My Grandfather Evans would go out late on those cold Chicago evenings and shovel coal into the fireboxes of the apartments to keep the boilers up to pressure so the folks inside would stay warm and toasty during the cold winter night. I thought about this last night as Riley and I walked in the cold darkness admiring the houses and the Christmas lights.
Our outside display is pretty much completed. 2 items remain to be setup. Yesterday the tree went up. This year while looking for my Christmas gift suggestion at the Home Depot, I came across a small battery operated train that actually goes in the tree. How cool is that? We always have the train under the tree, but the presents get in the way so the train can't run. This little train is actually up in the tree about 4 feet off the floor. No presents to interfere. The setup was a bit more than the box implied. But it is way cool for the little one in all of us. So the tree is up, lights all fixed and burning, and the little train goes round and round. Next we will be ornamenting the tree.
We also dug out the fiber optic Christmas village scenes. I call them imagination things. Ian can look into the little scenes and pretend he is there. we added a new one to out growing collection. We now have a lighthouse decked out for Christmas. I picked it out myself. Reminded me of our time working in the lighthouse on the Oregon coast. I have fond memories of those days.
I turned the garage into a little machine shop. I've been collecting tools all summer preparing for my project. I'm building a set of driving controls for the van. It is time I got my mobility back. I can't afford new controls, nor would the company sell me the used set they had unless I allowed them to install. The controls price was $150. However, they want to tack an additional $700 to install them. I figured even with having to buy tools I can build them for a lot less. I'll post on my progress as I go.
Monday, December 15, 2008
Monday, December 1, 2008
Well anyone else tired of turkey? We had a great time on Thanksgiving. We have not had to feed teenagers for some time now so we may have over bought a tad for Thanksgiving. I was not sure on the consumption aspect of the turkey. You know, there are never enough turkey legs or breast meat. So we had a 4 breasted 6 legged turkey. Actually the turkey was cooked in the oven in the traditional way. While I smoked a breast and 4 legs outside in the smoker. Everything came out yummy!!
The day after Thanksgiving I got up to find that Ian had consumed 3 turkey legs for breakfast! He has become a turkey monster. He does not want candy, pie, cake or any of those traditional kid oriented yummy stuff, nope he wants turkey. We might need to hit up the local market for another bird!
Unlike Ian, I've had my full of turkey for a while. Not that I don't like turkey, I actually like it a lot. But the tradition around here is we eat turkey until it is gone than we eat turkey soup. My wife thinks she is cooking for an army cause we'll be eating turkey soup at least once a week for the next 2 months. I'm not much into turkey soup. Than to add to my troubles the neighbor sent over a big container of turkey soup! Like we need more.
At some point I'll be hearing those immortal words " You never like what I cook " There right up there with " You don't listen to me " Now how do you respond to such comments? I've heard the listen line several times in the past, and believe me even if you quote line for line every word your wife has spoken in the last month you still will lose the argument. I know, I've done it. Heck since I'm always wrong I've learned to pay someone else to tell my wife something. If I said the sky was blue, I'd be corrected. However, if a stranger said the sky was blue, well you get the idea.
We have started decorating for Christmas. Yes I agree it is to early. However, since it takes us so long to decorate, no sooner do we finish up we have to start putting away again. So this year we thought we would like to enjoy the decorations a few days. We left the lights out on the roof line since last Christmas. My father would of bugged me all year about that. You should take those lights down, he would say. Actually it would of been more sinister sounding. I wrote the PG version. Back in the childhood days the lights would come up from the crawl space ( trap door in hall closet ) than laid out on the living room floor. Than one by one each C9 bulb would be checked until the burned out one was located and the lights would come on. Than they would be stapled to the eaves of the house. Only to be removed, boxed up and placed in the crawlspace a few short weeks later.
Nope not here. They were stapled up last year and left to bake in the desert sun. Of course last year the lights were red and blue. This year because of the bleaching effect of the desert sun they are mostly white with the occasional red or blue bulb. See, you don't need to take them down, they look like new.
We're counting down the days..........
The day after Thanksgiving I got up to find that Ian had consumed 3 turkey legs for breakfast! He has become a turkey monster. He does not want candy, pie, cake or any of those traditional kid oriented yummy stuff, nope he wants turkey. We might need to hit up the local market for another bird!
Unlike Ian, I've had my full of turkey for a while. Not that I don't like turkey, I actually like it a lot. But the tradition around here is we eat turkey until it is gone than we eat turkey soup. My wife thinks she is cooking for an army cause we'll be eating turkey soup at least once a week for the next 2 months. I'm not much into turkey soup. Than to add to my troubles the neighbor sent over a big container of turkey soup! Like we need more.
At some point I'll be hearing those immortal words " You never like what I cook " There right up there with " You don't listen to me " Now how do you respond to such comments? I've heard the listen line several times in the past, and believe me even if you quote line for line every word your wife has spoken in the last month you still will lose the argument. I know, I've done it. Heck since I'm always wrong I've learned to pay someone else to tell my wife something. If I said the sky was blue, I'd be corrected. However, if a stranger said the sky was blue, well you get the idea.
We have started decorating for Christmas. Yes I agree it is to early. However, since it takes us so long to decorate, no sooner do we finish up we have to start putting away again. So this year we thought we would like to enjoy the decorations a few days. We left the lights out on the roof line since last Christmas. My father would of bugged me all year about that. You should take those lights down, he would say. Actually it would of been more sinister sounding. I wrote the PG version. Back in the childhood days the lights would come up from the crawl space ( trap door in hall closet ) than laid out on the living room floor. Than one by one each C9 bulb would be checked until the burned out one was located and the lights would come on. Than they would be stapled to the eaves of the house. Only to be removed, boxed up and placed in the crawlspace a few short weeks later.
Nope not here. They were stapled up last year and left to bake in the desert sun. Of course last year the lights were red and blue. This year because of the bleaching effect of the desert sun they are mostly white with the occasional red or blue bulb. See, you don't need to take them down, they look like new.
We're counting down the days..........
Monday, November 10, 2008
Winter is finally here, yea!!!!! Woke up the other morning to 30 degrees. Nice cool air coming in the bedroom window. Wind chill had hit 16 degrees, sure glad I wasn't outside. Glad it isn't hot any more.
I'm all healed up from the operation. Saw the surgeon for my follow up. He was happy to see I was doing well. Was a bit concerned due to the condition of my gall bladder. Seems it had died at some point part had rotted away the rest was gangress and filled with puss. Sounds really nasty :)
Now that we have President Elect Obama I wonder if on his first official night in the White House if he'll wake up in the wee hours of the morning wander into the Lincoln bedroom and say, " Well Abe, we made it " It seems fitting.
I see that change Obama spoke of is already in the works. Why just yesterday I read how Obama plans to use Presidential Signing statements to speed up his recovery plan. By passing Congress in an effort to get us back on our feet.
Funny isn't that how the last Administration did it for the past 8 years.
I guess the real change is the signature.....
I'm all healed up from the operation. Saw the surgeon for my follow up. He was happy to see I was doing well. Was a bit concerned due to the condition of my gall bladder. Seems it had died at some point part had rotted away the rest was gangress and filled with puss. Sounds really nasty :)
Now that we have President Elect Obama I wonder if on his first official night in the White House if he'll wake up in the wee hours of the morning wander into the Lincoln bedroom and say, " Well Abe, we made it " It seems fitting.
I see that change Obama spoke of is already in the works. Why just yesterday I read how Obama plans to use Presidential Signing statements to speed up his recovery plan. By passing Congress in an effort to get us back on our feet.
Funny isn't that how the last Administration did it for the past 8 years.
I guess the real change is the signature.....
Friday, October 24, 2008
Well woke up a week back around 3 am with lots of pain. Today I'm short one gull bladder. Or is that gall?
My limit in hospital stays is 4 days. After that, I start going crazy. I was in the hospital 5 days I think. Of course I don't remember much of the first 2 days.
Anyways, I'm still a bit fuzzy but back.
My limit in hospital stays is 4 days. After that, I start going crazy. I was in the hospital 5 days I think. Of course I don't remember much of the first 2 days.
Anyways, I'm still a bit fuzzy but back.
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
Some people probably think its cruel but Kitty the original Betta is still alive after weeks of laying on its side. Remember I was saying we didn't think it was going to last? Well, its still here. Every time we think its funeral at sea time the fish perks up. We have done everything I could research out to help this fish, and it just refuses to die. Now we've been dropping 2-3 betta food pellets into the bowl ( we separated it from the others ) it never eats them. They end up sinking to the bottom where we suck them out before the next feeding. This is very strange.
On the other side of the coin we annihilated a decent sized wasp nest and its contents this morning. We waited till morning knowing the wasp would be less likely to be flying in the colder air. There are wasp bodies all over the sidewalk. Looks like one of Mr. Bush's raids. Hopefully unlike Mr. Bush the mission has been accomplished.
Anybody not watching the stock market? I love the comments. " The economy is fine, just a little bumpy " I wonder if that is what the pilot said to the passengers right before the plane crashed? In the long run things will return to normal. McCain lost the election last night with the 2nd debate. He said he would order the Treasury Department to buy up all those bad mortgages than rewrite them so the people would not loose their homes. Seems to me there are at least 2 flaws in that idea. 1: Didn't we buy up all those bad mortgages with that $700 billion bailout? If not, what was that buying than? Flaw 2: Everyone knows the US Government and those who have worked themselves up to the top don't do anything "for the people". McCain just wasn't being realistic. Perhaps his age got the better of him.
So I predict that come November history will be made and we will have the first African American for President.
And I thought Mr. Bush's arrogance made him dangerous.............
On the other side of the coin we annihilated a decent sized wasp nest and its contents this morning. We waited till morning knowing the wasp would be less likely to be flying in the colder air. There are wasp bodies all over the sidewalk. Looks like one of Mr. Bush's raids. Hopefully unlike Mr. Bush the mission has been accomplished.
Anybody not watching the stock market? I love the comments. " The economy is fine, just a little bumpy " I wonder if that is what the pilot said to the passengers right before the plane crashed? In the long run things will return to normal. McCain lost the election last night with the 2nd debate. He said he would order the Treasury Department to buy up all those bad mortgages than rewrite them so the people would not loose their homes. Seems to me there are at least 2 flaws in that idea. 1: Didn't we buy up all those bad mortgages with that $700 billion bailout? If not, what was that buying than? Flaw 2: Everyone knows the US Government and those who have worked themselves up to the top don't do anything "for the people". McCain just wasn't being realistic. Perhaps his age got the better of him.
So I predict that come November history will be made and we will have the first African American for President.
And I thought Mr. Bush's arrogance made him dangerous.............
Monday, September 29, 2008
I had to add this thought:
Instead of giving the banks 700 billion dollars, lets give it to each and every single American citizen out there. That would translate to about $400,000. each.
Than each of us could pay off our debts, homes credit cards and such giving those financial institutions the liquidity they need. In essence they still get bailed out but all of us get bailed out this way.
I like it...........
Instead of giving the banks 700 billion dollars, lets give it to each and every single American citizen out there. That would translate to about $400,000. each.
Than each of us could pay off our debts, homes credit cards and such giving those financial institutions the liquidity they need. In essence they still get bailed out but all of us get bailed out this way.
I like it...........
Some time last Thursday, probably as I slept, my bank that I've used for 14 years went under. Seized by the government and its assets sold off to another bank.
I apparently slept right thru this.
My $20.53 worth of deposits were totally unaffected. In fact, if I had not read about it on CNN.com I would not have known.
"Most taxpayers against bailout plan" "Congress close to passing bailout plan" Both of these headlines appeared on CNN.com at the same time and day. Anybody see a problem here? If "We the people" don't want it, than why is it that the people we elected to represent us getting ready to approve it? Exactly who do these people represent?
Mr. Bush, or as known around our house as simply "the idiot" said we need this bail out plan and we need it yesterday. Funny up until last week he was saying the economy was doing fine. I don't know about you but the idiot has cried wolf way to many times as far as I'm concerned.
Every time he says we need something, and there is no time allowed to think about it, little well actually large red flags pop up in my mind. What is this suppose to do? Free up credit. But wait, wasn't freed up credit what caused this mess to begin with? That is what Mr. Bush stated. So if easy credit is the real blame than how can easy credit fix it?
How come greed isn't the blame? I saw this back in 2001 and remember I'm only operating on a Virginia education. I'm probably a can or 2 short of a 6 pack but I saw it coming. When people sold $60,000 homes at $200,000 to people whose income was less than $20,000 a year gross and those folks with those low incomes actually bought those $60,000 homes at $200,000, cause they could with 0 down, and $250 moves you in. No one thought that this was going to crash and burn at some point?
I'm still getting credit card offers in the mail. I also get weekly fliers about homes for sale in our area with 0 down and $250 move in. Empty houses dominate our block followed closely by foreclosures and yet construction on 2 more homes just started up.
It seems business as usual around here. No one has learned anything. As long as Uncle Sam is willing to bail out the big boys why change?
I didn't notice my bank failing, I'll surely notice the estimated $2000 - $4000 increase in tax I'll be paying for this bailout. I guess I'm not one of those "for the people" our elected officials or government is for.........Are you?
I apparently slept right thru this.
My $20.53 worth of deposits were totally unaffected. In fact, if I had not read about it on CNN.com I would not have known.
"Most taxpayers against bailout plan" "Congress close to passing bailout plan" Both of these headlines appeared on CNN.com at the same time and day. Anybody see a problem here? If "We the people" don't want it, than why is it that the people we elected to represent us getting ready to approve it? Exactly who do these people represent?
Mr. Bush, or as known around our house as simply "the idiot" said we need this bail out plan and we need it yesterday. Funny up until last week he was saying the economy was doing fine. I don't know about you but the idiot has cried wolf way to many times as far as I'm concerned.
Every time he says we need something, and there is no time allowed to think about it, little well actually large red flags pop up in my mind. What is this suppose to do? Free up credit. But wait, wasn't freed up credit what caused this mess to begin with? That is what Mr. Bush stated. So if easy credit is the real blame than how can easy credit fix it?
How come greed isn't the blame? I saw this back in 2001 and remember I'm only operating on a Virginia education. I'm probably a can or 2 short of a 6 pack but I saw it coming. When people sold $60,000 homes at $200,000 to people whose income was less than $20,000 a year gross and those folks with those low incomes actually bought those $60,000 homes at $200,000, cause they could with 0 down, and $250 moves you in. No one thought that this was going to crash and burn at some point?
I'm still getting credit card offers in the mail. I also get weekly fliers about homes for sale in our area with 0 down and $250 move in. Empty houses dominate our block followed closely by foreclosures and yet construction on 2 more homes just started up.
It seems business as usual around here. No one has learned anything. As long as Uncle Sam is willing to bail out the big boys why change?
I didn't notice my bank failing, I'll surely notice the estimated $2000 - $4000 increase in tax I'll be paying for this bailout. I guess I'm not one of those "for the people" our elected officials or government is for.........Are you?
Monday, September 22, 2008
Sundays we go to the local flea market. We've all done that somewhere. You remember where you went and bought someone else's junk. That thing you would of never bought if you had to pay full price for it.
Actually, I find flea markets a great place to buy those things that you normally won't buy. Like the "As Seen on TV" stuff only $19.95 plus Shipping and Handling. But wait there's more type stuff. Or the stuff in the back of the TV guide or local Sunday newspaper. Those colorful pull outs always have some crazy Black Forest Clock or something. One of those it would cost you thousands of dollars if you bought the same clock at Tiffany's but through our amazing direct buy approach you can have this old world charm for just 3 payments of $37.99 plus S&H.
You know its to embarrassing to let my neighbors know I fell for those deals. Plus the tons of junk mail that you get afterwards. The boxes never fit in your mail box so the delivery person leaves them sitting out in plain site like a big banner for all your neighbors to see. "Look John, Dave just gave Fingerhut another $19.95 plus S&H".
My grandmother loved Fingerhut. And honestly we use to enjoy thumbing through the catalog. The other day one arrived in our mail box. My wife tossed it before I got to open it. She is smarter than me.
Anyways flea market Sunday. I bought an item clearly marked $29.97 from Walmart for $4.00. The seller wanted $15 but I only had $4. So he took my $4 grumbling that I surely had more stashed somewhere even as I insisted I really only had $4 dollars. Guy obviously has no clue what it is like living on a fixed income. Its 12 days to payday again. I really did give him my last $4 dollars!!!
Just as I was turning to leave I spotted a little knife on the table. I said "Rats, I wanted that over the other item". He said "$2 dollars". I said "No more money". Than he surprised me and said "Take it". Wow, next month I'll need to spend my last $4 at his table again.
Several rolls later I came across this Brass analog clock with phases of the moon. It was pretty, all shinny and everything. The lady selling it said it was made in Germany and $3 and it is yours. Well way back when my sister was stationed in Germany I wanted one of those Black Forest Clocks but she never got me one. And this pretty brass thing sure would look nice somewhere in our cluttered house. All I needed to do was convince my wife the holder of the purse to give me $3 dollars. Now you may think that should not be that hard of a task. After all, it's only $3 bucks. But the day before while cleaning out the garage I had tossed a filthy dirty plastic bag covered in some insect or rodent feces in the trash box. In the bag were 4-5 rusty screws. Probably a pennies worth and most likely removed from some other treasure being thrown away years ago. That's when I heard "Now we buy screws just so we can throw them away"? Well there was a small discussion over the screws but they did end up in the trash after all. But I was fully expecting to hear, "If you would of sold those screws instead of throwing them away you probably would of had $3 to buy the clock with". Or something like that. Instead she agreed the clock was pretty and now sits on the kitchen table till we find another empty flat spot.
Time seems to be a thing with me lately. I bought Ian and I matching train watches a couple weeks ago. Than while rummaging thru a parts box I came across Dad's watches. Saturday I found 2 of my old watches while cleaning the garage. Than Sunday the clock. Wonder if its the oxegen tube hanging off my nose reminding me that my own personal clock is winding down or just coincidence?
I bought a Seiko digital watch long ago just like my grandfathers. It cost me $400 way back than. One day while living in Colorado I volunteered to transport a little boy and his mother across the mountain to the hospital. I stopped and filled my tank when I realized I had no cash in my wallet. I left the watch as collateral. After safely delivering the boy and his mother I picked up cash and went back to the gas station. Of course no one including the A-hole who took my watch knew anything about it. Never saw it again.
Just for your info: If you took 700 billion single dollar bills and stacked them up on top of each other the tower of bills would be approximately 47,600 miles high!
Now you know just how deep the crap this country has gotten into.............
Actually, I find flea markets a great place to buy those things that you normally won't buy. Like the "As Seen on TV" stuff only $19.95 plus Shipping and Handling. But wait there's more type stuff. Or the stuff in the back of the TV guide or local Sunday newspaper. Those colorful pull outs always have some crazy Black Forest Clock or something. One of those it would cost you thousands of dollars if you bought the same clock at Tiffany's but through our amazing direct buy approach you can have this old world charm for just 3 payments of $37.99 plus S&H.
You know its to embarrassing to let my neighbors know I fell for those deals. Plus the tons of junk mail that you get afterwards. The boxes never fit in your mail box so the delivery person leaves them sitting out in plain site like a big banner for all your neighbors to see. "Look John, Dave just gave Fingerhut another $19.95 plus S&H".
My grandmother loved Fingerhut. And honestly we use to enjoy thumbing through the catalog. The other day one arrived in our mail box. My wife tossed it before I got to open it. She is smarter than me.
Anyways flea market Sunday. I bought an item clearly marked $29.97 from Walmart for $4.00. The seller wanted $15 but I only had $4. So he took my $4 grumbling that I surely had more stashed somewhere even as I insisted I really only had $4 dollars. Guy obviously has no clue what it is like living on a fixed income. Its 12 days to payday again. I really did give him my last $4 dollars!!!
Just as I was turning to leave I spotted a little knife on the table. I said "Rats, I wanted that over the other item". He said "$2 dollars". I said "No more money". Than he surprised me and said "Take it". Wow, next month I'll need to spend my last $4 at his table again.
Several rolls later I came across this Brass analog clock with phases of the moon. It was pretty, all shinny and everything. The lady selling it said it was made in Germany and $3 and it is yours. Well way back when my sister was stationed in Germany I wanted one of those Black Forest Clocks but she never got me one. And this pretty brass thing sure would look nice somewhere in our cluttered house. All I needed to do was convince my wife the holder of the purse to give me $3 dollars. Now you may think that should not be that hard of a task. After all, it's only $3 bucks. But the day before while cleaning out the garage I had tossed a filthy dirty plastic bag covered in some insect or rodent feces in the trash box. In the bag were 4-5 rusty screws. Probably a pennies worth and most likely removed from some other treasure being thrown away years ago. That's when I heard "Now we buy screws just so we can throw them away"? Well there was a small discussion over the screws but they did end up in the trash after all. But I was fully expecting to hear, "If you would of sold those screws instead of throwing them away you probably would of had $3 to buy the clock with". Or something like that. Instead she agreed the clock was pretty and now sits on the kitchen table till we find another empty flat spot.
Time seems to be a thing with me lately. I bought Ian and I matching train watches a couple weeks ago. Than while rummaging thru a parts box I came across Dad's watches. Saturday I found 2 of my old watches while cleaning the garage. Than Sunday the clock. Wonder if its the oxegen tube hanging off my nose reminding me that my own personal clock is winding down or just coincidence?
I bought a Seiko digital watch long ago just like my grandfathers. It cost me $400 way back than. One day while living in Colorado I volunteered to transport a little boy and his mother across the mountain to the hospital. I stopped and filled my tank when I realized I had no cash in my wallet. I left the watch as collateral. After safely delivering the boy and his mother I picked up cash and went back to the gas station. Of course no one including the A-hole who took my watch knew anything about it. Never saw it again.
Just for your info: If you took 700 billion single dollar bills and stacked them up on top of each other the tower of bills would be approximately 47,600 miles high!
Now you know just how deep the crap this country has gotten into.............
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
I know I just wrote a day or so back but I had to share this with you. We're sitting at the dinner table the other night when Ian ( now 9 ) asked when am I (meaning me) going to die? I thought for a second than replied: When I stop breathing, my heart stops ticking and there is no electrical activity in my brain than I am dead.
With no response from him I figured it was safe so I asked why he wanted to know? He said: " So I ( meaning him ) could have your brain so I can be smart like you. I told him he was already smart.
Sure was a nice sideways compliment though.
OK the search for hand controls has gone as well as my fund raiser to get an outside wheelchair. Not well at all. In the last 2 weeks I've been stuck 4 times. I wish the folks who make up the rules had to live by them. Anyways the search for controls for the car has led me nowhere, so now we're thinking design and build our own. More on that later.
Anyways I'll be back.
With no response from him I figured it was safe so I asked why he wanted to know? He said: " So I ( meaning him ) could have your brain so I can be smart like you. I told him he was already smart.
Sure was a nice sideways compliment though.
OK the search for hand controls has gone as well as my fund raiser to get an outside wheelchair. Not well at all. In the last 2 weeks I've been stuck 4 times. I wish the folks who make up the rules had to live by them. Anyways the search for controls for the car has led me nowhere, so now we're thinking design and build our own. More on that later.
Anyways I'll be back.
Monday, September 8, 2008
Went to the zoo yesterday. Not just any zoo but the oldest zoo west of the Mississippi. Built in 1890 something and totally wheelchair accessible!! I've been in new structures built this year that were not as accessible.
The zoo is up in Alamogordo ( Think "remember the Alamo" and Gordo from Mortal combat ) It was actually a lot of fun. No big animals like lions elephants and such but still enough to peek interest. It was a pleasant experience.
From the zoo we wandered over to the Toy Train museum. Ian and I were sporting our Lionel Train watches with authentic sounds as the train sweeps around the dial counting off the seconds. We wanted to show off to the guys. Ian road the train around the perimeter of the park. We had the inside tour the last visit so we passed on the tour this time.
Finally we hit the Space Museum. You know New Mexico is really the birthplace of the US Space Program. All those captured V2's from WW2 were launched here during the early years of testing. The museum is pretty cool with a good number of rockets on display on the outside. There was only an hour left before closing so we opted to do the inside tour on a future visit. Even so, Ian got to sit inside a Mercury capsule, man was that small. Must of took a lot of courage to go into space alone in that thing. He also sat in the seat of a rocket sled. Way cool.
We also visited the final resting place of Ham the first chimp in space. Ham proved that it was possible to survive the trip into space and return back to Earth unharmed. One brave little chimp. Someone had left a banana on the grave marker.
The zoo is up in Alamogordo ( Think "remember the Alamo" and Gordo from Mortal combat ) It was actually a lot of fun. No big animals like lions elephants and such but still enough to peek interest. It was a pleasant experience.
From the zoo we wandered over to the Toy Train museum. Ian and I were sporting our Lionel Train watches with authentic sounds as the train sweeps around the dial counting off the seconds. We wanted to show off to the guys. Ian road the train around the perimeter of the park. We had the inside tour the last visit so we passed on the tour this time.
Finally we hit the Space Museum. You know New Mexico is really the birthplace of the US Space Program. All those captured V2's from WW2 were launched here during the early years of testing. The museum is pretty cool with a good number of rockets on display on the outside. There was only an hour left before closing so we opted to do the inside tour on a future visit. Even so, Ian got to sit inside a Mercury capsule, man was that small. Must of took a lot of courage to go into space alone in that thing. He also sat in the seat of a rocket sled. Way cool.
We also visited the final resting place of Ham the first chimp in space. Ham proved that it was possible to survive the trip into space and return back to Earth unharmed. One brave little chimp. Someone had left a banana on the grave marker.
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
Well I hit the 100 poke mile marker the other day. 100 times I stuck myself with that stupid needle. I thought this was the modern age we lived in? Seems archaic to have to use painful techniques now a days.
I've lost weight since my wife has taken away all the "good" food and left me with rabbit and cattle feed, plus the occasional cardboard she tosses in. I wonder how it is that the foods we don't generally like are the ones deemed healthy? Plus why is it women seem to like healthy foods more than us guys? Unless you are one of those guys who like carrot and celery sticks dipped in ranch dressing. Scary isn't it.
Back in my younger days I lived on beer and WD40. Of course I wasn't so fragile back than either. Never went to see the Doctor very often. When I had my heart attack it took me 4 days to get in to see my Doctor. Needless to say he wasn't the happiest camper in the woods. I was busy, I couldn't drop everything I was doing just to hear the Doctor tell me what I already knew. In the end the Doctor put me in a hospital for a week. I think he wanted to prove to me that he knew best.
I got a new Doctor.
So now I suck on oxygen. Actually, it was ordered for me way back in 2001. Here it is 2008 and they finally caught up with me. I had one company that wanted me to drag a 50 foot airline around. Not very practical. I kept running it over. Dump company A and go to company B. Now I've got this little gadget that gets refilled from a big tank of liquid oxygen. Good for about 6 hours of use. No stupid hoses to drag around and run over.
Maybe I'll open an oxygen bar in my garage with the old leftover hoses.........
One last thing, my neighbor tells me that theres this new way to get drunk without the after effects. ie: hangover. Seems they super vaporize your choice of alcohol and you inhale the stuff. Shoot back in my drinking days I was accused of inhaling my beers. This isn't new technology here.
I've lost weight since my wife has taken away all the "good" food and left me with rabbit and cattle feed, plus the occasional cardboard she tosses in. I wonder how it is that the foods we don't generally like are the ones deemed healthy? Plus why is it women seem to like healthy foods more than us guys? Unless you are one of those guys who like carrot and celery sticks dipped in ranch dressing. Scary isn't it.
Back in my younger days I lived on beer and WD40. Of course I wasn't so fragile back than either. Never went to see the Doctor very often. When I had my heart attack it took me 4 days to get in to see my Doctor. Needless to say he wasn't the happiest camper in the woods. I was busy, I couldn't drop everything I was doing just to hear the Doctor tell me what I already knew. In the end the Doctor put me in a hospital for a week. I think he wanted to prove to me that he knew best.
I got a new Doctor.
So now I suck on oxygen. Actually, it was ordered for me way back in 2001. Here it is 2008 and they finally caught up with me. I had one company that wanted me to drag a 50 foot airline around. Not very practical. I kept running it over. Dump company A and go to company B. Now I've got this little gadget that gets refilled from a big tank of liquid oxygen. Good for about 6 hours of use. No stupid hoses to drag around and run over.
Maybe I'll open an oxygen bar in my garage with the old leftover hoses.........
One last thing, my neighbor tells me that theres this new way to get drunk without the after effects. ie: hangover. Seems they super vaporize your choice of alcohol and you inhale the stuff. Shoot back in my drinking days I was accused of inhaling my beers. This isn't new technology here.
Friday, August 22, 2008
OK so this little kid down the street can play video games better than I, Am I upset? Heck no!! What's up with these Olympic people complaining that they were beaten my someone younger than them? Come on the kids what 14? The complainers 16-18 something like that. Geez it ain't like the kid is 14 and the whiner is 55. Don't they realize how stupid they sound?
Than I'm listening to the news and the guys talking about the Russian hopefuls, French hopefuls but than he gets to the Chinese hopefuls. But he doesn't say China, no it's communist China. I thought there was no politics in Olympic sports? You know the biggest issue today is we can't get over ourselves. Hey is anyone paying attention here? The economy is doing a nose dive and we're talking trash about other countries.
I can hear Putin now yelling out " Bush, get the hell out of Iraq, or else )! I'm thinking Bush is a can or two short of a six pack. Or as we say out here " He's got the hat, but he ain't got the cattle ". I'd like to see a proposed amendment to whats left of the Constitution that bands anuone from Texas from ever being President. All in favor say, oh yes!!!!
Obama has made his VP choice but he is not telling anyone yet. ( That way he can change his mind before the big convention if need be ). I like the ploy of texting to all his supporters who signed up. I bet there has been a mad rush this past few weeks of people signing up for Obama's email. Man what cell company does he use? Imagine not having 5, 10, or 20 in your circle but millions!! How cool is that? Just imagine the monthly bill we'll be paying if he wins.
Been sticking the fingers now for a while. Still sucks!
Kitty, the betta fish is dying. Lays around on the bottom of the tank. We moved him to another smaller bowl hoping to help him but so far the outlook looks bleak. He'll swim up to the service grab a bite than sink on his side back to the bottom. He either has something wrong or he is just a very lazy fish. Why swim when I can sink?
Anybody see the "real" bigfoot? Aparently the one in Georgia wasn't a full fledged card carrying Bigfoot. More like a wannabe.
George get the hell out of Iraq!!! ( Putin )
Than I'm listening to the news and the guys talking about the Russian hopefuls, French hopefuls but than he gets to the Chinese hopefuls. But he doesn't say China, no it's communist China. I thought there was no politics in Olympic sports? You know the biggest issue today is we can't get over ourselves. Hey is anyone paying attention here? The economy is doing a nose dive and we're talking trash about other countries.
I can hear Putin now yelling out " Bush, get the hell out of Iraq, or else )! I'm thinking Bush is a can or two short of a six pack. Or as we say out here " He's got the hat, but he ain't got the cattle ". I'd like to see a proposed amendment to whats left of the Constitution that bands anuone from Texas from ever being President. All in favor say, oh yes!!!!
Obama has made his VP choice but he is not telling anyone yet. ( That way he can change his mind before the big convention if need be ). I like the ploy of texting to all his supporters who signed up. I bet there has been a mad rush this past few weeks of people signing up for Obama's email. Man what cell company does he use? Imagine not having 5, 10, or 20 in your circle but millions!! How cool is that? Just imagine the monthly bill we'll be paying if he wins.
Been sticking the fingers now for a while. Still sucks!
Kitty, the betta fish is dying. Lays around on the bottom of the tank. We moved him to another smaller bowl hoping to help him but so far the outlook looks bleak. He'll swim up to the service grab a bite than sink on his side back to the bottom. He either has something wrong or he is just a very lazy fish. Why swim when I can sink?
Anybody see the "real" bigfoot? Aparently the one in Georgia wasn't a full fledged card carrying Bigfoot. More like a wannabe.
George get the hell out of Iraq!!! ( Putin )
Monday, August 11, 2008
School is in session once again!! Where did summer go? Well once again most of our summer plans didn't happen. We kept putting them off until it was to late. we did make it up to see the trains so that was one thing off the list.
Boy has our neighborhood changed. Its been a transient neighborhood since the beginning. Most of the housing units are rental properties. Every 6 months a new crop of renters show up. Usually in the past its been rotating college students and military. This last "renewal" however was different. We'll have to see how things go. The other night on my dog walk duty, I spotted 2 boys getting ready to rumble. Fortunately, an older brother stepped in and defused the situation.
Can you imagine a big bully telling another bully he's being to mean? George, Dick are you reading this? Probably not. :)
What about the alleged forgery? Does this mean all those forged lunch tickets I made in high school are not wrong now. Its really getting hard to tell the difference between right and wrong here. What ever happened to the guys in white hats? Its to bad our leaders are not like computers. Than we could simply reboot into "safe mode" and run the virus/spyware scanner to remove all the crap. Or we just elect politicians who run off Linux. That way we don't worry about spyware and viruses........
Boy has our neighborhood changed. Its been a transient neighborhood since the beginning. Most of the housing units are rental properties. Every 6 months a new crop of renters show up. Usually in the past its been rotating college students and military. This last "renewal" however was different. We'll have to see how things go. The other night on my dog walk duty, I spotted 2 boys getting ready to rumble. Fortunately, an older brother stepped in and defused the situation.
Can you imagine a big bully telling another bully he's being to mean? George, Dick are you reading this? Probably not. :)
What about the alleged forgery? Does this mean all those forged lunch tickets I made in high school are not wrong now. Its really getting hard to tell the difference between right and wrong here. What ever happened to the guys in white hats? Its to bad our leaders are not like computers. Than we could simply reboot into "safe mode" and run the virus/spyware scanner to remove all the crap. Or we just elect politicians who run off Linux. That way we don't worry about spyware and viruses........
Thursday, July 31, 2008
This writing stuff is hard. Not much going on in my life to warrant writing it down Plus the news is the same as it was yesterday. I did notice that people are not spending those stimulus checks as expected on big ticket items. Probably a hard decision, do I buy that super big LCD tv or food for the kids? Lucky we can't live on that $4.00 a gallon gas, we would really be hurting!
But from the White House we're told things are not that bad. Of course, this from a man who carries no money.
There is six inches of green grass in our back yard. The desert got rained on. We don't own a lawn mower either. Maybe we need a goat? The dogs have loved it though. My neighbor was talking about going to the pawn shop and buying a lawn mower. Wonder how many lawn mowers are pawned in the desert?
Mr. California continues to wash his driveway. Last week he broke the axle on his Jeep so he hasn't been out playing in the mud. So the driveway washing has slowed down a bit. No longer a daily event.
Saw that "look" the other day from a visitor. You know the "look". When someone finds something that they don't like but don't want to say anything look. Yes, we're all a bunch of pack rats. With the food storage taking up space and each of our collections filling in other spaces combined with the lack of closet space our house is well beyond the cluttered look. Actually, on a daily basis it looks more like a bomb went off. Yes, we do own a lot of stuff. And yes we probably won't use most of it. But what people fail to understand is how we came across the stuff. Someone living on a comfortable income when needing a do-hickey might just pop out to the local Walley World and buy one. Than one day you'll see it in their garage sale or Goodwill donation because they have not used it sense the original day they bought it. My neighbor just gave me 2 tape decks because he has no use for them and they take up space. Besides, if he needs one at some point in the future as he put it, he will uy a new one. We on the other hand, have looked high and low for the do-hickey we could afford. Than when it comes to passing it on to someone else, its hard knowing how hard it was to obtain in the first place. Than there is the "percieved value" concept. That big screen in my living room in the nice wood case cost somebody a pretty penny. Not me mind you. I paid very little for it 20 years after it was first sold. The stereo looks very impressive for the $50 I paid.
So if people would stop and think a minute perhaps "the look" would not come out so easily. Than again, I've been guilty of the same looks myself. Back during the first days of Katrina I sported "the look" every time I saw someone trudging thru the water carrying new LCD TV's on their shoulders............
But from the White House we're told things are not that bad. Of course, this from a man who carries no money.
There is six inches of green grass in our back yard. The desert got rained on. We don't own a lawn mower either. Maybe we need a goat? The dogs have loved it though. My neighbor was talking about going to the pawn shop and buying a lawn mower. Wonder how many lawn mowers are pawned in the desert?
Mr. California continues to wash his driveway. Last week he broke the axle on his Jeep so he hasn't been out playing in the mud. So the driveway washing has slowed down a bit. No longer a daily event.
Saw that "look" the other day from a visitor. You know the "look". When someone finds something that they don't like but don't want to say anything look. Yes, we're all a bunch of pack rats. With the food storage taking up space and each of our collections filling in other spaces combined with the lack of closet space our house is well beyond the cluttered look. Actually, on a daily basis it looks more like a bomb went off. Yes, we do own a lot of stuff. And yes we probably won't use most of it. But what people fail to understand is how we came across the stuff. Someone living on a comfortable income when needing a do-hickey might just pop out to the local Walley World and buy one. Than one day you'll see it in their garage sale or Goodwill donation because they have not used it sense the original day they bought it. My neighbor just gave me 2 tape decks because he has no use for them and they take up space. Besides, if he needs one at some point in the future as he put it, he will uy a new one. We on the other hand, have looked high and low for the do-hickey we could afford. Than when it comes to passing it on to someone else, its hard knowing how hard it was to obtain in the first place. Than there is the "percieved value" concept. That big screen in my living room in the nice wood case cost somebody a pretty penny. Not me mind you. I paid very little for it 20 years after it was first sold. The stereo looks very impressive for the $50 I paid.
So if people would stop and think a minute perhaps "the look" would not come out so easily. Than again, I've been guilty of the same looks myself. Back during the first days of Katrina I sported "the look" every time I saw someone trudging thru the water carrying new LCD TV's on their shoulders............
Friday, July 18, 2008
Well we did the 4th thing. Commodores in the park than big fireworks after the show. All put on for free by the city. On the 3rd was the annual electric parade. Always a fun one to watch. Being an election year, the parade started off with several car loads of would be politicians and entourage of starred eyed believers chanting vote Democrat or vote Republican. I found it to be a disgusting spectacle to watch as the country sinks into the proverbial toilet. No one was chanting vote for America. I think all these political parties have lost sight of the real thing, We the People.
I've found out the advantage of being poor. When the depression comes we'll already be use to having less. Unfortunately, I can not help but wonder what will happen to all those who bought the lies of their elected officials. Anyone wonder where that trillion dollars going to come from to rescue Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Way back when we faced foreclosure we were told over and over by elected officials that there was nothing they could do to help us. From the White House on down. To think, all we were asking was to refinance at the lower rates offered at the time and we would of been able to continue making payments.
Well been sticking my fingers twice a day now for over a week. All I've got to show for it is sore fingers. :( I did learn that both my grandfathers had diabetes, so I'd guess the odds were with me as far as having it myself.
Still looking for hand controls for the van. New is way out of reach plus installation. Way back I use to install my own. Not thinking I am up to it now a days. I guess I could be thinking at $4 per gallon, I'm saving lots of money.
I've found out the advantage of being poor. When the depression comes we'll already be use to having less. Unfortunately, I can not help but wonder what will happen to all those who bought the lies of their elected officials. Anyone wonder where that trillion dollars going to come from to rescue Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Way back when we faced foreclosure we were told over and over by elected officials that there was nothing they could do to help us. From the White House on down. To think, all we were asking was to refinance at the lower rates offered at the time and we would of been able to continue making payments.
Well been sticking my fingers twice a day now for over a week. All I've got to show for it is sore fingers. :( I did learn that both my grandfathers had diabetes, so I'd guess the odds were with me as far as having it myself.
Still looking for hand controls for the van. New is way out of reach plus installation. Way back I use to install my own. Not thinking I am up to it now a days. I guess I could be thinking at $4 per gallon, I'm saving lots of money.
Thursday, July 10, 2008
We are doomed. Well there might be some hope. First we've got to convince the powers to be that the proposed border fence needs to be extended to include California. Somehow we must make it our mission to keep Californians from getting out.
Its monsoon season here in the desert. Translation: We stand a good chance of rain showers or heavier every night. After the first 2-3 storms the desert soil can't handle anymore rain so even light showers cause major flooding. Tuesday morning it rained. Later in the morning my neighbor washed his cars. All three. Than he washed his sidewalk, driveway, and gutter of the street. Tuesday night it rained. Wednesday, neighbors out washing cars, sidewalk, driveway and gutters once again. Its raining today and guess who is out in the rain washing vehicles and concrete again?
Here in the desert we live with a permanent restricted water use regulation. Apparently my neighbor feels immune to such a regulation.
Hence the need for the extended border fence around California. My neighbor the Californian is a perfect example as to why the rest of the country should block Californians from leaving California. If we don't, we're all doomed.
Results are in. Type 2 Diabetes. Add 3 more pills to my daily intake. 4 years ago I was not on any daily medication. Today, I take about 12 pills a day. Got to wonder how come with all these drugs I don't feel any different? My brief moments at PT are over. Decided I could bat around balloons and play WII without Medicare being hit with a $1700 bill.
I did build a fully functional PSP from used parts. I call it my Frankenstation :)
Its monsoon season here in the desert. Translation: We stand a good chance of rain showers or heavier every night. After the first 2-3 storms the desert soil can't handle anymore rain so even light showers cause major flooding. Tuesday morning it rained. Later in the morning my neighbor washed his cars. All three. Than he washed his sidewalk, driveway, and gutter of the street. Tuesday night it rained. Wednesday, neighbors out washing cars, sidewalk, driveway and gutters once again. Its raining today and guess who is out in the rain washing vehicles and concrete again?
Here in the desert we live with a permanent restricted water use regulation. Apparently my neighbor feels immune to such a regulation.
Hence the need for the extended border fence around California. My neighbor the Californian is a perfect example as to why the rest of the country should block Californians from leaving California. If we don't, we're all doomed.
Results are in. Type 2 Diabetes. Add 3 more pills to my daily intake. 4 years ago I was not on any daily medication. Today, I take about 12 pills a day. Got to wonder how come with all these drugs I don't feel any different? My brief moments at PT are over. Decided I could bat around balloons and play WII without Medicare being hit with a $1700 bill.
I did build a fully functional PSP from used parts. I call it my Frankenstation :)
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
Remember back in 2001? We all were introduced to the world of terrorism as the twin towers collapsed before the video cameras. Zoom ahead now. We've been pretty much terrorist free thanks to the vigilance of George and his marry goons. Its cost us a lot. 4100 American lives, 30,000 wounded, tens of thousands of Iraqi civilians died. It is rumored that the White House not wanting to create a negative feeling about the war placed tight rules on how they count American Casualties in Iraq. If a solder is wounded in Iraq but dies outside of the war zone, he/she is not considered a casualty of the war. Supposedly. Of course, our elected leaders would never try to manipulate data to support their reasonings.
Anyways on with the idea here. Even though our north and south borders were left w-i-d-e open for anyone looking for a better life or building to crash into to walk/drive across, we remained terrorist free. As we have been told that we are fairly terrorist free for the last 7 years whenever someone needed a pat on the back or to justify the human loss. ( except when we need the terrorist fear to convince us to give up freedoms or elections )
Even Osama himself had to be impressed with the video of the towers collapsing. I suspect that the bad guys never saw that coming. Tough one to top, thats for sure.
Than I'm shopping in Walmart the other day. Falling prices don't seem to fall much when the dollar in your hand is ownly worth .66 cents. Gas at $4 bucks a gallon while oil companies rake in billions in record profits. Notice how these oil companies openly threaten and black mail us every time the useless congress questions/threatens their profits. You don't let us drill in the pristene Alaskan Wilderness, so you pay higher for gas. More and more folks living on the streets because of bad credit loans. Meanwhile, those with good credit our penalized because of all these foreclosures. Mortgage companies and banks knowingly make bad loans and you guys with the good credit pay for their bad decisions.
Oh yea, shopping in Walmart. I got a little off track. I'm looking at these personal mister devices for like $10 bucks. ($6.60 last year.) Little pint container with a small pressure pump in the lid and a hose with a mister on the end. Fill the thing with cool water pump it up, squeeze the release button and a cooling mist sprays out the end. As I'm thinking on this over the LCD screens Walmart is proclaiming that all of their tomatoes come from approved FDA/USDA sources. No samonella worries here in Arkansas.
Than it struck me. One of these little misters conceled under Mr. Terrorist jacket filled with a nice brew of grade A samonella, hose running under Mr. Terrorist jacket sleeve into the palm of Mr. Terrorist hand. Everytime the veggie mister goes off all Mr. Terrorist has got to do is wave his hand over the veggies as if trying to select just the right head of lettace or tomatoe all the while holding that magic little button that lets his grade A special mist spray out.
You know its got to be getting rough signing up those suicide bombers. After all how many virgins does Alla keep up there? But 20 or 30 with misters across the country could create a pretty good Samonella outbreak without trace.
And what would be better for the terrorist. Trying to knock down more buildings or making us Americans question the safety of our own food supplies?
Based on our economic woes, our $4.00 a gallon gas, increased threats of homelessness possible threat to our foods and most importantly loss of freedoms. I'd have to say the terrorist have done much since they knocked down those buildings on that September morning back in 2001.
And my biggest observation: Not all terrorist where scarves, some dress in suits with US flags on their lapels. Lucky for us the Sepreme Court ruled in favor of citizens rights to own guns...........
Anyways on with the idea here. Even though our north and south borders were left w-i-d-e open for anyone looking for a better life or building to crash into to walk/drive across, we remained terrorist free. As we have been told that we are fairly terrorist free for the last 7 years whenever someone needed a pat on the back or to justify the human loss. ( except when we need the terrorist fear to convince us to give up freedoms or elections )
Even Osama himself had to be impressed with the video of the towers collapsing. I suspect that the bad guys never saw that coming. Tough one to top, thats for sure.
Than I'm shopping in Walmart the other day. Falling prices don't seem to fall much when the dollar in your hand is ownly worth .66 cents. Gas at $4 bucks a gallon while oil companies rake in billions in record profits. Notice how these oil companies openly threaten and black mail us every time the useless congress questions/threatens their profits. You don't let us drill in the pristene Alaskan Wilderness, so you pay higher for gas. More and more folks living on the streets because of bad credit loans. Meanwhile, those with good credit our penalized because of all these foreclosures. Mortgage companies and banks knowingly make bad loans and you guys with the good credit pay for their bad decisions.
Oh yea, shopping in Walmart. I got a little off track. I'm looking at these personal mister devices for like $10 bucks. ($6.60 last year.) Little pint container with a small pressure pump in the lid and a hose with a mister on the end. Fill the thing with cool water pump it up, squeeze the release button and a cooling mist sprays out the end. As I'm thinking on this over the LCD screens Walmart is proclaiming that all of their tomatoes come from approved FDA/USDA sources. No samonella worries here in Arkansas.
Than it struck me. One of these little misters conceled under Mr. Terrorist jacket filled with a nice brew of grade A samonella, hose running under Mr. Terrorist jacket sleeve into the palm of Mr. Terrorist hand. Everytime the veggie mister goes off all Mr. Terrorist has got to do is wave his hand over the veggies as if trying to select just the right head of lettace or tomatoe all the while holding that magic little button that lets his grade A special mist spray out.
You know its got to be getting rough signing up those suicide bombers. After all how many virgins does Alla keep up there? But 20 or 30 with misters across the country could create a pretty good Samonella outbreak without trace.
And what would be better for the terrorist. Trying to knock down more buildings or making us Americans question the safety of our own food supplies?
Based on our economic woes, our $4.00 a gallon gas, increased threats of homelessness possible threat to our foods and most importantly loss of freedoms. I'd have to say the terrorist have done much since they knocked down those buildings on that September morning back in 2001.
And my biggest observation: Not all terrorist where scarves, some dress in suits with US flags on their lapels. Lucky for us the Sepreme Court ruled in favor of citizens rights to own guns...........
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
My lan server bit the big one last night. Talk about bad timing. All the digital pictures are on it. Hopefully I'll retrieve them all. UPDATE: They are all there, I guess I'll backup now.
Speaking of disappointment I went and saw The Happening. M. Night sure missed the boat on this one. I actually felt I wanted my money back!!! I want the 90 minutes of wasted time back also. Might of been a good story if he'd choose actors that were actually into the roll.
Well the new Doctor is actually playing Doctor. Unlike my old retired Doctor who just did maintenance on me. Not complaining here, I prefer the maintenance type Doctors over the trouble lookers. Anyways, after a urine test Doc say's I've got sugar in my urine. Got to have a whole bunch more test now. My sister the nurse kept saying over and over "you are not supposed to have sugar in your urine". I'm not a good patient since I rarely follow the Doctors orders.
Started PT yesterday. The neck surgery will require that I drop some weight. Currently my thumb gets the most exercise, so we need to be creative on other ways of dropping weight. I've been trying to convince my wife not to give me to much for dinner. She has this thing about covering the entire plate with food!! It is ironic to complain about having to much to eat while many starve around the world. Although playing the Wii has really helped my shoulder, its not enough of a workout to drop any weight.
Its still triple digits around here. I spend the day sitting in a pool of my own swet. Not the most comfortable thing to be doing. Plus with the heat I can't get anything done in the garage. My projects are starting to backup on me. Than the electric bill arrived. $128.00 for one months partial air. We keep the house at 80 degrees and still the bill is up by $40 dollars. Now my wife is making noises about turning off the air at night. Geez I can hardly wait. Not just sitting but sleeping in a pool of swet!
My life sure is taking a sour turn lately...........
Speaking of disappointment I went and saw The Happening. M. Night sure missed the boat on this one. I actually felt I wanted my money back!!! I want the 90 minutes of wasted time back also. Might of been a good story if he'd choose actors that were actually into the roll.
Well the new Doctor is actually playing Doctor. Unlike my old retired Doctor who just did maintenance on me. Not complaining here, I prefer the maintenance type Doctors over the trouble lookers. Anyways, after a urine test Doc say's I've got sugar in my urine. Got to have a whole bunch more test now. My sister the nurse kept saying over and over "you are not supposed to have sugar in your urine". I'm not a good patient since I rarely follow the Doctors orders.
Started PT yesterday. The neck surgery will require that I drop some weight. Currently my thumb gets the most exercise, so we need to be creative on other ways of dropping weight. I've been trying to convince my wife not to give me to much for dinner. She has this thing about covering the entire plate with food!! It is ironic to complain about having to much to eat while many starve around the world. Although playing the Wii has really helped my shoulder, its not enough of a workout to drop any weight.
Its still triple digits around here. I spend the day sitting in a pool of my own swet. Not the most comfortable thing to be doing. Plus with the heat I can't get anything done in the garage. My projects are starting to backup on me. Than the electric bill arrived. $128.00 for one months partial air. We keep the house at 80 degrees and still the bill is up by $40 dollars. Now my wife is making noises about turning off the air at night. Geez I can hardly wait. Not just sitting but sleeping in a pool of swet!
My life sure is taking a sour turn lately...........
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
Howdy Warren, and thanks for the well wishes. James, where are you?
Its been hot. Very hot. Triple digits multiple days in a row. Our air conditioner is working overtime. I still don't know why people live in the desert. Its not a very nice place. After a few years, those that live here start looking like the desert. Their skin turns the same shade of brown as the land. Deep lines and cracks form. Attitudes become somewhat off. Eventually, if you live here long enough you become a desert rat.
My butts been bothering me lately. Not fund when you spend most of your time on it. You would think with that $400 cushion I sit on that I would not feel a thing but I do. Not liking the option either. I can sit and have that dull ache, or lay in bed and do nothing. Not ready for the bed routine.
After the successful repair of the PSP I decided to up the anti. I picked up several broken PSP's from the internet junk store ( EBay ) and will be attempting to put them together and create one PSP. It will be interesting if I can build one for less than $20. Plus if it all works out Ian will have something to do when we travel up to northern New Mexico to check out the posibilities of relocating to a cooler climate. We are still looking at Vermont and Oregon as possibilities. we both are tired of moving so want to make this our final move. One of our biggest issues with our current living arraingments besides my more than obvious dislike of the desert and the browness of everything is in this area the "poor" are really really poor. The baseline is calculated by 1 illegal immigrant having one anchor child and no job. The anchor child is entitled to a monthly amount of $372 dollars. So, when the county assesses needs they start at $372 dollars and work up. This is the poorest part of the state and in reality our fixed income makes us well off. So we need to find an area where the annual income is higher if that makes any sense.
We've got a house full of children so I'm not doing well in the focus department. I'll be back.........
Its been hot. Very hot. Triple digits multiple days in a row. Our air conditioner is working overtime. I still don't know why people live in the desert. Its not a very nice place. After a few years, those that live here start looking like the desert. Their skin turns the same shade of brown as the land. Deep lines and cracks form. Attitudes become somewhat off. Eventually, if you live here long enough you become a desert rat.
My butts been bothering me lately. Not fund when you spend most of your time on it. You would think with that $400 cushion I sit on that I would not feel a thing but I do. Not liking the option either. I can sit and have that dull ache, or lay in bed and do nothing. Not ready for the bed routine.
After the successful repair of the PSP I decided to up the anti. I picked up several broken PSP's from the internet junk store ( EBay ) and will be attempting to put them together and create one PSP. It will be interesting if I can build one for less than $20. Plus if it all works out Ian will have something to do when we travel up to northern New Mexico to check out the posibilities of relocating to a cooler climate. We are still looking at Vermont and Oregon as possibilities. we both are tired of moving so want to make this our final move. One of our biggest issues with our current living arraingments besides my more than obvious dislike of the desert and the browness of everything is in this area the "poor" are really really poor. The baseline is calculated by 1 illegal immigrant having one anchor child and no job. The anchor child is entitled to a monthly amount of $372 dollars. So, when the county assesses needs they start at $372 dollars and work up. This is the poorest part of the state and in reality our fixed income makes us well off. So we need to find an area where the annual income is higher if that makes any sense.
We've got a house full of children so I'm not doing well in the focus department. I'll be back.........
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
I fixed my first PSP today. I always enjoy new challenges. Normally I would of passed on it. Belongs to a 7 year old who's 3 year old brother decided to sink it in the toilet. I've watched the 7 year old run around with this thing playing in the back yard. On at least 2 occasions it was dropped.
I'm not a firm believer in parents giving young children expensive toys unsupervised. My feeling is if you give a small child an expensive toy and do not supervise it, than you can afford to replace it when little brother dumps it in the toilet. But in this case I felt sorry for them and offered to fix it. These folks have been going through a hard time adjusting from good paying jobs in Denver to the cheap paying jobs here. Had it been Denver, I would of said sorry, buy the kid a new one.
Besides, I wanted to see whats in one. :)
Its turned hot. Triple digit temps multiple days in a row and they are talking 105 by weekend. Been keeping the house around 80 to keep the electric bill under control. I wait till it hits 82 in the house than turn on the air. Use to be we didn't hit 82 till 3-4 in the afternoon, but lately by noon its 82 inside already.
There has been no decisions on the surgery. Basically the channel that the spinal chord runs through is narrowed in my neck. There is a large risk for the possibility of becoming paralyzed from the neck down if not corrected. The Doctor proposes removing 3-4 vertebra by going through the front and rear of my neck. Once removed, he'll enlarge the channel. Than replace the vertebra holding everything together and in place with front and rear plates, rods, and screws. The risk are I still could end up paralyzed, or even dead. Benefits are pretty obvious. I would lose some range of motion mainly up/down. But my side to side may actually be better. Anyways, I'm still tossing it around.
I do know that every time I bump my head now my kidneys start hurting. Plus, now if I move my head to fast, I get these nice little headaches.
Wish I had better faith in Doctors, or for that matter humanity as a whole..........
I'm not a firm believer in parents giving young children expensive toys unsupervised. My feeling is if you give a small child an expensive toy and do not supervise it, than you can afford to replace it when little brother dumps it in the toilet. But in this case I felt sorry for them and offered to fix it. These folks have been going through a hard time adjusting from good paying jobs in Denver to the cheap paying jobs here. Had it been Denver, I would of said sorry, buy the kid a new one.
Besides, I wanted to see whats in one. :)
Its turned hot. Triple digit temps multiple days in a row and they are talking 105 by weekend. Been keeping the house around 80 to keep the electric bill under control. I wait till it hits 82 in the house than turn on the air. Use to be we didn't hit 82 till 3-4 in the afternoon, but lately by noon its 82 inside already.
There has been no decisions on the surgery. Basically the channel that the spinal chord runs through is narrowed in my neck. There is a large risk for the possibility of becoming paralyzed from the neck down if not corrected. The Doctor proposes removing 3-4 vertebra by going through the front and rear of my neck. Once removed, he'll enlarge the channel. Than replace the vertebra holding everything together and in place with front and rear plates, rods, and screws. The risk are I still could end up paralyzed, or even dead. Benefits are pretty obvious. I would lose some range of motion mainly up/down. But my side to side may actually be better. Anyways, I'm still tossing it around.
I do know that every time I bump my head now my kidneys start hurting. Plus, now if I move my head to fast, I get these nice little headaches.
Wish I had better faith in Doctors, or for that matter humanity as a whole..........
Monday, June 2, 2008
Look, check it out:
We started the fish thing way back in the beginning. After almost a year we decided it was time to change out the tank and go with a new look. Sorry, don't have pics of the original setup. Had your typical sunken pirate ship with blue gravel scene.
Well the heat has hit. Calling for triple digits over the next 4 days. We keep trying to save our energy cost not only good for the wallet but also the environment. So we keep the house closed up during the day. Once the inside temps reach 82 degrees than on goes the air conditioner. The house is surprisingly well insulated so generally the air gets turned on around 4'ish. Than once the sun goes down between 8 and 9 we turn off the air and prior to going to bed we open the windows for the cool night breezes. This keeps the house in tolerable limits without running the electric bill to high.
Speaking of electric. Our power company has been making noises about the increase in cost of petroleum products that may cause hour power bills to go up. I say interesting because the power company claims to get 80% of its electricity from nuclear power. They allegedly own a stake in a nuclear power plant. Must be all the WD40 they have to use?
So I'm looking at cooling vests. Garments you use under your clothing to help stay cool. Sitting in my chair from 7 in the morning to midnight takes its toll on my system. I am always hot! These vest run a bit of money, about $300 plus. Unfortunately there is no "try before you buy" deals to be had. There are several techniques that are used. One style requires immersion into icy water. Than let it "drip dry" and put it on. I'm not really comfy with putting a wet item on my electric wheelchair. Another style requires that you freeze inserts than insert them in the vest. Seems a bit bulky. These 2 have the added disadvantage of only being good for a couple hours. The local fire department uses the vest with the inserts on their Hazmat outfits. In real use they get 20 minutes of cooling.
The 3rd unit I'm looking at uses pvc tubing and a recirculating cooling liquid ran from a 12v pump. This looks promising, but most expensive of the bunch.
I'll let you know what I decide...........
We started the fish thing way back in the beginning. After almost a year we decided it was time to change out the tank and go with a new look. Sorry, don't have pics of the original setup. Had your typical sunken pirate ship with blue gravel scene.
Well the heat has hit. Calling for triple digits over the next 4 days. We keep trying to save our energy cost not only good for the wallet but also the environment. So we keep the house closed up during the day. Once the inside temps reach 82 degrees than on goes the air conditioner. The house is surprisingly well insulated so generally the air gets turned on around 4'ish. Than once the sun goes down between 8 and 9 we turn off the air and prior to going to bed we open the windows for the cool night breezes. This keeps the house in tolerable limits without running the electric bill to high.
Speaking of electric. Our power company has been making noises about the increase in cost of petroleum products that may cause hour power bills to go up. I say interesting because the power company claims to get 80% of its electricity from nuclear power. They allegedly own a stake in a nuclear power plant. Must be all the WD40 they have to use?
So I'm looking at cooling vests. Garments you use under your clothing to help stay cool. Sitting in my chair from 7 in the morning to midnight takes its toll on my system. I am always hot! These vest run a bit of money, about $300 plus. Unfortunately there is no "try before you buy" deals to be had. There are several techniques that are used. One style requires immersion into icy water. Than let it "drip dry" and put it on. I'm not really comfy with putting a wet item on my electric wheelchair. Another style requires that you freeze inserts than insert them in the vest. Seems a bit bulky. These 2 have the added disadvantage of only being good for a couple hours. The local fire department uses the vest with the inserts on their Hazmat outfits. In real use they get 20 minutes of cooling.
The 3rd unit I'm looking at uses pvc tubing and a recirculating cooling liquid ran from a 12v pump. This looks promising, but most expensive of the bunch.
I'll let you know what I decide...........
Monday, May 26, 2008
Back in the summer of 81 one of my drinking buddies would pick me up on his Harley on the weekends and we would drive through the Vermont woods to his bar on a small lake. We had many escapades and "lost" weekends. It all ended one weekend when he put a bullet through his head.
My drinking buddy was haunted. A decorated Vietnam Vet with a Purple Heart. He never seemed to have left the war. In the end, it seems the war finally caught up with him.
As I think about Memorial Day, I can't help to think of him and many veterans of Vietnam. It seems that age and disability somehow places me in the same "zone". I've known many veterans of the war. Often times I am "adopted" into the group as being one of them. There was a particular group in Arizona who not only adopted me but swore I was well known over there.
Anyways this isn't about me. Its about homeless vets with deep psychological issues left alone while the rest of us remember those who have gone on.
Why do we always think of folks after they are gone?
Terry, this Buds for you dude............
And yes Mom I rode Harley's too. :)
My drinking buddy was haunted. A decorated Vietnam Vet with a Purple Heart. He never seemed to have left the war. In the end, it seems the war finally caught up with him.
As I think about Memorial Day, I can't help to think of him and many veterans of Vietnam. It seems that age and disability somehow places me in the same "zone". I've known many veterans of the war. Often times I am "adopted" into the group as being one of them. There was a particular group in Arizona who not only adopted me but swore I was well known over there.
Anyways this isn't about me. Its about homeless vets with deep psychological issues left alone while the rest of us remember those who have gone on.
Why do we always think of folks after they are gone?
Terry, this Buds for you dude............
And yes Mom I rode Harley's too. :)
Monday, May 19, 2008
What ever happened with the fish experiment? Bet you've been thinking about that one. Well by Federal Government standards, it was a success. We've been able to maintain balance within the tanks ecology so that we've not had to change water. Plus we still have 5 of the original 6 inhabitants. Good eh?
Well, while its true that we have not changed water or did the 1/3 thing, and yes it is true that 5 original fish still swim the tank we left out the fact that we've lost 20 other fish and that the 5 remaining would probably survive in sewage water as long as they were fed. 3 Goldfish, 1 Betta and a goober still reside in the tank. None of which could really be considered a sensitive fish :)
We'll be cleaning out the tank in the next week or so and start all over. Well with the old fish of course.
Several years ago my wife and I enjoyed an evening with Steven Hawking. It was a great night. We went to one of his lectures, than afterwards we met him back stage. We finished the evening with all of us having dinner together.
Doesn't that sound exciting? Problem is once again, even tho everything above is true, it is not really what happened. Yes we did go to a lecture presented by Steven Hawking. This is totally true. And yes we did see him back stage. Behind the stage was the wheelchair entrance/exit we were both in our wheelchairs so we both ended up back stage. And yes we really did have dinner together. We happened to end up in the same restaurant but separate tables. Across the room in another section.
It is interesting how easy things can be manipulated to appear more or less than what it really is.
I bet I can get a job with Uncle Sam..................
Well, while its true that we have not changed water or did the 1/3 thing, and yes it is true that 5 original fish still swim the tank we left out the fact that we've lost 20 other fish and that the 5 remaining would probably survive in sewage water as long as they were fed. 3 Goldfish, 1 Betta and a goober still reside in the tank. None of which could really be considered a sensitive fish :)
We'll be cleaning out the tank in the next week or so and start all over. Well with the old fish of course.
Several years ago my wife and I enjoyed an evening with Steven Hawking. It was a great night. We went to one of his lectures, than afterwards we met him back stage. We finished the evening with all of us having dinner together.
Doesn't that sound exciting? Problem is once again, even tho everything above is true, it is not really what happened. Yes we did go to a lecture presented by Steven Hawking. This is totally true. And yes we did see him back stage. Behind the stage was the wheelchair entrance/exit we were both in our wheelchairs so we both ended up back stage. And yes we really did have dinner together. We happened to end up in the same restaurant but separate tables. Across the room in another section.
It is interesting how easy things can be manipulated to appear more or less than what it really is.
I bet I can get a job with Uncle Sam..................
Wednesday, May 7, 2008
I got myself in trouble the other day. I was visiting a website for the disabled when I posted that I have a "normal disability". Folks took offense to that statement.
Let me explain a little. A lot of disabilities are caused by some event in the persons life. ie: He stepped on a land mine, car accident even sports related football injury. Than you can have disabilities that are genetic and may not appear for years after birth. In these cases the people with disabilities started off with a "normal" life and than that life became "abnormal" with the emergence of their disability.
They had something, but now they don't.
Than there are folks like me who know nothing different than what we are. From day one we've been disabled. However, for us there is no "normal" than "abnormal" change. In our world, our disabilities are actually "normal" for us.
Hence the term "normal disability".
Even in a disabled community, I don't fit in. :)
Well went and saw the Neuro Surgeon. Dude wants to cut my head off. Actually, for 4-5 vertebra in my neck the passage way the spinal cord runs through is narrow. Pinching nerves eventually causing loss of function or even the possibility of complete paralysys from the neck on down. Now thats a disability. Anyways, the Doc wants to go in remove the bones, ream them out and reassemble with pins screws, and plates. Big decision with risks on either side. I'll let you know what I decide...............
Let me explain a little. A lot of disabilities are caused by some event in the persons life. ie: He stepped on a land mine, car accident even sports related football injury. Than you can have disabilities that are genetic and may not appear for years after birth. In these cases the people with disabilities started off with a "normal" life and than that life became "abnormal" with the emergence of their disability.
They had something, but now they don't.
Than there are folks like me who know nothing different than what we are. From day one we've been disabled. However, for us there is no "normal" than "abnormal" change. In our world, our disabilities are actually "normal" for us.
Hence the term "normal disability".
Even in a disabled community, I don't fit in. :)
Well went and saw the Neuro Surgeon. Dude wants to cut my head off. Actually, for 4-5 vertebra in my neck the passage way the spinal cord runs through is narrow. Pinching nerves eventually causing loss of function or even the possibility of complete paralysys from the neck on down. Now thats a disability. Anyways, the Doc wants to go in remove the bones, ream them out and reassemble with pins screws, and plates. Big decision with risks on either side. I'll let you know what I decide...............
Monday, April 28, 2008
Grumpy, Grandfather on my mother's side of the family was a cantankorus old fart who us kids didn't like much. It wasn't that we disliked him, more like we did not like him. It was more of a nuetral feeling we had if that makes any sense. He was just a gruff grumpy old person in our eyes.
Grandfather was a corporate pilot who flew biz jets and various other types of aircraft. One of the clients he flew was Orville Redenbacker, so we ate a lot of gormet popcorn growing up.
When Grumpy (Grandfather) wasn't off somewhere flying he worked for the railroad as a yard dispatcher. Plus in between jobs he was an avid fisherman and hunter.
Now its interesting that although Grumpy did a lot of really cool things we didn't see him in that light. As children, we would set "traps" when we stayed at Grandfathers house in an attempt to catch him when he came home late at night.
What I find interesting today is that I have become very much like Grumpy. In fact, in ways I am exactly like Grumpy. One way I emulated him was I became an avid hunter and fisherman. I spent many years hunting from my scooter, jeep, and truck. Hours of looking at hillside for my prey. Our children grew up on wild game Deer, Elk, Moose and Antelope.
Starring at those hillsides gave me lots of time to think. Lucky for me I came up with this crazy idea. You see, during hunting season you have basically 2 types of hunters. The die hard full time hunter who hunts until he fills his tag all day wandering the woods. Up the hill, down the hill. Constantly on alert for his prey.
Than the part timers would wander out before day break after a night of partying. Than wait for sunrise. However unlike the full time hunter, the part time hunter would return to camp by 9-9:30 AM and prepare breakfast. After a few more beers and a nap than more beer the part timer would head back into the forest an hour or so before sunset.
One chiily October morning I was pearched next to my truck watching a small meadow with a little pond in the center. The meadow was ringed by old growth pines allowing only about 50 foot of vision into the forest. ET could of landed there and I would never had known.
On this morning the air was cool and crisp. A fog had risen from the pond and floated around the meadow. I had arrived in my spot several hours before sunrise. However by about 10 that morning the smell of bacon, sausage, and other breakfast sorts started drifting thru the air. That Antelope jerky I had been chewing all morning was really starting to lose its appeal. A big ol' breakfast was calling.
But, just as I was thinking of heading back to camp the thought hit me. If I can smell all this breakfast fixings cooking so could the animals. This area was hunted very heavily. It was known for having trophy animals. So many Californian hunters, ( more on this in another post ) flocked to the area. So it would make sense that the animals would know that when that maple flavored aroma filled the morning air, most of the hunters had returned to their camps. Now that may seem strange but at that point I became a semi full time hunter. Instead of leaving for breakfast I opted that day to sit it out. 30 minutes later a young 4 point Elk came walking out of the forest, to the pond. And you know the rest of the story. After that day I never failed to bring home dinner.
It was also the solitude that I enjoyed. I mentioned this before about my long periods of being alone during my 5 hitch hiking trips cross country. As I sat on those cold October mornings I had plenty of time to look back and remember friends and family.
So like Grumpy, I too have a rather "grumpy" attitude as I grow older. But I now know its not grumpyness that both Grandfather and I knew.
Its really to bad that we don't miss people before they are gone...........
Grandfather was a corporate pilot who flew biz jets and various other types of aircraft. One of the clients he flew was Orville Redenbacker, so we ate a lot of gormet popcorn growing up.
When Grumpy (Grandfather) wasn't off somewhere flying he worked for the railroad as a yard dispatcher. Plus in between jobs he was an avid fisherman and hunter.
Now its interesting that although Grumpy did a lot of really cool things we didn't see him in that light. As children, we would set "traps" when we stayed at Grandfathers house in an attempt to catch him when he came home late at night.
What I find interesting today is that I have become very much like Grumpy. In fact, in ways I am exactly like Grumpy. One way I emulated him was I became an avid hunter and fisherman. I spent many years hunting from my scooter, jeep, and truck. Hours of looking at hillside for my prey. Our children grew up on wild game Deer, Elk, Moose and Antelope.
Starring at those hillsides gave me lots of time to think. Lucky for me I came up with this crazy idea. You see, during hunting season you have basically 2 types of hunters. The die hard full time hunter who hunts until he fills his tag all day wandering the woods. Up the hill, down the hill. Constantly on alert for his prey.
Than the part timers would wander out before day break after a night of partying. Than wait for sunrise. However unlike the full time hunter, the part time hunter would return to camp by 9-9:30 AM and prepare breakfast. After a few more beers and a nap than more beer the part timer would head back into the forest an hour or so before sunset.
One chiily October morning I was pearched next to my truck watching a small meadow with a little pond in the center. The meadow was ringed by old growth pines allowing only about 50 foot of vision into the forest. ET could of landed there and I would never had known.
On this morning the air was cool and crisp. A fog had risen from the pond and floated around the meadow. I had arrived in my spot several hours before sunrise. However by about 10 that morning the smell of bacon, sausage, and other breakfast sorts started drifting thru the air. That Antelope jerky I had been chewing all morning was really starting to lose its appeal. A big ol' breakfast was calling.
But, just as I was thinking of heading back to camp the thought hit me. If I can smell all this breakfast fixings cooking so could the animals. This area was hunted very heavily. It was known for having trophy animals. So many Californian hunters, ( more on this in another post ) flocked to the area. So it would make sense that the animals would know that when that maple flavored aroma filled the morning air, most of the hunters had returned to their camps. Now that may seem strange but at that point I became a semi full time hunter. Instead of leaving for breakfast I opted that day to sit it out. 30 minutes later a young 4 point Elk came walking out of the forest, to the pond. And you know the rest of the story. After that day I never failed to bring home dinner.
It was also the solitude that I enjoyed. I mentioned this before about my long periods of being alone during my 5 hitch hiking trips cross country. As I sat on those cold October mornings I had plenty of time to look back and remember friends and family.
So like Grumpy, I too have a rather "grumpy" attitude as I grow older. But I now know its not grumpyness that both Grandfather and I knew.
Its really to bad that we don't miss people before they are gone...........
Friday, April 25, 2008
New York cops fire 50 rounds into unarmed groom and the judge lets them off? Wow, I think New York is off my "I want to be there list". Heck after 10 or 12 rounds you would of thought the cops would of realized no one was shooting back. How do they say it? "Justice Served"
I think I mentioned this a few post back about going past my African American neighbors garage without saying Hi. Well he yelled out that I was being unsociable and of course I responded that I didn't see him, he was in the shadows. Well I got that look. You know the one I'm talking about. Luckily for me my Scandinavian whiter than white friend who was walking with me quickly defused the whole situation by redirecting the focus on something else.
Anyways, the other day he was telling me how when he and his wife first moved into Yuma years ago they were the first black family in the neighborhood. Than he say's "you know, there goes the neighborhood, type thing".
Somehow I got to get this freedom of speech thing figured out. :0
So, we've been having break ins in the neighborhood. Day light break ins in fact. Ring the door, no one answers kick it in. Generally the area is so depressed here that the economy is the big factor that effects the crime rate. Isn't enough that people are forced to choose between food or gas for their cars , but now have to tend with their personal belongings at risk from thief's.
I've started another blog on a website I joined. It may effect this one, not sure. Sometimes I just have nothing to say anywhere. If in deed it does effect this one I'll drop the other.
Finally, as many of you know I spend a great deal of time alone. Home bound as they say. So I'm thinking for the fun of it getting a Roomba and putting a wig on it. Could be my new friend...........Wonder if Roomba's come with attachments..................
I suspect I'll be getting another email from Mom after that :)
I think I mentioned this a few post back about going past my African American neighbors garage without saying Hi. Well he yelled out that I was being unsociable and of course I responded that I didn't see him, he was in the shadows. Well I got that look. You know the one I'm talking about. Luckily for me my Scandinavian whiter than white friend who was walking with me quickly defused the whole situation by redirecting the focus on something else.
Anyways, the other day he was telling me how when he and his wife first moved into Yuma years ago they were the first black family in the neighborhood. Than he say's "you know, there goes the neighborhood, type thing".
Somehow I got to get this freedom of speech thing figured out. :0
So, we've been having break ins in the neighborhood. Day light break ins in fact. Ring the door, no one answers kick it in. Generally the area is so depressed here that the economy is the big factor that effects the crime rate. Isn't enough that people are forced to choose between food or gas for their cars , but now have to tend with their personal belongings at risk from thief's.
I've started another blog on a website I joined. It may effect this one, not sure. Sometimes I just have nothing to say anywhere. If in deed it does effect this one I'll drop the other.
Finally, as many of you know I spend a great deal of time alone. Home bound as they say. So I'm thinking for the fun of it getting a Roomba and putting a wig on it. Could be my new friend...........Wonder if Roomba's come with attachments..................
I suspect I'll be getting another email from Mom after that :)
Monday, April 21, 2008
Been WII bowling been hitting in the high 100's to low 200's. The other day got a 218!! My shoulder feels really lose and does not hurt nearly as much. The WII is serving the purpose well as planned.
My fragmented memory got me in a tad bit of trouble last time. My mother informed me that there was at no time she considered giving me up, at least until now :) Thanks Mom.
Couple years before my father died we semi reconciled our relationship over a fifth of cheap vodka. Well he drank, I was more the captured participant. Way back when I was in Canterbury Grade School, somewhere between Kinder and Junior High I received a really cool tool box with tools. It was either a Christmas gift or Birthday. Don't remember which. Anyways, one day the tool box and tools went to school with me for show and tell. Don't remember the show and tell part but I do remember recess. Normal recess was me standing against the school wall in the playground watching the other kids play. Artificial limbs were not really designed for fun.
However, this recess I had the tool box and a captive audience. I had dropped down to my butt and was smashing small pea gravel sized stones on my artificial leg with my little hammer. Now that's entertainment. Needless to say a pretty decent size crowd gathered around me as I smashed stones. At one point, I swung up the little hammer to pulverized another stone when I felt the claw side hit something.........Than the scream. Another boy had moved behind me and got struck. Forehead wounds bleed so much. Kid looked like he had been shot. After the initial panic the school nurse, Principal and playground monitor all determined it was an accident. And that was the end of it.
So I thought, until my sister ran into the house and announced that I had hit a kid at school with my hammer on purpose. I kept saying it was an accident but between my sister ( who wasn't present at the scene, and my firm father the little tool box was taken away and never seen again.
So that drunken night I told my father he owed me my tool box. This opened a dialog that resulted in a lesser strained, although still strained relationship. I'm guessing the vodka haze blocked out the tool box and that he still owed it to me.
Actually now that I've typed it out I think the real person who owes me my little wooden tool box is my sister.
Catherin are you reading this??? You owe me a tool box!
I won't be holding my breath on this one.............
My fragmented memory got me in a tad bit of trouble last time. My mother informed me that there was at no time she considered giving me up, at least until now :) Thanks Mom.
Couple years before my father died we semi reconciled our relationship over a fifth of cheap vodka. Well he drank, I was more the captured participant. Way back when I was in Canterbury Grade School, somewhere between Kinder and Junior High I received a really cool tool box with tools. It was either a Christmas gift or Birthday. Don't remember which. Anyways, one day the tool box and tools went to school with me for show and tell. Don't remember the show and tell part but I do remember recess. Normal recess was me standing against the school wall in the playground watching the other kids play. Artificial limbs were not really designed for fun.
However, this recess I had the tool box and a captive audience. I had dropped down to my butt and was smashing small pea gravel sized stones on my artificial leg with my little hammer. Now that's entertainment. Needless to say a pretty decent size crowd gathered around me as I smashed stones. At one point, I swung up the little hammer to pulverized another stone when I felt the claw side hit something.........Than the scream. Another boy had moved behind me and got struck. Forehead wounds bleed so much. Kid looked like he had been shot. After the initial panic the school nurse, Principal and playground monitor all determined it was an accident. And that was the end of it.
So I thought, until my sister ran into the house and announced that I had hit a kid at school with my hammer on purpose. I kept saying it was an accident but between my sister ( who wasn't present at the scene, and my firm father the little tool box was taken away and never seen again.
So that drunken night I told my father he owed me my tool box. This opened a dialog that resulted in a lesser strained, although still strained relationship. I'm guessing the vodka haze blocked out the tool box and that he still owed it to me.
Actually now that I've typed it out I think the real person who owes me my little wooden tool box is my sister.
Catherin are you reading this??? You owe me a tool box!
I won't be holding my breath on this one.............
Friday, April 18, 2008
My sister laughs at us. My wife and I are firm believers that Bird Flu or something is just around the corner. So, we've been stock piling can goods and water. My one corner of the garage looks like a grocery store. Under our bed are more cases of can goods. And sitting in the doorway between kitchen and living room are 4 cases of MRE's.
Of course throughout our married years we've always had lots of food in our home no matter how "poor" we were. This year we're growing our own little "victory garden" We'll have peas, beans, squash, and tomatoes. Probably other veggie matter that I've spaced.
So my sister is laughing because we're running out of room to stock pile our food supplies. Than there is the baby plants to contend with. It can still get a bit chilly at night so many of the yound seedlings are in the house. We've got 56 3 inch tall tomato plants in the bedroom. We're going to be eating a lot of tomato's in the near future.
Actually as the economy continues to decline our stockpiling comes in very handy. Soon I won't be able to buy gas at the rate the prices keep going up. So the stock pile helps to offset the higher gas prices.
Hopefully our preparedness is just an action of our imaginations and not really necessary. And those folks trapped in the dome after Katrina really didn't need food and water............
Of course throughout our married years we've always had lots of food in our home no matter how "poor" we were. This year we're growing our own little "victory garden" We'll have peas, beans, squash, and tomatoes. Probably other veggie matter that I've spaced.
So my sister is laughing because we're running out of room to stock pile our food supplies. Than there is the baby plants to contend with. It can still get a bit chilly at night so many of the yound seedlings are in the house. We've got 56 3 inch tall tomato plants in the bedroom. We're going to be eating a lot of tomato's in the near future.
Actually as the economy continues to decline our stockpiling comes in very handy. Soon I won't be able to buy gas at the rate the prices keep going up. So the stock pile helps to offset the higher gas prices.
Hopefully our preparedness is just an action of our imaginations and not really necessary. And those folks trapped in the dome after Katrina really didn't need food and water............
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
Winds blowing sand everywhere. Yesterday it was 91 degrees, today 87 and 50 mile per hour winds. Strongest winds we ever been in was 100 mph on the Oregon coast. Oregon does not have hurricanes so we just called it "a lot of wind".
Coldest I've ever seen was a Christmas day in upstate Vermont. A bone chilling -56 degrees. Although dangerous, it was neat to hear the frozen snow as we walked on it. You know its cold when your boots don't slip.
There is not much change going on in my life. Soon the full heat of summer will confine me to the indoor air conditioning. Around here it can be and often is 90 plus degrees at 10 at night. Of course after a day of triple digit temps 90 degrees can actually feel pretty nice.
My quest for an outdoor wheelchair apparently has sunk in the muck. The church without so much as a letter gave up. My request here have gone with no response. Even my own family did not respond to my email. You would of thought that a reply would of been the least they could of done. You know, "gee I'd like to help but........" type thing with the obligatory "hope you get it and good luck" ending. Nope, none of my family felt a need to respond.
Well last year I was stuck 7 times in sand in the heat of summer. Lucky for me, strangers had no problems replying to my need of help. Perhaps this year it will be number 8 that gets me. Stuck in sand, no stranger to rely on and 109 degree temps. Probably die out there, but that way the family won't need to worry about replying. Not that I suspect they were that worried/concerned with to begin with.
Oh last week I had a colonoscopy. I'm sure that is not how it is spelled. I fought against this procedure since the mid 90's. However since my Doctor retired, and I wanted to start off on the right foot with the new Doctor I finally agreed. This is a rather humiliating procedure. The night before you get to clean out your system. Once started don't get to far from the toilet. Morning comes and you do it again. This made no sense to me. I had nothing to eat since 8:30 am the morning before. After the night time cleaning out how in the world could there be anything left the next morning? I think the 2nd dose was Doctor revenge. After all, he'll be in the target zone soon :)
I told the receptionist at the time of the procedure that I tried sending in a surrogate asshole but I couldn't catch the cat. The young girl didn't seem to get it. Funny I'm here to get a steel shaft shoved up my you know what and the receptionist has no sense of humor.
The Doctor had the sense of humor. As the Anesthesiologist was making sure I was well doped up the Doctor came in saying: "Hello everybody". Just like Doctor Nick from the Simpsons.
Than all went black.
Memory fragments, Ever have those? Piece of an old memory pops into your head. Not really whole, just a section. Since my earlier years of abuse of alcohol I seem to have lots of these fragments. Most of the time they are not important little tidbits from a drunken haze. But some seem to pop out and hit me like a ton of bricks. One such fragment was of a time when I was very young and my mother leaving me in a hospital. Don't have much to go on, just little fragments of her leaving without saying goodbye. Being visited by my Grandmother Smith who gave me a big orange or red plastic train. Possibly a visit from my father or some male, and finally being taken from the hospital by I think my mother and having to leave the big red or orange train behind.
I think at some point my mother had considered giving me up. Or maybe she's planning on that now?
Later in life came the tonsils and adenoids. We had an ice cream party the night before. Must of been 8-10 of us kids in the hospital room for the procedure. The next morning, as we all played the nurses would come in and remove a child. A few minutes later the child would return but very quickly fall asleep. Being my young mind was as sharp as a baseball bat I just knew they were killing us kids! When I got my shot I fought against the drug. Even as they put the mask on me in the operating room I fought them. I was told to count backwards from ten. Not only did I cunt backwards from ten but back up eight. Don't remember much after that must I must of won cause I'm still here.............
Coldest I've ever seen was a Christmas day in upstate Vermont. A bone chilling -56 degrees. Although dangerous, it was neat to hear the frozen snow as we walked on it. You know its cold when your boots don't slip.
There is not much change going on in my life. Soon the full heat of summer will confine me to the indoor air conditioning. Around here it can be and often is 90 plus degrees at 10 at night. Of course after a day of triple digit temps 90 degrees can actually feel pretty nice.
My quest for an outdoor wheelchair apparently has sunk in the muck. The church without so much as a letter gave up. My request here have gone with no response. Even my own family did not respond to my email. You would of thought that a reply would of been the least they could of done. You know, "gee I'd like to help but........" type thing with the obligatory "hope you get it and good luck" ending. Nope, none of my family felt a need to respond.
Well last year I was stuck 7 times in sand in the heat of summer. Lucky for me, strangers had no problems replying to my need of help. Perhaps this year it will be number 8 that gets me. Stuck in sand, no stranger to rely on and 109 degree temps. Probably die out there, but that way the family won't need to worry about replying. Not that I suspect they were that worried/concerned with to begin with.
Oh last week I had a colonoscopy. I'm sure that is not how it is spelled. I fought against this procedure since the mid 90's. However since my Doctor retired, and I wanted to start off on the right foot with the new Doctor I finally agreed. This is a rather humiliating procedure. The night before you get to clean out your system. Once started don't get to far from the toilet. Morning comes and you do it again. This made no sense to me. I had nothing to eat since 8:30 am the morning before. After the night time cleaning out how in the world could there be anything left the next morning? I think the 2nd dose was Doctor revenge. After all, he'll be in the target zone soon :)
I told the receptionist at the time of the procedure that I tried sending in a surrogate asshole but I couldn't catch the cat. The young girl didn't seem to get it. Funny I'm here to get a steel shaft shoved up my you know what and the receptionist has no sense of humor.
The Doctor had the sense of humor. As the Anesthesiologist was making sure I was well doped up the Doctor came in saying: "Hello everybody". Just like Doctor Nick from the Simpsons.
Than all went black.
Memory fragments, Ever have those? Piece of an old memory pops into your head. Not really whole, just a section. Since my earlier years of abuse of alcohol I seem to have lots of these fragments. Most of the time they are not important little tidbits from a drunken haze. But some seem to pop out and hit me like a ton of bricks. One such fragment was of a time when I was very young and my mother leaving me in a hospital. Don't have much to go on, just little fragments of her leaving without saying goodbye. Being visited by my Grandmother Smith who gave me a big orange or red plastic train. Possibly a visit from my father or some male, and finally being taken from the hospital by I think my mother and having to leave the big red or orange train behind.
I think at some point my mother had considered giving me up. Or maybe she's planning on that now?
Later in life came the tonsils and adenoids. We had an ice cream party the night before. Must of been 8-10 of us kids in the hospital room for the procedure. The next morning, as we all played the nurses would come in and remove a child. A few minutes later the child would return but very quickly fall asleep. Being my young mind was as sharp as a baseball bat I just knew they were killing us kids! When I got my shot I fought against the drug. Even as they put the mask on me in the operating room I fought them. I was told to count backwards from ten. Not only did I cunt backwards from ten but back up eight. Don't remember much after that must I must of won cause I'm still here.............
Wednesday, April 9, 2008
Wii, would like to play. I've never been much into games on the computer or those over priced game boxes like Xbox or the PS2. They all seemed like a really big waste of money to me. But, about 3-4 years back give or take we were meeting with our Grandson's teacher and talking about his fine motor skills and the under development effecting his writing.
So I came up with this idea of getting him an Xbox to work those skills. My wife, in her usual education first fun much later attitude was leaning in the area of more hand writing practice. Fortunately for our Grandson I won the debate this time. And yes the motor skills and handwriting did improve. Also his story retention and problem solving skills developed. Plus he flies a pretty mean UFO.
So there I was sitting as usual in my wheelchair the other day staring at the hand weights I'm supposed to be using to exercise my shoulder thinking I should blow the dust off to make them look like I've used them. Lifting weights over and over is kind of like Dr. Phil. They are both boring and over stated. We could use the city pools but that requires effort and gas to get there. Plus generally during the school year the public pools in the day time are filled with either over weight women or old wrinkled ladies. To much for my eyes and feeble mental abilities to handle.
So I started reading up on the Wii. Way before Christmas I thought, Hey, this could be fun plus good for my shoulder. 6 months later and lots of saved pennies we bought one.
So far it has been good for my shoulder. In fact I hear a bowling game therapy session calling...........................................
So I came up with this idea of getting him an Xbox to work those skills. My wife, in her usual education first fun much later attitude was leaning in the area of more hand writing practice. Fortunately for our Grandson I won the debate this time. And yes the motor skills and handwriting did improve. Also his story retention and problem solving skills developed. Plus he flies a pretty mean UFO.
So there I was sitting as usual in my wheelchair the other day staring at the hand weights I'm supposed to be using to exercise my shoulder thinking I should blow the dust off to make them look like I've used them. Lifting weights over and over is kind of like Dr. Phil. They are both boring and over stated. We could use the city pools but that requires effort and gas to get there. Plus generally during the school year the public pools in the day time are filled with either over weight women or old wrinkled ladies. To much for my eyes and feeble mental abilities to handle.
So I started reading up on the Wii. Way before Christmas I thought, Hey, this could be fun plus good for my shoulder. 6 months later and lots of saved pennies we bought one.
So far it has been good for my shoulder. In fact I hear a bowling game therapy session calling...........................................
Monday, March 31, 2008
I'm not getting a economic stimulus check from the IRS. Now don't get me wrong or anything like that. I did receive one of those letters the IRS spent $42 million on to tell me that I won't get a check unless I fulfill the requirements. Heck I didn't even know the IRS had my name and address.
There is no such thing as free someone use to say. Somehow I get the feeling this is one of those cases. Supposedly, if I file married with 1 child I'd be getting about $900 in stimulus payment. Now that would be nice. Of course my wife would want to do something practical like pay bills or save it for a rainy day. Ideas of new laptops, big screen LCD TV's or Wii's just are not part of her vocabulary. Nor would you see us on that Disney vacation trip we've never planned. No the money would definitely go to the practical side.
Which would not be bad for us. But let me explain. As I understand it the tax relief check really is not a tax relief check. In fact what it really is, is a 1 year interest free loan from Uncle Sam. With only one payment due. And to make it easier for you Uncle Sam will take that one payment from your next years tax rebate! Or simply put an advance on next years vacation, big screen, whatever tax refund. Sure going to be a lot of PO'ed folks next spring.
Nothing like Uncle Sam using false credit to try to fix the economy.
And back to me. I won't apply. Not that I couldn't use it. Plus in our case we're not expecting a refund next year so it would not be a pay back deal. However the $900 would be counted as income when my Medicare renewal comes due. That would put me $860 over the State limit. I'd loose thousands of dollars in Medicare benefits.
Nothing fixed here...........
There is no such thing as free someone use to say. Somehow I get the feeling this is one of those cases. Supposedly, if I file married with 1 child I'd be getting about $900 in stimulus payment. Now that would be nice. Of course my wife would want to do something practical like pay bills or save it for a rainy day. Ideas of new laptops, big screen LCD TV's or Wii's just are not part of her vocabulary. Nor would you see us on that Disney vacation trip we've never planned. No the money would definitely go to the practical side.
Which would not be bad for us. But let me explain. As I understand it the tax relief check really is not a tax relief check. In fact what it really is, is a 1 year interest free loan from Uncle Sam. With only one payment due. And to make it easier for you Uncle Sam will take that one payment from your next years tax rebate! Or simply put an advance on next years vacation, big screen, whatever tax refund. Sure going to be a lot of PO'ed folks next spring.
Nothing like Uncle Sam using false credit to try to fix the economy.
And back to me. I won't apply. Not that I couldn't use it. Plus in our case we're not expecting a refund next year so it would not be a pay back deal. However the $900 would be counted as income when my Medicare renewal comes due. That would put me $860 over the State limit. I'd loose thousands of dollars in Medicare benefits.
Nothing fixed here...........
Monday, March 24, 2008
Memory lane time:
As kids the boys in our family meaning my brothers and I sat with our father on Good Friday and build models. Not sure what my Mother and sisters did but probably something equally entertaining. We would quietly spend the afternoon building models and I suspect we were suppose to reflect on what the crucifixion meant to us.
I don't know what my brothers reflected on, but I was reflecting on building the model without getting glue or paint on the kitchen table.
Except for the 8 baskets and going to church on Easter morning, I do not remember much about Easter at our house. I do remember church on Easter with all the flowers. The air was crisp cool and fresh. Spring/Easter signaled that winter was finally over and we'd soon be out playing. Even more importantly summer and the end of school were not that far away.
Its hard to create traditions. This year for example, instead of candy in a basket we had a shiny new wheelbarrow full of goodies. The night before our adopted military family stopped in and gave our Grandson a big basket full of goodies. We had our 98 year old friend join us for Easter dinner who immediately told me to shave, which I did. She reminded me of my Great Grandmother.
For those of you wondering: "As they approached the tomb they could see that the great stone that had blocked the entrance had been moved to the side". There were no rabbit droppings mentioned.
Happy Easter
As kids the boys in our family meaning my brothers and I sat with our father on Good Friday and build models. Not sure what my Mother and sisters did but probably something equally entertaining. We would quietly spend the afternoon building models and I suspect we were suppose to reflect on what the crucifixion meant to us.
I don't know what my brothers reflected on, but I was reflecting on building the model without getting glue or paint on the kitchen table.
Except for the 8 baskets and going to church on Easter morning, I do not remember much about Easter at our house. I do remember church on Easter with all the flowers. The air was crisp cool and fresh. Spring/Easter signaled that winter was finally over and we'd soon be out playing. Even more importantly summer and the end of school were not that far away.
Its hard to create traditions. This year for example, instead of candy in a basket we had a shiny new wheelbarrow full of goodies. The night before our adopted military family stopped in and gave our Grandson a big basket full of goodies. We had our 98 year old friend join us for Easter dinner who immediately told me to shave, which I did. She reminded me of my Great Grandmother.
For those of you wondering: "As they approached the tomb they could see that the great stone that had blocked the entrance had been moved to the side". There were no rabbit droppings mentioned.
Happy Easter
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
The guy across the street is a rather loud insurance agent who bragged about how he and his wife " bar hopped " across country on their last vacation. I don't associate much with him, same with Real Estate folks. There is something about the personalities that just turns me off.
However as long as these folks are white it is a choice I make. But if they are not white, than it becomes a matter of being racist. Even though my reasons for not wanting to associate have not changed. Why is that?
Why is it that white people are not allowed to choose who they wish to associate with? Or better yet, what is it that non white folks hold over white folks that scares us into thinking we'll be called racist for not wanting to associate? As far as I am aware there was no slave ownership in my family history so I owe no apologies to any non white people. Come to think of it our family was not here during the abuses of the Native Americans so I owe no apologies there either.
But if I don't wish to associate with certain groups of people, somehow this translates into me being a racist.
For the record I don't associate with a lot of people. White black purple green yellow I don't care. I associate with who I want to.
Next I'll be told I'm a racist because I started that last sentence with "white".
Next time " Picking toe nails in public, is that racist "?
However as long as these folks are white it is a choice I make. But if they are not white, than it becomes a matter of being racist. Even though my reasons for not wanting to associate have not changed. Why is that?
Why is it that white people are not allowed to choose who they wish to associate with? Or better yet, what is it that non white folks hold over white folks that scares us into thinking we'll be called racist for not wanting to associate? As far as I am aware there was no slave ownership in my family history so I owe no apologies to any non white people. Come to think of it our family was not here during the abuses of the Native Americans so I owe no apologies there either.
But if I don't wish to associate with certain groups of people, somehow this translates into me being a racist.
For the record I don't associate with a lot of people. White black purple green yellow I don't care. I associate with who I want to.
Next I'll be told I'm a racist because I started that last sentence with "white".
Next time " Picking toe nails in public, is that racist "?
Sunday, March 16, 2008
Monday, March 10, 2008
A LITTLE GUN HISTORY
In 1929, the Soviet Union established gun control. From 1929 to 1953,
about 20 million dissidents, unable to defend themselves, were rounded
up and exterminated
------------------------------
In 1911, Turkey established gun control. From 1915 to 1917, 1.5 million
Armenians, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and
exterminated.
------------------------------
Germany established gun control in 1938 and from 1939 to 1945, a total
of
13 million Jews and others who were unable to defend themselves were
rounded up and exterminated.
------------------------------
ThChina established gun control in 1935. From 1948 to 1952, 20 million
political dissidents, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and
exterminated.
------------------------------
Guatemala established gun control in 1964. From 1964 to 1 981, 100,000
Mayan Indians, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and
exterminated.
------------------------------
Uganda established gun control in 1970. >From 1971 to 1979, 300,000
Christians, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and
exterminated.
------------------------------
Cambodia established gun control in 1956. From 1975 to 1977, one million
educated people, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and
exterminated.
-----------------------------
Defenseless people rounded up and exterminated in the 20th Century
because of gun control: 56 million.
------------------------------
It has now been 12 months since gun owners in Australia were forced by
new law to surrender (involuntary buy back) 640,381 personal firearms to
be destroyed by their own government, a program costing Australia
taxpayers more than $500 million dollars. The first year results are now
in: List of 7 items:
Australia-wide, homicides are up 3.2 percent.
Australia-wide, assaults are up 8.6 percent.
Australia-wide, armed robberies are up 44 percent (yes, 44 percent)!
In the state of Victoria alone, homicides with firearms are now up 300
percent. Note that while the law-abiding citizens turned them in, the
criminals did not, and criminals still possess their guns!
While figures over the previous 25 years showed a steady decrease in
armed robbery with firearms, this has changed drastically upward in the
past 12 months, since criminals now are guaranteed that their prey is
unarmed.
There has also been a dramatic increase in break-ins and assaults of the
ELDERLY.
Australian politicians are at a loss to explain how public safety has
decreased, after such monumental effort and expense was expended in
successfully ridding Australian society of guns. The Australian
experience and the other historical facts above prove it.
You won't see this data on the US evening news, or hear politicians
disseminating this information.
Guns in the hands of honest citizens save lives and property and, yes,
gun-control laws adversely affect only the law-abiding citizens.
Take note my fellow Americans, before it's too late!
e next time someone talks in favor of gun control, please remind them
of this history lesson.
With guns, we are 'citizens'.
Without them, we are 'subjects'.
During WWII the Japanese decided not to invade America because they knew
most Americans were ARMED!
We are about to vote in a new President. Is your choice pro or con?
I don't usually cut and paste but this arrived in my email the other day. I read it, didn't think much about it until an idiot commented that all the examples were from dictatorships.
How stupid can we Americans get? Do we honestly believe that our system of government will protect us? The same Government that illegally spies on Americans and tortures people? A President who has declared himself the "Great Decider"?
Now is the time to not trust the Government. They have taken away so much from us already. In reality, my writing here is in violation of the Patriot Act! That's right, while we slept freedom of speech was taken away.
Just remember it can and is happening right here.
In 1929, the Soviet Union established gun control. From 1929 to 1953,
about 20 million dissidents, unable to defend themselves, were rounded
up and exterminated
------------------------------
In 1911, Turkey established gun control. From 1915 to 1917, 1.5 million
Armenians, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and
exterminated.
------------------------------
Germany established gun control in 1938 and from 1939 to 1945, a total
of
13 million Jews and others who were unable to defend themselves were
rounded up and exterminated.
------------------------------
ThChina established gun control in 1935. From 1948 to 1952, 20 million
political dissidents, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and
exterminated.
------------------------------
Guatemala established gun control in 1964. From 1964 to 1 981, 100,000
Mayan Indians, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and
exterminated.
------------------------------
Uganda established gun control in 1970. >From 1971 to 1979, 300,000
Christians, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and
exterminated.
------------------------------
Cambodia established gun control in 1956. From 1975 to 1977, one million
educated people, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and
exterminated.
-----------------------------
Defenseless people rounded up and exterminated in the 20th Century
because of gun control: 56 million.
------------------------------
It has now been 12 months since gun owners in Australia were forced by
new law to surrender (involuntary buy back) 640,381 personal firearms to
be destroyed by their own government, a program costing Australia
taxpayers more than $500 million dollars. The first year results are now
in: List of 7 items:
Australia-wide, homicides are up 3.2 percent.
Australia-wide, assaults are up 8.6 percent.
Australia-wide, armed robberies are up 44 percent (yes, 44 percent)!
In the state of Victoria alone, homicides with firearms are now up 300
percent. Note that while the law-abiding citizens turned them in, the
criminals did not, and criminals still possess their guns!
While figures over the previous 25 years showed a steady decrease in
armed robbery with firearms, this has changed drastically upward in the
past 12 months, since criminals now are guaranteed that their prey is
unarmed.
There has also been a dramatic increase in break-ins and assaults of the
ELDERLY.
Australian politicians are at a loss to explain how public safety has
decreased, after such monumental effort and expense was expended in
successfully ridding Australian society of guns. The Australian
experience and the other historical facts above prove it.
You won't see this data on the US evening news, or hear politicians
disseminating this information.
Guns in the hands of honest citizens save lives and property and, yes,
gun-control laws adversely affect only the law-abiding citizens.
Take note my fellow Americans, before it's too late!
e next time someone talks in favor of gun control, please remind them
of this history lesson.
With guns, we are 'citizens'.
Without them, we are 'subjects'.
During WWII the Japanese decided not to invade America because they knew
most Americans were ARMED!
We are about to vote in a new President. Is your choice pro or con?
I don't usually cut and paste but this arrived in my email the other day. I read it, didn't think much about it until an idiot commented that all the examples were from dictatorships.
How stupid can we Americans get? Do we honestly believe that our system of government will protect us? The same Government that illegally spies on Americans and tortures people? A President who has declared himself the "Great Decider"?
Now is the time to not trust the Government. They have taken away so much from us already. In reality, my writing here is in violation of the Patriot Act! That's right, while we slept freedom of speech was taken away.
Just remember it can and is happening right here.
Friday, March 7, 2008
Well the part for the ramps been ordered. Now its back to waiting. I'm good at that. Summer left, winter returned. This area is very confused. I am looking towards the day that my freedom will be returned to me. Its been a year since I became homebound and I'm thinking it wasn't the best plan for me physically or mentally.
Actually mentally it should not have been that bad. While hitch hiking across the country 5 times coast to coast I spent many an hour alone on the side of some deserted road in the middle of nowhere. Learn to tolerate your own company and you learn to tolerate others I think. Something like that.
Reminds me of a time I was traveling from Maine back to Vermont. I had become friends with a full fledged card carrying witch in Maine that I had gone to visit for a weekend. By this time I had given up on the artificial limbs and traveled as a 3 foot tall person. It was late at night, still about 6 hours from my home in Vermont. I often carried a large black trash bag in case of rain. On this night indeed it started sprinkling. Realizing that I wasn't getting far I walked off to the side of the road, pulled out the trash bag and crawled inside. Several hours later the rain stopped and I could hear a car heading down the road. I crawled out of the bag and stuck out my thumb.
The driver was drunk!! He opened the passenger door and said "stand up". I said I am standing. He said it again. We went round and round with the stand up routine each time the driver getting louder and louder. Finally after him saying if I wanted a ride I needed to stand up I replied "I am standing in a hole".
He said "Oh, well than get in". About 15 miles of drunk driving later I got out. It was safer sleeping in my trash bag on the side of the road, than riding with a drunk.
Next morning I got a ride to my doorstep.
Last night my daughter informed us that she is getting married on October 31. Gives us 7 months to get use to the idea.............
Actually mentally it should not have been that bad. While hitch hiking across the country 5 times coast to coast I spent many an hour alone on the side of some deserted road in the middle of nowhere. Learn to tolerate your own company and you learn to tolerate others I think. Something like that.
Reminds me of a time I was traveling from Maine back to Vermont. I had become friends with a full fledged card carrying witch in Maine that I had gone to visit for a weekend. By this time I had given up on the artificial limbs and traveled as a 3 foot tall person. It was late at night, still about 6 hours from my home in Vermont. I often carried a large black trash bag in case of rain. On this night indeed it started sprinkling. Realizing that I wasn't getting far I walked off to the side of the road, pulled out the trash bag and crawled inside. Several hours later the rain stopped and I could hear a car heading down the road. I crawled out of the bag and stuck out my thumb.
The driver was drunk!! He opened the passenger door and said "stand up". I said I am standing. He said it again. We went round and round with the stand up routine each time the driver getting louder and louder. Finally after him saying if I wanted a ride I needed to stand up I replied "I am standing in a hole".
He said "Oh, well than get in". About 15 miles of drunk driving later I got out. It was safer sleeping in my trash bag on the side of the road, than riding with a drunk.
Next morning I got a ride to my doorstep.
Last night my daughter informed us that she is getting married on October 31. Gives us 7 months to get use to the idea.............
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Sorry been tied up with a few projects ad forgot to write. Actually could of sworn it was just yesterday that I updated not 10 days ago.
Its been touch and go but I finally have improved on my transportation woes to some extent. I know own a 2000 Chrysler Grand Voyager with all the bells and whistles. The vehicle was not in the best of conditions with none of the "gimp" parts working. We have managed to get most up and running but the gear box for the ramp was totally trashed. We'll need to check on parts availability.
Winter seems to be pretty much over here with our temps warming up to the mid 70's. Not looking forward to summers heat.
Its been touch and go but I finally have improved on my transportation woes to some extent. I know own a 2000 Chrysler Grand Voyager with all the bells and whistles. The vehicle was not in the best of conditions with none of the "gimp" parts working. We have managed to get most up and running but the gear box for the ramp was totally trashed. We'll need to check on parts availability.
Winter seems to be pretty much over here with our temps warming up to the mid 70's. Not looking forward to summers heat.
Sunday, February 17, 2008
Daytona Sunday Good way to blow off a couple hours. Purr of the motors as they go round and round. Hey when did Toyota get into Nascar?
So I'm watching How it's Made or the other one that's a rip off of the How it's Made show last week. They went to the Jelly Belly factory to see how Jelly Bellies are made. Now I like Jelly Bellies but unfortunately they are way way out of my price range. So I was really excited to hear that the rejects called Belly Flops can be purchased for less money. Look out Ebay, here I come!!!
8 pounds at $2 per pound. Now that was a deal.
Looks like winter is over even though the other day we did get an inch of snow. Won't be long before I'll be dying of those triple digit temps of summer. I am so not looking for those days.
$60 million to shoot that defective spy satellite down. Hmm, you think Uncle Sam may be a little concerned about law suits? I bet Attorney's are all ready lining up people. They say they will use a modified anti missile missile to take out that satellite. Makes you wonder what the modification is?
And finally lets hope that the modified missle is not one of those Patriot missiles with the bad score card.
Lawyers, start your filings.......................
So I'm watching How it's Made or the other one that's a rip off of the How it's Made show last week. They went to the Jelly Belly factory to see how Jelly Bellies are made. Now I like Jelly Bellies but unfortunately they are way way out of my price range. So I was really excited to hear that the rejects called Belly Flops can be purchased for less money. Look out Ebay, here I come!!!
8 pounds at $2 per pound. Now that was a deal.
Looks like winter is over even though the other day we did get an inch of snow. Won't be long before I'll be dying of those triple digit temps of summer. I am so not looking for those days.
$60 million to shoot that defective spy satellite down. Hmm, you think Uncle Sam may be a little concerned about law suits? I bet Attorney's are all ready lining up people. They say they will use a modified anti missile missile to take out that satellite. Makes you wonder what the modification is?
And finally lets hope that the modified missle is not one of those Patriot missiles with the bad score card.
Lawyers, start your filings.......................
Monday, February 11, 2008
When I was young that is way young, I use to get these invisible pains. Now way back then I figured with my logic that the solution to these invisible pains was to take a knife and cut out the offending part. Remember I was born missing parts, so it was logical to conclude a few more wasn't going to hurt anything. Plus in my young mind that invisible pain would be taken care of.
Lucky for me my parents didn't allow me to play with knives.
My sister the nurse, who has been a nurse for a very long time seems to have forgotten what she has learned over the years. Every time I ask her a question about some medical topic she gives me a bunch of non sense. Never really giving an answer.
A few years back the Doctors had to put a shunt in her head to control inter cranial pressure ( Learned that from House ) Wonder if her education leaked out there with the fluids?
We've got a problem with one of the fish. It can't swim very well. Most of the day it is on the surface of the tank. It tries to swim downward but it is such a struggle that it can only swim down a couple of inches before it ends up floating back up. However, by mid day it will be swimming at the half way point but on its side with a half moon curl to its body. Than by night its sitting on the bottom not moving.
This has been going on now for a couple weeks. I thought it was swim bladder infection but this is just weird. Another weird thing is Pale Ryder is starting to get some color. Ever since he ate the dead snail he's gotten some orange patches to him. Just goes to show you are what you eat.
Wonder if he'll start humping the other fish like the snails use to do?
Lucky for me my parents didn't allow me to play with knives.
My sister the nurse, who has been a nurse for a very long time seems to have forgotten what she has learned over the years. Every time I ask her a question about some medical topic she gives me a bunch of non sense. Never really giving an answer.
A few years back the Doctors had to put a shunt in her head to control inter cranial pressure ( Learned that from House ) Wonder if her education leaked out there with the fluids?
We've got a problem with one of the fish. It can't swim very well. Most of the day it is on the surface of the tank. It tries to swim downward but it is such a struggle that it can only swim down a couple of inches before it ends up floating back up. However, by mid day it will be swimming at the half way point but on its side with a half moon curl to its body. Than by night its sitting on the bottom not moving.
This has been going on now for a couple weeks. I thought it was swim bladder infection but this is just weird. Another weird thing is Pale Ryder is starting to get some color. Ever since he ate the dead snail he's gotten some orange patches to him. Just goes to show you are what you eat.
Wonder if he'll start humping the other fish like the snails use to do?
Wednesday, February 6, 2008
Opinions, obviously I have mine. Heck we all have them. What gets me is why people would ask for another person's opinion. As you can see on the blog here I've got some pretty strong opinions. Country has gone down hill, Bush and his war crimes, and on and on. My wife will ask me which way we should go in the car. Now I'm not afraid to respond to such questions but inevitably it always ends up in some low key stupid argument. When I respond to the question " which way ", I consider the possibilities and than offer my opinion. Will we be turning left or right? Do we have to pull into high speed traffic? Pull out against traffic? These types of things. Than I look at the age of our van, its lack of get up and go, bare tires, leaking oil, and low water in the radiator. Than I consider the driver, over cautious with a somewhat impaired depth perception and poor decision making abilities under stress. So my opinion in these cases is to take the route that minimizes the risks.
Somehow this ends up as an argument with me finally saying " I give up, go the way you want ". So what was the point I've got to ask? Do people ask others for opinions just to argue over them? Once while dining out the waitress started arguing with me. I said " This isn't Coke " To which she replied, " yes it is " Come on I said, there are nothing but Pepsi signs all over the place. Or even better, you order a Coke, they bring you a Pepsi as if your taste buds are not mature enough to tell the difference or you yourself don't have the mental abilities to decide what soda you really want. Opinions, you can't win. Someone somewhere will decide tat your opinion is wrong.
So why do we bother asking? The weird thing about about opinions is as we get older we seem to have more. Plus, they seem to get stronger. Back in my younger days Presidents, Congress and such mean't nothing to me. I could care less what they were up to. Not today. The other weird thing about getting older is even though our opinions get stronger our real desire to do something about something becomes less. But our desire to tell folks is more.
We lost the other snail yesterday. Wonder if it had anything to do with lack of sex? I'm forming an opinion here so get in line if you want to argue with me.
Somehow this ends up as an argument with me finally saying " I give up, go the way you want ". So what was the point I've got to ask? Do people ask others for opinions just to argue over them? Once while dining out the waitress started arguing with me. I said " This isn't Coke " To which she replied, " yes it is " Come on I said, there are nothing but Pepsi signs all over the place. Or even better, you order a Coke, they bring you a Pepsi as if your taste buds are not mature enough to tell the difference or you yourself don't have the mental abilities to decide what soda you really want. Opinions, you can't win. Someone somewhere will decide tat your opinion is wrong.
So why do we bother asking? The weird thing about about opinions is as we get older we seem to have more. Plus, they seem to get stronger. Back in my younger days Presidents, Congress and such mean't nothing to me. I could care less what they were up to. Not today. The other weird thing about getting older is even though our opinions get stronger our real desire to do something about something becomes less. But our desire to tell folks is more.
We lost the other snail yesterday. Wonder if it had anything to do with lack of sex? I'm forming an opinion here so get in line if you want to argue with me.
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
I had a cell phone for years. Way back in the 80's when they were really big and heavy. We use to call them bricks back than. Than from about 2004 - 2006 we went without cell phones. Got some pretty strange looks those 2 years. Than we went back to cell phones with a vengeance I must say. We now have 3 cell phones. One for me, another for my wife and my daughter has the 3rd. Under the desk is a pay to use phone for our Grandson when we go on trips. We've dumped our land line completely.
Back than the big thing was how at some point everyone would be using cell phones. No need for land lines. Well 20 years later and it looks like the predictions are coming true. Its fun to watch things actually happen.
That was boring. I started this back on 1-29 but kept getting interrupted by friends and family. You know how hard it is to think when IM's pop up on your screen? Seemed like every other sentence I'd get "hey, how do you do.........." or something. So now I keep the IM thingy off till I'm ready to talk.
Big Super Bowl weekend. I don't even know who is playing or worse who is doing half time! I don't do sports. Way back in my dark distant pass I remember being sent off to some summer camp type thing for disabled kids. Bunch of us broken kids running crawling drooling away having fun. Actually the only thing I really remember about that was Boxing. Seems that someone had this idea that if they pick up the gimp, carry him/her toward the other gimp being carried than they could slug it out. How stupid can you get? Shoot let me go I'll pull off the stupid artificial limbs and rip the other kids head off. Who needs to be carried?
As a kid I was very strong. One arm did it all. My mother was hitting me with a coat hanger one time ( like that really hurt ) so I took it away from her. Another time we were wrestling with my father when I rapped my arm around both of his lower legs, lifted him off the ground than simply fell over. Goliath was down!!! I bet that thin carpet was not a very soft landing. Like I said I was strong.
Later in life my daughter used my arm as a "jungle gym" She would run full steam into my arm and do cartwheels while holding on. This would go on for hours it would seem like.
Of course, today many battles and cartwheels later, it hurts just to pick up my arm. Oh well, even Hercules fell at some point............
Back than the big thing was how at some point everyone would be using cell phones. No need for land lines. Well 20 years later and it looks like the predictions are coming true. Its fun to watch things actually happen.
That was boring. I started this back on 1-29 but kept getting interrupted by friends and family. You know how hard it is to think when IM's pop up on your screen? Seemed like every other sentence I'd get "hey, how do you do.........." or something. So now I keep the IM thingy off till I'm ready to talk.
Big Super Bowl weekend. I don't even know who is playing or worse who is doing half time! I don't do sports. Way back in my dark distant pass I remember being sent off to some summer camp type thing for disabled kids. Bunch of us broken kids running crawling drooling away having fun. Actually the only thing I really remember about that was Boxing. Seems that someone had this idea that if they pick up the gimp, carry him/her toward the other gimp being carried than they could slug it out. How stupid can you get? Shoot let me go I'll pull off the stupid artificial limbs and rip the other kids head off. Who needs to be carried?
As a kid I was very strong. One arm did it all. My mother was hitting me with a coat hanger one time ( like that really hurt ) so I took it away from her. Another time we were wrestling with my father when I rapped my arm around both of his lower legs, lifted him off the ground than simply fell over. Goliath was down!!! I bet that thin carpet was not a very soft landing. Like I said I was strong.
Later in life my daughter used my arm as a "jungle gym" She would run full steam into my arm and do cartwheels while holding on. This would go on for hours it would seem like.
Of course, today many battles and cartwheels later, it hurts just to pick up my arm. Oh well, even Hercules fell at some point............
Friday, January 25, 2008
You know I don't think our elected officials, the folks that are suppose to represent us have ever been stimulated by artificial means. Lets look at the economic stimulus proposal. If your gross income falls between $75,000.00 to $150,000 than you can expect a tax rebate check between $600 to $1200 dollars and $300 more per child in household.
OK here is the analogy: If you have a vibrator ( battery operated ) and you place it on top of your head, your scalp gets all tingly. In essence you have been stimulated. Now place that vibrator somewhere else................Well I won't go into that in detail my Mother reads this stuff. Anyways put it somewhere else and you really get stimulated!
Back to our elected officials. They plan to stimulate the scalp of the country. The folks who really don't need a rebate. As for those of us, the other 2/3 of the country who do not make $75,000 a year, the actual loins of the country won't get stimulated at all. How will this help our economy I've got to wonder. After all its hard to be productive if ya can't get it up! Oops, sorry Mom.
UPDATE: By the total lack of response to my plea for help on the Suburban, ( not even a single " geez I'd like to help but I just spent my last change at Starbucks". ) The possibility of getting out of the house has slipped back to dismal.
So, from my prison in the desert............Have a nice day.
OK here is the analogy: If you have a vibrator ( battery operated ) and you place it on top of your head, your scalp gets all tingly. In essence you have been stimulated. Now place that vibrator somewhere else................Well I won't go into that in detail my Mother reads this stuff. Anyways put it somewhere else and you really get stimulated!
Back to our elected officials. They plan to stimulate the scalp of the country. The folks who really don't need a rebate. As for those of us, the other 2/3 of the country who do not make $75,000 a year, the actual loins of the country won't get stimulated at all. How will this help our economy I've got to wonder. After all its hard to be productive if ya can't get it up! Oops, sorry Mom.
UPDATE: By the total lack of response to my plea for help on the Suburban, ( not even a single " geez I'd like to help but I just spent my last change at Starbucks". ) The possibility of getting out of the house has slipped back to dismal.
So, from my prison in the desert............Have a nice day.
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
Couple really quick comments here:
Anonymous posted: something about memories and oh I can't remember. Anyways, I presume anonymous is a family member although I don't remember my mother ever yelling "Anonymous, wait till your father gets home"!!! Must of been the kid that lived in the attic.
So these little tidbits of memory such as Dad blowing up the bird house which actually was a bird feeder sat on the post by the garage, they aren't really retained memories. It just popped into my head. Next day or so I won't have a clue.
Now more importantly and comment #2: I found a 99 suburban in great shape and capable of not only handling my chair but also tow a trailer when our big move comes up. Well you know old home bound boy ain't got the $5700 laying around. Thought about selling myself but I'd be marked down as defective merchandise. Anyways anyone who reads this wants to contribute to the get Dave out of the house cause can PayPal me at dave52355@hotmail.com. If you want to send me a sizable donation since paypal likes to charge for anything over $500 leave a comment here I'll get with you.
And if you don't see me say " I got it, thanks everybody " within 72 hours it means I'm still stuck at home!! Why? Cause you guys failed to come true! :)
See ya................................
Anonymous posted: something about memories and oh I can't remember. Anyways, I presume anonymous is a family member although I don't remember my mother ever yelling "Anonymous, wait till your father gets home"!!! Must of been the kid that lived in the attic.
So these little tidbits of memory such as Dad blowing up the bird house which actually was a bird feeder sat on the post by the garage, they aren't really retained memories. It just popped into my head. Next day or so I won't have a clue.
Now more importantly and comment #2: I found a 99 suburban in great shape and capable of not only handling my chair but also tow a trailer when our big move comes up. Well you know old home bound boy ain't got the $5700 laying around. Thought about selling myself but I'd be marked down as defective merchandise. Anyways anyone who reads this wants to contribute to the get Dave out of the house cause can PayPal me at dave52355@hotmail.com. If you want to send me a sizable donation since paypal likes to charge for anything over $500 leave a comment here I'll get with you.
And if you don't see me say " I got it, thanks everybody " within 72 hours it means I'm still stuck at home!! Why? Cause you guys failed to come true! :)
See ya................................
Monday, January 21, 2008
OK for anyone who actually reads this stuff, it ain't as easy as you think! I'll try to at least post something once every week but there are no guarantees. Besides if your actually reading this stuff, your as bored as I am!
See where Oliver Stone wants to do a movie about our President? And no, just because you didn't vote for him he still is "our" President. The whole idiot package! Anyways, Oliver is looking for someone to play the part of GWB. I have this wicked idea, Why not get GWB to be GWB? His handlers have demonstrated they can control him 80% of the time? Besides soon ( thank God ) he'll be out of a job. Plus, judging by the crooks, yellow bellies ( watched John Wayne the other night ) and cowards now in Congress I don't think GWB has any other plans after his retirement such as standing for war crimes and such. Hell, a bar of soap in his mouth for lying would be a good start.
Oops my Mom told me to watch the language!
OK UFO's Whats the deal? Nobody can take a picture? The one in Texas "Was a mile long, half a mile wide about 300 feet off the ground moved real slow than took off real fast" Them Texan's all drive pickup trucks and know how to take off real fast. However, not a single clear picture from any of them. Yo, get a cellphone dudes! They come with cameras and 1 button operation. That way you can rope a steer and snap that shot of the UFO at the same time!
You know there is a 2 million dollar reward for the first definitive proof such as a clear picture of a UFO. I for one would love to see a UFO. We thought we saw one outside Las Vegas but can't be proven for sure. At the time we were sitting outside Area 51. Coming back from the beach to my Great Grandmothers one night as a child I remember seeing the Lake Michigan monster. Boy it was big!! Than there was the night we were returning from my Grandmother's in the old VW bus with the little oper windows. Half way home I watched a ball of light follow us. It would get dim than bright than dim again. That was the same year Dad blue up the bird house with the fireworks on the 4th.
The fish, yes they still are here, have been doing pretty well. They continue to battle with swim bladder issues that goes around from fish to fish. Very much like Stomach Flu goes from one family member to the next. The other problem seems to be that they like to drink lots of water. Not sure where they put it all ( you would think they pee it out ) but we notice that every couple of days the water level drops about 1/8 of an inch. They drink a lot!! Wonder what would happen if we put one in a glass of beer.
I must be really bored!...................
See where Oliver Stone wants to do a movie about our President? And no, just because you didn't vote for him he still is "our" President. The whole idiot package! Anyways, Oliver is looking for someone to play the part of GWB. I have this wicked idea, Why not get GWB to be GWB? His handlers have demonstrated they can control him 80% of the time? Besides soon ( thank God ) he'll be out of a job. Plus, judging by the crooks, yellow bellies ( watched John Wayne the other night ) and cowards now in Congress I don't think GWB has any other plans after his retirement such as standing for war crimes and such. Hell, a bar of soap in his mouth for lying would be a good start.
Oops my Mom told me to watch the language!
OK UFO's Whats the deal? Nobody can take a picture? The one in Texas "Was a mile long, half a mile wide about 300 feet off the ground moved real slow than took off real fast" Them Texan's all drive pickup trucks and know how to take off real fast. However, not a single clear picture from any of them. Yo, get a cellphone dudes! They come with cameras and 1 button operation. That way you can rope a steer and snap that shot of the UFO at the same time!
You know there is a 2 million dollar reward for the first definitive proof such as a clear picture of a UFO. I for one would love to see a UFO. We thought we saw one outside Las Vegas but can't be proven for sure. At the time we were sitting outside Area 51. Coming back from the beach to my Great Grandmothers one night as a child I remember seeing the Lake Michigan monster. Boy it was big!! Than there was the night we were returning from my Grandmother's in the old VW bus with the little oper windows. Half way home I watched a ball of light follow us. It would get dim than bright than dim again. That was the same year Dad blue up the bird house with the fireworks on the 4th.
The fish, yes they still are here, have been doing pretty well. They continue to battle with swim bladder issues that goes around from fish to fish. Very much like Stomach Flu goes from one family member to the next. The other problem seems to be that they like to drink lots of water. Not sure where they put it all ( you would think they pee it out ) but we notice that every couple of days the water level drops about 1/8 of an inch. They drink a lot!! Wonder what would happen if we put one in a glass of beer.
I must be really bored!...................
Friday, January 18, 2008
So Bush and Congress have the plan to stimulate the economy and keep us from going into a recession. By giving us tax refund checks we'll than cash them and spend them in our local Walmarts making the local stores feel that we're back.
I suspect those who are facing foreclosure on their homes may be thinking of spending those tax refunds somewhere else. Than there's the poor. I suspect the tax refund won't be very much if anything at all. So the economic stimulus package will stimulate the wealthy and not have any effect on the poor.
But wait!! Think about this a little more. We're going into a recession because we were so easily conned by Real Estate professionals, Mortgage Companies and Builders with a false, over inflated housing market boom that was left unmanaged and allowed to turn into the disaster we now have with housing starts at an all time 30 year low. Banks and lending institutions posting record breaking quarterly losses. All due to an overly inflated false market. Plus more Americans being foreclosed on than any other part in our nations history.
So Bush and Company plan to combat the effects of the false housing bubble by stimulating the economy by giving the people a tax rebate. Basically creating a, (notice the word here), "false" sense of security throughout the nation.
I don't know about any of you, but Mom always said "two wrongs do not make a right"................
I suspect those who are facing foreclosure on their homes may be thinking of spending those tax refunds somewhere else. Than there's the poor. I suspect the tax refund won't be very much if anything at all. So the economic stimulus package will stimulate the wealthy and not have any effect on the poor.
But wait!! Think about this a little more. We're going into a recession because we were so easily conned by Real Estate professionals, Mortgage Companies and Builders with a false, over inflated housing market boom that was left unmanaged and allowed to turn into the disaster we now have with housing starts at an all time 30 year low. Banks and lending institutions posting record breaking quarterly losses. All due to an overly inflated false market. Plus more Americans being foreclosed on than any other part in our nations history.
So Bush and Company plan to combat the effects of the false housing bubble by stimulating the economy by giving the people a tax rebate. Basically creating a, (notice the word here), "false" sense of security throughout the nation.
I don't know about any of you, but Mom always said "two wrongs do not make a right"................
Sunday, January 13, 2008
So the laptop went out couple days back. What a bummer. Took me 2 days to get it back up and running. To say its on borrowed time would be an understatement.
I think Bush listens to God about as well as the average teenager listens to their parents. I mean, its like selective hearing. He only hears the "fun" part and does not hear the "clean your room" or "feed the animals" parts of God's comments. Although I don't think God necessarily said "take out the Muslims". He probably mean't "take out the trash" and we know where Bush went with that one. I can't help but wonder if there was no oil in Iraq, would we be there today? Is it constitutionally correct for a President to use US military in a private war? After all in my very unscientific poll no one that I asked had any kind of "tiff" with Iraq. So I was able to deduce that since 100% of those asked had no issues, than it was safe to assume the rest of the country has no issue with Iraq either. Therefor, "we the People" have no reason to have a war with Iraq so it obviously has to be something private between Bush and Iraq.
Besides didn't this all start because somebody ordered airplanes crashed into the towers? And isn't that somebody in Afghanistan? The forgotten war?
Back in 2000 I was calling for the housing bubble to burst. I had no idea it would go 7 more years. It is stupid what has happened. We're thinking of relocating. One of the areas we think we want to explore further is Brattleboro, Vermont. 90 Miles from Boston. Back in 1996 the average new home was $76,000.00. In 2006 a mere 10 years later the average new home cost $200,000 plus. That was one really big bubble! I fail to understand how "We the People" got conned into believing that the $5 board now cost $15 dollars? The lumbar industry is first to say how for every tree they cut down they plant a whole bunch more. Based on their commercials there is no shortage of trees, so we can't blame the price increase on that.
See all those Katrina lawsuits? How about the $3 Quadrillion one? I read if you stacked that many pennies together they would reach Saturn. Now first of all I understand that our politicians have no issue spending money they don't have, but some of those lawsuits you have to wonder? I think the best thing Bush can do is say no to law suits and force settlements of realistic numbers. Lets see, say the persons home value pre-Katrina was $20,000. We know the value of the home from the tax records you protested every year. Now the welfare check wasn't very much so the claim of $2 million for furniture from the Salvation Army is a tad high so we'll settle on $2000. No we won't reimburse you for the LCD TV you "purchased" on the day after the hurricane.
So the average settlement might be around $22000.00. But wait there's the little matter of the $15,000 trailer that you lived in for free and destroyed. We're going to have to deduct for that. Plus we all ready paid you with those FEMA credit cards and food, clothing, water, and medical. Might be that some folks be owing the government if things got looked at closer.
Don't send me email about how those folks suffered. Look at last years disasters around the rest of the country. Anybody else say "take care of me"?
I'll be back!
I think Bush listens to God about as well as the average teenager listens to their parents. I mean, its like selective hearing. He only hears the "fun" part and does not hear the "clean your room" or "feed the animals" parts of God's comments. Although I don't think God necessarily said "take out the Muslims". He probably mean't "take out the trash" and we know where Bush went with that one. I can't help but wonder if there was no oil in Iraq, would we be there today? Is it constitutionally correct for a President to use US military in a private war? After all in my very unscientific poll no one that I asked had any kind of "tiff" with Iraq. So I was able to deduce that since 100% of those asked had no issues, than it was safe to assume the rest of the country has no issue with Iraq either. Therefor, "we the People" have no reason to have a war with Iraq so it obviously has to be something private between Bush and Iraq.
Besides didn't this all start because somebody ordered airplanes crashed into the towers? And isn't that somebody in Afghanistan? The forgotten war?
Back in 2000 I was calling for the housing bubble to burst. I had no idea it would go 7 more years. It is stupid what has happened. We're thinking of relocating. One of the areas we think we want to explore further is Brattleboro, Vermont. 90 Miles from Boston. Back in 1996 the average new home was $76,000.00. In 2006 a mere 10 years later the average new home cost $200,000 plus. That was one really big bubble! I fail to understand how "We the People" got conned into believing that the $5 board now cost $15 dollars? The lumbar industry is first to say how for every tree they cut down they plant a whole bunch more. Based on their commercials there is no shortage of trees, so we can't blame the price increase on that.
See all those Katrina lawsuits? How about the $3 Quadrillion one? I read if you stacked that many pennies together they would reach Saturn. Now first of all I understand that our politicians have no issue spending money they don't have, but some of those lawsuits you have to wonder? I think the best thing Bush can do is say no to law suits and force settlements of realistic numbers. Lets see, say the persons home value pre-Katrina was $20,000. We know the value of the home from the tax records you protested every year. Now the welfare check wasn't very much so the claim of $2 million for furniture from the Salvation Army is a tad high so we'll settle on $2000. No we won't reimburse you for the LCD TV you "purchased" on the day after the hurricane.
So the average settlement might be around $22000.00. But wait there's the little matter of the $15,000 trailer that you lived in for free and destroyed. We're going to have to deduct for that. Plus we all ready paid you with those FEMA credit cards and food, clothing, water, and medical. Might be that some folks be owing the government if things got looked at closer.
Don't send me email about how those folks suffered. Look at last years disasters around the rest of the country. Anybody else say "take care of me"?
I'll be back!
Monday, January 7, 2008
OK, being stuck at home does have its moments. In can be tolerable if setup well. For instance some great people at one of the hi end audio sites helped me set up a really nice sounding stereo system. I'm not talking Emerson here. It is really nice to tune into a cd and really hear what the music sounds like. I can't believe how much I was missing with the old stereo. Its like listening to all new music as I go through my old cd collection. Those guys were/are great!
Than theres the folks who IM me every now and than from around the country. You never know what crazy message may pop up on my screen. I use to partake in this disabled chat group but after 4-5 years I've figured out that I just don't fit in. I just don't have the issues these folks have. Yes, it is true that I've got my big yellow wheelchair, but its the disabled part that just doesn't seem to work. Bottom line is I'm just not disabled enough to consider myself disabled. Yes, I've got the arthritis in the shoulder that has slowed me down. And it is true my carpel tunnel has returned. But its the extra 50 pounds thats really the problem. Drop back to my all time 30 year weight of 135 and I'd be a normal shut in stuck at home :)
Still looking for something I can drive. Folks around here hold on to their vehicles way to long. Been looking around on Craig's list but nothing that I could afford. I'd still like to find a Jeep Wrangler that I could stick an external ramp on the back. That would be ideal for me. Speaking of Craig's List, its a great way to look at an area you may be considering moving to. Look at El Paso, Tx for instance. Go to the free section. People in El Paso give away cardboard boxes. How cool is that? Now go look at Brattleboro, Vt. Again the free section. These folks are giving away piano's! And believe me a piano trumps a cardboard box every time. Its not what is being offered thats important. Its showing the economic state of that area. Since we are looking to move out of the brown desert, this is one handy way to judge an area.
Most of the Christmas stuff has been put away. Next year we will be going with the "Endangered Species Christmas" I want to collect little animals over the year to hang on the tree. No not real animals! So if ya see any little endangered animals in your travels grab us one or two. Not the real ones!!
We've got a cat here now. I know, I said absolutely no cats, but its here. I trained it to come when called. We're working on sit and roll over. Its name is/was Baby which just wouldn't do. So we started calling it Baby Binks because it looks like the cat in the Disney movie Hocus Pokus a Halloween favorite around here. But since we've been talking about moving to the NE and I refuse to call this think Baby, I've taken the liberty to rename and train it. It now responds to Ichabod, or Icky for short. Of course Icky's righful owner will just need to get use to the new name. Perhaps Icky will tell her.
Here Icky, Icky, Icky..........................
Than theres the folks who IM me every now and than from around the country. You never know what crazy message may pop up on my screen. I use to partake in this disabled chat group but after 4-5 years I've figured out that I just don't fit in. I just don't have the issues these folks have. Yes, it is true that I've got my big yellow wheelchair, but its the disabled part that just doesn't seem to work. Bottom line is I'm just not disabled enough to consider myself disabled. Yes, I've got the arthritis in the shoulder that has slowed me down. And it is true my carpel tunnel has returned. But its the extra 50 pounds thats really the problem. Drop back to my all time 30 year weight of 135 and I'd be a normal shut in stuck at home :)
Still looking for something I can drive. Folks around here hold on to their vehicles way to long. Been looking around on Craig's list but nothing that I could afford. I'd still like to find a Jeep Wrangler that I could stick an external ramp on the back. That would be ideal for me. Speaking of Craig's List, its a great way to look at an area you may be considering moving to. Look at El Paso, Tx for instance. Go to the free section. People in El Paso give away cardboard boxes. How cool is that? Now go look at Brattleboro, Vt. Again the free section. These folks are giving away piano's! And believe me a piano trumps a cardboard box every time. Its not what is being offered thats important. Its showing the economic state of that area. Since we are looking to move out of the brown desert, this is one handy way to judge an area.
Most of the Christmas stuff has been put away. Next year we will be going with the "Endangered Species Christmas" I want to collect little animals over the year to hang on the tree. No not real animals! So if ya see any little endangered animals in your travels grab us one or two. Not the real ones!!
We've got a cat here now. I know, I said absolutely no cats, but its here. I trained it to come when called. We're working on sit and roll over. Its name is/was Baby which just wouldn't do. So we started calling it Baby Binks because it looks like the cat in the Disney movie Hocus Pokus a Halloween favorite around here. But since we've been talking about moving to the NE and I refuse to call this think Baby, I've taken the liberty to rename and train it. It now responds to Ichabod, or Icky for short. Of course Icky's righful owner will just need to get use to the new name. Perhaps Icky will tell her.
Here Icky, Icky, Icky..........................
Tuesday, January 1, 2008
Well, its 2008 and things seem pretty much like 2007. I came around the corner just now to find this young girl sneaking around our kitchen. Never met this one before. Startled her when I said Hello, what ya doing? I'm snooping around looking for something to eat was her reply. I don't think I know you I said. She's new was her reply. So I gave her chocolates, and she went off to play.
Feel like one of the American service guys in occupied France during the war. Wonder where she came from?
With an 8 year old grandson in the house you never know whats going to turn up.
We've all been sick so the house is still in a mess from Christmas. My illness started this time December 17th of 2007 and is still here January 1, 2008. Its a carry over. My wife came down with the dreaded stomach flu Christmas Eve. She got it from my daughter who got it from someone at work. Some Christmas gift. We blew off the ham dinner Christmas day, had it 3 days later. New Years, today in fact its Lasagna, Stomach flu or not I'm having dinner!!
Seems the young lady has turned into an opportunist. She was just caught with handfuls of candy going out the garage. Must have a sweet tooth there.
We lost 2 tone yesterday. Noticed day after Christmas that he wasn't moving very much just kind of drifting with the tank currents. Couple days later he was drifting on his side around the tank but still very much alive. Each time he'd bump something he'd go off cork screwing away than back to the side float. After 2 days of side floating we finally decided it was time for burial at sea and pulled him from the tank. To our dismay he still showed signs of life. Oh well,
Adios, two tone
Ever look at that picture on the front page? That yellow thing under me is my wheelchair. See the headrest? For some strange, unknown to me reason the manufacturer has decided that the headrest needed a large bulge of a hard object dead center of the headrest. Apparently these folks in Pennsylvania have decided that those of us with disabilities can't feel anything so a hard protruding object won't bother us. Evidence of this attitude is abundant. The air filled cushion that I sit on doesn't hold air. Manufacturer say's thats normal. Go figure. Of course that cushion replaced the gel filled cushion that wasn't filled with gel. Seems it missed that step in the manufacturing process.
To prevent flats I ride on solid core tires. No shock absorbers on these babies so I suffer from truckers kidney. Ever think a wheelchair be comfortable? Now you know. I could think of a few things that would actually make my chair comfy. A contoured back be nice instead of the flat panel with 1" of padding for a starter.
2008 wonder if anythings going to change.
Bush/Chaney impeached? My prediction, Not unless some other government does it!
Oil Company Profits reduced? My Prediction, Not unless some other government does it!
ET finally exposed? My prediction, You guessed it, Not unless some other government predicts it.
I'll still be poor. Oh well its actually more a state of mind. Most of my family are successful, yet they complain of money issues also. Its the difference between burger and t-bone I guess. Its relative.
The vans got over 200,000 miles on it. Couple days ago it got really cold and froze the radiator. It took 2 days to thaw it out. In the end we ended up renting one of those propane heaters that look and sound like a jet engine. Pointed that baby directly at the frozen motor and a few hours later she was all thawed out.
Glad to see 2008 hasn't changed any of our thought processes. Who else would point a super heated flamed flow of hot air at a engine covered in old oir, gas and other highly combustible items?
Happy New Year...............
Feel like one of the American service guys in occupied France during the war. Wonder where she came from?
With an 8 year old grandson in the house you never know whats going to turn up.
We've all been sick so the house is still in a mess from Christmas. My illness started this time December 17th of 2007 and is still here January 1, 2008. Its a carry over. My wife came down with the dreaded stomach flu Christmas Eve. She got it from my daughter who got it from someone at work. Some Christmas gift. We blew off the ham dinner Christmas day, had it 3 days later. New Years, today in fact its Lasagna, Stomach flu or not I'm having dinner!!
Seems the young lady has turned into an opportunist. She was just caught with handfuls of candy going out the garage. Must have a sweet tooth there.
We lost 2 tone yesterday. Noticed day after Christmas that he wasn't moving very much just kind of drifting with the tank currents. Couple days later he was drifting on his side around the tank but still very much alive. Each time he'd bump something he'd go off cork screwing away than back to the side float. After 2 days of side floating we finally decided it was time for burial at sea and pulled him from the tank. To our dismay he still showed signs of life. Oh well,
Adios, two tone
Ever look at that picture on the front page? That yellow thing under me is my wheelchair. See the headrest? For some strange, unknown to me reason the manufacturer has decided that the headrest needed a large bulge of a hard object dead center of the headrest. Apparently these folks in Pennsylvania have decided that those of us with disabilities can't feel anything so a hard protruding object won't bother us. Evidence of this attitude is abundant. The air filled cushion that I sit on doesn't hold air. Manufacturer say's thats normal. Go figure. Of course that cushion replaced the gel filled cushion that wasn't filled with gel. Seems it missed that step in the manufacturing process.
To prevent flats I ride on solid core tires. No shock absorbers on these babies so I suffer from truckers kidney. Ever think a wheelchair be comfortable? Now you know. I could think of a few things that would actually make my chair comfy. A contoured back be nice instead of the flat panel with 1" of padding for a starter.
2008 wonder if anythings going to change.
Bush/Chaney impeached? My prediction, Not unless some other government does it!
Oil Company Profits reduced? My Prediction, Not unless some other government does it!
ET finally exposed? My prediction, You guessed it, Not unless some other government predicts it.
I'll still be poor. Oh well its actually more a state of mind. Most of my family are successful, yet they complain of money issues also. Its the difference between burger and t-bone I guess. Its relative.
The vans got over 200,000 miles on it. Couple days ago it got really cold and froze the radiator. It took 2 days to thaw it out. In the end we ended up renting one of those propane heaters that look and sound like a jet engine. Pointed that baby directly at the frozen motor and a few hours later she was all thawed out.
Glad to see 2008 hasn't changed any of our thought processes. Who else would point a super heated flamed flow of hot air at a engine covered in old oir, gas and other highly combustible items?
Happy New Year...............
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