Happy VD, y'all

Sure, the [vinyl] original featured Henley on harmony vocal, but this is not a bad version.  Kenny Edwards, on bass, passed away August 2010.   I think this footage is from a few months before I saw her at DCCC in early December '76.  That's Andrew Gold on piano ( Lonely Boy, Thank You for Being a Friend ).

I may already be a winner...

Or so a German-language email informed me this morning, stating that I had won the German lottery.

Wow!  I didn't even know I'd entered the German lotto, much less given it my email address.

I guess since deleted the email without clicking on the link, I'll never know how many Deutsche Marks I would've had.

In other news:

• Watched a bit of Sunday morning 'talking head' blather on TV, most of it about Egypt, some about the R's nominee for 2012.
• Best quote was from David Brooks, stating that rumor has it "Donald Trump will throw his hair into the ring."
• During station break, Michelle Obama had a PSA for literacy or somesuch.  The funny part was watching her eyes track back and forth reading the prompter.  Either that, or a cop behind the camera was giving her a HGN test.
• For months, I've labeled Todd the Blogger's site as: Todd the Dogger?  No, Blogger!
• It's come to my attention that 'dogger' can be British slang for one who, uh, does lewd acts in public.
• Uh-oh!  It's getting to where almost any word in the language can be corrupted.
• I have no reason to believe that that would include Mr. The Blogger, so I'll change it to a simpler label, with apologies.
• Unless he thinks it makes him sound more daring...
• I recently had the opportunity to ride with a group of work colleagues across town - about a 45 minute drive, with 7 people in the SUV.
• Four of us with '5' in front of our ages, three with '4', we listened to the classic rock station.  I'm not really much the karaoke fan, but here is a suggestion for your next group outing.
• American Pie came on the radio, and we commenced a sing-a-long.  No ordinary sing-a-long, though.
• The intro and extro, the slow portions, must be done in the style of Bobby "Boris" Pickett, he of Monster Mash fame.
• The up-tempo, main part of the song, was done en voce Bob Dylan.
• The Monster Mash treatment also works well on Hotel California.

Welcome to Nanny-World 2011 (in what used to be the USA)

My office, like many, many others, was closed yesterday, and we had instructions to wait for information for today, but to expect to open at 10:00.  As I started to get out of bed to get showered and dressed this morning, the power went off.

Bummer.

So, I shaved in the bathroom that has natural light, then got a flourescent lantern to take a shower in the other one.  Not as cushy as my normal routine, but workable. I dried off and got dressed with what I'd normally wear to hunt pheasants¹ - long johns, jeans, boots - since I didn't expect we'd have many people in the office anyway.  As I was finishing getting dressed, I got a text from the office to hold off coming in - waiting for a decision from HQ regarding the opening. 

Then the power returned, so I finished dressing with the bathroom heater on, and noticed the spots I'd missed shaving.  Another text - the office would remain closed.

Before the power loss, the TV reporters had repeatedly informed viewers that due to emergency demand, they should expect rolling blackouts, so I wasn't surprised when it happened.   When the power returned, about 40 minutes later, I listened as whining TV viewers called the station and said that the outages were "unacceptable" (from a mother because she couldn't warm 5 baby bottles) and "ridickalus" (from a woman who said she always paid her bill on time).  A common theme was that they had called Oncor and "they haven't done anything!"

Well, excuuuuuse meeeee!  I'm sure that since you called WFAA-TV,  ERCOT and Oncor will immediately attend to your narcissistic requests, you whiny little jackwagons!

As I write this, I'm comfortably dressed as noted above, with a flannel shirt.  My thermostat is set to 64° (I suppose if I were a true Limbaugh conservative, it'd be set at 78° just to show those damn liberals they're not the boss of me²), and most electrical appliances are off.  The den is warm, but the 'atomic' clock above my computer monitor (on a perimeter wall), shows 59.4°.  Nonetheless, I've got a hot cup of coffee, so I'm good-to-go.

If these people are so concerned about the power, then maybe they should trot down to Home Depot or Lowe's and buy themselves generators (and hire electricians to install them), for just such instances.  As for me, if it goes out again, I'm warmly dressed, and if it stays out for an extended time, I'll burrow into my sleeping bag and throw some comforters over it.  I've got a propane stove I can use on the back porch if I need to cook something.

One wonders how long our Republic has left when everyone has become a dependent.

Even a nanny, or Super Nanny at least, would give those idiots a good scolding.


¹ About a dozen years ago, we were stranded by a snowstorm in NW Kansas after a weekend pheasant hunt.  Our camping trailer was parked in a service bay of the local feed co-op, so we weren't without lodging, but the continuing snow and outside temperature of -10° kept us from taking off from the local airport (we didn't want to meet the same fate as Charles Hardin Holley et al).  After a couple of days hanging around the local convenience store/fast food place, the temperature rose to a balmy 0°, and the precip stopped.  Unfortunately, the ignitor on the engine pre-heat pack wouldn't spark - so we walked to the local hardware store and got a BBQ ignitor kit, wired it up, and started the pre-heat pack.  Since the airplane's engine had AeroShell synthetic, after about 20 minutes of pre-heat, it fired up in about 3 turns.  Adapt, improvise, overcome.

² Being a libertarian-conservative doesn't mean that one has to abdicate one's societal responsibilities.  And besides, I have to pay for that gas/electricity.

Holed up in the cabin

Well, not really a cabin.  I just wish.

Word came at 5:45 this morning via group text that our office would open at noon.  At 8:15, it was updated to say the office would remain closed.

So, what does one do when it's an ARCTIC BLAST outside?

I decided, first, to sleep in a bit. 

Then I had a late breakfast.  A toasted half cinnamon raisin bagel with Neufchâtel cheese, fresh coffee, and an egg on toast with turkey slices, covered in chili, and a sprinkling of cheese.  Yum!

Then, reading the Dillon Precision catalog, cover to cover.  Of course, I was asking myself: "If I could afford a new super-progressive reloading outfit, why couldn't I just shoot factory ammo?"  So, for now, it's still the Lyman and Lee turret presses.  Still, one can dream (and drool).

Decided to take advantage of the down time to transcribe some old vinyl to MP3/CD.  Over the weekend, I'd borrowed some LPs from my Dad, stuff that we listened to, loudly, back in the, uh, early '60s through the '70s.  Dad was quite the hi-fi aficionado back then.  So, part of today was spent recording Harry Belafonte, Johnny Mann Singers, John Gary, Ted Heath & Edmundo Ros, and Kris Kristofferson to iTunes.

During the recording sessions, I was also monitoring the kitchen: A tuna casserole for lunch (and four leftovers to take to work), and a pot of beef/steak chili for dinner (with a similar number of leftover portions to put up for later).  At present a pound of huge (caps about 3" diameter) 'shrooms have been sautéed - these will find their way into spaghetti sauce and atop a steak tomorrow.

Dessert?  Southern Butter Pecan ice cream, with a small handful of cracked walnuts, some flax seed sprinkled over, and drizzled with a couple tablespoons of Kapali (similar to Kahlúa - hey, why didn't I think of that with my breakfast coffee?). 

Not a bad way to end the day.

People are crazy

I know, this isn't a revelation.

Watching the local evening news, OK listening mainly, but as I passed through the den I saw something that looked like a low-speed chase unfolding on my Toshiba screen.

Did O.J. stab someone else?

No.

Turns out the hoopla was about an armored truck carrying a trophy for some upcoming athletic contest in the area.  Nit-wits lined up on the street to watch its arrival.  I guess the paint drying exposition was over-booked.

News reaches us from the Pied Piper's blog that 5000 tickets for the brain dead to watch TV in a parking lot, at $200 each, have been sold.  Inasmuch as I try to keep a family friendly blog, I won't repeat Axel Foley's (Eddie Murphy) response to Serge (Bronson Pinchot)  after hearing the asking price for a piece of  'modern art'.  But it applies here.

P. T. Barnum was way too gracious.

For My Wedding

Found this on the YouTube, a more Nashville-infused version than is featured on Inside Job.  

Unfortunately, the embed code was disabled, so if you want to see it, click here.


Amen.

Semper Fi

First, let me say that I am not a Marine, and none of my relatives was.  A couple of uncles served in the Air Force.  I hope it's not indecorous for a non-Marine to use the motto.

A work colleague friend told me the story today, possibly apocryphal, of a miscreant who decided to take an extended 'borrowing' of a piece of electronic equipment from his local Wal-Mart.  Said goblin attempted to secret said gear under his shirt.

Unfortunately for the vermin, a plain-clothes security officer had observed the would-be crime, and commenced to follow him.  At some point, the thief became aware of the tail, and broke and ran.  Security radioed ahead to the front end.

Outside the store, four uniformed Marines were collecting toys for "Toys for Tots".  Alerted about the fleeing shoplifter, they stopped him at the entrance, at which time a scuffle ensued, and one of the Marines was stabbed in the back, but his injury was not life-threatening.

The cretin, however, did not fare so well, having suffered a broken arm, wrist, leg, collarbone, jaw, lost teeth and a concussion when he slipped off the curb.

Must've been what happened, as the security video equipment seemed to have malfunctioned on that particular zone.


Note:  I tried to confirm or dispel this story through Snopes.com, no luck.  Whether true or not, God bless our Marines!

h/t: Shay