It's S A T U R D A Y ! !

Foolin' Around All Day...


I'm going to do EXACTLY what I want to do all day today after surviving a withering week of BS and dealing with the incompetence of some of my critical vendors.

It's one thing to be three or four weeks late with some products, but to then have me drive across Knoxtown to pick them up...

...and then get them back here to the shop and find out they were only partially finished?

So yesterday I had to drag the box of parts BACK down to the Machine Shop and hopefully I will see something again some time early next week.

I've been paying these guys early  but I suspect they might wait longer than 30 days to get a check from me this time.

So any way...I have a half painted french door in the dining room to finish dealing with, and then Georgia Tech plays NC State on ESPN at noon and it's pretty much going to take an act of congress to get me out of the bed or off of the sofa for the next 24 hours.

Hope everyone has at least half as good a weekend as I plan on having.

Regards Y'all...

Self-Induced Home Improvement Insanity

What Ever You Do...Don't Listen To The "Professionals"...


So there I was, sitting around all comfortable on my sofa some time last Summer--I think it was in June or July of 2009--when I put down my beer and I said to my self...I said:

"Self...you need get up off of your butt, drive down to Home Depot, and get the stuff needed to replace that old crappy 48 year old painted carport door you have there in the Kitchen with a nice stained wooden French door with lots of windows."

Then in an extended conniption fit of mental malaise, I said..."and while you are at it, why not cut a hole through the wood and bricks in the back wall of the dining room and put in another Painted French door with a bunch of glass..."

And then, for the grand Finale...

"If you do all of that stuff, you're just gonna have to buy a another 6'-8" high by 3'-0" wide 100 pound slab of wood and replace your front door, but this time make it solid and just drill a little, itty, bitty hole, in it and put in one of those peep-hole thingies so you can spy on who ever is at your door rather than just looking out the giant picture window two feet away."

And so I did.

BUY all of that stuff needed to do all of those projects last summer.

Problem is, by the time I got the hole pounded through the back wall of the house through the bricks and the associated new deck finished...

and did I mention the new Turbo Pup door in the wall, also cut through solid brick?

It was all I could manage to do to get the old carport door taken down and the new bare door slab cut to match the existing hinges and door strike positions in the old hand built, vintage 1963 wood door frames.

Thus through last winter and all of this spring and summer until about three weeks ago two of my three new doors (not counting the Turbo Pup door) hung un-stained/un-painted in their openings.

And the new front door slab?

It's a random piece of art still today out on my carport (hoping to be installed next week.)

And any way, recently I opened up the year old cans of wood grain sealer and Maple colored stain and Spar Polyurethane and proceeded to slather a new color and finish on the bare wood of the Carport door.

Problem was, instead of using blue painters' masking tape to cover the glass of TWELVE GLASS PANES, I listened to an acquaintance's father who is a self proclaimed "professional" house painter and he told me to just slap the finish on the door and then use a razor blade and mineral spirits to clean the stain and paint off when I was finished.

I'd like to just write the word "W R O N G" here and be done with the subject.

But...

I my considered Redneck experience the guy just wasn't  W R O N G, he was freaking stoned or hallucinating.

I've just gotten through with three days working part time dealing with the biggest clean up mess ever seen since a buddy's wife decided to give her dog an enema  (don't ask.)

At first I swore that dynamite wouldn't get the crap off of the glass panes of my new door.

But then finally, using  a combination of razor blades, a chemical called "Goof Off" (Imagine that), and some 000 steel wool along with a pint of Vodka (internal operator lubricant) and some massive personal determination as of about three PM today I have a fairly nice looking new French door.

And all I know is my "Professional" painter might have suffered a good cursing out if I had seen him this past week while I was suffering (and twenty five years ago there might have been black eyes and broken noses involved in the proceedings.)

But any way, one and one-half doors installed (paint on the rear French door going on tomorrow), and then next week I hope to get the front door cut in and installed before the first snow storm.

Wish me luck...If you will...

Will Work For Food Beer Money ...

I'm Too Busy To Blog???
















Sorry...More ramblings later...

My First You Tube Submission

Blackwater Grill Rocks...

I mentioned a couple of times here on the blog that back this last spring my buddy John down on St. Simons Island, Georgia had the pleasure of having his restaurant--Blackwater Grill--featured on Food Network's "Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives."

We caught the show when it was broadcast but missed Mr. Howton's viewing party because we were stuck up here in East Tennessee when the show aired (and we were invited to the filming but again we were 8 hours away and couldn't do the trip at the time.)

So any way, here's the You Tube video I sent out last night from the DVD I received in the mail yesterday:




The head Chef Jamie and I have cooked together in the SSI Chili Cookoff the past two years and I've been asked to do the event again next year with this wonderful group of people.

If you have never been to our little island St. Simons you really are missing a beautiful unique destination, and if you've been there you know I know what I'm talking about.

I'm Supposed To Be At The Beach Now?

This Working For A Living Crap Sucks...


OK, I'm not quite sure what is happening but for the third time in as many months we've had to cancel a trip away from the Turbo Pup Compound here on the banks of the Mighty Tennessee River.

This most recent malfunction was due in part to Pat having a a slight illness causing Vertigo, and then I came up with a fit of new work which had to be done by the middle of next week. Thus leaving town for ten days or two weeks was just out of the question since the trip was supposed to begin last Wednesday.

Pat's still taking a week off and just hanging around with me and the Turbo Puppy, but I have an erratic work schedule and am also trying to get some lingering home improvement projects finished--like the year old wood door stain and polyurethane on the carport project, and the new front door slab installation project and so on ...

...and...well, you get my drift.

I really, Really, REALLY would rather be at the beach right now but other more important things prevented that from happening, and what drives me crazy is how the government treats people that work for themselves and earn a living without actually getting a regular paycheck from some evil rich business owner or the government.

You see, I don't get paid unless I work, and I can't just run off on vacation and still have money coming in the door in the form of sick leave or vacation pay, and yet the government--local and national--acts like every single dollar I manage to bring into the mail box is their money until I can prove that I have some reason to claim it for myself.

Doesn't that suck? And next year or the year after if things go as planned our family could actually be one of those evil groups of people with an apparent income of over $250,000 because I own a Subchapter S business and all of the money earned passes to the owner(s)and Pat makes a nice living at her job.

It's a sad day when class and wealth envy created by the government and the government education system and associated programs make a large part of the population believe that people don't deserve to keep a substantial portion of the money they earn by working and sacrificing and doing the things that it takes to make above "average" income.

I guess you could understand why there might be an incentive to not make any money if all the government is going to do is step in and claim 39% or 50% of it at the end of the year.

Maybe I'm just dense or stupid, but still, here I sit this morning, 600 miles away from the ocean, processing invoices and purchase orders and worrying about having to beat the idiots at the local Machine Shop into getting some finished parts back to me next week....

...and worrying about how I can afford to hire an accountant this year to keep me out of trouble with the IRS next year.

It's amazing that I'm trying to throw money at vendors and having trouble getting them to do anything in the process?

I guess that the good news is that apparently there is some business being conducted out there somewhere, and the few people that still have jobs are busy so I just have to wait for their services.

Speaking of busy...time for me to get back to work I guess...

Y'all have a LOVELY Sunday...If you will...

Age Old Old Age Paranoia

Am I Getting Ready To Hunker Down Or Just Bug Out?


I just realized today that looking at me and my stuff from the outside, one could easily accuse me of becoming paranoid in my old age middle age.

For instance, ever since I moved to Florida back on September 12, 2001 (I was supposed to leave Atlanta on 9/11 but the dang Saudis got in my way), and continuing over to St. Simons Island, Georgia and now the past few years up here in Knoxtown at the Turbo Pup Compound I've spent more and more time and money on stuff that I don't need yesterday or even today, but that I might need in the event of an emergency next week or next month or next year...

...or the year after that.

Stuff like gallon jugs of drinking water sitting around in the bottom of hall closets.

Or the 1.5 KW electric generator that's still shrink wrapped in it's original cardboard box.

How about dozens of candles and matches and lighters and the two antique oil burning lanterns and wicks and fuel in the Dining room Sideboard cabinet?

And then there is the kerosine heater likewise sitting in it's original packaging unopened in the basement beside the generator.

Now it's come to my attention that not only do I need to worry about living past a Hurricane when residing on the Ocean or a snow/ice storm here in Knoxtown, but now with Obama and the Democrats' lax attitude toward the production of Nuclear weapons by North Korea and now Iran...

I'm still short of some other critical components in my ultimate dooms day inventory.

Things like extra charcoal for my grill to be stored in the basement for future use.

Or some additional canned non-perishable food stuffs--possibly some military style MRE's (meals ready to eat)--to cover a few weeks if not months,and now I want to build something to protect a few pieces of electronic equipment in the event of an Electro Magnetic Pulse (EMP) attack by some wild eyed towel headed morons.

I have an extra laptop PC and a AC/DC radio and some other stuff that would be valuable in the event of an infrastructure breakdown and I've learned that in order to keep a giant blast of electrical noise from frying everything that it is possible to build what is called a "Faraday Cage"--basically a metal screen enclosed storage box, area, or even an entire room...which is connected to a dedicated ground wire and grounding rod.

The idea is that through the laws of physics (which I understand but won't bore you with Gausian surface theory this morning) the system will collect the burst of energy from a lightening strike or nuclear EMP bomb and short it around the shielded area and into the ground in an effort to protect the delicate chips in modern electronic devices so they won't fry themselves.

So any way, now instead of spending time blogging further this morning, I'm going to go back to my research efforts and hopefully in the next couple of weeks I'll add this feature to my ever growing basement bunker complex.

Meanwhile, don't be a stranger. Just call before you stop by, and knock before you enter, because until after the November election my trigger finger is a little twitchy for some reason.

Regards Y'all...

Nothing To Say...

...So I'll Say (Write) Nothing...













(Stay tuned to this channel for a good rant shortly.)

Retarded Television

If You Wonder Who's Voting...


I don't know, but does anyone but me lose their mind when they try to watch TV during the hours between about 4 AM and 7 AM?

Apparently the demographic is either pimple faced kids seeking acne cures, middle aged men with sexual "performance" issues, vain women looking to cover up their "skin imperfections" so they can catch a man buying the "performance" enhancing drugs (and hoping for an erection which lasts longer than four hours) else they are people who want to sit on the sofa watching videos about "cash flow" systems and buying real estate with no money down.

Then of course there are the people that want to lose 257 pounds, 3 ounces in eight weeks using some sort of exercise machine which hides conveniently under the bed or in the closet while eating some sort of food shipped to their door in little freeze dried packets which tastes like something prepared by a professional chef in a five star restaurant.

But I have to ask...what about ME?

Old slightly past middle aged guys who have survived our Acne years, given up on things like sex and making much money and not really caring about losing the weight gained while consuming pounds of butter and bacon fat?

All I can say is thank GOD for the Internet and YouTube and important videos like this one:



Gnuck...Gnuck...Gnuck...whoop whoop whoop...

(MORE...a half hour later)

Then there is stuff I still have like this on VHS Video Tape:




"Looks like this is the beginning of a beautiful relationship..."

Home Repair Yields Cooking Revelation?

Here...Try This Recipe...


So when we moved into this old house in April 2008, while it was in pretty good shape for something made of bricks and wood which was only three years younger than I was, there were still a few nagging little details which reared their ugly heads every now and then...

...and over the past 2-1/2 years I've been playing "Whack A Mole" with them on an individual basis based on the priority and reality of the consequences should they be ignored.

Things that might fall on my head or electrocute me or cause me to drown were top priority, but as the days and months on the calendar have passed us by the list has gotten shorter and now we're down to silly details like replacing Kitchen Oven vent hoods and also most recently, the "Lazy Susan" or "Lazy Susie" or "Lazy Mildred" or even "Lazy Bob"---that turntable thing commonly found under the base cabinets in the corner of the kitchen.

Apparently the old couple that owned our house before we moved in stored a used Datsun Pickup Truck under the counter or allowed their kids and/or grand kids to use the devise as an amusement park merry go round or something...

because the darned thing was cracked and broken several ways and as a result prone to flinging 24 ounce cans of tomato sauce out of the cabinet onto your bare feet or else losing things like raw potatoes back in the neither regions behind the round shelves only to rot and produce lovely odors better relegated to the basement or bathroom than the kitchen.

So any way, a couple of weeks ago I bought a new one on line and managed to cut the old mangled one out of the cabinet and cram the new one into it's place, but the top shelf seems to want to refuse to stay locked to the vertical shaft/pole so early this morning I found myself sitting in the kitchen floor disgorging all of the canned goods out of the cabinet so I could lift the shelf and take a monkey wrench and a sledge hammer and crush the bolt holding the shelf into it's final position.

I'm proud to report that as of this morning it's going to take either a stick of dynamite or a Muslim Suicide Bomber to remove that shelf from my kitchen.

But I digress...

while going through all of the crazy cans of stuff I'd forgotten I'd bought I was stuck with an idea for a late night snack--actually a soup concoction--which worked out pretty dang good if I do say so myself.

Here's the recipe for Virgil's "Creamy Mushroom Chicken Spinach Tarragon Mushroom Soup."

(OK...I have to work on the name a little, but you get the idea...)

Ingredients:

(2) tbsp Bacon Grease
(2) hands full of baby spinach
(1) 7 oz Can Sliced Button Mushrooms
(1) 12 oz Can Campbell's Cream of Mushroom Soup
(1) 5 oz Can premium chicken Breast (or diced chicken breast leftovers)
1/2 14 oz Can Chicken Stock
1/2 Cup white Wine

dash of sea salt
couple of dashes of white pepper
couple of sashes of black pepper
1/4 tsp of your favorite hot sauce


Putting it all together...

Dump your bacon grease into a two or three quart boiler and get it hot over medium heat.

Drain your canned mushroom slices and toss them in the hot bacon grease.

Give them two or three minutes to heat up, then throw in your baby spinach and cook until the spinach wilts.

Turn the heat down and reserve the mushroom/spinach mixture on the side in a bowl and spoon out your cream of mushroom soup into the boiler and add the chicken stock and kick the heat back up.

Open and drain your chicken breast pieces and pull the leaves off your Tarragon and dice them up real fine.

Add the Tarragon and salt/peppers to the mixture and keep stirring.

When things start steaming and bubbling a little, add back in your mushroom/spinach mix and dump in the white wine and the chicken chunks.

Take a big swig of white wine for yourself now if you want to.

Hey...take two swigs...I'ts your wine...

Simmer everything for about 15 or 20 more minutes, then grab yourself a napkin and bowl and spoon and EAT.

Regards Y'all

The Redneck Gourmet

(For those that don't read my terribly neglected cooking Blog--The Redneck Gourmet -- I will cross post this recipe and thus it is written in the style I use in/on that forum.)

Construction Progress

Diggin' Holes And Makin' Sawdust...


Fortunately for me and the American Healthcare system I'm the Architect/Engineer on this adventure, and as a result younger, stronger, more flexible and resilient men are making good progress on my Neighbor's sun room addition project.

Here's a look at the first 10 days (16 days on the calendar) of work.

A ditch full of re bar waiting on concrete:

A Cement truck load slopping in the ditches:

Footers and back fill in place ready for the slabs:




Walls framed up, waiting on a roof:






Ridge beam in place and rafters set...






It will have a roof skin and shingles by the end of the day Wednesday...

...and it sure is easier to stand around taking pictures and pointing at drawings rather than running a saw and climbing scaffolding.

And of course I get some credit for the design.

Government Tax Break For The Dead?

Gee...Thanks Uncle Sam...


I haven't mentioned it here on the Blog before, but right now I'm arguing with the IRS over my 2008 tax return.

I've already submitted a revised return which at first they accepted along with a plan for me to pay off the additional taxes owed over the next few months in installments instead of in lump sum.

So far so good...

Then this past weekend I got ANOTHER package of information from them challenging my revised/amended return and rehashing my options including offering yet another payment plan, and this time the amount I owe is less than I said even though they screwed up my moving expense calculation.

Any way, I was wading through the IRS website trying to figure out whether to just accept their calculation or continue the argument--because based on their logic I owe even less if I press a few points--or just sign the agreement and mail a check when I found this little passage...
Get this...if you die in 2010 and your employer continues to pay you for the calendar year because of how your contract is structured...THE IRS GETS TO CONTINUE TO COLLECT SOCIAL SECURITY AND MEDICARE TAXES EVEN THOUGH YOU ARE D E A D...


Deceased employee's wages. If an employee dies during the year, you must report the accrued wages, vacation pay, and other compensation paid after the date of death. Wages that were constructively received by the employee while he or she was alive are reported on Form W-2 as any other regular wage payment, even if you may have to reissue the payment in the name of the estate or beneficiary.

If you made the payment after the employee's death but in the same year the employee died, you must withhold social security and Medicare taxes on the payment and report the payment on the employee's Form W-2 only as social security and Medicare wages to ensure proper social security and Medicare credit is received.

...snip...

If you made the payment after the year of death, do not report it on Form W-2, and do not withhold social security and Medicare taxes.

Isn't that total crap?

Unless you have little kids or a wife who can collect suvivor benefits when you die, the government still swoops in in every case and continues to steal money from dead people...money which they know that they will never have to pay back out because the person is DEAD...all in the name of "Fairness" and "income redistribution."

I guess it really is like they say...nothing is certain except for death AND taxes...

Kids Like This Will Save Us All

A Young Patriot...




If I were about 45 years younger...

Put This In Your Pipe...

And SMOKE It...


I have a copy of the Qur'an on the way to my house via Amazon for the purposes of lighting my Webber Kettle reading the words directly, but over the past five or so years I have personally read a good deal of the passages referenced in this video from pages on the Internet and find it to be a valid reference:




Doesn't that make you shudder in your stocking feet?

I believe that we need to extinguish the lives of many of these Bastards following this radical form of Islam, and anything else short of victory...unlike the pussyifcation of America found during the Korean and Vietnam War, will result in our ultimate demise.

For this reason I am completely happy that I never had any children (because men like me knew better than to take on the responsibility and then not fulfill the promise), but I worry about my Sister's young boy--my Nephew Reagan--and the other Children and Grandchildren of friends and relatives and an infinite number of other kids and grand-kids and young adults which are threatened by this ever expanding, ever growing threat.

I'm just happy I'm 51 rather than 21...

This is serious SHIT in my opinion, and you can call me a racist or a bigot or just a stupid old, mean old, ever greying ever balding moron or whatever, but understand this...

I know how to aim a gun and shoot it.

I can tell the difference between shit and shineola.

I don't give a damn what you or your mother or Congress or the Supreme Court thinks.

At some point my life is worth less than the value of the idiocy I can stop in the process of giving up the few years left over in the name of peace and justice and the American Way.

It's just that simple...

Crazy On A Ship Of Fools--Part MCMXXXI

If I Had The Money I'd Be Out Of Here...


Just in case you haven't been paying attention here on this blog, the bottom line these days is that if it weren't for two women--my mother and my girlfriend Pat--I'd be living somewhere other than the United By-God States of 'Merica in the near future if not for the past several years now.

OK...cash on hand and cash flow also being considerations, but still...

And where exactly I'm not sure...probably Belize or Costa Rica...but anywhere else in this hemisphere other than the place this nation is being transformed into by America despising Morons and other breeds of generic Socialists/Liberals/Progressives in recent years.

I guess I'll sit back and watch the continuing disintegration of the country I grew up in for a while longer and see what the results of the November election produces.

And until then...expect further complaining in my usual eloquent but politically incorrect form...

"Clydesdale Respect"

They Only Played It Once On TV...







A comment I found on Snopes.com from Anheuser Busch about the 2002 Super Bowl commercial commemorating the 9/11 attack and showing the vacant NYC skyline said:

We truly appreciate your interest in one of our Super Bowl 2002 commercials, "Clydesdale Respect."

As you have heard, this commercial aired only once. However, we continue to be overwhelmed by the positive response. Anheuser-Busch is proud to be an American beer company and we wanted to express ourselves in respectfully honoring those affected by the events of September 11th We are pleased that the Budweiser Clydesdales were able to deliver our sentiments in a way that has resonated with many Americans.

At this time, we have no plans to air this commercial again. Although it was available for a period of one year on our Web site, we have since chosen to update the site with fresher ads.

Looking at the attitude of many of the voters and most the politicians today...with minds made of mush and memories shorter than their next text message...I felt like reminding everyone of where we are and where we're coming from and where we're going to end up again if we don't stay vigilant.

You know?






(Thanks for remembering Rodger.)

Qur'an Bar-B-Que Recipies

A Redneck Invitation For My Own Personal Jihad...


Is anyone but me tired of the so-called "news stories" involving some slack jawed moron/self-described preacher down in Florida's much ballyhooed public intent to burn some copies of the Qur'an (or Quaran or Koran or however you choose to spell the book)???

He couldn't just go out on E-bay or Amazon or down to the local Muslim Propaganda Book Store (Jihad-R-Us) and buy a few dozen copies and toss them in a bonfire while singing Kumbaya with his fellow in-bred parishioners...

NoooooOOOO...had to call the local news and then the ASSociated Press picked up the story and ran with it and here we all are today red faced with Generals and Senators and Secretaries of State all tossing in their two cents worth on the issue.

I've had it up to here...pointing to the top of my ever greying, ever balding head...with this insane media attention to total non-events which 100 years ago(or even 25 years ago for that matter) would slide past on the calendar without even so much as a whimper in the local news papers.

Back then we were all worried about the KKK and the Catholics fighting Baptists in Ireland and the Simbanese Liberation Army and the Unabomber and Pet Rocks and Mood Rings and other important stuff like that.

Yet today this idiot's possibly well intended and sincere announcement that he's going to burn a couple of books WHICH ARE HIS PROPERTY AND HE HAS PAID FOR has caused half the planet to go into an uproar and all of our elitist "better" governing class to come out and comment on the non-issue.

Let me remind everyone hyperventilating about this subject about a couple of things.

The American Flag is burned almost every day by "activists" in our own country and over seas.

And the Holy Bible is confiscated and desecrated by the Saudi's and Sunis and Shias as a mater of law and political tradition and we don't miss a beat chewing our TV dinners watching the 6 O'clock evening news.

And the "Code Pink" Lesbians and Trans-sexuals run around in churches splashing fake blood on old Catholic ladies and then plead to misdemeanor charges of disturbing the peace, at worse, and the folks in the state houses of NY and San Francisco and up in Washington DC simply, "tolerantly", turn their head and start talking about blaa blaa blaa "Amendment Rights" and freedom of expression.

And what's the real difference when it comes down to dotting the "I's" and crossing the "T's" except how the idiots which are insulted by the gestures respond?

You know?

Well, I have THIS to say about THAT (Qur'an burning) if you feel Americans should get all worked up about the subject after sitting through everything which has happened around here since the Vietnam War.

SCREW YOU and YOUR POLITICIANS' sniveling, self-important, introspective, sensitive, pompas attitudes.

If you insist on telling the guy he can't burn SIMPLE THINGS LIKE BOOKS which are his property because you ARE AFRAID that the radical towel headed islamofascists will hate us even more and want to kill us any more than they already do...you are CRAZY and UNINFORMED.

Many of these people are either so ignorant or so crazy they believe that their Allah--God--is actually embodied in the Qur'an just like Christians believe that Christ was our God in physical form embodied on the earth. (And while I'm at it I'll mention that my old ex-grandfather-in-law believed that the King James Version of the Bible was the literal word of God and that it was originally written in English and not Hebrew and Greek and Arabic...)

Religion makes people crazy...only here in the good old US of A a lot of people do things like frown on drinking whisky and dancing too close and adultery and cutting the grass on Sunday.

But if you want to get totally shit-faced and dance your way across your front yard naked having sex with your next door neighbor's wife while pushing your lawnmower on Sunday afternoon you might turn a few heads or cause a few fingers to wag, but we won't come over and set off an explosion with a 1000 pounds of TNT in your garage the next morning.

Understand?

Yet we all already know that these wild-eyed Muslim terrorists will use any excuse up to and including things like "it's Tuesday" or "he was wearing a Pink Floyd t-shirt" or anything else they can find to explain their actions when the smoke clears and the shrapnel lands on your Prias' hood.

And I say that there are much more serious things going on in the country and in the world to debate rather than spending 12 hours a day broadcasting news and commentary about mouth-breathing, sloped forehead people like this looking for their 15 minutes of fame.

Got it?


OK...

I'm glad we got that straightened out, and now I have to go and light my Webber Kettle using a couple of copies of the Qur'an and some hand draw cartoons of Mohammad.

I want to smoke some Hams and Pork Butts for this weekend, and Allah and Mohammad will hopefully enjoy the gesture and unique Muslim religion inspired flavor imparted therein...




(what? so sue me or come over and blow up my Redneck ass...dammit...)

Liberals Progressives On Parade

More Insensitive Observations...


It kills me every year when inevitably, at the end of a hot dry summer, the fruits of the labors of the sniveling, booger eating, tye died, patchouli stinking tree hugging eco-friendly liberals progressives comes to bear and most of the western United by-God States of 'Merica spontaneously burst into flame.

Generally all of the loud mouthed Hollywood asshats that live out in Malibu and up in the hills overlooking downtown Los Angeles are the main ones affected, but this year the Weather Channel just showed me a bunch of Colorado Tree Huggers near Boulder lamenting the latest round of fires destroying their homes and businesses...

aided and abetted by their very own policies and programs preventing the cutting of underbrush and making controlled smoke using prescribed burns to get rid of the very kindling fueling the fires incinerating their possessions today.

These people are, by and large, the very same people which vote to pass laws and resolutions trying to keep the canyons and other wild areas they are invading for millions of dollars each in what they consider to be a "pristine" condition, while at the same time driving land costs up and the indigenous populations of wildlife and historic "poor blue collar" occupants out of the area under the guise of "zoning" and "beautification" and "conservation."

Of course millions of taxpayer dollars are being spent in hiring the services of fire fighters and air tankers, but the liberal lamestream media insists on ignoring the underlying realities of these people's conscious risk taking behavior in locating in these historically fire prone areas and the civic and government mandates which further enhance the probability of disaster.

And of course since the people look like this:




...instead of this...



and further since they aren't relying on this guy to run things:


(that would be former New Orleans' Mayor Ray Nagin)

where are the cries for FEMA assistance and the partisan blamers getting on George Bush?

Just wondering...

Hey Bill Gates...

Pay Me For My Time?


Well, here I am this morning, looking at the calendar, and reminiscing about being on about day 1001 of my love hate relationship roller coaster ride from hell living with Windows Vista on my Server.

Looking back to November 2007, there I was, with a pocket full of cash some semi-surplus funds in our checking account, looking pretty much like this guy:

when I wandered over to the Hewlett Packard website a couple of times and was finally seduced into purchasing a new "custom built" server PC with all of the bells and whistles and whirly-gigs I wanted to handle our personal and business needs for the foreseeable future...

...except...

HP had sold their soul to the devil knuckled under to Gates/Microsoft and ten days later I had a living breathing spastic metal box running...

"Windows Vista Home Premium Edition."

D A M M I T.

So now for the past nearly three years I've felt like this gentleman:




...and in spite of my best efforts and consultations with people like this young fellow:



and this guy:



and this dude:



and even this man:



...this morning after great effort and expense it seems I will have to live with the realization that I still can't shake the curse of Windows Vista.

Worst of all, just like the "Borg" on Star Trek Next Generation, me and my computer have apparently been assimilated into some sinister Microsoft Network, because I even VOLUNTARILY RE-INSTALLED VISTA last week because I couldn't get Windows 2000 XP Professional to work on the intentionally designed and corrupted machine.

And so now this morning, after doing extensive file restorations and back-up, I'm now forced to sit in my shop in my basement on my old reliable HP 17" wide screen laptop (running Windows 2000 XP Professional Media Center Edition by the way) doing my news reading and blogging because the "Server PC" is busy installing "Service Pack 1" and whatever other crap Microsoft wants to force me to download to correct the screwed up software they sold me in 2007.

And of course I'm inundated with ads trying to get me to "upgrade" to the latest and greatest product--"Windows 7"...

...a product named "Windows 7" because everyone with any sense knows that "Vista II" or "Vista 2" would have sold like a new version of the Chevy Corvair or the Ford Edsel.

So any way...I love being an American, I love growing up free until about 20 years ago, but right now I hate the state of our economy and the idiots running Adams and Jefferson's and Franklin's government and the way things are going in the computer department around here I might just buy a Macintosh in 2011.

I have to go now and soak my head in ice water before it explodes...

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

Hey...YOU There...

GET BACK TO WORK!


I know, I know I KNOW...

it's a sad day because the 90% of working Americans which actually have a job have to go back to work today.

And of course all of the kids have to go back to school (parents taking a collective sigh of relief.)

And the Summer weather is rapidly changing to fall and the Turbo Pup pool will soon be too cold to use--probably within the next two weeks.

But the seasons are changin' and I've already got leaves falling out in the yard and I guess that I'm looking forward to the cooler weather and the fall colors coming back.

We're planning a trip to the beach down on the Gulf coast in the middle of this month in order to prolong my suntan just a little longer, then I guess I'll buckle down and try to get some real work done and do some end of the year planning professionally.

Y'all have a lovely week...

"Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night"

...Knowledgable Words On Getting Old...


Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

And you, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

--Dylan Thomas (October 27, 1914 – November 9, 1953)



(doing the math...Mr. Thomas was only 39 when he went into "That Good Night")