Today.

Today was a really good day - good enough that I started up the motorcycle and rode in to work.

It was a great morning until some arzl on my right put on his signal, looked at me in his mirror and then proceeded to move over into space that I was already occupying.  Loud air horn got me a middle finger sign.

I did not shoot him.  No pistol, and anyhow I know that that isn't a really good educational tool for such behavior, although it does tend to put a stop to it (at least for that one arzl - there are always more....)  I thought a few unkind things things about his putative parentage, moved over, and went on my way - nothing will get my goat today, it is a lovely day, warm, the bike feels good, traffic is flowing and all is right with the world.

That lasted until I got to work and discovered that everything I had set up last week to run over the weekend failed to run.  Crap - now I gotta figure out why that has to be that way..

Along the way, I discovered that our efforts to capitalize on our help desk personnel by borrowing them from sister organizations was somewhat less than satisfactory - apparently sister org teaches them to rigidly follow a procedure and ignore the caller's statements about what is going on. I managed not to become impolite, but I got pretty terse before he agreed to do what I had asked him 15 minutes earlier to do.

Soon, however, I get to go outside on the roof, get my jacket out, put on my gloves and motorcycle home - and I do look forward to it.  Great weather at least for today.  Gotta get those last rides in.  On the weekend I need to get Big Suzi over to Jack to get checked out, and then think about getting her sold.  I really don't want all that badly to ride anything that heavy any more.

The year is winding down - less than 45 days before I start writing checks with the wrong year on them again - or until I would be doing that if I wrote checks any more, which I do not. Along the way, I noted some of my classmates have been married longer than I have (I was a late starter) and some are even older, but still alive.  All too many no longer live - a consequence of the aging process, I know, but the table at the last reunion with deceased's pictures was entirely too full to suit me - some good folks that are no longer have with us.

Tomorrow I gotta get serious about recovering something that has disappeared on me (again) - to see if I can convince it to come back to life.  It seems some stuff about which I had no knowledge depends on the stuff I can no longer pull down from elsewhere, so I gotta reverse-engineer what I can find and get it working again.  Life is never dull.

Things at the home of the newlywed daughter are going ell - Big Ronnie is back to work, Little Ronnie is doing well at school, and Jessica seems to be doing well.  Once in a while things do go better than one has a right to hope.  I'll talk more about that whole circumstance at a later date - but it has been interesting to watch it grow - and I am well pleased at this point.

Once in a while, my dreams take me to strange places - back to Germany, back to an earlier day and an old flame, back to school, etc.  The past week has been full of this - someone's trying to tell me something, but I cannot imagine what it is.  If I figure it out, I guess I'll just have to write about it. Meanwhile, I have phone calls to make to check on a few folks about whom I still care.

Over my lifetime so far, I've missed out on good things because of my own insecurities and perceived limitations, and screwed up in more ways than I could have imagined existed. For all of that, life is a good place, and the regrets I have, while many, are not great enough to make me do more than occasionally wish to hunt someone down an deliver an apology that I believe to be owed. It is always good to call some people that I've not seen in years and catch up - whatever I might happen to be I owe at least part to others that I have met, experiences we have shared, and answers to questions that I would never have been able to make by myself alone.  The most valuable things are often not really mine, but things shared with another.

I think it is time for me to pack it up and to go home. Y'all take care.

Friday, the 8th. It only FEELS like the 13th.

My desktop PC at work is still hosed.  Oracle won't work on it.  That means that the 24 or so automated processes that run every day haven't run since Wednesday. Maybe it is time to move them downstairs to a PC in the data center / server farm room.  I guess I ought to do that before I piss away another day trying to fix this POS outdated PC that I am stuck with....

Normally, Friday when it isnot raining would be a motorcycle day - but when I went outside this morning it was pretty chilly,and I decided t drive the old Volvo instead.  I would rather ride, but riding cold isn't much fun, and at my age, I don't need to do things that aren't fun when they are supposed to be fun.  Sunday, there's a Breakfast ride with the Ramblers that I plan on riding - hope it doesn't get colder before that.

I do plan to ride some more before it gets too cold.  Years ago, I rode all winter, but I was younger then, and had a snowmobile suit that (mostly) kept me warmer than necessary.  Maybe I should get another one - we'll have to see about that.

Anyhow, I think I will move all the automated stuff downstairs, and then get the miscellaneous pickups and sendings caught up -  then I can spend the rest of the day doing something else - like trying to make this XP POS on my desk actually talk to Oracle.

I just bought another KVM switch (powered) to replace the unpowered one I bought a while back that has gone all flakey on me.  Brought it in and discovered I had mismatched video connectors, so I ordered the needed gender menders.  They arrived yesterday.

Today I came in, hooked it all up anticipating great results, no more lost mouses - and what I got was no display - the monitor switching stuff does not work. Damn damn DAMN!  I knew everything was going too well.  Now I gotta go back to the vendor, and am still stuck with a flakey KVM switch.  I should have known it wasn't too late for something else to turn to poop for me.

Well, now I have to go downstairs and get these auto-scheduled things to run again, and get all the back stuff caught up, or I'll have a double shift facing me on Monday.

I plan this weekend to pull down everything Greywolf has ever written and store it on the Big Server.  His RosFic is too good for it to be hidden away. It will be a PITA - some of his stuff is pretty large, but I need to do it for myself and for posterity.

I'm going downstairs to curse at hardware.  Have a great rest-of-the-day, y'all.

Monday Morning at zero dark 30

I should be asleep, but here's what's not happening - sleep.

The week has been productive, mostly - couple of good motorcycle days, and progress on a messy bug. I'm pretty well satisfied with results, and am headed into a week with neither medical nor other sorts of interruptions.  Possible schedule alterations, but not much else.

Today I took off this afternoon to take the a ride.  It was brisk, but not really cold, and I cracked off about 80 miles without stopping except for lights and such.  Great ride, albeit different - I took a route I haven't take on the new bike yet, and it was really a fun run.  I ended up in Pennsylvania (no I did not take my helmet off!) and rode by to salute Susan's blue heron on the way home.  Altogether pleasant except for the fact that the sun was in my eyes.  It might be time to fashion some kind of a visor for this helmet.

This entire weekend was peaceful.  Jessica and both Ronnies were over, and Big Ronnie cleaned out Jessica's car, during which process he found stuff that the previous owner had  lost, and gave Jessica a fit for not having ever cleaned it out.  Doubtless he'd've been giving me a fit had he been cleaning my car, but so far my car retains it's very own personality, unmarred by neat freaks.

Ronnie seems really good - fate is throwing crap at him, and not making his return to the fold easy or pleasant but he is weathering the storm(s) and rolling with it.  I do not envy him some of what must be learned and experienced, but I know he'll be OK eventually.  Jessica is over the moon - the family is finally complete, and Little Ronnie is loving life - his deportment at school is improving as well as his attention to his work.  Looks to me like a win-win for all of us.

Last weekend in Las Vegas I met someone with whom I have been in touch for several years but had never met.  Through various online groups I meet people this way, and it was very good to meet the actual person and family - I had a great time, wish I had had more time, but they were headed into a really busy time in a different state. It is really good to be able to put faces and places together with the names (or 'nyms) with whom I have been in contact over the years.  At least this person stayed alive - another died before we ever had a chance to meet, and it really bothered me at the time.

Someone in Las Vegas asked me when I would retire, and I thought about ti, and decided maybe sometime before I reach 80, which isn't as far a way as I might wish.  Naturally, I am interested in pensions (not that mine will amount to all that much unless I can last more than 10-15 years) but I also really enjoy what I do, and as long as someone is willing to pay me to do things I like, why should I stop doing them?

Seeing all my family members last weekend was really good - while my parents were Pittsburgh kids, many of my relatives have moved to places like Los Angeles, Texas, South Carolina and Florida - and getting together is no longer as frequent or as easy as it once was, and I find that I miss all these folks. We are all getting older, and one day they'll not be there to miss any more (along with myself, who also one day will be gone) so I rather cherish any opportunity to be with them.

One thing about Las Vegas, though - everything is to big and too far apart for old fat guys with sore knees and legs!  I actually lost weight in Las Vegas!

Well, I am hoping for motorcycle weather when I ariise - right now, it's late and if I don't soon get to bed it will be time to arise!

Be well, y'all....

Death of the Second Amendment

I wish I thought that this was premature, but I fear it is not.

The Supreme Court refused to hear a case from Maryland, where the right has been severely abridged for many years.

In case you don't live in Maryland, right now it is necessary to get a license to think about buying a handgun.  After you get the license, you still have  the paperwork and delays for which Maryland has become notorious - but you have to spend more money, get training (not a bad idea, but redundant for many of us, and costly for all of us) the survive a background check - then see if you can find a gun dealer that has what you want - or learn that the gun dealers are flummoxed by the way the rules are written.

An example of the last - I wanted to buy a Smith & Wesson Governor - a popular revolver that chambers .45 Long Colt and .410 shotgun shells.  It is a great home defense weapon, less likely to kill someone outside the house than most, and noisy as hell.  I know of folks in Texas thats hoot skeet with them, even. Right now, no dealer will even order one for me - because the law disallows drum magazines on shotguns but is written in a way that does not specifically call out long guns, and in a way that uses 'revolving cylinder' as a term describing the mechanism that is prohibited which, of course, could include any revolver-type handgun as well. Taurus is also impacted - ordering a Judge might be problematic, as they also are chambered for .45 Long and .410 shot.

Weapons are being banned not because of some function (like select fire) but because they look like they may be easy to use. There is not a particle of (functional) difference between a long-range hunting rifle and a sniper rifle - except perhaps for appearance.  Even one of my .22 rifles qualifies as an assault weapon by some readings.

Were it not for the fact that my family and friends are here, I'd be looking really hard at Texas right about now, or some other place that has legislators smart enough to understand that the primary identifying characteristic of a criminal (or a crazy) is a pronounced lack of interest in laws and in obeying laws.  Our legislators appear to think that if they make enough laws, at some point the criminals and crazies will count them up and say to themselves "Oh shit - this new law makes 147 (or pick your own number) laws - maybe I should start paying attention to them."  It just won't happen.

Many ideal defense weapons are being made unavailable for the most ridiculous of reasons.

An example occurred several years back - in the small .32 caliber (semi)automatic pistol market. There are several fine .32 ACP pistols made, among them Beretta, Seecamp and too many others to mention. KelTec began making one - a very nice little pocketable pistol, reasonably accurate, well made and decently priced. This pistol never made it onto the Maryland List of Things You May Own because, they said, it was too small.  Seecamp, which is smaller, made it onto the list. Seecamp sent representatives to appear before the committee that determines what you may own to plead the case and KelTec did not - they are a small firm noted for good design and manufacture and reasonable price and apparently thought that the money to do so would be better spent improving the products.  The P-32 is, so far as I know, forbidden for Marylanders to own.

It really is not about guns at all - it is about legislators who think that, having been elected, they get to think for us and determine for us what is good and proper for us to own.  They have bodyguards and don't have to dirty their hands protecting their homes and families. Mere citizens like the rest of us do not have  that luxury, but it does not make the obligation to protect our homes and families and less, it just makes it our personal responsibility unless we can afford to hire the guards - which the legislators get from the state (which is us, and our taxes.)

Some folk will say 'It is only property' - but I don't consider wife and children to be property, and I  doubt there are many who do.  It has already been established in court many times that the job of police is to show up after Something Bad has happened, collect spent brass, draw chalk marks around the bodies and gather up anything that might help them catch whoever it was that did the terrible deed. Their responsibility does not include protecting folks unless they happen to be around when something nefarious is being perpetrated, and they are not charged with preventing any crime except one that they see happening. Indeed, they arenot permitted to act on imputed intent - they have to wait.

The Powers that Be in Maryland will not rest until citizens are disarmed. If I were young and single, I'd begone already.

Is there anyone out there that believes that more laws are the answer to anything?

Furloughs

I have been thinking about all the folks on furlough.

I have been furloughed - three years running for a total of 24 or so days.

I had to be available (essential employee).

I got no back pay.

I got no pats on the back for the work I did while I was not being paid.

I had no expectation of being paid for those days I was not at work.

I just heard that it is likely that the federal workers who are on furlough will likely get back pay when they return - for the time that they did not work!   

How does this happen?  I thought they were furloughed because the gummint could not pay them - where is the money to pay them back pay going to be found (of course I know - it will come out of our paycheck taxes, yours and mine....) when they return?

I do not wish them ill, I really do not.  I understand tight money.

I don't understand money that magically appears after it could not be found.

I don't understand paying folks not to show up.

Something about all of this is clanging a really discordant bell in my head.

And I am wondering - should I now sue the City of Baltimore for back pay for all those days I was forced to take off? Gummint is  gummint, or?

It's just a little but pissed that I am - but the longer it goes on, the worse it will get - and the harder the gummint will come after the rest of us to appease the federal drones.

What do you think?

TGIF Day!

Well, Friday has arrived, and started off with a visit to my physician.  He's a good guy, and we have known him for probably 30 years or so.  His MA took my blood  pressure and found it elevated.  He took it and found it low (for me) - so we both reassured the MA that she's still got 'it.'  I hope he doesn't have to explain it later today - she's a newbie and might not know about old standing jokes.  She managed to give me a B12 shot without giving me any pain, and we set up an appointment to come back in 6 weeks. He also reminded me that I need to get an upper endoscopy to see if I still have ulcers or something.  You all have to know how much I look forward to endoscopies.....

So I was a little late.  Rain was all over today, and we have a couple of small lakes in the back yard.  The motorcycles got wet (only a little) and getting the newspaper this morning was an adventure, running (actually walking slowly) between raindrops was the order of the day.  I got a little wet, but dried off before leaving to go to the doctor, where I got wet, and dried off before getting to work. I parked inside today, so I didn't get wet any more.  Fridays around here are pretty quiet, particularly before a 3-day weekend.

I finished up (again) the project for that outside consultant, logging on late last night to ship him the latest data - all 1.02 gigabytes of it (actually compressed down to 113,996 kb using WinRAR, a really useful tool) via my Google drive - which reminds me I need to clean that one up!

Something messed with my Chrome apps - I need to rebuild that.  Happily I remember what I use, mostly.  I have been amazed at how useful a lot of the apps and extensions for Google's Chrome have become - there are some I have come to depend on, and I hadn't given much credence to Google's approach.  Looks to me as if they got a lot right!

I fear there won't be much done today that is mission-oriented - too many other things that can be cleaned up.  Next week I have to start cleaning up to Clarion apps that I still have active, killing off the ones that aren't used, and upgrading at least to Version 8 anything that isn't already there.  I have Version 9 installed, but haven't had a chance to mess with it much. I also need to purge off a bunch of unused .bat files, SQL scripts and FTP scripts - there is so much that was put out there and has fallen into disuse that if I don't do this soon I'll be breaking more stuff than I fix....  I need to get all this stuff into a book somehow, and some of it needs major cleanup and simplification.  Always time to screw with it, never time to get it right - story of my life....

On another topic, has anyone that reads this ever heard of Heather Rigdon?  I ask because some nice person at the office gave me some of her MP3s and I am enjoying them a whole lot. I also discovered that the Beth Nielsen Chapman collection I thought I had lost just got hidden on a damaged drive on the big server, and I was able to recover all of it, which made me pretty happy. Now I have to transfer some of it over here, for use on the days I can make noise and not get bitched at by folks with tin ears.

In going through some old jump drives I have found some music that I had thought was lost - including a bit by Steve Miller at the end of a live concert that merged All Blues with  C. C. Rider   and some original lyrics to create a long track that was really great, very jazzy and funny, too. If anyone wants anything that I might have, leave a comment and I'll see what I can do for you.

Having discovered that by BluRay player is internet-smart, and that there are all kinds of movies available, I am thinking of killing off most of my movie collections and reclaiming some server space so maybe I won't have to buy drives so damned often to keep everything happy. I am continually amazed at what can be found on YouTube as well as some of the other services just kicking the BuRay box around a bit.  I had built a whole media player desktop, and find I don't use it at all - I can do everything media-wise I ever want to do just using the BluRay player. Now I have to get it away from where it is  and take it somewhere where it will be useful - like  down into the family room, maybe....

My watch must be busted - it sure is taking a long time to get this day over.  I'll be in Sunday and Monday (both scheduled days off) to cover a 3-11 shift that would otherwise be uncovered, because I am such a Nice Person - and because it will supply the comp time I need to take that weekend in Las Vegas in a week or two and not use any precious annual leave.

I'm trying hard to stay away from politics because some of what is going on makes me angry (and profane) and I don't want any nastiness to leak into this - so I'll save it for a time I want to show just how damn nasty I am capable of being when profoundly irritated.   But not today - I don't have the energy.

What I really need is a day that is about 32 hours long - then I could get lots done and still sleep for 9 or so hours.  As it is, I get to bed usually between 1 and 2 (my physician says older adults need bedtimes, too - but nobody can stay up around our house long enough to see that I observe any established bedtime.) and wake up at 7:45 when my phone says it is time to get up, make coffee, and do Other Things to get ready for the day.  What I should do is get up an hour earlier and walk around the block a time or two. No point taking any bets on when this will start, as I don't think it will any time soon.

I really hate this time of year, when I come home in the darn - it removes from me any desire to do anything after I eat something - anything, that is, besides park my arse in the chair read and/or watch the TeeVee.  I don't lose a whole lot of weight that way....

While I was off doing some real work a moment ago, my mind wandered into the place where the various ladies I have known over the last 70+ years have been stored, and I remembered a funny thing or two about a couple of them.  Then I seemed to wake up and realized where I was - and decided it wasn't time to visit those spaces.  Usually I visit them late at night when nobody is around to watch my face.  Maybe one day I'll talk about them, too. But not today.

I've been reading Augusten Burroughs, a brother to John Elder Robison, whose stuff I have also been reading.  Robison has Aspergers (which has, if I recall aright, been rendered no-longer-a word by the folks who decide such things) and is a most interesting person to read and to hear.  I'm not going to say more - if you are curious, read something from either or both - if you are Kindle-smart I might even loan you some of mine if there is a legal way to do that (and I think that there is.)

Any more, I do a log of my reading with my tablet using a Kindle app, or on one of my Windows machines using a Kindle app for Chrome, the browser.  Kindle is set up such that it remembers where you are when you bot a 'book' down.  Turn off the computer you were using, go home (or elsewhere) and get out your laptop (or tablet or Android phone) and fire up the Kindle app, and when it opens,m there is the page you were reading when you put it down.  Most thoughtful - and you can carry a hell of a big library with you, since e-books don't take up much room, and the Chrome app does everything from the Cloud (whateverthehell that means...)  If you hadn't noticed, I'm much impressed by Kindle - particularly by the fact that you don't have to buy one - anything you own can be a Kindle if you need it to be.

I think I've had enough fun, so I'm going to close up shop and go home and see where my lovely wife wants to go for dinner this evening.  Be well, y'all.

It is now Thursday. Imagine that.

Got up this morning not quite so stiff - apparently I am slowly recovering the ability to get over things quickly. If that sounds contradictory, it may be.

Late last night, before going to bed I started a process to get some results this morning for a consultant on a project for my top boss, the Police Commissioner.  The consultant and I have worked for some time with this data, and I have so far managed to get him almost anything he might ask for - but it hasn't alwways been easy.
When I left the office last night, a database was building that would have the latest subset data for the project.  I had thought the one I did the day before would be the last, but I figured out how to get a little more info that will shortcut a lot of effort on the consultant's part, so I asked him if he wanted it, and he did - hence the rebuild of the primary database.

Well, last night I logged in remotely to start a process that would strip the data down to manageable size files for him, secure in the knowledge that it would run about 6 hours and when I arrived everything would be ready to send to him.  Well, that is how it should have happened.  hat actually happened was that part way through the run, Microsoft decided my desktop needed patched, so it downloaded the patches, applied them and booted to box, leaving my process partway finished.  I fear I said a bunch of things better not said in polite society (not that cops are all that polite) and immediately restarted the process.  With luck it will finish before noon and I can get the info out to the man who needs it. I truly wish Micro$oft would let me d3ecide how to do some things....

It is raining, so having the Guzzi down doesn't really distress me.  I have to get a battery ordered today so it will maybe arrive by Saturday so I can have the bike ready for work on Monday.  I had planned a ride with the club on Saturday that would have taken a lot of the day - but the weather folks assure me it will rain all day - and I am no longer excited by riding in the rain.

I have to think of a name for the Guzzi - anyone have any thoughts?  The Suzuki is called "Big Suzi' because it is so big - what should I call the Moto Guzzi?  It is definitely Italian and definitely female and if I knew the name of the girl in the Fiat commercial who is so delicious I would name the bike after her, but I don't know her name.  Somehow "Phyllis" doesn't seem to match the character, and "Susan" would not feel honored if I used her name as she has never liked motorcycles, particularly when they were mine....

Someone come up with a name - if I use it, I'll give screen credit.

Otherwise, not a whole lot new.  I'll be in Las Vegas from 10/25 through 10/28, for the wedding of Sally and Fred (Sally is a first cousin once removed - there are lots of cousins on my mother's side of the family as she was one of six, one of whch had six, one of which had four - Sal is one of those 4) and to meet with a bunch of other cousins that I don't see as often as I wish because they all moved to the left coast, although when they speak, Pittsburgh is still detectable....

I'm looking forward some to the trip - the last time I was in Las Vegas was in July of 1973, when Jamie was born in California. In addition to my beloved cousins, I look forward to meeting for real someone whom I have 'known' from the world of RosFic for some time, so it should be a fun trip, and I should be busy enough to avoid gambling and/or drinking except for the obligatory glass of champagne at the wedding.

I had hoped to take Phyllis with me on this trip, but it was not to be - church jobs make weekends pretty hard to use for personal things. That morning, our friend Jack will be holding down the tenor section in the choir in my absence, and I do appreciate that.

Meanwhile, the phone is ringing, one of our guys is just back from Ireland, and I have to at least appear to be doing some work, so I'll close this one out.  Be well, y'all....

Tuesday. It sucked.

This has been a Tuesday that was a Monday in all normal respects.

It started out decently - I rode the Guzzi to work, and enjoyed every minute of the trip.  I had quite forgot how good it felt to ride a motorcycle that is so much a part of you that you almost put it on and wear it rather than do something so mundane as to get on its back and tell it what to do.

I left late for work and got there a little bit early - a perfect trip in.

It turned to poo when it was time to go home.

I went out on the roof to my motorcycle and out the key in, unlocked the steering, got out my jacket and gloves and put them on and stowed my tablet bag, climbed on, and started it up.

That is, I turned the key and pushed the button.

No lights.  No noise.  Deader than last year's news.

I said a word, then remembered it won't start with the sidestand down, so I put the sidestand up.  Wouldn't start with it up, either, dammit!

I rolled it down into the garage, and started to think about getting it a hotshot - we have hotshot boxes all over the place.  The battery is under the seat.  Bear in mind, the motorcycle is Italian, so anything you thought you knew about where things are normally located will only confuse you.

But the battery, as I knew, was under the seat, so I started to take the seat off. I started to look around and see what I had to make loose to get the seat off. I took off some side covers that didn't need to come off. I found nothing pertaining to the seat under the covers, so I put them back on. The seat still won't come off.  I look in the user manual, and can find nothing about removing the seat.  I look some more - still nothing.  I look all over the motorcycle - and find nothing.  The seat won't budge, there are no bolts - nothing to be seen.

I read the manual end to end, and under helmet lock there is the information I need.  Effing Italians, hiding the seat lock by combining it with the helmet lock - where's the logic in that?  Now the seat's off, and a couple of guys bring me a hotshot box, and it starts.  I shut it down, put the seat back on, and start it up again.

Or try to start it up again.  No go.  Hotshot box, seat off, apply and restart.  This time block at high idle for about 8 minutes while I find helmet, gloves, leather jacket, get dressed, and head for home.  About ten minutes later, the get gas light comes on. Bear in mind I haven't had this so long that I know how far it will go with that little light on, and I have this feeling tonight ain't the night to risk it - so I get off the highway to a gas station, fill it back up, and start it again.  Or try - the damn thing just clicks at me and won't turn....

Push it out of the way, set the sidestand, and call the motor club for a hotshot.  They say in 35 minutes - the guy actually shows in 20, and I'm so happy, I get on the bike to set the center stand, and promptly fall over on the left side.  Allstate Guy helps me pick it up and get it on the center stand, and it starts right up - with a hotshot box.  I start  heading home the rest of the way, secure in the knowledge that I have enough gas.  The rest of the trip is a dream.  I really do love the Guzzi.

So I get home, ride up into the carport and set up to park next to the big Suzuki - and promptly fall over onto the other side from the side I fell over onto when the Allstate guy come. While I'm laying there on the ground, my cell phone rings - it is my lovely wife, wondering if I am home yet. She detects that I am not really thrilled and asks me what has happened.  I tell her I just dropped the damned motorcycle and can't pick it up and probably mumble some profanities just to spice it up.

She offers to call someone to help me pick it up, and I thank her and then hang up so maybe I can breathe again and get my BP under control.

Damon shows up and helps me (actually does most of the work) pick it up, and I scurry around and set the sidestand.  Then Phyllis shows up, and I decide to move the bike to where it should be parked, so I pop the sidestand up and start it - or at least try to start it.  It won't start. By this time, I am beyond pissed! I push it into place and resolve to get a replacement battery - and drive the Volvo tomorrow, on what will be a wonderful motorycle day. The rest of the week, of course, after I have a chance to get a battery, will be rain - including the Saturday that I had planned to go on a ride with the club.

See what I mean about imperfect Tuesdays?

I came inside, got something to eat, and fired up the Toshiba laptop intending to read email and go to bed. Instead I wrote this.

Tomorrow will be better.

Tomorrow will be better.

Tomorrow will dammit be better!

I think it is time to get some sleep, and hope I don't hurt in the morning.

I surely hope that this isn't a Sign that I am supposed to get a toy with more wheels....

G'night, y'all.

Boycott

If some business does something that does not please you, it is your perfect right not to spend your money there.  If you feel strongly about how wrong that business is, tell your friends and ask them to go elsewhere with their money.

Don't think that, because you a mayor or something that that gives you imperial power to decide that that business cannot do business where you are.  Simple disagreement over something does not grant permission to deny folks around you access to a business.  If the majority does not like the business, it will go away when there are no profits to be made.

It is also not your right physically to impede the flow of customers.  Picket if you must, shout slogans, behave in a manner guaranteed to disgust most folks but stay out of their way.  You can complain and demonstrate, but you can't impede.  If you are right, others will join you.  If the business has a better day for your presence it is a good bet that you're on the wrong track.

The week's nonsense about Chick-fil-A started all this - and it seems it gave the place lots of business, indicating that a goodly number of folks either like what they make or disagree with the atheists that did not want to hear what the founder had to say - or maybe both.

Just because you have a different viewpoint does not give you permission to try to destroy the persons or business with whom you disagree.  You might try being nice - they might listen to you.  Get in their faces, and all you'll get is a bunch of angry people facing you.

The simple fact is that many are offended by the mere though of someone's being a devout Christian. That is unfortunate, but it is a fact, however it does not confer upon the hater blanket permission to revile, persecute, attempt to damage or otherwise hinder the Christian - although if you do so he might pray for you.  \

You are free to say that he contributes to organizations for which you have no use.  He is likewise free to say the same about you, although he probably will not.  There are lots of Christians around,'t likely to convert many to your way of thinking, and you are likely to get really irritated and generally pissy about your failure, so why not find some other rope to push?

You can be a Christian, a Jew, a Mormon, a Unitarian, a Buddhist, a Seventh Day Adventist, a Jehova's Witness, an agnostic (I do not believe in atheists - they make too much noise about what they believe, and anyhow almost everyone knows at least which church from which they are staying away) a Daoist, or just about anything else and we can talk about things in general, or our differences without becoming shrewish and strident.

I've never eaten at Chick-fil-A - but after the past few days I just might have to - to support folks who don't weasel-word things, but tell the truth when asked questions in spite of the fact there may be backlash.  Honesty is underrated these days, and it is a damn shame.

"Gay Marriage"

This one will draw rocks, so let me preface it with a few notes.

• I have nothing against homosexual people of either sex - as long as they do not try to convince me that their way is right and mine is wrong.
• I have transgendered friends.  We don't talk about why or how - we just talk.
• I abhor the misuse of the word "gay".  I think that right now it has too many uses, rendering it meaningless.  I used to be sure I knew what it meant - now I have to think - a lot before reacting to it.

All that having been said, the issue of homosexual "marriage" is my hot button today.  With the foregoing in mind, I object to using words to mean too many things - because they end up meaning nothing.

I know what marriage is to me, my wife and our children.  I know that homosexual behavior is a biological dead end - they cannot reproduce wit assistance of those that they abjure - the "breeders" otherwise known as heterosexual (or, by some, Normal.)

I believe that parents matter - that is to say, parents as my generation understands them, one of each.  Sometimes we are not perfect; sometimes we are not even good - life is a huge crapshoot, and we don't always get what we want.  I don't believe that two mommies or two daddies can prepare a child for a world that largely consists of mommies and daddies and their kids - and I believe that suggestible kids are easy to convince that two mommies or two daddies is the normal circumstance and the kids will grow up inclined to homosexuality as a learned behavior.  I've seen it - I don't believe that it happens every time, but I know it does happen that way.

With the best of wills I can find no body of research suggesting that homosexuality has a genetic component. I do know that there is a body of research suggesting that family environment can help push a confused child in that direction.  That having been said, I recognize that there are many people who are homosexual who are also very valuable, functional people from whom everyone could learn much - and they are not mostly artists, musicians, etc, but are found in all professions, trades, walks of life, faiths - everywhere people are found. But, unlike the rest of us, they cannot make new people without outside help.

And therein lies the rub - they seek 'equality' and to some of them, equality means marriage, please do not ask me why.

I am told that love and commitment are found in heterosexual couples and in homosexual couples, which I can understand.  But there is more to marriage than that - and I do not mean the bearing and raising of children - there are heterosexual couple who cannot make children or will not make children - but that's not the same as not being equipped with the matching parts.

When I suggest a civil union statute (which is all a state-supplied marriage license gives anybody anyhow, for all of its being called a marriage license.) I am told that equal but separate isn't equal, what they want is sameness.  The only way it can be the same is if it is completely the same; partly the same is not identical, but different.  For a same-sex couple, the only way to make it really the same is for one to become a transgender person - then there will be matching parts (if artificially constructed.) Somehow I do not think that this will be well received, and anyhow among the transgendered folks I know (admittedly not many) the males who had married and had children and subsequently became 'female', they still want women for companions.  Does that mean that even though they have had a physical change that they are still male, or that in the process they have become homosexual?  I don't know, and really do not want to ask - I'm pretty old and don't dodge so well any more.

Perhaps I could get over the issue of calling it 'marriage' - but I can't get past 'it's not the same' - because it is not the same, and nothing will make it the same.

I am tired of being diminished, called names, and generally abused by the militant homosexuals because I will not agree to the idea of 'sameness' - because 'same' is another one of those words I see becoming meaningless - 'the same only different.'

That's what I think.  Notice I didn't say 'feel' - apparently the world nowadays is composed more of folks who 'feel' than folks who'think' - and in my opinion it is a great loss for the world.  Self-esteem has replaced self-respect - and the deterioration in many areas shows the consequences.

I'll discuss the current occupant in another rant.

"Illegal Immigrant"

This is a term that really gets my goat.

Consider, if you will, that an immigrant is a person who gets here having followed a prescribed set of steps, during which process he learns about the nation, about its history, about its government, its language, customs - in short enough to blend in and assimilate.

When you put illegal in front of immigrant, suddenly it makes no sense - because immigrant is a legal thing to be and how does one become an illegal legal person?

It is just another attempt by so-called progressives to confuse us.  The proper term is "Illegal Alien" which makes sense, because we accept aliens too - provided they do a few things, like let us know they are here.

Illegal Aliens are Invaders.

Why not call them what they are?

I'm really tired of having to wait through the Spanish questions on ATM's to get to the language used here.  I think speaking other languges is neat and useful - I've learned several myself - but here we use English.

I also have that folks talk about me in other languages assuming I'm too stupid or ill-educated to know what they're doing.  When I do know, I call them something obscene in their own language as I leave the room - when I don't, I attempt to join the conversation using one of the languages I have learned. It is truly amazing how quickly hispanics have their English improve when I start talking to them in low German.  I can usually remember enough Spanish from almost 55 years ago to put together a good sentence stating that I don't like speaking Spanish when nothing else works.

Folks that come here should come here to be here - not to recreate there - if there was really so great, then whythehell did you leave?

New York

I haven't written here for some time, and probably should sleep on this one before I get yelled at, but somehow this time I just can't keep my big mouth (fat fingers?) shut (in my pockets?)

New York now makes gay marriage legal.

I have a problem with the word "gay" as used here - the word used to have a meaning, something like happy or joyous - now it no longer means just that, and I have to be careful where and how I say it lest I be misunderstood.  Words mean things, or anyhow they did when I was young, naive and stupid.

So let's make it clear for old idjits like me - New York has now changed its law to make marriage between two persons of the same sex legal.  Or anyhow, they are calling the social uniting of two people of the same sex a marriage.

"Marriage" just joined "Gay" in the list of words that no longer has meaning.  For thousands of years I knew what it meant - now I am no longer sure.

I asked a dear friend why another word could not have been chosen to indicate a state like matrimony, but different in that it did not join two people of opposite sexes, could not have a reasonable expectation of procreation, and was an evolutionary dead end within one generation.

What I got was resoundingly denounced as old, meanspirited, sexist, prejudiced, and even probably wishing to keep people of color enslaved.  All this for asking a question....

And I don't see any parallel at all with the old issue of miscegenation - after all, the union involved a man and a woman - the so-called race issue was one trumped up to keep a minority convinced it was a minority in terms of value (about which I'll have more to say later....)

Two men cannot reproduce without the intervention of a third party who is not a man.  Does this mean that two homosexual men should become the object of a woman's polyandrous affections?  I thought the idea was to keep the women out of the males' lives - but they can't reproduce without a woman, so they are going against themselves - where's the fun in that? And how can someone who would scorn the 97% of the population as "Breeders" lower himself/herself (itself?) to couple with a person so obviously inferior or disgusting?

Then I thought about two women having the same problem - in order to reproduce, there has to be a man somewhere - leading to the spectre of a polygynous relationship for the man - when the two women involved want nothing at all to do with men; they have to involve a man or the "race" dies out within one generation.

There was an article in Town Hall this morning, Marriage Cannot Be Redefined that caused me to start to think about this again, and stirred in me the realization that it's a game, and the only end to the game has no words having anything like a meaning we all know.  Kinda like the Red Queen (in "Alice") - "A word means what I choose it to mean, no more and no less!" - except in the case of gay marriage, there are as many red queens as there are marriages, so the word is reduced to a state of meaninglessness.

I don't know the answer, but I do know that, for me anyhow, there is an intrinsic wrongness in allowing 3% of the population to cause a word that had meaning to the other 97% suddenly to become meaningless to that other 97% of the population.  We invent new words all the time - why not here?

The distortion is such that it makes noise in my head - almost as if I had a pet cat, which died, so I got a pet skunk, but insisted on calling it a cat even though a deep breath would convince anyone that it was not a cat - except for myself who is sure that it is a cat - it has four legs, claws and a tail - must be a cat, right?

Call the simile ridiculous if it pleases you, but think about it - is it any less strange than calling a marriage "the same" as what used to be a marriage when it now is supposed not to care about the sex of either partner?

I'll probably have more to mutter about this; right now what I see before us is madness - a tower of Babel, if you will, brought to us by the so-called Progressive People, who will not rest until every word we have ever relied upon to have meaning and to help us make decisions is rendered devoid of meaning.

I have spoken (written?)!

Wikileaks

Frankly, I think that this is not a really appropriate thing to be doing - some things are secret for a good reason.

It is interesting to note that WikiLeaks, by exposig the latest bunch of documents, has shown that many of the lies that George Bush was accused of telling turned out to be truths.

I wonder how long it'll take the media to report on THAT little item....

"Illegal Immigrants"

First of all, these two words ought never to appear together - the create noise, because an immigrant is someone who comes here legally, goes through all the paperwork and testing.  Anything else is not an immigrant, it is an invader.  I don't know why this is so hard to understand.


Most of us have ancestors who came from elsewhere and did what was required to stay here legally. After doing that, they became a part of the nation - they did not insist upon recreating that from which they came - if what they left was what they wanted, why did they leave?

Believe it or not, we here in the USA have a culture of our own - and folks that come here should come prepared to become a part of the culture - bringing things from their own culture to add in, but not expecting to lift their culture whole and bring it along. 

Start with learning the language - American English is what is used here, and it is not reasonable to expect others to accommodate to new arrivals.  We can try, to be nice - but to expect forms and such to be made available in any language besides English is to expect them to be made available in all 170 or so languages that folks from else where may have arrived speaking - and that is just not a reasonable expectation.

I hear about folks who oppose Arizona's attempt to enforce what is already federal law - how evil and inhumane it is.  Has anyone bothered to see how Mexico treats illegals?  Has anyone read the requirements to enter Mexico with an expectation of staying?  We are in the process of relearning lessons Germany learned in the 60's with its Gastarbeiter program, which lessons include just how much of a drain it can be for folks to send money out of the country.

Anyhow, whatthehell's the point of being a citizen when anyone can walk across a border and get all the benefits of citizenship at the expense of those who belong here?  I have no plan to adapt to folks who don't belong here.  I'd like to help them if they actually want to be here - but if the reason to come here is to send money out of the country and to try to make it into a mirror of what they left, then include me out.  I've loved other places, and am here because those other places could not hold me.

And now I hear some states want aliens to be able to vote!  What's up with that?  I couldn't vote when I lived in Germany, I wouldn't be able to vote in Mexico, I doubt they'd even let me into Saudi Arabia - I don't think we owe anyone who won't even observe convention anything.

Call me islamophobic if it pleases you.

Mosques at Ground Zero redux...

I can think of a way that I could support the mosque at Ground Zero.

Since the primary source of funds for this endeavor is Saudi Arabia, it seems to be that building a synagogue in Saudi Arabia's capital city, along with a Catholic cathedral and a Christian megachurch, and disavowing harrassment thereof would be a start.

But what would really convince me would be Teheran signing up for the same three religious edifices and the same disavowal.

What's that you say, don't hold my breath?

I won't, and I don't expect any of it to happen - which is why I say that I might support the mosque at Ground Zero - when pigs fly out of my arse!

Hyphenated Americans

Understand something - I am an American - a citizen of these United States.

My ancestors came from Germany, Scotland, Ireland, and several other places.  They became part of the Great American Dream, and ceased to be German, Scottish or Irish. They became American.

They did not relinquish their various foods, languages, literature, or anything else - all of that continued to live on in their homes, but they became a part of something bigger - and when outside their homes, conversed in English and generally assimilated into the culture of this nation - becoming tolerant of others otherness, and gaining in understanding that there is much to be learned from people not like us - and that valuable things that are learned from such folks can become part of our constantly moving and growing culture.  At no time did someone take that American culture, nail it to a wall and say "This is how it is and it cannot change."

I tend to look askance at folks who are hyphenated Americans - German-Americans, Italian-Americans, African-Americans, and suchlike - they place something before the American in what they claim to be - which makes me wonder how anything about their citizenship could be more important than the American part.

We tend to be pretty tolerant - we tend to help new arrivals, show our best faces to folks we do not know, and be rather accepting of others' religious practices.  I know of an area where within a block one can find Christians, Jews, Muslims and a Buddhist family - and none is trying to kill or to convert the other; rather they are respectful of the otherness of others and strive to find common ground in order to be better neighbors to one another.  It's how Americans are - or rather how they used to be when I was growing up.

It seems that here of late we are getting Balkanized - we are being asked to accept a language other than English, asked to adjust our calendars and our laws to suit one group of folks more than the folks who are already here, and we are being asked to give precedence to folks who will not even deign to follow the rules to join us as immigrants.

This is wrong.

We ought not to care what language folk use at home, whether they sit on the floor or on the roof, nor what they will or will not eat - in someone's home that's how it is.  But we ought not to be so prepared to allow someone's home and ancestral culture to be used to tell us that what we have built of a couple of hundred years is no longer valid, and what folks from other places bring is more valid and more useful.  After all, if those other places were all that great, how come people are trying so hard to get away from those places to come here?

In Germany, part of the national tax supports churches.  We don't do that here.

In Mexico, noncitizens cannot own prime property.  We have no such restriction.

In the parts of the Middle East, citizenship is restricted to followers of Muhammed. We have no such rule here.

The USA is a different place from the rest of the world, and the differences are important.  I can see no reason to turn it into France if France already exists - folks could simply go there.  Of course, they'd have to learn French....

The world is full of socialist nations - those in lover with it could go there, but won't - because there are always things there that are different, be it Language, Laws, Climate, Living conditions, or potential for employment.

This great nation is a unique place - why folks would want to turn it into another place that already exists is beyond me.

Some have told me that there's no equality here - but they don't understand that equality cannot guarantee equal outcomes.  We are all born the same way, but we can't all be Ted Kennedy (not that I'd want to be Ted Kennedy.) and we all can't be rich - but the class envy that is being used to justify redistribution of income is obscene.  I've had some lucky breaks; so have some other folks I know.  Sometimes we get bad breaks - and we can either let it defeat us or rise above it.  A lot of our station in life has to do with decisions we ourselves make - and if they are bad decisions, you are not owed the fruits of my labor to bail you out - although I can help if it pleases me to do so.

I've done plenty of stupid things, some of which hurt me rather badly, physically or fiscally.  Nobody owes me a bailout - much as I might have liked to be Malcolm S. Forbes, I wasn't - and there is no set of circumstances that permits me to believe that he (or his estate since he's dead now) owes me a bailout from my own foolishness or anything of that nature.

Lots of what happens we ourselves have to own. Your degree in Albanian Studies probably won't make you rich, or even moderately well off - but that study was your choice, so live with it.  My occupation did not exist when I exited high school trying to imagine what to do if I ever grew up - I had to change, to adapt, to find opportunity and to work to excel to be noticed.  It can be done, but nobody else has to own your errors.

I guess I'm just irritable today - I spent the morning listening to a couple of coworkers harranguing one another about how bad life was, and how much they were owed for having been born.

Americans simply are - they need no excuse, and they need apologize to nobody.  It's OK if you don't like me - but it's not OK to threaten my existence because I have friends who are Jews, because I get paid better or because I will not change my views to yours.  One of the unique things about Americans is that we understand everyone's belief has the potential to be right, so we tolerate all sorts of various beliefs.  This is not easily accepted by those with blinders on who, having seen nothing else cannot conceive of anything being worthwhile that they've not already seen and passed on as good.  But those with blinders on are the ones who'll ultimately suffer for their own ignorance, and their own failure to allow themselves to learn from others.

Enough.  I'll be back another day.

Mosques at Ground Zero

I do not want to see one built, not now, not ever.  It is said that Muslims are peace-loving peoples, and that what has been done by angry Muslim men is a travesty. Why do we not hear the highest Muslim authorities disavowing this activity? Our president is apologizing all over the world for our slights real or imagined - why has no Muslim authority or nation apologized for this massive affront?

It was not the Christians, the Jews, the Buddhists, the Taoists, the Hindi or any of thousands of others who so desecrated that place, and I for one am not interested in permitting the glorification on that site of the actions by the heirarchy of the group that created the devastation but has yet to acknowledge any complicity or even the wrongness in the actions.

No mosque at Ground Zero.

Rights

This particular rant is a long time coming, but (IMHO) relevant.

There's a bunch of discussion today about rights, legisation of and about rights, and the granting of rights.

Let's understand one thing - rights aren't granted, they simply are.  Anything a government, organization or person grants to you is at best a privilege, subject to removal.  Rights preexist governments.

Rights cannot be legislated - if they could, they could be legislated away. If what you may do can be legislated away by your government, you are not a citizen, you're a subject whose very life exists at the whim of someone else.

The Constitution does not either create or legislate rights.  What it does is to recognize that rights exist, and they existed before its writing and acceptance.

Congress cannot grant you a right.  The President cannot grant you a right.  Not even the Constitution can grant you a right, although it can and does recognize rights that already exist.

Anything granted is at best a privilege - and they can be taken away.


Pay attention - this is important, because people who want to tell you what to do will try to convince you that they are creating new rights for you, and they're not - they're creating privileged groups - and theise groups can become non-privileged just as soon as they start to become uppity.

Illegal Immigrants

A more meaningless juxtaposition of words I have never seen.

Think about it - Immigrants are people from other nations who get in line, obey the rules, jump through the hoops that this nation requires for immigrant status.  Immigrants are de jure and defacto legal.

Illegal Aliens are folks from other nations who just bust in and take what they want, secure in the knowledge that we'll put up with it.  Well, I know too many who stood in like and are still standing in line that have more potential to be of benefit to this great nation,  Folks who jump the line and don't obey the rules should be run out of town on a rail.  More members of the criminal class we do not need - and an illegal alien, because it refuses to follow the rules is a criminal.

It's pretty simple to me. I'm sorry that Mexico feels that we are being discriminatory by insisting on a set of immigration rules far less draconian than those which Mexico imposes on outsiders who would live there.  Furthermore, I am astounded that the Mexican Government has the stones to complain that our returning their illegals is putting a strain on their infrastructure - that is not our fault!

I'm gonna have more to say, but this is probably enough for tonight.  I have a bunch backed up since February - and some of it ain't pretty!

Arizona

I've been thinking about all the hooraw about Arizona's law with respect to illegal aliens.


I know how to make sure that there can be no charges of profiling.

Just make sure that everyone who interacts with police at any time are asked for papers.  If everyone has to do it, there can be no discrimination.  I am accustomed to being asked for ID in a traffic stop, and I'm a native-born old fat bearded white guy - no profiling there, although I do ride a motorcycle, so maybe I can make a case for profiling after all?  I guess not - more damn trouble than it is worth.

I think Eric Holder needs replaced with someone who can read who doesn't hate white folks.

But that's just my opinion, folks.  Meanwhile, I applaud Arizona, and regret that I work for a city that can't meet its obligation to its inhabitants but does advertise itself as a Sanctuary City - no damn wonder they can't pay their bills!