I'm A Tinker

Your result for The Pop Culture Archetype Personality Test ...
The Tinker
Ninja, Robot, Punk, Cowboy
Whatever that means.


Here's the link to take the test.
http://www.helloquizzy.com/tests/the-pop-culture-archetype-personality-test

Utah Savage has a post on this test. I wasn't able to find a link on her post, so I googled the test and found it. This is the result of the test that I took.

The Tree

Yesterday we put up the tree. While out on the patio trimming branches and cutting off a couple inches from the butt to prepare it for the tree stand, it didn't feel quite right. Here it was the first day of Winter and I was outside doing this in jeans and a t-shirt. (Today it is cold enough where I will need to wear a shirt and jacket when I got outside.) That had me remembering what Winter is really like. Below are a couple of Winter Scenes.

This picture was taken UP on the tundra 4 years ago give or take a few days. The road grader plowing the driveway belongs to the county road commission. It is one of the few places UP on the tundra where the county will plow private driveways for a fee. We paid for driveway plowing for this Winter even tho nobody is living there because if you get off the list for plowing you won't get back on it. In a couple of years we may be back there and we want to make sure we don't have to plow the driveway ourselves as I have done that in the past and with a small plow on a Jeep it is a hassle.

This picture was taken in the Spring. It was March 23, 1997. That mirror sticking out of the snowdrift is attached to a 1970 Ford pickup. It was parked there for the Winter and looks like it would be awhile before it could be driven again.

'Tis the Season

Except his birthday was in the summer. But the Xianists needed something to celebrate when they stole the Pagan holiday of Winter Solstice.

H/T to YellowdogGranny for the picture from her Stumbles.

Shoe toss at aWol

At Sock and Awe you can play a game by throwing a shoe at aWol. After playing the game you can send it as an e-mail to others so they can have fun too!! I thought maybe I could put the game up as a post, but looks like the link will have to do.

Isn't modern technology wonderful?? It didn't take long for someone to come up with a game and put it on the intratubes.

H/T to WTF is it Now?? for the link!

Coffee Pot

A couple of months back the switch on our coffee pot died. The Old Lady said to go buy a new one which I did. She wanted me to throw out the old one, but because it only needed a switch, I said I'll hang on to it and take it with me next year when I go UP on the tundra again. It was the same model coffee pot as the one in the camp UP on the tundra and I figured it could be fixed if the other one died.

This morning I had to go for a stress test, so I couldn't have any coffee or anything except a little water. The Old Lady turned on the coffee pot as usual and had her coffee before leaving for work. When I got back home and went to have a cup of coffee and something to eat, the coffee in the pot was barely warm even tho the light on the switch was on. I nuked a cup of coffee and later determined that the pot was indeed dead. I put some water in the reservoir and turned it on. It just sat there with the light on and nothing happened. I dug the old pot out of the closet and took the two pots apart to get at the switches. I put the good switch in the pot with a bad switch. Then I put vinegar in the pot and ran that thru to clean it. After I rinse it, it'll be ready to go in the morning. The ironic part is that now I'll throw out the newer coffee pot.

Usually I have good luck with cheap coffee pots. Many years ago we had a pot with a clock and you could program it to turn itself on so the coffee would be ready when you got up. It lasted a couple of years, so when I went looking for a replacement, I got one that only had an off-on switch and it lasted for almost ten years. Not bad for a pot that I paid 6-7 bucks for. I haven't had as good luck with the recent pots, but the one at the camp is still going and I may still get a few more years out it.

Life Is Not A Box of Chocolates

This was sent to me a few months back and today I ran across it again. It gave me a chuckle so I thought I'd post it.

Or you can have ice cream for dessert and the next day sit and holler, "Come on ice cream!!"

ACLU, It's Not Just For Commies

Found this article on the MSNBC website about a Baptist minister that got bailed out of jail by the ACLU of Michigan.

After being convicted and sentenced to probation in 2007 for paying people to vote in a Benton Harbor recall election, Edward Pinkney wrote an article in a small Chicago newspaper saying the judge who handled the case could be punished by God with curses, fever and "extreme burning" unless he changed his ways.

Another judge considered the article a threat and sentenced Pinkney to three to 10 years in prison for violating his probation. Pinkney, who says he's a Baptist minister, and his attorneys say he was only paraphrasing some Bible verses from the book of Deuteronomy.

"The court properly recognized that serious constitutional questions are raised when a minister is thrown in prison for predicting what God might do."

Does this mean the guy has a direct line and can predict what "God" will do?? He is probably as good at predicting as all the other skypilots are. Has anyone actually seen a prediction by a Bible-Banger ever come true?? The guy sounds delusional to me. This shows that the ACLU will work for anyone, no matter how much of a nutjob they are if it looks like there is a case.

Robo Calls

We didn't really have a problem with political robo calls back during the run-up to the election. We have had a problem with robo calls for many months now that have nothing to do with politics. The robo calls I'm talking about are from collection agencies. One of them is from an agency trying to collect for a hospital in Ohio. Another is for GMAC. We don't owe money to any hospital in Ohio and have never had any dealings with GMAC. When the phone rings, if you pick it up you get a recording with no way to talk to a real person to let them know they have the wrong number. I've tried calling the number for the one in Ohio with no luck in actually talking to a person. I have been on hold waiting for the next available person for up to half an hour before giving up and then have left a message that they have to wrong number. Still the calls keep coming, "Hi this is Mandy, give me a call at ..................." How the fuck do they expect to get people to agree to send them money if a person can't get through to a real, live person????????????? I may be a dumb shit from so far back in the sticks that they have to pipe in daylight, but I know enough that when you leave a message to call, have enough people there to answer the phone if they are dumb enough to call you back!!!!!!!!!!!!

Car Ads With Big Red Bows

Last month DCup did a post that mentioned car ads for Lexus, Volvo, Infiniti etc.... Then later she did another post about SUV's and the auto industry bailout. Last week I found a picture that may explain the ads for the high dollar vehicles.

A thought just occured to me. And some people complain when you park a motorcycle in the living room!

My Digital TV Experience

The last post was a video on Digital TV. Thought I'd do a post on my experience with DTV. Back in April I went online and applied for the coupons for converter boxes. About five weeks later I got two coupons that were like credit or ATM cards in the mail. I left one here and took one with me when I went to spend the summer UP on the tundra. I discovered that finding a converter box would not be easy. Not every place that sells electronics were selling them and the ones that were were sold out. After checking several places in person with no success, I phoned around and found a couple of places that had them in stock. At a Pamida store 50 miles away I got a converter box. There was one 10 miles closer, but it cost $20 more. After getting the converter, I hooked it up to my TV as the instructions said and hit channel search. After going through all the channels I got a message that said "no programs found". Next time I went to town I went to the library and got online. I checked the website for the local TV station that we call "With Luck U C TV". They had info on DTV and had a link to a site where I could find the exact compass heading to aim my antenna. Also found out they had been broadcasting in digital for the last four years. After checking to see that my antenna was pointing in the right direction, I hooked up the converter again with the same result. Next year the TV station will increase the power of their signal and add 150 feet to their transmitter tower. To make sure that the converter worked I brought it with me when I returned to the land of Kudzu and tried it. With the little rabbit ears on the little portable TV I was able to get a bunch of channels with the converter box. Of course being only a few miles from the transmitter vs 40 or so miles helps.

Next year when I go back UP on the tundra I will find out if I can get a signal then or maybe I will need a new UHF antenna and a signal amplifier. If that's the case I may have to get along without TV and play tapes in the VCR or listen to the radio and read.

Digital TV

Here is a funny clip on the switch from analog to digital TV.

Nisu or Pulla?

When I was a kid everybody called these Nisu. About a decade ago I learned that they are called Pulla in Finland. Nobody there knows what you mean when you say Nisu because that means wheat in Finnish. Anywho, I've been baking these for a decade now since I got the recipe at the FinnFest in Maine. Who knows, one of these days I may get it right.

Change.Gov

Here is Change.gov ,Obama's website. Here are yesterday's posts.

Thursday, December 4, 2008 3:28 pm EST
American Moment: Fixing our health care system
Since we launched our website, thousands of people have joined the discussion about health care – as well as submitted their stories directly to American Moment. We wanted to share some of those stories in this post. read more...
Thursday, December 4, 2008 2:36 pm EST
Inside the Transition: Health Care
We sat in on a meeting of the Transition's Health Policy Team to introduce you to some of the team's members and give you a feel for how they make decisions -- and Senator Tom Daschle, the leader of the team, sat down to tell us how he plans to tackle health care. read more...

There is too much info there for me to list here.

There has got to be a Silver Lining somewhere in this ShitStorm!

The run-off election is over and Saxby Shameless has won re-election. At this time all I can think of to explain this is that in GA They Likes Their Stupid!!

After thinking about it for a while, I came to the conclusion that there really is a Silver Lining somewhere here. This means that that Quisling Joe Lieberman doesn't have the power to swing things in the Senate. If Shameless had lost and if Franken were to win in Minnesota, in theory that would have given the Dems 60 in their caucus. That would have given Quisling Joe way too much power, he would have been the 60th vote and could have controlled a lot of the agenda in the Senate. Now the Dems have to get several Repukes on their side and if they are smart, they will get one more and not bother with Lieberman.

Someone once said "It is always darkest before it goes totally black"!!

New Post

Last weekend the Kid said that I hadn't done a post on my Journey's and Wanderings in awhile. Well, now there is a new one. I'll have to remember to continue to write about my adventures as a wage-slave.

Atheists in Alabama??

While driving thru Tuscaloosa, AL yesterday, I noticed a license plate with a letter A and then some numbers. I thought, how nice, the Atheists now have a license plate just like the Bible-Bangers do. Some are so proud of their Atheism that they have a flag with the letter A flapping in the breeze on their cars. I have seen the red letter A on some blogs, but seeing it on cars surprised me.

A Colbert Christmas: Willie Nelson Sings

Colbert at Christmas
Colbert Christmas DVD

Green Screen
Bill O'Reilly Interview

Here's a song for the season by Willie. I like the way that even the animals are smoking the sweet weed!!

Advance Voting

Today we went and did our bit by advance voting. After we had voted and were leaving, The Old Lady commented, "If only they could give us a chip to cancel all the ads on TV." This time we were in and out in no time compared to the early voting last month. Even tho they only had half the machines as before, we barely had time to fill out the form before we were in the room where the voting machines were.

Now that the TV's are going digital, the next improvement could be a way to stop the ads after you have voted. Wouldn't that be an incentive for people to get out and vote early!!

Holiday Greetings

Noticed that other blogs are putting up holiday stuff, so here's my bit for the season. This only hits the high points on the holidays. There are some that are missing, but I guess the cartoonist couldn't come up with things to represent Chanuka or Kwanzaa.

Dedicating Songs to a Missing Blog

Today I went looking for a blog that was there yesterday and found that it had been removed. The Future Was Yesterday had posted about his encounters with Texans and Texas. I was going to dedicate a song to him, but seeing as the blog is not there at this time, I'll do it here. The song that came to mind was Asshole From El Paso by Kinky Friedman and the Texas Jewboys. While looking for that song on YouTube I found this song. This song may express what I think Future may think of Tejas. It does contain a few words that shouldn't be used in polite company.

Are You Smarter Than a Politician??

Here is a Civics Quiz.
WASHINGTON (AFP) – US elected officials scored abysmally on a test measuring their civic knowledge, with an average grade of just 44 percent, the group that organized the exam said Thursday.
Ordinary citizens did not fare much better, scoring just 49 percent correct on the 33 exam questions compiled by the Intercollegiate Studies Institute (ISI).

I found a link to the test on the blog; Happy To Be From Iowa. H/T to Mnmom.

This quiz was done by Intercollegiate Studies Institute.

Elected Officials Score Lower than the General Public
Officeholders typically have less civic knowledge than the general public. On average, they score 44%, five percentage points lower than non-officeholders.
Thirty percent of elected officials do not know that “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” are the inalienable rights referred to in the Declaration of Independence
This explains a lot about how our country got as fucked up as it is today. Maybe we need to give politicians a civics test before they can run for office. If you flunk, go home.

Here is a breakdown on how people scored based on education, income, political leanings, church goer or not, etc..........

I got 29 out of 33 for a score of 87.88%. The score by age peaks at 45-64 (the group I'm in) and drops off for 65+. Dementia maybe??

Irish Virus

Found this recently and sent it to several people via e-mail and thought I'd post it here.

Finnish Takeover of Nova Scotia

There is a humorous satire in The Hammer, a Canadian humor and satire site. It is supposedly about how the Finns are taking over Nova Scotia.
"Most of Nova Scotia's Stop signs are now bilingual English/Finnish, yet another example of the creeping Finnish dominance of the Maritime provinces, according to Howard Bigotron of the Anti-Finland League"

"The Anti-Finland League, an obscure yet controversial Toronto-based pressure group which claims a Canadian membership of six, has been lobbying federal, provincial and municipal representatives to curtail the Finnish influence in Canada for 24 years."

"Don't let their dour expression and passive personalities fool you.....These Finns are clearly hellbent on world domination." -Anti-Finland League Maritime Branch Leader Howard Bigotron yesterday in Halifax.

Even non-Finns will find this funny!! H/T to Migrant Tales for the link.

NCLB, Bushevik Profiteers

Here is an article in ProjectCensored.org about NCLB and millions being made by profiteers when schools are struggling without proper funding. Neil Bush (you know, the one involved in the Saving & Loan scandel who would have been put in prison if his daddy hadn't been Pres #41) is one of the profiteers making millions from NCLB. Bill Bennett (the bloated one always on TV talking sanctimoniously about morality) has also profited handsomely from NCLB.

"While the Business Roundtable maintains that the high-stakes tests administered nationwide hold schools accountable to “Adequate Yearly Progress,” NCLB has instead benefited the testing industry in the amount of between $1.9 and $5.3 billion a year. NCLB requires states to produce “interpretive, descriptive, and diagnostic reports,” all of which are provided at a price by members of the industry. Among these are the top four or five players in the textbook market, including the Big Three—McGraw-Hill, Houghton-Mifflin, and Harcourt General—who have, since the passage of NCLB, come to dominate the testing market. Identified by Wall Street analysts in the wake of the 2000 election as “Bush stocks,” all three represent owners like Harold McGraw III, who has longstanding ties to the Bush administration and the lobbying efforts of Sandy Kress.
Other Kress clients, including Ignite! Learning, a company headed by Neil Bush, and K12 Inc., a for-profit enterprise owned by Bill Bennett, tailored themselves to vie for NCLB dollars."

Just imagine if all those billions had actually gone to improve the schools, and not to fatten the wallets of a few profiteers.

Cheney Indicted in Texas

Now this is the best news I have heard since 11/4. Here I had decided that Tejas was hopelessly red, a grand jury goes and indicts Darth Cheney and Abu Gonzales. Life never ceases to amaze me!!

Willacy County is in the Brownsville area.

Now can we please see them do the Perp Walk, Please!!

End of an Error

Here are some of the t-shirts at Betterthanpants.com. A lot of them are politically incorrect but funny. The "paddle faster" one struck me as funny because I'm not that far from where the movie Deliverance took place. I'm tempted to get the 1/20/09 one for myself.

Economic News

This is one of the cartoons on a slideshow from SeattlePI.com . There are 22 in all. I like #2, 3, 4, 13, 17, 21, and 22. They are all good but those are the ones I like best.

EXAS, Whole 'Nother Country

Last March as I was leaving that "Whole 'Nother Country", I stopped to take a picture of this defunct (nldba) store because I liked the name of the store. After Lickskillet, what comes next?? Burnt Tongue maybe?? After taking this picture from across the road, I looked and saw the sign at the border.

I noticed part of it is missing, question is is it the head or the ass that got knocked off??

Snow UP on the Tundra

Last weekend it snowed UP on the tundra and by the time it ended they had a foot of snow. These pictures are from about 30 years ago. Next to the pickup buried in the snowdrift is a '62 Mercury Meteor. The kids were able to walk on the snowdrift up on to the roof of the mobile home.

The dog in the picture is Banjo. She lived outside most of the time. The only time she wanted in

was during thunderstorms. Then she would come in and hide under the kid's bed. One time there was no room under the bed and she went under the couch. I had to lift the couch up so she could get out.

These pictures are typical of what it was like in the middle of Winter back then. This may be what we have to look forward to in the future. The Old Lady says that this is the only place we can afford to retire to. But, hey it's not that bad anymore thanks to global warming!!

The trailer is no longer there, I tore it down a couple of years ago. I may have to build the retirement bunker where it sat.

A Kitty and Puppies

I usually don't go for pictures of cats, but this picture of the kitty with puppies is cute!!

Promotion

You can tell which ones were on the recieving end by the wide smiles.

7 yr Old Smarter Than The Average Bear

This post on Crooks and Liars is about a seven year-old that was blogging for Obama. He has a blog called Report from Planet Stas'. His Kids for Obama: Election Commentary is very insightful:

Here is why I'm asking grown-ups to vote for Barack Obama. I am 7 years old so I can't vote......My mom told me that I shouldn't base my election analysis on "feelings" (I like him/her) or "beliefs" (I share his/her beliefs) but on logical arguments. She asked me to create my own rational explanations for my support of Obama. Here is one of my arguments:
McCain and Palin are not be qualified to be President / Vice President of the U.S. The President's job is to do good for the country and the world. To do good for the country, the President must make smart decisions on important situations.
Governor Palin believes the world is 6000 years old. This is absurd. This is not a rational belief. This is a mistake. Scientists, experiments and evidence have shown this to be completely false. Therefore, she is not rational. If she is not rational, she should not be allowed to be President or Vice President.
Please vote for Barack Obama.

I like in the comments section where someone said; Yes, a seven year-old is smarter than Wolf Blitzer. Then again Wolfie has constipation of the mind and diarrhea of the mouth.

Cindy McPills

There is an article in The National Enquirer about Cindy McPills having an affair with a guy that "a washed-up '80s rock musician"

"A second witness spotted Cindy and her "mystery man" at a Moody Blues concert "passionately kissing and hugging.""I couldn't believe it. I remember thinking, 'Go get a room!'"They kissed and cuddled. While other concertgoers stood up to cheer and sing, Cindy and the guy remained entwined in their seats," the eyewitness said.
The Moody Blues are still doing concerts?? Who knew??

She did cheat with McCain while he was still married to his first wife, so if she is cheating now should come as no surprise.

Why is it that these days to get real news you have to go to The National Enquirer??

That Irish One, O'Bama

Here is an amusing uplifting little ditty!!






It would be fun to watch Bill O' watching this video. How red would his face get and would his head explode??

Damn, it worked. I managed to put a video on my blog.

Obama meetin with a Terrist

Found this post on WTFisitnow and it hit my funny bone. I know Obama said he would meet with no preconditions, but in this case maybe there should have been some!! One that I can think of off the top of my head would be to keep enough distance as to not be in the same picture together. Anyone have any ideas??

Veterans, Who Loves You??

Found a link to BobGeiger.com at Crooks and Liars. Bob Geiger has a very good post on who is on the side of Vets and who only gives them lip service. I have never been able to understand why veteran's groups like the VFW and American Legion always support the Repukes when they never return the favor. In explaining why he voted against a new G.I. Bill, Sen. John Cornyn of TX said:
"I know it is not his intention, but Senator Webb's bill actually would encourage people not to reenlist by providing a perverse incentive to leave early in order to obtain the benefits they would receive after 3 years of service. We need to make sure we encourage continuation of service, retention in the military in the best interests of our All-Volunteer military force."

They make all kinds of fancy speeches on Veteran's Day and on Memorial Day, but when they have a chance to actually help the vets and their families they refuse because they want the troops to stay in the military and continue to put theirs lives at risk with very little in return for their sacrifice.

It was the G.I. Bill that made this country strong after the Big One, WWII. Now if someone can no longer go to war because of their injuries or have decided not to re-enlist because they have enough war, they are basically told by Right-Wing War Mongering SissyHawks to go away, you are no longer of any value to us!!

As a Veteran who served during 'Nam because I was too dumb to go around the lake to go to Canada, this attitude by the RWWMSH really pisses me off!! Especially when I see how many of these SissyHawks (I won't call them Chicken Hawks because that is a fierce little bird that can take on Foghorn Leghorn) had quote, " other priorities in the 60's"!! Sometimes I think we need to go up to each person that votes for these assholes and smack them between the eyes with a 2X4 to get their attention!!

The Big Blue Map

This is a map that I found on Balloon Juice and it shows where in the country people voted more Democratic than in 2004. There is a huge sea of blue on this map. Center right my ass!!!

Any candidate with real intelligence, judgment, and expertise would not support the policies of the Republican party platform, plain and simple. As long as those basic policies remain unchanged, the candidates who will succeed must be able to practice deep denial while acting with full confidence in their righteousness. This means the qualifications to be the GOP nominee are mostly ones of psychological imbalance and theatrical skill. To change that situation, the entire policy agenda of the Republican party would have to change, and that simply isn’t going to happen.

This may explain how the talking heads are just paid whores and the politicians are in it for the power along with the personal enrichment.

Donkey Handing the Elephant His Ass

No words are needed, like the old saying says, a picture is worth a thousand words!!

Just Wondering??

Is it too late for somebody or somebodies to give Cheney and aWol blow jobs so we can Impeach them??????? Talk about your " ultimate sacrifice for your country"!!

Or do we have to wait for someone in another country to do a Pinochet job on them????????

Countdown Calendar

Last Xmas or is it Winter Solstice Celebration, I got a countdown calendar as a present. It started with Jan. 1 this year and goes up to Jan. 20, 2009. Each day in the upper right corner is the number of days left until aWol is out of office. Each day there is an abuse of power or other absurdity committed by the Busheviks!! At first I was pissed, each day it was another insult to me and the country. Recently I noticed that the number was down below 90 and the thought occurred to me that maybe a short calendar would be appropriate.

When I was in the military, when someone reached the magic number of 100 days left in their enlistment or tour in 'Nam they would start a short calendar. Sometimes it would be like a paint-by-number painting with a space to color in each day and when it was finally done it would be a drawing of something, usually female.

Now that the end is getting nearer, my mood is improving i.e., I'm no longer as pissed when I rip off a page to change the date. That doesn't mean that I will ever forgive or forget!!

Coincidence??

This morning when I reached in my t-shirt drawer for a t-shirt to wear, the one that came up in the rotation was one that said, "Winning Is Fun". The shirt has nothing to do with politics. I got the shirt at the Ameristar Casino in Council Bluffs, IA. Several years ago the casino was giving them away free.

Coincidence, serendipity, whatever, it kind of made me chuckle!! There are a lot of things that are making me smile today!!!

Post-Election Thoughts

At this point in time CNN is showing Obama with 338 Electoral Votes. That is more than enough to win but still less than I would like. The fact that some states like VA, OH, IA and others that went for aWol before is a good start, but there are still too many red states. The South needs to get their shit together or they will be marginalized. Not that is a bad thing!!!!

I guess I don't have to retire to Canada after all!! I really didn't want to move there because it has gotten way to difficult to cross the border after 9/11 and the Fascists that have been in power up 'til now. I remember back in the day when all you had to do crossing the border ( either Canada or Mexico, been to both ) was say where you were from!! Now you need a passport, your sperm count and who you voted for to get back into this country.

On CNN right now they are asking Powell what do the Repugnicans need to do now?? I say they need to kick the greedy bastards and the Bible-Bangers to the curb for a start. They need to start to do things for the people and not just for property!! If they are truly for small government, then they need to keep their noses out of people's personal lives!! The only place they are for small government right now is when it comes to regulating business. How's that been working???? They rail against Socialism and now we have nationalized Wall Street and the Banking Industry. What's up with that?????????????????????

There is some right-wingnut apologist ( Micheal Reagan) saying the party has gotten away from St. Ronnie's principles. Shit, what we have seen since St. Ronnie was elected is nothing but his principles in practice. That is the whole problem, the right-wingnut policies are what have fucked this country for almost three decades. We need to kick this party's ass so badly that they will become the Whigs of the 21st Century!! I have a dream!!!

Authoritarian Conservatives

John Dean (yes that John Dean from Watergate) has an article at FindLaw's Writ on authoritarian conservatives. The lists of characteristics for the leaders and followers seem to hit the nail on the head. This paragraph pretty well sums it up.

If Obama is rejected on November 4th for another authoritarian conservative like McCain, I must ask if Americans are sufficiently intelligent to competently govern themselves. I can understand authoritarian conservatives voting for McCain, for they know no better. It is well-understood that most everyone votes with his or her heart, not his or her head. Polls show that 81 percent of Americans "feel" (in their hearts and their heads) that our country is going the wrong way. How could anyone with such thoughts and feelings vote for more authoritarian conservatism, which has done so much to take the nation in the wrong direction?
We will all find out on (or about) November 5th.

Who would have thought that John Dean would be one of the good guys??

Flying Spaghetti Monster

A couple of years ago The Old Lady got an e-mail with a link to the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster. She sent the link to me with a note saying I think I found my religion. I checked it out and after looking it over decided that they may have something. Any religion that promises that in heaven there will be strippers and free beer, I can get behind that. The fact that the strippers are of both genders means that nobody will be left out.


There is a chart that shows how as the number of pirates went down, global warming went up.

T-shirt

For some reason, the Old Lady doesn't want to be seen in public with me when I wear this t-shirt. No sense of humor.

I like to think it shows that Absolut Vodka is filtered thru a moose. Or maybe that Absolut is moose piss. Hey, send a couple of bottles to Saracuda. I seem to remember that she has a thing for moose.

Where I got my icon

I cropped the image on this to create the icon I am using for myself and my blogs. I posted this earlier back when I first started this blog. I like it so I brought it back again. I even thought about putting in on the sidebar. I have some thoughts for things to put on the sidebar, but nothing definite.

Campaign Ads

Last night while watching TV, the Old Lady said that she wished there was someway we could hit a button like a mute button that would eliminate the campaign ads now that we have already voted. During the day, I usually have the TV on CNN and whenever they go live to a campaign event, I change the channel. While watching shows in the evening, it's not so practical as you might miss part of the program you are watching.

One of the ads that gets to me is Saxby Shameless saying his opponent will work with Obama to raise your taxes. Shameless at one time introduced a bill for the mis-named FAIR tax. (Fucking Americans In the Rear) Not only would it let the Corporations and the rich off the hook, it would put a 23% national sales tax on everything you buy. This would be on top of any local taxes. Of course the rich would be all in favor of this plan. Instead of paying taxes on the money coming in, you pay tax on what you buy. For those on the lower end of the scale, adding that much to the cost of everything would be disastrous.

It's bad enough as it is with hedge fund managers paying capital gains taxes on their income and paying a lower percentage than their Secretaries. How in the hell they were ever allowed to do that is a mystery to me. Of course their buddies in Congress had something to do with that.

New Investment Plan

Found this on Nitwit's blog and thought that it pretty much sums up the financial situation today!!

I like the how Americans get 41 mpg.

Pasty

Had a comment on my blog that mentioned pasty ( rhymes with nasty not hasty) and I thought I'd do a post on my favorite food. I googled pasty and found a lot info on pasties including this about someone who thought the Economist magazine had made a mistake and dropped the r from pastries. The comments section of that post shows that pasties are not a local phenomena but are available in various places around the world.

The ingredients in a pasty vary but I prefer meat (beef and pork or all beef or even venison), potato, rutabaga, and onion wrapped in a crust and baked. The crust can be a pie crust or there are also pasty crust recipes. One time the Old Lady was talking about pasties with a grad student from the UK and mentioned rutabagas in pasties and the grad student said, "You put
Swedes in your pasties?" In the UK, rutabagas or yellow turnips are called Swedes or Swedish turnips.

Unless I am back UP on the tundra in Yooperland where places that sell pasties are as common as doughnut shops on Cape Cod, I have to make my own pasties. And I mean I have to make the pasties. Over thirty years ago, I decided to try my hand at making pasties after having baked a couple of pies. Anywho, the pasties turned out pretty good, so good that the Old Lady said since your pasties are better than mine you can make them from now on. So for the last 30+ years when we have pasties, we either bought some or I made them.

And for those who think pasty rhymes with hasty, those are nipple coverings and generally not edible.

Things you find while surfing

I wasn't going to do another post, but while surfing I spotted a couple of things on a blog. The first one is about a hedge fund manager talking about the level of intelligence of those in the financial business. The other is about some of the lies that McSame is willing to put out to the people that he and his campaign think are too dumb to check. Then there was a link to Driftglass, and I figured I would put it here because it is a good post.

Voting

The Old Lady and I went and voted yesterday. It took most of the afternoon, but now we are done with it. We figured even tho it took over 2 hours it was worth it as on Election Day it may take longer. What was funny was the way the line went to finally get to the voting machines. As we entered the building a voting worker handed each person a form to fill out to vote absentee. This was actually early voting, but the forms haven't been changed yet. We were shown into a large room where the line snaked back and forth several times and while in this line we filled out the form and a worker came and checked our ID's and noted it on the form. The line went back to the door we entered. When we reached the door, we were motioned thru the entryway thru another door into another part of the building. Slowly we moved down a long hallway and when we got to the end, we went thru another doorway into a long, skinny room where the line went down one side of the room, across the end and back down the room. Another door and another hallway at the end of which we finally got into the room where the voting machines were at. A short line and then up to the counter to turn in the form to receive the card for the voting machine. As for voting, no name with R next to it got my vote, and I had to vote Libertarian for one office. It looks like the R's couldn't find anyone brave enough to run for Congress in my district as the incumbent was unopposed. We also got to vote Yes on No on several proposals. Then it was give the card to a worker and out a side door to figure out how to get back to where we parked.

Bread

This is a picture of the sourdough bread that I baked the other week. It took me more than a dozen tries to get a sourdough starter using only flour and water. My early attempts were using a Mason jar and I didn't have any luck. The last attempt I used a mixing bowl and was successful. I guess it needed a larger surface area to work.








I created the starter while UP on the tundra and was able to transport it down to the land of Kudzu in a cooler with no problems. It is happily living in a Mason jar in the back of the fridge. Once a week, I either make bread or feed it half a cup of flour and half a cup of warm water. You are supposed to throw half a cup of starter away when you feed it, but I don't because I want more starter so I can do two loaves at a time instead of one. After going thru the trouble of making a starter, the Old Lady said, I don't know why you bothered with that because I don't like sourdough bread. I just like the idea of making bread without buying yeast and it isn't a real sour sourdough. Also I just wanted to see if I could do it and I was able to create a sourdough starter from scratch. Maybe it will get more sour as it gets older but for now it has a sour smell in the jar and when I proof it but the bread has very little sour smell or taste.

SAMHAIN

The Old Lady went all out decorating for Samhain this year!! I hope the coven doesn't descend upon us.

I wonder if we will have any goblins or other critters this year. Last year we bought a couple of bags of candy and not one trick or treater came around. I know if we don't buy any candy, then some will show up and if we do buy candy we will get to eat any that is left over.

Protests at the MBA conference

Here is a video from left i on the news, on the protests at the Mortgage Bankers Association conference in San Francisco. The only thing on the news here in Hot-lanta about the conference was the attempt by a woman to handcuff Rove in an attempt to do a citizen's arrest. Would anyone else like to see Rove frogmarched off to Gitmo???

McCains Black Relatives

This may explain some things about McCain. Until now I never knew that McCain had black relatives. The fact that his ancestors were plantation owners in Mississippi helps me understand why the airfield in Meridian, MS is named after his grandfather.

Obama and Zombies

Saw this on the blog WTF is it now, and could not resist, so I stole it to put on my blog. The longer this campaign goes on, the more it looks like McSame needs to be put in the Old Soldiers and Old Sailors Home. At times you have to feel sorry for McSame because of all the fucking he's taken from Rove and aWol and never any kisses. I take another sip of my coffee and the feeling goes away.

Gas Revisited

A week ago on her way home the Old Lady decided to gas up. The fact that the needle on the gas gauge was pointing towards excitement may have influenced her. When she saw that the price was down to 3.159, she went WOW it's low and filled both tanks on the truck. Every day since the price has dropped. Now it's down to 2.619. It wouldn't surprise me to see the price drop below 2 bucks by Election Day. The oil companies don't want people pissed off when they are voting. If the price had stayed above $4, no one with a R next to their name on the ballot would stand a chance of getting elected. The oil companies are just looking after their buddies and it sure as hell isn't you and me!!

Personally, I won't ever vote for anyone with a R next to their name again. Not even if they are running for dogcatcher.

Finns are Smarter Than the Average Bear

Yesterday morning while eating brunch and reading the ethnic paper, Raivaaja, I noticed a small blurb. It said that according to a poll done recently in Finland that if Finns could vote for the U.S. president, Obama would win handily. Only 13 percent favored McCain. Makes me proud of the land of my forefathers, actually the land of my father.

There are still a handful of my friends and relatives that are over on the dark side. If only they would see the light and realize that the party of McCain is destroying this country, then I would be truly proud!!

Camping

The other day I did a post titled Welfare and received a comment that said I should go camping. Well, the picture is of the shower that I used all summer long. It's a solar shower, you fill the bag with water and set it in the sun to warm up. One side of the bag is clear and the other is black. You set in the sun clear side up and hopefully after sitting in the sun most of the day the water inside will be warm enough for a shower. It reminded me of the story of The Three Bears. Some days it was too hot, some days it was too cold and sometimes it was just right. Bathing al fresco was refreshing at times and sometimes a little chilly.

Not to worry about me scaring the neighbors by being naked in the backyard. The neighbors in either direction are close to a quarter mile away and out of sight.

You Can't Make This Shit Up!

This hit the news last week. There is an article in the AJC about a county commissioner that tried to hire a Voodoo Priestess to have her opponent get cancer or die in a car wreck. The really funny part is that she gave the priestess a couple of bad checks. If you believe that someone has the power to cause someone's death, wouldn't you make sure the payment was good because you don't want to piss them off and have them do something bad to you?? I like her excuse that her car won't let her go to South Carolina. Does she have a car like Christine??

On top of all that, she is also a dead-beat slumlord. Didn't pay property taxes on time and had code violations.

Cartoon

Welfare

For decades we have been hearing let the market solve all our problems. Free Market, Free Market, Free Market. Now that a number of banks and most of Wall Street are in danger of going tits up, they need the government to bail them out. I remember St. Ronnie saying that government is not the solution, government is the problem. What happened to that??

What's interesting is that whenever aWol the Conspirator in Chief goes on TV to reassure the public about this financial mess, the Stock Market takes a dive.

What I find extremely disgusting is that for decades these Free Marketeers have called anything that would help the average person Socialism. Now when we will be on the hook for over a Trillion $$, it's all good. Over 100 billion for AIG, over 300 billion for Fannie and Freddie, and over 700 billion to bail out the banks and Wall Street. As Sen. Dirkson used to say, "A billion here and a billion there, sooner or later it adds up to real money". This is the biggest example of Socialism that this planet has ever seen and all the talking heads are saying it needs to be done. This is just Socialized Kapitalism. And they scream bloody murder when someone gets a $100 or $200 in Food Stamps.

It's time to get rid of these Robin Hoods in Reverse, they take from the poor and give to the rich. I've been saying to years that I can't afford another tax cut because all the local taxes and fees go up.

How do you tell he's lying??

Lately there has been an ad running on TV for Saxby Shameless. It shows the gas lines from the recent shortage and blames the liberal left. Shameless says we need to drill more to bring the price down because this country has a bigger oil reserve than Saudi Arabia.

Saudi Arabia has the largest oil reserve in the known world. Iraq is second. The United States is lucky if it is in the top ten.

How stupid does he think the voters are?? I forgot, this is Georgia and he won his Senate seat by running a campaign that was based on smearing Max Cleland by among other things saying he wasn't patriotic enough. By implying that Cleland's wounds in 'Nam were self-inflicted. I watched this from the States six years ago and was just thoroughly appalled by the sleazy politics coming from the right-wing. This year I will get to vote against him, because someone like him deserves to be tarred and feathered and run out of town on a rail. How's that for old fashioned values??

And the answer is: his lips are moving!!

Random Thought

While on my almost daily walk today, the sign about drugs in a school zone made me think. To help relieve the pain of thought I will set it down here.

Whenever I hear of someone getting arrested and charged with manufacturing marijuana, I have trouble getting my head around the idea of manufacturing marijuana. I mean you plant the seed (sometimes all you need do is scatter the seed) and if it sprouts you can then tend to it or not. You can water it, cultivate it, prune it and harvest it, but how do you manufacture it?? I guess you could say that this summer I manufactured potatoes, green beans, radishes, tomatoes and some itty bitty carrots. Every year on the ranch UP on the tundra we manufacture asparagus which in recent years just went to seed, but this year we at least got a meal of asparagus. Tried to manufacture some other veggies, but because of little rain and my not watering enough they didn't amount to much.

Gas

When I take my walk, it is interesting to see the price of gas come down. The price at QT is 3.799 for regular which is about 20 cents less than it was a week ago. It still isn't as low as it was the last time I gassed up the other week UP on the tundra prior to coming back to the land of kudzu. It was 3.609 at the tribe's gas station. When in the area I buy my gas there because they have been holding down the price of gas as long as the station has been in business.
At least there are no lines of cars waiting to get gas like there was when we got back to the land of kudzu.

Commenting on other blogs

Recently I made a comment on another blog about hunting.
" Kulkuri said...
What bothered me more than the killing of animals was the pictures of people mingling with the grizzlies. These are wild animals and can not be trusted at close range. It is fine to look at them from a safe distance, but to be in the middle of them and even between Mamma Bear and the cubs is pure stupid.

I don't approve of hunting anything from airplanes. But hunting for food in Alaska is one way that allows the people there to survive considering the high cost of living."
This is what the blogger replied.

"There is a high cost of living in Hawaii too, but it doesn't justify some kind of atrocious thing like hunting tourists.

If the cost of living in Alaska is prohibitive, well maybe one needs to look for a cheaper place to live. Like the lower 48.

And I think bear hunting should be done without weapons or traps. If you can't kill a bear with your bare hands, then you ought not be living in the bears neck of the woods. Unless you're bat shit crazy, get out of there. Self defense does not mean hunting. Raise rabbits if you want meat. Lambies, chickens. But leave the bares and wolves alone."
Notice there is no mention of my first comment about grizzlies and people.

After seeing this, it made me think and the thought that I had is that too many people think this is the face of the Democratic Party, the Anti-Hunting take everybodies guns away people. I have been a life-long Democrat (well, ever since I first voted) and there are times when I think gun control is hitting what you are aiming at. On the other hand I don't think anyone has the right or the need to own an AK-47 or a Bazooka. A decade ago I asked a right-wing fellow worker why anyone would want a fully automatic rifle when they are not very good for hunting? He said that it is fun to mow down small trees with one. My only thought was, what a waste.

But anywho, until the Democratic Party starts to let people know that they respect hunters and anglers, they'll have trouble connecting with a lot of people. The other party promises to let you keep your guns, but think on this, even if they do let you keep your guns (and their track record on keeping promises is very, very piss poor) what good does it do you if there is nothing left to hunt and you can't eat any fish you might catch?? The Reich-wingnuts have proven time and time again that they will do any and everything in the pursuit of a quick dollar. They are perfectly willing to destroy the environment to turn a small profit.

Amusing Truck

Saw this truck on the interstate in the Mad-town area in Cheeseland. I wasn't driving at the time so was able to get a couple of pictures of it.

Downsizing

On the way back from the tundra last week, the Old Lady made a deal for our Retirement Home. Last year we went from a 2br house to a 1br apt. Looks like in a couple of years we will go to a small travel trailer (18-20ft single axle). At least it's not so small you have to step outside to change your mind.

I guess the plan is that we will live in it while volunteering at National Parks. That will give us something to do in our retirement.

I'm going to retire next year, only I haven't figured out what I will retire from!! I haven't had a real job in a long time and so I won't have any problem transitioning to retirement.

Random Thought

Had a thought (and yes it was painful and you know who you are) last night will watching TV. Someone mentioned reincarnation and I wondered if that would be the ultimate recycling?? There are several lines of thought on this. Atheists would say that when you die that's it, it's over. Bible-Bangers would say you either go to heaven or hell. And those that believe in reincarnation say you keep coming back until you get it right. Which is a never-ending cycle when you don't know what you did wrong in the previous life.

Creationism; Definition Thereof

Found this on another blog and decided to save it and put in on my blog. The statement on the picture so obviously true that no more needs to be said.

Hiatus is over, damn!!

Got back to Hotlanta last night and this morning was reminded of how annoying car alarms are. I had forgotten while UP on the tundra as you never hear them there. Even tho it is Fall, it feels like summer, more like summer than it did this summer UP on the tundra. The longest stretch of warm weather was 4 days of 80 degrees or more.

It may take me awhile to remember how to do this blogging thing. Reminds of an old non-PC joke. 'Why don't they let (insert ethnicity and/or nationality here) have more than 10 minutes for coffee breaks? Answer, it takes too long to retrain them!

Hiatus

I will put this blog on hiatus while I go spend the summer on the tundra. Or maybe a more accurate term would be muskeg. I know my readers will be sad (both of them) but I will not have internet access while up on the tundra.

Sun Worship

This strikes me as a strange time to worship the sun. Shouldn't it be at sunrise or when the sun is directly overhead or even sunset?? Then again this is Brookhaven which is an up-scale neighborhood. Also I don't know how Methodists operate.

Healthcare

There is one candidate for Pres that has had socialized medicine his entire life. McCain was a Navy brat and then was in the Navy himself. Never had to worry about healthcare in his life but he insists that the rest of us should be on our own when it comes to healthcare. Even when he was a POW he had socialized medicine and it really was socialized medicine because when he did have medical treatment it was by the North Vietnamese government. Even tho his wife has a Gazillion Dollars he still has not given up his socialized medicine. If healthcare provided by the government is so bad, why is he still in the system?? He can afford to pay his own way when it comes to healthcare yet he still is sucking the government tit when it comes to healthcare. He says that the private sector should fix healthcare, but the private sector has been running healthcare forever and that is the problem. The private sector worries only about profit and very little about providing the care that patients need.

What really amazes me is that most of those opposing reform of healthcare have somebody else picking up the tab for their insurance and usually it is the taxpayers. They are willing to suffer with their healthcare but the rest us shouldn't even think of asking for what they have. If we were to strip Congress of their health benefits maybe they would be more likely to work for reform of healthcare.

How Big is Your Piece?

If you think your piece isn't big enough, here's one that might make you feel a whole lot better.

Commercials

For a long time I have wondered about some of the ads on TV. One of the ones that has me wondering is the one that goes something like this. "Is the IRS calling you all the time and sending you nasty letters? Do you owe thousands in unpaid taxes, have you years of unfiled tax returns. Don't take on the IRS on your own, let our IRS professionals handle your case for you. We have helped thousands of 'good' people like you." I think in the fine print it says they only help 'good' people who owe $10,000 or more. I don't consider those that don't file tax returns or pay taxes owed 'good' people.

Another type of ad that has me scratching my (some body part) is those that promise to grow your wealth and manage your wealth. There are a ton of these ads on at all times of the day and night. The question is, who are they trying to get?? If you have a 401K at work, it is managed by a broker for you and you don't have a choice on who it is. If you are investing on your own, you already have a broker to buy and sell stocks for you. So who are these ads supposed to entice into doing business with them??

The way they use the word wealth has a dirty feel to it for me. The word wealth didn't used to have any effect on me, but since St Ronnie made greed not only acceptable but highly desirable it has come to have a filthy connotation to it.

Blown Tire

Here is a picture or two of the tire that blew out in Alabama on our trip last weekend. The top picture is me having fun getting the spare out from under the truck. The bottom picture of the tire doesn't look too bad but the picture of the backside of the tire shows how badly it blew!

Random Thought

Georgia, it's not the end of the world but most of its residents believe they can see it coming!!

Gas

Since the early 80's whenever I would travel in the Southeast, Atlanta had the lowest prices for gas. Now that I live in Atlanta this is no longer true. If I go south on I-75 gas is cheaper in Macon, I don't have to go too far north on I-75 and gas is cheaper. If I go west on I-20 it's cheaper in Alabama and if I go north on I-85 it's cheaper in South Carolina. Last weekend we went to Huntsville and saw again that as soon as we crossed into Alabama the price went down.

The trip was interesting in several ways. After we got into Alabama, we saw that we had plenty of time to get to Huntsville and we decided to swing by the Unclaimed Baggage place in Scottsboro, AL. On the way up I-59 we had a blowout. I was passing a car when I heard a funny noise. I stepped on it and got past the car and the noise was still there and it was feeling like I had a flat tire. By the time I got stopped on the shoulder the tire was totally shot. I have never had a tire blow that badly. One side of the tire opened up all the way around the tire along the edge of the tread. The only thing that made this tire change better than the last flat I got with the truck is that this time it wasn't pouring rain. The last time I had to wait for over a half-hour for the rain to let up enough for me to feel like getting out to change the tire.

We stopped for lunch at a Taco Bell in Scottsboro, AL. Now in the past I've had the experience of stopping at fast food places and having to wait a long time for my food compared to the rest of the country. This was the first time that they forgot to fill our order. After seeing people who ordered after us getting their food, including a guy that got multiple bags of food to go like if he was getting food for a large crew of people, the Old Lady went up to the counter and asked what happened to our order and that's when she found out that they forgot to do our order. To make up for this we got two free Apple-Cinnamon Empanadas but they forgot the Cinnamon Twists that we had ordered.

After lunch we went to the Unclaimed Baggage place. There was a lot of stuff for sale there, cameras and electronics and sports equipment some of which makes you wonder what all people bring on airplanes. Mostly tho it was clothes and if I'm going to buy other people's used clothes I'll go to a thrift store.

The rest of the trip to Huntsville was uneventful, coming back was a different story because of a lack of signage. We decided to check out the Little River Canyon park because it was more or less on the way back to Atlanta. The first sign we saw for the park was a sign with an arrow pointing across the road to the parking lot right after crossing a bridge. Then to follow the scenic road along the river and canyon, we had to go back across the bridge and take the first left. After playing tourist along the river we came out of the park and came to a t-intersection with an arrow pointing left and right. Not one sign to let you know what road it was. After driving for 15 or 20 miles south we came to another t-intersection and finally found out what road we were on as there was a sign indicating it was the end of the road and what the number of it was.

Glucose Tolerance Test

My doctor wanted me to do a glucose tolerance test, so yesterday I went to have it done. When one is at a major hospital in a large metropolitan area, it doesn't give one a good feeling when one goes in for a test and one hears the tech calling someone to ask how the test is done. (Neat, talking about self in the third person.) But first, when I got there and found the right place to check in (there are multiple buildings that are interconnected by a maze, I was lucky in that I had a guide to show me how to travel through the maze) the person I talked to called the lab and found there was no paperwork on me even tho the nurse had said she would fax it over that morning. After several phone calls the fax finally arrived. Then I went to the place where they draw blood. That's when I overheard the phone call asking how the test is to be done. Supposedly they draw some blood and check your blood-sugar. Then you drink some sugar water and they check your blood-sugar after one hour and after two hours. Well, a blood sample was drawn and over an hour later someone came with some solution for me to drink. The fact that it took over an hour to check my blood-sugar and figure out how much sugar water to give is amazing. My meter gives me a result in less than a minute. After that things went smoothly, but what I figured would take a little over two hours took over four hours. I got there just after 8am and didn't get out of there until after noon. All this after not eating since 8pm the night before. Who says bigger is better???

Lenscrafters

Last week I picked up my new glasses at Lenscrafters. To say I am not impressed with Lenscrafters at this time is an understatement. First I had to argue with them to get new lenses put in my old frames. I was told that the frames may be corroded, they are titanium which is almost impossible to corrode. Then they screwed up somehow and had to reorder the work. They called several days after they were supposed to be done and said it would be a least another week. When I finally got them, I noticed they hadn't even cleaned the frames before installing the new lenses because the back of the nose pads were still dirty. Also when I went to clean them I noticed that the lenses were loose in the frames. I bought the my old glasses from Lenscrafters in Omaha and thought it would be no problem for Lenscrafters to make new lenses for frames that are their frames. That's what I get for thinking. I've never had a high opinion of this area and this did not improve it.

They didn't just lose one customer, they lost at least two. The Old Lady will be needing new glasses in the near future.

Also on the subject of glasses. Last Saturday we were shopping at a Kroger and decided to get a bottle of cleaner for eyeglasses. They had 6 feet of shelves from the floor to the top loaded with stuff for contacts. The only thing they had for cleaning eyeglasses was disposable wipes. How ignorant is that??

Cold Air

This week I worked on my pickup fixing the air conditioning. The other week I went to Pull-A-Part and got a compressor. I wandered around in the yard until I found one that looked like it would fit my truck. I found two close to each other and looked over both and picked one over the other because the pulley spun without making any noise and I could turn the shaft with some resistance. It cost me a little over $26 because I paid for the 30 day warranty. Then the other day there was no need to use the truck and I changed out the compressors. When I was charging the system I discovered that the gauge on one of the cans of R-134a was off by about 30 psi on the high side. One gauge indicated that it was overcharged and the other one I have said it was barely in the normal range. I had to buy another can of R-134a as I didn't have enough and used the lower reading gauge to finish charging the system.
Now as the car ads in Omaha say it has Cold Air. As the truck is from Nebraska that is fitting.

What Flavor Ben Jerry's Ice Cream are you?

You Are Marsha Marsha Marshmallow Ice Cream

Outdoorsy and gluttonous, yup, that's you!

What Flavor Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream Are You?

Interesting, I did this several times and came up with different flavors. Now it's back to the first one.

Patience

There still are things that piss me off but I've come to the conclusion that a lot of things are not worth getting worked up about.

May 1

May 1 seems to be a pivotal day for the Old Lady. Besides being Belthane. When we were living on the tundra, May 1 was the day she shut off the furnace and we depended on the wood stove in the back porch to heat the place. Now that we are down South, she doesn't want to turn on the air conditioning until May 1 or later. Go figure.