Just A Tuesday

• I know I've played this song eleventy billion times, but man- it's greatness, is great. Chevelle Send The Pain Below. They're one of the only real rock bands in the world.
• I watched the U2 performance where the blind guy came up out of the audience and played guitar on All I Want Is You. There must have been something in the air when it played- sniff sniff. 
• I'd put a link up to the song, but U2 is too terrible for that.
• One morning we were to do a raid a village and jack some bad guys out of their homes who were recent parolees from Abu Graib. We intended to use a gate we'd used a hundred times before at all hours of the night and this one time it was locked. I wanted to shoot the lock off, but one of the Marines with us had bolt cutters- drats. I mean really, I had literally wanted to do that all my life. When I just knew I was going to finally get to do it, it was hard to keep from wetting my pants. It made me want to pee.
• My daughter is nine and can sing like an angel and make up songs like you would not believe.
• It's rained at most of the funerals I've been to in my life. One time I just knew it wasn't going to until a freak cloud stalled over us and it poured for a few minutes then stopped and the sun just beat down on us. I looked around at the miserable mourners- long divorced people holding each other sobbing, one woman, she was just not that emotional of a girl- ever, falling to the ground, her body convulsing in tears, an ex wife of the decedent fainting in her seat and the 2 toughest guys I know bawling their eyes out.
• I would just as soon never go back to that tiny Texas cemetery.
  

  

  That weird looking old Toyota in much better focus.

  
  
  
  
  

  

  The Sharkarosa tram was purpose built to look like an old steam engine. Here is the fake coal.

  
  

  

  Hey buddy, my eyes are up here.

  
  

  

  Pekin duck getting picked on by about a 100 coots and various other type of ducks.

  
  
  
  
  

  

  See no evil. Hear no evil.

  
  

  

  For days I would feel something sticking the bottom of my foot causing me take my  boot off, insole out and socks off trying to find the sticker I was sure was inside my boot.

  
  
  
  
  

  

  This card was found on the sidewalk near my office.

Wednesday's Digressions

• The 2014 Z28 sounds awesome but my American dream car right now would be a CTS-V Stage 4 D3 modded Caddy. 750 hp and it would ride like well, a Cadillac.
• The cat has been licking himself for most of the past hour. It reminds me of those old signs, "Clean up after yourself. The only self cleaning thing around here is the cat!"
• A lot of Pink Floyd's music is really awful, most of it actually I guess but holy smokes their good stuff is like magic.
• The people who scream the loudest daring us to compare ourselves to the UK on issues related to guns and the death penalty etc. sure can shrink up it seems when others want to use Britain as example of what happens when you create a welfare state.
• No, I am not pro death penalty mostly because it is counterproductive, unfair and basically really dumb.
• It wouldn't bother me a bit if I never had another headache.
• I think often about a refugee patient from Sudan who came into the US years ago. He had about 5 kids and worked like a dog at 2 different jobs trying to make it here. He was a teacher I think in Sudan. He was nice, funny and smart and carried the weight of the world on his shoulders. I don't know if I ever did anything for him other than hiring him as an interpreter but I hope he made it. He was a sweet guy whom I saw being just crushed and there was little I could do for him.
• Another associated flashback: There was a girl who came in from Bosnia who was fluent in Serbo Croation, German and English. I loved talking to her in German and she thought it was cool I could speak it a little. I told her to come back the next day and I would have her sign a contract to be an interpreter and interview her. The interview was mostly to educate what I expected, general privacy policies and give her the medical terms I would use the most often in encounters so she could look them up if she needed. It was not intended to be anything official. I would have taken care of it right then while her hair was up and she was in her sweats but I needed to get the contract from another office and I was pressed for time. She came in the next day in the shortest dress I have ever seen- literally. There must have been some laws against it somewhere. It was white and the hem terminated just below her bottom.  She pulled her chair away from the desk and did her best Basic Instinct impersonation. She was absolutely beautiful and was totally aware of the power she possessed in that little dress.
• And I was an oak.
• Sugarcult Pretty Girl.

  

  One of the Sharkarosa exhibits is named after a boy from the area.

  
  

  

  I think this would be called a tug but I'm not sure. Vehicles like this used in tight shipping and receiving areas to move trailers around are called yard dogs. It could also be correctly called a tractor I suppose since it pulls other objects.

  
  

  

  Pattern on a cross between a horse and a zebra- A zorse is a zorse of course...

  
  

  

  Pere David deer. These are extinct in the wild in China, although there are some in preserves. The last wild ones  were shot out and ate by soldiers during some troubles I believe in the early 1900s.

  
  

  

  Mooooo

  
  

  

  These things with a cup of coffee or a glass of milk are like crack. I don't even kid myself when I reach for these in the store- I automatically buy 2-3 boxes.

  
  
  

Monday's Missives

Somewhere in Sanger.

• We pay people in places where we have no business being a lot of money to do or not do things they should already do or not do, while moaning about the money we waste at home on our own citizens. Then if all else fails or often simultaneously we go to war, fronting most of the money and sacrificing most of the lives to make people do or not do the things they should already be doing or not doing in the first place.
• The preceding in a nutshell is my view of our foreign policy.
• Recently I've read a couple of articles about the killing of a dog or dogs which was referred to as murder- good grief.
• I want to try that Rocket Fuel brand coffee. Also, I always forget to look for it but I love coffee with chicory. It is still very popular in Louisiana where they started using it as a result of Union blockades.
• I have had the Imagine Dragons song Radioactive playing in a loop in my brain for about 30 hours now. It literally served as background music for my dreams last night.
• I have been using ice packs on my back recently and it helps the pain a lot. An odd consequence though is I'll be stiffer than normal later secondary to not re positioning as frequently.
• There has been a lot of discussion about disability fraud recently with writers correctly in my view asking," is this the new retirement plan?" There are so many fakers that it is very difficult to be treated anywhere near fair if you don't ham it up and throw down an Oscar worthy performance when you go through the disability process for the military- sad but true. Guys literally coach each other and share tips on looking pitiful. I don't want to be too specific but people outside the system who have an interest in the welfare of guys being evaluated will say things like, When you go in don't be in too big of a hurry to get around anywhere.  You have a cane- use it. You aren't going for a promotion board, don't wear that pressed uniform and there is no reason to shave that morning...
• As bad as this issue is today when a guy came back from OIF 1/Afghanistan and even the Gulf War if he they so much as squeaked he could get a 50% rating. Honestly, I know 2 different guys, one a soldier and one a Marine who had back injuries. The Marine actually fought to stay, in the soldiers injury happened just as his enlistment was winding down and he wanted out. Both were forced to stay longer for their board, both felt they were 100% after their therapy and a little time etc. and both received honorable medical discharges with 50% ratings. One is a truck driver and the other an oilfield worker.
  
  
  
  
  
  



Sharkarosa residents.

Sharkarosa After Action Report

• It was OK- not great as I assumed it would be. Alright- it was very OK. The kids loved it and it didn't break the bank so I'm not going to complain.
• Noticed a lot of people with children whom it appeared obvious were foster children. There were multiple families and none of them seemed to interact, so I don't think it was a group thing.
  
  
  

  

  Zac gets high fived by a Joey.

  
  

  

  This guy got smashed in the face by a car when he was a baby. Sheesh, I thought I had it hard.

  
  

  

  Mom was not impressed with this red tailed boa's antics but she seemed like a good sport overall about it.

  
  
  
  
  

  

  I asked the kid where this type of snake was from. From Peruvian was his reply.

  
  

  

  Two cel phone just laying around- not in their natural habitat.  I'm sure a kid ditched them out of a stroller.

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

  

  I hear people talking about camel toes all the time. I don't get it- but here is some if that is your thing.

  
  

  

  Smooch!

  
  
  
• African crested porcupines are one of my favorite animals. They get eaten by humans in their native land.
• They have an albino spectacled cobra. The handler said it had been defanged.
• There are probably 10-12 camels there. All are dromedary and all but 1 female. 
• There were only a couple of birds on display and no reptiles.
• One of those teacup pigs got aggravated at me and snapped at me in the petting zoo- right after I commented on him looking delicious and saying something about bacon.. Everybody laughed at me.
• The driver of the safari tram was named TJ.
• I noted very few wild birds flying around. It would have been a logical assumption I thought that they would be everywhere snagging the dropped feed.
• Mike Rowe did an episode of Dirty Jobs there. He fed baby kangaroos and stimulated them to poop with a wet wipe into his hand.
• Every animal there appeared to be healthy and happy.
• The snack stand was pretty good, especially their hot dogs and the lady running it was a sweety. She and her husband were working it together. They have been married for 25 years.
• I was surprised there wasn't a sign prominently placed telling the story of how they arrived at the name Sharkarosa.
• The US flag was displayed incorrectly. It was to the right of the state flag as you enter the grounds.
• They have 2 Pere Davids deer there- a male and a female. Sadly there are none left wild in their native China. The species is sometimes nicknamed sibuxiang (Chinese: 四不像, pinyin: sì bú xiàng), literally meaning "four not alike", which could mean "the four unlikes" or "like none of the four"; it is variously said that the four are cow, deer, donkey, horse (or) camel, and that the expression means in detail:
  • "the hooves of a cow but not a cow, the neck of a camel but not a camel, antlers of a deer but not a deer, the tail of a donkey but not a donkey."
  • "the nose of a cow but not a cow, the antlers of a deer but not a deer, the body of a donkey but not a donkey, tail of a horse but not a horse"
  • "the tail of a donkey, the head of a horse, the hoofs of a cow, the antlers of a deer"
  • "the neck of a camel, the hoofs of a cow, the tail of a donkey, the antlers of a deer"
  • "the antlers of a deer, the head of a horse and the body of a cow"^[4]