Swamp Musings

ordinaries

How does one get blood out of clothing? Windex sucks. Hate to throw those threads away.

There are these two buttons in front of me. Depress the pair and the previous post will mostly vanish.

Did that a couple of times in years past. Once by request, the other due to me just being disgusted with myself.

I can't cuss worth a damn. Actually very few Southern males can. Springtime, 1955, granny and mom caught me saying 'goddam'. My mouth got washed out with Oxydol.

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Five hours of written 'stuff' shifted. You wouldn't have enjoyed it anyway. When I woke up I thought it was twilight. I'd been doing stuff that was just tedious, no thoughts involved, shoulder was giving me fits. Time to lay down for a while. The sky was at the same color temperature, got up to pee and consider what to make for supper. Turned on the teapot. Turned on this 'puter. Huh? 7 PM turned into 7 AM without notice. That's the second time that has happened since August of 2003. Time to make another Will. By request, I retrieved the 2 copies left in the law offices plus the one in the safe and woodstoved them. 7 years ago. No family. No known kids. Last contact with a relative was 7 years ago and I didn't know who that one was. Represented itself as a cousin. Not likely.

Somewhere around 56 years and spare change ago, a former WW 2 squid and his 19 year-old bride of 2 years had to go to Atmore General. He was sharecropping 80 acres of taters. Froze to the ground that day. Her "confinement" for the 3 days plus the doctor fee was $50. No insurance back then. He was my best friend. The sorry sumbich got himself killed most of 21 years ago. His gal disinhereted me twice. Last time counts I recon. 1989. Such be life. Prettiest gal on this planet. Always will be.

It's undoubtably illegal for days to be as beautiful as this one was. I keep looking over my shoulder to see if Janet Reno's shock troops are closing in for another kill.

Got the 8" telescope mount moved to the shop for refitting, 42 cuttings off Eve (the fig tree) rooted, 76 books cleaned of mold, treated and bagged (maximum that I can do in one sunny day,(got ~2,000 left), then had a friend ask if he could bring me a goody. Friend being a really good keyboard musician, could have been my kid (by 3 years ;o) and we did catch-up sitting outside with a brew or 3 listening to James Hooker (Homemade Sin) with the DSL. James, goddam. Good stuff. If you ever ask me for a critique, might have one. Won't happen unless you are sitting out in the Southern night with folk that I know you already know so well.

Jim left about an hour ago and I went back to closing out the day's activities. One I'm going back to for a while before finishing up the Friday (for Monday) requirement. Too goddam pretty to be inside. Full moon. Wonderful temperature. Jim came over in his truck to deliver the goody, came with a wolfie following. Just for kicks and giggles, I once went to go to Lake City and discovered Dina(saur) at full gallup at around the 6 mile point. Big hearts those critters have. BB and Rima promptly went into the swamp to terrorize native lunchmeat, re-appeared mud covering anything under the face and ridge. Normal. Cool. I like that type of stuff.

Three boxes to move, then lots of windows and doors to close before getting serious about finishing the 'stuff'. The 'stuff' will go nowhere (my very time-judged estimation), however is interesting due to me like full engineering reviews. The original is accurate and there are 2 real goodies available if the non-payment folk knew how to use them. Neat as a pup in an armpit, (similes, wellll ;o), yep. I know why that hasn't been used in the past. My reason to look at that particular application was due to a lightning strike in 1991.

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Actually The below is shameful. It would bother me endlessly if I had voted for this collection of welfare blow jobs. Yup, dat's de way de votin' cist-em works.

30 Members of Congress Favor Special Committee to Investigate Impeachable Offenses

The current 30 total co-sponsors are Rep. Neil Abercrombie (D-HI), Rep. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Rep. Michael Capuano (D-MA), Rep. Lois Capps (D-CA), Rep. William Lacy Clay (D-MO), Rep. John Conyers (D-MI), Rep. Sam Farr (D-CA), Rep. Maurice Hinchey (D-NY), Rep. Mike Honda (D-CA), Rep. Sheila Jackson-Lee (D-TX), Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA), Rep. John Lewis (D-GA), Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY), Rep. Jim McDermott (D-WA), Rep. Cynthia McKinney (D-GA), Rep. Gwen Moore (D-WI), Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), Rep. James Oberstar (D-MN), Rep. John Olver (D-MA), Rep. Major Owens (D-NY), Rep. Donald Payne (D-NJ), Rep. Charles Rangel (D-NY), Rep. Martin Sabo (D-MN), Rep. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL), Rep. Fortney Pete Stark (D-CA), Rep. John Tierney (D-MA), Rep. Nydia Velazquez (D-NY), Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA), and Rep. Lynn Woolsey (D-CA).



H. Res 635

As usual.

Find me one that doesn't totally depend on the generational welfare payments to retain office.

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I've got a bunch I'd like to talk about. Quiet, multiple years of isolation has a bad side effect. No, that's not why yer nose is running.

Major-league bass bait!



A giant freshwater lobster (crawdad) measuring almost one metre in length has been found in north-west Tasmania.

I'd imagine a old mudbug that big wouldn't make good eatin'.

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It has definitely become springtime down here in the holler. The lemon tree is covered with buds just about to blossom, the figs are leafing out, trumpet vines have covered the forest/clearing interfaces with walls of yellow flowers, and my blue buggy has turned yellow from pollen. Oh, the State Bird is out. Copiously. So is the Skin So Soft.

Been too pretty to continue with the inside tasks and I slap lost interest in one that's due Monday yesterday afternoon. Drug out the weedeater (Rima hates the thing, retired to the balcony down at the shop), Cindy Lopper, and a length of nylon tie-down strapping, gonna finally clear up the mess one of the '04 'canes did to the front greenhouse. Since the greenhouse has lights, worked until I'd attracted the majority of flying insects within a few hundred acres before deciding baked catfish would make a better supper than itty-bitty beetles and moths. Got the roof frame re-squared (I'm still amazed it survived the half-ton of treetop) and 80% shade cloth installed today. LOTS more interior cleanup, otherwise it's ready to play in again.

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I'm pretty sure you caught all the hoopla a couple of mornings ago about NASA gonna release some sort of bulletin on ET life and, as usual, it was a re-hash of info released a while back in a handful of science/space journals. I was really hoping NASA had detected the approach of the Borg.



I want to be assimilated. Oh how I'd like to be assimilated...

Could it be the 'release' was just a blind and THIS is da trufe?



Cosmic 'eel' preys on spiral galaxy

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This was without a doubt the most interesting article I've come across in years:

Sandia’s Z machine exceeds two billion degrees Kelvin

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Sandia’s Z machine has produced plasmas that exceed temperatures of 2 billion degrees Kelvin — hotter than the interiors of stars.

The unexpectedly hot output, if its cause were understood and harnessed, could eventually mean that smaller, less costly nuclear fusion plants would produce the same amount of energy as larger plants. [snip]

A far cry from this earlier article:

Another dramatic climb toward fusion conditions for Sandia Z accelerator

Achieved 1.6 million degrees C
In a different series of experiments, the accelerator achieved a temperature of approximately 1.6 million degrees Celsius (140 electron volts) in a container the size of a spool of thread.

Other experiments in a still smaller volume target suggest temperatures may eventually be achieved on Z in the range of 2.0 to 2.2 million degrees. The now-realistic goal of reaching 2.0 million degrees is so significant because radiation temperatures in the range of two million to three million degrees are generally considered an essential condition for nuclear fusion. [snip]

Too many extra zeros! I rooted through what was released on the web and it's curiouser and curiouser..



A 2.6 MB Z Machine jpeg image is available here.

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Got supper cooking in the kitchen, good old shit on a shingle. Made a roast last week and reserved the drippings. Sauteed some onion and garlic chives in the fat, then added a half dozen sliced Porto Bellas, added the broth and various good herbs, then the diced leftover roast. The fresh homemade bread smells heavenly. SOS is one fine meal!

See ya'll later.

It's been a week or so since my last entry. Firstly for James, the OMG was due to a messege about one of a pair of my old friends' kids. 23 is still a kid. Bad but not as bad as first relayed. Long story (8 years), local. Painful goes to miserable goes to (normal expected) rebellion, some difficulty, then discovering that the best way to get shit smeared on oneself is a genuine DIY. She got over it. The "oh good lord" was my reaction to first report of death. Kids I've known since mama and daddy got all sweaty, well...

The fine how-de-do is good ol' blogspot seems to have been thinking I don't have access to this site. Forbidden. Actually it wouldn't mattered from late last Wednesday night until yesterday. Went to town on the 23rd. One stop was wallyworld. Every critter in there was snortin', hacking, the greeter had been replaced by a kid with zits and snots. Flake City is a major-league stop on the snowbird flu route. The 87 million that pass through I-75 and I-95 each winter is even rougher than having kids in school! Yep. Been mizzable for a while. Enormous amounts of work, especially since a client did a toes-up (I hope. Otherwise I have to do it) and I can only pay 2 of my 6 bills this month. One can be delayed, Alltel can be cancelled (after 29 years), I can live w/o electricity (gotta can a lot of what's in the freezer until I run out of LPG, then wood stove time. Ever can on a wood stove? Trust me, it sucks), vehicle insurance and tag, well, I didn't drive much before anyway. The biz note is a different story. It's pegged to the dirt. All or none and I can't cover it. Been thinkin' about hanging around the Greyhound station...

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This came from England. I've no way to know who wrote it originally. Guy will like it!


You Might be a Redneck if......

1. Your standard of living improves when you go camping.
2. Your prenuptial agreement mentions chickens.
3. You've jacked up your home to look for a dog.
4. You have a relative living in your garage.
5. Your neighbor has ever asked to borrow a quart of beer.
6. Your answering machine greeting includes a belch.
7. You have rebuilt a carburetor while sitting on the toilet.
8. None of the tires on your van are the same size.
9. You hold the hood of your car with your head while you work on it. (what's wrong with that? ;o)
10. Your idea of getting lucky is passing the emissions test.
11. Your town put the new garbage truck in the Christmas parade. (we rent ours from GA)
12. Your local beauty salon also fixes cars.
13. Your dog house and your living room have the same shag carpet.
14. You've ever slow danced in the Waffle House.
15. Starting your car involves popping the hood.
16. Your garbage man is confused about what goes and what stays.
17. You whistle at women in church.
18. You've been in a fist fight at a yard sale.
19. You carry a fly swatter in the front seat of the car so you can reach the kids in the back seat. (my mom!)
20. If you've ever fixed a broken coil primary wire on a car with a safety pin off your date's bra strap, and the date didn't think it was unusual. (Connie, I miss ya)
21. If you've got a matching set of salad bowls that all say "cool whip" on them.
22. If you take the Christmas lights on the front porch down in November, and only long enough to get them working again.
23. You've ever used duct tape to repair dental work.
24. You've unstopped a sink with a shotgun. ( got a story 'bout that. Still gives me a grin after a third of a century! )
25. Your will states your wife can't touch your money 'til she's fourteen.
26. You have to pass through a metal detector to get to a family reunion.
27. Your coffee table is also a cooler and bait tank!
28. Your mailing address includes the word "holler".
29. The first time you ever saw your wife in lingerie, you had to pay a cover charge.
30. You've sold a car to settle a bar tab.
31. The best sofa you ever had came out of a Chevrolet. (Willys Woodie actually)
32. You've ever used your bathtub as a punch bowl.
33. If you have ever been accused of lying through your tooth.
34. If you have ever used a barstool as a walker.

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It's been a lot of years since my first unsupervised visit to nawleans. 17 years old, a couple of buddies in a '61 Covair convertable (James's buggy wound up with a bag of bruises!), had to taste Mardi Gras! Odd to put it mildly. Kids younger than my 7 year old brother bought beer from the street vendors in front of nawlin's finest, the prostitutes of all sexes and predelictions solicited wide open, and I found out kinda late that any money should be kept in one's sock.

Somehow all three of us managed the 125 miles back home with no missing parts. Missing memory, well, dem folk in nawlins DO know how to remove that and other stuff.

Went back on business 7 years later. Lots of miles behind me, lots of good schooling, still very young. Tasted the real New Orleans for the first time. Spent 3 days beyond my mandate doing what I had become fond of doing years before and took as much of the city as possible in. The 3 days was 3 days too many. The industrial parts were equived in several port cities, the "famed" had the expected bright spots. Kinda San Francisco except (this is hard to belive) more fatalistic. Pretty patches here and there, those undoubtably turned into gated communities. The rest, well, I've been to some really shithole 3rd-world slums since. Endless. Welfare enclaves. Roll up the windows, lock the doors, and if you value your life, run all the red lights. Seems most of NO is a lot like DC, 14th and Florida. Wonder if it is still as godawful as it was between '68 and '78? Just for general information, the DC addy was the beginning of the "zone" which encompassed more than 3/4ths on my last pass.


If you've ever seen a shithole Southern city,
One-time pretty,
That's New Orleans...

And if you have to live there, that's a pity:
Man, it's shitty
In New Orleans...

It will remind you Of old tarnished slums
For a glass of wine They'll eat it till it comes

See that little Creole whore? She is nine years old...
Goin' down, in New Orleans

So if you're passin' through, I think you oughta
Stay in the Quarter:
Bag New Orleans.

And don't you wander far away from Bourbon;
Man, it's disturbin',
The real Orleans...

It will depress you, Like your mother's grave;
If you stay long, You're either dumb or brave.

See that Old Man River there? He is tryin' and tryin'
To get out
Of New Orleans...

- from Spider Robinson's mostly humorous 1992 "Lady Slings the Booze". Quote typed from the book with great care.

Is it worth a quarter of a trillion? The city that for all of my memory has used a blind jackass's butt for a compass needs to rob everybody's pocket to continue to fester? Useful services at the port. Live and school where the inevitable water won't threaten too much. Coastal plains, big rivers, fit for straw huts and evacuation. Below sea level? Safety by the blind jackass? Give it up. Grow crawdads and catfish.

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I just noticed I left something out. This has given me fits and sometimes in the past, have gotten kinda active. Hasn't been a pony in the barn for 20+ years so this type of crap is just amusing. Enjoy your new 'leaders'.

N.O. Public Schools 'Abysmal' Before Katrina


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I prefer leaving a post with something kinda nice. This last week hasn't been a lot of fun, tried to get back on my pins Sunday, worked so poorly that I couldn't get on them at all Monday. Tuesday was a 30-percenter. Today was my first "full" day. Not running on all eight unless one considers the three with really leaky valves! Finished the appointed tasks just before 5 PM, decided to hike through the woods and visit neighbors. Me, who used to scale shear rocks found self puffing after a couple of hillsides with a swamp between (swamp is easy. I like swamps! ;o). No one home except the young 'un Dr. M gave a telescope last year who I talked to about the Fall end of SMART-1. Not much chance of seeing it but I'm planning on putting the 8" telescope back together with the ISIT camera anyway. BB (stands for 'big bad') and Sky (BB's daughter by a Malemute/grey wolf) decided I was fine company. Sky gnawed on her favorite part (right elbow, has extra nutrition I guess) and BB (grey/chow), just prefers being a lap-wolf. Fine by me! Seems it was going to be a late shift so I proceeded home via the road. Many times longer, far easier for a old, broken-down man, besides, needed to check the mail anyway. Don't do that very often (mailbox is 1/3rd mile up, collects 22 pounds of dreck per month. I heat with it. BIG box). Serendipity occurred and the oldest young man came rumbling down the road at a time where we would intersect at the mutual mailbox stand. Cool. He got a med bill, I got good but really peculiar news. BB was challenged. Follow him or continue with me to go greet Rima. Rima won! I don't walk too fast these daze. She'd teleport 50 yards ahead, sit and look at me as if I'd fossilized. When I'd get within 10 yards, teleport again. She did that until we got to the earth shelter and then she followed me. Rima was, as I well knew, close to the center North line, teleports as well, and has a decidedly hostile view of strange critters (she doesn't count legs, it's HER place goddammit! ;o). t'was a wonderful get-together! Noses touch and flags wagging in the wind, then it was time to go max G! More muscles than Barry Bonds and they got them the right way ;o). By the way, if you have one of those fancy lawns, a couple of these critters will shred it in mere minutes. The radius of curvature of a 30 MPH turn is under 18 inches. Turbocharged!