Friday's Dispatch

Bing results for, Civil War meme.

• The Donald turned me on to a cover of Gold Dust Woman I did not even know existed- a truly horrific one by the late, great Waylon Jennings. Go ahead and listen as nothing worse will happen to you for the rest of the day but it is baaaad. Honestly, I don't know what he was thinking.
• Here is a good one though with a good story about Willie.
• In another life I went to church with Waylon's aunt.
• Gov't Mule still has the best cover of GDW I have ever heard.- literally better than the original. Man- so pretty.
• When I walk by our  refugee clinic offices and I see a refugee kid looking out at me if I can get away with it, I screw up my face and throw on a zombie walk for a few steps for their benefit then turn around and wink and smile at them as I walk away. When they come back for follow ups and see me they smile like crazy and can't take their eyes off me.
• Be underestimated- maybe I always say but never be forgotten.
• Hatfield & McCoys were in the ole laptop this morning as I prepped for work. So far- so good. Actually, I am hoping for the best as it kinda looks really good. I caught a background extra though, acting like he was chopping wood by bring an ax down on a log and pulling short so the sound of an impact against the wood would not mess with the audio of the main character's voices. It was so obvious (to me at least) that it was almost comical. I always catch things like that- do you?
• Another: Yesterday I finished Gods And Generals. During one scene the Billy Yanks are being overrun by the Johnny Rebs and are running for their lives- one would assume in mortal terror. In the midst of the fleeing mass of terrified soldiers is an extra grinning like a  possum eating poop.
• Yesterday (05/18/2016), WWWIHBSTW left me. Today, a literally beautiful woman asked me out to a comedy club. While that doesn't mean we are betrothed and yes- I am still single but for lack of a better way to express it- that may be the shortest time I have ever been single.

The Last Email I Received

If memory serves me it was the spring of '32 when Lead Belly, AKA Huddie Ledbetter (a close relation I'm sure). Jumped in to save Big Bill Broonzy from a moonshine inflicted coma. But I could be totally wrong.

Thursday's Thoughts

• If you watch House during the aerial shots of the front of the hospital there is always (at least in the first season)  a UPS van parked in the front.
• In the preceding thought I couldn't spell arial, ariel, aeriel aerial to save my life.
• After getting my tires rotated this past weekend my truck drives like new.
• I have never owned a brand new vehicle.
• As I am tired of trying to look around and over some mongoloid with a cel phone in front of me filming a band or performer I am considering never going to another concert or at least not one where it is general admission to a ground level standing room only area.
• Genius: at the last EDGFEST I went to a guy in front of us was without a shirt. He was quite overweight but real hairy and sweaty and due to said sweaty hairiness it was like he had a force field of solitude around him that extended 3 feet around him in every direction. Nobody wanted to touch that hairy, sweaty beast.
• Guys who own Raptor package Ford trucks always drive like maniacs.
• This morning (02/18/2016) I watched a news clip about the war in Syria that featured a TOW missile being fired. The news reader spelled the letters out- T-O-W which is not correct. It is an acronym and is pronounced, toe. Also, part of the reason the TOW missile was used was to prove how convoluted that war is as it is a US made weapon and was provided to US supported groups and was then used to engage other US supported groups. There are only about a dozen problems with that view but I would start with the fact we aren't the only country to make the TOW and definitely aren't the only government with a bunch of them lying around.

Wednesday's Digressions

• Seeing hospital food during a recent visit  reminded me of the food at one of the hospitals where I did my clinicals. It was good and cheap. It was so good people would come after church to eat there. It was so cheap somebody must have been subsidizing it.
• Some of the snails in my office tank have already died. I'm curious to know their lifespan. They readily make plenty of babies so wouln't need to live long assuming an early development but I thought they had a long-ish lifespan.
• The house is dark and quiet and I'm drinking coffee.
• Another patient has told me she wants to stay in touch. She is 24 and cute. What is it that makes me so doggone irrestible?
• Ha.
• I have never given out my phone number to a patient but I gave her my Email address.
• Hilary lost her mind sometime before she started using a personal server for her Email comms. She is nothing if not a pro politician. She had to know that situation would blow up in her face. What was she thinking?
• What was.going on with the hospital visit you ask? Oh, an ex girlfriend was having surgery and I went to stay with her and help out afterward. Yep, such an amazing boyfriend- I'm a good ex one even.

Dregs- From Old Draft Clean Up Day

Found while looking for my JEEP. My first thought was, he is too lazy to get out and take a picture of his vehicle to place in a free ad- he would be too lazy to maintain said vehicle properly- I'll take a pass.

The ad said, " One of a kind!. Turns heads wherever I go! " Lets hope you're correct on the first point homes and I do not doubt you on the second.

• I cannot stand a single reality show I've tried so far and would nearly be willing to state they are what is all wrong about America today.
• Can't even do COPS much anymore- often a bunch of poor, defenseless , sick people being beat up by a system supposed to protect that's rigged for abuse.
• I've started watching LOST- nothing what I thought it would be- as a matter of fact I thought it was some sort of reality show.
• Not necessarily hooked or even hooked on the idea of getting hooked but, it's very intriguing.
• Recently chanced upon Spaced, a Brit Com starring Simon Pegg- very, very funny show but, they only made two seasons. I think every episode is on HULU right now- check it out while the they're up and the price is right.
  
• Nearly every day (as of 05/02/2014) I still look up vids for the bands from EDGEFEST 2014. Man, what a great show and what great music. Even for the bands that weren't my faves- I got it and the performances were still really good.
• A few times a year I have  dream about living in a sort of waterworld. It is always dark and the water varies from warm to chilly and from shallow to deep. Points of land and people from the past and present in my life are linked by ropes running under the water. It happens without regard to any changes in my life and is hyper realistic.

   
  
  

  

  
  

  This lady at SRF was soooo drunk. She nearly fell over backward as  she sat beside me.  I said, Thats alright- you totally meant to do that I'm sure. Of course she slurred Anyway, I knew you'd catch me.

• An old friend has been on my mind a lot lately and I'm not sure why. She was one of the first people who got me me interested in nursing. She worked in an OR coordinating supplies and services but get this- the smell of blood sickened her if she walked in after a patient was opened , not in a vague, Oh that is kinda gross  but I'll be OK guys kinda way but in an automatically eject the contents of her stomach- every single time kinda way. Her solution? Get scrubbed up along with the surgeon and assists and stand right beside him as the blood initially flows and she would be OK for the rest of the shift. I heard she got strung out and moved to Washington state but I don't know. I hope she is OK and nothing I've heard is true (which it may not be). 

  

  In the audience at the Untrained Dog Show

• A thing now for Craigslist car ads is for people to take tight close up shots- so tight and close you can't even tell what you're looking at. How odd. There must be a tutorial on the ads that recommends close ups and morons take it too much to heart.

  

  My number 2 offspring holding a number 6.

Saturdays Situation

• Last night (today is 07/10/2016@0624) I considered looking for a campsite at MWSP as I thought the Peach Fest might have kept enough people away that I could find a spot. In the end, I decided I didn't want to burst into flames from the mid July heat nor be blown away by the tornado that looked to be inevitable based on the spooky, swirly clouds that were everywhere so I laid around like a lump at my place. Predictably, the rain did come but was nice and brief then there was a nice temp. drop and it stayed that way all night.
•  It is perfect outside now. Only one mosquito has bitten me and he had the decency to stick around and let me smash him.
• Just a few years ago if we realised Saturday morning we didn't have anything else to do we would load up and go to MWSP and find a site as long as it wasn't a holiday. These days they will laugh at you for asking on such short notice. Then they will feel bad and say, Well, I guess ya'll can sleep in the dumpster...
• A neighbor is not only gorgeous but apparently nice and sweet. Her husband is one of those slackers who likes to church up what they are and call themselves gamers. She is ripe for the picking.
• I watched Forgetting Sarah Marshall last night. It was good.
• People are making a big deal out of the Dallas cop killer not being combat arms while he was in the reserves (I have read he was a carpentry and masonry specialist).  Personally, I know of Navy commo personnel who did convoys and Army mechanics who did combat patrols and raids.
• This strike against an IS convoy happened very near my area of operation in Iraq.
• Yesterday (today is 07/11/2016) I saw a couple and small child who were moving out of their apartment. They were Asian. They were taking the stuff they did not want to move to the dumpster. The wife was pushing a king or queen size mattress on edge across the parking lot and the husband was carrying a couch cushion. He was was rushing by her calling out something like, Chop! Chop! Chop!... Crazy. The sorriest, most worthless American trash male would not do that to his wife. To be more correct- he might abolutely let her do that all by herself- but he would have enough shame to go hole up with his friends somewhere and play video games or watch football or whatever.
• I wanna party with these people.

Friday's Dispatch

• I finished Timeline. Verdict: good to very good.
• On 10/30/2015 @0511 I took note of what I thought was an odd sentence in Timeline. He describes a, "long wooden board..." That doesn't make sense does it? Is there another kind of board?
• Modern country is truly horrifically bad.
• How to know there is something truly horrifically wrong with this world: You watch an Immortal Lee County Killers video on Yootoobs there will be 7000 views with 2400 likes and no dislikes. What is up with that? I may not even be smart enough to tell you why but there are multiple things wrong with that preceding thought.
•  Recently I heard somebody use the non-word debation in a sentence as in, I am still in debation what to do about...
• The documentary Muscle Shoals came highly recommended by Gordon Keith of The Musers but I just couldn't get into it. A little of Bono goes a long way and there seemed to be a lot of him in that film. Also the people seemed to be very full of themselves while they were talking about the session musicians from the Fame studio. It seemed a sort of humble-brag. When Aretha Franklin talked about them it seemed as though she might as well have said, They must have been great. I mean look- I'm talking about them!
• It made me tired- it just wore me smooth out. I got tired all over.

Thursday's Thoughts

• Something I have been curious about is the number of people with serious health problems and disabilities in US prisons. Recently, somebody was on NPR to discuss the issue. After she was introduced, her initial statement gave raw numbers of prisoners with severe handicaps then she said something to the effect of, Disproportionately these prisoners are people of color, illegal aliens and recent immigrants... How did she even get there at all- much less in the first 15 seconds out the gate? I know at least part of the answer is she was obsessed with those issues- the handicaps of the prisoners were secondary. Regardless, she did her cause no favors. I could not have been alone when I groaned and changed the station.
• Too bad I won't get to meet this guy.
• Phil Hartman is one of the few actors we have lost that nearly every time I am reminded of him I feel a little sad and will often blurt out, Man- I miss him.
• Although I don't know if it was actual rule or not- in old books I have seen the name Fitzpatrick as Fitz-Patrick and it made me wonder if that wasn't originally correct.
• An old friend has died of a heart attack. She was one year older than me.
• While not necessarily a deal breaker- a woman with an ugly or weird looking belly button can freak me out if I notice it.
• There are multiple diseases, syndromes and conditions that are  prevalent in the US that most people I think would presume are real and serious issues. The only problem is- they are not big problems in other countries or they simply may not even exist at all.
• Smashing Pumpkins Rhinocerous.

Ages Old Dregs Of Drafts

A real picture. I have no independent recall of where I found it. The captions says, Dino Boston

• You see all the time on the news or reality police shows the detectives saying to the effect, He's just too calm- he's obviously guilty. or  He's too nervous- he's obviously guilty.  the problems with this thinking doesn't even start when comparing the two situations- both types of thinking would be troubling to me on their own merits but, what if someone said, Good, I'm glad he's dead. Do you need me for anything else? I need to cook supper for my kids when notified their spouse or significant other has died ?
• I know someone who told me she was glad her ex husband killed himself and while I seriously doubt she told police this- what if she had and had no alibi and the scene was suspicious? I doubt also she would have tried to fake any kind of sadness over his death while speaking with them.
• Something that really surprised me when I first learned it: the seaman who drives the submarine is one of the lowest ranked on the entire boat.
• A video I rented for my children titled Popular Mechanics For Kids- Radical Rockets And Other Cool Machines which had submarines, monster trucks, space craft etc. and demonstrated how they work, had as one of the presenters a young- make that very young (as in 10-12 years old) Aleshia Cuthburt.

Hangman

My kids seem to play it in langauages besides English.

Spark In The Park After Action Report or A Weatherford America Story

• There were too many people engrossed in their phones. Really- it was sad. There were a few teens walking around trying too hard to not look enthralled with the fireworks. They wanted to look too cool to be impressed.
• It was a thrill to see Tommy Alverson but Charlie Robison stole the show- he was great and his guitar player is awesome. He played Star Spangled Banner a la Hedrix (except better). It was the first time I ever heard it played live on a guitar.
• My kids got up on the stage with some others and sang Hey Soul Sister with Sunshine Emery. It did my heart good.
• There were a lot of new babies there.
• Omigosh it was hot and so humid!
• Sheps Place had a food truck there. I have only eaten there once. It was OK- not great but pretty OK.
• Tommy Alverson worked for Miller before becoming a full time musician.
• Maybe they have better things to spend there money on but the crews and performers RVs I saw were old, raggedy looking things.
• I spent a fortune on bottled water which was thankfully only 1.50 a bottle. Cities should formulate a cap for how much is charged at venues- I have seen bottled water at other places priced at 4 or even 5 dollars a bottle.
• So. Wrong.
• Tommy said of Craig Swancy, I always told him if he sold enough amps and guitars he would make something of himself. I didn't know he was going to become a politician.
• Craig is the mayor of Weatherford and owner of a legendary music store here..
• During the finale they played John Wayne (I think) speaking the pledge of allegiance.
• Sometimes I feel like you have to pick moments to hold on to as some day they will be all you have. Last night was one of them. I intend to never forget that nearly perfect time and have a feeling my children will long remember the experience we had July 4th, 2016.

Two Words On This Product's Labeling Caused Me To Buy It Without Hesitation...

Turtle Wax- I have a strong brand loyalty to Turtle Wax.

Priceless Doesn't

even begin to touch the objects in this picture. The pop gun belonged to my childrens Pop- their great grandfather. He got it for his fifth birthday. It was in a window display at a downtown  Bridgeport TX hardware store for months while he coveted it and his sainted mother saved pennies and nickels to buy it. The antlers belonged to the last deer he killed about 5 years before his own death at the age of 83.

Some people were supposed to live forever weren't they? I miss him like few who others who have departed this mortal coil.

Draft Clean Clean Up Dregs

A ginormagantuan gar fish. The oddest thing about this pic? I have no idea where I got it or why I have it.

Monday's Missives

• This morning (07/08/2016) I intended to write a post about the inevitable violence against law enforcement that I could foresee coming. It was honestly the last thing I thought about as I drifted off to sleep and although it crossed my mind I didn't even see the need to make a note about it. The shock to me is that unless I have missed it- the criminal did not post his crimes to any social media platforms.
• Last night a woman I met recently and have been getting to know said, Tell me- what are your intentions with me?
• That question strikes me as a quandary as it simultaneously complicates and simplifies the situation.
• Amelia Earhart is on the cover of the Jan. 2015 Smithsonian magazine I just picked up. She has been dead for 80 years and she still fascinates.
• Last night I had the best burger I have had in a while at Skinny's in Weatherford. It was the half pounder with bacon, cheddar cheese and mushrooms. Rarely do I get a takeout  burger  with mushrooms as the flavor decays rapidly to me but it made it to the house with all it's deliciousness intact.
• Lately I have been incredibly lonely- that lonely that is only made worse when you are around other people. Loneliness doesn't affect me often- so when it hits me I don't do well.
• People joke about how terrible Limp Bizkit is. While raw numbers don't equal good (humans often have terrible taste and make bad decisions in general) the last of their videos I watched had nearly 70 million views. This wasn't it but is pretty cool, is great driving music and sounds awesome on a good system.
• Recently, at a concert somebody who I thought was a friend acted like they didn't see me when I started to approach them to say hey.

Monday's Missives

• A few minutes ago as I was about to log onto Gmail from Blogspot I got the two mixed up and  typed in G Spot.
• Poppasito's was one of the first places I went out to when I came home on leave from Iraq. Interestingly, I went with 2 guys from my company who were also on leave. We were good friends and our wives were best friends although we didn't plan the leaves around each other- it was totally random. There was a birthday party at the table next to us. As if on cue, some balloons descended onto the candles ( or after being loosed went up into the rafters- I forget) regardless- 3-4 popped in rapid succession causing us for a split second to check for an out and look for cover.  Then our mouths fell open. We then relaxed and busted out laughing. The weirdest thing!? We all processed the situation as less threatening as the balloons sounded more like M4 fire as opposed to AK.
• Weird.
• A related memory: I was mesmerized by the fountains outside- so clean and cool. The sound alone was hypnotic to me.
• Until I re-watched it the other day (today is 03/17/2016) I had forgotten how good the soundtrack to American Beauty is. Even the weird original music that didn't seem to match the scenes was great and somehow perfect for the depicted scene.
• I am eating soup and Chex Mix as I write this.

Friday's Dispatch Southwest Edition

Found with about a dozen others at a rest area in New Mexico.

Real T-rex skull at Fox Cave

Huh?!

During the siege of the McSween home the front was set fire by the Dolan-Murphy faction. Billy and others escaped out the rear after fighting the fire all the way to the back. Billy made his way down to the Rio Bonito and followed it to safety- for a time.

Thousand of years ago the previous owner of this mask could never have guessed it would end up at Fox Cave on East Highway 70 between Alamogordo and Ruidoso New Mexico. Our world is a weird place to live.

• It is 06/07/2016 and Comfort Inn is sheltering me from the elements.
• The journey may be the destination and all that but the feds need to put miles on the their signage. Lincoln NF is huge and it is easy to drive for miles and then be convinced you may not have the right road so you turn around...
• Hey G Men: When you put a sign up with a place name and an arrow pointing the way  it will only cost another 50 cents to put the number of miles to the destination.
• The Pizza Hut guy brought paper plates with the pizza a minute ago. I have never encountered that before.
• Today a local business owner said some racist crap while we chatted. It seemed like an effort to bait us into some deeper racist interaction. I felt sick and left as soon as I could.
• The girl at the Lincoln County Courthouse could not act any more bored with her job and tired of peoples crap if she tried and I mean this literally as I had to ask her to repeat her answer to a simple question multiple times as her mumbling, sighs, eye rolls and glances down to her phone/computer were so distracting it was hard to understand her.
• Don't worry babe- you're right, you are too hot and smart for that job- you won't be there forever.
• On the way east as we headed home Cracker Barrel sounded good so we stopped. Listen, if you never heed any of my advice; have the green chili grilled chicken dinner and for your side have a baked potato, green beans and mac and cheese. It is not amazing but very- very good- especially considering the 9 dollar price tag.

I Finally Got Something Right

Behold-  homemade cookies with JIF cookies and crème hazelnut spread between them and each cookie topped with glazed icing.

My Second Experience With Rasing Cane's Went Something Like This...

As I drove into the drive thru at the Weatherford location on 07/05/2016 at 2034 a voice screeched out from the speaker, What up!? Hey, hey hey. How about some chicken? I drove off and went to Panda Express. I deal with enough imbiciles on a daily basis for free without having to pay for elongated chicken McNuggets and school cafeteria fries to also have a side order of moron after working 13 hours.
I will never go back.
How was your Tuesday evening?

The only way you can understand the truth about killing an enemy in combat is by killing an enemy in combat.
—Miyamoto Musashi, the Book of Five Rings, 1643

• Although it is a old gimme type of American trivia it still just blows my my mind that Thomas Jefferson and John Adams died on the same day just hours apart. What day was that you ask? July 4.
• Murica!
• I just realized there has to be conspiracy goofballs who believe Jefferson and Adams were killed by the Illuminati or aliens- right!?
• On a July 4 during the Vietnam War an old First Sergeant belted 2,000 rounds of ammo together and pointed his M60 toward North Vietnam and fired them all off in a single burst. By the time he was finished tracer bullets were doing loops out of the barrel- a barrel that was visibly drooping after the fireworks were over with.
• When I was young it seemed like the poorer the people- the more fireworks they shot off.
• Original Declaration of  Independence Dated 4th July 1776- what it says on the back of the Declaration.
• Sorry- no treasure map or cipher but yeah, there is that written on the back.
• Calvin Coolidge was born on the 4th of July.
• Texas Motor Speedway had fireworks and their Friday Night Drags series on Friday.
• Drag racing and fireworks.
• America.

Friday's Dispatch

• So last night (today is 06/28/2016) I finally finished Blade Runner. Verdict: very good- not great but not bad.
• A smoking hot lady who works in an office near mine once ask me for a fork for her lunch as she forgot hers. She rejected the unwrapped one I pulled out of my desk. When I asked if she was too good for an unwrapped utensil she replied, You know I am Kevin. I couldn't argue. Now, when I have unused wrapped ones from restaurants I save them for her.
• I like Tractor Supply and go in there any time I need something that I even think they might have.
• This morning I received a pic of my family at the visitation of another family members funeral. Everyone had gotten old since I saw them last. I guess there will be more pics like that coming soon.
• To be filed under the IT guy would have called it impossible and me crazy: We have a database of old records saved in a corner of the offsite (but still owned by my employer) server. Recently, I searched for a patient's name who had reported a remote treatment history with my organization. I put his name in the search box and before I could get the search results I received an email from a person in another department with the same name as my patient. It said, "I think you sent this to the wrong person." I wasn't sending an email to anybody. I was searching an offline database. My Outlook application was not even open at the time.
• I have used a lot of emboldenated words up there.
• I am being bold.
• Recently I overheard somebody on the phone say to a friend, You just need to get this over with and divorce him. Get online or get a lawyer, sign the papers and get it over with. It is very nice I suppose, how well they everything figured out in life but the first thing I thought of was- that is literally the last thing I would say to somebody and among the last subjects I would offer an opinion on. And then the thought occurred to me: They will grow a bit and someday it will hit them how asinine that statement was.
• Would a Taser work on a zombie?