Life ain't half bad

Sammy and Mason are coming here to color Easter eggs. It is a fine day.

I am pretty well back up to par on Megashot.net. Getting some welcomes done for new members. There are now more than 6,200 registered souls on Megashot.

I am once again active on Flickr but it is limited to a few good friends. Any site can wear you down if you are on it too much.

For my practicing Christian friends, I hope you have peaceful Holy days. For my pagan comrades, carry on.

Have a good weekend!

Easter goodies

Mr Gnome likes Peeps

Meant to write a smash-bang masterpiece of blog prose on this day but I feel so lethargic after two straight nights of serious sleeping pills. Sleep or pain? No-brainer; sleep!

Have a great Friday!

Lost Highway

Had my annual P.C. doctor (hell no, not a computer doctor; ‘Primary Care’) checkup yesterday. Before she even saw me, her nurse had an appointment set up for me with a orthopedic surgeon so I can get my knee fixed. Maybe, possibly in another month or so I will be free of this pain. Walking again has become secondary to relief from this physical hurt. I haven’t slept since Monday morning; yesterday’s limited activities caused the knee to go into spasms every few minutes last night.

It is bad that we have to find out what people think about stuff by using Facebook and Twitter instead of a “trusted” news source.

One of my FB contacts posted this:
Warning…thinking out loud again…maybe those who want to force the gun issues should move to the states who allow same sex marriage and abortions…that way they could all be happy together and leave the normal people alone to enjoy their lives in peace!
I find this extremely offensive and I say she is a “Facebook contact” because there is no way I could ever know someone so hateful as a friend. She cannot be “thinking out loud” because her life learned-biases will not allow her to use her mind to think rationally yet she seems to refer to herself as “normal people”. Gods help us if she is normal people.

From today’s local rag:
Building managers and legislative staffers have sought to reassure some concerned Tennessee lawmakers that recent renovations at the state Capitol did not install special facilities for Muslims to wash their feet before praying.
“I confirmed with the facility administrator for the State Capitol Complex that the floor-level sink installed in the men’s restroom outside the House Chamber is for housekeeping use,” Legislative Administration Director Connie Ridley wrote in an email. “It is, in layman’s terms, a mop sink.” Read more: http://www.johnsoncitypress.com/News/article.php?id=105724#ixzz2OfFibFK9

Have a Tuesday!

Justified

Sammy was here all day yesterday. He won. He had Carolyn and I both ready for the knockout when he left us. We began his entertainment with Pink Floyd of course and then moved to Tedeschi and Trucks via Mark’s blog. That was fine with him. I decided to apply a bit of KISS with a closeup of Paul Stanley in makeup. That was all it took to send Sammy running to his granny’s lap. A good day for all three of us.

Rain today and snow tonight.

Fer Shur!

 

Have any of you seen the comet? I saw it shortly after it swung into the evening sky but it was a bit hard to locate. Not as bright as I thought it would be but still brighter than anything round it other than the new moon. I may have missed it if it had not been fuzzy looking.

I will wait until the last minute to file our taxes; the wars will still be in session. I don’t know what I hate most; my tax money going to pay for wars which help no one except corporations or my tax money being handed out to subsidize those same corporations.

Which paragraph above is not justified text?

Have a great final week in March!

Taking notes

Google this week released a note taking application by the name of Keep for its Android OS 4.0 and higher. I’ve  been using Evernote but it is a bit complicated for taking a quick note like when I wake up in the middle of the night with a wonderful idea for this blog. The interface for Keep is easy to use and it also links to Google’s cloud service, Google Drive. I think I will use it all the time as it also has a app for Windows which will sync with all my devices running Android.

The Boss is supposed to be here tomorrow! I miss Sammy when he isn’t here at least once a week. Mason comes over more than does The Boss but he just sleeps and eats.

Have a good weekend!

Long road

I now have my taxes about 70 percent completed; I spent nearly seven hours on them yesterday. Foreclosure on our old house is a major exercise in tax code foolishness.

New black, metal roof. Hope to have a photo later.

A couple weeks ago a person known to my daughter beat her extensively. No one has been convicted of a crime but someone is awaiting a jury trial for the deed. My daughter has a broken nose, broken cheek bones around her eye sockets, and a lot of dark bruises yet to heal. She may lose partial vision in one eye and her nose will remain crooked.

I need a Sammy fix; haven’t seen The Boss in awhile.

Snowed last night.

Have a good Thursday, my friends.

Time

Another sunny day in the hills where the gods come to play.

I’m thinking of buying a new fedora, something like this one. Don’t laugh … yet.

I am up to my ears in taxes today; took a break to dissolve some of the crap from my brain. It ain’t working; I can shut my eyes and see lines of gibberish text and meaningless numbers. Time is running out fast for tax filing and I am barely begun.

The time is gone
The song is over
Thought I’d something more to say

Have a Tuesday!

Geeking

My Droid is acting crazy; must be close to time for a new one. I’ve had it for two and one-half years which makes it at least four generations behind the times. Since I bought the tablet and since Carolyn now has a smart phone, I don’t see why I need anything more than a regular cell phone. I suppose I will try to find a good deal in something but I don’t know that it will be a contract phone. Google is rumored to becoming out with a smartphone with data usage that isn’t tied to any cellular company. It is supposed to cost about $100 for the device plus discounted data and calling. A lot of intrigue in the consumer electronics world these days.

Beautiful day yesterday; if March winds hadn’t been blowing, it would have been near perfect. Still a lot of folks working in their yards and enjoying the finery; supposed to cool down a lot this week coming. I am ready for a trip to the mountains but the knee is refusing to discuss it.

Have a good week!

Small gods

Scientists again say they have discovered the “god particle” which means the one found earlier was a “false-god particle” and we know that God doesn’t like false gods. All I can say is this: If a “god particle” is needed in the cosmos, then it does exist. If it is needed and doesn’t exist, then neither do we.

Sunshine today and warming a bit. Still not very much like mid-March would be if I was the god-particle in charge.

I am not a religious person in the normal sense of “faith”, but I know that personal prayer does no harm. It is what we expect from praying that many times leads us to doubt and self defeat.

Have a good weekend, y’all!

Pope Francis

Unknown ladies
Photo from my Grandmother

I won’t do it! I will not refer to and defer to my wife as Pope Francis because her middle name is “Francis”. Not even Pope-ette Francis. And no way is she going to make me wear a red skull cap around the house. Hell no! It’ll be a long journey for me until the next Pope is elected.

Spring will never get here. I believe the new ice age has begun but it will hopefully take a few years before the first glaciers arrive in East Tennessee. They didn’t come quite this far south last ice age but they surely will this time just because I’m here. There goes the ol’ global warming bit.

Have a tarantism Thursday!

Ides and comets and no. 13 … oh my!

Gulf Fritillary on Zinia

Portends! Portends of doom and gloom! How often do we have a great comet stealing across our evening sky at the same time the Ides of March are in their death throes?* Even worse, Friday the 13th is here today—a Wednesday. The Holy Roman Church has no leader and my roof still leaks. Fate has dealt us a losing hand this month. Portends!

Have a safe day, my friends and don’t blame the messenger if your luck turns bad.


*This happened once before in recorded history in the year 607 and we all remember how terrible that year was.

Guido Sarducci for Pope

A lot of old men are going to elect one of their own to govern the Vatican and be head of a church which has a membership around the world of 1.2 billion people. About half of the church members are women who have absolutely no say in the selection of a new Pope. It would be nice if the Catholic Church and all Christian denominations would allow women to have status equal to men. Holy men fear women. As a matter of fact, I fear women and I ain’t hardly holy!

Wasn’t Sunday a near-perfect day. If not for a bit of breeze I would have been on the porch for many hours instead of less than one hour. Bleak, gray skies today and another cold week in store. Patience, our day will come.

Happy Birthday, Jack Kerouac.

Have a Tuesday!

Moonflower

Sammy spent Saturday with us; just his presence seemed to say “things are all right now papaw, your buddy is here”.

Have a good Sunday …

One

Family;
In a crisis like the one we are now experiencing, we must be a family of One. We must pull together, hope together, and if any of us are religious, we must pray together. Togetherness is the key when one of us has been seriously hurt; if blame must be placed on one of us or some of us by any of us, it can better be done in the future when we have the gift of hindsight to guide us. Right now, one of us needs all the help and love we can give.
Daddy (Paw, Papaw, Wayne)

Around the home place

Trout fishing on Wilbur Lake

Those high winds of last week took a toll on the house’s roof shingles; we have four major leaks on the ceiling and walls. One leak is directly over my head. The landlord is supposed to have his insurance man out here Monday; he knows the roof can not be successfully patched and is hoping insurance will pay for new shingles. I’m glad I don’t have to worry about things like that.

Carolyn washed our “dry clean only” mattress pad in the washing machine; now the machine is stopped up from stem to stern with polyester filling. A new pad from Amazon came yesterday. It too is dry clean only.
Mason is here today but all he does is eat and sleep. I’d love to see Sammy, too.

Have a good weekend and Spring your clocks forward!

The comets are coming

Sunset

Snow; at least it had the decency to lay on the ground this time. Supposed to be 66°F (18.9C) by this weekend. If so, I will do a springtime Irish jig while on my crutches!

We should have a good year for naked-eye comets if you like such things and no one likes them more than I. Early next week should be good viewing of comet Pan-STARRS in the Northern Hemisphere. View west just after sunset and it should be easily visible. To add to my boyish excitement, comet ISON should be about as bright as the moon as it sweeps by the sun and earth in November. I’ve seen a few comets in my days (nights) but ISON should be the best one yet. November is the time for the Leonid meteor shower, also. However, it will peak during full moon and won’t be as spectacular as it sometimes is. Nothing arouses my senses of wondering and humility as does the night sky.

Photo is from the community where I grew up. There are only four of the old homes being lived in. This abandoned one was the Rome Sifford house; I used to sit on the front porch here and listen to school-day stories from the early 1900′s.

Have a good Wednesday, y’all!

Hot and dusty

Water-lily — Nymphaea

Cold and rainy once again; my joints are tender and sore. Snow showers for tonight and tomorrow then warming a bit. We may get more than showers if the snow front now moving toward Chicago drops a bit further south than is anticipated.

The National Rifle Association is sponsoring a NASCAR race in Texas this year. I wonder if Ted Nugent will play and sing the National Anthem while our military jets fly overhead? A bit ironic, I think. Yee-Haw for the good ol’ boys!

In a related note, last Sunday’s race was won by Carl Edwards but I had to wait until Monday to find out. The first headline I saw on Sunday was “Danica wrecks”. How come a mere wreck is more important than the race winner? How come the lone female racer gets first name treatment from the media and the 42 men who participated are referred to by their last names?

I haven’t seen Sammy in quite awhile. He had a cold and was being contrary. He must have gone to the local kid’s museum yesterday because Ashley put a couple of his pics on Facebook. Chris gave a baby shower for Mason last Saturday and he got a lot of baby-type loot; clothes, toys, and diapers.

Have a Tuesday!

Burrrp!

Washington, D.C. 1913
Women’s suffrage march on Pennsylvania Avenue

What is it with women, give them the right to vote and they think they have to scold a man over an innocent but well earned burp. A beer and pizza burp. Lots of garlic. Just as she turns over with her face toward mine in bed. I should’ve worn shin pads and face guard. A man ought to have rights other than the right to remain silent.

Lech Walesa sure screwed around with his legacy by claiming gays have little or no roles to play in Poland’s government. He is now just another old man.

We’ve had some serious weather this past week but not one bit of it was springlike. One day was wind gusts more than 70mph (113 kilometer/hr.) which ripped shingles off our roof and knocked the power out for a few hours. High winds and hard rain are not unusual for changing seasons, but the weather is usually a lot warmer when it happens and then it cools down quickly. This time it was cold before, during, and after the storm. Lots of rain this winter but there is no break in the colder than normal temperatures in sight. It has been snow showers for the past two days. I need some porch time.

Have a good Worshday, my gentle friends.

Horse burgers

Europe is undergoing a bit of panic because of horse meat allegedly being mixed with beef and being sold to the public. Well, I’m here to tell you that horse meat ain’t all that bad and when mixed with beef in the correct proportion, it is much better than beef alone. When I was a kid, there was a burger joint which sold the best sandwiches in town but it had a reputation of using some horse meat mixed with beef for the meat patties. I’m not saying it is true about the rumor but once it was out and about, the little restaurant’s business declined to where it finally had to close. After 30 years, it reopened on the same spot but by then, demographics of shifting population insured it could not succeed. However, Steve and I did sample the burgers and they seemed to taste the same as I remembered them form the 1950′s. Do I believe the food contained horse meat? I doubt it it did. Most likely the rumor sprang from a competitor and the unique flavor of the burgers came from spices known only to the proprietor but they were tasty even if they once did pull a plow.

I am about sick of the Danica Patrick hoopla. For one thing, she is a cutie-pie but has never asked me for a date. Second, NASCAR and its talking heads press corps have her on a throne–watch out Vatican, she could be elected Pope by the racing crowd. Third, she is a cutie-pie but has never asked me for a date. Actually, I think she and immensely popular Dale Earnhardt Jr. should breed up a few kids; any one of their brats could easily be a world dictator or at least King of the South. Oh Danica, please ask me for a date! Another thing, why is junior so popular? He hasn’t won many races; he doesn’t drive the Budweiser car, and he has come nowhere close to winning a championship. Of course, he is daddy’s boy and daddy had a big reputation as a red neck bad guy who gave no quarter on the track. Junior inherited the adoration of the fans when his dad was killed; he certainly hasn’t earned it. Okay Danica, you can play hard to get for now but I’ll be here when you come begging.