Not At All A Bad Thing...IF It's True
I have to admit that I'm not on the ball right now with my Internet news reading, but one of my blog Idols down in Miami, Val over at Babalu Blog, has it on pretty good authority that Fidel Castro has finally decided to take the eternal dirt nap.
Of course the lamestream media is hesitant to report on the potential demise of the originator of the greatest government run health care system in the entire world. Even FOX news hasn't mentioned it (the rumor) in the past half hour.
I was born about the time this useless bastard took the reins down in Cuba, and for all of my life I've looked at the map and flown over the country in an airliner wishing that I could visit one day.
If it's true, I'll be on one of the first planes heading down there later this winter looking for some good cigars and the opportunity to visit the place that Hemingway called home for part of his life.
Keep your fingers crossed.
Saturday, August 25, 2007
Friday, August 24, 2007
24 Hours To Pizza Night
Simple Pleasures For Simple Minds...
Needless to say that I've had a less than optimal week here, with most everyone that owes me money telling me why they haven't paid me or why they won't pay me what they owe me.
Then there is the problem with the ones that I owe clamoring for more that I actually owe. Even the water company has to get a presidential pardon issued to explain the six thousand gallons of water that escaped when the thieves ran off with my rental property's copper water lines a few weeks ago.
Finally, there is some other personal crap that's going on that isn't worth mentioning or writing about that won't end the world, but all the same it has managed to get in the way of a a good deal of productive time and caused my normal bitching and complaining attitude to sink into an un-presentable funk.
Thank GOD it's Friday and tomorrow night is PIZZA NIGHT...
I'm going out for dinner, then I think that I'll come home and start bitching again.
Get ready for a good rant or two...
Needless to say that I've had a less than optimal week here, with most everyone that owes me money telling me why they haven't paid me or why they won't pay me what they owe me.
Then there is the problem with the ones that I owe clamoring for more that I actually owe. Even the water company has to get a presidential pardon issued to explain the six thousand gallons of water that escaped when the thieves ran off with my rental property's copper water lines a few weeks ago.
Finally, there is some other personal crap that's going on that isn't worth mentioning or writing about that won't end the world, but all the same it has managed to get in the way of a a good deal of productive time and caused my normal bitching and complaining attitude to sink into an un-presentable funk.
Thank GOD it's Friday and tomorrow night is PIZZA NIGHT...
I'm going out for dinner, then I think that I'll come home and start bitching again.
Get ready for a good rant or two...
Thursday, August 23, 2007
If You Can't Say Nuthin' Nice (Or At least Intelligent)
Don't Say Nuthin' At All...
Sorry, but I'm taking my own advice right now.
Later, Y'all
Sorry, but I'm taking my own advice right now.
Later, Y'all
Tuesday, August 21, 2007
PVC Pyramids
Plastic & Spandex Is Faster Than Stone...
I've spent part of the past week finishing up my design for the "Pyramid's of Egypt" prop for the Glynn Academy Marching Band's halftime show this season.
Thankfully, by both attrition and executive decision, the scope of my responsibilities was reduced by at least two thirds.
By last week the only thing left in the plan was a giant fabric covered Pyramid that would be constructed in three parts and moved onto and off of the field at each game.
The original 10' diagonal size produced a wimpy looking diminutive structure, so last weekend the band director gave me the go ahead to increase things by 50%.
Right now I'm stumbling around my driveway with 24 ten foot lengths of 1-1/2" PVC and a couple dozen elbows and tees trying to assemble my Egyptian vision in time for band practice at 3 PM this afternoon.
Then I have to beat a couple of delinquent female band parents into compliance in order to get 30 yards of 60" wide tan spandex sewn together in time for the August 31 opening game.
I wish I had a few thousand slaves to help me, but the Gatorade costs and toilet facilities are probably beyond my means.
Photos of King Virgil III's Tomb available shortly...
I've spent part of the past week finishing up my design for the "Pyramid's of Egypt" prop for the Glynn Academy Marching Band's halftime show this season.
Thankfully, by both attrition and executive decision, the scope of my responsibilities was reduced by at least two thirds.
By last week the only thing left in the plan was a giant fabric covered Pyramid that would be constructed in three parts and moved onto and off of the field at each game.
The original 10' diagonal size produced a wimpy looking diminutive structure, so last weekend the band director gave me the go ahead to increase things by 50%.
Right now I'm stumbling around my driveway with 24 ten foot lengths of 1-1/2" PVC and a couple dozen elbows and tees trying to assemble my Egyptian vision in time for band practice at 3 PM this afternoon.
Then I have to beat a couple of delinquent female band parents into compliance in order to get 30 yards of 60" wide tan spandex sewn together in time for the August 31 opening game.
I wish I had a few thousand slaves to help me, but the Gatorade costs and toilet facilities are probably beyond my means.
Photos of King Virgil III's Tomb available shortly...
Monday, August 20, 2007
Lethargy Setting In
Somebody Poke Me With A Cattle Prod...
Today I did something I haven't done in a few years.
I cleaned out and organized my new garage.
I know that there are some of you out there which are green with envy, and some want me to stop by and do the same to their garage.
Fat Chance...
When I thought about it, I was surprised to realize how long it had been. I've been living in condos and on boats for most of the past 13 years, so the best I've usually had is a carport to shield my four wheeled conveyances from the elements.
Now once again I have a room with a giant overhead door full of washers, dryers, freezers, air compressors, boxes full of tools and construction supplies, and the obligatory garage "stuff."
Everything but an actual Automobile is in my garage as I write, and that is because I don't think that there is room because of all of the other stuff we have crammed in there.
That's OK...I feel so totally suburban and complete now.
Any way...I admit that my writing has been totally sucking the past few months with virtually nothing happening here on the blogs (other than keeping some sort of public diary,) and both books are at a total standstill.
I tripped over a two inch thick draft copy of the cookbook while unpacking during the move and it made me feel guilty. It has also forced me to start posting a few new recipes over at The Redneck Gourmet.
I guess that I have a hard time partitioning up my days to include physical labor like working on the duplex and then have the mental stamina to write intelligent or glib or humorous rants like I have done some of the time in the past.
Maybe I should just go back to being a virtual homeless unemployed slob and drag my computer around with me to places like Starbucks and other Internet hotspots and see if I can get some quality writing done. Even McDonalds has free Internet here on our little Island.
I had a publisher interested in the cookbook back a couple of years ago, but he's probably died or started selling real estate while waiting for me to submit a couple of chapters of edited manuscript.
He also told me that I should plan on getting some fantastic pictures of my food because pictures sell cookbooks, especially "coffee table" type cookbooks that people that never actually cook will drop $25 on at Barns & Noble. The only problem is that my cookbook is written with slobby middle aged divorced men in mind--guys that would starve to death eating Spam and Cheetos and would never get a second date with a decent woman if they tried to cook on their first date.
Instead of hiring a professional food photographer, I got a nice expensive camera and began a two year diversion fooling around with photography and entering photo contests rather than writing about cooking.
Now I've realized that taking publication quality pictures of food found sitting on your kitchen cabinet, dining room table, or on your stovetop with crappy fluorescent lighting or a single 100 watt bulb is next to impossible.
It was still a fun diversion in the end, and I do have some lovely pictures of my dog and my foot and some sunrises here on the Georgia Coast.
Over the years I've written some pretty serious stuff here on this blog, particularly back just before and right after the 2004 election. I like to think of myself as something other than a partisan hack, although I tend to vote with the Republicans most of the time because the Libertarians can't seem to field any serious candidates on the national political stage.
Writing about politics tends to either bore people to death else make them to try to find out where you live and come to your house to smear you with animal blood or stomp around on your car hood.
Thus I try to pick my topics carefully and then do a good deal of research before I place the first finger on the keyboard.
Still, I always love to pick on the "professional media", and a commenter who calls hinself/herself "Sommelier" and who is apparently a long term reader called me out this past week about something I wrote without knowing the real detailed facts.
Here's what they said:
I don't know where you get your statistics on media professionals, but I'm certain they are not even remotely accurate. You continually bash the "professional" media, yet you previously stated a "personal" dream that entailed working at a newspaper as a "professional" journalist. Sorry, pal, all your ranting appears nothing more than sour grapes.
And here's the passage I wrote that my reader is referencing from last Friday's posting:
As usual, the "professional" media is freaking out about the usual stupid things.
Things like hurricanes, the stock market, the housing bubble, and trapped coal miners.
I have to admit that I'm having a good deal of trouble lifting a finger and pointing it toward a keyboard to even offer an intelligent rebuttal. What can I say anyway?
The media is populated largely by the bottom 25% of each class of high school graduates and college freshmen that ended up in Journalism by default after they flunked out of the Music department because they couldn't play an instrument or carry a tune in a bucket singing.
On second thought, that assessment was probably unfair AND inaccurate, but in my defense it was written somewhat tongue in cheek if you followed the entire context of what I was saying.
Still, I offer my apology to anyone who is a journalist, is in Journalism school, or whose child or other family member or friend is a professional in the industry.
(Now I'm gonna probably piss Sommelier off again...)
In my defense, I just can't help myself sometimes because the product produced by the professional media SUCKS so badly so much of the time.
If Columbia University--a place recognized as having one of the best journalism programs in the country; a place that only accepts about 9% of their freshman applicants; a place that has graduates living and working in the highest positions of the print and "legacy" media--can't give the public graduates that produce a quality, unbiased, fact based product telling us what is ACTUALLY happening out there in the world rather than disguising EDITORIAL COMMENTARY published as substantial portions of each and every news story, then I feel obligated to take shots at them whenever I can.
By the way, if you went to the local Junior College to get your Journalism classes then I expect the same standards for your product also.
Facts, FACTS, FACTS.
Today I did something I haven't done in a few years.
I cleaned out and organized my new garage.
I know that there are some of you out there which are green with envy, and some want me to stop by and do the same to their garage.
Fat Chance...
When I thought about it, I was surprised to realize how long it had been. I've been living in condos and on boats for most of the past 13 years, so the best I've usually had is a carport to shield my four wheeled conveyances from the elements.
Now once again I have a room with a giant overhead door full of washers, dryers, freezers, air compressors, boxes full of tools and construction supplies, and the obligatory garage "stuff."
Everything but an actual Automobile is in my garage as I write, and that is because I don't think that there is room because of all of the other stuff we have crammed in there.
That's OK...I feel so totally suburban and complete now.
Any way...I admit that my writing has been totally sucking the past few months with virtually nothing happening here on the blogs (other than keeping some sort of public diary,) and both books are at a total standstill.
I tripped over a two inch thick draft copy of the cookbook while unpacking during the move and it made me feel guilty. It has also forced me to start posting a few new recipes over at The Redneck Gourmet.
I guess that I have a hard time partitioning up my days to include physical labor like working on the duplex and then have the mental stamina to write intelligent or glib or humorous rants like I have done some of the time in the past.
Maybe I should just go back to being a virtual homeless unemployed slob and drag my computer around with me to places like Starbucks and other Internet hotspots and see if I can get some quality writing done. Even McDonalds has free Internet here on our little Island.
I had a publisher interested in the cookbook back a couple of years ago, but he's probably died or started selling real estate while waiting for me to submit a couple of chapters of edited manuscript.
He also told me that I should plan on getting some fantastic pictures of my food because pictures sell cookbooks, especially "coffee table" type cookbooks that people that never actually cook will drop $25 on at Barns & Noble. The only problem is that my cookbook is written with slobby middle aged divorced men in mind--guys that would starve to death eating Spam and Cheetos and would never get a second date with a decent woman if they tried to cook on their first date.
Instead of hiring a professional food photographer, I got a nice expensive camera and began a two year diversion fooling around with photography and entering photo contests rather than writing about cooking.
Now I've realized that taking publication quality pictures of food found sitting on your kitchen cabinet, dining room table, or on your stovetop with crappy fluorescent lighting or a single 100 watt bulb is next to impossible.
It was still a fun diversion in the end, and I do have some lovely pictures of my dog and my foot and some sunrises here on the Georgia Coast.
Over the years I've written some pretty serious stuff here on this blog, particularly back just before and right after the 2004 election. I like to think of myself as something other than a partisan hack, although I tend to vote with the Republicans most of the time because the Libertarians can't seem to field any serious candidates on the national political stage.
Writing about politics tends to either bore people to death else make them to try to find out where you live and come to your house to smear you with animal blood or stomp around on your car hood.
Thus I try to pick my topics carefully and then do a good deal of research before I place the first finger on the keyboard.
Still, I always love to pick on the "professional media", and a commenter who calls hinself/herself "Sommelier" and who is apparently a long term reader called me out this past week about something I wrote without knowing the real detailed facts.
Here's what they said:
I don't know where you get your statistics on media professionals, but I'm certain they are not even remotely accurate. You continually bash the "professional" media, yet you previously stated a "personal" dream that entailed working at a newspaper as a "professional" journalist. Sorry, pal, all your ranting appears nothing more than sour grapes.
And here's the passage I wrote that my reader is referencing from last Friday's posting:
As usual, the "professional" media is freaking out about the usual stupid things.
Things like hurricanes, the stock market, the housing bubble, and trapped coal miners.
I have to admit that I'm having a good deal of trouble lifting a finger and pointing it toward a keyboard to even offer an intelligent rebuttal. What can I say anyway?
The media is populated largely by the bottom 25% of each class of high school graduates and college freshmen that ended up in Journalism by default after they flunked out of the Music department because they couldn't play an instrument or carry a tune in a bucket singing.
On second thought, that assessment was probably unfair AND inaccurate, but in my defense it was written somewhat tongue in cheek if you followed the entire context of what I was saying.
Still, I offer my apology to anyone who is a journalist, is in Journalism school, or whose child or other family member or friend is a professional in the industry.
(Now I'm gonna probably piss Sommelier off again...)
In my defense, I just can't help myself sometimes because the product produced by the professional media SUCKS so badly so much of the time.
If Columbia University--a place recognized as having one of the best journalism programs in the country; a place that only accepts about 9% of their freshman applicants; a place that has graduates living and working in the highest positions of the print and "legacy" media--can't give the public graduates that produce a quality, unbiased, fact based product telling us what is ACTUALLY happening out there in the world rather than disguising EDITORIAL COMMENTARY published as substantial portions of each and every news story, then I feel obligated to take shots at them whenever I can.
By the way, if you went to the local Junior College to get your Journalism classes then I expect the same standards for your product also.
Facts, FACTS, FACTS.
Who What When Where.
Let me decide the rest for myself.
And yes, I have said that I aspire to write as a published writer, possibly in the news field, and NO I should not resort to generalities and "cheep shots" else I'm no better than those I criticize.
But...
I'll close by offering this analogy.
If the men and women working in the field of Engineering (something that I do know a great deal about and have a four year college education in) were to as a group consciously elect to perform their jobs in the same manner and with the same accuracy as many (but not all) of those working as journalists, we'd have Delta airliners falling out of the sky and Ocean Liners sinking to the bottom of the Seas on a daily basis.
Further, I'd never drive a new car across a concrete bridge ever again in my life and in fact, I'd be afraid to put a piece of bread in a toaster or Nuke a bag of Microwave popcorn for fear of having the house burn down or what little brains I have left in my head zapped with radiation.
How's that for an accurate generalization?
Sunday, August 19, 2007
Pizza Revelation
A Saturday Night Tradition
After doing virtually nothing all day today (as opposed to getting virtually nothing done), I fired up the new oven and worked on my thin crust pizza recipe. The solution is coming along nicely, and I feel good enough about things to publish it for public consumption.
Here's what you need to make a nice 15" thin crust pizza...
For the starter dough:
1/4 cup of 110 degree F water
1 pack of yeast
3/4 cup of flour
For the main dough:
3/4 cup of room temperature water
1-1/2 cup flour
1 teaspoon salt
pinch of sugar
Toppings (add or subtract as you like, but you really should try this combo unless something on the list gives you hives or makes your spleen rupture or something...):
olive oil
1 pound whole milk mozzarella cheese, cut into little blobs and evenly distributed
Enough pepperoni slices to cover the affected area
Four (4) strips of bacon, fried crisp and crumbled
1 small chicken breast half--pan seared to about 140 degrees F
A couple of hand fulls of baby spinach leaves
Fresh sliced mushrooms
3/4 cup of diced colored bell peppers (I used orange, Red, AND Yellow)
1/2 cup sliced red onion
1 small can of sliced black olives
6 oz of crumbled feta cheese (put it right on top of everything when you're finished)
First things first.
Put your yeast in the warm water, stir it up well, and let is sit for about fifteen minutes.
Once you have a bunch of hungry yeast breasties, howling for something to eat, dump your yeast/water mixture into your 3/4 cup of starter flour, stir it up to form a blob of dough, cover it with a clean dishtowel, and walk away and ignore it while it rises for a half hour or so.
Make yourself a nice glass of iced tea or open a beer and watch TV while you wait.
Now here's the difference between thick and thin crust...
You DON'T do a secondary rise on the dough. It's just that simple.
You dump your 3/4 cup of water into your starter dough to dilute, stir it all up, then pour it into a medium mixing bowl with your flour, salt, and sugar mixture.
Stir, stir, stir.
Do you have a stiff, yet slightly wet dough mixture yet?
No?
Then add a LITTLE flour or water until you get it right, then dump it all out onto a floured surface and start working it over with your hands.
Preheat your oven to 500 degrees F.
Now the idea is to incorporate some more flour into the slightly wet dough, ending up with extra on the outside surfaces as you begin to flatten it out to form a crust. After two or three minutes of kneading, break out your rolling pin and roll things out to a nice uniform disk about 18" in diameter and 1/4" to 3/8" thick (I use a 15" pizza stone to cook on.)
When you're finished rolling, pick up your crust and carefully place it on your pan or stone (dusted well with flour), then fold and pinch the extra 1-1/2" of dough over around the edges to form a rim on the crust.
Next spoon out some olive oil (a table spoon or two) onto the middle of your masterpiece and smear it around the area inside the rim, then add your cheese, meat, and veggies, toss the whole thing into the oven for 17 to 20 minutes (depending on your oven), pull it out and let it cool a little, cut it into slices, then grab yourself a napkin and EAT.
I swear that there is a chemical reaction in my recipe that has the same effect of a sleeping pill, because I'm usually asleep within thirty minutes after eating my deluxe homemade pizza, regardless of the crust thickness.
My little Missy, the Turbo Pup, likes her pizza crust pretty well also, and tonight she ate her fill sitting there along with the rest of the family.
Life's good here on our little island...hope that the same is true for you.
After doing virtually nothing all day today (as opposed to getting virtually nothing done), I fired up the new oven and worked on my thin crust pizza recipe. The solution is coming along nicely, and I feel good enough about things to publish it for public consumption.
Here's what you need to make a nice 15" thin crust pizza...
For the starter dough:
1/4 cup of 110 degree F water
1 pack of yeast
3/4 cup of flour
For the main dough:
3/4 cup of room temperature water
1-1/2 cup flour
1 teaspoon salt
pinch of sugar
Toppings (add or subtract as you like, but you really should try this combo unless something on the list gives you hives or makes your spleen rupture or something...):
olive oil
1 pound whole milk mozzarella cheese, cut into little blobs and evenly distributed
Enough pepperoni slices to cover the affected area
Four (4) strips of bacon, fried crisp and crumbled
1 small chicken breast half--pan seared to about 140 degrees F
A couple of hand fulls of baby spinach leaves
Fresh sliced mushrooms
3/4 cup of diced colored bell peppers (I used orange, Red, AND Yellow)
1/2 cup sliced red onion
1 small can of sliced black olives
6 oz of crumbled feta cheese (put it right on top of everything when you're finished)
First things first.
Put your yeast in the warm water, stir it up well, and let is sit for about fifteen minutes.
Once you have a bunch of hungry yeast breasties, howling for something to eat, dump your yeast/water mixture into your 3/4 cup of starter flour, stir it up to form a blob of dough, cover it with a clean dishtowel, and walk away and ignore it while it rises for a half hour or so.
Make yourself a nice glass of iced tea or open a beer and watch TV while you wait.
Now here's the difference between thick and thin crust...
You DON'T do a secondary rise on the dough. It's just that simple.
You dump your 3/4 cup of water into your starter dough to dilute, stir it all up, then pour it into a medium mixing bowl with your flour, salt, and sugar mixture.
Stir, stir, stir.
Do you have a stiff, yet slightly wet dough mixture yet?
No?
Then add a LITTLE flour or water until you get it right, then dump it all out onto a floured surface and start working it over with your hands.
Preheat your oven to 500 degrees F.
Now the idea is to incorporate some more flour into the slightly wet dough, ending up with extra on the outside surfaces as you begin to flatten it out to form a crust. After two or three minutes of kneading, break out your rolling pin and roll things out to a nice uniform disk about 18" in diameter and 1/4" to 3/8" thick (I use a 15" pizza stone to cook on.)
When you're finished rolling, pick up your crust and carefully place it on your pan or stone (dusted well with flour), then fold and pinch the extra 1-1/2" of dough over around the edges to form a rim on the crust.
Next spoon out some olive oil (a table spoon or two) onto the middle of your masterpiece and smear it around the area inside the rim, then add your cheese, meat, and veggies, toss the whole thing into the oven for 17 to 20 minutes (depending on your oven), pull it out and let it cool a little, cut it into slices, then grab yourself a napkin and EAT.
I swear that there is a chemical reaction in my recipe that has the same effect of a sleeping pill, because I'm usually asleep within thirty minutes after eating my deluxe homemade pizza, regardless of the crust thickness.
My little Missy, the Turbo Pup, likes her pizza crust pretty well also, and tonight she ate her fill sitting there along with the rest of the family.
Life's good here on our little island...hope that the same is true for you.
Friday, August 17, 2007
Roof On...Dumpster Gone
Life Returning To Abnormal
Well, our roofers left here on Wednesday a little after noon, and a truck finally showed up to remove the dumpster from it's spot blocking my garage door about 3:30 PM yesterday, thus ending our torture in a mercifully short period of time.
The way things started, I was actually expecting at least a week long saga, but I was obviously wrong.
What kills me is how they managed to convert what should have been a one day job into three days of upset for the people residing in the property they were working on.
I guess that if you were born in a barn or spend your adult life living in a barn (with all due respect to Jesus) like most of these guys apparently did or do, there is a certain degree of satisfaction to be gained by interrupting the lives of "all them rich people" that live "out on that there island."
You might have to live here in Glynn county to catch the meaning and humor in that statement...
but any way...
As usual, the "professional" media is freaking out about the usual stupid things.
Things like hurricanes, the stock market, the housing bubble, and trapped coal miners.
I have to admit that I'm having a good deal of trouble lifting a finger and pointing it toward a keyboard to even offer an intelligent rebuttal. What can I say anyway?
The media is populated largely by the bottom 25% of each class of high school graduates and college freshmen that ended up in Journalism by default after they flunked out of the Music department because they couldn't play an instrument or carry a tune in a bucket singing.
I, on the other hand, continue to increase my mental powers and now spend my time contemplating issues far beyond the interest of the average human. In fact, I've discovered something akin to "Viagra" for the mind that is not only safe, legal, and readily available, but unfortunately occasionally causes swelling of my head that lasts longer than four hours.
When that happens, the blood supply to my brain causes me to look something like this:
I've got to go now and work on solving the world's problems...
Well, our roofers left here on Wednesday a little after noon, and a truck finally showed up to remove the dumpster from it's spot blocking my garage door about 3:30 PM yesterday, thus ending our torture in a mercifully short period of time.
The way things started, I was actually expecting at least a week long saga, but I was obviously wrong.
What kills me is how they managed to convert what should have been a one day job into three days of upset for the people residing in the property they were working on.
I guess that if you were born in a barn or spend your adult life living in a barn (with all due respect to Jesus) like most of these guys apparently did or do, there is a certain degree of satisfaction to be gained by interrupting the lives of "all them rich people" that live "out on that there island."
You might have to live here in Glynn county to catch the meaning and humor in that statement...
but any way...
As usual, the "professional" media is freaking out about the usual stupid things.
Things like hurricanes, the stock market, the housing bubble, and trapped coal miners.
I have to admit that I'm having a good deal of trouble lifting a finger and pointing it toward a keyboard to even offer an intelligent rebuttal. What can I say anyway?
The media is populated largely by the bottom 25% of each class of high school graduates and college freshmen that ended up in Journalism by default after they flunked out of the Music department because they couldn't play an instrument or carry a tune in a bucket singing.
I, on the other hand, continue to increase my mental powers and now spend my time contemplating issues far beyond the interest of the average human. In fact, I've discovered something akin to "Viagra" for the mind that is not only safe, legal, and readily available, but unfortunately occasionally causes swelling of my head that lasts longer than four hours.
When that happens, the blood supply to my brain causes me to look something like this:
I've got to go now and work on solving the world's problems...
Thursday, August 16, 2007
Wednesday, August 15, 2007
New Home Office
Information Overload
Have I ever mentioned that I've conducted my business from my home for the past 17 years?
Of course some of that time "my business" was "no business."
Some people call that condition being "retired."
Involuntarily or otherwise.
Over the past few years my property was downsized by choice and circumstance, until finally my home office consisted of a place on the sofa and coffee table. Since Pat also did her 8 to 5 work from home for a "real company", we always emphasized her office needs and gave her a a nice spot in a room by herself.
Not so here in our new Island Casa Grande.
It's super sized, and I've commandeered the formal living room as my own personal empire. Herein I'm in the process of establishing a computer workstation area, a drafting drawing area, and a painting/artwork area in addition to using the walls as a gallery to display my current and past work.
Perhaps the coolest part of the setup is my ability to connect the stupid old Comcast cable signal to my HP notebook and watch TV in a window while I work and blog.
Right now, in addition to watching Fox News, I have AutoCAD open in one window, a couple of browser windows open on the Internet, and I have the local Talk Radio Show playing on the Radio in the background.
I have a problem sometimes remembering which key to hit on the keyboard, but that's not in itself a bad thing...I guess.
Have I ever mentioned that I've conducted my business from my home for the past 17 years?
Of course some of that time "my business" was "no business."
Some people call that condition being "retired."
Involuntarily or otherwise.
Over the past few years my property was downsized by choice and circumstance, until finally my home office consisted of a place on the sofa and coffee table. Since Pat also did her 8 to 5 work from home for a "real company", we always emphasized her office needs and gave her a a nice spot in a room by herself.
Not so here in our new Island Casa Grande.
It's super sized, and I've commandeered the formal living room as my own personal empire. Herein I'm in the process of establishing a computer workstation area, a drafting drawing area, and a painting/artwork area in addition to using the walls as a gallery to display my current and past work.
Perhaps the coolest part of the setup is my ability to connect the stupid old Comcast cable signal to my HP notebook and watch TV in a window while I work and blog.
Right now, in addition to watching Fox News, I have AutoCAD open in one window, a couple of browser windows open on the Internet, and I have the local Talk Radio Show playing on the Radio in the background.
I have a problem sometimes remembering which key to hit on the keyboard, but that's not in itself a bad thing...I guess.
Living In A Construction Zone
OK, don't start commenting and E-mailing me because your daddy or your brother or your husband is a contractor, because I--your lovely and talented blogger--
Like I said...MOST Contractors SUCK.
That's right, in any given trade, specialty or area of operation, there is generally more work than there are competent, conscientious companies and more importantly--PEOPLE--to do said work, and so most construction, remodeling, and repair jobs are a serious study in insanity and human ineptitude and owner/customer patience.
Take our present home re roofing project, for example.
We found out on Saturday that our landlord had taken my advice and gotten some quotes on doing a new roof here at our new island home. Instead of getting the work done BEFORE we moved in, the late departure of the previous tenant and various other factors like procrastination caused her to wait until NOW to execute the project.
They were supposed to start work Monday at 9 AM.
Hurray...a new roof...we ran around in circles celebrating and made the necessary preparations like moving all of the plants into the garage and sun porch, moving my Suburban around the corner to a retail parking lot, and battening down the hatches and scaring off all the animals and small children in anticipation.
Then Monday came and went...and at the end of the day we still had the same old roof and the plants were undisturbed.
NO CONTRACTOR.
Yesterday morning at 7:10 AM we were rousted out of bed by the doorbell and guess what?
Our Contractor had arrived, with five pickup trucks, a flatbed truck, a dumpster, and a fork lift.
"Sir...can you please move your VEhickle?"
I complied, and for the next four hours they banged and pounded and scraped and generally raised a dust storm.
Then about 11 AM they left, presumably to go to lunch.
We haven't seen any sign of them since, except that a guy came back a couple of times to steal a piece of aluminum flashing out of a box laying on the driveway.
You guessed it.
Our CONTRACTOR JUST CAME BY TO MAKE AN APPEARANCE.
Our contractor is doing two or more jobs at once with the same crew.
Our contractor is going to force us to endure what should be a one and one half day job for two or more days, and not clean up when he suddenly leaves the job site each day, and make us enjoy having a ten cubic yard dumpster sitting two feet in front of our garage door.
I spent a half hour cursing and sweeping the back patio, front sidewalk, and driveway off to ensure that our contractor didn't injure a human foot, dog toe, or car tire with his hastily created debris.
I have just one question.
Why didn't this rocket scientist just admit to the owner and/or the residents that he was running behind, and start the job when he could finish it in a single mobilization?
THAT would have been too easy.
THAT would have made sense.
THAT would have been considerate to the people that have to live on the construction site.
But NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. can't do THAT.
Damn Contractors...
.
Tuesday, August 14, 2007
Mean Dean Cometh
While FEMA Makes Me Wait...
Sorry about the light posting (OK, no posting yesterday), but between the new house, my consulting work, and planning for the construction of a giant Pyramid and my much neglected duplex project I'm a little past busy.
For those of you paying attention, the annual Perseid Meteor Shower was pretty much a bust down here on our little island because of the weather.
Sunday night, the peak, was obscured by remnant cloudiness from evening thunderstorms, and excursions out to the beach on my bike Friday night and last night met with conditions obscured by the evening "salt haze" that sometimes blows in off the ocean in warm conditions.
Oh well, at least I tried.
Meanwhile, all you have to do is turn on the TV to see what could possibly be our next weather event down here...soon to be Hurricane Dean:
Of course there is a good deal of leeway as to it's final track, but if you live anywhere between Puerto Rico and NY City you better be paying close attention starting about Friday of this week.
We still have our fingers crossed here as we have 17 days left in our waiting period for our new flood insurance to take effect on the new house.
Time to go get some more CAD work done...
Sorry about the light posting (OK, no posting yesterday), but between the new house, my consulting work, and planning for the construction of a giant Pyramid and my much neglected duplex project I'm a little past busy.
For those of you paying attention, the annual Perseid Meteor Shower was pretty much a bust down here on our little island because of the weather.
Sunday night, the peak, was obscured by remnant cloudiness from evening thunderstorms, and excursions out to the beach on my bike Friday night and last night met with conditions obscured by the evening "salt haze" that sometimes blows in off the ocean in warm conditions.
Oh well, at least I tried.
Meanwhile, all you have to do is turn on the TV to see what could possibly be our next weather event down here...soon to be Hurricane Dean:
Of course there is a good deal of leeway as to it's final track, but if you live anywhere between Puerto Rico and NY City you better be paying close attention starting about Friday of this week.
We still have our fingers crossed here as we have 17 days left in our waiting period for our new flood insurance to take effect on the new house.
Time to go get some more CAD work done...
Sunday, August 12, 2007
Does Anyone But Me Not Care What The People In Iowa Think?
Yawn...
Just in case you haven't heard, they had something called a "Straw Pole" out in Iowa yesterday. I don't know if they were actually handing out the straws or if you had to think ahead and bring your own to the proceedings.
At least someone was smart enough to hold something resembling an election on Saturday so that the productive people that hold regular jobs could participate.
Of course it might not make much difference in Iowa because the brutal winters generally keep the homeless population to somewhere down around three or four people most years.
Homeless people favor warm climates like Atlanta, or even San Francisco because all of the Yuppies and old hippies have grown up feeling guilty and will actually pay you to be homeless out there if you will stay off of their street and not pee on the front door of their office building.
Any way, a bunch of people out in Iowa drove their Massey Fergusons to town yesterday and told America what they thought about the current slate of Presidential wannabes that are willing to put a "R" beside their name in November of 2008.
What is it about the state of Massachusetts that makes people want to vote for men from up there in that region of the country?
Looking at what we've gotten out of Ted Kennedy and John sKerry over the past thirty or so years, it would seem that the American people would run far far away from anyone from the Beantown State, yet here is former MA Governor Mitt Romney taking the lead by 14 more straws than anyone else.
Perhaps he could open his own Soda Fountain using his winnings as inventory?
Or maybe it's the baseball reference in his name...I don't know.
Any way, I just sit here and shrug my shoulders at the whole proceedings because it always amazes me that Iowa is such a big deal every four years. Most of the political elite on both sides of the isle generally consider people from Iowa right up there with all of us hicks from Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi when it comes to intellectual savvy.
In my experience, when you own your "Sunday-Go-To-Meeting-Pickup" and your "every-day-working pickup truck" (and possibly a third one called your huntin' & fishin' pickup truck,) people in Massachusetts generally don't listen to much of what you have to say about things like Calculus and Social Security reform.
So what's the big deal about Iowa then?
Pandering?
Charity?
Just outright butt kissing, maybe?
I don't know, but now I hear that South Carolina is jockeying with the other states like the know-it-all-Yankees up in New Hampshire to be the second state to have a primary next year.
God help us.
The political elites and the left, along with all of the late night talk show hosts, will have an absolute field day with this situation if the trend continues.
Why don't we all just shut up and wait at least until the Democratic and Republican conventions next summer to start getting all worked up and hyperventilating, or maybe until November 2008 and let the chips fall where they may?
Or maybe they could line everybody up based on SAT scores or the state's average college GPA and have primaries...or better yet--play a football or basketball game to determine the candidates?
In my opinion, most of the people on the list these days are completely unqualified to run a Waffle House or Pizza Hut Restaurant, let alone become the leader of the most powerful country in the world.
Who are we fooling here anyway?
I remember that down in south Alabama we used to have this colorful fellow named Shorty Price that ran for virtually every office at the state level in Alabama in the 1960's and early 1970's.
Just in case you haven't heard, they had something called a "Straw Pole" out in Iowa yesterday. I don't know if they were actually handing out the straws or if you had to think ahead and bring your own to the proceedings.
At least someone was smart enough to hold something resembling an election on Saturday so that the productive people that hold regular jobs could participate.
Of course it might not make much difference in Iowa because the brutal winters generally keep the homeless population to somewhere down around three or four people most years.
Homeless people favor warm climates like Atlanta, or even San Francisco because all of the Yuppies and old hippies have grown up feeling guilty and will actually pay you to be homeless out there if you will stay off of their street and not pee on the front door of their office building.
Any way, a bunch of people out in Iowa drove their Massey Fergusons to town yesterday and told America what they thought about the current slate of Presidential wannabes that are willing to put a "R" beside their name in November of 2008.
What is it about the state of Massachusetts that makes people want to vote for men from up there in that region of the country?
Looking at what we've gotten out of Ted Kennedy and John sKerry over the past thirty or so years, it would seem that the American people would run far far away from anyone from the Beantown State, yet here is former MA Governor Mitt Romney taking the lead by 14 more straws than anyone else.
Perhaps he could open his own Soda Fountain using his winnings as inventory?
Or maybe it's the baseball reference in his name...I don't know.
Any way, I just sit here and shrug my shoulders at the whole proceedings because it always amazes me that Iowa is such a big deal every four years. Most of the political elite on both sides of the isle generally consider people from Iowa right up there with all of us hicks from Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi when it comes to intellectual savvy.
In my experience, when you own your "Sunday-Go-To-Meeting-Pickup" and your "every-day-working pickup truck" (and possibly a third one called your huntin' & fishin' pickup truck,) people in Massachusetts generally don't listen to much of what you have to say about things like Calculus and Social Security reform.
So what's the big deal about Iowa then?
Pandering?
Charity?
Just outright butt kissing, maybe?
I don't know, but now I hear that South Carolina is jockeying with the other states like the know-it-all-Yankees up in New Hampshire to be the second state to have a primary next year.
God help us.
The political elites and the left, along with all of the late night talk show hosts, will have an absolute field day with this situation if the trend continues.
Why don't we all just shut up and wait at least until the Democratic and Republican conventions next summer to start getting all worked up and hyperventilating, or maybe until November 2008 and let the chips fall where they may?
Or maybe they could line everybody up based on SAT scores or the state's average college GPA and have primaries...or better yet--play a football or basketball game to determine the candidates?
In my opinion, most of the people on the list these days are completely unqualified to run a Waffle House or Pizza Hut Restaurant, let alone become the leader of the most powerful country in the world.
Who are we fooling here anyway?
I remember that down in south Alabama we used to have this colorful fellow named Shorty Price that ran for virtually every office at the state level in Alabama in the 1960's and early 1970's.
Shorty was George Wallace's roommate back in the 1940's at the University of Alabama, but somewhere along the way they had a falling out and Shorty dogged George for the rest of his political career.
I say that if we're going to have to be forced to decide from a list making a choice between a bunch of unqualified Clowns, I wish there were a few more serious clowns that actually know they're clowns like Shorty Price on the ballot so I could make a conscientious selection when I finally go to the poll to waste my vote when election day finally gets here.
John Edwards and John sKerry are shallow images of old Shorty Price, in my opinion.
Shorty...where are you when we all need you for some comic relief today?
.
Saturday, August 11, 2007
You Can Take The Dog Out Of The Yard...
But You Can't Take The Yard Out Of The Dog
Here's my little Missy, the Turbo Pup...freshly bathed and wallowing in the dirt on the patio...
.
Here's my little Missy, the Turbo Pup...freshly bathed and wallowing in the dirt on the patio...
.
Friday, August 10, 2007
Comcast Bites
New Blog Effort In The Blogging New year...
Hey guys, take the time to visit my new blog, Comcast Bites. I'm gonna bitch and complain and also report the facts in our efforts to kill the Comcast Internet bait and evil switch business.
They just basically told Pat "tough shisky", because she called to activate the service and she has no proof that the representative told her she could have the $19.95 monthly new customer rate rather than their normal rate of nearly $50 which I could have gotten for moving the account in my name.
Screw Comcast, I have at least an hour each day to moderate this new forum of disgruntled and disenfranchised customers.
Got a complaint about Comcast...I want to hear about it.
See you there...
.
Hey guys, take the time to visit my new blog, Comcast Bites. I'm gonna bitch and complain and also report the facts in our efforts to kill the Comcast Internet bait and evil switch business.
They just basically told Pat "tough shisky", because she called to activate the service and she has no proof that the representative told her she could have the $19.95 monthly new customer rate rather than their normal rate of nearly $50 which I could have gotten for moving the account in my name.
Screw Comcast, I have at least an hour each day to moderate this new forum of disgruntled and disenfranchised customers.
Got a complaint about Comcast...I want to hear about it.
See you there...
.
Three Years Of Blogging
Has It Really Been That Long?
Well folks, 1418 Posting later, and what began as a series of essays delivered to my friends as E-mails in July and August of 2004 is now what you see here today.
I didn't really understand what I was getting into at the time, but I did know that the other side of my brain--the half which I had ignored as a math/science based engineering nerd for forty plus years--was looking for an outlet and words were trying to burst forth out of my finger tips onto my computer keyboard.
On August 10th, 2004 I decided to begin assaulting the world with my rantings, and 34 thousand hits later, here we all are today.
I admit that I do look at the hit counter, but I don't really write to get hits or readers...what I have to say is what I have to say at any given moment of any given day. I've also thus far avoided making you look at advertisement and ads on my site. It's tough passing up 39 cents a day in easy income, but I think that I can make it without making you endure commercialism here in my little part of the Internet.
I'd like to think that some of what I have to say is original and thought provoking, even if the only thoughts I provoke are of you getting onto an airplane and flying to the Georgia coast to beat me to death for my inane stupidity.
Regardless of what you think, thanks for stopping by here once in a while to see what's going on.
You can expect to see some changes and improvements in the blog format later this year, and with the new and improved kitchen facilities here in the new house you'll probably see the resurrection of frequent postings over on my cooking blog, The Redneck Gourmet.
Until next time...
Regards Y'all
.
Well folks, 1418 Posting later, and what began as a series of essays delivered to my friends as E-mails in July and August of 2004 is now what you see here today.
I didn't really understand what I was getting into at the time, but I did know that the other side of my brain--the half which I had ignored as a math/science based engineering nerd for forty plus years--was looking for an outlet and words were trying to burst forth out of my finger tips onto my computer keyboard.
On August 10th, 2004 I decided to begin assaulting the world with my rantings, and 34 thousand hits later, here we all are today.
I admit that I do look at the hit counter, but I don't really write to get hits or readers...what I have to say is what I have to say at any given moment of any given day. I've also thus far avoided making you look at advertisement and ads on my site. It's tough passing up 39 cents a day in easy income, but I think that I can make it without making you endure commercialism here in my little part of the Internet.
I'd like to think that some of what I have to say is original and thought provoking, even if the only thoughts I provoke are of you getting onto an airplane and flying to the Georgia coast to beat me to death for my inane stupidity.
Regardless of what you think, thanks for stopping by here once in a while to see what's going on.
You can expect to see some changes and improvements in the blog format later this year, and with the new and improved kitchen facilities here in the new house you'll probably see the resurrection of frequent postings over on my cooking blog, The Redneck Gourmet.
Until next time...
Regards Y'all
.
Still Beating A Dead Horse
The City Of Brunswick Sanitation Department Sucks...
This morning, being well rested and somewhat settled into our new home here on our little island, I feel like turning my attention back across the Torras Causeway to the mainland, taking a few shots at the government of the City of Brunswick, Georgia in the process.
Don't get me wrong here--I don't dislike the City's government as a whole.
In fact, I think that some parts of it are actually pretty effective. Take my friend Mayor Brian Thompson for instance.
Brian's a real capable, likeable, stand up kind of guy. Further, Brian's willing to stand up and take endless abuse and and allow total strangers to make infinite demands on his time and energy, all for the sum of about $13,000 per year in salary.
How he makes it all work I'll never know.
And, for those of you that are thinking that I'm overstating my relationship with Mayor Thompson, let me say that I've actually been to his house for a party last Christmas, I have his personal cellphone number in my phone, and his wife Heather and I have worked on a number of theatrical & art projects and shows together over the past couple of years beginning long before his election to his present office.
With that and $0.75, I can probably get a cup of coffee at the local Waffle House, but connections are "connections" and I'll take mine where I can get them.
But I digress...
The current problem I have with the City of Brunswick government is with the "Sanitation" Department. That would be the "Departmente de Lempio" for my Spanish speaking readers (if I remember things accurately from my Junior year of High School.)
Any way, when I bought a rental duplex and a couple of vacant lots in the "New Town" section of Brunswick back in 2004, I immediately realized that there was a "little littering" problem in that section of town.
Maybe instead of calling it a "little littering" problem, I should call it a "big littering" problem.
Thinking a bit further, maybe it would be more accurate to say that we have a DUMPING PROBLEM in much of downtown Brunswick, Georgia.
But wait...
The City of By-God Brunswick, Georgia, USA forces everyone that has City water service to also pay for City supplied SANITATION SERVICE...for the ridiculously low price of about $8 per month.
Seems like a good deal to me.
But wait...
IF everyone has government mandated and government supplied "Sanitation Service," why is there litter strewn up and down the street and on every street corner?
Further, why is there wholesale dumping of giant piles of junk curbside, on a continuous basis, on my property and my neighbors' properties over the past 3-1/2 years?
Seriously, if you own property in downtown Brunswick and you don't police it on a monthly if not weekly (or even daily) basis, you will come back to find a giant pile of things like yard debris, sofas and other furniture, children's clothing, and virtually everything else imaginable laying on yourgrass weeds dirt, curb, and even part of the street.
One time I even had most of an upright piano laying on the edge of the alley behind my duplex.
Right now I have no less that two sofas and another bunch of crap that has clearly been dumped by someone, but not by average citizens that the City of Brunswick has forced to pay for "Sanitation Services." It's not the kind of stuff that people generate from cleaning out their kitchen and bathroom trash cans.
Could people be driving over from Alabama or up from Florida to dispose of their refuse?
Possibly, but probably not.
What I have laying around on my property is stuff abandonded by tenants which have been evicted from or otherwise move out of local rental properties and that is either dumped by the landlord else hauled and illegally disposed of by the landlord's representative(s.)
What we have going on is not people emptying their cans full of paper napkins, chicken bones and watermellon rines onto my curb (although I have had a bunch of bananas and most of a watermellon dumped out there once).
What we have going on is people that should know better using the streets and alleys of Brunswick as a landfill, thereby avoiding paying the local dump fees or tipping fees for bulk items that won't fit in their curbside city supplied trashcan.
I'd like to ask the "Officials" of the City of By-God Brunswick, Georgia, USA one question:
"Why not employ the current logic and just add a couple hundred dollars of dump fees onto everybodies' water bill or property tax bill and see if any better results can be attained--because your current program obviously isn't working?"
I'm waiting for an answer...
[que the sounds of crickets chirping here...]
Any way, you'd probably like to know what the "Sanitation Department" of the City of By-God Brunswick, Georgia actually does have to say about all of these goings on?
Well, first of all, in mid-May they said that they would come out to look at my current pile of trash and quote me a fee to remove it. This after they've already cleaned up similar piles of junk and debris in the past for free and often without me having to pound my fist or even lift a finger to dial the telephone.
After several missed appointments and games of playing "phone tag", now that I'm interested in developing and selling the property, the city has started taking a coy, hardball attitude with me for some unknown reason.
I've already paid a private contractor $300 to have the vacant land cleaned up and the litter removed, but I refuse to pay the additional $700 that my contractor wants to charge me to remove TWO DUMP TRUCK LOADS of crap that is not mine and was not placed on my property with my consent.
Finally in late May I got the head of the "Sanitation Department" to meet me on the property and agree to remove the debris at no cost...BUT, I'd have to wait until the new fiscal year began in June so they could put in a work order and have the money in the City's budget.
Looking at the calendar, it's now August 10th and tomorrow I expect to go over and yet again view the lovely festering, 30' x 20' x 5' high pile of crap that continues to grow as I write (it was still there two Monday's ago.)
I've called the "sanitation department" office several times a day several days each week for the past three weeks and my voicemail messages have as yet gone unanswered. Apparently the "sanitation department" can't afford a secretary or administrative assistant either.
Regardless of the final outcome, I'd like to point out that this is a perfect example of government ineffectiveness and ineptitude. Further, in this case it is also an example of the government attempting to supply a necessary and increasingly expensive service at an artificially low price.
Ten years ago in Atlanta I paid over $30 a month for trash service that didn't include the removal of yard debris, and today the City of Brunswick is trying to provide mandatory trash service for $8.00 per month.
In this case, apparently the low cost of the "sanitation service" is intended to balm the wounds of those that feel put upon by the mandate that the "sanitation service fee" be included in the water bill.
Glynn County does a little better with their $200+ fee included in the annual tax bill, but again the level of customer service verges on abysmal because the real cost of the service is apparently greater than the fee being charged.
The difference is that the county passes the costs directly to the property owner, where the City charges the end user--the tenant or resident--directly. (Too bad that the county politicians don't realize that the end users still end up paying their fee because the landlord just raises the rent to offset the increase in the tax bill anyway.)
What both the City of By-God Brunswick, Georgia and the government of Glynn County officials don't realize is that by meddling in the free market--by forcing everyone to buy "sanitation services" from the government or a government anointed contractor, they are actually preventing the free market and associated competition from competently providing a needed service at a fair cost.
Notice that I didn't say low cost or cheep cost?
That's because everything can't be cheep, other than the quality of the service that you get when you attempt to get something for nothing.
This morning, being well rested and somewhat settled into our new home here on our little island, I feel like turning my attention back across the Torras Causeway to the mainland, taking a few shots at the government of the City of Brunswick, Georgia in the process.
Don't get me wrong here--I don't dislike the City's government as a whole.
In fact, I think that some parts of it are actually pretty effective. Take my friend Mayor Brian Thompson for instance.
Brian's a real capable, likeable, stand up kind of guy. Further, Brian's willing to stand up and take endless abuse and and allow total strangers to make infinite demands on his time and energy, all for the sum of about $13,000 per year in salary.
How he makes it all work I'll never know.
And, for those of you that are thinking that I'm overstating my relationship with Mayor Thompson, let me say that I've actually been to his house for a party last Christmas, I have his personal cellphone number in my phone, and his wife Heather and I have worked on a number of theatrical & art projects and shows together over the past couple of years beginning long before his election to his present office.
With that and $0.75, I can probably get a cup of coffee at the local Waffle House, but connections are "connections" and I'll take mine where I can get them.
But I digress...
The current problem I have with the City of Brunswick government is with the "Sanitation" Department. That would be the "Departmente de Lempio" for my Spanish speaking readers (if I remember things accurately from my Junior year of High School.)
Any way, when I bought a rental duplex and a couple of vacant lots in the "New Town" section of Brunswick back in 2004, I immediately realized that there was a "little littering" problem in that section of town.
Maybe instead of calling it a "little littering" problem, I should call it a "big littering" problem.
Thinking a bit further, maybe it would be more accurate to say that we have a DUMPING PROBLEM in much of downtown Brunswick, Georgia.
But wait...
The City of By-God Brunswick, Georgia, USA forces everyone that has City water service to also pay for City supplied SANITATION SERVICE...for the ridiculously low price of about $8 per month.
Seems like a good deal to me.
But wait...
IF everyone has government mandated and government supplied "Sanitation Service," why is there litter strewn up and down the street and on every street corner?
Further, why is there wholesale dumping of giant piles of junk curbside, on a continuous basis, on my property and my neighbors' properties over the past 3-1/2 years?
Seriously, if you own property in downtown Brunswick and you don't police it on a monthly if not weekly (or even daily) basis, you will come back to find a giant pile of things like yard debris, sofas and other furniture, children's clothing, and virtually everything else imaginable laying on your
One time I even had most of an upright piano laying on the edge of the alley behind my duplex.
Right now I have no less that two sofas and another bunch of crap that has clearly been dumped by someone, but not by average citizens that the City of Brunswick has forced to pay for "Sanitation Services." It's not the kind of stuff that people generate from cleaning out their kitchen and bathroom trash cans.
Could people be driving over from Alabama or up from Florida to dispose of their refuse?
Possibly, but probably not.
What I have laying around on my property is stuff abandonded by tenants which have been evicted from or otherwise move out of local rental properties and that is either dumped by the landlord else hauled and illegally disposed of by the landlord's representative(s.)
What we have going on is not people emptying their cans full of paper napkins, chicken bones and watermellon rines onto my curb (although I have had a bunch of bananas and most of a watermellon dumped out there once).
What we have going on is people that should know better using the streets and alleys of Brunswick as a landfill, thereby avoiding paying the local dump fees or tipping fees for bulk items that won't fit in their curbside city supplied trashcan.
I'd like to ask the "Officials" of the City of By-God Brunswick, Georgia, USA one question:
"Why not employ the current logic and just add a couple hundred dollars of dump fees onto everybodies' water bill or property tax bill and see if any better results can be attained--because your current program obviously isn't working?"
I'm waiting for an answer...
[que the sounds of crickets chirping here...]
Any way, you'd probably like to know what the "Sanitation Department" of the City of By-God Brunswick, Georgia actually does have to say about all of these goings on?
Well, first of all, in mid-May they said that they would come out to look at my current pile of trash and quote me a fee to remove it. This after they've already cleaned up similar piles of junk and debris in the past for free and often without me having to pound my fist or even lift a finger to dial the telephone.
After several missed appointments and games of playing "phone tag", now that I'm interested in developing and selling the property, the city has started taking a coy, hardball attitude with me for some unknown reason.
I've already paid a private contractor $300 to have the vacant land cleaned up and the litter removed, but I refuse to pay the additional $700 that my contractor wants to charge me to remove TWO DUMP TRUCK LOADS of crap that is not mine and was not placed on my property with my consent.
Finally in late May I got the head of the "Sanitation Department" to meet me on the property and agree to remove the debris at no cost...BUT, I'd have to wait until the new fiscal year began in June so they could put in a work order and have the money in the City's budget.
Looking at the calendar, it's now August 10th and tomorrow I expect to go over and yet again view the lovely festering, 30' x 20' x 5' high pile of crap that continues to grow as I write (it was still there two Monday's ago.)
I've called the "sanitation department" office several times a day several days each week for the past three weeks and my voicemail messages have as yet gone unanswered. Apparently the "sanitation department" can't afford a secretary or administrative assistant either.
Regardless of the final outcome, I'd like to point out that this is a perfect example of government ineffectiveness and ineptitude. Further, in this case it is also an example of the government attempting to supply a necessary and increasingly expensive service at an artificially low price.
Ten years ago in Atlanta I paid over $30 a month for trash service that didn't include the removal of yard debris, and today the City of Brunswick is trying to provide mandatory trash service for $8.00 per month.
In this case, apparently the low cost of the "sanitation service" is intended to balm the wounds of those that feel put upon by the mandate that the "sanitation service fee" be included in the water bill.
Glynn County does a little better with their $200+ fee included in the annual tax bill, but again the level of customer service verges on abysmal because the real cost of the service is apparently greater than the fee being charged.
The difference is that the county passes the costs directly to the property owner, where the City charges the end user--the tenant or resident--directly. (Too bad that the county politicians don't realize that the end users still end up paying their fee because the landlord just raises the rent to offset the increase in the tax bill anyway.)
What both the City of By-God Brunswick, Georgia and the government of Glynn County officials don't realize is that by meddling in the free market--by forcing everyone to buy "sanitation services" from the government or a government anointed contractor, they are actually preventing the free market and associated competition from competently providing a needed service at a fair cost.
Notice that I didn't say low cost or cheep cost?
That's because everything can't be cheep, other than the quality of the service that you get when you attempt to get something for nothing.
Thursday, August 09, 2007
Don't Blame Me
I Didn't Write This...I Just Pointed It Out...
Turn up the volume on your speakers, click on the big arrow button in the middle of the screen, and prepare to be entertained or pissed off, depending on which side of the political spectrum you and your brain reside on.
Seems like a good representation to me, and the only ones I saw missing in the montage was Michael Moore and possibly Ward Churchill.
Heh...
.
Turn up the volume on your speakers, click on the big arrow button in the middle of the screen, and prepare to be entertained or pissed off, depending on which side of the political spectrum you and your brain reside on.
Seems like a good representation to me, and the only ones I saw missing in the montage was Michael Moore and possibly Ward Churchill.
Heh...
.
All Our Crap Is In One Pile Now
Will Someone Please Help Me Unpack It?
This morning I was relieved to find that I didn't need my arms to fly up over my head to don a bandanna and shirt in anticipation of spending five or six hours outside running back and forth in the near 100 degree heat loading things like plants, lamps and mirrors into the Suburban.
I told Pat that if she bought one single other plant and mounted it in a 30 pound ceramic pot I was moving to a Monastery and taking some sort of oath or something. Based on a quick count that I just did, we have no less than FORTY plants here residing in artificial containers full of dirt and water.
I only claim the two sweet potato plants and the single jalapeno pepper plant our neighbor gave us while we were moving. Wasn't that nice, instead of moving the plant with her stuff, she gave it to me to move with my stuff.
Any new plants around here will be installed in the dirt outside, attached to the ground, and will most likely be left here when we move again in thirty or forty years.
I have the kitchen unpacked and pretty well organized, and the great room is in functioning order, but both bedrooms and both offices are still a nightmare of open boxes and misplaced items including one door that has to be moved through the rubble and remounted on its hinges after making way for a huge two piece office desk that someone else gave us during the move.
I think that when people find out that you have a truck showing up at your house on a given day they do an inventory and attempt to avoid a trip to the dump or otherwise discard things that their spouse has that they don't want to have to fool with the next time they have to move themselves.
I swear that I could have doubled our furniture inventory if we had accepted all of the offers our friends and sometime total strangers made when we announced that we were transplanting ourselves four miles south on our little island.
Now I have to shift gears and get back into the engineering consulting business and the construction business and while I'm at it build a giant pyramid for a local marching band to play music around in the middle of a football field at halftime.
See y'all later...
This morning I was relieved to find that I didn't need my arms to fly up over my head to don a bandanna and shirt in anticipation of spending five or six hours outside running back and forth in the near 100 degree heat loading things like plants, lamps and mirrors into the Suburban.
I told Pat that if she bought one single other plant and mounted it in a 30 pound ceramic pot I was moving to a Monastery and taking some sort of oath or something. Based on a quick count that I just did, we have no less than FORTY plants here residing in artificial containers full of dirt and water.
I only claim the two sweet potato plants and the single jalapeno pepper plant our neighbor gave us while we were moving. Wasn't that nice, instead of moving the plant with her stuff, she gave it to me to move with my stuff.
Any new plants around here will be installed in the dirt outside, attached to the ground, and will most likely be left here when we move again in thirty or forty years.
I have the kitchen unpacked and pretty well organized, and the great room is in functioning order, but both bedrooms and both offices are still a nightmare of open boxes and misplaced items including one door that has to be moved through the rubble and remounted on its hinges after making way for a huge two piece office desk that someone else gave us during the move.
I think that when people find out that you have a truck showing up at your house on a given day they do an inventory and attempt to avoid a trip to the dump or otherwise discard things that their spouse has that they don't want to have to fool with the next time they have to move themselves.
I swear that I could have doubled our furniture inventory if we had accepted all of the offers our friends and sometime total strangers made when we announced that we were transplanting ourselves four miles south on our little island.
Now I have to shift gears and get back into the engineering consulting business and the construction business and while I'm at it build a giant pyramid for a local marching band to play music around in the middle of a football field at halftime.
See y'all later...
Wednesday, August 08, 2007
Speed Bumps & Garbage Collection
Symptoms Of Government Ineptitude
OK People, last time I checked, we as taxpayers and private citizens have allowed our government to spend trillions if not zillions of dollars improving our so called "infrastructure."
Even if you didn't know the details at the time, and in spite of things like Minnesota's recent bridge collapse, I'm pretty sure that the average citizen would offhand say that the expense has been worth it overall, because of the improvements in our collective "quality of life."
Well...I actually don't agree, and I am here to tell you that I believe that there are numerous devils in the details of our governments' efforts, and I'm getting a little tired of bumping my head into Satin and his assistant demon's horns and pitchforks over the past few weeks.
Think of it like this...
A hundred years ago, in the rural south, you probably rode a horse down a path to get from your house to town. If you were lucky, you had a dirt road that would support the passage of a horse or mule drawn wagon or carriage somewhere between you and town.
Likewise, if youwere a damn Yankee were a city slicker lived in NY city you might drive your 10 HP Model T Ford along brick or cobble stone streets from your carriage house to your office.
Fast forward to today, and probably 98% of the US population has to go out of their way to even find a dirt road to drive on (unless it is their own driveway), because virtually every road in America is paved courtesy of the local, state, or Federal Government.
Potholes are, of course optional, and by the way, we still have a number of unpaved dirt roads down in the middle of the village here on St. Simons Island.
Once the automobile arrived on the scene in a major way, things like driver's licenses and speed limits also became a government provided necessity.
You name it, someone is always willing to ask for it and some bureaucrat will stick his hand in your pocket to pay for it, and down here on a couple of streets near our new house is another government roadway improvement that I've rarely had to worry about in the past...
The "SPEED BUMP."
Yeah...you heard me correctly...
"sPeEd BuMpS"
I say that "sPeEd BuMpS" prove that the government is, in many cases, totally feckless and useless.
What total government induced, intrusive, annoying, bullshit sPeEd BuMpS are, in my Redneck Libertarian opinion.
Here's how I see things when it comes to sPeEd BuMpS.
We hired the government to build and improve our roads in the first place, right?
We got tired of riding down dusty, rutted, or muddy dirt roads at ten miles per hour; breaking things off of our car and breaking our spines and butts in the bumpy process.
So along came the government, confiscated some tax money from me and you, and paved nice smooth concrete and asphalt roads with things like curbs, storm drains, stop signs, and traffic lights.
Once things got too smooth and car engines got more powerful, along came speed limits and speed limit signs. The theory was that you were supposed to go fast out in the country and on limited access roads, and slow down on city streets and in neighborhoods like mine.
To ensure that the speed limits and other traffic laws were complied with, next the government collected yet more tax money from everyone and set up police departments with police cars and radar and laser guns to catch the people that chose to ignore the rules and to protect the average citizens while they enjoyed their nice smooth asphalt and concrete paved roads and highways.
But wait, the police can't or won't enforce the existing laws, and as a result a fewignorant inconsiderate assholes thoughtless citizens still chose to ignore the speed limit, so guess what the government does in response?
Instead of doing the job they are already taxing their citizens for--enforcing the speed limits--the government takes even more tax money and "un-improves" the nice smooth asphalt roads that they already stole tax money to make smooth in the first place.
They go out and put in "sPeEd BuMpS."
sPeEd BuMpS.
This is a totally flawed concept--treating the law abiding citizens equal with the criminals.
With the installation of sPeEd BuMpS, every single driver has to suffer the punishment that should be meted out only to those drivers that elect to violate the speed limit, just like making crappy government mandated Trash service part of the Property Tax bill punishes everyone, while not stopping the original crime.
Yes, Pat and I have to drive across at least three sPeEd BuMpS each and every time we leave our house and again each and every time we come home, yet we have already seen little punk assed morons in pickup trucks and grown men in Buicks come flying down the road doing 40 MPH in a 25 MPH zone, racing from sPeEd BuMp to sPeEd BuMp, so what has the whole process accomplished?
Actually, the installation of the sPeEd BuMpS was originally motivated to not only reduce speeds on the streets, but also as a deterrent to people that elected to cut through our neighborhood in order to avoid a major nearby intersection and associated traffic light.
Only the government would impose heavy handed measure after measure after measure onto innocent bystanders in the "public interest" and in the name of "progress."
In the mean time, I wonder if I can get the government to buy me some new filling for my teeth and new shocks and springs from my car and truck?
Probably not...
But ain't Government Great?
OK People, last time I checked, we as taxpayers and private citizens have allowed our government to spend trillions if not zillions of dollars improving our so called "infrastructure."
Even if you didn't know the details at the time, and in spite of things like Minnesota's recent bridge collapse, I'm pretty sure that the average citizen would offhand say that the expense has been worth it overall, because of the improvements in our collective "quality of life."
Well...I actually don't agree, and I am here to tell you that I believe that there are numerous devils in the details of our governments' efforts, and I'm getting a little tired of bumping my head into Satin and his assistant demon's horns and pitchforks over the past few weeks.
Think of it like this...
A hundred years ago, in the rural south, you probably rode a horse down a path to get from your house to town. If you were lucky, you had a dirt road that would support the passage of a horse or mule drawn wagon or carriage somewhere between you and town.
Likewise, if you
Fast forward to today, and probably 98% of the US population has to go out of their way to even find a dirt road to drive on (unless it is their own driveway), because virtually every road in America is paved courtesy of the local, state, or Federal Government.
Potholes are, of course optional, and by the way, we still have a number of unpaved dirt roads down in the middle of the village here on St. Simons Island.
Once the automobile arrived on the scene in a major way, things like driver's licenses and speed limits also became a government provided necessity.
You name it, someone is always willing to ask for it and some bureaucrat will stick his hand in your pocket to pay for it, and down here on a couple of streets near our new house is another government roadway improvement that I've rarely had to worry about in the past...
The "SPEED BUMP."
Yeah...you heard me correctly...
"sPeEd BuMpS"
I say that "sPeEd BuMpS" prove that the government is, in many cases, totally feckless and useless.
What total government induced, intrusive, annoying, bullshit sPeEd BuMpS are, in my Redneck Libertarian opinion.
Here's how I see things when it comes to sPeEd BuMpS.
We hired the government to build and improve our roads in the first place, right?
We got tired of riding down dusty, rutted, or muddy dirt roads at ten miles per hour; breaking things off of our car and breaking our spines and butts in the bumpy process.
So along came the government, confiscated some tax money from me and you, and paved nice smooth concrete and asphalt roads with things like curbs, storm drains, stop signs, and traffic lights.
Once things got too smooth and car engines got more powerful, along came speed limits and speed limit signs. The theory was that you were supposed to go fast out in the country and on limited access roads, and slow down on city streets and in neighborhoods like mine.
To ensure that the speed limits and other traffic laws were complied with, next the government collected yet more tax money from everyone and set up police departments with police cars and radar and laser guns to catch the people that chose to ignore the rules and to protect the average citizens while they enjoyed their nice smooth asphalt and concrete paved roads and highways.
But wait, the police can't or won't enforce the existing laws, and as a result a few
Instead of doing the job they are already taxing their citizens for--enforcing the speed limits--the government takes even more tax money and "un-improves" the nice smooth asphalt roads that they already stole tax money to make smooth in the first place.
They go out and put in "sPeEd BuMpS."
sPeEd BuMpS.
This is a totally flawed concept--treating the law abiding citizens equal with the criminals.
With the installation of sPeEd BuMpS, every single driver has to suffer the punishment that should be meted out only to those drivers that elect to violate the speed limit, just like making crappy government mandated Trash service part of the Property Tax bill punishes everyone, while not stopping the original crime.
Yes, Pat and I have to drive across at least three sPeEd BuMpS each and every time we leave our house and again each and every time we come home, yet we have already seen little punk assed morons in pickup trucks and grown men in Buicks come flying down the road doing 40 MPH in a 25 MPH zone, racing from sPeEd BuMp to sPeEd BuMp, so what has the whole process accomplished?
Actually, the installation of the sPeEd BuMpS was originally motivated to not only reduce speeds on the streets, but also as a deterrent to people that elected to cut through our neighborhood in order to avoid a major nearby intersection and associated traffic light.
Only the government would impose heavy handed measure after measure after measure onto innocent bystanders in the "public interest" and in the name of "progress."
In the mean time, I wonder if I can get the government to buy me some new filling for my teeth and new shocks and springs from my car and truck?
Probably not...
But ain't Government Great?
