Apr 30

Damn! End Of The Month Already!

Catch up time, I suppose!

Last Sunday. What the hell did I do last Sunday? Got up early. Went to church for the first hour (and SWMBO gave a really nice compliment about my singing hymn 142). Came home. After that my mind is totally blank about Sunday. Damn Getting Old Anyway!

Monday I did get out to the property and cut a bit of wood. Pushed over some more trees working on the side yard I want. Was nice but NOT warm up there. I’ve either lost my skill at sharpening my chainsaw blade or the damn thing is getting so old it refuses to hold an edge.

Today, Wednesday, was a pretty normal Wednesday. I hung around the house doing things cause it’s just too expensive for me to get out to the property everyday now. Damn, still got dishes to do. Better get on that or SWMBO will be eating her morning cereal from a plate.

A lot of Americans have become so insulated from reality that they imagine < ?xml:namespace prefix = st1 />America can suffer defeat without any inconvenience to themselves. Absolutely No Profiling! Pause a moment, reflect back: These events are actual events from history. They really happened! Do you remember?< ?xml:namespace prefix = o />

1. 1968 Bobby Kennedy was shot and killed by a:
Muslim male extremist between the ages of 17 and 40.

2.. In 1972 at the Munich Olympics, athletes were kidnapped and massacred by:
Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40.

3. In 1979, the US embassy in Iran was taken over by:

Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40.

4. During the 1980’s a number of Americans were kidnapped in Lebanon by:

Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40.

5. In 1983, the US Marine barracks in Beirut was blown up by:

Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40.

6. In 1985 the cruise ship Achille Lauro was hijacked and a 70 year old American passenger was murdered and thrown overboard in his wheelchair by:

Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40.

7. In 1985 TWA flight 847 was hijacked at Athens, and a US Navy diver trying to rescue passengers was murdered by:

Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40.

8. In 1988, Pan Am Flight 103 was bombed by:
Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40.

9. In 1993 the World Trade Center was bombed the first time by:

Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40.

10. In 1998, the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania were bombed by:

Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40.

11. On 9/11/01, four airliners were hijacked; two were used as missiles to take out the World Trade Centers and of the remaining two, one crashed into the US Pentagon and the other was diverted and crashed by the passengers. Thousands of people were killed by:

Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40.

12. In 2002 the United States fought a war in Afghanistan against:

Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40.

13. In 2002 reporter Daniel Pearl was kidnapped and murdered by:

Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40.

No, I really don’t see a pattern here to justify profiling, do you? So, to ensure we Americans never offend anyone, particularly fanatics intent on killing us, airport security screeners will no longer be allowed to profile certain people. They must conduct random searches of 80-year-old women, little kids, airline pilots with proper identification, secret agents who are members of the President’s security detail, 85-year old Congressmen with metal hips, and Medal of Honor winner and former Governor Joe Foss, but leave Muslim Males between the ages of 17 and 40 alone lest they be guilty of profiling.


As the writer of the award winning story ’Forrest Gump’ so aptly put it, ’Stupid is as stupid does.’

Apr 26

How About Death Valley?

Was watching a show on Discovery or History (one of those "learning" channels anyway) and they were talking about alternative ways to generate electricity. One segment said we could use a thousand square miles of Nevada to build solar collectors and provide all the power America needs. Or we could use about the same amount of space in Illinois (or somewhere up north) to build windmill farms and do the same. Well, what about Death Valley in Southern California? I mean, what else is it being used for? We could put up both solar collectors and windmills. Hook the solar collectors to water pipes and generate some steam also. That should generate even more electricity. Oh, sure, the poisonous snakes, lizards, tarantulas and scorpions would have to find somewhere else to live; maybe we could move them to Gila Bend, Arizona.

Friday ’date nite’ was great. Got to spend time with SWMBO. We drove to the Silverdale Mall and ate "Mall Food" for brunch. Then walked the mall to use up some of those calories. We broke another of our personal records also. WE WALKED RIGHT PAST BARNES & NOBLE without stopping. Battlestar Galactica was pretty good! All the ’hidden’ Cylons are going nuts. Crazy.

Today, Saturday, I got out to the property to cut some firewood. Also felled 3 more big trees to clear the area I want for a yard after we build our dome. Nice day out! Not nice enough to get naked but almost. For dinner SWMBO made Tuna sandwiches and I went to the store and bought chips. Was good. She also MOWED today! Wow! (She mows, I do dishes. Course, I do dishes about 150 times for each time she mows but it all works out in the end.)

Apr 24

Thursday Night. Thursday Already?

So this must be Smallville. Cool show tonight. Ending was kind of far out there, but I’ll get used to it. I still think Clark needs to learn to fly!!!

Last couple of days have been kind of boring. Not heading out to the property cause gas is too expensive and the weather SUCKS! Not quite cold enough to force me to light a fire in the woodstove but way too cool, windy and wet to head out and get some dirt moving done. Driving me nuts!

So I been "straightening up around the house," if you know what I mean. (I miss Whose Line!) Moved an old not working tv into the back bed/storage room and took the back off it to see if I could see why it doesn’t work. It got zapped by a lightning strike on the grid last December. Replaced the main fuse (only fuse) I found but that doesn’t seem to be the problem. I’m a USN Retired HM computer geek dirt mover; not a tv repair man!

Put the mediaserver to work converting dvd’s to avi’s. It Is Slow! But it ain’t doing anything else so why not. Spent some time this afternoon removing unused drivers and programs so now it should work better. Hopefully. You never know with computers running Windows. Any version of Windows. ANY version of Windows…

Hey, is there a widescreen version of the original "War Of The Worlds" out there?

STATE OF AFFAIRS

A conversation between a Customer and Bank of America Bank:

This is the Bank of America, can I help you?

Customer: Yes, I want to cancel my account. I don’t want to do business with you any longer.

Bank: Why?

Customer: You’re giving credit to illegal immigrants and I don’t think it’s right. I’m taking my business elsewhere.

Bank: Well, Mr. Customer, we don’t want to see you do that, but we can’t stop you. I’ll help you close the account. What is your account number?

Customer: (gives account number)

Bank: For security purposes and for your protection,can you please give me the last four digits of your social security number?

Customer: No.

Bank: Mr. Customer, I need to verify your information,but in order to help you, I’ll need verification of who you are.

Customer: Why should I give you my social security number? The reason I’m closing my account is that your bank is issuing credit cards to illegal immigrants who don’t have social security numbers. You are targeting that audience and want their business. Let’s say I’m an illegal immigrant and you’ve given me a credit card. I have a question about it and call for assistance. You wouldn’t be asking me for a Social Security number, would you?

Bank: No sir, I wouldn’t.

Customer: Why not?

Bank: Because you would have pressed ’2’ to speak in Spanish. We don’t ask for that information when calling in on the Spanish line.

CHECK THIS OUT ON SNOPES! IT’S TRUE! http://www.snopes.com/politics/immigration/bankofamerica.asp

Apr 22

We Set A Record!

Saturday we had a small amount of snow. Sunday, just as I arrived home from church, it hailed like crazy when I got out of the truck. Monday woke up to a very light dusting of snow… Is Summer Never Going To Get Here?!?

We set a world record, for us, yesterday: Went to Albertson’s for some ginger & a lemon. Walked out with the ginger, lemon and bagels. We Got Out Of Albertson’s In Less Than 10 minutes and under $20! Wow! Then we stopped by COSTCO for dog biscuits & a case of those frappuccino drinks (they’re only $1.19/ea if you buy it by the case. $2.40 if you buy them down at the corner store.) We walked in, found the dog biscuits & Frappuccino’s, paid the bill and walked out. 10 minutes and less than $25. Wow. Double Wow! Next there’ll be GAS in SWMBO’s car when we’ve got someplace to be in 10 minutes but don’t get me started…

Haven’t been out to the property. Gas costs too much. Think I’ll have to get out there tomorrow though. We’re running out of wood to burn and I need to get some more. Need Gas. Need Fuel. Need 2-stroke engine oil. Savings of .03/gal at Safeway just doesn’t make it. It might be cheaper to go to electrical heating for the next couple of weeks. But what happens if it doesn’t get much warmer? It happens up here every once in a summer or so.

Set the MediaServer up to rip my dvd’s and convert them to divx files. Why should it just sit there doing nothing if we’re not actually watching something on it? Yeah, it may be only a 1.5ghz machine but it really does have all the time it needs to convert files…

Think I’ll Try Again!