"BLOWIN' THE STINK OFF!!!"

When I was a kid, sometimes my Dad would get irritated at me if I stayed indoors on a nice day, or if I'd been lazy, doing nothing. He was just that kind of guy. So he'd tell me, "go outside and blow the STINK off." And he would always say that rather emphatically. Needless to say, I got outta there as fast as I could.

So, anyway, with the gout attack I had last week, I couldn't go anywhere or do much of anything. Over the weekend, the pain subsided a bit. And, I needed to get out of the house and "blow the stink off". Nice to be out and about again. I tend to take the little things for granted, like going to the Java place for coffee and a newspaper, or shopping at 2nd hand stores.

One such item I found was a little Beanie-baby SKUNK. No, I don't collect the "Beanies", but the "skunk" kinda appealed to me. And that's where I got the idea for this posting. Blowing the "stink" off.

I now have two little creatures on top of my computer. Since I'm not disciplined enough to actually take care of a pet, these will have to do. I've had the little baby seal, "Chuck", forever, and how, he has company. "Stinky" the skunk.

Amazing, the stuff you find in 2nd hand shops. I got into the "2nd-hand" habit years ago; Mom used to take my sister and me shopping at St. Vinnies' here in CDA. So, you could say, I've been shopping at the same 2nd hand store for 40 years!

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It's a sign of the times dept.: General Motors is laying off 30,000 workers. How awful, but I guess it has to be done, eh? Winter's coming and the big fuel "pinch" is on. Maybe the economy is such that people aren't buying as many new vehicles as before. Maybe folks are using their money for Christmas gifts instead of vehicles. Who knows? Listen to the radio, watch TV, turn to the business section of the paper; most every day, someone else is "laying off".

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Super-sleuth investigative reporting dept.: After coffee today, I walked over to where the hydroplane park is, next to the CDA Rezzort. It's still fenced off, and I have no idea of wot's goin' on there. But I did see a big crane doing something on the east side of the Rezzort itself. A couple of "flagger" people were standing there, and I asked 'em what's going on. They said that an "extension" was being built onto the rezzort, which would contain, perhaps, a "spa", or "offices", or things of that ilk. I came to the unfair and unbalanced conclusion that, the influx of tourism dollars slows down during the winter, so if businesses reside inside the rezzort, that's one way that Hagga-corp can keep the bucks flowing during the wintertime. I wonder how much it costs to have a business inside the Rezzort...can't be cheep!

BLOGGER'S NOTE: It needs to be reiterated here, that this extension is being built onto the "existing" resort building. No building has (yet) taken place where the 'hydroplane memorial' is, although that area is still fenced off; why it's fenced off, I'm not sure. Okay...back to regular programming...

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One more cup of coffee dept.:: Whilst having coffee today, a lady with fiery red/auburn hair walked in to get herself a cuppa hot "whatever" it was she came in for...and that red hair gave me pause. My Mom had the same color of hair. That brought back a whole lot of memories. But that's OK. I need to get out, see things, do things, in order to remind myself of who I am, whatever THAT is.

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Another doe-headed motorist screws up dept.: I read in the paper today where a 21-year-old woman was killed in Whitman County, Washington; she was run into by a 79-year-old guy driving a pickup truck. Unfortunately, she wasn't driving. She was JOGGING. How awful. I remember, once when I used to run, down near the college, I saw a lady in a car pull up to an intersection. I was crossing the street and I thot she saw me. So, I ran in front of her car and just then, she ACCELERATED. I was literally ON THE HOOD OF HER CAR. I was extremely lucky. Sometimes motorists just aren't watching for bicyclists and runners. After that incident, if a car came up to that, or any other intersection, I always ran IN BACK of the car. Assuming they weren't going to accelerate in reverse. But, you never know, with the way drivers are these days!

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Son Of A Gun dept.: I am not one to say whether or not people should or shouldn't have guns. However, I also believe that a lot of people who shouldn't have guns, have guns! Case in point: The shooter who wounded 6 innocent folks in a Tacoma, Washington, mall over the weekend. America, if you want to keep firearms available, according to constitutional principles, well, okay, fine and dandy. But as long as guns are easily available, things like this are gonna happen. The price we pay for being a democracy, huh?

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Rotating on a firm "foundation" dept.: After I went to St. Vinnies' today, I then went over to "Goodwill", where I found a record I've been searching for, for YEARS. It always bugged me that I didn't have it in my collection...the late-'60s big boss-smash hit, "Baby, Now That I've Found You", by The Foundations! I've had their other big hit, "Build Me Up Buttercup" for ages, but for some reason, I could never find this record! But now, I've got it, and I think that's cool.

Another '45' I've been looking for is Sandie Shaw's 1964 rendition of "Always Something There To Remind Me". I've looked for that for YEARS, and I can't find a copy. I do have it on an ALBUM, but I'd like to have the single!

Another record I'd been searching for, for DECADES, was "Land of 1000 Dances" by Wilson Pickett...the band on that record plays great, he sings great, and the song rocks. I looked for that single for years around here; couldn't find it. Finally, I was down in Pismo Beach, California, of all places about 20 years ago, and THAT'S where I found a copy.

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It's All In How You Look At It dept.: The pundits on national TV, some of them anyway, are theorizing that "Prezzident Bush doesn't KNOW how to get out of Iraq." Could that really be the case? Does he think our nation will look "bad" if we pull out the troops now? Is he concerned about his own legacy, not wanting to be perceived as a "weak" President? (Well, it's probably too late for that last one!). However, I was thinking about this over the weekend...

Even though our country's going to Iran had NOTHING to do with "9-11", we went anyway. We took Saddam Hussein out of circulation. We've also nurtured that country to the point where, imperfect as it might be, Iran is actually holding ELECTIONS. So, we've accomplished a couple of terrific objectives. So, we've WON, right? So, let's turn Iran over to the Iranians and LEAVE! "Terrorism" will never be defeated; you can defeat an army, but you can't defeat a "condition". We've got Iran to the place where it's probably as good as it's gonna get over there. So let's leave and try solving our OWN internal problems here in the U.S.A. for a change. How about it, Mr. Prezzident? This way, we can leave without any more troops needlessly dying.

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Prezzidential Parallels dept.: Prezzident Bush went to China for a few days, to be a statesman, to look important, to do "whatever". He didn't accomplish much, especially when he was trying to get China's leader to convert China into a democracy. (What are the Chinese words for "no way, Jose?") Prezzident Bush's poll numbers in the U.S.A. are at an all-time low. So he escaped to China for a while. I seem to remember that Prezzident NIXON did the same thing back in that Watergate-saturated year of 1974...scandal, rumors, all kinds of political juicy stuff going on, so Nixon went abroad so he could look like a diplomat. As I remember, his "approval ratings" were quite low, too. Will President Bush's Presidential Career end in a similar degree of shambles? Stay tuned!

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Someone else said it better than I ever could dept.: A great letter-to-the-editor appeared today in the Spokesman-Review. It was about allocation of Police force resources. The writer implored the Spokane Police Dept. to focus more on "violent crimes rather than revenue-raising crimes" such as traffic stops, etc. Could that also apply to Coeur d'Alene's police force? In my humble and ignorant opinion, I TEND TO THINK SO!!!

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What's that doing on there? dept.: While driving around CDA today, I found myself stopped behind a big black S.U.V. that probably gets 10 gallons to the mile...(yes, you read that right)...but what I really noticed was the GEORGIA license plate! You don't see many of those in "non-tourist-seasons". Anyway, at the top of the plate, it not only said "GEORGIA", it said, "www.GEORGIA.gov," which made me think, it wasn't so long ago that nobody would have known what that meant! Click on the link if you want. Personally, I don't care. This blogsite makes "automatic links". For all I care, you can go to "www.LowerSlobbovia.com". It's all the same to me.

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Isn't this post over YET? dept.: Of course, I can't end a post (well, yes I could) without putting in yet another one of those relatively iconoclastic "UGLY STICKERS" that I've been forcing on my unsuspecting readers. So you think that it's just GUYS that "get ugly"? Think again...

Here is DORIS. She's a hopelessly confused lady, obviously. It looks like she doesn't know which way is up. Eyes on the bottom, mouth on top, and is she standing on her hands or her feet? It looks like she can flip herself over, and stand on her other set of "hands or feet", and look straight up. I bet she'd be great at doing "cartwheels".

"Ugly Stickers" were available in the late '60s, 5 to a pack, together with a pink rectangular stick of Bubblegum, which had the texture of floor tile until you chewed it a while. And after you HAD chewed it for a while, the flavor wore off, and it started TASTING like floor tile! So, after you spit out the gum, you could chew the STICKERS, I guess. By that time, the stickers would probably have had more flavor!

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Ok, ok, everyone out of the pool! Post over! I had some serious fun with this one today. Plus, I got it done nice and early so I can watch Monday Nite Football. The Green Bay Packers are playing tonite. It's sad to see a good team go bad (sounds like an Everly Brothers song there!). Brett Favre's been a great quarterback, but it looks like he's not doing so well anymore. His career seems to be going the way of Prezzident Bush's!