Crying at my desk

I can't begin to tell you how disappointed I am to discover that today is not Friday after all.

What is the big deal about a 6 foot rabbit in Texas?

Am I the only one who thinks that if the reporters and news support staff would get the heck out of the shelters in the Houston area there would be a whole lot more resources to give to people who actually need them?

Sheesh

Bacterial time bomb

Yesterday evening I came down from work. I sat on the couch and without warning I suddenly felt a cold coming on. My head started to throb. My sinuses filled and my throat got scratchy --all at once. The wife sneezed a couple of times and grabbed a tissue. She looked at me and said "I think I'm getting a cold. It hit all of a sudden" .

Do do doo do 

How weird is that?

She said she feels lousy this morning. Me too. I'm probably much sicker though. It is a man thing. Most folks would probably be at the ER if they felt as bad as I do today. Fact.

I got out of bed around 2:30 AM. I could only sleep if I was half-propped on the couch. I think I slept in ten minute snatches all night. I'm sitting here snotting in copious quantities. Someone rubbed my tonsil-free throat with sandpaper. I'm mouth breathing like your typical KKKer.

I'll try not to breathe on you.

I'm pretty sick, but I suppose there's one or two people in Texas worse off than I am. send your prayers their way. I'll survive.

Things that keep you awake at night

I know you have been worried. Fret no more. The Boy has moved back into the larger front bedroom. I have moved my office back into the small back corner room. This was the location of my office since we moved here.

My model of the HMS Victory and my humidor are back on my credenza. My little wooden cigar store Indian is back staring with solemn menace from atop the file cabinet. Frank and the Rat Pat watch me work from the picture on he wall. The view out the window shows my back yard and branches of the big willow. All is it should be.

No more working from the master bedroom. No more shuttling the laptop from the bedroom to the dining room table and back.

Now if I could just muster up some decent blog fodder...

And that is the way it was...

I am not compelled to opine, inform, entertain, or titillate today.

Mitigating factors

I don't think I have featured The Eagles here at the old blogeroo.

I might be wrong. I cannot remember every post. What do you think I am, a radio?

Things continue to be dry here in God's favorite State. The grass is brown. Only the weeds are growing. I am pulling in tomatoes like crazy, but the blooms are pretty sparse so the harvest is going to be short, I fear.

Heading out to Jeff and Larry's Backyard BBQ tomorrow evening. I am excited about that. I have no doubt that the Perpetually Offended are offended about the whole idea of the show. Why? I don't know. The things that offend the Perpetually Offended often mystify me. That fact, I am sure, makes my very existence offensive.

Are micoagressions a big deal to Little People?

Oh, and for those of you who believe my entire "wealth" is based on stealing the work of slaves, I can only opine that my ancestors were obviously bad at stealing. My bank account is pretty close to empty.

Dang it. I swore there was not going to be any politics today.

Bad Joe.

Enjoy your day.

Joe, you are a loser

Well, I did not win tne giant Powerball jackpot. I didn't even score one of the lesser prizes.

Perhaps my failure to actually purchase said lottery ticket might have something to do with my losing out on the winnings. It is funny how that works, right?

This makes the Fonze skiing in his leather jacket actually believable

Perhaps this is the moment the hysteria and idiocy finally jumps the shark. ESPN has removed an announcer for an upcoming football game at UVA simply because his name is Robert Lee. The network admitted the decision was made solely on the similarity of the broadcaster's name to the Civil War general.

You may ask what kind of Nazi, redneck, KKKer white supremacist Republican clan would name their kid after the most hated man in American history? Oh wait, Mr. Lee is an Asian-American. You know one of tne tens of million Lees throughout the world and no relation to old Robert E at all.

But hey, don't hold the "do not judge people by outward appearance" crowd to their own standard. After all, there are probably more that 100,000,000 people with the surname Lee in the world. I'm pretty sure they are all guilty by association with a general who died about a century and a half ago.

I am really starting to believe I really am living in a computer program. Some pimply kid down in the basement is trying to see how absurd he can make things.  This story is too astoundingly stupid otherwise.

Big fat nothing sandwhich

The over-hyped Big Eclipse was a giant non-event here at my Sooper Sekrit location as heavy clouds obscured the sky.  Your results might have been different.

The media acted much like our ancestors would have a hundred or five hundred years ago, all panic and hysteria. I thought we were in the age of Science!.

I got upgraded in my rental car again, I do have that going for me. As an added plus, I am spending the night in a Holiday Inn Express, so I should be set to do emergency surgery, attorney work, and general contracting should the occasion arise tomorrow. Unfortunately, I suspect my blogging skills will not be magically enhanced by the experience.

Give your significant other a cheap thrill today. It don't cost nuthin'.

Me too

My ancestor had to leave his home in Germany after the Hundred Years War.  There was no tolerance for his Protestant Theology in that part of the Rhineland.

Every single Catholic Church, statue of Mary, and picture of a saint reminds me of those terrible years. I want them all destroyed. St. Louis, you need to change your name. These are symbols of hate and oppression, they bring to mind the terrible witch burnings of Wurtzburg and the oppression, hatred, and scorn felt by my family. What about the thousands tortured by the Inquisition? Or the countless "godless heathens" forced to convert by the Catholic Spanish throughout South America?  I am certain that millions of Jews and Protestants whose ancestors fled Catholic Europe feel the same sense of oppressive hatred every time the see Notre Dame football or the Pope on TV.

Tear them all down.

I'm getting too old for this stuff

My daughter and her family have left the premises.. I spent a good chunk of Friday evening and yesterday helping move. When did I become so weak? I used to be fairly strong. I could work at physical stuff all day. Now, after a few hours I can barely move. Frankly, I hurt all over. I'm sure there are more boxes and stuff to be moved today. I will suck it up and do what I can.

It just seems that is not as much as it was just a few years ago.

How the hell did this happen? I think my wife lifted and carried as much as I did yesterday.

Lighten Up, Francis. Volume XLII

Here Is a nice story about a guy who just wanted to make his community better. Jim was also a very nice guy.  He lived next door to me in the early 1990's.

Where does it stop?

General George Thomas is one of my historical heroes. My oldest son is named after him. Often overlooked in modern history of the Civil War, Thomas was admired by his peers and enemies alike. One could make the argument that "The Rock of Chicamauga" saved the Western Army.

Thomas grew up on a slave-owning plantation. He won his appointment to West Point in part for his aid in putting down the Nat Turner slave uprising.

George Thomas was a Union general. His sisters were reportedly so distraught he chose to remain in the Federal Army rather than fight for his native Virginia the turned his portrait to face the wall.

There is a statue to General Thomas in Washington DC. Do we tear it down?

And now for something you will really hate

Be not like the sun
For it is blind
And sees only darkness

Today is Bad Poetry Day. I'm not just making stuff up. My Amazon Echo told me it is Bad Poetry Day. The Echo is connected to the Internet, and EVERYTHING on the Internet is true. Trust me on this.

Above is my entry, first penned back in the early 1980s when I was a pretentious schmuck.  I think this effort has really withstood the test of time. It was bad poetry then and it is bad poetry now.

One last post

Forget anything I have attempted to pen in recent days.

Read THIS : it says it better, more succinctly and eloquently than I could ever manage.

The King is gone. That Burger King in Michigan probably has an opening.*

Elvis gave his last concert in Indianapolis Indiana. He died in ignominious circumstances on this date in 1977.  Elvis has provided me with countless hours of entertainment in my life.

I dig some Elvis movies. He is quite good in most of the films because he pretty much played the same character in all of the movies.. He got good at it.

How can you NOT enjoy this?

I guess this tune sums it up:

* for those of you way too young, rumors floated for years that The King was still alive and working various anonymous jobs.

I'm off to see the Wizard

...Not really a wizard, but a highly skilled surgeon. One year later and I am slated for another eye operation today. The procedure is not nearly so complicated nor invasive as those I had one year ago. This time it is a quick zap by a laser to remove scar tissue from the last surgeries. No lying on my back for weeks at a time I hope!

Do you know what we need? We need some good music to break up the tension. Not only is this one of my favorite tunes, I think it sums up the events of the past week pretty well:

Enjoy your Wednesday.

Asked and answered

I think many live in your America. The critical question is what does that America do in response to Charlottesville? Stay quiet? Stand up? Or it doesn't matter as long as it doesn't touch you?
Those are real questions. Not judging - honestly asking.

I was asked this question in a comment to a previous post.

That is the rub. What do we do about unpleasant thoughts in a free society. You see, I do not believe in the concept of "Hate Speech". As I have written repeatedly, the First Amendment exists to protect the speech we find most objectionable. There is no Right to Never Be Offended embedded in the Constitution.

There are some in this country who believe Donald Trump is the greatest threat to freedom in the history of the nation.  Curiously, many of those who hold that tenet are demanding the Government "do something" to regulate "Hate Speech". Do you people realize that it would be the Executive Branch -- in other words, The Donald -- who gets to enforce those regulations? The guy you claim is a closet bigot, a Nazi, a Fascist gets to decide who to jail for failing to think the right group-think. Be careful of what you wish for.

There is nothing you and I can argue that will change the mind of bigoted assholes. There are just some people who think skin color or religion is a reason to marginalize a person. I have never spend a nanosecond as a minority in this country. I have no doubt you see racism every day. That does not mean all white folks are racist bigots any more than all blacks are gangster rappers.

A vote against Clinton as a person, or the Democrat Party platform does not mean I want to don my wife's best bed sheet and demand a return to the good old days of the antebellum South. You know -- when the Democrats controlled the government and Supreme Court. See how easy it is to cast aspersions upon an entire group of people?

We are told that the actions of a tiny percentage of fanatics does not mean every follower of Islam is looking to blow us up. We were cautioned that one Bernie Bro shooting a bunch of Republicans does not mean all of Bernie Sanders socialist followers are set on murdering right-wingers. But somehow, according to Black Lives Matter leaders, the press and Mr. Any Mouse commentor, I have to answer for the actions of a tiny minority of racist, bigoted, misbegotten, white trash hate-filled asshole losers?

No thanks. I refuse to accept that responsibility. The concept of the "White Man's Burden" was an evil philosophy 150 years ago. Nothing has changed, no matter how you flip that coin. 

Not in my America

It may be that I live in a fantasy world. Perhaps I am truly blinded by my life and experience and my "privilege", whatever that really means. The hate and violence of the weekend in Virginia is not the America I know.

In my life there are bad black people, bad white people and bad Hispanics. There are even more black and brown and white people who worry about bills, love their kids and root for their favorite sports team. We wake up and get on with the business of living without focusing on race or religion or politics every minute of the day. We work. We live.

I will not pretend I am color blind. I do notice if a person has darker skin than I do. I also notice hair color and tattoos and how you are dressed. And yes, I occasionally make judgments. Sorry, if you are sporting a Hell's Angels vest I am going to steer clear. The same goes for tear drops inked on your face.  I will also form an opinion if you have a burned cross and rebel flag on your farm or are sporting a Black Lives Matter T-Shirt. 

In my America you go to your church or synagogue or not. It is none of my business. You vote how you do. Maybe we agree and maybe we don't. You are probably wrong, but that doesn't mean we can't sit together and enjoy our kids' Little League game. Amazingly, politics rarely is a topic of discussion in my America. I have never talked religion, or Trump, or how I vote with a single one of my neighbors. 

In my world the number of folks who actually "March" and protest and riot are, well, frankly non-existent; they are the fringe. 

Of course bigots live and breathe. They are our neighbors and co-workers.They take your money at he store, the bank, the restaurant. They manage to get through the day without letting hate consume them. I am not dragged into their petty world. 

Most of us just don't care what color your skin is. If you are surrounded by people who think of that aspect first, I suggest you find new friends.  

On the other hand, I just might not live in the real America.  

It is gonna be OK

Last evening I sat alone on the patio. Cicadas sang their lonely song, rising in crescendo before fading out in exhaustion only to again cry out their lust a few minutes later. Beneath the waves of insects chirping in the trees the eh-eh, eh-eh of tree frogs heralded the deepening twilight. The boy's dog scampered and rolled in the grass. I sat in silence. I thought I might cry.

My oldest boy had just crammed the last items into his over-stuffed car and pulled away from the curb headed west to a new life. He is not the first person to move from home and family. He won't be the last. But he is the first of my family to head far out into the wide world. He has not lived at home for more than a decade, but he has always been just an hour or so drive away; close enough we could have lunch or dinner whenever our work schedules permitted. We could always count on him for birthdays and holidays. He will be fine. That doesn't mean his leaving isn't sad. He will always be my little boy. On top of the impending death of my yet-unborn grandson it is a lot on my plate emotionally right now.

I sit here wondering why I cannot sleep at night.

This too shall pass. People have been moving "west" since the beginning of time. The old drive for manifest destiny, the pioneer spirit, still lives in the breast of the hardy. Horace Greeley's exhortation to "Go West young man" was not a new concept when he printed it in the New York Tribune. The spirit of seeking a better life is what brought my forefathers to this continent and led a branch of my family to this part of the heartland we now call home. I live a few dozen miles from where my ancestors ripped the trees from the soil to plant a farm some two hundred years ago. If anything, it is I who has failed to live up to the pioneer spirit.

The boy is off in his modern Conestoga wagon. Instead of oxen, his goods and person will be pulled by a hopefully dependable Ford engine. He will cross the Great Plains not in weeks and months, but in hours. The trip will be just as exciting. He will be filled with just as much trepidation. His mom will worry just as much as I am certain the early settlers' mothers worried.

It is gonna be OK.