Into the Night

COMMENTS

2006-02-13T01:01:00.000-06:00

Once again, due to the stupid SPAM and just plain stupid comments, I am putting restrictions on comments to my blog. I am sorry for any inconvenience this causes. Don't blame me, blame the stupid spammers.

THE MEME OF FOURS

2006-02-13T00:51:00.000-06:00

The Meme of Fours.

OK Scott, Scott-O-Rama here is mine.

Four Job’s I’ve Had

IBM Machine Operator
Photographer
Electrician
Laborer

Four Movies I Can Watch Over and Over

Champagne for Caesar
2001 A Space Odyssey
2010 The Year We Make Contact
Home Alone

Four Places I’ve Lived

Granite City, IL
Venice, IL
Hamel, IL
Edwardsville, IL

Four TV Shows I Like To Watch

Law & Order
Law & Order SVU
E-Ring
Paula’s Home Cooking

Four Websites I Visit Daily

AOL
Discuss-It
Scott-O-Rama
My Bank

Four Places I’d Rather Be

Winnetka, IL
Branson, MO
Nashville, TN
Orlando, FL:

MY TAXES ARE DONE

2006-02-06T02:05:00.000-06:00

It's that time again. Time for you to rush around trying to find that elusive receipt for your large purchase last July. Time to gather all your donation receipts from Goodwill, that is; providing you kept them. Or even worse, providing you really did donate Aunt Mae's antique bureau to Goodwill. Poor Goodwill, they must recieve credit for a billion donations that they never really get.

Well, where do you stand on getting your 1040 done? Interesting note here, you work a normal 40 hour work week for 52 weeks and you will have worked 2080 hours a year. Does the Form 1040 mean that you will give half of your income to Uncle Sam? Somehow, I think it does. Big Brother isn't dumb, they know how to tell you something without actually saying the words. Isn't life fun?

I must have worked three weeks at getting my taxes down. I seriously suggest you purchase TurboTax. It is the best tax program I have ever used. It allows you to try this and try that in your effort to lower the amount you give Big Brother.....er. make that Uncle Sam. Besides, G.W. and Mr. Halliburton need the money to finance their efforts overseas. Don't forget the opportunity to depreciate your home, your car or anything else that you can legitimately do.

I do not suggest that anyone cheat on their income taxes; but I do suggest that you take every deduction that you can. Don't forget the price of the tax program and the price of the stamps to send the return to Big.. . ah Uncle Sam. I have been audited twice and both times the auditor laughed at my deduction for postage; but he had to accept it. It was a legitimate deduction.

I am cheap and damn well proud of it.

WHAT DO YOU WATCH ON TV?

2006-01-27T01:02:00.000-06:00

As many of you know (that is the two that read this blog), I like to watch The History Channel, The National Geographic Channel, The Military Channel and The Discovery Channel. I just finished watching, TiVoing and cutting a DVD of The National Geographic Channel's presentation of The Final Report. The subject of this episode was the fiasco in Waco, Texas.

I am referring to the Mount Carmel Compound of the Branch Davidians. The TV report puts the main blame for this disaster on the Federal Government. Does that surprise you? It shouldn't. Our government, the FBI, and the ATF knew very little about the religious sect known as the Branch Davidians. The Branch Davidians had been amassing a vast array of weapons to defend themselves against attack of what they believed to be the enemy of their beliefs.

The first thing to understand is that they had a full God-given and U. S. Constitutional right to believe as they did. They were looking at the world as ready for the Apocolypse. The visions described in the Book of Revelations were, in their eyes, ready to occur. If you read the Book of Revelations it does encourage true beleivers to prepare themselves for a siege. In that belief, they purchased many semi-automatic weapons and converted them to ILLEGAL fully automatic status. This was their main activity that attracted the interests of the Feds.

The Federal Government had no idea what these people believed, nor did they care. The FBI lied to Attorney General Janet Reno in obtaining permission to use tear gas in storming the building. They claimed that David Koresh and his followers were beating and abusing children. This was a complete lie. We all know the outcome of this debacle.

Janet Reno later stated that the assault on the compound was a mistake. President Bill Clinton said the same. The man in charge of the FBI units at the compound quietly resigned after the outcry resided. In fact, they were shown on camera crying. They all were very sorry for the outcome of the attack at Waco. Our Federal Government overreacted and, most likely, contributed to the Branch Davidians resistance to surrender.

I was appalled at what I saw on this TV show. Yes, I watched the event play out on TV in the early 90's but never knew the full story behind our government's actions. The FBI acted in haste to storm the compound even while the hostage negotiators were trying to reach a peaceful end to it all. Sort of like, "here, take this olive branch I hand you in peace while I shoot you with my other hand."

What is your "take" on the situation?

P A S S W O R D S

2006-01-18T23:50:00.000-06:00

Do you remember the game show? It sure had some funny moments. You have passwords with your computer access and it isn't a funny time at all if someone were to guess your password. They can cause all sorts of havoc with your online account, even to the point of identy theft. Do you do online banking? Have you ever responded to a phishing expedition? Those are the spams that aggavate me the most.

How about those passwords that you are required to furnish when logging into a newspaper site or something that you are only slightly interested in? Should they even require you to log in with your email address and a password? I think not.

If I am required to furnish some stupid site with a password, I try to use something silly; like the word "password" if possible. I have used "stupid1" and "ID10T", words that express my disgust with the situation. I have even used "oh-shit" when it allows me to use the dash. I believe too many web sites require us to furnish passwords that allow people to peek inside our lives.

Computers are supposed to be here for our benefit, not the benefit of the spammers. Same with the telephone, they are in my home for my benefit, not for some asshole construction company to call and attempt to sell me something I do not want or need. Now, there is another rant for another time.

To think up a new password every month, as is required by some IS Departments is almost an impossible task. You can not reuse a password from the past nor can you duplicate the password of a fellow worker. Want some suggestions I have seen in use? I have seen "TOBOR" as a backdoor password for a complete series of machines. That is robot spelled backwards. Try using the make of your partner's automobile. Never use your mother's maiden name as I have seen some folks do. Think up a childhood nursery rhyme and use the first letter of each line.

One more suggestion, "MICKEY DUCK". That should give someone a bit of a problem. They know there never was a Mickey Duck. Or, from the Mickey Mouse era, how about "Annette", I kinda liked her. "Bobby" completely rubbed me the wrong way. There is always the cousin to Mickey Mouse, "RICKEY RODENT". Aren't you sorry you read this?

I AM STILL HERE

2006-01-16T00:44:00.000-06:00

I was surprised to see how long it has been since I last posted to this blog. My only excuse is that both of us have been sick. You really don't want all the details, so I will just say that Felix got a touch of the flu and had 5 days of the Hershey Squirts. We spent 5 hours on 10 January in the Emergency Room at a Hospital in St. Louis getting rehydration and medication for Felix. I was very patient, I sat there and shivered the whole time. Boy, they keep those Emergency Rooms cold.

Just as I predicted, as soon as he got well, I got sick. If there is one thing a colostomy patient does not want to go through is diarrhea. I had a very bad experience with it in 2002 when I was still doing the chemotherapy and it quickly turned into a major case of dehydration. I spent 3 days in the hospital getting my electrolytes back in order. The skin on the bottoms of my feet was peeling off in 1/8th inch thick pieces. I was in bad shape. The only thing I could drink was Gatorade. Even Gatorade popsicles. Didn't taste that bad.

Both of us are better now; but Felix was on vacation for two weeks and we had many plans that we had to cancel. Many restaurants had to go it alone, without us. You should know that we both like to eat. We cancelled trips to Southern Illinois and Northern Illinois for suppers and our favorite German Restaurant in Hermann, Missouri for lunch. Damn. The only real treat we had was on the day I had my annual cancer CT checkup. After getting out of the Radiology Department we made our way to the "Hill" district of St. Louis for some authentic Italian food.

We went to Amighetti's Italian Deli at the corner of Marconi and Wilson on the Hill. I wasn't even sure they would be open at 9:30 AM; but thank God, they were. As far as I am concerned, there is no better Italian Deli than Amighetti's. They make the best Italian soups in the city of St. Louis. I had a cup of Beef Barley soup and a full foot-long Amighetti's Special sub. Felix had a 6" Special sub and a 6" Taste of Italy sub. We had 2 cans of Coke each. Now, that was some breakfast.

After that, we looked up a camera store and I purchased some additional gear for my Canon 20D digital camera. Unfortunately, Quantaray doesn't make a flash handle for the digital market; but I didn't know that at the time I made the purchase of flash equipment. The next day, they were very agreeable to accepting it back with appropriate adjustment for my credit card. Now, I am going to have to, either modify an analog handle or come up with some other arrangement to hold the flash off camera. Trust me, I will figure out something that works.

OK, that is where I have been for two weeks. I apologize to my readers for my absence; but not only did I not have anything new to talk about, I simply didn't feel like talking at all. Like The Terminator, I am baaack.

TODAY IS JANUARY 2, 2006

2006-01-02T16:13:00.000-06:00

And a very Happy Lobster Newburg to all. Honestly, I am kind of tired of the old "Happy New Year" thing. Really folks, unless the person is giving me millions of dollars, my 2006 will be just like the 2005; I will still pay the mortgage, the credit cards and buy gasoline and groceries. What is so happy about that? Well, what? You tell me.

Christmas is for children and with all the colored Christmas lights, gifts cookies and nice meals; it is a joyous occasion. I love Christmas, I love the colored lights, the cookies, the happy kids, the cookies and the big festive meals. I don't like white lights, Santa Claus and bills. Oh, did I mention that I like cookies? Gingerbread, pumpkin, chocolate chip, sugar cookies; I love cookies of all kinds. Felix baked one batch of chocolate chip cookies and stopped. What a grinch he is.

Right now, Felix is laying in his easy chair in his room groaning about an upset tummy and a case of the squirts. I have no idea what caused his discomfort; I ate the same supper last night that he did. He may have overworked himself, yes that is what I said, overworked himself yesterday. He got some wild idea in his noggin that it was time to shred all old bill statements from 2004 and 2005. He burned up two paper shredders in the process. He started on New Years Eve and burned up the two shredders, On Sunday, January 1, we were at Office Depot to buy two new paper shredders.

Felix, then, cleaned house from top to bottom. I do not know what got in him, possibly a feather or a wild hair; but he worked himself into a bad case of the squirts. Squirts, I am not talking about the soda pop here. He says he won't eat a thing. I even offered to fix him a bowl of his favorite chicken noodle soup; but he refused it. The boy is sick, I tell you, sick The way he is moaning I am ready to call the morgue and book a table for him. From all the activity on Saturday evening, I understand they have standing room only at the morgue. Get it? Standing Room Only. Ah well, get your own cookies.

Felix has the rest of this week off work. He sure picked a nice way for a vacation, being sick and a sore pooper at that. That is one thing I do not have to suffer anymore. The colostomy has eliminated the pooper. Somehow I will bet you didn't really want to know all this. No cookies for you either.

Last night I was talking on the radio to two fellows that grew up across the street from each other 70 years ago. It was kind of nice to hear them bring up names that they both knew; but they did not know each other. We all talked about the early history of the city, the railroad tracks that no longer exist, the time a kid climbed up on the top of a boxcar and stood up to touch the hot 600VDC trolley line, of course it killed him, things we all could remember. What ever happened to trolleys? What ever happened to trains? Yeah, I know there are still a few of them around; but 90% of the tracks that used to exist are gone.

Sort of makes me wonder if the U. S. of A. is putting all it's eggs into one basket. There are too damn many trucks out there on the highways as it is, we sure don't need more. I wonder if everything ships in small quantities nowadays? Go to buy something and you will find out that it is on backorder. What ever happened to the days of a boxcar load of something, a truck load of something? Now the businesses only order what they will sell in one week and take orders for the next two weeks. That cuts down their inventory, thereby cutting their taxable goods on hand. That kind or retail business sucks. No cookies for them, either.

Now that I have gotten rid of the competition, I think I will venture into the kitchen for a can of soda and a couple of cookies. Happy Lobster Newburg to you.

OUT OF TOUCH

2005-12-31T22:53:00.000-06:00

Today is Happy New Year day. It is December 31 and everyone is supposed to be in a festive spirit, or filled with spirits. I am depressed. I am not really in a festive mood at all. Things have not gone bad, my life has not taken a turn for the worse; but I feel unfulfilled. There seems to be something lacking.

I have talked with old and good friends today. Felix and I have bought each other decent presents for the holidays; but I seem to feel that life is ready to pass me by. I have so many dreams of things I want to do, places to see, people to meet, friends to make; but none of this is happening. I feel stymied. I am retired;but not happily so. My health forced me to accept the company retirement. I was not ready for it.

Of course, along with retirement comes a cut in income. I am not hurting for money, at least, not at this point; but I think I would be happier and more content if I were working. I had planned to work until I reached the mandatory retirement age of 70 set by the company. I had all my plans, finances, everything set up to retire at 70. Even my credit cards were timed to that achedule. OK, so am I bitching about the financial crunch. Well, not really. Sure, an extra thousand or two coming in each month would be very nice; but I do not think that is the basis for my present feeling.

So, what is it, the lack of sex, the lack of money; what? I have a life that many people would envy. I have friends, I have Felix to attend to my needs, to be with me when I leave the house for the wild, outside world. I have six little kittens that entertain me all day with their funy antics. We have good food, a nice home, many good friends; but for the first time in my life , I do not have plans for the future. Maybe that is what I am lacking, a plan for the future, a reason to live.

Is this a normal feeling or am I in deep doggy doo?

CHRISTMAS PHOTOS

2005-12-25T22:50:00.000-06:00

Felix has been under the weather for the past three days and our plans have been stalled in order to allow Felix time to recover. Well, Felix hasn't really recovered; but he did give in to my desire to drive around and take pictures of Christmas decorations with my new Canon 20-D camera.

We went to the "Our Lady of the Snows" in Belleville, Illinois and crossed the river to the headquarters of Anheuser Busch to what I consider the special in Christmas decorations. The Lady of Snows display features over one million miniature white lights with a few colored lights thrown in to enhance the display. We have toured the display every year for the last 15 years and it gets better each year. Naturally, it is religion oriented considering it is owned and maintained by the Order of the Oblate Fathers of the Catholic Church. They, also, run a retirement home and apartment building in the complex as well as a full service restaurant.

The headquarters of Anheuser Busch in St. Louis is a marvelous place to visit any season of the year. It is, I believe, the world's largest brewery. They outline certain of their buildings in white lights and have many trees covered with colored lights. The centerpiece of the display is a 40 foot Christmas tree that slowly changes colors.

Now, to finish this post; I must admit that our first attempt at digital photos of these displays did not turn out as expected. I will not post them here. Corrections to the settings on the camera have been made and if I can talk Felix into going back a second time (that will not be a small feat), I will post the product of our efforts as soon as possible.

FUNNY STORY

2005-12-21T23:35:00.000-06:00

Felix came home with an interesting and funny story the other day. Felix had become friends with a lady at his place of employment and she knew of his sexual orientation. It seems this lady was attending a benefits meeting where all the company benefits were being explained, including bereavement benefits. She asked if bereavement benefits were available for employees with same sex partners. The person conducting the meeting was surprised by this question. She replied, "Why do you care, you are married". The answer from the quick thinking lady was, "I have been thinking about a lifestyle change lately".

That brought a round of laughter and a few dropped jaws in the meeting. The answer is; yes, such benefits are given by the company.

FOOLS RUSH IN WHERE ANGELS FEAR TO TREAD

2005-12-08T23:26:00.000-06:00

Yes, that title is also the title of a song from my youth. However, it is a valid statement for society. George W. Bush rushed in to Iraq with incorrect information. He caused the death of many people, innocent civilians as well as the intended Iraq Army. His invasion of Iraq was an attack on a soveriegn nation. He had no legitimate reason for this attack. In his misguided mind he may think he was right; but history has and will continue to prove that false.

J.F. Kennedy attempted to invade Cuba based on valid intellegence gathered by satellites. We could see the missiles being set up in Cuba. Bush could see nothing out of the ordinary in Iraq. That nation does have different values from America; but nothing was pictured in satellite images that showed any military agression towards the United States.

Who was behind the September 11, 2001 attack on the World Trade Center? It sure wasn't Saddam. Presumably it was Osama bin Laden and his al Quadi followers. Those are the people we should have been after. It has been said and nearly proven that Bush was only after the oil fields. My opinion says that the son was attempting to fight the father's fight. Bush's daddy did not eliminate Saddam for a very good reason; but baby Bush decided to be big man in his father's eyes and do the job that daddy did not finish.

Our actions in Iraq have not been actions that showed the morals of America. Our actions have been of the same level as Saddam. Saddam is guilty of torture of civilians in his own country. Not exactly something that our military would look upon as threatening to America. However, we invaded the country and have been guilty of torturing civilians in Iraq. In my opinion, and I am quite sure, the opinion of many other nations; we are looked upon as wrong.

What usually happens to people when they are wrong. Well, when I was a kid and my mom caught me in a wrong, I got my ass beaten. Will it be an ass beating for George W. Bush, or will it be an ass beating for the United States of America? I fear for the future of our country.

WINTER IS HERE

2005-12-06T22:47:00.000-06:00

I can tell by the temperature that winter has finally arrived. Flutesnoot on Channel 2 says the temperature will be down to 5 degrees tomorrow night. Now the bald guy on Channel 5 says it will only be 9 degrees.

Then I read Scott-O-Rama and Scott complains because it is down to 60 degrees. I mean, really folks, don't those pansys' out there in the southwest know what cold weather is? Sorry Scott, it has been a slow day in St. Louis.

SHOULD A PHARMACIST REFUSE TO FILL A PRESCRIPTION??

2005-12-04T19:56:00.000-06:00

I just read in the St. Louis Post Dispatch that 4 pharmacists at Walgreens Pharmacy's in this immediate area, would not sign an agreement with the company to fill prescriptions for the morning after pill. The State of Illinois has passed a law that makes it illegal for any pharmacist to refuse to fill a prescription, yet 4 of Walgreens people refuse to do so. Three have been terminated and the fourth found a new job before the company came down on her.

What do you think about this issue? Should a person allow their personal feelings and/or religion come into play on their job? The Governor of the state says, "NO". Just across the river, in Missouri, the Governor says he will sign a bill that allows pharmacists to refuse to fill any prescription that they have an objection to. Sounds like he is trying to set up a moral judgement that Illinois has less morals than Missouri.

Now, lets take this a step further. A Catholic gay man is dieing from AIDS. The priest refuses to give him the last rights of the church. Is this permissible? I think NOT. The pharmacist is in the same situation. The priest has taken a vow to treat all men equal. The pharmacist should do his job in the same manner.

A doctor writes a prescription. That prescription is treatment for something, maybe a disease, maybe a headache pill, maybe a birth control pill. It makes no difference. Any doctor who writes such a prescription expects it to be filled by a competent pharmacist. He does not expect the pharmacist to play doctor and decide whether to honor what the doctor wrote. What if my doctor wrote a prescription for oxycontin, can the pharmacist substitute Bayer Asperin? Of course not. Any prescription written by a competent doctor should be filled exactly as written by the pharmacist.

Your opinion.

DECORATE THE NEIGHBORHOOD

2005-12-01T00:34:00.000-06:00

Tony the Tiger, who lives across the street has his Christmas decorations up. He finally retired the broken animated deer and spiral Chrstmas tree that would not stay upright. Another neighbor, half way down the block, has white lights draped from his flagpole. I guess Christmas is coming to our subdivision.

Some of those outside decorations can really break your budget. I have always wanted to go all out with decorations in our front yard; but by the time I pay the regular monthly bills, there is nothing left over for decorations. Christmas always makes me feel like a little boy. I want to drive around and admire the decorations on other homes. Anheuser Busch in St. Louis always does a beautiful job of decorating their buildings. They have a huge 40' tree that changes colors from red to white. Well, not the tree; but the lights on it. It is all red, then they dim the red lights and bring up the white lights to full brillance. After a moment, they repeat the cycle..

I like to drive through the downtown shopping district of St. Louis and watch the trains in the corner window of Famous Barr. I guess they will have that display again this year. It was always a major hit with me as a kid. You could put your hand on a specially marked spot on the window and make a particular train run. Of course, there was a man behind the display that actually controlled the train. The Miles Fountain in front of Union Station is always decorated beautifully. These are the things that bring back the spirit of childhood in me.

Tilles Park in the Ladue section of St. Louis is decorated with millions of lights. You drive through the display in your car, then pay the $7.00 fee on your way out. You can, also, take a horse drawn buggy ride through the decorated park. I can just imagine what that costs. Oh, one little thing about this display, no religious scenes are pictured. It is a completely secular display. Felix and I will make the trip through Our Lady of the Snows decorated display. This is a Catholic retreat in Belleville, IL that must have well over 5 million lights in the trees, on the animated figures and arches. It is all done with a religious theme. No Santa Claus here. It reminds people what the real Christmas is all about. Again, you are allowed to make a donation on your way out.

There are other parks around the area that put out hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of lights on their park trails. They all charge for your little trip through their Winter Wonderland. I think the "Snow Lady" as I call the display in Belleville; is a very beautiful and calming display. It is done in 99% white lights. Honestly, it is worth the time it takes to get in the mile long backup of traffic and inch your way through the display. Allow a full two hours.

Christmas is a time for children. So be a child again and enjoy the spirit of the Holidays. Allow me to be one of the first to wish you and yours a

M E R R Y C H R I S T M A S

IS EVERYBODY AS TIRED AS I AM//

2005-11-28T22:14:00.000-06:00

Thanksgiving is over, the turkey is gone, the pie is gone and so is my energy. I fixed a turkey breast in the oven and Felix agreed with me, it was the best tasting turkey we have ever eaten. It was only the brest portion, no wings, no drumsticks. I don't know it if was the method I used or just the turkey itself; but I could eat another one like that every week.

OK, I admit the dressing didn't turn out like it usually did; but I ate it. Felix ate a little; but didn't really like it. I agree, the seasoning was way off. I don't know why. This year I didn't go overboard like I have in the past. In fact, except for the turkey carcass, most everything was gone by Saturday. On Sunday, I put the carcass in a large pot of broth, added carrots, celery and onions and boiled it for about 90 minutes. Then I added the egg noodles and simmered it for another 60 minutes. We had turkey noodle soup Sunday evening with our White Castles. OK, so we cheated a bit. Both of us were just in the mood for White Castles.

The turkey noodle soup will be around all week. By the weekend we will be sick of turkey and noodle soup as well. I am going to check around and see who is offering a big Christmas buffet so we can pig out somewhere besides at home.

No Christmas decorations this year. With six cats, a tree is out of the question and it turned off cold today so there will be no outside decorations. Yesterday, Sunday, we nearly had tornado season all over again. Some high winds took down power lines in St. Louis and elsewhere. I guess I waited one week too long to put up the outside decorations. Well, that's OK because many of the other houses in the subdivision have put up decorations. I don't like to copy others and the house across the street has already done what I wanted to do, so I will sit in my living room and look at their decorations. Sit in my living room, talk to my cats and stay warm.

If I get antsy, I may bake a ham, make potato salad and cole slaw. That is, if I get antsy; otherwise we will look for the buffet.

I know my postings have been somewhat sparse lately; but there isn't anything special to talk about. Take care, be happy and be sure to tell your partner that you love him/her.

GOBBLE GOBBLE

2005-11-23T22:54:00.000-06:00

Is that the sound of the turkey or the sound of me eating the turkey? At my house it will be the sound of me eating the turkey. Felix and I are having a roast turkey breast, with home made bread/sage dressing, mashed potatoes, green beans, mexicorn, turkey gravy and cranberry sauce made with cranberries and oranges. Are you hungry or sick to your stomach?

Felix always says I fix enough food to feed an army and he may well be right. It has always been the practice in my family to have the Thanksgiving dinner table loaded with all sorts of goodies. Besides, I love roast turkey. I even love the left overs. On the weekend we will be having turkey noodle soup. Sick yet?

In the past I always roasted a whole turkey. The only problem is finding enough refrigerator space to put the left overs. A whole turkey has a big carcass; the turkey breast will use a lot less shelf space in the fridge. That will allow me to make more side dishes. Right? ?

Thanksgiving is a time for family get togethers and a time to thank God for all the things He has given us. We should constantly be aware of Him and His blessings. At least we set aside one day a year to give Him thanks.

WAAAAH, MOMMIE, MOMMIE

2005-11-20T22:16:00.000-06:00

Today Felix and I had a late lunch, early supper at a local Mexican Restaurant. I love chcken fajitas and that is what I ordered this afternoon. The place was not packed but they had a very good number of clientele. We were seated next to a table consisting of one man, two women and two little girls.. The women were engaged in conversation that was obviously so important that if the building were to catch on fire, they would continue to sit there and jabber.

The man was left to attempt to keep the two little girls in line. It was a job he was ill prepared for. The two girls ran up and down the aisles, they attacked the game machine, they attacked the free mints, they were not obnoxious, they were the devil incarnate.

The waiter brought the food. One mommie proceded to rearange the plates on the table so people ate what she wanted them to eat. The man continued to try to keep the two girls in line. He managed to bring the girls back to the table so he could sit down and eat what mommie sat out for him. He did get a couple of bites down before the two girls ran off in the opposite direction. He got up and went after them. HONESTLY, THE TWO WOMEN WERE OBLIVIOUS TO HIS ACTIONS AND THE ACTIONS OF THE TWO GIRLS.

Felix knew what was going on in my mind. I ate two fajitas, some of the refried beans, drank my coke and picked at the rest of the chicken. I could not get the hell out of that restaurant fast enough. If I had stayed there another minute longer, I am sure I would have said and done many things that, most likely, would have landed me in jail. WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO KEEPING YOUR CHILDREN IN LINE? WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO DISCIPLINE? Why must the rest of the world put up with obnoxious, bratty, stupid children?

This topic has been discussed on Discuss-It. I suggest everyone take the time to see what is being said there. I am not the only man in this world who believes that children should be seen, and not heard.

I LIKE THIS

2005-11-15T21:01:00.000-06:00

IS ECKS APPROPRIATE??

2005-11-15T00:48:00.000-06:00

Ecks. X. OK, I will talk English. Is "X" an appropriate abbreviation for Christ? Many people today are writing Xmas rather than spell out the full word Christmas. Other people become highly offended at this action. Christians say that those who use Xmas are leaving Christ out of Christmas. What do you think?

WHY CAN'T PEOPLE LET OTHERS ALONE?? P O S S S L Q

2005-11-09T23:14:00.001-06:00

Why must some people tell other people what they must do, how they must live? I am not talking about the law enforcement folks, I am talking about your neighbors, my neighbors.

When you buy a new home in a nice subdivision, you find you have, also, purchased a little document called C. C. & Rs. That stands for "covenants, conditions and restrictions". That little document tells you what color you can paint your house or the trim around the windows. It tells you that you must cut your grass every week. It tells you that you may not park your motor home in your driveway or on the street. In fact, you must unload it and drive it off to a rented parking space somewhere else. The CC&Rs tell you that you are not allowed to erect a TV antenna or put up a swing set for your children in your back yard. You may not erect a fence that extends forward of your home into the front yard.

Get the idea? Why must CC&Rs even exist. Are your neighbors afraid you will paint your home pink with purple polka dots? How about yellow with blue dots? Who would lower their property values by doing such a thing?

OK, now why must some people tell you how to live. I can remember when it was considered wrong for a white person to marry a black mate or an oriental mate. Those things are now accepted as, well, jsut accepted. Some folks still consider it wrong; but they know they can't do anything about it so they allow it even though they do not like it. Two people of the same sex are questionable today.

Two women who live together are questionable unless it a mother-daughter situation. Two men who live together are queer. Just ask your neighbors. For that matter, ask yourself. What do you think about two people of the same sex living together. We used to call it P O S S S L Q; pronounced posselque. P O S S S L Q is simply People Of Same Sex Sharing Living Quarters. It should not imply sexual activities. What is wrong with a mother-daughter or father-son living together? Some people just have a warped mind, they always look at the wrong side of things.

Let's take that a step further. What is wrong with two gay men or women living together? SEX, you say? Why are you sticking your nose into their bedroom? Would you like it if they stuck their noses into your bedroom? Of course not. But you think you have the right to stick your nose into their bedrooms. You think you have the right to tell other people they are living in sin? I have a question for you. Who the hell cares what you think?

If more people would keep their noses where they belong, that is on the front of their faces and out of other people's business; our world would be a much better place to live. Diversity would really be the word of the day. However, it isn't.

URBAN SPRAWL, IS IT NEEDED??

2005-11-09T12:26:00.000-06:00

Going to try something different today. I am going to put you in the middle of a conversation that I and others have been having on AOL. We have been talking about urban sprawl and the damage it does to our environment. One of the folks in this discussion said the following

(edited).
You're right about not being in the right direction. The reason they do this here is strictly for money. I can't begin to tell you the wooded areas that are no longer around since the 13 years we've been here. I wonder if in 75 years trees will be extinct other than the decorative ones planted on so called developments. It would have been better to divide the land in several big lots and have custom built houses on them and only clear enough trees to put the building. They build so many townhouses here it makes my head spin. There will be some in this area for over 700 thousand dollars. Now if I'm going to pay that much money for a place to live I sure as hell wouldn't want someone on the other side of the wall (thin wall no less) and no yard outside; plus a bunch of pussy association rules in order to keep everything looking shiny and plastic. I don't know where the deer went that were in these woods. We also had owls that I loved to hear at night and early morning. A large woodpecker and box turtles that are close to being extinct in the state are now without homes.

(my comment)
There is no doubt that our environment and ecosystems are being damaged beyond repair. All in the name of money. It makes me think back to the phrase, "the love of money is the root of all evil". Yes, I do believe that is correct. They love money so much, they are oblivious to the damage being done in their quest for money.

All they see is the shelter being made for many people. But, what about the poor people? Do they build shelters for them? Do they build shelters for the middle income people, the working folks? NO to both. Who was it in the 60s that sang a song with the line, "they tore down a tree to put up a parking lot"? She was right, and no one cares. No one can gather enough support to stand up to those desecrating our Earth.

(edited)
I figure if I move far out to the country now I will be dead before the sprawl reaches there.

(my comment)
If you ever find this place, let me know; but don't let society know or they will be hot on your heels with bulldozers.

I can remember when there were green spaces between cities and villages. Not today, there is no dividing line between the municipalities; you go from one urban sprawl to the next urban sprawl. I can remember when the coal mining town I live in had 6 railroad tracks for hoppers to sit while being loaded with coal). Today, homes and stores occupy that space. We were served by 5 railroads, today, all the tracks are gone; turned into bike trails but being preserved in case they are needed for light rail transportation. HUH. We had light rail transportation when I was a kid, where did it go? Why did they get rid of it?

Everyone wants to move to the countryside. But they want such restrictions on development that it looks like another big brother effort. All homes look alike, 15% brick, 85% vinyl siding, double car garages, no on-street parking, very small yards for kids to play in. They leave the cities for the countrysides. Who is left in the cities? The poor, the homeless who can now sleep in the boarded up and run down shacks. All this breeds crime and those in their nice country homes say that is why they fled to the country. NO, that is not the reason, it is the result of their fleeing to the country.

Now, lets take a look 40 yers ahead. It will all reverse and the population will be wanting to move into high rise buildings and condos in the middle of the big cities. They will leave their nice homes in the country in droves only to create urban blight again. Has anyone thought of why this happens? The people are restless, they are not happy with everything they have. There is an underlying reason for this unhappiness and it is mostly uniform from person to person. Has anyone bothered to think of this and attempt to determine the reason?

BLOG, BLOG, WHY A BLOG??

2005-11-06T22:30:00.000-06:00

Is there a purpose to this blogging thing? Why do you have a blog?

Some people have a blog in order to express their thoughts and feelings that they can not say to others. Some people have a blog in an attempt to impress others. Some people use their blog as a way to make new friends. Some people have their blog as a way to discuss things.

I have been searching the Tribe.net and looking for those who share interests with me. I found a few discussions that I could get into. Right now I am looking for more information on the Canon 20-D digital camera. I bought one last Sunday and I athink it is a very fine piece of technology. My reason for buying it is that I already own a Canon EOS 35 mm camera with two accessory Canon EF series telephoto lenses, so why start a new system when I can use the same lens' on both cameras.

Hey, believe it or not, I did find some new information on Tribe's digital camera section. There are other users of the 20-D with questions like mine. I don't feel like a complete nerd if I ask what looks like a stupid question. Others have the same questions. SO, Blogs do serve a purpose. Check it out for yourself. I am sure you will find an area of Tribe.net that has folks who think exactly like you do, folks who have questions about things, exactly like you do.

Now, If I can only find something to fill this space tonight. Oh, I think I just did.

FOLLOWUP TO YESTERDAY

2005-11-03T22:45:00.000-06:00

Yesterday I asked a question about why does the Religious Right always dance around and refuse to give you a direct answer to a direct question. I refer you to http://Discuss-it.net. Read the post about "Why Christians Should be Against the Death Penalty".You will understand my question in more depth. There is a person there that is arguing for the death penalty and is quoting the bible out of context in support of his view.

I used to work with a gentleman of the same denomination and religion as myself who had very different views than I did. I was an hourly employee and he was salried. He was my foreman on this one occasion where we went nose to nose in a very heated argument over the quality of my work performance. We argued, quite loudly, for nearly 15 minutes. We were so loud that we managed to draw attention from other workers as well as his boss. No one would dare get between us or make any attempt to stop us. I guess his boss figured I was going to be sent to HR. Funny thing, 16 years later, I retired with the requisite gold watch and 21 years of service.

I told him that he had the somewhat dubious reputation of being the one foreman responsible for sending more people to HR than all the other foreman combined. He felt honored. Why, I never understood. At 5 minutes to the start of production, I told him that the machine would now start 15 minutes late because he had delayed me in finishing my job. He looked at his watch, turned and walked away. No one said a word to me, even the Area Superintendent kept quiet. He did, however, have two other electricians come down to help me. We started only two minutes late.

A few years later I was sitting in this foreman's office when he turned to me and said something to the effect of, "I do not understand why a man who is on death row and accepts Jesus Christ as his Savior can go to Heaven and receive the same benefits as I do and I have been in church all my life, followed His commandments and " on and on. I simply said, "That is the love of God, He is no respector of men, He loves us all. Now, my comments were a paraphrase of the bible but he understood what I meant.

I say all this to make this point. In those days, over 15 years ago, this foreman would have danced around the issue to avoid giving a direct answer. There is a person on http://Discuss-it.net. who is doing the same thing. Many other posters have stated their views and reasons for their views; but this person simply refuses to accept anyone's views that are different from his. I gave up in explaining my views and backing them up with scripture; but he continued to express his one-sided thinking. There is no arguing with some people. They are always right, just ask them.

Back to the foreman; it took 10 years for this guy to rethink his attitude. When I had the opportunity to work for him again, I found a completely changed man. I actually enjoyed working for and with him. It would up that I would have busted my balls to do whatever he wanted done. I never found out what caused a change in his thinking; but one day, I had the opportunity to tell him that I thought he had become a changed man. He did not understand what I was talking about. To this day, even though I am retired, I miss the guy.

WHY IS IT SO HARD TO GET A STRAIGHT ANSWER??

2005-11-02T22:18:00.000-06:00

I have read through my blogs and notice that I ask a lot of questions. Maybe I am just dumb; or could it be that I want to know a lot of information.

I want to know why;

The religious right will dance around and attempt to evade the question. Which question? Pick one. Why do they hate gays? Why will they not quote the book, chapter and verse of the bible that says such and such?
Why does the government deny that Area 51 exists? You knew I would throw this in, didn't you?
Where does the bible say that we must have a death penalty? Check out "Discuss It".
Where does the bible say that gays are to be condemned? If you can't give me the name of the book, the chapter and the verse, don't answer this, you are wasting my time.
Why do republicans always act arrogant?
Why do republicans dance around the issue and not actually answer the Democrat's questions? (Notice, I used a lower case R). That shows that I am a Democrat.

I keep asking questions; but no one has the answers. I wonder why?

DO YOU BELIEVE IN U F Os??

2005-10-31T21:19:00.000-06:00

I guess this will suffice for a post this evening. After having to block anonymous comments, I admit my anger and nerves are a bit eleveated. The reason for this blog is for me to vent my feelings and to ask others for their comments on those feelings. So far, it has had very limited effect.

I know some of the things I blog about are most likely thought of as weird. Well, don't throw stones because your walls are of glass.

I am watching a History Channel program about UFOs in Russia. The History Channel is probably my most watched channel out of the whole spectrum of TV starting at Channel 2 and ending with Channel 999. NO, not all channels are active; but I think we have over 200 channels to pick from. The History Channel gives me things to think about; I learn some new things, and for an old retired guy that can't be all bad.

Do you believe there are other lives in our solar system that could be "checking us out"? Well, why not? What ever gives us the belief that we are the only intelligent beings in existance? I do not know if there are real UFOs and real space aliens in existance; but I do not doubt it. Could Area 51 and the Russian counterpart, Kaputsin Yar, have UFOs and be doing "referse engineering" on them? Sure. Hell, anything is possible.

How well did you know your Great Grandmother or even your Grandmother? Did she ever fantisize about men walking on the moon? How about jet aircraft? I will bet you that neither one of those ladies would have ever speculated on the concept of flying at seven times the speed of sound. Much less the idea of taking an airliner of 500 people from coast to coast at jet speeds. Now, think about nuclear power, did they ever think it would happen? Probably science fiction to them, wouldn't you say?

Just as they thought of those present day events as science fiction in their day; it is quite possible that alien spacecraft could very well exist; but our minds just can't comprehend it. There are many things that we can not comprehend; but they are quite logical if we step back and take another close look.

I find the whole thing about secret aircraft, space aircraft, stealth aircraft, very interesting. What are we, the people of Earth, developing these things for? To fight who?

RESTRICTIONS AGAIN

2005-10-31T21:06:00.000-06:00

OK folks, that is enough of the anonymous comments. This blog is not intended to sell anything and if I were to allow the anonymous comments to sell their crap on my blog, I may as well close the blog. At this time, there will be no more anonymous comments.

BLOGGER AT IT AGAIN

2005-10-30T22:09:00.000-06:00

I am not sure if my post about Rosa Parks got published or not. Sometimes I wonder why I put up with this.

This probably won't get published either. If the Parks post appears more than once, you know who to blame.

ROSA PARKS: REST IN PEACE

2005-10-30T22:03:00.000-06:00

I am very pleased to see that the body of Rosa Parks is lying in state in the Capital Rotunda. Rosa Parks was a very brave woman and I am very happy that the United States Government is showing her the honor she deserves. She received many honors during her lifetime and this final honor is very fitting.

REST IN PEACE, ROSA PARKS.

CHICKEN SHIT HILL

2005-10-29T14:12:00.000-05:00

Well, we finally got there. They have completely redecorated the place with new tables and chairs and relocated the huge buffet into the middle of the room. Their wait staff is really on the ball.

Felix and I got there 5 minutes after they opened, and within 15 minutes Felix was complaining of wall to wall people. The room seats about 200 people and it was nearly filled.

The food? Need you ask; it was fantastic. Fried Chicken, baked chicken four kinds of fish, including a baked dish that I thought was absolutely tops. They had veggies coming out the, well you know. This is a place that is known for their country cooking; true home made flavor and consistancy. They had two big serving trays of reall bread and sage stuffing, none of this boxed crap that some restaurnts serve. No phony cornbread stuffing, this was the real thing.

As usual they had a huge serving tray of crab legs. About every 15 minutes a cute guy comes out of the kitchen carrying a bowl of fresh hot crab legs. The bowl is as big as a wash tub.

Dessert? You want dessert? How about a "foot-high-pie"? Yep, they have them in more flavors than the staff can keep track of. Our waitress showed me the back of her pad where she had written more than 20 flavors of pie. Felix had the fresh peach pie and I settled for a large cut of banana cream pie that had to be placed in a take home container. Yes, I ate that much food.

To see more about this place, set your web browser to Diamond Mineral Springs and wish you were there.

IS THE GOVERNMENT TELLING THE TRUTH??

2005-10-28T00:19:00.000-05:00

I am watching a History Channel program that asks the above question. What do you think? Many parts of these stories point to the Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, J. Edgar Hoover. It is suggested that Mr. Hoover did not approve of President Kennedy's lifestyle.

Is the United States Government telling you the truth about Area 51?

Well, I guess that depends on whether you believe in flying saucers or space aliens. I do not believe Area 51 is hiding alien life forms or space ships from other planets. Now, I may be completely wrong on this; but I believe the famous military base that does not exist is simply a testing and development place for super secret aircraft. Many of today's military planes were developed, tested and flown 20 years before the American people were told of their existance.

The part I do not understand is why the government denies the existance of something that we can easily see from satellite photos and actually take pictures of from Tikaboo Peak in Nevada. We can down the highway and see the signs that warn of a secret military installation. They tell us they are authorized to kill trespassers. Hmmm, I wonder if they really would? That would be something to explain.

The government refused to explain what chemicals were burned that caused the deaths of six of Area 51's workers. Even their names were never revealed in court documents. The government refused to admit the workers were ordered to burn anything, even though the evidence on their bodies had been diagnosed by doctors. Those men died without the government ever admitting they had been workers at Area 51.

You all know that I am an avid Area 51 fan. I follow every minute bit of news about the installation. I have a cousin living in Las Vegas who watches the newspapers there and relays bits of information to me. I may never have the opportunity to climb Tikaboo Peak to photograph the base myself; but I sure am going to try.

Is the United States Govenment telling you the truth about the Kennedy Assassination?

Was there a conspiracy to cover up the reason to kill President Kennedy? Do you believe Kennedy was killed by Lee Harvey Oswald acting on his own? Why did Jack Ruby kill Oswald? Did the Warren Commission cover up a conspiracy? Did J. Edgar Hoover order Kennedy killed? Did Lyndon Johnson have a part to play in this? Did Ruby tell the Warren Commission the truth?

There is pictoral evidence and aural evidence that indicates there were more shots than the three the governments admits to. There were four shots. There was someone on the grassy knoll, Even I saw the shadows and the smoke in the video coverage that was shown.

Boy, that sure is a lot of questions. Do you have answers? What do you think about these questions? There are too many unanswered questions for this to be pure coincidence.

Was Marilyn Monroe's death an accident, or planned by the U. S. Government?

We all know that Marilyn Monroe had many visits to the White House. We can see her actions at President Kennedy's Birthday Party. Was that a put-on or her real emotions?

Why did/would Marilyn Monroe commit suicide? Or did she commit suicide? I am not sure. Was this another intervention by J. Edgar Hoover?

Was there a cover up of Robert Kennedy's assasination?

Did Sirhan Sirhan act on his own? Where did the extra bullet holes come from. Sirhan's gun only held 8 bullets. Who was the woman in the polka dot dress who said the words, "WE shot Senator Kennedy"? Why did the L.A. Police keep secret a tape recorded conversation with the campaign worker who saw the woman in the polka dot dress?

Was flight 800 taken down by missile fire?

I believe it was. Would the United States Government do such an act to protect what they call "National Security"? Of course they would. Would they kill innocent citizens in order to take out their intended subject. You had better bet your booties they will.

Would the U. S. Government deliberately lie to hide terrorist activity that they knew they could not explain?

Again, pull your booties on tightly. Yes, they would. If they thought admission of terrorist activity would cause national panic, they would lie and try to blame someone else. I believe this is exactly what happened concerning TWA flight 800.

Now, if I suddenly come up missing or dead, you will know I am correct? Do I expect that to happen, No. I look forward to your comments.

Who in the hell is running this country? It sure isn't the people we elect to run it. Who or what is actually making the decisions? Is it the FBI? Is it the CIA? I do know this, it is NOT the White House. George W. Bush is not making the decisions, that is obvious.

CATS, CATS, AND MORE CATS

2005-10-26T23:13:00.000-05:00

Those of you who read this blog with any degree of regularity know that there are six cats living with Felix and I. No, Felix is not a cat. He has no resemblance to the cartoon character, "Felix the Cat". Living with six cats is more fun than living with a barrel of monkeys. Did I really say that? The cats do have their individual personalities.

Our oldest cat is Sparky. He is 9 years old, a long-haired black and white lover. No, the lover part does not refer to being the father of any of the others. Sparky loves to sleep in my bed. He, also, loves to bite or drink from a slow stream of water from Felix's bath tub. After getting all wet in the tub; of course, he must use the litterbox. After that, it is time for a nap in my bed. Never mind the cat litter he tracks onto my bed. Before I go to bed each night, I must sweep the litter from the mattress and sheets.

Next we have the mother of the kittens. Miss Lucky came to us as a stray. Sparky kept sitting by the back patio door at suppertime watching for this black and white female. At first, we did not know what was going on. Finally, Felix noticed a cat on our patio. He asked if I thought she could be hungry. Well, what cat isn't? He took a can of food out to her on a paper plate. She devoured it. He fed her another can of food and she held the plate down with her paw while she cleaned it with her tongue.

The next evening she ate three cans of food. Felix said she must really be hungry. I said she was because she was eating for a family. You could see the lumps in her sides that were tell-tale signs that she was as pregnant as the day is long. He wanted to bring her inside; but I didn't think Sparky and her would get along. I fixed a box for her in which to have her kittens on our patio. Naturally, she wouldn't have a darned thing to do with it.

Finally, after another day of feeding her outside, I relented and told Felix to see if he could bring her inside. We confined Sparky to Felix's bedroom and Miss Lucky roamed all over our house and made no attempt to return to the outside. That did it, we now owned two cats. Miss Lucky was taken to the the basement. The door to the lower level was closed and Sparky confined to the upstairs while Miss Lucky enjoyed the downstairs.

Three days later, Miss Lucky presented us with a family of four of the cutest little furballs you have ever seen.

I do not remember in what order they were delivered; but I was there for all four births. She was so sweet and knew exactly what to do and how to do it. We found out later from the Vet that this was, most likely, her first litter. She gave us two boys and two girls. Felix and I were so happy that she gave birth to four healthy kittens; but we had no idea what we were going to do with four kittens. Hey, wait; four kittens meant six cats.

I called pet stores and animal adoption agencies in an attempt to find good homes for the kittens. Everyone I talked to had more kittens than they knew what to do with. We, finally, reached the realization that we were going to keep all of them. After raising them from birth to six months of age, how could anyone part with the little fur balls. We loved them all.

First, there is Insti. Her full name is Instigator. So named because she was usually the first one to get into trouble, then sit back and let her litter mates take the rap for being outside the box or trapped under the couch or chair. Insti loves a good belly rub and likes to sleep on her back on the living room couch.

Next is our little Ru Ru. Her full name is Ruthie; but she likes to hear us call her Ru Ru. Ru Ru is bashful. She allows us to pet her; but we must go through the ritual of calling her and being very slow to reach out to touch her. There is one way to get to Ru Ru,; just offer her food. She loves to eat and will allow us to pet her when we offer food.

The girls weigh in at about 10 pounds each. Both girls are about a 50% mix of black and white. Momma, Miss Lucky weighs 7 pounds. Now we get to the heavyweights of the family. The two boys.

Marvin, also known as Starvin Marvin. Marvie is almost all black except for his back paws. He is distinguished by his little white moustache under his nose. Honest, it is a perfectly shaped white moustache. Marvin weighs in at about 11 pounds, loves to play with chips of ice and jump at shadows on the window. He hides the ice under a throw rug in the dining room; then goes back a few minutes later and can not understand why the ice is gone.

Marvie's brother is Bear. Mr. Bear is the heavyweight of the family. Bear is solid black, not a white hair on him and tips the scales at 15 pounds. Do not mistake their weight for fat. They are all well proportioned. Bear loves to sleep on his back and have his tummy rubbed. Bear, also, has the meakest meow of them all. Felix says he sounds like a little girl.

I am not sure what breed Miss Lucky is. I think she may be of an Oriental breed; but the vet can not pin it down. The two girls and Marvin do not show any particular breed. Bear is the one who stands out. He looks like he is pure bred Bombay. His color, stance and weight distribution are exactly what a Bombay should be. However, we know he is not pure bred.

We have no idea what cat Miss Lucky mated with it; but, for sure, he was a big bruiser. Bear is a testimony to that. When she first came to us, we had Miss Lucky checked for a chip by the vet. She was not broken, so no chip. It's late folks, forgive me. We did learn just recently that her left rear hip is misformed. You would never know it because she is a perfect picture of grace when she walks. Everyone has been neutered and spayed, so six is the end.

I love them all, bashful Ruthie; very loud Miss Lucky; my little pumpkin, Insti; the jumper Marvin; Mr. Sleepy Bear and, of course, the adoptive daddy, Sparky. He has accepted his adoptive family like a trouper and shares everything with them. Felix and I have a wonderful family of cats. They are precious.

RUSH RUSH

2005-10-25T23:14:00.000-05:00

GOOD BYE MRS. SEIBOLD'S

Today there are simply not enough hours for me to get every thing done. I found out the best bakery in the county recently closed. They had 5 stores spread around the county and now they are out of business. I do not understand. I mean, they made the best cream puffs and cherry coffee cakes you could find anywhere.

TROUBLE IN TOWERLAND

A problem is brewing in the next small village south of the one I inhabit. A very uninformed village building inspector made a very unintellegent comment to the village board. He claims to have discovered a 100 foot tower belonging to a ham radio operator in a residential neighborhood. The only problem is that this boob cleared the erection of the tower a few months ago when the ham was building his new home. Now he promisses the board that he will see to it the tower is removed.

Like hell he will. The Federal Communications Commission has passed a rule entitled PRB-1. This rule states local communities will make every effort to accomodate the ham radio operator in the construction and operation of the radio station. This includes allowing and accepting the existance of a tower to hold antennas.

I checked out the location today; the homes are not real expensive, average home will be in the $100,000 neighborhood. The tower does not lower the property values, in fact, the existance of a ham radio station can enhance emergency communications if the need arises.

Amateur (Ham) Radio was the only communications after Hurricane Katrina hit the gulf coast for about the first two weeks. The Federal Government didn't even know communications were needed. Bush had his head in the clouds.

NEW "BLOG"

Check out a new discussion blog that is encouraging comments from the readers. http://Discuss-it.net. I am sure you will find something there that will interest you.

AIRCRAFT DEFYING CONVENTION #1

2005-10-24T19:24:00.000-05:00

This is a shot of what I consider the most beautiful airplane in the worldl. It is a Beech Starship. It is now owned by Ratheon Aircraft Credit Corporation and is supposed to be loacated at Mid America Aircraft Museum located in Libreal, Kansas. This was the 6th aircraft of a total of 53N that were built by Beech in the 1980s. The official builder designation was NC-6 and it was given the FAA registration number of N15556S. This aircraft was all composite construction and the original cost was a bit over 5 million bucks. You could buy an entry level business jet for that price in the 80s and after Raytheon purchased Beech they decided to halt production and buy back all they could of the operating fleet. They said that maintanence of the fleet was too costly.

Below is the instrument panel of the Starcraft. It is refered to as an "all glass" cockpit because all readouts, instrumentation and otherwise was on LCDs or CRTs. This same idea is being used today in such planes as the Gulfstream V business jets. Of course, the price of that beauty is 35 million bucks. Just a bit out of my range.

The top speed of the Starcraft was and still is over 500 miles per hour. Notice the twin engines behind the main wing. Those are pusher piston engines. They are set near the center line of the aircraft with only 6" separating the 5 blade propellers when in operation. If one engine were to fail, the plane still flies normally; just feather the engine that cut out and be on your way as if nothing ever happened.

A gentlemen by the name of Robert Scherer owns NC-51 with the tail number of N514RS and has held his ground and refused to sell the plane back to Raytheon. Bob bought two more of these aircraft, had them disassembled and crated and shipped back to his own facility. He has never experienced a failure of anything that required him to dip into those crates for a spare part.

The Starship is a design by Burt Rutan and was constructed by Beech with the help of Rutan's company Scaled Composits. According to Bob's website http://www.bobscherer.com/Pages/Starship.htm he owns three and someone else owns one still operating Starships. The rest are located at Pineal Airstrip and are in the custody of Evergreen Air. They are slated to be ground up and the useable parts returned to Raytheon. Since they are composite material, the standard disassembly techniques do not apply.

I have only the highest praise for Bob Scherer in his attempt to keep the Starship flying. I hope it flys for the next two decades. Good Luck, Bob.

FINALLY GOT THAT SMORGASBORD

2005-10-23T23:14:00.000-05:00

Felis and I finally got to travel down to Southern Illinois to Reid's Harvest House for one of the best feeds in the southern part of the state. We were trying to decide if we wanted to stay home and have me fix Chicken Stew or go out for lunch. If we were to go out, where did we want to go. We had been to so many of our favorite spots locally that we nearly feel burnt out on them. It was 1:00 when Felix suggested we go down to Chester. I quickly got dressed and we hopped in my box on wheels and headed down the highway.

Our total time away was 4 and a half hours. Was it worth it? it sure was. They had quite a spread laid out including some of the best beef and gravy that I have had in years. Both of us filled two plates and managed to stuff in some bread pudding and lemon sauce. Add to that three glasses of soda and you would have seen two happy guys.

Tired of hearing about our quest for good food? Starting tomorrow, I will post some pictures and explanations of some special aircraft that never made it into full production.

LINKS TO YOUR BLOG

2005-10-22T21:29:00.000-05:00

Sometime soon I am going to get my act together and put links to all the blogs I read in my "links" section. I follow a few blogs daily, almost like sneaking behind your door and watching what is going on in your life. Nosy little SOB aren't I? I will try to get that done this week.

CANCEL THIS, CHANGE THAT

2005-10-22T20:21:00.000-05:00

Well, we did not make it to Southern Illinois for the big smorgasbord where we intended to gorge ourselves. Our momma cat got sick. Loong story follows.

Felix noticed our little momma cat throwing up this morning. He called the vet for an appointment for her before I even got out of bed. The appointment was in the middle of the afternoon, so we were virtually tied to the home all day, at least until her appointment was over. He noticed something that looked like little bits of styrofoam in her upchuck, so we searched all over the house to find what she could have gotten into.

It turns out that the cats have been using their scratching post very well, and have managed to shred the carpet around the post, down to the underlying packing. That seems to be what she injested. Little momma is back home and doing fine. The vet gave her a shot, some medication to be taken every 8 hours and did two X-rays on her. Felix paid the bill of $151.00 for a two hour vet visit.

It seems her hips are not exactly lined up properly. We had no idea as she is the perfect picture of grace when she walks. I have seen cats go down stairs before; but this little girl does it so gracefully with her little feet touching each step. Most cats sort of hop down the stairs. Our older adult male cat takes the steps in three leaps down. Some day, I swear, he is going to injure himself going down the stairs. And coming up, they all run between your feet to beat you to the top. I have nearly tripped on a couple of them. Why do they like to almost trip you, then sit there and look at you like, "What, what did I do"?

Six cats are going to break us. Next month they all come due for their annual shots, now that is going to cost us a bundle. Felix complains about the cost of their litter being higher than the cost of their food. It isn't that way for people. Steaks cost more than toilet paper. I wonder if we could teach the cats how to use toilet paper. That would be somthing to see on TV. "Watch the kitty wipe it's butt". Yeah, right.

One of these days I am going to get back to my posting pictures of weird airplanes from Boeing. Thay have tried almost every configuration possible.

T G I F

2005-10-21T23:24:00.000-05:00

T G I F means Thank God It's Friday. We all know that comes right after S H I T. S H I T, you mean you didn't know that stood for So Happy It's Thursday? Well, now you do. We have a lot of acronyms in the auto industry. Everyone knows F O R D, that's Found On Road Dead or Fix Or Repair Daily. B U I C K, Big Ugly Indian Cunt Kar. I will not give you the full explanation of P O N T I A C. I don't like to use the "N" word. OK OK, Poor Old N----- Thinks It's A Cadillac.

Today is Friday and Felix played hooky from work. Our momma cat woke me up at 4:30AM wanting to be fed. I thought something horrible had happened the way she was crying, so I got up to see. Felix had his bedroom door closed and was still sleeping. After determining that the loud-mouthed puddy was just hungry, I sat on the couch and waited for Felix to get up at 5. We were out of paper plates and I did not know how he intended to feed the cats. He used our regular dinner ware. Hope he washes them good, I am not partial to cat food for supper.

I went back to bed and was unaware that Felix did the same until I got up at 10:30. We decided to visit the Olive Garden for our late dinner, early supper. We love their Pasta e Fagoli soup. After we arrived home we decided to make that dreaded visit to the grocery store. I dropped $106 and some change.

Sunday I will treat Felix to one of his favorite meals. I will make my famous Chicken Stew. Hey, my momma taught me how to fix some pretty good meals. How about boiled pork butt and kraut with mashed potatoes? Or change the meat to spare ribs with kraut and mashed potatoes? Mom raised a meat and potatoes boy here. Since the doctor has limited my beef intake, I don't do the steak broiled in butter or the liver and onions as often as I would like. Besides, Felix is not a liver person. Little does he know that everyone needs a little liver to put lead in your pencil.

Tomorrow, Saturday, we are going to venture to the Southern part of the state to a smorgasbord restaurant that always has a delicious display of food. Oh, I should mention that another one of our favorite smorgasbord restaurants goes by the name, "Chicken Shit Hill". Honestly, that is their knick name. Everyone in the county knows it by that name. If you like fried chicken served family style, you must visit Chicken Shit Hill. Friday nights, they have the largest smorgasbord layout I have ever seen. Chicken, Beef, Ham, Crab Legs, Fish, Pasta, you name it, it is there.

Well, I still have some web surfin' to do. See ya at Chicken Shit Hill.

HELLO TO ALL

2005-10-20T21:55:00.000-05:00

I see there are a bunch of new readers. HELLO, and welcome to my blog. I will try to explain the foibles of my life in an entertaining way. Sure, there will be times I go on a rant about something; but for the most part, I am harmless. Yeah, that is very true, I am harmless.

I will be a senior citizen later this month. That means I will have attained the ripe old age of 65. For me, that is nothing to crow about. I would rather be 30 again. I have worked very hard to get where I am; BROKE, OLD and DISABLED. The disability part comes in because I have suffered a stroke; but have 98% recovered. I have suffered cancer, as well. I am not sure if anyone can ever claim to have recovered from cancer. Every cancer survitor I know, is still taking life year by year. Once that disease gets hold of a person, you are never sure you are free.

For me, it has been 4 years since my surgery. That surgery ended my sex life. I guess you could say that I made a trade. No sex life; but still a life. I am thankful, every day, for my life. Against many odds, I intend to live to be a ripe old age of 120. There are just too many things to do, places to see, things to experience; for me to give up and die now. Cross your fingers, say a prayer for me, I may just reach that goal.

THURSDAY NIGHT IS GROCERY SHOPPING NIGHT

2005-10-20T20:30:00.000-05:00

Our local grocery chain runs a $10.00 coupon in the Sunday newspaper that is only good on Thursday when you buy $50.00 worth, or more, of groceries. Certain items are exempt from that total; but it is not difficult to run up a $50.00 tab for groceries for two people. Felix does not like to go to the grocery store; but he needs to go to pick his cereal for the week.

This week Felix had an interview for a new position at his place of employment. They held the interview after his normal work hours. That meant he got home about 90 minutes later than normal. I can understand that, traffic is horrible at 5PM Monday thru Friday. Now, we had to rush out for a decent supper. He arrived home just before 6PM and we headed off to the local Cracker Barrel for supper. The slow waiter and the crowded restaurant made our finishing the meal at 7:10PM.

Felix made his objections to going grocery shopping again. I kept pushing for us to go to the store because we are out of certain things. We still had to stop at the Post Office to pick up our mail and stop at the pharmacy to get Felix some medication By that time it was 7:30. I needed to use the restroom, so I gave in and we went home. This may not seem like an earth shattering subject to post about; but the lure of saving ten bucks on our grocery bill is a major event for someone collecting retirement and Unsocial Insecurity.

Felix said he would contribute ten bucks when we do go grocery shopping on Saturday or Sunday. Believe me, I am going to hold him to that promise. Ten bucks is ten bucks.

JUST MY LUCK

2005-10-19T18:34:00.000-05:00

Last night I had a loooong post for this blog. Wouldn't you know it, Blogger made an error and the whole thing went bye bye. It was late and I just gave up and went to bed.. Now, I will try again.

SUBJECT: AUTOMOBILES

I was talking to a friend on the radio Tuesday afternoon, about automobiles. He drives a Ford Escape SUV, as do I. Mine is a 2002 and his is a 2003. He puts more mileage on his than I do now; because I am retired. Bob asked me what I knew about the new Hybrid Escape.

Well, I don't know too much about it other than it is priced about $5000 higher than the gasoline powered one and the gas mileage is a couple of miles more to the gallon. At today's prices, even two miles more per gallon is not to be sneezed at. (Today, I paid $2.55.9 per gallon).

From what I understand about the Hybrid SUV is that when you reach a certain speed, the gasoline engine will cut out and the alternative fuel motor will suply power to keep you going. The gasoline engine will kick in when the vehicle senses the need for more power, such as climbinb a hill or accelerating from a stop sign.

Bob related a story about one of the Hybrid Escapes that he saw a couple of days ago. Bob was behind the Hybrid SUV. When the traffic light changed to green the driver of the Hybrid vehicle stepped on the gas only to creep away from the intersection. The sensor that was supposed to sense the need for increased power and kick the gasoline engine on line, didn't work.

Bob was talking to the Ford dealer in his home town about this experience. The dealer told him they have had other complaints about similar instances. Understand, this is not a fault of the assembly employees at the factory, this is a fault of the supplier's sensor module. What a horrible feeling the driver of that SUV must have felt.

I spent 21 years working for an automobile manufacturer and can relate some horror stories of my own. The average auto worker is not a highly educated individual, nor is he highly motivated. Most of these guys are there because they could not work in any other environment. Stop and think, could you do the same 3 minute task 600 times a day? Yup, 600 times a day at 60 units per hour on a 10 hour shift. Honestly, I would go bonkers if stuck in that situation. It takes a very tolerant individual to work these jobs.

I have watched as some of these guys come stumbling in, at 5:30AM, on Monday morning. Some of them still hung over from their wild weekend of trying to forget the boredom of their jobs. I have watched them come back from drinking their lunch, for the same reason. Do not get me wrong, there are some very highly educated guys, even with college degrees; but working in the auto industry because it pays better than the white collor profession they are schooled for.

There is an old adage in the auto industry insiders that says: never buy a vehicle in the first year of production. Give it a year to get the bugs worked out. Also, check the build date on the doorpost of the driver's side to see what day of the week the vehicle was built. Never buy a vehicle that was built on Monday or Friday. Honestly, these are jokes that go around; but there is a little bit of reality there, too.

From my 21 years in the audo industry as an electrician/robot technician; I have seen some very good employees beat their heads against a wall in their attempt to build top notch vehicles. We all know that it is a race between Ford, GM and Daimler-Chrysler vs the imports. Imports are making inroads into the American market. For every import that is purchased, a small bit of money is taken out of the pockets of the American Auto Workers. That is like a slap in the face to your neighbor.

These guys'gals are not overpaid for their jobs. There are long hours, very hot, uncomfortable, working conditions and when they retire the company retirement isn't all that great.

There ya go, that is my post for today. I will add these words: BUY AMERICAN.

KIND OF DISAPPOINTING

2005-10-16T22:27:00.000-05:00

It is kind of disappointing that the visitors to this blog have had no comments to give me. Makes me wonder if the bolg is worth all the trouble.

WHAT WOULD YOU DO?

2005-10-15T23:46:00.000-05:00

My Felix is horny. Since my cancer surgery four years ago, I have been unable to give him what he wants. A good hard dick. Now, I am in a big dilimma. I trust him but I know how difficult it is to makd your hard dick go down unsatisfied. Sex is mostly in the mind; that is called letting the little head think for the big head.

Felix knows how much I love him and I do not like to see him go so unfulfilled. Do I turn my back and let him have sex with someone else, knowing that he may come home with a disease or even beat to hell because he tried it with the wrong guy. For that matter, he may come home in a body bag.

You tell me, what do I do? It is very difficult to sit by and watch Felix be unhappy.

FRIDAY NIGHT

2005-10-14T20:19:00.000-05:00

Felix and I went out for supper this evening. Cracker Barrel has gotten over their fear of gays in the kitchen, well at least, in their dining room. We both had our fill for under twenty bucks for the two of us.

As I said yesterday, coming up with something new to post every day is tough. I always read Scott-o-rama before I do anything. Today Scott has the best blog. He likes to post funny songs on Friday and today he has topped himself. Please point your browser over to Scott-o-rama.com and enjoy a great laugh. I did, and sent emails to a bunch of friends.

I noticed my counter is missing again. I wonder when they will get done with their mods.

WHAT TO WRITE?? WHAT TO WRITE????

2005-10-13T20:18:00.000-05:00

Do you ever have problems thinking of something to put in your blog? Do you post to your blog daily? I try to make a post every day and I will admit that I do have problems coming up with what I think will be an interesting topic for others to read.

I am a big fan of "Law & Order" on NBC and the spinoffs of Law & Order. Last night the L & O episode was about a wife who had been in a coma for years and her husband was trying to get her feeding tube pulled from her. In other words, he was trying to allow her to die in peace. Her parents were totally against that. Sounds familiar, doesn't it?

The husband was killed with a car bomb and the parents were the culprits; but the big catcher was that the whole plot was devised by a preacher of their local church. He said that no person has the right to end someone else's life. Now, I have my topic. Are you ready to think about this?

What would you do if faced with a similar situation. Felix has Power of Attorney for me. He has complete control of such a situation, although he would be open to input from my son. I really doubt my son would oppose Felix's decision, whatever it is. Could you pull the plug on your wife, husband or partner? Could you?

That takes a lot of thinking. I believe that taking someone elses life is a sin. The bible tells us to not kill. It also says that suicide is a sin; because you would have killed yourself and then would be unable to ask for forgiveness. What to do, what to do? This is a really tough subject to even think about. I am sure people will have nightmares if they really dwell on this topic. I know, I would.

It would kill me to see Felix lay in a bed unable to speak and not knowing if he could even hear me. Felix has a mother and a brother. His mother was not much of a momma to him; in fact, he was raised by his grandparents because his mother just didn't give a shit about her responsibilities. Felix and his brother do not get along, either. I believe I know the attitude his mother would take. Pull the plug: he is going to die sooner or later so why waste all the energy in thinking about it. She is an unthinking, uncaring individual. Little brother would bury himself in a bottle of booze.

So, the decision would be back on me. How can someone pull the plub on someone they love? I am quite familiar with this situation as the mother of a very good friend of mine made this decision two months ago. I still miss the guy. All the doctors said he would probably be barely alive if he recovered at all. They said there was too much brain damage and he would be unable to take care of himself. I am talking about a man of age 48 who weighed over 300 pounds. This had to be the most difficult decision the mother could ever be asked to make.

I have not come to terms with her decision. I agree that he would have been a very unhappy man if he had lived to come out of the coma. I just do not know about the decision. Maybe the wrong decision was made in trying to save his life in the first place.

What would you do if faced with this decision? Do you dare think about it?

EMAIL

2005-10-12T20:42:00.000-05:00

I owe a debt of gratitude to Scott of Scott-o-rama.com for advising me that my AOL account was set incorrectly. I have made the corrections to the email list so that anyone can send me email at JimDean001@aol.com.

AOL has put up a new interface in the last two or three weeks and some of the prompts have changed. I used to know the program; but Felix had to guide me through a couple of things tonight to make the corrections so I can get email from readers of my blog. Speaking of that, the numbers show that my blog has generated quite a number of readers. I am glad someone cares to read what I have to say. LOL.

I will tell you this; AOL sure has gotten more complicated since it started. I started with computers with a Commodore 128 and joined the online service called "Q-Link". That service was Commodore specific. It morphed into AOL way back in the 1980s. The more they "improve" AOL the more it runs into conflicts with our computers.

Their virus scan conflicts with Norton or the one I use from Charter, their spyware program conflicts with the other spyware programs I have. Even with all this, I do like AOL because a number of my friends are there. I know, email is email; but the emails on AOL are so easy, once you get used to it. Like I said, I have been with it since it started.

Way off subject, so let me wind up with thanking Scott for telling me of the problem and assure the rest of you who want to answer me, or tell me what a nut or ass I am, the email problem has been corrected.

GONE, BUT NOT FORGOTTEN

2005-10-12T18:25:00.000-05:00

I have been following the adventures of those two gay guys, Casey and Dew, all over the planet. Now, it seems they have gone to another planet or possibly the moon. In plain words, their websites are GONE.

Dew has been hinting that something was about to happen; but he never would get specific. One post said the "bible thumpers" (my words) were hounding him. He said that Casey was taking care of some special business while he, Dew, was visiting his mother in Florida. Now, three websites have disappeared from the web. Maybe even four.

Did the authorities get involved?

Did Casey and Dew walk that fine line too long?

Did they tempt the law to step in?

Is the present administration cracking down on all gay people's web sites?

Is Casey in jail and Dew in the care of some "child protective agency"?

I am quite curious about where they are and what has happened to them. The CaseyandDew.tv web site never got sexual that I saw. They made a very definite effort to keep things on the straight and narrow. The only time I saw anything suggestive was when they were on I-44 going through Oklahoma and stopped for gasoline and soda at a service station. There was a promo ad in the window for Mountain Dew and Casey said something that could have been sexually suggestive about "mounting Dew". Dew laughed. I laughed.

They may have had something else going on that I was not aware of; but their little daily TV show was about as non-sexual as you can get. I mean; like a half hour of Casey teaching Dew how to fry and egg and make a grilled cheese sandwich.

I do believe someone or some federal agency has stuck their big nose into the thing and put a big damper on them. For that I am sorry; but not surprised. There are always people who are jealous of others and will do everything they can to screw up lives.

WELL, ITS FREE

2005-10-12T00:34:00.000-05:00

When it is free, you can't expect perfection.

AIR POWER VS SEA POWER

2005-10-12T00:17:00.000-05:00

I am watching a TV show that gives all the poop about a new and advanced technology submarine named the Virginia. Boy, they are bragging about this sub. It can stay down and stationary for months, it can go as deep as 800 feet, it has a nuclear power ploant that lasts for 30 years and it has so much electronics and surveillance equipment that ..... they go on and on.

What does that tell you? Sure, it tells you that this sub is good; but they are bragging so much about sea power and saying we have all the "spy planes" we need. They say we need sea power. OK, I agree, we need sea power; but in my humble opinion, the government is trying to avert attention to this sub and away from new advances in air power. Mark my words, within 5 years they will announce a new stealth aircraft that will make your jaw drop.

Our government never says what it is doing. It always attempts to avert attention away from the real project.

AIR POWER OR SEA POWER

2005-10-12T00:10:00.000-05:00

I am watching a TV show that gives all the poop about a new and advanced technology submarine named the Virginia. Boy, they are bragging about this sub. It can stay down and stationary for months, it can go as deep as 800 feet, it has a nuclear power ploant that lasts for 30 years and it has so much electronics and surveilence equipment that ..... they go on and on.

What does that tell you? Sure, it tells you that this sub is good; but they are bragging so much about sea power and saying we have all the "spy planes" we need. They say we need sea power. OK, I agree, we need sea power; but in my humble opinion, the government is trying to avert attention to this sub and away from new advances in air power. Mark my words, within 5 years they will announce a new stealth aircraft that will make your jaw drop.

Our government never says what it is doing. It always attempts to avert attention away from the real project.

MULTI SUBJECTS again

2005-10-11T22:09:00.000-05:00

YESTERDAY'S QUESTION

I am sorry that no one had an answer to my question of yesterday. From reading Dew's blog, the little that he posts, I think there is more going on than he has told us. I am very sorry for the torment that he is going through. People should keep thier noses out of other people's business. Me too, maybe.

WEATHER

I think the fall weather has fallen on us. Temperatures have dropped into the upper 30s for a couple of nights. We are about 10 degrees below normal for this time of year. Halloween usually is the start of our cold weather; but this year, I am beginning to doubt many little ghouls will be out celebrating Halloween this year.

Our big bag of candy may have to be eaten by Felix and I. He is already making a dent in it so there may not be any left come Halloween. Me, I like a big Snickers Bar that has been in the freezer for a while. I like the chocolate high. Shame on me; but it is the truth.

OUR NAMES

Felix is truly in the character of Felix Unger and I will have to admit that I am an Oscar Madison to a tee. My computer/radio room is the messiest room of the entire house. Even worse than the utility room. Felix spent a few hours last week cleaning up the utility room; but he knows better than to try to clean this room. It is not that I like the mess; but I know where everything is. It is in this pile or that pile.

I have been working for the last three days trying to sort out the magazines and put them in order in magazine holders. Those damn plastic things aren't cheap; but they do make a big help in keeping the magazines off the floor. I hate to throw out a magazine just because it is last month's news, or last years. Who knows when I will need to reference an article in one of them?

MY SCHEDULE

For some reason I am way off a normal schedule. I just can't seem to get my body regulated. I woke up this morning at 8:30, made a dash for the bathroom and then went back to bed. I slept until Felix woke me up at 11:00. He called from work to see if I was OK. Yeah, I was OK; I had been sleeping since midnight last nifht. Eleven hours sleep should be enough for anyone; but not for me.

WHAT TO EAT????

Felix arrives home about 4:15 every afternoon and we normally have a hot supper. Today, I didn't have a darned thing ready. We ate deli sandwiches. The lunch meat wasn't bad; but a hot supper would have been better. I just didn't have the energy or desire to cook. I have been hungry for a pot of ham and beans and intended to fix that today; but we didn't have the beans in the cupbord. Beisdes, Felix hates them. He, also, hates pork chops, steak, and anything made with pork. He will eat pasta 6 times a week and Mexican food 5 times a week. My tummy can't go that route.

I was raised a meat and potatoes man and I could have iced tea at every meal. Felix must have been raised on fast food from Mickey D's or Taco Bell and Coca Cola, Mr. Pibb or Dr. Pepper. I don't know where he gets the cast iron stomach. I like pasta; but only once a week, at the most.

Well, I must think up something for supper on Wednesday. I may surprise him. Pray for me, he may kill me when he sees what I have made.

QUESTION?

2005-10-10T13:12:00.000-05:00

I have a question about Casey and Dew. I am sure most of you are familiar with the duo. For about the last two or three years they have been together and have recorded tieir daily antics for distribution as CaseynDewTv. Now, all of a sudden, nothing.

Rumors have been floating around on various BBS and blogs. I will not repeat the rumors as I do not want to add to them. They may be viscous rumors from jealous people or they may be clsoe to being true. I do not know.

Does anyone have the truth? If so, please advise me.

Casey is a 24 year old gay boi and Dew is a 16-17 year old gay boi. They seem to be in love with each other. They have taken auto trips all over the U.S.A. and to Europe. Dew's mother has gone with them on some of their trips. They seemed to be a happy group of folks just out for adventure and not causing any harm to anyone.

My own feelings are that someone or some group of "do-gooders" have stepped in and messed up their trelationship. Why can't those do-gooders leave things alone? Why must they attempt to impose or force their wishes on the rest of the world?

The bible says we should "do unto others as we want them to do unto you". (paraphrased) Would those do-gooders want someone to impose their wishes on them? Of course mot; so why do the force their will on others? The videos on CaseynDueTV have not been suggestive or sexual in any way. It was just a record of their daily adventures, including going to the grocery store and cooking in their own kitchen. What is so horrible about that/

Did Casey and Dew have sex together? Probably, but they never advertised such activity.

I think people should allow other people alone. Be what God intended you to be; without intervention from do-gooders. GOD DOES NOT MAKE MISTAKES. If God created you gay, then be gay. No one can change you, only God can, if He wants to. If God made someone gay, they are as God intended. Again, GOD DOES NOT MAKE MISTAKES.

If anyone knows anything about Casey or Dew, please let me know,. Leave a comment here or send me an email at JimDean001@aol.com.

WINTER IS COMING, BREAK OUT THE ELECTRIC BLANKET

2005-10-08T22:24:00.000-05:00

I pamper myself when it comes to sleeping. I have a king sized bed all by myself. Felix grew up with a twin bed and now has a twin sized water bed. I couldn't get along without my king sized bed. When we go on vacation we try to get a room with the minimum of two queen sized beds. That is appropriate, don't you think? Two queens in the beds.

OK, stop laughing. The local temperature hasn't hit the 30s yet; but we have seen two nights into the 40s. I still have my window air conditioner in place in my bedroom. It still may get warm and I can't sleep in a hot bedroom. I like the air in the bedroom to be cold; but I like to be warm under the covers. I sleep under a sheet and a comforter year around. In the winter, I suppliment that with an electric blanket.

Now, I have been offered an alternative to that. Many women are jumping at the chance to have a new throw for their beds. Their husbands do not like the idea; but Felix and I think it is a very good idea.

You tell me, would you like to have this on your bed?

HAPPY HALLOWEEN TO ALL

2005-10-07T22:06:00.000-05:00

I know it is a bit early for Halloween; but since Felix and I bought a supply of candy for the trick or treaters today, I thought I would wish everyone else a

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

WRONG TIME, WRONG PLACE

2005-10-06T20:29:00.000-05:00

Have you ever felt that you were in the wrong time and wrong place? It happened to me this evening. This is the second time in my life that I have felt this way.

I do not know what it was about our club meeting this evening; but I definitely felt that I did not need to be there. I am one of the directors of the organization and my presence was necessary if we were to have the meeting; however for some odd reason, I felt out of place. I do not know if this is because I haven't really felt that good all day or what the underlying cause was. I sat quietly and voted as a director should; but I did not bring up any new business or ask about old business that did not get done.

Our club consists of mostly older guys who have good intentions; but do not have the energy to carry them off. I have been on the board for two years and I thought I could help bring new energy and change to the club; but I do not see any change or any forward progress. If anything, the club has gone backwards. It hurts to see what was once a forward thinking organization headed down the crapper. The man who pushed me to run for director two years ago, recently passed away. I am glad he is not here to see the club now. I do miss him very much.

I know most of you will not understand all this; but this fills up the blog. We have spent $20,000 bucks in the last 15 years and have very little to show for it. Our last treasurer mishandled the books and showed the club having $3,000 more than we actually had. Our present treasurer doesn't even show up for the meetings. The secretary is running about 50% on his attendance and the Vice President is about the same. I can remember back to 1988 when we had over 110 members, owned our own clubhouse, had multiple radio stations on the air, and were a respected radio club. Now we have 36 members, multiple stations one the air and not enough money to keep them running in tip top shape.

Police departments and city government used to come to us to provide communications for parades and backup communications in times of emergency. We were a rspected orgainzation, trusted by local governments. Now, they bypass us as if we were a disease.

We are the sixth oldest radio club in the nation and many people looked up to the club, now no one even gives a shit about the sixth oldest radio club. My term as a director on the board is up in December and I will not accept another term. This last term did not accomplish a damned thing. I saw our membership go down the shitter and three grand disappear. No one is accusing the treasurer of taking the money, he just did not keep the books in order. He did not balance them each month against the bank statement. He just didn't care.

Honestly, I am hurt that the club is in worse shape now than it was two years ago. There is no need for me to keep hitting my head against a brick wall. The membership are all friends and I do not want to loose any friends; but I am tired and they are going to have to get along without me on the board.

TIME TO PAY UP

2005-10-05T22:00:00.000-05:00

The news on TV tells the same stories over and over. The only thing that changes are the names. Rape, murder, missing children, over and over. What the hell is happening to our society? Are we repeating the horrors of the past?

The story of Rome seems to be happening all over again. Nero fiddled while Rome burned, so the history books tell us. Bush played and ignored the situation in New Orleans. Where are the people who care? I know they are out there; but all we ever hear is the negative news. It usually is the lead story on every newscast.

What really makes me sick is the missing children. Young boys and girls are not raised to be afraid of everyone the meet. They are told to trust the police. Young children are not always able to differentiate between uniforms. We have an idea of what happens to those children that are not found. Some are used as sex objects. This is not only shameful; but it is indicative of what Rome had become. Sexual perversion ran rampant in ancient Rome. It seems America is doing it's best to follow Rome.

I am a student of the bible and what I see happening today scares me. We are headed towards the end of our civilization if we continue on the present road. I am not trying to preach here, I am only saying that I believe biblical prophecy is being carried out today. I am afraid that one day we will wake up and find that what we have done to the earth and to our fellow man, is irreversible.

Our society has become a "me-me" society. All we seem to care about is ourselves and instant gratification. Young people in their 20s want the same comforts that people inther 50s have. The want the same big home, the same type automobile, the same big screen TV and all the things that the older members of society took years to get. I am not saying that they shouldn't have those things; but the difference is that the older folks have these things and they are paid for. The younger generation is going into hock and borrowing beyond their ability to repay. That leads them into bankruptcy. Felix's mother is filing bankruptcy for the second time. Thank God, Felix thinks in a different manner. He has bills; but he pays them.

Soon, and very soon, the time to pay the piper will be here and I do not believe the majority of society is able to make that payment.

MOON or NEVADA

2005-10-04T01:22:00.000-05:00

This one is hilarious. Did we put men on the moon, or did we fake the whole thing at Area 51? That is the premise of a show on the National Geographic Channel that I am watching right now. I will ask you for your opinion.

Was it the MOON or NEVADA?

You tell me in your comments to this post.

WEATHER AND IT'S COST TO US

2005-10-04T00:13:00.000-05:00

I have been watching the History Channel lately and have become informed on our weather. Now, don't get all upset and accuse me of being a sci-fi nut. Yes, I do like sci-fi and Area 51; but this post is supposed to be serious.

Is Mother Nature rebelling against us? Let's take a look at what has been happening. The hurricanes could happen any year; but this year we had back to back devastation from Katrina and Rita. It seems the Global Warming thing is true. I can only hope that it stays that way for winter. With global warming, the ice caps are melting and the seas are rising. Not that it will be noticed for some time; but the costal areas of America are predicted to affected in a few years. It is time to wake up.

We have been warned to expect our heating bills to be nearly doubled. That hurts. The increase in cost will be from $400 to $1000 for the heating season. Natural gas and oil are the most affected heating fuels. I use natural gas and will probably only see the $400 price increase.

What I do not understand is a city about 20 miles from me generates it's own electricity by the use of natural gas to run the turbines. That never did make sense to me.

America and it's citizens do not understand the need to conserve our resources. We use electricity like we think it will always be there. NOT SO. Coal reserves will eventually run out, as will oil and natural gas. If we do not develop nuclear generated electricity without making spent nuclear waste, we will be in one hell of a mess. I won't be around to see that happen; but trust me, it will happen if we continue to use our natural resources at the present rate.

The cost to rebuild New Orleans and the gulf coast area hit by the two hurricanes is astronomical. I am not sure it is worth it. Yeah, Mardi Gras was a nice time to let go and have a ball; but should anyone occupy a city that is below the water level. Does that make any sense? To me, it does not. Who is going to pay the cost to rebuild? You and I, of course.

It seems to me that we humans are our own worst enemy.

RING RING, HELLO, HELLO,

2005-10-02T19:43:00.000-05:00

Felix is a phone nut. His grandmother used to work for the phone company and Felix has such a fascination with telephones. I am surprised he didn't go to work for Ma Bell. Anyway, on Friday night he began talking about getting a new cell phone. He thinks the company is going to take away the company-owned one he is carrying and he hates the one he had before the company one. So he wanted to trade in his old phone and get a new Nokia flip phone.

OK, I said we would make a visit to the fone fairy and he could get a new one. One major problem, the fone fairy did not have the Nokia model he wanted. He settled for a Motorola flip phone. You must understand this, I hate flip phones. They are too delicate, too small, and I just hate them. He walked out of the store, not really enthused about his new Motorola; but he agreed to try it. The fone fairy gave him 30 days sto make up his mind. By 5PM on Saturday he decided he didn't like it. That was quick, only 4 hours. I was right. I knew he wouldn't like it.

He called various cell phone stores and located one about 40 miles away that had one Nokia flip phone left. It was too late to get there on Saturday. I promissed him we would find the store on Sunday and get his new phone. The store was way out in St. Louis county, in a part of the county I was not familiar with. I used Google Earth to find the store, I wrote directions to it and off we went, at 10:30 AM. Turns out that we were 40 minutes early so we sat in the box on wheels (my SUV) and waited.

When they opened at noon, Felix was the first customer through the door. He got his new Nokia flip phone and an $80.00 rebate as well. Now, since I did the driving and paid for the gasoline, lunch was on Felix. There was a day when that would have indicated a bed; but this time it indicated The Concord Grill in South St. Louis county. www.concordgrill.com/ If you have ever listened to KMOX radio (The Voice of St. Louis) in the late evening, you may be familiar with the name Jim White. The Concord Grill was Jim's favorite burger joint, too. He even has a burger named in his honor.

This is about the fourth or fifth time Felix has decided he must have the newest, the latest and greatest phone on the market, since I have known him. Oh well, he had to sign a new two year contract, so I guess he will not be doing this again for two years. At least, Felix is happy and when he is happy, I am happy.

If you ever find yourself in St. Louis and hungry for a great burger or meal, stop by The Concord Grill. You won't be sorry.

KOOK

2005-09-30T23:06:00.000-05:00

I wonder how many of you readers think I am a kook for chasing information about Area 51. Not too long ago a person interested in Area 51 events would have been taken into custody for questioning and possible jailing. "Jailing", is that a word? I just finished watching a program on The History Channel about Area 51 and the company called Space Imaging". Space Imaging is the company that owns the Ikonos satellite that gives us images down to the resolution of one foot. When you realize how far out in space that satellite must be, that resolution is damn close. We will not be able to recognize faces; but we will see that the object we are looking at is a human.

From all sources I can access, Area 51 is alive and well. I have spent hours, days and even weeks chasing information on Area 51. Dugway proving Grounds is another place to watch; but I do not think you will see much aircraft development there. Area 51 is concentrating their activities on stealth technology. This must be developed to it's highest level if we are to maintain a military superiority in today's world.

I have posted photos of aircraft that came from Area 51. All those photos are of real aircraft. Some of them made it into production and some were scrapped due to flaws or simply because they did not fly properly. Area 51 has scrapped over 2 billion bucks of aircraft. Now you know why your taxes are so high. Pay up folks, go to the poor farm with the rest of us. We can have a party.

IT TAKES A WHILE FOR ME TO CATCH ON

2005-09-30T20:00:00.000-05:00

My problem with the browser and the blog seems to be related to whether the counter is their or not. With this post, I should be able to go back to using Mozilla. The counter is back and everything will be fine.

WHERE IS THE COUNTER THIS TIME?

2005-09-29T23:23:00.000-05:00

It seems the folks who program the blog counter are having a difficult time keeping the thing working. It is up one night, down the next and then up again. This cycle has repeated itself for the last 3 or 4 weeks. That is one feature that I used nightly. I like to see who is reading my blog, and sometimes I wonder why 19 readers are there for one day and just 2 or 3 the next day.

I guess my rantings are uninteresting to folks. Well, hell, they aren't very interesting to me, either; but I need to blog to let off steam.

That's all tonight.

A O L

2005-09-28T22:32:00.000-05:00

The three letters over 15 million people love to hate. I have been an AOL member since the dark ages, way back when they started in the late 80s or early 90s. Before that I was a member of Quantum Link, Q-Link, which was a Commodore specific chat and message service. Boy those Commodore graphics were wonderful. Remember "Stroker 64"?

Well, back to the subject. AOL seems to have opened a new service that will allow everyone to access their e-mail and such. I am in a discussion group of folks that hve been complaining about their screen names and messages are being accessed by anyone on the Internet. This sounds like a breach of security to me. Most people on AOL are using a screen name that does not identify their true identity. However, one gal typed in her screen name in Google and up came the blurb that gave her real name and said she had been a member of AOL for such and such a time using the screen name. Is this fair? I don't think so.

Is this another "service" of Big Brother? It seems that the members of AOL are going to be "outed" no matter what they do. Hey, Mr. AOL, that isn't fair. The group that I belong to have identified themselves to each other long ago; but we did not intend to tell the whole world. I don't understand what is happening, how it is happening or why it is happening. I just know that this will lose a bunch of members for AOL. Maybe that won't be such a bad thing; but I wish they would leave things alone. As I said long ago, I do not like change. It is not always for the best.

AOL has undergone many face lifts over the years, they are always tinkering with the main program; but this time I think they will regret their tinkering. This time I think it has earned it's new name honestly, A O HELL.

WHO WHAT WHEN WHERE WHY and ??

2005-09-28T00:50:00.000-05:00

I had a post for this evening; but with the nonsense created by the two browsers, I forgot what I wanted to blog about. I try to read a couple of blogs every evening and one I read seems to show considerable personal problems. I am not surprised at the problems. Gay people always stir up anger in the straight population. Why, I am not sure?

I have heard that if gay marriages were accepted it would cause instability in straight marriages. Now, you tell me how that will happen. Are the straight men closet gays? Are they afraid they will become gay? Gee, do we gays have something that they straight men want?

Why do the straight people always think they know better? Why are they afraid to allow gay people to live on their own? I have so many questions and I see so much conflict with the gay population? If left alone, I am sure we could find our own way in society; but they won't leave us alone. Are they really that much afraid of us? Are they afraid to leave us alone? Are they afraid we can make it withoug their intervention? I think they are.

What can we do about it? Not much, I am afraid. We must elect gay friendly men and women to political office. We must tell our political representatives about our plight. We must raise our voices in a common voice to tell people that we are no threat to them or the American way of life. We must stand united as loyal Americans, expressing our views; but doing no harm or violence to anyone.

All we want in life is to be left alone and to be allowed to love those we choose. Allow us to be the men and women God meant us to be. Why must the "bible thumpers" tell us to be what they want us to be? Let us be who God intended us to be.

MOZILLA NOW WORKS. YOU TELL ME??

2005-09-27T18:39:00.001-05:00

You tell me? One post from Mickey Soft's Internet Exploder and all is well. Mozilla now accesses my blog as usual. Godzilla is at it again.

MOZILLA IS AT IT AGAIN

2005-09-27T18:36:00.000-05:00

This is the second instance of trying to access my blog and Mozilla will not do it. It will access every other blog in my bookmarks; but not my own. The bottom of the screen says "Done". I have no idea what is going on. I am posting this with Internet Exploder.

The last time this happened, all I had to do was make one post with Exploder and then Mozilla cleared up. Now, let's see what happens.

Sometimes I wonder if it is all worth it.

SOMETHING VERY IMPORTANT TO TAKE NOTE OF

2005-09-27T00:50:00.000-05:00

I want you all to note that I have not posted a picture of an airplane in the past couple of days. I don't know if the problems I have been having are normal computer related problems or if someone doesn't want me posting photos of airplanes of interest. Anyhoo, there have been no new pictures of planes. Don't get your hopes up, I haven't given up on the subject, I just am allowing you all, and me, to take a breather from such postings.

I need to delve into Blogger a little deeper to understand why it does certain things the way it does. When I figure it out, I will take advantage of the computer capabilities much more, that is, if Blogger is compatible.

I just lost a bookmark file in Mozilla. I goofed when trying to move it and I lost it. I am sure it is still there, somewhere; but not sure if it is recoverable or not. DAMN. Sometimes a guy just can't remember all that was there. That is why we have bookmarks, DUH.

TV has been very uninteresting this evening and I have one cat that has been pestering me for the last 45 minutes, when I turned the TV off. She thinks it is my bedtime. I guess she can't tell time on her own; but nothing I say or do will convince her that I am allowed to stay up a bit later. She must think she runs the house. Mothers are like that, yanno.

Well, nothing really to blog about tonight, I guess I will check my email and then do what momma cat told me to do, go to bed.

GETTING OLDER IS A BITCH

2005-09-26T00:02:00.000-05:00

This is a follow up to the last post, which by the way, was done with Blogger for Word. It worked fairly well; but I still had to add color by editing the post in Blogger. This post is being typed directly into Blogger.

Growing old is not all it is cracked up to be. The "golden years" are more like a "golden shower". You feel pissed on by your employer, the entire social system. You get to collect Social Security. Now, there is a let down. Your income is cut to about 40% of what it used to be. Your ability to do things, physical or otherwise is cut. As you age, your body begins to shut down, it becomes tired. Know what? That sucks.

I don't like the reduced buying power I must live with. When you know your income is static, you have a completely different outlook on buying things. Things you need. Things you would not have given a second thought about, before. Your "partying" is curtailed drastically. You simply can not afford to spend the money.

I don't like the reduced physical abilities I must live with. I used to be an avid walker. Not a jogger or a runner; but just walking. I used to walk the bike trails at SIU-E every week Felix could not keep up with me. Now, this complaint is not just age related, it is also tied to my stroke 10 years ago and the cancer 5 years ago. I find it difficult to walk through the supermarket.

I actually do not like sitting home and not participating in the work force. I have worked since I was 16 years old I earned my own living, and provided for a wife and child. They had a very nice home, in fact, the second most costly home in the town. It sat on a hill on a full acre of ground in a subdivision of quarter acre lots. Now, I sit by and watch Felix go to work, intermingle with his co-workers, go out to lunch and I sit here at home watching TV and talking to 6 cats.

I do not like being passed over on my ideas just because I am older. It is a tendency of many people to disregard the thoughts and ideas of senior citizens; because "they live in the past". That is not always true. Many senior citizens have contributed much to our society. Sometimes we take a second or two to express our thought because we are thinking it through. Younger folks sometimes act in haste. That is called, "getting the cart before the horse".

I don't like giving up sex. After the surgery for cancer, I lost the ability to have sex. There is no need to go into detail here; but believe me, living without sex, even masturbation, is a bitch.

If I sound ungrateful, I am giving you the wrong impression. I am grateful to God for allowing me to live through these things; but this is the most difficult journey I have ever undertaken.

OK, bitch session over. Sometimes it helps to get it off your chest.

THINGS, THEY ARE A CHANGIN

2005-09-25T23:53:00.000-05:00

Have you ever been addicted to something that you just do not want to give up? I am not talking about an illegal addiction, I am talking about things like an old car, a TV show that the network is canceling; things you have become accustomed to. Well, I am addicted to RADIO.

When my ex-wife and I moved in 1973, I had to give up that “hobby” addiction. I could never get back into it, as I wanted. Last year, I had the opportunity to purchase a new radio that did all the things I wanted a radio to do. All the latest bells and whistles were there for the ringing and blowing. For one thing, I got back interested in shortwave listening. You have no idea how much change has taken place, until you try to go back to pick up something you used to do or be interested in.

The Voice of America does not exist in the manner it used to. The entire world of shortwave listening has changed. America does not seem to be as interested in telling the world about democracy as it used to be. Our government thinks more of invading a sovereign country to force change, than to set an example to them. I began to tune around for the old stations I used to listen to, and they all were gone.

Face it folks, we are getting older and the world is changing, whether we like it or not. Personally, I am not so sure I like it. Change is not always a forward movement. Sometimes it is a step in the wrong direction. Along with a discussion about radio goes a discussion about TV.

Are the TV shows of today as good as the shows of yesterday? I know this may be a touchy subject with some folks; but I think the shows of yesterday were better. Maybe my thinking is because the shows of yesterday were new. Let’s face it, you can only do a pratfall so many times and get a laugh. The sitcoms of today were all done before. The only difference is the people doing them. There are very few NEW ideas in TV today.

Are the TV shows of today funny? Sure they are. They were funny when Lucy or Milton or Jack Benny or whoever did them 20 – 30 years ago. Is this a condemnation of TV? NO, I like to watch TV as much as the next guy. I am only saying that there is nothing new. Maybe I am just getting old and have seen everything there is to see. Somehow, I doubt that; but I do miss some things of old. Maybe I don't like getting old.

Things change; but they do not necessarily become better.

NEEDED A CHANGE

2005-09-24T22:52:00.000-05:00

I needed a change from the old format. Actually, I got tired of the old format. There were so many nice looking layouts that I had a difficult time in choosing one. This was my first choice; but I tried a couple of others; then I went back to this one. It offers color and a more vibrant design, I think.

I hope it works out as well as the old design. Who knows, I may change it again. I hate change, I really do; but when you get tired of things, you either change them or you drop them. I didn't want to drop the blog because I know how much my blatherings mean to al of you. (Wait a minute while I pick myself up). If I have two visitors a day, that is a good day. One day, last week, I actually had 19 visitors. Probably spys looking to overthrow the Clinton administration. You don't have to be a spy to want to overthrow the present administration. Even some republicans want to do that.

Can't say as I blame them. Georgie Boy's handling of the hurricane situation is so shallow. You can see right through him. He can't hide his feelings, they show in his face and his actions. Nothing shows in his words, unless it would be his own stupidity.

Well, enough of my blatherings for this time. I don't want to give the feds a heart attack. It is only me, Jimmy Dean, the Sausage Queen. ROFLMAO.

NOT EXACTLY A COMPLETE SUCCESS

2005-09-24T22:35:00.000-05:00

The color did not go with the post; but the change in font did. I guess I could always post the thing, then go in and edit it for color. YEAH, right. Don't count on that one.

I would like to find a way to make a post with a good spell checker, photo capability and all the goodies; without spending a penny. Asking for a lot, you say? Yep, I agree.

Back to BLOGGER.

FIRST POST WITH BLOGGER FOR WORD

2005-09-24T22:33:00.000-05:00

FIRST POST WITH BLOGGER FOR WORD

I have no idea if this thing will work or not. You are the guinea pig for me. If you can read this, I guess it works. If it looks all screwed up then we can assume it did not work. The only advantage I can see is that Word has a much better spell checker; not that I wud need a spel cheker.

I do not see any advantage in posting a picture, as the two programs use incompatible formats for photos. I wonder if I can change font size and style? Let’s see. This is Formal Script. Or is it? How about color? Will it allow me to use more color? Let’s try that one. And again. Now, let’s post the thing and see what it looks like.

GOING TO TRY SOMETHING NEW.

2005-09-24T21:49:00.000-05:00

Blogger has tossed a new screen at me, with it, a new format. I don't know why; but I am going to post this short note and then log out and try something new. Like most people, I don't like change. Let's hope this works.

WEIRD

2005-09-23T23:51:00.000-05:00

After posting the below post, Mozilla will now access the blog. But when I clicked on the "Blogger" thingie in the upper left of the screen, a whole new screen came up. Something just ain't right. Maybe it is ME.

ERRORS, ERRORS, ERRORS

2005-09-23T23:32:00.000-05:00

Seems like I keep blogging on the same subject, that of Blobspot doing something that I think it should not do. Tonight my Mozilla Browser will not access this blog. It will access every other blog that I read; but it will not access my own. I am using Micorsoft Exploder to post this message.

Computers are so damned much fun, aren't they? I was reading a web page from a guy who had made a trip to Area 51. Well, not the base; but to the area around the base. He told of the things that have happened to him since his visit. All sorts of Government agencies have visited his web site. I wonder if that has something to do with my problem. Are the Feds pissed at the fact I have posted some pictures on my blog? They were readily available on open web sites and I copied them and posted them. The ones of the Boeing 757 and 767 were posted with the photographer's permission.

Sort of makes a person wonder if Big Brother is actually here. My own opinion is that it is / he is. The more I research these things the more I find that others have had problems after they did their research. If anyone things that will stop me, think again. I am no subversive agent, I am no spy. I am a curious taxpayer that wants to know where his money is going. I paid over four grand in federal income tax last year and I was retired. Yep, they got me for $4,000 bucks, due to a mistake my empl9oyer caused. They overpaid me sick leave and I am now paying it back; but there is no argument that I did receive the money in 2004, so I have no alternative but to claim it and pay the tax. I probably will never see that overpayment again.

Well, no mind. I do not want to deal with the IRS anymore than I want to deal with my ex-employer. I am retired and I damned well intend to stay that way. For the time being, I will refrain from posting any pictures of airplanes or anything else, for that matter. Mr. and Mrs. Federal Government; fuck off. I have done nothing wrong; but I will refrain from doing anything wrong again.

I have cleared my browser history, have checked all the settings; but can find nothing wrong. The only thing I can think of is that my Mozilla Browser from my ISP is blocked. Really pisses me off. I can see something; but I can not share it with you. Well, again, no mind. I will go to bed and think of a plot to how I can . . . . . . flood New Orleans again. Now, work on that Mr. and Mrs. Fed.

MORE AIRCRAFT FROM BOEING

2005-09-23T12:25:00.000-05:00

This is the plane that started it all. After finding this one, I couldn't stop. (Hmmm, that phrase sounds familiar). Back to the subject.: The first 757 is now used by Boeing Military for avionics and airfoils research, hence the really strange appearance of the nose

Link to this photo: http://www.jetphotos.net/viewphoto.php?id=5909

Boeing has begun testing the F-22 Raptor's integrated avionics on board its 757 Flying Test Bed. Testing the F-22's avionics on board the 757 will help reduce risk and also cut back on future F-22 flight test hours. The test avionics are operated from a simulated F-22 cockpit, installed in the test bed cabin.

This is another shot of the 767 used for weather and surveillence activities. It seems the U. S. Government will spare no amount of monies to have fun.

Here is a shot from Google Earth of a U. S. Air Force C-5 undergoing final assembly at Boeing. It is identified as a C-5 by the upraised nose of the aircraft. The C-5 is the largest cargo plane in the world today.

DEW, THIS POST IS FOR YOU

2005-09-22T19:30:00.000-05:00

A blogger that I frequently read posted this recently.

""Why don't fundamentalists organize protests and picket seafood restaurants, oyster bars, church barbecue suppers, all grocery stores, barber shops, tattoo parlors, and stores that sell suits and dresses made of mixed wool, cotton, polyester, and other materials? All of these products and services are "abominations" in Leviticus. When have you heard a preacher condemn the demonic abomination of garments that are made of mixed fabrics?"

I have mulled this over for a few days and I am now ready to make a comment.

They don't protest against food events because they all like to eat. When was the last time you saw a skinny preacher? I remember going to a church once that had a lady preacher who said when her local grocery store started selling booze, she would find another grocery to do her business. Well, she still shops at the same store and it sells booze 7 days a week. Not just beer; but all kinds of intoxicating booze. Guess she likes to eat, too.

Please read on.

They do not say a single word about mixed fabrics because; well, you wouldn't want to see Sister Suzie butt naked in church, would you? Of course not, they all want to wear their "Sunday finest" to church to try to out dress good old Sister Lucy. They do rant against body markings (tat00 parlors) but turn their backs on those men who were in the navy and got tatoos. That was just a minor let down in their armour.

Those "abominations" found in Leviticus were primarily aimed at the Hebrew people. You will find that orthodox Jews do adhere to these things. And they wouldn't eat a piece of piggy if it killed them. The orthodox Jews do take these things seriously.

Read on.

The "modern day fundamentalist" wants to act like he/she were a Jew; but only when it suits them. Don't mess with their food, their clothes or their jobs. Incidentally, you didn't say a thing about folks who work on Sunday. Isn't that supposed to be the "day of rest"? Well, for the Jews, that would be Saturday, actually from sundown on Friday to sundown on Saturday. They are quite strict in their interpretation.

Now allow me to address one more thing. What did God say? What did Jesus say? Well, for one thing, neither God nor Jesus wrote a single word of the bible. Yes, the Ten Commandments are attributed to God; but through the hand of an angle marking the stones. "This" is an abomination to God, "that is an abomination to God, etc. Where exactly did GOD say that. If you look at the book closely, and study the history of the modern day bible, you will find that every word in that book is attributed to the hand of man. Man said that God said something; but we have no proof that God actualy uttered a word.

Now, I have no doubt that God would have said some of those things; but I do not base my religion on what man said that God said. Let's take the subject of homosexuality. First, there is no such word in the old Hebrew or Aramic language. We have the story of Sodom that supposedly condemns homosexuality. Well, if every man in Sodom was queer, what was Lot and his wife and children doing there? If every man in Sodom was queer, what were their wives and children doing there? How did they get those children in the first place. Oh, now we have to back off and say they were bi-sexual. Yeah, right.

Read on.

I have no doubt that there were gay men in Sodom, just as I have no doubt there are gay men in every city, town and village in America, or any other country of the entire world. I have no doubt there are gay men in the Vatican, either. We were born gay. The sin of Sodom was not homosexuality; the sin of Sodom was being inhospitable to the visitors. "Bring them out that we may know them". Where does that say anything about sex? "Know them", is that supposed to mean, "fuck them"? Hey, I knew my grandmother; but I didn't fuck her. Get real.

The bible is so misinterpreted that it is hardly the book it was intended to be. The REAL WORD OF GOD is LOVE. LOVE YOUR ENEMIES, AS YOU LOVE YOURSELVES. That doesn't mean fuck your enemies as you fuck yourselves. That means STOP THE HATE. Learn tolerance, even if you do not understand the ways of your neighbor, be tolerant of him. Allow him to be who he is, who God intended him to be.

As I said before, I do not believe being gay is a sin no mre than I believe being Chinese is a sin, or being German, or Black or anything else. Being gay is the way we were born. Some men are born to love women, some men are born wanting the companionship of other men.

Now, if you want a discussion of anal sex or oral sex, just ask. It is done every night amongst the straight population. They love it. Just as much as the gay population. Sex is sex. Rape, forced sex, or for that matter, forced anything is where the sin comes in. Now, has anyone considered the sexuality in football?

TOO MUCH FREE TIME

2005-09-21T23:12:00.000-05:00

Ya all know that I am an avid Google Earth fan. I like to track military aircraft and the latest developments in that field. In my surfing the Internet last night, I came up with a couple of really off the wall aircraft. I think Bowing....er....Bowling....make that Boeing had too much time on their hands, too. This is a 767 with a horrible growth on it.
Boeing has made many modifications to their 767, and this is only one. This is supposed to have weather radar in the silly looking appendage. Now, I got one more for you, just as silly looking; but a real test airplane they flew.
The little wings in front are called "canards". Burt Rutan (surely you know that name) was a big believer in front canards; but they were actualy first used on the Wright Brothers airplane at Kitty Hawk. If anyone doubts the validity of these aircraft, and I wouldn't blame you, leave a comment and I will direct you to the web site I got these photos from.

BLOGGER ISN'T RIGHT ALL THE TIME

2005-09-20T22:37:00.000-05:00

1) The counter is gone again.
2) It said I had errors on the post; but it posted it anyway.
3) I rewrote the post, and when I posted it, I saw the original. Blogger needs as much help as I do.

AN OPEN LETTER TO MY LOVE, FELIX

2005-09-20T22:04:00.001-05:00

Tonight I really made an ass of myself to my beloved Felix. We had an argument to end all arguments. No one got physical; but I became quite threatening and at one point told him that if he continued to treat me like he had been, then he could just pack his bags and move out. We argued back and forth and after an hour or so I calmed down. Felix, I never want to loose you, I will give my life for you. There is no way I can live without you and you know that. I am very thankful that you saw through my threat and stood your ground. We argued over something insignificant. I have expertise in the electrical field and Felix did not want to listen to me; he wanted to forge ahead and do it his way. All I was asking for was that he stop and listen to me. I blew up. Thank God that he finally did stop and listen and helped calm me down.

When I retired from working, emotionally I fought against it. I did not want to retire; but my physical abilities could not do the job. Mentally, I wonder if I am as stable as I think I am. I could just have easily let him walk out of my life. I think I would have killed myself within a week without him. He is my main reason for living, Felix keeps me from making big mistakes, Felix makes me feel young again. If my feelings for Felix aren't LOVE, then I am crazy.

He is my life and my purpose for living. I know that one of these days I will die and leave Felix to fend for himself. I hope that day is many, many years away. I want to do everything I can to give him a better life. Felix did not have a "wonderful" childhood and I had hoped to change all that for him. I guess I am not a miracle worker or even much of a gift giver. My desires sure went to hell today.

Felix has forgiven me for my blowup; but I have not forgiven myself and I probably never will. Words said in anger can be retracted; but the feelings you caused can not be changed. Once you hurt someone emotionally, you have a large job ahead of you to make up for your actions. it may never happen.

Felix did not have a real happy childhood and I had hoped to help make his present better. Today, I tripped. I did not accomplish anything positive for him and I am so very sorry. That word can be said so easily. In order to really mean it; be sure to not make your mistake again.

This post is intended for my Felix. If the rest of the readers get anything from it, remember these words. Never speak in anger, you will regret it for the rest of your life. I love you, Felix.

AN OPEN LETTER TO MY LOVE, FELIX

2005-09-20T22:04:00.000-05:00

Tonight I really made an ass of myself to my beloved Felix. We had an argument to end all arguments. No one got physical; but I became quite threatening and at one point told him that if he continued to treat me like he had been, then he could just pack his bags and move out. We argued back and forth and after an hour or so I calmed down. Felix, I never want to loose you, I will give my life for you. There is no way I can live without you and you know that. I am very thankful that you saw through my threat and stood your ground.

We argued over something insignificant. I have expertise in the electrical field and Felix did not want to listen to me; he wanted to forge ahead and do it his way. All I was asking for was that he stop and listen to me. I blew up. Thank God that he finally did stop and listen and helped calm me down.

When I retired from working, emotionally I fought against it. I did not want to retire; but my physical abilities could not do the job. Mentally, I wonder if I am as stable as I think I am. I could just have easily let him walk out of my life. I think I would have killed myself within a week without him. He is my main reason for living, Felix keeps me from making big mistakes, Felix makes me feel young again. If my feelings for Felix aren't LOVE, then I am crazy.

He is my life and my purpose for living. I know that one of these days I will die and leave Felix to fend for himself. I hope that day is many, many years away. I want to do everything I can to give him a better life. Felix did not have a "wonderful" childhood and I had hoped to change all that for him. I guess I am not a miracle worker or even much of a gift giver. My desires sure went to hell today.

Felix has forgiven me for my blowup; but I have not forgiven myself and I probably never will. Words said in anger can be retracted; but the feelings will always be left behind. For that, I will forever be sorry. I am posting this for Felix, not for the rest of you; but if you can get anything from it; please understand the words in this last paragraph. You can apologize for harsh words; but the feeling you caused can not be taken back. Remember to say those three words, "I love you" and mean it with all your heart.

I am sorry, Felix, I love you with all my heart. I pray for you daily and want God's very best for you.

TIVOs NEEED

2005-09-20T00:35:00.000-05:00

The way this TV season is shaping up, I think I will need to buy a couple more TiVos to keep up with what looks like may be a good season. It is going to be difficult to decide who/what to watch. I always watch Law & Order and L & O SVU. I think the new show about the Pentagon is going to be good. Felix and I have three TiVos between us; but I think we could use a couple more. NO, I will not go out and buy them. I will watch with a live show with one TV and TiVo another show at the same time. I just hope I pick the right one to TiVo.

Now, for the one or two of you who do not know what a TiVo is all about, run down to you local Circuit City or Best Buy and find out what is waiting for you. Get one with the largest capacity you can. I am ready to hack mine and put in a much larger hard drive. There is only one flaw in this scenerio. ELECTRICITY. If you get a storm that knocks out your power, you are screwed. Tonight, we had one of those storms.

I lost my cable connection for the Internet and the cable connection for the TV. They are separate lines and I thought I could beat the odds; but I was wrong. We lost our telephone connection on one line, too. The electricity flickered four or five times and all clocks and the TiVo in my computer/radio room went through the reboot process. I thought I had the TiVo on the UPS unit; but, again, I was wrong. That seems to be a regular occurance lately. Just ask Felix.

I think I need to study the TV Guide a bit more. This whole thing is confusing. Maybe I should break out the old phonograph and put on a couple of 45s. Long Live Elvis. Oh, wait, I may be wrong, again.

HITS AND MISSES

2005-09-18T20:45:00.000-05:00

THE EMMY AWARD SHOW

I think the show is a HOOT. I am watching as I type this blog. For those of you who did not watch the show; Donald Trump did a great job of impersonating Oliver Wendell Douglas. The show had a number of great moments, including a tribute to the late and great Johnny Carson. No one will ever fill those shoes.

Many of my favorite actresses and actors have won awards. Hey, I am so damn old that I actually remember the first TV appearance of Blythe Danner. She is still a good looker. Now you know where Gweneth Paltrow gets her good looks from.

I liked the Blue Man bit with TVs on their heads, actually as their heads. An excellent bit of special effects.

Did you vote for your favorite TV theme song? I just did; but I will keep my vote secret.

************************

POLITICS AND BLOGS

SCOTT-O-RAMA

Do you have a blog? You probably do otherwise you wouldn't have the foggiest idea of why or how you came to red this bit of blather. The "Scott-O-Rama" blog has come under fire from the great herd of elephants for putting integrity over commerce. I will allow you to check out his own words on the situation. My admiration to Scott for showing his restraint.

ANONYMOUS REPLY

I ranted about an anonymous reply to a recent blog of mine. Is there a reason why someone would hide behind anonymity? I know in this age of blogging, AOL, screen names and all the possibility of intrusion into our personal lives that it is much easier to post a blog or a comment on AOL using a pseudonym. No one wants to open themselves and their computers to attacks from hackers. No one wants to be a victim of identity theft. Therefore we usually choose a name that reflects something about ourselves.

Using that name gives the rest of us something to attach your comments to. You usually show your personality over time and that personality becomes attached to the pseudonym or screen name you have chosen. Those who post anonymously have no personality. Mr. A. Nonny Moose could be four different people on four different occasions. If you don't want to show your personality by attacking someone in an anonymous post, why waste your time? Why waste our time? Move on and have a happy life.

WEB SURFING

If you want an interesting evening of web surfing, download Google Earth. It shows the entire Earth from far out in space and allows you to move into a close-up view of most every interesting spot on this Earth. You can count the aircraft sitting on the runways of airports and air bases. There are places that you can see so close as to count the people on the streets.

If you interested in what goes on in preparation for the future of air superiority in the U.S. check out the "Dreamland" web site. There are some fantastic pictures of Area 51 taken from 26 miles away. There are discussions on new aircraft under wraps, there are pictures of recently made public aircraft and no pictures of space aliens. No, not one. I guess that tells us that there are no space aliens at Dreamland, aka Area 51.

*************

And a little commercial plug, NEXT TIME, FLY JANET.

DEAR A.NONNY MOOSE

2005-09-17T15:52:00.000-05:00

Some people hide behind the anonymous name because they don't have the guts to face the world and admit who they are Probably a "no-gut" republican.

Get a live, state your name and face the music for your rude comments. Felix was correct, I have posted pictures before and they did what they were supposed to do; but this time Blogger didn't want to accept the .jpg image. I didn't have a lot of time to spend on the blog at the moment, so I decided to not do the post. I will wait until I have more time, then do it right. Until then, Mr A. Nonny Moose, GET A LIFE. I have more to do than play with Blogger all day.

COUNTER, WHERE IS MY COUNTER?

2005-09-15T22:18:00.000-05:00

I understand some blogs have been hit by an unusual number of visitors lately. I had one day when I had 19 visitors. That is absurd. Why would 19 people be interested in my blog? Is BIG BROTHER that interested in what I rant about? I doubt it. I would think they would be more interested in the pictures of cute bois on BadPuppy. Oh, there are some cute ones there, I know, I have seen a few. I have, also, seen some pictures that look like me. Now, you want to talk about something that will make you loose your supper? Just think of a 300 poung man with a hard on trying to please himself.

Enough said, where is my counter?

BLOGGER SCREWED UP AGAIN, WHAT'S NEW?

2005-09-15T21:51:00.000-05:00

OK, did you really think I was going to give you the password into Area 51? I do know one way a person can get in, simply walk up to the gate and ask. Then when they put the handcuffs on you and call the Sheriff, you can tell everyone that you were really a guest of Area 51. I understand they keep you there for a few hours while they ask all sorts of questions. You get a citation from the Sheriff and you get to pay a fine. What better proof could you have of your visit to our country's best kept and well hidden military secret? The secret right out in the open, and most Americans are so damn dumb as to not even know what is going on.

I do have a bunch of photo's that I would love to upload, if only I could get this damn blog to put them in the right place. I guess the old saying of "You get what you pay for" is true. I am not paying for this site, so I get very little accomodation from it.

All of the photo's I have are readily available on the web, all you have to do is search for them. You don't need the names of the projects, just do a search for Area 51 and I am sure you will eventually come across a list of secret projects they have done, along with photos of the airplanes. Some actually taken on the Area 51 base. I have one of a U-2 that was taken at Area 51. By the way, the U-2 is still flying, or was as of the last update in 2002. Did you know that the B-52 is scheduled to fly for another 40 yerars? Amazing.

Some of their "secret projects" are not as secret as one may think. Area 51 is used more as a "test" site for aircraft that have already been anounced and shown to the public. Area 51 is where they aircraft are put through their paces and are tested for almost everything known to man. They are used to fight "enemy" forces. That is, they are used in mock battles against "mock enemy forces". Still, they don't want you to see what is going on.

Am I saying that they don't have some sort of secret aircraft that defy's gravity and does things unknown to man? No, I am not saying that. I do believe they have one or two aircrafts that are as yet to be acknowledged. One was "seen" flying over my part of the country a few years ago by midnight shift police oficers. I believe they saw what they saw; but the Air Force says they didn't see what they say they saw. Sounds like a battle of words; doesn't it? That is exactly what the whole thing is all about; a battle of words and a secret base in plain site.

If you wave it in front of our noses long enough and keep telling us that you do not have little green men from Mars; pretty soon people will start to forget about what is actually going on. See folks, this is all about the DUMBING DOWN OF AMERICA. Then you divert the public attention to high gasoline prices, Weapons of Mass Destruction that do not exist, the horrible threat of homosexual marriage that will completely destroy the institution of marriage; and pretty soon America will forget about the main issue at hand. It works. Trust me, it works, just ask George W. Bush or was that George Orwell? BIG BROTHER IS HERE, DON'T YOU EVER DOUBT IT.

LIFE CAN REALLY BE A PAIN IN THE ASS

2005-09-12T21:28:00.000-05:00

Yanno, I have been watching TV a lot lately, especially the History Channel in regards to the Hurricane that struck New Orleans. I feel so sorry for those people who lived there. Even the "well-to-do" folks had to flee their homes because of no electricity or potable water. You can stock up only so much; before it becomes senseless. The idea of a bomb shelter showed that to everyone.

People used to think that if they stocked their bomb shelter for 2 weeks or a month of food, they would survive the bomb. Now we know how silly that idea was. No one will ever survive a nuclear blast. That's just the way it is folks. I can understand why some people did not want to leave their homes; but when you stand back and take a good look at the overall situation; they really had no choice but to leave. Whether New Orleans will ever be rebuilt, I don't know. I do not even have an idea of how long it will take to clean up the mess now.

After the city is cleaned, the trashed buildings leveled, the stench removed, the bacteria neuteralized and the city is made ready to rebuild; is it a good idea to rebuild New Orleans? Remember, the entire city sits in a bowl. Remember, there is no guarantee that another Hurricane of the same intensity will not happen again. For those of you who do not know this already, let me tell you with experience; there are no guarantees in this life. The bible tells us that death will come to all people and the government tells us that we all will be taxed. Other than those two things, we are guaranteed nothing. I have sat on two union contract negotiating committees and I can assure you that nothing will come your way unless you put out effort to get it.

A safe city will happen in New Orleans unless billions of dollars are spent to build seawalls that will hold back the Lake and the River. There will have to be a back-up, guaranteed, system for supplying electricity to the city. New subdivisions are built with all underground utilities; that is one way to help ensure electricity. However, even that must remain dry, the flood waters must be held back and pumped out as soon as the city receives water. I leave that engineering feat to the engineers who get big bucks for coming up with the ideas that us common people already know to be fact.

Halliburton and G.W. Bush have not heard the last of this debacle. What the outcome will be, I do not know. I am assured that Bush can not be President of the country for a third term. The constitution guarantees that. Of course, there is no way to keep him from trying again in 2012. Democrats unite.

My own opinion about all of this is that the Earth is growing old. It is tired and it is rebelling against the mistreatment it has been receiving at the hands of it's inhabitants. I call to your attention the Tsunami, the Earthquakes, the Hurricanes, the volcano eruptions and the unstable weather. Keep your eye on Yellowstone Park, it may be the next disaster.

Love while you can, your time is not unlimited.

Tomorrow, I may tell you how you can penetrate Area 51. You wish.

WHO STOLE MY "G" STRING??

2005-09-10T21:45:00.000-05:00

This just proves that you can't please all the people all the time. He can't please me anytime.

BITCH, BITCH, BITCH

2005-09-10T17:35:00.000-05:00

Felix, the invisible foodaholic and I went out for a late lunch/early supper this afternoon to a local truck stop that has a very good buffet. The hostess showed us to our table, handed us menus and got our drinks for us. That was the last we saw of any staff.

I went to the buffet line while Felix looked through the menu to decide what he wanted. I came back to the table with a full plate of food. We sat there and looked around for the waitress. I ate two pieces of fried chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy, baby carrots, whole kernel corn and boiled cabbage. We drank our sodas. Still, no waitress had come to the table to take Felix's order. During the meal, I wanted to get up and find a waitress; but Felix (being the young gentlelman that he is) kept telling me to sit still and finish my meal.

OK, I did as Felix asked. When I finished, I got up and walked out. Felix followed. No check and no concern for walking right past the cash register. That will be the last time either one of us visit that restaurant. Hey, the food is great, they must have a really good chef in the kitchen; but with wait staff that doesn't care about doing their job, I don't care about paying for service I didn't get. Also, I don't care about paying for the plate of food that I ate while Felix sat there waiting for someone to take his order. If incidents like this continue to happen, he won't go out in public with me anymore.

What is wrong with people today? Doesn't anyone give a shit about doing their job? (Here goes the old man telling you what is wrong with the world today. But, I am right and you damn well know it. LOL) When I was young, I would have been fired if I had let something like that happen. We used to run our asses off to be sure every customer got what they wanted. We lived and worked by the slogan, "The customer is always right". Not today. They act like the world owes them a living. Well, if I have anything to say about it, they can all starve their asses off.

This reminds me of another incident that happened to Felix and I about two months ago. We walked into a chain BBQ restaurant that has some really good BBQ. We were seated and we waited for a waitress to take our order. We waited. We waited and waited some more. After we had waited 12 minutes, we got up and walked out. On the way out, I stopped at the cashier's desk and asked for the manager.

The manager came out and asked what was wrong. I told him that this was the second time we have walked out of his restaurant because no one would come to our table to take our order. (Honestly, it was the second time.) He apologized and asked if we would be seated again; he would give us anything we wanted, on the house. OK, anyone would be a fool to pass up an offer like that. We ate about $40.00 worth of BBQ that afternoon. A little later he showed up at our table again, this time with a gift certificate for $20.00 to be redeemed at our next visit.

He said the wiatress that worked that table had been on break. I told him there were 5 other folks standing around in a corner, talking and laughing; but no one offered to wait on us. He said he would have a talk with his staff, and I could tell that he really had a TALK with them. They quickly scattered and went back to work

People who go to a restaurant are there to eat; not sit around and watch TV. Some young folks today act as if the world owes them a living. They don't give a shit about working, just pay them for showing up and looking cute. Really, I don't care how cute the boy looks, I am there to eat and it won't be him, I want food. Some girls think all men want to do is smell their snatch. Not me, lady. I don't like fish that smells rotten.

I guess I need to write another blog entitled "BITCH, BITCH, BITCH." There is just so much to complain about these days. You'll see, when you get old.

We stopped at a Wendy's where Felix had a Taco Salad. Poor Felix has had a bad weekend. Not only will he be taking on more work on his job (no pay increase); but some merchandise he ordered on the Internet turned out to be shit. The company won''t give his money back, they insist on an in-house credit. Who wants to order more crap from a company that sells shit? The credit card he used will not stand behind him. Felix returned the merchandise and will have to eat the loss.

i JUST LOVE FISHING TRIPS

2005-09-10T11:06:00.000-05:00

Thought you might like to see this one. The fish that didn't get away. He is so proud of it.

DID I SAY SOMETHING WRONG??

2005-09-09T23:05:00.000-05:00

Blogger seems to be acting up tonight. When I clicked on the bookmark in my browser for my blog I got nothing. All I got was a blank screen and the word "DONE" at the bottom of the screen. Are there censors out there? Did I say something wrong? Does someone not approve of what I have been saying? Was my post from last night censored? Did I offend King George?

Aw well, when they come knocking on my door, I will just not answer. I will sit on my couch, holding my little puddy kat and wave at them through the living room door. Me and the puddy kat will stick our tongues out at them.

I guess you know how much I care. This land of America is not a land of FREE SPEECH, it is a land of censored speech. Thou must not condemn the federal government. Thou must bow down to King George. That's the 11th and the 12th commandments.

I have another scathing post that says it to a T. The author, a newspaper columnist was having lunch at a nice restaurant when three Republicans at the next table bowed their heads and thanked God for what they had to eat, and then went on to condemn the poor blacks in New Orleans for looting and disobeying authority in not fleeing the city when they were told to. The columnist really lambasted the well-to-do trio for their uncaring attitude and condemnation in the name of God. The only reason I am not posting it is because it is L O N G. Also, because it is lost in a pile of incoming mail on AOL.

When I cut and paste from AOL, I must paste it to wordpad, then cut and paste to Blogger. That is a pain in the ass, if you know what I mean. Maybe I need a new blog host.

WE'RE IN THE MONEY, WE'RE IN THE MONEY

2005-09-09T22:51:00.000-05:00

FEMA Will Not Continue Debit Card Plan

Cards Distributed in Dallas, Houston and San Antonio

I quote from an Associated Press article by Hope Yen.

"The federal government's relief agency said Friday it will discontinue its program to distribute $2,000 debit cards to hurricane victims and use bank deposits instead, two days after hastily announcing the novel plan to provide quick relief."

"The Federal Emergency Management Agency said it will scrap the program once officials finish distributing cards this weekend at shelters in Dallas, Houston and San Antonio, where many of the evacuees were moved. No cards will be issued to victims in other states".

Now, why does this not surprise me?

"Hurricane victims at other locations will have to apply for expedited aid through the agency's traditional route - filling out information on FEMA's Web site to receive direct bank deposits, FEMA spokeswoman Natalie Rule said."

How do you give money to a hurricane victim who does not have a bank account? Where will the direct deposit go? Some of those people were so poor that they barely had enough money to get food, much less had money in the bank. This is another one of King Georges screwups. I blame it on him; because of Harry Truman. It's all Harry's fault. He is the one with the sign on his desk that read, "The buck stops here".

Would someone please tell me when this policy changed. Who changed it? I guess the president and his screwed up administration can do anything they damn well want, and no one is to question them.

Now I am told the hurricane victims can receive money if they fill out the FEMA application ONLINE. Got that? They need to fill out an ONLINE application. HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA

That is as laughable as the rest of their handling of this disaster.

BATMAN AND ROBIN

2005-09-08T22:03:00.000-05:00

When I was about 8 years old I was introduced to the comic book craze; but not Donald Duck, Mickey Mouse or the Bugs Bunny kind. I began to read and fantasize over the Batman and Robin comics. Those guys always had nice bulges in their pants. I think it is called a codpiece, the dictionary calls it a cover for male genitals.

That was all it took for me, a horny 8 year old boy to begin my infatuation with Batman and Robin. There were others in that genre of books. I think one was called Blackhawks, supposedly a quasi military bunch of guys that flew jet planes into combat against the bad guys. They always changed from street clothes into their tight costumes in a back room that was never depicted in the comic. Now what do you think that conjured up in my mind?

Do I really have to explain that to you. Visions of doing things that can not be drawn in comic books for underage boys. Oh, how I wanted to see what they did. How I wanted to be in that back room with them; all naked and hard. I knew what I would do and what I would help them to do.

I usually read these comics while laying face down in the living room floor. Trust me, I wiggled all over that floor with my right hand buried in my pants. I learned to masturbate from reading those comic books. There is more to this story, involving another boy also reading comics; but to go into detail would put this post in the catagory of porn. I will leave the rest to your imagination; but yes, it was good for me. Him, too.

Memories are wonderful, aren't they? Enjoy what you can, while you can; because you never know how long you will be able to. Tell your partner how much you love him/her and make love as often as you can. You will have great memories to share as you grow older.

Short post; but to the point, eh?

DON'T LIKE TREET, DON'T LIKE SPAM

2005-09-07T21:12:00.000-05:00

You tell me why it is that some people can't just leave well enough alone. Why is it that some folks will fuck up a wet dream, a one car funeral? Why are there hackers that cause malicious damage to your computer. I understand the desire to hack, some folks are always trying to gain knowledge by any means; but to do damage to your system is plain childish.

I understand the desire to steal money. Some folks never get enough money and will do anything to get more, including stealing it. I have worked hard for my money, and I don't fall for the scams that I keep getting on the Internet. Many of them are scams to steal your money or infect your computer with key loggers or virus programs. The key logger will copy your credit card numbers and your passwords and transmit those to the hacker.

I want you to take notice that I am not screaming about what a numbnuts the present administration in Washington, D.C. is. Ooooh, I think I just made a boo boo. Oh well, you probably already knew that.

I hear there is a chance that some states will cut or entirely drop the state tax on gasoline while we are having such high prices at the pump. I have been paying 54.6 cents on every gallon to the good old state of Illinois. Over 54 cents tax per gallon. That is awfully high, don't you think? Yep, I know it goes to help repair the roads; but that sure is an awfully tax on something. Check out what your state gouges you for gas tax.

I came down pretty hard on the federal government's response to Hurricane Katrina, didn't I? Do you think I was being unreasonable? Well, I won't continue to beat the hell out of our present administration for being such nincompoops and illiterate boobs. Those poor boobs wouldn't even understand it. They do not have normal feelings like you and I do. They were born into the lap of luxury, they do not suffer inconviences like the rest of us do. They have enough money to buy anything they want. They can buy sex, they can buy big houses, they can buy judges, they can even buy the Supreme Court.

If the entire disaster hasn't gotten to you; you must be a robot. I sit here watching the 10 PM news and cry when I see the devastation that has occurred and the pain and suffering that the poeple have endured. I do not believe I have the stamina to live through such pain and such conditions those poor people did. To have to leave your home, take up shelter in a place that didn't provide that shelter or even food, water and toilet facilities. That just is incomprehensible to me. To not even have a toilet.

Every time I see a news report, I cry. Every time I hear the words, "FEMA was not there", I get enraged. I am ashamed of our federal government and anyone who does not share these feelings is inhuman.

STOCK UP AND BEWARE

2005-09-06T23:10:00.000-05:00

I have no definitive source to attribute this to; but I am hearing rumors of a trucker's strike. They are protesting the high price of fuel. Can't really blame them for that. Those guys don't work on a cost plus basis, they bid so much for a job and hope to bring the trip in with a decent profit. With the fuel prices fluctuating so wildly it is almost impossible for a trucker to estimate his cost and give a difinitive bid on a haul.

I heard tonight the date was set for September 8. That is only two days away. I suggest you stock up on grocery supplies and things you buy weekly.

Brace yourself, folks. The aftermath of Hurricane Katrina is yet to be felt.

FEDERAL EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT AGENCY

2005-09-06T23:03:00.000-05:00

Yesterday I ranted about FEMA. Here is a chronology of FEMA since Bush has taken over. FEMA was not intended to be a defense mechanism, it was a reaction mechanism. Reaction to disasters that required federal intervention. Intervention that the Bush administration withheld from the victims of Hurricane katrina. A friend sent this to me and I promised to post it for the rest of the world to see.

Laugh now. As if the rest of the world reads my blog. Ha Ha.

CHRONOLOGY....Here's a timeline that outlines the fate of both FEMA and flood control projects in New Orleans under the Bush administration. Read it and weep:

January 2001: Bush appoints Joe Allbaugh, a crony from Texas, as head of FEMA. Allbaugh has no previous experience in disaster management.

April 2001: Budget Director Mitch Daniels announces the Bush administration's goal of privatizing much of FEMA's work. In May, Allbaugh confirms that FEMA will be downsized: "Many are concerned that federal disaster assistance may have evolved into both an oversized entitlement program...." he said. "Expectations of when the federal government should be involved and the degree of involvement may have ballooned beyond what is an appropriate level."

2001: FEMA designates a major hurricane hitting New Orleans as one of the three "likeliest, most catastrophic disasters facing this country."

December 2002: After less than two years at FEMA, Allbaugh announces he is leaving to start up a consulting firm that advises companies seeking to do business in Iraq. He is succeeded by his deputy, Michael Brown, who, like Allbaugh, has no previous experience in disaster management.

March 2003: FEMA is downgraded from a cabinet level position and folded into the Department of Homeland Security. Its mission is refocused on fighting acts of terrorism.

2003: Under its new organization chart within DHS, FEMA's preparation and planning functions are reassigned to a new Office of Preparedness and Response. FEMA will henceforth focus only on response and recovery.

Summer 2004: FEMA denies Louisiana's pre-disaster mitigation funding requests. Says Jefferson Parish flood zone manager Tom Rodrigue: "You would think we would get maximum consideration....This is what the grant program called for. We were more than qualified for it."

June 2004: The Army Corps of Engineers budget for levee construction in New Orleans is slashed. Jefferson Parish emergency management chiefs Walter Maestri comments: "It appears that the money has been moved in the president's budget to handle homeland security and the war in Iraq, and I suppose that's the price we pay."

June 2005: Funding for the New Orleans district of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is cut by a record $71.2 million. One of the hardest-hit areas is the Southeast Louisiana Urban Flood Control Project, which was created after the May 1995 flood to improve drainage in Jefferson, Orleans and St. Tammany parishes.

August 2005: While New Orleans is undergoing a slow motion catastrophe, Bush mugs for the cameras, cuts a cake for John McCain, plays the guitar for Mark Wills, delivers an address about V-J day, and continues with his vacation. When he finally gets around to acknowledging the scope of the unfolding disaster, he delivers only a photo op on Air Force One and a flat, defensive, laundry list speech in the Rose Garden.

So: A crony with no relevant experience was installed as head of FEMA. Mitigation budgets for New Orleans were slashed even though it was known to be one of the top three risks in the country. FEMA was deliberately downsized as part of the Bush administration's conservative agenda to reduce the role of government. After DHS was created, FEMA's preparation and planning functions were taken away.

Actions have consequences. No one could predict that a hurricane the size of Katrina would hit this year, but the slow federal response when it did happen was no accident. It was the result of four years of deliberate Republican policy and budget choices that favor ideology and partisan loyalty at the expense of operational competence. It's the Bush administration in a nutshell.

I hope Senator Hillary Clinton's bill seeking to return FEMA to it's former position as a Presidential Cabinet Member and out from under DoHS succeeds.

NEW ORLEANS AND FEMA

2005-09-05T21:43:00.000-05:00

OK, so I msised a whole week of posting on this blog. I must admit that the blog became the last thing on my feeble mind. With all the horrible disaster that happened in the southern part of the US, this blog simply took a back seat to the hurricane. I have been semi active on the radio in supporting the health and welfare messages to and from the disaster area.

Allow me to give my viewpoint on the whole mess. I am pissed, royally pissed at the federal government for being so damn slow in getting their dead asses down there and doing something to help evacuate the folks stuck in the damned superbowl.

WHY DIDN'T THE PEOPLE EVACUATE NEW ORLEANS?

How do you evacuate when you have no transportation? That should be the first question. Well, OK, maybe the first question should be, "How in the fuck do you evacuate when you have no legs to walk with?". George W. Numbmuts was so disgusted and put out when he discovered that there were still people stranded in New Orleans. Why? He had to cut short his vacation and his guitar playing.

New Orleans has been through many storms and hurricanes. They have had floods that they weathered quite well. This time the hurricane was so intense and the winds so strong that they caused Lake Pontchartrain to break through the levies and dikes. This had never happened before. Now, if it had, don't you think the people would have been better prepared? Of course they would. But G.W. Numbnuts doesn't understand. Well, the reason he doesn't understand is very simple. He is incapable of understanding the situation. He was raised with a fucking silver spoon in his mouth and has never had to face reality. Daddy always came to his aid, kept him from real military service.

The folks who didn't evacuate the city were stuck there without money and without transportation. Most of the people who live in those areas of the city are living below the poverty level. They are poor and they are black. Mr. Numbnuts would know nothing about that. One more thing to ponder--THEY ARE DEMOCRATS.

WHY DIDN'T THE DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY SEND IN FEMA?

Until Mr. Numbnuts created the Department of Homeland Security, FEMA was known as the FEDERAL EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT AGENCY, and it acted on it's own to help local emergency management in times of disaster. FEMA WAS NEVER INTENDED TO BE A MILITARY AGENCY. It does not belong in the Department of Homeland Security. FEMA has always acted on it's own, coming to the aid of those in need without waiting for the President to give the order through a stupid military chain of command. IT SEEMS THE REST OF THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT IS AFRAID TO DO THEIR JOB WITHOUT DIRECT ORDER OF KING GEORGE.

I have never been so sick at heart than in seeing how weakly the United States Government responded to this disaster. It makes me ashamed to say that I am an American when I see the suffering that those stuck in the stupid, fucking, superdome had to endure. No drinking water and nothing to eat. Well, they didn't need that because they had no working toilets. Understand that, no place to take a shit. King Numbnuts flew over in his big silver bird, nice and comfy and looking disgusted that he had to be there. Boy, that picture said a lot about how UNCARING our King George really is.

WHAT ARE WE GOING TO DO NOW?

Is the federal government going to rebuild New Orleans? Probably not. They will rebuild the oil refineries and the shipping businesses; but the poor folks who lost their homes--well what the hell, they are black and worse yet, they are Democrats. Kanye West said it correctly when he said that George W. Bush doesn't care about black people. The network couldn't cut him off fast enough. He got his full statement to the American public. He was the only one on that show who had the guts to say it; but I know many of the rest of the folks felt it.

Honestly, I think much of the rest of America feels the same way. This disaster could have been averted if proper maintenance on the levies and dikes had not been ignored. Bush cut the budget for the Corp of Engineers again. How are they supposed to maintain things without money? Well, we know where the money went, don't we? We are rebuilding a country that we improperly invaded. Do I need to say more on that? We must be sure that the savior of the United States has enough money to do it's job. Halliburton will get every cent they can. Bush will be sure of that. I wonder how many $200 gold toilet seats Halliburton will put in New Orleans? Hey, even the plastic ones cost $200 when Halliburton gets done.

RANT ON

I could rant and rave on and on about what you have already seen on TV. Why, you already know the story? The people are bing evacuated to other parts of the country. Some, never to see their relatives again. That's what I said, never to see their relatives again. Thnousands of people are still trapped in attics and thousands are floating in the streets, DEAD. Does our federal government give a shit? Hell NO. Those people didn't pay enough in income tax to matter to Bush and Mr. Halliburton. Oh, If you think Cheney has cut all ties to Halliburton, you must be the fucking good fairy. Where has he been lately? Hmmmm. Why worry about tax moeny from those poor people anyway, they are DEMOCRATS.

I can only hope that those displaced, poor, black, DEMOCRATS will be in a position to help turn some red states blue in the next election. I don't blame the federal government for the hurricane; I blame them for the poor response they gave to the disaster.

M O N D A Y - - - C O U C H P O T A T O

2005-08-30T01:14:00.000-05:00

Today was Monday. It was a very difficult day to stay awake. Last night I went to bed about 1AM. I put on my CPAP mask and forgot to take my sleeping pill. Nothing too strong; but I have gotten used to a small Temazapam caplet every night.

About 2:30 the momma cat came into my bedroom screeching her head off. I have no idea why; but she has the worst meow when she wants, make that, demands attention. I told her to go to bed.

At 3:24 Sparky, the oldest male, came in and did the same act.

As a result, I got very little sleep. When Felix got up at 5:00 AM to get ready for work; I woke up. I got up at 9AM and stayed up. It was difficult to hold my head up by 11:00AM. After Felix called at lunch, I went into his room, turned on his TV and sat in his recliner and slept for the next 2 and a half hours. Funny thing happened, no cat came in to bother me.

After Felix got home we had supper; chuckie and dimples, er.. make that chicken and dumplings, then watched a TiVo showing of Call For Help with Leo LaPorte, during which we skipped all 23 minutes of commercials; then we each took another nap. I am becoming a couch potato.

Tuesday may be the same if I am unable to get a good night's sleep tonight.

I N T O T H E N I G H T

2005-08-28T22:24:00.000-05:00

Do you know why I called this blog, "Into the Night"? Because as we age, as we live, I feel we are rushing headlong into the night. Not really knowing where we are going, not having any intended direction; but just rushing headlong in some direction that is beyond our control. In other words, headlong into the night.

Is that where you really want to wind up? Somewhere beyond your own control? Somewhere filled with darkness? So, I ask you one simple question; why are you so quick to run headlong into an area that you know nothing about? Our culture has spent many years building a certain way of life, encouraging interaction between people, learning about each other and doing good things for people and the environment. Yet, today we have nearly turned our back on all of that in our quest for .. for.... for what? In order to make a few extra bucks; in order to "better ourselves"; for a promotion on the job: all of these things together are what are causing us to rush headlong into the night, not knowing where we are going or caring about the result of that rush.

Some of us have no time for our wives, our children or our parents and friends. We are so busy with the job or the pursuit of something that seems so irrestable to us that our action is justified. Trust me, it isn't.

Many clubs and organizations that used to do good for mankind, Elks, Masons, Moose, Knights of Columbus, and hundreds of others are now scratching for members to attend their meetings and help in their effort to make life on this planet better for those in need. They show members on the books; but they do not attend meetings because they are so busy rushing headlong into the night.

What is the rush? You are going to live until you die. You may speed up your death; but I seriously doubt that you will delay it any. So why the big rush to do what? Why not slow down, smell the roses, take a little extra time for your loved ones, take time to give of yourself to help others. I will paraphrase the following: Man never stands so tall, as when he stoops to help his fellow man. How do you stand?

EVER GET CAUGHT IN A SCAM??

2005-08-27T18:27:00.000-05:00

Twasn't me, it was Felix. Felix is a fast driver and thought he could do something to protect himself from getting caught by buying a plastic polarizing lens to put over his license plates. This is supposed to prevent a camera from getting a clear view of the plate for a photograph. Felix ordered them and when they came in he showed them to me. I told him they were illegal. He argued with me; but looked up the Illinois Vehicle Code on the Internet.

Sure enough, he found the part that said it was illegal to obscure your license plates with anything that hindered them from being read. The plastic polarizing lens was a scam. Felix returened them to the company he bought them from. I say the company knew all along that they were illegal; and should have been prevented from selling them; but smart scamming company that they are, they do have a disclaimer on their website. They know that this item is illegal in every state in the union. They prey on folks who buy into their hype. Sure, we have all been guilty of doing this at one time or another. Let the buyer beware.

Felix filed a complaint with his credit card company. It seems they are of no help to him. The scammer gave Felix an "in house" credit; but who wants to buy more shit from the people that tried to rip him off in the first place. Companies like this know that P. T. Barnum was right; there is a sucker born every minute. It is a damned shame that companies like this are allowed to exist.

I told Felix that I would try to get the thing straightened out; but after reading the letter from the credit card company and the enclosed copy of the disclaimer from the scammer company, I don't see how we have a snowball's chance in hell of getting his money back. Not that there is a large amount of money at stake, it is more of a principle thing that he is arguing. Felix jumped a little too quickly and bought into the hype. He got stung.

This is what I keep harping about; HYPE. There is so much hype out there, from companies trying to sell you a nicely boxed pile of shit, credit card companies that promise you a great APR (for a limited time) and our government that gave a $200 income tax credit to every taxpayer and has sold them a bunch of hype about Iraq and WMD's that do not exist. People have been dumbed down to the point that they will buy almost anything.

I recall my ex-barber, who also had a horse farm that used hay in their stalls. He put an ad in the local newspaper trying to get rid of the used hay. Yes, it had horse shit in it; but it was free for the taking. NO TAKERS. He then advertised the same used hay for $5 a load. He got rid of every bit of it and made $25 bucks in the process. He couldn't give away horse shit free, so he sold it for $5 a load. Is America DUMB? You tell me.

Felix will now eat the loss of $67 and be a little more careful about buying things mailorder. It is sad that there are people out there that will lie and cheat by selling bad merchandise.

R E T I R E M E N T

2005-08-26T20:14:00.000-05:00

Are you looking forward to retirement? I am there, and wish I were still in the active workforce. The truth about retirement is that it can be very DULL. I am bored with watching TV, playing on the computer, listening to the ham radio and tinkering with the latest audio gadgets.

I remember a fellow worker about 20 years ago who used to work every moment of overtime he could get. I don't know if he needed the money, couldn't get along with his wife or was just a glutton for punishment; but he was at work every time the doors were unlocked. He fought for the chance to work overtime. ME? I hated overtime.

Anyway, this guy had a very close call accident at work. He slipped with a power hacksaw and cut his ear off. Within a week he decided it was time for the old man to retire. He couldn't wait to get back home to his small farm and pigs; that was going to be his life after retirement. He died 13 days later. What did he work all the overtime for? He had made plans to run his small pig farm; but couldn't adjust to staying at home. He was so used to going to work that the fact that he no longer had a job to go to was too much for him; he had a heart attack and died.

What is my point in all this babble? Don't put all you eggs in one basket. Don't work too hard. Don't depend on having a leisure time when you retire. I have always said that a man needs a reason to get up and get out of bed in the morning. No, not just to go to the bathroom. He needs a reason for his life. He needs a reason to exist.

I have been living this life of retirement for 16 months and still have not found my reason to exist. I am happy, I admit. I am comfortable and well fed; but I am still struggling with the fact that I don't have to go to work. When I watch TV, I think about having such and such a job that is being portrayed on TV. Wouldn't it be fun to be an FBI Agent, a pilot or whatever. I am still trying to adjust to not having to get up for work in the morning.

Don't get me wrong here. I like sleeping late and I like staying up late to piddle with the computer or watch the History Channel or the Discovery Channel; but my desires are to still be active in doing some of the things I see on TV. I want to visit my cousin in Las Vegas and drive out to Rachael, NV and hike up Tickaboo peak to take pictures of the military base that doesn't exist. You know the one. Did I say "hike up Tickaboo"; boy that is a laugh. After the stroke I am doing good to walk on level ground, much less climb a mountain.

There are so many things I want to see and experience for myself. When I was working, I was too preoccupied with the day to day stresses of the job to think about these things; but now that I have so much time on my hands, I would love to live an adventurous life. Honestly, I am a big chicken; but some of those things are so inviting to me that I dream about them. If I lived to be 100, and were able to do these things; I would still have a wish list that was unfullfilled.

I am not content to sit and watch the world go by. I want to participate in it. I want to be a part of what is shaping the world. I am not saying that I have any great thing to contribute; but I just don't want to be left out of my future. Does that make sense to you? It does to me.