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Valory |
Friday, March 24, 2023
In Memoriam ...
Thursday, March 23, 2023
Yeah, Right, Pull the Other One!
Rant On!
So, because of the current way we live, Mrs. Andrew and I watch a bit of the TV. We watch NCIS, Blue Bloods, stuff like that. And a lot of educational and murder-death-kill shows. Some movies and such, both ancient and modern (love watching old Fred Astaire movies and such.)
And we have noticed things about dramas lately, really starting around 2015 or so. All the crime dramas, really. Guess who the Big Bad has become? Is it Drug Cartels? Nope. Communist China? Nope. Intercity Gangs of any flavor? Nope. Space Aliens? Nope. Bigfoot? Nope. Bigfoot Space Aliens? Nope. Antifa? Nope. BLM (either the minority group or the Bureau of Land Management who are really evil federal jerks?) Nope. Think of any actual criminal violent group of people who are working hard to destroy the very fabric of our nation and are they the Big Bad? Nope, nope, just nope.
The "SWAT" reboot, "NCIS: Los Angeles," NCIS: New Orleans," "NCIS," all of the "FBI" shows, all have the same Big Bad who are causing fundamental damage and are planning the fundamental rearrangement of this great country.
Uplifted Hamsters or other animals escaped from various labs? Canadians? Cubans? Nope.
White Christians.
Get that?
White Christians.
Who are also assumed to be... Nationalists or Supremacists. Because Christians can't be anything else than Nationalists or Supremacists.
Admittedly, the reboot of "SWAT" was a dog-turd to begin with, but in the greater Los(t) Angeles area, no other problem was as critical as dealing with those crazy White Christians (assumed to beNationalists and/or Supremacists.) Same with "NCIS: Los Angeles," sure, Commie China was a problem, so were drug and human smugglers and traffickers and such, but it was the WCNS that were the real threat to the team and the city and, by inference, the nation as a whole.
Same with NCISNO.
Tried watching some of the FBI shows, and, well, besides badly written, again, WCNS are the uber bad guys.
And now, even the original "NCIS" has fallen upon White Christians as THE WORST PEOPLE EVER, whatever the flavor they are, especially if they believe in the Constitution and the Bill of Rights (and that pesky 2nd Amendment thingy.)
So, because of Loyalty and Stupidity, I'll give NCIS one more chance. And then I'll ditch it like so many other shows. Seriously, every year more and more shows get sent to the trashheap of my tv viewing history and looks like yet another one is joining the pile of jetsam.
It's like the scripts are being written by the Southern Poverty Law Center, which is one of the most prejudicial, racist and bigoted organizations I've ever encountered. And after reading their version of various activities taken by people in Florida, in comparison to what actually happened, those yahoos at the SPLC are just lying liars that blatantly lie.
Seriously? My fat fundament is The Most Dangerous Threat to This Great Nation Ever? And, yes, I guess I am a nationalist, as I assume that, overall, the US of A is the Best Nation Ever and I want to keep it The Best Nation Ever. But that's supposed to be evil and bad now.
And it's not just Hollyweird. Our own Federal Government, who is supposed to serve us, has taken the stance all throughout its bloated corpulent pustulant body and all of its squiggly corrupt appendages. Like the military.
Sigh.
I hate being stuck in The Fall of Civilization. Dangit.
Sigh.
Rant over. Dangit.
Sigh.
So... Music.
Because of evil Christian stuff... OOOOHHH (waves evil wiggly fingers at all y'all) Muhahahahaha...
There's this group called GOL (gods of luxury) and they did a piece based upon... The Song of Solomon (you know, from The Old Testament) which, of course , you know will make this piece of music weird. It's electronic, and weird, and I really like it.
And just because ELO is still my favorite...
Lyrics
Hello, how are you? Have you been alright?
Through all those lonely, lonely, lonely, lonely, lonely nights
That's what I'd say, I'd tell you everything
If you'd pick up that telephone, yeah yeah yeah
Hey, how you feelin'? Are you still the same?
Don't you realize the things we did, we did
Were all for real, not a dream? And I just can't believe
They've all faded out of view, yeah yeah yeah
Doowop dooby doo doowop, doowah doolang
Blue days, black nights, doowah doolang
I look into the sky
The love you need ain't gonna see you through
And I wonder why
The little things you planned ain't coming true
Oh oh, telephone line, give me some time
I'm living in twilight
Oh oh, telephone line, give me some time
I'm living in twilight
Okay, so no one's answering
Well, can't you just let it ring a little longer, longer, longer, longer, oh
I'll just sit tight through shadows of the night
But let it ring for evermore, yeah yeah yeah, oh oh
Doowop dooby doo doowop, doowah doolang
Blue days, black nights, doowah doolang
I look into the sky
The love you need ain't gonna see you through
And I wonder why
The little things you planned ain't coming true
Oh oh, telephone line, give me some time
I'm living in twilight
Oh oh, telephone line, give me some time
I'm living in twilight
Oh oh, telephone line, give me some time
I'm living in twilight
Oh oh, telephone line, give me some time
I'm living in twilight
Wednesday, March 22, 2023
Silencing the Voice ...
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(Source) |
Once a government is committed to the principle of silencing the voice of opposition, it has only one way to go, and that is down the path of increasingly repressive measures, until it becomes a source of terror to all its citizens and creates a country where everyone lives in fear.
- Harry S. Truman
If we don't believe in free expression for people we despise, we don't believe in it at all.- Noam Chomsky
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(Source) |
'Nuff said ...
Tuesday, March 21, 2023
Obsessed
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The Road to Brussels La Belle Alliance on the right. (Source) |
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(Source) |
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La Haye Sainte (Source) |
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Monument to Friedrich Wilhelm, Herzog von Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel ~ Kampf gefallen, 16. Juni 1815¹ ~ (Source) |
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In game screenshot |
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In game screenshot |
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Just about where the red arrow is pointing. There I almost became a statistic. |
Monday, March 20, 2023
Leaving...On a Jet Plane...Maybe...Change 1...Probably
So...There We were*...Looking forward to a nice little vacay drifting down the Danube River for a week with our Wine Maker Friends and 26 others. Enjoying various wines and wineries along the way with a couple of follow up talks and tastes on board.
Ahh...Retired Life! Woke up Saturday morning a tad early, still working on changing the body clock to sync with the alarm clock. Mrs. J is still asleep, she's been working hard to get all her guests on board their flights and enroute to Munich. All are enroute or in-country already.
All except she and I.
Insert ominous music score here.
So. I'm sitting in the kitchen, being as quiet as I can to let her sleep. My cell phone dings, I glance at it. The sender is British Airways. NBD, I think to myself, they've been sending me updates on our flight for a few days now. 2000 TO from Austin Bergstrom to London. Clear British Customs, then board another BA flight to Munich to meet the bus to take us to Vilshofen to board the boat. Been getting this info regularly. At that point, I believe it was my Sainted Mother, now Guardian Angel, that tapped me on the shoulder and said "Hey, Dummy! Read the frickin' message."
She's gotten a bit more direct (and tetchy) since she took over the Guardian Angel duties.
Anyhow, who am I to question her? I open it and read that our London to Munich flight has been cancelled and we are now scheduled on a London to Salzburg connecting flight. Should be no problem, right?
Right?
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Google Maps |
Apparently, there isn't an easy way to get from Salzburg to the River. Nice!
So, Mrs. J is working with the River Tour company to figure this problem out. I'm being very quiet and doing what I'm told without asking or commenting.
Self-preservation, doncha-know? Waiting to see how this turns out.
Given the traveling, I think a little space/time physics update regarding this and this week's post is appropriate. It's 6 hours ahead there. Given the circumstances mentioned above, it may be a while before I can get to the internet and respond to comments. Similar circumstances will occur a week from now. The boat docks next Monday early and we're herded to the airport. A million hours later we arrive back home. Responding to comments will be nigh on to impossible. So...Discuss amongst yourselves, please.
On the Grand Daughter front, a bit of good news. She had a visit with her pulmonologist this past week. The appointment went well and the Doc gave LJW the OK to try weaning her off her supplemental O2. She had been using it with a 50% supplemental oxygen level since birth. The Doc said to lower it to 25% for 2 days and see if she handled it ok. Friday (I'm writing this on Saturday VS usual Sunday, see reason above.) the experiment started. Checking with LJW that evening, Miss B was doing fine. So, finger's crossed and prayers up, please. Success here will be a VERY BIG THING!
Pen making has slipped to the back burner of late. Mrs. J commented that there was a lot of dirt being tracked into the house lately, what with the drought, and that we needed to have "Outside Shoes" and "Inside Shoes". Recognizing that I was in the middle of a very large mine field, I responded "Yes, Dear" and the laundry room became my shoe transfer facility.
Unfortunately, the days of my being able to reach down from an upright position and touch my toes without shortly thereafter touching my face to the floor are way in the past. Which is problematic as the laundry room has no seating.
So..A project being presented, regardless of the source, is a gift from above. In the picture above, I'd just applied my first coat of polyurethane to the Shoe Rack/Bench. I'm on coat #3 #6 now and it's beginning to look pretty darn nice. Unfortunately, drying time will finish right about the time we need to leave for our flight.
Assuming, of course, that British Airways figures their contractual obligations out properly. (See update below.)
We'll see.
Given that good news, I decided this picture pretty much sums things up.
Mrs J. Captioned it with "But they told me to pull this to Eject." Girl's got Fighter Pilot blood in her!Hang in there, y'all and Peace out. Whatever will be, will be.
Late Breaking news. Apparently, the moons of Jupiter are in alignment. Mrs. J was able to talk to the right person who could talk to the right person who could...
The River Tour company's agents got us on a Lufthansa flight that arrives in Munich from London within about an hour of our original arrival time. BA couldn't seem to make that connection (in all meanings of that word). So, we've got to get to the airport a little earlier than we were in order to get new tickets printed, but with a little luck we should be good to go. We will see what we will see.
(Hang in there, y'all and Peace out. Whatever will be, will be.)2
Sunday, March 19, 2023
Wasn't Going to Post, Changed My Mind ...
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Old Town Alexandria OAFS Photo |
Saturday, March 18, 2023
Arghhhhhh. And Music.
Head still hurts. Back still hurts. Dog stomped on my wedding tackle so that hurts (120lb dog moving at roughly the speed of light means lots of force and energy transferred.)
So, instead, back to Dad's hi-fidelity music.
Yesterday I was commenting on Anonymous' comment posted at 2:42AM (probably West Coast Time) about his comment:
Um, that and the album cover for Apollo 100's "Joy" album. Can neither confirm or deny same with the Sears catalog if you know what I mean.
So, yeah, I was a pervy little kid, full of raging hormones and such. Eh, I turned out, according to Mrs. Andrew, okay, so...
Apollo 100 was a band put together (from Wiki - Apollo 100 - Wikipedia ) by Tom Parker with fellow session musicians drummer Clem Cattini, guitarist Vic Flick, guitarist Zed Jenkins, percussionist Jim Lawless, and bassist Brian Odgers, starting in 1970 and ending in 1973. Electronic variations of classical pieces, and their first piece, "Joy," an interpretation of JS Bach's "Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring" hit the top 40 chart and was included in several movies. It was, sadly, all downhill for the group.
For to compare, here's "Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring" as Bach and God intended,
And then, to go strange again, Werner Müller and His Orchestra, was another of Dad's favorites. Werner was one of the big composers of space age bachelor pad music according to Werner Müller (spaceagepop.com) and from the web page "Who was/is Werner Müller? Well, he contributed numerous albums to London's Phase Four label, the longest-running of the Space Age Bachelor Pad series. But thanks to London's standard approach to liner notes, although we know exactly what channelization was used and what other Phase Four records were available, we are left knowing nothing of Werner Müller." Nice going there, London Records. Jerks
His (and his orchestra's) version of "Aranjuez Mon Amour" which is part of the Concierto de Aranjuez by Juaquin Rodrigo, always a very soul-stirring piece of Spanish classical music, and Werner does it proud. The piece, played correctly, always has a wistful and somewhat sad sound to it, kind of how I imagine Spain actually is, wistful and somewhat sad.
And, well, just because Bach, JS Bach...
So. Herb Alpert, Apollo 100, Werner and his boys, and others. Dad had eclectic tastes.
See ya.
Friday, March 17, 2023
Brame Frammage
Hey, guess what? It's Spring! So my head is splitting from severe sinus pressure and I've been snarling at Mrs. Andrew, Kegan the wundermup, passing animals and just, er, everything.
Seriously painful. Sinuses swell, put pressure on frontal lobe, frontal lobe controls personality, personality goes all Mr. Hyde. Usually I realize it before it gets bad and I can take my anti-Hulk pills (Vitamin I, ibuprophen) before I destroy too many bridges and wreck too many relationships.
Um, not today.
I think it was about the third time Mrs. Andrew used The Voice to tell me to go try asexual reproduction or sexual self-reproduction or something along those lines while Kegan was curled up on her and not me that I realized I had become Hulk-Smash Hyde. So instead of relief in 30 minutes or so, it's going to be a couple hours before snarly surly HSH is under control. Until then I'll just hide from the world, wich is kind of hard to do when you live in basically a trumped up studio apartment and your major piece of furniture where you live on is the bed you share with, uh, Mrs. Andrew and Kegan the wunderdog.
Back when I had the house, don't think I could escape, because being out of touch/out of reach of Mrs. Andrew was not a doable thing for a lot of reasons, mostly because she needed to make sure I didn't do anything too stupid to myself, like trying to use sugar and chocolate to control my mood, and, yes, I have eaten 3lbs of peanut M&Ms before in a depressive funk that was epic only in the amount of said candies consumed but everything else about that episode was just stupid and best left alone in the past. Unfortunately the guilt center of my brain keeps periodically cycling through all the guilt episodes so short of accidentally getting hit by lightning or having rebar pass through a portion of my brain or some other traumatic brain injury event, that memory will continue to surface.
Gloom, depression and sinus pressure.
Wanna know what makes it all so extra special? The smell of incipient sinus infection that comes from having sinuses filled to 3 times the approved pressure with sinus fluid thanks to trees and bushes and other green growing things having wild passionate vegetative sex all over the area, especially on my car and right where I want to walk.
Gah.
So instead of witty repartee regarding other bodily issues like the time I passed out for three daysish after almost dying and other neat moments in my life, I get to regale you with Tales of Snot.
So we'll leave that at that and go into some music or something.
Growing up in occifer country on military bases in the 60's, well, guess who was very popular amongst said occifer class occifers? If you said, "Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass," you'd be correct.
I could tell my dad was happy when strains of HAatTB came out of the occifer-class required really nice Japanese high fidelity stereo system (usually smuggled/carried lovingly from duty-free stations or on overseas flights as extra cargo from Okinawa or Japan itself) at volumes to be heard on the back porch while he and his occifer-mates were grilling on those big ceramic Japanese hibachis (probably secured the same way as the stereo pieces,) you know, the ones that once they get hot they get fragile so basically when you move you leave it for the next occifer or you move in and one's been left from the previous occifer and rumors abound about ceramic hibachis that have 'lived' at one quarters for 5-6 rounds of occifers moving in and out and in and out. Seriously, growing up in the 60's on AFBs you would see said Japanese ceramic hibachis. Kind of the predecessor of the Big Green Egg bbq grill. The reason they work so well is that once the very heavy ceramic shell is heated, it retains that heat for a looong time so you can cook evenly using a small amount of heat-making fuel. As said before, actual period Japanese ceramic cookers were fragile once heated once, so in Japan and on Air Force Bases there was a cult of ceramic egg cooker users (and some that could, around 95% of the time could move the cookers by one house, maybe.)
So HAatTB.
Thursday, March 16, 2023
23075 Update
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Patiently Waiting Alexander Boden - Bonn, Germany (Source) |
Wednesday, March 15, 2023
Nay, Fewmets!
Fewmets being the medieval Engrish word for deer poop, well, poop.
Threw my back out sneezing. One sneeze, and it shanked me but good.
Heating pad, massage machine, Vitamin I (ibuprophen) and sitting very still leading to not doing a big posting.
Between that, and potential Great Depression Part Deux, with a bunch of even more leftist socialists in control than when FDR ruled, well, not much in the mood for long exposition.
So you get music.
Firstus, Post Modern Jukebox - a group that does modern music in various forms ancient, like Jazz-ish, 50's Chanteusse, yada yada. Nice orchestrations, the singers have good pipes and, for the most part, no Puddles Pity Party clowns.
And some Alan Parson's Project, from the first album "Tales of Mystery and Imagination." Just a tad inspired by Edgar Allen Poe, dontchaknow?
Other than that, Peace Out, hope you all are doing well, and all your monies are safe.
Tuesday, March 14, 2023
Fish Friday, (on a Tuesday)
No, I'm not all messed up from the time change, nor is this an advertisement. It's just a recap, so don't try showing up to my parish hall this Friday. I ran my church's Lenten fish fry this past Friday, which was a little mixed in the pros and cons department. Before I get to that I'll give you a little background. Catholics tend to skip meat on Fridays during lent. Why? Well, Friday was the day Jesus was crucified, and the abstention from meat is in memory of him giving up his body (his flesh). Hence, Fish Fridays. It's not a sin to forget, or even skip it intentionally, but it is a sacrifice that we try to make to focus us as a form of penance. It also can help us get a little more into the spirit of the Lenten season which is one about prayer, fasting, and penitential sacrifice ahead of our Lord and savior dying on the cross, and the best part- rising again!
Monday, March 13, 2023
The Good, The Bad and The Ugly!
What's the only thing you dislike about Daylight Savings Time, juvat?
Why, Beans, that would be the first day. That alarm going off at 0500 Global Body Time (0600 DST) to a pitch black nighttime view. Getting dressed, copping a quick cup of coffee before departing at 0700 for the 0730 Mass. It's still pitch black and the deer are migratory, but only crossing roads, and only the ones I navigate. I particularly like to watch them analyze closure rate and begin to execute their passing across my nose at the latest possible second.
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AXIS Deer, Non-Native, Very Prolific, dumber than a box of rocks | Source |
Do you suppose they get an adrenaline rush much like I do slamming on the brakes and swerving if possible? Got to or they are the world's dumbest animal in addition to having a death wish. Moving back to Texas and meeting them made me a deer hunting advocate.
So...If I were king of the world, or think I am like somebody we all know in DC, I'd make DST last all year long. It would take the shock effect of an hour early out of play. One would be used to driving in the dark, The stupid deer might realize that they have to get up WAY earlier to transit the roads safely. Win/Win.
Ok, 'nough said about that. It's been an interesting week this past week. I'm at HEB early on in the week doing my usual "hunter/gatherer" thing. (It substitutes for a social life. I see a lot of friends, acquaintances and former co-workers there. We have a quick "How ya doin' conversation" then go back about our business. Fills my need for social interaction without wasting a lot of time. Usually the other half in the conversation is happy with the duration also. Win/Win.)
Anyhow, So...there I was *, checking out after navigating the aisles at high speed, searching out and locking on various targets, when my communications device informs me of an incoming transmission. I glance at the identifier. Uh-Oh, it's the Commander, Mrs. J.
"juvat, we've lost electricity for the entire property."
"How long so far?"
"About 5 minutes"
I start doing math in my head. Miss B's oxygenator isn't functional without electricity. LJW has some O2 Bottles (much like scuba tanks, may actually be them), but they're relatively short term also. We've got a limited window of time to get Miss B someplace where she can get O2. I tell Mrs. J I'm on my way home and will stop by the Electric Co-op to see what the estimated outage time will be.
So, I do. Arrive there, stop at the front desk, explain Miss B's situation and ask about an ETR. She says that it should be back on line already. Ok, Great. I confirm that with Mrs. J. I then tell the lady at the desk that we had given them paperwork saying that we needed notification of planned/unplanned outages but hadn't heard anything from them. She asked my name then went clicky clack on the computer.
"Sorry, Sir, we don't have that on file. When did you bring it in?"
"First week in January". There's a Highway Patrol officer sitting in the lobby about 5' away. Going postal at this point would not be wise for several different reasons, so, I'm doing my VERY best not to lose my cool.
"Do you have time for me to look into this?"
"You Betcha."
Very shortly thereafter, a different person comes out of the office. Seems to be quite a bit further up the food chain, but she's carrying a piece of paper.
"Sir, I'm XXX, Vice President of YYY. I'm VERY SORRY, we've got your notification, but it didn't get scanned into our system. I, personally, took care of it, just now."
Ok. Feces Occurs. They fessed up and fixed it. We talked for a couple of minutes about what info we should have received and will now receive if it happens again.
I thanked her. Wished the Highway Patrol officer a good day and good luck with his issue and left.
Pretty sure, The Big Guy Upstairs took action so I would be made aware of the problem and get it fixed. I'm good with that. A little high blood pressure episode for all concerned on our end, but better now.
Speaking of Breathing (and on a good note this time), LJW discovered that the Medical Supply company in town now has a portable oxygenator that's battery powered, rechargeable and the size of a laptop computer. She took Miss B downtown for a stroll up and down main street yesterday. All concerned needed that respite and things went quite well. So...Progress!
On a down note, our StarLink connection is still non-functioning. The new router arrived a couple of weeks ago. The repair man and I hooked it up and powered it on...No data signal...Nada.
Re-opened the ticket (again, 3rd time), explained what we'd done and that we had no signal whatsoever. A day or so later, they replied (this is via a message window on their website e.g. not live) "Oops, we're supposed to have sent a new antenna cable with the router. We'll get that to you ASAP. "
That was 10 days ago. Reopened the ticket again (4th time) and sent them another message box text yesterday and got this reply (again a day or so later) "Sorry, juvat, we should have already sent that. We'll send another one. You should get it within a week to 10 days."
Elon...My average bandwidth over the past couple of months isn't even close to what you advertise. I've never been a patient man. Whiskey, Tango, Fox Over!
The only good news there has they've credited me for the 2 X $110/mo usage fee. I've been using our limited wireless backup, which has neither fast nor large bandwidth, but is somewhat workable. Just about the only thing I use that for is the blog. Hence why commenting has been less profuse lately than usual. Blogging via phone is a definite PITA.
Just sayin'
So, juvat how have you been keeping sane?
Well, the result is in doubt, but this helps.
I've been trying my hand at turning a pen with a Celtic Knot as a decoration.
Started out like this.
Took three other cuts exactly like this one with the Maple Strip glued in. One for each side.
Then, we started turning.
So far, so good! But still a little bit chunky.
Starting to be a bit more "pen like". Entering the danger zone, where you're very close to finished dimensions and an "oops" now is quite likely not fixable.
So, Patience, juvat?
Patience! Aye!
Above shows the results after the first couple of coats of CA Glue finish. Gonna need a bit of buffing out before continuing. This is my first attempt to finish a pen with CA Glue and I didn't quite have the Bold Face Procedures down pat yet. All that having been said, I'm pretty happy with the results so far.
At least it didn't disintegrate.
Peace out, y'all.
*Standard Fighter Pilot war story beginning
My parents had a Herb Alpert album with the girl covered in whipped cream and a white blanket (to give the impression it was all cream) on the cover. Boy that sure got my pubescent hormones raging.
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