One of the things I have learned in 59 years man and boy is that communication is very important, especially when something goes wrong.
Americans hate a cover up more than anything else, and yet it is human nature to try and cover things up to stay out of hot water or avoid embarrassment.
I have a friend I grew up with that is somewhat semi retired from a career in banking. I guess he’s done pretty well for himself, and if I know him it’s because he has come up with solutions to people’s problems.
Quite a few years back we had a long chat in teaching me how to deal with the bank if something happens along the way. I had a mortgage and there was a possibility that I would be victim of some sort of layoff. I was somewhat worried over this.
Over breakfast he told me that the loss of a job or some other horrendous happening was a lot more common than is widely believed, and yet when it happens the difference between, say, keeping or losing the family manse is how the situation is handled.
The first step is communication. Get with the bank and let them know what is going on. The bank knows that these things happen and they really do not want to be stuck with another house. What they really want is to have the loan paid off.
They can and will work with you if you have something to work with. They actually want you to succeed because if you succeed, they succeed.
The worst thing you can do is avoid the bank because they do not know what is going on and it forces them to do exactly what neither party wants to have happen.
It creates a lose/lose situation where the bank gets stuck with an unwanted house and you get cast out to the wolves.
At work I enjoy a reputation of always being in the right place at the right time in the appropriate uniform. My hitch in the army stressed the importance of that to no end. I have missed a crew change one time in two decades and that was because of a pretty serious injury.
When that happened, I made it a point to call the office from the emergency room. I made two calls that night, one to Mrs. Pic, and the other was to my employer.
I called the dispatcher at about 2000 hours and told him that I was hurt and did not see myself recovering before I was scheduled to return to work.
The following day, personnel called me and seemed astonished that I had notified them two weeks before I was due to return to work.
The incident became a non event.
Instead of being angry that I wasn’t coming in, they were grateful that I had given them as much notice as possible.
Most people are pretty good about things if you don’t try and hide things. They expect things to happen.
Accidents are a fairly regular occurrence and I have seen more guys get canned not for the accident itself, but for trying to squirm out of it.
It’s interesting to watch the process over the course of a career. I’ve seen a guy plaster a piece of equipment and report it immediately and not miss a minute of work over it. On the other hand, I’ve seen people try hide something not much worse than scratched paint get sent down the road for trying to hide it.
The interesting thing to note is that had they called it in, the powers that be would probably simply said something like, “Yeah? So what?”
I’ve discovered over the years that a lot of life is the spin put on things.
Giving a ‘heads up’ to people generally takes a negative situation and puts it into a positive light. Instead of crucifying you, the people upstairs will generally bust their asses to help a guy out.
The army, which has a reputation of being pretty hard on their people regarding being where you are supposed to be and when you are supposed to be there is a lot more forgiving than one would believe if you play by the rules.
Once, while returning from a leave, I was the victim of an airlines strike. It looked like I was going to be late returning.
I instantly called the First Sergeant. He calmly told me two things; he told me to relax and keep him posted.
I was so surprised to hear this from Top that you could have knocked me over with a feather. Top was a damned serious, no nonsense Old Army First Sergeant. A man of very limited formal education, yet he was a man of immense wisdom.
I had expected to catch holy hell.
The fact that I returned to my outfit on time with the most dramatic return from leave is immaterial.
Upon my return the old Top Kick hauled me into his office and instead of an ass chewing, he explained to me that I had done exactly the right thing on keeping him posted of the possibility of returning late.
I asked him what would have happened to me if I had not arrived on time, and he told me that because I had been forthright to him and called, he simply would have
kept me on leave status for another day or two until I returned. No problem.
Looking back on it, I imagine he would not have even charged my leave earnings balance with the extra day or two, had I been late. I think he was grateful that I had called and not created a problem for him.
Over the course of my hitch, I saw numerous guys get into trouble that could have simply been avoided with a simple phone call.
Over the course of my civilian career, I have seen the same thing.
I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again.
It doesn’t take much.
my other blog is: http://officerpiccolo.blogspot.com/ http://piccolosbutler.blogspot.com/
Friday, June 10, 2011
Thursday, June 9, 2011
Who's the jerk?
I have a shipmate that lives on a boat and boy, do a lot of people thing he's a jerk.
Let's look at why.
It's because he won't take people out in it when they ask him. Boy, what a jerk he is.
These people offer to bring the beer and a picnic lunch and still he won't. Boy, what a jerk!
He live on this boat and it is his home. He pays all the slip rent, and all of the expenses out of his pocket because he has a job which is unlike some of the people that seem to ask him.
Jeez! You'd think he would like to take everyone out and show his boat off!
He would, too except for one silly little reason; he can count.
The boat makes 11 knots at 6 gallons per hour. For a fourteen trip that's 84 gallons of fuel.
At $3.47/gallon that means that the 14 hour trip has cost someone in the vicinity of $291.48 for fuel.
Not a whole lot of the people that try and invite themselves for a 14 hour ride offer to cough up even a part of the fuel bill. He really can't afford to cough up the better part of three bills every time someone wants to go for a boat ride. The poor bastard works for a living and isn't as rich as Bill Gates.
When he tell people that they are going to have to do a little more than come up with a couple of six-packs and a Subway sandwich and a bag of chips they get a little upset and wonder why he is so selfish with his boat.
He told me that generally the people that ask and get offended when he refuses are generally unemployed and are living off of some sort of government relief. I guess they think that everythign in life is free.
A few of the people that ask are underemployed and do not realize the costs associated with running a boat like his.
Every once in a while he reports that a person that has a good job offers to pay for fuel if he will take them fishing. Of course, not a lot of people that have good jobs seem to be able to go out on his boat with him, though. This is because they are too busy working.
Still, most of the people that try invite themselves are refused and they think he's a jerk because he won't take them out and spend $300 out of his pocket just to entertain them.
What i would like to know who the real jerks are and I'd have to say it is not my shipmate.
my other blog is: http://officerpiccolo.blogspot.com/ http://piccolosbutler.blogspot.com/
Let's look at why.
It's because he won't take people out in it when they ask him. Boy, what a jerk he is.
These people offer to bring the beer and a picnic lunch and still he won't. Boy, what a jerk!
He live on this boat and it is his home. He pays all the slip rent, and all of the expenses out of his pocket because he has a job which is unlike some of the people that seem to ask him.
Jeez! You'd think he would like to take everyone out and show his boat off!
He would, too except for one silly little reason; he can count.
The boat makes 11 knots at 6 gallons per hour. For a fourteen trip that's 84 gallons of fuel.
At $3.47/gallon that means that the 14 hour trip has cost someone in the vicinity of $291.48 for fuel.
Not a whole lot of the people that try and invite themselves for a 14 hour ride offer to cough up even a part of the fuel bill. He really can't afford to cough up the better part of three bills every time someone wants to go for a boat ride. The poor bastard works for a living and isn't as rich as Bill Gates.
When he tell people that they are going to have to do a little more than come up with a couple of six-packs and a Subway sandwich and a bag of chips they get a little upset and wonder why he is so selfish with his boat.
He told me that generally the people that ask and get offended when he refuses are generally unemployed and are living off of some sort of government relief. I guess they think that everythign in life is free.
A few of the people that ask are underemployed and do not realize the costs associated with running a boat like his.
Every once in a while he reports that a person that has a good job offers to pay for fuel if he will take them fishing. Of course, not a lot of people that have good jobs seem to be able to go out on his boat with him, though. This is because they are too busy working.
Still, most of the people that try invite themselves are refused and they think he's a jerk because he won't take them out and spend $300 out of his pocket just to entertain them.
What i would like to know who the real jerks are and I'd have to say it is not my shipmate.
my other blog is: http://officerpiccolo.blogspot.com/ http://piccolosbutler.blogspot.com/
Wednesday, June 8, 2011
I am not always cynical about the younger people
One of the younger guys I know seems to have half a brain, or maybe even more than that, which is all too rare these days.
We were discussing things in general one night and he brought up that a team at MIT was working on trying to figure out how to make the under $100 laptop so that everyone in Africa could have internet access.
Neither of us really thought too much of it because it struck both of us that the guys at MIT really had no clue and seemed to think that the solution to all of lifes little problems is the internet, which it certainly isn't.
While neither of us are anti technology by any sense of the word, this young guy seemed to think of technology as something to add to the basics to make life better as opposed to being the instant solution.
Before the internet is going to do a person a whole lot of good you have to be able to read first. A person also has to be able to know how to use a computer on top of that. If you do not know how to at least read and write than a laptop really isn't going to do you a whole lot of good unless you use it as, say a cutting board or a flat spot to prepare foood on or something along these lines.
He then went on to point out that there was another gang of guys at MIT working on a toilet of some sort that would pretty much vaporize human waste.
While this project seemed a little more down to earth in that there is a lot of disease from lack of sanitation in the more primative parts of the Dark Continent, the entire project is pretty much based on the premise that people there are eating fairly regularly. Generally speaking, in order to need a toilet, one must eat first.
It struck the young man that the people at MIT were putting the cart ahead of the horse because in a lot of Africa the people there are starving and need the very basics of life. Giving many of these people technological things would be a lot like giving a fish a bicycle.
It was quite refreshing talking to a young man of the technology age that seemed to really understand what was going on.
I hope I can meet up with him again soon, and maybe spend a weekend with him up at his old man's camp.
I'll bring along my portable ham set and he can peddle the generator while I try and contact someone in China. It might make for an interesting evening.
my other blog is: http://officerpiccolo.blogspot.com/ http://piccolosbutler.blogspot.com/
We were discussing things in general one night and he brought up that a team at MIT was working on trying to figure out how to make the under $100 laptop so that everyone in Africa could have internet access.
Neither of us really thought too much of it because it struck both of us that the guys at MIT really had no clue and seemed to think that the solution to all of lifes little problems is the internet, which it certainly isn't.
While neither of us are anti technology by any sense of the word, this young guy seemed to think of technology as something to add to the basics to make life better as opposed to being the instant solution.
Before the internet is going to do a person a whole lot of good you have to be able to read first. A person also has to be able to know how to use a computer on top of that. If you do not know how to at least read and write than a laptop really isn't going to do you a whole lot of good unless you use it as, say a cutting board or a flat spot to prepare foood on or something along these lines.
He then went on to point out that there was another gang of guys at MIT working on a toilet of some sort that would pretty much vaporize human waste.
While this project seemed a little more down to earth in that there is a lot of disease from lack of sanitation in the more primative parts of the Dark Continent, the entire project is pretty much based on the premise that people there are eating fairly regularly. Generally speaking, in order to need a toilet, one must eat first.
It struck the young man that the people at MIT were putting the cart ahead of the horse because in a lot of Africa the people there are starving and need the very basics of life. Giving many of these people technological things would be a lot like giving a fish a bicycle.
It was quite refreshing talking to a young man of the technology age that seemed to really understand what was going on.
I hope I can meet up with him again soon, and maybe spend a weekend with him up at his old man's camp.
I'll bring along my portable ham set and he can peddle the generator while I try and contact someone in China. It might make for an interesting evening.
my other blog is: http://officerpiccolo.blogspot.com/ http://piccolosbutler.blogspot.com/
Tuesday, June 7, 2011
Sixty years on the planet has allowed me to see
an awful lot of changes but the biggest one I can think of it the internet.
Ideas can be exchanged with people all over the world. To an older guy like me this is amazing.
According to the 'stats' section of this blog I have readers from all over the globe. It wasn't a whole long time ago when the only people with the ability to communicate with people overseas without having to cough up huge long-distance telephone charges were a handful of ham radio operators.
These days I watch a crewman call his wife on a cell phone and she lives in Siberia while he is at sea. It's no big thing. He bought the cell phone at a kiosk in a mall someplace along the line.
I had an uncle Fred that was a ham operator and he had a pretty good fist on a code key. He could send and receive morse code at an incredible speed for the times and I recall being agog when he would tell me that the other day he was communicating with someone in Europe, or (holy smoke!) China.
My uncle must have had a small fortune tied up in his little ham radio station, and by todays standards it would be considered pretty primitive. I'm sure that these days there are not a whole lot of people communicating by way of morse code, although I'd bet there are a few Old School hams left that do.
These days not only are communications far better and more reliable, they are dirt cheap!
Twenty bucks these days buys a cell phone that one can communicate with someone almost anywhere on the planet with the exception of someone in the depths of a South African diamond mine.
God knows how much money my uncle had tied up in his ham station, but right now I am communication with the people all over the planet with a surplus laptop I snagged on eBay for about $200.
Chump change.
When I think about it, the ideas that get exchanged over the net are creating a global change that has never been imagined twenty years ago.
People in, for example, the Middle East are seeing things that are happening in the West and are asking their governments why they can't have things like they do in the West and as time passes we are going to see a lot of change there and other places.
I'm sure there are a few governments that are working overtime to see that internet access is restricted just for this very purpose.
North Korea is one I am fairly sure of. It is in the best interests of the dictator there to make damned good and sure that the people on North Korea are kept in the dark because as soon as the gnarled peasants there get wind of the way things are in South Korea they will be asking for change. This, of course, is not in the best interests of the governing that will probably wind up unemployed after word gets out in North Korea that things are a lot better just about everywhere else on the planet.
Maybe I will get lucky and in my lifetime I'll get to watch the North Korean people throw the bums out.
It is nothing less than amazing that I can communicate with people with this little machine.
I can post a story, an idea, a thought on this machine, hit 'send' and in a nanosecond or three, it is all over the world for a huge chunk of the planet to peruse if they so desire.
As I sit here thinking of all of the devices that can and will create global change that have been created over the past century I'm going to have to say that the internet is probably number one.
my other blog is: http://officerpiccolo.blogspot.com/ http://piccolosbutler.blogspot.com/
Ideas can be exchanged with people all over the world. To an older guy like me this is amazing.
According to the 'stats' section of this blog I have readers from all over the globe. It wasn't a whole long time ago when the only people with the ability to communicate with people overseas without having to cough up huge long-distance telephone charges were a handful of ham radio operators.
These days I watch a crewman call his wife on a cell phone and she lives in Siberia while he is at sea. It's no big thing. He bought the cell phone at a kiosk in a mall someplace along the line.
I had an uncle Fred that was a ham operator and he had a pretty good fist on a code key. He could send and receive morse code at an incredible speed for the times and I recall being agog when he would tell me that the other day he was communicating with someone in Europe, or (holy smoke!) China.
My uncle must have had a small fortune tied up in his little ham radio station, and by todays standards it would be considered pretty primitive. I'm sure that these days there are not a whole lot of people communicating by way of morse code, although I'd bet there are a few Old School hams left that do.
These days not only are communications far better and more reliable, they are dirt cheap!
Twenty bucks these days buys a cell phone that one can communicate with someone almost anywhere on the planet with the exception of someone in the depths of a South African diamond mine.
God knows how much money my uncle had tied up in his ham station, but right now I am communication with the people all over the planet with a surplus laptop I snagged on eBay for about $200.
Chump change.
When I think about it, the ideas that get exchanged over the net are creating a global change that has never been imagined twenty years ago.
People in, for example, the Middle East are seeing things that are happening in the West and are asking their governments why they can't have things like they do in the West and as time passes we are going to see a lot of change there and other places.
I'm sure there are a few governments that are working overtime to see that internet access is restricted just for this very purpose.
North Korea is one I am fairly sure of. It is in the best interests of the dictator there to make damned good and sure that the people on North Korea are kept in the dark because as soon as the gnarled peasants there get wind of the way things are in South Korea they will be asking for change. This, of course, is not in the best interests of the governing that will probably wind up unemployed after word gets out in North Korea that things are a lot better just about everywhere else on the planet.
Maybe I will get lucky and in my lifetime I'll get to watch the North Korean people throw the bums out.
It is nothing less than amazing that I can communicate with people with this little machine.
I can post a story, an idea, a thought on this machine, hit 'send' and in a nanosecond or three, it is all over the world for a huge chunk of the planet to peruse if they so desire.
As I sit here thinking of all of the devices that can and will create global change that have been created over the past century I'm going to have to say that the internet is probably number one.
my other blog is: http://officerpiccolo.blogspot.com/ http://piccolosbutler.blogspot.com/
Kudus to some Japanese senior citizens
A bunch of older Japanese have volunteered to clean up the nuclear mess.
I just heard that over in Japan where they have a pretty good nuclear mess to clean up that a bunch of retired guys have volenteered to take charge of cleaning up the nuclear mess.
Interesting.
These are not just a bunch of old guys as such, but a group of pretty educated engineer types that have retired but still know what they are doing.
The reasoning is pretty interesting. One of them said that although he still felt he had a few pretty good years left, he figured he'd be dead and gone before the cancer caught up with him.
I kept my eyes open after the disaister there took place and watched in awe the self discipline the average Japanese has displayed during the period right after the disaister and I really have to say I have a lot of respect for those people.
Unlike the mess that took place in this country after Katrina, the Japanese took their lumps with a quiet dignity that leaves me in awe. There were no widespread outbreaks of looting even though a few people tried to use the rare exception to prove otherwise.
I heard a story about how a convenience store got power back briefly and people came in in droves, which is certainly to be expected. However, when the place lost power again, the Japanese simply put the stuff back on the shelves and left quietly. I think it was because they couldn't get the register open or something simple along those lines.
I know that if I were there running the store I would have busted the damned register open and taken a calculator off of the shelf and simply added the persons purchases up and made change as best I could because of two reasons. First, the people really needed the stuff and of course, as an American the rule is 'anything to make a buck'. The paperwork and figuring out the take could just wait as far as I'm concerned.
Still, the Japanese did what they did and seem to have persevered well.
Now this.
These older retired guys are willing to charge in there knowing that they are probably going to wind up with some form of radiation poisoning and they are doing it for the good of the younger generation behind them.
I think that's pretty neat and worth mentioning in this blog.
Kudos to those retired Japanese guys for their fortitude. God bless them!
In a way it reminds me of the Eastwood/Jones/Garner movie that came out a few years ago called 'Space Cowboys',, where the older guys have to go into space and disarm some nukes.
my other blog is: http://officerpiccolo.blogspot.com/ http://piccolosbutler.blogspot.com/
I just heard that over in Japan where they have a pretty good nuclear mess to clean up that a bunch of retired guys have volenteered to take charge of cleaning up the nuclear mess.
Interesting.
These are not just a bunch of old guys as such, but a group of pretty educated engineer types that have retired but still know what they are doing.
The reasoning is pretty interesting. One of them said that although he still felt he had a few pretty good years left, he figured he'd be dead and gone before the cancer caught up with him.
I kept my eyes open after the disaister there took place and watched in awe the self discipline the average Japanese has displayed during the period right after the disaister and I really have to say I have a lot of respect for those people.
Unlike the mess that took place in this country after Katrina, the Japanese took their lumps with a quiet dignity that leaves me in awe. There were no widespread outbreaks of looting even though a few people tried to use the rare exception to prove otherwise.
I heard a story about how a convenience store got power back briefly and people came in in droves, which is certainly to be expected. However, when the place lost power again, the Japanese simply put the stuff back on the shelves and left quietly. I think it was because they couldn't get the register open or something simple along those lines.
I know that if I were there running the store I would have busted the damned register open and taken a calculator off of the shelf and simply added the persons purchases up and made change as best I could because of two reasons. First, the people really needed the stuff and of course, as an American the rule is 'anything to make a buck'. The paperwork and figuring out the take could just wait as far as I'm concerned.
Still, the Japanese did what they did and seem to have persevered well.
Now this.
These older retired guys are willing to charge in there knowing that they are probably going to wind up with some form of radiation poisoning and they are doing it for the good of the younger generation behind them.
I think that's pretty neat and worth mentioning in this blog.
Kudos to those retired Japanese guys for their fortitude. God bless them!
In a way it reminds me of the Eastwood/Jones/Garner movie that came out a few years ago called 'Space Cowboys',, where the older guys have to go into space and disarm some nukes.
my other blog is: http://officerpiccolo.blogspot.com/ http://piccolosbutler.blogspot.com/
Monday, June 6, 2011
One of the things that irks me is when I.
. come up with a good idea for a post and don't write it down and then forget it.
I had a great one yesterday when i was out on deck working. I didn't have my pen handy so when I sat down in front of this laptop to post I drew another blank. I hate when that happens.
Right now I am looking at maybe getting my ham rig from the UK and things are pretty interesting. There are a couple of people over there that seem to have supplies of the type of radio I am looking for. One of them insists that in order to buy one I have to have an end-users certificate because the radio is under the catagory of being munitions.
Interesting.
How come none of the other sellers require one?
There have been a couple of pretty honest sales types out there and I have to give credit where credit is due. A guy in Canada answered a lot of my questions regarding the Chinese set he had for sale and suggested that the set was not for me, as I would be very uncomfortable trying to put together a power supply for the unit he was selling.
There was also a ham I spoke with that suggested that perhaps going the military route was a case of tunnel vision on my part. To a point he was right, but I sat down and figured that I have to start somewhere and the idea of a portable generator powered manpack still fires my imagination and if I am going to do anything with my license I ought to start somewhere.
A big part of going into any field of endeavor is getting started and figuring what you want to get out of it.
The generator manpack rig fires my imagination and I think I want to start there.
It brings to mind mental images of some guy named Evans in a grass hut overlooking Ironbottom Sound with a couple of natives to turn the generator. Evans is, of course, a coastwatcher. He's out there eating cocoanuts and what have you and is all alone with no reac access to gasoline and other civilized things.
I have observed a couple of ham field days and while they are interesting and I suppose in an emergency they can provide assistance to the community, I can't help but notice the Honda Generator running the whole shebang. I think I want to go more primitive than that.
In a number of endeavors in life I have not done as well as I could have because I have intentionally hamstrung myself.
When I got into shooting a couple of decades ago I didn't chase technology for the first several years, opting to enter service rifle matches with a Garand instead of an AR. When I finally did get an AR, my scores climbed but in many ways it was not as satisfying as it was when I was going into a match undergeared as there is a lot of satisfaction doing well as an underdog.
Incidentally, the highest compliment I have ever recieved came from a Master Gunnery sergeant at Camp Perry the year I had my train crash rapid fire string at a Springfield match. He said that under the circumstances there were not many people on his team that could have done nearly as well as I had done that year.
It felt pretty good.
I spoke with my neighbor as to which road to take on my rig and he told me to take the road less traveled as I generally seem to do best on that path.
WHen I ran it by a couple of the guys I know here at work, one of them grinned and told me that there was no other choice to be made and that if I was going to do something then I really ought to do it in the most different and difficult Old School way possible.
I guess that's the way I am going to go.
my other blog is: http://officerpiccolo.blogspot.com/ http://piccolosbutler.blogspot.com/
I had a great one yesterday when i was out on deck working. I didn't have my pen handy so when I sat down in front of this laptop to post I drew another blank. I hate when that happens.
Right now I am looking at maybe getting my ham rig from the UK and things are pretty interesting. There are a couple of people over there that seem to have supplies of the type of radio I am looking for. One of them insists that in order to buy one I have to have an end-users certificate because the radio is under the catagory of being munitions.
Interesting.
How come none of the other sellers require one?
There have been a couple of pretty honest sales types out there and I have to give credit where credit is due. A guy in Canada answered a lot of my questions regarding the Chinese set he had for sale and suggested that the set was not for me, as I would be very uncomfortable trying to put together a power supply for the unit he was selling.
There was also a ham I spoke with that suggested that perhaps going the military route was a case of tunnel vision on my part. To a point he was right, but I sat down and figured that I have to start somewhere and the idea of a portable generator powered manpack still fires my imagination and if I am going to do anything with my license I ought to start somewhere.
A big part of going into any field of endeavor is getting started and figuring what you want to get out of it.
The generator manpack rig fires my imagination and I think I want to start there.
It brings to mind mental images of some guy named Evans in a grass hut overlooking Ironbottom Sound with a couple of natives to turn the generator. Evans is, of course, a coastwatcher. He's out there eating cocoanuts and what have you and is all alone with no reac access to gasoline and other civilized things.
I have observed a couple of ham field days and while they are interesting and I suppose in an emergency they can provide assistance to the community, I can't help but notice the Honda Generator running the whole shebang. I think I want to go more primitive than that.
In a number of endeavors in life I have not done as well as I could have because I have intentionally hamstrung myself.
When I got into shooting a couple of decades ago I didn't chase technology for the first several years, opting to enter service rifle matches with a Garand instead of an AR. When I finally did get an AR, my scores climbed but in many ways it was not as satisfying as it was when I was going into a match undergeared as there is a lot of satisfaction doing well as an underdog.
Incidentally, the highest compliment I have ever recieved came from a Master Gunnery sergeant at Camp Perry the year I had my train crash rapid fire string at a Springfield match. He said that under the circumstances there were not many people on his team that could have done nearly as well as I had done that year.
It felt pretty good.
I spoke with my neighbor as to which road to take on my rig and he told me to take the road less traveled as I generally seem to do best on that path.
WHen I ran it by a couple of the guys I know here at work, one of them grinned and told me that there was no other choice to be made and that if I was going to do something then I really ought to do it in the most different and difficult Old School way possible.
I guess that's the way I am going to go.
my other blog is: http://officerpiccolo.blogspot.com/ http://piccolosbutler.blogspot.com/
Sunday, June 5, 2011
One of the things that surprises me is that you do not see more violence
perpetrated by very old people that have gotten the shaft somewhere along the line.
Yesterday one of the guys I know brought up the subject of an elderly couple that were drawing a pension from I believe Bethleham Steel and got the surprise of their life when the pension got raided by someone and their pension stopped. I understand the man was in his 80s.
A man in his 80s is generally in no position to go back into the job market, although I suppose there are always a few exceptions.
Although I suppose that someone found a legal way to raid the pension find, legal does not make things right. It is outright wrong to do that to people. Some of the biggest thieves in this world are lawyers.
Back in the day, robbers used to have to wake up early and chase a train, stop it and simply rob it at gunpoint. It was pretty risky work as there were a lot of armed people on the train and the robbers stood a pretty fair chance at getting shot. Couple that with the other risks of falling under a moving train, getting thrown by a panicky horse, etc it was really a pretty risky lifestyle.
Of course, this robbery would usually result in a chase by a possee or being tracked down by Pinkerton detectives who did not have their hands tied the same way police officers do today. The reward for these train robbers was generally paid if they were delivered dead or alive.
As for the money, it was generally pretty hit or miss and probably mostly miss with a pretty poor take considering the risks.
Today an attorney with a briefcase can rob with impunity and no risk whatsoever. With no risk whatsever it is little wonder that trashy lawywers try and rob things like pension funds and care none at all for their victims or their families.
When you think about it, I am pretty surprised that a few of these old timers haven't decided to simply retaliate by simply whacking the responsible party. It doesn't take much strength to wield a pistol of for that matter to hire some punk to do the job.
Take the guy that has just been diagnose with some disease and knows the end is coming and that he's going to have to cough up a lot of his savings for hospitalization. He knows that the money he spends on hospitalization is less for the widow he is leaving behind.
He also knows that as a prisoner of the state he would get medical attention from the state for free.
He simply KNOWS that by getting sent to prison for the last few months of his life he is going to make it possible for his wife to live a semi-comfortable few years. I would imagine that the temptation to dig up a pistol, wander into the attorney's office and pop him would cross his mind.
I know I would certainly give something like that very serious consideration.
It would be interesting to see some octagenarian in court looking at the judge and simply say to the judge, "Yeah? So? I've got 4 months left. Hospitalization will cost me my life savings. I popped the bastard.What are you going to do about it? Put me in jail for life?"
It would be a real head trip for the judge to sentence a person in those shoes. The entire concept of crime and punishment just went out the window. There is not a whole lot the system can do to punish a guy like this unless it is to simply give him a suspended sentence for first degree murder. It would, of course, be the most punishing thing a judge could do in this case.
After all, putting him in jail is just what he wants. It will permit him to save what little money he has left to pass on to his spouse.
I suppose if something like this happened once it would be an anamoly.
But if something like this happened on a regular basis, I'd just bet that the number of attornies that use their briefcases as a license to steal would decrease because unlike the robbers of old, most of the attornies of today just don't have the stomach to take any real chances.
I am surprised I have not heard of this happening yet.
I will post it here if I do.
my other blog is: http://officerpiccolo.blogspot.com/ http://piccolosbutler.blogspot.com/
Yesterday one of the guys I know brought up the subject of an elderly couple that were drawing a pension from I believe Bethleham Steel and got the surprise of their life when the pension got raided by someone and their pension stopped. I understand the man was in his 80s.
A man in his 80s is generally in no position to go back into the job market, although I suppose there are always a few exceptions.
Although I suppose that someone found a legal way to raid the pension find, legal does not make things right. It is outright wrong to do that to people. Some of the biggest thieves in this world are lawyers.
Back in the day, robbers used to have to wake up early and chase a train, stop it and simply rob it at gunpoint. It was pretty risky work as there were a lot of armed people on the train and the robbers stood a pretty fair chance at getting shot. Couple that with the other risks of falling under a moving train, getting thrown by a panicky horse, etc it was really a pretty risky lifestyle.
Of course, this robbery would usually result in a chase by a possee or being tracked down by Pinkerton detectives who did not have their hands tied the same way police officers do today. The reward for these train robbers was generally paid if they were delivered dead or alive.
As for the money, it was generally pretty hit or miss and probably mostly miss with a pretty poor take considering the risks.
Today an attorney with a briefcase can rob with impunity and no risk whatsoever. With no risk whatsever it is little wonder that trashy lawywers try and rob things like pension funds and care none at all for their victims or their families.
When you think about it, I am pretty surprised that a few of these old timers haven't decided to simply retaliate by simply whacking the responsible party. It doesn't take much strength to wield a pistol of for that matter to hire some punk to do the job.
Take the guy that has just been diagnose with some disease and knows the end is coming and that he's going to have to cough up a lot of his savings for hospitalization. He knows that the money he spends on hospitalization is less for the widow he is leaving behind.
He also knows that as a prisoner of the state he would get medical attention from the state for free.
He simply KNOWS that by getting sent to prison for the last few months of his life he is going to make it possible for his wife to live a semi-comfortable few years. I would imagine that the temptation to dig up a pistol, wander into the attorney's office and pop him would cross his mind.
I know I would certainly give something like that very serious consideration.
It would be interesting to see some octagenarian in court looking at the judge and simply say to the judge, "Yeah? So? I've got 4 months left. Hospitalization will cost me my life savings. I popped the bastard.What are you going to do about it? Put me in jail for life?"
It would be a real head trip for the judge to sentence a person in those shoes. The entire concept of crime and punishment just went out the window. There is not a whole lot the system can do to punish a guy like this unless it is to simply give him a suspended sentence for first degree murder. It would, of course, be the most punishing thing a judge could do in this case.
After all, putting him in jail is just what he wants. It will permit him to save what little money he has left to pass on to his spouse.
I suppose if something like this happened once it would be an anamoly.
But if something like this happened on a regular basis, I'd just bet that the number of attornies that use their briefcases as a license to steal would decrease because unlike the robbers of old, most of the attornies of today just don't have the stomach to take any real chances.
I am surprised I have not heard of this happening yet.
I will post it here if I do.
my other blog is: http://officerpiccolo.blogspot.com/ http://piccolosbutler.blogspot.com/
Saturday, June 4, 2011
Hurry up and wait is the order for the day
which in not uncommon for this business.
Seeing I have some time on my hands I'll post something for today.
I have located a pretty good ham radio kit that seems to interest me. It is Old School military which seems to suit me as MilSpec gear is generally pretty simple to operate.
The average ham is a radio enthusiast and wants all of the bells and whistles on his rig and that means a complex set. While maybe I will grow into that I am certainly not looking to walk in on some set where every knob is multifunction. I'm looking to get inst something simple and that often means another trip to the surplus outfits.
This one even comes with a hand cranked generator that means I don't need an outside power source. Just grab some 8 year old and feed him 2 Red Bulls and a bag of sugar cookies and there is your power supply.
"Gee, Honey, Ralph has been coming in tired lately. Wonder what's up?"
"I dunno, Phyllis, but he looks like he's working on a pair of 19 inch biceps."
With a rating of 30 watts it means there is enough power to do some pretty good DXing if you are patient and willing to set up a temporary outside antenna (included).
I like packages like this. Neat, clean, simple and everything is there.
I stopped off at a ham outlet en route to work and started scouting and learning. There is a lot of stuff you need to get going. First you need a transceiver, then a power supply and an antenna tuner and an antenna and so on and so on. It adds up and it adds up fast.
Granted, you get 100 watts out of it but you actually need to set up a dedicated shack while the manpack rig can be set up just about anywhere and when not in use, just put up on a shelf.
I think this is the way I want to go as I don't really want to set up a dedicated radio shack.
We'll see what happens next.
Later,
Pic
my other blog is: http://officerpiccolo.blogspot.com/ http://piccolosbutler.blogspot.com/
Seeing I have some time on my hands I'll post something for today.
I have located a pretty good ham radio kit that seems to interest me. It is Old School military which seems to suit me as MilSpec gear is generally pretty simple to operate.
The average ham is a radio enthusiast and wants all of the bells and whistles on his rig and that means a complex set. While maybe I will grow into that I am certainly not looking to walk in on some set where every knob is multifunction. I'm looking to get inst something simple and that often means another trip to the surplus outfits.
This one even comes with a hand cranked generator that means I don't need an outside power source. Just grab some 8 year old and feed him 2 Red Bulls and a bag of sugar cookies and there is your power supply.
"Gee, Honey, Ralph has been coming in tired lately. Wonder what's up?"
"I dunno, Phyllis, but he looks like he's working on a pair of 19 inch biceps."
With a rating of 30 watts it means there is enough power to do some pretty good DXing if you are patient and willing to set up a temporary outside antenna (included).
I like packages like this. Neat, clean, simple and everything is there.
I stopped off at a ham outlet en route to work and started scouting and learning. There is a lot of stuff you need to get going. First you need a transceiver, then a power supply and an antenna tuner and an antenna and so on and so on. It adds up and it adds up fast.
Granted, you get 100 watts out of it but you actually need to set up a dedicated shack while the manpack rig can be set up just about anywhere and when not in use, just put up on a shelf.
I think this is the way I want to go as I don't really want to set up a dedicated radio shack.
We'll see what happens next.
Later,
Pic
my other blog is: http://officerpiccolo.blogspot.com/ http://piccolosbutler.blogspot.com/
Friday, June 3, 2011
I just read where 47% of Americans want to redistribute the wealth.
Apparantly they are upset that there are people out there that have more money than they do, which seems to be par golf for the way the human race looks at things, at least in a primitive setting.
It is a crab mentality.
Any crab fisherman knows that you really do not have to worry about crabs escaping from a tank or bin simply because as soon as one beginss to look like he is going to make it over the top and escape the rest of the crabs are going to pull him back down into the bin.
I read where some Peace Corps types got frustrated with trying to help out some of the villagers in Haiti or someplace like that. I think it was Haiti, but I could be wrong.
They would punch a well to provide clean water and almost instantly the neighboring village would get upset that they didn't have a well so they would poison the well and then after that, they would tear out the piping and sell if for scrap.
Of course everybody lost.
This seems to be the type of mentality we are heading to and it really isn't surprising. It starts early.
Even back in the day the mentality seems to have been taught at school.
Amyone remember being caught chewing gum?
"Did you bring enough so everyone can have some?"
Of course, I was prepared for that one and before she could say another word I was on my feet passing out gum. The teacher then treated me to a pretty good hissy fit and it cost me an hour after school.
One of the things I noticed while I was passing out the gum is that a lot of people that generally didn't chew gum accepted the gum I handed out, probably because it was free. Go figure.
The next time I got caught in another class, I got the same spiel about bringing enough for everyone. I told the teacher that this was a free country and that if anyone else wanted gum they could simplly buy their own and besides, I asked her, "What are you some kind of off-brand communist type?"
I got an hour after school for that one, too.
There was a third time and I have to admit that the teacher in that class had at least half of a brain in his head.
"Piccolo," he said. "While I recognize that as an American you have a right to buy gum and share it or not share it as you see fit, I would appreciate it if you didn't chew it in my class because it is against the rules."
I could live with that one.
Anyway, this share the wealth stuff is not new, it is crab mentality.
We see it in the ghettos and other places all the time.
The person that plants a window box and gets it torn up or the person that puts up something only to get it tagged the first night it's there.
It doesn't take a whole lot of time getting improvements to the community torn up before one smartens up and simply packs it in a and gives up trying to improve things. Why bother?
The suburbs is a little different. This year when I busted my ass to do a lot of planting the neighbors seemed to go out and do a little extra to make their yards look a little nicer. It is a bit of keeping up with the Joneses that makes for things being a little nicer.
The same holds true for trying to get ahead. If the powers that be make it a waste of time to get ahead than people will not bother. You can't blame them.
Over the years I have listened to people grouse about big corporations like oil companies, yet they still insist on driving huge tanks that get lousy gas milage. They bellyache about corporate greed yet they never stop to think that these corporations provide employment for a tremendous amount of people here. They supply an awful lot of people with an income and put an awful lot of meat on an awful lot of tables. When they start having their profits taken away from them they start to make other plans.
Part of the reason we have a poor merchant marine in this country is that as soon as the shipping companies were making a pretty good profit, the wonderful do-gooders in the powers that be started wallopping them with taxes and discouraged growth. The corporations responded by reflagging their ships to avoid both the taxation and the regulations laid down by the US government.
End result? Fewer jobs and less national income.
We gripe about having to talk to someone in India or South America or the Phillipines when we need tech support for out computers, phones or TVs, yet there is a pretty good reason for that. PArt of it,of course, probably IS that the corporations can pay these people a lesser wage, but I really think that they would prefer the convenience of having their tech departments in the states. I'd just bet that the government has wallopped them with taxes and as a result they have moved their tech departments off shore to keep the government out of things.
I can't blame them. I would probably do the same damned thing if I was running the show.
This isn't junior high school and you have no right to expect anyone that chews gum to have to share it with you. It's his decision.
Why should I be forced to share the money I have earned with you?
Get a job and earn your own.
While you're at it, buy your own damned gum.
my other blog is: http://officerpiccolo.blogspot.com/ http://piccolosbutler.blogspot.com/
It is a crab mentality.
Any crab fisherman knows that you really do not have to worry about crabs escaping from a tank or bin simply because as soon as one beginss to look like he is going to make it over the top and escape the rest of the crabs are going to pull him back down into the bin.
I read where some Peace Corps types got frustrated with trying to help out some of the villagers in Haiti or someplace like that. I think it was Haiti, but I could be wrong.
They would punch a well to provide clean water and almost instantly the neighboring village would get upset that they didn't have a well so they would poison the well and then after that, they would tear out the piping and sell if for scrap.
Of course everybody lost.
This seems to be the type of mentality we are heading to and it really isn't surprising. It starts early.
Even back in the day the mentality seems to have been taught at school.
Amyone remember being caught chewing gum?
"Did you bring enough so everyone can have some?"
Of course, I was prepared for that one and before she could say another word I was on my feet passing out gum. The teacher then treated me to a pretty good hissy fit and it cost me an hour after school.
One of the things I noticed while I was passing out the gum is that a lot of people that generally didn't chew gum accepted the gum I handed out, probably because it was free. Go figure.
The next time I got caught in another class, I got the same spiel about bringing enough for everyone. I told the teacher that this was a free country and that if anyone else wanted gum they could simplly buy their own and besides, I asked her, "What are you some kind of off-brand communist type?"
I got an hour after school for that one, too.
There was a third time and I have to admit that the teacher in that class had at least half of a brain in his head.
"Piccolo," he said. "While I recognize that as an American you have a right to buy gum and share it or not share it as you see fit, I would appreciate it if you didn't chew it in my class because it is against the rules."
I could live with that one.
Anyway, this share the wealth stuff is not new, it is crab mentality.
We see it in the ghettos and other places all the time.
The person that plants a window box and gets it torn up or the person that puts up something only to get it tagged the first night it's there.
It doesn't take a whole lot of time getting improvements to the community torn up before one smartens up and simply packs it in a and gives up trying to improve things. Why bother?
The suburbs is a little different. This year when I busted my ass to do a lot of planting the neighbors seemed to go out and do a little extra to make their yards look a little nicer. It is a bit of keeping up with the Joneses that makes for things being a little nicer.
The same holds true for trying to get ahead. If the powers that be make it a waste of time to get ahead than people will not bother. You can't blame them.
Over the years I have listened to people grouse about big corporations like oil companies, yet they still insist on driving huge tanks that get lousy gas milage. They bellyache about corporate greed yet they never stop to think that these corporations provide employment for a tremendous amount of people here. They supply an awful lot of people with an income and put an awful lot of meat on an awful lot of tables. When they start having their profits taken away from them they start to make other plans.
Part of the reason we have a poor merchant marine in this country is that as soon as the shipping companies were making a pretty good profit, the wonderful do-gooders in the powers that be started wallopping them with taxes and discouraged growth. The corporations responded by reflagging their ships to avoid both the taxation and the regulations laid down by the US government.
End result? Fewer jobs and less national income.
We gripe about having to talk to someone in India or South America or the Phillipines when we need tech support for out computers, phones or TVs, yet there is a pretty good reason for that. PArt of it,of course, probably IS that the corporations can pay these people a lesser wage, but I really think that they would prefer the convenience of having their tech departments in the states. I'd just bet that the government has wallopped them with taxes and as a result they have moved their tech departments off shore to keep the government out of things.
I can't blame them. I would probably do the same damned thing if I was running the show.
This isn't junior high school and you have no right to expect anyone that chews gum to have to share it with you. It's his decision.
Why should I be forced to share the money I have earned with you?
Get a job and earn your own.
While you're at it, buy your own damned gum.
my other blog is: http://officerpiccolo.blogspot.com/ http://piccolosbutler.blogspot.com/
Thursday, June 2, 2011
One of the things necessary for me to do this blog every day is that I have to
ransack my mind daily trying to conjure up something out of a dark, deep hole called my memory.
As I have gotten old there are things you remember and things you do not want to remember.
I have already forgotten what I had for breakfast and I suppose with pretty good reason. I probably don't want to remember what I had for breakfast or I will nost likely get sick to my stomach.
Then again, there are a few things worth remembering like the cup size of my third grade teacher. Now THAT is something worth remembering. And I remember it well after all these years, and no, I am not going to write about her.
For the past couple of days I have been preoccupied with a few things like making the change between work and home. I'm at work now and because we are busy with cargo operations I am in a comfortable rut that will last for another two weeks until I get off of this pig.
Flash.
I just looked up at the TV and there was this ad for some program coming up about those children that parents dress up like models when they are young and show them off in pageants. Most of us are familiar with the JonBenet Ramsey murder investigation and the pageants she was in are the ones the program is all about, I guess.
Doing something like putting a four or five year old kid in makeup and panty hose is disgusting and it says something about the parents. Something isn't right with them. Why in the name of God would a parent want to make their little daughter grow up at the age of four?
"Honey, let's take out beautiful little daughter and set her up as a target for every pedophile out there."
"That's a great idea, Dear. Let's take her shopping. I'd bet she'll look like a little fox with a mini skirt and spike heels."
And off they go to the mall.
What should probably be happening is the parents should be sent off to the screw factory for rethreading.
Anyway, I am glad the ad for the show is over so I can go back to writing something for this blog.
Oh, wait a minute. I have.
my other blog is: http://officerpiccolo.blogspot.com/ http://piccolosbutler.blogspot.com/
As I have gotten old there are things you remember and things you do not want to remember.
I have already forgotten what I had for breakfast and I suppose with pretty good reason. I probably don't want to remember what I had for breakfast or I will nost likely get sick to my stomach.
Then again, there are a few things worth remembering like the cup size of my third grade teacher. Now THAT is something worth remembering. And I remember it well after all these years, and no, I am not going to write about her.
For the past couple of days I have been preoccupied with a few things like making the change between work and home. I'm at work now and because we are busy with cargo operations I am in a comfortable rut that will last for another two weeks until I get off of this pig.
Flash.
I just looked up at the TV and there was this ad for some program coming up about those children that parents dress up like models when they are young and show them off in pageants. Most of us are familiar with the JonBenet Ramsey murder investigation and the pageants she was in are the ones the program is all about, I guess.
Doing something like putting a four or five year old kid in makeup and panty hose is disgusting and it says something about the parents. Something isn't right with them. Why in the name of God would a parent want to make their little daughter grow up at the age of four?
"Honey, let's take out beautiful little daughter and set her up as a target for every pedophile out there."
"That's a great idea, Dear. Let's take her shopping. I'd bet she'll look like a little fox with a mini skirt and spike heels."
And off they go to the mall.
What should probably be happening is the parents should be sent off to the screw factory for rethreading.
Anyway, I am glad the ad for the show is over so I can go back to writing something for this blog.
Oh, wait a minute. I have.
my other blog is: http://officerpiccolo.blogspot.com/ http://piccolosbutler.blogspot.com/
Wednesday, June 1, 2011
I got even for getting the business over the tower I am not going to erect
I fought back over the drubbing I got earlier about the antenna tower I am not going to install and we all had a few yuks.
A deckhand was pulling a line tight and I put on my seldom seen panicky voice and screamed at him, "For God's sake, don't break that line!"
The line in question was about 2.25 inches in diameter and the kid froze for a second and looked at me.
"Quit pulling so hard! You'll break it!"
Then he felt a tad foolish and blushed a bit.
Then I really broke his chops. The tug skipper has known me for years and I picked up the handy-talkie.
"Tell that damned deckhand to stop pulling so hard on my deck lines! He started sucking all the oxygen out of the air and Tommy almost passed out from hypoxia!"
"I'll have a word with him," he said. He was close enough to see him and I watched him grin and shake his head.
"Thanks," said the deckhand. "Now you got me into trouble."
Then he figured it out and really blushed.
The tug skipper looked out. "Hey, Pic, lack of oxygen sounds like a safety issue. Maybe I'll have him write a safety report. That'll fix him!"
"Bury him in paperwork," I answered. The skipper chuckled.
He's a good kid and a little payback for giving me the business about the tower I am not going to set up in my yard seemed in order. He's also a character.
A couple of months ago he jumped over to us and was gently chided for it by the skippper. Jumping across is somewhat unsafe. I gotta give him this, he tried valiantly to squirm out of it.
"Piccolo says he did it all the time with only one hand because he had a sword in the other," said the kid.
"When Piccolo did that was wearing a shirt with a ruffled collar, puffy sleeves and had a pencil thin moustache and you're not," I said to the kid.
He scowled and rubbed his fingers under his nose. Then he furrowed his brows.
"I s'pose maybe I can get a tuxedo shirt at Goodwill and trim my 'stache down for next trip," he said.
Then he looked thoughtful, "Nah, I ain't gonna trim my 'stache," he grumbled. "It'd make me look like one a them old janitors I used to see in school! Guess I better not jump across anymore."
"If you don't want to wear a tuxedo shirt, you can wear green tights but you'd still have to trim your 'stache," I said. "Then I suppose it's be OK to jump across."
"Screw that," said the kid.
He hasn't jumped since, which is a good thing because I do not want to see anyone get hurt.
my other blog is: http://officerpiccolo.blogspot.com/ http://piccolosbutler.blogspot.com/
A deckhand was pulling a line tight and I put on my seldom seen panicky voice and screamed at him, "For God's sake, don't break that line!"
The line in question was about 2.25 inches in diameter and the kid froze for a second and looked at me.
"Quit pulling so hard! You'll break it!"
Then he felt a tad foolish and blushed a bit.
Then I really broke his chops. The tug skipper has known me for years and I picked up the handy-talkie.
"Tell that damned deckhand to stop pulling so hard on my deck lines! He started sucking all the oxygen out of the air and Tommy almost passed out from hypoxia!"
"I'll have a word with him," he said. He was close enough to see him and I watched him grin and shake his head.
"Thanks," said the deckhand. "Now you got me into trouble."
Then he figured it out and really blushed.
The tug skipper looked out. "Hey, Pic, lack of oxygen sounds like a safety issue. Maybe I'll have him write a safety report. That'll fix him!"
"Bury him in paperwork," I answered. The skipper chuckled.
He's a good kid and a little payback for giving me the business about the tower I am not going to set up in my yard seemed in order. He's also a character.
A couple of months ago he jumped over to us and was gently chided for it by the skippper. Jumping across is somewhat unsafe. I gotta give him this, he tried valiantly to squirm out of it.
"Piccolo says he did it all the time with only one hand because he had a sword in the other," said the kid.
"When Piccolo did that was wearing a shirt with a ruffled collar, puffy sleeves and had a pencil thin moustache and you're not," I said to the kid.
He scowled and rubbed his fingers under his nose. Then he furrowed his brows.
"I s'pose maybe I can get a tuxedo shirt at Goodwill and trim my 'stache down for next trip," he said.
Then he looked thoughtful, "Nah, I ain't gonna trim my 'stache," he grumbled. "It'd make me look like one a them old janitors I used to see in school! Guess I better not jump across anymore."
"If you don't want to wear a tuxedo shirt, you can wear green tights but you'd still have to trim your 'stache," I said. "Then I suppose it's be OK to jump across."
"Screw that," said the kid.
He hasn't jumped since, which is a good thing because I do not want to see anyone get hurt.
my other blog is: http://officerpiccolo.blogspot.com/ http://piccolosbutler.blogspot.com/
OK, now here's what ya do.
The guys here at work are giving me the business about having a shiny new ham radio operators license and I must admit they are pretty funny.
"You need a tower," said Rufus. "Just set the damned thing up in your front yad, about 17 feet tall, and to add insult to injury put a little ring of rocks painted white around it and plant a single geranium on each side of it to be able to say you've landscaped it to hide it."
"Yeah," said Joey. "Ya got to make it look like you made a vague attempt to make it look like you're trying."
"I got a great idea!" said another guy. "The Official bastion of redneck lawn decorations! The INSIDE OUT TIRE FLOWER!!"
"Yeah. Complete with 54 coats of cracking white paint." interrupter Rufus. "Get a big truck tire and use the mast as the centerpiece. Put the tower up in the middle of it and a pink flamingo oneither side!"
"Or a nice little circle of rocks painted white!"
"Paint the tower some pretty pastel color like muave or lilac!" Another county heard from. "A nice 150 foot lilac colored tower."
It went on a bit and I let it ride until it ran itself out, which is the smartest thing to do in a case like this.
Of course, there will be no tower, but we can't let the truth get in the way of a chops bustin' now, can we?
my other blog is: http://officerpiccolo.blogspot.com/ http://piccolosbutler.blogspot.com/
"You need a tower," said Rufus. "Just set the damned thing up in your front yad, about 17 feet tall, and to add insult to injury put a little ring of rocks painted white around it and plant a single geranium on each side of it to be able to say you've landscaped it to hide it."
"Yeah," said Joey. "Ya got to make it look like you made a vague attempt to make it look like you're trying."
"I got a great idea!" said another guy. "The Official bastion of redneck lawn decorations! The INSIDE OUT TIRE FLOWER!!"
"Yeah. Complete with 54 coats of cracking white paint." interrupter Rufus. "Get a big truck tire and use the mast as the centerpiece. Put the tower up in the middle of it and a pink flamingo oneither side!"
"Or a nice little circle of rocks painted white!"
"Paint the tower some pretty pastel color like muave or lilac!" Another county heard from. "A nice 150 foot lilac colored tower."
It went on a bit and I let it ride until it ran itself out, which is the smartest thing to do in a case like this.
Of course, there will be no tower, but we can't let the truth get in the way of a chops bustin' now, can we?
my other blog is: http://officerpiccolo.blogspot.com/ http://piccolosbutler.blogspot.com/
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
Hey, Popov! Here ya go.
The doc that fixed my foot was a real character. This was maybe 12 years ago.
I told you about pissing off his assistant in an earlier post.
Anyway, the doc that came in I got along with. He was a former GI doc and had pulled a tour at Benning which, of course, means that he learned a lot about busted feet thanks to the proximity of the jump school there. I got along good with him.
"Too bad this wasn't still the army," he said to me.
'How's that?" I questioned.
"Hell, I'd just put you in a cast for 6 weeks and then remove it and get you to buy a new pair of jump boots and hobble around in them. When you'd have the boots broken it, you'd be good to go," he said.
"We can do that," I said. "I'll just get an old Corpsman I know to pull the cast off in six weeks."
"Yeah, but when your company sends you to their doctor near your home, he's going to put you in a camwalker, but I suppose we can try it." he said.
So he put me in a cast and as he was he told me about how he became an MD.
The doctor in question that fixed my busted foor had dropped out of high school and spent about a year fixing and reselling cars in his backyard. He was facing the draft and decided to get it out of the way so he went to his draft board and signed a voluntary indiction slip or something along these lines.
Vietnam was running hot then and because he tested well and there was a shortage, he got sent to Fort Sam, trained as a medic and shipped out to Vietnam.
From what I gathered he did something to save some poor bastard and when the guy got to the rear some clown wihth a stick up his ass wanted him court-martialed, but someone else intervened and pointed out that even though it wasn't by the book it saved the poor guy. A couple of months later he was assigned there and was picked up by the same surgeon that had put the kibosh on his court martial. He worked for the doctor as a surgical assistant.
Anyway, the MD recommended him for some such program or another and he agreed to re-up for it and I guess somewhere along the line he wheeled and dealed with the army exchanging time in service in return for education.
He retired as an orthopedic surgeon!
The funny part about it is that somehow nobody ever checked to see if he had finished high school and he seemed to take great pride in telling me that after he became a doctor he started getting invitations to his high school reunion but keeps sending them back because he never graduated.
You have to love a guy like that.
my other blog is: http://officerpiccolo.blogspot.com/ http://piccolosbutler.blogspot.com/
I told you about pissing off his assistant in an earlier post.
Anyway, the doc that came in I got along with. He was a former GI doc and had pulled a tour at Benning which, of course, means that he learned a lot about busted feet thanks to the proximity of the jump school there. I got along good with him.
"Too bad this wasn't still the army," he said to me.
'How's that?" I questioned.
"Hell, I'd just put you in a cast for 6 weeks and then remove it and get you to buy a new pair of jump boots and hobble around in them. When you'd have the boots broken it, you'd be good to go," he said.
"We can do that," I said. "I'll just get an old Corpsman I know to pull the cast off in six weeks."
"Yeah, but when your company sends you to their doctor near your home, he's going to put you in a camwalker, but I suppose we can try it." he said.
So he put me in a cast and as he was he told me about how he became an MD.
The doctor in question that fixed my busted foor had dropped out of high school and spent about a year fixing and reselling cars in his backyard. He was facing the draft and decided to get it out of the way so he went to his draft board and signed a voluntary indiction slip or something along these lines.
Vietnam was running hot then and because he tested well and there was a shortage, he got sent to Fort Sam, trained as a medic and shipped out to Vietnam.
From what I gathered he did something to save some poor bastard and when the guy got to the rear some clown wihth a stick up his ass wanted him court-martialed, but someone else intervened and pointed out that even though it wasn't by the book it saved the poor guy. A couple of months later he was assigned there and was picked up by the same surgeon that had put the kibosh on his court martial. He worked for the doctor as a surgical assistant.
Anyway, the MD recommended him for some such program or another and he agreed to re-up for it and I guess somewhere along the line he wheeled and dealed with the army exchanging time in service in return for education.
He retired as an orthopedic surgeon!
The funny part about it is that somehow nobody ever checked to see if he had finished high school and he seemed to take great pride in telling me that after he became a doctor he started getting invitations to his high school reunion but keeps sending them back because he never graduated.
You have to love a guy like that.
my other blog is: http://officerpiccolo.blogspot.com/ http://piccolosbutler.blogspot.com/
Well, I am off to spin the wheels onf industry today.
Gotta clean this pig sty up and pack up and saddle up.
I might post tonight if I get time, but it looks like I am getting a late leaving time this morning.
Pic, out.
my other blog is: http://officerpiccolo.blogspot.com/ http://piccolosbutler.blogspot.com/
I might post tonight if I get time, but it looks like I am getting a late leaving time this morning.
Pic, out.
my other blog is: http://officerpiccolo.blogspot.com/ http://piccolosbutler.blogspot.com/
Monday, May 30, 2011
Today is Memoriall Day.
It is not a day to run around thanking veterans. That's Veterans day, 11 November. Thank us then. We'll be at Dave's Diner because he give veterans half off on SOS on Veteran's Day. If you offer to buy my breakfast I will treat you to a thrilling war story about how I heroically saved my squad leader at the Battle of New Joe's bar in downtown Colorado Springs.
Today is a day to take a little time away from the family barbecue at the in-laws and think for a few minutes about the poor bastards that didn't make it home.
The picture that probably comes to mind is some guy heroically charging down into the mouths of cannons armed with his trusty rifle. I suppose there are a lot of guys that did that and died in the process, but that's not anywhere near all of it. Sometimes it's not that dramatic.
Take Lanny Baldwin, the guy up the street from me that got drafted when I was a kid. He was in a Jeep that rolled in Korea and he never made it home.
How about the simple fellow that was taking chow up to the guys and managed to get blown up by some sort of booby trap. Or the guy that just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time and got killed in the process.
Depending on what my instincts tell me, later on this evening I may put a bayonet on my Garand and stick it into the lawn and put an old steel pot on top of it. I'll sit there and watch the passing traffic of pet walkers and watch their reactions and body language. Most of them actually appreciate it, some of them shy away from it and I have received a number of comments, mostly favorable but some stupid. As we all know, there is no shortage of stupidity on the planet.
One year a passing man asked me it it was a real rifle. I told him it was and that it was locked, loaded, a round in the chamber and the safety was off and that he should tread lightly whille passing it so that it would not jump out of the ground and start shooting people indiscriminately.
I got an expected visit from the police for that one. He rolled up and asked me what the rifle and steel pot was doing there.
I told him that it was there to give a few people something to think about and that it was always in sight and that it was going to go back inside when I decided to go in or just before I popped my first beer. He nodded, told me he'd take care of things and drove off.
A lot of people out there just don't seem to get it. Our freedoms are not free. They are damned costly. They cost us heavily in both money and lives. It is only right to stop and think about it once in a while and while the troops are always on MY mind, there are a lot of stupid people out there that do not have a clue.
It is only fitting that we take a little time out to think about the poor bastard that went out and paid for our way of life with his own life.
I am not going to dedicate today to the guy that went out there and tried to be a hero and stupidly traded his life in a foolish attempt to win a piece of colored cloth to wear on his uniform.
Today I am going to give thanks to the people that simply lost their lives simply doing their jobs, either by enemy action, accident or disease. I'm going to dedicate today to the citizen-soldier that, knowing he was taking a chance, went off to war, didn't look back and for whatever reason didn't make it back home.
my other blog is: http://officerpiccolo.blogspot.com/ http://piccolosbutler.blogspot.com/
Today is a day to take a little time away from the family barbecue at the in-laws and think for a few minutes about the poor bastards that didn't make it home.
The picture that probably comes to mind is some guy heroically charging down into the mouths of cannons armed with his trusty rifle. I suppose there are a lot of guys that did that and died in the process, but that's not anywhere near all of it. Sometimes it's not that dramatic.
Take Lanny Baldwin, the guy up the street from me that got drafted when I was a kid. He was in a Jeep that rolled in Korea and he never made it home.
How about the simple fellow that was taking chow up to the guys and managed to get blown up by some sort of booby trap. Or the guy that just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time and got killed in the process.
Depending on what my instincts tell me, later on this evening I may put a bayonet on my Garand and stick it into the lawn and put an old steel pot on top of it. I'll sit there and watch the passing traffic of pet walkers and watch their reactions and body language. Most of them actually appreciate it, some of them shy away from it and I have received a number of comments, mostly favorable but some stupid. As we all know, there is no shortage of stupidity on the planet.
One year a passing man asked me it it was a real rifle. I told him it was and that it was locked, loaded, a round in the chamber and the safety was off and that he should tread lightly whille passing it so that it would not jump out of the ground and start shooting people indiscriminately.
I got an expected visit from the police for that one. He rolled up and asked me what the rifle and steel pot was doing there.
I told him that it was there to give a few people something to think about and that it was always in sight and that it was going to go back inside when I decided to go in or just before I popped my first beer. He nodded, told me he'd take care of things and drove off.
A lot of people out there just don't seem to get it. Our freedoms are not free. They are damned costly. They cost us heavily in both money and lives. It is only right to stop and think about it once in a while and while the troops are always on MY mind, there are a lot of stupid people out there that do not have a clue.
It is only fitting that we take a little time out to think about the poor bastard that went out and paid for our way of life with his own life.
I am not going to dedicate today to the guy that went out there and tried to be a hero and stupidly traded his life in a foolish attempt to win a piece of colored cloth to wear on his uniform.
Today I am going to give thanks to the people that simply lost their lives simply doing their jobs, either by enemy action, accident or disease. I'm going to dedicate today to the citizen-soldier that, knowing he was taking a chance, went off to war, didn't look back and for whatever reason didn't make it back home.
my other blog is: http://officerpiccolo.blogspot.com/ http://piccolosbutler.blogspot.com/
Sunday, May 29, 2011
A hue and cry for another National Holiday. This one we NEED!
This country needs another holiday and I have a damned good reason to demand one.
Every neighborhood has someone that is a royal pain in the ass that makes life hell for everyone else. They do stupid little things like call the cops on you for on-street parking when you are simply trying to quickly unload your pickup.
They ruin things for everyone else by their misbehavior. Like when your employer puts you up in a nice hotel and some jerk gets drunk and destroys the room so the company changes policy and puts you up in a place that is a whole lot less comfortable.
Or the jerk that raises cain over the annual neighborhood block party and makes it go away.
Or the preacher that raised so much hell over the annual raft race because people were drinking in the rafts and he crusaded until the charity that sponsered it had to stop it. No matter that it provided a wonderful release for pent up cabin fever and did a whole lot more good than harm. Nor did it seem to matter that the entire town would be in a good mood for weeks after the race. No. People were drinking beer in the rafts and therefore the race had to go.
Or the crybabies that get all upset that the terrorist captives are still in Gitmo and how big a shame it is that they get treated so poorly.
The holiday I propose is to be named National Beat Down Day and on that day anyone that has ruined something fun for everybody else or someone who has been a big crybaby can be dragged out of their homes and administered a nice shampoo with a hickory sledge hammer handle.
Maybe that would smarten a few people up.
It could be on April 16th and serve as a way to release pent up anger over having to cough up a third of you income to the Feds on the previous day.
my other blog is: http://officerpiccolo.blogspot.com/ http://piccolosbutler.blogspot.com/
Every neighborhood has someone that is a royal pain in the ass that makes life hell for everyone else. They do stupid little things like call the cops on you for on-street parking when you are simply trying to quickly unload your pickup.
They ruin things for everyone else by their misbehavior. Like when your employer puts you up in a nice hotel and some jerk gets drunk and destroys the room so the company changes policy and puts you up in a place that is a whole lot less comfortable.
Or the jerk that raises cain over the annual neighborhood block party and makes it go away.
Or the preacher that raised so much hell over the annual raft race because people were drinking in the rafts and he crusaded until the charity that sponsered it had to stop it. No matter that it provided a wonderful release for pent up cabin fever and did a whole lot more good than harm. Nor did it seem to matter that the entire town would be in a good mood for weeks after the race. No. People were drinking beer in the rafts and therefore the race had to go.
Or the crybabies that get all upset that the terrorist captives are still in Gitmo and how big a shame it is that they get treated so poorly.
The holiday I propose is to be named National Beat Down Day and on that day anyone that has ruined something fun for everybody else or someone who has been a big crybaby can be dragged out of their homes and administered a nice shampoo with a hickory sledge hammer handle.
Maybe that would smarten a few people up.
It could be on April 16th and serve as a way to release pent up anger over having to cough up a third of you income to the Feds on the previous day.
my other blog is: http://officerpiccolo.blogspot.com/ http://piccolosbutler.blogspot.com/
Saturday, May 28, 2011
The ham radio station I am looking for. MilSpec. Got just the guy to try get it.
A few days ago I mentioned that I was looking for a MilSpec HF rig and I am.
I think I have figured out where I want to go with this ham ticket.
I want to put together a small, portable HF station that I can cart around with me if I so desire.
I have decided that I do NOT waant to set up some sort of radio shack in the back bedroom as I know how easy it is for such a thing to get completely out of hand. I've seen it before and I've done it before with my shooting some years back. The entire basement became a mess of things and has never really recovered.
I have gotten word out to Tim at 'The Old Grouch's Surplus' to keep his eyes peeled. He's a pretty heads up guy and probably a pretty good wheeler and dealer.
WHile I don't know much about the surplus business I can just imagine that there is a lot of trading off that goes on between the various surplus dealers.
Most of us are pretty familiar with the basic Army/Navy store of which there seems to be one within basic driving radius of most of us, but that's just a part of it, the part we see as part of the landscape.
There are all sorts of specialty surplus places that cater to people with a special interest. Want a Duece 'n half truck? They're out there. Want a RTTY rig? They are out there. There are specialty shops out there that cater to all sorts of needs.
From what I see on Tim's shop they cater not only to the 'I need a new pistol belt for my nail bags' people, but he ventures into trailers and maybe even vehicles, too.
I'm surmising that there is considerable trading going on out there among dealers, too. An oversimplification would be the guy that buys a boatload of canteen covers and trades 1/3 of them for canteens and another 1/3 for canteen cups so as to put together a complete canteen set to sell to the public as a unit.
Anyway, I've sent the project of getting my little ham station out to Tim to see what he can drum up and it may prove to be interesting. He may be able to help me, he may not be able to help me. Like everything else in life nothing is 100%.
Still, over the past few years Tim has been pretty good to me and we've done business a couple of times. I like doing business with guys like him because he seems pretty easygoing and does not sweat the small stuff. He's not one of those guys that tries to put his kids through college and medical school by making a single sale to you. He seems to know that the path to good business is to build up a successful clientle and to do that he has to serve one's needs. That's fair enough.
Although Tim isn't the only guy I do business with, of course, he's the first person I think of when I get some kind of idea involving surplus stuff.
I do not use this blog to peddle anything as a general rule. The only other thing I have done in over 700 posts is to speak highly of the Armor Lid people a while back.
Still, I'm going to give Tim a shameless plug here.
http://www.oldgrouch.com/
This link is hot. Click on it.
Check him out and see if he has what you need. If not, maybe he knows where to get it.
Feel free to get in touch with him if he doesn't have what you need on his website.
Pic, out
my other blog is: http://officerpiccolo.blogspot.com/ http://piccolosbutler.blogspot.com/
I think I have figured out where I want to go with this ham ticket.
I want to put together a small, portable HF station that I can cart around with me if I so desire.
I have decided that I do NOT waant to set up some sort of radio shack in the back bedroom as I know how easy it is for such a thing to get completely out of hand. I've seen it before and I've done it before with my shooting some years back. The entire basement became a mess of things and has never really recovered.
I have gotten word out to Tim at 'The Old Grouch's Surplus' to keep his eyes peeled. He's a pretty heads up guy and probably a pretty good wheeler and dealer.
WHile I don't know much about the surplus business I can just imagine that there is a lot of trading off that goes on between the various surplus dealers.
Most of us are pretty familiar with the basic Army/Navy store of which there seems to be one within basic driving radius of most of us, but that's just a part of it, the part we see as part of the landscape.
There are all sorts of specialty surplus places that cater to people with a special interest. Want a Duece 'n half truck? They're out there. Want a RTTY rig? They are out there. There are specialty shops out there that cater to all sorts of needs.
From what I see on Tim's shop they cater not only to the 'I need a new pistol belt for my nail bags' people, but he ventures into trailers and maybe even vehicles, too.
I'm surmising that there is considerable trading going on out there among dealers, too. An oversimplification would be the guy that buys a boatload of canteen covers and trades 1/3 of them for canteens and another 1/3 for canteen cups so as to put together a complete canteen set to sell to the public as a unit.
Anyway, I've sent the project of getting my little ham station out to Tim to see what he can drum up and it may prove to be interesting. He may be able to help me, he may not be able to help me. Like everything else in life nothing is 100%.
Still, over the past few years Tim has been pretty good to me and we've done business a couple of times. I like doing business with guys like him because he seems pretty easygoing and does not sweat the small stuff. He's not one of those guys that tries to put his kids through college and medical school by making a single sale to you. He seems to know that the path to good business is to build up a successful clientle and to do that he has to serve one's needs. That's fair enough.
Although Tim isn't the only guy I do business with, of course, he's the first person I think of when I get some kind of idea involving surplus stuff.
I do not use this blog to peddle anything as a general rule. The only other thing I have done in over 700 posts is to speak highly of the Armor Lid people a while back.
Still, I'm going to give Tim a shameless plug here.
http://www.oldgrouch.com/
This link is hot. Click on it.
Check him out and see if he has what you need. If not, maybe he knows where to get it.
Feel free to get in touch with him if he doesn't have what you need on his website.
Pic, out
my other blog is: http://officerpiccolo.blogspot.com/ http://piccolosbutler.blogspot.com/
Friday, May 27, 2011
Post 700.
of a series of six jillion and four.
Be the first kid on your block to collect them all.
Today I am going to spend a little time looking into what route I want to go with in ham radio. I do want to go somewhere with it, but I do not want to set up a huge radio shack and have antennas strung out all over hell.
I think I want to stay in the HF range of about 80 to 10 meters. I also want to have a fairly compact portable unit that I can throw in the pickup and go somewhere with it and set it up.
CW, AM and SSB sound about right as I have no desire to get into either RTTY or bouncing signals off of repeaters and sattelites.
Things are beginning to look a little MilSpec to me as there are quite a number of military sets out there that seem to fit the bill. They look interesting for a number of reasons.
First of all for the most part they are simple to operate as they have to be operated by GIs with minimal training. They do not have all of the bells and whistles that most hams like to twink with.
If the package hasn't been broken up and all the acccessories are there and complete, they provide a very nice little radio station in a small package that can be set up and disassembled rather quickly.
Since early Vietnam most of them have pretty normal power needs and can be adapted without having to create off the wall power supplies for AC power use, a basic 12 volt DC power supply can be hooked right up in many cases.The days of dynamotors and such are long gone.
I am actually not particularly partial to MilSpec in this case, but I do not see too many civvie units out there that seem to fit this bill.
While a lot of clubs have vans or trailers, that is fine for them. I just want a simple, portable HF unit that I can use when I want to use it.
We'll see where this leads me.
If any readers have any ideas, please feel free too post them in the comments section.
Pic, out.
my other blog is: http://officerpiccolo.blogspot.com/ http://piccolosbutler.blogspot.com/
Be the first kid on your block to collect them all.
Today I am going to spend a little time looking into what route I want to go with in ham radio. I do want to go somewhere with it, but I do not want to set up a huge radio shack and have antennas strung out all over hell.
I think I want to stay in the HF range of about 80 to 10 meters. I also want to have a fairly compact portable unit that I can throw in the pickup and go somewhere with it and set it up.
CW, AM and SSB sound about right as I have no desire to get into either RTTY or bouncing signals off of repeaters and sattelites.
Things are beginning to look a little MilSpec to me as there are quite a number of military sets out there that seem to fit the bill. They look interesting for a number of reasons.
First of all for the most part they are simple to operate as they have to be operated by GIs with minimal training. They do not have all of the bells and whistles that most hams like to twink with.
If the package hasn't been broken up and all the acccessories are there and complete, they provide a very nice little radio station in a small package that can be set up and disassembled rather quickly.
Since early Vietnam most of them have pretty normal power needs and can be adapted without having to create off the wall power supplies for AC power use, a basic 12 volt DC power supply can be hooked right up in many cases.The days of dynamotors and such are long gone.
I am actually not particularly partial to MilSpec in this case, but I do not see too many civvie units out there that seem to fit this bill.
While a lot of clubs have vans or trailers, that is fine for them. I just want a simple, portable HF unit that I can use when I want to use it.
We'll see where this leads me.
If any readers have any ideas, please feel free too post them in the comments section.
Pic, out.
my other blog is: http://officerpiccolo.blogspot.com/ http://piccolosbutler.blogspot.com/
Thursday, May 26, 2011
We'll see how today goes.
Woke up feeling a little more optimistic and because I ignored yesterday's urge to say the hell with it and bury myself in Jameson's, I feel pretty good.
I just ambled out and looked around and the driveway I redid yesterday and it looks pretty good and so do my flowers that are not blooming yet, but will be soon. There sure are a lot of them. I've planted them by the hundreds and the whole yard will soon explode into colors.
I don't KNOW what colors, but it is pretty exciting because this is the first time I have planted flowers from seeds. Generally I buy a boatload of flats and simply transplant the little bastards.
Combat laptop 3 is giving me a morning headache. I'm wondering about it as this morning when I woke it wouldn't permit me to log into this blog. It makes no sense to me and I am going to have to spend a little time getting it up and running again.
I guess there is a new guy on the block with a new wireless router because I found Laptop 3 was trying to sign in on another router on its own.
I reset it to mine and deleted the other one.
I think I am going to have to move Laptop 3 away from the window or something. I'll figure it out.
One of the things I hate about all of the computer systems is that every program thinks it is the Holy Grail of programs and wants to become the Big Computer Boss and download all sorts of crap like toolbars. You have to be VERY careful lest you wind up with so many toolbars etc that you have no area on the screen to work with.
I've had to delete many things that I didn't want because things get sneaky and as soon as you blink the little box you have unchecked rechecks itself and BAM! Another toolbar or something.
One thing I have learned to stay away from is 'clickpotato'. Getting that is easy. I picked it up from a blog I visited. I played hell getting rid of it. It is a truly bogus deal. It is supposed to be some kind of movie player.
I just wish that these programs would do what I want them to and not what they damned well decide they are going to do for me.
I don't use many of them anymore since I reformatted. They are more trouble than they are worth. My combat laptops have only 3 main purposes, this blog, a website I visit and email and that's pretty much it unless I decide I want to google something.
That's enough for today, I may add to this later on today.
I just ran an errand and met another Old School guy like myself. We had a very nice chat about stupid people getting worked up over a 12 hour power outage. Interesting conversation. He simply put his battery powered radio on a local talk staation and lusghed all night over panicky people scared to death over a brief power outage.
I finally got into the Blog on the other machine. I decided NOT to dig through IE all afternoon so I pulled a fast one andd simply downloaded Google Chrome which you can make a safe bet that it will work on Blogspot because Blogspot is a part of the Google Empire. Logic dictates this.
I think I am going to figure out a way to get that other router network to stay away from me as I do not like to be intruded in on.
I might snag the Webley and try out the 380/200 ammo in it. We'll see. If it works I'll reload my own. I bet that the pistol will shoot POI with this good ammo in it. It shoots a bit low now.
I got the ammo and bullets from a guy in Wisconsin and here it is Memorial Day and I ordered the stuff around Christmas time and it got here about a week or 2 ago. It took several calls to get him off of his dead ass and onto his dying feet to go and get it together.
This must be one of those part time businesses where he waits until he gets a bunch of orders to fill because I can't see running a serious business that way.
Oh, yeah. I gotta get gas before my benefits run out. I'll do that as soon as I finish here. I can get 30 gallons at a buck sixty a gallon off with my supermarket savings, 30 gallons max. That's a $48 savings which ain't to be sneezed at.
Last year about this time I got thirty gallons for one cent because I let the benefits run until they got high enough. Now you have to use them or lose them, which sorta sucks.
Oh, well. I am off and running for gas and maybe later to shoot the Webley.
I just got back in from getting gas and checked my milage. A little over 27 which means we are now using the so-called Summer Gas. On the turnpike I can generally break 30 in the summer, and in the winter I MIGHT be able to get 25-26 mph.
It would be interesting to see the pollution logistics when you take the milage difference into consideration.
My fuel perks permit me 30 gallons at the discount and I generally fill my tank and snag a couple of gallons for the lawn mower and string trimmer. I suppose you are not supposed to, but the guy in the store says it is OK just so long as it doesn't get out of hand, meaning you don't cart off more than a couple of gallons in a can. Five tops.
Of course, there is always somebody that starts in with this "Hey, that's not fair" crap and someone did. I offered him my cell phone and suggested he call someone that cared. He walked off in a huff.
I went out again for some Memorial Day grub and some beer.
I might have a single beer Memorial Day afternoon, but you can bet I won't have another one until after I shut down shop.
The neighbors walk their pets past the house every evening and on Memorial Day if I am home I put a bayonet on a Garand and stick it in the yard and put an old steel pot helmet on top of it.
The soldier's grave.
A lot of people stop and think when I do that as a general rule and that is a good thing. I've had a few comments over the years about my doing that. There are a few people that see it and cross the street to pass by.
Like with most things, there are people that think and people that don't think.
Of course, if I am not there to keep an eye on it, I pull it inside. No use tempting a thief with a perfectly good Garand.
It irks me when people do not understand Memorial Day.
my other blog is: http://officerpiccolo.blogspot.com/ http://piccolosbutler.blogspot.com/
I just ambled out and looked around and the driveway I redid yesterday and it looks pretty good and so do my flowers that are not blooming yet, but will be soon. There sure are a lot of them. I've planted them by the hundreds and the whole yard will soon explode into colors.
I don't KNOW what colors, but it is pretty exciting because this is the first time I have planted flowers from seeds. Generally I buy a boatload of flats and simply transplant the little bastards.
Combat laptop 3 is giving me a morning headache. I'm wondering about it as this morning when I woke it wouldn't permit me to log into this blog. It makes no sense to me and I am going to have to spend a little time getting it up and running again.
I guess there is a new guy on the block with a new wireless router because I found Laptop 3 was trying to sign in on another router on its own.
I reset it to mine and deleted the other one.
I think I am going to have to move Laptop 3 away from the window or something. I'll figure it out.
One of the things I hate about all of the computer systems is that every program thinks it is the Holy Grail of programs and wants to become the Big Computer Boss and download all sorts of crap like toolbars. You have to be VERY careful lest you wind up with so many toolbars etc that you have no area on the screen to work with.
I've had to delete many things that I didn't want because things get sneaky and as soon as you blink the little box you have unchecked rechecks itself and BAM! Another toolbar or something.
One thing I have learned to stay away from is 'clickpotato'. Getting that is easy. I picked it up from a blog I visited. I played hell getting rid of it. It is a truly bogus deal. It is supposed to be some kind of movie player.
I just wish that these programs would do what I want them to and not what they damned well decide they are going to do for me.
I don't use many of them anymore since I reformatted. They are more trouble than they are worth. My combat laptops have only 3 main purposes, this blog, a website I visit and email and that's pretty much it unless I decide I want to google something.
That's enough for today, I may add to this later on today.
I just ran an errand and met another Old School guy like myself. We had a very nice chat about stupid people getting worked up over a 12 hour power outage. Interesting conversation. He simply put his battery powered radio on a local talk staation and lusghed all night over panicky people scared to death over a brief power outage.
I finally got into the Blog on the other machine. I decided NOT to dig through IE all afternoon so I pulled a fast one andd simply downloaded Google Chrome which you can make a safe bet that it will work on Blogspot because Blogspot is a part of the Google Empire. Logic dictates this.
I think I am going to figure out a way to get that other router network to stay away from me as I do not like to be intruded in on.
I might snag the Webley and try out the 380/200 ammo in it. We'll see. If it works I'll reload my own. I bet that the pistol will shoot POI with this good ammo in it. It shoots a bit low now.
I got the ammo and bullets from a guy in Wisconsin and here it is Memorial Day and I ordered the stuff around Christmas time and it got here about a week or 2 ago. It took several calls to get him off of his dead ass and onto his dying feet to go and get it together.
This must be one of those part time businesses where he waits until he gets a bunch of orders to fill because I can't see running a serious business that way.
Oh, yeah. I gotta get gas before my benefits run out. I'll do that as soon as I finish here. I can get 30 gallons at a buck sixty a gallon off with my supermarket savings, 30 gallons max. That's a $48 savings which ain't to be sneezed at.
Last year about this time I got thirty gallons for one cent because I let the benefits run until they got high enough. Now you have to use them or lose them, which sorta sucks.
Oh, well. I am off and running for gas and maybe later to shoot the Webley.
I just got back in from getting gas and checked my milage. A little over 27 which means we are now using the so-called Summer Gas. On the turnpike I can generally break 30 in the summer, and in the winter I MIGHT be able to get 25-26 mph.
It would be interesting to see the pollution logistics when you take the milage difference into consideration.
My fuel perks permit me 30 gallons at the discount and I generally fill my tank and snag a couple of gallons for the lawn mower and string trimmer. I suppose you are not supposed to, but the guy in the store says it is OK just so long as it doesn't get out of hand, meaning you don't cart off more than a couple of gallons in a can. Five tops.
Of course, there is always somebody that starts in with this "Hey, that's not fair" crap and someone did. I offered him my cell phone and suggested he call someone that cared. He walked off in a huff.
I went out again for some Memorial Day grub and some beer.
I might have a single beer Memorial Day afternoon, but you can bet I won't have another one until after I shut down shop.
The neighbors walk their pets past the house every evening and on Memorial Day if I am home I put a bayonet on a Garand and stick it in the yard and put an old steel pot helmet on top of it.
The soldier's grave.
A lot of people stop and think when I do that as a general rule and that is a good thing. I've had a few comments over the years about my doing that. There are a few people that see it and cross the street to pass by.
Like with most things, there are people that think and people that don't think.
Of course, if I am not there to keep an eye on it, I pull it inside. No use tempting a thief with a perfectly good Garand.
It irks me when people do not understand Memorial Day.
my other blog is: http://officerpiccolo.blogspot.com/ http://piccolosbutler.blogspot.com/
Wednesday, May 25, 2011
This was an odd day for me.
I wanted to start in on hard liquor shortly after I woke up, which I do maybe once every other decade or so, if then.
I didn't, of course, but it is not a good sign that I wanted to.
I took my frustration outside and redid the driveway and it looks pretty good. I still feel frustrated, but the driveway looks OK and I am not going to wake up all brain blistered tomorrow.
Maybe I'll wake up in a better mood tomorrow.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++=
It's started.
As soon as a guy gets something like a ham radio license there seems to be a deluge of people that are either trying to sell you or give you things you neither want nor can use.
I have been offered either for free or to buy a bunch of worthless CB radios and a bunch of things out of garages and barns that even the person offering it has no clue as to what is is or does.
Years ago when I got my captain's license some clown that was the friend of a friend of a friend knocked on my door and offered me an old Navy yard tug to fix up. Of course, he acted like all it needed was a coat of paint and I'd be in the tugboat business.
I suppose that if I got a license to fly an ultralight someone would drop by and offer me a good deal on a slightly used B-52 bomber.
my other blog is: http://officerpiccolo.blogspot.com/ http://piccolosbutler.blogspot.com/
I didn't, of course, but it is not a good sign that I wanted to.
I took my frustration outside and redid the driveway and it looks pretty good. I still feel frustrated, but the driveway looks OK and I am not going to wake up all brain blistered tomorrow.
Maybe I'll wake up in a better mood tomorrow.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++=
It's started.
As soon as a guy gets something like a ham radio license there seems to be a deluge of people that are either trying to sell you or give you things you neither want nor can use.
I have been offered either for free or to buy a bunch of worthless CB radios and a bunch of things out of garages and barns that even the person offering it has no clue as to what is is or does.
Years ago when I got my captain's license some clown that was the friend of a friend of a friend knocked on my door and offered me an old Navy yard tug to fix up. Of course, he acted like all it needed was a coat of paint and I'd be in the tugboat business.
I suppose that if I got a license to fly an ultralight someone would drop by and offer me a good deal on a slightly used B-52 bomber.
my other blog is: http://officerpiccolo.blogspot.com/ http://piccolosbutler.blogspot.com/
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