Just Wandering

As a U.S. Citizen and past holder of a foreign passport how could I not sit up and take notice when the other day I heard Melania was invited to speak at the naturalization ceremony for new U.S. citizens to be held at the National Archives Building . The very same National Archives that finked on her husband for his very un American act of stealing U.S. property and secret documents causing numerous well deserved indictments . To her credit Melania did say some very sweet things in her welcoming of our new citizens prior to ruining it by attempting to explain the “harsh reality’s” she herself faced on her path to citizenship …..

Meanwhile her husband who’s so far been married to two immigrants was busy in N.H. collecting cheers for loudly stirring the shit again with something about immigrants poisoning the blood of our nation . Maybe he’s right, after all his Grandfather was an immigrant who was obviously guilty of that very same crime . It’s interesting how we come to selectively use weasel words like

” We’re only against illegal immigrants … not those who do it right ”

I know a thing or two about the immigration process and visa’s so with that knowledge let’s have a little peek at a couple of the harsh reality’s poor Melania had to endure .

For a start the fact she worked in N.Y. illegally prior to getting her work visa was ignored because she claimed … she didn’t get paid . That being easy to believe she was granted a visa that allowed her to stay that had a couple of caveats . One was to excel at a profession and two was an advanced education . Well call me biased if you must but I really do believe the nation could have used a few more dry wall hangers than another nude model whether she excelled at it or not . The fact that Miss Harsh Reality quit college halfway through her Freshman year was later described on The White House website as a …. pause in her studies . Sixteen years and still going is one hell of a pause …. was this one of those that did it right or was this just a different way of cutting a hole in a 4 Billion Dollar fence with a $32 power tool ?

I know a woman who once held a foreign passport . Since her U.S. naturalization she and her son have spent near 11 years in attempt to get a mere visitors visa for him to come on a family visit from Central America . So far, no dice while the parents of “Melania the anchor baby” were not only welcomed to visit they were granted citizenship lickety split . Looks to me that there are degrees of harsh realities and they are obviously subjective . I wonder now about when the shit has been stirred enough and it comes to violence will we be able to tell the difference between an illegal and one who has done it right . Will we care ?

meanwhile here in Florida none of the 250,000 recent Cuban immigrants have been evicted along with all the other illegal migrants… they seem to have friends too.

It took a few minutes before noticing how profoundly different something could be . The feeling that something was completely out of the ordinary was near instant and yet it did take a bit of time to put the finger on what it could possibly be. There were no near collisions of shopping carts steered by frenzied shoppers frantically attempting to quickly fill them and finish their weekly shopping ordeal . No jostling for sought after items or impatient glares towards or from other grocery getters. Instead like a Seinfeld episode depicting the opposite Bizarro world all the shoppers calmly and gently steered their carts through the aisles to slowly make their choices and …. no children cried .

I can honestly say that I do truly believe it to be the very first time in my life that I ever shopped in a Walmart and there was no music playing . I mean nothing , there was no pop , no high pitched black girls loudly crooning nor the seasons usual endless Christmas tunes that typically turn retail employees into walking balls of snarling anger by the fifth hour of their shift . Apart from the occasional bump bump bump of a typical Walmart shopping cart wheel there was just … silence . And it was golden .

Just goes to show how easily affected we are by what we hear ….. or don’t .

The House voted 311 to 114 to expel George Santos and there are those in our government that fear holding elected officials accountable for unethical behavior to be a dangerous precedent . How would we be able to re-elect our current political front runner if we continued such insanity ? I see the point… George hasn’t been convicted yet . But he should have been by now . …. Meanwhile in Florida ….

An ultra Christian woman who has worked her way into a leadership role with the Morality Police of Florida and co founder of Mom’s for Liberty admitted to the police yesterday that she had a 3 way sexual encounter with her husband and another woman a year ago. This all came to light as her Florida State politician husband that runs his campaigns on Christian and Family values is being investigated for the rape of said woman . Admittedly the “rape” part may not fly in my eye as it seems Mr. Christian Family Values has been having relations with this woman for quite some time . But peoples lives in the bedroom are really none of my business , nor yours…. are they ?

Mrs. Moms for Liberty/Ultra Christian Values has made great effort in her Christian Values stance to attack any and all with the designation of “LGBTQ” which it seems she would like to see outlawed. Now that she’s made admission of a menage a trois including her husband and another woman a question comes to mind , well at least to my mind …… which one of those letters in LGBTQ would she come under ? Will we have to drop one so she still looks good ? With true irony it seems that if her own children go to school and talks to a teacher or counselor about Moms sexcapades that are in the news that would be a crime under Florida State law with consequences for the school staff . This is the woman who helped terrify the nation with the possibility her child’s school possesed a book about a baby penguin with two Dads .

Since we are talking about who and what we vote for here I think even more rules should be put into place . Do I think the present administration is doing a bang up job ? No, a definite and resounding no but his opposition is offering me me … what ? The need for the New General Rules of Democracy … that’s what .

General Rules of Democracy …. {ignore them if you no longer believe in Democracy}

Never vote for a candidate who talks about themselves in the third person or brags of Love Letters from tyrannical dictators.

Never vote for one who’s platform and campaign speeches center around retribution
Never vote for one that threatens to jail the press or political opponents
Never vote for one that promises to use the military to impose order
Never vote for one that calls 1/2 of your country vermin while suggesting they are poisoning the blood of the nation ….

I’m pretty sure you’ll ignore those rules … right neighbor ?

Some days just seem better than others and yesterday didn’t exactly seem like one of those . It started a week or so ago when a very slight intermittent noise would come and go from the front of the truck . Immediately instinct told me it was what is known as a wheel hub or bearing . I had suffered something similar two years ago and so decided to wait a bit until it got worse in order to make a more decisive diagnosis . Within a couple of days the ABS/Check Brake System warning light came on to leer at me with menace from the dash … so I checked the brake system just as the glaring little light commanded me to do.

Sure enough the front brakes were dragging and since I have enough bravado to dismantle them and check it out and get everything back together , I did just that. The endeavor was a total success until the second time I stepped on the brake pedal . Lacking the heart to go through this again I made an appointment with a local mechanic just two miles away and dropped it off first thing in the morning . Turned out to be frozen brake calipers AND a completely shot drivers side wheel hub . Unfortunately at the end of the day when I completed a two mile hike to pick it up at the appointed time a needed part still had not arrived with no likelihood that it might prior to closing time .

With no other option I walked the five minutes it took to reach the local ABC liquor store to buy a most necessary 12 pack of my favorite craft beer before repeating the 2 mile hike back home . The hike home gave me something to be almost grateful for as I noticed I wasn’t completely alone . A very handsome SUV sat in a driveway with both rear tires flat and ya know … one spare tire ain’t worth a fig with two flats.

Just about four minutes south of the end of my street a neighbor on his way home stopped to ask if my 12 pack and I needed a ride ..

” No … I just need a beer ”

I took the remnants of a ride anyway and finally got home to find a Colombian wife with a toothache mopping up water from under the bathroom sink as a nine month old faucet had just shit the bed ….

… so , try that day on for size … I dare ya

I spent another 10 minutes reading yet again another BBC article .This one is about the indigenous Kogi people in my wife’s country of birth way down south in Colombia .The Kogi have generally attempted to avoid contact with other people from outside their isolated home for the past 500 years and with very little success . As of late they have come to realize the futility and have accepted the inevitable …. and as a long time Florida resident I certainly can relate.

Should you drive in any direction from my home you will in short order experience the same sight over and over and that would be the countless large tracts of freshly stripped land both wild and farm being prepped for yet another housing development or commercial endeavor. One large 450 acre tract just four miles from my home is close to completion . It stands out and I wish it stood out because it is unique and attractive , but it isn’t . If you were at all imaginative or just plain stoned on a hallucinogenic you might be able to say that it almost …. almost looks as good as the cookie cutter military base housing cheaply constructed back in the 1960s . As an aside, the developer of those 450 acres purchased it from my own county who stole it through eminent domain 20 years ago in a failed development plan to “benefit” all county residents .

The BBC article describes the Kogis’ efforts to protect all the species of birds in their area now that the area retains only 17% of the rainforest that it had it had merely 60 years ago. Much of it was slash and burned in order to grow coca for a very hungry market up north . Now the Kogi make use of that last 17% to educate the latest invaders with bird watching tours along the jungle trails to witness something fewer humans are able to witness every single year. The tours come with an explanation of their belief in birds being messengers . They hold that different birds bring different messages to warn of danger or good fortune and even weather be it good or bad and everyone has a messenger bird. In the history of my own nation of birth Saxons held similar beliefs in the messages brought them by the little Magpie .

We have a couple of bird baths in the back yard and for many years have enjoyed the sight of countless numbers of species splashing and preening in them through out the year . At times I would have to go out and refill the baths at least once a day as all the splashing and frollicking of all those happy birds would quickly empty the water onto the lawn. This season seems different as we no longer hear all the chirpy singing of the smaller species birds that would normally form a que to wait their turn at the bath . Those songs have been replaced by the constant screech of hawks and other predatory birds . Lots of them …

I like hawks … they are handsome alpha male type birds and I’ve always delighted in spotting one when ever I was in the countryside . I was pleased at first by their sudden and near constant appearances in my suburban yard and neighborhood but it didn’t take long to realise that they were responsible for my not hearing my happy chirpy colorful little friends playing in the bird bath . Hawks are predators and eat anything that they have the strength to kill whether it crawls, walks, or flies . The squirrels that usually nest in my oak tree that shades my bird baths are few and far between . Even the rabbits no longer come out into plain view.

The Hawk has lost thousands of acres’ of his hunting grounds right here in my county alone and I think he’s come to give me a message … that he’ll be leaving . I hope he let’s me know where to find him …

It’s Thanksgiving Eve and just outside of town a very nice married couple park their very small food trailer on the side of a main thoroughfare every day except Sunday to sell their wares … home made tamales , taco plates with rice and beans , burritos . At the quality of food verses price we find ourselves there quite often just as we did today. I sat at the table under their shade tent to enjoy my favorite, The Quesadillas with fresh , and I do mean fresh … salad garnered with lime and cilantro just like you’d get anywhere south of the border. At just Five Bucks I’m thinking why squander my hard earned Social Security money for junk food at any of the 32 brand new corporate owned fast food joints that have sprung up all over town like unappetizing mushrooms . All of them lacking enough staff to even wipe a table clean….

The trailer is barely large enough for the two of them to fit in while they produce the hot meals they serve through the window all day and is spotless. It shows pride , and in my opinion well deserved as they went without help from any one to scrape the money in order to buy it and take a chance on self sufficiency .

“What are you guys doing for Thanksgiving Day dinner at your house tomorrow ? ” …. we asked and the answer came in Spanish …

” Very traditional , turkey, mashed potatoes and baked sweet potato along with a green bean casserole ”

The nice couple laughed at me because I mentioned I’m doing a very slow cooked and totally untraditional rack of ribs just like last year. What isn’t a laughing matter is the the effort this couple put in to being self employed Mom and Pop business owners asking no help from any one and receiving exactly that . Meanwhile county officials change zoning and bend rules and offer tax incentives and subsidies to the likes of corporate owned resorts and fast food chains that will eventually choke out Mom and Pop .

I’ll never spend a dime at our soon to be completed multi million dollar Sun Seekers Resort here in town as they’ve already had more help than they deserve . Instead I’ll drive to the edge of town as often as I can in hopes it helps a small green food trailer stay afloat as they are who I’m giving my thanks to this Thanksgiving Day .

maybe the day after they’ll have turkey tacos … a whole new American tradition

Couple of weeks ago someone from the past made contact with me … No… not THE past… just my past … and a dormant forty year plus memory came back to life . It kind of caught me off guard as it’s a rare occasion that I ever reach back and communicate with people from back in the days gone by like this guy did. I make no effort to communicate with old school chums nor past shipmates from time in the Navy and I’ll often shun attempts of people’s efforts at contacting me . I suppose I should be embarrassed by this but someone had made a hard effort to locate my email address and so I did respond .

We’d first met in a small town in rural Australia and once again by coincidence months later in another rural area of Australia as our wanderings crossed paths . A couple of years after that we were again to meet as we both awaited the same flight from Perth Australia to Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia . We were both adventuresome and travelers at that time and did in fact share an adventure or two over a period of some six years . The last time I saw Bruce was on an Adelaide dock where he boarded a yacht as a crew member heading back to his native New Zealand . I remember what he said before he left …

” Ya know Mate …. we can’t do this forever …. future is just round the corner and if we don’t change our ways we’ll wind up cleaning toilets ” .

I didn’t feel the same way as he at the time , no statement could have been further from the truth , or so I thought . Two weeks ago he wanted to know If I regretted any of what he surprisingly termed as the “time we wasted” roaming around the globe and I explained my only regret is I’m too old now to do it all again . I think Bruce got a kick out of the answer to his next question of how I ended up .

” Owned a small cleaning service ….. spent the last few years of my working life cleaning toilets just as you predicted ” I told him

Bruce is now enjoying his retirement from being a school janitor . Guess we were never meant to change the world …

Well it’s happened again . We got into a discussion with someone selling us tools that we want to ship to South America . When we mentioned the tools were going to South America and that we had a house in Colombia he gave a blank stare before asking …

” Is it adobe … do you have electricity ? ”

I informed that it’s not adobe as the house is in Colombia and not New Mexico …. furthermore …
” Yes .. we do indeed have electricity there . That’s what we use to operate the TV , refrigerator and even my computer when I access the internet…..unlike many in New Mexico ”

I bit my tongue and didn’t mention the fact that my wife’s sister in Colombia has a domestic employee that come’s every day to clean and cook and that domestic employee lives in a much nicer home than the shack this guy was living in right here in Florida . But it it did bring some memories from a long time ago when things were different …. maybe I should have been a little more forgiving of his thoughts on this …

I’d got out of bed early just about an hour before the sun showed and showered before breakfast in mountain spring supplied water so cold that it caused gasps that literally prevented drawing air into the lungs. Breakfast was an arepa made of corn flour and water with an egg partially fried on a flat piece of iron placed over a clay wood stove along with a slice of avocado and the tiny remnants of the evening priors rice and beans . This area of the Colombian Andes mountains had received electricity just two years prior to this morning in 1989 and everyone present was very proud of that achievement in their mountains.

Someone had arrived in the dark of that morning with hopes of a breakfast in reward of information that the Communist guerillas had passed in the night and were likely four hours away by now meaning it was probably safe for the “Gringo visitor” to move . The plan of the day was to visit an elderly woman who lived deep into an area down the mountain side that still didn’t have electricity . She was the aunt of the woman who cooked my breakfast and still lived as farm workers in those mountains have lived for centuries and at that time due to advanced age she earned a living stealing coffee beans from the local farms and selling lunch to coffee pickers . She served me a lunch of a soup heavy on locally grown yucca and plantains boiled over her wood stove and refused any and all attempts at payment from me. She was very proud that a Gringo would make the effort to visit her home and I’m prouder still to brag that I did and make her acquaintance .

Her abandoned home still stands today on that spot though she is long gone . There are still people living on that mountain that remember her and that remember the day she was visited by a Gringo . And they watch television, and pull a cold one from the fridge as they enjoy life that does nothing but slowly improve . And as long as their lives improve down there … we have no need to keep repairing a wall we’ve erected here.

That’s the wall …. that’s the wall

Six years have passed but it seems like yesterday that half the country was laying claim that they really didn’t want somebody politically correct . I always viewed that statement to be a disguise to hide from the fact that the one we chose was a national embarrassment and anything but correct. Latest polling would show me to be a minority and along those lines if we ever do Make America Great Again it’s becoming apparent that being a minority isn’t what you want to be. Be wary of what you wish for because you may just get it…. let’s look at the last few days for example .

One Senator elected by the American people to serve in our government attempted to instigate a brawl yesterday by continually challenging The President of the Teamsters to a fist fight right there on the floor of the Committee Room . Witnesses had to experience the man being reminded that he’s a United States Senator by the likes of Bernie Sanders . Thank Christ Fetterman wasn’t involved or it might have looked ugly with all this happening in black shorts and a baggy hoody …

One member of the House of Representatives claimed a sucker punch to the kidneys by a former Speaker of the House and the two get into a shouting match while the NPR cameras rolled . At least the Senator who wanted to duke it out with a Teamster chose an opponent deemed a member of ” the other side”

Another House Representative publicly called out a fellow House Representative “on the same side” for lacking “maturity and experience” and unable to even understand the basic process in her attempt to impeach the Secretary of Homeland Security . With all the maturity she could muster she accessed the internet to publicly call her critic ….. ” A Pussy “. While we speak of maturity another member of our government found himself in a verbal argument with the Chair of the House Oversight Committee and found himself having to be publicly branded …….    ” A Smurf “. I bet that showed him a thing or two ….

Meanwhile the representatives of a leading Presidential Candidate who happens to be a four times indicted mob boss with the vocabulary of a Shakespeare era farm hand makes excuses for their bosses claims to seek out the enemies and vermin in our nation with the temerity to oppose him . Said Candidate also continued his threats to lock up his political enemies as soon as he regains office and put those who accused him of crimes into mental institutions .

And that boy’s and girl’s is the best the United States has to offer . You’ll know we’re in deep shit when we start noticing it’s Mexican Soldiers manning the border wall .

I do a lot of packing and shipping of items from tools to toys and I recycle an awful lot of news papers in that effort. There is a nice lady who is a rare breed these days as she has no internet access and still reads the daily delivered newspaper and she saves them for me to pick up once a month to use as packing material. This morning as I was packing up an item soon to be on it’s way to Oregon a news article caught my eye ….

” Man Perms are Coming Back ” and it offered a description, or explanation … or something along with the picture of a young guy at a local hair dressers getting his hair curled like Richard Simmons. I didn’t bother to read it, I’ll leave that to the guy in Oregon when he unwraps his antique Stanley wood plane . But I did laugh because of someone I met yesterday…

I answered a local internet FOR SALE ad that promised some items that we’ve been seeking to ship to Colombia for friends and family and when I arrived I was greeted by a a guy sporting a “Man Bun” . I thought those had already thankfully gone out of style , but what do I know ? Maybe he didn’t get the memo or even the newspaper article about Man Perms. It caused me to remember the first young guy I know that was sporting a Man Bun and what he said in response to my raised eyebrow ….

” I’m secure enough in my manhood to wear my hair like this “. That’s what he said and I thought ….” I’m secure enough in my manhood not to”.  and guess I still do though perhaps I’ve not the right .

I remember back in the late 1960s when one afternoon my Mother and I came home from school clothes shopping with my very first pair of Bell Bottom Trousers . My Father ripped them up with the explanation that no kid of his was ever going wear any of that “Hippy Shit” . Looking back in time I’ll have to say that watching ” Hippy Shit`” being torn to shreds back in the 1960s would have to be a lot less painful than arriving home with a Man Bun …. or Man Perm … or something

maybe Dad was right ….. but then again… I did ultimately wear bell bottoms …

and become a Hippy

Lately by 5:25  a.m every morning I’ve found myself finishing up an enjoyable half hour or so of some very good reading on the BBC web site. Travel  , culture and arts , there are indeed some beautiful articles to be enjoyed there . The other morning I read an an interesting article about William Shakespeare . Before that reading I never knew how many of our commonly used phrases … even words, originated from the multitudes of plays he wrote in the 1600s. Did you know that William Shakespeare used well in excess of 20,000 different words in the writing of those play’s written over three and a half centuries ago? I didn’t , nor did I know that 1700 words in the English language used to this very day are due to him as are many common sayings the likes of Wild Goose Chase , The World is My Oyster … In a Pickle but that’s, Neither Here Nor There .

While Bill Shakespeare used these 20,000 words and/or phrases in his writings other advanced writers deemed his equal at that time were using a total of about 7,500 words. The average farm worker in England during that period, not having either time or means to attend Shakespeare’s plays, got by in life with the use of approximately 300 words. One would think that communicating with those with such a minimal vocabulary might be difficult .. then as it might be now.

Wife and I did our monthly trek 2 1/2 hours north last weekend deep into the heartland of Florida’s farmlands to attend a swap meet seeking vintage items and old tools . It was made quite obvious to us that the average vocabulary of the farming community , at least here in the United States , has increased quite a bit since Shakespeare’s time some 375 years ago. Probably by at least 75 words , all of which are easy to remember as they are printed on every ones T shirts and hats along with semblances of their favorite firearm. Kind of like the flash cards we remember from school . I’m not exactly sure that I’m understanding all the fear all these Mom’s for Liberty have of what is being read in school when their children are reading all these T shirts, Flags and bumper stickers out in public .

There’s a guy stops by to hang in the garage from time to time to ingest a free beer though not nearly as often as before . He’s actually a published author and there is something about that I find impressive even if not exactly Shakespeare impressive . What is impressive is that he’s accomplished this with a vocabulary seemingly on par numerically with ancient English farm hands . Seems that once he’s left the realm of authorship there is only two things on the mind… baseball and the ” issues” , neither needing much of any wordsmith skills any more . His latest rant is his dismay that the people of Ohio have recently voted to allow abortions again and being a new found pro lifer this he finds abhorrent .

In as few words as I could muster I expressed a thought about how so many people that have suddenly become concerned over unborn fetuses were the same people completely unfazed when body bags were stacked like cord wood in freezer trucks outside N.Y. City hospitals three years ago . I then made mention that perhaps if we had socially distanced a little more there would possibly have been less requests for abortion …. . And that was that, an excuse was made and he had to go home leaving a barely touched beer behind .

I do truly hate to see a wasted beer … and particularly if it’s one I paid for.

My weekends can start any time I choose and this week it started on Thursday when I found myself in line for tires at the local Ford Garage at 6:20 a.m. to await the 7 a.m. opening time . It was the first morning of the Florida season to see the temps sink into the mid fifties and as we didn’t set the clocks back for a couple of days it was still dark. I placed fourth in a line that quickly grew to eight and we all waited in the dark for an hour because we didn’t want to come at 7 a.m. …. and wait in line .

I’d done this very same scenario at the very same place 2 1/2 years ago and it was almost a deja vu . On opening everyone quickly entered the waiting room , sat down without acknowledging any one else and were instantly basking in the glow of social media emanating from seven phones . I brought a book and just as well because my first observation of the day was that magazines are no longer provided in the waiting room . I suppose it’s a given now that people just wouldn’t be interested in them long enough to break from phone addiction. I made mention of that to the guy next to me and I’d read three pages before he responded …..

” What ? ” said he …… ” Oh, nothing ” said I … ” I was just mumbling ”

No one seemed interested in communicating with anyone else except the guy across from me though he didn’t want to speak either and became my second observation of the day . He seemed uncomfortable and fidgeted a lot and constantly ran his hand over his waist covered by a light jacket . He got up to stare at the vending machine three times with out making a purchase and on the third time he saw his chance and communicated . With a quick clothing adjustment he performed a quick flash in my direction and in a split second I saw it …. his holstered pistol . I wasn’t alarmed , I knew exactly what I saw.

A cute little polymer handled semi auto in a brand spanking new Bianchi holster carried by it’s new owner who is feeling cool “packing” and wanting someone to notice he’s cool . Good thing for cool temps as a light jacket sure makes it easier to feel cool I thought. And I thought about something else … should some lunatic come through the door with his AR-15 bent on revenge over not getting his tail lights fixed properly would Mr. NRA Good Guy with a Gun here be capable of putting an end to it ?

somehow … I just doubt it . It’s pretty common to blame mental health issues for the gun violence statistics we suffer in this country as just happened in Maine . But other countries suffer mental health issues as well and they just don’t seem to see what we see here . As a long time owner of firearms it does pain me to admit … there just might be another common denominator .

And I do so hope the man with the brand new Bianchi holster got his car fixed properly …

Until two days ago I can’t recall the last time I’d read my horoscope and two days ago it gave me this advice for the week …..

” Ease up and try listening to what others have to say, you could learn something ” So I did and it seems to have been poor advice

They whined , I mean a lot. I’m not to say it was without merit but I will say that I just wasn’t all that sympathetic to what they had to whine about . The couple told us that they had just come down from up north and moved into their new home with the furniture having been delivered just last week. And then they started …

” Took ten months to build the house … the builder told us it would take four ”

She then continued on …. ” We had to rent for an additional six months after we sold our house up north , do you know how much that cost ? “…. ” Part of the problem is permits and inspections … something really should be done about this “….. ” Already lots of problems with the house that need to be addressed and the builder won’t answer the phone ” ” The next door neighbors are slobs” ….. this was just the beginning and I uncharacteristically just stood and listened.

The couple are freshly arrived to Florida as part of the 1,100 added to the population of Florida every single day encouraged by what is loudly and proudly touted as growth . I wanted to mention that during the time it took to build their new home literally thousands of others like it have gone up in the area in the past year . I wanted to mention how many people I personally know are still waiting to move back into their homes 13 months after being ravaged by a severe natural disaster. I wanted to ask if she knew how much that costs after the insurance company fails to pay up. I wanted to mention a neighbor a few houses down

Ian took half the roof off a neighbors home allowing severe damage to the inside . With zero help from the insurance industry they sold the vacant lot next door to help finance the needed extensive repairs . I’m pleased to say their roof is being installed as we speak …. but it’s being installed a year and a month after the damage. And it’s being installed only two months after the roof was installed on someone else’s brand new home sitting on their once vacant block next door. It’s likely the new home owners will have moved in while the neighbors are still residing illegally in a camper in the back yard behind their damaged home.

As much as I wanted to say all this I knew that it was more than likely this couple and I simply didn’t share the same horoscope . And I’m sorry I listened

Well young Matt Gaetz did it, he stirred the shit pot till all the flies swarmed in an angry buzz and then slunk away . Well kind of … now he’s busy sending disparaging letters to the Secretary of the Air Force and accusing all and sundry for the fact that our military is struggling to fill it’s recruitment needs . He blames that four letter word ….woke . Woke ideology being implemented in our military is preventing would be recruits from wishing to join up is his claim .

I don’t know about that , I’m guessing the military is suffering the same problem that the private sector is suffering and that is due to another four letter word … jobs . Ever see the military struggle for recruits during a recession ? Neither have I and since this doesn’t seem to be a recession it does seem that every business and organization in town is hiring with no one able to meet their staffing needs.

That’s why I never hand money out the vehicle window to the guy standing at the Walmart exit with his cardboard sign . Not even to the one who tries to fake me out with a sign claiming a willingness to work for food . My thoughts on that right now are you can actually work for food, or enlist. There are options presented to us almost every day if we open an eye or two and yesterday the cardboard sign carrier outside Walmart pointed that out …. his neatly printed sign read ….

 Willing to accept the nomination for Speaker of the House

I wanted to write about something else today but something else caught my brown eye …..

It was a picture on the internet of the largest fossilized example of a human turd known to exist. Discovered by construction workers in northern England in 1972 during the building of a new Lloyds bank branch it now resides in a local museum . It’s even been named ….

” The Lloyds Bank Coprolite” .

Archeologists have deemed it a drop from a long past Viking who obviously ate a lot of meat and suffered intestinal parasitic worms . It has dimensions of approximately 8 inches in length with a diameter of 2 inches and though that may sound rather eye watering … I’m here to tell ya …. that’s nothing .

Once years ago one of my brothers dropped a log into the toilet so large that it hurt him so bad that he stood right up and passed out in pain with his pants around his ankles . I believe there is still a photo of it in the families cherished album and no shit, it looks to be the size of my forearm with it’s head poking from the surface like the Loch Ness monster .

The diminutive Lloyds Coprolite has an insurance value of well past $39,000 which brings to the fore two very obvious facts . One of those facts being is that my brother is tougher than any Viking I know . And second is that at that insurance value …
he never should have flushed … twice

It’s quite certain we’ll need to take a different tack if we’re ever going to elect a man who’s produced absolutely zero legislation of any kind over the past sixteen years to become third in line to the Presidency. After all , threats and intimidation have failed to produce the required votes needed and what could be more disappointing ?

Since this is the way we seem to accept a Government to work now a day’s we’re just going to have to take a different path. We’ve learned a lot in the past six years and perhaps we just need to bring those lessons to the fore and get serious about it . I think we need to call in in Mike Pence and ask him to overturn the results of the vote ….. and if he doesn’t … we’ll hang him . What else can we do since Georgia has proven itself unreliable in responding to calls requesting they find additional necessary votes ?

Meanwhile John Boehner is halfway through a family size bag of Doritos and a bottle of Merlot while staring at the phone waiting for it ring and thinking ….. WTF ?

Well just to set the record straight I’m going to admit to a little knee jerk reaction like most people in the country when a “news” story breaks out . I’m talking about my story the other day concerning the response to getting American citizens out of Israel and in particular I thought it ugly that the U.S. Government would require the signing of a promissory note to pay back the cost of a rescue flight . Apparently the opposition did too as that was made very clear on the “news”. So I questioned ….. and found an answer .

It has been the law since 1956 that U.S. citizens accepting help from the Government to escape war, civil unrest or natural disasters be “asked” to sign form DS-5528 meaning they promise to reimburse the federal government the costs of evacuation . However since the inception of that law the fee’s have been waived on numerous occasions , but collected at other times in equal numbers by both Republican and Democratic administrations .

I didn’t know that … did you? I guess that’s my point .

That makes it understandable why so many suddenly stranded Americans clamored for the “free” flights out offered by the State of Florida . And there I go… knee jerking again. The thought of all these poor innocent tourists suddenly stranded by cancelled flights in a war zone paints a pretty graphic picture . I’m certain that is the case for many but I couldn’t help notice numerous interviews of those returning home. Seems that many of the U.S. citizens weren’t actually suddenly stranded as they’d been living in Israel for years . I also I noticed how many referred to themselves as being rescued with fellow Jews and not fellow Americans . In that case I’d say the Government asking for a $500 reimbursement to be reasonable terms .

At first I didn’t know that … did you ? I guess that’s my point .

On a happier note many have been safely removed from a war zone and for a moment or two that has distracted us from other seemingly endless bouts of chaos . One good piece of news just came up though , While Mr. Trump was campaigning in Iowa he is quoted as saying ….

” I’m willing to go to jail if that’s what it takes to win and make our country a democracy again ”

I’d consider those to be reasonable terms as well … but there I go, knee jerking again

Yesterday I accused The Florida Governor of using an unfortunate incident to put on yet another big show in the hopes it might help a Presidential campaign . I’ll stand by that accusation because that’s exactly what it was . However this time I’ll agree that it was indeed a pretty good show as 270 people landed home on a chartered flight from Tel Aviv.

Meanwhile others that were evacuated by the U.S. Government were dropped off in Athens and other places which brings me to a question…..

If we sent chartered aircraft from the United States to Israel it would stand to reason that those aircraft would have to return to the United States … so why didn’t they just return with the evacuees on board instead of dropping them off ?

Until enlightened by good reason I’ll have to say ….

Poor show Joe … poor show .

So here we go again .Words and performance yet again … from another showman . The Governor of Florida claims to have just signed an executive order ….

Well that’s truly interesting and to be truthful I’m truthfully curious. I’d love to know who is actually going to perform the rescue operations of our fellow Florida residents in Israel now that he’s signed that executive order ? Is Florida going to send the National Guard ….that would be illegal under Federal law so perhaps it might have to be Florida’s own home grown militia the Three Percenters… then again I forgot about Florida’s secret agents and private air force capable of transporting people from Texas to points north .

Hopefully it won’t require any military operations that would require any permanent Military Officer appointments before “Tuby” allows cab fair for members of the armed forces wanting to get to the clinic . Hopefully we’ll need not the necessary legislative appropriations in Congress …. or even the need to appoint an Ambassador to Israel before this occurs ….

Hmmph … having just read what I wrote … maybe we do need the Three Percenters and the private Air Force of Don ReSantis , after all it doesn’t appear his friends in high places are capable … and besides, how do you trust a military that’s woke ? … just askin

Once in a while at the grocery store you might notice one of those cliche black Veterans ball caps on the head of an old guy that says ” Tin Can Sailor ” . Lot’s of people don’t know what that is and that’s a shame because what it is … is a hard earned title . In the U.S. Navy small ships the likes of Destroyers and Frigates and other smaller vessels are referred to as Tin Cans . Once in 1973 I watched from the deck of an Aircraft Carrier a little Tin Can whose sole job was to defend my ship completely submerged in 35 ft. waves time and time again only to pop out the other side of those waves like a cork . My heart went out to the men on that little vessel knowing they were in for a very long night.

The yard sale was advertised as selling predominantly electronic testing equipment and some tools and I almost skipped by it but in a corner of one of the pics they posted in the ad I noticed an item or two that I might have interest in. With that in mind I was there early . The Son in Law of the seller let me in and grab first dibs on the tools I lusted after. He then showed me around the overly neat and tidy garage filled with incredible amounts of electronic gear and I was curious …

” Does he still do radio repair ? ” I asked with hope having an old CB radio needing new life

” No , he’s in very advanced stages of dementia ”

At this point the wife brought the gentleman out in the garage to introduce and just to break the ice I asked

” Were you a ham radio operator Sir ? ” though I knew he was as his licence was framed and hanging on the wall . In a frail tone he told me he didn’t know . I asked a question or two more about some of the items in the garage and in the same frail tone he informed he didn’t remember anything about them .

By now I’d walked to the end of the garage and looked at a cabinet door with a very old sticker on it that read …

“Tin Can Sailor”  and as soon as I saw it I repeated those very words … ” Tin Can Sailor “..

Immediately from behind me came a very clear and distinct  …. ” Yup ! ”

When I mentioned I had done some time on a Carrier the gentleman walked right over and shook my hand and then told me all about life on a U.S. Navy Destroyer in 1954 in a voice that wasn’t so frail . When he was finished he said to me ….

” But you were on a Carrier …. you were one of the Big Shots ”

” No Sir , I was a Carrier Sailor because I was never good enough to be a ” Tin Can Sailor ”

and he smiled

Fair Winds and Following Seas Sir .

It was Saturday morning a week ago when the wife and I attended an estate sale for fun as is our usual routine while seeking treasures to sell for profit . It was a bust as there was very little there of interest to me as a re seller but suddenly … there it was .

A well known brand 12 cup coffee maker sat alone on a table still unused and in it’s original unopened box and packaging with a very attractive sticker on it informing me that it could be had for just $ 15 dollars .

” But it’s only $ 15 Hon, we can put it away for the future ” was my lament when the wife told me we really don’t need it . I guessed she was right since our present coffee maker was purchased rather recently and so we left it behind for some other fortunate soul. I love my coffee , always have and it’s been a morning ritual for more decades than I care to admit . I always set up the coffee maker the night before so that all I have to do is wake up and press the ON button as I walk past on my way to the computer to start the day .

On Monday morning after ten minutes on the internet I noticed an odd silence that could only mean one thing , and that being that the coffee maker had brewed its very last cup on Sunday morning . I will admit it did bother me to think that at that moment some prick was probably enjoying a cup he’d just brewed on his newly purchased $ 15 dollar coffee maker .

Coffee spelled backwards is eeffoc and just so’s ya know …

I don’t give eeffoc until I’ve had my coffee

I think perhaps you could come up with a politically motivated conspiracy theory for each and every week since …..well , maybe since Obama was a Muslim or Kenyan or something .The theories run the gamut from as frivolous as The 2nd. coming of John F. Kennedy Jr . to the harmful accusations that the victims of Sandy Hook were child actors in what some claimed to be a hoax and false flag operation . You’ll find them all listed on Wikipedia if you’d like a refresher and interestingly it’s difficult not to notice the sources of most of them .

Someone mentioned one to me the other day that may well hold some plausibility and it seems to have made a comeback as the first time I heard it was back in 2018 . Most of those 100s of “theories” over the past seven years have irritated me but as this one has some possibility of truth it got me thinking that it just might be fun to get in on the act as well. The first time I heard someone mention the thought that the migrant caravans rushing north through Mexico were being funded by “someone” was 2018 . We all stood terrified in front of our televisions at the sight of the oncoming onslaught while being fed that they are likely being funded by Democrats who want their votes and this does seem to hold a pretty strong following even today .

Coincidently those caravans of migrants seemed a pretty effective propaganda tool for those using the need for A Great Wall of America as a campaign issue . Hang on to that thought for just a moment … or two.

I got to wondering who would actually gain the most out of funding these migrants on their journey north if a funding is in fact the truth though truth really has shown to be of little importance as of late . The migrants made a pretty good political prop back in 2018 as they did again recently when the Governor of Florida sent his secret agents to Texas to lure and dupe a group of migrants into boarding a plane for Martha’s Vineyard . The people in the state of Florida parted with close to three quarters of a million dollars of its money for the privilege of creating one hell of a great Presidential campaign ad that did absolutely zero to solve the obvious problem we have on the border .

So lets weigh this out …. Dems are willing to lose votes from both Parties right now in the hopes migrants they’ve encouraged here will vote for them in the future which would take about nine years as it takes a few years to be a permanent resident and then five more to become a citizen ….. or

The Republicans gain more and more political traction with each and every migrant that shows up at the border whether they cross it or not … it’s obvious the migrants may have a lot more use to them than simply picking lettuce . Maybe, just maybe …. if “someone” is   funding the migrants on their journey up to the border, it just might not be the Dems …..  just thinking out loud

Let me know if you read this theory on Wikipedia, I’d be delighted .

We’d come home from the Fish Depot with a gorgeous pure white fillet of Cod so fresh it was likely swimming happily off the coast of New England just the day before . As I popped it into the fridge I thought it an appropriate time to finally get off my ass and install the new charcoal tray on the grill that has languished in the garage since I received it months ago .

I’d been putting the chore off but the time had come , it just needed to be done . I’d purchased the new tray direct from the manufacturer of my grill and frankly was quite surprised how much better of quality it seemed to be over the original part. Who’d have ever guessed something manufactured as a replacement part might actually have been improved upon ?

Removing the old one was relatively easy though it was a dirty job performed while the little Yorkshire yapper next door stood at the chainlink fence watching every move . Any movement towards a grill sparks his interest and I doubt he realised it was being readied to grill fish . I hooked one side of the tray to the appropriate attachment point and then started to work the other side …. that’s when the little Yorkshire yapper recognized the look on my face having witnessed it more than once in the past. He instantly high tailed it for the doggie door at the back of his house and hid out inside.

Being a replacement part of higher quality is rather a moot point however when the manufacturer is provided both model of the grill as well as the dimensions of the needed part ….. and it still is 1 1/4 inches too wide …..

I’ll start this off with an answer to a question . Yes, the answer is yes I do.

The question to the answer being is do I think the book Gender Queer should be banned from the public school system? Even though I might be considered a very devout anti book banner on principal the answer to that question is still a very profound yes, yes I do . As far as I’m concerned that book has no place inside a school , public or otherwise that has students that have not yet reached the age of adulthood .

Now that we have that out of the way …. let’s continue on …

I buy Girl Scout cookies every year when they appear at the store front of the local stores . They don’t beg , the kids sell me a product while learning the concept of profit for effort and I’m more than happy to contribute to that education even though their prices are more than keeping up with inflation . The Boy Scouts however are a bit on the pricey side with a package of microwavable pop corn for $ 25 that can be purchased in the store they are standing in front of for under $5 . As much as I’d love to support their organization I do tend to make an effort at avoiding them as they need to understand that profit should only come from both parties being satisfied .

The other day while avoiding the local Boy Scout Troop outside of WalMart something caught my eye . Initially it was the brightly colored rainbow belt worn by one of the “Boy Scouts” that clashed with the traditional green Scout uniform worn by a Scout that was with little doubt ….. not a boy. There was something else that caught my eye and it caused me to stop and purchase an overly priced bag of pre maid pop corn .

What caught my eye was the interaction those five young Scouts had with each other and their Scout Master . There was no doubt that the colorful belt didn’t bother any one of them and they all seemed quite happy to be with each other even if they were wearing different belt colors .

Nothing for nothing , I’ll have to offer this to all you parents who are making such a big deal over the books in your kids school’s and that is you’ve provided your child with $300 phones and internet services ….

… your kid has already read the book

The wife’s four year old 4G phone has been acting up lately and people she talks to incessantly have been having a hard time hearing her as suddenly everything goes quiet. Sometimes it’s been a bit like the old fashioned dial up when she receives videos from friends and family and access to the internet has been more difficult as of late.

This means we needed to head out to the closest store that provides our phone services today and get her a new 5G phone and while there suffer the sticker shock . Of course the sticker shock doesn’t end at the sticker shock as you need more than the phone, you need a protective cover for the face …..

“ How much is that ? “ I asked

“That’s $33.00 “ said the very polite 18 year old sales person {girl}

“ Fine “ I said, and of course the wife thought it important to have a protective case .

“ How much is that ?” I asked

“ That’s $ 33.00 “ said the very polite 18 year old sales person {girl}

“ Fine “ I said

And so after feeling sexually brutalized we went home to discover that the cord to charge the phone was present but there was no means to plug it into the wall . So we went back to inform the cute little 18 year old we can’t charge the phone as it’s missing the plug.

“ They aren’t provided with the phone Sir , if you have a very late model car you can charge it there if it has the appropriate USB port , or you can charge it off your computer …. If it’s a newer computer or with an adapter if not .”

The poor girl patiently listened to my thoughts on this topic and then and informed me that she had paid well over $1000 for her phone and still had to purchase the adapter to charge it from a wall socket separately …..

“ How much is that ? “ I asked

“ That’s $ 33.00 “ said the very polite 18 year old sales person {girl}

“ Fine” I said yet again ……

So… what’s next I wonder . Will the next salesman that sells me a Ford F150 ask ….

”  Want wheels with that ? “