Monday's Missives

I weep for the species

• If not somewhat tolerant of techno and familar with Adagio for strings pass this up.
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• Ha.
• Some of the greatest music ever that I promise you a hundred years from now people will be listening to is the soundtrack to Gladiator.
• If in your presence somebody falls from a height equal to or greater than their own height you should assume they have neck/spine injuries and/or internal injuries and treat them as such until proven otherwise.
• Your unsolicited first aid advice for the day.
• Better World Books is great- free shipping and most of their books are less than 4 dollars.
• Recently (today is 04/23/2014) a patient tried to get me to say something untoward regarding his care while he recorded our conversation with his phone. What happened is he wanted to get me to tell him it would be OK to not tell his dentist he is being treating for tuberculosis. The funny thing was how clumsy he he was about it. He tried to casually but again, very clumsily point the microphone end toward me and even unconsciously extended it out even more while waiting my answer. He is kind of odd and an sophisticated person and is known for being so by all the staff causing my first thought to be, Dude of the two of us, only one of us has a reputation for being retarded and it ain't me, The second thought was, And anyway, I may have been born at night- but it wasn't last night homes.

My Day Started Like This- How Did Yours Start?

Come in here dear boy have a cigar- you're gonna go far. Government Mule covers Pink Floyd.

My Day

started with coffee M&Ms and Berlin- Take My Breath Away. How did yours start? My brother was lodge brothers with guys who flew the aircraft for the Top gun movie. He said they told him Cruise was respectful, cool and funny and that their money was no good when he was around. Kelly McGillis- not so much. Anyway, that is my six degrees of separation was Tom Cruise. Shoot- we're practically brothers. Hey Tom, have your people call my people and we'll do lunch sometime baby.

Friday's Dispatch

Flowers on the porch.

• There has been a video released of the couple- he Canadian and she American who were kidnapped in Wardack Afghanistan in 2012. The release of Bowe Bergdahl was the impetus. I had forgotten about them. Man, what were they thinking?! Their family described them as, "well intentioned but naive adventure seekers" I cannot argue that point.
• Intentioned is not a word according to my spell check. Intention ed is offered as an alternative.

  

  What you get when you turn your back on me in the kitchen- a mixture of vanilla yogurt, a Kellogg breakfast pastry, a chocolate covered granola bar and whip cream. I call it the Gut Bomb.

  
  

  

  But you also get masterpieces such as this egg white omelette

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• Bowe Bergdahl's hometown cancelled his homecoming celebration due to hateful phone calls saying he shouldn't be celebrated as a hero. He isn't a hero- he is just coming home.
• Although Stan Smith is the lead character on American Dad I bet it is rare he is anybodies favorite character and I'll further go out on a limb and guess Roger is more peoples favorite.
• Although I know the car doesn't know the difference when a Chevy engine is placed in a Ford car or vice versa but it seems wrong. Inevitably at Super Chevy shows there is a  goob there with a Chevy powered Mustang, Maverick or other Ford car. They don't get the attention they crave- as everybody actively ignores them.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

  

  A yoga mat, some Velcro and a swim noodle combine with my hands and imagination to become a thing that keeps hammock ropes from chewing trees up. What do you call that?

• The other day (it is 06/07/2014 @0626 as I write this) I put yogurt covered chocolate balls in some vanilla yogurt. It was good to be sure but something didn't seem right. It was like feeding a pet chicken Chicken McNuggets.
• "I'm sorry I made you cry. I don't mean to be a sucky boyfriend"- The last Email I sent.
• Blake Shelton is my daughter's favorite singer. Good grief. Where did I go wrong?
• Jack White jammin' it.

  

  FG's dumb cat being dumb and trying to mesmerize me with his hypno eyes. I'm on to your tricks buddy.

  
  

  

  It is rare I don't find an empty wrapper to synthetic pot on our park forays.

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

  

  The Holland Lake beavers keep improving their dam.

Thursday's Thoughts

Goofy name and imagery for a good, cheap product.

• For the President Obama haters who think they can breathe a sigh of relief and will have seen the end of him when his second term is over, I'm sorry but I have some bad news: We will feel like we see more of him after his presidency. News providers will walk past the actual President to get to the former- I promise you I'm correct and you might as well get your mind wrapped around that fact.
• Yesterday (05/11/2014) I found some beautiful and tasty mulberries in Holland Lake Park- very refreshing.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

  

  Too much lens for these pics but I love this Camaro. It is pronounced Cah-mara in case you're wondering.

• A headline I just (05/13/2014) saw, " Jennifer Lopez wears a belt to cover her nipples onstage..." I don't even know where to start but maybe first and foremost- why would anybody care?
• Don Sterling that is the name- right? Looks like he could have dementia- he does just have the look as his wife is claiming. Regardless, I think people wanted to believe the worst and nobody on this earth was going to even look like they were taking his side. A person with even mild dementia can be baited into doing or saying just about anything and the word salad and disorganized thinking he exhibited later on Anderson Cooper's show just made me suspect even more strongly he has some form of dementia. Interestingly, the tone of the girlfriend and cadence of her speech when I heard part of the conversation she recorded made me think she was goading him and knew which buttons to push.
• Nobody is going to be guilty by association- he must be the the most alone if not loneliest person in this country. Maybe he said things he shouldn't have but that woman literally destroyed his life. 

  I

  From Scarborough. I thought at the time I wish I knew what she was thinking.  I'd like to think she was pondering the deepest mysteries of the universe but it was probably something disappointing like the Meow Mix jingle playing in a loop.

• When I'm sorting keys out to open my office door in the morning I always absentmindedly pull out my home key first but when I get home I never try to use my office key to open the door to my house.
• Head East- Never Been Any Reason.

  

  My latest score from Better World Books-  a bargain at
  15 bucks total and come to think of it, I think one is missing in the pic from the order at that.

My Day Started

with 'Til Tuesday performing Voices Carry live. I was serving in Bad Herserfeld Germany with K Troop 3/11 Armored Cavalry when it came out. Where were you?

Wednesday's Digressions

Wood drying yard in Seattle- back in the day

• From the house about 3 to 400 meters behind us this morning, It's not fair, it's not fair, it's not fair!
• You're telling me brother.
• Shout it to the heavens- for all of us.
• Won't do you a bit of good though.

  

  Chris Burney the guitar player for Bowling For Soup. When you see it- you'll fall out of your chair. The radio stations and print/online media out of Dallas like to call BFS their own but they got together in Wichita Falls and are based in Denton- so yeah, whatever.

• Watching a very good, though now defunct science fiction series I'd never heard of- Firefly. It's on HULU. If you ever watch it you'll notice the character Zoe Washburne uses a mares leg pistol. This is the same one from a pair used on the show The Adventures Of Brisco County Jr.
• How's that for random trivia?
• Ate at Chicken Scratch Bistro today.
• Not normally a Bistro kind of guy.
• But, it was pretty good.
• Kept calling it Chicken Crap Bistro- hope I don't have to recall the name in polite company- I'll be in trouble.
• Obviously from an ages old draft- Firefly has been a favorite for literally years and  the bistro may actually be out of business but I'm not sure.
• Omigosh-  they've been at this over an hour and a half- and there is no end in sight! What I whispered to FG during the last play we attended.

  

  The rare and elusive homeless person in his natural habitat.  Click on the picture to activate video of him staggering across the street to take a dump in the empty lot.

Monday's Missives

• If Alien V Predator is not the best horror/sci fi movie ever- it's way up on the list.


• I tend to think my life is probably more fortunate than most, but that it can turn sucky quickly- suckier than most people I might otherwise compare to well.


• Is this true of everybody?


• I'm rarely surprised as most seem to be at the amount of time that passes after the death of someone.


• Rare exception? I still can't believe how long its been since Micheal Jackson died.


• People need to hear died and dead etc.- instead of passed away and passed. Really, people aren't doing themselves or others any favors with these euphemisms at the point of death. Think about it- everybody knows there comes a time you have to start grieving yes, but also accepting that the person is dead. Why don't we start at the point uh- the person dies?


• Instead, we start the lies basically at that point.


• Daybreakers has it's moments as a vampire movie. I like that there are different levels of vampirism and that it started as a pandemic disease.


• Also kinda funny concept- wildfires were started all over the planet by animals getting caught in the sun and bursting into flames after infection.


• I can't find my shoes this morning- literally, as in I have been up for 30 minutes, I only take them off in 3 places and 90% of the time it's in one spot.


• See how terrible my life can be?

Friday's Dispatch

From the recent butterfly thing at the Botanic Gardens

• There are apocryphal urban legends about welfare recipients attempting to buy dog food with food stamps and after being told that it's not allowed saying, Looks like the pooch is having steak tonight! and returning to the meat counter to get steaks for Fido- like I said,  Urban legend but, it's bound to have happened at least once.
• The only workable, street legal version of a flying car is more of a dune buggy and is a paraplane. Past attempts at flying cars were essentially a meld of an airplane and a car that did neither very well.
• I stop dead in my tracks still when I see my tri color desert camouflage uniform in the closet. It's there pressed, heavy starched and wrapped in plastic like it's ready and waiting for another tour.
• Another recent Iraq flashback: I found my very cool first aid kit I made and equipped myself during downtime by taking a general purpose, zippered bag from Blackhawk and attaching locking straps from a sleeping bag to the back. I could then then run my uniform belt through the pouch MOLLE loops and wrap the straps around my thigh. It was filled with pressure dressings, tourniquet, scissors, needles, forceps- a lot of important stuff right there at your fingertips. The first day I wore it I treated someone with a mangled hand and another with a head injury. When I came across it the other day I opened it to take a look at the contents and when I did the first thing I saw was a pair of scissors covered in blood wrapped in a latex glove. The metallic smell of blood and dirt absolutely enveloped me. Since I used it more than once and it would be very unlike me to put tools back in the bag dirty it took me a second to remember what might have happened- then it hit me. While prepping a casualty for evacuation I was holding the patients arm up while applying pressure and wrapping it with gauze with the other hand and asked a buddy to pick the scissors up and drop them in my bag.  Hmm- OK Sarge but, they're kind of grody and covered in blood and guts and stuff.  he said. I turned to the side and said, Here in my pocket- there's latex gloves. He stuck his hand down my pocket and said, Nope there's nothing in there.  Oh, it must be in this one.  I said and turned to the other side.  Are you sure I'm digging in your pockets for gloves there, sarge?  He said as he began rifling through the pocket I presented for the next search.  Whoa! I yelped as I jumped back still holding the patients arm as my bud brushed my man junk with his hand.  Sorry, thought that was what you were hoping for there sarge- anyway, never mind me and take care of your patient.
• What a Jack O Lantern.
• One of my favorite bands doing one of my favorite songs- ladies and gentlemen Chevelle performing Vitamin R

Thursday's Thoughts

Every car has a story the owner of this car told me in the parking lot of Harbor Freight as he told me this 57 Chevy's story- in detail. I kid. He was really a cool guy and we asked.

His doggy

The window mounted AC he showed us that was stashed in the trunk

First image I found when looking for an old friend online. Man, he has changed. He used to never wear a bandanna around his neck. 

• Jared Leto is probably the best actor/singer type alive. I also like some of Harry Connick Jr's roles. Who am I missing?
• I first spelled "singer" sineger in that sentence.
• The best ever? Frank Sinatra- hands down. Watch some of his movies if you don't believe me- you wouldn't doubt that statement if you'd already seen them. The Man With The Golden Arm, The Manchurian Candidate and From Here To Eternity among the best and Suddenly- well deserving of an honorable mention.
• Took my daughter out to Chinese food for dinner and let her pick her birthday present then we installed the DVD player I got us all for an early Christmas present in the CRV. It was great.
• The CRV needs a name- CRummer?
• The above except for the pics is from a very old draft. The CRummer AKA Littlecar has been gone literally for years.
• I like to nap. I hurt a lot so I get fatigued. It makes me feel better in general and helps me use the time left in the day more wisely. I also appreciate it's sweet, sweet release and don't mind saying it and don't care who knows. Thirty minutes normally isn't enough. An hour and a half is too much and one hour is just right- perfect.
• Earlier I looked up an old friend online and found pics of him that were taken recently. It has been over 20 years since I saw him. He has aged well but man it was weird to see him well- old. He is well known in his professional circles and is an author of multiple books and speaker. He introduced me to the term yella dog but interestingly, the above poster didn't have anything to do with him even though it showed up in his search. I almost married his daughter. Maybe I'll contact him and say hey. Maybe I'll leave it alone.
• To have been produced and directed by such well known, able people and to star Gregory Peck and Susan Hayward The Snows of Kilimanjaro is one mashed up, amateurish clumsy wreck.
• I spelled amateurish correctly up there. No one is more surprised than I.
• People, especially the elderly are drawn to FG and that is a nice thing

Open Carry Thoughts

Nah, I don't believe it but that doesn't stop it from being kinda funny

• You know what is awesome about living in Texas? If I wanted to do it I know and have always known I could totally walk down the street carrying my trusty shotgun or Bushmaster (or shotgun and Bushmaster). Want to know what is awesome about living in a polite, civil and well ordered society? We don't have to do that and most of us would rather not see that happen and have to wonder as we enjoy another God given right of destroying ourselves with a bacon cheeseburger if the goob carrying his SKS into Jack In The Box is expressing his right or is there to kill us all. The open carry people are literally doing more to harm gun rights than any anti gun initiative I can think of in the past 20 years. They have made businesses and individuals believe now is a time to say, No and people are associating every other gun owner with the OC types.
• I can go to a beach and be half naked for the day and there is nothing wrong with that. I can go to a store wearing swim trunks and be barefoot as long as they don't serve food and it is legal, it doesn't mean it isn't wrong, disruptive, rude and impolite.
  
  
  
• I equate the open carry types somewhat to the 99%ers.  I am not sure what they're trying to prove,  think they going about it the wrong way regardless, their motives are suspect and their method of expressing their rights are disruptive to other people out of bounds to their right of expression.
• There are lots of things in this world I can do- it doesn't mean I should.
• Wonder what the open carry proponents would think of a group of armed black people wandering around asserting their right to carry? Hmmm? 
• When the next anti gun laws are passed here I will be shocked if there isn't a demonstrable link back to the open carry issue.
  
• Anyway, never get so caught up in worrying about your rights you forget your manners.

Wednesday's Digressions

A highly polished ruby found at the pond- no doubt left behind by one of the noble Kickapoo Indians as he foraged in the area many years ago.





• One more reason I love America. God, I love America.
• "And all the cousins have been recovered."
• From an ad for a motor home- I assume they meant cushions.
• I can't stand to see a rape scene in a movie and unless it's brief, non graphic and really pertains to the story usually cannot finish the movie.
• Another weird one in that vein: I didn't think much about the scene in Pet Semetary where the little boy gets run over by the truck until I watched it again years later when my eldest was a toddler- couldn't finish it and found it very disturbing.
• Still perplexed at how so many people of such low intelligence become leaders at the national level in this country. And still absolutely face palm and head wag simultaneously when some speak- they haven't even mastered the English language.

A Bumper Sticker

Monday's Missives

Quad .50 caliber half track. My dad was on a twin .50 that had a 26mm gun in the center while he was air defense in WWII. I asked if he ever shot down any German planes, Nah, never directly shot any down, but 5 or 6 left trailing smoke pretty heavy. Is there some old German great granddad who tells stories about strafing an American column and getting shot up by some half track that wouldn't quit and limping his ME109 or Stuka back to base?

• Manchester Orchestra: Simple Math. A sweet and simple video for the same kind of song. I love these guys.
• I ran ops in Europe with Canadians from Princess Patricia's Light Infantry. They were huge- all of them. Are they are all corn fed like that or are their infantry guys chosen somehow based on size? This wasn't just my observation- it was obvious and everyone commented on it. I still have one of their berets with the unit flash. Their wet weather gear was terrible and they would trade for ours in a heartbeat.
• I think often of the lady who ran the restaurant that more or less catered to Americans right off our post in Bad Hersfeld Germany. Is she still in business- still alive? She was kind of a motherly figure. She was very sweet to everybody, but her husband whom she kind of tormented. I think he may have drank a lot though. She loved country music and was thrilled to find out I was from Texas. She had her doubts about my truthfulness though when I told her I did not own any horses and had never seen a gunfight.
• Her name was Mary.
• Zac's tent has this springy tunnel coming off of it that you can fold up. I bet you could make a cool one man tent out that concept by increasing it's size dimensionally and covering it in Goretex and putting some flaps on the ends. It would take about 2 seconds to set up.
• I'm a genius.
• It's why I'm so rich.

Have you got color in your cheeks? Do you ever get the feeling that you can't shift the tide?. I guess my answer would be, sometimes and nearly every day buddy.

Friday's Dispatch

One for the ladies: a very young and hot Christopher Walken. You're welcome.

• I could not tell you how many dogs and cats I've brought home through the years and found homes for them after cleaning them up and getting them healthy. It's too bad more people don't this it would save our economy millions and involve more people in something that really makes you feel good about yourself.
• The town I live in now is very proud of its animal shelter and touts the fact prisoner labor is used for care and related projects. This is great for the prisoners especially and helpful for the budget but, I think that could be misleading to a casual reader- that place must cost at least 200,000 dollars annually.
• The town I grew up in just finished a shelter and officials are proud they saved the taxpayers 200,000 dollars- the cost was brought down to 800,000 dollars. 
• Until only a few years ago there was no where in that town for an abused woman human being to turn.
• The above from an old draft clean up day.

  

  Found during my search for a bike. Ad said it was, " Unique and attention getting."

• Efram Zimbalist Jr has died at 95. He was one of my favorite actors as a boy. He played golf on the final day of his life his family said.
• Funny difference between men and women: Our supervisor is a literal stud when it comes to drawing blood even though he is up in the ivory tower today and has left the trenches. One day he passed my office after a female nursing buddy attempted a difficult stick on a patient. I saw him and said, Hey, man- it doesn't look like you have anything going on- wanna help us with this stick? Two female nurses were just nearly flabbergasted. One of them said later, Kevin. He's the supervisor. You just barked at him to draw that blood! I know a female would not look at it this way but most men would- I know he is the supervisor and don't need to be reminded of that but he is a skilled nurse and will always enjoy using those skills. He knows that I know he is the supervisor. Men also use and respond well to playful familiarity that is not disrespectful. We don't mind being reminded who we are and where we came from- women can rarely say that I think or at least are much less likely to think that way.

  

  Simple Photoshop that will forever change how you look at Sam Clemens.

• When I ordered both my dual fuel stove and Serta brand air mattress I had them shipped to my house as the shipping was free and to keep from driving 4 minutes to the Walmarts- which I do a couple of times a month anyway. I am not sure if that is awesome or atrocious.
  

My Earliest Memory

These pictures represent what I'm pretty sure is my earliest memory- the Appolo 11 moon landing July 16 1969. I was 5 years old. My mom and brother during a converstion once doubted I could have possibly remembered this until I related remembering my brother blocking the view taking pictures of the television image and recording the sound with a reel to reel recorder. I also remember my dad questioned the general value of the effort and doubting the picture would take anyway, due to the glare of the flash. When I think about it I can remember everything including the smells of the old house.