more than meets the eye

The press is nearly gleeful over the Kung Flu virus. Nothing sells ads like a good threat of death and mayhem. As a bonus, they can blame the Trumpster.

Already the talking heads are blaming the losses in the stock market on the virus. You can almost see the hopefulness in their eyes because they know the economy is great and that bodes well for four more years of the Bad Orange Man.  Anything that hurts the economy is a good thing to the lefties.

What they are not telling you is that even with the latest drop in stock prices, the market is still at near record levels.

More importantly, they aren’t telling you that Wall Street is looking at Bernie’s increasing lead with a jaundiced eye. The more it looks like the avowed socialist might get the nomination, the smart people will start to move their money.

If you want to see the economy slow to a crawl, elect a guy who vows to take a big chunk of wealth from private citizens. Don’t worry, Bernie is at least honest. Your taxes are going up too.

a copy of a copy

I guess he didn’t care for his Christmas present.

This is my oldest boy, the middle child before he was a middle child. This is from 1991 and he was three.

I found a place locally who transfers old videotape to dvd. It was cheap.  I took two tapes over to see how they came out. The wife and I enjoyed watching the kids from nearly thirty years ago.

I might add that my wife was hot at 30 years old. I still think she is.

The actual quality of the product is better than what I have posted. This is a cell phone recording of the TV playing the DVD of the videotape. I guess that makes it a copy of a copy? Anyway I am pretty happy with the results. I have about 15 -18 more tapes to be transferred at some point.

Somewhere my a dad has old Super 8 film of me as a kid. Whether it is too old and brittle to copy is the question. I would enjoy seeing me as a snot-nosed kid.

Who wouldn’t?

A half finished post for Friday

I went to bed last night with post fodder organizing into coherent form in my brain pan. I woke some six hours later to nothing. I cannot  remember what  I was going to write about. The subject revolves around music, I know that. Perhaps my pre-sleep enthusiasm was inspired by the song playing softly as I drifted onto the arms of Morpheus. Who knows? Who cares?

Snowing free stuff

The maple in my front yard

Yesterday brought a small dose of winter and a perfect snowfall. The flakes were large and wet. Snow stuck to the trees and grass. The roads, driveway, and sidewalks remained clear.

We got all of the beauty and none of the shoveling.

I read an interesting article this morning. I can’t find it to put up a link, so you can do the research on your own. You don’t click links anyway. The crux of the article was the cost of Bernie’s programs will be something like $98 trillion. Let me write that out so you can grasp just how scary that is: 98,000,000,000,000.* For perspective, there are only 31,536,000 seconds in a year. If that doesn’t bring it home consider that the total assets of the American people -  income, cars, houses, savings - are estimated at $97 trillion.

So if we all just sign over everything we have and put our trust in Bernie’s version of collectivism, we still cannot pay for his wish list of free stuff. Venezuela is looking at Sanders and saying “what are you thinking?”.

Don’t underestimate the power of Free. Democrats are as tired of their party hacks as Republicans voters were of their own. Americans are tired of the corruption of our political class and a Trump and Bernie are viewed as outsiders. Don’t fool yourself, Sanders can win and those of us on the side of the good guys better be careful what we wish for in rooting for Bernie Sanders to get the nomination.





* Here is a post where I try to put the staggering amount of money or government spends into perspective. It is outdated now, but I still think it demonstrates the point.

Impressing the girls

An old guy was working out at the gym when he spotted a young hot blonde girl walking in.

He asked the trainer standing next to him, “What machine should I use to impress that girl over there?”

The trainer looked him up and down and said; “I would recommend the ATM in the lobby.”

just another post that will get me sent to camp

Is there any murderous Communist dictator that Bernie Sanders doesn’t admire? I mean look at the list - the USSR, Sandinistas, Castro, Venezuela.

A Chinese guy once told me the Mao Cultural Revolution was a good thing because it kept millions from starving*. Castro’s excesses were OK because more people could read, according to Sanders. I guess we should ignore that Cuba had one of the highest literacy rates in the Caribbean before Castro.

I keep forgetting Communism is so wonderful they had to build that wall in Berlin to keep the West Germans out of the Worker’s Paradise.


*absolutely 100% true story

idle Threats

It is a rainy Monday here at the homestead. The temperature is what we should expect in late February.

Yesterday was sunny and warm. I dragged the baby gates from the attic. The little one started crawling last week, so it is time to protect her from stuff like the stairway. For dinner I made a batch of Mac and cheese and some Barbecued chicken breasts.

Ho hum, ho hum.

I’ve always liked this tune

Hey, I could have given you The Carpenters Monday song...

A Big Man

Today we are coming back to the good old US of A for our much loved Sunday Pictures feature.

Today I present some pictures of the home of a famous American. This individual has songs in his honor, towns named for him, and even TV shows and movies about his life.

I took all of these in a January 2017

Give up? What if I told you this house was outside Defiance, MO?

Let’s play two

I see a clear blue sky with just a tinge of early morning pink out my blog room window. It is chilly, but the experts claim it will be a warm-for-February weekend. I may, should I get myself motivated, go for a walk this morning. For now we must all be content as I sip coffee, hunt and peck these letters and words, and listen to some CSN and Suite Judy Blue Eyes playing softly in the background.

Baseball, albeit Spring Training games, starts today. Coupled with the two dozen or so robins I spied resting in my crab apple trees a few days ago reminds me spring is not so far away.

The Governor of California has declared a doctor should be able to prescribe a house for homeless patients. I guess Governor Newsome believes a prescription pad is magic. If you write it down, it happens. Like most Democratic Politicians he has no concept that eventually someone has to pay for all that free stuff. Why not just declare everything is free; healthcare, college, housing, food, cars, phones, TV? Of course I’m not sure how houses will get built or food will be grown.

Oh wait, according to wannabe President Bloomberg, anyone can be a farmer. He says you just dig a hole, throw in a seed and water it. Apparently Mini Mike has never tried to grow a garden or houseplant, forget several hundred acres of corn.

That’s just it, Government is filled with people who never produced anything, built anything, grew anything — all telling us we are doing it all wrong.

Just think how many people could have been helped if Tom Steyr and Mikey Bloomberg took the more than $500,000,000 they have already spent on ads to get a chance at a $400,000 job. That is more than the annual budget of a medium sized city. Chew on that for awhile.

Ah, it is Saturday. Enough of that. Enjoy your weekend.

F-f-f-Friday

It is Friday. It is cold. It is sunny, so I can live with the cold.

I saw a sign at a nudist colony. It was clothed for the winter.

Stop it, you will repeat it and claim it for your own in the next three days. We both know it.

I am not aware of any plans for the weekend. The social director usually does not consult with me. I just slip on my shoes and coat and drive where directed.

That’s it. If you need more bloggy goodness you will just have to pursue the archives for those days when I had real content.

Have a great day.

Come fly with me

I’m alive. I have been busy. Sorry for lack of posting.

Yesterday I spent the day in Charlotte. Every time I type that line it cracks me up for reasons I do not care to explain. Anyway, long time readers may know that Charlotte, NC was a place I visited frequently in my past. From about 2007 to 2014 I went there about once a month. That equates to...a lot of visits. Most of the time I stayed in one particular area.

Fast forward to yesterday. I had a job interview in Charlotte. The company is actually located down the street from the place I used to stay!

I was back in travel mode at least for a day. I left home at 4:30 in the morning to get to the airport and pulled back in my garage right at 10:30. In the PM, mind you. It was a planes, trains, and automobiles day I have experienced more times than I can count.

While I was at the airport  I saw something that cracked me up:

The Dude is using a cooler for a rolling suitcase. I prefer to think I admire the utilitarian repurposing rather than the notion I am making fun of the guy, It might be that is all he had.

Edit: I have decided the cooler guy is a genius. Fly to a warm place. Buy beer and ice and now you are set for a week at the beach. Bam!

I pick myself up and get back in the race

Here we are ready to meet the day; Presidents Day in fact. No mail. I suspect the banks are closed, along with most government offices. No school, so the girls are home with their mommy today: no grandgirls to brighten up the house.

I got the garbage disposal installed with minimal effort and without a single utterance of a swear word. The only issue came when it was time to mount the beast. I didn’t have the strength to compress the rubber seal with one hand and turn the locking ring. I had to ask my son-in-law to stop by and help. Once he arrived it took less than five minutes to finish. When did I become so weak? In  any case there are no leaks so far. The only connection yet to be tested is the one from the dishwasher. Note: I did remember to knock out the dishwasher drain plug.

Boy don’t you feel better reading about that big adventure? Sheesh. I used to write about my travels. Now I bore you to tears with everyday home chores. This blog will hit its fifteen year anniversary in a couple of weeks. That is like 105 in dog years. It jumped the proverbial shark a decade ago. Entertaining content is wheezing along on life support.

We both — the blog and me — take encouragement from this sentiment.

Go forth and have a great Monday.

Kung Flu for you

i have been to China twice, spending a couple of weeks in total. Both times I was less than enthusiastic about the trip, especially the second time. Each time I was wrong, it was interesting and an enjoyable experience. The trip is long, and the food situation was different. Sadly, I still haven’t mastered chopsticks.

Anyway, I am offering up a twofer Sunday Pictures today:

Commie Housing on full display

This is the view from my hotel window of Changzhou, China taken on my second trip in November, 2017.

This a view of the Great Wall outside Beijing showing a stretch between guard towers. Right behind me was a place where the Mongols breached the wall. The entry stairs and hand rail are modern additions for safety. Guard duty on the wall would have been less than pleasant. This is from my first trip to China in June 2013.

Next week we shall return closer to home. 

Set ‘em up Joe

I can tell you right up front my writing will be interrupted this morning. My morning cup o’coffee is nearly drained and I know a refill is in order. I feel confident my composing skills will allow for a seamless pause you will never                 notice.

A few weeks ago I was complaining (hard to believe, eh wot?) that the Cubs are starting their own broadcasting network. Good news, my tiny little fiber optic cable provider has signed on and will offer the Marquee Network as part of regular programming. Yeah me.

Installation of a new garbage disposal is on tap for this weekend. The old one died some time ago and we have been avoiding that side of the sink for far too long. Luckily, it is not too hard to put in a new one, providing I get the same size unit. I know the plumbing gods are about to punish me for my hubris. If things go as normal, a connection will break, a pipe will be 1/4 inch too short, I will be missing something vital, the Lowe’s just down the street will not carry whatever I have to go back to get. That’s how things usually work.

I have no doubt it is my sunny positive attitude that draws in the readership.

I finished binge-watching the HBO miniseries Rome last weekend. I enjoyed it. It was fairly accurate historically. It has more gratuitous nudity than I can describe. I’m no prude, but some of the nakedness was just unnecessary. I’m not sure what I will start watching this morning. I guess we will both be surprised in a few minutes when I head downstairs to turn on the TV.

I’m not sure I am going to continue the Sunday Pictures feature. Does anyone find it interesting?

Enjoy your Saturday.

One

The band Three Dog Night sang that “One is the loneliest number”. I’m not sure if one is lonely,  but it is cold. One is precisely the Fahrenheit temperature as I write this morning, providing a wind chill “feels like” of minus nine. It is warmer inside my freezer than on my porch. That’s OK, I don’t plan on spending time in either frigid location.

My across the street neighbor texted me around eight o’clock last night to tell me there was a fox on my front porch. While I was out playing in the snow with my granddaughter yesterday I saw fox tracks coming from my porch and rounding to behind the house next door. Mr Fox must be running a regular route. The chipmunks are in some danger. I suspect it is the same red fox I have spotted a few times over the past couple of years.

Suburbia is teeming with wildlife.

Today is the Big Hallmark Holiday. I have a suitable card signed to present the wife. We shall brave the cold to have a modest dinner this evening to mark the occasion.

Since I’m a good host, I won’t bore you with my oft-repeated homage to the first date with my wife in a romantic tribute to St. Valentines Day. There is nothing worse than an old man endlessly repeating his stories.

The band Three Dog Night sang that “One is the loneliest number”. I’m not sure if one is lonely, but it is cold...

Help Me Rhonda

I am clearly out of step with the current political climate. I have no doubt I will find myself in a gulag /  re-education camp after the Bernie Bros bring us the joys and wonders of Communism.

Here is just another example of stuff I do not understand. A teacher at an Indiana suburban school has been suspended over a lesson in “this day in history “ because he/she showed a magazine cover marking that Mike Tyson was convicted of rape on that date.

I don’t recognize the problem. It was true, the facts are correct. More importantly, I am concerned any school would comment that stuff in the past isn’t relevant.

I am increasingly lost in this world where apparently no one is allowed to ever be offended, uncomfortable, or face actual truth. Can anyone tell me what the problem is and why is the teacher suspended, but some are calling for the teacher to be fired? I really am that clueless.

There is no marijuana in a pot pie

It appears we have a couple inches of snow on the ground. My neighbor cleaned my drive with his snow blower. I have great neighbors. Bitter cold will move in tonight with temperatures in the single digits. The cold and snow will pass quickly with normal to above normal temperatures by the weekend.

At some point in the coming days weeks I am going to clean up the sidebar links. Names will be deleted, a few added. I might even mess with the old template. Too many links are to old blogs that moved to other platforms long ago. Too bad, I miss most of those blog friends. It is change that has been coming for a while.

I hope you have that gift picked out for your sweetheart. The Big Hallmark Holiday for lovers is upon us Friday. We will be low-key this year. I will get a card for the wife and maybe a cheap bouquet.

I have always possessed a good vocabulary, even if I rarely demonstrate it around here, but for some reason I suck at Scrabble. It is the strategy part I guess. Thus it is no surprise the wife has trounced me in the online version of the game. She has defeated me probably fifty straight games. Only her stats don’t say so because I surrendered a game earlier in the week when I had nowhere to play and there were no letters left. I was down 150 points. Anyway, it seems she doesn’t get the win when I resign the game. Officially she did not defeat me. Bwahaha.

i opted out of coffee this morning and this is the result.

Winter is slated to finally arrive starting this afternoon. Rain, sleet, accumulating snow and single digit temperatures are all in the forecast. Until now we have had a remarkably mild winter. The only “shovel” snow was back in December. Since then we have had a dusting on a few occasions. Temperatures have hovered in the upper thirties on average. I am not complaining.

I have lots of other stuff I could complain about. I won’t. You are welcome.

So let’s see, we covered the weather. Complaints were covered. That leaves politics. Nah, I’m in a good mood.

Have a great hump day.

I see dumb people

In the wake of the Senate rejection of the impeachment charges against The Trumpster, some liberal pundits again brought up the old tripe about how the electoral college and the Senate in particular are “undemocratic”.

Let us cover this yet again: we do not have a democracy in the US Federal government, we have a representative republic. Write it 50 times until you understand basic political fact. In cursive on ruled paper.

One talking head went so far as to research the population of various states and proclaimed a majority really wanted the President booted based on the population of each state and senator’s vote. Of course the assumption was that every voter in say California or New York voted Democrat. We know that isn’t true. In fact, the whole so-called analysis was such a waste of time I feel cheated of those minutes of life I spent in reading the article.

Today I read an Article in The Atlantic spreading a similar nonsense. Simon Barnicle goes further, proving his education is sorely lacking and he should have taken high school civics instead of playing dungeons and dragons, because he surely lives in a fantasy world.

The author readily admits the Democrats are losing elections. His solution is to rig the system so Democrats can win. He wants to carve up Blue States so they get more representatives, more Senators, and more electoral votes. Problem solved. Until Republicans declare every county in Texas a new State. I’m surprised Barnicle Bill didn’t also advocate adding six or seven new judges to the SCOTUS, another liberal plan to get what they cannot pass legislatively.

His rational is that again, the Senate is not apportioned according to population, but rather each state gets two votes. Poor California has the same votes as Montana. All I can say is - Yes. That is how things were designed - exactly to prevent mob rule and despotic control by the larger States.

Apparently Mr. Barnicle Bill never learned that the country is called “ The United States, as in a group of independent  states joined together as a nation. The  US is not, and was not, intended to be a nation with a group of provincial  or administrative districts. The Senate was designed to represent the interest of the individual states, not the people. Unfortunately, that distinction was blurred by the idiotic and lamentable 17th Amendment.

I don’t know what passes for education among the journalist class, but history and civics is clearly not part of the curriculum. Maybe some of those folks who learned of the Federalist Papers for the first time during the impeachment fiasco should actually spend some time reading them.

Worse, the author of the Atlantic piece claims to be an attorney. I guess whatever law school he attended must not require a course in a Constitutional law. It is a good thing he writes, I wouldn’t want that hack representing me in court when he knows so very little about the foundation of our very Law of the Land.

Because you asked II

Cappy asks “Why is there cat?”.

Why is there air? Why do people vote Democrat? Why does the Commissioner want to keep screwing with the rules of Baseball? Why is Rap considered part of Rock and Roll? How does Kieth Richards look younger at 70 than he did at 40? Why does anyone give a fig about Britain’s Royal Family? Why is there such a thing as “meatless hamburgers”. Why hasn’t Lacy Chabert won an Oscar? 

In other words, there are a great many mysteries in this life. Cats are one of them.

Uncompliant asks “My question is: what are your thoughts on de-atomizing ourselves? Partly, that is a fancy way of asking how to find local clubs, meet-up groups, social/political events that we can attend/join to meet like-minided folks. ”.

Me, I started a blog. The rest, not so much. I practice politics as a spectator sport. 


If anyone has more questions, let me know in the comments

Because you asked

Ed Bonderenka asks “Why is the sky Blue?”.

Ed, I could give a long and complicated answer about atmospheric gases and the dispersal of light particles in the visible spectrum. Instead I will tell you the sky is blue from witnessing the evil men perpetuate here on Earth.

Jean asks “Do you have a favorite author? Who? Why?”

I have a tendency to binge read authors I like. In my teens I went on a Louis L’Amour binge, reading his entire catalog. I have reread all of his books several times. The same holds true for Stephen Coonts. As for my favorite authors, there is no better wordsmith ever than the late Patrick O’Brien. I have read the entire Aubrey/Maturin canon several times through, as well as many of his other novels.

For plain good storytelling, Bernard Cornwell is one of my favorites. Lately I have started reading the Travis McGee novels by the late John D. McDonald. 

More questions and answers coming in a future post.

Sunday Pictures

Yum goat

This is the cooking area at a popular goat restaurant in Monterrey, Mexico.  Surprisingly, goat tastes like chicken.

Not really, but it is similar to pork and not at all bad. I actually enjoyed it. This is from a business trip to Mexico in February 2019

Ask Hoosierboy

As I start typing away on the little iPad keyboard, it occurs to me I have nothing to say this morning. Of course lack of quality content has never stopped me before from rambling on, but somehow this morning I have a crisis of conscience. I don’t want to exacerbate my dwindling readership with inane and pointless ramblings.

But I already have, nes pas?

So instead of complaining, chatting about the weather, or rambling on about politics,I propose I cut it short today. I think I’ll turn over the old blog to you.

About a decade ago I occasionally offered up an “Ask Hoosierboy” feature. As such, go ahead and ask me anything in the comments and I will try my best to offer a response. Any topic is open: history, politics, business, literature, physics, music, personal stuff. Bring it on.  Now is your chance to ask me the stuff you have always wanted to know.

In the meantime here is a an oldie that may bring a smile to your Saturday morning:

Have a great day.

Things that leave me confused

I had a command performance at the unemployment office yesterday. Nothing says State Bureaucracy like forcing people who are making the equivalent of minimum wage* drive 60 miles round trip to turn in papers I could easily have emailed. As further proof our government is a lumbering monolith, I had a problem getting my pay this week. The only way to correct the problem is to fax — yes I said fax — my issue to the state office. You cannot email the papers. You cannot talk to someone in person. I was told repeatedly by multiple employees not to mail my documents. No one opens the mail. I can only use 1990s technology and fax my paperwork. SMH. Oh and the issue will be resolved in approximately six weeks.  I cannot until the Bernie Bros let those same folks run healthcare.

Anyway, while I was at the office I noticed a guy with a tattoo on the back of his right hand. It was the shift pattern of a five speed manual transmission.

Not the actual tattoo

It looked similar to this. I can only conclude the dude could not remember the shift pattern when his hand covered the shift knob on his 2003 Civic?

I’ve seen some strange tattoos, but this one was new to me.

A manual transmission has been jokingly referred as a “millennial anti-theft device”. Perhaps the tattoo was just a permanent “lock code” or “password” for a former car thief.






* thank you taxpayers and former employers.

Round Two

Rumor has it the Democrats are going to open hearings and call Bolton to testify.

Get ready for Impeachmentpalooza II, especially if the Trumpster is again victorious come November.

I give 60% odds the Dems don’t even wait until the next term. Expect more articles by May.

What happens if Mitch pulls a Nasty Nancy and  just tears up the papers?

Whew

Boy did we dodge one when that POC Mittens Romney lost his run for President.

Should have known he was wobbly when he lost what could have been the most winnable election in decades.

How long until he can get voted out of office?

Diaper Diaries

If you think I’m going to go into a deep dive into politics and a SOTU you are going to be disappointed. The Democrats were needlessly classless. Seriously, refusing to clap for a Tuskegee Airman? Not happy about lower unemployment among minorities and women? Tearing up a copy of the speech? Enough on that.

We went from record highs in the sixties Monday to a prediction for snow this evening. I’m not complaining, it has been a most mild winter so far.

Without further detail, cross your fingers for luck. Should such pagan superstition be an anathema for you, a prayer on my behalf would be welcomed. Or both.

Have a great Wednesday.

Dear Iowa

You have plenty of corn. Give each caucus delegate a kernel. Have him or her place it in a jar that matches his candidate of choice. Add up the kernels in each jar. Write down the total.

Voila, caucus done.

Monday can just die for all I care

It is Monday. I enjoyed the Big Game last night.

Any further thoughts will involve crying, complaining, anger, frustration, whining, and abject depression.

I’m not going to subject you to that beyond telling anyone who thinks the Government can run things better should have to spend time at the whims of the bureaucracy.

Sunday Pictures

Grand Cayman April 2019

How about a break from winter today?

Happy Groundhog Day

Scenes from my youth

Snake Bob was tall and impossibly thin. He could be seen walking about town with a slow shuffle, his head swaying up and back, right and left atop his extraordinary long neck like a cobra following a Hindu snake charmer. Snake Bob carried a cloth bag over his shoulder. No one knew what was in it. Playground rumors alternatively speculated it was trash, bottles, the heads of the kids he had murdered. One thing was sure, every kid at the elementary school knew Snake Bob did unthinkable things to little  boys and we were stay away from him.

Some claimed Snake Bob lived under the Armstrong Street bridge. Others “knew” he lived out at the County Home. Chris said Snake Bob lived above the smoke shop on Clinton Street. Chris was always a know-it-all and he had been wrong so many times none of the gang gave his tale credence.

Snake Bob could be seen wandering about town. Today he was at the park. Tomorrow might find him  walking along the highway. I watched him slither his way into the library one summer day and too scared to follow him in, jumped back on my bike and pedaled home.

Those brave souls who had been close to Snake Bob told tales of strange muttering and hissing as he talked to himself as he travelled the streets of town. There was no Bogey Man in my hometown, Snake Bob was a real-life monster that fit the role.

He always wore a hat and dark colored sack coat, no matter the season.

Snake Bob disappeared from his walks about town some time in the early 1970s. Perhaps as I grew older he became less of a scary apparition and more just another old guy sitting in the park.

Bob Gunion passed away in 1972 at the County Home for the Indigent, where he had lived many years. Bob had only left his hometown once. In 1918 he went to France. There he saw such things that haunted him the remainder of his life. His few possessions included a picture of a young, not particularly pretty woman in turn of the century clothing, an old gold pocket watch, and the Medal of Honor.

I see the cold mist in the night

Good morning and happy February to you. A recording of a Yes concert is playing in the background as I hunt and peck out these letters on the trusty old iPad.

For the past month or two I have moved to newer model from the decrepit first generation tablet I was using. My son-in-law gave me a used iPad of more recent vintage. My family treats me far better than I deserve.

We have no plans for the day. Tomorrow evening we will watch some football. Did you know there was an NFL game tomorrow?

Yesterday I had a phone interview with a local company. The HR lady had checked my LinkedIn profile, she had my resume and application. Yet somehow she was surprised I had no experience selling her commodity. What a waste of time for both of us. We cut short a visit to the library with my granddaughter so I could spend four minutes with someone who didn’t bother doing the basics of preparation. I spent a little more than an hour preparing to discuss how I could help the company.

So it goes.

Have a great Saturday