Friday's Dispatch

The wily and elusive homeless peeps in their natural habitat.

• There was a commercial on this morning ( 08/23/2014 ) that to sell the product the slogan," It is so good " was presented as being trademarked.

•  They are officially out of ideas now.

  

  FG feeds a pig in a blanket to a turtle at the turtle pond

  
  

  

  We taught this couple the mysteries of turtle feeding.

• There is another video out now of  police shooting a black male. The person was advancing on the officer holding a knife in an overhand position and ignoring commands to stop. When he was as reported approx 10-12 steps away, the officer fired. A witness described the guy as, No apparent threat.
• We will not only believe what we want to believe- we will see what we want to see. 

• We ate at the OG (Olive Garden) last night. It wasn't straight up nasty but nothing was fresh. It was all obviously set up to be ready for the rush. Another table complained to the manager- the first time I've ever seen that in the OG.

  

  Depending on where you're standing in the Botanic Gardens this either looks like 2 Vs or a W.

•  We get cause and effect wrong- a lot. There may not be a better example than drug abuse and correlated  legal problems and mental illness. An uninformed person will say drug abuse led to the mental problems which led to the legal problems. That view is almost always incorrect. The person will have an undiagnosed mental illness and turns to illegal drugs to alleviate symptoms.
• A neighbors car got towed recently. The tags and inspection were out for a long time then it had a flat. They took the flat tire off and there was a new battery and cables laying beside the car for days. Having the tire off and being up on a jack brought attention to it and it got tagged for towing. I felt bad for them and tried to catch them working on it to see if I could help. If not the worst feeling ever- it must be a bad one to have your car towed. 

  

  We want people to know.

  
  

  

  The coolest company symbol ever. Symbol? That isn't right- what is this?

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

  

  When the blood is flowing and bones are showing you can do a lot with 2 ABD pads, 2 bandannas, a roll of 4 inch tape and an aluminum splint

  
  

  

  Her son was lost at a park. I cannot imagine- what an awful feeling that must be.

All The Bands or Performers I Can Remember Seeing In My Whole Life

Passion Pit

IAMDYNAMITE

Beck

BUSH

Grouplove

Deftones

Fitz and the Tantrums

Willie Nelson

Ray Wiley Hubbard

David Allen Coe

Josh Abbott

Charlie Pride

The Joy Formidable

FUN

Metric

Silversun Pickups

Lukas Nelson

The Avett Brothers

Bastille

The Neighourhood

J Roddy Walston and the Business

Deep Purple

Ricky Trevino

Joe Paul Nichols

Mountain

Meatloaf

Wednesday's Digressions

• Some military analysts and politicians are spelling out ISIS to keep from calling it by their cool sounding acronym. There are a few things going on with that attention to detail but not least of which they are over thinking a situation and coming to the wrong conclusion but they are also majoring in pretty minor stuff as they don't know what else to do- they are literally and completely out of their depth and dumbfounded. They're grasping at straws.
• Dodge has announced a Hellcat edition Charger as a followup to the Challenger version.
• Last night (08/14/2014) we ordered at Sonic and sat there the whole time instead of leaving with the food and even ordered ice cream as we were ready to hit the road. I cannot recall the last that happened- 10-15 years ago?
• Do you remember when the awning supports at Sonics were directly in front of where you parked and occasionally somebody would put their truck in drive instead of reverse and strike the pole when they shot forward instead of backward? It would sound like a bomb went off the way it echoed.
• Another old Sonic building trivia: I have seen at least two converted into used car lots- one was in Decatur TX but for the life of me I cant recall the location of the other.
• There was a lot of back slapping and high fiving and talk of Inter agency cooperation... The streets are safe again... Task force this and Task force that... going on over the capture of War Machine by US Marshals. He was caught in his hometown (first place to look) 300 miles away from the crime scene a week after the crime and when he was nearly out of money. It wouldn't surprise me if he stood in the doorway to his hotel room and gave the pizza delivery guy a good long look and then ate his pizza knowing it was going to be the last he would have for a long time once the pizza guy called in a tip and then awaited the inevitable.
• I just saw (08/16/2014) a teaser to the effect, Creator of Walking Dead hints that Daryl may be gay. Omigosh nobody cares. Are they as the activists have always said, We are are just like you. We are your brothers, sisters, your cities firefighters and police officers, your doctor... or are they some kind of precious jewels we have coo and fawn over every time we turn around?
• Good grief.

Monday's Missives

• PSY's Gangam Style video has over 2 billion views on the Yoochoobs. That is bind moggling to me.
• If I had a business my promotional gimme caps and coffee mugs would be the coolest ever.
• It would be interesting to know how much the search efforts for Bowe Berghdal cost and if any lives were lost or men were wounded looking for him. The cost had to be in the  millions. At least some of the missions used FA18s for air cover which are bound to cost 30,000 dollars (semi educated guess) per hour to operate. Plenty of other missions were bound to have Apache CAS.
• Update: Yesterday (06/13/2014) I heard on the radio 6 soldiers were lost in the searches for Berghdal. I just read these losses only had tenuous links to Berghdal as they weren't missions sent out to look for him.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Neon trees Animal
• Turner Falls and putt-put are on the list for this weekend (06/14/2014). Lets hope I get to use my new Columbia rain jacket. I cannot imagine it being any drier. Yesterday I saw a tree chasing the neighbors dog trying to get itself peed on.
• Speaking of the super Hornet- that aircraft costs over a 40 billion dollars a piece. That doesn't even sound real. As my concept of money goes that can't be right- right?! That is a small country GDP and we have made over 500 of those things. Correction: It was supposed to be 40 million- which is still wrong. 40 billion?! The Donald is right as usual- they're closer to 70 million.
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  Life and death evidently abound at Clark Gardens. The little disturbances in the water are minnows eating it's guts where a baby turtle had previously been working.

  
  

  

  See what I mean? Death everywhere up in here!

• A friendly acquaintance bears a passing similarity to Kiera Knightly. If I asked you who she looks like you may or may not independently call it but if I gave you the nudge then yeah, you would absolutely see it. The weird thing? I am nearly sure she intentionally plays the resemblance up in the way she smiles.
• I have never played hooky from work at my present job as we each have about all the work we want to do- when we are fully staffed to share the load. My nursing buddies seem to feel the same way. If they lose any part of that ethic though, mine will likewise go right out the window.
  
  
  

  

  A duck laid an egg on the little dock. I think her motherly instincts are a tad lacking. I watched a red eared slider turtle think about crawling up on to the dock and was hoping mightily he would eat it.

  
  

  

  You thought I was kidding about the death thing.

  
  
  
• An old get out of work trick: When you call in tell the boss you have diarrhea. The phone call will end in about 4 seconds flat as they don't want to talk about it any further. Then when you come back to work they will not ask if you're better etc. as they again- don't want to talk about it.
• On my wedding day I will sing this song to my darling bride and no one there will ever forget it.

Friday's Dispatch

• Part of my schtick is to act like I hate FGs dumb cat. One day he and I were playing. When he would turn away I would woosh my open hand over his head so he would react and try to figure out what was going on after he felt the breeze. As FG walked back into the room I wooshed my hand toward him and of course he stood up causing my hand to impact his head looking for all the world like I intentionally and without provocation slapped the taste out of his mouth. Yeah, I had a tough time explaining that one.
• My son is an ROV pilot for offshore oil rigs. That may not be the coolest job there is but it would come dangerously close to it if you asked me and I would trade places in oh... about a heartbeat.
• 254- the number of posts  I have scheduled.
  
  
  
  
  

  

  What the?!

  

  Is that!?

  

  Oh man...

  
  
  
  
  

  

  One of the workers was making the world safer as we walked out.

• Hey angel, consider your position. Framed to be consumed. Savory, savoring your sympathy- Jawbox from 1994.
• I had veal parmigiana at Mama Mia's on Magnolia in Funkytown yesterday (08/09/2014) it was terrible- literally foul. 

Wednesday's Digressions

• Within 30 minutes minutes recently I met a patient and then an interpreter who were from Babylon Iraq and was introduced to Thievery Corporation's Richest Man in Babylon album.
• What does all that mean you ask? Nothing, I just took note of it.

  

  The sticker lies- Willie ain't fragile. He has been at it 80 years and is still goin' strong.

• Bailor All Saints customer service is tough to beat- man they are good.
• People with addiction issues will always comment on how my office smells and will start breaking down what they see to try and figure me out. One went so far as to take note of the toothbrush he saw in my desk drawer and make the assumption I dipped snuff. Very perceptive- I don't dip and have not in years but that is where I developed the habit of caring for my oral health as I do.
• I think the reason they engage in those behaviors is of course they've been in dangerous situations where they have to be able to figure people out to survive but more importantly- it is just they way they're wired.

  

  
  

• The movie My Girl just faded to black- what a good movie- just a good movie.
• No, I didn't cry at the end. My allergies have been bothering me.
• When I'm rich I'll have go-karts made of bumper cars. The pole that would normally connect to the power grid above will just shoot sparks. Mine will be orange and yours will be blue.
  
  

  

  Get it?! It is a tattoo of feet on her foot!

  
  
• When Chernobyl blew I was in Germany. One of the NBC specialists was out taking readings with some type of radiacmeter. He was standing to the right of the street coming into McPheeter's Barracks in Bad Hersfeld. I stopped and talked to him I asked if it was dangerous and asked him to check me. He passed the meter over me and said, Nah, you're good. Its about like getting a chest X-Ray.
• I sensed he was told to say that. Not that there was a great risk but they didn't know and had something ready to tell us to placate us and something about that galls me still.

  

  Everybody wants to rescue something.

Monday's Missives

Mexican king snake found in a drain in Scotland- demonstrative of the multiple problems with mans fascination with animals and the trade in same.

• A few weeks ago I gave an Iraqi patient who is fluent in English the number for one of my contacts in the translator/interpreter network underworld. He called them and was not only offered a job and training but the classes and test fees will be paid for by the organization and as his is worn out they are buying him a new prosthetic leg and paying for his physical therapy.
• Every once in a while I get something right- don't get too used to it though.

  

  Miss Landmine contestants

  
  
  
  
• For Robert F. Scott's Antarctic expedition he chose to incorporate ponies, sled dogs and 3 tractors into his plans. It was destined to fail before the severe weather hit. Another interesting related fact- part of the reason Amundson succeeded and Scott's party starved, froze and dehydrated to death was Scott's insistence it be a scientific journey to gather samples and take readings etc. along the way not just a race to the pole for the sake of getting there. This is a really odd fatal error. If he had slogged to the pole and not worried about anything but getting there and back alive- he could have wrote his own ticket and done anything he wanted on the next expedition.
• Of course he would also have had to leave the ponies and tractors behind...
• Unsolicited outdoor tip for the day: Almost no matter where and when you go in the great outdoors in the US of A if you carry a backpack with a water reservoir, a water filter, headlamp, some bandannas, two ways of making a fire, a knife, some 550 cord (50-100 ft.), a trash bag and two space blankets it will only cost you a few pounds of weight and you still might be a knucklehead and get lost but at least you'll be a live knucklehead.

  

  Ad said to the effect," I'm a single mom and my ex husband set fire to my car. I don't know where to find parts for it...." That is code for, I talked to the body shop and if you buy it from me it will cost twice what the car is worth to fix it and you run the risk of getting killed by my ex or at the very least having him burn it to the ground when he sees it and assumes I still own it.

• It depends on the server and the situation but I most often get perturbed when  they ask about what I'm reading when I have a book at the table. There is a snap judgement where I sense their motive (maybe incorrectly) and if I sense they're genuine I'll engage them, if I sense they're sucking up to enhance their tip I'll shut down- quick.
• It is 05/18/2014@0740 and Zac is rubbing Crayons together to see what colors are formed on the paper.
• Formed? That gets the point across but I am sure that isn't correct.

  

  Her eye looks sad. How is that possible- one eye? It seems like it would take both to form an expression. Anyway, I am sure it was something I did.

  
  

Jay Adams Dead In Mexico at 53

I didn't know which pic of Jay to use- old prison tatted Jay or young Jay so I settled on this one. It captures multiple moments in time perfectly. For a lot of  people he was still trapped in the early empty pool skateboarding days- the guy played by Emile Hirsch. Undoubtedly, Jay was like any middle aged guy- he teleported back to those days often I'm sure. Also, as any human but especially somebody with his demons- how many people really knew him? At the very least there is plenty to wonder about the guy whose face is half hidden.

I have no clear recall how I learned about the type of skating he pioneered which involved low down free form moves borrowed from surfing. There were some pics and posters and magazines I saw somewhere and there is a vague recall of seeing something on TV or a movie. I fell for it though and slalomed down every paved and concreted hill in Decatur TX. Every drainage and every overpass was mine.

I could move from front to back of a moving skate deck like the average person could walk on a sidewalk and could ride sitting on my heels over the front deck as good as anybody around could ride in a traditional posture.

My first skateboard had a wooden deck and metal wheels. It could not have come into my possession anything after 1972.

A few years later a red plastic board with nylon or poly wheels materialized.

I still miss the metal wheeled board and can feel my legs vibrating thinking about that hunk of junk.

Even more I miss that dirty, sweaty feral boy who put thousands of miles on skateboards in the 7 square miles of Decatur. He drank hose water from random houses when the elderly lady who would offer lemonade wasn't well enough to watch for him and carried Coke bottles to Ray's for honey buns and chocolate milk to power through those miles. He got hassled by The Man and the Laird Brothers and the Owner of Lee's Grocery but Red the barber and Burt the barber were oddly cool to him.

I miss young Kev.

I bet old Jay missed young Jay to the end too.

She calls me Goliath and I wear the David mask

I guess the stones are coming too fast for her now

You know I'd like to believe this nervousness will pass

All the stones that are thrown are building up a wall

I have become cumbersome to this world

I have become cumbersome to my girl

Wednesday's Digressions With A Pictorial Tour Of Weatherford America

I had never seen a grill guard on a  tractor before- wonder why it is't more common?

• When what we call the media didn't like Paula Deen they put up unshopped pics of her looking gray, tense and haggard. They must love her again, as when she was announcing a new network they had her tanned up, wrinkle free, many pounds lighter and her teeth would glow in the dark from sheer whiteness.
• A headline just taught me a JetBlue pilot was caught in a drug sweep and charged with heroin possession. His companion was charged with prostitution. If true- he just butt raped his life.
• I just saw a headline: " Kerry says Putin has no soul ".  As soon as your speech demonstrates you engage in that type of fantastical thinking you've lost the battle. You are imagining you know the other person's heart and since you don't; all of your assumptions and most of your decisions will probably be wrong.

  

  We have a bank housed in a double wide trailer. That pleases me for some reason.

• It is undoubtedly not his fault but when I log onto Barry's blog the cookies that get downloaded to my computer can bog it down so much the machine won't run and I'll sometimes have to force a shut down and then bring it back up and clear the history/cookies.
• This morning (07/22/2014) I saw a patient in my office who is 71 and has been homeless for 3 months. He slept in his car for 2 of them and shelters for 1.
•  David Bowie released a crap-fest of an album back in the 80s or 90s that had that awful song Lets Dance. The legend is he released that whole terrible album knowing it was terrible- as that was the intention all along as he had been trying to get out of his contract to make another record for that label. I get it. It makes sense.

  

  Legendary burgers that are good- not great. Oddly the last time I went they only offered American cheese. How odd, how very odd.

• If a bum starts working me with a stupid story about needing money to go to a new job or take his wife to the hospital as she is pregnant I will always shut him down and I am very unlikely to give him anything. If he just says, Hey, I'm broke. Can I get something from you? I am very likely to give him a little something- the honesty is refreshing and disarming.

  

  The best dentist and hygienist and most efficiently run dental office my family ever used was a Monarch Clinic and we only went the first time because they accepted our insurance, had an opening and it was a semi emergent situation. We stayed loyal until that location (in Fort Worth ) closed.

• Recently I met someone who bottle feeds baby deer for a living.
• Recently I saw an old ex. She has lunch lady arms.
• Today I listened to The Cure esentially all day at work and I am a better man for it.

  

  A name not as cute as the founder thinks but OK sandwiches. It annoys me and others because you have to mark the type of sandwich and how you want it on the outside of the bag and hand it in to complete your order. I think they think we will think it is fun. It isn't completely perturbing but yeah- a little annoying.

I opened the Ziosk thing at the dinner table last night and the first headline on the USA Today app was his death. I blurted out," I bet it was suicide. Guys like him tend to kill themselves." Where were YOU when Mork and Mindy came out?

Monday's Missives

Snack time.

• We store blood overnight in a refrigeator for lab pick up in the morning. After 2 incidences of tubes being dropped and left in a waiting room and/or a lab requisition falling out and doing the same I began bagging them together in a larger bag. It made sense- it covered some sloppy nurse sins if we didn't seal the smaller sample bags, protected patient's privacy, made the lab ladie's lives easier and kept AIDS infected blood from being tossed around by children in the waiting room. The funny thing about my using some intiative to do that. One is of course they expect it now and two and even more odd is, it blew their minds at first. It is obviously the same type of labs destined for the same laboratory that is stored in the same place it has been for years but they brought it to me holding it away, Uh... is this ours? Then another came and said, What. Am. I. I Supposed. To Do. With. This?
• Don't get me started.
• Lab lady- how arcane but that is what they're called.
  
  
  
  
  
  
• When you go to Rodeo Goat in Fort Worth as we all will someday have the Sugar Burger (I call it Sugar Booger) it is made with grilled peaches and candied bacon and will change your life.
• Tell 'em I sent ya.
• Somebody keeps sending me videos from their Youtube page as new ones are added. Did I sign up for that?
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Recently somebody sent me an invitation to Twitter. I passed. I don't know why I would want it or what I would do with it. It just seems like another way to cause trouble, embarrass yourself, waste time and be tracked. Later I received another invitation that said they were still waiting and as a kicker it said," Did you know ______ _______ is also on Twitter?" Said person is not a friend in common in any way with the invitee but is my best friend (in real life) and we have never discussed him at all and especially not by name. Somewhere there is a computer program that has discovered a link between him and me (Emails I presume) and related it back to me through her. If that doesn't scare you- well, that scares me.
• "I think I'm growing delirious with hunger yo." The last Email I received.
• Bob Dylan and Harry Dean Stanton performing Hava Nigila   vהבה נגילה