Belt Loosened
Well, I got through Thanksgiving Day little worse for the wear, and I couldn't have asked for a more appreciative audience than our dinner guests Bruce, Ski, and Walt provided.
I like guests that walk in the door with bottles and bottles of wine, liquor and dessert, then insist on leaving the leftovers.
Likewise, a better kitchen assistant could not be found to have exceeded Pat's efforts. She managed to put together a new baked sweet potato dish and a Hors d'oeuvre tray, all the while avoiding being yelled at or stepped on by my size 13 feet while I spun in circles around her. I'm afraid that I'm a tyrant in the kitchen when I'm cooking.
After a couple of hours of conversation and cocktails had slipped by, we had also made a serious dent in three pounds of spiral sliced ham, a really juicy five pound turkey breast that spent the night brining in the fridge, a pot of smashed red potatoes, a pan of cornbread stuffing, a big boat of turkey gravy, and a fairly mediocre pot of last minute green beans (I have high standards for fresh vegetables).
I made perhaps the best 12" pone of cornbread I've ever made, using bacon grease because of it's low cholesterol properties. It was almost a shame to have to crumble it up in a bowl and soak it with chicken stock to make stufffing with. I don't think that anybody missed the little wedge that I consumed in my quality control efforts.
I also tested out a new baked apple dish to which I have to give mixed reviews. It involved coring the apples, slicing them into thick, thick slices, and then stacking them back up in a baking dish stuffed and layered with a chutney of pitted dates, apricots, and port wine sauce; then baking them in the oven for a while. I used giant Granny Smith apples, and it was good, but not great. I think that they need to bake longer at a lower temperature next time.
Oh well, like I always say, if you can't test out new dishes on close friends and family, who else can you risk poisoning?
Now it's back to the theater again on Friday for a few hours of set construction--It's really tough being me...
Friday, November 24, 2006
Thursday, November 23, 2006
Wednesday, November 22, 2006
For Once I Agree With Chucky Rangel
My Thinking Might Surprise You…
Many times in the past I’ve expressed my belief that every US citizen-- male, female, trans-gendered, and gay--should be required to register for the draft upon attaining the age of 18 years and, barring the existence of some significant limiting medical condition, be required to go through basic training and serve at least two years in the armed forces.
Having two left feet wouldn’t get you out of the program, nor would having wealthy parents or being related to important, influential politicians like Robert KKK “pretty pretty” Byrd.
Whether you were required to serve (or were allowed to serve voluntarily) beyond the two years of mandatory conscription would be based on a couple of factors, the first being your actual suitability for military service, and the second being your ability and choice regarding academic pursuits and other employment opportunities if you were allowed to leave the military after your initial 24 months of duty.
There’s a method to my madness here, so bear with me while I explain.
If all you want to do after dropping out of high school is sit around all day playing combat games on your new Playstation III, hanging on the corner with your Homies popping caps in your rival’s asses, and spending your evening squirting out sperm and siring illegitimate babies up and down the block, under my plan you can figure on wearing government issued kaki and camouflage-colored pants until you either get a clue about the meaning of a productive life else you reach something nearing the age of 30.
You might still be looking at a video monitor 24/7, but the primary difference in what you see on your screen in the intervening years would be that the bullets and bombs could be real, and I would expect that you would get very serious and very mature very quickly else risk dieing and removing your defective DNA from the gene pool.
The implementation of this program, which mirrors the requirements made of young Israelis and is the latest idea to come out of NY Congressman Charles Rangel‘s normally stupid racist mouth, would have multiple benefits in addition to serving our society in a number of ways.
The first benefit would be that of producing a wider range of young citizens involvement and engagement in protecting our national security. Quoting part of Thomas Sowell’s essay which I referenced yesterday:
“Two generations of being insulated from the reality of the international jungle, of not having to defend their own survival because they have been living under the protection of the American nuclear umbrella, have allowed too many Europeans to grow soft and indulge themselves in illusions about brutal realities and dangers.”
I have to offer a huge “ditto” in regard to holding this ignorant attitude on behalf of most teenagers and at least half of the adults here in the US.
No one has ever really felt threatened (other than on 9/11), and I think that almost everyone believes that if we just close up shop on the world stage andstick our heads up our butts stick our heads in the sand here in North America that all of the bad guys will just revert back to killing each other and the Jews and leave us alone.
WRONG!!!
This new generation of Turban clad assholes is not satisfied with letting us read Mathew, Mark, Luke, and John and sing the Doxology on Sunday morning a couple of times a month…NOOOOoooooooo SSSiiirrrreeeee
They won’t be satisfied until everyone is on their knees seven times a day on a prayer mat, head facing Mecca, mumbling foreign words in a foreign language. Sorry Abdul, but I speakRedneck a variation of the King’s English, and I also happen to be a pretty good shot with a rifle, so it’s a good thing that I’m 47 rather than 17 or there would be a few more bearded radical Muslim butts in the dirt right now.
And by the way..."Hey Chucky, why not drop all of your partisan racist crap and spend your time working on productive ideas like the draft."
Even though I know that you’re in it for all the wrong reasons, the underlying concept is sound.
Many times in the past I’ve expressed my belief that every US citizen-- male, female, trans-gendered, and gay--should be required to register for the draft upon attaining the age of 18 years and, barring the existence of some significant limiting medical condition, be required to go through basic training and serve at least two years in the armed forces.
Having two left feet wouldn’t get you out of the program, nor would having wealthy parents or being related to important, influential politicians like Robert KKK “pretty pretty” Byrd.
Whether you were required to serve (or were allowed to serve voluntarily) beyond the two years of mandatory conscription would be based on a couple of factors, the first being your actual suitability for military service, and the second being your ability and choice regarding academic pursuits and other employment opportunities if you were allowed to leave the military after your initial 24 months of duty.
There’s a method to my madness here, so bear with me while I explain.
If all you want to do after dropping out of high school is sit around all day playing combat games on your new Playstation III, hanging on the corner with your Homies popping caps in your rival’s asses, and spending your evening squirting out sperm and siring illegitimate babies up and down the block, under my plan you can figure on wearing government issued kaki and camouflage-colored pants until you either get a clue about the meaning of a productive life else you reach something nearing the age of 30.
You might still be looking at a video monitor 24/7, but the primary difference in what you see on your screen in the intervening years would be that the bullets and bombs could be real, and I would expect that you would get very serious and very mature very quickly else risk dieing and removing your defective DNA from the gene pool.
The implementation of this program, which mirrors the requirements made of young Israelis and is the latest idea to come out of NY Congressman Charles Rangel‘s normally stupid racist mouth, would have multiple benefits in addition to serving our society in a number of ways.
The first benefit would be that of producing a wider range of young citizens involvement and engagement in protecting our national security. Quoting part of Thomas Sowell’s essay which I referenced yesterday:
“Two generations of being insulated from the reality of the international jungle, of not having to defend their own survival because they have been living under the protection of the American nuclear umbrella, have allowed too many Europeans to grow soft and indulge themselves in illusions about brutal realities and dangers.”
I have to offer a huge “ditto” in regard to holding this ignorant attitude on behalf of most teenagers and at least half of the adults here in the US.
No one has ever really felt threatened (other than on 9/11), and I think that almost everyone believes that if we just close up shop on the world stage and
WRONG!!!
This new generation of Turban clad assholes is not satisfied with letting us read Mathew, Mark, Luke, and John and sing the Doxology on Sunday morning a couple of times a month…NOOOOoooooooo SSSiiirrrreeeee
They won’t be satisfied until everyone is on their knees seven times a day on a prayer mat, head facing Mecca, mumbling foreign words in a foreign language. Sorry Abdul, but I speak
And by the way..."Hey Chucky, why not drop all of your partisan racist crap and spend your time working on productive ideas like the draft."
Even though I know that you’re in it for all the wrong reasons, the underlying concept is sound.
Tuesday, November 21, 2006
OJ's Off FOX
Sanity Rules...In The End
If you were interested in that story, hit your "back" button and get the hell out of my website...
NOW
.
If you were interested in that story, hit your "back" button and get the hell out of my website...
NOW
.
Where Is The West?
I Couldn't Have Said It Better Myself
Take a look at the words of one of my Idols...Thomas Sowell...
European nations protesting Saddam Hussein's death sentence, as they protested against forcing secrets out of captured terrorists, should tell us all we need to know about the internal degeneration of western society, where so many confuse squeamishness with morality.
Two generations of being insulated from the reality of the international jungle, of not having to defend their own survival because they have been living under the protection of the American nuclear umbrella, have allowed too many Europeans to grow soft and indulge themselves in illusions about brutal realities and dangers.
The very means of their salvation have been demonized for decades in anti-nuclear movements and protesters calling themselves "anti-war." But there is a huge difference between being anti-war in words and being anti-war in deeds.
How many times, in its thousands of years of history, has Europe gone 60 years without a major war, as it has since World War II? That peace has been due to American nuclear weapons, which was all that could deter the Soviet Union's armies from marching right across Europe to the Atlantic Ocean.
Having overwhelming military force on your side, and letting your enemies know that you have the guts to use it, is being genuinely anti-war. Chamberlain's appeasement brought on World War II and Reagan's military buildup ended the Cold War.
The famous Roman peace of ancient times did not come from negotiations, cease-fires, or pretty talk. It came from the Roman Empire's crushing defeat and annihilation of Carthage, which served as a warning to anyone else who might have had any bright ideas about messing with Rome.
Only after the Roman Empire began to lose its own internal cohesion, patriotism and fighting spirit over the centuries did it begin to succumb to its external enemies and finally collapse.
That seems to be where western civilization is heading today.
Internal cohesion?
Not only does much of today's generation in western societies have a "do your own thing" attitude, defying rules and flouting authority are glorified and Balkanization through "multiculturalism" has become dogma.
Patriotism?
Not only is patriotism disdained, the very basis for pride in one's country and culture is systematically undermined in our educational institutions at all levels.
The achievements of western civilization are buried in histories that portray every human sin found here as if they were peculiarities of the west.
The classic example is slavery, which existed all over the world for thousands of years and yet is incessantly depicted as if it was a peculiarity of Europeans enslaving Africans. Barbary pirates alone brought twice as many enslaved Europeans to North Africa as there were Africans brought in bondage to the United States and the American colonies from which it was formed.
How many schools and colleges are going to teach that, going against political correctness and undermining white guilt?
How many people have any inkling that it was precisely western civilization which eventually turned against slavery and began stamping it out when non-western societies still saw nothing wrong with it?
How can a generation be expected to fight for the survival of a culture or a civilization that has been trashed in its own institutions, taught to tolerate even the intolerance of other cultures brought into its own midst, and conditioned to regard any instinct to fight for its own survival as being a "cowboy"?
Western nations that show any signs of standing up for self-preservation are rare exceptions. The United States and Israel are the only western nations which have no choice but to rely on self-defense — and both are demonized, not only by our enemies but also by many in other western nations.
Australia recently told its Muslim population that, if they want to live under Islamic law, then they should leave Australia. That makes three western nations that have not yet completely succumbed to the corrosive and suicidal trends of our times.
If and when we all succumb, will the epitaph of western civilization say that we had the power to annihilate our enemies but were so paralyzed by confusion that we ended up being annihilated ourselves?
Thomas Sowell Archives
© 2006, Creators Syndicate
Take a look at the words of one of my Idols...Thomas Sowell...
European nations protesting Saddam Hussein's death sentence, as they protested against forcing secrets out of captured terrorists, should tell us all we need to know about the internal degeneration of western society, where so many confuse squeamishness with morality.
Two generations of being insulated from the reality of the international jungle, of not having to defend their own survival because they have been living under the protection of the American nuclear umbrella, have allowed too many Europeans to grow soft and indulge themselves in illusions about brutal realities and dangers.
The very means of their salvation have been demonized for decades in anti-nuclear movements and protesters calling themselves "anti-war." But there is a huge difference between being anti-war in words and being anti-war in deeds.
How many times, in its thousands of years of history, has Europe gone 60 years without a major war, as it has since World War II? That peace has been due to American nuclear weapons, which was all that could deter the Soviet Union's armies from marching right across Europe to the Atlantic Ocean.
Having overwhelming military force on your side, and letting your enemies know that you have the guts to use it, is being genuinely anti-war. Chamberlain's appeasement brought on World War II and Reagan's military buildup ended the Cold War.
The famous Roman peace of ancient times did not come from negotiations, cease-fires, or pretty talk. It came from the Roman Empire's crushing defeat and annihilation of Carthage, which served as a warning to anyone else who might have had any bright ideas about messing with Rome.
Only after the Roman Empire began to lose its own internal cohesion, patriotism and fighting spirit over the centuries did it begin to succumb to its external enemies and finally collapse.
That seems to be where western civilization is heading today.
Internal cohesion?
Not only does much of today's generation in western societies have a "do your own thing" attitude, defying rules and flouting authority are glorified and Balkanization through "multiculturalism" has become dogma.
Patriotism?
Not only is patriotism disdained, the very basis for pride in one's country and culture is systematically undermined in our educational institutions at all levels.
The achievements of western civilization are buried in histories that portray every human sin found here as if they were peculiarities of the west.
The classic example is slavery, which existed all over the world for thousands of years and yet is incessantly depicted as if it was a peculiarity of Europeans enslaving Africans. Barbary pirates alone brought twice as many enslaved Europeans to North Africa as there were Africans brought in bondage to the United States and the American colonies from which it was formed.
How many schools and colleges are going to teach that, going against political correctness and undermining white guilt?
How many people have any inkling that it was precisely western civilization which eventually turned against slavery and began stamping it out when non-western societies still saw nothing wrong with it?
How can a generation be expected to fight for the survival of a culture or a civilization that has been trashed in its own institutions, taught to tolerate even the intolerance of other cultures brought into its own midst, and conditioned to regard any instinct to fight for its own survival as being a "cowboy"?
Western nations that show any signs of standing up for self-preservation are rare exceptions. The United States and Israel are the only western nations which have no choice but to rely on self-defense — and both are demonized, not only by our enemies but also by many in other western nations.
Australia recently told its Muslim population that, if they want to live under Islamic law, then they should leave Australia. That makes three western nations that have not yet completely succumbed to the corrosive and suicidal trends of our times.
If and when we all succumb, will the epitaph of western civilization say that we had the power to annihilate our enemies but were so paralyzed by confusion that we ended up being annihilated ourselves?
Thomas Sowell Archives
© 2006, Creators Syndicate
Sunday, November 19, 2006
I’m Back On The Stage Again
Building Things To Tear Down
Sorry about the light posting this weekend, but I’m distracted.
I guess that I haven’t mentioned that I’ve been back in the set design business again this month--this time doing the scenery for another rendition of Charles Dicken’s “A Christmas Carol.”
They’ll have their first performance on December 5th, so I’ve got to get cracking Monday afternoon manhandling a few thousand pounds of plywood, foam, and 2x4’s into something that resembles Scrooge’s bedroom, office and Tiny Tim’s dining room.
I find that the best thing about working for Heather and the GIAHA people over at Brunswick’s Ritz theater is the level of professionalism they put into every show. Even though most of the actors are true amateurs, they always include several professional actors in each performance and the stage crew and lighting/sound people are really on the ball.
This year my friend Bryan Thompson, Mayor of the City of Brunswick, is playing the role of Scrooge, and little Sara (ten years old going on thirty) is the Ghost of Christmas Past. I guess that my biggest challenge this year is to figure out how to make Sara appear to rise ominously out of Scrooge’s bed in her entrance scene without causing her to fall over and crack her cute little skull on the furniture.
Really, I just LOVE doing special effects…
I’ve worked my butt off over the past three seasons, for free, pouring my soul into theater sets that rarely had casts which appreciated and deserved the quality I put into my efforts on their behalf, but the gang at the Ritz always takes good advantage of the fruits of my creative work and each year I’m challenged to raise the bar yet again. This year will be no exception.
I guess that it’s time to get back to the drawing board now… photos to follow shortly…
.
Sorry about the light posting this weekend, but I’m distracted.
I guess that I haven’t mentioned that I’ve been back in the set design business again this month--this time doing the scenery for another rendition of Charles Dicken’s “A Christmas Carol.”
They’ll have their first performance on December 5th, so I’ve got to get cracking Monday afternoon manhandling a few thousand pounds of plywood, foam, and 2x4’s into something that resembles Scrooge’s bedroom, office and Tiny Tim’s dining room.
I find that the best thing about working for Heather and the GIAHA people over at Brunswick’s Ritz theater is the level of professionalism they put into every show. Even though most of the actors are true amateurs, they always include several professional actors in each performance and the stage crew and lighting/sound people are really on the ball.
This year my friend Bryan Thompson, Mayor of the City of Brunswick, is playing the role of Scrooge, and little Sara (ten years old going on thirty) is the Ghost of Christmas Past. I guess that my biggest challenge this year is to figure out how to make Sara appear to rise ominously out of Scrooge’s bed in her entrance scene without causing her to fall over and crack her cute little skull on the furniture.
Really, I just LOVE doing special effects…
I’ve worked my butt off over the past three seasons, for free, pouring my soul into theater sets that rarely had casts which appreciated and deserved the quality I put into my efforts on their behalf, but the gang at the Ritz always takes good advantage of the fruits of my creative work and each year I’m challenged to raise the bar yet again. This year will be no exception.
I guess that it’s time to get back to the drawing board now… photos to follow shortly…
.
Friday, November 17, 2006
Too Busy To Complain About The World
I’m Silent For A Change
Do you want something to worry about? Forget MY personal opinion on these subjects, today’s assignment involves YOU doing some reading (in places other than the pages of the NY Times and the rest of the lamestream media) on these subjects:
1. It took less than two weeks for the new Democratic congress to start melting down while at the same time showing the American voters what a liberal moonbat Nancy Pelosi really is.
The defeat of her buddy and endorsed candidate, John Murtha, by Steny Hoyer for the position of House Majority leader is just the beginning of what I hope is a series of defeats for a woman that I consider to be the second most dangerous set of walking female glands on the planet behind Hillary Clinton. (And, by the way, why does Steny Hoyer sound like the name of a member of “Our Gang” on the old TV show The Little Rascals.)
2. Did OJ really do it? Apparently he’s telling everyone how he would have done it, IF he did it on a show on the Fox Entertainment Network (not FOX news) later this month.
3. Will somebody tell me what mechanism allows tornados to zoom in on trailer parks 99% of the time? Seven more people were killed by a tornado in North Carolina trailer park yesterday. It can’t be a magnetic phenomena, because other than the sub-frame, trailers are made from wood and aluminum. I think that every town should build their own tornado decoy consisting of a group of unoccupied trailers to draw the next storm’s wrath.
4. Why will grown men complain about waiting 30 minutes to vote for President of the United States, then go out to stand in line on the sidewalk for three days to buy a Sony Playstation III?
5. Can anyone tell me why I have to buy a camera to get a new cell phone? Seriously, I already have a really nice Cannon G3 digital camera, and all I want now is two cell phones to replace our 4-year old Nokia Phones that are slowly dying as pieces fall off and the displays crack from wear.
I’ve had a cell phone since 1990, and this purchase represents only my fifth phone in the intervening years--each supposedly smaller, lighter, and better. I say that each successive phone sucks worse than the one before. I long for my old big, bulky, 3 watt Nokia phone that mounted on a pedestal in my Suburban so I could talk to God in the middle of the wilderness rather than these crappy 0.6 watt phones that cause me to end almost every conversation with the words…
”If you can hear me…I’ll call back in a minute…”
Do you want something to worry about? Forget MY personal opinion on these subjects, today’s assignment involves YOU doing some reading (in places other than the pages of the NY Times and the rest of the lamestream media) on these subjects:
1. It took less than two weeks for the new Democratic congress to start melting down while at the same time showing the American voters what a liberal moonbat Nancy Pelosi really is.
The defeat of her buddy and endorsed candidate, John Murtha, by Steny Hoyer for the position of House Majority leader is just the beginning of what I hope is a series of defeats for a woman that I consider to be the second most dangerous set of walking female glands on the planet behind Hillary Clinton. (And, by the way, why does Steny Hoyer sound like the name of a member of “Our Gang” on the old TV show The Little Rascals.)
2. Did OJ really do it? Apparently he’s telling everyone how he would have done it, IF he did it on a show on the Fox Entertainment Network (not FOX news) later this month.
3. Will somebody tell me what mechanism allows tornados to zoom in on trailer parks 99% of the time? Seven more people were killed by a tornado in North Carolina trailer park yesterday. It can’t be a magnetic phenomena, because other than the sub-frame, trailers are made from wood and aluminum. I think that every town should build their own tornado decoy consisting of a group of unoccupied trailers to draw the next storm’s wrath.
4. Why will grown men complain about waiting 30 minutes to vote for President of the United States, then go out to stand in line on the sidewalk for three days to buy a Sony Playstation III?
5. Can anyone tell me why I have to buy a camera to get a new cell phone? Seriously, I already have a really nice Cannon G3 digital camera, and all I want now is two cell phones to replace our 4-year old Nokia Phones that are slowly dying as pieces fall off and the displays crack from wear.
I’ve had a cell phone since 1990, and this purchase represents only my fifth phone in the intervening years--each supposedly smaller, lighter, and better. I say that each successive phone sucks worse than the one before. I long for my old big, bulky, 3 watt Nokia phone that mounted on a pedestal in my Suburban so I could talk to God in the middle of the wilderness rather than these crappy 0.6 watt phones that cause me to end almost every conversation with the words…
”If you can hear me…I’ll call back in a minute…”
Thursday, November 16, 2006
Here...Try This
A Quick Pasta Dinner--Vodka Tomato Cream Sauce
I'm still working my tail off trying to catch up with my obligations for the upcoming Canadian Technical Seminars, while at the same time being sick and tired of eating every meal out in a restaurant (I know, I know…boo hoo hoo.)
Here is what I did to solve my dilemma for last evening's dinner for two (double the amounts for four meals) :
Heat a large, heavy skillet and add:
2 tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1/4 stick of butter
Sautee:
1/4 medium onion, diced fine
Once the onion is cooked clear, add 1/2 of a 14.5 oz can of pureed tomatoes and a 1/4 cup of beef stock (or chicken stock) to the skillet.
Simmer over medium heat for about ten minutes.
Meanwhile, heat a pot of water to boiling, add a teaspoon of salt and a splash of olive oil, and cook yourself a batch of Penne Pasta (or any other small tubular pasta) and cook until it's "al dente" (that's French for the Redneck term "Done")
When your pasta is almost ready, sprinkle 1/2 teaspoon of cayenne pepper flakes into your sauce and pour about a ¼ cup of vodka and a ¼ cup of half & half into the mix, then turn up the heat a little and stir, stir stir.
Keep stirring…
Pour your pasta through a colander to drain well, then toss it into the skillet with your sauce and stir everything up real nice.
Dump your pasta and sauce out into two big preheated bowls on chargers, grate some good Parmigiano Reggiano or Parmigiano Localetti Cheese on top, grab yourself a fork and napkin, and EAT.
Now feel free to entertain yourself, because I'm busy...
I'm still working my tail off trying to catch up with my obligations for the upcoming Canadian Technical Seminars, while at the same time being sick and tired of eating every meal out in a restaurant (I know, I know…boo hoo hoo.)
Here is what I did to solve my dilemma for last evening's dinner for two (double the amounts for four meals) :
Heat a large, heavy skillet and add:
2 tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1/4 stick of butter
Sautee:
1/4 medium onion, diced fine
Once the onion is cooked clear, add 1/2 of a 14.5 oz can of pureed tomatoes and a 1/4 cup of beef stock (or chicken stock) to the skillet.
Simmer over medium heat for about ten minutes.
Meanwhile, heat a pot of water to boiling, add a teaspoon of salt and a splash of olive oil, and cook yourself a batch of Penne Pasta (or any other small tubular pasta) and cook until it's "al dente" (that's French for the Redneck term "Done")
When your pasta is almost ready, sprinkle 1/2 teaspoon of cayenne pepper flakes into your sauce and pour about a ¼ cup of vodka and a ¼ cup of half & half into the mix, then turn up the heat a little and stir, stir stir.
Keep stirring…
Pour your pasta through a colander to drain well, then toss it into the skillet with your sauce and stir everything up real nice.
Dump your pasta and sauce out into two big preheated bowls on chargers, grate some good Parmigiano Reggiano or Parmigiano Localetti Cheese on top, grab yourself a fork and napkin, and EAT.
Now feel free to entertain yourself, because I'm busy...
Wednesday, November 15, 2006
I'm Back In Town
My Mind's Willing...But My Body Needs More Sleep
I was up for 24 straight hours ending about 3:00 AM when I finally let myself doze off after losing a spreadsheet I had been working on for about 3 hours (without saving any intermediate results--I know...I know...so beat me for my stupidity...)
Now I've got to try to recreate my previous results by combing through several dozen E-mails for contact info for our Canadian Seminars next week.
Blogging is just going to have to wait this morning...
I was up for 24 straight hours ending about 3:00 AM when I finally let myself doze off after losing a spreadsheet I had been working on for about 3 hours (without saving any intermediate results--I know...I know...so beat me for my stupidity...)
Now I've got to try to recreate my previous results by combing through several dozen E-mails for contact info for our Canadian Seminars next week.
Blogging is just going to have to wait this morning...
Tuesday, November 14, 2006
Airport Blogging
Backward Thinking
Elapsed Travel time: Stardate 8 hours, 54 minutes EST
OK, so try to picture Pat and I sitting in the little airport restaurant/bar in White Plains, NY, drinking tiny $8 Jack & Cokes and $3 club sodas.
Add to that image me being just a little perturbed because after arriving at the airport 2-½ hours before our flight and stumbling through the obligatory disrobing and pawing in the TSA security area, we realized that there were only two gates and NO RESTAURANT OR BAR in the departure lounge area.
It took about two seconds for us to decide to risk running the security gauntlet again with mynew explosive laden support hose New Balance tennis shoes in order to go upstairs and sit in comfort in the restaurant while we killed another hour and one half or so.
No big deal, but then when I tried to log onto the airport’s wireless network I learned that like Atlanta they wanted $6.95 worth of my credit card for 24 hours of access.
Like someone is going to hang out here all day for the great food and mixed drinks with flat Coke products. Of course there is the discount $3.95 rate for all the tight wads in their captive audience.
$3.95 gets you…
get ready…
FIFTEEN WHOLE MINUTES OF INTERNET EXTACY.
Yeah, riiiight…
I went ahead and sprang for the $6.95 deal, which was a good thing because it took me 15 minutes to get Yahoo and a couple of other windows to load because instead of 802.1g they must be using 401.05a or something invented back in the stone ages.
The network is veeeerrrrrrryyyyy S L O W.
Regardless, it looks like we’ll make it home on schedule, and my business partner gave my spirits a boost by letting me know that both seminars in Canada are a go on the 24th in Calgary and the 30th in Ft. McMurray. Even better, I don’t have to make the trip. If I go to Canada and I’m not skiing I want to go in July, not November.
I’m ready to sit on my sofa and vegetate, see y’all then…
Elapsed Travel time: Stardate 8 hours, 54 minutes EST
OK, so try to picture Pat and I sitting in the little airport restaurant/bar in White Plains, NY, drinking tiny $8 Jack & Cokes and $3 club sodas.
Add to that image me being just a little perturbed because after arriving at the airport 2-½ hours before our flight and stumbling through the obligatory disrobing and pawing in the TSA security area, we realized that there were only two gates and NO RESTAURANT OR BAR in the departure lounge area.
It took about two seconds for us to decide to risk running the security gauntlet again with my
No big deal, but then when I tried to log onto the airport’s wireless network I learned that like Atlanta they wanted $6.95 worth of my credit card for 24 hours of access.
Like someone is going to hang out here all day for the great food and mixed drinks with flat Coke products. Of course there is the discount $3.95 rate for all the tight wads in their captive audience.
$3.95 gets you…
get ready…
FIFTEEN WHOLE MINUTES OF INTERNET EXTACY.
Yeah, riiiight…
I went ahead and sprang for the $6.95 deal, which was a good thing because it took me 15 minutes to get Yahoo and a couple of other windows to load because instead of 802.1g they must be using 401.05a or something invented back in the stone ages.
The network is veeeerrrrrrryyyyy S L O W.
Regardless, it looks like we’ll make it home on schedule, and my business partner gave my spirits a boost by letting me know that both seminars in Canada are a go on the 24th in Calgary and the 30th in Ft. McMurray. Even better, I don’t have to make the trip. If I go to Canada and I’m not skiing I want to go in July, not November.
I’m ready to sit on my sofa and vegetate, see y’all then…
Vacation Post Mortem
Happy To Be Heading Back Home
Well, it’s about 3 AM and I’m wide awake, even though the alarm on my cell phone was set for six. We have about an 18 hour travel day ahead of us as we backtrack on three ferry rides across eastern Long Island and Long Island Sound to Connecticut, turn south west to the White Plains airport, then on to Atlanta and Brunswick by air.
We expect to be back at home on our little island by about 10:45 tonight. I get a little tired just thinking about the process. At least the driving portion is on the front end rather than the back end of the sojourn.
I hate to admit it, but I have to be one of the poorest people within 100 miles of where I sit right now, particularly if you exclude the children under the age of 18 and most of the cats and dogs in the area.
Good God but this part of the world is well off. As far as I can determine there isn’t a house priced at less than $1,000,000 anywhere on Long Island unless it’s burned down or had the foundation washed away by a flood tide.
Yesterday we drove down to East Hampton and wandered around their shopping district during a late afternoon break in the rain. Tiffany and Gucci had little stores right on Main Street, and there were some amazing antique shops containing end tables and little bookshelves priced in the thousands of dollars price range.
I wondered if they would take an out of town check…boing boing boing…
I have to say that our review of the Bed & Breakfast Inn’s we chose is somewhat mixed.
The Roger Sherman Inn was basically a really good Restaurant with 30 rooms located upstairs and in the Carriage House. We ended up in a rather small room where I banged my knees and elbows into the furnishings and narrow door frames practically every time I turned around. The staff was competent and friendly, but seemed to be more focused on the restaurant business rather than filling my ice bucket and interacting with the room guests.
The Sunrise Guest House here in Montauk has only four rooms for rent, and we got the only two room suit with a fireplace. The room was excellent, but the proprietor was a bit aloof and unprofessional and I suspect could be considered bit off-putting to deal with for older patrons or those wanting a “hoity-toity” atmosphere. Being the laid back beach bum that I am, he and I got along just fine, BUT…
He had this weird rule about no food or drink in the guestrooms at Sunrise, although he didn‘t enforce it on our stay. I guess that I should have known that something was up when there was no cups or an ice bucket in our suit.
We broke that rule and stomped all over the pieces for a half day before we noticed the sign on the wall in the kitchen area as I ran up and down the stairs asking for ice to go with our vodka, club soda, and cranberry libations.
I have to ask this question:
Who the hell runs an Inn that doesn’t sell alcohol or provide beverages other than at breakfast and attempts to not allow the guests to drink their own beverages in a room that costs $195 per night in high season?
Answer: William does.
Any way, now I’m going to roust Pat up out of bed early and try to eliminate some of the drama from the return trip by getting an early start, and we might be able to visit our friend Bucky (Dartmouth Class of 1942) on the way back through the area.
See Y’all in Georgia soon...
.
Well, it’s about 3 AM and I’m wide awake, even though the alarm on my cell phone was set for six. We have about an 18 hour travel day ahead of us as we backtrack on three ferry rides across eastern Long Island and Long Island Sound to Connecticut, turn south west to the White Plains airport, then on to Atlanta and Brunswick by air.
We expect to be back at home on our little island by about 10:45 tonight. I get a little tired just thinking about the process. At least the driving portion is on the front end rather than the back end of the sojourn.
I hate to admit it, but I have to be one of the poorest people within 100 miles of where I sit right now, particularly if you exclude the children under the age of 18 and most of the cats and dogs in the area.
Good God but this part of the world is well off. As far as I can determine there isn’t a house priced at less than $1,000,000 anywhere on Long Island unless it’s burned down or had the foundation washed away by a flood tide.
Yesterday we drove down to East Hampton and wandered around their shopping district during a late afternoon break in the rain. Tiffany and Gucci had little stores right on Main Street, and there were some amazing antique shops containing end tables and little bookshelves priced in the thousands of dollars price range.
I wondered if they would take an out of town check…boing boing boing…
I have to say that our review of the Bed & Breakfast Inn’s we chose is somewhat mixed.
The Roger Sherman Inn was basically a really good Restaurant with 30 rooms located upstairs and in the Carriage House. We ended up in a rather small room where I banged my knees and elbows into the furnishings and narrow door frames practically every time I turned around. The staff was competent and friendly, but seemed to be more focused on the restaurant business rather than filling my ice bucket and interacting with the room guests.
The Sunrise Guest House here in Montauk has only four rooms for rent, and we got the only two room suit with a fireplace. The room was excellent, but the proprietor was a bit aloof and unprofessional and I suspect could be considered bit off-putting to deal with for older patrons or those wanting a “hoity-toity” atmosphere. Being the laid back beach bum that I am, he and I got along just fine, BUT…
He had this weird rule about no food or drink in the guestrooms at Sunrise, although he didn‘t enforce it on our stay. I guess that I should have known that something was up when there was no cups or an ice bucket in our suit.
We broke that rule and stomped all over the pieces for a half day before we noticed the sign on the wall in the kitchen area as I ran up and down the stairs asking for ice to go with our vodka, club soda, and cranberry libations.
I have to ask this question:
Who the hell runs an Inn that doesn’t sell alcohol or provide beverages other than at breakfast and attempts to not allow the guests to drink their own beverages in a room that costs $195 per night in high season?
Answer: William does.
Any way, now I’m going to roust Pat up out of bed early and try to eliminate some of the drama from the return trip by getting an early start, and we might be able to visit our friend Bucky (Dartmouth Class of 1942) on the way back through the area.
See Y’all in Georgia soon...
.
Monday, November 13, 2006
Planes, Trains Ferries, And (Rented) Automobiles
Three Boats Later…
I find the geography to be weird as hell up here on the north tip of Long Island--but in a GOOD way.
For those of you that haven’t been to Montauk, it’s like you took a beach from the outer banks of North Carolina and plopped it down in the middle of Asheville, NC.
Seriously, you can drive away to the north from forty foot sand dunes and in five minutes you’re in rolling hills covered with slightly stunted versions of typical new England hardwoods that have already lost their leaves.
After watching Pat freak out while we loaded our rented SUV onto a giant auto ferry at New London about noon yesterday, we arrived at Orient Point Long Island about an hour and a half later having saved at LEAST a half day drive down through NY City and back up north.
I was planning on driving down the north fork and back up the south fork of the island, but when we stopped for lunch at Claudio's in Greenport I found the North and South Shelter Island Ferry’s that cut yet another 1-½ hours off the trip out to Montauk.
By the way, I have this innate ability to stumble over places like Claudio's by accident, and while is isn’t always a cheep experience the opportunity to visit such landmarks is well worth the extra cost (a hamburger and fries was $11.) The restaurant had been there on the dock, owned by the same family, since 1870--thereby making it the oldest single family run restaurant in the entire United States.
After lunch, Pat wasn’t exactly thrilled that I had added two additional short boat trips to our itinerary, but the Shelter Island runs were across very flat water and we got to stay in the SUV while under way instead of wandering around a passenger lounge, so she was no worse for the wear when the saga was over with.
I’m still kicking my own butt for having left my digital camera in the trunk in Brunswick because I’m running around with a stupid throw-away camera that makes the flash go off every time the lighting isn’t 1,000,000 lumens.
I just got in from wandering out to make sunrise photos from the beach in front of our B&B and all I probably got was overexposed images of sand with blurry clouds and a yellow blob for the sun.
I guess that I’m going to have to super glue my Cannon G3 to the Tripod so that I can’t forget one or the other next time--it’s all of nothing from here on out.
It looks like the weather might be giving us a break for a while today so we’re going to run around doing some shopping and the tourist thing, then we have to rise early tomorrow morning and reverse our saga’s direction in order to make a 4:30 flight out of White Planes.
Wish us luck…
A CORRECTION
I just checked the NOAA website, and the break in the clouds at sunrise was actually the "calm before the storm." There's a mini-nor'easter blowing this way from the south west, I just hope it blasts on through so we can get out of here early tomorrow morning...of course, if Delta doesn't fly, it wouldn't be a total loss to be stuck in White Plains NY for an extra night.
I find the geography to be weird as hell up here on the north tip of Long Island--but in a GOOD way.
For those of you that haven’t been to Montauk, it’s like you took a beach from the outer banks of North Carolina and plopped it down in the middle of Asheville, NC.
Seriously, you can drive away to the north from forty foot sand dunes and in five minutes you’re in rolling hills covered with slightly stunted versions of typical new England hardwoods that have already lost their leaves.
After watching Pat freak out while we loaded our rented SUV onto a giant auto ferry at New London about noon yesterday, we arrived at Orient Point Long Island about an hour and a half later having saved at LEAST a half day drive down through NY City and back up north.
I was planning on driving down the north fork and back up the south fork of the island, but when we stopped for lunch at Claudio's in Greenport I found the North and South Shelter Island Ferry’s that cut yet another 1-½ hours off the trip out to Montauk.
By the way, I have this innate ability to stumble over places like Claudio's by accident, and while is isn’t always a cheep experience the opportunity to visit such landmarks is well worth the extra cost (a hamburger and fries was $11.) The restaurant had been there on the dock, owned by the same family, since 1870--thereby making it the oldest single family run restaurant in the entire United States.
After lunch, Pat wasn’t exactly thrilled that I had added two additional short boat trips to our itinerary, but the Shelter Island runs were across very flat water and we got to stay in the SUV while under way instead of wandering around a passenger lounge, so she was no worse for the wear when the saga was over with.
I’m still kicking my own butt for having left my digital camera in the trunk in Brunswick because I’m running around with a stupid throw-away camera that makes the flash go off every time the lighting isn’t 1,000,000 lumens.
I just got in from wandering out to make sunrise photos from the beach in front of our B&B and all I probably got was overexposed images of sand with blurry clouds and a yellow blob for the sun.
I guess that I’m going to have to super glue my Cannon G3 to the Tripod so that I can’t forget one or the other next time--it’s all of nothing from here on out.
It looks like the weather might be giving us a break for a while today so we’re going to run around doing some shopping and the tourist thing, then we have to rise early tomorrow morning and reverse our saga’s direction in order to make a 4:30 flight out of White Planes.
Wish us luck…
A CORRECTION
I just checked the NOAA website, and the break in the clouds at sunrise was actually the "calm before the storm." There's a mini-nor'easter blowing this way from the south west, I just hope it blasts on through so we can get out of here early tomorrow morning...of course, if Delta doesn't fly, it wouldn't be a total loss to be stuck in White Plains NY for an extra night.
Sunday, November 12, 2006
Changing My State (Of Mind)
Another Travel Day
Dang it, but I managed to screw around and I didn’t get a reservation on the auto Ferry until yesterday afternoon, and by the time I figured out that the hourly trips were filling up my choices were limited to some time before 1 PM else after 7 PM.
I got us on the 1 PM trip. Who knew that it would be so busy on Sunday?
As a result, it looks like we won’t be going to Rhode Island tomorrow because I don’t want to leave at 6 AM and with the front and associated rain moving in I think that an expedient trip up I-95 is the best option, after visiting some friends on the Long Island Sound over in Norwalk, CT.
All in all it’s been a great vacation so far, with lots of great food and plenty of time to visit with our former neighbor Bucky (Dartmouth Class of ’42) and his family.
I’m still basically ignorant about anything going on in the news except Ed Bradley and Jack Palance died in the past few days andthe Wicked Witch of the West Nancy Pelosi is still assumed to be the leading candidate for Speaker of The House next January.
I’ve got to go throw up now…
Dang it, but I managed to screw around and I didn’t get a reservation on the auto Ferry until yesterday afternoon, and by the time I figured out that the hourly trips were filling up my choices were limited to some time before 1 PM else after 7 PM.
I got us on the 1 PM trip. Who knew that it would be so busy on Sunday?
As a result, it looks like we won’t be going to Rhode Island tomorrow because I don’t want to leave at 6 AM and with the front and associated rain moving in I think that an expedient trip up I-95 is the best option, after visiting some friends on the Long Island Sound over in Norwalk, CT.
All in all it’s been a great vacation so far, with lots of great food and plenty of time to visit with our former neighbor Bucky (Dartmouth Class of ’42) and his family.
I’m still basically ignorant about anything going on in the news except Ed Bradley and Jack Palance died in the past few days and
I’ve got to go throw up now…
Saturday, November 11, 2006
Everything’s Perfect Here
Everything...Except For ME
Good God this place is beautiful.
The houses, the trees, even most of the people. No one is even FAT up here…it must be a law or something.
While we were walking around in the quaint little downtown shopping district yesterday, school let out and we were suddenly inundated with teens and pre-teens and if I were a 16 year old boy I would feel like I looked like this:
…while most of the girls looked like this:
Seriously, we live in a marvelous place on St. Simons Island, but IF I didn’t love the south and the coast so much, and IF I didn’t hate the cold so much, I would seriously consider relocating to the Fairfield County, Connecticut area.
The only problem would be that we would probably have to live in a homeless shelter or something, because things in this area are a bit ’spensive. I was doing some checking on the internet and the median per capita income is over $80,000 per year!
Just Damn.
Even the maids must be pulling down mid-five-figure incomes to afford an efficiency apartment on the edge of town…and speaking of apartments and condos--I haven’t seen any.
Even the most modest housing in the area consists of three or four thousand square feet of 150 year old boards and shingles, surrounded by a Revolutionary War era stone wall. Many of these “cottages” are actually “second homes” for people who live down in NY City.
There’s no Wal Mart, no Home Depot, no hotel/motels, and just a couple of Bed and Breakfast Inns in the area. It makes for an interesting population dynamic when compared to places like our little island which prostitute themselves for hoards of the almighty tourist dollars.
I’m not saying that they’re rude or anything because everyone has actually been very gracious, but this part of Connecticut isn’t going anywhere but up, even if another tourist never sets foot in the county in their second 270 years of existence as a settlement.
As some of my readers know, I have a few culinary hobbies including fine wine and cheeses. I walked into a wine shop yesterday and almost had a heart attack looking at their Port Wine selections. In Georgia you might find two or three vintages of Fonseca and Taylor Fladgate Porto in any given shop.
Not so in New Canaan.
Instead I found one bottle of 1963 (at nearly $500), in addition to bottles and bottles of 1970, 1985, and a number of vintages in the 1990’s and early 2000’s. Probably $7,500 worth of Port in one store on two shelves. The only things missing were bottles of the famous 1966 and 1977 vintages, else one could have stocked a complete cellar of excellent Port Wines in a single stop.
Next there was cheese. This one little private grocer that we visited had an infinite selection of fine hand crafted domestic organic sheep’s and goat’s milk cheeses, in addition to many fine imported European products that we never see in Georgia, even in our snobby Harris Teeter that serves the wealthy denizens of nearby Sea Island. One ten pound wheel of wax coated ambrosia was priced at nearly $150.
Now that’s some big cheese…
Thus far I’ve managed to enjoy our visit without uttering words like “shazam” and “Ggawwww Leeeee”, but I did get a bit excited in the wine shop--enough so that the manager came over and calmed me down by offering to box up and ship his entire inventory down to Georgia via FedEX.
I had to explain that I was afraid I was a few thousand short of funding THAT endeavor right now, but I'd keep his offer in mind in the future.
More Redneck adventures & commentary to follow...
Good God this place is beautiful.
The houses, the trees, even most of the people. No one is even FAT up here…it must be a law or something.
While we were walking around in the quaint little downtown shopping district yesterday, school let out and we were suddenly inundated with teens and pre-teens and if I were a 16 year old boy I would feel like I looked like this:
…while most of the girls looked like this:
Seriously, we live in a marvelous place on St. Simons Island, but IF I didn’t love the south and the coast so much, and IF I didn’t hate the cold so much, I would seriously consider relocating to the Fairfield County, Connecticut area.
The only problem would be that we would probably have to live in a homeless shelter or something, because things in this area are a bit ’spensive. I was doing some checking on the internet and the median per capita income is over $80,000 per year!
Just Damn.
Even the maids must be pulling down mid-five-figure incomes to afford an efficiency apartment on the edge of town…and speaking of apartments and condos--I haven’t seen any.
Even the most modest housing in the area consists of three or four thousand square feet of 150 year old boards and shingles, surrounded by a Revolutionary War era stone wall. Many of these “cottages” are actually “second homes” for people who live down in NY City.
There’s no Wal Mart, no Home Depot, no hotel/motels, and just a couple of Bed and Breakfast Inns in the area. It makes for an interesting population dynamic when compared to places like our little island which prostitute themselves for hoards of the almighty tourist dollars.
I’m not saying that they’re rude or anything because everyone has actually been very gracious, but this part of Connecticut isn’t going anywhere but up, even if another tourist never sets foot in the county in their second 270 years of existence as a settlement.
As some of my readers know, I have a few culinary hobbies including fine wine and cheeses. I walked into a wine shop yesterday and almost had a heart attack looking at their Port Wine selections. In Georgia you might find two or three vintages of Fonseca and Taylor Fladgate Porto in any given shop.
Not so in New Canaan.
Instead I found one bottle of 1963 (at nearly $500), in addition to bottles and bottles of 1970, 1985, and a number of vintages in the 1990’s and early 2000’s. Probably $7,500 worth of Port in one store on two shelves. The only things missing were bottles of the famous 1966 and 1977 vintages, else one could have stocked a complete cellar of excellent Port Wines in a single stop.
Next there was cheese. This one little private grocer that we visited had an infinite selection of fine hand crafted domestic organic sheep’s and goat’s milk cheeses, in addition to many fine imported European products that we never see in Georgia, even in our snobby Harris Teeter that serves the wealthy denizens of nearby Sea Island. One ten pound wheel of wax coated ambrosia was priced at nearly $150.
Now that’s some big cheese…
Thus far I’ve managed to enjoy our visit without uttering words like “shazam” and “Ggawwww Leeeee”, but I did get a bit excited in the wine shop--enough so that the manager came over and calmed me down by offering to box up and ship his entire inventory down to Georgia via FedEX.
I had to explain that I was afraid I was a few thousand short of funding THAT endeavor right now, but I'd keep his offer in mind in the future.
More Redneck adventures & commentary to follow...
Friday, November 10, 2006
News Withdrawal
And A Little Travel Fatigue...
If a substantial portion of the world blew up yesterday, I wouldn’t have known until the past hour or so because I haven’t been near a TV that carried FOX News since about 5 AM yesterday morning. Right now I’m having to settle for CNN--I’ll tell you why in a minute.
After three hours on regional jets and a couple hours in the Atlanta airport, we drove into New Canaan, CT about 2 PM and checked into our historic Bed & Breakfast, The Roger Sherman Inn in time to collapse for a few minutes and take our shoes off.
The Inn is nice and quaint and bigger than I expected, and it’s right down the street from our old friend Bucky’s abode and just a minute from downtown so we’ll get to spend our time socializing rather commuting.
Now back to my lack of news…The only gripe I have with our room is that someone has deprogrammed FOX News out of the cable programming on our TV, even though it listed on our in room TV directory. I guess that it was the handiwork ofsome sniveling liberal one of the lovely previous guests that was afraid of FOX’s programming or something.
Any way…having lived on our little island for three Fall seasons now, it’s really nice to see some trees with colored leaves, even though things are way past peak now and many trees are bare. At home things are basically green year round since the Live Oaks don’t ever lose their leaves at one time and almost everything else is things like pines and other evergreens.
I wanted to take out my tripod and make some pictures several times today, but the tripod doesn’t take very good pictures without important things my DIGITAL CAMERA, which is currently spending it’s vacation in our trunk at the Brunswick airport parking lot.
Sometimes I’m such a BONEHEAD…
MORE...
I fumbled around with the TV remote, did a little reprogramming, and I have the following announcement:
I CAN NOW VIEW FOX NEWS!!!
(I also resisted blockingthe Clinton News Network CNN in a moment of weakness)
If a substantial portion of the world blew up yesterday, I wouldn’t have known until the past hour or so because I haven’t been near a TV that carried FOX News since about 5 AM yesterday morning. Right now I’m having to settle for CNN--I’ll tell you why in a minute.
After three hours on regional jets and a couple hours in the Atlanta airport, we drove into New Canaan, CT about 2 PM and checked into our historic Bed & Breakfast, The Roger Sherman Inn in time to collapse for a few minutes and take our shoes off.
The Inn is nice and quaint and bigger than I expected, and it’s right down the street from our old friend Bucky’s abode and just a minute from downtown so we’ll get to spend our time socializing rather commuting.
Now back to my lack of news…The only gripe I have with our room is that someone has deprogrammed FOX News out of the cable programming on our TV, even though it listed on our in room TV directory. I guess that it was the handiwork of
Any way…having lived on our little island for three Fall seasons now, it’s really nice to see some trees with colored leaves, even though things are way past peak now and many trees are bare. At home things are basically green year round since the Live Oaks don’t ever lose their leaves at one time and almost everything else is things like pines and other evergreens.
I wanted to take out my tripod and make some pictures several times today, but the tripod doesn’t take very good pictures without important things my DIGITAL CAMERA, which is currently spending it’s vacation in our trunk at the Brunswick airport parking lot.
Sometimes I’m such a BONEHEAD…
MORE...
I fumbled around with the TV remote, did a little reprogramming, and I have the following announcement:
I CAN NOW VIEW FOX NEWS!!!
(I also resisted blocking
Wednesday, November 08, 2006
An Alabama Redneck In King Arthur’s A Connecticut Court
Look Out New England…Here I Come…Yeeeeeeeee Haaaaaaaaaaa
Well, we’re getting on an airplane a little after 6 AM tomorrow, heading for part of the country that I have thus far avoided gracing with my presence.
It’s not all a bad thing, however, because the trip helps me knock another couple of states off of the map in my plan to visit all 50 before I physically leave the planet.
After this trip, I’ll be able to mark Connecticut and Rhode Island off of my “not visited list”, leaving the total at an even dozen of sovereign states that I haven’t wandered into yet and tortured the residents with my southern accent, attitude, and stories of gun ownership.
Although it would have been an advantage to have visited a little earlier in the season while the leaves were still on the trees, at least the weather is predicted to be relatively mild--with highs near 60 and lows in the mid 40’s.
After spending a few days visiting our friend and former neighbor Bucky (Dartmouth Class of 1942), we‘ll be moving out of our Bed & Breakfast and taking an auto ferry across Long Island Sound to Montauk, New York for a couple of days of sightseeing and eating New England seafood. I hope to come home with some interesting photographs of lighthouses and the coastal scenes found there on the northern most tip of Long Island.
Thinking things through, I guess that I’ll have to restrain myself over the weekend while watching TV, with Georgia Tech playing North Carolina in Chapel Hill and the NASCAR race on Sunday out in Phoenix.
If you have relatives in that part of the country, you might want to phone ahead and warn them that I’m coming through…
Well, we’re getting on an airplane a little after 6 AM tomorrow, heading for part of the country that I have thus far avoided gracing with my presence.
It’s not all a bad thing, however, because the trip helps me knock another couple of states off of the map in my plan to visit all 50 before I physically leave the planet.
After this trip, I’ll be able to mark Connecticut and Rhode Island off of my “not visited list”, leaving the total at an even dozen of sovereign states that I haven’t wandered into yet and tortured the residents with my southern accent, attitude, and stories of gun ownership.
Although it would have been an advantage to have visited a little earlier in the season while the leaves were still on the trees, at least the weather is predicted to be relatively mild--with highs near 60 and lows in the mid 40’s.
After spending a few days visiting our friend and former neighbor Bucky (Dartmouth Class of 1942), we‘ll be moving out of our Bed & Breakfast and taking an auto ferry across Long Island Sound to Montauk, New York for a couple of days of sightseeing and eating New England seafood. I hope to come home with some interesting photographs of lighthouses and the coastal scenes found there on the northern most tip of Long Island.
Thinking things through, I guess that I’ll have to restrain myself over the weekend while watching TV, with Georgia Tech playing North Carolina in Chapel Hill and the NASCAR race on Sunday out in Phoenix.
If you have relatives in that part of the country, you might want to phone ahead and warn them that I’m coming through…
Republicans Make Trip To The Woodshed
I Hope You Get Your Money's Worth...
I voted for the Libertarian candidate in a few state offices today. I would have probably touched the screen for more candidates with the "L" behind their name if there had been any.
It seems that people that would normally push the "R" button went for the "D" button with a similar sentiment.
Now, with the US House of representatives clearly in the Democrat's hands and the Senate teetering by one or two seats from being a tie, I look forward to the next two years being an even greater stalemate than we've witnessed over the past six years of the Bush Presidency.
All of you folks up there in Ohio and Pennsylvania should pat yourselves on the back because it would appear that the election was swinging largely on your opinions of how things should be done.
Look for the "tit for tat" mentality to continue, only with the Republicans playing partisan politics, and important issues like border security/immigration reform and Social Security taking a back seat to endless debate over redeployment of our troops and investigations and rumors of impeachment of the president taking the front page.
I hope thelamestream mainstream media is happy...they certainaly got their money's worth for their efforts...
I voted for the Libertarian candidate in a few state offices today. I would have probably touched the screen for more candidates with the "L" behind their name if there had been any.
It seems that people that would normally push the "R" button went for the "D" button with a similar sentiment.
Now, with the US House of representatives clearly in the Democrat's hands and the Senate teetering by one or two seats from being a tie, I look forward to the next two years being an even greater stalemate than we've witnessed over the past six years of the Bush Presidency.
All of you folks up there in Ohio and Pennsylvania should pat yourselves on the back because it would appear that the election was swinging largely on your opinions of how things should be done.
Look for the "tit for tat" mentality to continue, only with the Republicans playing partisan politics, and important issues like border security/immigration reform and Social Security taking a back seat to endless debate over redeployment of our troops and investigations and rumors of impeachment of the president taking the front page.
I hope the
Tuesday, November 07, 2006
IT’S TIME TO GO VOTE
Then Go Home And Stop Complaining...
And if you stay home today, you get EXACTLY what you deserve--no say in our political process.
I predict, in spite of the media hysteria to the contrary, that the Republicans will hold both the House and the Senate. In fact, I think that they might even INCREASE their margins.
Fortunately, just like football, polls mean absolutely nothing--we have to play the game to see the outcome...
MORE
This just came in to my E-mail from the John sKerry website:
This is our chance to take the power to lead America out of the Bush Republicans' hands. Winning means raising the minimum wage. Winning means moving towards health care for all, starting with every child in America. Winning means forcing an end to the disastrous war in Iraq, and getting our heroes home.
Winning means firing the incompetents, stopping the corruption, and making America stop being the world's leading denier of global climate change.
OK John,, let's take this thing point by point.
Point A--Raising the minimum wage will do nothing but hurt young people's chances of getting their FIRST job since employers will hire fewer people and demand more for their government mandated money.
As I've said many times before, if you're trying to raise a family of four working a minimum wage job you've also probably been smoking crack else you dropped out of/slept through high school and there's nothing that the government can do other than extort money out of employers to ease your pain--but the pain won't go away entirely because you are obviously STUPID.
Point B--Health care for children...hummm, let's see here.
I don't know a single instance where the parent of a sick child in Glynn County Georgia can't take their child to a free clinic or a doctor's office/emergency room in the area and receive treatment for their chirrun', on demand...UNLESS said parent is some crack head idiot that is so stupid as to be still working a minimum wage job in their thirties (see point A above.)
Point C-- Mr. sKerry, Hero's wouldn't be Hero's if they spent their time sitting on the sofa in Brunswick, Georgia. If we listen to you and John Murtha, Iraq will implode and terrorists will be over here mowing my grass within six months while they plot how to blow up me and my condo building.
Of course John skerry doesn't have to worry about terrorism because he parks in a secure garage in DC and has Secret Service personnel looking up his ass 24/7 while sleeping in his Chateau in France, his Lodge in Colorado, and his Georgetown mansion.
Point D--John, John, John...Regarding Global Warming, there is no such thing, DAMMIT...at least as far as there being any PROOF that the current slight upward trend is man made. What happened to the "Killer Hurricane" season all of the pundits and media was predicting for this summer?
And by the way Mr. sKerry, why is China and most of the third world exempted from the Kyoto Treaty and it's business killing limits on emissions? Why should President Bush be forced to sign a treaty that President Clinton also refused to sign when he was running the show here?
Yeah...I though so...
And if you stay home today, you get EXACTLY what you deserve--no say in our political process.
I predict, in spite of the media hysteria to the contrary, that the Republicans will hold both the House and the Senate. In fact, I think that they might even INCREASE their margins.
Fortunately, just like football, polls mean absolutely nothing--we have to play the game to see the outcome...
MORE
This just came in to my E-mail from the John sKerry website:
This is our chance to take the power to lead America out of the Bush Republicans' hands. Winning means raising the minimum wage. Winning means moving towards health care for all, starting with every child in America. Winning means forcing an end to the disastrous war in Iraq, and getting our heroes home.
Winning means firing the incompetents, stopping the corruption, and making America stop being the world's leading denier of global climate change.
OK John,, let's take this thing point by point.
Point A--Raising the minimum wage will do nothing but hurt young people's chances of getting their FIRST job since employers will hire fewer people and demand more for their government mandated money.
As I've said many times before, if you're trying to raise a family of four working a minimum wage job you've also probably been smoking crack else you dropped out of/slept through high school and there's nothing that the government can do other than extort money out of employers to ease your pain--but the pain won't go away entirely because you are obviously STUPID.
Point B--Health care for children...hummm, let's see here.
I don't know a single instance where the parent of a sick child in Glynn County Georgia can't take their child to a free clinic or a doctor's office/emergency room in the area and receive treatment for their chirrun', on demand...UNLESS said parent is some crack head idiot that is so stupid as to be still working a minimum wage job in their thirties (see point A above.)
Point C-- Mr. sKerry, Hero's wouldn't be Hero's if they spent their time sitting on the sofa in Brunswick, Georgia. If we listen to you and John Murtha, Iraq will implode and terrorists will be over here mowing my grass within six months while they plot how to blow up me and my condo building.
Of course John skerry doesn't have to worry about terrorism because he parks in a secure garage in DC and has Secret Service personnel looking up his ass 24/7 while sleeping in his Chateau in France, his Lodge in Colorado, and his Georgetown mansion.
Point D--John, John, John...Regarding Global Warming, there is no such thing, DAMMIT...at least as far as there being any PROOF that the current slight upward trend is man made. What happened to the "Killer Hurricane" season all of the pundits and media was predicting for this summer?
And by the way Mr. sKerry, why is China and most of the third world exempted from the Kyoto Treaty and it's business killing limits on emissions? Why should President Bush be forced to sign a treaty that President Clinton also refused to sign when he was running the show here?
Yeah...I though so...
Monday, November 06, 2006
I bought A New Gun
The Squirrels Are Nervous
A couple of summers ago, when we first put our bird feeders out, we elected to use Safflower seed rather that a wild bird mix--thereby limiting the species of birds we attracted but also trying to not attract squirrels to our second story balcony.
It sounded good IN THEORY, and I'm happy to report that the scheme worked, until about six weeks ago.
Since that time, we've had an literal aerial circus of squirrels, leaping off of the roof and from adjacent trees; climbing the tabby walls, and apparently flying in from orbiting squirrel satellites to land on the patio and on the two feeders, thereby wrecking havoc on an almost hourly basis during daylight.
After chasing the little bastards around a dozen times a day and throwing ice cubes at them for a few weeks, on Saturday I went to Wall Mart and purchased some firepower.
A crappy little $28 crossman pellet/BB rifle (dang it, but the really good guns with a scope and 1000 fps muzzle velocity are over $100 now.)
I don't intend to kill anything, but using BB's and about two or three pumps, over the past day I've reduced the squirrel incursions by at LEAST 75%. I've managed to sting two or three in the butt as they retreated to the adjacent trees, so now their tactics involve running out of sight as soon as I open the sliding glass door.
There was a time in my life when I wouldn't settle for a BB and a few pumps of the handle, but would use a pellet and about ten lethal pumps.
I guess I'm getting mellow in my middle age...
A couple of summers ago, when we first put our bird feeders out, we elected to use Safflower seed rather that a wild bird mix--thereby limiting the species of birds we attracted but also trying to not attract squirrels to our second story balcony.
It sounded good IN THEORY, and I'm happy to report that the scheme worked, until about six weeks ago.
Since that time, we've had an literal aerial circus of squirrels, leaping off of the roof and from adjacent trees; climbing the tabby walls, and apparently flying in from orbiting squirrel satellites to land on the patio and on the two feeders, thereby wrecking havoc on an almost hourly basis during daylight.
After chasing the little bastards around a dozen times a day and throwing ice cubes at them for a few weeks, on Saturday I went to Wall Mart and purchased some firepower.
A crappy little $28 crossman pellet/BB rifle (dang it, but the really good guns with a scope and 1000 fps muzzle velocity are over $100 now.)
I don't intend to kill anything, but using BB's and about two or three pumps, over the past day I've reduced the squirrel incursions by at LEAST 75%. I've managed to sting two or three in the butt as they retreated to the adjacent trees, so now their tactics involve running out of sight as soon as I open the sliding glass door.
There was a time in my life when I wouldn't settle for a BB and a few pumps of the handle, but would use a pellet and about ten lethal pumps.
I guess I'm getting mellow in my middle age...
Beating A Dead Horse
Can They Find Someone That Actually Gives A Damn?
I’ve been aware of this story for a while, but didn’t comment because I figured that it would end up being a tempest in a teapot.
I guess I was wrong, because the partisan ass that calls himself the Palm Beach County Elections Supervisor refuses to communicate with Ann Coulter and her attorney except in writing, and is now going to try to prosecute her for election fraud:
WEST PALM BEACH -- Conservative columnist Ann Coulter has refused to cooperate in an investigation about whether she voted in the wrong precinct, so the case will likely be turned over to state prosecutors, Palm Beach County's elections chief said Wednesday.
Elections Supervisor Arthur Anderson said his office has been looking into the matter for nearly nine months, and he would turn over the case to the state attorney's office by Friday…
Anderson's office received a complaint in February that Coulter allegedly voted in the wrong precinct during a Feb. 7 Palm Beach town council election. Since then, Anderson said he has made repeated attempts to resolve the matter with Coulter and her attorney but has been rebuffed.
Anderson said an initial letter was sent to Coulter on March 27 requesting that she clarify her address for the voting records ``or face the possibility of her voter registration being rescinded.''…
In July, Anderson said, he received a letter from Coulter's attorney, Marcos Daniel Jimenez D'Clouet. The letter said the attorney would only discuss the matter in person or by telephone because he complained Anderson had given details to the media. Anderson said the matter had to be discussed in writing.
Let’s think about this for a minute, shall we?
If this were anyone but Ann Coulter or Rush Limbaugh or Sean Hannity, it would already be a total non-issue.
After all, judges in almost every state and most of the Democratic party absolutely refuse to pass laws requiring your residency and identity to be positively verified when you present yourself at a polling place.
The fact that someone actually recognized Ann Coulter because of her celebrity and accused her of trying to commit voter fraud in of all things--A TOWN COUNCIL ELECTION--makes the story patently absurd.
I’m impressed that someone as busy as Ann took the time to be one of the 19.5% of the electorate that actually turns out for those type of local elections, so let the lady vote for Christ‘s sake--it‘s not like they‘re saying she drove from precinct to precinct and voted twenty seven times or something.
These idiots are actually implying that Ann Coulter knowingly and fraudulently went to an election place and presented herself to vote without actually having resided in that part of West Palm Beach.
I say that it has to be a paperwork error or something, because the people that staff the polling places down here in Georgia verify my name and address every time I walk in the door, and since I live on the border between two precincts there is always a discussion about my residency because apparently there was some problem in years past that they are still correcting.
By the way, you could swing a dead cat and fire a cannon down through the building and not hit anybody on off season local elections like we had here last summer for local sales tax referendums and such, so I hardly see what the bru-ha-ha is about other than it being some partisan, politically motivated vendetta against Ann’s outspoken position and an attempt to embarrass her publicly.
At one time I thought that I would like to live in West Palm Beach eventually, but the more I hear about it the more I think that it would be better that I stay away lest I end up strangling some liberal and spending my golden years in the lock-up.
I’ve been aware of this story for a while, but didn’t comment because I figured that it would end up being a tempest in a teapot.
I guess I was wrong, because the partisan ass that calls himself the Palm Beach County Elections Supervisor refuses to communicate with Ann Coulter and her attorney except in writing, and is now going to try to prosecute her for election fraud:
WEST PALM BEACH -- Conservative columnist Ann Coulter has refused to cooperate in an investigation about whether she voted in the wrong precinct, so the case will likely be turned over to state prosecutors, Palm Beach County's elections chief said Wednesday.
Elections Supervisor Arthur Anderson said his office has been looking into the matter for nearly nine months, and he would turn over the case to the state attorney's office by Friday…
Anderson's office received a complaint in February that Coulter allegedly voted in the wrong precinct during a Feb. 7 Palm Beach town council election. Since then, Anderson said he has made repeated attempts to resolve the matter with Coulter and her attorney but has been rebuffed.
Anderson said an initial letter was sent to Coulter on March 27 requesting that she clarify her address for the voting records ``or face the possibility of her voter registration being rescinded.''…
In July, Anderson said, he received a letter from Coulter's attorney, Marcos Daniel Jimenez D'Clouet. The letter said the attorney would only discuss the matter in person or by telephone because he complained Anderson had given details to the media. Anderson said the matter had to be discussed in writing.
Let’s think about this for a minute, shall we?
If this were anyone but Ann Coulter or Rush Limbaugh or Sean Hannity, it would already be a total non-issue.
After all, judges in almost every state and most of the Democratic party absolutely refuse to pass laws requiring your residency and identity to be positively verified when you present yourself at a polling place.
The fact that someone actually recognized Ann Coulter because of her celebrity and accused her of trying to commit voter fraud in of all things--A TOWN COUNCIL ELECTION--makes the story patently absurd.
I’m impressed that someone as busy as Ann took the time to be one of the 19.5% of the electorate that actually turns out for those type of local elections, so let the lady vote for Christ‘s sake--it‘s not like they‘re saying she drove from precinct to precinct and voted twenty seven times or something.
These idiots are actually implying that Ann Coulter knowingly and fraudulently went to an election place and presented herself to vote without actually having resided in that part of West Palm Beach.
I say that it has to be a paperwork error or something, because the people that staff the polling places down here in Georgia verify my name and address every time I walk in the door, and since I live on the border between two precincts there is always a discussion about my residency because apparently there was some problem in years past that they are still correcting.
By the way, you could swing a dead cat and fire a cannon down through the building and not hit anybody on off season local elections like we had here last summer for local sales tax referendums and such, so I hardly see what the bru-ha-ha is about other than it being some partisan, politically motivated vendetta against Ann’s outspoken position and an attempt to embarrass her publicly.
At one time I thought that I would like to live in West Palm Beach eventually, but the more I hear about it the more I think that it would be better that I stay away lest I end up strangling some liberal and spending my golden years in the lock-up.
