Let's Get This Straight One More Time

Are You Listening?


My head is ready to explode with all of this BS talk about the Federal Government's role in  "CREATING JOBS."

Apparently a lot of People...and particularly Politicians...actually believe today that it is somehow the role of the Government--Federal And State and Local--to create jobs.

In my considered Redneck Opinion...all the Government does is steal money, waste it on Government jobs paying twice as many people three times as much money as the position is worth to do half the work...

...while at the same time making it harder and harder for entrepreneurs and existing business owners to make a living.

I've over the past 21 years incorporated three different companies.  The last one going on three years ago as a result of leaving an Island on the Atlantic Ocean to take a job here in Knoxville with a company which worked doing design and engineering work primarily for the Coal Fired Power Plant Industry.

Within two months of Obama's election that company was out of business.

No surprise--since the "Community Organizer In Chief" stated out loud that he was going to  (paraphrasing here) "bankrupt coal companies while at the same time necessarily making the price of electricity skyrocket."

Today I have a small corporation doing design and fabrication for the Plastics Industry...people that make bottles like Catsup and Gatorade is sold in at the Grocery store.

You know what I spend 10% to 25% of my time doing (depending on the month and time of the year like Corporate Tax Season in March)?

Filling out stupid assed forms and writing checks to pay taxes and fees on a company which has yet to turn a substantial profit.

You want to know how I believe our government can improve the job situation in this country?

GET THE HECK OFF MY BACK AND OUT OF MY WAY.

Dammit 

Quote O' The Day

Immortal Words...

A really good friend of mine I've known for about 30 years now...he just turned 71 last week...sent me this quote and said he thought of ME when he saw it:

"Don't kill the mavericks.

They will save your life one day.

And while they are around...
they will get things done!"

Thanks for the complement Beaux!

I'm Standing On My Head In My Basement

On A Ladder...Don't Look...It's Dangerous...


My stairwell going between the main level of my house and my basement is currently driving me crazy.

At first I was just going to do a simple paint job and leave the stairs alone, but then one thing led to another and now I'm struggling with the process of putting in new stained stair treads, painted risers, and stumbling around on a cobbled up platform/ladder trying to reach the two levels of ceilings within a space 3'-6" wide holding a paint brush or roller in one hand and my ass in the other.

I'm really not afraid of heights, but I am afraid of falling from a height of 12 or 15 feet with a little pan of paint in one hand and a painting utensil in the other.

So any way, I've almost got the paint job done on the walls and ceiling, and today I'm cutting the new treads and riser covers which have been pre-painted in a giant 4'x8' sheet, and all the time I'm cursing under my breath because it was ME that came up with this grand IDEA in the FIRST  place.

Time to get back to making Sawdust and Paint spatters...

Regards...Y'all...

Government Dumbasses

Up To Their Eyeballs In Crime And Only One Bullet...

Check out this story about the idiot cops in Phily arresting a couple of guys for floating an inflatable boat down the Main street in their town:

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) – Row, row, row your boat, just not down Main Street in Manayunk. That’s the message police are sending after arresting two men who used a raft as an alternate means of transportation down the flooded street Sunday.

CBS 3 reporter Dray Clark caught up with Pete and Pat, best friends and roommates from Manayunk, who paddled their way down the water covered street.

“I thought, Main Street floods a lot, go get a raft and float down,” said Pat, who admitted the idea was his.

We thought it would be a good time and it turns out it is,” said Pete.

Minutes later, Philadelphia police stopped the men and hauled them away in handcuffs.

When Dray asked why the men were being arrested, he said the officers replied, “for lack of common sense.”

No charges were filed against the boaters.

Still.

They put the cuffs on the guys.  Probably ruined a perfectly good buzz from a few drinks before or during the adventure.  And then they hauled them and their raft over to the police station and made their wives or girlfriends or mothers come and get them.

For WHAT?

Floating in a boat in a flooded STREET?

Did they get arrested because they weren't wearing life preservers or other "personal flotation devices?"

They didn't have a fire extinguisher and watercraft registration papers on board?

See here, Ladies and Gentlemen...

The Cops these days are all going to the "Barny Fife" School of Policing...letting serious crap go on un-interrupted while they run around with their gun and single bullet screwing with private citizens doing harmless stuff like floating in a rubber inflatable raft.

And until we kick some asses into line and get the politicians to back off pretty soon it's going to be against the law to fart or belch in public without some idiot writing you a ticket for offending their tender sensibilities.

Dumbasses one and all...

Obama/Holder Thug Government Enforces Foreign Laws

Problem Is...They're Wrong And Won't Admit It...

I know that you, like I, are happy that the Imperial Federal Government of the By-God United States of 'Merica is on the job this morning doing important things like protecting us from products containing wood from trees illegally harvested.

I was really getting so worried about where the wood I've been buying and cutting into sections in my basement bar was coming from that I was having trouble sleeping.

They (the Federal Government) can't keep illegal immigrants from coming into the country taking jobs and committing crimes, but they can keep us from buying a match stick of wood or a guitar with an Ebony wood fretboard from Madagascar and India if they think it might violate the terms of the recently amended  Lacey Act, something signed into law in 1900 by President McKinley.

Of course it was Obama and Holder and some of the other sniveling, booger eating, tree hugging, patchouli stinking, tied dyed wild eyed climate change believers that changed the Lacey Act in 2009 as soon as he got into office to cover exotic wood species like it already covered fish and other wildlife.

So now Obama and Holder and their armed Thugs are wasting time showing up with machine guns at private businesses around the country looking for "exotic wood."  It's gotten so bad apparently that famous musicians are afraid to travel overseas for fear that when they return through Customs here in the US that their guitar might be confiscated...even if it is a 1950's vintage instrument built before the Lacey Act was amended...because they can't prove its origin and age.

Here's a link to the latest story about armed federal Thugs raiding the Gibson Guitar factories in Nashville and Memphis and hauling off private property they claim is illegally obtained.

Federal agents swooped in on Gibson Guitar Wednesday, raiding factories and offices in Memphis and Nashville, seizing several pallets of wood, electronic files and guitars. The Feds are keeping mum, but in a statement yesterday Gibson's chairman and CEO, Henry Juszkiewicz, defended his company's manufacturing policies, accusing the Justice Department of bullying the company. "The wood the government seized Wednesday is from a Forest Stewardship Council certified supplier," he said, suggesting the Feds are using the aggressive enforcement of overly broad laws to make the company cry uncle.

...

It isn't just Gibson that is sweating. Musicians who play vintage guitars and other instruments made of environmentally protected materials are worried the authorities may be coming for them next.


If you are the lucky owner of a 1920s Martin guitar, it may well be made, in part, of Brazilian rosewood. Cross an international border with an instrument made of that now-restricted wood, and you better have correct and complete documentation proving the age of the instrument. Otherwise, you could lose it to a zealous customs agent—not to mention face fines and prosecution.

John Thomas, a law professor at Quinnipiac University and a blues and ragtime guitarist, says "there's a lot of anxiety, and it's well justified." Once upon a time, he would have taken one of his vintage guitars on his travels. Now, "I don't go out of the country with a wooden guitar."

And here's Gibson's response:

Henry Juszkiewicz, Chairman and CEO of Gibson Guitar Corp., has responded to the August 24 raid of Gibson facilities in Nashville and Memphis by the Federal Government. In a press release, Juszkiewicz said: “Gibson is innocent and will fight to protect its rights. Gibson has complied with foreign laws and believes it is innocent of ANY wrong doing. We will fight aggressively to prove our innocence.”


The raids forced Gibson to cease manufacturing operations and send workers home for the day while armed agents executed the search warrants. “Agents seized wood that was Forest Stewardship Council controlled,” Juszkiewicz said. “Gibson has a long history of supporting sustainable and responsible sources of wood and has worked diligently with entities such as the Rainforest Alliance and Greenpeace to secure FSC-certified supplies. The wood seized on August 24 satisfied FSC standards.”


Juszkiewicz believes that the Justice Department is bullying Gibson without filing charges.


“The Federal Department of Justice in Washington, D.C. has suggested that the use of wood from India that is not finished by Indian workers is illegal, not because of U.S. law, but because it is the Justice Department’s interpretation of a law in India. (If the same wood from the same tree was finished by Indian workers, the material would be legal.) This action was taken without the support and consent of the government in India.”

Here's an good example of how the government is handling things these days:




I swear, Ladies and Gentlemen...It's a truly screwed up world we live in when the government has the time to run around carrying guns chasing the remnants of DEAD TREES but they don't have the time and energy and resolve to defend our borders.

Then again, we get what we pay for and throwing tons of money at the problem is obviously not the solution.

Take public schools government EDUCATION...for example.  Today I feel we live in a country full of by and large ill-educated and by default STUPID people...people that believe that government is the solution to everything they face in life.

Thus today we have the government pointing guns at people because they paid for wood which the government thinks possibly might not meet their standards.

Is that really the kind of thing that you want your government spending your money on?

The Yankee Wimps Blinked Over a Big Rain Storm

Sniveling, Booger Eating, Tree Huggers Afraid Of "Mother Earth"...


I can't even watch The Weather Channel or FOX News without laughing out loud at the hysteria being presented about this little wimpy storm called Irene.

I've checked the NOAA Forecasts presented four times a day, and by noon yesterday it was obvious that the storm was substantially weakened and would not regain strength before it hit NY City, but the media kept on banging their drums while the Obamamaniacs cut their vacation out on Martha's Vinyard short so the President could...according to the Drudge Report/Yahoo News--"Take Charge At Hurricane Command Center."

Here's a picture for your enjoyment:

I would say that President Obama's compentency in this role would be the equivalent of me sitting at the controls of the Space Shuttle or possibly a Nuclear Power Plant.

Another funny thing to me?

That NOAA was asked or otherwise felt it necessiary to have to make a custom  Name Tag/Desk Plackard with the name "Barack Obama"..."President of the United States" to place in front of this inept, feckless, obtuse man like somehow everyone in the room didn't know who he was on sight.

So any way, it's time now to get back to business in my basement building a new staircase, and hopefully the rest of the country will get back to business making money in spite of the By God Imperial Federal Government of the United States of 'Merica's best efforts to the contrary, and think about electing some people to office in November 2012 that will do a better job than the efforts of much of the crowd we have sitting in DC today.

Regards Y'all...

Good Night Good Morning Irene

The Yankees Are Sweating Bullets...


Everyone that stops by here regularly knows that me and my family have dealt with hurricanes for the past nearly 200 years in south Alabama.

Without any FEMA or Salvation Army or other Government/non-Government help.

Yet in spite of more than a dozen substantial Hurricanes passing over or near where I live over the past 51 years and 11 months, I'm still here today.

Now don't get me wrong here Ladies and Gentlemen...I'm not asking that anyone get hurt or that there be any substantial property damage, but still...

I have to take a slight bit of enjoyment watching all of the Big City Liberals up in New York and DC and Boston--those same people that are always looking down on us living here in the south offering advice on how to live our lives and "tutt-tutting" while wagging their fingers--offering advice and federal assistence where generally none was needed or asked for historically.

All I have to say right now about this weekend's weather forecast for New England is this:

LOOK OUT FOLKS...BECAUSE HERE COMES IRENE

I want you to show all of us Rednecks and Hillbillies down here how ya'll do things up NORTH.

(See you Monday if you're still alive and still have power and phones...)

Heh...

The Death Of Common Sense

I've Missed Him For Quite A While Now...

I found this Essay on  the BBC Website:

"Today we mourn the passing of a beloved old friend, Common Sense, who has been with us for many years. No one knows for sure how old he was, since his birth records were long ago lost in bureaucratic red tape.

He will be remembered as having cultivated such valuable lessons as:

Knowing when to come in out of the rain; why the early bird gets the worm:

Life isn't always fair, and maybe it was my fault.

Common sense lived by simple, sound financial policies (don't spend more than you can earn) and reliable strategies (adults are in charge not children)

His health began to deteriorate rapidly when well intentioned but overbearing regulations were set in place. Reports of an 8 year old boy charged with sexual harassment for kissing a classmate, teens suspended from school for using mouthwash after lunch, and a teacher fired for reprimanding an unruly student, only worsened his condition.

Common sense lost ground when parents attacked teachers for doing the job they themselves had failed to do in disciplining their unruly children. It declined even further when schools were required to get parental consent to administer sun lotion or an aspirin to a student, but could not inform parents when a student became pregnant and wanted to have an abortion.

Common sense lost the will to live as the churches became businesses, and criminals received better treatment than their victims,

Common sense took a beating when you couldn't defend yourself from a burglar in your own home and the burglar could sue you for assault.

Common sense finally gave up the will to live, after a women failed to realize that a steaming cup of coffee was hot. She spilled a little in her lap, and was promptly awarded a huge settlement.

Common sense was preceded in death, by his parents, truth and trust

His wife, discretion

His daughter, Responsibility

His son, reason.

He is survived by his 4 stepbrothers

I know my rights

I want my rights

I want it now

I’m a victim.

Not many attended his funeral because so few realized he was gone. If you still remember him, pass this on.

If not, join the majority and do nothing."

Now look at this story on FoxNews:

Clergy Banned From 9/11 Ceremony

Religious leaders are calling on Mayor Michael Bloomberg to reverse course and offer clergy a role in the ceremony commemorating the 10th anniversary of the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center.

Rudy Washington, a deputy mayor in former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani's administration, said he's outraged. Mr. Washington organized an interfaith ceremony at Yankee Stadium shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

"This is America, and to have a memorial service where there's no prayer, this appears to be insanity to me," said Mr. Washington, who has suffered severe medical problems connected to the time he spent at Ground Zero."

Looking at the above essay, and then reading that story, I couldn't have said it better myself.

I believe that we are in deep trouble as a people and as a country when we are so concerned about not hurting the feelings of our enemy (the muslims) that we ban all clergy from a memorial service for the victims of Muslim Jihad.

How about you?

New Knoxville "Pet Friendly" Restaurant

Owners Must Be Kept On A Leash...




Heh...

Comcast Sucks

No Customer Support...


I just got through spending yet another half hour trying to understand why my so called Comcast "Full Basic" cable TV service has lost it's mind in the past two weeks.

Over that period of time I've come to realize that it is impossible to talk to an English speaking human located within the United States about service related issues.

I have however talked to several individuals named "Peggy" who...regardless of what you tell them the problem is...proceed to read from a script and ask a whole bunch of inane questions as I've explained in an earlier posting.

Generally I think they don't want to (or don't know how to) fix anything really technical, they're just trying to:

A.  Avoid having to send a technician out to your house, and...

B. Keep you on the phone long enough answering stupid questions about things you already know can't be the problem so that you will get pissed off and hang up on them.

I've hung up twice so far in the past week.

Then this morning I spent another half hour trying to trouble shoot my problem using the "Comcast Live Chat" with someone else named "Peggy" and after "verifying my account info twice" (info I had already had to type into a form before the Live Chat session began), and waiting for them to pull up my account, I finally was told that there was a "channel service outage in my area and that they were working on it."

"Sorry for the inconvenience..."

Gee...isn't that lovely.

Here's the deal as I see things with Comcast, Ladies and Gentlemen.

I understand through the process of elimination that Comcast's primary goal is not to service their existing customers/accounts who are already paying monthly a fixed fee regardless of the quality of their product delivered.

Comcast's primary focus is to utilize their resources to direct their limited service personnel in the area of CONNECTING NEW CUSTOMERS to their crappy Cable TV/Internet/VoIP Phone network so they can start billing them full price for partial service.

Thus if I want to establish new service I could have a service technician out here with 3 to 5 days.

And I am 99.9 percent sure that the problem here at my house is in the wire between the house and the utility pole.  I remember that the guy that installed my service 3-1/2 years ago pointed out the age and condition of the wire but didn't have time and materials with him to change it out (he needed a bucket truck.)

He also at the time said "just call if we have trouble and we'll come back out."

But things have worked most of the time since at a semi-acceptable manner (except when it rains) until the past two weeks.

I guess if Comcast keeps screwing around the will be a new Direct TV satellite dish hanging off my house in September.

Doin' The Texas Tulsa Two Step

Busy Day Again Today...


Well Ladies and Gentlemen...I made it. 

It was a LooOOOOnnnNNNNGGGG day beginning about 4 AM and just now finally ending at 11:30 CST.

I traveled in the air all morning and ran around the East side of town all afternoon and then had a really good dinner meeting. 

All in all a successful day I think.

Now after a little sleep everything starts over at 9 AM, followed by a late afternoon return flight on Monday.

Regards Y'all...

Goodnight Irene

Hurricane Season Drives Me On The Road...


So I'm up early this moring in anticipation of catching an 8 AM flight out of Knoxville, going through Memphis, and ending up in Tulsa, Oklahoma later this morning.

Don't ask me why because if I told you the reason I'd have to kill you wrap your head in duct tape and make you watch CNN 24 hours a day for a week (or something like that because it's a secret right now.)

Needless to say the trip has to do with business, and depending on the outcome things could be changing a good deal around here at the Turbo Pup Compound on the Banks of the Mighty Tennessee River.

Looking at the weather map, I see where there's a tropical storm named "Irene"running its way through the Lesser Antillles this morning.

This one could be the first real storm the Atlantic or Gulf Coast has seen in a couple of years based on the dynamics of the upper and lower level weather patterns, but I don't have time this morning to explain it to you.

Go do your own homework and write me a 250 word answer to my question.

And  wish me luck and a safe return on my journey...if you will...

My New Job

It Was Made For Me Personally...




Heh...

It'll Be 106 Degrees F In Tulsa Tomorrow

Care To Ask Me Why I Care?

I Got A Severe New Haircut

Changing My Religion...


For the record, I grew up in a military family. 

Military in as much as when I was growing up my Dad reported to an Army Airfield in Lower Alabama every day and wandered around in and on various and sundry airplanes and helicopters making his living for our family.

Me?

I did the normal stuff little kids did back then in the 1960's wandering around being innocent and stupid and generally making a nuisance of myself when given the opportunity.

But I went down to the "City Barbershop" almost every Saturday morning with my Dad,sat in a chair (at first on a painted 2x8 board spanning the arms of the chair) and got "my ears lowered" to military standards by one of the nice gentlemen working there...usually "Mr. Taylor" that drove a 1954 Chevy to work every day--before exiting the building chewing a wad of "Bazooka Joe" bubble gum.

If I was wearing leather shoes I'd even get them polished in the back of the Barbershop by this Oooolllllddddddd grey haired black guy they called "Shine" because that's what he did for a living...the man could shine some shoes.

When all of the other hippy boys in the late 1960's and early/mid 1970's had long hair, my family's standards required the visit every week to ten days to the barber shop for a trim when my hair started touching my ears.

Next came my adventures in Naval ROTC at Georgia Tech, and again the requirement was that the hair not touch the ears and that the wimpy moustache I insisted on growing--the one I wanted  so I didn' look so young like Opie on  the TV show Andy Griffith--couldn't extend past the edges of my mouth.

I endured that standard for another couple of seasons, and now here we are today finding me having lived like Tom Hanks' character in Castaway on and off for the past 25 years.

I like just leaving my hair alone and letting it grow.

I've had probably something like a dozen real haircuts in the past 12 years, and I've done two of them myself...

one in 1999 when I took my electric clippers and cut everything down to a 1/8th inch level, and the one I did today going even closer to my scalp.

I had a foot long pony tail of hair hanging off of the back of my head, and by today's societal standards it was I that was the rebel and everyone else that wanted to sit in the barber chair were the "normal people."

Unfortunately our current society will let you be a raving lunatic and as long as you keep your hair cut and wear a suit and not make too much noise everything is A OK.

Unfortunately, as Dr. Martin Luther King said, we still cannot judge people by the content of their intellect and their character...

...we have to look at them and it is what they look like that determines by and large what we think about them...

...regardless of what we actually hear them say and what they end up doing in the end.

YES, I cut my hair today for professional reasons because I have an opportunity to do something new and I was afraid I might possibly get passed over if I didn't.

I just want to go on record as saying that it's not what is on top of or hanging off of the back of your head that matters or is dangerous.

It's what is going on between the eyes inside the head that counts.

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

Back In The Basement

I've Got A Saw In My Hand...Don't Bother Me...


I regret to report that due to insanity and professional inactivity, I've got my nights and days totally reversed right now.

I'm wide awake about midnight and I want to sleep all afternoon every day while the sun is shining.

It sucks being Me...but somebody's got to do it I guess.

Back to my sawdust pile in the mean time.

Regards Y'all.

Sawdust Flying...Mind Racing...

Small Particles And Even Smaller Progress...


I'm pleased to report that I'm now in the final trim out mode on the wood work down in the Wee Pub in my basement. 

Progress is an uneven effort because I keep changing things around in the final design and I'm working with a basic hand miter saw which is very accurate but also slow as Christmas working solo. 

Recently while reading some unrelated news stories I remembered that I once had a power miter saw a few years ago but the barbarians in downtown Brunswick, Georgia broke into my Rental  property while I was renovating the building and stole it along with most of my raw materials.

Of course the Brunswick Police department was willing to take a police report only if I'd come down to their offices (they were too busy to come out and look for silly stuff like fingerprints), but other than that they just shrugged their shoulders and mumbled something to the effect that "at least I wasn't there at the time of the burglary and didn't get shot or stabbed."

I'm getting too old to fight, and I've broken my right hand three or four times hitting people and things through the years, but this video makes me want to go back to the gun range and polish my pistol skills a little:



The sad thing is that apparently the Maryland police were only able to get there after all of the perpetrators had left the scene and now thay are claiming that it's too much trouble to try to prosecute the thieves using the video tape as evedence.

I'm telling you, Ladies and Gentlemen, this "Flash Mob" stuff with idiots without jobs or morals or reason deciding to use things like Twitter and Facebook to coordinate acts of violence and "civil disobedience " deserves a few well armed citizens to take matters into their own hands because as I've written here before:

"When Seconds Count, The Police Are Only a Few Minutes Away."

In Maryland where this event happened it is against the law to use a gun against a intruder unless they have basically crawled into your bed and put on your wife's pajamas and put a knife to your throat.

If they come into your home or business and start hauling off your property solo or in mass like in the Video you can't shoot anyone or even point a gun at them...

You just have to stand there and watch them take your stuff and hope they don't physically assault you in the process.

I call BULLSHIT on this situation and promise that if I'm in the building and able to do something besides cower behind a display of Budweiser and Potato Chips someone's at least going to have at a black eye and a fat lip at the end of the day.

Know what I mean?

Come Monday Sunday...It'll Be Allright

A Weekend Jimmy Buffet Would Be Proud Of.


I don't have a whole bunch to say this evening because I'm too lazy to think about anything to write.

I guess you can just take my earlier posting about what happened around here on Saturday, add a trip to Kroger and Home Depot into the mix, shuffle around the nap times and sunning on the deck out by the pool times , and...

You get the picture.

I'll talk to y'all Tomorrow...

Saturday Success...Simple Pleasures

I'm A Professional At Doing Nuthin All Day

I don't mind reporting to you, Ladies and Gentlemen, that I hardly did CRAP all day here on Saturday at the Turbo Pup Compound on the banks of the Mighty Tennessee River.

N U T H I N'

Not A Thing Productive.

Further...

I PLANNED my day that way more or less.

Pat wanted to go shopping in the morning over at a new "Marketplace" they've opened down the road a couple of miles in the Turkey Creek area...

so she went.

Me?

I'd have liked to have gone but they have some rules down there.

Apparently they don't let unshaven, unshowered, naked pot bellyed middle aged men in their snooty "Marketplace", and since I was too lazy to get up and shave and shower and put on clothes suitable for a public appearance I opted to stay home.

Any way, so I just stayed here and wallowed around in bed until almost eleven AM with the Turbo Pup.

Then when she (Missy the Turbo Pup) had to get up to go out and pee I got up too (because I had to also but I opted to do it inside rather out in the yard), stumbled into a bathing suit, grabbed a cigar and the newspaper, poured myself a "waker upper" drink, and set my butt down outside on the deck by the pool and didn't hardly move again until Pat came home about 1 PM.

THAT right there, in my considered Redneck Opinion, is a successful plan for a weekend day in and of itself I'd say, but then you know what?

I had another drink and sat around out there in the moderate heat until it threatened to rain, then I went inside and layed around watching FOX News and the Weather Channel and all in all a good afternoon was had by everyone here at the Turbo Pup Compound.

I did have an inkling of intention to wander over to Home Depot and Kroger late in the afternoon before dinner, but a really good late afternoon NAP ended up taking precedence.

Then Pat woke me up and threatened to go over to our local Karaoke Pub Bullfeathers and bring me back a burger.

And of course that offer forced me to get up, clean up, and get dressed so I could run out the door with my girls.  (They let the Turbo Pup sit with us there on their expansive deck, so we've taken to doing happy hour a few nights a week.)

A couple of drinks, a couple of burgers, and a couple of songs later I was back home in time to go right back to my FOX News and Weather Channel watching.

And now here I am at 1 AM Sunday morning trying to reschedule a trip to Home Depot and Kroger and try to make some more sawdust in the Wee Pub in my basement Sunday afternoon.

Hope the balance of your weekend is at least half as satisfying as mine has been thus far.

Regard Y'all...

The Utility Of Insanity

Modern "Conveniences" Will Be The Death Of Us All...

I've spent the past three days fussing over my Cable Service with lingering doubts about something going on in the background with the Cable Modem.

About three AM Tuesday morning while I was working in the basement the TV signal went of and on a half dozen times over an hour period and I didn't think anything of it.

Yet another late night "Service Interruption" for "Maintenance Purposes" I guessed and since I was busy making noise with my air guns and saws and drills and other crap I wasn't concerned because I couldn't actually see the TV picture and most of the time I couldn't hear the dialogue over my own cursing and mechanical noises.

So any way, three days...going on four now...later my home Cable TV System is in total disarray and I didn't touch anything to cause the problem.

The only thing I did was buy 100 feet of new RG-6 Coax anticipating rewiring the living room TV connection shortly for the THIRD TIME because of ongoing signal "issues" we've been having and at the same time adding another feed serving the Wee Pub behind the bar for the new TV we recently purchased.

I haven't put in the new cableing because of the problems, and now...get this...

As of right now my kitchen TV hanging under the cabinets won't work at all, the TV in the living room refuses to pick up things like Food network, the new 1080p digital TV we've been test driving (the one for the Wee Pub) in the Master Bedroom only picks up about twenty or thirty channels with no Food Network or FOX News signal, my TV Card in Server PC is in the same condition as the Master Bedroom, AND...

the crappy old 32 inch TV I have down in the basement shop picks up EVERYTHING that it picked up before the recent strange outages.

What adds insult to injury is that yesterday I spent a half hour on the telephone with some idiot at Comcast in "technical support" who was obviously reading from a script (or a teleprompter like our current president) and no matter what I said or the detail I told him and in spite of the fact that I said I was an Injuneer...

the customer service guy...probably named "Peggy"...insisted on asking stupid questions like it the cable box plugged into the wall outlet?"

..."is the TV on channel 3?"...

This after I had told the guy everything was working fine on Monday and I had wired the house myself almost four years ago and not changed anything except their stupid digital adapters way back in FEBRUARY and AFTER THAT EVERYTHING EXCEPT THE LIVING ROOM TV WORKED PERFECT UNTIL MONDAY NIGHT.

Didn't matter...

The guy either didn't have the brain cells and/or the training to help me trouble shoot what should most likely be a problem in the wiring between the house and the street or in their immense central offices located somewhere in India or Pakistan.

The final question that caused me to give up and hang up on the poor stupid bastard was this one...

"what's the serial number on your digital cable converter box?"

He asked this doosey while I was hunched over in the kitchen fumbling with the wiring which I had neatly wire clamped and tied together up out of sight behind the wine rack beside the TV under the upper wall mounted cabinets.

In order to answer that question I was going to either have to go to the basement file cabinet and get out the original paperwork, or go to the basement shop and get a sledge hammer some wire cutters in order to free the wiring and be able to look at the microscopic letters on the back of the little box with the serial number inscribed.

So I just hung up before I was arrested for making terroristic threats and possibly charged with verbal racial hate crimes.

It's truly a screwed up world we live in...Ladies and Gentlemen.

When I was four years old I spent weekends and weeks in the summer in a house hand built from timber harvested on our farm.  A house that didn't have electricity until after WWII, and had a windmill and a Hay Barn and a Corn Crib and a Smokehouse and a Sugar Cane Mill and a hand dug water well...

But no Air Conditioning or cable TV or Internet...

We drank water from a large basin in the kitchen with a communal "dipper" you sipped out of when you were thirsty.

And I was happy.

I wish I could re-gain some of that sanity and satisfaction today.

You know?

MORE AT 6:15 AM

I forgot to mention earlier that what pisses me off the most about utilities like the Cable TV or Satellite or Phone company, is that unlike the Gas Company and the Electric Power company or the people selling you water...

the cable company charges FULL PRICE every month no matter how many days or hours or weeks you signal is screwed up.

At least with the TVA or Georgia Power or Atlanta Gas Light Company or now First Utility District if our electricty was off for a while we didn't have to pay for the priveledge of having a wire connected to our house or if our water service was interrupted we didn't have to buy water we weren't using.

Dammit...

Texting 911?

By The Time I Finish Typing Someone Will Probably Be Dead...


OK.

I was just sitting here minding my own business this early morning, fiddling around with an AutoCAD drawing of my as yet to be constructed dart board cabinet down in the "Wee Pub"...

...and being pissed off because in Comcast's infinite effort to upgrade my local TV/Internet service three of my five TV's only get Basic Cable stations right now...

...and in the process of watching some stupid local late night news channel I usually never watch (CBS Late Night News) they came on with a story about the Imperial Federal Government of the By God United States of 'Merica (IFGOTBGYSOM for short) wants to make it possible to communicate with 911 via text messaging within the next five years.

OK...I understand if you are hiding under your desk while some derranged Muslim Terrorist wannabe is robbing your bank you can possibly pound out a message with your fingers and thumbs you might be able to TEXT the 911 operator rather than risking calling and screaming:

THERE'S AN IDIOT WITH A GUN HERE SHOOTING AT EVERYONE YELLING "ALLAH AKBAR"...

but still...

Anyone but me wonder how much this technological revolution is going to cost the Taxpayers?

And does anyone but me realize that all you have to do to get the police to show up at your door is call 911 a couple of times and hang up and not say a single word?

So why do we need a totally over engineered revision of the sometimes feckless and inept 911 services the cost of which have been shoved down our collective throats incrementally over the past thirty or forty years?

Why not have a few people in each 911 system have an unlimited texting $200 per month cell phone with an existing carrier?

This texting crap drives me crazy any way, as I've said many times before.

Let me restate my position here in the matter of TEXTING.

IF YOU ARE HOLDING A FREAKING $500 CELL PHONE IN YOUR HANDS, A DEVICE DESIGNED TO BOUNCE A HIGH FREQUENCY MICROWAVE SIGNAL OFF OF A 200 FOOT TALL REPEATER RADIO TOWER, REFLECT IT INTO A SATELLITE ORBITING THE EARTH, THEN BACK DOWN TO THE SURFACE OF THE EARTH TO ANOTHER 150 FOOT TALL TOWER, FINALLY LOCATING ME IN THE PARKING LOT AT THE LOCAL HOME DEPOT....

Call ME...

Don't Text ME...

Please?

Bad Weather Predictions

I'm Starting To Get Worried...

This is sort of an off the wall rant/discussion this morning but I hope you will indulge me and take it for what it's worth.

As a result I'm going to feel free to say "I Told You So" within the next six or eight weeks, but because I'm an Injuneer rather than a Meteorologist you will also excuse me if I'm wrong.

Here's the deal.

Unlike the Global Warming/Climate Change Zombies, my understanding of Thermodynamics also allows me to understand that Tropical Weather...specifically Hurricanes...is Nature's way of re-distributing heat energy from the Equator/Tropical Latitudes to the Polar regions of the Earth.

And this year's lack of any substantial Tropical activity--we're only up to five storms with Emily recently--means that the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean waters are SUPER WARM right now.

All it's going to take is some lower level low pressure to get the thunderstorms going and some favorable upper level jet stream winds which will not blow the tops off of the storms and I think that people living on the coastal areas everywhere from Texas to Virginia had better be on the lookout for one or more exciting Tropical Weather events in the near future.

And the "Cape Verde" season is getting fired up now on the Calendar so you have to look near (the Gulf/ Caribbean) and far (the shores of West Africa) for the source of bad weather developing.

I didn't read this anywhere so you can take it with a grain of salt...but I know what I know and I'd be buying stock in Plywood companies, Tarps, and portable Electric Generators right now if I were you.

Just sayin'...

Picture Me Stumbling Around In My Basement

With Sharp Tools In My Hands...


After lethargically getting mostly nothing done for the past half week, I had a burst of energy about 1 AM this morning and I've been torturing my dog and my girl and my close neighbors with the sounds of power tools and construction crap coming out of my basement.

The air compressor is the loudest thing I own and it insists on coming on every five or ten minutes depending on how much I'm using my nail guns, but I use a little battery powered trim saw and other portable battery powered tools most of the time at night.

The Remington 22 caliber power anchor nail gun might just be a deal breaker so I'm reserving putting down some new wooden pressure treated sections of base plates until after 7 AM when everyone is stirring.

In other news, I just want to go out and bitch slap most of the political idiots on TV these days...pundits and commentators and even FOX News anchors because they are so feckless if not outright liars.

Like I've said before here many times:


"When Words have no meaning, Meaning has no words..."

"The Wizard Of Uhhhs"

Today's Daily Address by President O'blaablaa...


Just in case you were dead or living under a rock or your Internet and Cable connection was down today, our so-called President was out standing in front of TV cameras this afternoon for a few minutes...

...again.

I swear this sucker has spent more time in front of a TV camera than Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush I, Clinton, and Bush II...all COMBINED.

In less than four years on the calendar.

Today he was taking the American People and the Standard and Poor's Financial rating service to task in his normal condescending, lecturing tone...telling everyone it once again wasn't his fault that he inherited the management of a country with a AAA rating from George Bush and...

when the rating was AAA it was true...

but now when the rating has gone down to AA+ because of his and our idiot government's mismanagement...

the rating is obviously wrong and possibly politically motivated.

And then John sKerry--that guy that served in Vietnam before he ran for President--had the audacity to come out and blame the Tea Party for the ratings downgrade.

OUR COUNTRY, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, IS BY AND LARGE AT THE MERCY OF A GIANT BUNCH OF FECKLESS, IGNORANT, OBTUSE AND QUITE DANGEROUS FOOLS.

And the people these same fools are electing to office are the most dangerous of all.

Please try not to be a fool yourself while I go get some work done now.

Staring At Stairs

Why Do I Do This To Myself?


Sorry for the light posting recently. It's not like I've been super busy working 12 hour days getting productive things done or something.

I've actually been doing some design work and writing some professional correspondence on and off since late last week, and every time I get fired up I burn myself out in short order because the stuff I'm doing requires such attention to detail that I just can't hold out for very long in the process.

Meanwhile, my current construction project in my basement is the renovation of the existing 48 year old staircase work.

When  we bought the house it had this simple ugly basement stair with open stringers and double 2x6 treads and 1x6 riser boards...all painted industrial grey...

with a vintage 1970's run of carpeting stapled down the middle of everything.

I'd take a picture and post it here but I'm too lazy.

Just picture an UGLY yet functional early 1960's basement staircase and you'll understand what I'm up against.

So now without spending $10,000 and tearing the whole thing down I'm trying to change things into looking like an old vintage formal staircase with a nice short section of ornamental handrail on the open side and a new carpet runner down the middle.

Just in case you have never built a staircase or more importantly...a stair handrail with Box Newels and turned Balusters...let me tell you there is more to it than meets the eye initially.

First of all you have the artistic architectural element of the design.

Then today you have the stupid freaking building code issues regarding Baluster spacing (4" max) and rail height.

And finally there is the structural issues of keeping my 240 pound ass from breaking the entire thing and crashing head first over the side into/onto the basement floor one evening thereby spilling my glass of fine bourbon or vodka.

With all of those considerations in mind, you can understand how one would not enter into such an effort without studying things for a while prior to cutting the first board, couldn't you?

So...here I am contemplating the situation.

To be more precise, I'm actually "Paralyzed with indecision" as my College Math professor Caine used to say.

We're only talking something less than 8 feet of handrail, Ladies and Gentlemen--and I've already been to Home Depot TWICE and been fiddling around with AutoCAD drawings for two days now.

Fourteen Balusters and and bunch of white pine lumber and not a single scrap of sawdust has been produced in this phase of the Wee Pub construction project to date.

So I know that you will excuse me now while I go and continue procrastinating a little while further by the Turbo Pup pool...

 

Doctor's Visit Success

Am I Ready To Put The Band Back Together Again?

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

I was impressed he was awake because I barely was. 

Here's the stats if you care:

Weight = 10 pounds less than eight weeks ago

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

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

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

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

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

You know?

Things What Piss Me Off

Have You Got A Few Hours Weeks?


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

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

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

4. Anything involving "Climate Change."

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

6. Liberals

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

8. ...

9. ........

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

I'm BaaaaakkkkkkKKKKKK

Taking Time Off For A Little Blog Maintenance...


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

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

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

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

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

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

THIS BLOG IS 7 YEARS OLD NEXT WEEK!!!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I'm Busy Making Sawdust

Listen To This Until I get Back...


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

Dang What a Pretty woman...

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




More on Monday Morning...

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

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

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

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

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

My Favorite New County Song

I Wish I could Sing Like That...

Sorry For The Light Posting

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




Heh...

Blaa Blaa Blaa

Blaa Blaa Blaaaaaaaaaa Blaa BLAA

"The Best Thing About The Future...

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


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

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

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

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

I thought.

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

all at the same time.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Wait...(checking the clock)

OK...

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

Until next time...

Regards Y'all...

The Turbo Pup's Headin' Home

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


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

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

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

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

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

Another Day...Another Ocean...

Rainy Gulf Of Mexico Visit


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

IF IT DOESN'T RAIN ALL AFTERNOON.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Live From Our Little Island

Back In Paradise...


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

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

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

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

I Have "IOS"???

Say It Isn't So...




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

I'm Issuing An "All Points Bulletin"

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


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

LISTEN UP.

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

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

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

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

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

Bye...

It's A Wonder I Have Any Hair Left

Somebody Call 911...


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

...

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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



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

Having A Toe Tapping Good Time

My Head's Still Spinning...


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Worn Totally Out

A Multitude Of Priorities And Minimum Energy...


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

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

Whose idea was all of this any way?

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

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

Talk to y'all later I guess...

Thank GOD That Freaking Child Murder Trial Is Over With

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

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

Surprising, but not life changing for me personally.

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

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

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

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

And Today?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

But Just In Case You Haven't...

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




'Nuf Said I think

A NORMAL Night's Sleep?

I Must Be Getting Old...


A funny thing happened last night.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Regards Y'all...

Unexpected House Fire(Works)

Been There Myself And Got The Tee shirt...


So I was cruising along nicely yesterday morning happily making sawdust and torturing the Turbo Pup with her new box of 140 squeekies I had received to replace the innards in dead toys she is always chewing up.

Progress was slow but steady out in the carport and by just before noon I came back into the house to rest a few minutes from the 90 plus degree heat...promising myself that I would fire up the construction effort again (excuse the unintended pun...you'll understand when you finish reading this posting) at noon.  I had smelled smoke a few minutes earlier but just attributed it to someone burning lawn debris.

Unfortunately from about 12 PM on things didn't quite work out the way I had planned for Saturday, July 2nd, because when I walked back outside to start work I noticed that two houses down our street on the opposite side from our house black smoke was billowing out from under the partially open garage door.

I knew that our neighbor--a widow lady ten or fifteen years my senior--had just finished mowing her grass and running the weed eater, and apparently one of the two devices had mis-behaved after she put it away and she was in the house IN THE SHOWER.

I ran inside and called 911 while Pat ran next door to get our neighbor who knew the woman well and together they were able to bang on the storm door and storm windows and get her attention.

She came running outside clad in only a silk robe with no shoes, and then proceeded to run back into the building two times before we could physically restrain her and talk her into staying outside.

Here's a look at things about 15 minutes after I first noticed the fire:

Here's one of the brave fire fighters finally getting some water on things:

And here they've basically stopped things from progressing and are just beating the final hot spots down:

This whole experience strikes very close to home for me, because I had the unfortunate experience to have my house burn to the ground in April of 2001. Since I was not home at the time things were happening I had the good fortune to not having to sit there and watch the disaster unfold with a giant shower of electrical sparks when the breaker panel finally gave way or listen to the gas tanks on the lawn equipment, propane tanks, and the car gas tank and air conditioner system explode in the inferno.

Having already lived through the process however, I was amazed at the insight it gave me to help move everyone through the process. I'm not saying I'm some kind of hero or anything, I'm just saying that having dealt with the process from the inside personally gave me a punch list of things I could regurgitate in sequence/order for others to worry about from memory in the middle of the excitement.

I had to wander around trying to keep people off of the hot electrical wires--the next door neighbor insisted on trying to use his garden hose to defend his house and in the process was risking electrocution if his water stream came in contact with the current.

We basically spent the rest of the afternoon working with another dozen of our neighbors consoling the woman and helping her contact her family and the assholes at her so-called insurance company.

I use profanity--the word "assholes"--because that's the way I currently feel about the people and the corporation called Farm Bureau here in West Knoxville.

Do you know what the person which answered the telephone told us when we finally got through to them on Saturday before the Fourth of July?

"We can't possibly get anyone out there until TUESDAY because it's the WEEKEND and Monday's A HOLIDAY."

You might be "in good Hands with Allstate," but from my personal experience this year with a roof damaged by a hail storm, and now with this deal with a house fire which caused at least a loss of 50% of the property rendering it inhabitable, is that you are "shit out of luck with State Farm and Farm Bureau"...and that's a crying shame.

This woman has lived in the neighborhood for over thirty years, raised two sons, and burryed a Husband all the while paying premiums for her "Homeowner's Insurance" and just because her house burns at an "inconvenient" time they leave her sitting beside the road in a borrowed chair with no shoes.

Now here's the part of this story which could be considered a political commentary but which makes me proud that I was able to contribute and further, the way our neighbors and even some total strangers rallied around someone in need.

Don't get me wrong here...this lady was comfortable financially so she could afford to go rent a motel room and buy shoes and clothes, but she was distraught and losing her mind to the point of fainting and having to sit in an Ambulance for a half hour while they checked her out.

In the three hours following the start of the conflagration some total strangers from a nearby condo development brought her some shoes that fit and some pants and a top to wear.

When the smoke had proverbially cleared and the fire department had left the scene I was going to help her sons board up the broken windows and doors, but other people were tripping over me to help and I ended up managing the scene and watching other people swing hammers.



No FEMA.

No state or federal declaration of disaster areas.

No government supplied Trailers and Debit Cards and Free TV's and other crap paid for at taxpayer expense.

I know I hate what happened to our neighbor this Fourth of July Weekend, but at the same time it did my heart good to be able to participate in an exercise which demonstrated that the real, fundamental, core of the American Spirit is still alive and well here in West Knoxville in July of 2011.

I wish that we could all...using an unfortunate metaphor...take the time to "fan the flames" on the embers which are left laying around in places like my neighborhood on my street in other places around the country, and restore the fundamental ideals and self sufficiency on which our country was founded in the minds of the voters before the 2012 election takes us further down the road to socialism and destruction.

O K?