Big Day For The, "D's"

This is the first step to returning this country to that status of the greatest country in the world.  Cause we aren't there anymore.

Everyone having access to health care could drop our infant mortallity rate.  Raise our life expectency.  And keep a lot of good people from going bankrupt becasue they had the misfortune to get sick.

And we might, with everyone having healthcare, be able to figure out what disease all the folks who will never be rich, and don't HAVE healthcare, or a job, have that keeps them voting for Republicans.  That's the disease that has most ruined our country.

And then in the afternoon?  Congress voted to hold the Black Attorney General in Contempt Of Congress for some bullshit, trumped up lies about what information he won't release to them.  That's a big deal.  Because you know what happens now, don't you?

Not a fucking thing.  Nothing.  Zip, nada, nothing.  Someone from the Justice Department, headed by said Attorney General is going to be asked to see if there is enough evidence to file a criminal charge.  Republicans, how do you think that's going to go for you?

Yeah, WE can be just as partisan as you when it gets this silly.

You don't think this bullshit was funded, started and stoked up the National Rifle Association?  If so, you're not paying attention.  This is a pretty shitty attempt to make you knuckle draggers believe this was some crazy conspiracy by the Obama administration to say, "Guns are bad, MMkay.  Gotta ban assault rifles, MMkay."

Because you got nothing on the Obama administration when it comes to gun laws.  You only WISH you did, so you're now making shit up.

The only gun laws Obama has signed allow you to take a gun onto an Amtrack Train, and into a National Park.  He sure seem like an anti gun guy to me.

If I was on your team, I'd be saying, "Hey!  He's a Balck guy from the south side of Chicago.  He's probably, "Packin" right now!  You know how THOSE people are!"

The, "Fast And Furious" program was a dumb idea of epic porportions.  It was absolutly stupid.  A totally bad idea.  And it was started under, "W".  And by the time this obscure, based in ONE field office out west, program came to light?  The current Attorney General shut it down.

And after that, he's released over 7000 documents to idiot boy, Darrell Issa, while witholding only the paper work that is relevent to ongoing cases.  But that's contempt of Congress?  I have nothing but contempt FOR Congress.

And while we're talking about Congress.  Jim Matheson is an asshole.

I'm sure that somewhere in the past, in a galaxey far, far away, when his father was still alive, he wanted to run for public office because he thought he could really help Utah.  But those days are long gone.

Instead of being the opposition voice to Utah's lock step, Mormon, Republican bullshit in Washington, he has now become more interested in being reelected than doing the right thing.

He made history today, by crossing party lines to vote not for something really important.  Something that he truely believed was the right thing to do.  But to appease the NRA members in Utah who believe the bullshit conspirecy theory guys who are pushing for Holder's censure.

I spent the afternoon switching back and forth between MSNBC and CNN to get all the news about what went on today.  Then went out on the patio with the radio to listen to NPR, on KUER and get the REAL story, devoid of a slant.  This was after Matheson had voted with the, R's.

Just as I sat down, I got a phone call from some guy who said, "Jeff, I'm, Pete (Phil, Larry, Jim Bob, I don't remember and it's not important) from Utah Democrats.  And I'm trying to line up volunteers for Congressman Jim Matheson's reelection campaign..."

I cut him off.  "After this afternoon?  I'm done with Jim Matheson.  Don't call me again" and hung up.

It felt pretty good.

Mia Love is in WAY over her head.  She reminds me of Sara Palin.  She's the one term Mayor or a one horse, Mormon, "bunker" of a town in Utah County.  She's not ready to perform on a National stage, just like Palin.

And just like Palin?  The, Republicans just can't wait to show her off at their convention this summer, and shower her with money.

"Look, look!  We got us a NEGRO!  And she's a WOMAN, too!  See, we welcome everyone!"  I can hear it now.

I'll bet dollars to donuts that at some point in that convention, she's on stage with Marco Rubio, and Mitt Romney.  Mark my words.

I really wish I could vote for her.  I think it would look good for Utah to elect a Black woman to Congress.  But she's a right wing, teabagger, religious nutball.  So I can't do it.

I also wish that Matheson would just go ahead and run as a Republican.  He is one in everything but name.  He thinks he's a Democrat, but he's doing everything he can to distance himself from the party.  Hell, he won't even go to the convention!  What a prick.

If he would have changed party before the conventions in the spring, he would have been on the ballot as an, "R".  And I would have gotten the chance to cast my vote for a REAL Democrat.

I won't for him.  Or Love.  I'll write in Phil Markham.  Or my neighbor, Ryan.  Or my dog.  I won't vote for a guy who doesn't represent me, while lying about being the alternative voice in Utah.

All that being said?  Today is the day, Barack Obama got reelected.  Mitt Romney can't argue against, Obamacare when it was his idea first.  So he's got nothing.  And if the Congress and the Senate don't come around?  The Republican's are going to get clobbered in those races too.

What a country.

Dinner For Anything, BUT Shumucks

This evening, we were invited to dinner at, The Viking Cooking School in South Salt Lake.  We were there to met the folks we are going to Cuba with next month.  Typical NPR listeners.  And John Greene who runs the station was there.  We went to Cuba with him in 2003.

Steve Williams, the night time Jazz guy for the station and his wife were there.

I heard people talk about being former actresses.  One guy got his Undergrad degree from Berkley, his graduate one from UCLA.

YES!  These are people I want to hang out with!

There was wine and beer and good conversation.  And a twist to the meal.

We had to cook it.

The lady in charge, Shaun Heaslet according to her card, and her staff gave us all recipes, and had prepared trays with everything we would need.  They broke us off into teams, and walked us through preparing an awesome, Cuban meal.  I stayed with Danny and Deb.  I love to mingle, but I kind of felt an obligation to try to keep all the fingers on my blind wife, and my 16 year old son.

We started chopping garlic and vegetables.  My hands still smell like garlic and onions. 

My son was impressed with how quickly I could cut up veggies.  He said, "Why don't you cook?".  I told him, "I CAN cook. I don't want to!  I like your mother's cooking.  Is it OK if I just cut up the veggies?"  He was OK with that.

The other thing that was OK with him?  The staff.  All these beautiful, young girls who can cook!  When he found out the Instructor who was helping us was also the pastry chef for the school?  Oh, he was in love.  She's that pretty and can make goodies?  It doesn't get any better than that!

Of course, she was probably 25.  But I think he's thinking of signing up for their summer teenager cooking camps, just to hang around her again!

He didn't want to help at first, but after he checked out the staff, he jumped right up.  He learned to, "roll cut" a pepper tonight as well as some other skills.  He did very well at kneeding bread, too.

I told him when he shows up for work tomorrow at Culver's burger place, he should demand a raise.  I'm not dogging Culvers, I love the place.  But I'm betting he's the only guy in THAT kitchen that's ever had a class at, The Viking Cooking School!  Just sayin...

Dinner was fantastic.  Chicken, veggies, blackeyed peas, bread we all made.  And to top it all off, a rice pudding with cinnimon, topped with chopped Mango!  It was out of this world.

I don't care if my hands DO still smell like garlic and onion.  I kind of hope they smell that way tomorrow, too!

So it looks like an interesting group of folks we will be spending some time with.  The last group was all that, too.  I'm begining to think I would like to make this trip every ten years or so!

I'm sure it will attract a different kind of folks who want to go there when they are sure they can shop at Walmart, and eat at McDonalds when they get to Havana.  And I don't want to travel with those folks.

I'll Miss You, Kathy Lee

I thought I lost my friend, Kathy to cancer about a year ago.  She quit posting on Facebook.  And I didn't know her mom well enough to call and ask what was going on.  I mean, you don't want to call and ask to speak to Kathy if she just died.

But I lost her for real yesterday.

Kathy started to work as a Juvenile Court Probation Officer at the Sandy Office about a month after I did.  In 1984.  I was just out of college and had worked six months at Youth Corrections.  She had finished her Bachelors at BYU, and Masters at William And Mary in Virginia.  Her dad was a, "spook" for the CIA back there, so she went there to get her masters in school counseling.

We had such a lousy boss, that he told us we should go to all the local high schools and meet the Vice Principals in charge of attendance and discipline.  But he wouldn't take us to meet them (since he never had bothered to, himself) and then when we did that?  He accused us of goofing off all day since we weren't in the office.

The old house our office was in was in need of repair.  Kathy and I painted the basement so she could have an office down there.

Kathy was very pretty.  Blonde, kind of a California surfer girl look.  So since she and I spent so much time together trying to learn the job, because no one was teaching us how to do it, every one assumed the worst.

During the time we worked together, I introduced her to my friends, Jim who she dated a few times, and Gary from the Police Academy who became her only husband (and it was not a good thing.  I have regretted that for ever) and I married, Deb.  Our relationship was not like THAT at all.

She left the Juvenile Court long before I did to take a job as a counselor at a Jr. High in the Provo School District.  That's what her Master's Degree was in.

We still kept in touch for years.  She would come up to Salt Lake County to spend a day skiing with me and then go to dinner with Deb and I.  And Meagan, who was only a year old.  Then she would spend the night in on the couch in the guest room of the first Murray house (the one, Meagan calls to this day, "the teeny house", and it was) before going home to Provo the next day.

After she married Gary, and moved back to Provo from South Salt Lake, I kind of lost touch with her.  Found out later that it was because the guy I introduced her to, and thought was such a great guy, turned out to be such and abusive prick, she couldn't have any contact with her old friends.

We kept in touch by email after she kicked him to the curb and he moved back to Texas.  But we never skied together again. And she wouldn't come up to Salt Lake very often.  And everyone knows how much I love Utah County.

So we kind of quit hanging out. And didn't keep in touch.

But one day she sent an email.  She was pregnant.  And very happy.  She had met a guy, an attorney from Arizona.  They were very happy, going to get married. She might move to Arizona.  I was thrilled for her.

Then the emails started to get darker.  Turns out attorney did NOT want to be a father, and WOULD not acknowledge he was the father.  Kathy started to refer to him not as the father, but as, "The Sperm Donor".  I guess he hid behind the courts in Arizona.  But Kathy had a daughter, Sarah.  And she was thrilled.

Then, she found out she had breast cancer.

I'm glad I reached out to her a few years ago.  Danny was playing soccer in Utah County a lot, and Kathy came to one of his games, got to meet him and see Deb and I.

I called her a couple of years ago, and drove down there to take her to lunch.  She had had a double mastectomy, was in Chemo and had lost her hair, but felt pretty good about her chances.  Always positive.

But after that, she kind of quit keeping in touch.  I talked her into doing a Facebook page, but she only really worked it for a little while.

I wish I'd kept in better touch.  She had to quit working and go on disability.  She just couldn't work any more.

So now?  I guess I go back and look for some pictures in the stuff that isn't in the computer.  And hope her mom sends out a message like she did last night on Facebook, so I know when the funeral is.  I'll go to Utah County for that.

I'm going to miss my friend, even though I didn't see her much for the last 20 years.  The emails, and just knowing she was out there?  That was good.

I guess the lesson in this is don't let 40 miles keep you apart.  You might regret it.

Good bye, Kathy Lee.  You were a great person.  And even though you couldn't beat me to the bottom of the mountain?  I'd have to say you were still, "A Hot Ski" cause you could beat my ass down the moguls, and you looked a lot better in ski pants than I ever would!

I will miss you.  And I'm glad you were a part of my life.

Stop Bringing Up Mitt's, Mormonism!

Yeah, I agree with, Neil Campbell of my own home town, Murray who wrote a letter to the editor in today's Tribune.  Stop bringing up Mitt's Mormonism!  It's just not fair to keep this as an issue in the Presidential race.  After all, it has no bearing on whether or not he'd be a good President.  it's totally irrelevant.

Well, if you're an atheist like me?  I don't care what religion you belong to?  I'm a little concerned that you believe in ANY of them.  I question your sanity.  But be that as it may?  Lets talk about local media, Mitt's Mormonism, and how ANY ONE'S Mormonism is covered around here.

I'll agree to quit mentioning the fact that Mitt's a Mormon if the Mormons will quit mentioning that anyone who's doing well in the world, is one, too.

Can we quit calling the country group, Shedaisy a MORMON country music group?  Will you quit telling the world that, David Archuletta is a MORMON, American Idol finalist?

You all are going to eat those words when he comes, "out" in a few years.  Trust me.  20 years in Probation And Parole?  I have better, "Gaydar" than some of my Gay friends.

Can we quit calling the Marriott's and Huntsman's, MORMON industrialists, instead of just good businessmen?

Can you quit calling Steve Young a MORMON NFL Hall of Famer?  Can you quit calling, Tye Detmer, a MORMON Heisman Trophy winner?

Now that Julianna Hough's lap dance scene was cut from the movie, "Rock Star", can you quit calling her a MORMON actress/singer?

If you're upset that Romney is identified as a MORMON, cause it's unusual (only 2% of the country identifies as LDS) and yet, you keep going nuts over any Mormon who gets famous?  How do you figure you can have it BOTH ways?

You WANT people to be identified as MORMONS when they do something positive.  Like almost win, "American Idol".  Or get famous in country music.

But if your Presidential candidate is asked tough questions about not admitting Blacks to the Priesthood, or, "Planet Kolob"?  That shit is WAY out of line!  YOU can't ask about that!

Bullshit.

In for a dime, in for a dollar.  You either believe your religion, all of it.  And you are willing to stand behind it, and say yes, "This is what I believe.  I believe my holy scriptures that describe MY God living on Planet Kolob, and married to multiple wives that were sealed to him in our Temple on earth!"

Or you don't.

And if I, or guys like me call you on it?  Well, you have two options.

You can rant and rave about how it's not right to call a candidate out on his religion!  And that's bullshit.  It's TOTALLY right to question the belief system of someone who's running for POTUS.

Or you can stand your guns and say, "This is what I believe.  And we know these things to be true, and we say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen".

Cause if you don't do THAT?  You're a lying motherfucker.  In one way or the other.  You believe it?  Or you don't.

And I don't want that guy to be my President.  Either way.

WTF? Cops Supporting The NRA? Really?

Under, "Sponsored" on the right side of my Facebook screen, I just read, "Meth Cops Utah Supports The National Rifle Association."  Really?  WTF?

Who's running, Meth Cops Utah?  Cause who ever it is, has spent WAY too much time in a meth lab.  Breathing heavily.

You people don't have a memory that goes back to January?  You don't remember the shoot out in Ogden where a bunch of macho Cops who could have handled this a MILLION other ways, got six Cops wounded and one killed, trying to take a couple of pot plants away from a guy who worked at Walmart and was an Army vet who served his country?

You don't remember that he bought his gun legally and all the magazines and ammo that are not limited because of pressure from the NRA on Congress?

You don't remember the battle we had AGAINST the NRA in the 1990's when they wanted the average citizen to be able to buy, "Cop Killer" bullets that would penetrate our vests?

Do you still think that since Mitt Romney said it at the NRA convention in St. Louis a few months ago, that Obama is, "coming for your guns"?  Even though the only legislation the President has signed that has anything to do with guns gives you the privilege to take one on an Amtrack Train or into a National Park?

Meth Cops Utah, I have to ask, since I AM a retired Utah Meth Cop.  What are you thinking?

These people want the bandits to be as well, or better armed than YOU!  And you support them?

Look, last year, I found out I had bladder cancer.  I went through two of the most awful surgery's you could imagine.  And the one and two causes of bladder cancer are smoking, which I did for about 25 years.  And, "exposure to chemicals at work."

I pretty much spent the 1990's standing around in a meth lab.  I bet between about 1992 and 1998, I found one a month.

And you know how the folks who use meth are.  They are a LOT more violent than a guy with a few pot plants in his basement, who you could have arrested at his work one night, and brought back to his house to execute the search warrant, had you not been so anxious to be such macho jerks, and kick in the door.

I mean, if you want violent, paranoid, drug addled people to have access to guns, no matter what their background, like the NRA does?  Be my guest.  I'm retired.  I don't have to do what you do anymore.  But if you want some advice from someone who's been there?  Supporting the NRA, is not in your best interest.  They are not on law enforcements team.

Look, I love my guns.  I love to shoot.  I bought 1000 rounds of handgun ammo last year from a friend who has an, "in" at gun shows.  I've actually bought several guns since I retired.  Guns I don't even need, I just wanted.

My wife, also a retired Cop has no desire to shoot anymore.  She's losing her sight, so it's not easy for her, and she never liked guns that much to begin with.  My Autistic daughter doesn't like them.

But I take my son.  And his friends.  I teach them about guns.  The history of our country is not completed if you don't teach about the guns used to gain our freedom.  I bought a model 1911 .45 last year.  Not because I needed it.  But because I wanted my son to know about it's history.  It was our military's side arm from 1911 to 1983.

And when they come home.  They learn to take them apart and clean them!  It's all part of the deal.

And I believe anyone in this country who is not mentally ill, drug addled, a Felon or being charged with Domestic Violence, should be able to own a gun.  I'm pro gun.  I'm anti stupid.

Can anyone give me a good reason, a justifiable reason, that the average citizen should be able to own a military assault rifle?  Other than, "It's fun to shoot them" is there anything you would need to do with that gun that you can't do with a Ruger Mini 14 when it comes to shooting Coyotes?

And if you can't shoot that Coyote with five rounds?  You're just a lousy shot.  But if you have a 30 round magazine?  You could do some serious damage at the local high school after the homecoming dance didn't go your way.

I plead with my fellow brothers and sisters behind the badge to rethink your opinion of the NRA.  They are NOT on our side.


These people are ginning up support for unlimited ownership of guns, under the guise of protecting yourself from a, "Tyrannical Government", and it's just not true.

If the Government was going to get tyrannical on you?  You're rifle won't protect you from their tank.

You protect yourself from a tyrannical government, not at the ramparts of your back yard, with your AR15, but at the ballot box.  And if you're paying attention to who is taking away your retirement benefits, pensions, Union privileges, and health care?  You're voting for Democrats.

If you vote thinking it's about guns and abortion?  You're not paying attention.  Read a newspaper.

Bought My Third College Football Magazine Today. Now, I Know EVERYTHING!

I have been reading college football for several days now, and I am willing to make my first upset prediction already.  August 30 in Nashville, Vanderbilt upsets #10 ranked South Carolina.

I base this on several things.  The SEC is not as tough as they think they are (Utah 31, Alabama 17 IN New Orleans a few years ago.  In the same year Wyoming beat Tennessee AT Tennessee) as long as Vanderbilt and Kentucky still play football.

South Carolina is like Missouri and Iowa.  They are always, always, always, always, repeat ad infinitem, OVERRATED to start the season.  Every time the east coast sports writers have one of these schools ranked in the top 10 to start the year, and pick them to contend for a national title?  They step on their dicks in the second week of September and get beat by Troy State (Yeah, I know.  They dropped the, "State" years ago.  I'm using it to prove a point and make it sound even worse than it is).

And third, Vanderbilt won two games in 2010 and fired their coach. They won six games last year under a new coach and went to a Bowl Game.  They are improving and could go to a Bowl Game two years in a row for the first time in school history.

The other thing that might happen?  BYU could be out of the running for a Bowl Game by the first week in November.  Looking at their schedule, they could have a win over only Weber State, by the time they get to November.  And if you run the table in November against powerhouse schools Idaho, San Josie State, and New Mexico State?  That's probably not going to get you into a BCS Bowl Game.

But hey, Athlon picked Jimmer's new wife as their favorite cheerleader this year.  So ya got THAT going for ya Cougar fans!

The projections for Bowls at this time of the year are pure, unadulterated bullshit. But every mag I've got puts the Utes in A Bowl game.  They pick different ones, but still.  Bowling is Bowling.

One mag puts us in the Las Vegas Bowl against Boise State.  This is the WORST case scenario for a couple of reasons.  First, they OWN us.  We can't beat Boise State.  Second?  I've been to Las Vegas five times in two years!  I like the town, but enough is enough!

I'll go back for Jimmy Buffett or to see Lisa Landry do comedy, but I'm tired of Sam Boyd Stadium.

The other Bowl is the Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl in San Francisco the week after Christmas.  I'm OK with that.  Deb will ALWAYS consent to go to San Francisco.  And we've been to this game before, and they do a great job with it.

Best case scenario of course, would be to upset USC here in SLC in October, run the table and get to a Rose Bowl.  No, I have not bet the portfolio on that happening.  But you have have to have a dream at the start of college football's season every year.  You have to think your team has a shot.  You've got believe, at least until the first loss, that you can win them all.  You have to imagine the improbable.  Even if, in your heart of hearts, you know it's not possible.

Like a BYU fan imagining that their school will ever be invited into a conference.  Especially a BCS conference.  Never going to happen, but hold on to that dream, Cougar fans.

My Day With The Comedy Goddess

My friend, Lisa Landry, Comedian extraordinaire, blew in to town last night, and literally, blew everyone away.  She is going across country with her young son and her mom.  And because they overslept, in Omaha, they made it to her show, minutes before she was to go on.

In this picture, she finally, "opens" at, The Garage Ma Hall, where her picture has hung for two years.  It's a picture of Deb and I with her at the taping of her last DVD in Denver a couple of years ago.  It is hanging right under a, "Witch Crossing" sign I bought in Salem, Massachusetts a few years ago.  She thought that was hilarious, and had to take a picture of that.

And, yes, those are her legs.  Comics are like Adult Probation And Parole Agents.  They only work at night.  I think in the time it took to take this picture?  She got more vitamin D than she has gotten all year.

She worked last night and tonight (Saturday) at Wiseguys Comedy Club in Trolley Square.  Then it's off to Los Angeles.  So I offered her an opportunity to come over to the house,  do some laundry, get her car serviced at a local dealer, let her son play in the park next to our house with his Grandmother, and I would take her to run errands.  Being on the road is hard.  Literally doing it on the ROAD, in a car, with your young son?  Much harder.

I love to make, Lisa laugh.  There is nothing better for a frustrated, wanna be stand up than to make his friend who actually does it for a living, laugh.  But the highest praise, is when I say something I like to think is funny, and Lisa says, "That's funny."  No emotion, no guffaw.  Just, "That's funny."

She says it like she really thought about it.  Not like two friends goofing off, but like the Zen Master praising her student.

I got a couple, "That's funny's" out of her today.  And it was good.

We took her car to the dealer for the routine service that was due and then we went shopping.  I hate to shop, but I offered to help out a friend.  So, in for a dime, in for a dollar.

First, it was, Toys R Us.  Her son had outgrown his car seat, so she needed a booster seat.  Something in her bag, set the theft prevention device off as we came INTO the store.

The lady at the counter just laughed it off and waived us through.  If I'd really been on my comedy toes, I would have said in a really loud voice, "How do you do that coming IN.  We haven't even STARTED to shoplift yet!"  That WOULD have been funny.  But I'm not that quick.

Probably got us thrown out of there, too.

Mission accomplished, booster seat bought.

When we were parking, she was telling me how bad her skin felt as she had run out of her moisturizer a few days ago.  So I told her I'd take her where ever she needed to go to get it.

My friend, from Louisiana, said to me, and I shit you not, "You couldn't help me here.  I'd need a Nordstroms or something like that."

Well, shucky darns, Mz. Landry.  We just hillbilly's and hicks out here in Utah but we got a, "Nordy's" a block from here!  She was blown away, that there was a Nordstroms in Little Old Murray.

Then I took her there.  I haven't been in that store but once since it opened.  I bought my UGG boots there.  Someone my size?  The only thing in Nordstrom that fits me is cologne.  But we found the cosmetics counter and she got her Dr. Gross moisturize (Gross Skin Care?  OK).  While I'm standing there she misplaced something and actually said, "Oh, fuck."  Then looked at the sales girl and me and said, "Oh, sorry!"

Really?  I was AT your show last night!  You do a joke about your toddler son in Disneyland that the punch line is, "FUCK, FUCK, FUCK, FUCK!"  You're sorry?  No you're not.

That's funny.

I told her, "I hate to shop.  You are very special that I would bring YOU in here.  I don't even bring my WIFE in here!  I haven't been in the mall since my daughter got her drivers license."  That was the first, "That's funny."

Took her to Starbucks and then home.

This gracious, accommodating woman even agreed (without calling her Agent to see what she should charge for it) to do an on line commercial for my friend, Jeff's car dealership, just because she had made fun of him and his son at her show last night.  So we spent some time in the park, with Lisa being funny in front of a muscle car.

The term, "Good Sport" doesn't go far enough.  She's a gem of a human being.  I am privilaged to call her a friend.

When she found out last night, that Jeff had brought his 13 year old son to the show, it kind of threw her off her game for a minute.  Not right away.  When he said he was 13, she looked out at the crowd and said, "Don't you people have water parks?"  It was a great line.  But she had to compose herself for a second after that revelation, as blue as she had been working.

After that, Lisa, her son and mom, and Deb and I went to lunch at, Red Rocks over at the mall.  We had planned to go to Park City, but she had to pick up her car by five o'clock and it was getting late.

Deb loves this.  Late lunch/early dinner=I don't have to cook tonight!  I told this to Lisa, that this was a best case scenario for Debra Jo.

So we had a nice lunch, and at the end, as I was paying the bill, I looked across the table at Deb and said, sarcastically, "So, whats for dinner?"

Off to my right I hear, "That's funny".  Made my day.

Birdwatching Is Dangerous. For The Birds

I love watching the birds.  And living down here by the river, we get tons of them.  Just sitting out here the last couple of hours listening to the radio I have seen, Mourning Doves, Eurasian Collard Doves, House Finches in several colors, Gold Finches, Red-Winged Blackbirds, Sparrows, and the occasional Northern Flicker will come by.  Even though they don't come to the feeders on the patio, Ducks and Geese are regular fly overs.

In the winter we see Owls (I'm sure they live here all the time, we just don't see them) and the last few years, up until this mild winter, we had a Bald Eagle living somewhere on the Parkway.  Watch your small dogs when you let them out in February.

The Red-Winged Blackbirds are so awesome.  They make SO much noise when they are in the mood to sing.  I guess what they are really doing, according to the bird book I have is defending their territory by singing from the highest point they can find.

I spend too much money on bird feed, but I enjoy it.

But having a couple of bird feeders on the patio is dangerous.  For the birds.

You have to, after a few years of this, come to the conclusion that if you are feeding birds?  You are giving some of them their last meal.  You WILL find dead birds in your yard, on your patio, sometimes on your front porch when you go out to get the paper in the morning.

The causes are many.  I'm sure some of them just get old or sick, and die.  Some get startled, and crash into the widows or sliding door on the back of the house.  The Doves leave a beautiful, dusty, outline of themselves on the sliding door when they do this, and they never die.  Only the little birds can't take the collision.

But some of them meet a more grizzly death.  They get torn to pieces, and few pieces are left, by the pair of Sharp Shinned Hawks that live in my neighbors back yard.  The circle of life.

Last week my son was mowing the yard and stopped right in front of the back gate.  He found a red headed House Finch with it's head lying right next to his body.  I have NO idea how that happened.  The hawks would have taken him off to be dinner.

So, bird fans, be prepared.  You feed em'?  Sometimes you have to clean em up, too.

Missing Ray Bradbury

I was very sorry to hear of the passing of one of America's great authors today.  Ray Bradbury died at 92.

When I was in Jr. High, I had an English teacher, Miss Robinson, at Hillcrest Jr. High that turned us all on to Bradbury, and Tolkien and countless others.  And I was so grateful.

Because back in the, "Dark Ages" of the 70's when you didn't have an Internet, or a Kindle, or even, cable TV we actually entertained ourselves with books!

His stories were so good, that most summer nights, when school was out and I could read whatever I wanted, instead of what I HAD to read, I fell asleep with his stories of life on Mars, or scary carnivals that came through your town a little too late in the year.

His stuff was awesome.  This lead me to read, Dune and, The Hobbit and all that came with THAT many times over.  I even had a map of middle earth poster on my bedroom wall.

Not the same wall with that, Farrah Faucet poster.  THAT one was closer to the bed.

I really enjoyed that fantasy/science fiction stuff and read all I could get.  And at that time, you could actually anticipate NEW stuff from guys like Bradbury and Frank Herbert.  Not like today's popular authors crank one out a year, but you at least knew something new was coming.  Eventually.

My teenage son and his friends don't read.  I don't mean they can't read, I mean that it's not something they do on a regular basis.  Hell, if I could have watched movies on my cell phone in the 70's?  I might not have read either.  That was work. But having said that?  That sentence WAS science fiction in the 70's!

I thought he was never going to read any of the stuff I loved at his age, and he might not.  But he did like the, Lord Of The Rings movies, so I held out hope.

But a strange thing happened just before school let out last week.  I got a letter from the school, telling me he had not returned a couple of books to the school library, and he owed about twenty dollars in fines if he didn't come up with the books by the end of school!

And it was FICTION!

So instead of being pissed off that he was a lazy ass, who didn't take stuff back to the library and was going to have to pay a fine?  I was THRILLED that he was reading for entertainment! 

He's reading shit he doesn't have to, just to be reading?  REALLY?  Awesome!  That's, really awesome.

Maybe growing up in a house where his father is a hoarder, of books is rubbing off on him.  I hope so.  A back yard and a book beats a power outage and a dead battery in a Kindle every time.

Good buy, Mr. Bradbury.  And thank you for all you did for me.  And maybe?  Just maybe?  My son.

Hyporcisy, Republican Style.

Has anyone else notice that Orrin Hatch is is running commercials that bemoan the fact that Utah might lose Hill Air Force Base if he's NOT reelected.  And it would be bad because there is so much Federal Money that comes there and that is a GOOD thing.

Yet he wants to pass a law that would give Utah control of all the Federal Land in the State?

All that isn't an Air Force Base, cause that's a GOOD thing.  Or a NATIONAL PARK, cause that brings money into the state.

Look, if you hunt or fish, you WANT the Fed's to control the land in this state.  So YOU can use it, without restrictions.

If the state gets control of the Federal Land in the state?  It won't take long before you can't hunt or fish on it.  It will be like back east, where all the land is private, and you need a note in your pocket to hunt/fish it.

Trust me, Republicans who think this is a good idea?  You've never tried to hunt in West Virginia.  If you had?  You would KNOW this is a bad idea.