Light blogging and commenting…

Posted on by May 21, 2021

On the road again. At a real Con! Yay!!!

Currently at FantaSci in North Carolina. Good panels, good folks, and good times (well, other than the hotel restaurant not being open for table service).

A lot of folks are just glad to be able to actually socialize without the stupid masking rules, and sit across the table from folks and hold real conversations.  Let’s hope this trend continues!!!

Regular blogging will resume on Monday.

Go read the folks on the sidebar, they’re better than I am at this anyway.

Blogiversary…

Posted on by May 18, 2021

14 years… 5100 and some posts, 74,000 and some ‘actual’ comments, a quarter of a million SPAM comments in the last five years, and a little over a half million views average a year. Thank you to all those who have put up with my brain drivel for a long as you have!!! THANK YOU!

One of my early posts from 2007, talking about the conduct of the war and politics… Amazing how ‘little’ has changed…

Well, I’m back from a week in WESTPAC, the Western Pacific for those who aren’t Navy oriented… Spent some time talking to the Sailors who are spending time in the Gulf both on deployment and Individual Augmentee (IA) duties. I gotta say what I am hearing from these folks is pretty much directly contradictory to what most of the media is saying. These folks are proud to serve, believe in what we are doing, and see the positives of the situation in Iraq and Afganistan both. They see improvements we (the Coalition) have fostered, schools, water, power, hospitals; but agree there are not enough due to politics and the local infighting. To a person, they all agreed we should stay the course.

This makes me wonder even more about the media and today’s crop of politicians… I thought I had seen it all after Nam, Grenada, and the first Gulf War, but these folks just leave me speechless… I’m for, but I’m against, but I was for… timetables for withdrawl, but I support the troops, but I want to take away their money and ability to do anything… Does this make any sense?

Not to me- I am to the point that I believe the pols are posturing (posterioring?) to try to be on both sides of the war. I guess they think we the people are too dumb to remember the last thing they said, or hope we will “only” remember what they say in the sound bites.

If you have the time, take a minute to thank those reservist, Guard and active duty folks you know. These are the folks who are on the pointy end, doing the best they can with what they have. It behooves us to support them in any way we can.

The more things change, the more they remain the same… sigh

Ouchie…

Posted on by May 18, 2021

I ‘think’ my days of strong back, weak mind are done. Now it’s weak back to go with the weak mind, and being almost 70… It wasn’t this hard the last time I did this!!!

Volunteered to help somebody move yesterday. We got it done, but…

I feel like I’ve been shot at and hit. My back, hips, and knees are talking to me, and NOT politely!

It was only a 10 foot U-haul, but damn… Load out of climate controlled to a Conex, unload the stuff that was staying in the Conex, load the stuff that needed to go to Dallas, get everything strapped in (#@$$@# STRAPS… I want my GOOD straps I had in the military!) trying to beat the rain.

Drive to Dallas. In the rain… Get to the location and it’s a second floor apartment. But wait… There’s more!

Concrete composite stairs! Slicker than greased owl s**t! Got everything unloaded (finally after a few breaks to breathe, etc.). Then the fight through Dallas traffic to the U-Haul place to turn it in. The others took pain pills on the way back, but I was driving, so I waited until I got home.

Next time, I’ll throw money at them and tell them to hire somebody! Ouchie…

Truth…

Posted on by May 16, 2021

This one came over the transom from the Mil e-mail net…

THE LAWS OF LIFE

LAW OF MECHANICAL REPAIR: After your hands become coated with grease, your nose will begin to itch and you’ll have to pee.

LAW OF GRAVITY: Any tool, nut, bolt, screw, when dropped, will roll to the least accessible corner.

LAW OF PROBABILITY: The probability of being watched is directly proportional to the stupidity of your act.

LAW OF RANDOM NUMBERS: If you dial a wrong number, you never get a busy signal and someone always answers.

VARIATION LAW: If you change lines (or traffic lanes), the one you were in will always move faster than the one you are in now (works every time).

LAW OF THE BATH: When the body is fully immersed in water, the telephone rings.

LAW OF CLOSE ENCOUNTERS: The probability of meeting someone you know increases dramatically when you are with someone you don’t want to be seen with.

LAW OF THE RESULT: When you try to prove to someone that a machine won’t work, it will.

LAW OF BIOMECHANICS: The severity of the itch is inversely proportional to the reach.

LAW OF THE THEATRE & FOOTBALL: At any event, the people whose seats are furthest from the aisle, always arrive last. They are the ones who will leave their seats several times to go for food, beer, or the toilet and who leave early before the end of the performance or the game is over. The folks in the aisle seats come early, never move once, have long gangly legs or big bellies and stay to the bitter end of the performance. The aisle people also are very surly folk.

THE COFFEE LAW: As soon as you sit down to a cup of hot coffee, your boss will ask you to do something which will last until the coffee is cold.

MURPHY’S LAW OF LOCKERS: If there are only 2 people in a locker room, they will have adjacent lockers.

LAW OF PHYSICAL SURFACES: The chances of an open-faced sandwich landing face down on a floor, are directly correlated to the newness and cost of the carpet or rug.

LAW OF LOGICAL ARGUMENT: Anything is possible if you don’t know what you are talking about.

BROWN’S LAW OF PHYSICAL APPEARANCE: If the clothes fit, they’re ugly.

OLIVER’S LAW OF PUBLIC SPEAKING: A closed mouth gathers no feet.

WILSON’S LAW OF COMMERCIAL MARKETING STRATEGY: As soon as you find a product that you really like, they will stop making it.

DOCTORS’ LAW: If you don’t feel well, make an appointment to go to the doctor, by the time you get there you’ll feel better.. But don’t make an appointment, and you’ll stay sick.

And that’s on a GOOD day, when nothing else is going wrong… sigh

Too funny…

Posted on by May 13, 2021

How much to ‘rent’ the Blue Angels for a wedding???

Hehehe, talk about ‘perfect timing’…

The rest of the story is HERE.  BLUF, no the Blues aren’t for rent/don’t do weddings (intentionally)… 🙂

 

Food!!!

Posted on by May 15, 2021

For the first time in over a year, a few of us got together for dinner last night in my old stomping grounds.

Hard to believe it’s been 52 years since we graduated from high school. Twenty-five of us, plus spouses, one three grandkids, an assortment of cats/dogs showed up for the food.

Paraphrasing from one of the comments Friday night- From the Cold War with its fall out shelters and hiding under the desks, to the Cuban missile crisis, JFK being shot, to the Vietnam War (which some of us fought in), to assassinations, marriages, divorces, illness, and the deaths of children and/or husbands and wives, through the WuFlu and 2020, we have lived through it all and survived (so far). We remembered those we’ve lost, and those we’ve lost contact with. And folks were planning on visiting a couple of our group that are in the hospitals for various ailments.

We reverted to type, grilling out in the yard as we used to do years ago… The difference was the lack of alcohol consumed and the stupid things we did (although some of those were brought up). And strangely enough, some of the girls remembering what cars us guys drove…LOL

Well, that and the aches and pains, and the gray hair, or lack of hair, and a few extra pounds here and there…

Getting old ain’t for sissies!

Take time to call your friends, spend time with them if you can, and remember the good times!

Take that…

Posted on by May 12, 2021

They said we couldn’t do it…

Doing renovations at the local American Legion, kitchen style…

We received a ‘donation’ of a brand new oven/microwave combination for the kitchen. BUT, there was no cabinet. We were told we needed to go buy one.

Challenge accepted…

ONE piece of grade A plywood was $59.00!!! ONE 2x4x8 #2 was $9.47… sigh

The cabinet need to be 24 inches deep, 28 inches wide, and 63 inches high. Measured three times, marked it, measured again, and finally ripped the plywood. And the sides matched! Yay!  Next was building the shelf to hold the combo at a ‘working height’. Measure, measure, how high is the total unit? Remeasure… Okay, got it. Cut it…

And that gives us a half inch clearance all the way around, so the ‘trim’ will fit and we ‘should’ be able to get it in the cabinet. Should…

Meanwhile the electrician was running power to a box behind the cabinet for power and we’re trying to figure out how to get the @#%$%$#@ armored cable to feed up the back of the unit in the slot while stuffing it in the cabinet.

Gotta love Seabees… Loop a piece of string around the cable, keep it taunt as the unit is shoved in the cabinet. I’m qualified to do that…

It got wired up, the working party lifted, groaned, cursed, shoved, and we finally got it IN the @#@%(*& cabinet…

Lastly, attached the two pieces of stainless steel ($44 ea) to the side of the cabinet next to the stove (which will be moved back once everything is complete). The only thing left is to build a bottom shelf, stick it in, and paint it.

Less than $200, three hours of work, and voila! 🙂

Where’s my Aleve???

 

It’s getting interesting in Maricopa Co…

Posted on by May 13, 2021

Apparently the county is refusing to turn over routers to be checked for IP protocols during the 2020 election…

Kory Langhofer, the attorney for the Senate, said he will be issuing subpoenas Monday, May 10, for all five Maricopa County supervisors, demanding they appear to explain why they won’t surrender certain equipment and information for review as part of the audit of the 2020 General Election returns. Langhofer also said the Senate wants to hear from Scott Jarrett, the county’s director of election day and emergency voting.

Full article, HERE.

What are the dems/left so afraid of???

All they have to do is follow the stepping stones…

Unless they know there is a problem…

TBT…

Posted on by May 13, 2021

Words… That you don’t hear anymore…

I came across this phrase yesterday ‘FENDER SKIRTS.’ A term I haven’t heard in a long time, and thinking about ‘fender skirts’ started me thinking about other words that quietly disappear from our language with hardly a notice like ‘curb feelers’ and ‘steering knobs.’ (AKA) suicide knob, Neckers Knobs.

Since I’d been thinking of cars, my mind naturally went that direction first. Any kids will probably have to find some elderly person over 60 to explain some of these terms to you.

Remember ‘Continental kits?’ They were rear bumper extenders and spare  tire covers that were supposed to make any car as cool as a Lincoln Continental.

When did we quit calling them ’emergency brakes?’ At some point ‘parking brake’ became the proper term. But I miss the hint of drama that went with ’emergency brake.’

Here’s a phrase I heard all the time in my youth but never anymore – ‘store-bought.’ Of course, just about everything is store-bought these days. But once it was bragging material to have a store-bought dress, suit, or a store-bought bag of candy.

‘Coast to coast’ is a phrase that once held all sorts of excitement and now means almost nothing. Now we take the term ‘world wide’ for granted. This floors me.

On a smaller scale, ‘wall-to-wall’ was once a magical term in our homes. In the ’50s, everyone covered his or her hardwood floors with, wow, wall-to-wall carpeting! Today, everyone replaces their wall-to-wall carpeting with hardwood floors. Go figure.

When’s the last time you heard the quaint phrase ‘in a family way?’ It’s hard to imagine that the word ‘pregnant’ was once considered a little too graphic, a little too clinical for use in polite company, so we had all that talk about stork visits and ‘being in a family way’ or simply ‘expecting.’

Apparently ‘brassiere’ is a word no longer in usage. I said it the other day and my daughter cracked up. I guess it’s just ‘bra’ now. ‘Unmentionables’ probably wouldn’t be understood at all.

Most of these words go back to the ’50s, but here’s a pure-’60s word I came across the other day – ‘rat fink.’ Ooh, what a nasty put-down!

Here’s a word I miss – ‘percolator.’ That was just a fun word to say. And what was it replaced with? ‘Coffee maker.’ How dull. Mr. Coffee, I blame you for this.

I miss those made-up marketing words that were meant to sound so modern and now sound so retro. Words like’DynaFlow’ and ‘Electrolux.’ Introducing the 1963 Admiral TV, now with ‘SpectraVision!’

Some words aren’t gone, but are definitely on the endangered list. The one that grieves me most ‘supper.’ Now everybody says ‘dinner.’ Save a great word. Invite someone to supper. If they show up, feed them! 🙂

Posted in TBT