Helps You Know Who (Or What) Has Come A Callin'...
I just took a tour of my property boundary at 5 AM this morning in the dark.
Outside in the cold, frosty, silence, I remembered that I'm still a country boy at heart.
I think that I've written that phrase/information/declaration several times if not several hundred times here on this blog, but I somehow felt like reiterating it again this morning because of the experience I've just had looking at the world through the prism of winter weather.
Thinking back now, my lament is partially due to in retrospect to some poor decisions I made earlier in life resulting in my relegation to living 27 at first glorious and in the end hellish years in Atlanta and the "Atlanta Suburbs" while attending college and the following miss-directed years of professional "aspiration's" which yielded a bunch of money for companies and business partners and a couple of ex-wives...but only a little for me when the balance sheet was closed.
Efforts which only proceeded to allow various "parties" and "individuals" to take said money and let my aforementioned wives and/or my aforementioned business partners and/or their lawyers and/or their accountants and/or their "fiduciaries" to go do something else and/or someone else other than me with it all when the dust settled.
I guess that you could say that I have a PHD in how NOT to do things when it was all said and done.
What was amazing was that I somehow put up with the process for that interminably long period before I managed to get my butt out of that town i.e. "regional metropolitan area" and not be jailed for life for being convicted of committing a capitol crime of passion or otherwise.
Of course my defense would be INSANITY then just like it is today.
You Know?
...BIGgggggg breath here Boss...
That said, I was wandering around out in my yard a couple of times the past week since the snow started falling and it is interesting to see all of the activity that happens out there night and day which I may or may not see just sitting around picking my nose and Googling around the computer screen each day,
Take the footprints you can see in the snow for instance.
I'm an expert animal and human tracker when there is snow on the ground just like the "injuns" and other guys that were paid to such stuff in the old John Wayne and Clint Eastwood movies.
I see my own foot prints from yesterday and get all excited before I remember that I was out that way already...Barney Fife style police work...
OK, actually I'd rather damn be looking at "footprints in the sand" on a beach somewhere, but still it works the same way here in the deep freezer we call Knoxtown.
But now back to the subject regarding "SNOW footprints"...
Just tonight on my evening tour I could see the footprints of our local Crow (Raven) population all over the place in my yard, and that the "Rascally Wrabbit" or "Wrabbits" (in the words of Elmer Fudd) are jumping all around the place for some reason...I guess looking for whatever it is that Wrabbits look for to eat, and then there is the neighbor's Tomcat which makes his rounds early every morning just making sure everything is in order.
If you've ever owned a good Tom Cat you know what I mean...if you bring something into the room or move it around the Cat will come in and do what I call "inventory" and identify the change within about ten seconds and then sit there and point at the offending artifact while continuing to inspect it extensively.
Our yard sort of works the same way for our Neighbor's Tom Cat.
And apparently there is a Possum or an Opossum wandering around and a Raccoon and the obligatory squirrels and so on...
So any way...in conclusion this morning...
...it snowed another half inch or so yesterday morning, we still as a result pretty much have a couple of three inches on the ground all around, and I still have to wear a shirt and socks even INSIDE MY HOUSE here Dammit.
And Y'all have a LOVELY Day ... If you will...
Friday, January 14, 2011
Thursday, January 13, 2011
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
I Stand Corrected
I Miss-Spoke Regarding Glock Magazine Capacity...
Other than having strong opinions, I'm nothing if not as technically accurate here on this blog as possible, thus the reason for this posting this morning.
I have to admit that I was ignorant in not knowing in my earlier posting that Glock makes a factory 33 round clip for their model 17, 18, and 19 series 9 MM caliber weapons.
It looks pretty stupid because it hangs out a long way out of the bottom of the pistol's grip. The clip is intended for military and law enforcement purposes but is also available to the general public in the states which don't limit the clip capacity to 10 rounds.
Thus I stand corrected.
As an excuse I offer that I have never owned one or even seen one in person on the gun ranges I've visited, and with the cost of ammunition what it is with all of the new federal taxes I don't see why anyone would want to load up nearly $20 worth of ammunition at one time when your hands hurts after firing ten rounds and you need a rest.
I guess if you are a mass murderer it's an advantage, but again...like I wrote before...
a RESPONSIBLE well trained gun owner will kill a burglar or other life threatening assailant with one bullet and the extra 32 rounds are just there for back up or unless there a small mob breaking into their house.
Other than having strong opinions, I'm nothing if not as technically accurate here on this blog as possible, thus the reason for this posting this morning.
I have to admit that I was ignorant in not knowing in my earlier posting that Glock makes a factory 33 round clip for their model 17, 18, and 19 series 9 MM caliber weapons.
It looks pretty stupid because it hangs out a long way out of the bottom of the pistol's grip. The clip is intended for military and law enforcement purposes but is also available to the general public in the states which don't limit the clip capacity to 10 rounds.
Thus I stand corrected.
As an excuse I offer that I have never owned one or even seen one in person on the gun ranges I've visited, and with the cost of ammunition what it is with all of the new federal taxes I don't see why anyone would want to load up nearly $20 worth of ammunition at one time when your hands hurts after firing ten rounds and you need a rest.
I guess if you are a mass murderer it's an advantage, but again...like I wrote before...
a RESPONSIBLE well trained gun owner will kill a burglar or other life threatening assailant with one bullet and the extra 32 rounds are just there for back up or unless there a small mob breaking into their house.
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
Are You Lonesome Tonight?
Wintertime Reflections...
It's cold and dreary outside here in Knoxtown, with snow on the ground and a little more still coming down.
I just realized that I was remiss in not recognising Elvis's 76th birthday this week.
"The King" has been gone now for almost 34 years, but he probably wouldn't mind me posting this video of a rather unusual "Elvis Impersonator" here on the blog who died prematurely about 15 years later...
Enjoy...
Heh...
It's cold and dreary outside here in Knoxtown, with snow on the ground and a little more still coming down.
I just realized that I was remiss in not recognising Elvis's 76th birthday this week.
"The King" has been gone now for almost 34 years, but he probably wouldn't mind me posting this video of a rather unusual "Elvis Impersonator" here on the blog who died prematurely about 15 years later...
Enjoy...
Heh...
New Winter Experiences
Shoveling Snow For The Turbo Pup...
I spent part of yesterday afternoon and Earllllllyyyy this morning doing something I've never really had to do as a home owner.
Using my snow shovel.
You know...the one I bought going on four years ago now when we first moved up here to Knoxtown from our little Island.
I didn't really need it so far until this last storm hit, but just like the generator we bought when we moved to the Georgia coast in anticipation of a Hurricane induced power outage and that's as of right now still sitting comfortably in the basement shrink wrapped in it's original packaging, or the Kerosene Heater we bought in anticipation of a winter Ice storm induced situation...
until yesterday my new Snow Shovel has happily resided unused in the carport along with some other sometimes used but often neglected yard tools.
So any way, I strapped on my winter boots and ski bibs and put on a hat and my parka and wandered outside to see what was going on. Then I got all energetic and shoveled the drifted snow out of the carport, and then one thing lead to another and I worked my way around to the front of the house and up the sidewalk to the front porch.
Then I stopped.
At dinner last night after I had cooked pizza and everyone was settling in to watch Auburn beat Oregon at the last second to win the national championship in the BCS Bowl, Pat mentioned that it would be nice to shovel a little path for Missy the Turbo Pup out from her doggie door across the deck and expose a little grassy area in the yard for her to do her business in.
Duhhhhhh...
Having not had to live with much frozen precipitation in the past ten years, and only owning a little mini long haired dachshund for a little over four of those years (remember I was a Cat man in another life)...it just didn't occur to me to clean off an area for my Turbo Puppy.
After all...She's so versatile having been raised pool side and at the beach and...
having taken to snow while visiting her Cousin Dachshunds Olive and Otis in Kansas City I just wasn't thinking.
She's been coming back in the doggie door covered in clumps of snow from the nose and ears down with this recent storm, so this morning her Dad did like most good Dad's do and remedied the situation while I was outside putting the trash out on the curb and picking up the mail that showed up at near dark yesterday.
Oh the things men will do for little girls...human and canine...when they love them...
I spent part of yesterday afternoon and Earllllllyyyy this morning doing something I've never really had to do as a home owner.
Using my snow shovel.
You know...the one I bought going on four years ago now when we first moved up here to Knoxtown from our little Island.
I didn't really need it so far until this last storm hit, but just like the generator we bought when we moved to the Georgia coast in anticipation of a Hurricane induced power outage and that's as of right now still sitting comfortably in the basement shrink wrapped in it's original packaging, or the Kerosene Heater we bought in anticipation of a winter Ice storm induced situation...
until yesterday my new Snow Shovel has happily resided unused in the carport along with some other sometimes used but often neglected yard tools.
So any way, I strapped on my winter boots and ski bibs and put on a hat and my parka and wandered outside to see what was going on. Then I got all energetic and shoveled the drifted snow out of the carport, and then one thing lead to another and I worked my way around to the front of the house and up the sidewalk to the front porch.
Then I stopped.
At dinner last night after I had cooked pizza and everyone was settling in to watch Auburn beat Oregon at the last second to win the national championship in the BCS Bowl, Pat mentioned that it would be nice to shovel a little path for Missy the Turbo Pup out from her doggie door across the deck and expose a little grassy area in the yard for her to do her business in.
Duhhhhhh...
Having not had to live with much frozen precipitation in the past ten years, and only owning a little mini long haired dachshund for a little over four of those years (remember I was a Cat man in another life)...it just didn't occur to me to clean off an area for my Turbo Puppy.
After all...She's so versatile having been raised pool side and at the beach and...
having taken to snow while visiting her Cousin Dachshunds Olive and Otis in Kansas City I just wasn't thinking.
She's been coming back in the doggie door covered in clumps of snow from the nose and ears down with this recent storm, so this morning her Dad did like most good Dad's do and remedied the situation while I was outside putting the trash out on the curb and picking up the mail that showed up at near dark yesterday.
Oh the things men will do for little girls...human and canine...when they love them...
Monday, January 10, 2011
If A Thousand or Tens of Thousands Of Men Would Do This
"Parenting" Would Have A New Meaning And Our Society Would Benefit...
This video is definitely "not safe for work," but since when have I worried about my Blog being safe for anything except pissing people off most of the time?
Still, I'm just saying, if a bunch of young black men would get involved with raising their pre-teen and teenaged sons and put some muscle in the discipline we could pay a lot less taxes and worry a lot less about walking down the street at night.
Take a gander now if you dare:
The guy delivering the punishment needs to pull his pants up also and cover up his boxers, but still...no family is perfect I guess...
You Know?
Heh...
This video is definitely "not safe for work," but since when have I worried about my Blog being safe for anything except pissing people off most of the time?
Still, I'm just saying, if a bunch of young black men would get involved with raising their pre-teen and teenaged sons and put some muscle in the discipline we could pay a lot less taxes and worry a lot less about walking down the street at night.
Take a gander now if you dare:
The guy delivering the punishment needs to pull his pants up also and cover up his boxers, but still...no family is perfect I guess...
You Know?
Heh...
Sunday, January 09, 2011
Anti Gun Media At It Again...
They Say "Shooter Fired 31 rounds from his first clip..."
[EXPANDED AND UPDATED EDITION]
I just watched the latest news conference [and thought about things some more now] from out in Arizona where the media and the Sheriff continued to spew subtle anti-second amendment rhetoric non stop.
Wild eyed, traumatized witnesses are now coming forward and being interviewed and in all likelihood they don't really know or accurately remember what happened, but just like the number of dead and wounded continued to climb yesterday so has the number of shots fired been escalated today.
Now they're saying 31 rounds, before the gunman changed clips and one of the victims tried to grab the gun/clip. And now apparently they're saying the gun jammed and misfired.
As I have reported here before on this blog, 30 years ago I personally went through the late night robbery of a restaurant where I as a customer had a sawed off shotgun poked into my back and pumped and had a small caliber pistol pounded on my head until the barel broke off the frame of the weapon, and in the heat of the moment all I could tell you was there were four black guys with one shotgun and a couple of pistols and they took my money and my watch.
And these lovelyNiggras Negros Blacks African Americans didn't apparently give a Tinkers Damn if it was against the law to carry a weapon or beat people in the head with it or take money and possessions which didn't belong them.
It's already against the law to take a gun and shoot someone or beat them with it, and yet the sniveling, tye- died, tree hugging, patchouli stinking, Kumbaya Singing San Francisco liberal/progressives want to pass even more laws intended to take away MY GUNS under the guise of protecting me from the animals like I've already encountered...
...and when seconds count, without my guns, their Government police department is only minutes away...
...followed by the EMS ambulance and the fire department to plug the holes in my head and mop up my blood off of the floor.
As an aside, while they use the actions of a few lunatics in a country with a population of 308,000,000 to further limit gun ownership, we're actually lucky that in most all of these recent events like Virginia Tech and Columnbine and Ft. Hood and now Arizona that the shooter was really basically a pretty bad shot when the smoke cleared.
I'm not making any threats here, but you can take this for what it is worth.
IF I or most of the other people I used to shoot competitively with out in the West Atlanta suburbs in the mid 1990's, walked in somewhere and fired 31 shots at close range...
...there would be 31 dead people, not half that number.
That's not a threat ladies and gentlemen, that's a FACT.
These deranged idiots running around shooting people most of the time really can't hit the broad side of a barn with a pistol from a distance of 10 feet.
Yes, the people causing the mayhem and headlines are technically "gun owners", but not knowledgeable RESPONSIBLE gun owners and most of the time they end up shooting themselves or a family member or leave their weapon loaded and laying around and their small children find it and blow their or a siblings' brain out accidentally and yet the media and the "public" and the government do gooders want to come after every gun in the country because of their actions and stupidity.
Check the statistics, ladies and gentlemen, (and I'm too lazy to Google it right now but I've seen them) and I know that you will find that there were very few if any crimes committed or reported in the past TEN YEARS involving the use of a firearm in an illegal manner by anyone who had gone to the trouble to get the training and pay the fees for a concealed carry permit.
And yet there are a large and growing number of crimes which have been prevented or their impact limited and lives and property otherwise saved by the use of legal weapons by legitimate gun owners exercising their second amendment rights to bear arms and protect their lives and property with a rifle, shotgun, or pistol.
And there is also a large and ever growing number of crimes which could have been prevented if people possessing legal weapons carry permits had not been prevented from using them because the government continues to limit the places responsible gun owners can have guns.
Back to the Arizona story, to any knowledgeable shooter who has practiced LEGALLY on a gun range doing rapid fire, it's not unusual for a semi-automatic piston to jam as it heats up and as you change clips...particularly a gun owned by someone that doesn't really know what they are doing and doesn't clean and otherwise take care of their weapon.
And the idea of a gun holding 31 rounds in a single clip is something believed only by the non-shooting public, the ignorant media, or shown in science fiction movies. That is more than double even the largest non-factory clip extensions available in gun shops and on the Internet.
[UPDATE Ooops...Glock makes a law enforcement/military clip which holds 33 rounds. It looks stupid and sticks way out of the grip of the gum but they're out there in states which don't already limit clips to 10 rounds. My mistake...I was wrong and I admit it in another blog posting on January 12th, so don't start bitching at me...]
I'm really disappointed that Fox News, in the rush to get the lead on this continuing story, has done such a shitty job of fact checking their on the air coverage.
Yesterday we had a dead Congresswoman which turned out to still be alive , and today we have 31 round Glock 9 MM bullet clips when there is really no such thing.
They quickly corrected the report of the death of the Congresswoman because they had to, but you'll probably not hear the 31 bullet clip falsehood corrected
Stupid people (as opposed to just uneducated...and there's a real difference) work in all disciplines in life, but we seem to have some of the most examples of stupidity in the ranks which matter most...
Working in "Education" at Government Schools and writing copy and doing broadcast work in "News Media outlets."
And interestingly enough they have the gumption to blame Talk Radio and Internet Bloggers for spewing falsehoods and hate while they're at it...and get away with it in most venues they control.
Is it just me?
[EXPANDED AND UPDATED EDITION]
I just watched the latest news conference [and thought about things some more now] from out in Arizona where the media and the Sheriff continued to spew subtle anti-second amendment rhetoric non stop.
Wild eyed, traumatized witnesses are now coming forward and being interviewed and in all likelihood they don't really know or accurately remember what happened, but just like the number of dead and wounded continued to climb yesterday so has the number of shots fired been escalated today.
Now they're saying 31 rounds, before the gunman changed clips and one of the victims tried to grab the gun/clip. And now apparently they're saying the gun jammed and misfired.
As I have reported here before on this blog, 30 years ago I personally went through the late night robbery of a restaurant where I as a customer had a sawed off shotgun poked into my back and pumped and had a small caliber pistol pounded on my head until the barel broke off the frame of the weapon, and in the heat of the moment all I could tell you was there were four black guys with one shotgun and a couple of pistols and they took my money and my watch.
And these lovely
It's already against the law to take a gun and shoot someone or beat them with it, and yet the sniveling, tye- died, tree hugging, patchouli stinking, Kumbaya Singing San Francisco liberal/progressives want to pass even more laws intended to take away MY GUNS under the guise of protecting me from the animals like I've already encountered...
...and when seconds count, without my guns, their Government police department is only minutes away...
...followed by the EMS ambulance and the fire department to plug the holes in my head and mop up my blood off of the floor.
As an aside, while they use the actions of a few lunatics in a country with a population of 308,000,000 to further limit gun ownership, we're actually lucky that in most all of these recent events like Virginia Tech and Columnbine and Ft. Hood and now Arizona that the shooter was really basically a pretty bad shot when the smoke cleared.
I'm not making any threats here, but you can take this for what it is worth.
IF I or most of the other people I used to shoot competitively with out in the West Atlanta suburbs in the mid 1990's, walked in somewhere and fired 31 shots at close range...
...there would be 31 dead people, not half that number.
That's not a threat ladies and gentlemen, that's a FACT.
These deranged idiots running around shooting people most of the time really can't hit the broad side of a barn with a pistol from a distance of 10 feet.
Yes, the people causing the mayhem and headlines are technically "gun owners", but not knowledgeable RESPONSIBLE gun owners and most of the time they end up shooting themselves or a family member or leave their weapon loaded and laying around and their small children find it and blow their or a siblings' brain out accidentally and yet the media and the "public" and the government do gooders want to come after every gun in the country because of their actions and stupidity.
Check the statistics, ladies and gentlemen, (and I'm too lazy to Google it right now but I've seen them) and I know that you will find that there were very few if any crimes committed or reported in the past TEN YEARS involving the use of a firearm in an illegal manner by anyone who had gone to the trouble to get the training and pay the fees for a concealed carry permit.
And yet there are a large and growing number of crimes which have been prevented or their impact limited and lives and property otherwise saved by the use of legal weapons by legitimate gun owners exercising their second amendment rights to bear arms and protect their lives and property with a rifle, shotgun, or pistol.
And there is also a large and ever growing number of crimes which could have been prevented if people possessing legal weapons carry permits had not been prevented from using them because the government continues to limit the places responsible gun owners can have guns.
Back to the Arizona story, to any knowledgeable shooter who has practiced LEGALLY on a gun range doing rapid fire, it's not unusual for a semi-automatic piston to jam as it heats up and as you change clips...particularly a gun owned by someone that doesn't really know what they are doing and doesn't clean and otherwise take care of their weapon.
And the idea of a gun holding 31 rounds in a single clip is something believed only by the non-shooting public, the ignorant media, or shown in science fiction movies. That is more than double even the largest non-factory clip extensions available in gun shops and on the Internet.
[UPDATE Ooops...Glock makes a law enforcement/military clip which holds 33 rounds. It looks stupid and sticks way out of the grip of the gum but they're out there in states which don't already limit clips to 10 rounds. My mistake...I was wrong and I admit it in another blog posting on January 12th, so don't start bitching at me...]
I'm really disappointed that Fox News, in the rush to get the lead on this continuing story, has done such a shitty job of fact checking their on the air coverage.
Yesterday we had a dead Congresswoman which turned out to still be alive , and today we have 31 round Glock 9 MM bullet clips when there is really no such thing.
They quickly corrected the report of the death of the Congresswoman because they had to, but you'll probably not hear the 31 bullet clip falsehood corrected
Stupid people (as opposed to just uneducated...and there's a real difference) work in all disciplines in life, but we seem to have some of the most examples of stupidity in the ranks which matter most...
Working in "Education" at Government Schools and writing copy and doing broadcast work in "News Media outlets."
And interestingly enough they have the gumption to blame Talk Radio and Internet Bloggers for spewing falsehoods and hate while they're at it...and get away with it in most venues they control.
Is it just me?
Insanity Continues To Wreck Havoc
Idiots On The left Already Blaming The Right...
As you know if you read this blog, I've been around more than a little while here on this planet and in the past half century I've gone from pure Conservative to Libertarian in my adult life.
Before that transformation, back before I could actually vote in an election, I have to admit that I was a George Wallace Democrat because A) I was born and raised and lived in southern Alabama, and B) I was born and raised and lived in southern Alabama and didn't know anything else to do when it came to politics.
I suspect that people living in South Carolina voting for Strom Thurman and in Georgia electing Lester Maddox were in the same position even if they were a few years or even a generation older than me at the time.
That said, it pisses me off when people, unfortunately usually young white men, take things into their own hands and bypass the electoral process and go out and SHOOT DULY ELECTED OFFICIALS when they don't agree with them and their politics.
Happened to George Wallace during his presidential campaign in 1972, happened to Gerrald Ford and Ron Reagan and Kennedy and Lincoln and God knows how many other now forgotten local and state politicians, but in my opinion this mess which happened out in Arizona yesterday is going to do NOTHING if not make it harder for the people to talk to their governing officials and put a bunch of additional pressure on gun owners because the anti-gun idiots will use the event as a talking point.
My heart goes out to the wounded and the dead from yesterday's "man made disaster" but the media coverage and the political BS coming out of it pisses me off and there is nothing I can do but sit on the sidelines quietly and watch.
As you know if you read this blog, I've been around more than a little while here on this planet and in the past half century I've gone from pure Conservative to Libertarian in my adult life.
Before that transformation, back before I could actually vote in an election, I have to admit that I was a George Wallace Democrat because A) I was born and raised and lived in southern Alabama, and B) I was born and raised and lived in southern Alabama and didn't know anything else to do when it came to politics.
I suspect that people living in South Carolina voting for Strom Thurman and in Georgia electing Lester Maddox were in the same position even if they were a few years or even a generation older than me at the time.
That said, it pisses me off when people, unfortunately usually young white men, take things into their own hands and bypass the electoral process and go out and SHOOT DULY ELECTED OFFICIALS when they don't agree with them and their politics.
Happened to George Wallace during his presidential campaign in 1972, happened to Gerrald Ford and Ron Reagan and Kennedy and Lincoln and God knows how many other now forgotten local and state politicians, but in my opinion this mess which happened out in Arizona yesterday is going to do NOTHING if not make it harder for the people to talk to their governing officials and put a bunch of additional pressure on gun owners because the anti-gun idiots will use the event as a talking point.
My heart goes out to the wounded and the dead from yesterday's "man made disaster" but the media coverage and the political BS coming out of it pisses me off and there is nothing I can do but sit on the sidelines quietly and watch.
Saturday, January 08, 2011
A Good Saturday I Think
Life Is What You Make Of It I Know...
I've been sort of stuck in a mental funk recently in spite of the happy stuff I've been writing here on the blog. Attribute the situation to my multi-personality syndrome or whatever, but half of me has been elated and the other half has been going crazy worrying about stuff.
Now at the end of this week a few things resolved themselves in a positive manner and I think that maybe I can move forward.
I just checked outside and we're getting a nice little fluffy snow storm with about an inch or so on the ground so far this morning, and down here in the shop after stopping to take a nap and reset my synapses I just had a major breakthrough with a programming problem I've been having with a new type of PLC controller I'm working with.
I don't understand why so many nerds are such bad writers--particularly technical writing--technical things being what we do and all...but they are. I just spent part of last week trying to understand something which was stupidly silly and easy but was not even in the "official" documentation and only casually mentioned in some other material I had received from a class I took a couple of years ago.
I'm not going to let that omission upset me and ruin my good mood yelling about wanting to wring some techno-idiot's neck...
...I'm just going to remain cool and calm and happy and have a good Saturday and get up and cook Pat and the Turbo Pup some eggs and keep on keeping on on an even keel.
Y'all have a LOVELY weekend, if you will...and stay warm...
I've been sort of stuck in a mental funk recently in spite of the happy stuff I've been writing here on the blog. Attribute the situation to my multi-personality syndrome or whatever, but half of me has been elated and the other half has been going crazy worrying about stuff.
Now at the end of this week a few things resolved themselves in a positive manner and I think that maybe I can move forward.
I just checked outside and we're getting a nice little fluffy snow storm with about an inch or so on the ground so far this morning, and down here in the shop after stopping to take a nap and reset my synapses I just had a major breakthrough with a programming problem I've been having with a new type of PLC controller I'm working with.
I don't understand why so many nerds are such bad writers--particularly technical writing--technical things being what we do and all...but they are. I just spent part of last week trying to understand something which was stupidly silly and easy but was not even in the "official" documentation and only casually mentioned in some other material I had received from a class I took a couple of years ago.
I'm not going to let that omission upset me and ruin my good mood yelling about wanting to wring some techno-idiot's neck...
...I'm just going to remain cool and calm and happy and have a good Saturday and get up and cook Pat and the Turbo Pup some eggs and keep on keeping on on an even keel.
Y'all have a LOVELY weekend, if you will...and stay warm...
Thursday, January 06, 2011
The Phone's Starting To Ring
New Year Looking Profitable...
To my surprise I got a phone call this afternoon from a stranger asking for some pricing on our custom pneumatic valve rebuild services.
Better yet, they're interested in what we call a "Master Rebuild" which cost about three and one half times as much as a "Basic Rebuild," so the value of the Purchase Order piles up real fast when they send in six or eight valves for service.
Each machine typically requires 16 valves, and there's a few thousand of these old machines sprinkled around North America/Canada, and apparently word is getting out that we do a good job I guess.
I predict that our first real employee we hire will primarily spend his or her time re-building valves if things work out...who knows.
I rebuilt 84 of them from the fourth quarter of 2009 through the last shipment which went out of here by FedEX on New Years Eve, and there's a good but small living to be had by coming up to speed and doing two or three times that number here in 2011.
In other news, in spite of the winter weather outside my front and back doors, last week we had a new ultra-high efficiency TRANE heat pump system installed to replace the ancient, inefficient GE 1970's vintage unit and I'm able to run around both levels of the house without socks and a sweatshirt and be comfortable.
I'm not in any way a nudist, but at the same time I hate wearing extra clothes unless I'm going to Church or the mall or other places in public. It's the pirate/beach bum tendancies in me I guess, and this new TRANE unit quietly keeps all of the house at a comfortable level of temperature...hopefully at a cost of less than the $300 per month we were paying three or four months out of the year using the old unit.
This old 1963 vintage house is starting to be in better shape now than it was the day it was build because of our efforts over the past nearly 4 years. A new roof and a coat of paint on the soffits and facias and window trim and it will be better than new I think.
If I was half it's age rather than being four years older than the old brick lady I'd tackle the roof myself, but my days of doing roofing ended with the 12' x 12' storage building I built for my dear Mother on the Farm back in the early 1990's.
I'm still considering doing the paint because the house is brick on four sides and the tallest part of the woodwork is only about 24 feet off of the ground. I guess I'll get a quote and if I can save $1,500 to $2,000 it's worth my while to climb up and down a ladder a few thousand times when the weather warms up this spring.
I really enjoy working on my cars and my houses and doing mechanical stuff on a "hands on" basis, it's just that like everyone else...the older I get the more fragile I become and saving a little money while risking spending the rest of my life in a neck brace is something I don't have to have anyone else remind me about.
OK, enough blogging for the moment...Until something I read or see on the TV or Internet pisses me off...
Regards Y'all...
To my surprise I got a phone call this afternoon from a stranger asking for some pricing on our custom pneumatic valve rebuild services.
Better yet, they're interested in what we call a "Master Rebuild" which cost about three and one half times as much as a "Basic Rebuild," so the value of the Purchase Order piles up real fast when they send in six or eight valves for service.
Each machine typically requires 16 valves, and there's a few thousand of these old machines sprinkled around North America/Canada, and apparently word is getting out that we do a good job I guess.
I predict that our first real employee we hire will primarily spend his or her time re-building valves if things work out...who knows.
I rebuilt 84 of them from the fourth quarter of 2009 through the last shipment which went out of here by FedEX on New Years Eve, and there's a good but small living to be had by coming up to speed and doing two or three times that number here in 2011.
In other news, in spite of the winter weather outside my front and back doors, last week we had a new ultra-high efficiency TRANE heat pump system installed to replace the ancient, inefficient GE 1970's vintage unit and I'm able to run around both levels of the house without socks and a sweatshirt and be comfortable.
I'm not in any way a nudist, but at the same time I hate wearing extra clothes unless I'm going to Church or the mall or other places in public. It's the pirate/beach bum tendancies in me I guess, and this new TRANE unit quietly keeps all of the house at a comfortable level of temperature...hopefully at a cost of less than the $300 per month we were paying three or four months out of the year using the old unit.
This old 1963 vintage house is starting to be in better shape now than it was the day it was build because of our efforts over the past nearly 4 years. A new roof and a coat of paint on the soffits and facias and window trim and it will be better than new I think.
If I was half it's age rather than being four years older than the old brick lady I'd tackle the roof myself, but my days of doing roofing ended with the 12' x 12' storage building I built for my dear Mother on the Farm back in the early 1990's.
I'm still considering doing the paint because the house is brick on four sides and the tallest part of the woodwork is only about 24 feet off of the ground. I guess I'll get a quote and if I can save $1,500 to $2,000 it's worth my while to climb up and down a ladder a few thousand times when the weather warms up this spring.
I really enjoy working on my cars and my houses and doing mechanical stuff on a "hands on" basis, it's just that like everyone else...the older I get the more fragile I become and saving a little money while risking spending the rest of my life in a neck brace is something I don't have to have anyone else remind me about.
OK, enough blogging for the moment...Until something I read or see on the TV or Internet pisses me off...
Regards Y'all...
Walkin' In A Winter Wonderland
Old Age Yields Bad Attitude Toward Frozen Precipitation...
In spite of the forecast, we picked up somewhere between 3 and 4 inches of snow here in West Knoxtown again yesterday afternoon.
If things keep going as they are this winter will possibly set some new records for snowfall in this part of Eastern Tennessee.
Twenty five years ago I would have ran outside and come back in a hour later soaking wet because it was one of those juicy snows that comes down in "flakes" the size of potato chips. The trees and shrubbery and power lines all had steep stacks of fluffy ice standing on them all evening as a result.
Today, as things have developed, I've only experienced the event by peeking out a couple of windows and opening the door to the back yard deck to check how much things are melting.
I'm arguing with myself about missing the scenery with my camera because it really was a pretty kind of snow, but my back hurts and I have other stuff to do and etc., etc. etc...
so you'll probably just have to use your imagination to see the event here in your mind if you live south or East of here.
In spite of the forecast, we picked up somewhere between 3 and 4 inches of snow here in West Knoxtown again yesterday afternoon.
If things keep going as they are this winter will possibly set some new records for snowfall in this part of Eastern Tennessee.
Twenty five years ago I would have ran outside and come back in a hour later soaking wet because it was one of those juicy snows that comes down in "flakes" the size of potato chips. The trees and shrubbery and power lines all had steep stacks of fluffy ice standing on them all evening as a result.
Today, as things have developed, I've only experienced the event by peeking out a couple of windows and opening the door to the back yard deck to check how much things are melting.
I'm arguing with myself about missing the scenery with my camera because it really was a pretty kind of snow, but my back hurts and I have other stuff to do and etc., etc. etc...
so you'll probably just have to use your imagination to see the event here in your mind if you live south or East of here.
Wednesday, January 05, 2011
New Years Cogitations...
Once True...Always True
(sorry for the re-runs for my regular readers, but I LOVE Sam Kinison...)
(sorry for the re-runs for my regular readers, but I LOVE Sam Kinison...)
Tuesday, January 04, 2011
Hey IRS Idiots...Can I wait Until June 15th To File?
Just In Case You Haven't Noticed...
I challenge you to go online on the IRS website and find Corporate tax return forms for 2010.
Check into the 2010 personal tax forms for those of us that want to itemize our so-called "deductions."
Corporate forms which are due by March 15th...not April 15th...with a $89 per month penalty per shareholder per month if filed late...
EVEN IF YOU DON'T OWE ANY FEDERAL INCOME TAX...
are not available as of today--January 4th, 2010.
Idiot government...can't live with them...forced to not live without them.
I challenge you to go online on the IRS website and find Corporate tax return forms for 2010.
Check into the 2010 personal tax forms for those of us that want to itemize our so-called "deductions."
Corporate forms which are due by March 15th...not April 15th...with a $89 per month penalty per shareholder per month if filed late...
EVEN IF YOU DON'T OWE ANY FEDERAL INCOME TAX...
are not available as of today--January 4th, 2010.
Idiot government...can't live with them...forced to not live without them.
If You Think This Can't Happen Here In the USA You're A Dumbass
And If You Are A Dumbass You Probably Will Vote YES When The Time comes...
European Nations Begin Seizing Private Pensions
People’s retirement savings are a convenient source of revenue for governments that don’t want to reduce spending or make privatizations. As most pension schemes in Europe are organised by the state, European ministers of finance have a facilitated access to the savings accumulated there, and it is only logical that they try to get a hold of this money for their own ends. In recent weeks I have noted five such attempts: Three situations concern private personal savings; two others refer to national funds.
The most striking example is Hungary, where last month the government made the citizens an offer they could not refuse. They could either remit their individual retirement savings to the state, or lose the right to the basic state pension (but still have an obligation to pay contributions for it). In this extortionate way, the government wants to gain control over $14bn of individual retirement savings.
The Bulgarian government has come up with a similar idea. $300m of private early retirement savings was supposed to be transferred to the state pension scheme. The government gave way after trade unions protested and finally only about 20% of the original plans were implemented.
In my opinion we're just a single generation away from the hoards of government edumicated idiots coming and striking at the walls of my home demanding whatever the imperial Federal Government of the By-God United States of 'merica hasn't managed to legislate out of my possession...
..if we don't act in this next one or two sessions of Congress...
Just like the recent riots in Greece and France show "government workers" and so-called "students" taking to the streets demanding retirement in middle age and "free college education."
This from people having spent half a lifetime sitting on their stupid asses with government promises of prosperity at the financial expense of the "rich" and "achievers" in their society, and others demanding an addition four to six years of "free" government supplied education after dropping out or wasting the resources spent getting them through the first twelve years of edificaton.
In Tennessee and Georgia and Alabama the High School drop out rate is somewhere between 50% and 60%, yet the "students" want more.
I say that there is a good chance that our Republic (not Democracy remember) will untimately fall due to "Wealth Envy"... plain and simple...
and that illness of human origin but promoted by governments and politicians through the ages is an evil, base, deadly sin just like murder and adultery in my book.
Remember the Bible says:
"Thou shalt not covet thy neighobor's house or ass or wife (or Wife's Ass or Lexus or Power tools or 42' Sea Ray Cabin Cruiser)..."
It's just that simple...Dammit...
European Nations Begin Seizing Private Pensions
People’s retirement savings are a convenient source of revenue for governments that don’t want to reduce spending or make privatizations. As most pension schemes in Europe are organised by the state, European ministers of finance have a facilitated access to the savings accumulated there, and it is only logical that they try to get a hold of this money for their own ends. In recent weeks I have noted five such attempts: Three situations concern private personal savings; two others refer to national funds.
The most striking example is Hungary, where last month the government made the citizens an offer they could not refuse. They could either remit their individual retirement savings to the state, or lose the right to the basic state pension (but still have an obligation to pay contributions for it). In this extortionate way, the government wants to gain control over $14bn of individual retirement savings.
The Bulgarian government has come up with a similar idea. $300m of private early retirement savings was supposed to be transferred to the state pension scheme. The government gave way after trade unions protested and finally only about 20% of the original plans were implemented.
In my opinion we're just a single generation away from the hoards of government edumicated idiots coming and striking at the walls of my home demanding whatever the imperial Federal Government of the By-God United States of 'merica hasn't managed to legislate out of my possession...
..if we don't act in this next one or two sessions of Congress...
Just like the recent riots in Greece and France show "government workers" and so-called "students" taking to the streets demanding retirement in middle age and "free college education."
This from people having spent half a lifetime sitting on their stupid asses with government promises of prosperity at the financial expense of the "rich" and "achievers" in their society, and others demanding an addition four to six years of "free" government supplied education after dropping out or wasting the resources spent getting them through the first twelve years of edificaton.
In Tennessee and Georgia and Alabama the High School drop out rate is somewhere between 50% and 60%, yet the "students" want more.
I say that there is a good chance that our Republic (not Democracy remember) will untimately fall due to "Wealth Envy"... plain and simple...
and that illness of human origin but promoted by governments and politicians through the ages is an evil, base, deadly sin just like murder and adultery in my book.
Remember the Bible says:
"Thou shalt not covet thy neighobor's house or ass or wife (or Wife's Ass or Lexus or Power tools or 42' Sea Ray Cabin Cruiser)..."
It's just that simple...Dammit...
New Years Day = The "Lint Filter" Of Life?
The Sign Said"Clean Before Each Load"
Just in case you haven't figured it out from reading this blog, I'm not much on "New Years" resolutions.
You see, if you took all of the New Years resolutions I've broken over the past 5 plus decades, piled them up like cord firewood, and then proceeded to burn them in your fireplace, you'd probably be warm all winter--every single winter--for the next half century.
That said, there's still a few things which I think always change for the good every year if you just give life a little effort, and in my book you don't have to wait until New Year's Eve or New Years day to get the positive results.
Now digressing a bit (stay with me here...I have a point), I was just sitting here in front of the computer surrounded by PLC panel projects in my basement shop...Mission Control A.K.A. the International headquarters of PET...when the buzzer went off on our Clothes Dryer in the adjacent laundry area.
I walked over to change over another load of laundry when I had an epiphany I think.
See if you agree.
It occurred to me that it's better to think of New Year's Day not as the day to start filtering the proverbial lint--the bad stuff--out of our lives.
I think that it's better...like a dryer lint filter...to do just a little bit every day, in every load of stuff life gives us...and then at the end of the run...
New Year's Day...
Clean your filter out like I'm doing, and then start over.
Incremental filtration, not tee totaling absolution...
It's much easier and practical..
Right?
Just in case you haven't figured it out from reading this blog, I'm not much on "New Years" resolutions.
You see, if you took all of the New Years resolutions I've broken over the past 5 plus decades, piled them up like cord firewood, and then proceeded to burn them in your fireplace, you'd probably be warm all winter--every single winter--for the next half century.
That said, there's still a few things which I think always change for the good every year if you just give life a little effort, and in my book you don't have to wait until New Year's Eve or New Years day to get the positive results.
Now digressing a bit (stay with me here...I have a point), I was just sitting here in front of the computer surrounded by PLC panel projects in my basement shop...Mission Control A.K.A. the International headquarters of PET...when the buzzer went off on our Clothes Dryer in the adjacent laundry area.
I walked over to change over another load of laundry when I had an epiphany I think.
See if you agree.
It occurred to me that it's better to think of New Year's Day not as the day to start filtering the proverbial lint--the bad stuff--out of our lives.
I think that it's better...like a dryer lint filter...to do just a little bit every day, in every load of stuff life gives us...and then at the end of the run...
New Year's Day...
Clean your filter out like I'm doing, and then start over.
Incremental filtration, not tee totaling absolution...
It's much easier and practical..
Right?
I've Been Busy Ringing In The New Year
And Putting The Old Year In A File Cabinet Or The Trash Can...
I suppose that you've noticed that I've been pretty much invisible here on the Internet on and off for the past few weeks.
Don't worry, there's nothing wrong really (unlike a couple of previous near month long absences while I was preoccupied laying in a hospital bed with a half dozen tubes stuck into my body) other than, in addition to celebrating two holidays in 10 days, I've just had to spend most of my time focused on closing out some old business files and getting new proposals put together.
I also installed a new Blue Ray Surround Sound home theater system which has resulted in a total loss of hearing a couple of times while watching reruns of Lord of the Rings and some other stuff I've missed in surround sound at home in the past.
eeEEEhhhHHHH...what did you say???
Then of course there is the arduous task of finishing the tax year and getting ready for moving forward into the year 2011.
In anticipation of possibly QUADRUPLING our business this year I went out and purchased a program called "Quickbooks" and spent most of a couple of days keying in everything I did last year in order to support tax returns and to get the accounting system up and running for the new year.
Let's just say this...
I'M EXHAUSTED.
I also bought a giant new bookcase for my office and spent a bunch of time putting things into three ring binders, boxing stuff up in cardboard storage boxes, and stuffing things into empty spaces in the three file cabinets I look at every day.
I probably threw away 100 pounds of magazines and old mail and just miscellaneous paper crap which was laying in various piles in the floor or on my desktop threatening to fall over and suffocate me into a slow death.
So any way, things have settled down a good deal now and there's a good possibility that with our US Congress coming back into session this week I'll have no other recourse but to start launching my opinions back out here onto the Internet here on this blog.
Until then...regards Y'all...
I suppose that you've noticed that I've been pretty much invisible here on the Internet on and off for the past few weeks.
Don't worry, there's nothing wrong really (unlike a couple of previous near month long absences while I was preoccupied laying in a hospital bed with a half dozen tubes stuck into my body) other than, in addition to celebrating two holidays in 10 days, I've just had to spend most of my time focused on closing out some old business files and getting new proposals put together.
I also installed a new Blue Ray Surround Sound home theater system which has resulted in a total loss of hearing a couple of times while watching reruns of Lord of the Rings and some other stuff I've missed in surround sound at home in the past.
eeEEEhhhHHHH...what did you say???
Then of course there is the arduous task of finishing the tax year and getting ready for moving forward into the year 2011.
In anticipation of possibly QUADRUPLING our business this year I went out and purchased a program called "Quickbooks" and spent most of a couple of days keying in everything I did last year in order to support tax returns and to get the accounting system up and running for the new year.
Let's just say this...
I'M EXHAUSTED.
I also bought a giant new bookcase for my office and spent a bunch of time putting things into three ring binders, boxing stuff up in cardboard storage boxes, and stuffing things into empty spaces in the three file cabinets I look at every day.
I probably threw away 100 pounds of magazines and old mail and just miscellaneous paper crap which was laying in various piles in the floor or on my desktop threatening to fall over and suffocate me into a slow death.
So any way, things have settled down a good deal now and there's a good possibility that with our US Congress coming back into session this week I'll have no other recourse but to start launching my opinions back out here onto the Internet here on this blog.
Until then...regards Y'all...
Friday, December 31, 2010
Blogging Suffering Due To Government Red Tape
Words Suitable For Public Consumption Few And Far Between...
Sorry for the lack of posting this week, but...
I have a good excuse, and it comes in the form of a question...
Anybody out there but me already totally PISSED OFF from having to fool around with "end of the year" financial issues i.e. tax bullshit?
I swear the agony of opening the mail and anticipating filling out forms makes me want to pull what hair is left out of my ever greying, ever balding head.
State Corporate Registration.
State Sales and Use Tax.
County Business license.
State Corporate Income Tax.
Federal Corporate Income Tax.
Would someone tell me where there is supposed to be time left to actually MAKE SOME MONEY in this process for the next couple of months?
Hello...
I'm listening?
OK...time to get back under the pile of files and continue calculating...
Sorry for the lack of posting this week, but...
I have a good excuse, and it comes in the form of a question...
Anybody out there but me already totally PISSED OFF from having to fool around with "end of the year" financial issues i.e. tax bullshit?
I swear the agony of opening the mail and anticipating filling out forms makes me want to pull what hair is left out of my ever greying, ever balding head.
State Corporate Registration.
State Sales and Use Tax.
County Business license.
State Corporate Income Tax.
Federal Corporate Income Tax.
Would someone tell me where there is supposed to be time left to actually MAKE SOME MONEY in this process for the next couple of months?
Hello...
I'm listening?
OK...time to get back under the pile of files and continue calculating...
Sunday, December 26, 2010
Let It Snow (And Snow And SNOW)
White Christmas Gone Awry...
After a nice Christmas spent with some of Pat's family at my Mom's place in Lower Alabama, we decided to extend our return trip into two segments stopping again in Atlanta and completing the final leg to Knoxtown Monday afternoon.
We had flurries on and off since yesterday in Alabama and then drove into a two inch coating today in Georgia.
Rumors from our Knoxtown Neighbors indicate they had between four and six inches in our neighborhood and we were concerned about road conditions.
Hopefully the Georgia and Tennessee DOT troops will have gotten de-icing materials down and traffic will have run over things enough to make travel safe by then.
I have a busy week ahead and some more work to do here on the computer thus I'm to call it a day regarding blogging for now.
Wish us a safe journey and until next time...Regards Y'all...
After a nice Christmas spent with some of Pat's family at my Mom's place in Lower Alabama, we decided to extend our return trip into two segments stopping again in Atlanta and completing the final leg to Knoxtown Monday afternoon.
We had flurries on and off since yesterday in Alabama and then drove into a two inch coating today in Georgia.
Rumors from our Knoxtown Neighbors indicate they had between four and six inches in our neighborhood and we were concerned about road conditions.
Hopefully the Georgia and Tennessee DOT troops will have gotten de-icing materials down and traffic will have run over things enough to make travel safe by then.
I have a busy week ahead and some more work to do here on the computer thus I'm to call it a day regarding blogging for now.
Wish us a safe journey and until next time...Regards Y'all...
Saturday, December 25, 2010
Friday, December 24, 2010
Christmas Humor
I Can't Resist...
I think I used this one last year but I still love it...
Heh...
I think I used this one last year but I still love it...
And I found this one online this year...
Heh...
Thursday, December 23, 2010
Secret Service Comes Knoxing
Come Out With Your Hands Up...
I was infuriated to see that not one but BOTH of my Senators from Tennessee broke ranks with the Republicans and voted for the new START weapons treaty.
Here's the text to the E-mail I fired off (after removing the profanity) to Senator Bob Corker and Lamar Alexander
How can you justify voting for the START treaty working with the Democrat idiots during the Lame Duck session while the America public is distracted with Christmas?
We're going to watch and remember and if you keep this kind of crap up you're going to find yourself sitting back here in Tennessee watching CSPAN full time.
If I disappear in the next week from Blogging please consider taking up a collection and come try to bail me out if you will...
I was infuriated to see that not one but BOTH of my Senators from Tennessee broke ranks with the Republicans and voted for the new START weapons treaty.
Here's the text to the E-mail I fired off (after removing the profanity) to Senator Bob Corker and Lamar Alexander
How can you justify voting for the START treaty working with the Democrat idiots during the Lame Duck session while the America public is distracted with Christmas?
We're going to watch and remember and if you keep this kind of crap up you're going to find yourself sitting back here in Tennessee watching CSPAN full time.
If I disappear in the next week from Blogging please consider taking up a collection and come try to bail me out if you will...
I Give Them Five Years...
And They'll Be Coming After People Like Me...
The government just can't stand a good thing.
It's against their very nature these days it seems.
Start doing something that works well or is popular or makes people a bunch of money, and it never fails that the elected shitheads (or in this case their appointed representatives at the FCC) will step in and start writing rules and put the kibosh on the whole program in the end.
Take the Internet, for instance; and more specifically the new so called "Network Neutrality" program which just passed down at FCC headquarters:
WASHINGTON -- The Federal Communications Commission on Tuesday approved a plan to regulate the Internet despite warnings that it could strangle industry investment and damage an economy that is still struggling to recover.
The 3-2 vote fell along partisan lines with Democrats capitalizing on their numerical advantage.
The rules would prohibit phone and cable companies from abusing their control over broadband connections to discriminate against rival content or services, such as Internet phone calls or online video, or play favorites with Web traffic.
Lawmakers in both parties have been arguing for months that Congress, not the Obama administration, should take the lead role in deciding whether and how much to police the web. But despite a brief backing-off earlier in the year, the FCC pushed ahead with its new regulatory plan.
President Obama said in a statement that the plan "will help preserve the free and open nature of the Internet while encouraging innovation, protecting consumer choice, and defending free speech."
I don't know Ladies & Gentlement...YOU pick the euphemism...
"Slippery Slope?"
"Foot in the door?"
You name it, I guaran-damn-tee you that if this thing holds that it's just the beginning of the government installing a 21st century version of the old Radio "Fairness Doctrine" into the Internet where if you say something cranky that is right leaning or conservative you have to "BALANCE" your commentary with an equal amount of left leaning liberal/progressive bullshit else have the government come in and silence you--probably by making your ISP turn off your Internet service.
All of you out there that make your living on the Internet or spend more than a few hours a day better be very concerned with this development, even if you are not a real Blogger but instead just Twitter or blab on Facebook because Big Brother has been watching and now they're getting their slimy tentacles in the process with things like sales tax on purchases and now this "Net Neutrality" bullshit and I give them another five years before they're knocking on my door asking questions and making treats.
And of course like the DADT and START treaty this week in the Senate these useless "useful idiots" do this in a lame duck session of Congress at Christmas while a bunch of people aren't paying attention.
My two Republican Senators from Tennessee are going to get an ear full for breaking with the party and 11 other Republicans in voting with the Democrats on the START treaty limiting our ability to produce DEFENSIVE missiles which wouldn't blow up anything but incoming nuclear missiles launched by Russia or Iran or North Korea or now even possibly the idiot Chavez down in Venezuela.
It's a screwed up world in my opinion, but try to have a Merry Christmas anyway.
The government just can't stand a good thing.
It's against their very nature these days it seems.
Start doing something that works well or is popular or makes people a bunch of money, and it never fails that the elected shitheads (or in this case their appointed representatives at the FCC) will step in and start writing rules and put the kibosh on the whole program in the end.
Take the Internet, for instance; and more specifically the new so called "Network Neutrality" program which just passed down at FCC headquarters:
WASHINGTON -- The Federal Communications Commission on Tuesday approved a plan to regulate the Internet despite warnings that it could strangle industry investment and damage an economy that is still struggling to recover.
The 3-2 vote fell along partisan lines with Democrats capitalizing on their numerical advantage.
The rules would prohibit phone and cable companies from abusing their control over broadband connections to discriminate against rival content or services, such as Internet phone calls or online video, or play favorites with Web traffic.
Lawmakers in both parties have been arguing for months that Congress, not the Obama administration, should take the lead role in deciding whether and how much to police the web. But despite a brief backing-off earlier in the year, the FCC pushed ahead with its new regulatory plan.
President Obama said in a statement that the plan "will help preserve the free and open nature of the Internet while encouraging innovation, protecting consumer choice, and defending free speech."
I don't know Ladies & Gentlement...YOU pick the euphemism...
"Slippery Slope?"
"Foot in the door?"
You name it, I guaran-damn-tee you that if this thing holds that it's just the beginning of the government installing a 21st century version of the old Radio "Fairness Doctrine" into the Internet where if you say something cranky that is right leaning or conservative you have to "BALANCE" your commentary with an equal amount of left leaning liberal/progressive bullshit else have the government come in and silence you--probably by making your ISP turn off your Internet service.
All of you out there that make your living on the Internet or spend more than a few hours a day better be very concerned with this development, even if you are not a real Blogger but instead just Twitter or blab on Facebook because Big Brother has been watching and now they're getting their slimy tentacles in the process with things like sales tax on purchases and now this "Net Neutrality" bullshit and I give them another five years before they're knocking on my door asking questions and making treats.
And of course like the DADT and START treaty this week in the Senate these useless "useful idiots" do this in a lame duck session of Congress at Christmas while a bunch of people aren't paying attention.
My two Republican Senators from Tennessee are going to get an ear full for breaking with the party and 11 other Republicans in voting with the Democrats on the START treaty limiting our ability to produce DEFENSIVE missiles which wouldn't blow up anything but incoming nuclear missiles launched by Russia or Iran or North Korea or now even possibly the idiot Chavez down in Venezuela.
It's a screwed up world in my opinion, but try to have a Merry Christmas anyway.
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
On The Road Yet Again
Headin' South Looking For Warmer Weather...
We're heading to the Atlanta Suburbs this morning...stopping in Cumming around lunchtime and ending up in Fayettville for the night.
Then its on south on Wednesday across southern Alabama to the Farm for Christmas.
I refuse to be cranky for the next 72 hours unless intentionally provoked.
I hope that everyone has a blessed week with friends and family, safe travels by land or sea or air, and remembers that we only have a short time here on the planet and in the process make the most of the experience.
(yes I can be an asshole...but sometimes I get all soft and mushy and right now I'm feeling sort of easy to get along with but be aware and don't push me too far...)
Regard's Y'all...
We're heading to the Atlanta Suburbs this morning...stopping in Cumming around lunchtime and ending up in Fayettville for the night.
Then its on south on Wednesday across southern Alabama to the Farm for Christmas.
I refuse to be cranky for the next 72 hours unless intentionally provoked.
I hope that everyone has a blessed week with friends and family, safe travels by land or sea or air, and remembers that we only have a short time here on the planet and in the process make the most of the experience.
(yes I can be an asshole...but sometimes I get all soft and mushy and right now I'm feeling sort of easy to get along with but be aware and don't push me too far...)
Regard's Y'all...
Monday, December 20, 2010
Even More DumbASSED Government Insanity
Courtesy Of Your Taxpayer Dollars...
Check out this story of more feckless TSA inepitude at airport checkpoints and get back to me because there will be a pop quiz later.
For those of you too lazy to click on the link...here's the meat of the story.
The effectiveness of security at U.S. ports is being questioned after a businessman accidentally travelled on a flight with a loaded handgun in his luggage.
Iranian-American Farid Seif was screened by Trasport Security Administration officials at Houston airport in Texas. His hand luggage was also X-rayed before he took off on his international flight.
It wasn't until Mr Seif arrived at his hotel several hours later that he realised that he had forgotten to unpack a loaded snub nose Glock pistol from his luggage before he embarked on his journey.
And you want these same morons running this program from congress to be responsible for you next brain surgery or colonoscopy?
Check out this story of more feckless TSA inepitude at airport checkpoints and get back to me because there will be a pop quiz later.
For those of you too lazy to click on the link...here's the meat of the story.
The effectiveness of security at U.S. ports is being questioned after a businessman accidentally travelled on a flight with a loaded handgun in his luggage.
Iranian-American Farid Seif was screened by Trasport Security Administration officials at Houston airport in Texas. His hand luggage was also X-rayed before he took off on his international flight.
It wasn't until Mr Seif arrived at his hotel several hours later that he realised that he had forgotten to unpack a loaded snub nose Glock pistol from his luggage before he embarked on his journey.
And you want these same morons running this program from congress to be responsible for you next brain surgery or colonoscopy?
Sunday, December 19, 2010
Lunar Eclipse Coming Up
More Nerdy Stuff You Might Like To Know
My regular readers and occasional "stoppers by" might have noticed my link here on my blog to a Website called Spaceweather.com
They do a great job of keeping me up with things like meteor showers and space station/space shuttle flyovers and they will send you e-mails letting you know when interesting things are happening up overhead in the sky if you are interested in that kind of thing.
So any way, a cool thing which is coming up is a total Lunar Eclipse which will occur on December 21st.
What is really interesting besides the moon passing though the shadow of the Earth causing the eclipse is that the event will occur on the solstice for the first time since the year 1638.
It will be in full form a little after midnight here in the eastern time zone and if the sky is clear enough I plan on being outside with a coat and the camera mounted on a tripod to record the event.
If you miss it you'll have to wait until 2094 to see it again on the solstice.
Just saying...to all my nerd Buddy's out there...
My regular readers and occasional "stoppers by" might have noticed my link here on my blog to a Website called Spaceweather.com
They do a great job of keeping me up with things like meteor showers and space station/space shuttle flyovers and they will send you e-mails letting you know when interesting things are happening up overhead in the sky if you are interested in that kind of thing.
So any way, a cool thing which is coming up is a total Lunar Eclipse which will occur on December 21st.
What is really interesting besides the moon passing though the shadow of the Earth causing the eclipse is that the event will occur on the solstice for the first time since the year 1638.
It will be in full form a little after midnight here in the eastern time zone and if the sky is clear enough I plan on being outside with a coat and the camera mounted on a tripod to record the event.
If you miss it you'll have to wait until 2094 to see it again on the solstice.
Just saying...to all my nerd Buddy's out there...
Tryin' To Maintain That Christmas Spirit Here Boss
Real Life Get's In The Way Of The Holidays...
OK...I'm trying my very best to not be cranky, BUT...
It's real hard because every day my ever greying, ever balding head causes me to become more of a Curmudgeon.
For instance...
In a fit of insanity we ran out yesterday with me expecting to risk life and limb in a traffic jam to go to Kroger for some stuff and by intentionally cutting the day short and stopping to eat dinner at about 3 PM we somehow avoided the rush.
I'm pleased to report that I didn't have to rip anyone's arm off and beat them to death with it.
I came close a couple of times, but I was somehow on my best behavior with my low Testosterone levels and high Christmas Spirit so everyone came home unscathed in spite of a couple of people deserving a little vigilante justice.
Pat was off all day Friday and we will both be semi-officially off all of next week so we have infinite time to finish the details up...
but still...
when we ran out to dinner Friday night and had a good meal we found that coming home the Pike was literally "Bumper to Bumper" going toward the Turkey Creek shopping district for three or four miles so I've started getting all grumpy and paranoid and antsy in the process worrying about close encounter of the "stupid holiday consumer" kind.
Don't get me wrong here.
I love Christmas.
I love (most) of my fellow humans.
But gosh darn it I hate when I have to go out and do things I need to do and in the process I'm forced encounter more than about 0.00000000002% of them in a single day and/or event...particularly when they are trying to operate an automobile and a cell phone in a single instant.
Sigh...taking a big breath here boss...
Even the ones that are related to me by blood/birth get to me sometimes.
But any way...we're down to the wire regarding "holiday Stuff" here at the Turbo Pup Compound on the banks of the Mighty Tennessee River, yet in the spirit of Christmas later (actually earlier like 9 AM) this Sunday morning we're going to sneak out and do some final running around buying some stuff...
did I mention that little Missy the Turbo Pup turns FOUR YEARS old today???
Time flys and our little tiny miniature long haired dachshund gets better every single day.
So then we're going to come home and hide before the unwashed masses get into full holiday frenzy spending time finishing wrapping boxes and getting ready to head south down to Atlanta for an evening and then on to the farm in lower Alabama for the Christmas weekend.
I hope the weather man gives us at least dry weather for the Christmas weekend and possibly high temperatures in the 60's or possibly even in the 70's so we can enjoy some fishing in between eating excess quantities of ham and other stuff.
That's about it right now, and other than that...y'all have a LOVELY Sunday....
OK...I'm trying my very best to not be cranky, BUT...
It's real hard because every day my ever greying, ever balding head causes me to become more of a Curmudgeon.
For instance...
In a fit of insanity we ran out yesterday with me expecting to risk life and limb in a traffic jam to go to Kroger for some stuff and by intentionally cutting the day short and stopping to eat dinner at about 3 PM we somehow avoided the rush.
I'm pleased to report that I didn't have to rip anyone's arm off and beat them to death with it.
I came close a couple of times, but I was somehow on my best behavior with my low Testosterone levels and high Christmas Spirit so everyone came home unscathed in spite of a couple of people deserving a little vigilante justice.
Pat was off all day Friday and we will both be semi-officially off all of next week so we have infinite time to finish the details up...
but still...
when we ran out to dinner Friday night and had a good meal we found that coming home the Pike was literally "Bumper to Bumper" going toward the Turkey Creek shopping district for three or four miles so I've started getting all grumpy and paranoid and antsy in the process worrying about close encounter of the "stupid holiday consumer" kind.
Don't get me wrong here.
I love Christmas.
I love (most) of my fellow humans.
But gosh darn it I hate when I have to go out and do things I need to do and in the process I'm forced encounter more than about 0.00000000002% of them in a single day and/or event...particularly when they are trying to operate an automobile and a cell phone in a single instant.
Sigh...taking a big breath here boss...
Even the ones that are related to me by blood/birth get to me sometimes.
But any way...we're down to the wire regarding "holiday Stuff" here at the Turbo Pup Compound on the banks of the Mighty Tennessee River, yet in the spirit of Christmas later (actually earlier like 9 AM) this Sunday morning we're going to sneak out and do some final running around buying some stuff...
did I mention that little Missy the Turbo Pup turns FOUR YEARS old today???
Time flys and our little tiny miniature long haired dachshund gets better every single day.
So then we're going to come home and hide before the unwashed masses get into full holiday frenzy spending time finishing wrapping boxes and getting ready to head south down to Atlanta for an evening and then on to the farm in lower Alabama for the Christmas weekend.
I hope the weather man gives us at least dry weather for the Christmas weekend and possibly high temperatures in the 60's or possibly even in the 70's so we can enjoy some fishing in between eating excess quantities of ham and other stuff.
That's about it right now, and other than that...y'all have a LOVELY Sunday....
Friday, December 17, 2010
Niagara Falls Is FALLING ? ! ? !
Early Government Stupidity...
I'd forgot about this story of idiocy use of taxpayer money.
Back in 1969 the US Army Corps of Engineers decided to dry up the western branch of Niagara Falls so that they could test if the face of the rock was stable.
Apparently someone in the government--probably goaded by concerned geologists and environmental whackos--thought it was a good idea to try to stop it (the falls) from moving if it was or something.
It seems that the pointy headed idiot government do-gooders wanted to preserve the falls in its "present state" for visitors just like the eco-terrorists want to prevent the extinction of animals/plants and the "climate changers" believe that the perfect temperature for the planet earth is what it was when they passed the Kyoto Treaty...no warmer or no colder.
Problem is that anybody that has visited Niagara (and anyone that thinks clearly for that matter) knows that the falls have been moving upstream for millions of years to their present position through the process of erosion. There's even a display of the falls showing where they were at different times through history.
Yet the Imperial Federal Government of the By-God United States of 'Merica spends money trying to think about stopping the falls from moving further in order to "preserve" our natural beauty.
Here's a link to some photos of the process.
http://news.yahoo.com/nphotos/day-Niagara-Falls-ran-dry/ss/events/us/121610dryniagara#photoViewer=/ydownload/20101216/photos_net_web_yn/1292537554
I'm surprised these same morons haven't spent money trying to keep the Grand Canyon from getting any deeper or possibly silting in when Global Warming causes the Sea levels to Rise.
I wish instead of doing stuff like this they'd lower my taxes so I could have the money to put a new roof on my house and buy a new central heating/AC system, but the Government as usual today has better ideas on how to spend my money that I have.
Is it just me?
I'd forgot about this story of idiocy use of taxpayer money.
Back in 1969 the US Army Corps of Engineers decided to dry up the western branch of Niagara Falls so that they could test if the face of the rock was stable.
Apparently someone in the government--probably goaded by concerned geologists and environmental whackos--thought it was a good idea to try to stop it (the falls) from moving if it was or something.
It seems that the pointy headed idiot government do-gooders wanted to preserve the falls in its "present state" for visitors just like the eco-terrorists want to prevent the extinction of animals/plants and the "climate changers" believe that the perfect temperature for the planet earth is what it was when they passed the Kyoto Treaty...no warmer or no colder.
Problem is that anybody that has visited Niagara (and anyone that thinks clearly for that matter) knows that the falls have been moving upstream for millions of years to their present position through the process of erosion. There's even a display of the falls showing where they were at different times through history.
Yet the Imperial Federal Government of the By-God United States of 'Merica spends money trying to think about stopping the falls from moving further in order to "preserve" our natural beauty.
Here's a link to some photos of the process.
http://news.yahoo.com/nphotos/day-Niagara-Falls-ran-dry/ss/events/us/121610dryniagara#photoViewer=/ydownload/20101216/photos_net_web_yn/1292537554
I'm surprised these same morons haven't spent money trying to keep the Grand Canyon from getting any deeper or possibly silting in when Global Warming causes the Sea levels to Rise.
I wish instead of doing stuff like this they'd lower my taxes so I could have the money to put a new roof on my house and buy a new central heating/AC system, but the Government as usual today has better ideas on how to spend my money that I have.
Is it just me?
Too Tired To Blog Right Now
Assignment For The Day...
Here's an Idea.
Think of something you find offensive--thought, word, or deed--and put my name on it.
Pissed off now?
Good.
That will be all...for now...
Heh.
Here's an Idea.
Think of something you find offensive--thought, word, or deed--and put my name on it.
Pissed off now?
Good.
That will be all...for now...
Heh.
Thursday, December 16, 2010
In The Words Of Commedian Steve Martin...
"WELL EXCUuuuuuusssSSSSSS....MeeeeeEEEEEE!!!"
So...Ladies and Gentlemen...it seems that now our Military...that would be the military of the United By-God States of 'Merica...has gone out recently and managed somehow to "offend" thestupid towel heads dune goons sand niggers people that used to refer to themselves as "Perisans" before the British and French screwed everything up after WWI and renamed Persia new places we know on the map or your globe as parts of Iran and Iraq and Turkey and some of the "Stans" (Afghanistan and Pakistan and Ubekestan and "whatever i-stan.")
OK...as we get started remember I'm a blogging terrorist from a place in the southern US called Alabamastan originally, and having lived in Georgiastan and Floridastan and now Tennesseeastan...don't start hating me because of my use of the politically incorrect terms for people of "Arab" descent because I'm the kind of Redneck that will draw a cartoon of Mohammad with my feces using a pork bone as a paintbrush on a piece of toilet paper just to piss you off when you start bitching at me.
O Tay? And since comments are still turned off you just have to fester in your own pants you pissed in when you read the first paragraph of this rant and look for powder to prevent diaper rash.
Any way, here's the link to the story about the US innocently starting to call the Persian Gulf the Arabian Gulf and that little Capuchin Monkey Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the Mullah idiots running Iran--the same idiots threatening to wipe Israel off the face of the planet and supporting worldwide terrorism --getting...
O F F E N D E D.
WaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAA...I'm So Sad......
What's in a name? Apparently a lot, when the name in question is synonymous with the ancient culture and heritage of a fiercely proud people.
The U.S. military found this out the hard way after the Navy shifted its official policy and began referring to the Persian Gulf as the "Arabian Gulf." The name change provoked outrage from the easily provoked government of Iran -- which was known as Persia from around the sixth century BC until 1935. The move also drew fire from Iranian advocacy groups. Many outraged partisans of the old name took to the Navy's Facebook page to slam the American government.
[Iran says key site has higher uranium ore reserves]
The usage of "Arabian" rather than "Persian" fuels existing U.S.-Iran tensions, Jamal Abdi, policy director an Iranian-American advocacy group, told Fox News. "This is an ethnically divisive term. ... It's very troubling."
The Navy says it has used the term for many years and no one complained until officials recently posted the Navy's official style guide online. In a statement posted to its Facebook page, the Navy said that it continues to respect the "long and proud history of the Persian people" and reassures Iranian readers that Navy officials haven't done "anything out of malice or disrespect for your proud heritage that has existed long before we were even a navy." The Navy's flacks went on to explain:
"The use of the term 'Arabian Gulf' vice Persian Gulf is used by naval forces including our regional partners there for years. We use this term in press releases, news stories, and photos coming from the Navy in the region. The often cited Navy Style Guide that says to use the term 'Arabian Gulf' vice Persian Gulf is really only applicable to them since commands in their area would be the only naval forces publishing stories in the region. In most other respects (nautical charts and publications, for example) the historic name of Persian Gulf is used. We value and respect the partners with whom we serve around the globe, and mean no harm or insult to any people or country."
So I say that we can call any body of water on the map or globe or Google Earth a toilet bowl or a fish bowl or whatever the hell we want to call it while at the same time not caring what people that insist on their women and much of their male population live in conditions we had here in America in the 17th and 18th century think about us in the process.
And you can shove your objection to my language here in this posting into the deepest depths of your neither regions if you don't like it.
And no, I'm not angry or stupid, I'm just an insensitive bastard that's tired of every idiot on the planet running around with their feeling spread out on the ground waiting for Americans in General and me specifically to make a wrong step or utter a word or sentence which they find offensive.
And in closing...look at this video and feel free to not stop back by here if you don't laugh...
Heh...
So...Ladies and Gentlemen...it seems that now our Military...that would be the military of the United By-God States of 'Merica...has gone out recently and managed somehow to "offend" the
OK...as we get started remember I'm a blogging terrorist from a place in the southern US called Alabamastan originally, and having lived in Georgiastan and Floridastan and now Tennesseeastan...don't start hating me because of my use of the politically incorrect terms for people of "Arab" descent because I'm the kind of Redneck that will draw a cartoon of Mohammad with my feces using a pork bone as a paintbrush on a piece of toilet paper just to piss you off when you start bitching at me.
O Tay? And since comments are still turned off you just have to fester in your own pants you pissed in when you read the first paragraph of this rant and look for powder to prevent diaper rash.
Any way, here's the link to the story about the US innocently starting to call the Persian Gulf the Arabian Gulf and that little Capuchin Monkey Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the Mullah idiots running Iran--the same idiots threatening to wipe Israel off the face of the planet and supporting worldwide terrorism --getting...
O F F E N D E D.
WaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAA...I'm So Sad......
What's in a name? Apparently a lot, when the name in question is synonymous with the ancient culture and heritage of a fiercely proud people.
The U.S. military found this out the hard way after the Navy shifted its official policy and began referring to the Persian Gulf as the "Arabian Gulf." The name change provoked outrage from the easily provoked government of Iran -- which was known as Persia from around the sixth century BC until 1935. The move also drew fire from Iranian advocacy groups. Many outraged partisans of the old name took to the Navy's Facebook page to slam the American government.
[Iran says key site has higher uranium ore reserves]
The usage of "Arabian" rather than "Persian" fuels existing U.S.-Iran tensions, Jamal Abdi, policy director an Iranian-American advocacy group, told Fox News. "This is an ethnically divisive term. ... It's very troubling."
The Navy says it has used the term for many years and no one complained until officials recently posted the Navy's official style guide online. In a statement posted to its Facebook page, the Navy said that it continues to respect the "long and proud history of the Persian people" and reassures Iranian readers that Navy officials haven't done "anything out of malice or disrespect for your proud heritage that has existed long before we were even a navy." The Navy's flacks went on to explain:
"The use of the term 'Arabian Gulf' vice Persian Gulf is used by naval forces including our regional partners there for years. We use this term in press releases, news stories, and photos coming from the Navy in the region. The often cited Navy Style Guide that says to use the term 'Arabian Gulf' vice Persian Gulf is really only applicable to them since commands in their area would be the only naval forces publishing stories in the region. In most other respects (nautical charts and publications, for example) the historic name of Persian Gulf is used. We value and respect the partners with whom we serve around the globe, and mean no harm or insult to any people or country."
So I say that we can call any body of water on the map or globe or Google Earth a toilet bowl or a fish bowl or whatever the hell we want to call it while at the same time not caring what people that insist on their women and much of their male population live in conditions we had here in America in the 17th and 18th century think about us in the process.
And you can shove your objection to my language here in this posting into the deepest depths of your neither regions if you don't like it.
And no, I'm not angry or stupid, I'm just an insensitive bastard that's tired of every idiot on the planet running around with their feeling spread out on the ground waiting for Americans in General and me specifically to make a wrong step or utter a word or sentence which they find offensive.
And in closing...look at this video and feel free to not stop back by here if you don't laugh...
Heh...
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
31 Cards And $13.64 Postage Later
Holiday Greetings Accomplished
Dang it...
I lost my Excell Spreadsheet I did a couple of years ago and updated last year that had all of the addresses for all of my Christmas Card list.
I also tracked what kind of card I sent to each recipient so that I didn't sent the same card out two years in a row to the same person.
Thus I was forced to close my eyes when I used up the last cards in the old boxes and there may be some people out there which received a redundant "Merry Christmas" or "Season's Greeting" again.
Sorry. How pedestrian of me.
I know many people don't worry about that kind of thing, but for some reason I do and it bothers me to think I was so shallow so as to not offer an genuinely unique sentiment each time the month of December comes up on the calendar.
And of course this year I was too lazy to design and print my own cards or even put a picture of the Turbo Pup out in the process, but then again I'm quite busy professionally and my spare time has to be reserved to doing things like sleeping and writing blogs pissing off minority groups.
So sue me...
Dang it...
I lost my Excell Spreadsheet I did a couple of years ago and updated last year that had all of the addresses for all of my Christmas Card list.
I also tracked what kind of card I sent to each recipient so that I didn't sent the same card out two years in a row to the same person.
Thus I was forced to close my eyes when I used up the last cards in the old boxes and there may be some people out there which received a redundant "Merry Christmas" or "Season's Greeting" again.
Sorry. How pedestrian of me.
I know many people don't worry about that kind of thing, but for some reason I do and it bothers me to think I was so shallow so as to not offer an genuinely unique sentiment each time the month of December comes up on the calendar.
And of course this year I was too lazy to design and print my own cards or even put a picture of the Turbo Pup out in the process, but then again I'm quite busy professionally and my spare time has to be reserved to doing things like sleeping and writing blogs pissing off minority groups.
So sue me...
Monday, December 13, 2010
Dionne Warwick's Birthday
Memories From A Long Time Ago...
My blog Friend and Idol Paul Mirengoff over at Powerlineblog reminds me this morning that singer Dionne Warwick celebrated her 70th birthday yesterday.
Stop by over there and take a look at Paul's writing...being the avid music aficionado that he is. He and his fellow bloggers also produce some pretty good political commentary which has gained national recognition.
But any way, what brought the event of celebrating Miss Warwick's birthday home to me personally was some early memories of me riding to 1st grade school with my beloved Father in his 1963 vintage Red Volkswagen convertible listening to WOZK's AM radio broadcast from Ozark, Alabama every morning...driving across the US Army's "Aviation Center" at Ft. Rucker Alabama...with songs like Henry Mancini's "Baby Elephant Walk" following along with songs like Dionne's "Walk On By"
The editor of that video added clips of Vietnam War scenes which seem somehow appropriate based on my own experiences growing up outside a military base during that era.
Those were the days...GOOD or BAD they happened and they're part of our national history.
My blog Friend and Idol Paul Mirengoff over at Powerlineblog reminds me this morning that singer Dionne Warwick celebrated her 70th birthday yesterday.
Stop by over there and take a look at Paul's writing...being the avid music aficionado that he is. He and his fellow bloggers also produce some pretty good political commentary which has gained national recognition.
But any way, what brought the event of celebrating Miss Warwick's birthday home to me personally was some early memories of me riding to 1st grade school with my beloved Father in his 1963 vintage Red Volkswagen convertible listening to WOZK's AM radio broadcast from Ozark, Alabama every morning...driving across the US Army's "Aviation Center" at Ft. Rucker Alabama...with songs like Henry Mancini's "Baby Elephant Walk" following along with songs like Dionne's "Walk On By"
The editor of that video added clips of Vietnam War scenes which seem somehow appropriate based on my own experiences growing up outside a military base during that era.
Those were the days...GOOD or BAD they happened and they're part of our national history.
Winter Weather At The Turbopup Compound
19 Degrees And Still Falling...(Snow and Temperature)
We got a pretty good little snow storm here starting about noon Sunday.
In a way it was nice because we had bought a Christmas tree Saturday and were in the process of decorating it as the snow fell. Being from the south I've only had a few seasons with a true "White Christmas" so it's sort of neat to see snow on the ground during the holidays
The real part of the storm started falling around dark and looking outside it's still coming down lightly and the wind is blowing things around.
I'd guess maybe 4" total so far but it's hard to tell because the first part melted because everything was warm from the mid 50's temperatures yesterday. That bit of warmth will hopefully save us from a major power outage and keep the insanity on the roads and turnpikes to a minimum. I hate it when the weather is bad and people have to set out on the highways and airlines to travel for the holidays and someone ends up hurt or dead in the process.
I haven't ventured outside since the storm started but maybe I'll get on the parka and ski bibs and wander around after sunrise and take some pictures and put them up here on the blog.
I wish I was back somewhere sitting in the Sun in Florida or on our Little Island down on the Georgia Coast right now, but in the mean time...
Y'all stay inside and put an extra log on the fire and let things melt a little before you head out if you can.
We got a pretty good little snow storm here starting about noon Sunday.
In a way it was nice because we had bought a Christmas tree Saturday and were in the process of decorating it as the snow fell. Being from the south I've only had a few seasons with a true "White Christmas" so it's sort of neat to see snow on the ground during the holidays
The real part of the storm started falling around dark and looking outside it's still coming down lightly and the wind is blowing things around.
I'd guess maybe 4" total so far but it's hard to tell because the first part melted because everything was warm from the mid 50's temperatures yesterday. That bit of warmth will hopefully save us from a major power outage and keep the insanity on the roads and turnpikes to a minimum. I hate it when the weather is bad and people have to set out on the highways and airlines to travel for the holidays and someone ends up hurt or dead in the process.
I haven't ventured outside since the storm started but maybe I'll get on the parka and ski bibs and wander around after sunrise and take some pictures and put them up here on the blog.
I wish I was back somewhere sitting in the Sun in Florida or on our Little Island down on the Georgia Coast right now, but in the mean time...
Y'all stay inside and put an extra log on the fire and let things melt a little before you head out if you can.
Sunday, December 12, 2010
A Bunch Of Nekkid Women Are Following Me On Twitter
Where Were They All When I Could Have Used Them?
Being a seasoned Blogger now for over SIX years, some people might notice that I take a little different approach to things here on the computer than some of my friends and peers.
Take this new stuff like Facebook and Twitter, for instance.
Facebook?
Blogging lite in my opinion.
You log on...
then blab a little about whatever it is that's going on in your life or bothering you, then you log off.
Twitter?
Same thing...
except you have to limit your thoughts and opinions to 140 characters.
Thus I spend little time on Facebook and even less time on Twitter because generally what I have to say takes more bandwidth and words to spout forth than either of those platforms allows and supports.
So any way, for some reason the ladies over at Twitter...mostly women without clothing...have decided to send me messages recently indicating their desire to "follow" me on Twitter and in the process sending me pictures of their breasts and other body parts for my perusal and enjoyment.
Thing is...
I refuse to peruse said fotos because I'm fairly certain I've seen similar structures made of flesh and uncovered or covered with hair in the past many times, and the websites attached thereto will probably give my computer some virus or worm or other digital infestation or malady causing the shaking shuddering heebie jeebies and I'll spend three days and nights fighting to regain control of the situation.
Thus to all of the young women out there...many if not most old enough to be my daughter or even my grand-daughter...
keep your private parts covered and stop following me offering pictures of same because I'm too old to care anymore.
Twenty or thirty years ago it would be a different story, but still...we haven't been properly introduced...
O Tay?
Being a seasoned Blogger now for over SIX years, some people might notice that I take a little different approach to things here on the computer than some of my friends and peers.
Take this new stuff like Facebook and Twitter, for instance.
Facebook?
Blogging lite in my opinion.
You log on...
then blab a little about whatever it is that's going on in your life or bothering you, then you log off.
Twitter?
Same thing...
except you have to limit your thoughts and opinions to 140 characters.
Thus I spend little time on Facebook and even less time on Twitter because generally what I have to say takes more bandwidth and words to spout forth than either of those platforms allows and supports.
So any way, for some reason the ladies over at Twitter...mostly women without clothing...have decided to send me messages recently indicating their desire to "follow" me on Twitter and in the process sending me pictures of their breasts and other body parts for my perusal and enjoyment.
Thing is...
I refuse to peruse said fotos because I'm fairly certain I've seen similar structures made of flesh and uncovered or covered with hair in the past many times, and the websites attached thereto will probably give my computer some virus or worm or other digital infestation or malady causing the shaking shuddering heebie jeebies and I'll spend three days and nights fighting to regain control of the situation.
Thus to all of the young women out there...many if not most old enough to be my daughter or even my grand-daughter...
keep your private parts covered and stop following me offering pictures of same because I'm too old to care anymore.
Twenty or thirty years ago it would be a different story, but still...we haven't been properly introduced...
O Tay?
Saturday, December 11, 2010
Happy New Year...EARLY
The Month Is Over With For All Intents and Purposes...
Dang it but time is flying by on the calendar these days. Before we know it it will be 2011, and I have a ton of stuff to accomplish between now and then.
I spent part of yesterday doing yet another home improvement project...enclosing the "portico" entrance to our basement under the front porch.
I'm installing one sash of the window I tore out of the back of the house when I put in a French door going out to the Turbo Pup's deck along with the old front door from the living room into a new short segment of wall so that we will in effect have a little vestibule area about 6' x 10' where I can keep some yard stuff and possibly store some plants inside in the winter.
I'm also looking at grow lamp options now and possibly some form of thermostatically controlled heat capability.
Somebody somewhere once said that "being a homeowner means that no matter where you sit and what you look at you can't help but see something that needs doing..."
I AGREE.
Meanwhile, back in my kitchen, I made my first test batch of Chocolate Truffels this week using some flavoring oils I bought last year and didn't have a chance to try out before. I'm afraid I'm going to hurt myself this stuff is so good.
Pat and I have been walking into places and people are actually questioning me as to when my truffles are going to be available. Apparently they remember that cold dry weather means Truffel season at our house.
I wish I had the patience to put my original scheme into operation and make Truffles for profit, but it's either just too hard or I'm too lazy so once again this year I'll just settle for making ten or twelve dozen and handing them out to friends and acquantences.
Feel free to stop by about 2 PM today and you might be able to get a few samples...
Dang it but time is flying by on the calendar these days. Before we know it it will be 2011, and I have a ton of stuff to accomplish between now and then.
I spent part of yesterday doing yet another home improvement project...enclosing the "portico" entrance to our basement under the front porch.
I'm installing one sash of the window I tore out of the back of the house when I put in a French door going out to the Turbo Pup's deck along with the old front door from the living room into a new short segment of wall so that we will in effect have a little vestibule area about 6' x 10' where I can keep some yard stuff and possibly store some plants inside in the winter.
I'm also looking at grow lamp options now and possibly some form of thermostatically controlled heat capability.
Somebody somewhere once said that "being a homeowner means that no matter where you sit and what you look at you can't help but see something that needs doing..."
I AGREE.
Meanwhile, back in my kitchen, I made my first test batch of Chocolate Truffels this week using some flavoring oils I bought last year and didn't have a chance to try out before. I'm afraid I'm going to hurt myself this stuff is so good.
Pat and I have been walking into places and people are actually questioning me as to when my truffles are going to be available. Apparently they remember that cold dry weather means Truffel season at our house.
I wish I had the patience to put my original scheme into operation and make Truffles for profit, but it's either just too hard or I'm too lazy so once again this year I'll just settle for making ten or twelve dozen and handing them out to friends and acquantences.
Feel free to stop by about 2 PM today and you might be able to get a few samples...
Thursday, December 09, 2010
Tuesday, December 07, 2010
Never Forget
"A Day That Will Live In Infamy"
Say thanks to a Veteran today on the anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor...especially the few left from WWII.
There's only two left in my family...thanks for your service Uncle John and Aunt Mary.
Say thanks to a Veteran today on the anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor...especially the few left from WWII.
There's only two left in my family...thanks for your service Uncle John and Aunt Mary.
Monday, December 06, 2010
Cold Morning In Knoxtown
Oh To Live On St. Simons Island Again...
We're really missing our Little Island this morning. Even little Missy the Turbo Pup limits her time spent outside to trotting across the ice on the deck and stays outside only long enough to do her "business" and then she's blasting back inside through the doggie door.
I have a ton of stuff that I managed to not get done out in the yard before it turned cold and now it's just not my style to go out and work in the crunchy dusting of snow we've gotten over the past 24 hours.
The remnants of my poor old Tomato Plants are still slouching on their cages and supports in the back yard, my Crepe Myrtles need pruning along with a bunch of other shrubs, and narry a Christmas light has been put up on the porch rails and in the evergreens out Front.
I should be in three dirrerent places at once this week, one of them being Indianapolis. Since it's a trip to take another PLC programming class and I've screwed around and not bought a plane ticket so I'll probably scratch the event and reschedule for later in the winter or better yet wait for spring.
Then a client in Atlanta might need me down there and I have another new Injuneering Project I'm trying to close this week and of course the shop is full with three PLC panels which need completion and there's a couple of pneumatic valves that need tearing down and rebuilding and SooooOOOO...
...Blogging will be hit or miss this week, but I promise to be nice and not piss off any minority groups or diversity groups or endangeredfeces species as best I can.
But then again...you know me...a grouchy old angry, partly crippled, ever greying, ever balding slightly past middle aged white guy...
...sometimes I just can't help myself keep quiet and then all bets are off. So until next time
Regards Y'all
We're really missing our Little Island this morning. Even little Missy the Turbo Pup limits her time spent outside to trotting across the ice on the deck and stays outside only long enough to do her "business" and then she's blasting back inside through the doggie door.
I have a ton of stuff that I managed to not get done out in the yard before it turned cold and now it's just not my style to go out and work in the crunchy dusting of snow we've gotten over the past 24 hours.
The remnants of my poor old Tomato Plants are still slouching on their cages and supports in the back yard, my Crepe Myrtles need pruning along with a bunch of other shrubs, and narry a Christmas light has been put up on the porch rails and in the evergreens out Front.
I should be in three dirrerent places at once this week, one of them being Indianapolis. Since it's a trip to take another PLC programming class and I've screwed around and not bought a plane ticket so I'll probably scratch the event and reschedule for later in the winter or better yet wait for spring.
Then a client in Atlanta might need me down there and I have another new Injuneering Project I'm trying to close this week and of course the shop is full with three PLC panels which need completion and there's a couple of pneumatic valves that need tearing down and rebuilding and SooooOOOO...
...Blogging will be hit or miss this week, but I promise to be nice and not piss off any minority groups or diversity groups or endangered
But then again...you know me...a grouchy old angry, partly crippled, ever greying, ever balding slightly past middle aged white guy...
...sometimes I just can't help myself keep quiet and then all bets are off. So until next time
Regards Y'all
Sunday, December 05, 2010
I'm Not Here Blogging To Make You Feel Good
You Can't Control What I Think Or Believe Either...
So the regular readers (and a zillion troll gay rights activist readers) may have noticed that I took the Blog down for a while this weekend.
Prior to that I disabled the comments section and I also had second thoughts about the viability of leaving a series of postings and comments up about some politically correct crap going on out there in the world which I personally happen to disagree with.
After thinking about things for a few days and actually offering an apology for the coarse verbiage and manner in which I first addressed the subject, and with said apology not stopping the unrelentless, escalating barrage of equally insulting comments here directed at me personally...including several threats of violence...
I've decided to bring this near 6 year old blog back up on line forpubic public access...
but with the comments thread still turned off for now because I'm tired of listening to what I consider to be the same old worn out liberal pablum calling me an eco-terrorist or a bigot or a racist or a homophobic no-neck Neanderthal (things I've been called over the course of my blogging experience.)
Frankly I don't give a crap what any anonymous moron or rocket scientist or even well intended "liberator of all things oppressive" thinks about me out there in the ether of cyber space and they're not going to change the way I think and my beliefs at this late point in my life.
BUT...
What last week's experiences with the coordinated landslide of opposition commentary here did reveal to me was the scope and range my commentary really had here on the Internet.
Thus, I again offer my apology for the way I addressed the subject in a public forum. Beyond that I will remain mute on the subject from here on out.
To all of the comment trolls and activists which stopped by to share your love and opinions, I suggest that you consider policing the attitudes and opinions and actions of those in your own ranks because the commentary I received was at least equal to and in many cases way more over the top--issued in my direction--than anything written by me here.
And finally, I offer that the actions taken against and in disagreement with me only served the purpose of making me realize that I was jeopardizing my participation in several upcoming VERY PROFITABLE business opportunities in the new year and in reality I don't want someone in those enterprises reading a thread like last weeks and dumping me because of the controversy.
So you see, my dear readers and haters, it's not FEAR or COWARDICE under your hysterical onslaught driving my decision making, it's a profit motive which guides my actions and decisions
Not your silly insults and threats. Got it?
So you can add the label of HARD CORE CAPITALIST to your list of things you hate about me, because I'm going to make as much money in 2011 as I can--more than probably 95% of you--and keep voting to give as little as possible to the government so they can support people sitting on their lazy butts cramming themselves into other peoples lives and wallets.
Y'all have a LOVELY day now...if you will...
So the regular readers (and a zillion troll gay rights activist readers) may have noticed that I took the Blog down for a while this weekend.
Prior to that I disabled the comments section and I also had second thoughts about the viability of leaving a series of postings and comments up about some politically correct crap going on out there in the world which I personally happen to disagree with.
After thinking about things for a few days and actually offering an apology for the coarse verbiage and manner in which I first addressed the subject, and with said apology not stopping the unrelentless, escalating barrage of equally insulting comments here directed at me personally...including several threats of violence...
I've decided to bring this near 6 year old blog back up on line for
but with the comments thread still turned off for now because I'm tired of listening to what I consider to be the same old worn out liberal pablum calling me an eco-terrorist or a bigot or a racist or a homophobic no-neck Neanderthal (things I've been called over the course of my blogging experience.)
Frankly I don't give a crap what any anonymous moron or rocket scientist or even well intended "liberator of all things oppressive" thinks about me out there in the ether of cyber space and they're not going to change the way I think and my beliefs at this late point in my life.
BUT...
What last week's experiences with the coordinated landslide of opposition commentary here did reveal to me was the scope and range my commentary really had here on the Internet.
Thus, I again offer my apology for the way I addressed the subject in a public forum. Beyond that I will remain mute on the subject from here on out.
To all of the comment trolls and activists which stopped by to share your love and opinions, I suggest that you consider policing the attitudes and opinions and actions of those in your own ranks because the commentary I received was at least equal to and in many cases way more over the top--issued in my direction--than anything written by me here.
And finally, I offer that the actions taken against and in disagreement with me only served the purpose of making me realize that I was jeopardizing my participation in several upcoming VERY PROFITABLE business opportunities in the new year and in reality I don't want someone in those enterprises reading a thread like last weeks and dumping me because of the controversy.
So you see, my dear readers and haters, it's not FEAR or COWARDICE under your hysterical onslaught driving my decision making, it's a profit motive which guides my actions and decisions
Not your silly insults and threats. Got it?
So you can add the label of HARD CORE CAPITALIST to your list of things you hate about me, because I'm going to make as much money in 2011 as I can--more than probably 95% of you--and keep voting to give as little as possible to the government so they can support people sitting on their lazy butts cramming themselves into other peoples lives and wallets.
Y'all have a LOVELY day now...if you will...
Wednesday, December 01, 2010
Whacky Weather
Someone Call Owl Gore...
The temperature was near 65 degrees here yesterday as it rained all day.
Then when I finally got up about 8:30 this morning it was 32 degrees on the digital weather station and snow was accumulating on the deck and shrubs in the yard.
Meanwhile my back and right leg is killing me with this latest bout with Sciatica...something that's been coming on and off for the past five years or so...
so you will have to excuse me if my blogging and Internet presence is limited for the time being.
Y'all have a LOVELY day, regardless of my affliction's symptoms
The temperature was near 65 degrees here yesterday as it rained all day.
Then when I finally got up about 8:30 this morning it was 32 degrees on the digital weather station and snow was accumulating on the deck and shrubs in the yard.
Meanwhile my back and right leg is killing me with this latest bout with Sciatica...something that's been coming on and off for the past five years or so...
so you will have to excuse me if my blogging and Internet presence is limited for the time being.
Y'all have a LOVELY day, regardless of my affliction's symptoms
Sunday, November 28, 2010
US Officials Finally Catch Dangerous Terrorist at Mexican Border
"Trying To Tell Their Ass From A Hole In The Ground..."
Man oh Man do I feel safer this morning...Ladies and Gentlemen...
I just learned that they (they being the local and Federal "Officials" of Hudspeth County Texas and the United By-God States of 'Merica) arrested Willie Nelson near the US Mexican Border after finding him with six ounces of Pot in his motor home.
He wasn't driving the motor coach, by the way...and the youngest occupant of the crowd of malfeasance's and malcontents was apparently over the age of 50.
Taking a big breath here boss...
It makes me crazy that these stupid rocket scientists can't keep criminal Mexicans out of our streets and off of our door steps but they can preen their feathers and crow about keeping an old Hippy from possessing and smoking some Dope.
Isn't that %$#@! amazing in this day and time?
Meanwhile, here's a link to a list of things we can as Americans all still be thankful for this Holiday season...and here's the last couple of things the writer David Boaz mentions:
Freedom of religion. Church and state have been bound together since time immemorial. The state claimed divine sanction, the church got money and power, the combination left little room for freedom. As late as the 17th century, Europe was wracked by religious wars. England, Sweden, and other countries still have an established church, though their citizens are free to worship elsewhere. Many people used to think that a country could only survive if everyone worshipped the one true God in the one true way. The American Founders established religious freedom.
Property and contract. We owe our unprecedented standard of living to the capitalist freedoms of private property and free markets. When people are able to own property and make contracts, they create wealth. Free markets and the legal institutions to enforce contracts make possible vast economic undertakings–from the design and construction of airplanes to worldwide computer networks and ATM systems. But to appreciate the benefits of free markets, we don’t have to marvel at skyscrapers while listening to MP3 players. We can just give thanks for enough food to live on, and central heating, and the medical care that has lowered the infant mortality rate from about 20 percent to less than 1 percent.
A Kenyan boy who managed to get to the United States told a reporter for Woman’s World magazine that America is “heaven.” Compared to countries that lack the rule of law, equality, property rights, free markets, and freedom of speech and worship, it certainly is. A good point to keep in mind this Thanksgiving Day.
Grab ahold of your own Butt and your insurance card and hang on because it's going to be a wild ride in the year 2011 I think...
Man oh Man do I feel safer this morning...Ladies and Gentlemen...
I just learned that they (they being the local and Federal "Officials" of Hudspeth County Texas and the United By-God States of 'Merica) arrested Willie Nelson near the US Mexican Border after finding him with six ounces of Pot in his motor home.
He wasn't driving the motor coach, by the way...and the youngest occupant of the crowd of malfeasance's and malcontents was apparently over the age of 50.
Taking a big breath here boss...
It makes me crazy that these stupid rocket scientists can't keep criminal Mexicans out of our streets and off of our door steps but they can preen their feathers and crow about keeping an old Hippy from possessing and smoking some Dope.
Isn't that %$#@! amazing in this day and time?
Meanwhile, here's a link to a list of things we can as Americans all still be thankful for this Holiday season...and here's the last couple of things the writer David Boaz mentions:
Freedom of religion. Church and state have been bound together since time immemorial. The state claimed divine sanction, the church got money and power, the combination left little room for freedom. As late as the 17th century, Europe was wracked by religious wars. England, Sweden, and other countries still have an established church, though their citizens are free to worship elsewhere. Many people used to think that a country could only survive if everyone worshipped the one true God in the one true way. The American Founders established religious freedom.
Property and contract. We owe our unprecedented standard of living to the capitalist freedoms of private property and free markets. When people are able to own property and make contracts, they create wealth. Free markets and the legal institutions to enforce contracts make possible vast economic undertakings–from the design and construction of airplanes to worldwide computer networks and ATM systems. But to appreciate the benefits of free markets, we don’t have to marvel at skyscrapers while listening to MP3 players. We can just give thanks for enough food to live on, and central heating, and the medical care that has lowered the infant mortality rate from about 20 percent to less than 1 percent.
A Kenyan boy who managed to get to the United States told a reporter for Woman’s World magazine that America is “heaven.” Compared to countries that lack the rule of law, equality, property rights, free markets, and freedom of speech and worship, it certainly is. A good point to keep in mind this Thanksgiving Day.
Grab ahold of your own Butt and your insurance card and hang on because it's going to be a wild ride in the year 2011 I think...
Friday, November 26, 2010
I'd Vote For This Man
Where's My Microphone?
My Blog Idol Rodge over at Curmudgeonly & skeptical.blog pointed this out to me...
My Blog Idol Rodge over at Curmudgeonly & skeptical.blog pointed this out to me...
Thursday, November 25, 2010
Simple Things I Miss On Thanksgiving
(Also Known as STIMOT for short)
I was just thinking about "the "good old days" a little bit here on this Thanksgiving morning.
You know what?
I remember back in the "good old days" when my Pa and Mama Rushing were still alive and every year we literally had brown paper grocery bags full of fresh pecans sitting around in our garage and basement waiting for me to sit down in the floor with a hammer and crack them.
"Eat two...put two or three halves into the recycled Cool whip or Tupperware bowl."
That was the way things worked.
If you wanted a fruit cake or some other holiday delicacy which contained Pecans you didn't go to the store...
you walked out into the Garage and started cracking fresh nuts.
Even my Grandfather's black and white "Tri" colored Collie dogs--first a majestic beast named "Champ" and later a friendly fellow named "JoJo"-- would crack their own pecans and drool all over themselves from the taste of the bitter shells if you were picking pecans and didn't crack open a few extras for them.
Knowing a couple of real good professional working farm dogs was a singular pleasure unto itself outside the culinary aspects of pecan harvesting...but I digress...
So I really miss the days when we had so many pecans around our house that we used to dump last years' left over inventory out down by the fence in the back yard for the squirrels and chipmunks to eat because we had more coming in the house from this years' crop.
I probably watched $10,000 worth of pecans go to waste back then at today's prices.
Isn't it funny how people can be rich in so many ways, spiritually and physically, and not even know it at the time?
I was just thinking about "the "good old days" a little bit here on this Thanksgiving morning.
You know what?
I remember back in the "good old days" when my Pa and Mama Rushing were still alive and every year we literally had brown paper grocery bags full of fresh pecans sitting around in our garage and basement waiting for me to sit down in the floor with a hammer and crack them.
"Eat two...put two or three halves into the recycled Cool whip or Tupperware bowl."
That was the way things worked.
If you wanted a fruit cake or some other holiday delicacy which contained Pecans you didn't go to the store...
you walked out into the Garage and started cracking fresh nuts.
Even my Grandfather's black and white "Tri" colored Collie dogs--first a majestic beast named "Champ" and later a friendly fellow named "JoJo"-- would crack their own pecans and drool all over themselves from the taste of the bitter shells if you were picking pecans and didn't crack open a few extras for them.
Knowing a couple of real good professional working farm dogs was a singular pleasure unto itself outside the culinary aspects of pecan harvesting...but I digress...
So I really miss the days when we had so many pecans around our house that we used to dump last years' left over inventory out down by the fence in the back yard for the squirrels and chipmunks to eat because we had more coming in the house from this years' crop.
I probably watched $10,000 worth of pecans go to waste back then at today's prices.
Isn't it funny how people can be rich in so many ways, spiritually and physically, and not even know it at the time?
Happy Turkey Day
A True AMERICAN Holiday...
Hope everyone has a chance to chill out and visit with family and friends today and forget for a few minutes how screwed up the world is in general and how screwed up a bunch of so-called Americans want to make our country if they get their way.
Then when the dishes are washed and put away and the football games are all over with until the Bowl games start...
LET'S GET BACK TO WORK SMACKING SOME DEMOCRATIC RATBASTARDS' ASSES INTO SHAPE.
Hope everyone has a chance to chill out and visit with family and friends today and forget for a few minutes how screwed up the world is in general and how screwed up a bunch of so-called Americans want to make our country if they get their way.
Then when the dishes are washed and put away and the football games are all over with until the Bowl games start...
LET'S GET BACK TO WORK SMACKING SOME DEMOCRATIC RATBASTARDS' ASSES INTO SHAPE.
Wednesday, November 24, 2010
Saying What You Mean...And Meaning What You Say...
It's All Slowly Becoming Illegal Today
I'mnot sorry this morning, Ladies and Gentlemen, but this Thanksgiving Season finds me more than a bit perturbed.
I'm afraid that I'm more likely to just sit around sulking to myself rather than running around publicly giving thanks for stuff I benefit from in what up until now has been a fairly good life.
Let me see if venting here on the Blog this morning will relieve a little of the pressure on my Spleen so I can take a complete breath and relieve the pain that proceeds up my spinal cord from my rectum to the base of my cranium...
Here goes...
You see, it's like this to this middle aged, ever greying, ever balding white man of Anglo Saxon descent.
It seems to me that all of the professional "do-gooders" and elected "busy bodies" i.e. the self proclaimed philanthropists and politicians have taken away--slowly, and incrementally-- much of what I consider to be most everything fun out of living life here in America.
And the stuff that you can still do that could be considered fun they've installed handrails on and passed laws and installed placards with instructions indicating why and how I can't have fun using the aforementioned things which are supposed to be fun to use.
I present as evidence the 99.9 percent of the hotels out there with swimming pools which are either only 4 feet deep else are 10 feet deep but instead of a fiberglass diving board today only have some caulk or epoxy filler sealing up the holes where the diving board was in the 1960's.
Further, in business and personal relationships, we can't call an asshole an "asshole", we can't call a useless-nigger-wife- beating-son-of-a-bitch a "useless-nigger-wife-beating-son-of-a-bitch," and now on an international basis...when towel headed Iranian Mullahs build Centrifuges we have to have "multi-lateral talks"...
...or when the the slanted eyed idiot shit headed communist North Koreans...
the same slanted eyed idiot shit headed communist North Koreans that were lobbing artillery shells across the 38th parallel in the early 1950's over my uncle's heads during our so-called "police action" in that area...
YES...when those same slanted eyed idiot shit headed comunists yesterday started lobbing artillery shells again across the so called "de-militarized zone" around the 38th parallel....
all we as Americans get in response is bloviating by the President and Secretary of State while everyone looks at their watches and wonders what time to put the turkey in the oven and if they need anything else from the Grocery store before Thursday noon.
All of that said, I'm here this morning to set a few things straight for anyone that doesn't have a cranium full of cranberry sauce and/or hasn't shoved so much stuffing up their ass and down their throat that all of their blood supply is diverted to their intestinal tract for the balance of the year 2010.
THERE IS SOME SERIOUS SHIT HAPPENING OUT THERE IN THE WORLD, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN.
RIGHT NOW.
And we need to take ACTION...
RIGHT NOW.
Just because it's the "holiday season" doesn't mean that we can change TV channels and wait until January 3rd to catch up on what went on while we were at the airport having safe sex with a TSA worker wearing blue latex gloves.
Further, and more specifically, sitting around watching College Football games and picking your nose and going deer and turkey hunting after goofing around the yard with the kids and grand kids while burping the essence of left over Green Bean Casserole isn't going to get you any further away from the inevitable.
We all voted recently for a group of people which we hope will make some important changes in the way this country conducts it's financial and foreign affairs, but unlike your automobile you just can't point the government down the road and put things on cruise control and wait to see what destination you arrive at.
There's still a whole lot of navigating and management that has to be accomplished, and I'm not quite certain that the crew we have in the American cockpit is competent and up to the task yet.
Am I the only one that watches the news and gets more concerned and agitated every day while looking at the crap being foisted on the world in general and blamed on or placed in the lap of America and Americans in general?
There's not enough liquor in the liquor store and Marijuana in Mexico to numb me enough to dull the sense of anger and anguish I feel right now...
...and that's the way it is...November 24, 2010
(and screw Walter Conkite in his moldy grave...)
I'm
I'm afraid that I'm more likely to just sit around sulking to myself rather than running around publicly giving thanks for stuff I benefit from in what up until now has been a fairly good life.
Let me see if venting here on the Blog this morning will relieve a little of the pressure on my Spleen so I can take a complete breath and relieve the pain that proceeds up my spinal cord from my rectum to the base of my cranium...
Here goes...
You see, it's like this to this middle aged, ever greying, ever balding white man of Anglo Saxon descent.
It seems to me that all of the professional "do-gooders" and elected "busy bodies" i.e. the self proclaimed philanthropists and politicians have taken away--slowly, and incrementally-- much of what I consider to be most everything fun out of living life here in America.
And the stuff that you can still do that could be considered fun they've installed handrails on and passed laws and installed placards with instructions indicating why and how I can't have fun using the aforementioned things which are supposed to be fun to use.
I present as evidence the 99.9 percent of the hotels out there with swimming pools which are either only 4 feet deep else are 10 feet deep but instead of a fiberglass diving board today only have some caulk or epoxy filler sealing up the holes where the diving board was in the 1960's.
Further, in business and personal relationships, we can't call an asshole an "asshole", we can't call a useless-nigger-wife- beating-son-of-a-bitch a "useless-nigger-wife-beating-son-of-a-bitch," and now on an international basis...when towel headed Iranian Mullahs build Centrifuges we have to have "multi-lateral talks"...
...or when the the slanted eyed idiot shit headed communist North Koreans...
the same slanted eyed idiot shit headed communist North Koreans that were lobbing artillery shells across the 38th parallel in the early 1950's over my uncle's heads during our so-called "police action" in that area...
YES...when those same slanted eyed idiot shit headed comunists yesterday started lobbing artillery shells again across the so called "de-militarized zone" around the 38th parallel....
all we as Americans get in response is bloviating by the President and Secretary of State while everyone looks at their watches and wonders what time to put the turkey in the oven and if they need anything else from the Grocery store before Thursday noon.
All of that said, I'm here this morning to set a few things straight for anyone that doesn't have a cranium full of cranberry sauce and/or hasn't shoved so much stuffing up their ass and down their throat that all of their blood supply is diverted to their intestinal tract for the balance of the year 2010.
THERE IS SOME SERIOUS SHIT HAPPENING OUT THERE IN THE WORLD, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN.
RIGHT NOW.
And we need to take ACTION...
RIGHT NOW.
Just because it's the "holiday season" doesn't mean that we can change TV channels and wait until January 3rd to catch up on what went on while we were at the airport having safe sex with a TSA worker wearing blue latex gloves.
Further, and more specifically, sitting around watching College Football games and picking your nose and going deer and turkey hunting after goofing around the yard with the kids and grand kids while burping the essence of left over Green Bean Casserole isn't going to get you any further away from the inevitable.
We all voted recently for a group of people which we hope will make some important changes in the way this country conducts it's financial and foreign affairs, but unlike your automobile you just can't point the government down the road and put things on cruise control and wait to see what destination you arrive at.
There's still a whole lot of navigating and management that has to be accomplished, and I'm not quite certain that the crew we have in the American cockpit is competent and up to the task yet.
Am I the only one that watches the news and gets more concerned and agitated every day while looking at the crap being foisted on the world in general and blamed on or placed in the lap of America and Americans in general?
There's not enough liquor in the liquor store and Marijuana in Mexico to numb me enough to dull the sense of anger and anguish I feel right now...
...and that's the way it is...November 24, 2010
(and screw Walter Conkite in his moldy grave...)
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
New Years In November
Cranky Holiday Contemplations...
For some reason it occurred to me today that as America and more specifically, Americans, head into this Holiday season that I haven't had a real job from whence to take "holiday vacation" from but a single year since 1990--that being the year 2008-- when we moved up here from our Little Island in Georgia to Knoxtown before the idiots running Lambert Engineers decided to close things down December 19th, 2008.
All the other years before and after (post 1989) I wasun-employed "self employed" so the days and weeks leading up to the holidays were no different on a schedule basis to me personally from a day or week in March or June or September.
Maybe that's the reason I get so cranky now in late November and December...
...because I generally find that it's virtually impossible to get anything done professionally between the week before Thanksgiving and the week after the following January 1st.
It seems that all of you regular people out there with "real jobs" are busy taking time off in order to burn your left over vacation days...not to mention taking the regular scheduled holiday days off on the calendar.
CAN'T YOU HELP ME AND STOP IT...
As a business man and entrepreneur, I might as well wipe the six weeks encompassing late November until the end of the College Football BCS season in January out of myDaytimer Microsoft Outlook Calendar because of your behavior.
Dang IT...
Unless you sell something holiday related like turkeys or Christmas trees or fake snow or something with the word "seasons" or "Yule" in the title...I can't find anything I want or need in the Engineering department of most firms I call or e-mail because the person responsible is home spraying fake snow on fake trees else bouncing grandchildren on knees while looking at the aforementioned fake snow laden fake trees.
So let me just go ahead and issue my first hearty "BAH HUMBUG" of the 2010 Holiday season and get things rolling...
Is it just me?
For some reason it occurred to me today that as America and more specifically, Americans, head into this Holiday season that I haven't had a real job from whence to take "holiday vacation" from but a single year since 1990--that being the year 2008-- when we moved up here from our Little Island in Georgia to Knoxtown before the idiots running Lambert Engineers decided to close things down December 19th, 2008.
All the other years before and after (post 1989) I was
Maybe that's the reason I get so cranky now in late November and December...
...because I generally find that it's virtually impossible to get anything done professionally between the week before Thanksgiving and the week after the following January 1st.
It seems that all of you regular people out there with "real jobs" are busy taking time off in order to burn your left over vacation days...not to mention taking the regular scheduled holiday days off on the calendar.
CAN'T YOU HELP ME AND STOP IT...
As a business man and entrepreneur, I might as well wipe the six weeks encompassing late November until the end of the College Football BCS season in January out of my
Dang IT...
Unless you sell something holiday related like turkeys or Christmas trees or fake snow or something with the word "seasons" or "Yule" in the title...I can't find anything I want or need in the Engineering department of most firms I call or e-mail because the person responsible is home spraying fake snow on fake trees else bouncing grandchildren on knees while looking at the aforementioned fake snow laden fake trees.
So let me just go ahead and issue my first hearty "BAH HUMBUG" of the 2010 Holiday season and get things rolling...
Is it just me?
Monday, November 22, 2010
I'm Cranky
Why...Don't Ask...
Blogging is at standstill until further notice.
I'll sear everyone's eyeballs with rhetoric later when I feel like it.
Government employees are on notice of risking life and limb if they annoy me in person.
Blogging is at standstill until further notice.
I'll sear everyone's eyeballs with rhetoric later when I feel like it.
Government employees are on notice of risking life and limb if they annoy me in person.
Friday, November 19, 2010
mUCH aDO aBOUT nOTHING
TSA Efforts Useless...
Regular readers of this blog know that I'm a avid listener of daytime talk radio.
I start my mornings listening to Neal Boortz on Atlanta's WSB AM 750 radio website, and then in the afternoon I either listen to Rush Linbaugh on Knoxville's Newstalk 98.7 radio or stream it live on their website.
So any way...yesterday Neal brought up something which I think is very relevant when thinking and talking about the current bru-ha-ha about the new enhanced TSA "security" screenings at our nation's airports.
Let me ask you the same question Neal asked.
OK?
Name a single instance where, since it's inception in post 9/11/2001, that the TSA and their merry band ofpanhandling manhandling security screeners has actually caught anyone in the act of trying to board an airplane with anything resembling a real threat to the aircraft?
Yes, they've caused a bunch of people to dump bottles of water and packages of breast milk and containers of shampoo and perfume larger than 4 ounces, and no one can legally have a cigarette lighter on board a Boeing 737 any more, but as to stopping a real terrorist threat...
...has anyone seen a headline announcing the thwarting of a plot where wild eyed Muslims were collared by some former fast food restaurant employee wearing a TSA uniform?
Wait...let me Google this subject for a moment...
OK...here...look at the top results from 220,000 results returned from my search on Google...
All of that, but not ONE SINGLE NEWS STORY about someone working in a TSA checkpoint actually doing anything but annoying business travelers and pawing on Nuns and Grandmothers and three year old Toddlers.
This is all INSANITY, ladies and gentlemen.
Stupid, retarded, inbred, GOVERNMENT insanity, designed by the government to make "the traveling public"--people that get on an airplane once every one or two years--feel safe.
All at the expense of people like me that have to use our air transportation system as a tool to make a living, and in the process subject innocent AMERICANS to processes and behavior which could be and is considered criminal if I tried to force it on another citizen myself.
Forget about the "Bush Tax Cuts" expiring and Chucky Rangle's Tax returns, I say that the misbehavior and feckless, obtuse management policies of the TSA system and it's employees has to be addressed in a significant, meaningful manner between now and the end of 2010 else we all just as well get ready to act like we live in Germany in 1944.
I'm sorry, but I have to admit that if I am subjected to some of the crap I see on the blogs and on TV these days at an airport screening area...or if someone touches my girlfriend Pat in the manner I'm being led to believe is acceptable under the current policies...
you're going to have to take up a collection to acquire funding to bail me out of jail because I'm going to place a knee in the groin of a TSA employee...
call it a "knee jerk" reaction I guess.
Regular readers of this blog know that I'm a avid listener of daytime talk radio.
I start my mornings listening to Neal Boortz on Atlanta's WSB AM 750 radio website, and then in the afternoon I either listen to Rush Linbaugh on Knoxville's Newstalk 98.7 radio or stream it live on their website.
So any way...yesterday Neal brought up something which I think is very relevant when thinking and talking about the current bru-ha-ha about the new enhanced TSA "security" screenings at our nation's airports.
Let me ask you the same question Neal asked.
OK?
Name a single instance where, since it's inception in post 9/11/2001, that the TSA and their merry band of
Yes, they've caused a bunch of people to dump bottles of water and packages of breast milk and containers of shampoo and perfume larger than 4 ounces, and no one can legally have a cigarette lighter on board a Boeing 737 any more, but as to stopping a real terrorist threat...
...has anyone seen a headline announcing the thwarting of a plot where wild eyed Muslims were collared by some former fast food restaurant employee wearing a TSA uniform?
Wait...let me Google this subject for a moment...
OK...here...look at the top results from 220,000 results returned from my search on Google...
All of that, but not ONE SINGLE NEWS STORY about someone working in a TSA checkpoint actually doing anything but annoying business travelers and pawing on Nuns and Grandmothers and three year old Toddlers.
This is all INSANITY, ladies and gentlemen.
Stupid, retarded, inbred, GOVERNMENT insanity, designed by the government to make "the traveling public"--people that get on an airplane once every one or two years--feel safe.
All at the expense of people like me that have to use our air transportation system as a tool to make a living, and in the process subject innocent AMERICANS to processes and behavior which could be and is considered criminal if I tried to force it on another citizen myself.
Forget about the "Bush Tax Cuts" expiring and Chucky Rangle's Tax returns, I say that the misbehavior and feckless, obtuse management policies of the TSA system and it's employees has to be addressed in a significant, meaningful manner between now and the end of 2010 else we all just as well get ready to act like we live in Germany in 1944.
I'm sorry, but I have to admit that if I am subjected to some of the crap I see on the blogs and on TV these days at an airport screening area...or if someone touches my girlfriend Pat in the manner I'm being led to believe is acceptable under the current policies...
you're going to have to take up a collection to acquire funding to bail me out of jail because I'm going to place a knee in the groin of a TSA employee...
call it a "knee jerk" reaction I guess.
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
"Don't Touch My Junk"
Air Travel Revelations....
Picture Me...
Standing in an airport security line...
So now they are worried about my shoes and then my underwear and most recently me shipping some printer ink cartridges around, when all the time Andy and Barney had it right...
Picture Me...
Standing in an airport security line...
So now they are worried about my shoes and then my underwear and most recently me shipping some printer ink cartridges around, when all the time Andy and Barney had it right...
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
Alive...But Still Not Well...
Just Say NO (To Illness)
I think I'm in the process of proving some sort of weird concept of Mind overMatter stuff that really matters.
At least half the battle is mental, and the other half seems to be somewhat physical.
I assert here that when and if you think you are coming down with something which is contagious and yet isn't deadly...
just lay down and play dead for a while.
Then, in my past and present experience, the crap will ease up and just pass you by and go on to infect someone who will play the game of actually getting sick and wallowing around in misery.
To wit...I laid around at my own leisure in my bed and on the sofa for much of the past 24 hours, only exiting to check e-mail and fool around when I wanted to on the Internet, and after about 12 hours of rest I'm sort of feeling better and am able to fool around in the shop getting some work done and do some laundry and fiddle around with some other stuff I needed to to.
Of course it helps that it's been raining for the past day, keeping me from climbing up on the roof or wandering around in the yard, and the current forecast is for more rain until sometime Wednesday.
So if anyone needs me and I'm not sneaking around in front of the computer while this malady isn't looking trying to get a hold on my lungs and immune system, just give me a call and if I'm awake (and coherant) I'll answer the phone.
I credit my apparent rapid recovery/limited affliction to the use of one the newer over the counter pharmaceutical products...
Something called "Zicam."
We stopped at the CVS pharmacy on the way to Staples yesterday afternoon and bought some more of their spray product.
That stuff works...in my considered Redneck opinion.
You should give it a try if you haven't given it an opportunity to save you from stuff like I find drifting around waiting for an opening to my head and chest every winter.
That said...Later Y'all...
I think I'm in the process of proving some sort of weird concept of Mind over
At least half the battle is mental, and the other half seems to be somewhat physical.
I assert here that when and if you think you are coming down with something which is contagious and yet isn't deadly...
just lay down and play dead for a while.
Then, in my past and present experience, the crap will ease up and just pass you by and go on to infect someone who will play the game of actually getting sick and wallowing around in misery.
To wit...I laid around at my own leisure in my bed and on the sofa for much of the past 24 hours, only exiting to check e-mail and fool around when I wanted to on the Internet, and after about 12 hours of rest I'm sort of feeling better and am able to fool around in the shop getting some work done and do some laundry and fiddle around with some other stuff I needed to to.
Of course it helps that it's been raining for the past day, keeping me from climbing up on the roof or wandering around in the yard, and the current forecast is for more rain until sometime Wednesday.
So if anyone needs me and I'm not sneaking around in front of the computer while this malady isn't looking trying to get a hold on my lungs and immune system, just give me a call and if I'm awake (and coherant) I'll answer the phone.
I credit my apparent rapid recovery/limited affliction to the use of one the newer over the counter pharmaceutical products...
Something called "Zicam."
We stopped at the CVS pharmacy on the way to Staples yesterday afternoon and bought some more of their spray product.
That stuff works...in my considered Redneck opinion.
You should give it a try if you haven't given it an opportunity to save you from stuff like I find drifting around waiting for an opening to my head and chest every winter.
That said...Later Y'all...
Monday, November 15, 2010
Where's My Zicam?
Interfacing With The Public Yields Creeping Crud...
Well, I'm pleased to report that I'm back home this morning, happy to sleep in my own bed for a few hours, but at the same time having to start to admit to myself that I must have caught some sort of respiratory crap during our journey.
I woke up yesterday morning with a scratchy throat and a little head and chest congestion and spending the next 12 hours in denial hasn't caused the symptoms to go away.
I've been squirting Zicam up my nose and eating Tylenol along with a healthy dose of alcohol hoping to stave off further deterioration of my mental faculties and physical condition because I have a darn busy week ahead catching up on stuff and replying to some proposal requests that came in as a result of my Atlanta adventure.
When I'm sick I pretty much have the option of staying home and hibernating until I'm at least past the contagious stage of any given malady, but unfortunately most of the "generalpubic public enjoys running around sneezing and snotting on everyone they come in contact with and sending their crumb crunching rug rats to daycare and school to spread the love infections around the population.
That's probably the single greatest benefit to beingunemployed self employed is the ability to voluntarily avoid contact with the usual seasonal stuff like colds, typhoid and tuberculosis, and possibly the latest strain of Bovine, Equestrian, Porcine, or Chicken Flue/Fever and of course the West Nile Virus.
(Speaking of West Nile...can anyone tell me what the heck is going on over on the eastern Side of the Nile River which makes them immune to stuff like the Egyptians are suffering from on the opposite bank of the river?)
Let me know if you can find out because it bothers me...but I digress...
Of course instead of staying home and avoiding the various plagues out there I have to go out and wander around to places like Home Depot and Staples and Kroger at least every few days (not to mention the bars and restaurants) and risk infection in spite of my occupational advantage(s).
Maybe I should learn my lesson, but then again I'm hard headed.
So any way, time to shuffle some more paper and take a nap and see if I can shake this bug.
Y'all have a LOVELY day now...If you will...
Well, I'm pleased to report that I'm back home this morning, happy to sleep in my own bed for a few hours, but at the same time having to start to admit to myself that I must have caught some sort of respiratory crap during our journey.
I woke up yesterday morning with a scratchy throat and a little head and chest congestion and spending the next 12 hours in denial hasn't caused the symptoms to go away.
I've been squirting Zicam up my nose and eating Tylenol along with a healthy dose of alcohol hoping to stave off further deterioration of my mental faculties and physical condition because I have a darn busy week ahead catching up on stuff and replying to some proposal requests that came in as a result of my Atlanta adventure.
When I'm sick I pretty much have the option of staying home and hibernating until I'm at least past the contagious stage of any given malady, but unfortunately most of the "general
That's probably the single greatest benefit to being
(Speaking of West Nile...can anyone tell me what the heck is going on over on the eastern Side of the Nile River which makes them immune to stuff like the Egyptians are suffering from on the opposite bank of the river?)
Let me know if you can find out because it bothers me...but I digress...
Of course instead of staying home and avoiding the various plagues out there I have to go out and wander around to places like Home Depot and Staples and Kroger at least every few days (not to mention the bars and restaurants) and risk infection in spite of my occupational advantage(s).
Maybe I should learn my lesson, but then again I'm hard headed.
So any way, time to shuffle some more paper and take a nap and see if I can shake this bug.
Y'all have a LOVELY day now...If you will...
Sunday, November 14, 2010
Back Home In Knoxtown
Suffering From Hotlanta Traffic Trauma
After 5 nights spent in the "Atlanta Metropolitan Area" I have to say this...
"Good God but we're glad to be home to the Turbo Pup Compound here on the banks of the Mighty Tennessee River.
Not that I didn't some Forensic Injuneering done and we had a good time with Pat's family, but still...
After living in downtown and northwest Atlanta for 27 years and being absent full time since 2003, the seven years in between being a resident and happy non-resident have taken their toll in further exasperating my patience with the traffic and crowding and general hub-bub that goes on there day and night.
I'm not sure I'd move back there if someone offered me a job paying six figures, because what good would the money be if I have a heart attack every day like some sort of mutant caucasion version of Fred Sanford?
"It's the BIG one 'Lizabeth..."
So any way, we did business and ate real good and visited, and I even got to go to an Atlanta Thrashers/Pittsburgh Penguins hockey game for free and caught a Thrashers T-shirt that they were shooting out of air cannons into the crowd.
But then negotiating the swarm of people exiting the stadium and sitting in the parking deck waiting for the traffic to start moving at a snails pace took a chunk out of my soul and spirit.
I just can't handle the crowds and traffic congestion any more at my ever greying, ever balding age.
So we blasted through downtown Atlanta in the middle of the day today and cruised into the driveway and unloaded the car and sorted the mail and now it's time to go have a couple of stiff drinks and some dinner.
I promise to get back into the Blogging mode this week because I have a bunch of crap on my mind, and until then...
Regards Y'all...
After 5 nights spent in the "Atlanta Metropolitan Area" I have to say this...
"Good God but we're glad to be home to the Turbo Pup Compound here on the banks of the Mighty Tennessee River.
Not that I didn't some Forensic Injuneering done and we had a good time with Pat's family, but still...
After living in downtown and northwest Atlanta for 27 years and being absent full time since 2003, the seven years in between being a resident and happy non-resident have taken their toll in further exasperating my patience with the traffic and crowding and general hub-bub that goes on there day and night.
I'm not sure I'd move back there if someone offered me a job paying six figures, because what good would the money be if I have a heart attack every day like some sort of mutant caucasion version of Fred Sanford?
"It's the BIG one 'Lizabeth..."
So any way, we did business and ate real good and visited, and I even got to go to an Atlanta Thrashers/Pittsburgh Penguins hockey game for free and caught a Thrashers T-shirt that they were shooting out of air cannons into the crowd.
But then negotiating the swarm of people exiting the stadium and sitting in the parking deck waiting for the traffic to start moving at a snails pace took a chunk out of my soul and spirit.
I just can't handle the crowds and traffic congestion any more at my ever greying, ever balding age.
So we blasted through downtown Atlanta in the middle of the day today and cruised into the driveway and unloaded the car and sorted the mail and now it's time to go have a couple of stiff drinks and some dinner.
I promise to get back into the Blogging mode this week because I have a bunch of crap on my mind, and until then...
Regards Y'all...
