Archive for the ‘Bitch & Complain’ Category
Today’s posting is just a little of this and a little of that, nothing earth shattering by any means. With Fall and the holidays in my immediate future I’m just taking a few deep breaths and resting up for the on-slot to come. I’ll need all of my energy to deal with Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years, and everything that entails.
Topic one is the ongoing Dish Network table project. I was able to complete the first two coats of red paint, the staining of the base, and the creation of the coax cable pieces needed to make it a little more interesting. It’s coming together fairly well with only a few minor problems that were easily dealt with.
The hard part is coming. I finally have the finished version of the mosaic for the table top laid out but getting it installed perfectly will be a challenge.
Topic Two is the garden cleanup. Yesterday I removed many of the plants that have been producing for most of the Summer. The cucumbers, zucchini’s, beans, and kohlrabi’s made their way to the compost pile. I left the tomatoes and peppers alone for now. In another two weeks they too will be gone. All in all 2015 was a very productive year for us.
Topic three; After working in the garden for a while my better-half and I made a quick trip to Federal Jacks restaurant and micro-brewery in Kennebunkport. I was in dire need of seafood and a large cold glass of Goat Island Light beer. Here’s the view from the second floor dining room overlooking the harbor.
And last but not least here’s a cold glass of Goat Island Light. As I’ve stated many times before, I’m not a beer drinker. After all these years I finally found a decent beer I can occasionally drink and enjoy. I never thought it could happen but I’m glad it did.
“I will never forget.” is the extent of my comments for today on all of the 9/11 anniversary coverage. I have no need to write paragraph after paragraph about that day or to show any of the many horrific photographs. “I can’t and won’t ever forget.”
For too many years of my life I’ve wasted time fretting about politics and inept politicians. I’ve allowed myself to become upset and irate about how this country has slowly eroded many of our civil and human rights without a second thought. With the new presidential campaign beginning it’s time for me to bury my head in the sand and go into seclusion from it all.
I see nothing that interests me. It’s more of the same idiocy, the Clinton’s, the Obama’s, and the Bush’s. All we need is for someone to throw in a couple of Kennedy’s and we’ll finally have completed our time travel back to the 1960’s.
I’m one of the many citizens who’ve lost faith in our politicians as well as the American voting public. Any group of people, large or small, who are gullible enough to vote for an obvious anti-American to a second term as president deserve exactly what they get. This country has been in decline since the arrival of the Obama’s who’ve done nothing to stop it, if anything, they’ve accelerated it. Now the Democrats want Joe Biden to step in and attempt a third Obama term. The way things are going in this country he’ll probably get elected and the media will convince everyone it’s a huge mandate. Then he can become the scapegoat that can then be blamed for the downfall of the United States as a superpower. Turn out the lights people the effing party’s almost over.
I’ve finally eliminated from my life the constant barrage of political propaganda, both Republican and Democrat, that’s being spewed from millions of televisions across the country every day. I’ve also stopped listening to the radio which has become just as bad as television, if not worse. I’m done with it all.
My late father always told me that my vote meant something. I’m glad he didn’t live long enough to see what happening to this country . . . it would have killed him. The individual vote means nothing any longer because the political parties have successfully separated the citizens into small and diverse groups based on any number of differences. They play the blacks against the whites, the whites against the blacks, the heterosexuals against the gays, the blacks and whites against the Hispanics, and even the religious against the non-religious. We now have Red states against Blue states which helps keep everyone arguing and fighting on stupid social issues that mask all of the games that the political elite love to play. It’s become almost impossible with all of the factional infighting to elect a president with a majority of the popular vote.
So I hope you’re all prepared for the browbeating and propagandizing that’s coming your way for the next year. Let me know how it’s going from time-to-time if you can because I’m tired of trying to do the right thing and having it thrown back in my face. I’m tuning out just like the powers-that-be want me to do. They’ve won the battles and they’ve won the war. By disenfranchising us citizens they can continue to rule as they please without interference from the “great unwashed”.
HAPPY DAYS
A short time ago I posted ten questions created to assist a person in examining their own motivations and ethics when confronted with difficult problems. I was surprised by some of the responses and even more so by the numerous requests for additional questions. Never let it be said I don’t respond to my readers.
Here are ten more puzzlers to get you thinking along with my own answers.
1. Would you be willing to reduce your life expectancy by five years to become extremely attractive?
a. No, I’d prefer to have the women I know become more attractive. Then I’d give up the five years without hesitation.
2. Have you ever considered suicide? If yes, what is so important to you that without it life would not be worth living?
a. Yes, my eyesight.
3. If your friends and acquaintances were willing to bluntly and honestly tell you what they really thought of you, would you want them to?
a. Sure why not. For the most part I know my faults but maybe I’d find out about one I wasn’t aware of. Either way I don’t really care.
4. Do you believe in capital punishment? Would you be willing to execute a man sentenced to death by the courts if you were selected by lot to do so and he would go free if you refused? Assume you know no details of the trial.
a. I do believe in capital punishment and I would execute a criminal who had been properly convicted through the courts. The alternative of freeing him is not an option.
5 If you went to a beach and it turned out to be a nude beach, would you stay and go swimming? Would you swim nude?
a. Yes and Yes.
6. Do you find it so hard to say “no” that you regularly do favors you do not want to do? If so, why?
a. No I find it pretty easy to say no.
7. Would you like to know the precise date of your death?
a. No.
8. If by getting a 2 inch by 2 inch tattoo, you could save five lives and prevent a terrorist attack, would you do so? If you were allowed to select the location and design, where would you have it placed and what would the design be?
a. Yes I‘d get the tattoo. A red crescent on my butt.
9. On an airplane you are talking pleasantly to a stranger of average appearance. Unexpectedly, the person offers you $10,000.00 for one night of sex. Knowing that there is no danger and that payment is certain, would you accept the offer?
a. Of course . . . If the person were really attractive I might do it for $5,000.00. LOL
10. Would you be willing to commit perjury for a friend? For example, might you testify that he was driving carefully when he hit a pedestrian even though he had been joking around and not paying attention.
a. No, he’s on his own.
Well there you have it. Ten more questions to make you wonder about yourself and your significant other (assuming they are answering them with you). Enjoy.
There’s a chill in the night air these days and I certainly know what that means. It means we have just a month or so before we start dismantling the garden, cleaning and inspecting the heating system, and unpacking all of our Winter clothing. This summer came and went much too quickly.
This week the better-half had two days-off which means only one thing . . . Road Trip! We made our way westward across Maine and entered New Hampshire just north of Lake Winnipesaukee and proceeded north through the lakes region. We traveled mostly on the back roads where the traffic is light and the scenery is spectacular.
Of course as you can imagine, my better-half required numerous pee stops, coffee breaks, and an obsession to stop at every dirty and filthy antique shop (her term, not mine). This was the nicest one we saw the entire day.
The roads we chose wound in and around the numerous small lakes and ponds and made for a great ride. All the while we could see the White Mountains slowly approaching in the distance.
After a few hours we arrived in Conway, New Hampshire which is a town known for it’s never-ending supply of outlet stores. Normally the better-half could spend an entire day roaming around this area and shopping . . . but not today. Fortunately for me we both received matching text messages from our home alarm system that reported a motion alarm on our enclosed and locked rear porch. It was the perfect excuse to leave immediately for home which we did.
Luckily it was just a false alarm that actually saved me from an addition two or three hours of shopping. All in all it was a great day with a lot of sunshine and the discovery of a little jewel of a pizza shop in the bustling metropolis of Cornish, ME. If you’re in the area and you like pizza, stop and have lunch at Susie Q’s. Good food, good prices, and friendly people.
Goodbye August! Now begins our downhill slide into Fall and the always unavoidable Winter. This Summer has sped by faster than any I can even remember.
The better-half and I spent a couple of hours yesterday canning the remaining cucumbers, jalapenos, and assorted hot peppers from the garden. With all of the canning competed I can now start dehydrating my collection of our main cooking herbs. It’s amazing to me just how many herbs we consume each winter. That’ll be my main job during the coming week because we have a large supply of oregano, tarragon, mints, parsley, and thyme to choose from.
We still have a few zucchini’s to be used along with a few kohlrabi’s and beans. The sunflowers are now in bloom and the birds are already circling. Those little beasts can strip a sunflower in a matter of hours once the seeds are ready to eat.
We didn’t feel much like cooking yesterday which means an afternoon visit to Applebee’s. For a lot of years we avoided the place because the food was mediocre and over priced. Going there now is like visiting a brand new restaurant. They’ve changed their menu to something on the order of a TGIF. The food selection is terrific, the preparation is excellent, and the prices won’t break the bank. It was Fish & Chips for me and Shrimp for the better-half. I also washed it all down with a couple of extra tall Gin & Tonics. Life is good.
‘Star Trek – Original Series’
I just finished watching a documentary thanks to Netflix that was filmed by the son of the late, great Gene Roddenberry. If you’re not aware and have been living in a cave somewhere, Roddenberry was father of Star Trek. His son claimed he was trying to discover who his father really was because they hadn’t been close. It seemed to me he was just using his late father’s fame just one more time to get his face on the big screen. Everyone needs their fifteen minutes of fame I guess and he’s using his to whine about his Daddy issues. Typical father and son issues that we’ve all dealt with in one form or another but without the capability or need to air it publicly.
‘Star Trek– Next Generation’
Let me give you my qualifications for the remarks I’m about to make. Unlike Gene Jr. I was a sci-fi nerd before he was even a twinkle in his father’s eye. It began for me when my mother’s birthday gift for my eighth birthday was painting the walls and ceiling of my bedroom with planets, rocket ships, and stars. My bedroom was "Outer Space" to me before Star Trek was even a dream. For me that sci-fi nerdiness has grown over the years until I’m what you see before you now, an older and wiser sci-fi geek who is damn proud of it. I loved Star Trek because it brought many of my childhood space fantasies to life.
‘Star Trek – Deep Space Nine’
The documentary in question was a nostalgic trip down memory lane for me where I got to listen and meet once again the heroes of my youth. Captain Kirk, Mr. Spock, Bones, Scotty, Sulu and on and on and on. I loved the interviews with the cast from the Next Generation series which I always thought was the best of them all.
‘Star Trek – Voyager’
It took me back to my visit to a motel in Philadelphia many years ago while on a boring business trip. The trip was a last minute one and I was hard pressed to find a motel room in the area I was visiting. At the last minute I finally booked a room (a rather expensive one I might add) and arrived at the motel just after dark to check in. Little did I realize that the motel was hosting a rather large Star Trek convention and I was the only guy around not in costume. As I walked through the lobby in my nice suit and tie what did I see but three Romulans, two Klingons, and one fairly hot and green Orion slave girl.
‘Star Trek – Enterprise’
Truthfully I was thrilled but I definitely was the odd man out. I was advised by the desk clerk that my room had been given away to a large group of Klingons who all wanted to stay together in one wing of the motel. I was then upgraded to a beautiful suite that had a huge and gorgeous Jacuzzi right in the middle of the room. I changed my clothes and returned to the bar to check things out and to buy a few rounds for some of the visiting aliens? I heard more Klingon spoken in that bar in one night than all of the Star Trek episodes ever made. It was just the coolest thing ever.
‘Klingon Sweethearts’
I was in nerd heaven but little did I know it was going to get even better. One of the last things I remembered was being in that scalding hot Jacuzzi at 3:00 am with two rather naked Klingon chicks and one Vulcan bitch who was no fun at all. They filled me up with some sort of Klingon drink (they claimed) that tasted suspiciously like tequila, a treat from the Mexican side of the Klingon Empire. It truly was a night to almost remember.
I confess that I’m a gigantic geek who remains loyal to all things Star Trek and always will.
NERDS MAY RULE THESE DAYS BUT US GEEKS GET THE KLINGON CHICKS
Every so often I read or hear something that sets my teeth on edge. In recent years it’s been this constant drumbeat of hatred between the global religions. If you’re one of those people who can’t abide religious criticism, I suggest you stop reading now. It’s not that I mind offending you because I don’t . . . it’s just a courtesy and fair warning. I’m sick to death of hearing about Islam, Jews, Hindus, Buddhists, and the numerous Christian sects. How long can the human race on this planet continue to sit back and allow themselves to be manipulated as they’re convinced by organized religions to commit the most heinous crimes you can imagine?
I’d hate to guess how many people have died over the centuries in the defense of religion and their ingrained hatred of everyone else’s. From the Crusades, to Northern Ireland, to the Middle East, and beyond. The total number of deaths is almost unimaginable. Every religion that has ever existed has their own set of commandments to live by and all of them seem to agree that murder is a big no-no until it involves another religion. Then they get some special dispensation from some insane religious leader, grab their weapons, and off they go to murder and butcher anyone who doesn’t agree with them. Yeah, that really makes me want to become religious.
If being stupid and brainwashed is a requirement for me to be considered a religious person you can just forget it! So a big hats-off to all those devoted Christians who can’t even agree amongst themselves, to the Muslim religion who suffers from the same affliction, and the Jews who aren’t much better. Even the Buddhists piss me off when they claim to want calm and peace in the world, then set themselves on fire in protest of some stupid thing or another. I’m not quite ready to sign up for that anytime soon either. Suicide is nuts regardless of the circumstances.
My own history with religion leaves much to be desired. I apparently wasn’t a good Catholic boy when I was thrown out of catechism classes for reading a dirty magazine. I think it was an issue of Giant Boobs or something like that. My late mother and I fought for fifty years as she tried to coerce me back to that same church teaching the same old nonsense. Oh yeah, don’t forget to donate that 10% every year too, God really needs the money. Still not gonna happen Mom!
Recently I took to wearing this T-shirt. Everyone seems to be in such a big hurry these days to label others. He’s Jewish, she’s Catholic, he’s Protestant, and she’s an atheist. In order to make life easier for those people I decided to wear my label proudly. I’ve been called so many things over the years I just felt the need to clear up any confusion.
Many years ago I heard this quote on religion by Charles Caleb Cotton (1780–1832), an English cleric, and it stuck with me. Every time I find myself in a heated religious discussion with some fanatic I’d bring it out to enhance the discussion.
"Men will wrangle for religion, write for it, fight for it, die for it, anything but live for it."
The Dog Days of August are upon us with all of the heat and humidity that they bring. I’ve been staying fairly inactive due to the heat but it’s driving me crazy. I just need to get the hell out of the house.
I decided to visit an old friend today. That’s the Wildlife Sanctuary in Scarborough, Maine. Over the last five years I’ve spent a great deal of time there documenting the plants and wildlife. I was driven to create a photo book of the place which took me two years to complete. I was very proud of the result but knew all along it could be a double-edged sword. My biggest fear was that people would read the book and then decide to visit the place in large numbers that might change things in the Sanctuary. Unfortunately I was correct.
In past years the Sanctuary wasn’t visited all that much and remained a pristine place to monitor and photograph the wildlife. In just two short years the place has dramatically changed. Since the town received copies of the book, they’ve begun promoting the place. The trails are now mowed to twice their original size and from all of the piles of dog feces, it’s becoming a dog park rather than a wildlife refuge.
Vandalism is evident in certain places with hints of teenage visitors from nearby high schools occasionally appearing. Most of the wildlife I initially photographed is now almost impossible to find. They must have decided to leave the immediate area due to the increased human and canine traffic.
Here are a few photos I snapped as I made a casual walk-thru just looking for anything.
‘The milkweed fields are as healthy as ever.’
“Thistles continue to flourish.’
‘Lots of elderberries available for use.’
The birds and squirrels are harder to find these days and even the deer seem to have moved on. I decided to made a quick stop in the swamp, hoping for some dragonfly activity but even it was minimal. In years past they completely filled the air over the swamp but that’s no longer the case. I was hard pressed to get more than a handful of usable photo’s.
I continued on to a second small pond looking for damn near anything. Usually the place is overrun with frogs but I found just these two.
There was a time when I could visit the sanctuary three times a week and never see another person. Today there were three cars plus my own. A family with three small children and three dogs were running here and there while the parents picked blackberries nearby. They spent part of their time trying to keep the dogs from attacking me, which I greatly appreciated.
I’m sorry I ever made the book available to the public. I should’ve visited the Sanctuary, created the book for myself, and kept my mouth shut about it. I may have helped ruin the place and that makes me sad.
I’m not feeling too domestic today so gardens, food, and computers are off the menu. I’ve been paging though my library of interesting but useless facts and factoids. At first I couldn’t decide whether to supply all of you with unusual information about sex but I think I’ll save that for another day. Since I consider myself a patriotic citizen it was only logical (Thanks Mr. Spock) that I find as many odd and unusual facts about some of our great and no so great presidents.
With Obama on his way out (Yeah!)(Finally!) and the presidential election looming I felt we needed to reconnect with our American roots. Lets start if off with ten quick questions about some of our past presidents. I’ll list the questions first and the answers will be found at the end of this post.
Questions
1. How many bathrooms are in the White House?
2. What was the Secret Service’s code name for Barbara Bush?
3. What did Woodrow Wilson, Americas 28th president, denounce as a symbol of “the arrogance of wealth”?
4. President Gerald Ford pardoned Iva D’Aquino in 1977. Who was she?
5. President Lydon Johnson called his pet beagles Him and Her; what did President Franklin D. Roosevelt and his wife, Eleanor, name His and Hers?
6. What president was ticketed for speeding in Washington, D.C., while he was in office?
7. What did President John F. Kennedy commission Pierre Salinger to do on the eve of signing the Cuban Trade Embargo?
8. How many tons of jelly beans were purchased by the White House during the presidency of Ronald Reagan?
9. What did President Franklin D. Roosevelt have printed on the White House matchbooks?
10. Which American president was the first to have a telephone on his desk in the White House? 
I found a few of the question interesting but the answers were even better. I’m sending this bonus trivia story along because it’s just do damn strange.
"On his way home from Harvard one day, Robert Todd Lincoln, the son of President Abraham Lincoln, fell off the platform while waiting for his train. He was saved from possible death by Edwin Booth, the actor, and brother of John Wilkes Booth – the man who, only a few weeks later, assassinated President Lincoln.”
Answers
1. 34
2. Tranquility
3. The Automobile
4. Tokyo Rose, the seductive-voiced Japanese radio propagandist during World War II.
5. The pistols they kept under their pillows.
6. Ulysses S. Grant, in his horse and buggy. He was fined $5.00.
7. Buy and stockpile 1,500 Havana cigars.
8. 12 Tons
9. “Stolen from the White House”
10. Herbert Hoover, in 1929. Previous presidents used an enclosed phone booth in the hallway outside the Oval Office.
MORE SEX TRIVIA TO COME
It’s beginning to feel like Fall already and I’m certainly not happy about that. We’re just a couple of weeks from Labor Day and then it’s all downhill from there. Most of the smaller nurseries are already closing down except for veggies being shipped to the local grocery stores.
One telltale sound indicating Fall here in Maine is the sound of tractors pulling hay wagons down the road past our house. It’s a distinctive sound which has been steadily increasing in recent weeks. This is a common place scene in this area these days:
The large bales of hay covered in plastic will be appearing by the hundreds almost everywhere over the next month in preparation for Winter. It appears to have been a great summer for hay production which should keep the animals happy and healthy until Spring.
We’ve been tending our garden more often of late because the veggies are ripening rapidly. There are a few things every day that require picking as you can see:
These items went from that basket directly to our table for dinner. The three white turnip looking items are kohlrabi’s. As I’ve mentioned in the past these vegetables aren’t available in stores very often. Most people have never tasted them or even heard of them. These were picked while they were still young and tender. The larger they grow the harder they become to peel and eat. As you can see by the photo, they grow fairly large but this is the best size for harvesting:
This kohlrabi was immediately peeled, sliced, diced, and added to our salad for dinner. They have a wonderfully mild flavor reminiscent of white radishes and are absolutely delicious. I’ll be sure to return them to the list of plantings for the 2016 garden.
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