What's happening in the world's greatest deliberative body?

Rolling Home

Some of the music I grew up with...



I dig [rock-n-roll music] the phrasing and soaring harmonies on this song.

Oldie but goodie

Was going to run Denton-born Ray Peterson's version, but I found the "bom-bom-bom-boms" slightly less annoying in this version.

Como Si

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It's good to see fellow blogger ComKev posting bulleted episodes again (even if some are old draft cleanups). So, maybe I should give it a go.

• It was good to look out this morning to see snow on the patio furniture on the deck. Also nice to have a toast/turkey/cheese/egg open-faced breakfast sandwich. If I'd more time, I think I would've cooked some Jimmy Dean sausage and made scrambled eggs. I have a chub (don't go there) of chorizo I think I'll cook up tomorrow. (Edit: Tomorrow is now today. I did not cook the chorizo, but did have a nice raisin bagel half, with cheese, and the Jimmy Dean patties, and an egg with flax and mustard seeds before church.)
• I have tasked one of my female co-workers with finding me a wife. She is utterly failing at this job.
• I had made mention of this to another [married] female co-worker, who asked me "Are you willing to open your eyes to other possibilities?" When I requested clarification, she inferred that she knew someone, but that "I don't think she'd make the first move." I asked if I also knew this someone, and she indicated that I do. I kinda let it drop there, as my Watson-quick mind ran the algorithms and surmised three or five candidates to whom she might be referring - all decent women whose work company I enjoy, but none with whom I'd pursue a romantic interest.
• Saw this recently in G & A. I had to chuckle a bit, as I tend to agree. While certainly iconic - and I would love to own a P.08 - it's not all that:

•  What's better, you ask? Well, obviously the great John Moses Browning's models of 1911 and 1935 (High Power design finalized after his death), and the CZ 75 (and its descendants), highly praised by no less than the Gunner's Guru, Lt. Col. John Dean "Jeff" Cooper, U.S.M.C.  Cooper was himself a foremost expert and proponent of the 1911 and its use - in designing the [now-resurgent] 10mm Auto cartridge, for the now defunct Bren Ten, he chose the CZ architecture/platform.
• After nearly fading into obscurity in the late '90s and early 21st century after the introduction of .40 S&W (a diminished power derivative of the 10mm enabled by the cultural emasculation and wimpification of the American male in the latter 20th century), the 10 is experiencing a renaissance, with several manufacturers now building pistols - and carbines - in the caliber.
• While it's said to be good protection for guides and persons traveling in bear and cougar territory, some have compared it to an 'auto-loading .44 Magnum'. It is not. The power factor of the 10mm is comparable to .357 Magnum, but with more rounds available; stout loadings will overlap into .41 Remington Magnum power levels.
• Mr. Kris Kringle did not bring me a Springfield Armory XD-M in that caliber this year. Pity.
• I have posted similar before, but who in the heck wears this kind of stuff? This is in the adult men's section, and not at Halloween, either. 😩

We. Are. Doomed.     

• 2019 was a totally sucky year. I don't know what 2020 holds, but I'm going to do all I can to make it a better year.

 A couple of weekends ago. You can see a faint, double rainbow to the right. 

• My church's current sermon series is 20/20. Catchy, huh?
• When I had a job that required me to drive all over North Central Texas, I used to take - and blogpost - lots of pics, some of them even kinda interesting. Now, I work from a fixed base, and I need a new camera.

• My stupid phone corrupted my Micro-SD card last week. I'm gonna try some photo-recovery software for it.
• Does it include a Glade plug in room freshener with every order?
• Since Fall began, I have been on a mission to address gaps in what education researcher E. D. Hirsch Jr. might call my cultural literacy. In the late '80s, Hirsch postulated a book full of concepts that he felt Americans needed to have a basic understanding of, so as to assimilate and thrive in our culture. There was some controversy then - and continues to be - about whether his ideas created a yoke on learning, if it wasn't sufficiently 'diverse', if it created what's known as 'common core' (I don't think so, there's some similarity, but they're not synonymous).
• In any event, I'm mainly watching movies that many or most of my peers have seen, but I have not. Don't misunderstand, I generally know the tag-lines of most of them, I've just never seen them. Por ejemplo: I knew "May the Schwartz be with you", and Dark Helmet were from Mel Brooks' zany send up of Star Wars, but I'd never seen the film. As it happened, I had a VHS copy from the days Daughter and I used to get tapes 10/$1 at the thrift store, so I watched it a couple of weeks back. Verdict: I was tickled to find Daphne Zuniga (whom I loved in The Sure Thing), but the movie itself was dreck - definitely not Mel's best work.
• Also, I found I had a DVD of The Karate Kid. I knew "Wax on, wax off", but not the context, Also, I didn't know Elizabeth Shue was the female lead. 😍 It was a decent film, but really not quite as strong as I had expected it to be.
• Last year, I watched Tombstone. Again, I knew "I'll be yer' Huckleberry" (or Huckle-bearer, as some allege). I really liked the film, and watched it again shortly after, and will probably do so from time to time.
• On my targeted list is to watch Caddyshack all the way through - I think I may have done so - I know most of the scenes, but I think I've usually been distracted while viewing it. Nonetheless, I'm fairly conversant with the film. Braveheart is at the top of my list right now. Sure, I know "Freedom!" and Mel Gibson's painted face, but I want to see the whole movie.
• Stupid question: Does anyone get in trouble for cultural appropriation if they appear in blueface?
• Today after church I purchased The Mummy, Restoration, and Seabiscuit DVDs at the resale store.
• Seen recently at Cabela's:

A lovely Winchester Model 42. $899 - ouch!

• A note about the Model 42: Built as a scaled-down Model 12 (which was derived and improved from JMB's 1897 slide action shotgun design), the 42 is a sweet gun for hunting rabbits, small upland birds for the expert wingshot, and clays. The pictured example is likely older than the author holding it.
• Quite possible I'm totally wrong on this subject, but my general intuition of the booming CBD industry is that it's mostly a 'snake oil' scam, and a backdoor approach to legalizing weed. While I'm skeptical of the former, and mildly opposed to the latter, if people believe the stuff gives amazing cures/relief, I wish them well.
• My blood pressure probably has not varied by 2 points from thinking about impeachment. I'm basically familiar with the main talking points, but do not breathlessly follow every little 'development'. Mostly, I'm amused by the D-party's assertions that the President 'abused his power' and that he 'obstructed Congress'. As a co-equal branch of a tripartite form of government, the Executive doesn't serve at the pleasure of the Congress.
• Stupid question #2: Is tripartite an ingredient in potted meat?
• In the past year, I gave up a decades long love affair with the Lay's Stax chips, more specifically the Salt & Vinegar varietal. No, not because I'm eschewing potato/starchy foods (I am eschewing gum, though, out of fear that I might loosen a dental crown). It's because of those stupid, handy, blue containers with the yellow caps, of which I have accumulated way too many. I store many commodity items, like rice, macaroni, beans, and the like, as well as nails, screws and miscellaneous hardware in them, but still have way more than a plethora of them. If you need a storage vessel for Uncle Jake's or Aunt Mildred's cremains, hit me up.
• Instead of eating popcorn while watching movies at home, I usually eat chips and dip. Lately it's mostly onion dip instead of salsa. Odd fact: I will buy pre-prepared onion dip at the Kroger, WalMart or Aldi's, but because it is so weak, will add half a packet of Lipton (or store brand equivalent), plus some dried chives and onion powder to bring it up to The Donald's standards.
• Last weekend, I found an unused 4-cup coffee maker in the pantry. It's now being put to good use in brewing my morning tea, and allows me to have two cups before going to work. Once I get to work, I switch to coffee. As a rule, I do not buy coffee at Starbucks or even at the QT. I'm not really a java connoisseur, but I can dig a cup with some added flavor, just not with a 10w40 viscosity. Symbiotically, the gals I work with won't drink their 'specialty' coffees once they are tepid, so they offer me the rest, to which I add hot brew in my insulated (ironically, Starbucks) cup and savor the flavor.
• Last week I applied for a job which would require a commute to ComKev's town. I'm not convinced I'm ready for a daily drive of that magnitude. 
• Some former and current co-workers and I regularly compete as a team at Trivia at a local watering hole. It's a pretty high-level, erudite, intellectually stimulating exercise, requiring the utmost in concentration:

  Not quite Christopher Wren or I. M. Pei.

• Our team captain changed the team name from the rather uninspired initials of his name, to The Excrementalists (Supposedly, we're going to commission some t-shirts with the moniker, and the tag line: We think about *stuff* no one else does). True enough. We were the second week into playing under the new banner when the chick on our team got the joke.
• I used to sleep outside on the deck two or three times a month, but haven't done so for a couple of years. Saw this recently at Wally World:

I'd sleep in a rain shower if this came in a lounger version. 

• I'm off to see The Mummy...