Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Happy New Year

Things are looking grim but at the very least the thugs that have gotten us into this fucking disaster will soon be unemployed alongside the millions of other Americans who don't have the luxury of lavish government retirement benefits.
Fuckers.
Oh, and Fredo?
Fuck you, jerk, I hope you NEVER find a job, except for stamping license plates the rest of your natural life.


Once again, I would like to sincerely thank each and everyone who stops by here to read my rantings.

Here is to your health, wealth and future prosperity, Salud.

I think I am going to stay home tonight and let the amateurs duke it out.

For the late night partygoers,
AC/DC, You Shook Me All Night.

Tuesday, December 30, 2008

"It Is Almost Embarrassing To Listen To You"

If that ain't a fucking slap down to hear on air, to your face, on your own television show, I have never seen one.

Brzezinski was never one of my favorite players but when he said that to that fucking assclown Joe Scarborough today, I about fell out of my chair.

I think maybe Joe will be a little more careful about who he has on his show to throw his fucking talking points at.

Brzezinski knows his shit and when Scarborough tried to toe the Republican line and say that Bush has no blame for Israel bombing the fuck out of civilian targets in Palestine, he is damn lucky Brzezinski didn't get up out of his chair and back hand him.
That is a Diplomat.

Of course Bush has MORE fucking blame to shoulder.
After Israel bombed the fuck out of Lebanon, now he just says Fuck It and goes on vacation, he doesn't give a shit one way or the other, and Condoleeza Rice is racking up frequent flyer miles for no apparent reason, she is as useless as tits on a boar hog.
I have to say this, Mr. Brzezinski just altered the entire discourse in the three rings of the Mouse Circus.

They are about to discover that covering Bush's ass is not the position you want to be in, the fucking facts are heavily weighed against them and now that the precedent has been set, the fucking fur is going to fly.

Watch for the exodus to the fire exits.

Being a water carrier for the legacy of the Worst. President. Ever. is going to become a very
unpopular place to be.

I can see a future where complete fucking assholes like Rush Limbaugh, Anne Coulter and pieces of shit like Scarborough are going to be hard to find in the media, you wait.

There has been a very noticeable shift away from these "Agressively Ignorant" pundits and Mr. Brzezinski just slammed the door open.

Good on ya, ya old bastard.

In case you have not seen it, here is the video, just after six and a half minutes in Zebigniew dumps a load in Scarboroughs mouth.

It's That Time Of Year Again

The Top Ten Douchebags Of The Year.

Joe Lieberman is mysteriously missing from this list.

Monday, December 29, 2008

Bush Is On Vacation Again

Lucky me.

Open Thread.





Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha!!!!

How the fuck do they do that?

"Open Thread"?

People have nothing better to do than rattle on with no apparent reason?


If I get more than two fucking comments to a post with no apparent subject,I am seriously going to rethink this Blogging shit.

Open thread, that shit just cracks me up, get a fucking life.

Sunday, December 28, 2008

Here Is A Hint George



Try to get at least six blocks away from the Whitehouse before you try to "polish" your legacy.

I keep seeing your loyal minions flogging the notion that history will show you to be some kind of prescient all seeing wise man.

Besides causing beer to come flying out of my nose, I actually see a different side of this story,and I was actually here to see it.

I see you as a pretzel choking bike country wrecking moron reading childrens books while we are being attacked, with complete idiots for minions.

P.S., Put your minions in the front of the trailer.
First in, last out.

Saturday, December 27, 2008

It Could Be Worse

For once I have had an uneventful day.

I can't tell you how nice that is, no fucking drama for damn near twenty four hours.

I have been laying here like a bump on a log and just relaxing with a few shots and a few beers and thanking the Good Lord I have a day off.

It's not like I don't have a ton of shit that needs to get done, I'm a bachelor, remember?

Fuck it, that shit will be there tomorrow.
Hopefully this evil white shit will be on it's way out in a hurry, I stuck my head out a couple of times today and it has been raining and the snow is receding faster than my hairline.

Good.

Just because I am in a mellow mood for once, I want to share another of my favorite Lynyrd Skynyrd tunes with ya.

Tuesdays Gone.

I really like this song.

Friday, December 26, 2008

Are We There Yet?

I can be done with the Christmas now?





I quit having fun with Christmas years ago when my balls dropped.

When I was raising some little varmints, it got a bit cute again until the Ex decided that Christmas has to be Go in the hole for the kiddies.

She went all out.
Spoiled the fuckin' kids rotten, had to have relatives I had never heard of in ten years show up for dinner and generally torture my ass to the point I went in the fucking garage and had long, meaningful discussions with my friends Jack and Jim and George. Of course, my friends Ezra and Evan were always welcome too.

Of course, eventually I would be dragged back into the house to deal with all the toothless little Meth Heads and screaming fucking brats so we could have dinner and talk about the missing siblings and far flung miscreant relatives who were currently enjoying their Christmas dinner in jail and why they were there and whatever current heinous shit they had been up too and who just might be out in time for next years celebration.



Notice I have not mentioned the fucking Christmas tree or the mother fucking Christmas lights or the fucking cat shit that we enevitably found after we took the tree down.



Then there is the not so small matter of THE Mall.

Let me tell you a true story about one trip to THE Mall one year after my kids had grown up enough that I could just sit on the bench and have them come get me so I could pay for whatever the fuck it was they Had to have that year.

I hate THE Mall, did I mention that?




Anyways, this is several years ago, I can't believe I actually remember this particular nightmare except one thing stands out in my piss poor memory.

I drove to THE Mall and we got out of whatever piece of shit old Ford truck I happened to have at the time and I told the kids, "This is the deal, you go in there, find what you want.When you are done, I will be sitting on this bench, I will go pay for it and then we are the FUCK out of here".

Off they go, visions of granduer and awesome swag in their beady little eyes.

I find a bench and sit my narrow ass down and start people watching.

So, as I am sitting there minding my own business, some poor bastard arguing with his wife gets sent to the bench while she goes and racks up the frequent buyers miles on his fucking credit card.
He is sitting there all dejected,

I got some other poor slob on the other side looking like he is waiting to get a bullet in the head and I reach inside my jacket and pull out an Ice cold can of beer and pop that motherfucker open and start drinking it.
Remember, I am sitting on a bench in THE Mall with literally hundreds of people walking by and here I sit, chugging a beer. Security guards walk by and don't see a fucking thing.
The poor sonofabitch who was arguing over the frequent buyer miles turns and looks at me with his mouth open and finally says, "I wish I had thought of that".

Rookie.


Learn from the master.



Happy Holidays.

The next sound you are about to hear is a fucking bottle of whiskey getting cracked and the pop of an ice cold beer can.
Sleinte.

Thursday, December 25, 2008

Get Home Bag, Winter Version

I will be the first to admit I am not prepared for this winter weather, I have already been bit on the ass with the frozen pipes but I got a real reminder tonight on my way home from some relatives that live 35 miles away after doing the Christmas thing.

If you do not have a Get Home Bag, get one together now, I am dead serious.
I first learned of these on the internet some time ago and kind of scoffed at first and then thought about it for a while and then got my head out of my ass and put one together and threw it in the truck.

Actually, in the interest of full disclosure, I pared down my Bug Out bag and threw it in the truck.

I am just as lazy as the next guy and figured I had it covered.

Wrong.

Way wrong.

It has been crazy around here with the weather. Snow, freezing rain, ice, rain, more snow, wind, more snow, ice, you get the picture.
Let's just say all the modern records have been broken.

You could not find a set of tire chains to fit your car to save your life.

I tried.
My boy has been stuck at his friends house for six days.
He is OK, they finally got out today, but I called and called around to find some cable chains or anything I could get my hands on to get the kid mobile again. It is not like he has some odd ball tire size, I gave him an old Ford Ranger a while back and it has standard 14 inch tires on it, not happening with the chain thing.
Anyway, I have been out running around all over the countryside for Christmas. My folks, my kids, my Grandmothers, and the Evil White Stuff just keeps coming out of the sky.

That Get Home Bag?, yeah, I have been cussing that thing for days, I put it on the front seat of my truck and it has been in the way ever since.
I grab it and throw it on the floor and then I need to put some presents in the cab so I grab it and throw it on the seat and then I grab it again and push it towards the passenger door so I can shift the truck and you kind of see that this is a problem. I would throw it in the back but it is full of tool boxes, a spare tire and all manner of miscellanious crap.

On my way home tonight, right in the middle between civilization and a four mile walk to the next town, one of the heavy duty tire chains let go on my truck. WhamWhamWhamWham, shit.
Of course the side of the road was piled four feet high with snow from the snow plows.
My truck is so old it does not have emergency flashers and for once in a great while, I actually had nice clothes on, of course it was as dark as the inside of a derby hat at midnight to boot.

So, there I am, broke down at night in freezing weather, in a baaaaaad place .
I got my flashlight out and turned on my turn signal to let the idiots know to get in the other lane and out I go to unhook the chain and check for damage.

Actually, I didn't care about body damage, it's an old truck. So I unhook the outside of the chain and go to unhook the inside, no go, no slack.

I get in and pull forward a bit and get back out, still no go, it is under the tire.
One more time I pull forward. This time when I get out, the chain is clear inside the tire and wrapped around the axle and...

This is where my mind flashed onto the Get Home Bag, the tire chain was not only wrapped around the axle, it was dragging on the ground and hooked to the metal brake line.

If not for the Grace of God, one more foot and it would have ripped that brake line out and there I would have sit, in the freezing ass cold weather, waiting, with idiots going by at sixty miles an hour.

That Get Home Bag suddenly had a very real value, exactly what was in it?

A couple of cans of food, two multi purpose Swiss Army knives, a tiny fold up shovel, a Filet knife, small candles, Dry socks, a wool sweater and a wrist rocket sling shot. A small pocket survival kit with fishing gear, waterproof matches, etc, etc.

One wind up flashlight, a pint of Vodka , a basic First Aid kit and some other unremarkable items that need to be replaced..

Not exactly real inspiring.

I have a couple of blankets behind the seat but I think you see my point.
Just how effective would any of this be sitting next to a snowbank on the side of a freeway in the dark when the temperature is 31 degrees?

I am not going to drag this out, I just wanted to bring this to your attention without you having to get on your knees in freezing weather and realize you are not going anywhere for quite a while.

There are many, many recommendations on Survival Sites on what to have on hand for roadside emergencies, I do believe I am going to revisit my Get Home Bag, tomorrow.

One thing I am going to make sure and get are some reflective triangles and some road flares.
I had the shit scared out of me twice by idiots not paying attention and having to do evasive measures to get into another lane at the last second because they were not paying attention.

Wednesday, December 24, 2008

Merry Christmas

As much as I dislike what Christmas has become in this country, I now have something that totally brightened my whole day,hell,week!

I am absolutely stunned and at the same time very proud to announce that my wee little invective filled Blogspot has been selected as the recipient of the Third Annual, "Legendary, Coveted, and Oft Fought-Over Silver Sailor's Tongue Award"-–

That's right, I am a recipient of a 2008 Golden Monkeyfist!!

WHOOO HOOO!!!!



I am just beside myself that I have been selected for this honor out of the hundreds of thousands of Blogs out there, this is like hitting the lottery.

First, I would sincerely like to thank everyone who takes time out of their day and stop by to read whatever I happen to be raving about, I do appreciate that very much.

I would also like to congratulate all of the other winners this year.

Head on over to MonkeyFisters place and start checking out all the great Blogs he has bestowed this blessing on.

Lastly, I would like to thank MonkeyFister for even considering me for this huge honor.
I am greatly humbled.


Merry Christmas to you all.

Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Dick Cheney Is A GangBanger

By every definition, Dick Cheney is a criminal gang member.

As far as I can see, the only modern activity exemplified with gangster activity that no one has proof of the Vice President doing is Tagging, more than likely because he is too fat and lazy.

It seems that less than a month before our Vice President is going to have to be forcibly removed from his highly controversial quest for the Permanent Majority, by Popular Vote ,with his objective of a Unitary Executive,Mr. Cheney has gotten quite chatty with certain members of the press and is one unapologetic sociopath when it comes to his legacy.

The case against this renegade VP is long and well documented, his proven decision to throw Valerie Plame under the bus, a covert CIA agent working on the Iranian quest for nuclear power while undercover is without a doubt, treason.
A recent interview with Vice President Cheney has him actually bragging about his role in the disclosure of Valerie Plames status in his enraged quest for political revenge on her husband, Ambassador Joe Wilson, because he actually had the guts to call out the fabricated reasons for going to war that the Bush administration were shoving down the throats of such highly respected ( cough, cough) high volume Right Wing talking point delivery systems like the NYT, WAPO and any other NeoCon leaning Propaganda printing press they could threaten with denying access to President Bush or his official disseminators.

I don't have the time to go into Cheney's apparent( read alleged) money laundering and profit objective relationship with Halliburton.


Let me just remind you that Nine Billion Dollars remain unaccounted for that were drop shipped in plastic wrapped pallets into Iraq on military transport planes, never to be seen again.


This is without going into Mr. Cheney's relationship with Halliburton, there are so many horror stories associated with that bunch of "business people", that there should be mass prosecutions at every level.

Mr. Cheney has had portable shredders at his official home for days on end, had his records room burned in a Washington DC fire, has repeatedly asserted that the official role of the Vice President of the United States is some kind of aberration when it comes to oversight and is not a part of the Executive Branch and has basically spit in the eye of every , and I do mean every, oversight committee that he has ever met.

If there are not hundreds of official investigations into this mans conduct as the Vice President of the United States of America in the next couple of years then I will just concede the fact that the Constitution has been De Facto been voided and is dead.

I don't want to hear how the incoming administration needs to look forward to carry on the business of this country.
I will scream bullshit at the top of my lungs if there are not criminal investigations, proceedings for trials not implemented to prosecute the cabinet level members responsible for torturing not only foreign born but American citizens by extraordinary rendition to foreign countries, waterboarding captured prisoners and the release of all Presidential records, including, and especially, the records of Vice President Dick Cheney.
The sullen and secret stomping out of the rights and freedoms guaranteed to the citizens of the United States by decree and Signing statement, the twisted legal advice of some legal advisers very seriously need to be reviewed and rescinded, the intentional denial of all of the above needs to be investigated upon the physical departure of the current administration and the appointment of special investigators need to be announced two minutes after President Elect Obama swears on Lincolns Bible to defend and protect the Constitution Of The United States of America, from enemies foreign and domestic, just like that lying bastard Bush did.


The people of this country have been put through Hell on the advice of some very questionable legal advisers. Maybe it is time for a class action lawsuit to sue for compensation and recriminations.

Monday, December 22, 2008

Google Says I am A Spammer

What. The. Hell?

Not only do I not have any Idea of how to go about Spamming anyone, why the Hell would I want to do that in the first place?
I freaking HATE Spammers!!

Here is the message I just got, they are actually threatening to delete my fucking Blog.

Your blog is marked as spam

Blogger's spam-prevention robots have detected that your blog has characteristics of a spam blog. (What's a spam blog?) Since you're an actual person reading this, your blog is probably not a spam blog. Automated spam detection is inherently fuzzy, and we sincerely apologize for this false positive.

Your readers are seeing a warning page until one of our humans reviews it and verifies that it is not a spam blog. Please fill out the form below to get a review. We'll take a look at your blog and unlock it in less than two business days.

If we don't hear from you, though, we will remove your blog from Blog*Spot within a few weeks.


Oh, now I see that just for shits and grins they have turned on Word verification without my permission.

I got news for you people at Google, I still have a WordPress site sitting by.

I really, really don't want to have to go back to that sonofabitch, but I will. Help yourself to a look see and tell me I am Spamming anyone.
It must have been the embed I used for a Flashplayer animation I got from searching......

Google.

My Annual Snow Globe Post

I figure this cute little Snowglobe post is the reason Google has crawled up my ass so I deleted it.

Christ.
have a nice day.

More Of The Same

We got whacked with another six inches of the evil white stuff last night.
I ended up driving around my small town in the four wheel drive trying to find some propane for the Heater From Hell.
I thought I had enough to get through the night but no.

I finally found an outfit that not only had propane but had more than just one person working so a guy came out and filled up my little jug.

I thanked him profusely and then went in to pay and their electronics were down. While the lady was trying to reboot the system, I dug deep and had enough cash, including a bunch of change, to just pay her and get the hell back home. It took 45 minutes just to get the ice off of the windshield to go on that little jaunt.

This morning, here we go again. Not as much ice, lots of snow.

Oh. and they never got around to plowing the highway. Fun Fun. 25-30 miles an hour but I got to work and boy howdy did I find a nightmare when I got here.
Feet of snow and inches of ice on all the Big Rigs.
My buddy drove fifty miles in that shit to get to work.

The first thing he did was pull his truck in and grab some tire chains that we have in a barrel for spares.
He wrapped one around his tire, measured it and cut off the excess. Did the other one and then it was my turn.

We both now have Heavy Duty chains on our four wheel drives which is a beautiful thing out there in refrigerator land.
It is supposed to let up a bit tomorrow and then start in again Wednesday.

This is already the worst winter storm in this area in Forty years, since 1968.

Funny, I remember that one, it was worse because that one was mainly a huge ice storm.
I also remember my dad had a Ford Four wheel drive just like mine but a year newer, it was brand new.
He tip toed that thing twenty miles to downtown Portland and grabbed the front loader from the asphalt plant he worked at and dumped a load of pea gravel in the bed so he could get around.

I also remember the time he took me to school on a snowmobile down a four lane street.

I come by my crazy naturally.

Stay warm and dry.

Sunday, December 21, 2008

A Winter Wonderland

You can have it.

People get all oogly googly when it starts to snow, it's so pretty.

Yeah, unless it doesn't fucking stop for two damn weeks.

It's 17 degrees outside, there is six inches of snow and a half inch of solid ice on top of that. The wind finally quit howling, it was shaking my trailer hard last night.

Not my idea of romantic, more like deadly serious shit if for some reason you have to be out in it, which I was yesterday.

My brother called me at ten in the morning, his truck wouldn't start at the joint he was singing Kareoke at the night before and wanted me to go pick him up and see if we could jump start it, by the way, it is a diesel with two batteries.

He has been having trouble with it for a couple of weeks and keeps taking it in to the fucking idiots who keep stroking him and not fixing the damn problem.


I got out the insulated coveralls and the rest of my winter gear and went and started The Beast and off I went. Of course, he lives on the side of a freaking mountain and there was snow all over the roads. I finally got there and collected him and took off back down the hill at a crawl in 4 wheel drive. Long story short, because it is the usual fucking nightmare scenario, I wound up under his truck replacing the starter and hauling him off to Napa for a new one.
Luckily, we were across the street from a bar, I could go in and thaw out my freezing hands.
I finally got the starter back in it at two thirty and it didn't work.

It wouldn't engage the flywheel. At this point, I am all done. Call the asshole who has been working on this thing and have him drag it in and fix it.

Oh no, my brother is going to pull it out and get another one, my cousin had showed up so he could haul his ass around. I leave him the tools, he saw me do it and now knows what to do, I go find a warm seat and play some poker.

He calls me up about an hour and a half later and the truck is running again.

He took that starter back to Napa and had it tested and it started working. He went back and put it in and away he went.

Go figure, I have no clue why that damn thing wouldn't engage after I put it in, I triple checked it!

I am here to tell you though, you know those guys that go out in ice storms and fix downed power lines?
They have huge balls.

I came home and I have stayed here since yesterday.
I just stuck my nose out of the Rat Hole and I am not going anywhere.

The forecast is for snow at least through Wednesday.

Getting to work tomorrow should be easy enough if the majority of the idiots stay home, they plow the main roads around here and The Beast works beautiful.

Best of luck to anyone else out there in this mess.

Ha! My brother just called me, his pipes are frozen.

I done been through that fun.

Stay warm y'all.

Saturday, December 20, 2008

Thirty Days

Start packing yer shit Stupie and get the fuck out of my Whitehouse.

Consider this to be yer eviction notice.


As a matter of fact, I have someone in mind to help you move all of your books for your library.....



He'll be done with it in a jiffy.

I Can Haz Bleezard?

There is supposed to be a whopper of a snow storm hit sometime this morning, a fifty year event they are saying.

Great.

There is already snow on the ground from yesterday.

Oh well, whatever.
I should be OK as long as this fucking trailer doesn't flood again, I am still cleaning up that fucking mess.
Christ all mighty.

Michael from Staying Alive mentioned that maybe God was working on my character a little.

I think God has a wicked sense of humor and has my number on speed dial. When he gets a little bored he just reaches over and hits send so he can watch me flail around a little so he can get in a quick chuckle.

It's all good.

What doesn't kill ya makes ya stronger so I hear.

Let it snow says I.
I have enough grub around that I will be fine, enough booze to knock over a three hundred pound ballerina with plenty to spare and a carton of smokes.
As long as I have the electricity for the computer, I will be fine.
If I have to go somewhere, I have the old bomber 4X4 that gets me where I need to go.

If you are caught up in this mess I wish you well.

Thursday, December 18, 2008

Thank You, May I Have Another?

Karma is a bitch.


True to form , I got bit on teh ass again.
After the big Flood the other day, I set down a pair of rubber gloves I was using next to the bathroom sink after I was done cleaning up the fucking mess from a door to door water flood.

Lucky me, I came home tonight to find water running out the motherfucking front corner of the the trailer, the old cat decided to make it's self comfortable on top of the sink in the bathroom, with the water running to keep the pipes from freezing, again, because I had the heater going to help dry out the joint, and plugged up the sink with the rubber gloves I sat down after cleaning up the last mess
Ain't life grand?
Holy Fucking Shit.
This is after the roads being frozen and having to drive three miles an hour in Four Wheel Drive through town on a sheet of ice.

Happy Holidays.

It might be a bit before I post again due to my having to regain my sense of humor.

No, it is too late, I am now officially crazy.
Do yourself a favor and stay clear the hell out of kicking distance.

I see the folks telling me to get out now.
To where?
Right. I am still luckier than a great deal of the people with a heartbeat on this planet.

If I was buddies with the assholes currently running this country, I could get a brand new trailer from the government, I just can't hold my breath that long, Mr. FEMA dude, and there is a huge conspiracy going on right now with the disposition of all those FEMA trailers the government bought for the victims of Katrina that were found to have high levels of Formaldehyde. The government is paying some farmers hundreds of thousands of dollars a month to store them while they sell them off for scrap metal.

Meanwhile, the folks of New Orleans get bupkiss.

I might have some troubles but I don't live in a city that the Bush Administration decided to let die a slow death.
Fuck that. Life goes on for everybody. I just have some extra fun.

Bagpiping A Cat

This is not the original way I was shown to do this by a sadistic old bastard years ago but you will get the idea.

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

The Frozen Turd Tube Fiasco



Y'all will please excuse my recent absence, I was kinda busy.
My last post mentioned the cold weather that has descended on the area and has refused to let up, well it bit me finally.

I knew it was going to freeze around here so being the real fart smeller I am, I turned the water on to run in the bathroom so my pipes wouldn't freeze. All well and good says I.

Not.

I woke up to a half inch of standing water all over the whole trailer, basically from one end to the other, again.

I went through this little scenario a while back. So my first thoughts are that the damn pipe I fixed must have let go but I don't hear water running.
I stick my head in the bathroom and there is still a slow drip coming out of the faucet but the other thing I see is a whole bunch of standing water in the tub.

Strange.

Then it dawns on me, oh fuck, the sewer hose is frozen.
I rush outside to turn off the water and sure as shit the flexible sewer line is frozen solid.

Fuck me, that ain't good.
I go back into my soggy lair, I had a bunch of shit sitting on the floor, including a big pile of dirty clothes I had been sorting out to wash, everything was soaked.

I drug out the multiple laundry baskets I had stacked up in the corner and started filling them up. Then every towel I own and a couple of blankets got tossed on the floor to start soaking up all the water.

I opened up a cabinet and got out a bottle of water from my emergency stash, (SEE! I keep telling you!) and made a pot of coffee while I figured out just what the hell I was going to do here.

I called work and told them I wasn't coming and started in.
I drug the Propane Heater From Hell outside and fired it up, then I scrounged a sheet of plywood from the neighbor and leaned it up against the side of The Rat Hole and then some other miscellaneous boards and shit and made a little lean to so the heat wouldn't just go straight up into the air.

Then I went inside and started boiling pots of water.

Many trips back and forth later, I finally got one end of the hose undone from where it goes into the ground.
Many more trips and I got the valve thawed out for the black water tank to close. The sewer hose had a couple of holes in it and water was just pouring on the ground until this point.

One thing I was SO grateful for, I had recently dumped the holding tank and flushed it out several times so there were no human waste products involved in this whole fiasco. I was afraid of the damn thing freezing and splitting wide open, I have seen the results of that, not good. This could have been a real disaster otherwise, like throw everything away and find a place to live while decontaminating everything. All the water everywhere was Fresh water, Thank God!

Long story short, I spent all day getting the situation straightend out.

Three trips to the Hardware store, it never, ever takes less than three trips, ever.

I finally replaced the Turd Tube, mounted it up on a board and wrapped heat tape around it and plugged it in.
All set, right?

Wrong.

While I was dicking around with that, the fucking water line going into the trailer froze because I had shut it off.
It broke a plastic 'T' I had on it so I could hook up a garden hose too.
Off that came, took the hose inside and thawed it out, boiled more water and thawed out the pipe where it comes out of the ground and reinstalled the hose going to the trailer.
This time, I was ahead of the game because I had bought insulation to cover all this stuff up,on the last trip to the Hardware store.

I worked on that mess until three thirty in the afternoon. Lucky for me it was a beautiful day. Cold but no wind and not a cloud in the sky.

I took all the wet clothes and threw them in the bathtub and went and had SEVERAL cocktails.

I still have a mess to clean but the big project is fixing where all that water came from in the first place, the seal under the fucking toilet must be shot, that is where it all came from.

The first order of business is doing all that laundry.
Then I am going to mop the floor with bleach, then I am going to tackle the toilet.
No fun job that, it isn't your typical porcelain model with the nice handle on the tank. Oh no, this is a RV model with the foot controls and is plastic and very expensive and a real bitch to access the bolts holding it down because it is literally boxed in between the linen closet and the sink cabinet.

No rest for the wicked.

I am going to very busy for a couple of days.

Oh, by the way, I was not the only one this happened to, I saw several familiar faces in the plumbing section at the Hardware store, all with the same problem, frozen turd tubes.

The joys of living in a trailer. The learning curve continues.

Update:

Snow and freezing rain being predicted off and on for the next couple of days, things are going to get ugly around here.

Sunday, December 14, 2008

Cold

18 degrees, two inches of snow that immediately turned into ice.
Portland is shut down.
I finally got a chance to see if the four wheel drive worked on my old bomber, built in 1967.

Yes it does, nice to find out before I really needed it.

Going to work in the morning, the wind has been howling and the Rat Hole has been Rockin' and Rollin'.

I dug out the Propane Heater from Hell, in less than two minutes it will go from forty degrees to ninety in here.

I am going to have to shut it off while I am gone but the little space heaters should be enough to keep it from freezing in here.

Yee Haw, winter is here.

Saturday, December 13, 2008

Technical Difficulties

This POS computer has a virus or a Trojan program in it.
I know this without a doubt.
Unfortunately, neither my Firewall, my Anti virus program nor my Spyware program either noticed or can actually find it. Needless to say I am pissed off about this whole deal.
They have been banished back into the ether in a burst of electrons.
I have installed a new Antivirus program but it is kicking my ass trying to figure out how it works.
I just now got back here after fucking around with it for hours!

It says it wants to take about 24 hours for a system scan. I think this old laptop has been outclassed., it just doesn't have the Horsepower it needs to run this program.
Anyway, just a heads up.
There is a major cold snap headed this way, possibly overnight, down into the mid to low teens and it has been raining all day.
That will turn this whole area into a skating rink.
I am set pretty damn well to sit it out, I am going to run over a couple of blocks and get some candles and cheap lighting just in case.
Everything else is covered, I hope.


I will continue my quest for the offending code later.

Update:

It kills my processor to less than dial up speed and I had to pause the twelve hour scan just to post this but at less than 10% of the scan being completed, this new program found six damn Trojan data mining programs the old Anti Virus AND the Spyware programs I had couldn't find even though they were up to date.

Miserable sonofabitches anyway.

The assholes who design and send out this spyware shit and viruses should have their balls clapped together between two 2X4's.

Friday, December 12, 2008

Lets Cut To the Chase Here




The economy is in the toilet, unemployment is at record levels and it is going to get worse.
These are facts.

I have been telling people they need to get ready for some extremely hard times, I hear,
"What happened to you? You are all gloom and doom anymore."

I have been hungry before, it isn't remotely funny.

I have been poor before and like a lot of people, I live paycheck to paycheck.

I am not stupid either.
I saw this financial disaster start clear back in November of last year and have have watched things go downhill at a rapid pace ever since.

Right now, it is so FUBAR that NO ONE can stop it from continuing.

We are going to have to ride this out.

Get off your lazy asses and start stocking some food in your house.

I live in a Travel Trailer, there ain't a whole lot of storage space but I can guarantee you I have enough grub to last me three months.

What's your excuse?

How many of you are going to go out and blow a big wad of money on useless shit for Christmas, How many?

Screw that, give gifts of things that will help your family get through the winter, turn into your Grandmother and give gifts like stocking caps, thermal underwear and the like. It is cheaper and covers the basic needs of your family at the same time.

Remember, your kid can't eat or wear a video game.

To help you get started on a three month stockpile of food, I HIGHLY recommend the following site.

Safely Gathered In.

Thursday, December 11, 2008

WTF?

I see the Republicans are doing their damndest to block the bailout of the car industry.
Funny, they did not seem to have a problem writing a blank check for the financial assholes to the tune of 700 BILLION dollars, with no fucking oversight.
Can anyone tell me where that money is and what good it is doing to the average Joe?


I thought not.

Mitch McConnell and Billy Bob Corker are having a fit that we might bail out a MANUFACTURING industry that has UNION members because they make too many dollars an hour!
Yeah, their talking point is that UAW members make seventy fucking dollars an hour.
That is Bullshit but at the same time they have no problem with lawyers and Doctors charging two hundred or more dollars an hour.Called a plumber or an electrician lately?


No need to look at the facts and say that is bullshit.
Of course these industries are not going to go tits up any time soon.

I say if they have such a problem with carmakers they should start rediscovering bicycles and donkeys, see how fast their attitude changes when they have to start walking their corpulent asses around town.

No, they are out to break a Union, because by God we just can't have that.
No mention that The Republicans want to bust the wages AND benefits of the UAW down to what the non union people in the South working at a fucking Toyota plant make.
That would be a Right To Work state.
Also, no mention that Mitch McConnell seems to bypass the fact that GM workers build the Corvette in Bowling Green Kentucky, where he happens to be representing.
What a nice thing he is trying to do for his constituents!

No. it is all about the benefits the UAW workers get and they make more than his housekeepers.
No mention of the fact that the old queen will never have to make a decision whether or not he is going to spend a hard earned paycheck on paying rent, buying food or paying the electric bill, let alone prescriptions or doctor bills.

He has it made!
Fuck you working stiffs.

He has a guaranteed pension. a zero deductible health care plan that is the envy of the world and has the [power to crash the economy of an entire nation just because his corporate masters don't like unions.

Do me a favor, if you are a die hard Republican, go get sterilized.
Then vote for these same assholes until the day you die.

There is a reason they are in the minority and this is a perfect example.

They are perfectly willing to crash the whole economy because they see the opportunity to kill off one union.

That would make the rest of us Collateral Damage and we already see how that works.

Tuesday, December 09, 2008

First, Get Ya Some Band Aids

This is something I used to really do well and now I have to relearn . Somehow I lost, "The Touch".
A sharp knife is a good knife, learn how to sharpen your own knives.

Get a couple of quality whetstones, they are cheap. Learn how to use them.
A dull knife makes an ugly scar and isn't useful except as something to take up space in the drawer.
You have some, I know you do. I do.

Here are some Youtubes that show you how to sharpen your own knives. Beware, this guy at the end has turned it into an art form but I am putting it up to show that all of it is technique.



The angle of the edge is very important!



Here is a good link for a text version,with illustrations. a real good primer.

There are literally thousands of methods and thousands of gimmickey little gizmo's.
Figure out how to do it as cheaply and quickly as you can,
A razor edge on a knife is not always a good thing, think of axes and chisels, sometimes you just want to cut something that is stubborn.

"

Breaking News

The local morning news just reported that Illinois Governor Blagojevich has been arrested for impropriety in the selection process to replace Barack Obama's seat.

Nothing on any major news sites at this time, I will update this as I get more info later.

Update;

I saw this right before I headed out the door to go to work this morning and was busy all day.
If you don't know what this is about by now, Google the dickheads name.
This guy is going to jail and from what I am seeing this evening, his wife might be right behind him.
Fuckers have kids, too.

Monday, December 08, 2008

*

There it is.

I am now officially a part of American History.

magnify this user 140.147.236.204 (Library Of Congress Information Technology Services)

District Of Columbia, Washington, United States, 0 returning visit

Date Time WebPage
8th December 2008 06:26:17 No referring link
Ornery Bastard


Nice to see they weren't referred from the Vice Presidents office anyway.

Crap, Now I'm a Fourteen Year Old Girl?

Don't ask me, for some damn reason this tune is stuck in my head.
Damn you radio people!

Catch this version while you can, apparently these guys have been nominated for three Grammy's and have disabled embedding the original off of YouTube. I found this one, they will too.

The Kings Of Leon,
Your Sex Is On Fire.

I Ain't Socially Acceptable

At least not in Po-lite company.

I am completely aware of this.

I am a complete West Coast librul and a crazy freaking bastard to go along with it.

A real Rebel Without A Clue.

The weird thing is, I was raised quite a bit by my Grandparents, on both sides and they were Conservatives to the end of their days, I still have one Granny left and she is 94.

My Mothers side all came from the South, Missouri, Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky,Arkansas, I are a Redneck and I will not apologize for being enamored of the Southern style.

It is a part of me, a big part.

I don't agree with their politics but there are a lot of other traits that I just love and miss.
I talked to some young lady on the phone briefly that was in Georgia.
When she told me to "Howed On", I about had a runaway.
I miss the food, the manners that were beaten into me and a great deal of the culture.

On the other hand, my Fathers side are also fairly conservative, except the immediate branches of his Mother AND Father..
Apparently I have a lot in common with that side of the family also.
I do believe I can point to both my Grandmother and My Grandfather especially for my being a wild little Irish Bastard, the Southern influence is just gravy.
HOO! The stories I have heard!
The rest of both of those clans were fine, upstanding citizens, My Granny and Grandfather were the perfect storm and I got lucky.

You have to realize, even my Grandmother only pissed off both sets of parents by marrying my crazy assed Grandfather, although in her defense, she has ALWAYS been a very conservative, God fearing women since the day I got to meet her. Dammit.

She is a saint.

Both second generation Irish, because of different religions, there was a lot of hard feelings.
Heh, heh, heh.
I saw a picture of my Granny when she was young and I must now congratulate my Grandfather for being so lucky that they lived in a little Podunk town in Nebraska back in the Thirties.
Yowza.

Anyway, just a little background.
I am a Progressive Liberal Democrat and I will be Damned if I apologize to ANYONE for that.

I am also the Black Sheep of my current generation, the rest of them are also fine, upstanding citizens.

I just got lucky.

Dude, That's My Lunch

Some older gentleman flying in to Dulles from the Central African Republic, freaked out the TSA when they discovered a pound of dried deer meat and the charred carcasses of three freakin' monkeys in his bag.

"The meat, inadmissible under U.S. law, was confiscated and is being inspected by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The man was allowed to enter the country without penalty.

Foreign visitors often attempt to carry unusual food products into the country that are part of their native cuisine, especially around the holidays, but this was an atypical discovery, Sapp said.


"It's a rather unique thing," Sapp said. "We've seen all types of food and plants coming in through the airports. . . . but this is a first for many of us."

Sapp described the man as elderly but did not know his exact age and said he is visiting his son in the District. The man's name was not released because he was not arrested, Sapp said."


It's a good thing the guy didn't have any Horseradish on him......

5 Blackwater Security Guards Charged In 2007 Shooting Spree

17 Iraqis were killed when Blackwater tried to block off an intersection in Baghdad's Nisoor Square back in 2007.
Now five of the guards have been charged with multiple counts of manslaughter.
A sixth has already plead guilty in a plea deal and is awaiting sentencing.

That doesn't bode well for the other 5, I can tell ya.

This was a real mess, conflicting reports have conflicting views of what actually went down that day but 34 people were either wounded or killed outright, and all of those were unarmed civilians, women and children included.


It is going to be interesting to see what transpires in this case.

Sunday, December 07, 2008

I'm Juvenile

That works for me.
Mr. Taylor , from the article below was made aware of my little late night rant and relayed his opinion to someone who shall remain nameless at this time.

I will have to agree it is not refined in anyway and it does actually make his point, I DO get a visceral reaction to having my rights and liberties trampled in an unconstitutional power grab by what I consider to be a criminal administration. He does have that point correct.

I am certainly capable of expressing my thoughts without resorting to expletives and personal attacks, I just was not in the mood to do so, now I am.

Going back to his original quote, I will refresh that here;


"[T]he prospect of anyone in the U.S. being inappropriately wiretapped, surveilled, or data-mined seems to stir the viscera of many Bush critics more than the prospect of thousands of people being murdered by terrorists. This despite the paucity of evidence that any innocent person anywhere has been seriously harmed in recent decades by governmental abuse of wiretapping, surveillance, or data mining.

On these and similar issues, Obama will have a choice: He can give the Left what it wants and weaken our defenses. Or he can follow the advice of his more prudent advisers, recognize that Congress, the courts, and officials including Attorney General Michael Mukasey have already moved to end the worst Bush administration abuses — and kick the hard Left gently in the teeth. I’m betting that Obama is smart and tough enough to do the latter".


Let me start at the beginning and point out what I consider to be the faults with this comment.

First we have this statement,

"[T]he prospect of anyone in the U.S. being inappropriately wiretapped, surveilled, or data-mined seems to stir the viscera of many Bush critics more than the prospect of thousands of people being murdered by terrorists."

I am reminded of the famous quote by Benjamin Franklin,


"They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety."

There were already guidelines in place concerning the use of wiretaps and President Bush and his advisors unilaterally decided that they were too restrictive and went ahead and started wiretapping everybody without the oversite of the FISA court, which by the way, had only ever turned down five requests for wiretaps in twenty five years .
The government, under FISA, could actually wiretap anyone they wanted for Seventy two hours before they had to purge that information or get a warrant.

Now, under Bush, they were not only retaining this information but they had other programs data mining everyday people in the United States of America.
All cell phone conversations, e-mails and other electronic information was now being swept up surreptitiously and sent through a computer system trying to glean information just for general purposes.

As I recall, the Fourth amendment of the Constitution directly states that we the people, are to remain secure in our homes and papers and there must be a warrant issued with probable cause for there to be any action by the government.

This is the very thing that causes me distress with the thought process of our Mr. Taylor.

Where is the probable cause for the government to listen in on the phone call of your Aunt Millie?
There isn't one and he knows it.
But it is for our safety he points out.
I refer back to the Franklin quote.
This WAS a free country.
We dealt with threats in a timely and legal manner.


As for Obama kicking the Far left gently in the teeth, I would remind Mr. Taylor that a great deal of Mr. Obamas supporters are actually progressives and Liberals, that would be the Far left he is talking about.
That would put Mr. Taylor on the far Right. That would be the party that just got massively repudiated after eight years of disasterous policy.

Mr. Taylor seems to think that he is still somehow in the majority and that President elect Obama should actually pay attention to what he is saying.

I find this to be hubristic in the extreme.

As for his last attempt to justify his position, he claims that if President elect Obama does not continue the failed policy of the Bush administration, it will somehow weaken our defense.

I still do not see what Aunt Millie's conversations have to do with protecting our interests here and abroad.

Finally, this next bit causes me to wonder what Mr. Taylor sees that I don't,

"Or he can follow the advice of his more prudent advisers, recognize that Congress, the courts, and officials including Attorney General Michael Mukasey have already moved to end the worst Bush administration abuses..."

He seems to be counter pointing his opening statement.

If President Bush has been abusing his Executive powers, how is it that it is necessary for us to continue them?

No, I will stick with my opinion that Mr. Taylor is catapulting the propaganda as it were and restate my extreme antipathy for his message.
President Bush and his illegal wiretap programs are just that, illegal.
He has not stopped them, he has just modified them.

I do not feel safer because of these programs and if you want to keep bringing up how we have not been attacked here in the Continental United States since September Eleventh, Two Thousand and One,I will continue to point out that we should not have been attacked even then if President Bush had taken the warnings he was given beforehand, under the old systems, seriously.
The Decider is ultimately to blame for that, he had plenty of warning and ignored it.

"Kick the hard Left gently in the teeth. ’"


That is an actual quote from some fucking twat named Stuart Taylor at the National Journal.
I am not linking to any jizz bucket outfit that puts this kind of effluence into the national discourse.

Dude, you are fucking oblivious to the excoriation the Left has gone through in the last eight years and I am here to tell you we ain't taking that shit anymore.

You have no fucking idea what it feels like to be kicked in the teeth but I am here to tell you it ain't fun.
Let me give you the full quote before I blow a gasket on this mealy mouthed motherfucker,

"[T]he prospect of anyone in the U.S. being inappropriately wiretapped, surveilled, or data-mined seems to stir the viscera of many Bush critics more than the prospect of thousands of people being murdered by terrorists. This despite the paucity of evidence that any innocent person anywhere has been seriously harmed in recent decades by governmental abuse of wiretapping, surveillance, or data mining.

On these and similar issues, Obama will have a choice: He can give the Left what it wants and weaken our defenses. Or he can follow the advice of his more prudent advisers, recognize that Congress, the courts, and officials including Attorney General Michael Mukasey have already moved to end the worst Bush administration abuses — and kick the hard Left gently in the teeth. I’m betting that Obama is smart and tough enough to do the latter".


Where do I start with this piece of fucking shit?

Hey, ASSHOLE.
What part of ILLEGAL WIRETAPS do you not understand?


Illegal surveillance?
DATA MINING?!!!

You ignorant cocksucker!!

What's a matter, yer Mommy cut you off the tit too soon?
You seem to have some serious security issues there, Poindexter.

Let me put this into a different point of view and see how many of you emotionally retarded tough talkers like this;



On these and similar issues, Obama will have a choice: He can give the Left what it wants and weaken our defenses. Or he can follow the advice of his more prudent advisers, recognize that Congress, the courts, and officials including Attorney General Michael Mukasey have already moved to end the worst Bush administration abuses — and kick the hard Right gently in the throat, to permanently shut them the fuck up so we don't have to listen to these Nanny fucking idiots , ever, again. I’m betting that Obama is smart and tough enough to do the latter.


Gee, you know what?
I bet a lot of people would have their panties in a twist if that actually got published in a nationally available newspaper.


I can't believe you are smart enough to stand up while you take a piss.

The Bush administration has been proven to have committed treason by deliberately and premeditatedly outing Valerie Plame, a covert CIA operative, for political payback because her husband, Joseph Wilson, excuse me, AMBASSADOR, Joseph Wilson, called them out in an editorial in the New York Times for lying their asses off trying to sell their reasons for wanting to go invade a sovereign country that had not attacked us and subsequently illegally arrested and tortured United States citizens, along with a few hundred Non citizens, flew them halfway around the world to be tortured by OTHER nations and thought that was OK because of some hold over Nixon era imperialists.

Mr. Taylor, you need to Shut Your PieHole and figure out that some serious crimes have been committed by the Bush Administration and quit talking, even metaphorically about kicking peoples teeth in.

I am going to type this very slowly , so you can understand;

You are not any kind of part of the majority in this country, you are publicly endorsing violence towards a certain political group of citizens and you are a fucking pantywaist pissboy.

Grow the fuck up.

By the way, I have had several teeth knocked out and it is not a pleasant experience, asshole.

Saturday, December 06, 2008

There's No Way Out Of Here

The Shit continues to hit the fan seemingly daily anymore.
Keep preparing for hard times because they are here now.

After the first of the year I really expect for things to go sour owl shit.




Been kinda busy and there is no end in sight for a while. Take my word for it, I'll be back and just as rude and crude as ever.
In the mean time, take a minute and enjoy this old David Gilmour tune.




That is some good stuff.

Friday, December 05, 2008

Let It Roll

Some great guitar work here, I loved this band back in the day.
Real Rock and Roll.

UFO.

Unemployment At 34 Year High

Over a half a million jobs lost in the last month alone.
The official unemployment rate stands at 6.7 percent.
The highest since 1974.

You can double that and get a truer picture.

Thursday, December 04, 2008

A Bad Moon Rising


Smell the smoke yet?


This is Kabuki writ large lately.

The Moron in Chief has been trying to polish the turd that is his legacy and the president elect is turning out the dead zombies of a former administration while straddling the Third rail of politics and dodging the left and the right, trying to please everyone and no one at the same time.
Bush and his bunch of professional criminals are busy as a cat burying shit on a hot tin roof trying to ram through the rest of his twelfth century vision for America and has been writing extra special Presidential Decrees like they are going out of style.
Oh, and the MSM is giving him the hand job of a lifetime.


Unions bad, Bankers Good.

Environment bad, Cheney good.

It is mind boggling to see what Bush is trying to rush through at the end of his monarchy.

Rome is burning as I type and he could give a Rats Ass .


While his buddies rape and pillage what is left of the Mad Money stashed away for a rainy day, the Idjits in Congress are playing Chicken with the livelyhoods of about five million Blue Collar workers and eating Quail Wings while they are doing it.

I have to tell you that Bad Shit is coming and while he only has a month and a half left, he is as busy as a fucking beaver trying to fulfill the dreams that the Neocons and Conservatives have been drooling about for a hundred years.
Notice you don't see much about him on the TV lately.

Our United States of America is imploding because of his policies and Congress has been holding his balls in their warm little hands as they fellate him like a starving whore.


People, he is busy turning the clock back on modern society as fast as he can.

Take my word for it, there are going to be some real surprises come out with his signature on it right up until the day he has to be escorted out of the highest office in the land.
I would venture a guess that as we get closer to the end of his term, the more shocking it will be.

I personally would not put anything past him, he is not afraid of anything because he has not had any real checks or balances to make him stop and look at anything he has done since the day the sonofabitch put his hand on a Bible and lied through his fucking teeth about upholding the Constitution.
Read between the lines and you will be awake at night trying to figure out how you are going to make ends meet in the Post Bush Era.

Pay attention boys and girls, there is a Bad Moon Rising.

Wednesday, December 03, 2008

Uses for 12 volts

If you didn't already know, I live in a 26 foot foot travel trailer.
These things have a built in converter that turns 110 volts into 12 volts to run all the lights.
It originally had a refrigerator that would run on 110 volts, 12 volts or propane. Not unusual for one this vintage, it was belly up.
There is a propane furnace that runs off 12 volts, it is belly up too. I have torn it out twice,( no small feat) to try and fix it and finally threw in the towel when it blew the sight glass for the pilot light off one time too many when it backfired and it shattered on the wall clear across the trailer,mere inches from my face as I knelt down to observe what the hell was going on with it. Right now I just use little space heaters but I have the Grand daddy of propane heaters out in the shed, I have to vent it to the outside yet. About two minutes and you have to shut it off, it will go from 35 degrees to ninety that fast.
I don't mess around when it comes to being cold. I have already built a stove of sorts that it will fit inside, I just have to plumb the exhaust.
Anyway, twelve volt systems can do a lot of things that your normal 110 volt systems can.
Think of the fanciest car you possibly can, Heated seats, power windows, mirrors, seats, killer stereo, GPS system, DVD players with video monitors for the passengers to watch,digital programmable dual heating, just think about all the fancy things that cars have these days and remember one thing, they all run on 12 volts.
The kid in this video is obviously a Geek but he can show you a thing or two.
I was playing with 12 volt toys before I knew what a volt was.
Back in the day, little toy train sets and slot car sets all had 110 to 12 volt transformers.

Tuesday, December 02, 2008

Support Our Troops!

Send them more Permanent Markers and Asswipe!

I wonder what they really think
.....

SERIOUSLY,


Get our people out of that fucking sandstorm nightmare.

Here is an absolutely awesome way to help the Service person who really has a good reason for you to help get home to family because they can't afford to.

There is this guy named Ernie,( NSFW) HAHA!
He has a program that has helped many, many of our troops get home for the holidays when they had no other hope. Ernie is kinda like me, he is an Ornery Bastard too, but he has a huge heart also.
I have been cruising by his site for years and he has a way for anyone who can to donate to a fund that buys airline tickets for our men and women who can't afford to get home for the holidays, LBEH.

My hat is off to this guy.

Because the economy is in the shitter, the donations for this wonderful program are way off.
If you or anyone you know can throw five fucking dollars at this, one of our sons or daughters has a much better chance of being home for the holidays.
This fundraiser has worked miracles, I shit you not.

If you can, spread the word, I recently got reaquainted with a twenty year old communications specialist that has been dodging rockets in the Green Zone and it makes me think that five or ten bucks is a small price to pay for such an honor.
She is a niece I haven't seen since she was less than a year old.


Think of Ernie as the guy with a beer in one hand and a bell in the other. Kudos dude.


H/T to Ernie and someone who shall remain Anonymous.

I'm Whupped

Dang, back to back transmission jobs. Identical 95 Ford half ton pickups.The shifter mechanism broke in my work truck last week and I finally got it back together Thursday.I had to take it out and take the top off and send the shift lever mechanism out and have it overhauled by my buddy.
No sooner did I get that done and then the old man that fetches parts for me had his clutch quit working Friday. The slave cylinder went bad and the dang thing is inside the bell housing so ya gotta pull the transmission to get to it. Ford is a four letter word.
I worked for Ford for ten years at a Lincoln Mercury dealership and now I remember why I hate working on cars.

At least the shop at the dealer had hoists, you could pick up a car or a truck, I even worked on limo's, and stand up while you were working.
This place? Oh hell no.


It's all about floor jacks and jack stands and rolling around on creepers when ya can, sliding around on a concrete floor on yer back when ya can't.

Both times I had to roll the transmission off the tranny jack onto the floor and drag it out because I couldn't get the truck off the ground high enough.

Then it took three of us to get it back on the jack when it was under the truck again and then fight the dirty bastard to get it stuck back into place.

I will be 49 years old at the end of next month and I have been wrenching for thirty years.
This shit is getting real old.
I am supposed to be a supervisor but I am ridiculously under manned.

It's nice to be able to point at something and tell someone that "You need to fix that", but in the mean time here I am.

Oh, I forgot to mention that generally,I am lucky to be able to work on anything for more than five or ten minutes at a time.
I am either being paged to answer the damn phone, my boss is telling me the next ten things he wants done before tomorrow , I am ordering parts or I am dealing with a moron who just broke a hundred thousand dollar truck out on the road somewhere, sometimes several states away.

I can't tell you how many times I have had to slide out from underneath a Big Rig and go take care of something and then come back and try to remember where the hell I was at trying to fix something, that ain't a good thing when you are dealing with vehicles that weigh a hundred thousand pounds fully loaded.

I love my job.

I actually consider myself fortunate I have one and this is a pretty good outfit to work for, I just need some competent help that they don't steal to do other jobs three out of five days a week.

I am tired.

I'll see if I can't find something more interesting to bitch about tomorrow.

Bottoms up.

Monday, December 01, 2008

What A Surprise

I knew this was coming but it sure was sweet to see someone with the huevos to actually press charges on these two.

Cheney, Gonzales indictments dropped
RAW STORY
Published: Monday December 1, 2008

A judge in Raymondville, Texas has dropped indictments against Vice President Dick Cheney and former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.

Judge Manuel Banales, after surviving a motion to have him removed from the case, threw out eight of the indictments brought by Willacy County District Attorney Juan Guerra, including those against two special prosecutors, two district judges, and a district clerk.

Judge Banales ruled the grand jury returned the indictments against Cheney and Gonzales unlawfully. Banales also tossed an indictment for corruption against State Senator Eddie Lucio Jr., a Democrat.

The Dow Drops 680 Today

The National Bureau of Economic Research finally declared what quite a few of us already knew, that the U.S. has been in a recession for a year now.


The sheeple watching Fox news all bleated pitifully and then went back to grazing.
The rest of us have been way ahead of these guys.
It's going to get worse and it is going to last a long time.


The National Bureau of Economic Research said in a statement that it "determined that the decline in economic activity in 2008 met the standard for a recession."


Nice work there Sparky, Captain Obvious salutes you.

Of course the Bush administration has known this all along but they ain't fessin' up to the bad news.
They are too busy shoveling Billions of dollars to their buddies in the banking industry and could give a rats ass about the average American.

Happy Holidays everyone.