It is a trifecta!

Yes, with an exclamation point! It is Friday of a long weekend, pay day, and my anniversary; all in one rainy day. I have both Monday and Tuesday off, so as soon as the workday is over, I am free until Wednesday. I might just take off the whole week, because I can. The wife wants to go somewhere, but every somewhere, including right here at home, is looking wet and soggy next week. I'm just along to drive and contribute hotel points.

I ran out early this morning to grab the wife some donuts and a dozen red roses -- her favorite flower. I used to get a rose for every year we were married, but when I passed two dozen that idea got a little expensive. This morning I bought a dozen at the grocery and put them in a vase myself. They look just as nice as the ones from the florist and usually last just as long, for a fraction of the price.

We may go out to dinner this evening or catch a movie. The boss will let me know.

Have a great Friday.

Phillip Mabry was a lonely man

I'm sitting on the patio drinking my coffee and surfing the interwebz this morning. Life is good. It is mild with a moderate breeze that is mostly blocked by the bulk of the house and the privacy fence. Looking over the grass it appears a cutting will soon by in order. Perhaps this evening if the rain holds off.

In other news...well I have nothing. According to the media Trump and the Republicans are evil Russia lovers who want everyone to die because of...insert outrage du jour...

I think Victor Davis Hanson is correct when he argued the Democrats have to focus on outrage, because they have no agenda to promote that the voters want. People might hate the Republican health care proposal, but they don't like ObamaCare either. Perhaps Democrats can tout the Iran treaty. Their success in Libya. Maybe gun control or their opposition to over-the-counter birth control. Maybe Dems will brag about the crime rates in Chicago, Gary, Detroit, DC, Baltimore, Philadelphia, Indy or Newark; all run by Democrats. The old tax and spend routine lost its appeal a while ago. Perhaps the "abort your baby so we can sell the parts" angle will work? It is your snatch, do what you want. Do you think pushing to let high school boys shower with your daughter is a winner? I know, continue to label everyone in flyover country as ignorant, bigoted, rednecks. Insulting your constituents always gets you votes.

I guess I understand. I would focus on the "Trump helped the Russians defeat the greatest candidate in history" fairy tale too. Were I Obama and my policies had hurt my party so much, I guess I would be off on a six month vacation too.

Humpity Hump

Things are getting settled here at the old homestead. I cooked supper Monday. My daughter cooked last night. Everyone has settled into a tentative routine, all trying not to step on his housemate's figurative toes. The granddaughter is just confused.

I'm looking forward to a couple of days off next week. The wife and I are trying to decide if we want to use some valuable hotel points and take a mini vacation at the beach. We are watching the weather before committing. I don't want to use up my points sitting in a hotel room or walking a mall while it pours down rain. I've been there and done that.

Sheer Punditry

I have tried to stay away from politics of late, primarily because I am just tired of it all. Sometimes I read something that leaves me amused. In the run up to the vote on the GOP ObamaCare Lite bill, the CBO claims that 22 million could be uninsured if the bill passes. In the details we learn that a majority of those uninsured will be primarily a result of getting rid of the onerous individual mandate. In other words -- voluntarily. People will be uninsured because they want to be uninsured. The media wants us to believe the law somehow picks and chooses through nefarious means who gets insurance and who does not. This is the kind of crap that I am sick of.

BTW there is a distinct difference between health care and insurance.

Passing a bill that is slightly different is not a repeal. As voters we can tell the difference.

I find it hilarious that for the past month or two the local airwaves have been filled with ads for Indiana's lone Democrat senator. Old Joe is realizing he just might be vulnerable. The election is more than a year away and already Donnelly is touting the good he has done in an effort to make Hoosiers forget that he has been a straight-line Democrat voter his entire political career.

That is your Tuesday digest.

Harmlessly passing your time in the grassland away

It is a cool Sunday morning. Music is playing softly in the background. I am blogging from the couch. My office is now in the master bedroom and the wife is asleep. The other three bedrooms are now occupied by others, so I can't use the comfy chairs and recliners in those rooms. The early morning hours when I get to be alone are going to be the biggest casualty in the great summer move-in. I feel selfish just typing that. My daughter is excited they will close on the new house in six weeks. The house was originally slated to be finished by late August. I'm am sure they will be glad to get out of here as soon as possible.

We managed to combine the contents of two rooms into one and emptied three closets into one. The wife did a great job. After every one moves back out we are going to have a bunch of space. I bet it will take the wife about a week to fill it up!

We went to hear the oldest boy's band play last night. It may be the last time. One of the band members is moving away. They are all great musicians. Singing may not be their forte, but they are adequate.  Success has eluded them. That is often the case when one chooses the arts.

I listen to some of the crap on the radio and wonder how the artist found success. I watch The Voice or American Idol and see people with more talent than you can imagine and for the life of me I can't understand why those people go unsigned.  Dumb luck plays a huge role. It is the same if you write or paint.

There you have my "Joe, nobody cares about this crap" entry for today. My coffee mug is empty and so is my creative bag. Enjoy your Sunday.

Someone stole the witty title of this post

Happy Friday. The remains of TS Cindy is bringing rain in a steady drizzle this morning. Thunder boomed earlier as harder rain watered the grass and flowers. Best of all, the front brought cooler temperatures and lowered the soul-sucking humidity a few points.

The boy's dog is curled next to me. He has no interest to in going out into the rain.

I screwed up yesterday. We bought new blinds for the granddaughter's room. I got them put up with no trouble. When I went to cut off the inevitable and multiple safety tags I cut the string holding the slats in place. The blind is ruined. I have to head off to Lowes to get another during my lunch break. At least the brackets can be reused. Thank goodness they were not the real expensive blinds. I can only blame myself, and the damn lawyers that want to idiot proof everything.

Speaking of which, did you see that some law firm is suing the big box lumber yards because a 4x4 and 2x4 are not really 4x4 or 2x4? Isn't that one of the first things you learn when doing your first home improvement project? The chains will just settle and spend thousands of dollars to change labels. The cost will be passed to the consumer while the lawyers get a cash payout. No one wins but the lawyers.

Geez Annette, just take off yer top already

Nothing says summer like a little beach music. Here is the greatest surf tune of all time:

And if you Beach Boys fans and Jan and Deaners don't like the truth -- tough.

Ch-ch-changes

I got my "office" moved last night when I returned from my business trip. I have to find a place for my file cabinets yet. This evening we will move the boy from the slightly larger guest bedroom to my old office. My daughter and her husband will move into the vacated bedroom this weekend. It is going to be crowded for a couple of months. I'm sure none of them are looking forward to moving in with their parents either.

I had a noteworthy post composed in my head on the drive back from Kentucky yesterday. Alas, it is gone, stored in some inaccessible place in my brain today. So it goes. Instead you get...this.

I hope you have a great day.

Head Scratchin' Here, Boss

According to this story, a local convenience store clerk is being charged with a crime for trying to stop a thief. WTH? Stealing is stealing. It does not matter what is being stolen. If the criminal in question was stealing a Lexus would the situation be different?

Is there something magic about taking a five-finger discount on cigars? Michael Brown swiped stogies, and according to some, the Ferguson cop had no right to arrest Brown.

What is our society coming to when you cannot protect yourself or your property? Just as disturbing are the number of people interviewed on the evening news who think the clerk was out of bounds. I suspect their attitude would change in a hurry if folks helped themselves to their property.

I may start buying my gas at this station from now on.

breaded tenderloin is a Hoosier tradition, keep yer grubby hands off

Re: Yesterday's Post topic

The committee is pushing for three pieces of international law to put sanctions place. This will expand international property regulations to protect indigenous property ranging from designs to language. The UN should "obligate states to create effective criminal and civil enforcement procedures to recognize and prevent the non-consensual taking and illegitimate possession, sale and export of traditional cultural expressions," *

I guess we better shut America down. We are a mutt culture and a mutt race. Oh wait, unless you are a member of an isolated tribe in the interior of New Guinea or the Amazon, you are too. The world is made of the movement and inter-mixture of peoples. If you don't understand this let me know and I will give a basic history lesson. The last time a group of folks started looking for racial and cultural purity 80 million people died. You may remember this deadly experiment in cultural sovereignty as World War II. I should point out that those guys were socialists too.

This is nonsense and like it or not these ideas are being pushed by the liberal side of the political aisle. If facts offend you then I don't know what to say.


* emphasis mine

Dear Liberals

i keep reading that we must stop cultural approbation. This where one group of people use another group's symbols, style, dress, language, cuisine, or culture. An example is white chicks and dudes in dreadlocks.

How does this square with the idea of multiculturalism?

If we do not strive for a true "melting pot" culture do we not risk increasing tribalism, nationalism, and xenophobia -- you know, all the stuff Trump is accused of formenting,  encouraging, and promoting?

I am just a dumb old white guy with right-leaning political ideas so every progressive liberal in the world is smarter than I am. Could someone explain this paradox to me?

Lazy day

Plans change. I did not park my bony old man butt on the couch and watch baseball yesterday. In its wisdom, the Cubs game was blacked out locally on the MLB network. I am still trying to understand how I can be "local" to a location 187 miles from my house, but that is just the way it is. I listened to the game on the radio. I was good with that. The wife took me out for some afternoon ice cream and we went to dinner with 2/3 of the family. The oldest boy had to work. I pretty much did nothing all day. I blogged, watched Bruce Lee movies, listened to baseball, and channel surfed until bedtime. I did run the sweeper. I read a little. In all, my Father's Day was lazy, boring, uneventful, wonderful, and terrific; A perfect day.

Stuff I wish I had written, Volume XXXVIII

one last thing , an article on the upcoming eclipse says that temperatures will drop during the eclipse, I guess that big shiny thing in the sky might impact climate.  I need to read the Paris accord to see what we can do about making the Sun get its act together. JOG

a little bit of everything

Good morning. Happy Father's Day to all of you dads out there. Storms rolled through during the wee hours last night. There were lots of flashes and booms. I turned over and went right back to sleep.

I helped my Son-in-Law carry out some heavy furniture for a big yard sale yesterday. One of the items was a huge desk and credenza from when I rented an outside office. It is an executive sized desk made of genuine imitation oak. It is heavy as heck. For you sentimentalists in the blog world, that desk is where the first couple years of my blog posts were composed. Just think, some anonymous stranger owns a piece of furniture that will likely be worth millions to museums and collectors once my true genius is recognized.

After we got the sale set up I helped move boxes from the basement. They are starting to get stuff packed. The family will be temporarily moving in here next weekend. Did I mention I am a little sore this morning? When did I become such a weak old man?

Despite such a busy morning, we moseyed up to the greater Lafayette area to attend a high school graduation open house. We spent quality time with my wife's family, which is something we don't do enough. I genuinely like almost all of her relatives.

And that, my friends, is how I spent my Saturday. I do not expect Sunday to be any more exciting. Mostly, I plan on spending my Father's Day parked on the couch watching a little baseball. Come on over if you want. Bring some Cheetos (the puffy kind) and some beer. If the weather cooperates we will sit on the patio and burn some fine tobacco lovingly rolled between the thighs of a beautiful Caribbean maiden. Hey, let me have my fantasies. I know my stogies were likely rolled by the fat fingers of a sweaty crone or a haggard old man. I choose to believe otherwise.

Enjoy your day.

Time travel for millenials

You asked

Not a lesser known song from Bono and the boys, but the one I like the best.

Long time listener, first time caller

I thought I wrote a post yesterday. It must have been in my dreams. I think it had to do with sugar cream pie. There is no entry in the blogger dashboard -- neither draft nor published. I guess I am losing my mind. Or perhaps I wrote in another dimension, or I gained a grainy black and white glimpse of life in an alternate universe. Maybe it was a blip in The Matrix. It doesn't matter to the here and now, where my coffee mug is lukewarm and nearly empty, where there was no post yesterday after all.

Thank goodness you nor I fell victim to the 93 million gun deaths that occur in this country every day. Since only around 300 million 200 million (now) people live in the gun crazed violent US of A, it is unlikely we will make it to the weekend. Folks in all 57 states need to hunker down. Just think, Dan Quayle was run out of office for a spelling mistake.

We got some rain yesterday and over night. We needed it, even of it does mean I will probably now have to mow the lawn over the weekend. My 'mater plants have blooms. I can get some homegrown deliciousness sometime in July. Hurry up.

Look, I would like to keep on writing this fascinating commentary, but I must address this coffee situation. Once again I put my needs ahead of yours. That is life as a special snowflake.

Now we are interested in record retention

Really? Isn't there More important stuff for Congress to ponder?  Maybe Congress could look at taxes, the deficit, spending, immigration, roads, welfare, or Social Security.

I find the hysteria over Trump deleting obvious typos in his tweets amusing. Somehow these same people had no issue with Hillary deleting tens of thousands of emails generated as Secretary of State. Did Quigley castigate Comey for removing and leaking Government documents?

It is no wonder the approval rating for Congress is just slightly higher than the odor from your local sewage plant.

Maybe if this nonsense gets Trump to delete his Twitter account it will be worth it.

Oh, and some grits also

Good morning, fellow Earthlings. I had every intention of writing yesterday. It is not like I didn't have the opportunity. I got up at 5:00 AM. Then I got busy on work stuff and I don't know what else.  

So here we are this morning. I woke up a little after five again. The boy has to be at work by 5:30. I hear him banging around . I am sure I will get used to his stirring over the next few days and sleep just a bit longer.

Summer has arrived. We had the heat last week. The humidity finally showed up starting Sunday. I guess her flight was delayed. You know when the low is 75 you are in for some sweaty days. I sat out on the patio and listened to a few innings of baseball last evening after supper. There was just enough breeze to make it warm but pleasant. If I ever fall into a pile of money I would sure like to expand my patio. If I can get a few lucky breaks maybe I can score a good bonus this year. We shall see what is left after the bills are paid.

Ate you still awake?  I don't know about you, but I need some more coffee. I would like some ham and eggs (over easy) too. Unless you are going to bring me over some breakfast I will have to be satisfied with a cup of Joe.

Enjoy your day. I won't, because you selfishly refuse to fry me some ham. I'll take bacon. Sausage parties will work too. No? Did I ever mention that the title is the last thing I write when composing a post?

One lump or two?

There is a big willow tree in my backyard. To answer your question, pretty big. It is way taller than my two story house; maybe 50-60 feet high? The trunk is probably more than eight feet in circumference. It is a big tree, OK? It doesn't matter. Why are you obsessed with the big willow in my backyard? The story is about the squirrel who lives in this big willow. This rodent makes my son's corgi-Jack Russell mix crazy. He hates tree rats with a passion. The squirrel teases and torments the dog like they are characters in a Looney Tunes cartoon.

The other night we were sitting at the kitchen table eating supper. The pup was lying patiently by the table waiting on crumbs to fall to the floor (but not begging). The squirrel came right up to the patio door, stood up on his hind legs, and rested his paws on the glass as if to say "come and get me dog".  The dog about went through the glass. You know that darned rodent was laughing.

The dog keeps the rabbits from eating the lillies and the chipmunks have vacated the atea but I think he has met his match in that squirrel.  It reminds me of this:

The days are longer, stronger than moonshine

I watched highlights of the Comey hearings. This public theater reminded me of a fact I learned decades ago watching the Sunday News shows -- namely, that it is evident our best and brightest don't usually choose politics as their career. I think politics is filled with a whole bunch of Frank Burns of M*A*S*H fame. In addition to being not that bright, I think a vast majority of politicians are egotistic corrupt power-hungry asswipes. At every level of government. Yes, that is a sentence fragment. You may fix the syntax on your own. Diagram the corrected passage and send it to me in order get your final grade.

My passport came back with a fresh "you can go to China as often as you want need to for the next ten years" visa in it. I can stay for 60 days at a time. I don't  think there is any danger I will overstay my visa. My previous China visa was for a one year entry. That was from my 2013 trip. The good news is my trip that was scheduled for Monday has been postponed. The change does not sadden me. I now get to wait until it is really hot to go. Hey Joe, it is 110F. Whatever you do, do not drink the water. I am fairly certain there will be no side trips to the Great Wall this time.

I am a bit jaded, and a lot sarcastic, but I am lucky that I have been all over the US and the world on someone else's dime. I've been places and seen things that most people could only dream about. Short of the military, or part of a flight crew, my experiences are rare and exceptional. It just one more reason you wish you were me.

You do know I'm not really that egotistic right? I am just channelling my inner politician. See how I brought it all back full circle? I hope you have a great Saturday.

A post equivalent to bologna on white bread

Friday at last. This has seemed a very long week. I had a couple of day trips Monday and Tuesday and spent the balance of the week stuck at my desk, researching new customers and contacts. I remember why I don't want a desk job.

We went out for Italian to celebrate the wife's birthday last night. My oldest son had to work. We had cake afterward.

I woke up a bit before 5:00 this morning. I was hot. I think my wife turned up (down, whatever) the air conditioning before she came to bed. I have never understood why the builder put ceiling fans in every bedroom except the master bedroom. It has a cathedral ceiling and no overhead fixture to add a fan. Yes, I could have it wired, but that is far down on the list of home improvements we want to do.

Music by Chicago is bouncing in my head this morning. Feel free to provide your own soundtrack in lieu of Friday music.

Our house it has a crowd There's always something happening And it's usually quite loud

Let us play an imagine game. You make an investment. You continue to contribute over the years into this investment. After 100 years or so (83 to be exact) and you find you have a net return of between 0.02% and 0.05%. Would you consider this a good use of your money? Me neither.

Now shut up about the Paris Accords already.

Comey says the President did not encourage him to shut down any investigation, but asked him to speed them up.  I think this is pretty much the opposite of obstruction. Get over it. You lost. Maybe the Democrat Party should focus on winning the next election as opposed to re-fighting the last one. Wait, don't listen to me. Keep living in the past, you liberals.

Today is the wife's redacted birthday. I bought her some donuts to start the day off right. My efforts were completely overshadowed when the granddaughter ran up the front walk carrying a card shouting "Happy Burday" moments later. I lose out to the two year-old every time. I can live with that.

We have finally settled into a spate of nice weather. It is supposed to be warm and sunny for the next week or so. I can live with that too. Our friends have invited us up Saturday to hang out in and around their pool. It is good to have friends with nice stuff.

The boy's dog is curled up in my office recliner watching me work.  He is snoring. The boy has mostly moved back home. He has a job here,. He still needs to get the rest of his stuff out of his apartment. He does not have much.  Our household has increased from two to three. In a couple of weeks my daughter and her family will be moving in until their new house is complete -- sometime in late August. Then there will be six people living here. Plus a dog. We are all going to have to make adjustments. For starters, my office will be moved into the master bedroom to open up a bedroom. It is just for a couple of months. Luckily, the master bedroom is pretty large.

I noticed my beer and booze is already disappearing at a much more rapid rate. The good stuff is anyway. The boy likes good booze. I guess he will drink the cheap stuff when the more expensive bottle is empty. I used to do the same thing to my dad. You probably did too.

Have a great Thursday.

Taco Tuesday

Roy Orbison sang background to my dreams last night. He is still bouncing around in my head this morning. For much of my life music has payed in my head. All of the time. Real songs. Rock, standards, classical; you name it. My life had a soundtrack. I don't know if this is normal or not. I doubt it or others would have mentioned it. Early posts here at he blog reference my head music. Then, a few years ago, I found that my inner music supervisor was on sabbatical. I realized my head was filled with...thoughts. Just worries and...stuff.  No background singers. Now for he past few weeks my brain is back to playing tunes. Right now it is an endless loop of Roy Orbison. I sometimes wonder if this is a benign mental illness? Why are you looking at me like that? Just kidding. I hear nothing. Cry-eye-eying over youuuu...

Today marks the anniversary of the D-Day landings. Usually I would post images and a tribute. The crappy old iPad does not lend itself to posting pictures and at this point WWII is as far in the past for us today as the Civil War was to the military men who seized the beaches of Normandy.

I have to get ready for a meeting later this morning. Have a great day.

There are letters and words and punctuation -- it counts as a post

I wasn't going to post anything today. I'm just not feeling it. What do you care about my weather for the weekend (gorgeous)? I know you don't care that I'm off to a graduation reception this evening. In fact, I'm not sure why you care about anything I scribble around here. Heck, it is increasingly obvious I don't care what I write. Or that I write. I'm on pace to cobble together 300 posts this year. That is way down from my normal pace. I acknowledge the quantity and quality are both reduced. Not that quality writing was ever a key component of the efforts here anyway.

Blogging died years ago. I am just riding the zombie corpse.

Blamestorming

As near as I can tell Hillary has now blamed just about everyone in the world, other than herself, for her failed Presidential bid.

I think the only conspirators she has left out are the Masons, the Illuminati, and that secret cabal that squashed the 150-mile carburetor back in he '70s.

I guess she will get around to them next week. She just needs a little more Chardonnay.

We are all gonna die

Trump pulled out of the Paris Accords -- which is a treaty to the rest of the world, but not here because Obama and the Constitution -- so now the world is on the brink of going all Krypton 'splody or something. I'm not still sure how agreeing to pay hard-earned confiscated money from Americans to third world countries helps solve climate issues. What nation would agree to hurting their economy to help another nation's?

 Taking wealth from rich countries and passing it out to poor ones is merely global socialism. It does not matter if it is for a good cause or not. I will take a cynical, self-serving view. Why should the U S hurt our economy when India or China or Slovenia are going to keep pumping out carbon dioxides? The Paris Accords have no enforcement provisions so that is akin to a voluntary speed limit. In other words, a joke.

Global hysteria over this move is like a neighbor complaining about your overflowing trash bins while he pours used motor oil out by the back fence.

If the Paris agreement is so important then the American people should get a say, through the vote of the Senate. That is how treaties are done in this country. By the way, Congress can impose restrictions that match the Paris accords on their own, should they deem it important, without the requirement to send American dollars to non-conforming shitholes. Any Representative or Senator that believes the end of he world is upon us for not abiding by the carbon caps or whatever can introduce legislation to remedy the situation TODAY. He or she can save the world for our grandchildren.

Chirp. Chirp. That's what I thought.

I suspect Trump could propose the strictest carbon caps in the world and the environmentalists would not be content. It is about global socialism, not the environment. 

We should use as much solar or wind or alternative energy as possible. More Nukes! Frack away for that natural gas. We should eliminate pollutants. Fewer chemicals in our water and land is a good thing. We do not need to be a part of the Do-Gooder club where we pay the dues and get no benefits.

As soon as the Climate models prove accurate I will listen. As long as the whole "Climate Change" movement remains a Ponzi scheme to extract dollars from our treasury, I remain skeptical.

As always, I encourage dissenting opinions.