Farrah Fawcett

I Had The Poster...

I know you're supposed to say nice things about recently deceased people, but right now my eyes have rolled back in my head so far I see my tonsils and anus from the inside from the shock of having to watch the wall to wall coverage of Michael Jackson's passing.

Similar (But not just like) to when Mother Teresa's death in 1997 was overshadowed by the Saudi Sheik's drunken Driver/Body Guard killing Lady Diana in a London car crash, the public outcry is truly amazing to me because when it is all over with...

Neither one of these so-called "celebrities" really mean anything in the big picture when you think about the problems facing our country, it's citizens, and our world today.

I can't understand people and their fascination with other abnormal people that happen to have made a shit load of money singing or dancing or in the case of Miss Fawcett...just looking real pretty for a few years in their tortured public circus lives.

My heart goes out to the Jackson and Fawcett friends and family, but I wish the rest of the celebrity worshiping, bullshit eating, pop culture morons would go home and sit down and shut up and study a text book and learn something which will take them off the taxpayers back else get dressed and go to work and turn the damn TV and MP3 player off and stop waisting time.

And give me a break with the 24 hour TV coverage... a weird man and a basically silly woman died today--just like happens every day...and I pay good money for Cable TV to watch news...not BS about has been singers and fashion models.

RIP Farrah and Michael (Sorry I'm Cranky)

Michael Jackson's Dead...

If I Can't Say Nothing Nice...I Don't Say Anything At All...

Day In The Sun

Rain Gone, Humidity Low(er)...


I went and bought another small load of #1 Kiln Dried Pressure Treated boards today to fill in the gaps and spots I had missed considering on the deck with my first material order.

I also finally finished the trim on the outside of the new French Door I hacked into the brick in the back wall of the dining room.

All I need to do is slap on a little paint and the door is finished.

Thank G.O.D.

Now in my ongoing insanity I'm talking about buying a "pet door" and grinding another hole through the wall to accommodate the four legged princess of the household.

Pat and Missy the Turbo Pup (the aforementioned princess) supervised my efforts from the pool and deck chairs as I worked my way around the perimeter installing skirting boards.

Short of some catastrophe, the deck really, really, really will be finished tomorrow.

Then maybe I can actually get in the pool myself and sit around for a while being wet without the dampness coming from my pores.

The next immediate project is to install the new wireless weather station components that Pat gave me for Christmas. The system's pretty cool but has been sitting in my office for six months gathering dust.

I've decided that I'm putting the Wind Direction/Anemometer up on a wooden spar attached to a fence post; extending 16 feet above the ground, then mounting the electronic rain gauge and the Relative Humidity sensor down lower.

There is a wireless control/indicator panel which can be mounted inside the house in my office so I can sit around and get second by second updates on which way the wind's blowing and how hard the rain is coming down without looking out the window, going outside, or dialing up the NOAA website.

When finished the structure is supposed to end up looking like the mast on a sailboat with some rigging wires and possibly a place to fly a flag.

The details are still a little fuzzy but I've started doing the drawings and photos will follow as things develop.

Time to finish some technical writing and call it an evening.

Regards Y'all...

Ed McMahon's Gone

The Ultimate Sidekick Passes Away...


I was sorry to hear that Johnny Carson's straight man Ed McMahon passed away this morning. I suspect that most everyone in my generation enjoyed his appearances on the Tonight Show before his career fell into disarray and he had to resort to hawking insurance and "senior" benefits on late night TV.

Here's a look at him in his "heyday"...

Here he is striking the same pose as a younger man...



(he must have liked that look)

And here's what I suspect he'll be doing tonight about 11 PM EST...




RIP Mr. McMahon

Internet One Liners

Twenty Things I wish I'd Said...


1. Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak...

2. If you think nobody cares if you're alive, try missing a few payments...

3. We live in a Society where Pizza gets to your house before the Police...

4. We have enough gun control. What we need is idiot control.

5. Going to church doesn't make you a Christian any more than standing in a garage makes you a car.

6. The Evening News is where they begin with "Good Evening" and then proceed to tell you why it isn't...

7. Knowledge is knowing a tomato is a fruit; Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.

8. If God is watching us, the least we can do is be entertaining.

9. A bus station is where a bus stops. A train station is where a train stops. On my desk I have a work station...

10. Just remember...if the world didn't suck, we'd all fall off.

11. You spend the first 2 years of your kids' lives teaching them to walk and talk, and the next 16 years trying to get them to sit down and shut up.

12. I didn't fight my way to the top of the food chain to be a vegetarian.

13. 4 out of 5 people suffer from Diarrhea...does that mean that ONE enjoys it?

14. Never, under any circumstances, take a sleeping pill and a laxative on the same night.

15. The main difference between an oral thermometer and a rectal thermometer is in the taste.

16. I didn't say that it was your fault...I said I was blaming you.

17. Knowledge is power, and power corrupts. So study hard and be evil.

18. You do not need a parachute to skydive. You only need a parachute to skydive twice.

19. The voices in my head may not be real, but they have some pretty good ideas...

20. The last thing I want to do is hurt you...but it's still on my list.

Go here and find another 80 one liners...

Weekend Distractions

Cooking & Sweating...(But Not At The Same Time)


In case you haven't noticed, I took the weekend off from writing frivolous stuff here on the blog.

That doesn't mean I wasn't writing, however, it's just that the writing was of the technical variety unsuitable for posting here on the Internet.

I also got some lumber cut and installed yesterday and grilled a killer meal out at the end of the day, and then Pat and Missy the Turbo Pup enjoyed a Brunch I prepared this morning and one of my signature soon to be internationally famous Pizzas for dinner tonight.

Construction and writing will continue this week so I don't know where the Blog will fit in unless some plane crashes or someone important does or says something incredibly stupid.

Come to think of it, if all I had to do was wait for something stupid to be uttered by a public official or celebrity or athlete I'd be writing here 24/7.

OH, and by the way...CALL YOUR DADDY IF YOU HAVEN'T ALREADY.

I sure wish that I could...

Tiny Dogs...

Have Giant Hearts...




My dog would do that for me...

UrrrrrpppppppppPPPPPPP

Please Excuse Me...

No Matter What The Government Says About Universal Healthcare...

I Think WE Will All Ultimately Regret The Day....


Just for fun this morning...

I want you to think of a single important product or service you can get for free or for an artificially reduced price which is as good a value or performs as well as the best--or even the average--similar product(s) or service(s) delivered at the true cost and/or fair market price?

Got any ideas?

Let's ignore silly consumer products like cell phones or music CD's...I'm talking about IMPORTANT stuff...necessary stuff like LIKE HOUSING and TRANSPORTATION.

For instance, if someone gives you a car for free, wouldn't you agree that it's probably not gonna be a shiny new Lexus (unless you're on a TV Game Show like Wheel of Fortune)?

Most likely it will be a clunker and even more likely if it runs at all it won't be reliable.

Don't get confused...I'm about to talk about government supplied health care but I have to lay out some fundamentals...so bear with me for a moment longer here...

Now think about things the Government "gives" the public or "manages" on behalf of the public.

In the transportation category I present for your consideration the Amtrak Passenger Rail System ... a GOVERNMENT RUN train system which has never turned a profit in any single year in it's ENTIRE EXISTENCE and is constantly cutting service and coming back to Congress looking for more money under threat of shutting down.

One of the main problems, other than being government run, is that in areas other than in the Northeast corridors between large cities, Amtrack doesn't actually GO ANYWHERE anyone wants to go to.

For instance, if I want to go down to Miami and stay for a week, looking at the Orbitz Website I can pay the airlines $557 round trip, and by leaving at 5 PM Sunday I'm in Miami before 11 PM.

About SEVEN HOURS one way including the time to drive to the airport and park and go through security. The round trip schedule is equally time efficient.

Now...what about taking the GOVERNMENT option called AMTRAK?

On Amtrak I have to first drive from Knoxville to Atlanta, then pay $639 round trip, and then instead of riding a train to Savannah or Jessup Georgia--places within 250 miles that have Amtrak service--I have to ride a train to WASHINGTON, DC...then turn around and head back south toward Miami.

And how much of my time does this epic Government managed sojourn take?

Going south takes TWENTY SEVEN HOURS...not including the three hour drive in the car to get to the Atlanta station.

...and the return north takes THIRTY FOUR HOURS (including the drive time back from the station to Knoxville.)

Doing the math and using the current gas prices of $2.85, I can DRIVE the 881 miles between Knoxville and Miami in a little over 13 hours at the round trip cost of $220.

Why in the world would I use Amtrak--unless I was afraid of flying--considering these transit times and the cost exceeding going by air.

Isn't it insane that Amtrak charges $82 more than the cost to fly, and takes over five times as long to get there?

Now let's think about GOVERNMENT HOUSING for a moment.

Ever drive through a government housing project?

I'm not trying to be a racist, but regardless of race, sex, or national origin wouldn't you agree that 99% of buildings in 99% of the neighborhood occupied by GOVERNMENT HOUSING are complete and total HELL HOLES?

I know that living in GOVERNMENT HOUSING is probably at least a little better than sleeping in a GOVERNMENT RUN HOMELESS SHELTER, but just barely.

I know most of us recognise that the PEOPLE that reside in GOVERNMENT HOUSING are probably at least half of the problem, but a private landlord would hardly put up with the physical conditions found in most GOVERNMENT HOUSING and you know what?

If a private landlord did let their own privately owned and managed property deteriorate to similar conditions, most likely THE GOVERNMENT would step in and force them to fix things else close them down.

But I say the GOVERNMENT runs housing like they run transportation...like CRAP.

Now I'm going to ignore the coming financial insolvency of the current GOVERNMENT supplied retirement system called SOCIAL SECURITY and government run elderly and indigent health programs called MEDICARE and MEDICAID--all of which are hemorrhaging money and cutting benefits as we speak--and talk about...

GOVERNMENT RUN VETERANS HOSPITALS.

Have you or anyone you know ever been to a VETERAN'S HOSPITAL (hereafter referred to as a VA Hospital) in your town?

Yes?

No?

You may or may not realize that if you live in Georgia THERE IS NOT A VETERAN'S HOSPITAL in your town unless you live in Atlanta (Decatur), Augusta, or Dublin.

Looking at the VA web page for Georgia , there are only an additional 21 "Outpatient Clinics" in the entire state.

You know what this means to a "Retired Veteran" who is forced by government mandate to get his healthcare benefits from THE GOVERNMENT VA facilities.

From what I saw while we lived on St. Simons Island ( a place where over half the retired men were Veterans) the older Widower Vets that couldn't drive themselves had to ride in a van driven by volunteers once or twice a week on a 4 plus hour trip covering over 200 miles to the VA hospital in Augusta to get treatment.

By "treatment" I mean important stuff like Cat Scans and X-Rays and Dialysis and stuff.

Of course they could go to a local doctor and hope that the procedure was covered by Medicare, but to get Medicare to pay they had to get pre-approval from a GOVERNMENT official before they could go to the local doctor which ment that they had to WAIT FOR MEDICAL CARE.

"Sorry Mr. Wilkins...just stop having that heart attack and fill out these ten forms and we'll get back to you next month..."

Of course they could just go to the doctor and pay out of their own pocket, but doesn't that undo the so called BENEFIT of having free GOVERNMENT HEALTHCARE in the first place?

A classical bait and switch program--tax your ass off while you're working and then make obtaining the benefits painful if not virtually impossible.

...

Now let me ask you this question...

If the government can't manage to run an efficient and convenient healthcare system for a few million retired veterans--people that worked their entire military careers believing they had the healthcare benefits coming when they needed then...

HOW IN THE HELL DO YOU THINK THAT THE GOVERNMENT CAN MANAGE AND FUND A NEW PROGRAM TO TAKE IN AN ADDITIONAL 39,000,000 BENEFICIARIES AND ULTIMATELY AN ENTIRE POPULATION OF 300 MILLION PLUS?

Are you STUPID, RETARDED, OR JUST ON DRUGS?

Go ahead if you don't agree with me and cheer this GOVERNMENT POWER GRAB on and keep voting for it.

Then you will have to excuse me for LAUGHING HYSTERICALLY when about twenty years from now you find your ass rotting off and some bureaucrat tells you that you can't have a bottle of Iodine and a pack of band aids because you're too old and you drank and smoked and most likely brought the disease on yourself...

SO YOUR BELOVED FREE GOVERNMENT HEALTHCARE PROGRAM WON'T PAY.

Put that in your pipe and smoke it...Dammit.

Global Warming Still Full of Crap?

More Climate Change Insensitivity...


Anyone but me notice that...

while Chicago and much of the midwest has had a record cool June thus far...

and at the same time my Mom and my friends in my home town in Lower Alabama are baking in 100 degree F heat...

THAT THERE HAS ONLY BEEN ONE SUBSTANTIAL TROPICAL DISTURBANCE THIS YEAR?????????

And that little blow was up in the mid Atlantic latitudes but incited the weather nerds and sniveling, booger eating, tree hugging, wild-eyed-eco-greenie-weenies to start buying plywood and battening down their hatches as they predicted an "Above Average" tropical season because...

the little piss ant storm formed in LATE MAY...

BEFORE the official "Hurricane Season"???

(which for my and your enjoyment runs from June 1st to the end of October each year.)

I just thought that I'd point that little fact out--that in the past three weeks we've only had one little wimpy tropical anything to talk about.

Except on this Blog and Blogs like it you won't hear any news stories and headlines leading with THAT FACT...now will you?

(taking a big breath here boss...)

Ok...

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

Inside The New Door

Trim Complete...Paint Pane Pain In The Gl ass


I know some of you have been dying to catch a glimpse of my latest carpentry masterpiece...so here's a shot of the as yet unpainted door with the walls finished and the surrounding stuff hung back up:



And here's a closer look at my creative solution to covering the 2-1/2" gap between the top of the door frame and the sheetrock (I would have otherwise just used a piece of 2-1/8" jamb trim and been done with it all):



I'm also proud of that double light switch which controls a new outside light and a new double flood illuminating the deck and extending the hours we can use the back yard this summer. While I was at it I installed a new weather proof receptacle out there also to power crap like radios and charcoal grill lighters and such.

We like that "colonial" crown trim detail so much I'm going to tear out the head of the six foot wide cased opening between the living room and dining room and do the same thing. And the front door casing is also an candidate for similar renovation...

...once I finish the deck and the fence and the outside of this door frame.

When will my insanity and self abuse ever end???

Blogging From The Bottom Of The Mighty Tennessee River

My Mature Judgment Saved My Computer...


I swear if I were twenty years younger (including my propensity those days to throw mis-behaving electronics items like remote controls and phones) and still had a boat I'd have taken this computer out to the river and used it for a boat anchor or created a new artificial reef.

It just crashed a few minutes ago for the second time since midnight and about the fifth or sixth time in the past TWO days.

What really freaks me out is that I thought things with the pitiful useless Vista operating system had self medicated themselves over the past couple of weeks because I was sometimes getting through three days in a row and entire weekends without a crash.

Needless to say I've become the most diligent person in Eastern Tennessee at hitting the save button before I walk away from the beast and I save often in longer sessions where I'm writing.

When I find a web page I like or need for future reference I either bookmark it or copy the URL to an e-mail and send it to myself with a descriptive subject line. The e-mail method keeps from cluttering my favorites listing which probably has two or three hundred entries in sub-folders.

So any way...closing detail progress continues on the deck, fence, and the new Turbo Pup Exit door with the second coat of paint going on the wall trim and some other detailing being finished around the freshly cut opening in the brickwork on the outside.

I pace myself (in other words I'm distracted and lazy) to only three or four hours a day due to the heat so a project which could have been done professionally in three days has now extended itself to nearly a month.

Quality over quantity is my motto, and having a good time in the process is job #1 at all times.

Time to go smear paint on wood and myself...regards y'all...

You might be an engineer if ...

I'm Afraid Most Of This Is True (About Myself At Least)


... choosing between buying flowers for your wife or more RAM is a moral dilemma.

... you take a cruise so you can go on a personal tour of the engine room.

... in college you thought "spring break" was metal fatigue failure.

... the salespeople at the local computer store can't answer any of your questions.

... at an air show you know how fast the skydivers are falling.

... you bought your wife a new CD-ROM drive for her birthday.

... you can quote scenes from any Monty Python movie.

... you can type 70 words per minute but can't read your own handwriting.

... you comment to your wife that her straight hair is nice and parallel.

... you sit backwards on the amusement rides to figure out the special effects.

... you have saved every power cord from all your broken appliances.

... you have more friends on the Internet than in real life.

... you know what http:// stands for.

... you look forward to Christmas so you can put the kids' toys together.

... you see a good design and still have to change it.

... you spent more on your calculator than you did on your wedding ring.

... you still own a slide rule and know how to use it.

... you think that people yawning around you are sleep deprived.

... you window shop at Radio Shack.

... your laptop computer costs more than your car.

... your wife hasn't the foggiest idea of what you do for a living.

... you've already calculated how much you make per second.

... you've tried to repair a $5 radio.

... you consider yourself well-dressed when your socks match.

... you buy your wife a set of matched screwdrivers for her birthday.

... you have a non-technical vocabulary of 800 words.

... you think a "biting wit" is a fox terrier.

... you have no life - and you can prove it mathematically.

... you enjoy pain.

... you know vector calculus but you can't remember how to do long division.

... you chuckle whenever someone says "centrifugal force".

... you've actually used every single function on your graphing calculator.

... when you look in a mirror, you see an engineering major.

... you are always inside working on a computer while it is sunny and 75 degrees outside.

... you frequently whistle the theme song to MacGyver.

... you always do homework on Friday nights.

... you know how to integrate a chicken and can take the derivative of water.

... you think in "math".

... you've calculated that the World Series actually diverges.

... you hesitate to look at something to avoid breaking down its wave function.

... you have a pet named after a scientist.

... you laugh at jokes about mathematicians.

... you've been arrested by the ASPCA for performing the Schrodinger's Cat experiment.

... you can't remember what's behind the EXIT door in the science building.

... you bring a jacket to the lab in the summer because of a wind-chill factor.

... you are completely addicted to caffeine.

... you avoid doing anything so as not to contribute to the eventual heat-death of the universe.

... you consider ANY non-science course easy.

... you can prove that, according to Heisenberg, your homework could be anywhere in the world!

... your brain's "fun" center has deteriorated from lack of use.

... you assume that a "horse" is a "sphere" in order to make the math easier.

... you know the second law of thermodynamics but not your shirt size.

... you repair your own cameras, telephones, TV's and automatic transmissions.

... you say "it's 70 degrees Fahrenheit, 25 degrees Celsius, and 298 degrees Kelvin."

... you wear a badge so you don't forget who you are.

... you rotate your tires for laughs.

... you make four sets of drawings and seven revisions before making a bird bath building a deck in your back yard.

... you can't remember where you parked your car for the 3rd time this week.

... your briefcase contains a screwdriver, "Quantum Physics" and half a sandwich.

... your wristwatch has more buttons than a telephone.

... you ever burned down the school gym with your Science Fair project.

... you can translate English to Binary.

... your hero is Dilbert.

... your IQ is more than your weight.

... you can name 6 Star Trek episodes.

... you know the direction the water swirls when you flush.

... you have ever taken the back off of your TV just to see what's inside.

... you have ever purchased an electronic appliance "as is".

... you thought the real heroes of "Apollo 13" were the mission controllers.

... you have a neatly sorted collection of old bolts and nuts in your garage.

... you understood more than five of these indicators.

... you make a hard copy of this list and post it on your door.

... you don't find the above at all funny.

I'm still busy working, so I shamelessly stole the above from Here: http://www.enerchecksystems.com/humor.html

Compressor Healthy...Back Aching

Construction Materials Dwindling...


Of course I have to go back to Lowe's and or Home Depot today.

Again.

I managed to not go yesterday because after I repaired the compressor I had enough materials to finish expanding the fence around the back yard Turbo Pup enclosure and get the base boards and shoe mouldings trimmed and reinstalled around the new door.

Before that I even got mouldings on each side of the interior of the door, but then progress hit a brick wall (excuse the pun) when I realized that the 3-1/2 foot scrap of crown mold I grabbed out of the scrap bin was a few inches too short to cover the distance I needed.

I didn't cut the board so I have a clear conscience taking it back because they sell it by the foot and I'll just cut another a few inches longer.

Then I'll probably fiddle around remounting gate hardware and do some more skirting and if my energy holds out I might actually be FINISHED at sundown today.

By the way, it's pizza night here in Knoxtown so free to stop by about 7:00 PM and I'll cut you a slice.

Regards Y'all...

Steady Slow Progress

Stamina and Lethargy Take Their Toll...


Yesterday I managed to COMPLETELY REMOVE the French door I installed earlier in the week because there was a half inch bulge in the sheet rock on one side and the hardwood flooring was also holding things out of plumb by about the same amount.

At first I thought I'd just live with things because, after all, I didn't BUILD the house I just was adding a door.

Then after looking at things for 24 hours and thinking about the issue I just couldn't stand putting my name on a sloppy installation. After all, I've already replaced most of the interior doors with new custom cut six panel slabs/hinges/knobs and besides...

anything worth doing is worth doing right--particularly when it involves the place you own and live and work in each day.

So the door was dismounted and laid out on the new Turbo Pup deck while I sawed and chiseled away the offending wood and after about an hour and one half of fumbling and sweating I was right back where I started Friday at noon.

Today's task is to finally repair the wounded air compressor with the parts which have been sitting around for a week now and see if I can manage to put up some trim around the interior of the door and maybe get some fence pickets in place.

Of course the rough opening for the door is a non-standard height because I took out a window and had to work with what was built in 1963 so there's a 2 1/4" gap between the top of the door casing and the sheet rock.

Instead of $3.50 worth of trim I have to go with $20 worth of #1 clear pine and some crown moulding producing a Colonial style casement around the opening.

It will look pretty nice once I'm finished but instead of 15 minutes with the miter saw it will probably involve a couple hours of cogitating and layout.

Time to put on my work clothes and get going I guess.

Y'all enjoy your Saturday while I slave away.

Rain...Rain...Go Away

I'm Cultivating Sunbeams in My Cucumbers...


Well, my work wiring up the new outlets and exterior light around the new door was interrupted when we got blasted by a thunderstorm dropping pea sized hail and featuring a spectacular lightning display yesterday afternoon.

Then it rained on and off again all evening as I sat out on the front porch smoking a cigar and reading the 1881 vintage copy of "Gullivers Travels" which arrived yesterday.

Another E-bay purchase, I was interested in a section identified by my blog Idols over at Powerline talking about the government schools of the time

Ironically, Swift's description of "The Grand Academy of Lagad" would serve as an accurate description of todays colleges and universities and even the behavior of the Obama Rama Dang Dang administration recently.

In this passage about "extracting sunbeams from cucumbers" I'm reminded of the sniveling, booger eating, tree hugging, eco-friendly greenie weenie Liberals impossible desire for "green energy":

"The first man I saw was of a meagre aspect, with sooty hands and face, his hair and beard long, ragged, and singed in several places. His clothes, shirt, and skin, were all of the same color. He had been eight years upon a project for extracting sunbeams out of cucumbers, which were to be put in phials hermetically sealed, and let out to warm the air in raw inclement summers.

He told me, he did not doubt, that in eight years more, he should be able to supply the governors gardens with sunshine, at a reasonable rate; but he complained that his stock was low, and entreated me to give him something as an encouragement to ingenuity, especially since this had been a very dear season for cucumbers."

Sixteen years wasted on a stupid concept?

At government expense and even official blessing?

I won't bore you with the entire text, but the book goes on to describe a half dozen equally dubious endeavors by "academics" in various pursuits, including another "professor" trying to take human feces and make it back into food by removing the stink and saliva.

By the way, I think I see some sunbeams in my cucumber patch so I've got to go now and try to get some trimwork done.

Y'all have a lovely day...if you will...

Forget Buying Stock

I'm Buying Slim Jim's...


My heart goes out to the victims of the accident yesterday in North Carolina, but at the same time I have to offer some personal predictions.

I'm personally saying that the explosion at the Con-Agra Garner, NC "Slim Jim" plant was a steam/waterhammer/BLEVE explosion.


This long press conference video confirmed my initial suspicions (don't waste your time watching this thing but I insist on documenting my references)

http://www.wral.com/news/video/5327452/

As an Engineer I've seen this type of event TWICE before PERSONALLY in the past four years, and my professional studies for several hours each day for the past couple of months involve the physics of this type event.

With no major fire and the extent of the percussion/concussion which blew out the roof panels and knocked down the precast concrete wall segments, the only thing that could possess this type of power (other than TNT or dynamite or plastic explosives or a fuel like natural gas which would have caused a big prolonged fire) is STEAM and the associated events relating to it's cooling or heating from/to operating pressure/temperature in an uncontrolled manner.

I also predict that my associate Wayne and I will be called in to work on this accident shortly.

I'm not an ambulance chaser but I really want to get my hands on this thing earlier rather than later after everything has been disturbed and evidence has been lost. Thus I spent the day lurking around the Internet reading news releases and watching video of news conferences.

Meanwhile, the door/deck project is slowly proceeding through inattention and interruption by thunderstorms and lethargy yesterday.

So sue me if you don't like my progress...

Door to Nowhere In Place

Trim And Electrical To Follow Suit...


As the day ended I was too lazy to take photos with the door installed, but here's a look at the "hole in the wall" as it progressed...





And of course the job site foreman lends her approval from the Turbo Pup Pool...

New Hole In Wall Nears Completion

Opossums and Raccoons Stay Out...


Being the expert construction manager and project engineer that I am, I waited until after lunch yesterday to start sawing and banging on the bricks under the soon to be removed window on the back of the house.

The first task was to remove an old 220 V outlet which had apparently been used to power a window unit AC before central air was added in the 1970's, and I also had to relocate a 120 V receptacle originally under the window frame to a spot adjacent to the new door opening.

By about 4 PM I was sorry for my lethargy because I had also learned how hard my bricks where which were made way back in 1963.

I had expected to just beat out a couple forming a hole and then tipping the sawed section out onto a tarp on my new deck surface.

WRONG.

I had to beat the crap out of each and every single brick with a ten pound hand sledge hammer and when the dust settled I had a giant wheelbarrow full of "brick chips" and mortar crumbles to dispose of.

So any way, today I'm getting an earlier start and hope to have the old window out by lunch time and the new door stood up in it's place.

Of course there will be the obligatory trip to Home Depot and/or Lowe's but as long as I can compete the project with no significant bloodshed I'll consider it a success.

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

Obama Versus Chamberlain Churchill

History Repeats Itself...


I haven't bothered to comment on President Obama's cowtowing, appeasing speech to and from the Muslim/Arab world last week because his Speech left me "Speechless."

After all the crap he's delivered in the name of "the American People" it really pissed me off to see him standing there in Normandy yesterday desecrating the memory of all the honorable men that were wounded or died there 65 years ago.

I guess the Jews have similar sentiments regarding his lies about his family ties to liberating the people held in German prison camps and his use of that poor old guy with the wild hair as a photo opportunity ...but in spite of the UN and the liberals I'll let the Hebrew's take care of themselves.

Any way...

What a maroon...

What an ultra-maroon we have for a President.

Back to my point this morning...I've become a bit of a Winston Churchill fan over the past twenty years because by accident (in other words...in SPITE of my public schooled government education) I've discovered what a HUGE influence he had over saving Europe from the German aggressions and how instrumental he was in forcing the isolationist liberal elites and politicians here in the United States to join the war effort in Europe.

Besides his well deserved place in world history, Churchill was an intellectual genius and a great artist, painter, and orator--one of my personal hero's today because I aspire to be all of those same things although I'm afraid I continue to fall quite short of his standards.

My blog idols--the guys over at Powerline-- reminded me of the words Winston Churchill wrote after Neville Chamberlain signed the Munich Agreement with Hitler's Germany in August 1938.

The funny thing to me was that while the agreement basically ceeded land to Germany from the Czech's, and representatives from most of Europe attended the "conference", the Czechs weren't invited and DIDN'T SIGN.

That's sort of where I feel like most "average Americans" are today as Obama runs around the world spewing bullshit.

I certainly didn't sign up to have his words uttered on my behalf.

Take a look at these parts of Churchill's comments in blue while I add my own modern insertions in red:

"Silent, mournful, abandoned, broken, Czechoslovakia Israel receded into darkness. She has suffered in every respect by her association with the Western democracies and the League of Nations United Nations."

"But they [the people] have no power," he said. "...there can never be friendship between the British democracy Americans and the Nazi power...the Radical Muslim Nations... which derives perverted pleasure from persecution...and uses with pitless brutality the threat of murderous force."

He ended his speech in the House of Commons by describing the Munich Agreement as "only the beginning of the reckoning. This is only the first sip, the first foretaste of a bitter cup which will be proffered to us year by year unless by a supreme recovery of moral health and martial vigour, we arise again and take our stand for freedom as in the olden time."

Where are men like Churchill when we need them today?