The snowbird sings the song he always sings

 

Eight-year-old me used to irritate my brother to no end when I insisted on playing this on the juke box at the Pizza King. 

I will finally admit the song is fairly annoying. 

Already?

 Let it be known, on August 27, Costco has Christmas stuff out. 😫

Not happening

 Here we are early on a Thursday. Today is trash day. Worry not, my bin was rolled to the curb last night. It marks 186 weeks since I had to put my recycling bin next to it's standard garbage counterpart.  It is not because I'm a superior environmentalist, I have no compost bin. I do not eschew corregated boxes nor plastics in my house. 

Only about 21% of residential recyclables in the U.S. are actually captured and recycled, with plastic recycling rates dropping as low as 5%. I'm not going to wash my trash when it is likely going into the landfill (or shipped to China to go in their landfills) anyway. 

You can come and sort my trash if you feel strongly about it. 

Okay, it's been a couple of months. I cut down the corregated boxes (they are not cardboard, you heathens) when they build up and put them in that seldom-used bin with the yellow lid. 

But I'm not bothering with the other stuff. 

The world is a little less fun

 

Artsy Fartsy

 

Apples in a bowl on my kitchen counter. 

Now I need a nap

 What? Are ypu still here? Why?

We had a fun and adventurous weekend. The grandgirls came for the weekend. On Friday we ate some Mexican food and then played minuture golf. The youngest hit the only hole-in-one. The wife was the overall champion. 

I'm cool with that, I've no giant male ego. Heck, she wins about half the time we have played over the years. I would be way more disappointed if she lost to assuage my feelings and to make me feel like a big man.

Now she needs to get back home and do the dishes. And bring me a beer. 

Saturday I made spaghetti and we had movie night. In all, we had a great time. 

I'm glad the girls feel so comfortable and happy here. It is certainly not home, but the next best thing. 

Big Orange Drink

 

I had a 45 record of this as a kid. It cracked me up. 

It’s raining again

 Jeez. It’s raining. There are flood warnings. 

Rinse and repeat, I guess. At least I got the lawn cut this evening before it started raining.

Wet and repeat

 All of tbe recent rainy weather has left my day lillies confused. They are blooming like it is May. 

River Runnin' Dry

 The floods of last weekend are creating havoc in u expected ways. Down on tbe Hamilton County-Marion County line a little bridge over a little creek collapsed under the flow of water. 

Flood waters filled the little stream and raced toward a nearby quarry, cutting a new deeper channel that is lower in elevation to the river. 

Meet gravity and physics. The little creek once flowed into the White River. Now the White River is trying to flow Into the gravel pit/quarry!

Expert say it is possible the entire flow of the river may dry up downstream as the river changes course temporarily.  

I'm not by nature a rubbernecker,  but I would pay to see that disaster.

Anyway there is lesson #3,796 that Mother Nature always wins. You assholes should never tried to give her that crappy margarine on her toast. 

Apple head arrow

 

Dude does not get the credit for his guitar playing chops as he should. Campbell should be named with the greats. 

Not my fault

 I always crack up when a baseball fielder makes an error and immediately stares a hateful look at his glove like the leather was responsible. 

Air Drums

I know you were beating an imaginary drum. Don’t lie to me.

The Ventures cover may be better than the original:

Monsoon

 

Rivers that usually are 3-5 foot deep this time of year are flooding at 20+ feet. Things are ugly and a lot of people have their lives ruined. 

General prayers are in order if you are so inclined.

Me? I’m fine, just a soggy yard. For once it is not about me.

Cryin' on the corner Waitin' in the rain

 

 Sure I’ve posted it in the past. I still dig it. And I really love dark curly hair. 

Hey, is that a young Tyrion Lannister in that video?

Thunder only happens

Lots of people in the Midwest got hammered by storms yesterday. 

We have had far worse storms and stronger winds and intense and occasionally scary weather. 

Yesterday it rained as hard as I can ever recall. It was tropical storm-like in volume. Gutters overflowed, tiny waves formed in the cup-de-sac. The sheer volume of water cascading down my steep-sloped roof gathered in the valley and launched into the air like a waterfall. 

We ended with one branch on the ground about 6foot long and three inches in diameter. I had it cut up and into the trash bin an about 20 minutes. 

From me to you

 

Someone call Don Draper

Does anyone else find the Brand Power commercials absolutely boring and uninspiring?

Some lady stands before a wall of products and recites boring ad copy. 

Zzzzzzzz.

That corporation paid for those TV spots. Did the ad agency pass off the account to an intern? Even my cold call emails are more interesting and they clearly suck. 

They chucked Mr. Clean for this?

Sonntagsmusik

 

Make Georgia Howl

I’ve been reading Shelby Foote’s history of the Civil War (namely Volume 3). I find him a very good historical storyteller, much the equal of the great Barbara Tuchman or David McCullough. 

Foote has been criticized for his lack of footnotes, but I find that decision makes the narrative far more readable and accessible to the average-non historian reader. I’m fine with it. 

At this point in life I want to enjoy history rather than study it. 

Just as I found Ken Burn’s documentary on the topic enjoyable years ago (it featured Foote as a historian), I am having no issue reading a couple score of pages over lunch every day. 

Road Trip!

 With the start of school.imminent, the eldest granddaughter and I embarked on a historical roadtrip. This is our second adventure*, but I'm not sure I can yet claim it an annual thing. She starts middle school next week and we all know about adolescents and their elders. At this point she disp!aye none of the attitudes that some teenagers adopt.

We slashed pur way across NW Ohio, visiting the Neil Armstrong museum in Wapakoneta first. The granddaughter has aspirations of being an astronomer and what better place to visit? I found the museum to be a bit worn and expensive for what was there , but the 30 minute movie about Apollo 11 was terrific. It sent goosebumps down my spine. 

There weren't many people there and I suspect more than five  decades since Armstrong planted his left foot on th he lunar surface has dimmed his place in history a bit. 

Next we headed a bit south and drove past Annie Oakley's grave near North Star then visited the Annie Oakley center and the Garst museum in Greenville. 

Granddaughter 1 has a strong interest in strong nd famous women and enjoyed the displays about the famous entertainer and sharpshooter.. We toured the whole place and we enjoyed the "old stuff" and I even discussed the Treaty of Greenville with her and it's implications for settling the Midwest. 

Yeah, she is smart as a whip and not only loves science, but digs history. 

We had a great time and a long day. She is my intellectual soulmate, in that she likes learning new stuff, only she is far brighter than I am and thankfully lacks the sarcastic streak that I fight to keep under control.

What?  You only see a fraction of what bounces around in my head. 

*Last year we went to the Air Force museum in Dayton. Go. It is awesome.

There's a man who leads a life of danger

 

My ring tone for family is the James Bond theme from Dr. No. I used to travel a lot, often internationally. Does it mean anything? Probably not. 

I will admit we need to listen to Johnny Rivers a little more. 

Better late than never

 

If all else fails, fall back on music.

Let’s see, they are paving the cul-de-sac this morning. The streets of the neighborhood are all scheduled in the coming days. The whole process is typical government work. The school at the end of my short street is scheduled to go back Wednesday. So let’s block off the streets for paving!

It’s not like the city had all summer or anything. 

In the end the patched up streets really need repaving so I suppose I am glad the work is being done. 

Devils roll the dice, angels roll their eyes

 

Now you can own it too!

 Starting today, my novel Hoosier Flats will be offered at a reduced price for a limited time in ebook version. If you have always wanted to read a novel about a boy coming of age during Prohibition, this is your chance.

Come on already

 How is it on this day and age that someone does not know how to operate an ATM?

I was behind some guy last night that took over nine minutes to do whatever he was doing. The third song was on the radio when he finally drove off.WTH?

I tapped my card, punched my pin. The machine spit out my cash and receipt. I was out of there like the ATM was a mechanical pit crew at Daytona.

The other guy, he was using the machine like a vertical Ouija Board.