Have you ever felt like THIS???
Or, sometimes, dear readers, Idaho ain't as much fun as one would think it should be!


I've got to go out and find one of these mugs; there's nothing else that so adequately symbolizes our warmth-deprived State of Idaho, especially in the murky dregs of winter. "Mashed", indeed. Tonite is a good example. We've got "freezing rain" happening out there. As much as I can't stand snow, I'd rather have it than this crap! With snow, at least you can SEE what you're slipping on before you bust your head on the pavement! Harrumph! One bright spot, though...I was parked in the same place downtown for over 3 hours today, and the "parking Nazi in his little tin cart" didn't give me a ticket. Maybe that pathological ticket guy was on the couch at his shrink's office, asking him, "why don't I have any FRIENDS?" I thought "bicycle cops" were the lowest of the low, but this "ticket guy" takes the cake. I truly think the Post Office stole their slogan from the "Diamond Parking" philosophy of, "neither rain, nor snow, nor gloom of night will keep our Parking Nazi from distributing revenue-raising tickets." I hear he already has a room reserved in Purgatory.
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What goes around goes around and around and around some more dept.: I suppose Hostility maggot...er, Hospitality Magnate Duane Hagadone should be admired for his tenacity. The headlines screamed forth today, "Blackwell Island Dredge Plan Still Alive". Well, he's went and bought all that land on the river, but he can't really use it until he gets it dredged! I sure wouldn't want any landgrabbing millionaire to waste his MONEY, after all. Maybe he can park one of his luxury yachts at his newly-dredged harbour and then charge the riff-raff astronomical ticket prices to climb aboard, tour the boat, and see how the "other half" lives! (SSSSSHHHH, don't give him any ideas!) Actually, this all is probably part of a strategy: as long as we're focused on Blackwell Island dredging, we have our attention diverted away from other issues, such as ultra-tall buildings in downtown CDA, or the wistful landgrabbing fantasies of those who would like to build shopping centers on McEuen field. We all know Mr. H has nothing to do with any of that...rrrright? I said, "RRRIGHT?"
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I sure feel a lot safer NOW dept.: It's always been my theory that if the world succumbed to nuclear war and all of its inherent destruction, that some goofball third-world wacko in a faraway land would push the button, beginning Armageddon. Well, French Prezzident Chirac says his country is ready to retaliate any warmongering nuclear attack with a nuclear attack of its own. France? Not 3rd-world, but close...that's why I try to stay "current" with world developments. I wanna know where the bomb's gonna fall so I can run for cover. Except that I can't run anymore. HELP!!!
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Hey, we're not accomplishing much, but we're staying busy dept.: A 10-year, 20-million dollar investigation of former HUD Secretary Henry Cisneros has basically accomplished NOTHING. He hasn't been HUD Secretary since 1997. He was charged with 18 felony acts of various kinds of deception; admitted to 1 such incident, and is probably now on some Golf Course somewhere laughing at it all. People these days are saying, "why are we sending probes to Pluto when it costs so much money"...at least a NASA Space Mission ignites the fantasy-prone inner child in all of us. But, millions and billions of dollars have been, and are still, being wasted by "pork" projects and needless other gov't expenditures of all kinds! Basically, in the Cisneros case, the federal government might as well have opened the incinerator door and shoveled in that $20 million, for all the good it did.
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Is this all part of one big scheme dept.: One news article talks about how Vice Prezzident Cheney says "spying is lawful". He backs that up by saying these "wartime measures" will "safeguard civil liberties". Hmmm, interesting precedent. So if a Prezzidential administration wants total control, all they have to do is "declare war", whether that war is justified or not, and then SPY ON EVERYONE, with the blessings of the long arm of the law? AAAACK!!! Meanwhile, the search engine, GOOGLE, has been slapped with a federal subpeona, requesting (demanding?) records of people who have used that well-known search engine. Google is fighting it, but Yahoo has already "partially" complied with the governments' demands. The last line in that article said something about, us search-engine users had better be careful what we type in that innocuous little "search box". WHY SHOULD WE HAVE TO BE CAREFUL? I think GOVERNMENT needs to BACK THE HELL OFF!!! This current administration may come off yet as being one of the most corrupt ever. Kinda makes me wish for the good old days of Watergate!
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Meanwhile back in the Gem State dept.: I read that a bill has been presented, which says that State of Idaho employees should get a pay raise. Okay, fine concept. The cost of living is increasing after all. I guess it's "where" the money comes from that bugs me, namely taxes, which are being paid by citizens, who most of the time, aren't getting any wage increases, and consider themselves LUCKY to have even the most menial minimum-wage job. There are lots of issues out there; suffice it to say that if "one thing" doesn't raise your taxes, something else will. Not to put down state employees, for I know (some of) them work hard, but, if they had to make their living in the private sector, how well would they fare? I've always wondered that.
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Paranoia strikes deep; into your life it will creep dept.: Oh by the way, don't look now, but there's a new way that you can get ripped off. Sometimes I wonder, "does all this news do us a favor or not", because all it does is give criminals or criminal wannabees new ideas for what new-fangled crimes to commit. This one involves "scrap metal". Thieves will actually find a house with aluminum siding, copper fixtures, or whatever else, and PEEL THEM off your house! Okay, well, it's easy to lock your house and protect what's INSIDE it, how do you protect against having the exterior "literally" RIPPED off? I'll bet the home-alarm companies out there will make LOTSA money offa this deal.
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(It's the end of the world as we know it) I feel fine dept.: Not that this has anything to do with anything, but in my quest to (try to) stay somewhat relevant, that's the title of a song by R.E.M., a fairly new group whose records I have but I don't play them much. I found a bunch their of LP's that a second-hand record store was selling cheap; the store was getting rid of all its vinyl back when CD's first arrived on the scene. It's just hard for me to relate to R.E.M.'s cold approach. I know a lot of people like them; I don't DISLIKE them, but I don't find their sound very appealing either. Anyway, I thought I'd end this post with another idyllic scene of daze gone by here in the CDA area:


Here is the FISH INN, which was located at the Harrison Exit on I-90, east of town. Basically, you'd head north across the freeway, hang a left turn and you were there. This picture is from long, long ago, when cabins were standing on the adjacent campground.

I was in a rock band called "Flashback"; we played at the Fish quite a bit in the mid-80's. It's long-since burned down, and that's sad. And of course, if you wanted to go inside and have a beer, you had to go thru the Fish's "mouth" to get to the bar. Probably a better bet than what old Jonah had to go through, when, in a case of "man-overboard", he got swallowed whole by a whale. The roadway you see in the picture is the old OLD highway, heading into CDA. It was a small 2-laner, and once upon a time, the entire roadway, going over 4th of July Pass and points east, was quite a tenacious "goat trail" to navigate, from what I'm told.
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Okay, okay, maybe I'm too pessimistic here; maybe it's not the end of the world. I hope not. I figure I've got 20 or 30 good years left; it can't end NOW! But I must admit, things are getting weirder all the time. Ah, but the weekend's here. And, it's time for me to jump on the bandwagon: GO SEAHAWKS! (Their big NFL playoff game with the Carolina Panthers is Sunday Afternoon). Will they win? They've got a chance, as long as they don't self-destruct in the first half! Carolina has more playoff experience, though. I think Carolina will win, by possibly a field goal or a touchdown. That said, I do hope the 'Hawks win.