House of Special Purpose

I watched all four or five episodes of the Netflix series The Last Czars yesterday. I give it mixed reviews. Were I to give it a rating I suppose three stars would suffice.  The acting was OK. I am bothered by the criticism in the IMDb reviews over the actor’s accents. My response is that the real personages spoke Russian, French, and more likely, German. What English accent the actors employ is not relevant.

I studied a bit about the days of the end of the Romanov Dynasty and the start of the Revolution back in college*. The senseless and brutal murder of the Royal family depicts the attitude of the Bolsheviks when it came to their ruthless acquisition of power. I was also interested to see the weird relationship with the Mad Monk Rasputin and the Royals explained.

More importantly, we see how an absolute Monarch failed to understand the changing world around him with disastrous consequences for the Twentieth Century.

* Black Night White Snow is a great history of the period. It is long and detailed, but reads like a novel while still presenting a fairly unbiased well-researched history. Sadly it is mostly only available used unless your local library has a copy.

My copy disappeared decades ago. I wouldn’t mind reading it again.

Sunday Pictures

December 2019

Winter sunrise from my backyard.

Fire all your guns at once

We dodged the weather bullet as freezing drizzle turned to a steady rain overnight. Rain continues to fall this morning in what appears to be a weather rerun from last weekend. So no snow so far for 2020.

I made a big pot of potato soup last night and served it up with BLT sandwiches. As usual, we ate way too much bacon. Leftover soup will provide our weekend lunches.

For once I know our plans for Saturday. We are babysitting this evening. I can live with that. I’ll pass the rest of the time with the same old routine: reading, watching old movies, napping. Yes life is boring around here.

Have a great Saturday. Here is a little Saturday cartoon to get your day started. Don’t just eat the marshmallows from your Lucky Charms while watching.

6600

This post marks a milestone. This is post 6,600 — albeit only 6503 published counting this one. Yes, I hear you asking aloud “ How bad must the unpublished work be if some of the other content made the grade?”. Yes.

Six thousand six hundred posts is a lot of words. No wonder my content is a bit suspect. You are as tired of my tales and opinion as my wife. Heck, one of the reasons I started blogging was for a place to vent, tell stories and opine to people who hadn’t heard it all a dozen times before. Now you are stuck getting a daily dose.

Sorry about that.

Learning to Fly

Deep within a forest a little turtle began to climb a tree. After hours of effort he reached the top, jumped into the air waving his front legs and crashed to the ground.

After recovering, he slowly climbed the tree again, jumped, and fell to the ground. The turtle tried again and again while a couple of birds sitting on a branch watched his sad efforts.

Finally, the female bird turned to her mate. “Dear,” she chirped, “I think it’s time to tell him he’s adopted.”

We had the Cold War all wrong

Was Nancy stoned at her press conference on impeachment yesterday? She was stumble mumbling about time and other nonsensical references. She topped off that less-than-erudite rambling with a celebratory signing, passing out souvenir pens to her cronies. I’m sure there were some high fives and stogies behind closed doors. Way to be classy, Democrats.

Boy o boy is the next Democrat President going to hate the new rules.

Unless that President is Bernie. His supporters say The Bern is going full Stalin, putting the Trumpers into Gulags and giving us all a dose of re-education. Don’t worry,  Bernie Bro assures us the Gulags weren’t that bad.

Mind you, this isn’t just tinfoil hat paranoia. This is Bernie’s own field reps calling for re-education camps.

Perhaps The Bern will be the one guy in history that can make Communism actually work. You gotta break a few eggs to make an omelet and if making communism works means imprisoning or killing a few hundred thousand capitalists, Christians, and conservatives, we’re all good.

Hey, maybe now that he is lead prosecutor in the Trump impeachment Schiff can trot out that Russia, Russia, Russia evidence he claims to have backing up the Steele Dossier.

I think now Cocaine Mitch should drag out the proceedings. Wait a week or two to start the Impeachment Trial in the Senate.  Push the trial right into the Iowa Caucuses and New Hampshire and Nevada Primaries. Put Bernie and the Cherokee Princess into choosing between their Senatorial duties or their political ambitions.

hunpity hump day

My wife's family tree must be a cactus because everybody on it is a prick.

Oh, quit. You’ll repeat it within 24 hours.

Four O’Clock and All is Well

Early. Check. Not a new story around here. Enough about that.

In Britain, the Royal family...nope. Don’t care.

I hope my coffee doesn’t poison me this morning. Apparently there was a pump failure up on the mighty White River and those of us in the North ‘burbs are under a “ boil your water before consuming “ order.  I didn’t boil my coffee water this morning because I forgot and two, I hope the heat of the Keurig kills whatever evil microbes in the water that are trying their utmost to get into my gut and breed. The thought of drinking water direct from the nasty White River gives me the willies. While not as polluted as the burning Cayuga Cuyahoga of Cleveland fame, the White River has plenty of issues.

Say, you want to come over for tea this afternoon?

You keep lyin’ When you oughta be truthin’

Monday.

Reporting in.

I hope you had a great weekend. I did, cleaning carpets. Woot and Wahoo. They needed cleaning, especially since the baby is rolling around. I sucked up about a pound of nasty dog hair from when the Boy’s dog was here.

I dreamed I was sick last night. Who imagines they got the flu? In my dream I had a cough, runny nose, fever, sore throat, all of the usual unpleasantness. Thankfully I am perfectly healthy this morning.

Have a good Monday.

I choose the chick in the green sweater.

Sunday Pictures

Rainbow - Shelby County, IN December 20, 2012

I took this picture at 60 MPH from my car window. If memory serves, I was heading back from buying Christmas presents in the Big City.

What was unusual is that you don’t usually see rainbows at 2:20 in the afternoon. Or in December.

This was taken with an iPhone a few miles from my old house. This is looking east. The mountains would be behind me.

And a thousand miles away.

The land does not tilt, it is flat as can be. Blame the picture taker.

I think photographer is the right term, I just hesitate to attach any label to my efforts that infers competence.

A little bit of it all

Thunder rumbles and lightning flashes in the January sky. Heavy rain is overwhelming the gutters and adding to the flooding low spots in the yard. It is not your typical winter weather with temps expected near 60 today. So it goes. Things will even out and sub-zero air will balance nature before spring arrives.

It has been determined “we” will clean carpets this weekend, providing I can borrow my SIL’s carpet cleaner.

It occurs to me I make my wife out to be a demanding harridan on occasion in these pages. It is in fact just the opposite. She is sweet and kind.

She insists I tell you that. “Demands” might be a better word.

Seriously, she doesn’t even know I have a blog.

I’ve been reading a historical novel about the Franklin/Nashville Campaign. It is written in the Jeff and Michael Shaara way, history blended into a novel with the character’s thoughts etc. described. It is not bad for a free book. I guess it has not made a great impression. I cannot remember the title. I am not thrilled with the depiction of General George Thomas so far. But otherwise I am entertained. Isn’t that the whole point?

The scenes of the Battle of Franklin ring as fairly accurate, perhaps giving the Southern effort a little more success and glory than justified. But I have to take my own historical bias into account. Those of you who attach a Faulkner-like romance to Pickett’s Charge should look to Hood’s utter wasting of the Western Confederate Army in a charge across two miles of open ground against an entrenched Union Army.

At Franklin six Confederate Generals were killed, seven were wounded, and one captured and 55 Regimental Commanders were casualties. After the subsequent attacks at Nashville, Hood would squander half of his army.

As with much of the war the campaigns in the East grabbed headlines while the west slogged away in desperate bloody battles bungled more times than not by utter incompetence by Confederate leadership.

Edit: Die Like Men by Tim Kent

A Legacy

I’m told former Veep Dan Quayle no longer resides in the Hoosier State. His legacy lives on, however. Here we see signage written by a graduate of the Dan Quayle Scool of Speling:

Embiggin if you need to

Spotted last weekend at a BBQ joint.

I mock, but my spelling is atrocious. Thank goodness for spell check.

I shall endeavor to persevere

The full moon is shining a soft white through the bare branches of the maple tree in the front yard. I find myself staring out the window contemplating the moon and life in general.

I deleted three paragraphs of “poor me”. You are welcome.

I guess I wasn’t home when the Publisher Clearinghouse crew came by to give me that big check in the first of my lifetime weekly winnings.

Maybe I will just live in my HGTV Dream home I’m about to win when the mortgage company comes for my current house.

I think my chances of winning the lottery are pretty good. Well, they would be if I bought a ticket. I guess I could take my unemployment debit card down to the casino next week and double my investment. Just one pull on the one armed bandit and I could be set for the foreseeable future. My strategy is to take those winnings, double down and take a hit on that hard 15 in blackjack. The dealer will be speechless. Ka-ching. Do I have to report gambling winnings on my unemployment voucher?

If I start writing now do you think I can crank out the next great American novel and generate Harry Potter-like sales in say, the next sixty days? That’s realistic, right?

In a few minutes the wife will come downstairs and wish me a good morning. My granddaughters will come in the front door and I will know I’m rich beyond measure. I am truly blessed. I won life’s lottery. I just need to remember it.

A wake would be more effective

More people died at Iranian General Salmanders funeral than in the Iranian missile attack on American bases last night.

why you pay the subscription price

A read aloud joke:

What type of fruit has to get married with family and friends present.

A cantaloupe

Hot Buns

I see it all of the time, and I’m going to be frank. Hair tied into a bun is the opposite of sexy. It is unattractive, especially as a topknot. Maybe a bun on the back of the head, librarian style, might pass muster, but probably not.

Man buns are even worse. Any dude who sports a man bun deserves a quick kick in the gonads courtesy of an NFL placekicker.

You can argue in the comments, but you would be wrong.

Dear Colin

So, Mr. Kaepernick, you see the killing of a terrorist who has killed hundreds, if not thousands, of people of color as just another example of America’s history of crimes against people of pigment and Imperialism.

I see your rant as further example that you are economically illiterate and historically ignorant.

If America is such a horrible place, how about  you pack your Nike gear and move somewhere you think is better.

What is worse, 103,000 people liked this ignorant tweet. It is a sad state of affairs when the American Left will root for a murdering terrorist over their own country.

There is nothing new about American terrorist attacks against Black and Brown people for the expansion of American imperialism.

— Colin Kaepernick (@Kaepernick7) January 4, 2020

Sunday Photos

I’m thinking of trying out a new feature. I will call it Sunday Photos. It will feature some of my favorite pictures from my travels. I am not good at taking pics of people, but some of my nature shots aren’t bad, I think. Anyway, I will try things out for this week at least.  I may have posted some of these shots before. I don’t know.

Anyway let me know in the comments what you think of this idea.

Columbia River Gorge from Crown Point

I took this with an old second generation iPhone back in May 2010. The lens had maybe 2 mega pixels.  The fuzziness is what I like about the picture. I think it gives a painting-like aspect. This is looking east up the Columbia River.

I used to go to Portland four to six times a year on business and I tried to drive up into the Gorge at every opportunity.  It is one of my favorite spots I have ever visited.

I hate “Light My Fire”

Overcast and damp would best describe the outside conditions this morning. It looks like it could start raining or snowing at any time. Most likely rain. Inside it is a comfortable 68 F. with nary a chance of precipitation. I hope not anyway.

If the past 34 years of blog posts have demonstrated anything it is the futility of my guessing our weekend plans. The cruise director will tell me when to be ready and where to go at the appropriate time. Therefore I shall not speculate this morning.

As I mentioned yesterday, the usual suspects are hand-wringing over the death of a terrorist. Oh Noes,  I suspect Cindy Sheehan and the Code Pink Nasties will be out waving their sad wrinkly flabby breasties in protest beginning about Tuesday. They took the Obama years off so are well-rested for the big election year assault on the Trumpster.

Let’s be honest. Iran has had an ass kicking coming for 40 years.

Sorry, things are heading a little too serious for a great Saturday morning. How about a little humor to wrap things up on a light note?

Have a great Saturday

Death from the sky

I sympathize with batteries.

I’m never included in anything either.

I’ll be here all week. Please tip the waitstaff.

The Trumpster just offed some terrorists. The usual suspects are all in a lather. Earlier in the week they were complaining that we are doing nothing about the Iranian-backed terrorists attacking our embassy. Now the same Democrats people are hand-wringing that we did something.

How about we ask this question — What was a general of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard doing meeting with known Hezbollah terrorists in Iraq anyway? I am skeptical he was there to exchange hangover cures in a post New Years celebration recipe swap.

By the way, if you doubt this was a two-pronged message you are not too politically astute. I bet the live feed was patched straight to the little Rocket Man in Korea as a not too subtle warning.

Everyone is worried the Mideast will now erupt into terrorism and violence. Those pundits ignore the last 10 centuries. Maybe we can assuage the Mad Mullahs with a cool billion or two in cash and blame the whole thing on a YouTube video.

A Thursday Post for those with Short Attention Spans

“Liar” may not be an apt description, but my pants are warm enough to be smoking. Yes, I led you somewhat astray in my post yesterday. The Christmas decorations are still up, inside and out. The Boss decreed that they shall stay up until the weekend. I argued “weather” and got the look. So there you have it, a case of accidental prevarication.

I threw a chuck roast into the crockpot yesterday. Mashed spuds and corn rounded out the meal. No black eyed peas, nor cabbage for our New Years’ fare.

Today has a distinctive Monday feel. I guess it is because the girls are back today.

Where do belly buttons go to school? The Navel Academy. Baboomp. I got a new Dad Jokes book for Christmas. You are welcome.

Have a great day.

what is old is now new

Take that 2019 — 302 posts. You thought I would not make it. Sure, it took a bunch of Christmas song videos to make it over the top, but I never claimed to present quality content any way.

Happy New Year to you, readers. It is gonna be a great year.

Unless it is not.

We celebrated the New Year in the same old way. I kissed my wife at the stroke of midnight. Earlier we went to dinner with some friends and then drove down south to their house to play cards. They live in my old neighborhood. Early readers of the old blog might remember when I lived next to a lake / retention pond.

Today the outside Christmas decorations come down. That procedure is quicker than putting them up. I hate to take them down, everything is so blah and gloomy without the lights and wreaths. So it goes.  I was going to wait until the weekend, but rain is slated to move in Saturday. I guess if I feel the need to see some Christmas lights I can just drive a couple of blocks. Those guys leave their lights on until April or whenever they burn out.

Thanks for hanging with me through 2019. I look forward to sharing this bit of nonsense in the coming year.

Unless I don’t.

That’s how life works.

Have a great day.

Happy New Year

Out with the old

There is a strong breeze blowing this morning, perhaps Ma Nature’s way of sending off the old year. Since this is the last day of the 2019 calendar and of the decade, I think a little review is in order.

Nope.

You can get all of the review you need by clicking into the archives.

I will venture that 2019 started out well, I would assign a letter grade of “A”. The second half earned an “F”. That averages to a “C” I suppose. It seems worse than that. 2020 is starting as an “F”, so things can only get better. Always optimistic me is sure of it.

I said I’m optimistic. Don’t you snigger at me.

No, SJWers of the world, that isn’t a racist word. Look it up.

Have a Happy and Safe New Year.

If you drink, don’t drive.

See you next year.

I don’t think it is dandruff

It appears the Feds have passed legislation upping the age to purchase tobacco products to 21. I guess like booze, tobacco is so bad it’s use cannot be trusted to immature decision makers. I can think of no reason drinking and smoking are not the rights of a legal adult at 18.

At 18 you can choose a mate. Buy a car. Decide to join the military. Get a tattoo or piercing. Yet according to the Nanny state you cannot buy a bag of chew or a Swisher Sweet or a box of Camels. The government prevents 18 year-olds from purchasing a six pack of Natty Light, a pint of Fireball, or a carton of Marlboros, but encourages that same youth to join up and possibly lose life or limb in a shithole like Afghanistan for no reason whatsoever.

What I really cannot fathom is how the same people who argue that a person under 21 cannot be trusted to make a decision regarding a vice, are all in favor of lowering the voting age to 16.

It is massively head-scratching.

queue the boredom

It is warm and rainy this morning as I hopscotch through the interwebz. Today marks the end of the local professional football team’s season. After a promising start they have stumbled to the finishing line out of contention for post season play. Now I face a cold winter of boredom. I don’t care for hockey, can’t stand basketball and wouldn’t suffer through a soccer match on a dare. I guess you will find me with my nose stuck in a book, either real or electric until baseball returns in the spring.

Oh,Tradition

It is the breakfast of champions; leftover turkey and an orange, washed down with Walmart brand coffee. I can have that for breakfast because I’m an adult and I can do what I want. Both the turkey and the orange are Christmas leftovers.

I always got an orange in my Christmas sock when I was a kid. It was a tradition that continued as my kids were born. I never really thought about it until a few years ago when my son in law asked “What’s up with the oranges every year? “ as he unloaded his Christmas stocking Santa left here at the homestead. My wife says it wasn’t part of her family tradition either. It is my thing she says. Isn’t that what is cool about tradition? Too bad I don’t have a story to reinforce the annual orange in the stocking thing. It just is.

Connor Prairie is a local living history museum. This year they started a giant Christmas extravaganza. My granddaughter went there with her parents. After they attended the event, my SIL was exited. He said he learned that oranges were a popular Christmas treat in the colonial years. The fruit ripened in the late fall and was generally available in the North around Christmas time. There you have it, the source of the orange-in-the-Christmas-stocking thing.

Country Living magazine did a piece on oranges in the stocking tradition a few years ago. I suspect this is more in line with my family’s practice. My Dad was a child of the depression.

Here is another piece on oranges in the Christmas stockings. I guess I’m not so weird after all!

A Potpourri of Words

I’m late to the old blog this morning. I was up late. After a dinner of leftovers, we settled in to binge watch the latest season of “This is Us”. We got through seven episodes before I called it quits, choked down my nighttime meds, and trudged off to bed.

What? Who cares, the wife is enjoys it. She suffers through baseball most summer nights for me. Besides it is actually a pretty good show.

I read through yet another article calling out the Hallmark Christmas Movie Marathon as Fascist, Nazi-like because the Jewish faith is under-represented and of course no LGBQRSTUV. Hey, Solon, it is the Christmas  movie marathon, not Kwanza, not Hanukkah, not Pride Week in Key West Marathon. Of course the movies are gonna be about Christmas. The only fascists and authoritarian position is yours by insisting you are the arbiter of content and inclusiveness. Don’t like the content, don’t watch. I do that with about 183 of my 200 channels.

Yesterday was spring-like. Very warm and breezy. Climateers will claim a December day in the low sixties is proof of Global Warming Climate Change We Are All Gonna Die Greta is Right. I will point out the temperatures were warm, but not a record. That distinction for December 26 dates to 1875. Say, isn’t that long before the widespread use of fossil fuels and cars and plastic bags at groceries and drinking straws? Maybe it is just weather after all.

I have ranted enough today. Have a great Friday.

the big recap episode

Christmas came and went here at the old homestead. I cooked up the traditional fare around here: turkey, noodles, rolls,  mac and cheese, nasty* sweet potatoes with brown sugar and marshmallows. My daughter brought over mashed spuds and corn casserole. It was a veritable carbopalloza. We have plenty of leftovers to keep us in turkey sandwiches for a few days.

There were lots of presents for the grandgirls, and a little something for the kids. It was a gathering of family and that is never a bad thing.

On Christmas Eve we travelled to the land of my birth to celebrate with my dad and my brother and his wife in the afternoon and then went to my wife’s niece’s house for a pitch-in dinner. The wife has a big extended family and when all of them get together it is fun and loud and crazy. I always enjoy going there. The evening is topped off with a gift exchange among the kids and a white elephant gift exchange among the adults. I originally scored a scented candle and woman’s knit stocking cap. That was stolen and exchanged for a car wash set. After things wrapped up the wife made a side trade with one of her nieces to get a battery powered work light for the car chamois. The wife got a role of toilet paper printed with “here’s your crappy gift”. Not surprisingly, no one wanted to steal that one.

I hope you had a great Christmas and Hanukkah. May your Kwanza be fruitful or happy or gratifying. If you don’t celebrate those holidays I hope you have a good Thursday.



*one of the few foods in the world I refuse to eat, but the wife loves them, so I make them for her. Frankly, even the smell of sweet potatoes makes me want to gag.

Merry Christmas you filthy animal

There we were Monday, scrambling to get the right gifts with our meager funds. We found ourselves driving down Keystone Ave, heading to the Butler campus to grab a gift from the bookstore.  Traffic was bumper to bumper and all three lanes southbound were filled with commuters, shoppers, errand-runners and ne’er-do-wells. We were stopped on the edge of South Broadripple, not far from the boy’s apartment (we weren’t visiting, he was at work).

We were minding our business when a car slammed right into the back of our little Escape. Hard. Even the wife cursed. I looked in the rear view and saw a silver four door, likely a GM product, maybe a Korean job. I could see the front quarter panel was hanging loose. The driver was pointing out the window to a parking lot just beside me. I turned in to exchange info, just to see him gas it and flee down the street as fast as he could. I was boxed in by the heavy traffic and the little bastard was long gone.

I climbed out and checked the wreckage. Some whiteish scrapes of paint where his front end went under my bumper appears to be the only damage. Lights, cameras and the rest appear to be in good shape. There is no apparent buckling anywhere. I suspect the trailer hitch mount gave a modicum of protection. I have uninsured motorist coverage but it is subject to a deductible, which I certainly don’t have. I will take the car into a body shop today for an estimate before I file a claim, just to see if there is any internal damage.

So if you see a jerkoff driving around the greater Broadripple area with a loose bumper sporting a square hole dead center from my trailer hitch mount get his license plate will ya?

Every time I think life cannot suck any more Fate tosses another curveball my way.

Merry Christmas

via GIPHY

Merry Christmas everyone.

The Reason for the Season

One more

Have yourself

Almost

I have always dug this classic claymation

Musical interlude

Setting the mood

The days are getting longer.

We cleaned house yesterday since some friends were coming over. A good evening was had by all. Hopefully things will remain in good order until Wednesday and the Holiday festivities. I just need to remember to trudge upstairs to the bathroom instead of using the half bath in the downstairs hall.

We are hosting Christmas dinner. The turkey is purchased, the rest of the carbs and veggies I will get Monday. The bird is sitting in the garage fridge thawing slowly. I will probably have to give it the water treatment starting Monday night or early Tuesday to ensure it is ready to bake early Wednesday morning. I toyed with the idea of smoking it, but I think I will stick to a traditional oven roast.

The wife is off later this morning to our daughter’s to start of frenzy of holiday baking. Cookies, candy, fudge, and other treats are on the agenda. I will contribute by staying home and watching football, napping, and scratching my crotch whenever the need arises. In other words, I will spend the day like a typical Sunday.

Happy Hanukkah to those of you of the faith.

When my oldest son was home last week my granddaughter was asking him about his Christmas decorations back in Colorado. He allowed he had none, not even a tree. “Oh”, she said, “Do you celebrate ‘Hanamakanah instead?”. We all cracked up. Five year olds.

Remember, be nice, no matter how much the a-holes get you down this Holiday Season.

Have a great Sunday readers.

Winter solstice soliloquy.

With a heavy heart we dropped the oldest boy at the airport last night. I wish he could stay for Christmas, but I am happy he was able to come “home” at all. It must be strange for him to visit us in a house and city he never lived, even though it is home to us.

Southerly winds arrive today and portend to melt away the snow on the ground. By tomorrow the snowman in the front yard will be but a wet spot on the ground and a pile of once noses, arms, scarf,  mittens, hat. The chances for a white Christmas are zero according to the weather lady on the local news.

After we dropped off the boy at the airport we motored down to the big shopping mall on the south side of the big city. I don’t know why. I drive where I am told. Apparently there was something at that mall unavailable at any of the three shopping malls within 15 minutes of the homestead. The wife had a couple of bags in her hand when she found me waiting patiently watching the hustle and bustle of the Holiday Season.

We may eat pancakes or beans next week for every meal but everyone will get a little something under the tree. Do you have any gift ideas for the long-suffering wife? Granted, she has me, so every day is like Christmas for her, but a little cherry on top of the sundae that is her life would be nice. I have no ideas at all.

Enjoy your Saturday, it is going to be a short one.

Head scratching and light saber waving

Let me get this straight. Trump was such a bad boy, punishment could not wait for the process to play out:witnesses compelled to testify, all of the evidence gathered. The Fate of The Nation demanded immediate impeachment.

Now the partisan Dems don’t want a trial in the Senate because they cannot call the witnesses there wasn’t time for. And they are afraid the process will be tainted by partisan politics. It will. How many Democrat Presidential contenders will gain a political advantage if their sure opponent is disqualified?

I confess I am not smart enough to see the end game here.

Impeachment is like the movie Cats. Our betters think it is a good thing. The rest of us don’t give a damn. Both will be a flop.

Speaking of movies, I watched the new Star Wars flick last night. I rate it as satisfactory. Not great, better than the previous two installments of the triple trilogy. The entire Skywalker saga of the last forty plus years is completed with almost every loose end neatly tied into a bow, even though the effort was achieved through massive plot holes and stretches of the already thin “Force” ideology. But I was entertained. Isn’t that the real point of a movie?

Toldja

I said it was going to be a good day. I had no idea. We went to pick up a gift the wife had ordered from WalMart. When we pulled in the drive back home a car followed us in. It was my youngest son. Surprise of surprises, he had been to the airport to pick up my oldest son who flew in from Denver to surprise me for Christmas. He is taking me to see Star Wars tomorrow. I nearly cried.

The oldest boy and I have always shared a love for the space franchise and have seen almost every movie together. He bought the tickets when they went on sale back in early November and has planned this trip since then.

He can only stay until Friday, but I will take it.

Apparently everyone in the family knew but me. I am speechless with joy. The boy said he knows how tough things have been and wanted to do something nice for me.

I think there is something in both eyes, they keep watering.

omitting sarcastic remarks for once

I have a busy day scheduled. I have a couple of interviews on tap, both are repeat performances, so that is a good thing. I know one will represent either a 35% pay cut or a 300% raise, depending on where you stand and look at things. In the short term I can only look at it as a raise. Thursday brings another opportunity to sell myself to a company and position that better fits my skill set and interests. Of course at this date it is clear nothing will happen until January.

100 days until Opening Day! ⚾️

It is gonna be a good day. I hope it is for you too.

Filler

We got a few more inches of snow yesterday evening and night leaving us with about seven inches on the ground. My neighbor cleaned my drive for me. I have good neighbors.

I thought we could use my wealth of hotel points to get some Christmas gifts. After a week of back and forth Amazon told me they have a system issue with Hilton and no one can shop with points right now. Foiled by fate once again.

Here is the snowman constructed by my wife and granddaughter yesterday:

Of course it is my duty to confess to white privilege since the snowman has gloves and a scarf and hat and I’m really sorry he is white.

Monday

I was wrong about the weather. A smidge over four inches of snow fell last night leaving the outside looking a winter wonderland. Another three inches is expected starting this afternoon.

Indeed.

Today is my oldest granddaughter’s birthday. She is five. She makes me smile every day.

She is going to explode if she doesn’t get to go play in the snow soon.

Conspiring by the fire

Life continues apace with the drama and heartache we have all come to expect.

The weather nerds have offered up a winter storm watch and I suspect the SnowTeamScareTeam is prepared to go into all-out coverage in the next 24 hours. When did a couple inches of snow become a winter storm? I am ready to see intrepid looking reporters bundled into station-branded parkas standing next to just barely damp roads watching for the first flakes to fall in weather that may hover around freezing.

The local football team plays on Monday, so no games for me today. Decorating is done and there are no funds for Christmas gift shopping. I guess I’ll sit and read, nap, and watch movies today. A real lazy Sunday. Perhaps I will muster the gumption to take a walk.

I see our favorite angry girl Greta has gone full on liberal and threatened to line up those who oppose her against a wall. I’m not surprised. The left has used murder to further their ambitions since before the French Revolution. Should she carry out her idealistic urges, she will just be another in a long line of progressives like Robespierre, Lenin, Stalin, Mao, Polpot, Castro,  and the rest. Communism: so popular they had to build a wall to keep the capitalists out. It must be exhausting to be so angry all of the time. How do you lefties do it?

And there you have it, another soporific entry into the archives. Enjoy your a Sunday.

Partee! 🎂

Saturday. Party day. My oldest granddaughter is celebrating her 5th birthday today (her actual birthday is Monday). My daughter will have a house full of kids; neighbors, school chums, and friends along with their parents. It will be loud and crazy. Fifteen or twenty 4,5, and 6 year-olds will be like a kid tsunami.

Dear Greta

I hear you are so sad Trump criticized you in a tweet. Everyone is rushing to your support. "You are just a child" they exclaim. You feel bullied.

I tell you what, don't presume to lecture adults and they won't treat you in kind. Don't pretend to enter into a grown-up arena and no one will bully you.

If you want to be a big fish, then there are consequences.

When you presume to bully the world, do not be surprised when someone pushes back.

Or you can just shut up, go home and cry into an eco-friendly blankie.

The moon shines bright

A bright full moon shines white through the bare branches of the maple tree in the front yard. It is cold. Not January cold, but chilly nonetheless. The grandgirls will arrive shortly. I'm groggy this morning because I stayed up late reading last night. Somehow I still managed to wake up before the wife's alarm chirps her awake.

The moon and the neighbor's Christmas lights inspire me to throw up a holiday tune; one of my favorites. I hope you don't mind.

Impeachment reconsidered

After listening to the Democrat news conference this morning I have decided to re-examine my position on the matter of impeachment.

Clearly, the Republican Party needs to reconsider their opposition and failure to act in the face of what has been described as malfeasance and high crimes and misdemeanors.

When the President works with a foreign nation to aid in his re-election bid, that is impeachable..

When a President claims Executive Privilege and refuses to release documents or allow administration officials to testify before Congress, that is obstruction of justice and an impeachable offense.

Yes, I am talking about Congress' failure to impeach Obama for promising "more flexibility in negotiations" with Russia if they do nothing to thwart his re-election bid (also known as quid pro quo). And the claims of executive privilege and refusal to hand over documents in the Fast and Furious and IRS targeting scandals.

Clearly the GOP should have used their power to impeach President Obama based on the logic and reasoning behind the Articles leveled at President Trump.

Of course that is ridiculous. Presidents do politics. No sane person tries to abet his own political lynching, and no matter how hard they spin, Nancy and company have nothing except a serious case of butthurt they lost to a crass political outsider. Are we really to take seriously people like Maxipad Waters who insisted she would get Trump impeached before he was even sworn in? sure, that is an unbiased committee chair.

Be careful, at some point the situation is going to be reversed and boy are the Democrats gonna hate, hate, hate the new standards.

And the beat goes on

Happy Tuesday blog friends. Yesterday's seasonable temps and wet weather has given way to a cold front. I don't care, it is comfortably warm here in my blog room/office/spare bedroom recliner.

The fun continues here at the old homestead as my SIL just learned he is jobless in a massive bankruptcy of one of the nation's largest truck carriers. You might have read about it. Too bad the actions of a couple of individuals have cost more than 3,000 workers their jobs. The news focuses on the drivers, but 500 administrative people are on the street with no severance, no vacation pay, nothing. Merry Christmas, indeed.

If you could keep him and my daughter's family in your prayers, I would appreciate it. .

Its beginning to look...

You asked.  You have no idea what a pain it is to post pictures for me.

It shows how much I love you.

Infamy, a bonus post

To go with yesterday's post, here is a picture of me and the wife taken in 2014 at Pearl Harbor.

Bleach will clean out your eyes.

Missed it -- You should be reading every day

I am about 15 pounds lighter now.

We were there to celebrate our 30th anniversary.

What is and what never should be

A soft blue sky hints at a promising day. Outside temps hover just at freezing while inside it is comfortably warm. Music plays softly as I hunt and peck these letters to form words. Coffee steams in a Yeti cup next to my recliner. I am ready to offer up insight, information, humor, or pithy commentary on this Sunday morning.

...

Yeah, I got nuthin'.

,,,

Nope. Still nothing.

...

I guess you will have to choose your own adventure today.

I have not earned the pay and benefits you so generously contribute to this site today. Sorry 'bout that. Let me know and I will refund your subscription fee. I'm benevolent like that. It is just good business.

Have a great Sunday.

Infamy

King Trump I

The Dems are gonna impeach come Hell or High Water. Even if they have to create the "there". The theory at play is that where there is smoke there is fire, and there will be smoke even if Nancy and Schiff have to chuck smoke bombs into the room.

Does anyone take the proceedings seriously when they bring in partisan hacks to say sure he's guilty who have not seen the proof beyond the same hearsay evidence we all were subjected to previously? The same so-called "Constitutional Scholars" who would admit that hearsay evidence is worthless as any law student learned in first year classes? Hell, I know that and was only pre-law in college and learned most of my legal knowledge from Judge Judy.

I bet the GOPers could call up a round half dozen "experts" in about 30 minutes to argue the actions did not rise to the level of impeachment. What a joke.

Politicians really do think we are all stupid.

Sheesh, Nancy couldn't muster the courage to vote against Clinton, who admitted he lied under oath, a real crime called perjury*. Yet somehow we are to believe Trump is the greatest threat Evah. King George reincarnate, according to Nancy.

As I read somewhere, Trump did commit obstruction. He obstructed Hillary from moving into the White House.


*depending on your definition of "is".

Nostalgically Speaking

See how I am? I tell you I am going to work hard and post more. Then nothing, nada, zip, crickets chirping. I've started December with zero posts. Three hundred posts for the year is starting to seem a difficult target.

It is still cold for this time of year, but not frigid January-like weather. I wouldn't mind spending a few days at the beach. Technically I could. I still have more than a half million hotel points. Yes, you read that right. And that is just with one chain. I probably have anywhere from three to five nights at two other chains. I say I could technically go on vacation. The gas and food money is a different matter. Besides, the wife has to babysit for the grandgirls. And there is no way the wife would go anywhere at Christmastime.

It is strange to think that one year ago I was in Mexico visiting the plant after starting a new job. It is remarkable how things change so fast.

I love being home with my wife and family, but a little bit of me really misses life on the road. I spent 25 years traveling for work. Sure, sometimes the hours of highway miles and monotonous meals and anonymous hotel rooms became tiring. The week-long trips especially to China or Mexico or Europe were a burden. The routine visits to places like Naperville, Rockford, or Charlotte every month became boring. But driving to new places and seeing the odd tourist sight and roadside attraction has left me with memories to last a lifetime.

The Buddy Holly crash site, the Spam Museum, Hoover homestead? Been there. Duesenburg Cord Museum: Check. Battlefields large and small throughout the land -- of course. Waterfalls, roadside markers, the Field of Dreams, heck yes. I have seen spectacular sunsets, mountain flowers, lakes, rivers, fields, and hills. I have spent more hours driving the mind-numbing monotony that defines I-70 than I can count. I have spent thousands of hours squirming in discomfort on the thinly padded seats of crowded airports and dined alone in restaurants in hundreds of cities and towns.

I have probably flown close to one thousand flights, driven well over a million miles, and spent more than 3,000 nights on a hotel mattress. For all of the discomfort, aggravation, and pure boredom that defines the life of a road warrior, I miss it far more than I could ever believe.

I blame the dog

We are dog sitting for the youngest son. I like the dog. He is a good boy, well behaved and fun. Around 3:30 or so This morning I woke to him running from the front door to the back, his nails clicking on the wood floor as he slid around the corner from the kitchen and around the stairs. Back and forth. Back and forth. I stumbled down he steps and let him out back. I guess he had to pee. He shot out the patio door like a little Corgi rocket. When he came back in he flew up the stairs to the office recliner and curled into a ball. 

Me, I headed back to bed. Unfortunately, worries and thoughts climbed under the blankets with me. I tossed and turned until it was clear sleep had left the building. So here I am, sitting on the couch, hunting and pecking at the old iPad keyboard. I sometimes blame the dog when I pass gas, and I am blaming him for my insomnia too. 

A matter of perspective

I have knocked out 266 posts as of the end of November. If I work at it I will end the year writing just over 300 entries. I make no promises as to quality, we are talking quantity. My lowest post total for any year since 2005 was 349. I won't get close to that this year, let alone the 544 entries I posted in 2006. It's not like I don't have time. I've been out of work since July.

Worse, my recent entries are just a little flat, lacking the depth of past year's efforts. I won't even address the quality of writing. While generally not ever erudite, recent efforts have been of even lower standard. Sorry about that.

Reading back trough the archives, I focused more heavily on politics in the old days. While I certainly do not ignore the foibles and policies of our elected officials recently, I tend to pay a lot less attention than I did in the past. This is mostly because I loathe the politicians of every stripe and party. Name one who isn't a self-serving egomaniac who values his own opinion far more than your freedom.

My kids have all left home, so their activities are no longer blog fodder. I don't think you really care about the mundane detritus of my daily life. "I had pizza for supper last night". Yawn (I did have pizza). Since I'm no longer on the road several days of the week traipsing the country, I don't even have travel stories to relate, expound, and expand.

In other words, I am terribly afraid the old blog has become as boring as my life. If you prefer it stated differently; my life sucks and so does the blog.

So it goes. Still, I am thankful you allow me to be part of your day.

Have a great Sunday.

Ornamentally Speaking

December is knocking on the door, bringing cold and blustery weather over the next few days. I threw some lights on the last two bushes outside, so the house looks festive with soft white lights in the winter night.

We decorated the big tree yesterday. It is a nice eight-footer we bought many years ago. The tree still looks nice, but the artificial needles are dropping off in increasing amounts when we put it up or down or mess with it. The tree is at least 15 years old. The wife paid serious cash for it when she bought it and it would cost probably close to a grand to replace it with like size and quality today. That will never happen. We will probably use the thing until it looks like Charlie Brown's tree, draping lights on the bare metal  branches.

I put more than 1,000 lights on the tree, all white, since that is what the boss wants. No blinking either. I get the depth of light on the lower branches by using icicle lights and laying them along each branch. Yes it takes hours to assemble the tree, but it is gorgeous in its lighted glory.

The wife and I started dating in December of '78. I was a mere boy of 16. That is truth, not hyperbole. The story has been told and rerun way too many times in these pages. You can find it over there in the archives without much effort. Anyway, starting with the next Christmas, the girl bought me an ornament and after that we started buying each other new ones every year. That is a tradition that has continued pretty much for the past forty years. If we didn't buy for each other, the kids at least got a new one each year.

Thus decorating the tree is an adventure in nostalgia as we pull the carefully wrapped ornaments from their original boxes and hunt for room on the increasingly crowded branches. Most are of the Hallmark variety, but several handmade ornaments also dangle among the white lights. 

There are ornaments marking the birth of kids and grandkids, one from our first year of marriage, a silver bell from my grandmother, angels each year for our grandson. There is the hand-painted ball the youngest made in grade school. There are Cubs and Colts ornaments. Teddy bears (the wife's favorite) and ornaments from popular culture: the Simpsons, Harry Potter, the Wizard of Oz, Charlie Brown, A Christmas Story, Star Wars and Scooby Doo. We once had a couple dozen Barbie and I Love Lucy ornaments, but my daughter took them to her house after she got married. 

The tree evokes nostalgia and the spirit of Christmases past. It is a lot of work, but decorating the big tree leaves me with a sense of family and tradition that appeals to my love of the past.

Let the season begin

Thanksgiving is but a rumble in our bellies and a vision in tne rear view mirror. The Christmas season is upon us. As is my wont, Holiday Inn is loaded into the DVD player and the season is underway.

Gracias, Merci, Thanks

I've plenty to be thankful for. God has been good to me, I just keep screwing it up.

I hope you have a great Thanksgiving, whatever your plans.

I have sausage gravy to make.

Four O'Clock and All is Well

I'm up early. Yawn. Me, because early. You yawn because same old same old. You've read it here before, probably hundreds of times.

I'm channel surfing until I doze and cat nap later this morning.

We got the outside decorations and lights mostly up yesterday. A few strings of lights were not working. Happens every year. We have a couple of bushes to finish. One inside tree is up and waiting on decorations. The other one I will get up today.

In other news -- nothing.

My cold lingers. I continue to hack up phlegm on a semi-regular basis.

See, I told you "yawn".

I hope you have a great Wednesday.

A short post for a short week

I'm sipping coffee while the radio plays softly in the background. Semi-nasty weather is slated to move in later today. Not as ugly as the storms forecasted north and west of here though.

I have a command performance at the unemployment office for a mandatory training session and meet-up with my councilor this afternoon. Yippee.

The media is agog over the President's involvement over Naval legal matters. Mostly because "Trump". Somehow I guess the part of the Constitution where the President is "Commander in Chief" must not be taught in journalism school. If one relied on the media hysterics you would believe Trump's pardon of a Navy Seal for taking a picture with a terrorist corpse was the worst thing EVER. I guess The Obama's pardon of a confessed traitor was way different. Hold on why I click on the sarcasm font: Taking a picture is clearly way worse for military moral and discipline than pardoning a traitor whose actions got Americans killed. I'm farting in your general direction Bergdahl.

We outta impeach the SOB for this Navy Seal travesty. And demand the CIC's tax returns because the Navy Seal clearly paid Trump off and that income would obviously be listed under "income other" .

And Russia.

I interrupt the normal nonsense

Today is my grandson's birthday.

He would have been two.

Cheeseburger in Paradise

We met some friends at a little wayside bar deep in the Indiana boondocks. The little place is next to the tracks in a dying farming town with hundreds, not thousands, of inhabitants. This little burg is not too far where my ancestors first settled when Indiana was a brand new state and wild and wooded two centuries ago.

This little bar serves up a great tenderloin and generally the fare is quality and cheap. The wife and our friends each ordered up a breaded tenderloin. I went off script and called for a cheeseburger. I was craving a thick, greasy beef patty with onion, tomato, and pickle.

Counting ours, three tables in the dining room side were occupied.  I knew things were off track when the wife was told they were out of onion rings. After ten minutes or so the laconic waitress moseyed out to explain they only had one tenderloin left. Our companions ordered alternatives and we settled in to wait.  And wait. And wait some more.

The people at the next table, who were waiting on food when we stepped in from the blustery misty evening went to the back to complain. Shortly thereafter the cook brought out one plate of food, explaining chicken takes a long time(!?). At this point we had been there almost an hour! That table got their second plate a few minutes later. The food was apparently wrong. When the guy complained, the cook got just a bit more than testy. The customer told her where to put the food and left.

I guess at that point she started cooking our food because we finally started getting plates, one at a time, about ten minutes later. My burger sucked. It was a chewy frozen hamburger. The wife and other couple thought their meal was a two on the ten scale too.  Oh well, $20 bucks for two meals including drinks isn't too bad and usually the food is great. I guess it was a bad night for the chef de cuisine.

We went over to our friends' and spent the balance of evening paying cards. In all it was a good Saturday, despite a less-than-great dining experience.

Why are titles so hard?

Here we find ourselves on a cold and frosty Saturday morning. I discovered I was completely out of coffee this morning. I shrugged into my winter coat and motored down to the WalMart grocery a mile or three down he highway to grab some house-brand K-cups. I like the ones in the yellow box. I actually bought them regularly before I was broke as an old Greek statue.

It appears we will eschew the traditional Thanksgiving feast here at the homestead this year, instead opting for a brunch at my daughters'. We will still head off to the wife's family in the evening. But I will not be making the traditional turkey and fixings this year. My wife tells me I am good with that.

The resident interior decorator says we might start decorating the place for Christmas this weekend. I may wait a couple of days to do the outside since it is forecasted to warm a bit starting Sunday.

Despite the cold I intend to walk the neighborhood a bit later this morning. I have been out of my regular exercise habit the past few months. Perhaps I will get lucky and be struck by a car. The way things are going he will probably be uninsured.

Is it just me or does the Live Aid Christmas song suck?

Have a great Saturday.

I think we have heard enough Mr. Chairman

So far we have spent, what, three days, and we have yet to find a witness with direct knowledge-- including the Ukrainians-- that Trump bribed or extorted anyone. We have plenty of people who have third or fourth hand knowledge.

This is real life, not middle school.

The whole impeachment show trial seems like it was taken from the script of Animal House.

We are cartwheeling downhill toward Banana Republic governance.

The next Democrat President is going to hate this new set of rules.

And the Republic crumbles just a little more.

You choose the adventure

We haven't done a collaborative story in a very long time. I will start the effort and you should continue the story in the comments. You should build on the comment before you. Try not to end things too fast. Go ahead, play along. It will be fun. 

The fog horns are sending out their plaintive bass moan over the bay as oil-slick waters slosh in slow ripples against the docks. Workers shuffle towards dim yellow lights, paper cups of coffee steaming in their calloused hands. Their voices are a low hum, almost as if the sound itself is buffeted by the fog. The ground is damp, reflecting the feeble glow of  streetlights down the dim alley.

The smell of fish and seaweed cloy to the mist. A tap of footsteps echoes from the wooden flanks of the warehouses as the form of a young lady emerges from the darkness. Her high heels are black with a thin strap at the ankle. A strip of red silk dress peeks beneath her gabardine raincoat.

"Whaddya doin' here at this hour Jenny?" a voice calls from just outside the pool of light.

"I came to kill him, Johnny", she says. She simultaneously looks at and through me as she pulls a snub-nosed revolver from her pocket...

Go ahead, add a sentence or a paragraph. Let's see how long we can build the story!

Obscured by clouds

The fog horns are sending out their plaintive bass moan over the bay as oil-slick waters slosh in slow ripples against the docks. Workers shuffle towards dim yellow lights, paper cups of coffee steaming in their calloused hands. Their voices are a low hum, almost as if the sound itself is buffeted by the fog. The ground is damp, reflecting the feeble glow of  streetlights down the dim alley.

That's how it would be if there was a bay, foghorns or longshoremen hereabouts. Instead, suburbanites climb into their cars and drive off through the fog to shuffle paper. Their coffee is most likely in a Yeti or Starbacks cup.

It is Tuesday here in the heartland.

I woke early, back in the recliner after a one night go in bed Sunday. I settled in to greet the grandgirls, only to discover they are coming late today. Nobody bothered to tell me. I should have known when the wife failed to come down at the normal time.

The fog isn't just outside, apparently.

Another day closer to the end of time

Happy Monday. It is a gloomy day here at the homestead, weather wise. A Michigan-like cloud cover has settled in.

In other news, I had a promising initial interview this morning with a widget company. The same type widgets I have been involved through manufacturing and sales for 30 years. Cross your fingers. I have an in-person Interview with a different company Wednesday. I hope something breaks soon.

Enough about that.

My cold lingers. I did sleep in bed, as opposed to the recliner, last night.

There you have it. A post.

I never promised quality.

What it is like to leap from a perfectly good airplane

Back to the mundane that normally dominates these pages.

I raked the leaves again yesterday. I got three big waist-high piles just in the front yard alone. Looking out the blog room window at the tree in the front yard, I see several more such piles are still hanging on the tree waiting to fall at the most inopportune moment. I am taunted by a maple tree. I won't even get into the evil Bradford Pears in the backyard that have not even started turning yet.

After I raked, the wife came out and helped me drag the Christmas stuff from the attic. I did not start stringing lights or building trees yet, but the stuff is down and available for the wife to do her decorating thing. Mind you, getting down the Christmas stuff is more effort than you imagine. The wife goes all out in her decorating. The entire house is transformed. There are three trees inside, another for the front porch. Every knick-knack is changed out for a snowman or Santa. The stairs are covered in garland. The chandeliers and mantle are covered in greenery. The joint looks like the set of a Hallmark movie.

I noticed the people down the street were stringing lights yesterday. They just turned them off and took them down in April.

No plans for today outside of football. Unless the Boss says to put up the big tree. Then I will salute and say "Yes Ma'am".

And do it after football is over.

Most important battles in US history

A post earlier this week got me thinking. I know-- steam, sparks, smoke, whirring. Anyway, it has been a long time since we did a Friday Five.

For those of you who haven't waded through the mud and nonsense that comprises this blog for the past decade and a half, the Friday Five was a list I proposed and then encouraged comments for contrary opinions. For example I might have opined on the five best western movies or five best bass players in rock and roll. The feature was not a resounding success, even when my readership was a couple of hundred every day (and often twice that). Just like wealth taxes, communism, universal health care, and Hillary for President, bad ideas sometimes just keep coming back into vogue.Thus, sans fanfare, we launch a Friday Five list today.

Your comments and rebuttal are encouraged.

Five most important battles in US history

1. Bunker/Breed's Hill
June 17, 1775. The first "real" battle of the Revolution. The victory left the British stunned and showed the other 12 colonies the rebellion had a chance. A loss here at Boston would have ended the war in the colonies.

2. Saratoga
September/October 1777. The two battles were resounding British defeats and demonstrated to the world that the Colonials could stand up in a set battle and defeat the British.  The victories at Saratoga were key to gaining Spanish and French support for the American war effort

3. Midway
June 4-7 1942. Stemmed Japanese advancement in the Pacific. Had the Japanese taken Midway, the US bases in Hawaii would have been endangered. Instead, at great cost, the US sunk 3 Japanese carriers and thwarted the landings. From this point forward, Japan was in defensive mode.

4. Vicksburg
May-July, 1863. The loss of Vicksburg gave Union control to the entire Mississippi River, cleaving the Confederacy in half.  Far more important strategically than the larger battle fought at the same time in Pennsylvania. This victory allowed the Western Army to pivot toward Eastern Tennessee and the Atlanta Campaigns.

5. Antietam 
September 17, 1862. Remains to date the single bloodiest day in American history. Antietam ended Lee's first attempt to bring the fighting North and relieve pressure in the Shenandoah Valley. The Union victory allowed Lincoln the opportunity to issue his Emancipation Proclaimation, in essence making the war about slavery instead of preserving the Union or State's Rights. This political move kept the European powers from providing direct aid to the Confederacy.

A different outcome in any of these battles would have directly changed US history and our nation today.

Rebuttal is encouraged.

Sadly smirking

The Browns are gonna be the Browns

Weighing In

Down three pounds.

That's not what you want.

I bet Johnny Football and Tim Tebow and hundreds of others are scratching their heads in wonder. Why is the NFL setting up a private pro day for Kaepernick while other good players languish?

What if no one still signs him?

If the kneeler-in-chief just wants to play football, why hasn't he pursued the AFL or Canada as options? He could showcase his skills in game action. Doug Flutie and HOFer Kurt Warner both took that route into be NFL.

Next.

It seems to me the bar association should be looking into a bunch of Congresspeople. Many are lawyers but seem to have no understanding of evidentiary rules. Hearsay is not evidence. Sitting through just a couple of episodes of Judge Judy would tell you that.

Just like the whole "collusion" fiasco, can anyone tell me what statute threatening (if it even happened) to hold back money we are giving to a foreign government falls under? Don't we put requirements on foreign aid all of the time?

Shouldn't Papa Joe Biden answer for threatening (and bragging about it) to withhold aid to Ukraine unless they fire the prosecutor investigating the company that hired his son?

Next.

College athletes want to be paid. OK. They have to choose, take a scholarship or get paid. Either/or. Problem solved. A full ride scholarship to most universities is worth more than 30 grand. That is pay enough.

Next.

Just cut the baby in half.

Next.

What other problem do you need me to solve?

Witches and brass monkeys

The wind chill was a frigid minus three this morning when I woke. The real temperature was a January-like eleven on the Fahrenheit scale. The snowfall was just at three inches, covering the leaves on the front yard. I suspect it is cold at your house too.

I watched the first half of The Dirty Dozen last night. I've always dug that flick, even though I have seen it countless times.

I had an interview scheduled for today. It has been moved to next Monday. Sigh. It seems like a good prospect, one I am qualified for, but who knows?

Stay warm and enjoy your Tuesday.

Eleventh Day of the Eleventh Month

A big thank you to our veterans.

Dodging the daily hodge podge

I raked the front and side yards yesterday. New leaves already lie on the grass. By midweek the lawn will again be covered.  So it goes.

The local professional football squad plays the late afternoon contest so I will have a hard time refusing to help do some much-needed household chores before game time. The wife hinted at dragging the Christmas decorations from the attic. I will resist. Although I am tempted to put up (but not turn on) the outside lights in the warmer temperatures today before the January-like cold settles in later this week. I shall endeavor to persevere. The boss hinted that a pot of chili might be good for supper. That I can probably manage without much argument.

San Francisco recently covered historical murals of George Washington. They were deemed offensive. Somehow a mural of hysterical angry climate change spokesperson Greta Thornburg is OK. These same coastal liberals who think this is wonderful seem not to understand why those of us in flyover country vote for Trump. If I need explain my disdain then you have not spent time reading here at all.

The new movie depicting he Battle of Midway is getting good reviews. I will probably have to wait until it comes out on video to see it. Going to the movies just isn't in the budget. I am excited though. Midway is probably one of the five most important battles in our nation's history. More people should know of it.

Giddy up jingle horse

I think I will rake some leaves today. Or not. The front yard is ankle deep, but the big maple still has at least fifty percent of the leaves still stuck to the branches like a bitter clinger does his Bible and gun here in the Rust Belt. It doesn't appear warmer weather is coming anytime soon, so I might as well suck it up and do some work.

I escaped the doctor with a stern lecture but remain on the assortment of pills. He knows and I know sticking to my diet will bring my sugars right down. It is strange, back when I was fat, pre diabetes, I rarely craved sweet stuff. Now I want those things all of the time. Let's be honest, munching on a carrot is no substitute for a Little Debbie oatmeal creme pie. My problem is I snack under two conditions: stress and boredom. My life these days is only stress and boredom.

Hold on a sec.

Thanks, I'm back. I had to get the Echo spy device to switch background music. Sinatra wasn't cutting it this morning.

The Washington Post had an opinion piece wondering if the Republicans are going to be able to accept defeat in the coming elections. I am pretty sure it was not satire.

One hundred days until baseball.

Friday Follies

Another week has chugged by. Leaves cover my front lawn and it is unseasonably cold. Chug, chug, chug.

I had a rough night last night. My cough returned just as I went to bed. I ended up in the recliner in the office. I struggled to get to sleep, still awake after 1:00 AM. Around 2:30 the office smoke alarm started its beep. Beep. Beep every 40 seconds or so in a plea for a new battery. I went down, grabbed a stool and the last 5 volt battery and spent ten minutes replacing the battery. Then I started the whole try to get to sleep cycle all over.

I'm off this morning to see my doctor for a regularly scheduled visit. I have every reason to think my sugar levels will be unacceptable. He threatened moving me to insulin last time. My only defense is stress drives my blood sugar higher. My poor dietary habits are an equal catalyst.

Boo hoo. Enough complaining.

Yeah, I got nothing else.

How about a little music?

Enjoy your Friday

I almost put up a Christmas tune.

What you want

An elderly woman went into the doctor`s office. When the doctor asked why she was there, she replied, “I`d like to have some birth-control pills.”

Taken back, the doctor thought for a minute and then said, “Excuse me, Mrs. Smith, but you`re 72 years old. What possible use could you have for birth control pills?”

The woman responded, “They help me sleep better.”

The doctor thought some more and continued, “How in the world do birth control pills help you to sleep?”

The woman said, “Simple, I put them in my granddaughter`s orange juice every morning and I sleep better at night.”

Careful with that wish

It is early. I am up. The clock read 3:30 when I padded to the bathroom. It was just before 4:00 when I gave up and headed downstairs to make coffee and pop my morning pills. So it goes.

Crazed politics continues. Everyone has moved into their corners, piled rocks and are ready to defend their position. We are just a military coup from full-on Banana Republic when one party starts calling for the winner's ouster --and promising it-- before he can even take office. The end is near. Trust me when I tell you crime-less impeachment will be the new norm until a popular strongman steps in to make himself consul, emperor, dictator, protector of the people, or President for Life and ignores the yips and yaps from the small-minded lapdog bureaucrats that inhabit the halls of Congress. SJWs will have no objection. The Constitution is invalid because it was written by racist white guys.

The authoritarians will be content. Right up to the point the Ruler of All declares an end to the insanity and plays Baby, it cold outside unedited during the White House Christmas Party simply because it is good and fun and has no hidden meaning you butthurt fanatics and tells everyone to just get over it. Lefty heads will explode.

There lies the rub when you start down the path of retribution politics. There is always the chance the wrong guy might win. Do I need to start historical name dropping here?

That’s how it is done

A biker stopped by the local Harley shop to have his bike repaired. They couldn’t do the work while he waited, and so, since he didn’t live far from the shop, he decided to walk home.

On the way home he stopped at the hardware store and bought a bucket and an anvil. He stopped at the feed store / livestock dealer and picked up a couple of chickens and a goose. However, he had a problem… How to carry his entire purchase home.

The feed store owner said, “Why don’t you put the anvil in the bucket, carry the bucket in one hand, put a chicken under each arm and carry the goose in your other hand?” “Hey, thanks!” said the biker, and out the door he went.

In the parking lot he was approached by a little old lady who told him she was lost, and asked if he could tell her the way to 1603 Mockingbird Lane.

The biker said, as a matter of fact, I live at 1616 Mockingbird Lane.” We can take a short cut down this alley and be there in no time”.

The little old lady looked him over cautiously, and then said, “I am a lonely widow without a husband to defend me. How do I know that when we get in the alley you won’t hold me up against the wall, pull up my skirt, and ravish me?”

The biker said, “Holy smokes lady! I’m carrying a bucket, an anvil, two chickens, and a goose. How in Hell could I possibly hold you up against a wall and do that?”

The lady said, “Set the goose down, cover him with the bucket, put the anvil on top of the bucket, and I’ll hold the chickens.”

Manatee Musings

I'm alive. I have been busy doing stuff. The nature of that "stuff" I cannot identify. Not because it is super secret, but rather because I don't know where the time is going. Sitting around sure uses up a lot of time.

I had to drive over to the next county to meet with my unemployment counselor. She pretty much told me I'm on my own in finding a job. I have mandatory trainings I have to take in the next three weeks. All involve driving to that office. Nothing like wasting precious gas to take a class on how to interview. Is there a class that makes me twenty years younger? That is what employers want.

We switched Internet providers last week to save a few bucks. The service is not quite as good, but such is life.

It is election day here in the burbs. I think only one race is contested: city council at large. I'm not sure it is worth walking the 150 yards to my polling place.

I'm still battling the tail end of a cold. If snot could power my furnace, we would be set until after Christmas.

You are now caught up.

Really worth stopping by, eh wot?

Ready or not, Santa is coming

Good morning and Happy Sunday.

I deleted a 1,237 word rant about the idiocy of changing the clocks twice a year. You are welcome.

When did Black Friday and the Holiday marketing blitz move to the beginning of November? One chain is boasting Santa will arrive today.

It's not dandruff that has me scratching my head.

On the other hand, what do I care? On the scale of crazy that is today's America, a business trying to make a buck is at the minor end of the scale compared to the position of pretty much every Democrat candidate running for office. Even the ghost of Eugene Debs thinks the party has lost its collective mind.

"Collective". See what I did there?

Since I'm in a complain and confused mood can I point out the incongruity of sending a repeat offender to prison for five years for armed robbery while a mediocre actress is facing 40 years or more in the slammer for paying off corrupt college officials to get her kids into a university?

Sorry, there is something wrong with the system when prosecutors intimidate a person from proclaiming their innocence by piling on charges until the supposed perp caves under the pressure. Now they are threatening charges against Lori Laughlin's kids if she doesn't lead guilty. I hope it goes to trial. It only takes one person like me on the jury who says "so what" and the case is closed forever. I would feel a little more like the Government was interested in justice as opposed to publicity if they went after the people who organized the corrupt process and took the bribes with the same prosecutorial zeal.

Speaking of crazy, I've discovered a knot in my abdomen. It could be nothing. It might be a hernia. Hypochondriac me votes for aneurism or tumor. I'm hoping it is not an alien waiting to burst through my skin in an eruption of slime and guts. That would be bad.

You are 16, going on 17

I read an opinion piece somewhere this morning arguing we should lower the voting age, citing the angry Greta Thornburg and Parkland kids as evidence. Of course the author agrees with those kids' politics. For me, Winston Churchill's quip about liberalism and the young comes to mind.

If we are going to let 16 year olds vote, then we should let them buy booze.

We should allow them to marry.

We should allow them to serve in the military.

But Joe, you say, they are just kids.

Exactly.

Pop Tarts and Beer

Halloween passed with nary a ghost goblin or Buzz Lightyear ringing my bell. Perhaps the weather was a factor. It was cold, snowy, and windy here at the homestead. It was a most unpleasant evening. Perhaps it was just the way things are. We have had about 10 TOTAL trick or treaters in the six years we have lived here. Insert shrug.

Here is a question for you Impeachers. Should we ignore corruption if it involves a candidate for office? Is it your position that the US should not use leverage to investigate possible corruption? Do the Bidens get a break just because Old Joe is running yet again?

The NBA has started and I do not care. Ditto hockey. Football season is entering the second half. Come on April. I'm ready for some baseball.

Have a great Friday.