Monday's Missives

• Although it has been a while, I have read everything extant written by Julius Caesar. He was a very vivid but simple writer. He gets dinged for being self serving. Pfftht- so what. That is true of all writing by any general I can think of and he is way more interesting (and a better writer) than any I have ever read.
• For always comes out fro first when I am typing.
• Drive was  a surprisingly pretty good movie to me with great music although it had a terrible ending.
• I look forward to the next Judge Dredd movie which is supposed to happen soon.
• MIB is still good. It has aged real well. It will be a classic and people will still be watching it 50 years from now.
• A friendly acquaintance could not use her makeup to look more like a clown if she tried. A better friend should tell her. I wish you could see it- it is the only way you would believe it.
• Often I use pencils to write. Recently, I had been using a mechanical one that I presumed the eraser had been used up on as there was no eraser visible.  I used a broken wooden pencil- just for the eraser. That is- I used it until I looked on the side of the mechanical one and read the instruction, Twist For Eraser.
• Duh.
• Why pencils you ask? They never stop working, they won't burst in your pocket and they write from any angle. Also- I like the sound the lead makes as it scratches along the paper.
• It has been a long time since I built anything.
• It still amazes me that IEDs have not been used more often on US soil.
• I have been stationed at both Fort Jackson and Fort Hood which are named after two of my favorite generals.
• This draft was written in my notebook on 09/06/2013 @2335 in case you are keeping tabs.

Friday's Dispatch

 

• The US produces about a billion pounds of cheese every month.
• Recently a female showed me an incision line from a surgery, Since you know- you are a nurse and all... This is the second time (at least) this has happened to me and I may be forgetting a third.
• Dogs are incredibly expensive to keep.
• Yesterday (today is 04/15/2016) I went to visit a neighbor. As we walked through the breezeway to go up to her place I got a whiff of body odor which I somehow processed correctly I am very sure as not belonging to her. My interpretation: somebody else walked through the same area long enough in time prior to our passing through that we did not see nor hear them yet- they left a fog of stench behind that would gag a maggot on a gut wagon.
• Nasty.
• I went through a war and missed bathing only I think about 4 days and had to walk a couple hundred meters one way often in 120 degree to go wash my butt- but I did it. We can argue about a lot of things in life but there are just some things that civilized folks do and bathing regularly is one of them.
• A nursing buddy spent his formative years helping his dad who worked as a maintenance man on apartments and rental properties. Consequently, he can do just about any home repair you can imagine. I can guess back in the day he considered those times a whippin' but those experiences have paid off in ways he could not have ever guessed they would.
• What an interesting story Edward Lin's life was and how sad it is if spying allegations against him made by the US Navy are true. I mean- he literally butt raped an interesting and inspiring life story.
• Recently (today is 04/22/2016) I read an article about some heinous suicide bomb attack in some desert crap-hole. The tease said something like, Dozens killed and scores injured! When I actually  read the article 24 were killed and 40 injured so yeah, technically they were correct as 12 is a dozen and 20 is a score.

Thursday's Thoughts With Frankie And Johnny

• 03/30/2915 and I'm watching frankie and johhny for the first time. 
• I bet you have to be smarter than anybody gives credit to be a good short order cook.
• Its not the end of the world- one of my favorite sayings. Now that I've seen F And J if you say it to me I'll reply with a sly grin, Oh, I know- I've seen it.
• I loved Marvin Hamlisch when I was a kid.
• I was a weird kid.
• They mention mercurochrome. 
• Frankie just rubbed her hand across the rim of a dirty, nasty trash can in a nasty alley as she threw a coffee cup away- no way a real person would do that.
• I gather women like Nathan Lanes character.
• Nathan Lane ages well.
• There is a Club Med poster on her bathroom door. The medical detachment in my gaurd unit called their area Club Med and decorated it with flamingoes and palm trees.
• The symbolism when theyre making out behind the truck and the guy throws open the door of the truck was oddly ham fisted. 
• Something I read indicated that people of the time thought Pacino and Pfeiffer were too big for their roles.
• Its a nice movie
• The music is great.
• We were a couple before we met.
• Is handball still a thing in prisons?
• I wonder where Frankie's engraved bowling ball is now?
• Why would anyone pretend they were from Altoona?
• Its a potato. Very romantic.
• Aspirations. Have you been shaving again?
• Everything I want is in this room.
• The old trope of watching people across the way in other apartments is old and a trope but strangely effective.
• The end was an absolute trope and perfect.

Wednesday's Digressions

• Only recently I learned Lambo started as a tractor manufactuer. How did I miss that? They still make them and they're really cool looking and supposedly good.
• When I'm President of the World and money is no object I'll absolutely have a Lamborghini tractor to bale hay on my ranch.
• This morning 08/11/2015 I had the best crepes ever at IHOP. It was maybe the second or third time ever I did the, Send my compliments to the chef! thing. No, I didn't literally say that but you get the idea.
• U2 is playing on the overhead- wow, they are awful.
• On the way to work I heard Tupac singing about how he would be, a baller 'til he died.
• Man, would love to hear the music he'd be making now.
• This morning (08/14/2015) in the Walmarts somebody dropped a pallet on the floor. Holy smokes, it sounded like a gunshot for a second. I even got a little sick feeling from an adrenaline dump.
• There are two really pretty ladies working at the McDonalds I sometimes visit.
• Yesterday (08/18/2015) I saw a truck with a logo for a company named Stallion Trucking. The logo had a snorting bull. I wish you could have seen my, Huh?! face. I may have missed something but Stallion doesn't make us think bull- right?
• Cecil the lion made you a moron.

Monday's Missives

• Your unsolicited nursing advice for the day: Most of the time if left alone poison ivy lesions will self resolve. However if the areas are large, continue to spread, have warmth to them and/or are near your eyes, mouth or private parts you should see a doctor.
• It is 0708 on 04/04/2015.
• Today is opening day of Scarborough Fair. They are also having a big deal for Easter at Clark Gardens. There will be a sunrise service at the gardens tomorrow. 
• The sunrise this morning was really pretty- pinks, purples and finally gold. Nice.
• Winona Rider's character in Mr. Deeds mentions falling out of Boo Radley's apple tree and breaking her arm. Boo was a character from To Kill A Mockingbird.
• I have never read that book- should I?
• My guess, and it is baseless really is that it would be whippin' to try and finish.
• Long ago I said I would read War And Peace and have made multiple valiant efforts. I can slog my way through long, dense books but holy smokes- I felt like I had literally been beaten after reading some of it and gave up. People that knew me were surprised and recommended I try again and stick it out. I seem to recall it being recommended to watch one of the movies  based on it and read a Cliff's Notes first before reading the book but knowing all that makes it more of a beating. I feel beat down thinking about it now as I write this.
• Teachers back in my day would call it cheating if you used Cliff's Notes on a reading assignment. Instead, they should have been actively used in the class prior to the assignment if they really wanted the material to be enjoyed, absorbed, understood and retained. 
• It is weird the things we get wrong.

Friday's Dispatch

• I am in Ardmore OK after a road trip across a little of North Texas. It wasn't exactly epic or even all that fun. It was intended to be a longer journey Westward but my back started bothering me, I got lonely and simultaneously I saw an exit I recognized. After lingering a bit in El Norte de Tejas I ended up taking a back road to Ardmore as we all will someday I suppose. In a minute I'll walk to Prairie Kitchen and add to my arteries cumulative destruction.
• They have a big giant omelet there that comes with two sides. My omelet of choice is hamburger and cheddar cheese. For the sides I get hash browns and pancakes. It easily could feed two people. I don't know what it is called. I call it the Big Nasty.
• On the road yesterday I saw a guy walking down the service road parallel to the Interstate. He was wearing a motorcycle helmet that appeared to be painted silver although I couldn't be too sure as I declared judgment to be the better part of valor and steered well clear of him.
• Daisy Gardner is very attractive to me.
• To be more conversational and promote a comfortable environment when speaking to a patient in my office I sometimes recline my chair back a little and adopt a relaxed pose with my hands on the arms of the chair and my legs slightly spread. Recently two different people- one male and one female have checked out my package as I did so.
• The movie What Women Want is way better than I thought it would be which made me like it better than I probably should. It also has some great music.
• When I leave a hotel I always bag trash up in a shopping bag and drop it near the pile of towels I have also made to make the cleaners life easier.
• The cleaner in the motel I am at now is a guy, His name is Bob. He is Indian (the Patel kind).

Something I Have That You Do Not:

an eye tester light box thingy (excuse me for being so technical).

Thursday's Thoughts

• "Everyone, Everywhere, Everyday"- the odd (at best) motto for a county health department I have interacted with. What if I were Chinese living in China and needed services on a Sunday?
• That is a very odd motto.
• Here comes Pete the meat puppet
• The other day (today is 05/05/2016) I heard somebody named Cole Beasley hawking a product or service on The TICKET. I have no idea who he is. He sounded white. Is he a NASCAR driver or a golfer or...?
• The first supercar I would buy if money were no object would be a Mclaren. The other 2 sports cars at the top of my list would be Corvette and a Dodge Viper ACR.
• I have it all figured out- don't I?
• It is 05/16/2016 and no one seems too concerned about Venezuela's imminent (and likely inevitable) collapse.
• This past weekend REI had its grand opening at the Fort worth location. They were giving away Camelback sports bottles and REI gift cards to the first 200 people in line. We got there an hour before it opened-  the line looked like it was for a Beatles reunion concert. There were at least a few hundred people. Seriously- say the word, Free and people lose their minds.

Wednesday's Digressions/Old Draft Clean Up

• Personally I don't know what caused Harry Reid's boo-boos but the stories that relate them back to him exercising seem to be a clumsy cover up. Maybe he has blood pressure problems and has been fainting. Regardless, to hide the health issue the lie in their minds had to be the exact opposite of the truth and more or less heroic. I don't know exactly what was going on but there is a rat in that woodpile somewhere.
• I do not know the last time I ate a fish I caught. 
• Does a person who enjoys fishing ever tire of the anticipation verses reward component? I feel excitement when I cast a line- like it is my first time ever and when I get a bite I know it is probably an 8 ounce perch but my heart jumps up in my throat like it is a monster bass. Regardless, there is probably something about the way people are wired that makes certain people more into it than others. It wouldn't surprise me at all if it worked more or less like gambling or drugs in the brain.
• The use of the Nook for writing these posts is growing on me a bit but still not my favorite thing in the world for daily use.
• Somebody at work had brain surgery recently- just a year or so after losing her home in a tornado. 
• Dear Universe, Let's agree- she has all her bad luck out of the way for a long, long time, OK?

Sometimes I Don't Even Know Where To Start- Do The Words, "Student, Clash, Riot Police" And Phrase "Change To Education System" Go Together To You?

Reuters / Wednesday, May 11, 2016

A student clashes with riot police during a demonstration to demand changes in the education system in Santiago, Chile, May 11, 2016. REUTERS/Ivan Alvarado

Recently, Teh News Out Of Austin Has Been About Lyft And Uber Both Stating Their Intention To Leave Austin As The City Is Going To Require Their Drivers To Be Fingerprinted Ostensibly To Promote Public Safety

My first thought was, Safety?! Bull- whoever dreamed that up owns stock in a company that fingerprints folks ( or their brother in law owns it). This a bit facetious and might be unlikely but my second thought was, Promote safety!? How many people will die because they can't get a ride so they drive a car when they shouldn't or they get run over while walking or riding a bike when otherwise they would have Ubered a ride?

This is a good example of how the world doesn't work the way you think it does and just because something makes you feel better doesn't mean it is actually making a difference.

Monday's Missives

• There is only one season of Portlandia on Netflix.
• I am eat up with poison ivy. It is miserable. The lesions broke out in the middle of the night. I initally assumed bedbugs and was up at 3 am trying to figure out how to spot the things. Is it a certain color light? Is it a certain spectrum of fluorescent? Am I thinking of the wrong line of detection altogether?
• Anyway- I'm going crazy with the itch.
• Edit: it wasn't poison ivy- I am allergic to a soap I used containing Shea butter and almond oil.
• What do you mean you want to see my man card?!
• Two items that are shoplifted like crazy- condoms and pregnancy tests. There are some great moral and social lessons in that fact to be discerned; although I am not smart enough to gleen them.
• Remo Williams The Adventure Begins- what I'm watching.
• It is 1739 on 04/03/2015.
• Omigosh. I may literally lose my mind from this itching. I have tried hydrocortisone, ice, covering the lesions with bandages, leaving them open to air... My half hearted Zen attempt at becoming one with the agony is the only thing less effective than those desparate attempts at self treatment.
• Fred Ward's mustache is epic in Remo. 
• Occasionally through the years I have remembered a scene in a movie where a character kept his coffee cup in the panties of a little pig on the dash of his car. The pig wears a Nets jersey. To save my life I could never remember the movie the scene occurred in- mystery solved.
• It was you Remo all along.

Saturday's Soliloquy

• A favorite website has downloaded viruses and adware to my computer. Is there a chance the owner does not know and a third party has piggybacked on to his site and the offending programs comes from another server?
• As of this writing (01/03/2015 @0508) it has rained continuously for most of 72 hours. We may be in trouble if it continues and the temperature drops further.
• Snowageddon!
• Icepocalypse!
• Last night the food at Logan's was very mediocre. The manager was more intent on helping the servers get their orders out than keeping the place whipped into shape. Yep, it helps for them to do that some- it was all he was doing though. He was running himself ragged.
• Lackadaisical leadership is no leadership.
• You don't see as many guys who are obviously ex cons managing restaurants as you did in the past. They may still be there and if so I'm thankful they have a job and somebody is giving them a chance but normally they stick out to me and I haven't taken note of any in a while. In some prisons they have (had?) management classes that are supported by practical experience in the facility kitchen.
• From time to time when something horrible happens in a place other than Texas (especially in places with strict gun control) the thought, That wouldn't happen here- they woulda got shot in the face crosses my mind and I'm not sure if that is awesome or appalling.
• Although I'm having some symptomatic rebound (nose running hot water) from stopping all the cold and allergy meds I may be over my bout of Korean Krud. I may live.

Friday's Dispatch

• Once I met a woman whom I had sort of admired from afar after a few friendly interactions. She was maybe not hot per se but she definitely had it going on. Somebody told me a bit about her- she did a good work at her job, made lots of money, was well educated and nice etc. So I thought I would be interested in meeting her and maybe get to know her. Holy smokes that voice! She sounded like a constipated Minnie Mouse.
• Two times this past week (today is 03/28/2015) I saw two wrecks on 30 where cars were struck from behind and the wreckee's cars ended up 200 plus feet down the road in a ditch. The safe money is on texting.
• Still enjoying Danger 5 although for me it is as I have learned more well suited to occasional individual episode viewing as opposed to binge watching.
• I am giving Garfunkel and Oates a chance. I don't know where I saw those girls before but I remember hilarious musical bits.
• When my dad died for weeks or even months afterward I would occasionally hear a car door close outside about the time he would normally come home from work. I would go to to the front door and no one would be there; not even somebody next door- nobody.
• Somebody I know has a family member whose sexuality is debated. She said she wanted my opinion on the subject. She said, So my husband gets invited to his house to watch the game. He said to my husband, We're also going to have a pillow fight... He's gay. I blurted out. Wait there's more she said. He is gay I said bluntly. Yeah I guess so she said with some resignation and oddly as if she really needed confirmation from me.

Thursday's Thoughts

• When I got out of my truck at the office a cloud of grackles flew overhead for at least 5 minutes and I'm not sure I could see the end of them when I got tired of watching and went inside. The flock was elongated and at it's widest point must have been a couple hundred feet wide.
• One of my nursing buddies had her office door closed for a while yesterday and when she opened it and came out her eyes were red and face swollen from crying. She didn't want to talk about it. It broke my heart.
• For a while I have been taking an aspirin a day to hopefully keep the ole ticker ticking. Consequently, I bleed like a stuck pig from the slightest insult to my skin.
• My beard is getting crazy white and I am oddly OK with that and even embracing it a bit. The first thing I thought when I looked at myself in the mirror this morning was, I wish it would get it over with and go into full on white-out mode.
• Until I had the beard I would go days without looking at myself in the mirror and my guess is that is very unusual.
• The word, "riblets" is nasty and disgusting.
• In 2002 the bullet that killed John Wesley Hardin sold for 80,000 dollars- not the gun- the bullet.
• To the Frontier Tank Lines driver who tailgated me for miles this morning (11/18/2015) on I30 before jerking over into the number 1 lane to cut off another driver about to pass you on the left: Dude. Are. You. %$#! Crazy!? Carrying 7500 gallons (I think that is right) of something marked flammable and you were driving like a maniac. I mean for real- I was going 5 mph over the speed limit and you left me behind like I was standing still. Oh, and your red bandana do rag thing looked retarded.
• Ha!

Wednesday's Digressions

• Occasionally I still hear the trivia that the invention of doughnuts stemmed from ships captains wanting a cake product they could put on the handles of their ship's wheel. Sometimes when we consider whether people did or did not do something in the past we should ask ourselves, Does that even make sense- would we do something similar in similar circumstances?
• What makes sense is also the simplest answer: Doughnuts became a delicious thing without their hole. People said Hey, this is some delicious goodness up in here but yuk- what about these undone, doughy centers?! Somebody played the role of the smartest person in the room and standing up said, Uh, the doughy centers are the problem- let's cut the center out...
• Ta da!
• I have come up with my viral video idea. Your mind will be blown.
• The main source of traffic to this blog really shocked me when I saw my tracking tool for the first time.
• I don't like the expression, From the get-go. It doesn't make sense and fails as an expression for that reason and as it does not sound like normal conversation.
• Get- go. What is that?!
• Anchorman 2 is not at all as terrible as some people say- it is just not the first. It had a lot to live up to.
• Yesterday (03/27/2015) I met somebody from Germany. It was nice to say, Auf wiedasain! to them as we parted ways.
• 3: The number of people I know who seem to keep a journal pretty routinely because of my influence.
• 
  

One Of My Homeless Patients Apparently

has big things going down at The Hague.

Monday's Missives

• Recently as of this writing (today is 4/1/2015) there has been some news about transgendered people. I was reminded of the teasers you sometimes might hear on 1990s tabloid trash daytime televison that would say something like, Coming up- can you guess this lovely lady's secret? To which my inner minds sarcastic response was always, Uh, do you mean besides the fact he is a rather beat up looking man dressed as a woman with expert lighting, make up and camera work?
• Every few years there is a story about some guy killing a cross dresser after they hook up for The Seks. There is no way  the killer didn't know. He just felt ashamed afterwards and in his sick mind he was able to easily check off 2 items from his list of  fantasies: do it with another dude and kill somebody.
• Thanks for tuning in to cross dressing and murder talk with your ole buddy Kev!
• I look forward to watching the new Mad Max. It might be one to watch on Imax. The trailer looks pretty awesome. Some writers were saying it is basically a 2 hour car chase.
• The previous sentence is from an obviously old draft- I have seen Mad Max Fury Road 2-3 times now.
• During a conversation at work yesterday somebody mentioned Michelle Pfeiffer playing the role of Antonio Montana's girlfriend in Scarface. If you knew me you would say, Nah man- there is no way you did not know that! It is true though- I couldn't have told you if my life depended on it.
• Recently a Cuban immigrant came into the clinic wearing a Scarface t shirt. I didn't know what to make of that.

Friday's Dispatch/Old Draft Clean-Up (on aisle 7)

• Texas DPS has been conspicuously absent for months on my commute as they have as I understand been sent South to protect us from potential roofers and landscapers. If speeding is the killer they say it is and their ticket writing is not a money making racket as they say it is not- my drive time would have been a Mad Max style death fest every single day for the past several months.
• If you drive the posted speed limit (without or without cops along the way) you will absolutely be a road hazard. At about 10 miles per hour over you will still be getting passed by everybody but at least you may not get yourself killed. Most people drive about 15-20 MPH over. The only wrecks I have ever seen commuting over many years and hundreds of thousands miles over the same route were cars rear-ending each other while  rubbernecking cops stopping people, several that were weather related and 2 that were probably caused by somebody texting and randomly rear-ending other cars.
• Regarding a Nepali born business acquaintance somebody said of him, You know, it was the craziest thing. Another Nepali guy he had never met- never even seen before came into the office and told him he had locked his keys in his car. Without missing a beat Arjun gave the guy his keys- to his rental car so he could go home and get his extra set of keys.
• Listening to sports talk radio is so mind numbingly boring I tune it out while waiting for the Observation Deck with Gordo in the TICKET and it becomes sort of like background white noise.
• When a pro sports team talks about rehab, counseling, mentoring.. for a player who has committed some heinous crime as opposed to firing him immediately; I know the guy is not only capable or average and he is sure not borderline in his talents- he is a star performer and the team has sold their soul to the Devil to keep him- no matter how awful he is and terrible his crime(s).
• The news this morning (04/17/2015) was about the fall of towns to ISIS near Ramadi in Al Anbar and the threat to Ramadi itself. It specifically mentioned 3 small villages near Ramadi. There were 2-3 small villages toward Ramadi that I dealt with during my tenure in Iraq. Interestingly, in one the people there seemed to like us (or at least tolerate our presence) and the other just down the road hated our guts with a purple passion. Anyway, I thought of them and wondered if the villages mentioned were the ones with which I was familiar.
• Update: After a map recon, I'd nearly bet those villages were the ones with which I was thinking of as they dominate the route between Baghdad and Ramadi.
• The red tailed hawk is now the official raptor of This Week Tonight. To the hateful politicians highlighted in the piece: Take a break- you don't have to be awful every day of your life you jackwagon. Bonus: You do know you do yourself and your party no favors right?!
• PS to my dear reader: That guy is literally, obviously and demonstrably mentally ill. His response from that floor was not the response of a  normal and sane person.

Consider Your Mind Blown

Thursday's Thoughts

• A rather cute friendly aquaintance hates having her picture made and considers herself very un-photogenic. It is funny how we look at ourselves- she is actually very pretty,  quite photogenic and almost always takes nice pictures.
• It is 0648 on 03/22/2015 and pouring rain outside.
• My eldest son is a taller, more muscled up, smarter and better looking version of me. 
• 5: the number of fish my children caught today- one cat and 4 sunfish.
• We set the remaining worms free under some leaf litter near Holland's Lake.
• My 600 Pound Life is a very well done, interesting show.
• Across The Great Divide is so far a cute movie I somehow missed all my life until this evening. So far the most memorable scene had the main character rolling down a hill wrestling an apparent live mountain lion and then free falling with an apparently live mountain lion into a river. Well, most memorable that is until a pack of real wolves (or very wolf looking dogs) is being shown attacking a real dog and real people are whacking the wolves with real sticks.
• I am serious- some things I don't think you can fake.
• Give Danger 5 a chance. You'll find it in Netflix's awesome section.
• At work yesterday (03/25/2015) we had a lunch for a coworker who is leaving. I made a plate for one of the evening people and sent her an Email to tell her it was in the fridge. She came to my office and asked where it was. We went to the kitchen together and emptied half the fridge looking for it as I couldn't believe it was gone. There was a plate similarly packaged but it wasn't the one I placed in the fridge. I was furious and this morning told a few people about it and how sorry the person who jacked that food was etc. A coworker looked in the fridge and pulling a plate out said, Is this it? Oddly- it was. Somebody took it home thinking it was theirs then realizing it wasn't brought it back this morning.
• Faith. In. Humanity Restored.

May The Fourth...

be with you...

Gitchie Goomie An Original Poem By el chupacabra

By the shores of Gitchie Goomie
A singular line of verse
and that is all I know- so why don't you sue me?

It was used on some old TV show
I've heard it from people from Michigan
wherever I go

There may be a line to the effect: On the shore did mighty ______
stand
That might be a product of my fertile
mind-land.

It may be an Indian name
At least if I didn't have a lifeline left
that is what I would claim.

It is starting to come more clear
A neighbor to the North who is Light of Foot mentioned it in a song
about a ship that was lost on a night so drear.

Thats it. I've got it!

Lake Bridgeport

Refrigerator

TOW Talk Tuesday

• War pron: TOW missile compilation. Man- some of those shots show some talent, experience and training. Missiles are being bent around obstacles and leads made around obstructions and terrain. I mean- holy smokes some of those guys are good.
• 3750 meters: if I recall correctly the maximum effective range.
• When I first qualified with the TOW2 the max effect range was classified.
• 12 pounds of Octom: if I recall correctly the amount and type of explosive.
• It is pronounced, toe and stands for Tube launched Optically tracked Wire guided.
• The smallest tank turret might weigh 20 tons and could be blown completely off a tank by the force of a TOW detonation.
• Why would a crew not see it coming or hear it launch you ask? Well, they might see it launch if they are looking at the launch site at the exact moment one is fired- maybe but they would have to process the launch as a launch in the first place and not a mortar strike or whatever on the launch site itself and then act appropriately. Wouldn't you see fire and smoke from the rocket? No, it doesn't shoot flames out and leave a smoke trail like a bottle rocket. As for hearing it- it travels nearly the speed of sound. It travels slow enough to not make a big sonic boom as it passes the speed of sound but fast enough for the detonation to reach you about the time the report of the launch does,
• It is nasty is what I'm saying.
• It is nasty and cheap as missiles go and is nearly 50 years old,
• People  like to gloat that the ones being seen used in the M.E. these days against forces ostensibly liked by the US are being killed by a US made product. Easy there tiger- a lot of those are reversed engineered Iranian products.

Monday's Missives

• Something I have done that you have not: Jimmy open the door of a primate house of a zoo with a pocket knife and step inside and look around. It was stinky and unnerving.
• Yes- and stupid and incredibly irresponsible.
• I mean that was 30+ years ago. What if they had gotten out? They would have evolved into being our masters and we would be in cages and doing odd jobs for them by now.
• Longmire isn't awful but is a bit simplistic and predictable for my taste.
• I love driving in the rain.
• A friend was in a car that was struck by a drunk driver. Her sister was killed. The drunk went to prison for what I thought was a shockingly long time. It was such a long time it caused me to ask (or really more or less state) So, I can guess it wasn't her first DWI?! My friend replied, No, no it was her first offence. It wouldn't have been so bad for her except for the way she acted on the dash cam. She was screaming at the cop who responded and cursing him and calling him all kinds of nasty names.  Is it just me or did that scenario ( which I am sure is both true and correctly related) not make any sense? She just killed someone and we're freaked out over her being unlady like?! Was it her attitude that bothers us? What if she was bawling her eyes out saying she was sorry and fainted-  would that somehow make it better?! Why would we then presume some kind of sincere remorse instead of assuming she was just well- drunk but was still aware she had just ruined her own life and ended another?
• Today is 10/27/2015. Man, the moon has been big the past couple of days.