've been torturing my dog and my girl and my close neighbors with the sounds of power tools and construction crap coming out of my basement.

The air compressor is the loudest thing I own and it insists on coming on every five or ten minutes depending on how much I'm using my nail guns, but I use a little battery powered trim saw and other portable battery powered tools most of the time at night.

The Remington 22 caliber power anchor nail gun might just be a deal breaker so I'm reserving putting down some new wooden pressure treated sections of base plates until after 7 AM when everyone is stirring.

In other news, I just want to go out and bitch slap most of the political idiots on TV these days...pundits and commentators and even FOX News anchors because they are so feckless if not outright liars.

Like I've said before here many times:


"When Words have no meaning, Meaning has no words..."

"The Wizard Of Uhhhs"

Today's Daily Address by President O'blaablaa...


Just in case you were dead or living under a rock or your Internet and Cable connection was down today, our so-called President was out standing in front of TV cameras this afternoon for a few minutes...

...again.

I swear this sucker has spent more time in front of a TV camera than Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush I, Clinton, and Bush II...all COMBINED.

In less than four years on the calendar.

Today he was taking the American People and the Standard and Poor's Financial rating service to task in his normal condescending, lecturing tone...telling everyone it once again wasn't his fault that he inherited the management of a country with a AAA rating from George Bush and...

when the rating was AAA it was true...

but now when the rating has gone down to AA+ because of his and our idiot government's mismanagement...

the rating is obviously wrong and possibly politically motivated.

And then John sKerry--that guy that served in Vietnam before he ran for President--had the audacity to come out and blame the Tea Party for the ratings downgrade.

OUR COUNTRY, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, IS BY AND LARGE AT THE MERCY OF A GIANT BUNCH OF FECKLESS, IGNORANT, OBTUSE AND QUITE DANGEROUS FOOLS.

And the people these same fools are electing to office are the most dangerous of all.

Please try not to be a fool yourself while I go get some work done now.

Staring At Stairs

Why Do I Do This To Myself?


Sorry for the light posting recently. It's not like I've been super busy working 12 hour days getting productive things done or something.

I've actually been doing some design work and writing some professional correspondence on and off since late last week, and every time I get fired up I burn myself out in short order because the stuff I'm doing requires such attention to detail that I just can't hold out for very long in the process.

Meanwhile, my current construction project in my basement is the renovation of the existing 48 year old staircase work.

When  we bought the house it had this simple ugly basement stair with open stringers and double 2x6 treads and 1x6 riser boards...all painted industrial grey...

with a vintage 1970's run of carpeting stapled down the middle of everything.

I'd take a picture and post it here but I'm too lazy.

Just picture an UGLY yet functional early 1960's basement staircase and you'll understand what I'm up against.

So now without spending $10,000 and tearing the whole thing down I'm trying to change things into looking like an old vintage formal staircase with a nice short section of ornamental handrail on the open side and a new carpet runner down the middle.

Just in case you have never built a staircase or more importantly...a stair handrail with Box Newels and turned Balusters...let me tell you there is more to it than meets the eye initially.

First of all you have the artistic architectural element of the design.

Then today you have the stupid freaking building code issues regarding Baluster spacing (4" max) and rail height.

And finally there is the structural issues of keeping my 240 pound ass from breaking the entire thing and crashing head first over the side into/onto the basement floor one evening thereby spilling my glass of fine bourbon or vodka.

With all of those considerations in mind, you can understand how one would not enter into such an effort without studying things for a while prior to cutting the first board, couldn't you?

So...here I am contemplating the situation.

To be more precise, I'm actually "Paralyzed with indecision" as my College Math professor Caine used to say.

We're only talking something less than 8 feet of handrail, Ladies and Gentlemen--and I've already been to Home Depot TWICE and been fiddling around with AutoCAD drawings for two days now.

Fourteen Balusters and and bunch of white pine lumber and not a single scrap of sawdust has been produced in this phase of the Wee Pub construction project to date.

So I know that you will excuse me now while I go and continue procrastinating a little while further by the Turbo Pup pool...

 

Doctor's Visit Success

Am I Ready To Put The Band Back Together Again?

I went to visit my surgeon at 8 AM yesterday morning. 

I was impressed he was awake because I barely was. 

Here's the stats if you care:

Weight = 10 pounds less than eight weeks ago

Blood Pressure = 120 something over 80 something (without any guns or airplanes or super good lookin' women in the room...any one of those causing things to rise slightly toward being off the chart)

If it weren't for turning 52 years old next month I'd be in perfect shape I guess.

In reality time has taken its toll on me mentally and physically, but still...

If you wanted or expected me to crap out and disappear off the Blogosphere for medical reasons here in the near future I guess you will just have to be disappointed.

I'm  quite pleased in spite of the ongoing "issues", and I say that another day above ground and residing in a vertical position is definitely better than the other options.

You know?

Things What Piss Me Off

Have You Got A Few Hours Weeks?


1.  Most of the 435 people in the United States Congress.

2.  My Lawn Mower and Weed Eater trying to use "E10" Ethanol Gasoline under Government Mandate.

3. Most of the 100 people in the United States Senate.

4. Anything involving "Climate Change."

5. Having to schedule my first Colonoschosphpyeee.........OK...whatever/however you spell it.

6. Liberals

7. Bleeding Heart Lilly livered tye died tree hugging Kumbaya singing patchuli stinking anti war hippies.

8. ...

9. ........

10. (You get my drift, I think.)

I'm BaaaaakkkkkkKKKKKK

Taking Time Off For A Little Blog Maintenance...


Well, after a week or so hiatus I decided to bring the Blog back online this morning.

In the process I've managed to spend a few hours doing some basic maintenance like backing up a complete archival copies of this Blog and my much neglected cooking blog The RedneckGourmet on to my hard drive and a SD Memory card.

I also did some other background HTML infrastructure stuff you won't notice at first and the work remains of fixing some things like broken/dead links and other crap you have to do when you run your own website.

I started to just delete the entire blog content while keeping the template and start over again this morning from scratch, but the free Blogger makes it impossible to do anything but delete the entire blog lock, stock, and barrel or go through the thing item by item and hit the "DELETE" button so most of my content is still here on line for now.

This thing has just gotten so huge over the past seven years and over 3,100 postings that it is hard to manage...but it is what it is.

That's right...I just realized that this whole crazy Blogging thing for me started while sitting in a hotel room in Chicago way back on August 10th, 2004!

THIS BLOG IS 7 YEARS OLD NEXT WEEK!!!

So any Waaaayyyyy...my head has been about to explode during this self imposed down time because I kept coming up with things I wanted to write about and being in a self imposed "BLOGGING MORATORIUM" I realized how much I really enjoy writing every day here.

In the process I found out that apparently there are a few people out there that enjoy stopping by to read and are almost as addicted to this place as I am.

I even had a couple of regular readers including some non-family members freak out and start trying to contact me and/or other Bloggers to see what happened to me.

Ed and Heather come to mind...and of course my mother...but believe me the resulting drama was unintentional.

I just had some things come up suddenly which required that I suspend operations here and there wasn't a good way to leave a message saying something like "TEMPORARY SERVICE INTERRUPTION..." or something similar.

So I guess I'll go now and do some reading...but I reserve the right to come back and rant a little if I find something worthy of my commentary.

Until then...Regards Y'all...

I'm Busy Making Sawdust

Listen To This Until I get Back...


Scott Johnson, one of my Blog Idols over at Powerlineblog, pointed out that yesterday was country/bluegrass artist Alison Krauss' 40th birthday.

Dang What a Pretty woman...

I've had the privilege of playing several different musical instruments on and off now for the past nearly 40 years, sometimes in front of a crowd of a few thousand people at one time, but I've never had the chance to be an ugly old white guy making music in a room with the likes of Miss Krauss.




More on Monday Morning...

I knew that song was familiar...it was written by Gordon Lightfoot who (or is it whom?) we just saw perform it this past spring in concert.

Miss Krauss and her back-up group "Union Station" will be returning here in the US from Europe touring places like Asheville, NC; Atlanta, GA; and even here at the Tennessee Theater in Knoxville in September.

Unfortunately we'll be laying around down in Florida at the beach that week of September and miss that show.

If you're nearby and have the cash I think it might be worth spending the money for an evening with this lovely lady.

Good music beats the heck out of almost anything including good food in my book any day...and if you can happen to get both at one time you've got yourself a good life....in my considered Redneck Opinion.

My Favorite New County Song

I Wish I could Sing Like That...

Sorry For The Light Posting

I've Been Out Doing Stuff Like THIS...




Heh...

Blaa Blaa Blaa

Blaa Blaa Blaaaaaaaaaa Blaa BLAA

"The Best Thing About The Future...

...Is That It Comes One Day At A Time."


Just in case you are interested, my Blog title and subtitle this morning is actually a saying attributed to President Abraham Lincoln.

I found it a few months ago somewhere on the Internet and today I keep it written on a Post-It-Note stuck on the edge of my computer monitor in my office so I can see it each day.

When things get crazy like they are around here right now after being out of town for a week, it helps me to remember to worry first about today and possibly tomorrow and then let the day after tomorrow and next week and next month and next year sort of take care of themselves, you know?

It's frustrating because I managed to leave town with things around here professionally and personally sort of under control...

I thought.

I was actually worrying about running out of something to do in the near future, then all of the sudden a bunch of old and new crap sprang up and now everyone wants to talk to me and get things from me this week...

all at the same time.

I spent six hours yesterday working on a proposal for some new addendum on some old work with a customer, and then when my eyes and fingers were worn out from sitting at the computer I went out and stumbled around in the garden.

You know--the garden which is out of control with weeds because I ran the sprinklers on a timer for thirty minutes twice a day and it also rained every day while we were gone?

We had a bunch of peppers and tomatoes which had ripened while we were out of town.

Regarding my Pepper harvest, I bought a new batch of small mason jars before we left the state and I'm planning on acting like Peter Piper and pickling a peck a half-peck a few jar of peppers this week.

I've got sweet and "mildly hot" banana peppers running out my ears right now and besides just sitting around munching on them and putting some slices on the occasional pizza I find pickling to be the best way to avoid them just laying around out of sight spoiling in the bottom drawer of the fridge.

And fortunately/unfortunately this year's Tomato crop is a faint image of last year's bumper crop. We probably gave away half of the Tomato's we grew last year because we had so many ripen at the same time.

This year we ended up buying a bunch of our plants which are growing today from the local Kroger to replace the first ones we planted. They've been slow to start and half of them are still limping along not producing fruit in a section of ground last year that had plants with vines ten feet long.

The original planting I did Easter weekend (which were pretty much beat to death by the April 27th hail storm) came from Home Depot and a local place called Mayo Gardening Center which has been here in West Knoxtown for over 100 years.

Those few plants left from the original crop are thriving and in the next couple of weeks I hope to scald the skins off of a few dozen and make some pizza sauce out of them.

Wait...(checking the clock)

OK...

It's 4:30 AM and I have to wander down to the Basement Shop and get ready for my Programmer to stop by later this morning to pound on another PLC project.

Until next time...

Regards Y'all...

The Turbo Pup's Headin' Home

...And We Get To Go Along For The Ride...


Early this morning we're re-loading the Turbo Pup's lockers and sea chests into the old Chrysler 300 and blasting back across north Alabama and eastern Tennessee toward home.

It's been a really good week even though we got a couple of days of rain here at the end of the week that kept us from going fishing.

Other than that, we pretty much did everything we had planned.

I'm ready to sleep in my own king sized bed after wrestling the Turbo Pup for space on borrowed full sized and queen sized beds.

Y'all have a LOVELY Sunday and I'll probably write again this evening...

Another Day...Another Ocean...

Rainy Gulf Of Mexico Visit


The weather across south Georgia and lower Alabama was a rainy soup yesterday as we reluctantly left our little island and made our nearly seven hour run from St. Simons to the Farm.

It's really hard to leave after only a few day long dose of what we consider to be paradise.

We got to visit with my buddy John Howton who owns Blackwater Grill ( http://www.blackwatergrill.com/index.shtml ) on the island, and then we hung out with Keenan Carter who owns the most popular Shag dance club (for old people) called Ziggy Mahoney's ( http://www.ziggymahoneys.com/ )

Turns out that Keenan possibly wants me to help him do some interior design work on his new club location...building a couple of seating areas which look like a BOAT.  He's been waiting for some local guy to give him a proposal and I volunteered to take a shot at the design and if he likes it he said he'd pay me to come back down and do the construction with a couple of other friends I know that are carpenters.

Nothing like getting paid to show up on an Island, you know?

So now later this morning we head south to my Cousin's home on Choctawhatchee Bay for a family reunion event which I've managed to miss for the past few years due to scheduling conflicts.

I'm going to see some folks I haven't seen in probably ten or fifteen years and it should be quite interesting...

IF IT DOESN'T RAIN ALL AFTERNOON.

Based on the RSVP response there will be nearly 50 people there and it could get a bit crowded in the kitchen and living room if we're all forced inside due to weather.

Now I have to go put together three giant Muffulatta sandwiches to take along with us to the Buffet.

Y'all have a LOVELY Saturday and try to stay cool and dry in this sweaty summer weather...

Everybody...Run For Your Life....

There's A Wild Dog On The Beach...

That's a dang fine little dog we got right there...don't you think?

Live From Our Little Island

Back In Paradise...


I'm pleased to report that after starting yesterday morning standing in a chemical plant in South Carolina sweating my brains out, that as of about 4:30 PM yesterday my soul was at one with the Universe again, having made the 4.6 mile drive across the series of bridges and spans of asphalt across the Marshes of Glynn from the mainland to St Simons Island, Georgia.

We arrived at our host's home just in time for a small Happy Hour gathering with a bunch of old and new friends, followed by dinner, and then the next thing we new it was 9 PM and everyone was heading home.

This morning we're heading over to the beach for a while with the Turbo Pup before the temperature reaches 100 degrees F, then the swimming pool here in the Condo complex will probably supply some relief from the heat in the afternoon.

Y'all have a LOVELY day now...I know that I will...

I Have "IOS"???

Say It Isn't So...




I'm on the road today...suffering from IOS?

I'm Issuing An "All Points Bulletin"

Hide Your Women & Small Children and Pets In And Around All Southeastern States...


Everybody living in Eastern Tennessee, southern South Carolina, South Georgia, the Florida Panhandle, and lower Alabama...

LISTEN UP.

At about 2 PM Eastern Standard Time our Dark Green Chrysler 300 is blasting out of the Turbo Pup compound here on the Banks of the Mighty Tennessee River heading almost DUE EAST.

By dinner time we'll be residing in the opulent design and residential spaces of my old college room mate's facilities over at Prince Engineering.

Then tomorrow morning after doing some revised software installation work we'll continue our journey south down I-26 and I-95 to St. Simons Island...moving over Friday to Southern Alabama, then a little time in the Ft. Walton area, and then finally back home on Sunday if things go as planned.

I almost get tired just thinking about the process, but right now I have to load the car and shut down two computers and lock doors and herd everybody into the car...

So I'll talk to y'all from the road when we get there.

Bye...

It's A Wonder I Have Any Hair Left

Somebody Call 911...


Just in case you haven't noticed, I've been trying recently to not spit on my computer monitor while writing here on the blog about crazy government crap that makes my ever greying, ever balding head spin... at orbital rotational velocity.

I've let a number of stories go by in just the last week, but then this morning I find myself wanting to ask you...

Do you see anything wrong with the house and yard shown here in this picture?

No, that's not my front yard, it belongs to a woman in Oak Park, Michigan who IS FACING FINES AND UP TO 93 DAYS IN JAIL because the city says they have a code that says "a front yard has to have suitable, live, plant material" but a vegetable garden planted in attractive raised beds is, according to a few neighbors and the "code inspector", not "suitable."

"The price of organic food is kind of through the roof," said Julie Bass.

So, why not grow your own? However, Bass' garden is a little unique because it's in her front yard.

"We thought it'd be really cool to do it so the neighbors could see. The kids love it. The kids from the neighborhood all come and help," she said.

...

It looks like this critical debate is headed for a jury trial and neither side is backing down.

"I could sell out and save my own self and just not have them bother me anymore, but then there's no telling what they're going to harass the next person about," Bass told us.

There's another pretrial scheduled for July 26. The next step could be a jury trial.

See, Ladies and Gentlemen...this is where we are today with our governments--local, state, and national. They are intent on micromanaging our asses off, and taxing us to pay for the proceedings.

"I think it's sad that the City of Oak Park that's already strapped for cash is paying a lot of money to have a prosecutor bothering us..."

This story reminds me of a story I read from The Brunswick News where a mentally unbalanced guy down on our little island on the Georgia Coast confronted a code inspector about a large plywood for sale sign he had erected in the front yard of his OWN HOME. 

The inspector called in the cops, and the cops called in the swat team, and at the end of the day the swat team snipers shot the man dead, in his own yard, over...

A PLYWOOD YARD SIGN WHICH DIDN'T MEET THE LOCAL GOVERNMENT "CODE."

Stuff like this is total BULLSHIT...Ladies and Gentlemen... and as my new header quotation by Thomas Jefferson printed at the top of this blog says:

 "Government big enough to supply everything you need is big enough to take everything you have...The course of history shows that as government grows, liberty decreases."



Put that in your pipe and smoke it this morning...

Having A Toe Tapping Good Time

My Head's Still Spinning...


Jeez...I really don't know what the heck I'm doing these days. 

OK, maybe I know what I'm doing but it's just that there is so much of it going on at one time.

I haven't had the time to take my mid-day nap but a couple of times in the past month, but yesterday I did manage to lay around and read a week's worth of newspapers and work on a couple of crossword puzzles for a couple of hours mid-day between projects.

I'm spending time doing a whole bunch of different stuff...still working on the final details on the doors on the new Carport Storage Closet which should be finished up today.

And yesterday I cut and put together a new 5-1/2" high foot rest addition and slid it up under the "Wee Pub's" ever evolving bar set up raising the height of the bar top from the old 36" level up to closer to the standard 42"-43".  I've still got to install wood panels and molding and trim over the old formica surfaces (the bar is a hand me down from our neighbor's kitchen remodling project) and then pour a epoxy resin finish on the bartop sometime in the future.

And meanwhile on the professional front I'm working on putting the final touches on writing the "Operator's Manual" for the revised PLC based Waste Water Storage System over in South Carolina. 

I'm pleased to report that the system passed the final inspection by the State and local  "officials" responsible for issuing the operational permits yesterday morning with flying colors.

Hurray...another professional milestone in my sordid storied so-called "Professional" career. 

Actually it really was sort of exciting because no one told the inspectors that this control system was designed and built and partially installed by a crazy guy who had never built anything like it before.

Sometimes I think that it helps to come at a project like that one not knowing how things are "usually done," because by thinking "outside the box" and taking a fresh look at the problem you can actually produce a unique and very eloquent solution to the challenges presented.

I think we ended up with a very simple yet powerful hardware and software solution to the operational tasks we were presented with, and next week when I deliver the final software revision I hope to pick up some follow on work adding new capabilities as they are already working on automating other aspects of their down stream waste processing operations.

And speaking of travel, we're in the final planning stages of a trip over the next two weeks which will take us over to the job site in South Carolina, then down I-95 for a few days visiting our former home on St. Simons Island, then across the Florida Panhandle to Mexico Beach and then Ft. Walton, then on to the family Farm in Lower Alabama to visit my dear Mother for most of a week before returning back here to the Turbo Pup Compound.

Little Missy the Turbo Pup's already packing her lockers and sea chests with toys and towels and bathing suits in anticipation of the adventure.

I've got to go now and bust my butt working on some more stupid tax forms and other paper shuffling crap, so y'all will have to excuse me for the moment...

Worn Totally Out

A Multitude Of Priorities And Minimum Energy...


This working all most of the day outside in the heat stuff is turning out to not be such a good idea.

While it has improved my sleep patterns to something near normal, it has also zapped me mentally at a time when I need to be thinking on my feet when I'm not standing outside making sawdust or using the pneumatic nailer.

Whose idea was all of this any way?

Oh yeah...I think I came up with this torture.

So any way, now I have to shift gears and sweep up the sawdust after ALMOST finishing my carport closet/locker and get back inside to do the stupid second quarter Corporate Tax crap and finish getting ready to be out of town for TWO weeks on a working "vacation."

Talk to y'all later I guess...

Thank GOD That Freaking Child Murder Trial Is Over With

Now We Can Get Back To Worrying About Something Else STUPID...

I was watching FOX news with my PLC Programmer yesterday afternoon when they announced the verdicts in the Casey Anthony murder trial.

Surprising, but not life changing for me personally.

Just like the missing Alabama Teen Natalie Holloway story down in Aruba, I figure that amid all of the media hoopla and noise is the underling truth that "Jordan van der Shit" (or what ever his name was...I'm too lazy to Google it right now) PROBABLY got away with one crime due to circumstances.

He might of not actually killed the girl, but he covered up her death and spent time in the Jail in Aruba and again in his home country in Europe--a country club environment compared to his jail circumstances now...

and then he continued to spiral out of control until he did the same thing again in another crappy third world country and he's stuck for life pooping in a 5 gallon bucket and eating stale bread and maggot infested corn mash.

OJ Simpson went down that same road...beating Murder charges only to continue to be the narcissistic asshole he was all the time mugging for publicity and the media spotlight until he finally got his stupid black ass locked up in Las Vegas.

And Today?

This silly little troubled bitch will be out of jail by Friday after the sentencing hearing on Thursday.

She'll probably get probation and community service in return for the time already served--two or three years.

And just like the other media bimbos she'll get her book deal and her Playboy centerfold shoot and possibly a reality show, and unless she changes her ways she will either end up back in jail for a probation violation as a minimum of found beat to death in a hotel room or dead on the side of the road a victim of drug overdose or DUI accident.

Most people like this can't take their good fortune of "dodging a bullet" and straighten up and get on with their lives, in my considered Redneck opinion.

I really do wish her well and hope that truth and justice has been well served in these verdicts--I really didn't give much of a damn about the story--but I also suspect that we haven't heard the last of Ms. Anthony and it won't be about her getting a Phd or winning a Nobel Prize.

I promise not to say "I told you so..." either

You've Probably Already Seen This Because It's Gone "Viral" on the Internet

But Just In Case You Haven't...

 Word has it a 15 year old girl put this video together. Take the time to watch the whole thing and see if it doesn't make your chest pound...




'Nuf Said I think

A NORMAL Night's Sleep?

I Must Be Getting Old...


A funny thing happened last night.

I laid my head on my pillows at about 7 PM.

The next thing I knew it was 4:30 AM.

I haven't gotten that quality of sleep but a few times in the past 5 years.

Right now I feel like going outside, climbing up on the roof, and building something out of rock and stone and sheet metal.

Fortunately I don't need anything built out of those materials right now...particularly located on my roof...and my inventory of rocks/stones consists of a few random samples about the size of a football which were laying around the back yard when we moved here a little over three years ago.

In addition to melting away about ten pounds sweating in the 95 degree heat in my carport working on my storage closet project yesterday, Pat spent a few hours helping our neighbor's family pull heirlooms and some pieces of furniture out of the fire damaged house and move other things into the end which was more or less intact except for the smoke damage.

We donated a bunch of boxes which I have a habit of hoarding in the basement because they couldn't buy any since it was Sunday before the 4th of July and every place selling boxes was closed.

Here's a look at the aftermath of the blaze:

The car there burnt to a crisp was a Honda Accord:

And the offending lawnmowers can be seen there on the right side of the garage also burned to a crisp. The weed eater was unidentifiable in the wreckage, so I suspect it or the push mower to be the source of the initial flame.

Just like my experience with a cheap crappy electrical power strip starting a fire which destroyed my house and most of it's contents years ago, this event just goes to show you how really complex the hazards are which we face in everyday life.

We use things like gasoline and propane and natural gas and even laundry and other household chemicals casually and with impunity every day, but lurking behind each of those substances and compounds is the potential for death and destruction.

We're conditioned these days to just assume that everything is OK and then sue the pants off of anyone which makes anything which causes us any harm or hardship after the fact.

That said, I hope everybody has a wonderful 4th of July, but at the same time I ask that you are CAREFUL with your Grills and Fireworks so I don't have to come down to the emergency room or watch you describe the ensuing explosion on the 6 PM evening news.

Regards Y'all...

Unexpected House Fire(Works)

Been There Myself And Got The Tee shirt...


So I was cruising along nicely yesterday morning happily making sawdust and torturing the Turbo Pup with her new box of 140 squeekies I had received to replace the innards in dead toys she is always chewing up.

Progress was slow but steady out in the carport and by just before noon I came back into the house to rest a few minutes from the 90 plus degree heat...promising myself that I would fire up the construction effort again (excuse the unintended pun...you'll understand when you finish reading this posting) at noon.  I had smelled smoke a few minutes earlier but just attributed it to someone burning lawn debris.

Unfortunately from about 12 PM on things didn't quite work out the way I had planned for Saturday, July 2nd, because when I walked back outside to start work I noticed that two houses down our street on the opposite side from our house black smoke was billowing out from under the partially open garage door.

I knew that our neighbor--a widow lady ten or fifteen years my senior--had just finished mowing her grass and running the weed eater, and apparently one of the two devices had mis-behaved after she put it away and she was in the house IN THE SHOWER.

I ran inside and called 911 while Pat ran next door to get our neighbor who knew the woman well and together they were able to bang on the storm door and storm windows and get her attention.

She came running outside clad in only a silk robe with no shoes, and then proceeded to run back into the building two times before we could physically restrain her and talk her into staying outside.

Here's a look at things about 15 minutes after I first noticed the fire:

Here's one of the brave fire fighters finally getting some water on things:

And here they've basically stopped things from progressing and are just beating the final hot spots down:

This whole experience strikes very close to home for me, because I had the unfortunate experience to have my house burn to the ground in April of 2001. Since I was not home at the time things were happening I had the good fortune to not having to sit there and watch the disaster unfold with a giant shower of electrical sparks when the breaker panel finally gave way or listen to the gas tanks on the lawn equipment, propane tanks, and the car gas tank and air conditioner system explode in the inferno.

Having already lived through the process however, I was amazed at the insight it gave me to help move everyone through the process. I'm not saying I'm some kind of hero or anything, I'm just saying that having dealt with the process from the inside personally gave me a punch list of things I could regurgitate in sequence/order for others to worry about from memory in the middle of the excitement.

I had to wander around trying to keep people off of the hot electrical wires--the next door neighbor insisted on trying to use his garden hose to defend his house and in the process was risking electrocution if his water stream came in contact with the current.

We basically spent the rest of the afternoon working with another dozen of our neighbors consoling the woman and helping her contact her family and the assholes at her so-called insurance company.

I use profanity--the word "assholes"--because that's the way I currently feel about the people and the corporation called Farm Bureau here in West Knoxville.

Do you know what the person which answered the telephone told us when we finally got through to them on Saturday before the Fourth of July?

"We can't possibly get anyone out there until TUESDAY because it's the WEEKEND and Monday's A HOLIDAY."

You might be "in good Hands with Allstate," but from my personal experience this year with a roof damaged by a hail storm, and now with this deal with a house fire which caused at least a loss of 50% of the property rendering it inhabitable, is that you are "shit out of luck with State Farm and Farm Bureau"...and that's a crying shame.

This woman has lived in the neighborhood for over thirty years, raised two sons, and burryed a Husband all the while paying premiums for her "Homeowner's Insurance" and just because her house burns at an "inconvenient" time they leave her sitting beside the road in a borrowed chair with no shoes.

Now here's the part of this story which could be considered a political commentary but which makes me proud that I was able to contribute and further, the way our neighbors and even some total strangers rallied around someone in need.

Don't get me wrong here...this lady was comfortable financially so she could afford to go rent a motel room and buy shoes and clothes, but she was distraught and losing her mind to the point of fainting and having to sit in an Ambulance for a half hour while they checked her out.

In the three hours following the start of the conflagration some total strangers from a nearby condo development brought her some shoes that fit and some pants and a top to wear.

When the smoke had proverbially cleared and the fire department had left the scene I was going to help her sons board up the broken windows and doors, but other people were tripping over me to help and I ended up managing the scene and watching other people swing hammers.



No FEMA.

No state or federal declaration of disaster areas.

No government supplied Trailers and Debit Cards and Free TV's and other crap paid for at taxpayer expense.

I know I hate what happened to our neighbor this Fourth of July Weekend, but at the same time it did my heart good to be able to participate in an exercise which demonstrated that the real, fundamental, core of the American Spirit is still alive and well here in West Knoxville in July of 2011.

I wish that we could all...using an unfortunate metaphor...take the time to "fan the flames" on the embers which are left laying around in places like my neighborhood on my street in other places around the country, and restore the fundamental ideals and self sufficiency on which our country was founded in the minds of the voters before the 2012 election takes us further down the road to socialism and destruction.

O K?

Working Holiday Weekend

Me And My Zanny Life...


Well, the good news is, after a hectic couple of weeks spent out of town on jobsites almost non-stop, that my brain has stopped rattling around in my skull and things have settled back down a good deal here at the Turbo Pup Compound on the banks of the Mighty Tennessee River.

The Turbo Pup isn't mad at me anymore for leaving town without her, and for some unknown reason I also actually managed to stay focused and work a "normal daytime" schedule on both Thursday and Friday--sort of.

I guess it was because I had to interact with a bunch of people that have real jobs and only show up at their offices between 8 AM and 5 PM.

Then I was sitting around in my office Friday morning contemplating things which needed doing here around the Turbo Pup's house, and since I am basically on vacation 365 days each year unless I accidentally trip over something in the professional "paid work" category of endeavors--I felt it only fair that while the rest of the country with "real jobs" took a long 4th of July holiday weekend vacation that I should be required to WORK this weekend...at least until Independence Day.
 
Thus in support of the festering Carport storage closet design project I've been fooling around with for the past year, and with the idea of putting the final touches on the "Wee Pub" in our basement, we ran over to Home Depot for an hour of picking various sizes and shapes of lumber out of bins and off of racks...

...and then we borrowed one of HD's "$19.99 for 75 Minutes" Rental Flat Bed Trucks and dragged a load of lumber back home by mid afternoon.

So now this morning I'm doing the final AutoCAD drawing tweeks and getting ready to start making sawdust ...

...hopefully by 7 AM...

That is, IF I can keep from getting distracted or hurt myself working in my basement shop on a new PLC system simulator panel I've designed. 

I have to use my saber saw to cut a precision square hole in a thermoplastic box, then drill a few dozen holes in the box for lights and switches, and then use a hot soldering iron to hook a bunch of wiring together.

Any one or all of those processes could, with my luck, cause a visit to the emergency room.

Then again, hopefully NOT.

That said, I hope everyone has a LOVELY Fourth of July Independence Day weekend, and besides just standing around drinking beer and burning stuff on the grill or baking your flesh at the beach I hope you take the time to pause and consider what this celebration really means...

...and what you can do personally to help restore some of the "Independence" and self sufficiency which the Government has slowly robbed from our population over the past 200 plus years.

In the very near future none of us are going to be either "Independent" or "Free" if we keep going down the path we are on. 

In my considered Redneck opinion, the government and the hoards of "moocher class" so-called citizens are going to end up legally owning at least half the lives of the "producer class" of patriots, and when that percentage finally exceeds 51% there will officially be a legislatively mandated system of "reverse slavery" in our country in which I will refuse to participate.

I'm going to "live free or die" as the New Hampshire State Motto says...

How about YOU?

Trains, Planes, And Automobiles

Did I Forget To Mention Buses?


Using all of the above pieces of machinery (not all at once of course), I managed to arrive home a little before 11 PM last night.

Needless to say that a day which started before 5 AM and included about 9 hours of travel causes me to be a little less than enthusiastic about writing this morning.

So with that truth in mind, I ask your forgiveness if I go do something else right now Ladies and Gentlemen.

Talk to Y'all later I'm sure...

Employment Opportunities In The "Hospitality" Business

Professional Assholes Need Not Apply?


So I was going to be nice and polite and civil this week and avoid bitching about this so-called "Bed and Breakfast" here in Havre de Grace, Maryland.

Then just now, after having to extend my trip yet again for an extra night, I went downstairs...wandered across the courtyard in my flip flops and a tee shirt and a golf cap looking for some juice and a bagel, and I proceeded to run into "HER" working in the dining area.

You know...HER?

The angry, chubby, peroxide blond goddess who took a personal interest in making my last visit here at the B&B a PURE HELL?

A couple of months ago this silly wench apparently got an attitude with me because I was...

1.--Staying in a Bed and Breakfast Inn.

2.--I wanted to actually USE THE ROOM I was renting on a 24 hour basis including nightly and didn't want housekeeping and maintenance people banging on the door and traipsing around accessing electrical panels and mop buckets.

3.--Then, in spite of knowing the "published hours" for the "Breakfast" included in the nightly price, when I didn't want the aforementioned "Breakfast," SHE got all pissed off when I didn't show up and didn't call and say I wasn't showing up.

Well E X C U S E MeeeeeeeeeeeeeEEEEEEEEEE.

So any way, as I said earlier I was going to shut up about this B&B Inn, but the angry Blond chick just pissed me off again when I went down to their lobby for some juice and a couple of pastries.

This building--whose name begins with the letter "V" and ends with the letters "andiver Inn"--is now officially on my list of squirrely places where the owners' promote spending the night and eating breakfast but don't have a clue how to pull the process off with anything close to grace and professionalism.

Here's the thing with me this morning.

The last time I stayed here they were in the process of renovating the property, and a bunch of unshaven electricians and carpet installers kept trying to catch me out of my room so they could rummage around moving stuff and gluing things down.

Since I had gotten food poisoning at the Baltimore airport I wanted to lay around and sleep and poop for a day and one half and that just didn't fit their schedule.

Needless to say that I was pissed off, but I got over it and decided to give the place a second chance on this visit.

But then GUESS WHAT HAPPENED THIS TIME?

They took my reservation, in a 35 room Inn which was not fully occupied at the time I decided to stay, then they put me in a room with the exit door to the outside opening into a courtyard...AND GET THIS...

after arriving at the Inn at 2:30 PM Sunday, at 2:55 PM when I walked outside to get a bucket of ice there was a Jewish Rabbi and about FIFTY people standing and sitting around my doorstep in the courtyard getting ready for a wedding or something.

I bolted over to the main house and got my ice and asked about the time on the event, and it was...

A WEDDING...

AT THREE PM, EASTERN STANDARD TIME.

Holly Crap...

No...

Holly SHIT...

So I literally ran back to my room and bolted through the door as the wedding party and guests looked at me during their final preparations, and when I had locked the door and closed the blinds I wondered to myself...

WHY THE F**K DID THE MORONS AT THE FRONT DESK FILL VIRTUALLY EVERY ROOM IN THESE THREE OLD HOUSES WITH THE "KOSHER JEWISH WEDDING PARTY", and leave my Protestant Methodist Redneck Ass living in a room at GROUND ZERO for the ceremony?

There are Answers which have no Questions out there in the world, but somehow I keep tripping over Questions and Situations which have no Answers.

Is it just me?

Why They Won't Let Me Have A Pool With A Diving Board

My Insurance Agent Called...And Said NO!

Wrestling With My Alter(ed) Ego

It's A "Love/Hate" Relationship...


As I understand things today, very few people actually "own their own business" i.e. work for themselves.

When you add everything up at the end of any given day, there are probably more people out there in the "unemployed" category than there are people in our population gainfully employed with a business enterprise in which they are the primary shareholder/owner.

The "Devil," as always, being in "the details" of business ownership--or "self-(un)employed" as I tend to call it these days--is the reality of having to actually produce the end product that you have sold and expect to be paid for at the end of the process.

I also agree whole heartetly with the old adage saying that "It's Lonely at the Top," because being in business for yourself...BY YOURSELF...means that when the "Company Owner" tells the "Corporate President" that the "Chief Programmer" and the "Senior Field Installation Technician" needs to get off of his ass and finish up the two festering current projects...

...in the case of a little company located in eastern Tennessee called Plastics Engineering Technologies, Inc. things can get a more than a little exciting implementing the "Company Owner's" mandate.

That would be because I CARRY ALL FOUR OF THOSE TITLES TODAY ON MY BUSINESS CARD.

So any way, today was what I would call "semi-successful" in as much as I got a version of my new program into the PLC and tested all of the basic input/output functions, but then the machine I am monitoring coughed up it's own PLC controller display and the plant maintenance guys had to manually run the machine for me on a hit or miss basis and that totally sucked.

When they initially demanded that I come up here this week to clean up some details, my only requirement was that they make the bottle production line available for an 8 to 12 hour period so I could tune the system performance.

As it stood after lunch yesterday...I MIGHT have had 30 minutes of total run time to measure and analyze.  Then I had to leave and come back to my B&B room to access the Internet and call my contract programmer.

What a total pain in the ass...

So now this morning I have to go back into the plant and screw around and attempt to get the final 2% of the bugs worked out of the system while at the same time the plant technicians are going to want to be replacing their broken crap they had delivered overnight by FedEX...and if I'm not finished by about 1:30 PM I'll miss my Amtrak connection to the airport and have to pay the stupid change fees and extra airfare.

That prospect could cost me five hundred bucks if I have to also stay another night here.

Dang it...

Then I also have to negotiate the details of who pays the extra cost and in the end it will probably be me because they have me over a barrel if I want to get any future new business...with no solid guarantee of same.

And when the stupid government comes to my house and asks for 35% of my hard earned money, and when people sit around blithering about not having a job and/or demanding that the government bring their accountants and guns and arrest powers to my house and take even more money from me next year and the year afterwards through the elimination of "tax cuts for the rich"...

...it really makes me think about whether running a business is really worth all of the hassle...

You know?

Increasing My Massive Carbon Footprint

Converting Oxygen To Carbon Dioxide Every Way Possible...


Well, I'm pleased to report that I managed to make it to Havre de Grace by around Noon yesterday. It wasn't exactly EASY.

Two airplanes...one train...and one old van Taxi supplied my method of conveyance.

Then I had some killer Crab Soup and a couple of drinks, and collapsed after a 16 hour day about 3 pm (yes...I was up since 11 PM Saturday night.

I managed to wander back down to the water front about 8:30 PM in time for some dinner, and now I've go to get things together and get over to the plant by the appointed 9 AM time.

Just like my last visit to this Bed and Breakfast, some interesting things happened here which I may write about later, but right now I have to get breakfast and head off into the real world for a few hours.

Y'all have a LOVELY day now...if you will...

Back In Knoxtown...But Headin' North

Pray For My Sanity...

I'm pleased to report that we had an uneventful trip back across the Smoky Mountians mid day Saturday.  I barely had time to catch my breath before having to unpack and then start re-loading my suitcases in anticipation of another business trip.

I absolutely hate having to fly into or drive through the corridor from Richmond, Virginia, up through Washington DC extending on through Baltimore and on up to Philadelphia and NY City.

This trip is a combination of flying and Amtrak.

I'm sorry if I offend anyone for saying it that way, but being from the rural south and having spent most of my life trying to get away from giant populations of people living like ants literally "on top" of each other in favor of smaller urban areas or better yet low population coastal areas....

hopefully you understand my problem this morning.

I'm taking a break from packing my computer bag and suitcase for a few minutes, but later this morning I'll head out on an airliner through Charlotte to the little Chesapeake Bay community of Havre de Grace.

Harve de Grace in and of itself is quite pleasant, but it's the territory and experiences and trials and tribulations existing in between here at the Turbo Pup Compound and there which presents the problem.

So any way, I have to go now and finish up my packing and possibly take a quick nap in anticipation of my 5:30 AM flight.

If you don't hear from me by Tuesday night...somebody send up a flare...

Heading Back Home

For A Short Time Only...


My brain is fried handling the current project resolutions and looking forward to leaving town again Sunday so I just don't have much original to write right now.

In my Internet reading I've seen some frequent reference to Conan O'Brien's recent graduation address at Dartmouth College earlier this month.

Now I have to admit that I'm not much of a fan of Conan's...having been a Johnny Carson devotee and later David Letterman before he lost his mind and became a insane partisan asshole.

And of course there is Jay Leno who is pretty cool but rarely gains my attention any more.

But any way, here's the YouTube version of Conan's address, and I have to say that I was surprised and impressed by how articulate and point on the man is.



If you don't have the time to view the entire 20 plus minutes, just watch the last half and see if you don't feel the same way.

Regards Y'all...

Lucille

"You Know How I Feel..."




Pretty funny...Huh?

Other than that, I'm getting ready to leave town for a while and don't have time to write.

Regards Y'all...

Mind Racing...Body Barely Able To Keep Up

Somebody Say "AMEN"...


OK...

I finally got a big check in the mail yesterday.

HurayyyyyyyyyYYYYYY!

After dancing around naked for about 12 seconds I put back on my clothes and ran to the bank, and then I managed to get off of my lumbering rear end and started making new business travel plans.

An hour later I had spent nearly a thousand dollars on renting and borrowing crap related to travel...

Now Thursday afternoon we're off to South Carolina so I can spend  a day in an Adhesives Plant on Friday installing new software and cleaning up some other technical details on one customer's job site.

Then after hanging out with my old College Buddy Rusty for dinner we'll get up and blast back across the Smokey Mountains through Asheville on Saturday.

Then after re-organizing my suitcase I'm getting up and getting on an airplane at FIVE FREAKING THIRTY AM Sunday morning to fly to Baltimore, then taking an Amtrak train to Aberdeen, Maryland, then hiring a taxi to take me on up to a Bed and Breakfast in Havre de Grace (the same one which pissed me off in April...I'm giving them a second chance) in preparation of spending another day and one half in a Plastics Bottle Plant updating another PLC system on Monday.

Then after smearing my face with paint and dancing around in a loincloth exorcizing the deamons from the equipment and smearing chicken blood all over myself and the hardware, hopefully sometime late Tuesday afternoon I will jump back on an Amtrak train, fly from Baltimore to LaGuardia, then LaGuardia to Washington Dulles International, the back here to the Turbo Pup Compound in West Knoxtown.

Pretty Darn Crazy Idea...Huh?

Well, I actually have a strategic reason for accepting the ridiculous schedule coming back home Tuesday.

I only have about 45 minutes between flights, and I know that it is almost an absolute certainty flying in that over crowded corridor of the northeast that if anyone anywhere so much as sneezes or farts...or better yet there is a single drop of rain or a wind blowing over 1/2 mile per hour...that the entire air travel network will melt down and YOU KNOW WHAT?

At the end of the day I'll end up spending Tuesday night somewhere in a Hotel at US Air's expense and I'll come back home sometime Wednesday little worse for the wear with a couple hundred dollars worth of "denied boarding" passes.

So now I have to collect my thoughts and get a brief nap before my programmer shows up here at 9 AM this morning to finish up a couple of nagging details on a program.

Y'all have a LOVELY balance of the week, and I'll write when I can and it might mean something or nothing depending on my circumstances and state of mine.

Regards Y'all...

Reality "Twenty-One" ... Me "Zero"

Losing The War While Winning A Few Battles...


Needless to say I am totally pissed off right now at the state of my financial affairs.

This after working my ass off over the past decade to recover from a "significant" setback when my old company was forced out of business when a couple of my customers decided to go bankrupt and take me with them down that legal/financial carnival ride to hell.

Now today once again I've built things back up to some reasonable level of solvency.

And I spend my days wheeling and dealing and selling things while at the same time paying all of our bills on time including three insurance companies which collect a substantial amount of cash each month with the idea of protecting what ever money we manage to earn and keep in the bank at the end of the year.

I'm sure many of my readers do the same thing day in and day out, but check this crap out.

I have not one but TWO outstanding claims with my insurance companies...one with the health insurance idiots and one with the homeowners insurance bastards, and now going on two/three months later I don't seem to be able to convince them that they should pay a SINGLE FREAKING DIME toward the claims processes.

And then there is my current major PLC System Customer over in the Carolina's which is going on a half month late making final payment on their system installed in May...after being a half month late on their first payment.

What really pisses me off is how the average Redneck Consumer like me is held to one commercial standard...pay your bills on time else get reported to the "Credit Bureaus"...while companies like I deal with on a day in and day out basis basically laugh in your face and take their time paying after you have financed and delivered your product to them.

It's not like I can show up with a set of wire cutters and a Phillips head screwdriver and repossess my Control system and sensors because there's just not much of a demand for that kind of thing down the street here in Knoxville or over in your neighborhood.

And yet they make you crawl around and cut your price to the bare bones when you write your proposal and then the silly bitches in "Accounts Payable" just shrug their shoulders and write you a check whenever they finally get around to it in spite of the "payment terms" on the Contract.

And these shameless liars running my second health insurance company in four years? 

All they have done is BOUNCE EVERY SINGLE BILLING FROM MY HOSPITAL VISIT IN APRIL and now the "service providers" i.e. the doctors and radiologists are coming after me demanding payment while the bean counters in the offices of the insurance company screw around apologizing and making excuses.

All I know is that when you see the news with some story about some guy walking into an office out there in middle 'Merica with a giant weapon proceeding to cause mayhem and carnage...

sometimes--while I don't agree with him--I somehow understand how he might have suffered a breakdown and got to the point where it seemed like the only thing left to do.

You want "Health Care Reform?"  Don't give me "Government Insurance", just get the "Government" to help me make the so called "Insurance Companies" honestly honor their agreements with their customers.
Is it just me?

OK...

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

Knowledge Is Power?

No...But A Good "Miss-Information" Campaign does Go A Long Way...

 First of all Ladies and Gentlemen, honestly I'm afraid that I may end up yelling and cursing and piss a bunch of idiots off in the next fifteen to fifty minutes as a result of my writing this morning, so let's get a couple of things straight here right from the "get-go" as I get my keyboard fired up and running on all 12 cylinders.

First and foremost...you have to remember that by and large--although hosted by Google's "Blogger" system--this little space of the Internet you are looking at right here and now is MINE, so if at any moment during our short flight this evening you feel your panties or boxer shorts starting to bunch up and irritate your butt crack and your asshole I heartily offer you the the opportunity to get the f**k out...i.e. leave this web page!

O-Tay?

Next, if you are in the category of readers which stop by every now and then and are an under edu-macated government-schooled liberal, tie died, patchouli stinking, Kumbaya singing, dope-smoking, tree hugging, Owl Gore worshiping man-made global warming alarmist...

you probably need to drop a Xanex or Quaalude and check back by here later after the dust settles because what I'm getting ready to write and point out is going to cause you to leak urine and possibly feces.

So now does everyone have their seat belts tightened and their tray tables and seat backs moved into the upright and locked positions?

If not, just hit the "BACK" Browser button or click or the web page tab "X" close button and let you and let your little narrow mind evaporate away into the ether of the Universe.

O-key Do-key?

Good.

Now, with a properly prepared audience in hand...as to this evening's subject...GLOBAL WARMING...or the lack there of... based on a theory generally know as Anthropogenic Global Warming...

I want to once again say THIS about THAT.

'TAINT NO SUCH FREAKING THING

You know?

And in the defense of my own long time well researched opinion, I offer this latest Dissertation by Dr. William M. Gray...formerly of "The Weather Channel" and a well respected "Weather Scientist"...not just some quack that went to Devry or some stupid on-line "University" and started running his mouth suddenly after getting a PhD.

Here's a little sample of his latest commentary:

Many of us AMS members believe that the modest global warming we have observed is of natural origin and due to multi-decadal and multi-century changes in the globe’s deep ocean circulation resulting from salinity variations. These changes are not associated with CO2 increases. Most of the GCM modelers have little experience in practical meteorology. They do not realize that the strongly chaotic nature of the atmosphere-ocean climate system does not allow for skillful initial value numerical climate prediction. The GCM simulations are badly flawed in at least two fundamental ways:


1.Their upper tropospheric water vapor feedback loop is grossly wrong. They assume that increases in atmospheric CO2 will cause large upper-tropospheric water vapor increases which are very unrealistic. Most of their model warming follows from these invalid water vapor assumptions. Their handlings of rainfall processes are quite inadequate.


2.They lack an understanding and treatment of the fundamental role of the deep ocean circulation (i.e. Meridional Overturning Circulation – MOC) and how the changing ocean circulation (driven by salinity variations) can bring about wind, rainfall, and surface temperature changes independent of radiation and greenhouse gas changes. These ocean processes are not properly incorporated in their models. They assume the physics of global warming is entirely a product of radiation changes and radiation feedback processes. They neglect variations in global evaporation which is more related to surface wind speed and ocean minus surface and air temperature differences. These are major deficiencies.

As I've said many times before here on this blog, I have over the past ten years spent literally hundreds of hours reading and researching the concept of "Global Warming" in general and the "man-made" aspect of it specifically, and if you separate the piles of cow dung laden tripe and lilly livered alarmist public consumption fodder from the real papers and information which deal with SCIENCE instead of politics and hysteria...
 
...you know what?
 
WE JUST DON'T REALLY KNOW WHAT THE F**K IS GOING ON BECAUSE WE DON'T HAVE ENOUGH LONG TERM ACCURATE DATA TO DO ANYTHING OTHER THAN TAKE A SNAPSHOT OF THE PLANET OVER LESS THAN 200 YEARS OF TIME.,
 
Everything else is locked up in tree trunks in the form of growth ring samples or discovered from looking at "Ice Cores" and "sedimentary rock strata" from past glaciers or found in books written on Papyrus or chiseled in stone.
 
But yet the California Nasty Pelosi Liberals and the RINO Rockefeller Republicans up in Jersey and NY State all want to VOTE for a Government which will put a giant freaking TAX on everything I can use to make a fire and light a candle and cook a can of spam or drive across country at a speed faster than 3 MPH
 
While at the same time they are busy passing zoning laws making it illegal for me to have a garden or raise some chickens and pigs and cows or park my Howitzer Cannon and Sherman Tank in my back yard. (The 50 Cal anti-arcraft battery is already outlawed under earlier legislation.)
 
You almost have to absolutely be a MORON if you believe anything you read about this subject...POSITIVE OR NEGATIVE... and thus I say that running around passing laws and expanding the powers of the EPA and by default the anti-capitalistic Socialistic Fascistic tree hugging loons which have nothing better to do all day than run around crying "the sky is falling" and "the Earth is warming" is a GIANT ECONOMIC KILLER OF THE SYSTEM OF GOVERNMENT WE ORIGINALLY HAD HERE IN THE GOOD OLD US OF A. 
 
AhhhhhhHHHHHHHHHHHHHH....CLUNK
 
(that would be the sound of me falling over out of my chair.)
 
Now with all of the above said, get off of YOUR ass and go do something worth doing based on some verifiable facts today.
 
I know I'm going to.

Call Your Daddy

I Know That I Wish I Could...


Happy Fathers Day to all of you real men out there which are good Fathers.

I never had the pleasure and opportunity of being  a child's Daddy in life, and when it's all said and done I just might be a lessor man as a result...

...but life is what life is...and I made a choice/decision about not having my own family years ago which I have followed through with on the calendar and have to live with this time each year.

Any way...call your Daddy while you still can...

"Pajama Jeans" Work Well With My "Snuggie"

Everybody Meet "Osama Bin Virgil"...


So I'm working my way through another Saturday night tonight watching Food network and other "late night TV programming" and all of the ignorant mindless commercials are about to drive me crazy.

First they have the "Snuggy" cheep Fleece/Flanel Rug/Comfortor/Blanket commercial all winter, and now they have the "Pajama Jeans" commerials selling denim patterened spandex to fat chix and other people which are prone to watching late night tele-info-commercials.

So I did a little Googling and a little Photo Shop work and just now I came up with what I--your lovely and talented blog writer--thought I would look like if I bought all of the stuff advertized on late night Cable:

Here I are...

(Somebody feel free to beat me within inches of my life and put me out of my misery if you will...)