Soaking in the Morning

Sunday morning is usually without hectic moments, so I have time to sit on the back porch.

This morning was almost still. A mockingbird sang in the near distance; the trills, whistles, and calls, a solitary sound in the morning quiet; the singing continuing for long minutes.

The cool damp air slowly moved. There was no gusts, or calms; just a steady push from the south as the cooler air from the Gulf sought the warmer air on the land. As I raised my cup, the slow breeze wafted the scent of fresh coffee. I sipped and enjoyed the moment.

Off to the east, the dim, silver sky silhouetted the trees; black against the light. As the sky brightened, the silver turned to a dark, powder blue. An orange glow followed: slowly brightening; announcing the soon to rise sun.

The mockingbird stopped singing, but other birds were now greeting the morning. The calls of mourning doves were joined by sparrows, cardinals, sparrows, blue jays, and finally: the raucous whistles of grackles; shattering the morning quiet.

I sipped my coffee and enjoyed the show. Squirrels played in the oaks, doves flew to the still bare pecans, and a mated pair of cardinals landed nearby to pick for the seed I threw in the yard.

I contemplated a second cup of coffee - and breakfast. My thoughts turned to what would be good. Bacon, hash browns, and eggs over easy came to my thoughts. Determined, I finished my first cup of coffee, and moved do start my task.

Before I could rise to my task, the mockingbird landed on the fence. I watched it, and it watched me. Whether it was king, or queen of it's territory, it didn't appear the least bit afraid. We stared at each other for moment; me silently watching; the mockingbird poised to fly, if I moved too quickly.

The mockingbird, without a sound, soon flew away. I watched for a moment, hoping it would return; but it didn't. Rising, I took a deep breath, made one last look around, and started my day. I had much to do, and would have like to relish more of the fine morning. Maybe next week will allow another morning to watch what too many miss.

I Didn't Listen to the Entire News Story

As I was leaving my truck, I heard a news story start, from a local radio station. It involved an arrest for assault, a flare gun, and a machete.

Now, I know many of you would want to sit awhile for the story to finish. After all the other news on the radio, I found I really wasn't interested, since Hillary is still lying, Congress is still a feckless group of opportunists, the President is still clueless, and a crazy man flew a loaded jet into a mountain.

Bleh!

Pandemonium

Pandemonium is my best description of what this feckless administration created. Laws were broken; an attempt was made to make a deserter a hero; illegal aliens were invited to come unrestricted, but will soon find they're not welcome; supposed qualified administration heads are exposed as partisan hacks; and the cheerleaders in the media are finding their revenues are falling like a rock from an airplane.

If so much money wasn't being wasted, it would be a little fun to watch it all unravel. I like a good circus, and this one is a humdinger.

When The Big Boys Play

It's evident that the President of the United States, and Prime Minister of Israel, are not the best of friends. The media fawns over this conflict, and many - supposedly unbiased - choose sides.

From my vantage point, when any personality conflict arises with heads of state, the final outcome depends on the person. In this situation, those involved are remarkably opposites.

Netanyahu has fought terrorists as a soldier, and loves his country. He's unwilling to offer the Palestinians unbridled access to the real estate he governs.

Obama...well....obviously loves himself, has obvious disdain for the military, and wants to give illegal aliens full access to our country.

So, who wins? The answer is obvious. Obama doesn't have a chance of winning this in the court of world opinion.

I Can't Figure It Out

I haven't been posting much. Being busy is part of it; but not wanting to constantly complain about the lying, thieving, reprobate pieces of crap in Washington usually leads me away from posting.

Still, I examine my stats, which leaves me scratching my head. There is no pattern to what attracts visitors. I'm guessing this is normal for all bloggers.

So, this is a post about confusion, explanations, and insight. Use it well with your daily endeavors.

Rifts, Wedges, and Opportunity

A news report states Valerie Jarret leaked the information about Hillary Clinton's emails. This shows a huge rift in the Democratic Party, and the opportunity to drive wedges between members of the party.

In my view, this affords a small glimpse into the brutal character assassination efforts of the Democratic Party leadership. Not only are they willing to destroy their opponents, they're willing to destroy those that don't follow in lockstep with their current agenda.

Time will tell how this works out, but the opportunity to split the party, cause havoc, and remove a substantial amount of the their control is there for the taking.

What a Difference Time Brings

A bunch of years ago, torrential rains caused terrible local flooding. Over time, the weather was drier, and just a few years ago, we suffered a drought, which was bad enough to cause old trees to die.

Over the last few weeks, we've had more than our share of rain. If this continues, major flooding can become a reality. The soil is saturated, outfalls are full, and even moderate rain will cause problems.

That's one thing about my part of the world: If you don't like the weather, wait a day, and see if you like the change. That, and be careful what you wish for.

My Logical Solution

Ferguson is a mess, but the simple solution involves only skunks, and a video camera:Turn a few hundred skunks loose in the crowd, and film the reaction on pay for view.

The money from the pay for view should be used to help the honest business folks in Ferguson, and to pay for the cleanup costs the city will accrue.

As far as the protesters, I think an enterprising person could set up a roadside tomato juice stand and make enough money to fund their children's college education.

Tired of the Lying

Hillary lied before, is notorious for stretching the truth, and has a past that would land most people in prison. Now she's lying about the emails.

So, how dumb are too many U.S. citizens for even considering her a Presidential nominee? In my book, as dumb as a bag of hammers.

I PostedThis Almost a Year Ago

...and I think it's still appropriate....


Ignore the Woman Behind the Curtain
May 18, 2014


Politics are full of subterfuge, obfuscation and downright lies. Both parties have their experts at the process and both parties like to play the general public like they're rubes at the casino.

With that in mind, any attempt to portray Hillary Clinton as a Presidential contender is nothing more than a political sleight of hand. They'll tease the public for months, too many will believe what they read, and she'll either announce she's not running, or they'll crucify her before the nomination. At that time, they'll come up with their favored politician and start the hard sell, with half-truths and outright lies. Bill Clinton will insure she doesn't have a chance, since his ego is "smarter" than his mind.

The Democratic Party has nothing to offer, will have nothing to offer, and anyone that believes otherwise is as dumb as a box of rocks.

The Republican Party won't be much better; especially if the entrenched Washington denizens of the Ivory Tower continue to ignore those that can save their party.

So what do you do? Hold your nose, vote for the best of the bad choices and pay close attention to your representatives. They can be manipulated, since they have to go home; sooner or later.

Email Shenanigans

Hillary used a private email server - which she had complete control - to conduct official business during her tenure as Secretary of State. Whether that's illegal is not nearly important as the reason for this wavering from official policy she strictly enforced with others in the Department of State.

I think it's safe to assume incriminating emails are now gone. While Hillary might not have this expertise, she could hire someone to remove the information. That's where there are other ways to find these email.

The computers of all in the White House, important members of the administration, and Congressional members could be seized with a search warrant, but it would take a willingness by the Department of Justice to pursue the matter. I don't see this happening, but the lure of money could yield some interesting information.

How about a cash award for emails from people that can be persuaded to trade cash for immunity? I think this would work. After all, when ethics, morals, and honesty are far removed from daily thoughts, the lure of money is a powerful tool.

This is a suggestion to members of Congress investigating; and for those with political agendas to remove the criminal elements in political power. Grow a set and do something useful.

The Object (Re-post)

A few days ago, while passing over a tall local bridge, the clear atmosphere offered a view towards the Gulf of Mexico, and thoughts of my time offshore returned. 

I saw many things while I worked offshore. Some left memories that will last as long as I can still remember. 

                                                                    ***

It was around 7:30 pm on a summer evening. I had made my first rounds of the evening and was headed back to the shop to work on safety equipment. The wind was light out of the southeast and the Gulf was a tranquil emerald green.

As I walked across the catwalk, movement in the south caught my eye. I stopped, spent some time examining what caught my attention, and within moments, felt the hair stand on the back of my neck. Whatever it was, it was big and moving under the surface towards the platform.

The circular object appeared to be around a hundred feet in diameter and was a silvery gold that shimmered in the late evening sun. Since it was right beneath the surface, the small waves prevented me from seeing any detail. One thing I did know: it was moving fast and would be at the platform shortly.

As I examined the object, I tried to determine what it could be. Was it a some type of secret military submarine, or was it extraterrestrial?  My curiosity turned to apprehension and then to fear. I thought of trying to alert the crew, but soon realized there wasn't enough time. I stayed where I was and waited. It was moments away.

When it arrived, I braced myself by tightly grasping the handrail on the catwalk.  It passed between the platforms, so I had a ringside view.... It was fish. A huge school of moon fish that swam in a chaotic ball of motion, which kept predators at a distance. They passed silently through the water right below the surface. In less than a minute, they moved to where the light couldn't catch their silvery scales and were gone.

That was the only time I saw moon fish. I don't know if that was a migration, or a rare occurrence. I do know that I was in the perfect place to see the school as they passed. If they had passed a few hundred feet on either side, my tale would have a different ending.

Hamster From Hell (Re-post)

I mentioned the following to a close friend, so I'm posting it again.

                                                                           ***

My brothers, friends, and I were explorers. We weren't afraid of venturing anywhere, which including miles of the surrounding area and the undergrounds drains that ran under the streets. If we wanted to see it, we'd spend some time in doing just that; even if we had to say we were up to something else. After all, we didn't want our parents to worry.

Two blocks over from our house was a railroad track. Usually, only switch engines would pull cars up and down the track, but there was a passenger train twice each day and a long freight train at least once each day. When there was no train, we would explore up and down the tracks, under the bridges and along the right of way; if we weren't waiting for a train to flatten a penny or nail we brought from the house.

One afternoon, while exploring under a railroad bridge, my brother spied a critter in a hole under the abutment. After close examination, he realized it was hamster, which was not only an unusual critter to find, it was at least a half mile from any house.

My brother took a stick and stuck in the hole. The hamster responded by doing everything it could to turn the end of the stick into sawdust. Instantly, my brother decided he wanted the hamster as a pet, so we went home, he rigged a live trap and we returned with a mission.

It took over an hour of patient waiting, but the hamster finally made the mistake of going into the trap. My brother had a new pet and it showed appreciation by trying to gnaw the end off my my brother's finger. He was quicker than the hamster, but not by much

We didn't have one of those cute hamster cages, with all the tunnels and running wheel. All we had was a high sided wood box, which my brother secured with a piece of hardware cloth and a brick. We spent the rest of the afternoon admiring my brother's new pet, which ignored the lettuce we managed to remove from the crisper when my mother went to the restroom. Before the evening was over, my brother stashed his pet, and box, in the garage closet, while he decided how he would announce his pet to my parents.

Early the next morning, my brother and I went outside to check on the hamster, which he hadn't even named. Opening the door, my brother peeked into the box and found a hole gnawed in the side. The hamster was gone, which disappointed my brother, but it prolonged the announcement he'd eventually have to make - if we found the hamster.

We spent most of the day looking for the hamster, but it was all in vain. It was gone and there was no sign of it anywhere. We chalked it up as "one of those things" and went about our business...for a few days.

My mother was speaking to my father a few days later and told of how something was in the garden destroying her plants. Since weeding and upkeep was part of our responsibilities, we went to investigate the garden. We found a fairly large hole, which indicated something burrowed into the ground and was eating the roots of the plants. While my parents were confused, we had a pretty good idea what that "something"was. It was time to solve our problem.

My brother tried placing his live trap by the hole, which was a wasted effort. The hamster had no intentions of making that mistake again. It was living the high life in its comfortable hole, eating three good meals each day and lacking a care in the world.

My brother decided the only thing left to do was to flood the hamster from the hole. Placing the garden hose nozzle into the hole, he turned the water on full and waited. While we were waiting, I thought I saw something out of the corner of my eye towards the other end of the garden. Before I could focus on the movement, there was nothing to see, but there was a rustling in the high grass in the neighbor's yard. Within a few minutes, water started bubbling from a hole about ten feet away. The hamster had an exit, and I was thinking he'd made an escape.

We eventually filled the hole completely, which pretty well indicated we'd either drowned the hamster, or at least ruined it's home and it would leave. I'll never know. We never saw another sign of the hamster and we'd avoided having to explain the entire mess to our parents.

A few years ago, I told the story to my mother. She just shook her head and smiled. I felt better after keeping the secret all those years. She probably was thinking she didn't want to know about many of the things we did when we were young.