Arms And Back Starting To Feel Their Age...
About 3:30 PM yesterday we drug all the tools out of the yard and into the carport and wound up the extension cords and air compressor hoses, content with the knowledge that I was pretty much on schedule and the lumber quantities I ordered thus far had worked out exactly as planned.
The local lumber yard where my Neighbor Danny works delivered the #1 Kiln Dried Pressure Treated decking lumber right after lunch, so just as my pile of unused Home Depot boards were dwindling down to about a dozen, another pile of BEAUTIFUL lumber appeared for my use later this Saturday morning while installing the Deck and step surfaces.
For reference, #1 Kiln Dried Pressure Treated is the best darn natural wood product you can use for Deck construction here in the Southern US, and I felt like spending the extra 15% or 20% was worth the investment.
I know they have other options like Cedar and Redwood and of course the new man made composites like "TREX" but for a house in our price range in our neighborhood with the possibility of selling in the next 12 months I couldn't see spending three or four times as much on deck boards when Danny offered us a deal on the fancy Southern Yellow Pine.
Having the basic structural framework in place just makes me wish we could afford to build the entire deck in one mobilization because so much of the area is taken up with the oversized 5' x 15" exit step out of the house and the three similar sized steps down to the yard.
The good news is that there is still room for two lounge chairs or a table and four chairs for dining and most importantly...Missy the Turbo Pup will finally be able to let herself in and out of the house through her new pet door to sun herself and do her "business" without one of us having to escort her on her leash.
Truth be told, the real estate improvement angle almost takes a back seat to the ability to let our little Turbo Pup gain access to the yard so she can be a Hound Dog instead of just a glorified House Dog.
I guess now it's time to do some as built CAD drawing modifications, spread on some more Bengay Ointment, and catch a few more hours sleep before making more sawdust.
Wish us luck...if you will...
Saturday, May 23, 2009
Friday, May 22, 2009
I've Had It Up To Here...
Pointing To The Top Of My Ever Greying, Ever Balding Head...
Forget Rasmussen and Gallup and all of the other formal Political "Opinion" polls...
I'm taking my own poll this morning, and I want to know how many people out there that watch TV after 3:30 AM or 4:00 AM would rather see something like this on their screen:
rather than the idiots hawking the "Male enhancements" and the "AB rockets" and the "Real Estate Whatevers" and the "Cash flow" ads.
Back in the day we said that there was nothing on after midnight.
Today, even with cable, I say that there's still basically nothing "on" between 3 AM and 6 AM in spite of paying 50 bucks a month for the service.
Forget Rasmussen and Gallup and all of the other formal Political "Opinion" polls...
I'm taking my own poll this morning, and I want to know how many people out there that watch TV after 3:30 AM or 4:00 AM would rather see something like this on their screen:
rather than the idiots hawking the "Male enhancements" and the "AB rockets" and the "Real Estate Whatevers" and the "Cash flow" ads.
Back in the day we said that there was nothing on after midnight.
Today, even with cable, I say that there's still basically nothing "on" between 3 AM and 6 AM in spite of paying 50 bucks a month for the service.
Thursday, May 21, 2009
Man Wielding Earth Auger Attacks Leaf Blower Operator
Progress None The Less...
So we wandered back over to Home Depot after their courteous Driver dropped off a few thousandTons Pounds of Pressure Treated Lumber this morning for the purpose of purchasing and borrowing what I call "Tools of Torture."
The First item was what is known as a "concrete" or "masonry" drill bit.
The latest item wasn't just any ordinary "concrete" or "masonry" bit... because I already own a fairly large assortment of those.
You see, since my house has a brick exterior finish on all four sides, resting against a wood frame sitting on a cinder block basement structure, and because the design elevation of my deck places it only 28" off the ground where the cinder blocks also reside, I needed a "concrete" or "masonry" bit...
A BIT SLIGHTLY OVER A FOOT LONG AND 5/8" IN DIAMETER.
And I was going to have to hold on to my Ryobi Hammer Drill while it punched its way through the rear wall of my house ...
SIX TIMES.
I found the expensive thirty four dollar 18" version at first, but since I didn't think even my expansive and ever growing collection of tools needed that much funding focused in such a narrow area of home improvement capability, I settled for the 13" version costing $12.
(By the way, it punched all six holes in the wall in less than 20 minutes with about 1/8" of length to spare...talk about close tolerances...)
The second item I needed I'd already owned twice before and worn out on the never ending investment property renovation in Brunswick a couple of years ago.
A Diamond Tipped "concrete" or "Masonry" saw blade designed to fit your "Skill Saw."
My recommendation is to not do this operation using your regular "Skill Saw"...buy the cheapest "Skill Saw" you can find (be it Craftsman or Ryobi" or whatever brand) and then cut your "concrete" or "masonry" and then throw the blade along with the saw in the Dumpster when you're finished because neither will be worth anything after thirty minutes to an hour spent cutting "concrete" or "Masonry" in this manner.
Any way...they only had one blade in stock which would fit my "Skill Saw" and it was clear that the package had been opened and the idiots at the Home Depot return desk had let some ingrate not only return the blade in the open package, but the blade was clearly used and the inner "insert" or "knockout" which allowed the blade to fit on various sized saw mandrels was missing.
I took a pass on that Item (see my earlier posting on home improvement store return counters.)
Finally, it was back over to the "Tool Rental" counter where Home Depot keeps all their really expensive, dangerous stuff like pressure washers, wood floor sanders, gasoline powered "concrete" or "masonry" saws, ACME head chopper-offers, and machine guns.
I needed what they laughingly call a "One Man Auger."
I was already afraid of the machine even as I asked the clerk to allow me to rent it for their minimum time period--Four Hours--because I had rented one before about this time last year when we were first installing the fence around the Turbo Pup Compund.
My point is that I'm fairly certain that if 99% of the men of my age were to actually rent one of these machines, drove home killing 15 minutes of the allotted time, and proceeded to try to hang on to it solo (remember it's a "one man" auger") while it was in operation for the entire remaining 3-1/2 hours (allowing time to return it to the HD Rental Counter) that the return trip would involve fire trucks, paramedics, and an ambulance.
I kept my "One Man Auger" for about three hours., and part of the time it was really a "one man and one woman and one Turbo Pup auger because that's what it takes to keep it under control while drilling through eastern Tennessee's dense red clay.
I ended up holding on to my "One Man Auger" for probably ONE HOUR OF THAT TOTAL TIME.
The rest of the time was spent with me sitting in a chair in the shade while I let the "One Man Auger" bake on its side on the grass or dirt in the sun.
In summary, my tools kicked my butt today, but I got all of the "one Man Augering" and "Hammer Drilling" completed by 3 PM and three new fence posts and two new deck structure posts are happily sitting in 6" diameter, 24" deep holes as I write.
In a fit of insanity I ran around the yard drilling another three or four dozen 8" deep holes for future use to plant new bulbs and Azaleas and other stuff in but that we can't afford the time or expense to worry about within the next month.
Since I had the "One Man Auger" in my hands I figured a few extra blisters and a few more minutes of torment and fatigue out of my FOUR HOUR RENTAL couldn't hurt (much.)
I guess that I have to admit that things went pretty smoothly all and all until our substituteidiot with a leaf blower "lawn maintenance technician" showed up in the middle of the proceedings and wanted to mow my grass for the third time in fourteen days.
I relented and allowed him to cut just the front yard for a reduced price, thinking that the deal would keep him and his lawn tools out of my construction area and his flying leaf blower dust and debris off my car and carport.
I WAS WRONG....
I looked up in the middle of cutting the tops on some decorative fence posts and theidiot with a leaf blower "lawn maintenance technician" was happily blowing crap all over the Chrysler 300 sitting out of the way at the top of the driveway...
WITH ALL THE WINDOWS DOWN.
If I hadn't already returned that "One Man Auger" I'd have drilled that guy a couple of new super sized bodily orifices allowing him to use the restroom once a year rather than whatever schedule he currently enjoys.
Is it just me?
So we wandered back over to Home Depot after their courteous Driver dropped off a few thousand
The First item was what is known as a "concrete" or "masonry" drill bit.
The latest item wasn't just any ordinary "concrete" or "masonry" bit... because I already own a fairly large assortment of those.
You see, since my house has a brick exterior finish on all four sides, resting against a wood frame sitting on a cinder block basement structure, and because the design elevation of my deck places it only 28" off the ground where the cinder blocks also reside, I needed a "concrete" or "masonry" bit...
A BIT SLIGHTLY OVER A FOOT LONG AND 5/8" IN DIAMETER.
And I was going to have to hold on to my Ryobi Hammer Drill while it punched its way through the rear wall of my house ...
SIX TIMES.
I found the expensive thirty four dollar 18" version at first, but since I didn't think even my expansive and ever growing collection of tools needed that much funding focused in such a narrow area of home improvement capability, I settled for the 13" version costing $12.
(By the way, it punched all six holes in the wall in less than 20 minutes with about 1/8" of length to spare...talk about close tolerances...)
The second item I needed I'd already owned twice before and worn out on the never ending investment property renovation in Brunswick a couple of years ago.
A Diamond Tipped "concrete" or "Masonry" saw blade designed to fit your "Skill Saw."
My recommendation is to not do this operation using your regular "Skill Saw"...buy the cheapest "Skill Saw" you can find (be it Craftsman or Ryobi" or whatever brand) and then cut your "concrete" or "masonry" and then throw the blade along with the saw in the Dumpster when you're finished because neither will be worth anything after thirty minutes to an hour spent cutting "concrete" or "Masonry" in this manner.
Any way...they only had one blade in stock which would fit my "Skill Saw" and it was clear that the package had been opened and the idiots at the Home Depot return desk had let some ingrate not only return the blade in the open package, but the blade was clearly used and the inner "insert" or "knockout" which allowed the blade to fit on various sized saw mandrels was missing.
I took a pass on that Item (see my earlier posting on home improvement store return counters.)
Finally, it was back over to the "Tool Rental" counter where Home Depot keeps all their really expensive, dangerous stuff like pressure washers, wood floor sanders, gasoline powered "concrete" or "masonry" saws, ACME head chopper-offers, and machine guns.
I needed what they laughingly call a "One Man Auger."
I was already afraid of the machine even as I asked the clerk to allow me to rent it for their minimum time period--Four Hours--because I had rented one before about this time last year when we were first installing the fence around the Turbo Pup Compund.
My point is that I'm fairly certain that if 99% of the men of my age were to actually rent one of these machines, drove home killing 15 minutes of the allotted time, and proceeded to try to hang on to it solo (remember it's a "one man" auger") while it was in operation for the entire remaining 3-1/2 hours (allowing time to return it to the HD Rental Counter) that the return trip would involve fire trucks, paramedics, and an ambulance.
I kept my "One Man Auger" for about three hours., and part of the time it was really a "one man and one woman and one Turbo Pup auger because that's what it takes to keep it under control while drilling through eastern Tennessee's dense red clay.
I ended up holding on to my "One Man Auger" for probably ONE HOUR OF THAT TOTAL TIME.
The rest of the time was spent with me sitting in a chair in the shade while I let the "One Man Auger" bake on its side on the grass or dirt in the sun.
In summary, my tools kicked my butt today, but I got all of the "one Man Augering" and "Hammer Drilling" completed by 3 PM and three new fence posts and two new deck structure posts are happily sitting in 6" diameter, 24" deep holes as I write.
In a fit of insanity I ran around the yard drilling another three or four dozen 8" deep holes for future use to plant new bulbs and Azaleas and other stuff in but that we can't afford the time or expense to worry about within the next month.
Since I had the "One Man Auger" in my hands I figured a few extra blisters and a few more minutes of torment and fatigue out of my FOUR HOUR RENTAL couldn't hurt (much.)
I guess that I have to admit that things went pretty smoothly all and all until our substitute
I relented and allowed him to cut just the front yard for a reduced price, thinking that the deal would keep him and his lawn tools out of my construction area and his flying leaf blower dust and debris off my car and carport.
I WAS WRONG....
I looked up in the middle of cutting the tops on some decorative fence posts and the
WITH ALL THE WINDOWS DOWN.
If I hadn't already returned that "One Man Auger" I'd have drilled that guy a couple of new super sized bodily orifices allowing him to use the restroom once a year rather than whatever schedule he currently enjoys.
Is it just me?
Lumber On Truck
Driveway Clear (For Time Being)...
Home Depot just called threatening to have my structural framing lumber here by 9AM.
I had to get up and get dressed unexpectedly--having been promised sometime today before dinnertime being their contractual obligation.
I guess I have to stop talking and writing about it and go auger new fence post and footing holes this morning and make sawdust this afternoon.
The #1 Kiln Dried pressure treated decking arrives tomorrow.
It's probably too much to expect to have the framework installed but I'm gonna try.
I could accomplish that sort offeet feat 20 years ago...
Home Depot just called threatening to have my structural framing lumber here by 9AM.
I had to get up and get dressed unexpectedly--having been promised sometime today before dinnertime being their contractual obligation.
I guess I have to stop talking and writing about it and go auger new fence post and footing holes this morning and make sawdust this afternoon.
The #1 Kiln Dried pressure treated decking arrives tomorrow.
It's probably too much to expect to have the framework installed but I'm gonna try.
I could accomplish that sort of
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
New Party Deck
Construction Ensues...
Funny thing.
When the original owner built our present house in 1963, they put in a FRONT door and a CARPORT door, and a hidden basement door under the front porch, but oddly enough...
NO BACK DOOR.
For the past 13 months we've relegated ourselves to walking out through the kitchen and turning the corner across the carport to the back yard Turbo Pup pool compound.
While the floor plan is typical for that period, the realtor admitted after we purchased it that only having 1-1/2 baths and no patio or deck on the building had helped us get the great deal we enjoyed because families today expect/need at least two full bathrooms and private play/entertaining space out of sight of the street.
I've been committed to upgrading the marketability of the property while at the same time improving the features for our own use while we live here in Knoxtown on the banks of the Mighty Tennessee River....thus I've designed a future rear addition which will add additional closet space and a full bath to the master bedroom, and an expansive deck serving one if not two new doors on the back of the building.
Trouble is, with the long term uncertainty of my present consulting injuneering situation we've had to postpone the rear bath addition but instead of dumping the deck plans entirely I've managed to come up with a three phase plan which allows us to build a minimum initial plan with well conceived aesthetic additions which can be added in the future as cash flow permits.
Phase I material are being ordered today, and hopefully the construction will be completed sometime in the next hundred years as it requires replacing an existing window in a brick wall with a french door and some other technical complications.
Of course I'm doing the labor myself with the aid and support of Pat and Missy the Turbo Pup.
Wish us luck...if you will...
Funny thing.
When the original owner built our present house in 1963, they put in a FRONT door and a CARPORT door, and a hidden basement door under the front porch, but oddly enough...
NO BACK DOOR.
For the past 13 months we've relegated ourselves to walking out through the kitchen and turning the corner across the carport to the back yard Turbo Pup pool compound.
While the floor plan is typical for that period, the realtor admitted after we purchased it that only having 1-1/2 baths and no patio or deck on the building had helped us get the great deal we enjoyed because families today expect/need at least two full bathrooms and private play/entertaining space out of sight of the street.
I've been committed to upgrading the marketability of the property while at the same time improving the features for our own use while we live here in Knoxtown on the banks of the Mighty Tennessee River....thus I've designed a future rear addition which will add additional closet space and a full bath to the master bedroom, and an expansive deck serving one if not two new doors on the back of the building.
Trouble is, with the long term uncertainty of my present consulting injuneering situation we've had to postpone the rear bath addition but instead of dumping the deck plans entirely I've managed to come up with a three phase plan which allows us to build a minimum initial plan with well conceived aesthetic additions which can be added in the future as cash flow permits.
Phase I material are being ordered today, and hopefully the construction will be completed sometime in the next hundred years as it requires replacing an existing window in a brick wall with a french door and some other technical complications.
Of course I'm doing the labor myself with the aid and support of Pat and Missy the Turbo Pup.
Wish us luck...if you will...
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
What Happened To Summer?
Blackberry Winter Arrives In East Tennessee...
I planned to saw wood and apply paint to the finished Window Valance box structure over the past couple of days.
Of course just like last year about this time when I was cutting hinge slots and hardware holes in 5 new 6 panel doors, when it came time to smear paint the temperature dropped and the wind picked up to 30 MPH.
And right on schedule the bottom fell out of the ambient temperature again this year.
It only made it into the mid 50's yesterday and after sinking into the low 40's overnight things got back to about 63 degrees F so I could finish painting while chasing my cheap plastic drop cloths around the Carport trying to keep them off the wet paint.
It's heading into the upper 30's tonight with a chance of frost and the Weather Nerds are predicting tying or breaking the 38 deg F record set way back in 1976.
That Global Warming...she be a bitch...
I planned to saw wood and apply paint to the finished Window Valance box structure over the past couple of days.
Of course just like last year about this time when I was cutting hinge slots and hardware holes in 5 new 6 panel doors, when it came time to smear paint the temperature dropped and the wind picked up to 30 MPH.
And right on schedule the bottom fell out of the ambient temperature again this year.
It only made it into the mid 50's yesterday and after sinking into the low 40's overnight things got back to about 63 degrees F so I could finish painting while chasing my cheap plastic drop cloths around the Carport trying to keep them off the wet paint.
It's heading into the upper 30's tonight with a chance of frost and the Weather Nerds are predicting tying or breaking the 38 deg F record set way back in 1976.
That Global Warming...she be a bitch...
Sunday, May 17, 2009
I'm Gonna Kill My Landlord Lawn Guy
And I'm Stalking Stupid People At The Home Depot Return Desk...
I swear to God that the Gas Powered Leaf Blower has to be the most annoying invention produced by man in the past half century.
They're fewer of them, but to me they're almost more annoying than loud mouthed idiots with cell phones in public places.
The reason I say this is that in the past ten days I managed to drag my lazy butt off my office chair and the dead battery out of my Suburban and over to Autozone for what has become a celebrated Bi-annual Vehicle Battery Replacement Ritual (or BAVBARR for short.)
For those of you that don't know the pleasure of buying 42 gallons of gas at one time and getting 9 MPG on the highway, the 2500 series, 3/4 Ton, 4 WD, 454 cu inch dual AC trucks like mine eat batteries for a snack--at least mine does.
After dealing with that quality bi-lingual consumer purchasing exercise where they claimed to not have my battery warranty in their computer, once I got home with the new box of lead and acid I fired up the truck and spent a half hour carefully sweeping the winter's worth of dust, leaves, and other debris out of the carport...things which never should have been allowed to accumulate but were covered by the aforementioned truck with the dead battery.
Have you ever tried to push a 6,000 pound vehicle 12 inches not to mention 24 feet over and back...even on flat ground?
It ain't happening here in Knoxtown with my middle aged spleen and liver and wimpy biceps.
So any way...
I also took advantage of a three day period when it didn't rain all day to remove the accumulated vegetative crap out the concrete portal leading into our basement. Everything but the little Wren's nest with the five eggs was removed and disposed of.
Since the completion of my spring cleaning efforts myidiot lawn guy lawn maintenance technician--being basically a slacker and also being delayed by all the rain--has decided to play catch up on our lawn (and more likely his cash flow) by mowing and blowing our grass last Saturday and then again this past Thursday.
Two cuttings in six days...go figure.
Problem is, in spite of us telling him over and over and over that I'd rather have leaves on my grass than in my ears and carport and basement portal, this gentleman insists on brandishing his leaf blower (usually while I'm trying to make a business call) while listening to music on his MP3 player and...
HE INTENDS TO GIVE ME MY MONEYS WORTH OF LEAF BLOWER ACTION.
If it were dry and he blew any more my yard wouldn't have any grass or dirt left in it.
My house would be sitting on a dirt pedestal on top of the Granite bedrock.
And my carport and my Basement portal?
They both basically look like I haven't done any housekeeping in a couple of months. I just get out of the car and look straight ahead toward the door to keep my head from exploding.
And speaking of my head exploding, I have to bring up another situation I detest.
The return counter at Home Depot and Lowe's.
Have you seen the BS people try to get away with at a return counter? People don't want to buy tools to keep, they want to RENT tools...
BUT NOT AT THE HOME DEPOT TOOL RENTAL ROOM.
Apparently people buy tools all the time, use them to make seven cuts or holes, then try to bring them back and get their money back. I saw a guy once try to bring back a big monkey wrench that had something that looked like toilet gasket wax and possibly POOP in it because he said he didn't need it.
I think he stole and and rather than going to a pawn shop since it was relatively new and still had the SKU sticker on it he just wanted the cash.
I think he ended up with a store credit.
Can you buy cheep booze or Crack Cocaine with a Home Depot store credit?
Back to today's point...this morning about 10:30, instead of attending church and pleading for our souls, I was standing in line behind a guy at home depot.
The fellow had two dozen random lengths of trim lumber that had clearly been partially used, but since Home Depot sold the lumber by the foot rather than by the piece he was there for a "RETURN."
The cashier smiled her way through the process of scanning the bar code on each piece and ENDED UP REJECTING OVER HALF THE PRODUCTS because they weren't stocked by Home Depot.
The half dozen six to seven foot sticks of dirty lumber that were Home Depot products had to be measured and fumbled over before again issuing the guy A STORE CREDIT rather than a refund.
Meanwhile I'm standing on one foot twitching and resisting the urge to grab a piece of crown moulding and impaling the guy on it. I could have killed him but instead I enjoyed the expression on his face as he walked away looking at his "IN STORE CREDIT CARD."
I return probaly between 5% and 10% of the miscellaneous crap I buy at the big box home improvement stores. I generally keep an extra board or a few feet of something if I have it left over.
99% of the stuff I return I end up buying a like item...just a different or the RIGHT item within 15 minutes of leaving the return desk.
I think that people that see the return desk as an income source or a credit card cash withdrawal mechanism should be shot...or at least forced to live and work in the Kitchen Cabinet Department or the Custom Window Department for a few months to appreciate what goes on there.
That will be all...for now...
(time to go cut lumber and apply paint)
I swear to God that the Gas Powered Leaf Blower has to be the most annoying invention produced by man in the past half century.
They're fewer of them, but to me they're almost more annoying than loud mouthed idiots with cell phones in public places.
The reason I say this is that in the past ten days I managed to drag my lazy butt off my office chair and the dead battery out of my Suburban and over to Autozone for what has become a celebrated Bi-annual Vehicle Battery Replacement Ritual (or BAVBARR for short.)
For those of you that don't know the pleasure of buying 42 gallons of gas at one time and getting 9 MPG on the highway, the 2500 series, 3/4 Ton, 4 WD, 454 cu inch dual AC trucks like mine eat batteries for a snack--at least mine does.
After dealing with that quality bi-lingual consumer purchasing exercise where they claimed to not have my battery warranty in their computer, once I got home with the new box of lead and acid I fired up the truck and spent a half hour carefully sweeping the winter's worth of dust, leaves, and other debris out of the carport...things which never should have been allowed to accumulate but were covered by the aforementioned truck with the dead battery.
Have you ever tried to push a 6,000 pound vehicle 12 inches not to mention 24 feet over and back...even on flat ground?
It ain't happening here in Knoxtown with my middle aged spleen and liver and wimpy biceps.
So any way...
I also took advantage of a three day period when it didn't rain all day to remove the accumulated vegetative crap out the concrete portal leading into our basement. Everything but the little Wren's nest with the five eggs was removed and disposed of.
Since the completion of my spring cleaning efforts my
Two cuttings in six days...go figure.
Problem is, in spite of us telling him over and over and over that I'd rather have leaves on my grass than in my ears and carport and basement portal, this gentleman insists on brandishing his leaf blower (usually while I'm trying to make a business call) while listening to music on his MP3 player and...
HE INTENDS TO GIVE ME MY MONEYS WORTH OF LEAF BLOWER ACTION.
If it were dry and he blew any more my yard wouldn't have any grass or dirt left in it.
My house would be sitting on a dirt pedestal on top of the Granite bedrock.
And my carport and my Basement portal?
They both basically look like I haven't done any housekeeping in a couple of months. I just get out of the car and look straight ahead toward the door to keep my head from exploding.
And speaking of my head exploding, I have to bring up another situation I detest.
The return counter at Home Depot and Lowe's.
Have you seen the BS people try to get away with at a return counter? People don't want to buy tools to keep, they want to RENT tools...
BUT NOT AT THE HOME DEPOT TOOL RENTAL ROOM.
Apparently people buy tools all the time, use them to make seven cuts or holes, then try to bring them back and get their money back. I saw a guy once try to bring back a big monkey wrench that had something that looked like toilet gasket wax and possibly POOP in it because he said he didn't need it.
I think he stole and and rather than going to a pawn shop since it was relatively new and still had the SKU sticker on it he just wanted the cash.
I think he ended up with a store credit.
Can you buy cheep booze or Crack Cocaine with a Home Depot store credit?
Back to today's point...this morning about 10:30, instead of attending church and pleading for our souls, I was standing in line behind a guy at home depot.
The fellow had two dozen random lengths of trim lumber that had clearly been partially used, but since Home Depot sold the lumber by the foot rather than by the piece he was there for a "RETURN."
The cashier smiled her way through the process of scanning the bar code on each piece and ENDED UP REJECTING OVER HALF THE PRODUCTS because they weren't stocked by Home Depot.
The half dozen six to seven foot sticks of dirty lumber that were Home Depot products had to be measured and fumbled over before again issuing the guy A STORE CREDIT rather than a refund.
Meanwhile I'm standing on one foot twitching and resisting the urge to grab a piece of crown moulding and impaling the guy on it. I could have killed him but instead I enjoyed the expression on his face as he walked away looking at his "IN STORE CREDIT CARD."
I return probaly between 5% and 10% of the miscellaneous crap I buy at the big box home improvement stores. I generally keep an extra board or a few feet of something if I have it left over.
99% of the stuff I return I end up buying a like item...just a different or the RIGHT item within 15 minutes of leaving the return desk.
I think that people that see the return desk as an income source or a credit card cash withdrawal mechanism should be shot...or at least forced to live and work in the Kitchen Cabinet Department or the Custom Window Department for a few months to appreciate what goes on there.
That will be all...for now...
(time to go cut lumber and apply paint)
Saturday, May 16, 2009
Friday, May 15, 2009
Home Depot Strikes Again
Paint On Walls...Porch Lights Going Back In Packaging...
I have a "saying."
It's been often repeated for near twenty five years now since I've been a homeowner.
I came up with the idea myself.
Here it is...
It takes THREE TRIPS to Home Depot or Lowe's (hereafter identified as a "home improvement store") to complete any given "home improvement" project or projects.
Step #1. Go to "home improvement store" and buy the "stuff" you THINK you need.
Step #2. Go BACK to "home improvement store" and buy the "stuff" you forgot or should have bought while in step #1.
Step #3. Make third trip to "home improvement store" and return the "stuff" you didn't need and which was left over in accomplishing your "home improvement" project or projects.
It's just that simple.
The good news is that today we got most of a gallon of paint on the walls of the Master bedroom.
We managed to keep all but a few specks of light grey color off ourselves and Missy the Turbo Pup.
Tomorrow finds me re-coating some thin spots trying to avoid having to install an entire second coat of paint and finishing some cutting in edges and the trim and baseboard painting.
Then I have to take two exterior coach lanterns I purchased back to the store because after installing one light on Wednesday, I opened the second box late Thursday afternoon and found the glass globe CRACKED.
The bad news is that I got a killer deal on the lights and because they were taped closed in the original factory packaging I didn't open them to check for damage before I bought them off the clearance rack.
They were the last two units our local store had, and I need a light on each side of the front door so I have to take the one I've already installed BACK DOWN AND PUT IT BACK IN THE BOX AND TRUNDLE IT BACK TO THE "HOME IMPROVEMENT STORE" WITH IT'S DAMAGED COUSIN.
Dammit...
I have a "saying."
It's been often repeated for near twenty five years now since I've been a homeowner.
I came up with the idea myself.
Here it is...
It takes THREE TRIPS to Home Depot or Lowe's (hereafter identified as a "home improvement store") to complete any given "home improvement" project or projects.
Step #1. Go to "home improvement store" and buy the "stuff" you THINK you need.
Step #2. Go BACK to "home improvement store" and buy the "stuff" you forgot or should have bought while in step #1.
Step #3. Make third trip to "home improvement store" and return the "stuff" you didn't need and which was left over in accomplishing your "home improvement" project or projects.
It's just that simple.
The good news is that today we got most of a gallon of paint on the walls of the Master bedroom.
We managed to keep all but a few specks of light grey color off ourselves and Missy the Turbo Pup.
Tomorrow finds me re-coating some thin spots trying to avoid having to install an entire second coat of paint and finishing some cutting in edges and the trim and baseboard painting.
Then I have to take two exterior coach lanterns I purchased back to the store because after installing one light on Wednesday, I opened the second box late Thursday afternoon and found the glass globe CRACKED.
The bad news is that I got a killer deal on the lights and because they were taped closed in the original factory packaging I didn't open them to check for damage before I bought them off the clearance rack.
They were the last two units our local store had, and I need a light on each side of the front door so I have to take the one I've already installed BACK DOWN AND PUT IT BACK IN THE BOX AND TRUNDLE IT BACK TO THE "HOME IMPROVEMENT STORE" WITH IT'S DAMAGED COUSIN.
Dammit...
Thursday, May 14, 2009
Me And My Paint Roller
More Home Owner Insanity...
Well Folks, after a down day yesterday spent laying in the bed, on the sofa, and sitting in front of the computer getting basically nothing accomplished, today finds me moving furniture out of the Master Bedroom and covering everything left over with paper, tape, and plastic in anticipation of going through a couple gallons of paint--smearing it on the walls and trying to keep it off the ceiling and floors and the bed.
I don't know what the heck I was thinking because I just got through doing an epic three month long (not continuous or full time) renovation of the Hall Bathroom walls and cabinetry and I wasn't finished a week before I was standing at Home Depot buying more paint and new roller covers.
For some strange reason owning property, especially if there is a woman around when you do it, causes you to sit around looking a paint color samples in your spare time and speculating about things like gloss or semi-gloss on the wood trim work and darn it if you don't find yourself changing room colors at least once every two or three years somewhere in your abode.
I once painted the entire outside of the house I grew up in--everything but the brick--in return for a set of 6X9 tri-axial speakers and an Audiovox AM/FM radio for my '77 Camaro.
I once painted the entire inside...including the ceilings...of an 1800 square foot split foyer house in return for free rent for three months before I bought the property from the bank in foreclosure.
At least in those two endeavors I got PAID for my efforts, but today I'm reduced to being SLAVE LABOR because I love my Girl and I don't want some fool tracking and spattering paint all over the Turbo Pup and my stacks of back issues of Mechanical Engineering Magazine.
Time now to go put down some blue masking tape...
Well Folks, after a down day yesterday spent laying in the bed, on the sofa, and sitting in front of the computer getting basically nothing accomplished, today finds me moving furniture out of the Master Bedroom and covering everything left over with paper, tape, and plastic in anticipation of going through a couple gallons of paint--smearing it on the walls and trying to keep it off the ceiling and floors and the bed.
I don't know what the heck I was thinking because I just got through doing an epic three month long (not continuous or full time) renovation of the Hall Bathroom walls and cabinetry and I wasn't finished a week before I was standing at Home Depot buying more paint and new roller covers.
For some strange reason owning property, especially if there is a woman around when you do it, causes you to sit around looking a paint color samples in your spare time and speculating about things like gloss or semi-gloss on the wood trim work and darn it if you don't find yourself changing room colors at least once every two or three years somewhere in your abode.
I once painted the entire outside of the house I grew up in--everything but the brick--in return for a set of 6X9 tri-axial speakers and an Audiovox AM/FM radio for my '77 Camaro.
I once painted the entire inside...including the ceilings...of an 1800 square foot split foyer house in return for free rent for three months before I bought the property from the bank in foreclosure.
At least in those two endeavors I got PAID for my efforts, but today I'm reduced to being SLAVE LABOR because I love my Girl and I don't want some fool tracking and spattering paint all over the Turbo Pup and my stacks of back issues of Mechanical Engineering Magazine.
Time now to go put down some blue masking tape...
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
"Asphalt" Ain't No Butt Defect
Butt Getting It (the Asphalt) Installed Can Be Expensive...
Pennsylvania's Crazy Jack Murtha's at it again... this time spending "Stimulus" money on a repaving project at an airport he had built under government mandate with his name on it which serves something like 100 people per day.
(We fly into Pittsburgh and drive to see Pat's Family.)
Pennsylvania's Crazy Jack Murtha's at it again... this time spending "Stimulus" money on a repaving project at an airport he had built under government mandate with his name on it which serves something like 100 people per day.
(We fly into Pittsburgh and drive to see Pat's Family.)
Monday, May 11, 2009
Space Garbage Collector
I'm Submitting My Application Right Now For The Job...
After a little drama and nail biting, this afternoon I watched the Space Shuttle blast off into a 350 mile high orbit to chase down the Hubble Space Telescope and cram some new updated guts into it's 19 year old Chassis. (Remember they originally launched this thing into orbit with metric lenses on a system designed for English unit design measurements.)
The big story was that it seems that in less than 60 years we've already crapped up the atmosphere outside the "breathable atmosphere" to the point where "space Junk" is now an issue when it comes time to launch a couple of humans into orbit or beyond.
The Russians most noticeably had their Mir space station come crashing into the Earth and the US had the old Apollo Skylab third stage piece of junk re-enter the atmosphere without hitting me or my sofa back in the 1980's and 1990's.
Today they say that the Air Force and NASA are tracking a few million truck loads of junk--everything from old astronaut poop to lost nuts and bolts and of course the left over upper stages of rockets and dead satellites that continue to orbit until they lose energy and start dragging into the air and finally burn up on re-entry.
Problem is the little events when you're cruising along at orbital rotational velocity (something my head knows about--about 36,000 MPH) and you meet something going sideways or in the opposite direction at a similar speed.
Let's just say that it will ruin your morning, afternoon, or evening in the event of such an occurrence.
Well Ladies and Gentlemen, Boys and Girls of all ages, I...your lovely and talented Blogger and Photoshop Artist...have a solution I'm proposing this morning...
Here's a Photoshop proposal offering of my new patented Orbital Garbage Collection System (or OGCS for short...)
And here it is in action after a few weeks in orbit:
(you just have to click on that Photoshop image because I've really outdone myself showing the stuff you might collect in orbit...)
If NASA will just sell me the last few shuttles after they "decommission" them next year I'm opening a "Cosmic Antique & recycling center" down near Orlando and if you want to buy into my endeavor send cash and we'll talk...
After a little drama and nail biting, this afternoon I watched the Space Shuttle blast off into a 350 mile high orbit to chase down the Hubble Space Telescope and cram some new updated guts into it's 19 year old Chassis. (Remember they originally launched this thing into orbit with metric lenses on a system designed for English unit design measurements.)
The big story was that it seems that in less than 60 years we've already crapped up the atmosphere outside the "breathable atmosphere" to the point where "space Junk" is now an issue when it comes time to launch a couple of humans into orbit or beyond.
The Russians most noticeably had their Mir space station come crashing into the Earth and the US had the old Apollo Skylab third stage piece of junk re-enter the atmosphere without hitting me or my sofa back in the 1980's and 1990's.
Today they say that the Air Force and NASA are tracking a few million truck loads of junk--everything from old astronaut poop to lost nuts and bolts and of course the left over upper stages of rockets and dead satellites that continue to orbit until they lose energy and start dragging into the air and finally burn up on re-entry.
Problem is the little events when you're cruising along at orbital rotational velocity (something my head knows about--about 36,000 MPH) and you meet something going sideways or in the opposite direction at a similar speed.
Let's just say that it will ruin your morning, afternoon, or evening in the event of such an occurrence.
Well Ladies and Gentlemen, Boys and Girls of all ages, I...your lovely and talented Blogger and Photoshop Artist...have a solution I'm proposing this morning...
Here's a Photoshop proposal offering of my new patented Orbital Garbage Collection System (or OGCS for short...)
And here it is in action after a few weeks in orbit:
(you just have to click on that Photoshop image because I've really outdone myself showing the stuff you might collect in orbit...)
If NASA will just sell me the last few shuttles after they "decommission" them next year I'm opening a "Cosmic Antique & recycling center" down near Orlando and if you want to buy into my endeavor send cash and we'll talk...
Sunday, May 10, 2009
If You Have Any Net Worth You Better @#&^%*ing Run
This Crap Is Getting Serious
I have a problem this morning...Ladies and Gentlemen.
More accurately...WE have a problem if I have any understanding of what's happening these days when it comes to ownership of private property and even the value and availability of the money you're more or less forced to keep in the bank.
It's been coming on now for a good while.
I don't know exactly how long because I'm too lazy to Google it but I do know what I've seen in the past twenty years and in my mind--and I'm not a barking moonbat conspiracy theorist--things are accelerating rapidly under the Obamarama administration.
It started when they cut the size of our legal tender down from the $10,000 and $1000 bills to the biggest circulated item being the $100 bill, all under the guise of stopping the Mafia and Organized crime members from being able to conveniently move large sums of money around undetected.
More recently they've use the drug trade as the argument for limiting cash transactions and making banks report deposits over a certain size ($10,000 I think.)
Who's &%*ing business is it anyway how much money I have or take out of or put into the bank if it weren't for the IRS worrying about sucking "their fair share" of taxes out of me and my efforts and assets?
If you've been paying any attention here on this blog you know that I owned a company which was forced into bankruptcy back in the late 1990's, and in the process of attempting to prop up the corporation I was forced into personal bankruptcy also.
The whole ordeal totally sucked, and in retrospect it was almost the end of me physically and mentally but when the financial and emotional dust settled I managed to arise from the rubble and wreckage and here I am today blithering on the Internet.
For the next four or five years after I had paid the lawyers and the other legal fees I ended up being able to keep my crappy continuously under renovation old house and a couple of old paid off cars and the clothes on my back and in the mean time I was forced to operate on a totally "Cash" basis.
I couldn't get a credit card in my name and the banks wouldn't even let me have a bank account--so I was forced to go to a credit union and get a simple savings account to keep money anywhere besides my wallet or an envelope stuck up in the ceiling tiles in the basement.
Unlike the government portrait of the downtrodden and homeless...I still managed to make a little money here and there along the way in spite of my crappy physical condition with Phlebitis et. al.
I did pick up carpentry jobs working for friends and acquaintances and the occasional consulting injuneering project and along the way managed to eat and sleep and until the day I came home from working on an old house built in 1888 and found police tape wrapped around my front porch things were moving along smoothly.
That day my house burned down.
That day my house burned up.
If it wasn't brick on all four sides it would have fallen down--but the shell that was left still looked like my house but all it contained as smelly sooty wet stuff that looked like my possessions.
That fall I moved to Florida in my old Chevy suburban and took pretty much everything worth having with me in that truck.
Fortunately the building was insured, and after a extended argument with the companies involved including a lawsuit where they tried to take all of the proceeds and split it among the corporations involved in the process I ended up with a settlement which again was only in the form of a check.
Understand this...PAPER money--check or cash--is just as useless as electronic money sitting in the bank if and when the government decides to change the value of it or otherwise stop you from getting access to it through a bank account, an ATM, or the Internet.
I managed to convert the check into cash--and to this day I've carefully shepherded my money from place to place and today I'm getting really nervous about having everything in the banks because of the recent government influence thereon.
I remember going to the bank one time with my first bonus check as a young engineer back in the mid 1980's and having a sinking feeling when the tellers treated me like a thief when I wanted to cash my check.
It was for $5,000 and it was drawn on the bank I was standing in but I had to wait on the head teller to come back from lunch and then I had to wait for my boss to come back from a meeting to answer their phone call so I ended up sitting there for something like an hour with everyone glaring at me because apparently some guy with long hair that needed a shave couldn't possibly have earned a $5,000 check and it was probably stolen or forged or whatever and any way...
The government doesn't want you to have money in your hands.
The government wants your money to be electronically transferred from one bank account they're monitoring (THE PAYER) to another bank account they're monitoring (THE PAYEE) so they can make sure they get their CUT.
It's getting so that some places won't even take cash these days. Walk into a FedEX office and try to pay with cash.
They won't let you send anything unless you use a credit or Debit card. They claim it's for "security" reasons but I really think it's just the beginning of a growing trend where you can't use YOUR MONEY the way you want to use it unless the government says so.
...And another thing...
Try walking into a bank or credit union where your funds are stored and attempt to withdraw $10,000 in cash Monday morning.
They will %$^&* freak out.
You might as well be wearing a ski mask and brandishing a AK47 and a Howitzer.
I tried that once (without the ski mask and the artillery)...
Back when I was buying a boat in south Florida they almost called the police on me I think and they had to call around and find a branch office which could give me $10,000 in cash and they looked at me like I was Atilla the Hun or Sodam Hussain or Osama Somebody the whole time.
The bottom line here is, in my considered redneck opinion, that our financial infrastructure is set up for you to make deposits--thereby loaning them money for 0% interest--and charging you a "FEE" every time they can--and then maximizing the effort it takes for you to get your money back out to store or use outside their institution.
PLASTIC IS CONVENIENT...paper is a pain...
So any wayyy...back to my original point...these insidious leaches have progressed over time to the point where today they can tell investors--people that gave a company money in return for an equity position in the buildings/equipment/and future profits--how much they are "entitled" to keep while at the same time the government repackages the aforementioned company and sells rights to future profits to entirely new owners/investors.
How %$#*ed up is that?
Here's a link to the story (all the Chrysler creditors finally caved in):
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/may/09/chrysler-lenders-give-up-in-court/
So the Obamarama empire and the media has managed to spin and bluff and muscle people which had WRITTEN CONTRACTS out of 2/3's to 3/4's of their money just BECAUSE.
Just BECAUSE...it would be "unpatriotic" to demand their day in court.
THATS JUST WRONG.
In closing this rant I ask you this question...
HOW LONG BEFORE THE GOVERNMENT COMES TO YOUR BANK AND DEMANDS THAT, BECAUSE IT TOOK TARP FUNDS OR OTHER BAILOUT MONEY, THAT YOUR CHECKING AND SAVINGS AND 401K ACCOUNT BE REDUCED BY 60% OR 75%, WITH THE BALANCE OF THE VALUE TRANSFERED TO SOME NEW GOVERNMENT FUND OR PROGRAM ?
Don't say it can't happen because the precedent has now been set.
(BUY GOLD)
I have a problem this morning...Ladies and Gentlemen.
More accurately...WE have a problem if I have any understanding of what's happening these days when it comes to ownership of private property and even the value and availability of the money you're more or less forced to keep in the bank.
It's been coming on now for a good while.
I don't know exactly how long because I'm too lazy to Google it but I do know what I've seen in the past twenty years and in my mind--and I'm not a barking moonbat conspiracy theorist--things are accelerating rapidly under the Obamarama administration.
It started when they cut the size of our legal tender down from the $10,000 and $1000 bills to the biggest circulated item being the $100 bill, all under the guise of stopping the Mafia and Organized crime members from being able to conveniently move large sums of money around undetected.
More recently they've use the drug trade as the argument for limiting cash transactions and making banks report deposits over a certain size ($10,000 I think.)
Who's &%*ing business is it anyway how much money I have or take out of or put into the bank if it weren't for the IRS worrying about sucking "their fair share" of taxes out of me and my efforts and assets?
If you've been paying any attention here on this blog you know that I owned a company which was forced into bankruptcy back in the late 1990's, and in the process of attempting to prop up the corporation I was forced into personal bankruptcy also.
The whole ordeal totally sucked, and in retrospect it was almost the end of me physically and mentally but when the financial and emotional dust settled I managed to arise from the rubble and wreckage and here I am today blithering on the Internet.
For the next four or five years after I had paid the lawyers and the other legal fees I ended up being able to keep my crappy continuously under renovation old house and a couple of old paid off cars and the clothes on my back and in the mean time I was forced to operate on a totally "Cash" basis.
I couldn't get a credit card in my name and the banks wouldn't even let me have a bank account--so I was forced to go to a credit union and get a simple savings account to keep money anywhere besides my wallet or an envelope stuck up in the ceiling tiles in the basement.
Unlike the government portrait of the downtrodden and homeless...I still managed to make a little money here and there along the way in spite of my crappy physical condition with Phlebitis et. al.
I did pick up carpentry jobs working for friends and acquaintances and the occasional consulting injuneering project and along the way managed to eat and sleep and until the day I came home from working on an old house built in 1888 and found police tape wrapped around my front porch things were moving along smoothly.
That day my house burned down.
That day my house burned up.
If it wasn't brick on all four sides it would have fallen down--but the shell that was left still looked like my house but all it contained as smelly sooty wet stuff that looked like my possessions.
That fall I moved to Florida in my old Chevy suburban and took pretty much everything worth having with me in that truck.
Fortunately the building was insured, and after a extended argument with the companies involved including a lawsuit where they tried to take all of the proceeds and split it among the corporations involved in the process I ended up with a settlement which again was only in the form of a check.
Understand this...PAPER money--check or cash--is just as useless as electronic money sitting in the bank if and when the government decides to change the value of it or otherwise stop you from getting access to it through a bank account, an ATM, or the Internet.
I managed to convert the check into cash--and to this day I've carefully shepherded my money from place to place and today I'm getting really nervous about having everything in the banks because of the recent government influence thereon.
I remember going to the bank one time with my first bonus check as a young engineer back in the mid 1980's and having a sinking feeling when the tellers treated me like a thief when I wanted to cash my check.
It was for $5,000 and it was drawn on the bank I was standing in but I had to wait on the head teller to come back from lunch and then I had to wait for my boss to come back from a meeting to answer their phone call so I ended up sitting there for something like an hour with everyone glaring at me because apparently some guy with long hair that needed a shave couldn't possibly have earned a $5,000 check and it was probably stolen or forged or whatever and any way...
The government doesn't want you to have money in your hands.
The government wants your money to be electronically transferred from one bank account they're monitoring (THE PAYER) to another bank account they're monitoring (THE PAYEE) so they can make sure they get their CUT.
It's getting so that some places won't even take cash these days. Walk into a FedEX office and try to pay with cash.
They won't let you send anything unless you use a credit or Debit card. They claim it's for "security" reasons but I really think it's just the beginning of a growing trend where you can't use YOUR MONEY the way you want to use it unless the government says so.
...And another thing...
Try walking into a bank or credit union where your funds are stored and attempt to withdraw $10,000 in cash Monday morning.
They will %$^&* freak out.
You might as well be wearing a ski mask and brandishing a AK47 and a Howitzer.
I tried that once (without the ski mask and the artillery)...
Back when I was buying a boat in south Florida they almost called the police on me I think and they had to call around and find a branch office which could give me $10,000 in cash and they looked at me like I was Atilla the Hun or Sodam Hussain or Osama Somebody the whole time.
The bottom line here is, in my considered redneck opinion, that our financial infrastructure is set up for you to make deposits--thereby loaning them money for 0% interest--and charging you a "FEE" every time they can--and then maximizing the effort it takes for you to get your money back out to store or use outside their institution.
PLASTIC IS CONVENIENT...paper is a pain...
So any wayyy...back to my original point...these insidious leaches have progressed over time to the point where today they can tell investors--people that gave a company money in return for an equity position in the buildings/equipment/and future profits--how much they are "entitled" to keep while at the same time the government repackages the aforementioned company and sells rights to future profits to entirely new owners/investors.
How %$#*ed up is that?
Here's a link to the story (all the Chrysler creditors finally caved in):
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/may/09/chrysler-lenders-give-up-in-court/
So the Obamarama empire and the media has managed to spin and bluff and muscle people which had WRITTEN CONTRACTS out of 2/3's to 3/4's of their money just BECAUSE.
Just BECAUSE...it would be "unpatriotic" to demand their day in court.
THATS JUST WRONG.
In closing this rant I ask you this question...
HOW LONG BEFORE THE GOVERNMENT COMES TO YOUR BANK AND DEMANDS THAT, BECAUSE IT TOOK TARP FUNDS OR OTHER BAILOUT MONEY, THAT YOUR CHECKING AND SAVINGS AND 401K ACCOUNT BE REDUCED BY 60% OR 75%, WITH THE BALANCE OF THE VALUE TRANSFERED TO SOME NEW GOVERNMENT FUND OR PROGRAM ?
Don't say it can't happen because the precedent has now been set.
(BUY GOLD)
Friday, May 08, 2009
Trying To Be Nice
Holding My Own Tongue...
If you stopped by here before about 8:30 this morning you were subjected to a less than polite rant I had composed in a moment of self serving weakness--talking in a less than flattering manner about some of my fellow "artists" I was forced to hang around with on St. Simons Island.
Upon reconsideration I came back and took it down...thus the apparent lack of posting today.
It's not that I don't have anything to say, it's just that I try my best these days to say something at least a little positive. Thus bitching about the ingrates and morons in the artists guilds of our little island (there I go again) is counter productive because I don't live there anymore and I can do nothing to change them and their behavior toward one another.
Any way, a jurried Exhibit/competition I was planning on entering this year has been postponed if not cancelled due to lack of funding and some other "issues" and since I have a good deal of time and money already invested in a piece of art I was planning on entering ( and which I don't need hanging on the wall in my dining room) I'm more than a little pissed at the lack of artistic outlets I've participated in in the past two years.
There was a few years there when I did two or three shows a year and won stuff or at least got an honorable mention, and these days I just sit around looking like a big old over weight middle aged artistic has-been talking about the good old days when no one knew me except in the bars and taverns and whispered "that guy drinks and paints but he's not a professional house painter..."
Now I still drink and I've recently done some house painting but I don't do new watercolors, I've stopped sculpting in clay, and my pen and ink work has been relegated to the checkbook and the balance sheet doing taxes.
What is this world coming to anyway?
If you stopped by here before about 8:30 this morning you were subjected to a less than polite rant I had composed in a moment of self serving weakness--talking in a less than flattering manner about some of my fellow "artists" I was forced to hang around with on St. Simons Island.
Upon reconsideration I came back and took it down...thus the apparent lack of posting today.
It's not that I don't have anything to say, it's just that I try my best these days to say something at least a little positive. Thus bitching about the ingrates and morons in the artists guilds of our little island (there I go again) is counter productive because I don't live there anymore and I can do nothing to change them and their behavior toward one another.
Any way, a jurried Exhibit/competition I was planning on entering this year has been postponed if not cancelled due to lack of funding and some other "issues" and since I have a good deal of time and money already invested in a piece of art I was planning on entering ( and which I don't need hanging on the wall in my dining room) I'm more than a little pissed at the lack of artistic outlets I've participated in in the past two years.
There was a few years there when I did two or three shows a year and won stuff or at least got an honorable mention, and these days I just sit around looking like a big old over weight middle aged artistic has-been talking about the good old days when no one knew me except in the bars and taverns and whispered "that guy drinks and paints but he's not a professional house painter..."
Now I still drink and I've recently done some house painting but I don't do new watercolors, I've stopped sculpting in clay, and my pen and ink work has been relegated to the checkbook and the balance sheet doing taxes.
What is this world coming to anyway?
Thursday, May 07, 2009
The New Phonebook's Phone's Here!
21st Century Portable Dialing...
The past couple of days have been sort of interesting.
We went out and had Sushi to celebrate Cinco de Mayo.
Nothing wrong with our local Mexicans (all twenty of them here in Knoxtown) and the local Mexican Restaurant, but it's always nice to "dis" the invading immigrant nation of "undocumented workers" by doing something weird like eating Japanese food on their independence day.
Before that the new LG Dare touch screen cell phones arrived. We tore into the boxes and fiddled around with the bells and whistles for a couple of hours and then got back to work on the bathroom rennovation. (Paint is done on the walls, ceiling, and refinished vanity/wall cabinet--regrouting of the wall and floor tile in progress)
After living with them (the phones) about 48 hours I have to say they're pretty impressive.
Large bright screens with vibrant colors, and an interesting tactile feedback when you touch the screen to push a key...the phone actually vibrates slightly to tell you that you made an entry or input.
Of course it has a whole bunch of music capability and game crap on it which will probably end up being a distraction in the end, but the ability to check my E-mail and browse an occasional web page on the fly, not to mention getting local weather and radar pictures is totally AWESOME.
Pat has a 250 message per month account so she can send pictures of the Turbo Pup to everyone and receive pictures of the Grandkids and other family members new babies, and I threaten anyone and everyone that wants to send me a text message with me coming over to your house and peeing on your front door for wasting my time.
You want to talk to me...you call me.
If I want to talk to you, I'll answer the phone (or call you.)
After spending $200 per month on Cable/Internet/Cell Phones...it should all be...
Pretty Simple
No?
The past couple of days have been sort of interesting.
We went out and had Sushi to celebrate Cinco de Mayo.
Nothing wrong with our local Mexicans (all twenty of them here in Knoxtown) and the local Mexican Restaurant, but it's always nice to "dis" the invading immigrant nation of "undocumented workers" by doing something weird like eating Japanese food on their independence day.
Before that the new LG Dare touch screen cell phones arrived. We tore into the boxes and fiddled around with the bells and whistles for a couple of hours and then got back to work on the bathroom rennovation. (Paint is done on the walls, ceiling, and refinished vanity/wall cabinet--regrouting of the wall and floor tile in progress)
After living with them (the phones) about 48 hours I have to say they're pretty impressive.
Large bright screens with vibrant colors, and an interesting tactile feedback when you touch the screen to push a key...the phone actually vibrates slightly to tell you that you made an entry or input.
Of course it has a whole bunch of music capability and game crap on it which will probably end up being a distraction in the end, but the ability to check my E-mail and browse an occasional web page on the fly, not to mention getting local weather and radar pictures is totally AWESOME.
Pat has a 250 message per month account so she can send pictures of the Turbo Pup to everyone and receive pictures of the Grandkids and other family members new babies, and I threaten anyone and everyone that wants to send me a text message with me coming over to your house and peeing on your front door for wasting my time.
You want to talk to me...you call me.
If I want to talk to you, I'll answer the phone (or call you.)
After spending $200 per month on Cable/Internet/Cell Phones...it should all be...
Pretty Simple
No?
Wednesday, May 06, 2009
Novel Synthesis of difunctional halo organo noncarbon Group IV main group element amides
Ah ah ahhhhHHHHH aHHHHHHHH ahhhh AHHHHHHHHHH
"...help me.... I'm My Brain is meltttttinnnnngggg...."
"...help me....
Tuesday, May 05, 2009
And Then There Was One One Third
A Shadow Of The Ones That Went Before Me...
From late 1959 until 1980 there were three men running around on this planet, with the same lineage, sharing the name Virgil Raymond Rogers.
The Senior Virgil was born in Kentucky in 1912 and passed away way too young at the age of 68.
Virgil Jr., my father, made it from 1932 until this day, May 5th in the year 1996 when he succumbed to Scleroderma after a short illness at the age of 63.
I, Virgil III, as of about 9 AM Eastern standard time this morning will have lived for 13 years since my beloved Dad's passing, and doing the math I see by coming up on age 50 myself this year that based on my history I'll be lucky to make it as far as the first two Gentlemen named Virgil did.
Regardless of my plight, I miss them both, and each day in spite of the errors I've made and detours I've taken to date on this planet I pretty much try my best to emulate both of them--falling way short historically but still using them as my example none the less.
Things definitely aren't perfect, but they're most definitely better because of them.
Miss you Dad...
From late 1959 until 1980 there were three men running around on this planet, with the same lineage, sharing the name Virgil Raymond Rogers.
The Senior Virgil was born in Kentucky in 1912 and passed away way too young at the age of 68.
Virgil Jr., my father, made it from 1932 until this day, May 5th in the year 1996 when he succumbed to Scleroderma after a short illness at the age of 63.
I, Virgil III, as of about 9 AM Eastern standard time this morning will have lived for 13 years since my beloved Dad's passing, and doing the math I see by coming up on age 50 myself this year that based on my history I'll be lucky to make it as far as the first two Gentlemen named Virgil did.
Regardless of my plight, I miss them both, and each day in spite of the errors I've made and detours I've taken to date on this planet I pretty much try my best to emulate both of them--falling way short historically but still using them as my example none the less.
Things definitely aren't perfect, but they're most definitely better because of them.
Miss you Dad...
Sunday, May 03, 2009
Global Warming Climate Change?
I'd Say Someone Needs Their Diaper Changed...
So I'm cruising down Drudge Report this morning trying to decide what disease, pestilence and/or other natural disaster--floods, hurricanes, wild fires, or earthquake--to worry about on a rainy Spring day (oops...I forgot Tsunamis) when I came across a link to this NY Times Article which mentions that the sniveling, booger eating, pants wetting eco-friendly tree huggers are having meetings and discussions about their image with "the Public."
Seems that in spite of their best efforts at stirring up a climate controversy with "the Public", and in spite of their successful efforts to get most of the people on thesocialist left side of the Political Spectrum (read that California and New England) on board following Owl Gore, many regular Americans living in Ozark, Alabama and Eastern Bejesus, Arkansas still just have a hard time getting riled up enough about CO2 emissions and Cows burping and farting.
Seeking to Save the Planet, With a Thesaurus
By JOHN M. BRODER
Published: May 1, 2009
WASHINGTON — The problem with global warming, some environmentalists believe, is “global warming.”
The term turns people off, fostering images of shaggy-haired liberals, economic sacrifice and complex scientific disputes, according to extensive polling and focus group sessions conducted by ecoAmerica, a nonprofit environmental marketing and messaging firm in Washington.
Those two paragraphs, Ladies and Gentlemen, represent possibly the most profoundly true, honest group of words I've ever seen published in the NY Times on the subject of "Global Warming."
They are in fact stating what to me is the obvious truth, in as much as to date "Global Warming" has served as a cottage industry for politicians, psedo-scientists, and citizen do-gooders who don't have anything real and tangible to worry about in the world.
Shaggy haired or not, these people are generally self described liberals. They most likely are also closet socialists no matter how loudly they scream the word "progressive" at you when you call them liberal.
As to common sacrifice, they're also willing to deliver that to everyone but themselves in the form of taxes and higher energy costs, and the resulting increased cost of consumer goods, while the most visible among them--the Owl Gores of the planet--live in 40,000 square foot houses and fly in private jets from city to city and Green Event to Green Event in order to wag their green fingers at the dumb/dizzy "climate change" followers demanding support.
Thing is, if they can't get you on their eco-friendly bandwagon voluntarily, they will take the Government and force you on board by changing the law and eliminating your choices to buy or make or do things they don't agree with.
They'll sanction killing babies in the womb within the first 6 months of life, but YOU have to change the refrigerant you use in you car Air Conditioner.
And YOU can't buy heat resistant paint in California for your bar-b-que grill because the Spotted Owl or the Snail Darter might get a rash on their testicles.
Silly crap like that makes them feel like they're making a difference in the ambient temperature on May 3rd in Knoxville, Tennessee or how much rain falls on St. Simons Island in December.
And as to the "complex scientific disputes," they don't want to have any of discussion and they don't want to read reports that don't agree with what they've already decided is true.
The fact is that they are losing the discussion when it comes to the "science"--thus the reason for them referring to the ongoing process as a dispute--and thus them wanting to change the subject because...
THE DATA JUST ISN'T THERE TO SUPPORT THE LEFT'S ARGUMENTS AND CURRENT POLITICAL AGENDA.
And the computer models which they claim originally predicted and/or continue to predict significant man-made influence on the climate have proven to be flawed if not outright false. If you run the same models for fifteen years and then compare the predictions from fifteen years ago with the actual temperature today (fifteen years later) the MODELS WERE WRONG.
So why would you continue to clamor and raise heck about "Global Warming" predictions in 2010 or 2020 when today in 2009 things have gone BACKWARDS in temperature about 1 degree F?
You see, in the world of the sniveling, booger eating, pants wetting tree hugger, an issue doesn't have to make sense or have scientific data to support a given hypothesis, it just has to FEEL GOOD.
And if you can cripple American interests in the process, or at least raise some money you can take credit for handing out to people that didn't earn it both domestically or internationally, then in a liberal's mind their life has some meaning...and if they get to park their Lexus in a parking deck on Capitol Hill in DC and enjoy security provided by the Secret Service for the rest of their life in Suburban Maryland or northern Virginia all the better.
In spite of these fundamental flaws in the basis of the "Global Warming" movement, I bet that if you walk into a grade school today you'll find that EVERY SINGLE TEACHER AND NEAR 99% of the children we've handed over to thepublic government schools honestly believes in and is afraid of "Global Warming."
And that, boys and girls, is just a crying shame...
So I'm cruising down Drudge Report this morning trying to decide what disease, pestilence and/or other natural disaster--floods, hurricanes, wild fires, or earthquake--to worry about on a rainy Spring day (oops...I forgot Tsunamis) when I came across a link to this NY Times Article which mentions that the sniveling, booger eating, pants wetting eco-friendly tree huggers are having meetings and discussions about their image with "the Public."
Seems that in spite of their best efforts at stirring up a climate controversy with "the Public", and in spite of their successful efforts to get most of the people on the
Seeking to Save the Planet, With a Thesaurus
By JOHN M. BRODER
Published: May 1, 2009
WASHINGTON — The problem with global warming, some environmentalists believe, is “global warming.”
The term turns people off, fostering images of shaggy-haired liberals, economic sacrifice and complex scientific disputes, according to extensive polling and focus group sessions conducted by ecoAmerica, a nonprofit environmental marketing and messaging firm in Washington.
Those two paragraphs, Ladies and Gentlemen, represent possibly the most profoundly true, honest group of words I've ever seen published in the NY Times on the subject of "Global Warming."
They are in fact stating what to me is the obvious truth, in as much as to date "Global Warming" has served as a cottage industry for politicians, psedo-scientists, and citizen do-gooders who don't have anything real and tangible to worry about in the world.
Shaggy haired or not, these people are generally self described liberals. They most likely are also closet socialists no matter how loudly they scream the word "progressive" at you when you call them liberal.
As to common sacrifice, they're also willing to deliver that to everyone but themselves in the form of taxes and higher energy costs, and the resulting increased cost of consumer goods, while the most visible among them--the Owl Gores of the planet--live in 40,000 square foot houses and fly in private jets from city to city and Green Event to Green Event in order to wag their green fingers at the dumb/dizzy "climate change" followers demanding support.
Thing is, if they can't get you on their eco-friendly bandwagon voluntarily, they will take the Government and force you on board by changing the law and eliminating your choices to buy or make or do things they don't agree with.
They'll sanction killing babies in the womb within the first 6 months of life, but YOU have to change the refrigerant you use in you car Air Conditioner.
And YOU can't buy heat resistant paint in California for your bar-b-que grill because the Spotted Owl or the Snail Darter might get a rash on their testicles.
Silly crap like that makes them feel like they're making a difference in the ambient temperature on May 3rd in Knoxville, Tennessee or how much rain falls on St. Simons Island in December.
And as to the "complex scientific disputes," they don't want to have any of discussion and they don't want to read reports that don't agree with what they've already decided is true.
The fact is that they are losing the discussion when it comes to the "science"--thus the reason for them referring to the ongoing process as a dispute--and thus them wanting to change the subject because...
THE DATA JUST ISN'T THERE TO SUPPORT THE LEFT'S ARGUMENTS AND CURRENT POLITICAL AGENDA.
And the computer models which they claim originally predicted and/or continue to predict significant man-made influence on the climate have proven to be flawed if not outright false. If you run the same models for fifteen years and then compare the predictions from fifteen years ago with the actual temperature today (fifteen years later) the MODELS WERE WRONG.
So why would you continue to clamor and raise heck about "Global Warming" predictions in 2010 or 2020 when today in 2009 things have gone BACKWARDS in temperature about 1 degree F?
You see, in the world of the sniveling, booger eating, pants wetting tree hugger, an issue doesn't have to make sense or have scientific data to support a given hypothesis, it just has to FEEL GOOD.
And if you can cripple American interests in the process, or at least raise some money you can take credit for handing out to people that didn't earn it both domestically or internationally, then in a liberal's mind their life has some meaning...and if they get to park their Lexus in a parking deck on Capitol Hill in DC and enjoy security provided by the Secret Service for the rest of their life in Suburban Maryland or northern Virginia all the better.
In spite of these fundamental flaws in the basis of the "Global Warming" movement, I bet that if you walk into a grade school today you'll find that EVERY SINGLE TEACHER AND NEAR 99% of the children we've handed over to the
And that, boys and girls, is just a crying shame...
Saturday, May 02, 2009
Just Sittin' Around Scratching My Backside Head
World "Goings- On" Make Everywhere On Me Itch...
I've half a mind to run out and buy myself a Pig this morning.
Not just any Pig mind you...I want a FANCY Pig if it's going to live at my house.
Mostly likely something of the Miniature Potbellyed variety--and those don't come cheap...something in the $1000 range for a 2 pound piglet.
"But Virgil," you ask..."don't you know about the world ending because of the media induced 'Swine Flu Epidemic?' "
"Heck, they're diverting planes from DC to Boston and the Vice President's saying stay off the planes in the first place and schools are closing and people are walking around with funny masks and the media and the CDC are warning of a Pandemic and AAAAHHHHHH AaaaaaaHhhhhhh
AaahhhhHHHHHHAHHHHHHHHHHH AaaaaahhhhHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
AhhhhHHHHHHH....
(taking a big breath here boss....)
"Jesus Christ and Elvis on a Bicycle"...can't we all just get a grip here for five minutes people?
It's the Flu...
THE FLU
Comes around every year in some variety or strain or form, and every year some people in the third world and some 100 year old retired school teacher in Paduca, KY dies from it, and then the world goes on without interruption.
The liberals blame the deaths on insensitive greedy Republicans that resent paying extra taxes and Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton charge racism and demand a new government program and the people at the Centers for Disease Control just sit around shrugging their shoulders and saying "we're on top of the situation" while they squint their eyes looking serious...
And another thing...
Remember that in recent year's past it hasn't been "the Flue" or this years variety of "the Flu" that's been the story, it's been the Government induced SHORTAGE of FLU Vaccine that's been the issue, and that caused the media to hyperventilate and Mothers to duct tape over the heads of their children and refuse to send them to school and daycare?
So this year (and last year) there was more than enough Flu vaccine to go around, so I think the media--not having the story for the Thanksgiving/Christmas news cycle--pulled the Flu story out of it's Butt and flopped it into the front page headlines to give them something to write about and hoping that their beloved President Obama and the Obamarama Nation of liberal government idiots could be seen in a good light handling the non-problem.
Somebody tell me I'm wrong here.
This is a bullshit story...or more correctly...a Pigshit story...stirred up for NOTHING.
It will accomplish nothing to freak out about the prospect of catching this years variant of the creeping crud.
And another thing...this Virus is not AIRBORN.
You have to come in direct contract i.e. shake hands with, kiss, or have sex with an infected man or woman (we won't talk about pigs here) else be sneezed on by someone sick to get the stuff.
Sitting on a bus or airplane breathing the same air as Typhoid Bob/Suzy won't get you ill.
Now will you please go make some coffee and read the morning paper and let me calm down a little please?
I'm getting too old to have to kick everyones asses for stupidity but the world just keeps on tempting me...
I've half a mind to run out and buy myself a Pig this morning.
Not just any Pig mind you...I want a FANCY Pig if it's going to live at my house.
Mostly likely something of the Miniature Potbellyed variety--and those don't come cheap...something in the $1000 range for a 2 pound piglet.
"But Virgil," you ask..."don't you know about the world ending because of the media induced 'Swine Flu Epidemic?' "
"Heck, they're diverting planes from DC to Boston and the Vice President's saying stay off the planes in the first place and schools are closing and people are walking around with funny masks and the media and the CDC are warning of a Pandemic and AAAAHHHHHH AaaaaaaHhhhhhh
AaahhhhHHHHHHAHHHHHHHHHHH AaaaaahhhhHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
AhhhhHHHHHHH....
(taking a big breath here boss....)
"Jesus Christ and Elvis on a Bicycle"...can't we all just get a grip here for five minutes people?
It's the Flu...
THE FLU
Comes around every year in some variety or strain or form, and every year some people in the third world and some 100 year old retired school teacher in Paduca, KY dies from it, and then the world goes on without interruption.
The liberals blame the deaths on insensitive greedy Republicans that resent paying extra taxes and Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton charge racism and demand a new government program and the people at the Centers for Disease Control just sit around shrugging their shoulders and saying "we're on top of the situation" while they squint their eyes looking serious...
And another thing...
Remember that in recent year's past it hasn't been "the Flue" or this years variety of "the Flu" that's been the story, it's been the Government induced SHORTAGE of FLU Vaccine that's been the issue, and that caused the media to hyperventilate and Mothers to duct tape over the heads of their children and refuse to send them to school and daycare?
So this year (and last year) there was more than enough Flu vaccine to go around, so I think the media--not having the story for the Thanksgiving/Christmas news cycle--pulled the Flu story out of it's Butt and flopped it into the front page headlines to give them something to write about and hoping that their beloved President Obama and the Obamarama Nation of liberal government idiots could be seen in a good light handling the non-problem.
Somebody tell me I'm wrong here.
This is a bullshit story...or more correctly...a Pigshit story...stirred up for NOTHING.
It will accomplish nothing to freak out about the prospect of catching this years variant of the creeping crud.
And another thing...this Virus is not AIRBORN.
You have to come in direct contract i.e. shake hands with, kiss, or have sex with an infected man or woman (we won't talk about pigs here) else be sneezed on by someone sick to get the stuff.
Sitting on a bus or airplane breathing the same air as Typhoid Bob/Suzy won't get you ill.
Now will you please go make some coffee and read the morning paper and let me calm down a little please?
I'm getting too old to have to kick everyones asses for stupidity but the world just keeps on tempting me...
