The deep freeze continues here in Maine. I just knew that we’d pay dearly for that two weeks of warm temperatures and sunshine we had earlier. Every thing always seems to balance out whether we like it or not. This will certainly be the winter for reading and other indoor activities for us. I’m fortunate enough to be one of those people driven to read everything I can get my hands on and Winter is the prefect time for me.
Recently I downloaded a number of books, essays, and journal transcripts for my Kindle. It’s amazing to me just how many of the classics are now free to anyone to download at their leisure. Last fall I finished reading the autobiography of Ben Franklin and then a book of notes and observations he wrote about his life. It brings his experience to a new level of understanding without my being influenced by people who insist on rewriting history. The old adage of getting information "straight from the horses mouth" has never been truer. That was one of the reasons I first read the Federalist Papers many years ago.
I’ve always been a history buff and I thought I had a good handle on many of the things that took place as this country grew and developed. As usual I was somewhat incorrect. Learning about the history of this country in school depends totally on who supplies the school with text books. Unfortunately it’s human nature when writing to subconsciously slant what your describing in such a way as to reflect your ideals and opinions. Many current text books spend more time apologizing for our country than actually explaining things in the context of the time. It’s terribly unjust to take incidents out of context and then to feed that misinformation to our children claiming it to be the absolute truth. That’s my main reason for always attempting to go directly to the source for much of my information.
This week I began a journey of discovery that made the United States what it is today, at least geographically. I began reading the daily logs and journals of the entire journey of the Lewis and Clark expedition as it moved westward exploring the Louisiana Purchase. It was a grand thing they accomplished but reading the daily entries reveals a whole other side to the story. Their need to hunt for food, bartering with locals, and maintaining discipline within their ranks is gritty and at times difficult to read.
I’m only a few months into their journey as they traveled by boat west up the Missouri River. The spelling and writing of the time is difficult and cumbersome. They used many slang terms and abbreviations making the reading a bit of a chore. It’s worth the effort because the use of the original language seems to take me back to their time. I look forward to learning exactly how difficult and treacherous the expedition really was which in turn will give me a new appreciation for their efforts and accomplishments. The "devil is in the details" as with everything else and I have a driving need to learn those true details.
Being well informed is the responsibility of all citizens. It must include a true knowledge of our history unaffected by liberal academics attempting to rewrite history as they see fit. We all want the truth and believe me, we can handle the truth.
I love cold weather but this is getting ridiculous. My better-half also likes the temperature in the house kept around 65 degrees but even she’s spending more time in the bedroom wrapped in that wonderful electric blanket of ours. We’ve been in the single digits for the last two days and below zero today with wind chills bordering on dangerous and even life threatening.
I may look a little silly wandering around the house at the end of a fifty foot extension cord but I don’t really care. There are certain male body parts that demand warmth and I’m making sure they get it. So what if I have a heating pad stuffed down my sweat pants and who really cares about that stupid looking orange extension cord. I have my priorities set and no one will convince me otherwise.
Trying to stay busy and warm brought me to my next task. I’ve had three gallons of dandelion wine sitting in the man-cave for almost six months. After four months it was still a little too cloudy which required me to take emergency measures to clear it. There’s a product called Sparkloid that is nothing more than very fine clay dust. It’s mixed with water and brought to a boil for twenty minutes or so. Then each gallon jug receives a portion of that mix and is left to settle for a few weeks. It worked like a charm because I now have three gallons of a crystal clear golden liquid the exact color of dandelion blossoms.
After doing a little repair work to my wine racks I began the siphoning and bottling process. My final tally was thirteen bottles of a beautiful wine that actually tastes a little like a Chardonnay but a bit sweeter.
I boiled the corks in clean water and corked each bottle. I put a nice golden cap on each and they’re now reading for storage in the wine rack. As you can see from the photos there are thirteen bottles and a small jar of wine. That small jar I’ll be drinking with my dinner tonight. I want it chilled until it’s close to freezing and then I’ll sip it slowly and savor the flavor. I’ve made dandelion wine a number of times over the years but I think this might be my best batch ever. It’s always a pain in the butt to make dandelion wine because it takes forever to pick and prepare the blossoms. They must be cleaned of all pieces of leaves and debris and then frozen for a week or so. The freezing helps to breakdown the blossoms and convinces them to give up their beautiful color when they’re finally put in with the yeast.
This coming summer will be an interesting time for me because I fully intend to go outside the box with my winemaking projects. I want to make a few batches from ingredients that are not normally used for wine making but trying to do something never done before can be difficult. I look forward to the challenge and hopefully the results will be a few bottles of a really unique wine.
B r r r r !!!
After having a couple of weeks of beautiful sunny and moderately warm weather, the fun is apparently over. These last few days have brought winter back to us with a freaking vengeance. It started two days ago with just four or five inches of snow which living in Maine isn’t all that much. Then came the freezing rain which put down a sheet of ice on top of the snow. Then it decided to just rain for a while to make things even worse.
I was so thrilled to be able to pay some much needed attention to my poor lonely snowblower. Everything was fine until the cold air arrived from somewhere near the arctic circle. For the last twenty-four hours the temperature continued to drop with wind chills ending up well below zero. They say, those dumb ass weather people, that it will continue for another day and will warm up just in time for the first of two snowstorms working their way towards us. Hooray for me! Couple that with my soon to be experienced colonoscopy and 2015 is already not my most favorite year. I could say it’s becoming a real pain in the ass but that pun’s even too corny for the likes of me.
Since all of the snow, sleet and rain have eliminated any possibility of my starting a forest fire I made the decision to clean out my workshop and to have a cute little bonfire to get rid of the wood scraps. I figured even this stupid town we live in wouldn’t attempt to arrest me for failing to obtain a burning permit. That’s just another one of those small fine-print freedoms we’ve lost somewhere along the way. The job was done and the fire was very satisfying for some unknown reason, maybe because I got one over on the town government. Now I can start my bathroom remodel and have enough room left in the workshop to actually do it.
‘’Early Spring Cleaning’
‘Burn Baby Burn’
As I mentioned a week ago my better-half and I decided that we’d make further use of the former Christmas tree throughout this entire new year. We put Christmas to bed this week and packed away all of the decorations for another year. We’ve been slowly collecting appropriate decorations for the next celebration which is the Super Bowl. Unfortunately the Steelers (our favorite team) have been eliminated from the playoffs this year but they’ll be properly honored on our Super Bowl tree. After that’s over we can then plan our decoration of the Valentine’s Day tree.
I’ll be supplying photos of these trees as they happen and yes I know it sounds a little crazy. I’ve always been a big fan of crazy especially outside-the-box crazy. It’s time to turn this year around after a suspiciously sucky start.
I finally feel as if my entire life has been justified and validated. I never thought it would happen but today was the day. I stayed up late last night snuggling warmly on my favorite chair with my Kindle. I’ve been on a reading binge of late but decided to switch from my normal detective novels to some non-fiction. After a thorough search of the Kindle Store I was able to download a number of books and essays that caught my eye.
Just for background purposes you should know that many many times in my life I’ve been accused of being a ‘wise ass’. For me it stopped being something derogatory when I was still in junior high school. It became a badge of honor at that point and I set out to be the best ‘wise ass’ I could be. It’s good to have goals, don’t you know.
I’ve always enjoyed the company of other ‘wise asses’ because we understand each other. We all seem to be quick witted and able to crack wise at a moments notice. It’s not as easy and glamorous as it sounds. It takes years of hard work and dedication just to get to the level where your recognized by others after just a few minutes of conversation.
Samuel Clemens aka Mark Twain
I also enjoyed reading as a teenager and I became hooked on anything written by Mark Twain. It became obvious very quickly that while Mark Twain could spin a tale like nobody’s business his alter ego, Samuel Clemens, was the ultimate sarcastic wise ass. The more sarcastic and glib he became the more in demand he was. Last night I began reading his essay on "The Decay of the Art of Lying" and it took just a few paragraphs for me to realize that I needed to give more thought to lying in general and really good lying in particular. This quote stood out in just the first paragraph:
"No high-minded man, no man of right feeling, can contemplate the lumbering and slovenly lying of the present day without grieving to see a noble art so prostituted."
Another favorite ‘wise ass’ of mine was Will Rogers. Although he died in a plane crash in Alaska in 1935 much of his writings and quotations can be found everywhere. He was the leading political wit of the Progressive Era, and was a top-paid Hollywood movie star at the same time. He was another ‘wise ass’ who made it big before his untimely death. His good-old-boy approach to ridicule and humor made him funny, well liked, with a sarcasm that was dripping with honey. He was the sort who could take you to task for something stupid you’ve done and have you laughing at yourself as he left the room.
It’s a real shame that both of these ‘wise asses’ weren’t able to live long enough to see how our current political figures of both parties have proudly carried the art form of lying to new heights.
I’ve always been good at spinning a yarn to avoid lying but maybe I should have just blurted out the truth. Clemens stated rather emphatically that everyone lies. Whether it’s a little white lie or a lie of omission, it’s still a lie. We are a nation of liars. I honestly believe I prefer things the way they are because telling the absolute truth regardless of the consequences can get nasty and unfriendly very quickly. It makes the age old question "Does my ass look too big in this dress?" a life threatening situation. No thank you. Here’s one last quote from Clemens to support my position:
"None of us could live with an habitual truth-teller, but thank goodness none of us have to. A habitual truth-teller is an impossible creature; he does not exist; he never has existed. Everybody lies-every day; every hour; asleep; in his dreams; in his joy; in his mourning; if he keeps his tongue still, his hands, his feet, his eyes, his attitude, will convey deception-and purposely."
I’m an even bigger fan of Samuel Clemens and Will Rogers that I was previously. It’s nice to see a few sarcastic ‘wise asses’ make the big time. I just wanted to take the time to acknowledge them with this self-created Wise Ass Appreciation Day. Thankfully for all of us their works will live on forever.
Wise Asses – 2
The Rest of the World – 0
Well we’ve all survived another year. I guess we should be congratulated but maybe not. Over the New Years holiday I made the mistake of catching up on some TV watching. I should have known better but as always I thought there might be something interesting on. How stupid am I?
I was working on a project and had the TV playing in the background. I was excited about the project since I’ve been working on it for more years than I care to think about. I was working intently but my subconscious was inundated with three hours of religious doom and gloom. The "End of Days" and "Armageddon" we’re just some of the topics I was hearing and it depressed me enough that I turned the channel. I then found myself in the midst of a mini-marathon of the Walking Dead program which for me was even worse than the religious nonsense.
The bottom line was that I disconnected the damn TV and fell back on the good old reliable music that I love. I recently created a new playlist which is killer. It’s a collection of three of my all time favorite female blues singers, Anita Baker, Billie Holiday, and Amy Winehouse. It was absolutely wonderful with Billie singing Loverman, followed closely by Amy singing Back to Black, and then Anita bringing it home with Sweet Love. It just doesn’t get much better than that.
Back to this crazy project of mine. Over a ten year period back in the nineties I created a collection of collages containing articles and things from my life. Some were four feet square with an variety of other sizes as well. I called them my life panels. I always intended to have them framed and then put together to create a wall. Here I am twenty-five years later and even though they’ve been in storage for all of that time they still look pretty good. They’ve never been displayed at all but have moved from place to place with with me awaiting enough wall space to put them up.
This current man-cave of mine has slowly turned into someplace special but I still don’t have enough wall space. I solved that problem this week by turning my life panels into the ceiling above my computer desk. The picture that follows was taken as I was lying on my back on the floor looking up.
What better way to start 2015 than to resurrect my life panels and to display them proudly. I can now lean back in my chair and see more than twenty years of my life displayed for my enjoyment. Happy New Year to me. . . .
AND TO YOU!
Well these few days of peace and quiet after Christmas are really starting to lose their magic. All of this noiselessness is beginning to make me a little antsy and on top of that the weather is insanely mild. I’ve lived in Maine for a long time and I’ve never seen weather in the mid-fifties with sunshine the week before New Years Day. While its saving us a great deal of money in heating oil costs it’s still a bit unsettling.
Yesterday was warm and sunny and there was no way we were staying home. We spent a good part of the day in the city of Portland and the surrounding area. We had a quick snack while on the road for lunch because we were planning on dinner at my favorite restaurant later in the day. It’s only my favorite restaurant because they serve the best damn catfish I’ve ever had. It’s called Famous Dave’s and it’s menu is good old down home southern food all the way. Lots of BBQ and an entire table full of hot sauce choices which make me sweat just thinking about them.
We ate until we were stuffed and I even tried two of their moonshine margaritas. It’s moonshine instead of tequila with the glass rimmed with salt flavored with BBQ sauce. I know it sounds a little strange but they are delicious. They also require the assistance of a designated driver because after just two they tend to make you a little weak in the knees.
We’re planning for a quiet New Years celebration with Chinese food, two glasses, and a bottle of good champagne. After that good meal we’ll settle in for some of the celebrations scheduled on the always helpful television. Watch the ball drop, get a long and mushy kiss, drink some champagne and slide quietly into bed. The better-half works early the next morning so we can’t really make a late night of it.
If you’re driving or going out for the evening be sure to bring along a good designated driver or hire a limo but by all means be safe. Start the new year off properly without any DUI’s, accidents, or worse.
HAPPY 2015
With New Year’s approaching I’ve begun to think about my resolutions for 2015. In preparation for the new list it only makes sense to review last year’s resolutions. It might be necessary to use a few of them that I failed to live up to again this year.
2014
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Read five books a month. COMPLETED
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Teach the grandson one curse word per month once he begins talking. He still isn’t talking enough to complete this one. FAILURE
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Keep the number of F-bombs below 100 a week. COMPLETED
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Drink less brandy than last year but more than next year. COMPLETED
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Spend less than $300.00 at Dunkin Donut for the entire year ($25.00 per month). . . . as of 12/28/2014 $391.32. BIG FAILURE
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Stop dancing naked near the picture window in the living room, it scares the neighbors. I managed to stop the dancing but not being naked seems impossible for me. FAILURE
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Fight to my last breath to keep chickens and goats from becoming part of my life. COMPLETED
Four completed out of seven seems pretty good to me but I need to improve that next year. I’d really like just once to complete all of them but I always seem to get sidetracked with other stuff. I may need a few easy ones for 2015 that won’t require me to work so hard. With that thought in mind here is my new list.
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I vow to exercise for forty-one minutes every other day for the entire year.
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I vow to call President Obama nasty names only during months with an "R" in them.
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I further vow to never say anything good about President Obama in months without an "R".
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I vow to never blurt out any F-Bombs in front of the grandson now that he has started repeating damn near everything.
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I vow to say many more F-Bombs around those people (except the grandson) who irritate, annoy or piss me off.
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I vow to stop flirting with just anyone. There are times when I feel like such a slut and that’s not always a good thing for my self esteem.
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For the third year in a row I vow not to prance naked anywhere near the front picture window. It creeps out the neighbors and one or two of our regular joggers.
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I also vow not to screw with my cat as much this year due to his advanced age and sharp claws.
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I vow to take at least 500 really good photographs a month.
I’ll do my first review of these new resolutions sometime in June. Hopefully I’ll be on track to complete every one for the first time. As always the road to hell really is paved with good intentions.
HAPPY NEW YEAR
Finally Christmas has come and gone. For me it was the longest Christmas season of my life. The retailers started their season well before Halloween and it increased in intensity every week. It wasn’t all that bad but it truly was annoying at times.
The house is quiet for the first time in a week and while I had a great week it was also exhausting. The visitors and family have returned to their homes safely and for that I’m grateful. I ate too damn much, drank a little more than I should have, and helped spoil the hell out of our grandson. It was all good until I climbed back onto my treadmill yesterday. I thought I was gonna die.
Christmas Day was insane as you can see from the pictures. The grandson was sitting in the middle of the debris and I just thought I’d tell you that my cat is also in there somewhere.
“Stuffing”
My bird turned out great and so did the better-half’s special family stuffing recipe. The day after we all had cold turkey sandwiches that we’re almost as good as eating it fresh from the oven. I see a huge turkey pot pie in my future and after that the remains of that poor bird will make an excellent soup. If I could figure a way to eat the bones I would. I’m a true carnivore. Here’s the before and after photos of that delicious bird.
“Before”
“After”
I suppose we’ll be keeping the decorations up until New Years has but there’s more going on there than even you can imagine. A few days ago my step- daughter made a comment that she knew me and was sure that the Christmas tree would be down and packed away before 2015. After some discussion my better-half and I decided to do something totally off the wall and outside the box. It looks as if we’re going to keep the tree up for all of 2015. Each month it will be decorated for any holidays that fall during that month. Next up will be the Valentines Tree but before that the Superbowl Tree will be killer.
Each months pictures will be posted of the tree and copies forwarded to the all knowing step-daughter as well. I’ve accepted her challenge and it should be a hoot.
HAPPY NEW YEAR
It’s Christmas Eve and our visitors have come and gone. It was a an afternoon and evening of relaxing, catching up, and snacking ourselves into submission. We’ll be having a huge dinner of turkey and all the trimmings tomorrow so it was decided tonight to just snack.
A large plate of cheeses (habanero is my favorite, of course) crackers, a few pounds of shrimp, cookies, veggies, and drinks all around. We all participated in an excellent X-Box bowling tournament and a few games of darts. Then we settled in for the movie of the night, Guardians of the Galaxy, and it was a fun and entertaining movie. The grandson was mingling with everyone and watching Mickey Mouse on his mother’s cell phone. It really is nice being around a true Santa believer for a change.
It’s later now and they’ve all just left for home. Getting the little guy to sleep will be the real Christmas miracle tonight. We all need to get some rest because tomorrow will be another very long day. It’s my turn to prepare the bird and my better-half is supplying her favorite family stuffing recipe for her kids. I should be one helluva meal.
We’ll be exchanging gifts around midday with the dinner to follow. So I’m off to bed to read a few chapters of one of my favorite detective novel. I have a collection of those novels on my e-reader and they help me get to sleep almost every night.
For those of you who celebrate your holiday on Christmas Eve, have a Merry Christmas. I’ll have a few additional pictures to post of our Christmas on Saturday and then it will be on to New Years.
MERRY CHRISTMAS
It’s taken me some time to read through all of the changes I’ve made on the review of my list of “100 Things I Hate” compiled five years ago. It became obvious early on that my opinions on some things had drastically changed. I initially made the list as a tongue-in-cheek exercise but as it progressed I became more and more serious about the items I was adding. The following 64 items are those that survived the review and I still hate them all. If I indicated even a fifty percent improvement on any item it was removed from this list because if you truly hate something it should be all or nothing. Here’s what’s left.
#1 Rosie O’Donnell
#2 Dirty Fingernails
#3 Criminals
#4 Funerals
#5 Backward Baseball Caps
#6 Large Groups of People
#7 Old Gum Under Tables
#8 Penis Tattooing
#9 Dumb Cashiers
#10 Stinky Feet
#11 Decomposition
#12 Bugs Crawling On Me
#13 Terrorists
#14 Overweight Pets
#15 Know-It-All’s
#16 Hospitals
#17 Oprah Winfrey
#18 Will Ferrell
#19 The Smell of Urine
#20 Corpse’s
#21 Political Correctness
#22 Drug Users
#23 Clowns
#24 Corns
#25 Organic Food
#26 Liars
#27 Ear Hair
#28 Organic Food
#29 Dirty Toilets
#30 Stinky Cheese
#31 Opossums
#32 Extra Toes
#33 Nose Hair
#34 Vegans
#35 Fake Boobs
#36 Ass Kissers aka Brown-Noser’s
#37 Autopsy’s
#38 Stinky Breath
#39 Illegal Aliens
#40 Democrats
#41 Wet Farts
#42 Feet Calluses
#43 Performing Artists
#44 Ugly or Fugly Feet
#45 Sean Penn
#46 Road Kill
#47 Belly Button Lint
#48 Arrogant People
#49 Noisy Radios
#50 The French
#51 Gerbils
#52 Road Tolls
#53 Hairy Nipples
#54 Yellow Nail Polish
#55 Crowded Elevators
#56 Baby Pageants
#57 Pot Holes
#58 Screaming Brats
#59 Texting While Driving
#60 Saggy Pants
#61 Penis Caught In Zipper
#62 Tailgater’s
#63 Stinky Arm Pits
#64 Ex-Wives
The list has been read and reread a a dozen times and is is my final version for 2014. It’s nice to see how much I’ve changed in just five years. A 35% reduction in hated items seems huge to me and I plan on another review at this time next year. I’m sure to make reductions then and probably will have a number of new items to add which will have aggravated me in 2015. With that thought in mind I’ll add this following item to the list and truthfully it should have been included on the last one as well:
#65 Anything in Moderation
It just had to be said.
everyuselessthing.com 