Well it has been some time since I have had a chance to update this thing. I have been very busy with the remodeling. I am working on the last of the inside work for this year. We will let the upstairs bath wait until next winter. So in about three more weeks I will be spending much more time outside. Not a lot to do around the house but there are a few projects out there. There is also a golf course just down the road that needs a lot of my attention.
Last night as I was getting ready to kick back from another day of hard work I glanced out the window and saw “our deer” in the side yard. We enjoy watching them. So we put a small amount of corn out for them and we almost always have deer coming up just before dark to graze and eat “their corn”. We have several groups that come by to eat. One of them has seven deer and last night I noticed that there were six in the yard. I walked to the back door and sure enough back in the woods was the seventh. As I watched, it came up very slowly. It reminded me of myself and my little sister after a long car ride. You know, stiff, can’t straighten up, and walk tilted to one side and limp badly.
When she finally came into the yard you could see she was dragging one hind leg and was obviously in pain. She turned slowly to the side and high on her right hip was a spot where the hide had been ripped away. Both her hind legs appeared to have open wounds. She had a real hard time moving. I guess I am getting old and soft because it almost broke my heart that I couldn’t go out and help her. She only stayed a short time and eased back into the woods. It was like she was very afraid she would be caught out in the open and that would be disastrous. I was really feeling down so I keep a watch every few minutes to see if she came back.
She didn’t, but about 7:30p.m. a big black cat, which hangs around the neighborhood, came walking across the side yard. I then noticed two deer come out of the woods and what followed was amazing. The deer began to play with the cat. It was like watching two young pups that wanted to be chased. They would come up close to the cat then jump back. The look on their face was one of delight. They keep at it for a good 15 minutes before the cat finally took to our front porch. The deer came up near the porch and dropped down on their front hoofs then jumped in the air and danced around. Finally they wondered on over to the neighbors to graze. Amazing!
Then tonight the seven were back. Yep, just like last night, there were only six but a quick check out back showed the seventh coming along at a slow pace. She came into the yard and appeared to be moving better. She’s still banged up pretty bad but she is still with us.
I really hope she makes it.
Monday, February 26, 2007
Sunday, February 11, 2007
I think not!
The reporter was gushing when he said “She was America’s Royalty…America’s Princess Di…” What a crock. She was a tramp. Nothing more. Real gutter trash. What a sad day for America and the American media to have sunk so low as their feeding frenzy in trying to present her as a person of class. Maybe it is too late for us when we hold up this kind of trash as our hero’s and our children strive to grow up to be just like them.
Hollywood has sunk to an all time trashy low. I can’t help but laugh when I see an actor being interviewed and they go on and on about how real it was to get into this role and how the character feel and what they meant when they did this or that. What a crock. It’s play acting for Christ sake. It’s not real. It didn’t happen. And they don’t know the difference. Not a one of them has any creditability. Most end up pumped full of drugs because they are confused with the world and their place in it. And all our kids want to be just like them.
American Royalty....so far three men claim to be her kid’s father. One told the media that as many as 25 others he knew could also make that claim. He said “She liked men”. My guess is that most of the male population in Southern California will come forward with the claim. There’s half a billion at stake here.
Another reporter was in Mexia, TX her home town, standing in front of Jim’s Fried Chicken. He was visibly shocked as he held up the Waco newspaper to show that they had dedicated the entire front page to her death. Then he held up the Mexia news and with tears in his eyes, his voice cracking he reported that Mexia news has one small article under the fold. In total disbelief he reports “The people of Media are embarrassed that she came from here. One person told me that he was glad and now hoped that the members of the media would stop coming to Mexia.” Then, he closes with, “Even Jim’s Fried Chicken has nothing on their marquee in her honor.” Good for the people of Mexia. They know trash when they see it.
I betting it will be ruled an accidental drug overdose. That how the media describes the Hollywood and Music crowd when they are drug addicts and kill themselves with overdose. Accidental. As they did Blues singer Gerald Levert’s death last fall: The drugs in his bloodstream included the narcotic pain relievers Vicodin, Percocet and Darvocet, along with anxiety medication Xanax and two over-the-counter antihistamines, Geauga County Coroner Kevin Chartrand said. The official cause of death was acute intoxication, and the death was ruled accidental.
Accidental my ass. You take all that and it is no accident you are dead.
American Royalty my ass. Slut, yes.
Hollywood has sunk to an all time trashy low. I can’t help but laugh when I see an actor being interviewed and they go on and on about how real it was to get into this role and how the character feel and what they meant when they did this or that. What a crock. It’s play acting for Christ sake. It’s not real. It didn’t happen. And they don’t know the difference. Not a one of them has any creditability. Most end up pumped full of drugs because they are confused with the world and their place in it. And all our kids want to be just like them.
American Royalty....so far three men claim to be her kid’s father. One told the media that as many as 25 others he knew could also make that claim. He said “She liked men”. My guess is that most of the male population in Southern California will come forward with the claim. There’s half a billion at stake here.
Another reporter was in Mexia, TX her home town, standing in front of Jim’s Fried Chicken. He was visibly shocked as he held up the Waco newspaper to show that they had dedicated the entire front page to her death. Then he held up the Mexia news and with tears in his eyes, his voice cracking he reported that Mexia news has one small article under the fold. In total disbelief he reports “The people of Media are embarrassed that she came from here. One person told me that he was glad and now hoped that the members of the media would stop coming to Mexia.” Then, he closes with, “Even Jim’s Fried Chicken has nothing on their marquee in her honor.” Good for the people of Mexia. They know trash when they see it.
I betting it will be ruled an accidental drug overdose. That how the media describes the Hollywood and Music crowd when they are drug addicts and kill themselves with overdose. Accidental. As they did Blues singer Gerald Levert’s death last fall: The drugs in his bloodstream included the narcotic pain relievers Vicodin, Percocet and Darvocet, along with anxiety medication Xanax and two over-the-counter antihistamines, Geauga County Coroner Kevin Chartrand said. The official cause of death was acute intoxication, and the death was ruled accidental.
Accidental my ass. You take all that and it is no accident you are dead.
American Royalty my ass. Slut, yes.
Sunday, February 4, 2007
Journal Jan 27, 2007
As I recall the blaring headline read, “90% of NC Teachers are Listed Highly Qualified”. The article went on to state that 90 % of the teachers in NC met the Federal standards for teacher qualifications. My immediate thought was that 10 percent of our teachers do not meet the standard teacher qualifications. Chances are your kid is being taught by one of them!
I am doing this from memory since the paper was used to clean up spilt paint. So the quotes may not be exact, but one of the comments from a school official that caught my attention was, “Research confirms that teachers who are trained in the disciplines they teach either through undergraduate or graduate training are more qualified then those who have not had training.” Duh! I’ll bet it was grant research that lasted 20 years. The article went on to imply how hard and unfair it is to expect the school system to come up with teachers that met the standards. Yep! Lets keep hiring the uneducated and liberal to teach our kids. Dang if we got all highly qualified teacher and still turned out a stupid kid who would take the blame? Not the Highly Qualified teachers.
I am doing this from memory since the paper was used to clean up spilt paint. So the quotes may not be exact, but one of the comments from a school official that caught my attention was, “Research confirms that teachers who are trained in the disciplines they teach either through undergraduate or graduate training are more qualified then those who have not had training.” Duh! I’ll bet it was grant research that lasted 20 years. The article went on to imply how hard and unfair it is to expect the school system to come up with teachers that met the standards. Yep! Lets keep hiring the uneducated and liberal to teach our kids. Dang if we got all highly qualified teacher and still turned out a stupid kid who would take the blame? Not the Highly Qualified teachers.
Sunday, January 28, 2007
Too Cold to Paint But We Got Heat
It’s been a bad week! I have been working hard to get the upstairs remodeling completed. I finished all repairs and got the guest room, hall, and two closets painted. All I need to complete these areas is to put baseboards in the hall and closets and of course, replace the carpet.
Then on Friday morning I discovered that the paint in the guest bedroom was cracking at the wall and ceiling joints. I painted them again. They cracked again. Not as bad, but cracked. After much guessing and head scratching I made a trip to Lowes and hung around the paint section until I found a “real” painter. He advised me that the caulking had not cured properly before I painted. In addition, I had done extensive mud work on the walls and he explained that in this cold weather it takes several days for the mud to dry and several more for the caulk to dry. He went on to say that in the winter he always puts two to three space heaters in the room and waits a week or more before he paints. So no problem, he says, wait until the weather is 65 degrees for a couple of days and then sand the cracks and repaint. Crap! But what can a guy do.
I bought a space heater before leaving Lowes and put it in the room. I thought I would try to help the heat pump get the job done before next May. Late Saturday afternoon I painted one of the corners and waited. Sunday morning there were still a few cracks. So I will now wait for another few days while I do the baseboards and paint the doors. However I don't think the weather is going to cooperate. For the next week we are expecting no higher temps then the mid 40’s with lows in low 20’s. Therefore, it may be a while before I can get the carpet in and the room completed.
The space heater was a big help. Not for curing the caulking but for keeping us from freezing. Early Sunday morning we noticed that the downstairs heat pump was not running. The furnace was blowing air but the outside compressor was not running. We have had some problems with this unit all year. So after kicking it and scratching my head a bit I took a look at the circuit breaker. Yep, it was off. So I turned it on. Heard the compressor kick on and started to go eat breakfast. Bam, the breaker kicks off. Flip it on, Bam it flips off. Okay, I’m learning. I make sure it is turned off. Don’t want to burn down the house. Looks like the compressor is locked up and is overloading the circuit. So….no heat downstairs. Oh yeah. The space heater is doing a fine job.
I’ll call the heating guys tomorrow. Oops! There goes another $5k.
Then on Friday morning I discovered that the paint in the guest bedroom was cracking at the wall and ceiling joints. I painted them again. They cracked again. Not as bad, but cracked. After much guessing and head scratching I made a trip to Lowes and hung around the paint section until I found a “real” painter. He advised me that the caulking had not cured properly before I painted. In addition, I had done extensive mud work on the walls and he explained that in this cold weather it takes several days for the mud to dry and several more for the caulk to dry. He went on to say that in the winter he always puts two to three space heaters in the room and waits a week or more before he paints. So no problem, he says, wait until the weather is 65 degrees for a couple of days and then sand the cracks and repaint. Crap! But what can a guy do.
I bought a space heater before leaving Lowes and put it in the room. I thought I would try to help the heat pump get the job done before next May. Late Saturday afternoon I painted one of the corners and waited. Sunday morning there were still a few cracks. So I will now wait for another few days while I do the baseboards and paint the doors. However I don't think the weather is going to cooperate. For the next week we are expecting no higher temps then the mid 40’s with lows in low 20’s. Therefore, it may be a while before I can get the carpet in and the room completed.
The space heater was a big help. Not for curing the caulking but for keeping us from freezing. Early Sunday morning we noticed that the downstairs heat pump was not running. The furnace was blowing air but the outside compressor was not running. We have had some problems with this unit all year. So after kicking it and scratching my head a bit I took a look at the circuit breaker. Yep, it was off. So I turned it on. Heard the compressor kick on and started to go eat breakfast. Bam, the breaker kicks off. Flip it on, Bam it flips off. Okay, I’m learning. I make sure it is turned off. Don’t want to burn down the house. Looks like the compressor is locked up and is overloading the circuit. So….no heat downstairs. Oh yeah. The space heater is doing a fine job.
I’ll call the heating guys tomorrow. Oops! There goes another $5k.
Tuesday, January 9, 2007
Thunder Road
Boy, what a pleasant feeling. I was setting here scanning the web and listening to Blue Ridge Country 98.1, when a song brought back a flood of good ol’ memories. Remember Thunder Road, by Robert Mitchum. I sure do. Both the song and the movie. In my minds eye I could plainly see the old 1950 and 1957 Fords ripping down the mountain, sliding around the sharp curves and roaring out of sight around the next bend. Dust flying. Then the lonely wail of a siren echoing down the hollers as the night came alive with the presents of the big bad ABC guy (Gene Berry).
I believe it was filmed in Ashville somewhere along Tunnel Road. Robert Mitchum was the hero of every young man with a car. Back then we had real cars. Not some junkie old Honda or Toyota. We had chrome, lots of chrome, and engines, big engines, with two or three carburetors. We had Hollywood pipes or glass packed mufflers, and fender skirts. We keep them polished and waxed like the day they came off the show room floor. Some raced them up and down the public highways while others just cruised the “main drag”. No sissy Boom Boxes for real men. We went for horsepower and rpm.
I miss those old cars. I get a good chuckle when I see some young guy today with a $300-$500 piece of junk in which he has installed a $1,500-$3,000 stereo system. Normally they have removed the back seat to make room for speakers the size of a 1950’s console TV. We used the back seat for other things and would never have done such a dumb thing. They have to face the speakers out the window or into the trunk and play them at full throttle. I guess their thing is making noise. Well, watch Thunder Road, that’s the way real men make noise.
Me, I drove the “Old Man’s” cars. I couldn’t afford a “Hot Rod” of my own. But I dreamed of having a ’57 Chevy like one of our cousins had. Jet black; with red interior. It had more chrome then you could shake a stick at and it would fly. I was stuck with a ’56 Ford but it was always washed and waxed and it would haul the mail when you need to. I have cleaned out a few ditches with that ol’ ford.
My big brother taught me to drive back in ’58. No, that is not right. What he did was teach me how to wreck. You see he was home on leave from the Air Force and he was teaching me to drive the old man’s 1950 Dodge. As I recall it had a new kind of transmission, Fluid Drive, which kicked in about a good 30 seconds after you tromped the gas. We were on Poplar Springs road, in that big hair pen curve. Back in those days it was known as the Church curve because there was a big Baptist church there and everyone liked to talk about how fast they could make the Church curve. Well, Big Brother was teaching me to “glide-in and power-out”. It was all in the technique, he said, as he “glided-in” and then we were upside down and wrapped around a tree.
He taught me well. I learned. And I never did that!
I believe it was filmed in Ashville somewhere along Tunnel Road. Robert Mitchum was the hero of every young man with a car. Back then we had real cars. Not some junkie old Honda or Toyota. We had chrome, lots of chrome, and engines, big engines, with two or three carburetors. We had Hollywood pipes or glass packed mufflers, and fender skirts. We keep them polished and waxed like the day they came off the show room floor. Some raced them up and down the public highways while others just cruised the “main drag”. No sissy Boom Boxes for real men. We went for horsepower and rpm.
I miss those old cars. I get a good chuckle when I see some young guy today with a $300-$500 piece of junk in which he has installed a $1,500-$3,000 stereo system. Normally they have removed the back seat to make room for speakers the size of a 1950’s console TV. We used the back seat for other things and would never have done such a dumb thing. They have to face the speakers out the window or into the trunk and play them at full throttle. I guess their thing is making noise. Well, watch Thunder Road, that’s the way real men make noise.
Me, I drove the “Old Man’s” cars. I couldn’t afford a “Hot Rod” of my own. But I dreamed of having a ’57 Chevy like one of our cousins had. Jet black; with red interior. It had more chrome then you could shake a stick at and it would fly. I was stuck with a ’56 Ford but it was always washed and waxed and it would haul the mail when you need to. I have cleaned out a few ditches with that ol’ ford.
My big brother taught me to drive back in ’58. No, that is not right. What he did was teach me how to wreck. You see he was home on leave from the Air Force and he was teaching me to drive the old man’s 1950 Dodge. As I recall it had a new kind of transmission, Fluid Drive, which kicked in about a good 30 seconds after you tromped the gas. We were on Poplar Springs road, in that big hair pen curve. Back in those days it was known as the Church curve because there was a big Baptist church there and everyone liked to talk about how fast they could make the Church curve. Well, Big Brother was teaching me to “glide-in and power-out”. It was all in the technique, he said, as he “glided-in” and then we were upside down and wrapped around a tree.
He taught me well. I learned. And I never did that!
Tuesday, January 2, 2007
I Wonder How They Know
How do they know? When we moved in to our new home, the end of December 2005, one of the pleasures was to look out the window, at almost any time of the day, and see deer. They just sauntered through the yard as if they own the place. They also seem to like our nicer plants. But that was alright with me. I enjoy watching them better then I enjoy the plants. Then just before Thanksgiving they disappeared. I would still see a track now and then but I never saw them. They slipped through the yard in the still of the night. I then discovered that deer hunting season open around Thanksgiving week and ran through 31 December.
Amazingly, this afternoon, 2 Jan 2007, two days after the end of the hunting season, at 4:45 p.m., five deer walk out of the woods behind our house and proceed to have a feast on the new $500 yellowtail grass I planted in the fall.
That’s okay with me. The deer are back.
Amazingly, this afternoon, 2 Jan 2007, two days after the end of the hunting season, at 4:45 p.m., five deer walk out of the woods behind our house and proceed to have a feast on the new $500 yellowtail grass I planted in the fall.
That’s okay with me. The deer are back.
Monday, January 1, 2007
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