I do not have a million dollars to give away. I also do not care for hypothetical, silly questions, with absolutely no relation, to things I can, or cannot do.
I have better things to do with my thinking.
Like, where are my keys?
You Thought I Was Kidding?
Endure my pain:
The comments were revealing.
Felonious Orange Goes to the UN
UN declares war on stupid!
Well, not really. But they should have.
I cannot listen to our orange felon speak. It absolutely drives me up the wall. It’s like listening to silly Billy, the fat slow kid in grade school, giving an oral book report.
“I’m silly Billy… I read a book… It was a really good book… I don’t remember the name of it now… But it was a really awesome book… There were dragons… There were airplanes… There was bears… There was bears driving airplanes! My grandma is kind of old you know… She was old when I first saw her… I don’t know how old she is… But she’s old… She has a lot of books. (pauses to scratch his ass, he almost sniffed the finger, boy that was close.) My dad got me the book… He drives a beer truck… It’s a really big truck… And that’s my book report!”
That ignorant bastard (and I’m not talking about silly Billy anymore,) droned on and on and on. One lie after another. Every sentence stunk of bullshit. Every word pronounced like a silly Billy would, strained, difficult, and slow. Insulting countries to the left and to the right. Basically calling them con artists at one point. (and it takes one to know one!)
My wife and I were looking at each other with a bewildered “WTF?” in our eyes. Were we really hearing what we heard? He kept on and on. I’m thinking “who the hell let this idiot speak at the U freaking N?” Are you effing kidding me? We are letting this man represent us in front of the world?
An endless parade of lies. I had to walk out. Couldn’t take it. Came back to see if it was still going on, and it was! Oh geeze! Get me out of here.
Finally, that intelligence challenged idiot wrapped it up. And the room applauded! My wife says “they are applauding that?” I said “yes, they are applauding because it’s finally over!” I applauded too!
We are so fucked. I’m sorry world. I assure you I did not vote for this… thing, we have for a president. I can’t believe other people did. What does that say about them? Is this a simulation maybe? Are we in the Matrix? Are they just seeing how much shit we can stand? Because I’d really, really, prefer that, to this being our actual reality.
Life Strategies
Right now, motorcycles, booze, and shooting pool at the local bar. Oh, and staying away from the news as much as I can.
The Felonious Orange is such an idiotic jackass, a back street level grifter, who made the big time, who somehow has won over the less capable of rational thought, in droves. So much so, they not only tolerate his antics, and his crimes, but in some weird way they worship the frigging idiot.
So yeah, I need distraction, to avoid the Great Distraction, that is this so called presidency. It’s either that, or I’m headed for the Great Depression, not the economic sort, but that may yet happen too. The Great Distraction, all the bullshit we see the Orange Felonious doing/saying, is simply a smoke screen to cover up the behind the scenes super grifting, the overwhelming assault on immigrants/brown people by the Nazi-fied ICE types, him doing his best to pretend he’s a tough guy, and the simultaneous dismantling of our democracy. Never, has this country been as low as it has stooped, at this moment in time.
I need distractions.
An old musician friend/accomplice of mine stopped by on his bike yesterday. I rolled mine out and we went for a ride. Wound up stopping at an old bar, that the band we used to play in was pretty much a house band at. We played that place a LOT. Kept butts out of the seats and on the dancing floor we did.
There weren’t many people there, but in conversation we mentioned we used to play here quite a bit, and some patrons remembered us! One guy actually ran home, and grabbed an old picture of us playing, and brought it back to show us. Talk about a Glory Days* moment. A pleasant distraction.
Good distractions, to avoid the Great Distraction, and the pilfering of our country, are fine by me. I highly recommend you find some good distractions too, while we see how this ride we are on pans out. With any luck the snarling, red hat, nimrod base, may go woke, or implode, or something.
* Song, Glory Days, The Boss, otherwise known as Bruce Springsteen.
I Know This One
Cribbage. It requires thought, a bit of skill, a bit of strategy, and a fair bit of luck. It’s a great game.
My great uncle Leo, may he R.I.P. was a POW in WW II. He learned the game from the Brits he was with in the concentration camp. He taught me how to play when I was kid.
Back when I was doing a lot of deep river diving, it required wearing a computer to keep up with your down time/depth/and nitrogen saturation. You spend much time down there and you have to decompress. When you time it right you can decompress sitting in the boat. But if you spend too much time down there, then you have to decompress hanging off your line in 10 feet of water, until the computer tells you you can go to the boat. I tried to not to get to that point, but there were a few times I had to be punished hanging from my line at 10′ for 20-30 minutes.
I hired a couple boat tenders over the years. They had to pull the bags in, sort the shells, and prep gear for the next dive. They also had to learn how to play cribbage. My decompression downtime in the boat, was hot and boring as hell. So, I started bringing a cribbage board and a deck of cards to pass the time. By the time I’d have lunch, and play a few games of cribbage, the computer would let me make another dive. I don’t do the deeper river diving anymore, I work the lake these days. No worries of decompression in water less than 32 feet. The deeper river shells are poorer quality, and the buyers prefer the lake shell, and I don’t miss the river digging. So, I’m fine with that. I haven’t got to go diving yet this year dammit. I came down with a retracted eardrum in the spring, and can’t get in the water till it recovers. Yeah, I’d never heard of it either!
I still get my cribbage fix though. There’s a site called Cribbage JD. It’s the best cribbage game I’ve found online. I’ve got it on my phone, so anytime I’m waiting for the wife in the store, or at the Dr. office, or have a few minutes of time, I’m playing cribbage.
Anybody that wants their butt kicked at cribbage, let me know 😉
One of my old boat tender guys, went on to become a math teacher. He used cribbage to teach kids how to do quick math in your head. Sadly he passed away a couple years back. There a moment one day, when he said to me, “have you ever noticed the beauty in the numbers with this game?” I kind of looked at him funny, and replied “no, not really.” I was more strategy focused, and didn’t see what he meant. It was maybe a year ago, it hit me. I finally saw what he meant. I wish I could tell him that…
This is Good News!
Pam Blondie has declared there’s nothing at all to the Epstein files!
So… they can release it to public now right?
I’ll wait.
Music?
Rock. Classic Rock. Southern Rock. If it rocks, I probably like it.
Unless it’s Punk Rock. Nope. Music should go places. Take me somewhere, then move me someplace else, then bring me back again. Repetitive riffs/lyrics that just pound, pound, pound, over and over again, bore me.
Don’t care much for the way rock music has trended since the 80’s. I can appreciate the technical aspect of the tapping thing, but the guitar tone took a huge hit to make that trend possible. It’s been digitized, pedal-ized, effect laden, saturated with some of the absolute worst sound I’ve ever heard, just so those guys can pull off those fancy pants licks. I can’t get past the tone, to really like what they do. It’s horrible. Yes, I’m the dreaded, Tube Amp Tone Snob! Shoot me.
Don’t get me started on rap. If guitar tone has been dumped in the shitter, and it has, the insidious digital noises rap uses, combined with an endless, repetitive, mono tonal, “beat,” absolutely drives me up the wall. I’m talking, if you want my bank codes, my children, the clothes on my back, or want everything thing in this world I may know, put me in a room with loud rap, and I’ll sign the paperwork in less than 5 minutes. I can’t get past the, “what passes for music,” to be able to even attempt to appreciate what they are saying. Maybe it’s got something going for it there, but I’ll never know. I’d be institutionalized, if I had to listen to that endless repetitive beat for very long. Nope, can’t do it. It ain’t worth the straight jacket. My health matters.
I love music. I have a musical brain. It loves music. It loves to listen, it loves to play. I’m a musical creature. But I certainly have limits to what I can appreciate, in music.
Probably just another old man yelling at clouds…
What the Heck Has SD Been Doing?
I’ll tell you. I woke up one day and I was an old fuck. Went to the Dr. six or eight weeks ago, had sinus pressure, no congestion, near constant headaches, and my tinnitus was louder than a train. Turns out I had a few things going on.
First, they said my blood pressure was a little high. And a little bell in my head went *ding* I’ve been told that a few times over the years, and as I had to drive to the Dr’s office, a minimum of 25 minutes to an hour, depending on which Dr, I’d tell them “I got behind two slow asses on the way here,” or “I had to drive 50 minutes on the interstate to get here.” I, we, just wrote it off as temporary high blood pressure due to stupid people. But this time I was like, wait a minute, this has been going on a while now. We will circle back around to that.
Dr. informs me I had bronchitis in my left lung. Well whoop tie do! That’s one steroid pack and a round of antibiotics.
Turns out, we had a helluva pollen season this spring. Many people had issues. So did I apparently. But I was super lucky. I have a retracted eardrum. A what? Yeah, I’ve never heard of it either. Turns out, that your Eustachian tubes, when you’ve been subjected to a lot of dust/pollen, can get clogged. Causing a pressure imbalance in your ear. Which in turn causes the ear drum to get sucked inward. Son of a!
So they sent me home, I took my antibiotics and the steroid pack. Was also monitoring my blood pressure, where there aren’t quite as many stupid people. And it’s been running high. Ranging from 150-180 on the high side. I had a follow up visit after a couple of weeks, and I brought them a damn chart showing my blood pressure, three times daily, because I knew that would give them a better picture than a one time check at the office. So now I’m taking a little pill every morning for blood pressure.
The retracted ear drum is still a problem. I can’t go diving with it. Probably shouldn’t fly either, not like that’s likely anyway. But here I sit, spring has done sprung into summer, and my dive rig sits idle in the yard. It’s killing me. From what I’ve read it can take months for a retracted ear drum to pop back into place… Just great.
I can still cut the grass and ride the motorcycle. Do stuff around the house. But dammit man, I feel hog tied and half useless.
I hope y’all are faring well.
So Another Senator Got Handcuffed
…and everyone with half a brain is upset about it. Which is as it should be. Righteous indignation is perfectly appropriate in this situation. This should not be happening in a free country, supposedly governed by our Constitution. Free speech, and honest inquiry should not be infringed.
But let me ask you this, if you or I, or any concerned bystander, witnessing a passel of cops, deputies, troopers, or ICE assholes, committing an obvious case of racist fueled abuse, had the guts to ask them what the hell was going on, what do you think would happen to us?
I’ll tell you what would happen, we would be taken down roughly, handcuffed, thrown in a squad car, and be dragged off to jail. Once there, the “authorities” would piss around about letting you have your phone call, and treat you as a goddamn criminal. Just for having the balls to speak.
Us peons have never enjoyed the courtesies our Senators judges, and wealthy folks enjoy. What we have here is a case of trickle up asshole-ery. The assholes, are no longer respecting the folks who used to live the shielded life, against the kinds of thing we have suffered with on a daily basis. Officer Friendly isn’t so friendly anymore. Officer Friendly was a damn lie from the get go.
I was taught about Officer Friendly in grade school. If you ever had a problem, tell Officer Friendly, he is there to help you. Wonderful book illustrations showing Officer Friendly helping the child. I believed in Officer Friendly.
Then when I actually encountered Officer Friendly, expecting Officer Friendly, he actually turned out to be a real asshole. And damn near every one I’ve met since. I say this a LOT, “you will see a lot of Barney’s before you meet any Andy’s. If you’re half as old as me, you might get that.
What has been happening to our elected officials isn’t new. Not by a long shot. What’s new is, the line of privileged entitlement has been crossed. This is a new level of evil. Brought about by our own Felonious Orange.
I too, am outraged at what’s happening. But there’s a tad of schadenfreude mixed in with my concern. On one hand, it’s actually kind of nice seeing the shoe on the other foot. On the other hand, I do fear where this is heading.
When the revolution needs me, call.
Just Three?
Well, the Lord of the Rings trilogy knocks out three in one fell swoop.
Catch 22, is one that had a long lasting impact on me.
Read a lot when I was a kid. I was a voracious reader, couldn’t get enough. My neighbors were an old couple, and the woman had a huge collection of Edgar Rice Burroughs books. I was able to borrow them 3-4 at a time and I read through them like a wildfire through dry tinder. Tarzan, Pellucidar, John Carter of Mars (all of these are series of books, not just one,) and many more. I read through them all, probably three times at least.
Read a lot of Stephen King, and Koontz books too. So many…
Last, but not least, for lack of anything new within my grasp to read, I read the Bible. If there’s anything in this world, that can change the lives of many people, it is this book. Nope, I didn’t become a slobbering, delusional, believer. This book made me realize, it’s all bullshit. For the book when you read it, differs greatly from the stories you hear at the pulpit. It’s an excellent sleight of hand, the way a preacher can take vile acts of rape, murder of innocents and children, incest, demands of obedience or else, mass killings on a global scale, an idiotic timeline of creation, the horrid tale of Job among other things, and then mangle it all into some sweet syrupy, children’s tale of love and happiness? And, oh by the way, “we need money!” Take all of that, then add it to the “what they say vs. what they actually do,” pile. (Yeah, you know what I’m talking about,) things start adding up in a negative way. Pay attention. Do the math. Take your time.
I don’t read as much anymore. Life changes when you have adulting to do. Long weary days of work, and the often unwilling indulgence, in many daily necessities, doesn’t exactly induce a huge desire to read at the end of the day. But I do remember being lost in so many books, with great appreciation.
I hope you do too.
Evidence Based Reality 