back of my neck feeling dirty and gritty

Another summer heat wave is in the forecast this week. This happens almost every year. I have a question. If it is hotter than ever, as the climateers shout in panic, why are most of the records for heat and cold decades old? In fact, around here most of the heat records date to The Great Depression. Anyway, it is expected to be in the mid and upper 90s this week with high humidity. I suspect it will be hot at your house too.

We got a day of rain Sunday so the lawn isn’t quite so brown and dry. 

Since it wasn’t as hot yesterday I went for a walk after supper. It was still pretty humid so my shirt was sticking by the time I got home. I probably overdid it. My foot is more than a little sore today. So it goes. I’m still 50/50 on living with the pain and slight limp or going for another surgery. The actual procedure doesn’t bother me, it is the recovery. Another six to eight weeks of Long John Silvering it has zero appeal. The youngest granddaughter sat and bumped up the stairs one at at time on her butt a few weeks ago. “Look, I’m just like Paw” she laughed. I did too, but I have no interest in going back up and down like that again. 

I hear you. “Then quit complaining “ you say. But that’s what I do best! I think it was a year ago this week I had my first foot surgery and I’m dismayed that things really are no better. 

On the good news front, I returned to the retina specialist yesterday. He said things look good from my laser procedures earlier in the year. There does not appear to be any more bleeders and the one that was inoperable appears to be shrinking somewhat. My vision was slightly better. 

Ha! Not only do I look old in the mirror, now I sound old. I spend a whole post on my health and aches and pains. I am pretty sure that is not why you stopped by. 

Sorry ‘bout that. I know I usually give you a joke on Tuesday. Maybe tomorrow. Maybe later. Who knows?

I have no answers part 37

After significant internal debate I took down yesterday’s post. It was a sarcastic and mildly clever poke at gun control. I took it down not because I now disagree with the sentiment, but in light of events in Indy yesterday, the mocking tone was marginal. Maybe.

A gunman toting a long gun opened fire in the food court of the Greenwood Park Mall in a suburb of Indianapolis, killing three and wounding two. What the police have termed “a Good Samaritan” pulled his handgun and killed the murderer before his rampage could get worse.

That last paragraph says everything that needs be said about gun control. 

There has been a great deal of handwringing panic over Indiana’s new right to carry law that took effect a few weeks ago. This is why it exists. 

I took down the post for its facetious tone out of respect for the dead, not its message.   

Update. Reposted. 

almost deadly

My buddy has been experimenting. He owns an evil black rifle. You know, the one killing everyone, an AR-15. 

He has it out in plain sight in his home office. He put several thousand rounds of ammo nearby. Can you believe a gun that deadly has yet to shoot him? There has not even been an assault, a bludgeoning, or even harsh words from the weapon of mass destruction. My friend even tried to antagonize the rifle, calling it names and cursing at it. There was no response at all. Not even when his wife comes in the room. My friend went so far as to slap the gun on the butt. That has to be some kind of workplace harassment, yet the AR-15 did not respond. It just sits there like an inanimate object with no will of its own. 

I told my friend to try calling the rifle by the wrong pronoun. I am not sure he is willing to go that far in provoking something so prone to violence. 

knock it off

Can we just stop with the total complete bullshit about senior citizens living on a fixed income? Unless you work for commission, we all have a fixed income. You are paid an hourly rate or a salary. It doesn’t fluctuate, and certainly not upward.

Only those on social security get a guaranteed raise when costs go up. I won’t, you won’t. We just suck it up through Bidenflation.

Senior citizens don’t suffer more with prices rising than the rest of us. As boomers die off, we will start to see a lot less pandering to them.

I say this knowing I’m approaching that age and by classification just barely a boomer myself. 

Stuff you have been thinking about

I’m sure you have been worrying about my Free Cell status. I last updated you on my winning streak last month. Well here we are, almost a month later, and I’m still on a hot streak. Right now I have won 302 games in a row. My previous win streak was around 25 games. Then I won 49 in a row. I lost a game then I embarked on my current streak. That puts me at 351 out of the last 352 games.*

Yes, I know, mentioning a streak is akin to discussing a no hitter. I am messing with fate. 

So it goes. 

I just couldn’t keep silent when I know you are still eagerly awaiting updates from me. 

* my wife says I need to get a life.

Makes me sick

 I watched the Uvalde School video. I’m speechless, or nearly so.

I understand why some of the parents are angry and upset over it’s release.

I know why law enforcement, if you want to label those cowards as such, did not want it released.

Each and every one of those police officers cowering in the hall should resign immediately. No one wants to die. When you sign up for the job as cop, as fireman, you are by definition putting your life on the line. If all you want to do is write tickets, become a meter maid. If you want the uniform and the feeling of power, become a mall cop. 

Paul Blart showed more gumption and intestinal fortitude. Kids were dying while those hired to protect them are getting hand sanitizer. The police where there, body armor in place, armed with true assault weapons three minutes after the shooter entered the school. 

They ran when they heard shots. 

Let me repeat.

They ran when they heard shots. 

I’m not sure how any of those cops can show their face in that community. 

Variation on a theme

 A woman and a baby were in the doctor’s examining room waiting for the doctor to come in for the baby’s first exam.

Finally, the doctor arrived, examined the baby, checked his weight, and being a little concerned, asked if the baby was breast-fed or bottle-fed.

“Breast-fed,” she replied.

“Well! We’ll have to check you out. Alright then, strip down to your waist,” the doctor ordered.

She undressed and the doctor began his exam.

He pinched her nipples, then pressed, kneaded, and rubbed both breasts for a while in a detailed examination. He frowned, then continued squeezing and pressing for a few more minutes.

Motioning to her to get dressed, he said,

“No wonder this baby is underweight – you don’t have any milk!”

“I know,” she said. “I’m his Grandma, but I’m certainly glad I came.”

Breastfeeding is best for babies

 During a biology exam a student has to list three pros of breast milk.

He’s unprepared, but starts looking for common sense answers and writes down:

Contains all the nutrients a baby needs,

Doesn’t need heating,

But he still needs one more. And just as the time is about to run out, the student writes:

Has great packaging.

The back flower beds are still weed choked

It started innocently enough. I told the wife I was going to mow the back yard. She said she would come out and pull some weeds. As I laced up my mowing shoes she said “we should get some bags of mulch for the front flower beds”. Translated that means why don’t I go get some mulch. After some sharp words I got my keys and drove down to Lowes to get some mulch. 

I spread the mulch through the front flower beds. Then I helped her plant a big flower she got for her birthday. Then “we” needed to trim up those trees in the back. So I grabbed the saw and pruners. She said “cut here and here and here and there and there and there”.  As sawdust stuck to my sweaty arms and legs she said she was going to get cleaned up. She headed inside. There I was with a big pile of limbs to be trimmed and cut and loaded into the trash cans. By the time I was done mulching and trimming and cleaning and watering I was too dang tired to mow. 

The yard does look better. “We” did a good job. 

Help me Rhonda

I wasn’t going to post today. Nothing to say, etc. 

Instead I’m going to request a prayer for very long time reader Freddie and her family, if you are so inclined. Her Tallman is fighting blood clots. 

lightening up, just for you Francis

If you have Hulu you should watch The Bear. Riveting. My son says that is the most accurate depiction of the industry he has seen on film. 

Now some music. 

You never expected that, did you?

There was a time...

I read an article this morning from some dufus claiming the problem is not with SCOTUS, but with the Constitution. I’m not going to link to it. The article is wrong on so many points I don’t want to spread the author’s nonsense to even one unsuspecting reader. 

There was a time I would have spent an hour taking apart the erroneous positions and offering rebuttal based on history and actual words of the document itself. These days I don’t have the energy. 

Here are a few salient points you should know.

1. There was much concern about the Bill of Rights at adoption. Many feared future Americans would think the only guaranteed Rights were those listed. Thus, the 9th and 10th Amendments. Those of you who think the Court “took away your rights” in the recent Dobbs decision should read those Amendments. 

2. There is a means to amend the Constitution. Is it hard? Yes. It is designed that way too limit “the passions of the day”.

3. This country was and is a collection of States. Senators are by definition representatives of the States, that is why there is not equal representation. They were never supposed to be elected that way. That keeps the big states from dictating to the smaller states. Wyoming gets equal vote to California on purpose. Only a big state Democrat fails to understand why this is important. This is the same reason we elect the President through the electoral college. He is elected by the States, not the people.

This is not hard to understand, if you only try.

4. To argue the second amendment only applies to muzzle loaders is as stupid as saying the first amendment only applies to printed words or those scraped on parchment with a quill. 

Clearly one of the worst things to happen to the generations born after the late 1970s was cancelling Schoolhouse Rock.

Lessons Learned

 An elderly Florida lady did her shopping and, upon returning to her car, found four males in the act of leaving with her vehicle.

She dropped her shopping bags and drew her handgun, proceeding to scream at the top of her lungs,

“I have a gun, and I know how to use it! Get out of the car!”.

The four men didn’t wait for a second threat.

They got out and ran like mad.

The lady, somewhat shaken, then proceeded to load her shopping bags into the back of the car and got into the driver’s seat.

She was so shaken that she could not get her key into the ignition.

She tried and tried, and then she realized why.

It was for the same reason she had wondered why there was a football, a Frisbee and two 12-packs of beer in the front seat.

A few minutes later, she found her own car parked four or five spaces farther down.

She loaded her bags into the car and drove to the police station to report her mistake.

The sergeant to whom she told the story couldn’t stop laughing.

He pointed to the other end of the counter, where four pale men were reporting a carjacking by a mad, elderly woman described as white, less than five feet tall, glasses, curly white hair, and carrying a large handgun.

No charges were filed.

The moral of the story?

If you’re going to have a senior moment… make it memorable.

We all scream

As is often the case in summer, July in particular, it has been hot. Temps cracked 100F yesterday. The heat index was around 110. At nine o’ clock last night the heat index was still over 100F. I suspect it was hot at your house too. 

I have one of these ice cream makers. It does a pretty good job and is way easier than dragging out my old-fashioned one with the salt and ice and mess. It makes enough for the two of us plus some to stash in the freezer for tomorrow. It would be a great treat n this heat.

A few weeks ago I thought I would make some ice cream. The center container, the place where the magic happens, wasn’t there in the garage freezer where it is always kept. 

I vaguely remembered removing it over the winter to make room for meat after a big shopping trip when I got my new job. OK. Where did I put it? 

It wasn’t in the box with the other components. It wasn’t on the storage shelf next to the garage refrigerator. It wasn’t anywhere in the garage. 

Didn’t we loan it to my daughter last fall for a party? Yes. She sent it home, the evidence is in the motor, paddle, and lid in the box in the garage. 

I have looked in every cabinet and storage closet in the house. I’ve been searching for nearly a month.

It is not here. 

I want some homemade ice cream. What did you do with my freezer? 

I guess I’m going to have to go buy another ice cream maker.

The old ones are still classics

 There is a mommy stork, a daddy stork, and a baby stork

One day, daddy didn’t come home for dinner.

Mommy and baby were very worried.

When dad came home late the next morning, they asked what he was doing.

“I was making a young couple very happy,” he replied.

About a week later, mommy didn’t come home for dinner.

Daddy and the baby were very worried.

When mom came home late the next morning, they asked what she was doing.

“I was making a young couple very happy,” she replied.

A few days later, the baby didn’t come home for dinner.

Mom and dad were very worried.

When he came home very late the next morning, they asked him where he was.

Baby just grinned and said,

“I’ve been scaring the sh!t out of college students!”

Independence Day II

 

I’ve said it many times, if you have not watched the first few episodes of the Adams miniseries on HBO, you should. Why it isn’t required watching in every high school I will never understand. Teaching history never needs to b confined to dry dusty politically correct tomes. 

Independence Day

 

A movie review 46 years late

 I was lazing about yesterday flipping channels when Rocky came on. It has been awhile since I watched the film and I forgot just how good it was. The gritty tale of a club boxer, just getting by and the life he lives when offered a big break is heart rendering. Each time I watch the movie I feel a sense of sadness. In the end Rocky isn’t so much a boxing movie, a sports movie, but a film about life, love, and man’s struggle to survive and find that indomitable spirit that drives us from within to compete — not just within the confines of a boxing ring, but in the arena of life. Stallone captured this perfectly in the first movie, mostly in the second, but forgot it completely in the many subsequent sequels. You can only capture lightning in a bottle so many times. 

Some of us never do. 

According to IMDB, the scene of Rocky telling Adrian his fears the night before the fight was almost not filmed because of budgetary concerns. That scene is the crux of the movie and perhaps one of the best, if not often recognized, scenes in cinema. 

No matter how much we hide behind a tough guy persona, we just want to go the distance. Is not Rocky truly the Everyman?

Suspicious Minds

We went to see the new Elvis movie last night. Wow, what an enjoyable flick. The guy who played Elvis, Austin Butler, was incredible. It is good acting when you can upstage Tom Hanks. The film showed the charisma of Presley. It glossed over the fact that Priscilla was just 14 when they met, but that wasn’t what the movie was about. 

Elvis was subjected to fame oh a level few have ever known - Sinatra in the thirties, the Beatles. In the end the fame, the hangers-on, the drugs, the performances, the Colonel all sucked hm dry. 

Anyone who has read here for a while knows I dig Elvis. I like his music. I like most of his movies, even if in the end he mostly just played Elvis. I am sure I have recounted both of my trips to Graceland over there in the archives. Unfortunately, I lack the celebrity idol gene, so I was baffled by the women crying at Elvis’ grave when I was there. 

Anyway, it is worth the bucks to see the film on the big screen. I am good at spending your money, so do what you like. 

They’ve got a name for the winners of the world

I have had Steely Dan’s Deacon Blues playing an endless loop in my head since sometime in the middle of the night. Not even the whole song, just the chorus. While I generally like Steely Dan, that isn’t one of my favorite tunes. 

I have much work for a Friday heading into the long weekend. Unfortunately, Microsoft Office started misbehaving right around quitting time last night. It told me I needed to sign back in, then proceeded to inform me my password was incorrect. Then locked me out when I insisted it was right. Th computer overlords won. Now I have to get IT to fix stuff when the workday starts. Unless I can sign in I can’t give them remote access to the screen...I’m sure they can figure it out. If not, my long week starts earlier than I thought! 

Sitting here in the recliner in my office I realize just how much I hate the paint color. When we moved in I told the wife no brown. Of course nearly every room is a shade of brown or tan. When my office was one of the back bedrooms it was a yellow. Now I have a light chocolate brown. It looks nice with my black office furniture, but I really do not like it. 

I just made up my mind I am going to repaint it a different color. Probably in the fall when I don’t have outside stuff I want to do. Now I have to decide what color I want. 

Actually, every room needs repainted in the house. It has been nine years since we moved in. The bedrooms used by the girls have been redone, but everything else is old. The walls are getting marked and scuffed. I don’t mind working around the house, I really do not like painting though. 

OK, I can’t get that song out of my head. Maybe listening to it will help. Worse case, it gets stuck in your head. Misery loves company.