Anyone else getting tired of winter?

I know we have to have a changing of the seasons, and we need the mountain snowfall, but I am getting rather bored with the current scenery. Bare trees, mud, and snow. At least some of the spring bulbs are starting to wake up. I have tulips, daffodils, crocuses, and hyacinths sending up shoots. I even have a couple of the crocuses that are starting to bloom.

Click for larger view.



This is the time of year when I miss working in my gardens; my flower gardens are just starting, and the vegetable and herb gardens are still a couple of months in the future. I can still get parsley, sage, oregano, and rosemary, now that most of the snow has melted, but everything else is still waiting to wake up.

**************************************************

Still feeling like I've been hit by a truck; my arm is a little stronger, still can't use it fully and it hurts like hell. Enough whining about that.

**************************************************

I see where the "Stimulus" is supposed to hit the states this week; let me know if anyone other than politicians notices the difference. Personally, I'm not holding my breath while waiting. I think by the time the politicians get done butchering Porkzilla, the taxpayers are going to be lucky to end up with a couple of soup bones.

**************************************************

Looks like there was a sting that rescued some unfortunate children and netted some lowlifes. I really have trouble understanding people who can do this sort of thing, it makes me want to spend a few minutes in a locked room with them in a chair, and me with a baseball bat. I consider people who molest or traffic in children to be somewhere on the evolutionary scale in between body lice and tapeworms.
Just my opinion.

**************************************************

Felt like an all-sixties day today; I'm not sure how many people will recognize even half of the top ten of the playlist I put together.

"Abraham, Martin and John" by Dion
"Baby the Rain Must Fall" by Glenn Yarbrough
"King of the Road" by Roger Miller
"Abilene" by George Hamilton IV
"The Times They Are A-Changin'" by The Byrds
"Light My Fire" by José Feliciano
"Today" by The New Christy Minstrels
"Willow Weep for Me" by Chad And Jeremy
"If I Had a Hammer" by Trini Lopez
"Sloop John B" by The Beach Boys


Here's an old classic from those days. During the seventies and eighties, when I was working in a shop, every time this song came on most of the crew tended to join in the chorus, even the ones who didn't normally listen to rock music.

Porkzilla

I see in the news that Congress has pushed through the so-called "stimulus" package; the only ones that are getting stimulated are the ones who voted for it.

Below we have a picture of the Democratic Congress admiring the bill they passed.



Now, from a couple of my favorite humorists:

"It could probably be shown by facts and figures that there is no distinctly American criminal class except Congress."
-Mark Twain

"Suppose you were an idiot and suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself."
- Mark Twain

"The difference between death and taxes is death doesn't get worse every time Congress meets".
- Will Rogers

"The budget is a mythical bean bag. Congress votes mythical beans into it, and then tries to reach in and pull real beans out."
-Will Rogers

I'm not sure how much Hope and Change© this country can take without crashing.

"Politicians are like diapers. They both need changing regularly and for the same reason." -Unknown

**********************************************

My shoulder is slowly getting better; it turned out I didn't have a torn rotator cuff, so no surgery is needed. What I do have is several torn tendons that attach to the rotator. I've been going through some physical therapy sessions, and it looks like that should solve the problem over the next few weeks. It's still weak, and hurts like hell, though.

**********************************************

Sort of a hodge-podge of music today, seem to be in a blasé mood.

"Behind Blue Eyes" by The Who
"Sunset Grill" by Don Henley
"What a Wonderful World" by David "Fathead" Newman
"With You There to Help Me" by Jethro Tull
"Comin' Back to Me" by Jefferson Airplane
"The Look of Love" by Sergio Mendes & Brazil 66
"Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood" by Eric Burdon and The Animals
"Never Comes the Day" by The Moody Blues
"A Summer Song" by Chad and Jeremy
"Highwayman" by Johnny Cash/Kris Kristofferson/Waylon Jennings/Willie Nelson

Any favorites in that bunch?

It's been a while

Some day maybe I'll get better in my blogging habits. Since my last post, I've gotten a year older, my chronic back problem is doing its usual thing(the air pressure has been bobbing up and down like a yo-yo this winter), my shoulder has gone from bad to worse (had to get an MRI, and I may need surgery), I've had a wisdom tooth yanked out, had to attend the funeral of an old friend, and I've had to replace a monitor. Hope the rest of the year doesn't continue in this trend.

*************************************************

I assume everyone has looked over the "stimulus" package; the only thing that monstrosity is stimulating is the national debt. From everything I've seen, only about 5-12% of it actually will have any effect on the economy, the rest is just the usual bloated pork that politicians line up to devour.

"The budget is a mythical bean bag. Congress votes mythical beans into it, and then tries to reach in and pull real beans out."
-Will Rogers

I think too many politicians have lost sight of what the beans are supposed to represent.

*************************************************

What's with so many of the appointees for positions turning out to be tax evaders? Maybe what we should do is start requiring anyone who wants to hold a public office to submit to an audit from the IRS. At least that way they'll have to wait until after they're elected to show their criminal side.

"We hang the petty thieves and appoint the great ones to public office."
-Aesop

Seems like the best way to set a person on the road to crime is to elect them to a public office.

************************************************

Google Latitude lets you track friends, employees

Am I the only one who thinks this is a spooky idea that could get badly misused?

************************************************

This may seem like a dark group of songs to those who are familiar with them. Goes with my mood these last couple of weeks, I guess.

"Let Me Be" by The Turtles
"In My Time of Sorrow" by Marianne Faithfull
"Sympathy for the Devil" by The Rolling Stones
"Lost in a Lost World" by The Moody Blues
"Sometimes It's a Bitch" by Stevie Nicks
"Strange Days" by The Doors
"Mechanical World" by Spirit
"I've Been Down for So Long (It Looks Like up to Me)" by Nancy Sinatra
"To Beat the Devil" by Kris Kristofferson
"Baker Street" by Gerry Rafferty



Here's the first song in the list, with the lyrics:




Please don't mistake me or try to make me
The shadow of anybody else
I ain't the him or her you think I am
I'm just trying hard to be myself
Oh, society's goal is to be part of the whole
That may sound good to you, not to me

Let me be, let me be
To think like I want to
Let me be, let me be
That's all I ask of you
I am what I am and that's all I ever can be

Don't try to plan me or understand me
I can't stand to be understood
I could never give in to or ever live up to
Being like you think I should
I've got some inner need which I'm tryin' to heed
I can't take hand-me-down destiny

Let me be, let me be,
To think like I want to
Let me be, let me be
That's all I ask of you
I am what I am and that's all I ever can be

Don't try to change me or rearrange me
To satisfy the selfishness of you
I'm not a piece of clay to mold to your moves each day
And I'm not a pawn to be told how to move
I'm sorry I'm not the fool you thought would play by your rules
But to-each-his-own philosophy

Let me be, let me be,
To think like I want to
Let me be, let me be
That's all I ask of you
I am what I am and that's all I ever can be

I said that's all I ever can be
I said that's all I ever can be
I said that's all I ever can be