Don McLean American Pie

My wife and I are celebrating our 23rd anniversary. Tonight we locked up the dogs and cats and horse and goat and barn and sheds. We went into Easton and ate at a fine place. A big restored old colonial a half block from the Tidewater Inn, in the center of town. I don't know how to pronounce what I had, but it was good. Wife had called ahead for our reservation and warned them she was a vegan. Whereas I am a vague an. She had a nice chef's creation. And we had champagne. Wife takes a half glass about twice a year. We had tickets for the Don McLean concert at the Avalon right across the street. We lingered over dessert and coffee, and almost missed the opening song. When we picked up our tickets at will call, the nice lady told my wife she had something for her. Along with our front row center tickets the lady handed my wife a cool black baseball cap with red stylized initials "RC". She said that Robert Cray wanted to thank her again. I said "What?" Apparently, wife had bought Robert and his ensemble their carry-out the last time she was at the Avalon. Is wife hanging out there a little too often maybe? And I thought I was a starstruck fan. Front row. The instant we sat down, the lights went down and the show started. McLean looked old. Of course! The generation lost in space is old. He had four other players in his band. They were geezers too. Do I look that old? Keyboard, bass, drums, lead guitar. McLean had this beautiful bodacious Martin D- 45 on a stand beside him on the stage. But he was playing this old big box Gibson, he had borrowed. He explained that the Martin had had it's neck broken by the airlines. I guess he was just displaying it on the stage out of sadness. I wish he would have had the Martin for the show. Don't get me wrong, the Gibson was a nice guitar. It was a big old dreadnought with a spruce top that was so brown it must have been 40 years old. I never saw McLean adjust one tuning peg the whole show. He couldn't have done that with the Martin. But for that singer- songwriter ballad style of clean vocal and guitar the Martin would have been better. Plus the necks are different and I'm impressed that he played the borrowed guitar so well. But he's been doing shows like this- singing the same songs for 42 years! He never does a show without singing American Pie. And he sings it like he means it every time. I was so impressed by him that I am writing to you now when only a day or two ago I was so seeped in ennui i couldn't have written one word on a napkin. As I write this I am still in my sport coat and black dress boots and Christmas shirt. I'm actually in the world again. If it's not too windy tomorrow I will fly up to Massey in the CherOHkee to a hangar Christmas party. Wife may come too. She's been away a bit, helping out her dad and I'm so glad she's back. This has been the nicest anniversary ever. And next weekend is live music and friends in Fredneck. Followed by a big bon fire here on Sunday. I guess I'm back. I wonder if wife will let me wear her new ball cap to the fly in tomorrow. LLITTY :::::+:::::

Domesticated

I want to talk about some simple things around the house. I really get it when a housekeeper says "I don't do windows". Some chores are not bad. Some are bad. I hate vacuuming. I hate cleaning a toilet. I hate dusting. But I don't mind dishes, or laundry. We have a dishwasher. Over the years, I've had lots of dishwashers. The one we have now is a state-of-the-art energy saving, green- friendly one. It saves water. It saves energy by not making the water as hot. It saves on the environment by using less cycles and less soap. All of these "new" improvements are fine. The only drawback to our new dishwasher is that it doesn't get the dishes clean. I talked to the sales rep. about the problem of the dishwasher not actually washing the dishes. I told him that I don't really need to save water too much as I have a deep well and my water is free. I have lot's of time and don't care how long cycles last. I'm willing to spend the extra electricity to get the water really hot to sterilize the dishes. I'd like to get the old kind of dishwasher that isn't efficient but gets the dishes really clean. The rep told me that they don't make dishwashers any more that get the dishes really clean. No kidding. Another thing. All my old dishwashers had the controls on the outside of the unit. So you could see them, even with the door closed. It was that way for forty years. Now the controls are hidden inside the door of the unit and you must have the door open to use the controls. This creates an extra engineering problem because you have to have a conditional type of sensor, a separate chip, for the door logic. Like setting an alarm. Of course! these new dishwashers cost much, much more. And do less. And are more prone to failure. Some folks like to be energy wise and save up the dirty dishes in the dishwasher until they have a "full" load. I hate this. I don't like storing dirty dishes, even if it's in a dishwasher. If I go to the trouble of emptying the dishwasher, and then loading it: it's gonna get run and the job is done. Even if it's half a load. And I don't put pots and pans in the dishwasher. Ever. I just clean them by hand, dry them and put them away. They take up too much space in the dishwasher. And the dishwasher doesn't get them clean anyway. We have about five times as many pots and pans as we need. So we are short cabinet space. I have about five times as many clothes as I need. So I am short closet space. I don't want to get started on my having too many clothes or too much stuff in general. I intend to write a post about too much stuff, and hoarding. It's become an interesting epidemic in the U.S. I don't mind doing laundry actually. I just hate putting laundry away, because I have no place to put it. Some people have housekeepers that come and clean once a week. We had this for a while. But we used to have to work pretty hard to get the place cleaned up enough to be presentable, to a housekeeper. Alas, now I am retired and my wife and I are the housekeepers. And we do a lousy job. I don't understand how rich people, or royals can stand having live- in servants. I'm sorry, but in my home I want privacy more than anything else. I don't want somebody in my house, messing with my stuff and dealing with me every time I want a cup of coffee. Leave me the hell alone. And I'm paying you to be hanging around in my house? Maybe I'm missing something, but I'd rather clean my own living space than have someone see what a slob I am. And I'm a slob and that's the way it is. I don't want to have to kind of always keep things neat like I would as a guest. Hey, it's my house. Is it all right with you if I relax? Now a chauffeur is a different story. I don't want a limo. But a driver now and then would be nice. He wouldn't be in my personal space and I could sleep or watch a movie, or look at scenery, or chat with wife. It would have to be a regular car though. I've ridden in limos many times and I just don't get it. But having a driver in my very own regular sedan would be nice once in a while. Just a fantasy, mind you. I don't even have a full size sedan. A driver wouldn't be any fun in my 1998 Ford pick up.

Thursday Blues, Friday Muse

I feel the need to express a few things. It's not really a rant or a vent. I'm hoping that a few sentences will fall together somehow and that may only happen because I'm doing something more than just thinking. I'm trying to tell you what I'm thinking. I'm not a real writer any more than I am a real singer. But I've learned something about being creative. My son helped me remember it. Do you ever find yourself "learning" something that you already knew very well? Here's a good example. Whenever I feel blue, or slightly ill, I always have the mindset that this is the new baseline for the way that I will feel for the rest of my life. I'm a bit extra sad because of this new life I am facing. Then, in a day or so I feel so much better and the bar of the newer baseline is back up. Then I "learn", or actually, "remember", that it's always that way. I don't have to be "extra blue" when I'm blue. The world will continue on without me and do no better or worse. Another thing I have to keep learning over and over again: being grateful. And not taking things for granted. Back to creativity. I don't claim to be an artist. That may be my point here. When you want to create something. Just create it. The way a child would play with a stick or some mud. I have ideas all the time that float around in my head. I never write them down because I don't carry a notebook and I don't really want to write them down. I remember a tiny percentage of them. That's OK. It brings me to my next point. Just because I have a great idea, it doesn't mean I have to write a song about it. Just because I see a beautiful scene on a beautiful lake in Alaska doesn't mean I have to take a picture of it. I'm talking around the edges of "writers block" here and an undefinable thing called the "muse". I can't explain why I get a favorite song from the sixties in my head and it becomes the only song that I think is cool. It becomes the only song I want to play. The "art" of it all is in my mind and my mind alone. I think that is the essence of pure art. I have absolutely no desire to create something that "sells". I think it would be fun if someone liked something I did. That's different because it would be after I did it, or made it. When you do it, you know you are doing it, and it's only for you. I'm not saying it's wrong to make a living creating stuff. Of Course! that's great. I envy people who do that and they are very talented indeed. But those very artists would probably admit that they work and produce not under the "muse" that I was describing above. When they do that, it may be in a different medium. All this is not to be confused with the validation that we all constantly seek. This personal validation goes deep to our psyche. It's all we're after, day in day out. " Look at me. Let me talk. Listen to me. My turn. Look what I did. Look what I have. Agree with me. Love me." In fact when I am in the process of my "art" whatever that may be, personal validation is not what I am looking for. The quest for validation is an endless futile treadmill..... like getting enough money. There is never enough Validation. Like money, it can never satisfy you. Fulfill you. Having said that, I am shallow, and would love to have a published book someday. Or a Youtube video with say a million plays. But the artist needs more than just an idea coupled with the muse. After he has those two things he needs to "do" the project. Yesterday I was telling my son that I just can't seem to write any blog posts. He's going to Hollywood pretty soon. He's writing a screenplay. Everyone in Hollywood has a screenplay. He said: "Well, whenever I can't seem to write, even though I want to write, what I do is just start writing." My son is exactly right about this. This is one of those things that I already knew. And I thank him for teaching/reminding me. LLITTY :::::+:::::

Celebrate the Quarter

There are four real earth holidays that belong to all of us. Two solstices and two equinoxes. Today is the day of the Autumnal Equinox. Now the days will start slowly getting shorter as we head for the holidays. The weather has been indescribably beautiful. There is a full moon. A harvest moon. Which happens rarely on the actual equinox. But it is happening now. Last night I mowed by the light of the harvest moon. Then it clouded up and we actually got thunder and a touch of rain. I looked at the moon through binocs during the day yesterday and it was spectacular. The winter solstice has Christmas. The summer solstice has 4th of july. The vernal equinox has Easter. But what has the autumnal equinox? Labor day? That's a lame holiday. Going back to school? That's already happened. I want to celebrate these four important holidays of the sun. The natural holidays. The calender holidays. The earth's cycle holidays. We all get to celebrate them. Regardless of our culture, race, or religion. These four sun holidays can remind us that we all live on one planet. We all depend on one planet. We have to be good roommates. Race. What is race. The DNA between races amounts to about one tenth of one percent! We are the same. Folks. I want to celebrate the holidays we all naturally own. If you have a deity that you worship and a certain day is his holiday, fine. Don't expect others to respect that day. But four times a year there are these sun holidays. You can't deny them. And say, "Oh I don't believe in the shortest day of the year." We all live and we all die on planet earth. Fed by star Sun. I think we should all be off work and school today.

Utah

Last Monday, on my way back from Alaska, I wound up in Salt Lake City. With a few hours to kill. I had been up all night. I considered sleeping in a chair at the airport. But I was chatting with a ticket agent, that I think remembered me from my Detroit days. He told me how to kill a few hours in Salt Lake. He said the Mormons run a van every hour to "Temple Square" in downtown Salt Lake. It's free, and not usually crowded. From Temple Square, one can walk to other downtown sights and restaurants. So I caught the van for the ride downtown on a beautiful Utah day, surrounded by purple mountains. There was a driver, and a tour guide, and one other passenger along with me. Our tour guide pleasantly chatted with us the whole time. She asked about our religious backgrounds. She told us about Salt Lake City and it's climate and geography. But mostly she talked about the Mormons. How they trekked from Illinois in the early 1800's. How Brigham Young led them as their prophet. How the blight of crickets nearly wiped them out in their second year at the promised land. But God intervened and sent seagulls from California to eat the crickets and the settlers were saved. We were dropped off at the east gate of Temple Square. And we were placed in a "tour" of the temple. The "tour" was the two of us tourists being led around a bit by two young Mormon missionaries. We were taught that the Mormons always have a living prophet to lead them. When he dies, one of his twelve disciples is chosen to be the new live prophet. He is sort of supernatural, like the Pope. I was tempted to ask how many wives he had, but I kept silent. We saw pictures on the wall in the beautiful visitors center. Of the live prophet. Of Brigham Young. Of Jesus Christ. The large picture portrait of Jesus Christ was the most Caucasian depiction of Christ I have ever seen. Jesus looked absolutely Scottish with long red hair and a pasty white face, and very handsome by western standards. We were shown a very lovely model of the temple. This was when we found out that we could not actually enter the temple. Even a Mormon can not enter the temple unless he meets certain criteria. We were shown the first chapel which had the original pews from 1845. It was amazing. All too soon our little tour was over. Our guides, the two young missionaries, strove to get us tourists to sign up to have a local Mormon back home come to our house and convert us to the one and only true religion. I gave them my address and phone and smiled a lot, but I stopped short of setting up an invitation for the conversion. And I told them the truth. That I was 61 years old. And a slow learner with ADHD. And still seeking my relationship with the supernatural world. They said that I must pray more and God will answer me. Sage advice from two twenty year old girls. With the tour over, I wandered around on my own. Just for fun, I approached the temple as if to walk in the huge locked west doors. Of course some volunteers approached me and we chatted. It took forty years of hauling granite, block by heavy block. Forty years of volunteer stone cutting. The temple is perfect and an amazing artifact. A miracle. I stared at it for a long time. There was more to see. But I didn't see it. I slipped away from temple square without seeing Brigham Young's house which is the jewel of the tour. Without seeing the rooftop gardens which are a wonder. Without seeing the oldest and finest grand hotel in Salt Lake which the Mormons bought and restored to it's former splendor. I wandered away from religion as I have always done. I headed to the worldly part of town. I was short on rest and had no energy to learn. I found a lovely Italian restaurant. And a table in a lovely dark corner. I had a long cool meal with lots of caffeine. My thoughts were of missing home, and my dog. And what an adventure Alaska had been. And how utterly thankful I was that it had all happened. And the Mormons who were pioneers crossed the country in a different way than I did. Eighty thousand of them walked from Illinois to Utah. Six thousand died during the journey. Every church in the Mormon system is completely paid for before the first service is held. I had a second diet coke and got out my American Express Card. My journey will soon be over. I 'll probably never find the Supernatural. But once in a while I may touch it.

Ak holic

I just got back from a two week visit to Alaska. I suppose I'll bore you with an essay entitled "what I did on my summer vacation". Guess how many pictures I took. None. I like it when somebody else takes the pictures, and has the camera. Alaska is beautiful. So beautiful in fact, that there are lots of wonderful pictures of it all. You all know what it's like. I wasn't in the cold part, like Fairbanks. I was in the balmy area, Anchorage. I had been to Anchorage a few times before, back around 94. That was when I was a First Officer on the 757. I knew everything back then. All I saw though was Anchorage airport and the hotel where we were laid over, and a bit of the town. The flight from Seattle took about 3 plus hours and you saw nothing at all on the way except frozen tundra. So this recent visit was really seeing Alaska for the first time. I ate salmon almost every day. I saw a moose right by the house I stayed at. I worked on a log cabin, mostly stripping bark. I soloed in a small power boat. I soloed in a canoe. I got a ride in a big Grumman amphibian airplane called an Albatross. I got a ride in a "float plane", a bush plane called a Piper Super Cub. I helped tow logs across the lake to the cabin. I stayed in a tiny log cabin for a few nights. I slept in the Albatross one night. I slept in a beautiful luxurious lake house most nights. On clear days I could see Denali more than 100 miles away and her sister peaks, snow capped. I went to the town of Wasilla several times for supplies. I went to the Alaska State Fair in Palmer. At the fair I watched loggers do some pretty crafty chain saw art with the long mufflers on their saws to protect the ears of the crowd as they carved beavers and bunny rabbits out of logs. But their skill was no better than the expertise of my buddy that I watched free- cutting notches in logs for his cabin. The lake was so clear you could see the bottom details and the fish. The sunsets were so bright you couldn't even look at the reflection in the lake. The nightly campfires were large and fun and kindled by birch bark and fed by birch and spruce logs. I got to sing a bunch of ballads by the fire. There were three guitar players at the fires. I was the third best. There was an amphibian fly-in at the lake on Saturday the 4th. It rained all day. Two Grumman Wigeons flew in. And a Grumman Goose. A couple of Cessna 180's on floats. A couple of Super Cubs. Our hosts provided food and drink for every one. And T shirts. The day after the fly-in the weather improved and we did it all again. Then the weather became clear and sunny for four days and I was back to stripping logs and clearing brush. When I got back to my truck in the pay lot at BWI, the bill was $114. It had taken me 20 hours to get home riding space available. Now I get to go to two fly-ins here in the Md, Pa area this weekend. And I get to hang out with my son before he leaves for California. But I just can't get back on east coast time. And when I close my eyes I still see the log and the hatchet and the bark. And I've got that good kind of ache again. LLITTY :::::_:::::

Plaster is thicker than drywall

well, this is embarrassing. It has been one hell of a long time since I've posted anything here. All winter long I stuck to my rule of doing only one thing a day. If i took out the trash, or did the dishes.....that was it. But now it's summer, and I hosted a party with my son and wife to celebrate birthdays and graduations and plain old swimming in 95 degree heat. I devoted prep time to that, and prep time to getting my airman medical exam renewed. The party got done July 10. The medical exam got completed July 21. There were a couple of rogue parties on the western shore. I'm too old for those. One of them I didn't make it back home from until the following night. I've barely flown the airplane. I've been hiding out from the heat, and hiding out from the world. Lately I've been kind of cleaning up the place for a party I'm having this coming Saturday. Our house and grounds are kind of run down, and all the mowing may not be done in time for Saturday. Our house. Well, it's never been very presentable. We had six dogs, and two have passed away. So we have four dogs. They live in the house with us. They stay cool in summer and warm in winter. They are spoiled. My dog "Jaker" is lying here at my feet as I type. The dogs just make the house dirty. If you want a nice presentable house, leave the dogs outside. But wife and I are not real picky about the housekeeping. The house is never neat and clean. But let me say something. Dogs are better roomates than people. Way, way better. Not even close better. Even when a dog acts badly, they don't mean to. They always love us. I get sick of people after a couple of get togethers and then I need a break. I don't really get sick of the dogs.So it's hard to "slick up" the house for a party. But as far as the dogs, I think it's a fair trade. Besides, I have no choice. My wife is the animal lover. I just follow her lead on that, and almost everything else. I've been married 23 years. My advice to married men is this: think what you want, but do everything your wife's way. It's just easier. My wife makes all the small decisions, like what kind of car we will have. Where we will go to dinner. What chores we need to accomplish. How will we spend our paycheck. I, the "Man" make the big decisions, like whether the US should be in Afghanistan, Red China should be in the United Nations, Obama should run for re-election. I'm very lucky in my marriage, because I chose late and I chose well. My wife has her own identity. She has never used me to define herself. She has never used me to "complete" her life. She has never expected me to "entertain" her. She has enough self esteem that I can go off and do things on my own without her feeling "left out" or "left behind". I think we leave each other alone enough that we don't get on each others nerves. Oh yes, and we have separate bedrooms, and separate bathrooms. That is really important. Don't get me wrong....we don't live in a big fancy house. Remember the four dogs. We live in a one hundred year old farm house, that is sturdy and plain. The walls, windows and siding leak air. The plaster is aging and falling down, and I patch it with dry wall. The exterior always needs painting. It is about 1500 square feet depending on what you call living space. We have 3 bedrooms and 3 baths. One bedroom is tiny. Two baths are tiny. One bath is in need of renovation. All three baths work. But wife and I do have separate living space. When I see my wife in the house in her grubbies, or when I see her in the barn in her chaps, or when I see her in her jeans in the garden, or when I see her cleaned up to go to DC.... I look as long as I can and I can't take my eyes off her. And she's going about her business don't you see. She's not saying, "Lloyd, why don't we ever do anything?" Ah, except tonight: she wanted us to go to "Jimmy's Grill" in Bridgeville. And I was a lazy curmudgeon and wanted to chill and I had already done at least "one" thing today. LLITTY ..... ::::+::::

Geezer Ride

This last Tuesday our farm was visited by six BMW motorcycles and six geezer cool guys. One of the beamers was a Yamaha. Another beamer had a sidecar. These guys had come from various places on the Western Shore. They congregated at the Double T Diner in Annapolis and had breakfast before crossing the bridge. We knew they were coming and son, and wife, and I, all kept a weather eye out for them and we saw the bikes pull in the driveway. Their leader, Doug is an old family friend I have known almost 50 years. But I had never met the other fellows or so I thought. It turns out I did know Mark who had the sidecar. It was one of those times that sociograms cross. Mark is a musician, a pro. And I knew him from my music friends and even have a bit of him on video on my you- tube channel. But I didn't know he was into "air head" motorcycles. Anyway the guys hung out an hour or two and checked out the place and all were invited to the fly-in on Aug 14th. I wanted to ride a few miles with them as they left. I had a lot of trouble starting my little antique Suzuki, but got it going. Two of the biker geezers had already taken off for the western shore, as they had meetings with Doctors, Lawyers, Real Estate Agents, and pills to take and ailments to salve. The other four weren't too crazy about me going along. They had me lead the way and stayed far enough back that they could keep an eye on me, and always claim they didn't know me, and weren't with me. Somehow my little Suzi 425 kept running and made it to Preston, where I pulled off into the Shore Stop, and those big quiet, smooth, expensive, beautiful touring bikes blazed on by with double clicks on their horns to say goodbye. I watched them until they were out of sight. The Suzi made it back the 4 miles home. And I was back in my little isolated world again. For a few minutes I was riding with the big boys, and maybe I can check something off the bucket list. Thanks Doug and all you guys. That is one hell of an Ad Hoc, pick up, we just wanna have fun, tribe. I made five new friends. LLITTY......................::::+::::

The past and future are just illusions

I think the best way to live life is "in the moment". I'm not saying that I do that much. This time of year is my favorite time because I still have autumn to come yet. Autumn is my "real" favorite time. Actually, my favorite time of year is late summer when I feel the first sign of autumn. It might be a breath of cool wind, just a hint, from the north. It might be a tree I notice beginning to change. It might be a store full of school supplies, or a vendor with too early Halloween stuff. It's hard to explain about a favorite time without referring to this "in the moment" concept. You see, this post fourth of July mid summer period means that the dog days of August are around the corner. At that time, Autumn will be next. So since it's hard for me (and everyone else) to live in the moment, I enjoy the time before the moment. Somehow I can be in that moment easier than the "real" moment. Maybe this makes no sense...... but this is really why we like Friday so much. It's not because we like being at work on the fifth day in a row. It's because of Saturday coming. But on Saturday, we'll be too busy doing our Saturday R & R to be "in the moment" and say to ourselves "gosh this is nice, just what I have been looking forward to. I'm happy now". So what I'm saying is that I love the "ides" of July because I'm looking forward to the "dog days" where I can really start looking forward to Autumn. Talk about dwelling on the future. But I'm getting better because I "practice" living in the moment. Right now I'm typing at you and it's what I want to be doing and I'm enjoying it. I "feel like" doing it. Being retired, much of my time is my own and there are few responsibilities which I must dwell on because they loom in the future. Time is a wonderful gift. But alas, the things that we have, we don't value as much as we should. We often wind up overvaluing the things we don't have. It seems I enjoy looking forward to an event more than I enjoy the event itself. This will be true of my "fly-in" on August 14th. If you come and see me here, remind me that my preparations and looking forward are over, and that I can and should "be here now". It will be in the "dog days". My favorite "time". LLITTY...........::::+::::

now that I'm retired, will I run out of things to do?

I want to tell you about a day I had. It was busy for a retired dude, who is naturally lazy. It was last Tuesday, July 6th. The day before my son's birthday and three days before a party we were having for his birthday and graduation and post 4th of July swimming. It was a very hot day in the middle of a heat wave that lasted two weeks. I awoke at 7 and got up at eight. With the parties coming, I resumed the working I had been doing the last few days. I did the dishes. Made coffee. Put in a load of laundry. Went out and picked up the cluttered deck. It was already 93 degrees in the shade. Went back up to my air conditioned bedroom and made a bunch of phone calls, and kind of planned a trip of running errands in the afternoon before the end of the business day. Then back out into the heat to work on my pet project. The project was in the hangar. In the shade which was now 95 degrees. The project was building three small 5' X 5' prefab deck platforms which could be bolted on to my deck in back of the house. But first they would be used as a "stage" in the hangar for three parties. One party in three days. The next would be the fly-in on August 14th. The third, a "coffee house" in mid October, yet to be announced. By then I will be out of money. I'm actually already out of money! The July 10 party is history and it was quite rained on, but not out. We had a great time. And played with the "stage" to stay out of the rain. Anyway back to July 6. So I went out to work in the shade of the hangar building the stage. I had two fans going and the oldies on the CD player. Soon it was time to run those errands. I was covered in sweat so I jumped in the pool with half of my clothes on. Then without lunch I was off to the first errand. It was to the Doc. who was going to write me a letter I need for my FAA flying once- a- year physical. Good news was that my lab work was in and they shot me a copy, and the results were good enough to pass me. Bad news was the Doc had dislocated his artificial hip and was headed for surgery and could not see me or write me a letter. It's a long story, but I really need that letter by July 18th at the latest. And there is no way he can do it. And I feel for him too as he has two replacement hips and as u can imagine, it ain't no pic a nic. Back to my Corolla and the errands. Next I gotta get to the hydraulic shop in Preston and drop off two hoses which will be rebuilt to get my back hoe up and running again. (You never know when you're gonna need to dig a hole). Before I can get to Preston though, something pops up. I see my neighbor digging a big hole in front of his property next to an old building that has collapsed. As I drive by and slow down I realize he must be getting ready to knock down and bury that building. He's got a dump truck he's filling with the dirt. I make a quick decision and a u turn. I drive through the two track in his field and it's so dusty in the drought I'm leaving a plume of smoky dust behind me. He can see me coming a half mile away. He shuts off the excavator and comes down to talk. I ask him if he would like to sell me a load of fill. He says he's very busy. Can I do it now and for cash. I say yes yes. In two minutes he's in that dump truck following me to my house and I'm on the cell phone calling wife and son and house guest and telling them to find all the cash we have. Cookie jar, pizza money, my desk, the bottom of mother's purse. And move the cars out of the driveway--put them anywhere. So the guy dumps the load and it's beautiful clean fill. We pay him and he says he'll try to come to my fly-in. His buddy has a Grumman Cheetah. Now time was getting shorter on my errands. I run in the house. It's so hot I get three beverages. A low carb shake for the lunch I didn't have. A diet coke. and a water. Run back to the Corolla. Off to the the hydraulic place to drop the hoses. But I had to wait about ten minutes, because the guy was in the back and finishing up somebody else and about to tell me he couldn't do it today when I told him I just wanted to drop my hoses off and get them another day. Back into the Corolla and off to Koons Toyota where I was to get a sign off on a repaired tag light bulb. My son had gotten pulled over in the middle of the night for the tag light, and you gotta get it signed off in ten days or else. I wanted to catch the state inspector before he left at 3:55. And I made it. Then off to Pasco before they close. Pasco is one of those battery, alternator, starter, places. I had the starter from my International 574 gas tractor which my mechanic had pulled the day before. The good news was they had an exchange in stock and the clamps I needed. The bad news was the price was north of $200. Credit card. And they locked the door behind me as I walked out at 5. It was 100 degrees out. Next stop was Lowes and they were open for many more hours, so I slowed down and chilled at McD's drive thru with a burger and a coffee and sat in the air conditioned Corolla under a tree by a pond and sort of meditated and made a few phone calls to mentors about what to do about no doctor's letter for my medical certificate. At Lowes I got some joist hangars for my pre fab deck project and a can of white spray paint for the deck chairs, and a solid cement block I needed for my crawl space project. Then I head home. Wife, son, and house guest were in Salisbury celebrating son's birthday at a movie and Outback. When I get home I take the cement block and use it to finally finish an ongoing project in the crawl space and put up the crawl space door. It's nasty and hot in there and now it's done and I jump in the pool with no clothes on. Then I redress and toss those crawl space clothes in the wash, and I paint the deck chairs with the spray paint. Then I mow with the push mower, but it's so dusty I have to wet the ground with the hose and it takes too long and it gets dark on me and I quit. I come in the house and do the dishes for the second time today. Wife and son come home and they brought me a steak from outback. I wolf half of it down and save the rest for breakfast. I go out into the warm night. Son has turned on the pool light and lit three tiki torches. I caution him of open flames in this awful drought. I take my fourth and best swim of the day. And to think.... I usually only do one thing a day. LLITTY ::::+::::

at least let me have my coffee before I have to answer questions

I go to my local McDonalds once a week or so with my dog Jake. My trip is always combined with other errands. I always get one or two "McDoubles". This is a $1. cheeseburger. I never get a drink. So my bill is either$1.06 or $2.12. I eat the meat out of the burger. Jake eats half of the bread, and the rest is thrown away. I always have diet coke and water in the truck. Jake goes nuts when I tell him we're going for a ride. He goes outside and literally runs in circles. When I go to a drive thru there can be no other cars in sight. But when I pull into the restaurant 2 or 3 cars will appear from nowhere and somehow be in front of me. Then one of the cars will spend a long time ordering because he is buying the food for a family reunion of 500 people. Carts and shopping bags full of food are carried out to him. And 500 drinks are passed one by one through his window and into his hand. Jake doesn't mind waiting. Then ironically, when I get my order and drive away, there is never anyone behind me. So if I would have shown up at that moment.... no waiting. I'm used to this. It happens every time. It doesn't bother me at all. But there is something that does bother me. It's when I pull up to the "speaker". Before I can place my order, I must answer a question. "Welcome to McDonalds. Would you like to try our new angus burger?" Does anybody else just hate this? I want to scream at the person waiting on me. But you can't do that. They will spit in your food. And it's not the employees fault. They are told what to say. This making you answer a question also happens at "Outback" and at "Red Robin". Before you can even order your drinks, you must answer the question: "Have you ever been to Red Lobster before?". This is so inane that I want to say something flippant like: "yes I have been here before, but the rules are so important and complicated that you better go over them again, especially what to do in the event of thermonuclear war." But I don't dare be flippant, because of the spitting (or worse) into the food! Just about a week ago my wife and I were in the Giant Food grocery store in Easton. At the checkout, the nice pretty lady said "Do your know about our points system we have with Shell gas stations?". The geezer inside of me took over and politely answered the question. "I'm sure it's great. I don't feel like hearing about it right now. Could I hear about it another time?" She gave me a funny look, but said "OK". And I didn't have to worry about the "spitting or worse". LLITTY. ::::+::::

Lloyd's 115th geezer rant

There's new books about health and diet coming out so fast, there's no way of keeping track of the reviews, let alone reading the books. The internet is such a miraculous thing. It has taken me a long time to just learn the basics of operating a computer. But now I don't watch TV at all. The internet is TV and books combined. If I watch TV, I'm in a really bad funk. Or under the weather. There's a kind of common thread in many of these new diet books. The recognition that obesity, heart disease, and diabetes are on the rise. And we are treating the symptoms of these diseases because we can't treat the cause. We can't treat the cause because we still have a long way to go in understanding the hugely complex metabolic system that is our body. It's the study of life itself. The uptick of these diseases has been in the last 25 to 40 years. Some hypothesize that these diseases are "diseases of civilization". That our "cave man" body is not ready for the flour and concentrated sugars and starches that come from no longer being a hunter/gatherer. No longer living from feast to famine. It's always a feast in the USA. The new diet books will tell you to stay out of the "middle aisles" of the grocery store. Buy the produce and meat from around the edges, but stay away from the "processed" food. The middle aisles are the constant feast with no famine. A feast specializing in foods that were not available to primitive man. A diet that may be bringing on the surge of these diseases. I believe this for the most part. But all I really care about is me. And the things that affect me. Yes I do go to the grocery store and I "hunt and gather" around the outside edges. But I do it for a low carb. diabetes diet, not because of a new "cave man diet" fad. Another reason for the "diseases of civilization" rise is simply that we live so much longer now, that we get a chance to get these diseases. 140 years ago our life expectancy (if we survived birth) was about 40 years. They say that gen X's kids will live to be 100. And they're searching for the "aging" genes in our DNA. And through my reading I have learned that "growth hormones" keep coming into play in the metabolic cycle. And that hormones and enzymes are molecules that act differently in different places and time in the blood or tissue. Book after book is being written about the hormone insulin. Of course it's not just for control of blood sugar! We are coming out of the dark ages in this metabolic cycle knowledge. And we don't agree about the cave man diet theory. We don't "agree". As if science is something a committee decides to agree on! People don't agree on science. Whether it's how the world began, whether man's use of the planet is causing global weather, whether stem cells should be used to further research, whether a low fat diet is best for us, whether caffeine, or wine, or animal fat, is bad for us. We don't know these things. But we will. So why can't people just wait for the knowledge instead of shooting off their mouth. You don't know. So start learning. Don't waste your time teaching me your "dark ages" fears, superstitions and habits. They are not knowledge. They never were.

make me king and i will send down new commandments

I read a piece the other day about social and legal systems. One of the things the writer said was: "You either have a system where people are controlled, or not controlled". The same day a friend e mailed me his opinion that some people want to be told what to do, and other people want to be left alone. These statements are so simple and general, that they are, of course, of little use. We all oversimplify things because of our limited understanding of things. If I had to simplify social and legal systems I would say: "It's the "haves" vs the " have nots". Generalizations do work, if only in defining where ideological differences lie. Whether it's a question of "control" or "not having", there really are not two sides. We all want control. We all want to "have". It's difficult to come up with a set of laws for everyone to live by. Folks are different. In culture, in need, in bias, in strengths, in weaknesses, in mores and morality. No matter what set of rules a society draws up, some won't like the rules. Others will "selectively enforce" the rules. Others will vie to change the rules. Some may want to "revolt" and put in a whole set of rules.
I think we live in interesting times. I think the internet has changed the entire dynamic of how "societies" will come together. Old "black and white" "yes or no" choices are fine perhaps for primitive cultures. Keep it simple. You steal something- we cut off your hand. You don't believe in the current "God" we cut off your head. Occasionally a new tribe comes in and kills us all and we start over again.
This old system has a set of rules called the "Ten Commandments". The Ten Commandments in today's world, just serve to hold us back. We need new commandments. Not sent down from an angry deity. Not anything to do with religion(except of course freedom of religion) Something along the lines of the bill of rights. I feel like I could write a few basic rules, but of course some would not like the new rules. Pretend that you were writing these new rules. What rules would you make? I hate the Ten Commandments, and it would take too long to explain all of the ten commandment's problems here. There are books dedicated to that. I'll just say one thing about the ten commandments which is so egregious I just have to mention it. The first four commandments have to do with "God" making clear that he is in charge, and can not be questioned. So the first 40% of the great ten commandments are written by a God who is extremely insecure in his authority. So insecure that he makes these "worship me" rules first on the list. On my list, I would use "thou shalt not steal". It's valid today. "Thou shalt not steal" also implies that there should be a right to private property. If I made commandments, I would like to have something in there about private property. Except my list would not include women and slaves as property as those old commandments do. Why again do we value the old commandments and want them as a "model" or "starting point" for modern rules? There's another old commandment I would use: the false witness one. I hate liars. So I would use two of the ten. I would want something in my commandments about basic human rights. When I think about my list of rules and how "right" it would be, it would still be subject to the caveats of life and it's gray areas. Let me list a few adjectives that I use to help define life, law and happiness. I've been saying these for years and they are in my wallet and on my wall at my desk. Everything in life is: TEMPORARY, SITUATIONAL, RELATIVE, PERSONAL, and CUMULATIVE. Without understanding the breadth of the gray areas, you can't even scratch the surface of what it means to make laws for mankind. Speaking of dilemmas, I am pro guns, and anti religion. Is there a wing nut wacko group out there for me?

Cult Non Fiction

I was watching some talk news show on TV last night and it must have been a re-run. It was all about a scandal in Washington DC. It was the "C Street" house scandal. I thought it was new news and I even told my wife about it. She, like me, had not heard of it before. Being curious about it I Googled it up and it is an old and ongoing story. Many of the articles were from June of last year which is when the story apparently "peaked". The re-run I saw was on a network whose name I will not mention. But their initials are MSNBC. You probably know all about this already so I won't give you all the details. The story is about this building on C Street in the Capital Hill neighborhood next to the Capital. It is owned by a wing nut religious organization. It's a really posh place and a great location. And they rent rooms to Congressman. Each room has a bath like a little suite. And there are 12 rooms. Some of the Congressmen who live there have had councilling there about marital trouble and some have brought their mistresses there for sex. The building's owners have recently lost their tax exempt status which they were enjoying as a "church". The story is not in the news now and apparently never was much of a big story. But I just love the story so much. It catches the hypocrites in both the church and in the congress! I am so going to learn about this. There's a book out about it (of course). I've got some reading up to do. The building is owned by a fundamental Christian group called the "Family", which dates back to 1935 and the Congressmen who live there are conservatives who are in, or sympathize with, this cult. Their agenda is to slowly and secretly gain power to turn the U.S. into a Christian theocracy. Gosh. Talk about LloydLou having something to take notice of! How the heck did I miss this? These folks are so evil and so powerful. I'm scared and at the same time excited. A new book for my reading list!

All Geezers Talk About is Their Ailments

The existence and popularity of "self help" books is a phenomenon that I see as a window into our culture. It also touches on the recent news topic of health care. This self help culture has completely change my life. Saved my life. There are of course a lot of fad books, and crazy cult books out there. But in any human endeavor there is always 15% of us who want to lie, steal, cheat, take advantage, be violent etc. We all have different ways of dealing with the 15%. I try not to let them ruin the mainstream good stuff. Of course if I've just been mugged, or burglarized, I may not be so rational and may in fact, join the 15% for a while. The self help concept has given me knowledge, if not wisdom. But more importantly it has given me alternative approaches to solving my problems, spiritually, mentally and physically. The best example I have of self help saving my life is my experience with Diabetes. The second best example is my experience with religion. Let's leave religion for another day, another blog post. Diabetes. We all know about it. There's a few million of us who are walking around with it and don't know it. It's now an epidemic. When I got diagnosed, I was far from rational. I was ignorant also. And it was to me, mostly about losing my airman medical certificate. This meant I was grounded and out sick from my job. The mainstream medical community welcomed me into diabetes and this is what they told me: 1. this is a "progressive" disease. It will shorten your life, you'll need more and more medication, eventually you will die from it. 2. there is no cure and never will be. 3. controlling blood glucose levels will help you prolong your life, and the only really good way of having that control is with insulin. As a type 2 diabetic you still make your own insulin, but eventually your pancreas will "burn out" and you will be dependent on insulin injections. 4. As the disease progresses, if you don't do a good job of controlling blood sugar with your insulin, you will go blind from retinopathy, have your feet amputated due to neuropathy complications, have kidney failure and more. 5 don't mess with diets such as low carbohydrate. This is dangerous. Stick to the recommended food pyramid of mostly healthy grains and stay away from the fats. 6. The good news is we are your team of health professionals and we are standing by to check on you as your disease progresses. We have surgeons who can do the amputations for you. And dialysis machines to keep you alive when your kidneys fail. And eye surgeons who can do some operations on your retina to slow the process of your going blind. So this is where I began my journey of learning through my savior: self help. I was lucky. I found a great book right away: "Dr. Bernstein's Diabetes Solution". How I was attracted to that word 'solution'! Dr. Bernstein is an inspiration. He's a type 1 and a low carb diet advocate. He was an engineer from his college days. He was working on solutions to his diabetes but ran into a brick wall with conventional medicine So he went to medical school! He knew the solution was carbs the whole time. He practically invented the little meter that all diabetics use to test blood glucose. The doctors used to do that for the diabetic in the lab, so you used to have to go to the doc, pay for the check up, get a lab slip, go to the lab, just to get a snapshot of your blood glucose for that moment. And the AMA hated giving up that power of controlling the testing of BG. That logic of course still exists today with other tests. The doctor must see you and send you to the lab because you are too stupid to know when you need the test, and you are way too stupid to know what the results mean. Even though the results are clearly explained on your lab report. We have our home test for BG thanks in part to Dr. Bernstein's hard work. My diabetes diagnosis came from the Doc who was giving me a routine airman medical. Next I went to our family doctor. She told me about Type 2 diabetes and showed me the American Diabetes Association diet. She put me on an oral medication to take once a day. She ordered a lab test for me called an H A1c. It's a long term blood glucose test. And she told me to buy a blood glucose meter. So I went out and did these things. I had plenty of time because I was off work. With full pay. But I also read Dr. Bernstein's book. And started eating low carb. Lower even then the Dr. Atkins diet! My H A1c test came back high of course. But my daily "glucose meter" numbers just kept getting better and better. Was it because of the low carb diet or was it the pills I was now taking? Soon I knew the answer and how useless and dangerous to the type 2 diabetic those pills were. The antiquated pills she had prescribed, a derivative of the old "Sulfa" drugs, lower blood sugar by stimulating your already overworked pancreas to make more insulin. But I was in the process of learning that I was "insulin resistant" and adding more insulin would indeed "burn out" the beta cells in my pancreas. In other words, the pills my Doc gave me were making my diabetes worse. Much worse. How could she not know this? And if she didn't know, then don't prescribe. "Do no harm"! So I was mad at that Doc, and I stopped taking those pills. But there's more. Before I finally fired her I asked for one more thing. As I was in a hurry to get that Airman medical certification back, I needed a lower H A1c. So since she was my doctor of record I asked her for a lab slip for a fresh H A1c. She refused because she said it is a waste of time because it's only good every three months at the soonest. So wait three months and take the test. I knew I had read somewhere that this was BS. So I learned about the H A1c and how it works by measuring glucose attached to red blood cells. I learned that changes in daily BG levels affect the test with a recency factor of a weighted average. Results can show changes in as little as one to three weeks. So that was when my Doc was really fired!. But no other Doc would allow me to take the test! For the same wacko reason! So I leaned on a Doc who was a friend and he didn't want to do it either, but he did. Guess what. My new H A1c results--after 3 weeks-- had my number at a level the FAA would accept for flying! A number that was half way to normal non-diabetic numbers! Why didn't all the Docs know about this? They do know, but they play by rules that use old knowledge to prevent being sued! So the next step was to go to a specialist because a family doc knew little about diabetes! An endocrinologist! Now we'll get somewhere. 100 miles away in Wash. D.C. He's a great guy. His wife is the nurse and their matching 2 seat Mercedes cars are shining in the lot. He's real expensive and he and his wife spend 90% of their limited time with me triple checking my insurance. I saw him twice about three months apart, and I fired him. He doesn't care. He has plenty of patients. In fact he was so busy that I saw him about 4 minutes on one visit and maybe six on the next. The reason I fired him is because he's embedded so deeply in a diabetes paradigm that he couldn't see my situation at all. As I tried to quickly explain my journey with high blood glucose he was testing me for neuropathy by using a special wand to touch the bottom of my feet. And he said I was too thin and that if I lost any more weight to call his office immediately. In other words instead of seeing my situation of early diagnosis of poor glucose tolerance and my need for diet and exercise and needing to lose another 15 pounds, he had me sized up with his patients in late stage type 1 diabetes. He wanted me not to lose weight for fear that I was emaciated which is the final and near death situation of metabolic imbalance occurring when Diabetes Mellitus goes untreated. He's one of the best Endocrinologists in the DC area. He wasn't even in the same ballpark with my condition! I liked him though. He was a nice man, but he was working too hard. So the years went by and I found a new family Doc. What I would do was decide what treatment I wanted out of the medical system. Then make up a scenario for the Doc that would make him prescribe what I figured I needed. Low carb is the closest thing I have now to a cure. There is not one single Doc whom I have seen or met who thinks it is safe to go low carb. So my real Docs are on the web and in books. Self help! I took Metformin, another oral pill to help with blood sugar numbers. But recently I had a breakthrough. Having been lax in diet and lazy about testing, my condition got worse and worse till about a month ago. It's when I discovered a new mentor on the internet. The Doc who wrote a book: "Protein Power". I havn't read it, but the guy's blog is my inspiration. Also the book "Good Calories, Bad Calories" by Taube. That is my new bible. This new information has made me "mad as hell" at the medical community. When I get mad I have new strength to diet and test. So I stopped taking the Metformin, because it didn't work anyway and my diet would make the late Dr. Atkins proud! And I seem to have new energy. Enough to write the longest post I've ever written. LloydLou ITTY ... ::::+::::

Feeling Nostalgic

The other day we had a little fly by here at the farm. The airstrip is pretty soft and is closed of course. Our friend made a really nice pass in a beautiful Malibu. Wife took some video which I havn't had a chance to preview. But if we get any footage at all, I'd like to put it up on YouTube. So I was surfing YouTube as I often do, for some back music to go with the vid. I was thinking about the instrumental, "Apache". It was by the Ventures, so I thought. The real story of Apache is too much to tell here. But one of the covers was by "the Shadows". Another long story. But this one Shadows vid was unbelievably cool. It was one of those British TV shows like "top of the pops" or something. The 4 guys were dressed in tuxedos. The 3 guitars were matching fenders. They were not even plugged in as the hit single played. The guys did a very stiff dance move in unison. It was pre Beatles. It is one of the coolest music vids I have ever seen. It's a poor quality as far as focus or grain and it is a copy of a copy of an old videotape. But if you want to see it, go to YouTube and search n98009, which is me. Then it's on my favorites. Or just search "The Shadows". It's so retro, I swear it looks like a new idea........ then I stumbled across another instrumental: "Telstar". Named after a satellite. Whenever I hear this song I just get this flood of memories. I'm a baby boomer. I was in Jr. High, maybe 7th or 8th grade. Telstar was an early satellite. Sputnik was in '57, and explorer 1 in '58 . Telstar was launched atop a Delta Rocket on July 10th 1962, my 13th birthday. When there was a launch from Cape Canaveral sometimes a TV would be put in our classroom so we could watch it at school. We were allowed to actually bring our radios if we had them to school to monitor the progress of the spacecraft. This was a big deal. World War II was only 17 years back and TV was very young. And battery powered portable radio very new too. During that era I had two radios that I remember. The first was a crystal set which was in the shape of a rocket. It would only pick up one or two broadcasts. The second was a transistor set that my dad had loaned me. It was of a type that boomers all remember. It had a 9 volt battery and a plastic case that could be broken down in half. Inside was the new technology of transistors mixed with the older but miniaturized diodes, capacitors, etc. that were soldered together in a little board. Every year that little radio's design got better and better. Soon the little board was littler and would be stacked with another board without the case getting any bigger. Then the soldered wires in the board started becoming strips of metal. Then certain common circuits had the strips of metal and could be manufactured independently for different radios and devices. Electrics had become electronics. Pretty soon they were stamping out the circuits with no solder and no wires. Just this flat circuit board of metal in a pattern. Etch the circuit into a board and pour in the conductor and there was the "printed circuit". The grandfather of the "chip" and Silicon Valley. My old transistor worked, but not well and it was fragile. While Telstar was orbiting and it's song was on the charts, I would go to my friends house in the neighborhood. He built a "Heathkit" HiFI, with the exciting "Stereo" feature. I would lie on the floor of his basement and listen to "Telstar" with the incredible Heathkit cranked up loud thru it's homemade woofers and tweeters. So many of my friends in Jr. High had dad's who worked at NASA. We lived near the Greenbelt Goddard Spaceflight Center outside of DC. Many of those dads were "Rocket Scientists". Before the term was a cliche. We all knew who Robert Goddard was. The rocket pioneer. And we knew about Werner Von Braun. I was in the "Civil Air Patrol" and our old World War II aviation books were updated to the sixties. When I completed the program, like becoming an "Eagle Scout", I had completed the final area of study known as "The Dawning Space Age". Our meetings were held at the "Robert Goddard Jr. High". My brother bought a "Heathkit" short wave kit. I worked on it with him. We borrowed a soldering iron. We wired up the board and connected the primitive speaker and D cell batteries and before we knew it we were picking up radio Moscow. We thought it was unbelievable. I told my neighbor about it and he laughed. Over at his house where the basement stereo was he showed me his brother's workbench where he was building a "Color TV" Heathkit. He then showed me a crystal set his brother had built from scratch as a physics project. He was picking up radio Moscow on a razor blade! A few weeks later at that same workbench I built my first model rocket. A rocketeer friend of mine sold me two standard small "Estes" rocket engines for $2. This was no small investment for me. So I took my new rocket engine and some other stuff to my buddy's brother's workbench. I had a new bookcover for school that was like shiny paper. I wrapped that carefully around the tubular little cardboard solid fuel engine. As I wrapped I lightly coated it with glue and created my rocket body. We had paint and balsa from model car work and control line model airplane stuff. I designed and made templates for the fins on paper and then made the fins out of balsa. Made a nose cone out of balsa. The nose cone had a recovery streamer. My entry level rocket was too crude for a parachute. My buddy had a battery powered launcher/igniter. It lit off and flew and I was in the space age. When tenth grade came I was in high school. I started thinking about girls. I started to play guitar and listen to folk singers who were left over from beatniks. I wanted to drive cars and "solo" in an airplane. I forgot about Heathkits and transistors and rocketry. I came of age. And now I realize how wonderfully innocent I was in the "dawning space age". LloydLouITTY ::::+::::

Tea Time in my senile mind

One more political thought I forgot to put in my previous geezer rant. I just gotta get this out into the cybersphere. It's about the Republicans, whom I don't want to pick on because we all know both parties are essentially the same. I just can't understand why the Republican Party would use junk yard dogs and crazies to try to voice their messages. Their appeal is that they are conservative. If Sarah Palin isn't an embarrassment to them now, eventually she will be and they will have to distance themselves from her. Now they have the Tea Party. Don't misunderstand me. I like protest. I like civil disobedience. I like to shake up the power structure. I like the folks in power to know that they can be overthrown. But abuse and violence over health care? Sarah Palin and the Tea Party are a one-two punch that seems to dent the "respectability" of the GOP. The Democrats have always had crazies so it's built into their system. They've never met a wacko fringe group they wouldn't welcome into their party. Votes is votes. Promise them anything. I can think of two wacko fringe groups that the GOP has had associated with them in the past, that they can not count on. The gun rights folks and the religious right. Make no mistake. These groups are extremely well organized and, unlike the Tea Party, they actually have an agenda that is written down and they clearly know what they want. No party can count on them because they are "one issue" voters. Democrat or Republican, if you promise to help them get what they want, you will get their vote. It almost seems like the Republicans are desperate if they must hitch Palin and the Tea Party to their wagon. Talk about a toxic fringe. How can it help them? They've always had more "class" then the Dems and they were supposed to be the brakes and the voice of reason. The two parties are just melding into one another and the issues are all out on the web and the whole electorate is now just about ten thousand little "tribes" of voters with their own little manifestos. My pet issues are split between the parties. And everyone I talk to is in the same boat. What is the Tea Party? I guarantee it is not about health care. The rich have the most to lose in the health care fiasco. Protesters in the street are not rich. The Tea Party is made up of people who are mad. And they want to lash out and hurt somebody. They are unhappy, they are hurting. What are they mad about? The biggest thing they are mad about is that there is a black president. The next biggest thing they are mad about is that our government is becoming more socialistic. And they are seeing a loss of "traditional values". They're afraid that their children won't grow up in the "wonderful free America" that they grew up in. They don't like gays and minorities, and non-Christians. If I'm wrong about the Tea Party, I need someone to explain to me what they want, what they stand for. The alliance between the Tea Party and the GOP is bad for both groups:. It's bad for the Tea Party because the Republicans are using them much like pawns in a chess game. In chess, the pawns are your front lines. They are very much in play as the game begins. When you move a pawn, it's called "promoting a pawn". So the Tea Party is in play for the GOP and they have been promoted into the media spotlight. But later in the game the pawns are sacrificed, and gone. It's bad for the GOP because they are using a radical group that will not be entirely dependable and controllable. Remember way back in '69 the Rolling Stones had a big concert which was supposed to be the epitome of Rock. It was held at a race track in California. Some stoned genius hired the Hells Angels to be security. Bad idea. Ya think? That was the end of the peace, love, flower child image that at least part of the hip generation had. Like Dr. Frankenstein, they lost control of the monster. So the beat generation got their image tarnished badly. Alas, this Tea Party will tarnish the Republicans. LLITTY ::::+::::

At least I'm not talkin' religion

I'm feeling the urge to talk a little politics. I know, bad idea. The Health Care Bill. Or bills as it was. I don't have a real side on this because I don't really know what is in the bill. It's a foot tall of regular sheets of paper. The add on bill is around an inch tall. So I'm gonna say general things about the issue. I didn't care if it passed or not. The way I figure it if it passed, fine. Health care for everyone including the needy. If it hadn't have passed, that's OK too because obviously it had some more tweaking to go. I can't understand what everyone is so upset about, or so happy about, if we don't know about the actual bill. I have friends who say what they don't like about it. But I know they haven't read it. Each side of the argument describes the bill differently. So I'm not going to talk about nuts and bolts because it's folly. What I've learned from the sharpshooter media is that if you like the bill, you're allowing Congress to bankrupt our country and turn it into a socialist state. If you don't like the bill, your a greedy selfish person, who is against the greatest progress our country has made since winning the space race, and/or drowning the Soviet Union. Now a little of my two cents. I always get suspicious when someone tries to "hurry along" a deal. If it's a good deal fine, then why hurry? What possible reason after 50 years of trying would we have to "shove" this through? Ever had a used car salesman try to sell you a car? It has to be now preferably before you drive it. Ever had a Realtor say better put in your offer because there are other folks interested, so Hurry! When I feel that pressure I just back away. Shame on Obama. He promised to work the aisles. And if you don't want the bill to pass and you want public opinion on your side, don't make up stuff like "death squads". You should know that will backfire. It seemed odd to me that after the bill passed, then we heard a lot from both sides about those things in the bill that the two sides did both want. Seems like that list of things should have been the starting point for the whole debate. And the name calling and the threats regardless of who shouted at who cast a bad light on the entire legislature. Don't cross that line. You took an oath. Be civil. It's a debate. So debate. No ad hominem attacks. This is not Junior High. I'm registered as a Republican, but to me both parties are the same. But I got a survey from the local or state Republicans the other day. It was kind of an opinion poll. The questions were phrased so that no matter what I answered in the multiple choice the result would be that I followed the conservative party line. One of the questions asked me about "Traditional Values". I don't know what that means. What traditional values? Segregation? Women's place in the home? America must be the best country on the planet in all things no matter what? No gays allowed? I made a few write-in answers and sent the form in. I'm pro guns, but they didn't ask about the Second Amendment. I spent a career as an airline pilot, and most of the pilots were very conservative. Oddly, many were Democrats. It's because of the union we were all in. I'm kind of a liberal in some social ways, and an atheist. So when cockpit talk got a little heated I would always change the subject to the union. This we could agree on. And we voted as a bloc for whom ever helped our cause. Almost always the Democrats. I've always been an AFL-CIO man since I was eighteen and started paying my first dues and carried my first card, long before I was a professional pilot. I was in the IBFO. The International Brotherhood of Firemen and Oilers. I earned enough money to be a Republican. But I always backed the union. Even when they were wrong. On this health care thing, sorry to all my dear conservative friends, but I gotta close with this: Both parties tax and spend and do anything they can do to stay in power, get re-elected, get their pet projects in. Both parties need to be voted out. But they won't be because we will all just vote our pocketbooks. We let them buy our votes. If they're both going to tax and spend and they will: I'd rather have a trillion dollar health care system than a trillion dollar war. War has a price more than dollars.

accidently like an anti

My cell phone is off and on charge while i take a break from communication. It charges up really fast which is a bad sign. It means I have cooked the little lithium ion battery. My wife's cell phone was also in need of a battery. A battery costs as much as a phone. So we went on a snowy outing in the trusty Jeep and got her a new phone. I'm always confused by the cell phone rules and customs and marketing. Some of my questions may sound like a geezer rant. Do you think? Why must all the cell phones have a camera? Why does cell phone usage require a contract? Why, until recently, were all the charging device plugs non standardized? Why was the internet $30 per month on the phone my wife liked, but only $10 on a less smart phone? Why are the buttons so small on the keyboards? Do we really want our phones to talk to us?
The biggest problem to me seems to be the feature creep that makes the phone so complicated doing things that we could do better at home or at work, with a computer. I predict that in a few years this feature creep will yield us an amazing portable device. It will be a sort of net book small lap top cell phone thing that will so do everything. It will be on the net via satellite, the phone the same way, have everything a smart phone has of course, but much more. you won't need a contract except to get to the satellite. Of course it will have a great camera! Because in a few years there will be a law that all portable devices must have a camera. We all know this "do it all" cell phone is coming, and from what i saw at the Verizon store, it's mostly here. So? Here's the rest of my prediction: At some point after the "personal portable satellite computer communication tool is in all of our hands, and has become a "mine's bigger than yours" status symbol, a new discovery will be made. A genius in Silicon Valley or Madison Avenue will "invent" something really cool. It will be the newest rage. The genius will invent a communication device so clean and simple everyone will want one.... to go with their other equipment. It will be a phone. Just a phone. Not even a camera! You'll just pick it up to call someone and that's all you'll do with it. Then you can put it back in your pocket or purse and get back to taking pictures or videos or writing texts or e mails. It's a great concept. I know it's too radical an idea now. We're just not ready for it. LLITTY ::::+::::

Half Quarter

I keep getting these little signs and signals and hints of Spring. My friends are saying "I'm ready for Spring". But isn't it too soon to start counting the days and wishing our short lives away as we wait for something in the future which will be better than "the now" that we have? I am wishing for Spring, but by God, I'm enjoying the "now". I've got patches of green in the grass. And coming up though my cheap asphalt. Our cold house crisis we have every year has eased off. Temps are seasonal finally. I guess we could say that the worst of the winter is over. I suspect we'll get a big storm or two before it's all over. During the below average temperatures I worked on tightening up our leaky old farmhouse. I put bales of straw against the north wall. I blocked off two rooms for the winter. We had the electrician come last week and install two new 220 volt heaters. I'm building a door for the pantry. Wife sleeps with a GreatDane that weighs more than her. The dog is a bed hog and likes to cozy up, so at least wife is warm at night. But if I go in to kiss wife goodnight, the Dane puts her big head between us and gives me a little growl. It's OK, I can catch a kiss and hug passing in the hall later. My airstrip got kind of soggy and is slowly getting firmer. It needs no rain and warmer temps to really dry out. I have some nice plans for our garden this season and I plan to start early. I plan to celebrate Groundhog day. This is a serious holiday for a calender worshiper like me. It's what's called a "half quarter". It falls between the Winter Solstice and the March 21st equinox. This is a holiday as old as the rest of the seasonal feasts. A few years back I actually went to Punxutawney in PA for the celebration. It was damned cold. After being out in the snow and cold out at Gobbler's Nob or whatever they call it for a few hours, I really didn't give a s___ what the Groundhog did. While the tourists are freezing their asses off on the hill waiting for "Phil" the Hog, the locals are celebrating in the town, which is a few miles away. In town there are old hotels, and a bookshop, and cafes, and booths outdoors with ice sculpture, and music and ice skating. It's pretty small, and some of the locals kind of protest your being there, and some want to get your money one way or another, and some love to see you and are proud of their town's fame. I have a plan for my Groundhog Day. I will get up just before dawn. I will have a nice big pot of coffee. I will add some whiskey. I will bundle up and smile. I will take my dog Jake (he looks and acts a bit like a large groundhog) and I will go out and watch the sunrise. A large fire will already be laid in my fire pit. So if it's not raining I'll have a nice fire. We'll see whether Jake sees his shadow. After a few hours of winter fun, I shall go back to bed. Wake up for the lovely sunset and write here and tell you about it. Of course you are invited. Drive way out here on a Tuesday to be up half the night in the cold. But that's exactly what I did when I went to Punxutawney. It's kind of like Times Square. Everybody should do it once.
LLITTY :::::+:::::

Alphabet Groups

I was considering joining the AARP. It's the retirement organization. I'm retired, so why not. But I'm having second thoughts because of something I saw on Fox News. The guy was saying that AARP wants a big government option in the health care plan, so they can sell more "fill the gap" insurance to their members. He said AARP was no longer an advocate for old folks. Just another business who wants them as a customer. So I didn't join. I can see both sides of the health care question. I can see both sides of all the issues in politics today. I'm not a Democrat or a Republican. I wish the Congress would enact an Amendment limiting all terms of office to four years. With elections every 2 years. Let's stop having professional politicians. Also let's have each bill in Congress stand alone. One Bill, one issue. No piggybacking, no trading favors on another bill. Just the Bill on it's own merits. I digress. Back to alphabet groups. I was considering joining the ADA. That's the American Diabetes Association. I've never joined and I guess I never will. I suspect it's even dirtier than the AARP. The ADA recommended diet includes enough carbohydrates to put most type 2 diabetics on insulin. Their recommended diet will make a type 2 into a type 1 and eventually kill him. The ADA is actually promoting diabetes. Next is ALPA. The airline pilot's association. I was a proud member for 29 years. But unfortunately, once I retired, they dropped me like a rock. No paycheck to "check off" dues from, no union. Next, the CAP. Civil Air Patrol. I've been a member off and on and now mostly off. I was a "Cadet" member and got a lot out of that program. I got my start in aviation there. I owe CAP. But the last few times I've dealt with the program, there was so much red tape to become a CAP pilot, that it didn't seem to be worth the time. I want to take young people up flying though. That takes me to the next group. The EAA. The experimental airplane association. I was in this once and to me it was just a magazine subscription. I wasn't building an airplane and I never will. But the EAA has a program to fly young people. It's called "Young Eagles". If you want to help in their young eagles program you must obviously join EAA. So we have a hit. I gonna rejoin EAA. But I'm not crazy about them for other reasons. Next we have the AOPA. Aircraft ownwers and pilots assoc. I just sent in my renewal dues of $39. This organization is pretty big. A few hundred thousand members. A lobby to help General Aviation. I wish they had the "Young Eagles" program instead of EAA. I hope the AOPA isn't "corrupt" like the ADA and the AARP but I suspect AOPA is big enough to have that sort of problem. The NRA, national rifle assoc. has sent me very glossy and nice junk mail forgiving me for letting my membership lapse, and reminding me of what a powerful lobby they are, and offering me a nice tote bag, if I will only rejoin. We'll see. I have limited budget for dues. Next, the SSA. (the soaring society). If you fly gliders you are told over and over to join this. You must be a member to receive "awards" as you progress in your gliding career. When I took lessons, the school told me I "had to join" SSA or could not fly there. So I joined and it was a magazine subscription. Now it's long expired, but I still fly gliders. Some day I may take a trip out west and go for one of those awards. Called "Diamonds". If that happens, I'll rejoin SSA. I thought that the SSA was the nicest, most innocent Alphabet group. Just guys floating around in quiet little gliders! But it turns out a few years ago their Chief Financial Officer ran off with $140,000. They had to boot him and then re-boot the organization. Maybe I'm just not a "joiner".