Doctor's Visit Success

Am I Ready To Put The Band Back Together Again?

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

I was impressed he was awake because I barely was. 

Here's the stats if you care:

Weight = 10 pounds less than eight weeks ago

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

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

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

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

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

You know?

Things What Piss Me Off

Have You Got A Few Hours Weeks?


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

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

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

4. Anything involving "Climate Change."

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

6. Liberals

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

8. ...

9. ........

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

I'm BaaaaakkkkkkKKKKKK

Taking Time Off For A Little Blog Maintenance...


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

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

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

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

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

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

THIS BLOG IS 7 YEARS OLD NEXT WEEK!!!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I'm Busy Making Sawdust

Listen To This Until I get Back...


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

Dang What a Pretty woman...

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




More on Monday Morning...

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

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

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

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

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

My Favorite New County Song

I Wish I could Sing Like That...

Sorry For The Light Posting

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




Heh...

Blaa Blaa Blaa

Blaa Blaa Blaaaaaaaaaa Blaa BLAA

"The Best Thing About The Future...

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


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

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

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

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

I thought.

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

all at the same time.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Wait...(checking the clock)

OK...

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

Until next time...

Regards Y'all...

The Turbo Pup's Headin' Home

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


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

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

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

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

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

Another Day...Another Ocean...

Rainy Gulf Of Mexico Visit


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

IF IT DOESN'T RAIN ALL AFTERNOON.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Live From Our Little Island

Back In Paradise...


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

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

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

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

I Have "IOS"???

Say It Isn't So...




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

I'm Issuing An "All Points Bulletin"

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


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

LISTEN UP.

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

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

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

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

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

Bye...

It's A Wonder I Have Any Hair Left

Somebody Call 911...


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

...

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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



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

Having A Toe Tapping Good Time

My Head's Still Spinning...


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Worn Totally Out

A Multitude Of Priorities And Minimum Energy...


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

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

Whose idea was all of this any way?

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

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

Talk to y'all later I guess...

Thank GOD That Freaking Child Murder Trial Is Over With

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

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

Surprising, but not life changing for me personally.

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

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

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

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

And Today?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

But Just In Case You Haven't...

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




'Nuf Said I think

A NORMAL Night's Sleep?

I Must Be Getting Old...


A funny thing happened last night.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Regards Y'all...