Canadian or Snow?

The AOL News headline called out to me: Is Your Lawn Overrun by Geese?

It is not.  I just checked.

Nostalgia Nugget...

This afternoon I started a post, Surly Saturday, to try to exorcise my inner 'Grumpy Old Man'; however, other tasks beckoned, and by the time I needed to leave to go to church, it was way unfinished.  This evening's sermon, plus something I heard over the sound system at the local grocery, brightened my mood, so the earlier attempt was scrapped.

I hadn't planned this next, but since RPM over at Stay Thirsty, and Ed the Thud Driver both posted vintage pop songs on their blogs this morning, I couldn't resist (RPM put together a really nice collage).  There I was, on the Kroger coffee aisle, when this song came on, probably hadn't heard it in, like, thirtysomething years.  More shocking was that, somehow, I knew who it was (I think that Cathy, the girl next door when I was a kid, had his poster in her room).  So herewith I give you the original Justin Bieber - Bobby Sherman:



Groovin'.  Wonder if I can attract some chicks with leather pants and a fringed shirt?

This next was featured on WFAA-TV news last night.  I've seen the open-air version at an airshow at Fort Worth JRB, née Carswell AFB, a few years ago.

Really cool concept:

Carter Copter - The funniest home videos are here


I guess I'll have to do my 'grumpy' post later...

Cold again?

Seems I've gotten spoiled with all the good weather following the February deep freeze.

• License plate seen on a black Mercedes in Southlake yesterday: CME 2P
• Urologist?
• Went to the big mall north of the airport yesterday, reminded me of a visit last month where I was accosted by a not-unattractive woman with a clipboard in the food court who asked: "When was the last time you slept outdoors?"
• If you've read this blog for a while, you know of my (and my daughter's) penchant for sleeping under the stars.  I surmised the question was related to the Surf & Ski outdoor goods retailer.
• I paused, and said "Friday night."
• "Um, okay.  Thanks."
• I made my rounds of the food samples (it all tastes like chicken).
• As I began my return route to leave, I passed the clipboard woman, but this time I could see that she was at a table with some colleagues, at which some banners were displayed relating to the U.N. Council on Homelessness.
• I think my response must have totally thrown her off-script.  Apparently I didn't fit their model of 'normal'.
• There's a newsflash.
• BTW, daughter and I slept outside two nights this weekend.
• Punched some holes in paper today.  .224, .244, .308 inch little holes.  Three different action types.  You guess the calibers.
• Yesterday's sermon was awesome:

IN-N-OUT of LOVE - Part 1 from Keystone Church on Vimeo.

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.