Isn't it getting a little ridiculous?

I actually thought it was getting better. Seems like saying "Merry Christmas" wasn't offending as many people. The word 'fat' is still in our vocabulary, a little surprised there after being challenged in court by the OBESE people. 'Retarded' has gone the way of the dodo, being joined soon I predict with friends Moron, Imbecile and Idiot. That's going to be a tough one to swallow, and I'm fighting for the rights of the idiots everywhere to call them what they are!!

I'm tired, really tired, of other people telling me what's offensive. Never have liked it when people tell me what to do, just cause they think they can. If I'm offended, so be it, don't TELL me I am. How I feel when I use a word or hear a word is none of your damn business, let alone something you really know. Words are words.

Fat actually is no longer politically correct, I kid you not that the accepted phrase is "Enlarged physical condition caused by a completely natural genetically-induced hormone imbalance or too much fast food which is not your fault, is it?". Can you believe that? OK, I added the last part, but "completely natural"? Come on. I'm fat cause I eat too much, don't exercise, and drink beer. It's not a hormone imbalance.

I kid you not that the following words are ones you're not supposed to use any more: Bum, Crazy, Criminal, Failure, Fairy, Founding Fathers (too sexist), Garbage man, Ghetto, Handicapped, Illegal Alien, Janitor, Midget, Psycho, Secretary, and Trailer Park (it's a mobile home community). You have now been educated.

Here's the latest though, and give me a break. Just give me a break. It's "Nerd" and "Geek". Yup. Some fucking college professor on the East coast has determined for you and me that: "using terms like nerd and geek "perpetuate the stereotype" that nerds are "socially inept" and geeks are people with a "special expertise." They are so damaging that he believes that "much like racial epithets, he says, they should be avoided."

Good Lord! I'm a nerd and I'm proud!

Here's a question for ya, Christmas cards

Do you ever ponder about Christmas cards? Some people don't send them, that's fine. If you know who they are, it doesn't matter I guess. Just a question to think about: Do you track who reciprocates with Christmas cards?

Mentally or otherwise? Do you care? Does it bother you when you get left out? Ever say anything like "Er... didja get my card?". Can you help but take note of receiving one from someone a week later, often after Christmas, and feel like you mighta been forgotten? Do you take note of who sends and who doesn't, and adjust accordingly? Does it mean anything ya think? Is this all sounding too vain?

Nearly every year, BG's card comes first. It's almost a given. I like that. There are a handful of old friends that always send cards, even though we may not have talked in years. Relatives are pretty predictable, those that do, those that don't, those that are late. I'm used to it.

How about the "family update" letters? Like them? Hate them? Some of them are amazing in how people change. Usually it seems to be finding God, and having children. Ever get insulted by one in an indirect way? I have, this year as a matter of fact. They don't even know it.

How about the photo cards of just the kids? Or the dog? Well, those are great but I'd like to see how my friends look. If anything, I like the family ones the best. The WHOLE family.

The worst? Cards from my investment company. Stop spending my money on this crap your secretary signs and concentrate on my future, idiots. It bugs me knowing those cards are an expense that are somehow paid for by me, the customer. My company has 20,000 brokers, I'm going to guess each has an average of 100 customers, that's a few million bucks or more spent on cards and postage. Oh, and a card stuck on my trash can, just a friendly reminder that Ann Landers suggested tipping in 1962, this to the same jerks that won't take all my trash if it's "too much" or "too heavy", charge me for an extra can, and make messes I have to go clean up in the street. Think again trash can man.

Ah Bacon, my nemesis.... You've bested me THIS time!

Yeah, well... What can I say. Bacon was forgotten on the stove, burning, and I grabbed the pan and wasn't careful, maybe slipped a little and all the grease came to introduce itself to my hand. Hurts. Hurts bad. I was up all night, and today a week later, it still stings. Not really thrilled to be marked for life now, but what can I say. I still like you bacon... And your brother Ham.

Christmas is pardoned!

I'm so relieved!

An Alaska senator says the U.S. Postal Service is resuming a program allowing volunteers to respond to letters sent to Santa Claus in care of the North Pole, Alaska, post office.

Republican U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski said Friday that Deputy Postmaster General Pat Donahoe told her in a phone call the agency has reconsidered its decision to not allow volunteers to answer the letters.

Calls to the Postal Service were not immediately returned. (1-800-dicklesswusses was disconnected)

I really think this is for the good of the people

"Santa Claus" holds letters from children sent this year that the U.S. Postal Service says they will no longer deliver. Citing privacy concerns, postal officials say that generically addressed letters to "Santa Claus, North Pole" will no longer be forwarded to volunteers in the Alaska town as has been done for years.

Yup. Protecting YOU!

To give them a LITTLE TEENY amount of credit, they blame this on protecting the children from volunteer Santas that are sex offenders and MIGHT CONTACT A CHILD! Here's an idea: Screen for sex offenders!

Up next: No more eggs sold at Easter. Citing high cholesterol levels in test monkeys, there will be a ban starting two weeks before Happy Friday (previously know as "Good" Friday).

Redistibution of wealth, it's here!

So, I'm in a grumpy sarcastic mood. Today I got the PRIVILEGE of paying to register my business name, get my NV state license, resale tax license, city license (etc) to the tune of $450. Ask me what this gets me, go ahead. I know for a fact the first thing I'll get will be junk mail. I hope I'm wrong.

Then today, to the relief of many, the government has decided to extend "Cash for Clunkers" and hand out more of my money in the form of 2 billion dollars on top of the 1 billion we're already paying for, all basically giving money to people that can't afford a new car in the first place. This makes sense; give people that have a gas guzzler (they knew it was a gas guzzler) a so called rebate for a new car that will lose that much when it drive off the lot. Then destroy that old car, not utilizing any parts or anything.

...I knew what mileage my truck got when I bought it, It was my decisions, and I live with it, and pay for my gas....where's my money?!?!

Paraphrasing another blogger on this subject, Who pays for it?

1. You are, because it is your tax money that Obama is giving away.
2. You are, because when the loans taken out stop being paid, the bank will run to the government for another bailout . . . that you pay for with your taxes.
3. You are, because this will help put more used car dealers out of business, and they are either going to go to Washington for a bailout of their own or go on welfare.
   
4. You are, because the car loans from many banks will be bundled up by companies and then sold to pension funds and other unsuspecting fools. This is a repeat of the Housing Bubble, but this time it is cars, not houses.

It's sunny here, not a cloud in the sky...

Came to the realization today that they name fires around here. Kinda like hurricanes! I'm not sure if this is "The Red Rock Fire" or the "Trailer 1 Fire". It's not as original as naming a hurricane "Shanteel", the first one is by Red Rock, the 2nd was started by a dragging trailer that sparked up. Original huh? Closer than I thought, but we're in no danger, from the top of Hell Hill:

Eye problems, I guess I'm getting old

Man the past year has been rough on my eyes. About a year ago I started wearing glasses again, the first time in 15 years or so since I had LASIK surgery. I mainly wear them when driving, but as this year has gone on, I find myself wanting them more and more. I love the climate here for the most part, cool in the morning's and dry, but apparently the dryness can cause the pores in your eyelids to clog up and this morning, for about the 5th time since I moved here, I've awaken to puffed up and sore eyelids, due to a condition called chalazion, internal hordeolum or just a common eye stye. They hurt! Feels like a zit you can't pop. Fun!

And take a look at the monster below. Thankfully, it didn't hurt. Woke up to this awhile ago, after noticing a tiny little red mark next to my pupil that lasted a few days. This has happened twice, once after blowing my nose too hard! This attractive condition is known as a subconjunctival hemorrhage (thanks Internet!)

Frenchman's Lake Camping & Lakes Basin Rec Area hike

Of ALL things to forget on a camping trip, MY CAMERA!?!?!?! Thankfully Sue brought her, unfortunately there'd be a LOT more pics of my pups if I had brought my own. Regardless, pictures tell a better story than me blabbing, let me just say CA is just flat gorgeous. Pictures below can be enlarged.

Road TRIP! They all got along fine. Gear is on the trailer.

Spot picked, Good dogs.... Stay! That's Lucy and Dude in front.

One of many lakes

Stealth Swimmers

Todd, the pups and George

Wet all day!

They are pretty good trail dogs, they stay ahead, but not too far, and constantly come back. Next time I'm gonna strap a GPS to one of them, I bet they travel twice the distance.

One of the best pictures

Yes, that's snow! And it's not too far away!

See?!?!?!?!?!??!

That's all the pics I got, but it's making me want to go again SOON!

Charity losers

We had a garage sale last weekend, and in typical fashion, much of the leftover stuff was slated to go to a local ever-asking-with-the-hand-out-charity. My first choice was one of those places that rents in a nice strip mail (drop off only), and send postcards in the mail begging for stuff. I'm no saint here, I picked them cause they were closest, a new place so I thought they'd be thrilled to have the traffic, and yeah, I want the write off. Lots of stuff good and bad, and seriously. Who ever really takes inventory of the crap you dump off? They simply give you a blank "receipt" which you could write down anything up to the IRS legal limit and not be questioned. Scammy smelling already. Us being a little more organized (if you can believe it), take pictures and actually make a list.

So rewind to a pet peeve of mine; simply saying Hello or Thanks. If you've been in the support sector, you know what I mean. You're busy working on some stupid budget that is only going to get rejected with "We approve this project, but cut the costs in half" and someone pops their head in to your office and says "Todd! Applied is down. When I alt-click to calculate the state premiums, I get a Windows exception error that DMXFUKU dot DLL has caused an error. "

Oh, let me hop right on that. And how are you?

It's equally annoying in email or chat or at the grocery store when you hold the door open for some old bag who thinks she's still hot who don't say a word, by golly I SHOULD hold the door for her! Ever ignored the phone cause you know who's calling is going to ask you the SAME question again about their computer? Now now, you people reading that have asked my my input on something and I've given it and you've said THANKS, I'm not talking about you. You rock. Most of those people won't ever find my blog any way. Hell, as a total side line, I fixed my neighbors Internet the other day and I got not only cookies, but banana nut bread!!!

OK, back to the local charity. Here it is, Monday morning, the Clampett truck & trailer loaded with all sorts of stuff including a TV, books, computers, clothes, luggage, table & chairs, and tons of misc THINGS. All ready for my local charity to sift through like Christmas and put up for sale to support their little non-profit organization!! Cool, they've got a covered drive though (absolutely necessary in this desert climate):

Me: Hi! How ya doing!? I've uh, got all sorts of STUFF for ya.

GW: We don't take TVs

Me: (I'm fine, how are you?) Why not?

GW: We just don't take them.

Me: OK, well fine. Lots of stuff here anyway. Know who takes TVs?

GW: Fred!?! Who takes TVs?? (Fred says XXX Glendale Avenue. Thanks Fred)

I pop open the back of the truck to help unload. I'm THAT kinda helpful guy. I unload an Apple Macintosh all-in-one PC. I set it on the cart.

GW: We don't take monitors.

It's not a monitor, it's an all in one computer.

We don't take computers.

Me: (slight annoyed laugh) Listen dude, ya gotta take the good with the bad! You quickly unloaded my good table and chairs. I got three computers, if you don't want them, how about you throw them away?

GW shrugs and says "Put them over there"

Me nodding, then grabs a stack of books and puts it on the cart. Uh-Oh, GW sees me:

"FRED?!?!?!?!" Fred comes out. Looks at what I've just done and states "We don't take books"

What? Are you fucking kidding me? I lost it a little and had enough "Tell you what, how about you put all my shit back on the trailer then and I'll take it somewhere else?" And they do. I got one last comment from them about they can't afford to pay for trash haul off. It was very canned and rehearsed. Yeah right I thought, but you can take the good stuff and sell it and pay for this fancy new building and the postcards in the mail begging for garage sale leftovers.

20 minutes later another local place that takes donations for Multiple Sclerosis took it all, did most of the unloading and not only gave me receipts, but gave me a handful of coupons for 20% items in their store. And they said thanks. I'll be going back to them.

I'm fine, how are you?

Rock & Roll Wall man....

Just while THINKING about putting this blog up for Mitch to see pics, I thought of ALL of these damn yard projects that just start to overwhelm me. On the plate:

1. Raised berm area around some pre-existing trees, using rock as a border (see three pictures below). These are all rocks from my yard, the biggest that I can move is about the size of a basketball. HEAVY!
2. Turning the current cinder block pepper garden (CLICK HERE) in to a much larger tomato and pepper garden area surrounded by Pavestones and getting rid of most the block. Maybe this weekend?
3. In the background you can see the huge boxes for the gazebo.
4. Before I do that, I need to make a patio to set it on.
5. Not really a separate project, but making a flagstone pathway from the old patio to the the gazebo.
6. In a fantasy world, all around the new patio would be curbing, sprinkler system and grass.
7. The dogs are getting their own small patio that will be under the faucet (to cool it) made out of a stack of square fabricated pavers. Should be a nice little area for them, if they use it!
8. Off the gazebo I want to build an arbor like area and use the brick I brought from Kansas for a new patio area there, and remove the flat cinder blocks that are in front of the door of the shed.
9. The dry creek beds have near filled in with silt from all the rain washout we've gotten. Needs upgraded and repaired!
10. In the again fantasy world, horseshoe pit, waters/fountain features, and a flat sitting area up on the hill.

See what I mean? I'm sure I forgot 10 things too!

Rain Rain GO away

Highly unusual for us, it's been raining for near a week here. Very cool to hear thunder again, surprised at how much I've missed it. Rain is cool too, but I'm done with it. My backyard is mud, my dry creek beds are now mud beds, lots of THINGS washed away, and I've got plants to get in the ground! Thankfully unlike Kansas, I have no water problems in the house.

Memorial Day rambling

We had a great Memorial Day weekend, doing the kind of outdoor summer stuff we love to do. Lots of grilling, lots of yard work. A few weeks ago we went to an auction and picked up over 40 plants, CHEAP!
We're later than we were last year on getting tomatoes and peppers in the ground, but then again we had some snow just a few weeks ago. All of the above plants are non-edible though, so now we have TWO types of planting to get done. I'm happy to say that we got about 10 in the ground this weekend. Digging holes here sucks.

The grilling this weekend included bratwursts, fish, steak and ribs. Overall satisfied my grilling needs for awhile. Got a lot of other little things done too. Mowed, mounted the TV, turned the compost bin, extended the drip irrigation. Too bad the NASCAR race sucked.

Texas Pinball Festival trip coming up!

Pretty excited about the TPF this coming weekend. We're going to drive and make a little vacation out of it sans dogs. Long trip, should take us 2 1/2 days of driving. The forecast is looking OK for our trip, maybe a little rain when we get there.

But look what I woke up to today!

So much for working on the trailer....

Todd Likes to.....

The urge to blog is constant, but procrastinating is super easy, so when I ran across something easy and silly to blog about, here I am! Go to Google and type in your name in quotes like this following sentence, and simply report the results: "Todd likes to".

1. Todd likes to ride things!
2. Todd likes to dance
3. Todd likes to bowl
4. Todd likes to socialize
   
5. Todd likes to spend time with his wife
6. Todd likes to play with his children
7. Todd likes to work hard and play hard
8. Todd likes to make up characters
9. Todd likes to take the law into his own hands
   
10. Todd likes to eat grasshoppers

I say I scored a 7/10, assuming my dogs are my children. For those interested, there's a video of #10 <Click Here>

I do it to myself....

It's my fault. Why oh why do I torture myself!? The reveling in the sale of the project Bally Draw Poker game Friday (at a small $50 profit even!) was short lived. By Sunday, I had my sites on another project pinball machine, and a fairly nice Super Pac-Man video game. To top it off, my friend Jed calls and says "Ya want some books?". Uh, sure? How many? "I dunno, a couple hundred." So on my way home from getting the two games, I stopped by Jed's for the books:



Couple hundred? Try 600-650!! Sheesh. It took me a half hour JUST to unload! Hopefully some gems in this lot. I except that half will be donation or thrown away.

Tracy's gonna love me when she gets home tonight!!!

The Kansas Garden Rocket is finally home!

Yeah!!! Only gone for 18 months, finally at it's proper home!