Unusual Sunday............... Had a snowstorm going on last night when I was coming home. So much for Spring in Southern Indiana! Work schedule shifted some today so I will be going in at 3pm till 3am. Oh well. It screws things up bad when someone calls off work and the night shift gets the shaft more often than not.
"Two years ago, George Soros said he wanted to reorganize the entire global economic system. In two short weeks, he is going to start - and no one seems to have noticed."
Kind of amazing that these bastards don't even hide it anymore.
Well maybe it's not that amazing when the Frigging President is pushing for Shit Like This. That Treasonous Little Peckerwood............ Better let it go at that, but you get the idea.
"In this court filing, provided exclusively here at Pajamas Media, prosecutors admit that Dhakane, who ran a human smuggling ring based in Brazil for the Somali Al-Shabaab terrorist group, transported “violent jihadists” into the country. He stated that “he believed they would fight against the U.S. if the jihad moved from overseas locations to the U.S. mainland.”
Remember this anytime you hear an open borders SumBitch, Democrat OR Republican, yakking about amnesty plans. Shit, especially Republicans.
Ok, that's all the Hypertension Inducing News I can handle for today. How about a couple more of those demotivators I made today?
Springtime in Indiana............. So it had to snow. Not much, just a little flurry for a couple of minutes.
Just enough to crush the spirit.
Speaking of that- EFFECTIVE APRIL 2011 NEW OFFICE POLICY
Dress Code:
1) You are advised to come to work dressed according to your salary.
2) If we see you wearing Prada shoes and carrying a Gucci bag, we will assume you are doing well financially and therefore do not need a raise.
3) If you dress poorly, you need to learn to manage your money better, so that you may buy nicer clothes, and therefore you do not need a raise.
4) If you dress just right, you are right where you need to be and therefore you do not need a raise.
Sick Days: We will no longer accept a doctor's statement as proof of sickness. If you are able to go to the doctor, you are able to come to work.
Personal Days: Each employee will receive 104 personal days a year. They are called Saturdays & Sundays.
Bathroom Breaks: Entirely too much time is being spent in the toilet. There is now a strict three-minute time limit in the stalls. At the end of three minutes, an alarm will sound, the toilet paper roll will retract, the stall door will open, and a picture will be taken. After your second offense, your picture will be posted on the company bulletin board under the 'Chronic Offenders' category. Anyone caught smiling in the picture will be sectioned under the company's mental health policy.
Lunch Break:
* Skinny people get 30 minutes for lunch, as they need to eat more, so that they can look healthy.
* Normal size people get 15 minutes for lunch to get a balanced meal to maintain their average figure.
* Chubby people get 5 minutes for lunch, because that's all the time needed to drink a Slim-Fast.
Thank you for your loyalty to our company. We are here to provide a positive employment experience. Therefore, all questions, comments, concerns, complaints, frustrations, irritations, aggravations, insinuations, allegations, accusations, contemplations, consternation and input should be directed elsewhere.
Tuesday Night Catchup.......... Spring is here and it's getting busy around the "GrumpyUnk Command and Control Bunker".
I spent 5-6 hours on the BigBluePlasticMotorcycle yesterday. Very therapeutic. My mental hygiene has had a set of vice grips clamped on it lately and a nice long ride out into "Banjo Music Country" was a good thing. Rode a lot of gravel roads into and out of the hollers and the river bottoms.
The Spring project list just keeps getting longer - just like every year. Did a bit of clean up in the garden this afternoon that should have been done last Fall. Wanted to get some Peas planted but TherapyBoy showed up and took me to the movies to see, "Battle Los Angeles".
YerUnk gives it 4 stars just because it honors the USMC so well. Go ahead and see it if you like this type of movie. The only downside? No Boobs.
RobertaX linked to This totally awesome story of a regular Joe and his obsession with the secrets of the WWII atomic bombs. Hint: Most everything you think you know is wrong and for the strangest reasons. Cool read.
Here We Go Again............. Into another one of George Bush's Wars. Or something like that.
Who the hell knows how they'll spin this as President Teleprompter goes on vacation again but I'm pretty sure it'll be Bush's fault. Or Global Warming.
Not much you can say. We got our, "Hope and Change". And you damn well better appreciate it! “The first time around it’s like lightning in a bottle. There’s something special about it, because you’re defying the odds. And as time passes, you start taking it for granted that a guy named Barack Hussein Obama is president of the United States,” Obama said. “But we should never take it for granted.” Oh well, when you put it that way I guess that's different. I guess it makes everything better when HE drives the country over a cliff. On his way to the friggin' Golf Course.
Bah, I'm thinking This Guy is probably right so why bother?
Quick Wednesday Update.......... Sorry things have been a bit sparse here. Been really busy with a number of things and friends the last few days.
Here's a few things to keep you busy - Joe Huffman has a great quote and illustration of what the Federal Budget looks like in terms that most normal folks can appreciate. Quote of the day—Milton Friedman.
I feel pretty good that I've been using the same type of argument with folks lately and winging numbers out of my ass while doing it. And DAMN if I haven't been pretty damn close, too! Probably not a good thing that YerUnk is, once again, correct. I can be an insufferable bastard w/o MORE conformation that I'm pretty much always right.
But, as we say around here, economically? "Boned is Boned" and we damn sure are.
Once again, via Monty, DOOM! It's what's for Dinner Breakfast! "Let's just slap the bad news down on the table like a dead carp: mandatory federal spending now outstrips federal revenues.
The key word is here is "mandatory". The nation finds itself in the position of being legally obligated to spend more money than it takes in as revenue.
This means that every single dime we spend on anything else -- roads, national parks, even parts of the national defense apparatus -- have to be paid out of borrowed money, or cut back entirely. Put differently: even if all these "discretionary" programs were free, we'd still have a deficit. As Jeffrey Anderson points out in the linked article, this state of affairs came about nearly 50 years before many in the government thought it would."
Remember, we ran a $226 BILLION Budget Deficit in February of this year alone. "Total expenditures for January to February amounted to P226.5 billion or 12.3 percent higher compared with last year’s P201.7 billion, Teves said." Don't forget, February is the shortest month of the year, too.
Also, don't believe that there's no inflation going on - Wholesale prices spike on steep rise in food, oil "Food prices soared 3.9 percent last month, the biggest gain since November 1974. Harsh winter freezes in Florida, Texas and other southern states sent fresh vegetable prices soaring, representing 70 percent of the increase. Tomatoes, green peppers and lettuce all more than doubled in price." Conveniently, The Government doesn't factor in Food or Energy costs into their reports of inflation. Notice that most media outlets don't mention that when you hear the numbers on inflation. That's a feature not a bug to keep your ass dumb and happy.
So I'm gonna say it again, plant a garden, berries and some fruit trees. Learn to save, can, store & preserve what you get. Stock up on basic food staples and supplies.
You'll get a much better return on an investment of this type than anything the stock market is gonna get ya. Food and basic staples are REAL assets and aren't affected by fluctuations in the currency once they're in your pantry either. Precious metals? Brass and copper jacketed lead if you can't afford Silver or Gold. Shit, you should already have ammo and a means to dispense it anyway. If not? Get with the program. Feel free to ask questions if ya need to.
Think about an alternate heat source for your home. The woodstove I put in here would be enough to keep this place livable by it'self if that's all we had. Total cost, stove, pipe and installation was about $1200 bucks. I've already saved more than half of that over last years utility bills this Winter. Yes. I spent $600 on a chainsaw too. OK. That means in 3 years, at Last Years energy prices, it's all paid for. Who thinks that utility costs aren't going up? Yeah, that's what I thought.
Just something to think about. I put off getting a stove for a long time. Don't make that mistake if you can help it. Hell, get some form of backup heat anyway.
Gratuitous Picture for a Wednesday Night- Ya may think about Alternative Energy/Income sources too.
Meeting the Merle............. Or- "Oh My God. That's Merle Haggard!"
Kinda how it went.
Back in 1982-85 or thereabout, I was playing guitar in a local band. One of the better paying gigs we had was the Holiday Inn. Now this was one of those fancy, "Hollidome" setups that had an indoor pool in a big central atrium. Pretty snazzy at the time and we played out on a stage by the pool in the middle of that atrium.
Those of you who are old enough will remember that the economy was still recovering from, Jimmy Fucking Carter and times were tough for a lot of people back then. We got paid $60 bucks for 3 hours of what amounted to paid practice as there wasn't much of a crowd and generally, most of them were Moms and their kids in the pool, so this was a friggin' goldmine for us.
None of us were working steady though and those 2 nights every other week was an economic godsend. This particular hotel also had, the "Holiday Star Theater" attached to it along with an ass kick lounge, (where we really wanted to play).
Well, one Friday night we're out there in the atrium playing to practically no one, when, "Holy Shit!" Merle Haggard and his entire band sit down at the two tables right in front of us!
They'd just finished playing at the theater and wandered over for a drink.
No pressure here. We weren't much of a country band anyway, but I was damn sure NOT gonna try to impress Merle-Fuckin-Haggard by playing a halfassed version of Hank Jr or some shit.
Since I recognized Hag immediately, I leaned over to MadCad, the front man and told him, "No Country Songs." We were almost finished for the night anyway so we did some Rock & Roll, finishing like we always did with Jethro Tull's, Aqualung. Big finish and we were done.
Hag and the band were polite and gave us some applause and Hag bought a round of beers for us. Way cool and a nice gesture on his part.
I went up to him and shook his hand and thanked him for the beer and tried to make a bit of small talk, stuttering all the time from nervousness. He was cool, and just said something about how we should just, "Play it like ya feel it" or some such. You could tell he kinda wanted to be left alone and his band, a bunch of kids called us over and got us hammered drinking with them.
I believe Hag was drinking this- Got to thinking of this today while listening to a bit of Hag's music. Damn he's good. He and Johnny Cash are probably my 2 favorite country singers.
Normally, I'd post a couple of YouTube videos for ya, but most of them I can't embed here. So you'll have to go there yourself, but hey, -It's been a great afternoon
Night Shift................. Due to a shortage of staff and unreliable people, YerUnk spent the weekend working the Night Shift.
That was a switch. It's been 4-5 years since I worked more than the one off, emergency fill in role. Worked nights for many years before that and sure enough, just like I remembered, beer tastes great at 7am.
Looking to Buy a Motorcycle????????????? With fuel costs going up as they are lots of folks are talking about it. Here's one going up for sale that might interest some of you.
One of two in existence and the only one in private ownership
Without doubt the most important racing motorcycle in the world."
That there's sorta the Holy Grail for racebike collectors. Lord knows how much this thing will sell for, but you can be damn sure it's gonna be a LOT.
Spend a few minutes and read the description at the link above. Then go read This Story of how an RC174 was reverse engineered to build a replica. Absolutely fascinating what they found and what lengths Honda Racing Company went to to win. I remember reading this story in Motorcyclist Magazine and have never quite gotten over it. Great story. Go read it, even if you're not into mechanical things, you'll enjoy it.
I was unable to find the photos I remember from the original article, but here's a disassembled RC166 to give you an idea of just what all these guys had to fabricate to recreate the motor- Incredible.
Granted, no one I know is gonna be buying that Hailwood RC174, but at the same site they're auctioning a bitchin' 1962 Matchless G50 that was owned by John Surtees (Yeah, if you're not familiar with him, go read about his BadAss self.)
Better hurry. I believe the auction is 2 days from now. RC 166 pic from here.
Gratuitous Picture for a Friday Night- Video Edition. Here's what an RC 166 sounds like.
Honda made a 125cc FIVE Cylinder. Listen to this little bastard-
Wet Wednesday............ Here at the "GrumpyUnk Command and Control Bunker".
Haven't gotten much productive done because of that either. Been sitting here learning a couple new songs on the guitar. Cleaned the house up and did dishes so I guess that counts for something.
Ol' Remus at The Woodpile Report had a link to a Russian Tank Graveyard I thought I'd share. Yeah, I find this kinda shit very cool. Love to have a couple of those for yard art. Love it even more if they were functional. Completely functional, if you know what I mean.
Really, nothing else really says, "Get off my lawn!" like a Tank.
Be careful at English - Russia it's a HUGE time sink. I can get lost for hours at that place. And you are reading Ol' Remus every week, right? There's a link over on the right side of the page so you've got no excuse.
And here's the "Strange but true - Fact for the Day." from Average Joe You're Welcome.
Cheer Up................ Spring will be here soon.
Took a little ride on TheBigBluePlasticMotorcycle today and saw a huge black snake sunning himself out on the road. That's the first snake I've seen, so the ground must be warming up some.
Was just out in the garage having a smoke and damn if I didn't hear frogs croaking from the pond across the road! Another good sign.
Yep, Weather wise things are looking up. With all the rain we've gotten recently the annual flood waters are out and blocking a lot of roads and creating lakes that will be gone in a week or so. Had a couple of dry days but it started raining again a few minutes ago. Hopefully we won't get to much.
With all that rain my driveway is a damn Quicksand hazard and the mud everywhere at the compound will suck the damn boots off a ya.
That may be the only part of Spring I don't like - Mud.
I got a line on some metal roofing today for the much needed Woodshed. Cheap and maybe free. With what I have here it would be enough to make a nice sized shed. I've got all the framing material already that I scrounged 2nd hand from various places so even if I have to buy a bit of roofing it'll be a cheap build. Which is about the only way I can build anything. It's gotta be cheap or it ain't getting done.
A little music for ya. The New Riders of the Purple Sage-
And a Stray Cats song I don't remember hearing before-
Amtrak Police Chief John O’Connor said he first thought a blog posting about the incident was a joke. When he discovered that the TSA’s VIPR team did at least some of what the blog said, he was livid. He ordered the VIPR teams off Amtrak property, at least until a firm agreement can be drawn up to prevent the TSA from taking actions that the chief said were illegal and clearly contrary to Amtrak policy.
“When I saw it, I didn’t believe it was real,” O’Connor said. When it developed that the posting on an anti-TSA blog was not a joke, “I hit the ceiling.”
Am I seeing a trend here? Texas lawmakers look to limit TSA scans, pat-downs at airports "A bipartisan group of more than 20 state lawmakers have signed on in support of measures to ban the TSA from using controversial screening procedures in Texas airports.
State Reps. David Simpson, R-Longview, and Eddie Rodriguez, D-Austin, have gotten about 20 fellow legislators to co-author bills the pair filed last week banning the use of full-body scanners and invasive pat-down searches on fliers."
Sounds like a good start. Hard for me to believe that a lot of this TSA crap is only for the purpose of training the citizens in compliance.
"The federal government posted its largest monthly deficit in history in February, a $223 billion shortfall that put a sharp point on the current fight on Capitol Hill about how deeply to cut this year’s spending." $223 BILLION dollars of debt in only one month.
And you're telling me that the friggin' geniuses in Washington DC can't find any way to cut some of the spending out of the federal budget? My aching ass.
"We're Boned". Better get used to that idea and start planning accordingly Kids.
"Lazin' on a Sunny Afternoon"......... Pretty well describes my day today.
Lots of things going on in the world but I just can't get to excited today.
I've been working hard at ignoring most of the news lately. It's a self defense thing. I know that, economically and politically, "We're Boned". So why get all worked the hell up over things that are fer sure to just piss me off and that you, me or anyone else are NOT gonna change?
I'm just gonna continue to do what I know I need to do to get me and mine ready for the times that are coming.
Mondays are my recoup day after the weekends in the ER and I don't generally get a whole hell of a lot done on Monday. Today was good and I did get some needed things accomplished.
Tomorrow it'll be up early and get going on things.
The Wife is gone to her Mom's and it's just me and the Critters around the compound for the next week. That means I gotta eat my own cooking. Not such a good thing. Could be worse. It's sure to be if ya wait long enough.
Learned Something New Yesterday......... From Gymi at Gymi's Cafe
He had a post with a video explaining how you can get your bike to trip the sensors at the traffic lights. I knew how the system worked, but I wasn't aware that there was a trick to getting the tough ones to switch.
Most of the time my BigBluePlasticMotorcycle has no problem with tripping the sensors at lights, but there's one particular light on my work route that is always kinda finicky and ya never know if you're gonna hit it right. I pulled up and tried it twice and, bingo. Worked both times.
I didn't think to ride around the block a 3rd time and try it centered on the loop instead of right on the wire so who knows, maybe it was just my lucky day.
Not So Gratuitous Picture for a Friday Morning-
Mike Hailwood's ass on a Honda 6 cylinder. This is the view a lot of folks got of Hailwood. Look at those narrow assed little tires You know they had about the same grip as Semi Trailer Tires do nowadays. But he's got that thing about as far over as the exhaust will allow.
Woke Up to Another Sign of Spring........... Poison Ivy on both arms. Must have gotten into some while cleaning brush and such yesterday. Could have done without that.
Picked up an extra day of work today so I gotta go fight the Zombie Hordes. Got a few of them coming up this month and that extra cash will come in handy. See ya tomorrow.
Gratuitous Picture for a Wednesday Morning-
Excellent Poster from an excellent article by Oleg Volk
Tuesday Afternoon............ Not much to say here today. Been out cleaning things up around the compound. Lots of things that didn't get done last Fall still need to be gotten to. The weather was great today. Still a bit chilly, but sunny and half assed warm so I'll take it and be glad.
Signs of Spring everywhere. Flowers are starting to poke their way up here and there and that's very encouraging. Won't be long now.
Since it is Tuesday Afternoon.........
I've always had a love-hate thing with the Moody Blues. Really like some of stuff and can't stand others. It's kinda funny how they changed over the years. Their first hit was, Go Now-
From that sound to this in only a few years-
OK, this wasn't supposed to be a Moody Blues post. Just wanted to use the first song to tie things together and it got out of hand from there. But that gives you glimpse into how my brain works and why I never get things done. Might start out with good intentions and get sidetracked onto who the hell knows what. Oh well. It keeps things interesting.......Even if I can't find my keys and such.
