Thursday, July 23, 2009

Yes, it's really me

Again, I have gone too long without posting; it's just one of my many character flaws, I guess.

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The past couple of weeks have been busy; my wonderful wife had her birthday. I just wish I aged as well as she does. Her brother had his 60th birthday a couple of weekends ago, we all went up in the hills and had a good time. Last weekend I went out to my mom's place to do some chores. The rest of the time I've been trying to keep up with the yardwork around here, but the high temperatures have been kicking my ass.

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The birthday party in the mountains was good; we went to the Potter's Pond area. Some the people went fishing, others hiked, some just sat around and visited. I opted for some walking around, and managed to get a couple of photos. Double-lick to enlarge.

One end of the lake.




The dragonflies were thick.



Colombine.



Wild geranium.



Near where we had our picnic.




A view of the sky, with a tree for contrast.



Same tree as previous picture, showing its full size.



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Have you noticed how the pressure is on for Congress and the Senate to hurry and pass the "healthcare reform" bill? You know, if someone is telling me to sign a contract several hundred pages long, without reading it, I get the feeling they are trying to slip something by that I might not like. I don't believe in buying a pig in a poke, and distrust anyone who is trying to sell one.

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The Thune Amendment was defeated; evidently marriage licenses and driver's licenses are good across state lines, but not people who have CCW's. These are a group of people with some of the lowest instances of violence, but are regarded as dangerous criminals, due to lies and fabricated statistics designed to frighted those who are ignorant of such things. A lot of people argue that it doesn't come under the Second Amendment, but it is fairly obvious what the writers of the Bill of Rights meant, no matter what the lying politicians say.

"The constitutions of most of our States assert that all power is inherent in the people; that they may exercise it by themselves in all cases to which they think themselves competent..., or they may act by representatives, freely and equally chosen; that it is their right and duty to be at all times armed; that they are entitled to freedom of person, freedom of religion, freedom of property, and freedom of the press." -Thomas Jefferson

"The great object is, that every man be armed." -Patrick Henry

I'd say that it's fairly plain what they meant.

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A mixture, as usual.

"Thelonious" by Thelonious Monk
"It Was a Very Good Year" by Frank Sinatra
"I Heard It Through the Grapevine" by Marvin Gaye
"Abracadabra" by Steve Miller Band
"The Four Seasons - Largo - Winter" by Antonio Vivaldi
"Proud Mary" by Tina Turner
"Magic" by Electric Light Orchestra/Olivia Newton-John
"No More Mr. Nice Guy" by Alice Cooper
"Run Through the Jungle" by Creedence Clearwater Revival
"Baby the Rain Must Fall" by Glenn Yarbrough

The last one in the list was also done by Steve McQueen in the movie of the same name.



Any favorites in that bunch?

Thursday, July 09, 2009

Hello again

You'd think I'd get better at blogging more often, but I still seem to flake out. It's been busy around here with relatives visiting, yardwork, etc. Little low on energy right now, and it shows in this post.

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I can't believe all of the celebrity deaths since I last posted; they seem to be dropping off right and left. Doesn't really matter who you are or how much money you have, we all have an expiration date. You can shorten your time, but you can't extend it.

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I see where there is talk about another "stimulus" bill; I guess some of the Congressman found some more pork that they forgot to put in the last one. Seems like every time we get a new bunch in there the trough gets bigger.
If one of the damn things didn't faze the bad economy, why should anyone expect another one to work?

"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results."
- Albert Einstein

The more I see of politics, the more I wish we had a reset button on the government.

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Did you see where some Congresswoman wanted a resolution passed honoring Michael Jackson? As if the federal government didn't have enough real work to do. There was finally a bit of bipartisan agreement on the fact that the resolution was unnecessary. I really don't see why they are acting like he is some sort of national hero; personally I didn't care at all for his stuff, and don't see why he is so revered.

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Now here's a disgusting bunch of characters:

A group of Illinois grave diggers were charged Thursday with running a morbid scam in which they exhumed corpses in a historic black cemetery to resell the empty plots, cops said.

Investigators suspect more than 300 bodies were dug up in the suburban Chicago graveyard and discarded in a pit so the ghouls could cash in.
I hope they throw the book at them.

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Now for some of my attempts at photography. As usual, double-click to enlarge.

This little guy was watching me out in the yard, so I took his picture. I got within five feet of him without alarming him. Most of the robins in the yard are getting used to me. He'd been eating some berries before setting down and watching me.
















This is a shot of one of my tomato plants; it's almost five foot high. I also got a whole jungle full of volunteers, so I have been thinning them and leaving some of the bigger ones intact.



Tomatillos; these come up as volunteers in my garden every year.
















These are only the size of golf balls, but we've been eating them for several days now.
















My Japanese Blood Plums should be ripening in a few weeks; hopefully the robins will leave me some.
















Red seedless grapes.















Golden Delicious apples.















Hopefully I can get out somewhere for some decent scenery to photograph; in between doing stuff I've been laid up quite a few times with bad sciatica and back spasms; all the rainy weather we've had lately seemed to trigger them.

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"Cherokee" by Charlie Barnet
"Dengue Woman Blues" by Jimmie Vaughan
"Only Daddy That'll Walk the Line" by Waylon Jennings
"Beg, Borrow and Steal" by Rare Breed
"Tuxedo Junction" by Glenn Miller
"On the Road Again" by Canned Heat
"Mama Tried" by Merle Haggard
"Hellhound on My Trail" by Robert Johnson
"More Than a Feeling" by Boston
"Promontory" by Trevor Jones


The last one may not look familiar, but is quite well known. It is the full version of the song played during the last part of Last of the Mohicans when Hawkeye and Chingachgook opened up the can of whoopass on the Hurons.



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