AtMoSpHeRiC RuMiNaTiOnS...

Ya Gotta Know Something To Be A Know-It-All...

2012-02-01T00:36:00.000-08:00

ALTERNATE TITLE: "...but I'm not gonna let that stop me from posting..."
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The more I know, it seems the Less I know. Although in looking at the big picture, it seems that everything just seems to repeat itself. That doesn't mean that I actually know what's going on, but when what "goes around" comes around", I can look back and think, "I should have seen this coming", after which I slap myself on the back of the head in best Mark Harmon "NCIS" style. "WHACK!!!" "OOF!" That said, here goes another posting...
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REPUBLICAN PARTY: IS THIS THE BEST THEY'VE GOT? Mitt Romney, the Eternal Millionaire (if not Billionaire) and Newt Gingrich, that philandering so-and-so who couldn't wait until one of his sick ex-wives was dead before dating someone else, are the GOP Elephant's front-runners. And the Newt (not to be confused with the Gecko) is losing some of his party faithful cos he couldn't quit his low-down ways. But this information didn't really be dirty-laundried because most people don't really like him anyway. Meantime, Romney makes more in a week than lots of people make in a year. Well, good. If he eventually is elected to the Oval Office, he'll be able to keep his mind on his work, since he doesn't have to worry about running out of money anytime soon.
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IT'S TIME TO DONATE TO THE CAMPAIGN ONCE AGAIN: No, not the Political Campaign. The campaign to insure that Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr don't become destitute anytime soon. Paul McCartney (who might just have more $$$ than Mitt Romney) and Ringo Starr (who really needs to stop flipping the Peace Sign every waking moment) are coming out with new albums. Paul's is full of old jazz-vocal standards. He's written a couple of new songs for that album, but the whole thing is chock-full of 1940's type music. Just the thing for the listener who's always wondered what an ex-Beatle would sound like if he stepped into Frank Sinatra's shoes. Ringo's new album is gonna be another collection of new mundane minor songs, plus some cover versions of '50s music. It will be unremarkable. Ringo really has not cut a great record since 1973 (The "Ringo" album with "Photograph", "You're Sixteen" and "Oh My My" (Whoa, 3 hit singles!)

Why am I so sure his new album will be a dud? Because I've purchased All of His Music over the years since the Beatles' breakup, and over the years, it's all been unremarkable. Not Atrocious by any means. But unremarkable. One of his records wasn't released at all in the USA...the record company didn't like it. That album, "Old Wave" (which came out in the early '80s, I think) was released Only in Canada. It too, is, well, unremarkable. Color-by-numbers music. Count the song in, insert words in the appropriate places, sing the chorus, allow for an instrumental, then one more verse and chorus and yer done. As Queen once sang, "all we hear is...Radio Ga-Ga...Radio Boo-Boo...Radio Blah-Blah..." (Radio Ca-Ca, perhaps?)...except this music will never get anywhere close to the radio.
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FROM DECREPID TO HALF-WAY PASSABLE: Sometimes a person finds him/herself in the situation where anything he/she does is an improvement over what was done before. That's the situation I was in. I recently bought, for just over a hundred bucks, a stereo copy the Beatles' famous (infamous?) "Butcher Cover" that their record company covered up in haste so many years ago when the album was first released in 1966. When I bought it, here's what I got:
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Rough Indeed. And yes, I saw this before I bought it. But rather than seeing things as they are and asking 'why'; I decided to see the possibilities and ask 'why not'. (No, I'm not running for office.) The previous owner tried to peel the "Trunk" cover off, and in doing so, tore huge bits off the cover, totally eradicating John and obscuring Paul's pretty face. But the wickedly-smiling George and the out-of-it Ringo were left mostly intact. I stuck the cover in a plastic sleeve and marked out the areas in the worst disrepair. For a picture of what was used to cover up this cover, scroll down to the end of the blog...
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I've got a Mono "Butcher Cover" that's in good shape. The only difference between Mono and Stereo is, the Mono doesn't have the gray 'stereo bar' at the top. Stereo Butcher Covers are also worth up to twice as much as a Mono covers. Otherwise, all images are the same size. So...off to the print shop I went, having color copies made of my good cover, to overlay the bad portions of the shot-to-hell cover. The color copier somehow added a bluish tint to the background, so it wasn't an exact match, but as Stan Freberg once said, "it's close enough for jazz"...
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Here's the result I ended up with. John has been brought back to life, Paul's face has been restored, and I drew in the piece of meat held in place under Ringo's left armpit. I also drew in his left knee with a marker. It became obvious that I wasn't going to have a perfect color match, so I colored in the background above the group with a gray "Sharpie" marker. But then I had a metallic finish to deal with. So I sprayed some Elmer's Glue onto the finish, which eliminated the reflection. I filled in the gray bar at top with a black Bic Pen. and overall I'm happy with the way things turned out. There's almost 50% of the original cover showing through, so I can prove to anyone that this is an Original Cover. I'm also hoping I enhanced its value a bit. As far as the end result goes, I've seen covers in worse condition going for more than the $110 I paid for this one. Unblemished Stereo Butcher Covers are Priced Out Of This World, but at least I have a "stereo butcher", ha ha ha ha Ha Ha Ha HA HA HA HAAAAAAAAAA!!!
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Here's the Mono Butcher-Peel that I bought almost a decade ago. The "Trunk" cover was pasted over the Butcher Cover, This is the original "Trunk" cover that was laid over this "Butcher" cover. The "Trunk" cover continued to be issued long after the "Butcher" covers had all been covered up. Ringo's black shirt in the Butcher photo can be seen through the white area at the left of the "Trunk" cover when laid on top of the "Butcher". The cover I bought had some water damage at the bottom center; I paid $1,000 for it. Not the kind of purchase one makes every day. Notice at the top of this Mono butcher-peel that there is no gray bar, indicating "Stereo" at the top. Judging from the care and patience it takes to peel a Trunk Cover off the Butcher cover, the only advice I can give is "don't try this at home". The copy I have was too far-gone to save totally, so I overlaid new images on it instead and saved at least some of the original images.
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So what goes around comes around. You might recall I mentioned Ultra-Rich Mitt Romney earlier in this post. He can buy all the Butcher Covers he wants. As a voter, I can be bought. Mitt, send me a pristine Stereo Beatles-Butcher cover and I'll vote for ya...

John Lennon Vs. Neil Young...

2012-01-25T21:51:00.000-08:00

ALTERNATE TITLE: "Can't We All Just Get Along?"

I've been mad at John Lennon lately, for something he said back in 1980 about Neil Young. Yes, I know he's not around to defend himself these days. This puts me in a really difficult position, because as much as I like(d) John Lennon, I like Neil Young More, at least as far as their solo careers are concerned. It all started when I read Lennon's 1980 Playboy interview for the first time. I'd long heard that was one of Lennon's landmark interviews, where he calls 'em like he see's (or saw's) them. He enumerated a lot of intriguing descriptions of the Beatles' music, revealing who wrote what and other details about the Beatles legacy-creating music. At one point, Lennon was asked something about Burning Out vs. Fading Away (A Neil Young-ism). Young, sings "it's better to burn out than to fade away", and Lennon didn't buy into that at all. Lennon went as far as to say that if Young actually felt that way, he (Young) should just disappear immediately. After all, Young kept coming back over and over and over. It was at that point that my jaw fell open and I haven't closed it since. (Just kidding!)
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This leaves me Terribly Conflicted. And makes me think that if I'd personally known John Lennon, we probably wouldn't have been great friends. Yes, I admire John Lennon for what he did with the Beatles...if you listen to their earlier material, Lennon wrote a whole heck of a lot of it. Later on, as drugs, Yoko, bagism, drugs and protest came along, Lennon didn't write so much. I have a Beatles book which awarded points to each Beatle as far as songwriting contributions were concerned, and Lennon came in first-place, with McCartney coming in a fairly-distant second-place. Even though most of the Beatles' songs were said to be composed by "Lennon-McCartney", most of the time, one of them would have most of the song done, while the other might end up throwing in a chorus, or a few words here and there. Rarely did Lennon or McCartney write an entire Beatles' song. As far as Lennon's Solo Career, to me, his songs either are weak on ideas or irritatingly shrill and provoking. I wasn't proud of his Peace Movement things, and in the later '70s, I found his albums "Mind Games" and "Walls and Bridges" to be, overall, fairly weak, monotonus or just plain Uninspiring. His "Plastic Ono Band" album (1970) featured a lot of wailing, teeth-gnashing and shouting, and although I respect him for laying his soul open, it's an album that is Hard To Like. I don't play it much. I would have to say that his "Imagine" album (1971) is probably his best Solo Album; it's provoking, yes, but it's a heck of a lot easier to listen to, because it is more Musical, and give me a combination of melody along with message-lyrics anytime; that combination is always compelling. As far as his "Comeback" (which was, of course, ended due to circumstances beyond his control), his songs on "Double Fantasy" (1980) and the unfinished "Milk And Honey" album (released 1983) were okay, not great, but he was getting it together, sounding better, and who knows what he would've done had he not been Elimated. (Something I'm still, over 30 years later, very angry about).
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'''I cannot say enough good things about Neil Young. I admire him for who he is and what he does. He writes from the Soul. Yes, there are some albums he has totally "bombed" on ("Trans", his 1980 computer-vocalized album, and "Everybody's Rockin", an early 1980's album that was barely half an hour long on which he sounded like someone who'd been dumped from the "Stray Cats"). But...he's recorded some achingly beautiful music (1997's "Harvest Moon" or 1978's "Comes A Time" come immediately to mind), and then he turns around and rocks like a Man Possessed (on such albums as 1979's "Reactor", 1975's "Zuma" or 1989's "Ragged Glory". Many is the time I've put on one of his albums and he seems to be speaking to me, making me ask (to myself), "Neil, how did you know?" As a listener, I never know what kind of music he'll be coming with from album to album, but, that's half the fun. He's written zillions of songs over the years, and more than once, a current album of his has at least a few tracks that he'd recorded years before, but had never been released. I cannot stress how much I've come to value his musicianship, quality of song lyrics, but more than anything, just being who he is and who does what he does. Neil's not the greatest guitarist or vocalist, but neither am I, and that's one reason his music hits me so hard. He keeps trying to Get It Right, and mostly succeeds. Back in the 1970's and '80s, I wrote a whole bunch of songs; I've got a CD laying around my place somewhere that features My Music. Most of my song lyrics got lost, and I haven't even tried to write a song since the mid 90's. Neil has said that songs just invade his mind, and he has to write down what he hears in his head. And he's kept writing, and Writing and WRITING. I haven't been to one of his concerts, but I've got almost everything he's ever recorded. And no matter how old or new his songs may be, they always sound fresh. And that's the trademark of a great artist.
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So that's why I feel so conflicted about John Lennon, and what he said about Neil Young. Lennon does have a point, which also frustrates me. Telling Neil to Just Go Away, just like that. Burn out and go away, Neil. On the other hand, no matter how many relationships Neil may have had through the years, he wasn't conned into cocooning himself away from doing anything musical for five years. So John Lennon was a house-husband for 5 years, taking cae of his kid while Yoko did whatever she does. He composed during that time, and made home-taped recordings. C'mon, Lennon...how much time can an album take...many are recorded in less than a month. You wouldn't have had to tour...we would've been buying your music anyway. Have I solved anything here? No. I'm still conflicted. But this has been on my mind for the last couple of weeks, festering away. So I had to Write It Down. Now if I could just put these words to music...
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Finally, a closing note: Evidently a singer named Justin Bieber has really been popular over the last half-year, causing what's known as "Bieber-Fever". Really. That must explain why, when I was shopping at a thrift store today, I saw one of his CD's in the rack for two bucks. That means Justin Bieber is on the fast track to obsolescence, and when he gets there, The Backstreet Boys will greet him.

The Fine Art Of Blog-Meandering...

2012-01-18T18:01:00.000-08:00

It is Winter on the South Coast, and with the Winter comes the Rain. And more rain. And still more rain. And...well, you get the idea. So far, though, the year has been unremarkable, but I'm sure that'll change. After all, we've got a Prezzidential Campaign coming up this year. I've been fairly ignorant of things political ever since Mr. Obama became President. I haven't heard anything disgusting; he's given some Dignity back to the Presidency. I give him points for remaining (relatively) scandal-free over the last 4 years. Various officials, mostly Republican stooges, have made a big deal over his Birth Certificate issue...born in the USA or not? And you know what? I don't give a damn. He made sure that the tax reduction thing has been extended for at least a while. True, no one is going to become a Zillionaire because of that, but still... Also, we're getting out of Iraq this year, if not already. His timetable has been stuck to, and really, I don't have any complaints. And, Social Security payments have also risen slightly due to cost-of-living issues. Just perhaps, we're reaching a scenario of Government actually doing something for us. How about that! I'm satisfied that the President is actually being Presidential, unlike the buffoon he replaced. I shouldn't call him a buffoon...maybe a Bonehead. Which reminds me of a joke:

"So what if I drink a lot of milk? It's a great Calcium Source"...
"Oh yeah? Kinda looks like the drinks are going to your HEAD!"
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SOME OTHER STUFF TO LOOK FORWARD TO THIS YEAR:

RINGO STARR, that ever-lovin' king of the Backbeat for the Beatles, is coming out with another new album this year; in fact, I believe it'll be released very very soon. Like his previous CD's, I'll probably play it once and shelve it for the ages. Already, the new album is being Dissed. Seems he re-did a song called "Wings", which he originally recorded and released in 1976. In short, his unremarkable new album features an updated, and equally unremarkable version of his old unremarkable 1976 tune. And in one word, before even hearing the album, I can tell it's going to be..."unremarkable". Sometimes these comments just seem to write themselves, y'know?
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PAUL McCARTNEY, That ever-aging Beatle Boy-wonder, is in love these days. He married whats-her-name who comes from a rich family, so he (allegedly) doesn't worry that they'll divorce, and that if she does, he'll be taken to the cleaners ($$$) once again. He is so in mushy-love that he's recorded an album of Old Standards for his Laidy Faire. "So you think he's taking a chance with such an out-of-character release?" No, no, not at all. Rod Stewart, a fellow Britisher, has been doing that for ages. You know, he used to Rock. Didn't he? Anyway, Paul has done much the same thing. His new album will feature the old Chestnut "I'm Gonna Sit Right Down And Write Myself A Letter"...which features the line which doubles as the Album Title: A lot of "KISSES ON THE BOTTOM" (he'll be glad he Got 'Em). Ugh. What a title. Until I learned where he got the song title, my brain was springing forth with all kinds of Ugly Pictures.
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THE SEATTLE MARINERS Already are headed for another "unremarkable", if not downright awful, new season. I get "Mariners News" e-mailed, and the only thing of note this season, is that they've traded away a Proven Power Pitcher (PPP), Michael Pineda, for a young kid who can (allegedly) hit, but still needs two or three (or however many) seasons to develop into a Major League Catcher, the position he's played in the Minors. The M's already HAVE a couple of catchers! Why trade away a Pitcher that can PITCH? The M's have bought some developing young players for their farm system, and as a result, the M's are going to have another what-is-known-as-a "rebuilding season". Or should I say, "ANOTHER rebuilding season". Which makes me think that they've had "rebuilding seasons for the last four or five seasons", which makes me also think that we're in store for many more "rebuilding seasons". Which is why I place the quote-marks on the term "Rebuilding Season". "Rebuilding Season" is Mariners'-speak for "DISASTER SEASON". So we'll see. I'm not very optimistic at this point.
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I'VE GOT THE MUSIC IN ME: Quick! Who did that song? Answer in the Italic print at the bottom of the post. Oops...there's that word ("bottom") again. Anyway, after hiding myself away for the last year from going to musical jam sessions due to anxiety/depression symptoms, I started Going Back. Making myself do it. It's scary sometimes. A music store here has converted the adjacent Coffee House building into two Recording Studios, plus on Friday Nights, jams are being held there, in the same Coffee House building where jam sessions were held before. When I play guitar and (try to) sing in front of everyone, I get a pit in my gut which feels like taking Final Exams back in College. Ulp...
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There I am in the middle bashing away on my twelve-string guitar, and I don't feel so alone (and vulnerable) when I'm up there in front of an audience who is trying to figure out What The HECK I'm Doing. I spend most of the time asking myself that as well. I have to perhaps realize that I'm judging myself too harshly. This whole business of re-orienting my personality is tough sometimes. But I've met some good people at the Jams, so it might yet be all worth the effort of Getting Myself Out There.
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THE CREDIT CARD CRUNCH: Mostly, when I hand my debit card to a store clerk, they still ask, "debit or credit"? It really doesn't matter to me since I know I've got the money. That's the biggest fault of Credit Cards; you're basically hoping that you Will Have the money, and you have to pay back that money, plus interest if you take too long to pay it...if ever. Actually, I've been in the "credit situation", borrowing money from my bank 'cos I fell a few dollars short of what I needed. I did that too much last year, and got my credit option suspended for a while. I'd started putting away money last year, but then my computer fried its brains and Whoops, there goes another $400 dollar expense. But at least I was able to do what I did. I paid all my taxes at once, rather than spreading payments over 3 months, which really felt good. Well, I had "mixed emotions" actually, knowing the taxes were paid, but having to wait 2 or 3 weeks for more Disposable Income.
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If you've experienced the Credit Card Crunch, the common remedy, of course, is to Cut your card into little pieces. But that's a waste of energy if you don't make something useful out of those pieces. Here is one suggested use. Slice your plastic into little guitar-shaped pieces like what you see at left. Sometimes guitar picks get a bit slippery after a lot of use, and here's where Credit Cards are actually an improvement; you've got the raised numbers which give you more Finger Traction so you won't drop your pick. One of the people at the Jam managed to get a machine that cuts pieces of plastic into pick-shaped pieces. I should try that! I could use it on vinyl records that are cracked or don't play. Lots of traction in those grooves!
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If you've read this post all the way through, I asked, "who did the song, 'I've Got The Music In Me'?" It was done by the Kiki Dee Band back in the mid-1970's; 1974, I believe. Kiki Dee is probably best-known for her duet with Elton John, "Don't Go Breaking My Heart", a song that I got sick and tired of hearing on La Radio. She was a rocker in the Susie Quatro mode before heading for the Middle Of The Road. Also, the group "Heart" recorded a live version of "Got The Music" and can be found on their album, "Magazine". And that's all. Probably too much. Oh well...

2012-01-01T00:38:00.000-08:00

Just about done with 2-0-1-1...
...and this time, I'm doing the New Years' countdown MY way...

11:43PM: In a way, I'd like to see Dick Clark on TV, just to see how he's doing. But at the same time, in past years, I've felt sorry for him, and maybe I don't want to see him. I like Dick Clark and always have. I've got the TV on the ABC network...that should be the network Dick Clark would appear on...

11:46PM: In-between New Years' festivities, some of the currently famous musical performers are performing, and I haven't heard or seen these acts...who is this rapper-guy, I think they said his name was "Drake" or something that sounds like it?

11:48PM: I'm noticing that the host of this ABC New Years' broadcast looks a bit like a younger Dick Clark. I watched so many of those Dick Clark programs in the past. I used to watch "Bandstand" back when I was a kid. Now I'm feeling really old.

11:51PM: I've switched over to the FOX network to see what they're doing. So far, Fox has been showcasing newer Country Singers I've never heard of. One of them sang about how an alcoholic beverage will cause women to take off their clothes or some such thing. Yee-Haw...

11:53PM: Oh, so that's Carson Daley. Yeah, we're now back to ABC. I've heard his name a few times but I never actually watched him...he does look a little like Dick Clark. A very little. Dick, hope yer havin' a rockin' New Years' Eve, buddy. Rock and Roll!

11:55PM: Carson Daley and his co-host, a bubbly woman who I've never seen before, are talking about how the music from John Lennon's "Imagine" song will start the ball falling down. The female says that when she hears "Imagine", she gets all "warm and bubbly". Meantime, some black guy with no hair is now singing "Imagine". He's doing a good job on the song, but How I Wish that John Lennon himself was here to sing it.

11:59PM: The countdown is underway, the clock is ticking, the crowd is counting down...HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!!!!!! And I hope everyone has a happy and safe 2012. Oh, by the way, that Black dude singing "Imagine" was See-Low Green (not sure exactly how to spell his name)...and he butchered the last verse of "Imagine" when he tried to sing it an octave higher than when he started the son. I thot he was gonna rupture himself. And I'm hearing booms and pops coming from my own neighborhood. The dogs'll be barking all night tonight!

12:02AM: Well, Carson Daly says another country-music performer is gonna sing, and I've had my fill of exposure to that musical genre, so we're back over to the FOX network. There's a guy in a cowboy hat and white athletic trunks interviewing people in Times Square, and it's making me a little green-in-the-gills...quick! Switch Networks!

12:06AM: Back to ABC! There's yet another Country-music guy I've never seen before. Hey, we're really partying right now. And hey, More Country Music after these commercials!!!

12:12AM: Carson Daly says that "all the people who came out to Times Square are starting to pack in". And seeing as how there's currently another Rapper on stage, it might just be time to leave. I've been asked why so much of this Latter-Day music is so unmemorable...I suppose it's memorable to fans of the genre, but music is so segmented nowadays, what with all the differing Musical Styles out there. I have no idea what it is that attracts people to this stuff. It's quite the mystery to me.

In past years, I've been stone cold sober on most New Years' Eves. My days of Hard Partying are waay behind me. My idea of "Hard Stuff" has changed somewhat as I get older and Older and OLDER. I don't need to party anymore. At my age, I feel like the cartoon in this post without drinking ANYTHING.

I've got my trusty can of Diet Root Beer at my side. And, for some reason, I bought a bottle of whiskey a couple of months ago and its' still just over half full. I have a shot every now and then, although I'm not sure why. And it's pretty rough stuff. I think the time is right for another shot.
I like to think of that bottle of whisky as my "dirty little secret".

12:25AM: Tony Bennett just sang "Watch What Happens", and he's still looking healthy and strong and sounding pretty good. I used to play some of his records on the radio. The station kept a copy of his "San Francisco" album in the studio, and his version of the old country tune, "Candy Kisses", and his version is pretty doggoned good. But now, the same rap group (The Roots?) is doing me another song, and since I have my bottle of whiskey here, I think Mr. Rapper is gonna drive me to drink. Ackthptf.

12:32AM: I've just had that shot of whiskey. Ackpthf!!!!! Well, it's time to end this post, but before I do, I'd like to wish everyone a...

HAPPY NEW YEAR, EVERYONE!!!
AND HAVE ONE HELL OF A 2012!!!

2011-12-29T19:45:00.000-08:00

WHAT JUST HAPPENED HERE???
...the case of the Disappearing Medical Specialist...
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I have overactive ears. I won't go into excruciating detail; let's just call it "that annoying wax buildup". For a couple of weeks earlier this year, I could hear almost nothing out of my right ear. Everything that sounded stereophonic sounded monophonic. But finally, I was given relief by the Ear Doctor who used something like a miniature vacuum cleaner to muck out my ears. As I left, I arranged for another appointment in Six Months. Ear maintenance. So last week, as I headed off to the doctors offices, I assumed that he'd scoop out what little that was in my ears, you know, like a sort-of 10,000-mile checkup, that kind of thing.
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I was on time for my appointment, and waited for another half-an-hour before my name was called. The nurse took me back to where the ear-scooping was done. And I waited there for another quarter-hour until the doctor finally was ready to see me. He must have been waay behind in his scheduling and used me to make up the difference. He looked into each ear, pronounced his verdict ("Nothing is in there") and left, just like that. He didn't spend two minutes with me. He was out the door while I was trying to figure out "What Just Happened Here?" I thot he was gonna clean out whatever was in there, in best checkup fashion. Instead, he zipped off like Speedy Gonzales, which was a novel site, since he's either a Japanese or Chinese-American person. "Which way did he go, which way did he go?"
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So, for the two minutes he spent with me, he probably got paid close to a hundred dollars for my visit; $10 coming from my Social Security co-pay. I'd complain to him about this, but he'd probably zip so fast around the office that I wouldn't be able to nail him down. Is this an issue, or am I a Fool? When you take your car into Les Schwab, they don't just touch your tires and come back and say, "You're Done"! And, they rotate tires Free Of Charge. What's my conclusion here? That it's a good thing Doctors don't work at Tire Stores, otherwise, they'd charge a hundred dollars for a tire rotation. I realize Doctors have overhead, and must insure themselves to the hilt, and besides, the young ones are still trying to pay back College Loans; I understand that.
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I don't know if this is a valid indictment of the medical system, or if I have a reason to gripe here. I just hope that when this doctor dines on a thick juicy steak for dinner, that he remembers me, for I contributed a portion of that steak. Or "pork". Or whatever you wanna call it. But I left the doctor's office with a gnawing feeling in my gut. Two minutes in which the Doctor got close to a hundred bucks. That's quite an hourly wage. So why do I feel like I got a medical wedgie here? I got no real explanation, just "Nothing In There!" and, whoosh, he was gone. But then again, my main doctor is just busy, busy, busy all the time. I'm sure he feels like he's running a medical clearing-house sometimes. 15 minutes for an appointment is a long time for him.
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I suppose I should be grateful that I've found doctors that accept Social Security. At the same time, I really do feel as if I was taken advantage of. Once again, Everything I Know Is Wrong. Sure feels like it, anyway.

2011-12-27T23:52:00.000-08:00

A SHORE ACRES CHRISTMAS...
...the savage beauty of this area in winter...
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Although Shore Acres State Park isn't far from where I live, I don't visit often. It costs $5.00 to visit the place, unless you access one of the coastal trails that link it to other parks in this area. Otherwise you've gotta place the receipt on your dashboard where a dutiful Park Employee will make sure you've paid your fee. But I make sure to visit every year on Christmas Eve. I get there before sunset to do some serious wave-watching, and once Mr. Sun sinks over the horizon, it's time to go and see a Christmas Lights display. More about that later. Continuing, one of the most vexing things about Wave-watching is that it's difficult to time the wave so you can catch the giant sprays they leave in their wake. But I try.
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I'd been out trying to get a Wave Picture. I'd focus the camera on an incoming wave, and it would turn out to be a Dud. Very little, if any splash. Well, it was close to low-tide, I'd met with little success and began my walk back to the main park area when, all of a sudden, I heard "BOOM"! I whipped around instantly and took this picture of a monster wave which wanted its presence to be duly noted. Ocean waves are menacing yet fragile. They're huge, and they disintegrate in an instant. Sometimes when you stop looking, they find you. There's probably some sort of lesson in there somewhere. I liken winter wave-watching to a really great Fireworks show. You never really know how huge or how loud the fireworks will be. Then, "POW!" the lights emerge into a huge yet delicate pattern, disappearing almost immediately.
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On the way back to the main area of Shore Acres, there are ample opportunities to catch the sunset with the camera of your choice. (Mine's a Canon "Powershot", a fairly basic model, which is good, because my camera skills are basic. No frills. In this picture you can see three outcroppings extending into the ocean. For some reason, the strata you see in the cliffs are at a 40-degree angle, which probably has something to do with land masses and plate behavior. I'm no geologist, though, as you can no doubt tell. Still, the view is fascinating. Due to a bank of clouds on the horizon, the Sun disappeared from view 5 or 10 minutes early, and once it was gone, the temperature dropped faster than anything seen lately in the Stock Market. (See? I do pay attention to the news. What, do you think I take Pictures All The Time?) Okay, now that I've alienated readers who suffer through this blog, time for a Christmas Lights celebration...
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Imagine thousands upon thousands of Christmas Lights all over the place, and chances are you'll imagine something like this. This is the botanical garden at Shore Acres State Park. (If you click on the photo, it'll get really big.) It's impossible to enumerate a lot of them here, but you can get an idea of what's done here each year, at least in sheer numbers of lights needed to complete this gargantuan lights display. Not only are there lit Christmas Trees all over the place, but you'll see lights strung up in the shape of a whale, or a seal or penguin or seagull or pelican...you get the idea. There's a pond in the middle of it all, and to say this display is merely 'huge' is a classic understatement. And, at the end of your stroll, you can stop at the Gardener's Cottage, which is also lit, and dine on chocolate-chip cookies and a glass of Hot Apple Cider. The park is open the entire month of December. And this time of year, it becomes a wond'rous place indeed.
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I have more pictures of this huge light show on www.webshots.com, username digitaldave.72. Shore Acres is right on the coast, about 6 miles south of Coos Bay. Now that Christmas has been here and gone, I can now wish everyone "Happy Holidays!" Have a great 2012. Hmmm...2012...I guess I've gotta get used to typing that...

2011-12-24T23:55:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas, everybody...
...it's just the way I was brought up, I guess...

Our family always had a Christmas Tree, and some of its ornaments were secular, others were religious. My Mom was a churchgoer, so the whole family went to Church, where the sermons in the weeks before Christmas were, of course, of a religious nature with frequent mentions made of God, Jesus, Joseph, Mary, the Three Wise men, King Herod and Shepherds. So there were some things I eventually became hard-wired into believing.
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I think Christmas should be about reverence, no matter what beliefs you may suscribe to. I would like to think that we all pray to the same God, and that all of the different religions are just different ways of Getting to the Same Place. I'm sad that Religious things at Christmas have become politically incorrect. I am far from being a furtive believer, but I do believe. People who say there's only one way to get to Heaven are trying to put themselves above others, in my opinion.

So, I'd like to wish the Entire World a Merry Christmas. Take care, everybody.

2011-12-21T22:24:00.000-08:00

REELIN' THROUGH THE YEARS...
...hang onto your hats, folks; we're traveling all the back to 1910...
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I Love Thrift Stores. I'm too lazy to go to all the yard sales. I'm almost a resident at the local Goodwill Store. Mostly, I go mainly for records, CD's and cassettes. Recently I bought a little Acoustic Guitar for Six Bucks. Now I can sit in the La-Z-Boy (which was also bought at a thrift store), watch TV and play the guitar during commercial breaks. I have a baritone ukele, and this guitar is as small as the Uke. The guitar's a little hard to tune; it doesn't have the greatest hardware, but Six Bucks for a guitar? Ooh yeah. Today, however there was no music I wanted. So then, it was time to look at the books. In the History Section, I found this little weather-beaten volume that was so worn, I could barely read the words on its spine. It was obviously a very old book. The cover was worn out super-bad, but other than some pencil writing on the inside front cover and a few smudges and small tears on some of the pages, it's in remarkable shape.
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I went online and looked up the title, "Leading Facts Of American History" by D.H. Montgomery, and discovered it was a schoolbook! And sure enough, towards the end, there are pages and pages consisting of questions for every chapter. Imagine, if you will, a history book that was printed two years before the Titanic sank! That's what this is. Evidently Mr. Montgomery authored quite a few history books, of which the one I bought (for $2.99) is part of a series. It's the "revised edition" with the latest copyright date being 1910. Think of that. 1910. Mr. Montgomery is long gone, passing away in 1928, and students who studied this book did so 110 years ago. As such, this book is a true Time Capsule.
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The book is full of maps, drawings and engraved depictions of the Original Great Men of our country, such as ol' one-dollar-bill George, at left. It also features maps of America, showing how the nation evolved from a collection of states along the eastern seaboard to more of a coast-to-coast entity. Alaska, back then, was just a territory. Most of the western states had existed for only about 20 years when this book came out. It's amazing, how well these old pages have been preserved. Clearly, if this book had been printed nowadays, pages would be falling out and bindings would've come undone. Although, when I go to Goodwill, I see other old textbooks that hold firm against the onslaught of age; it's like the Textbook Companies were thinking, "Kids are gonna be using these books and you know how THEY are!"
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Next up is a page featuring a perspective of Honest Abe Lincoln that I've never seen before; he's in profile, he doesn't have any facial hair, and in this rendering, he looks young and healthy, and I wouldn't be surprised if this was the pre-Presidential Lincoln.. We're about a third of the way through the book at this point, and although I'm not sure how many years this book was actually used, I'm surprised by the condition of the pages, most of which are fairly clean. The glue holding this all together must be one Really Fierce glue, to have not fallen victim to oxidation over the years. For its size (a little over six and a half inches from top to bottom), it's heavy. Its pages are a little bit thicker (and slightly smoother) than your standard Paperback Novel Page. Yep, back in the old days when Work was Work. Back when they said, "if you can't do it well, don't do it at all". (I think I'm starting to sound like my Dad here...)
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What really surprised me about this book (and the time period it was printed in) is that it actually features Color on some of the maps. We take full-color pages for granted; we just read the book, after which it's closed and put back up on the shelf until the next time it's read. Putting color on a page involves at least two press runs through a maze of machinery. So there was a lot of technology going on way back then. And the times indeed are still ever-changing, what with the existence of newspapers and books being threatened by the ever-expanding internet. And one day,maybe, flipping through pages of websites will be replaced by perhaps a computer chip hooked to your eyeballs, instantly accessing information from your brain cells. Think "dog", and, BAM...You're at Dog-dot-com.
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Anyway, after examining the book once I got it home, I flipped thru the pages to see if any sort of bookmark contained therein, and there was something, a dollar bill from an old Monopoly game. Stamped on the bill is "copyright 1935 by Parker Bros." and since the bill is an off-white, beige type of color, I can't tell if it's yellowed by age, or a newer bill stuck in there sometime in the last 20-30 years. And at its oldest, how would a 1935 bill get stuck in a 1910 textbook? I guess there's some things we'll never know. Me, I'm thinking about the old days, taking textbooks home with me, taking pen (or pencil) in hand, laboriously trying to get thru my homework. Just like now, trying to slog my way through another overblown blog-post.
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If only inanimate things could speak. So much time has gone by. I was thinking about that as I held this old book in one hand, with a portable computer sitting in my lap. I wonder what Honest Abe would've thought if he somehow could've been teleported into the now. And I wonder how obsolete my laptop computer be in another hundred years. Hundred years? Heck, it'll probably be outdated in another couple of years...

2011-12-18T22:05:00.000-08:00

IS THIS NOW A SPORTS BLOG?
...next thing ya know, I'll be placing bets...
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DID THIS YEAR'S FOOTBALL SEASON SEEM SHORT?: Most of the time, when I watch football, I'm also online annoying as many people as possible. It's easier to post while watching baseball; the flow of most games allows quite a lot of surfing-time between plays. Last Monday night, I thought I heard one of the sportscasters saying something about "this is the final Monday Night Fooball Game" of the season. Huh? What? Baseball season nowadays ends roughly halfway through the Pro Football season, and Football Season starts earlier than it used to. I remember when there were actual gaps between the end of baseball season and the beginning of football. I've missed virtually the entire Football season now. Usually by now I begin to sort out my playoff favorites and scheme about who'll be in the Super Bowl. But I've been too busy licking my wounds from following the Seattle Mariners ultra-ugly season. It wasn't pretty.
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This year, I have no idea who's good and who isn't as far as football is concerned. Although Green Bay seems to be on their way to an Undefeated Season...wait...I just checked, and the Packers lost this past weekend. Told ya I had no idea! The 1972 Miami Dolphins who are still alive and well celebrated heartily, I'm sure. (They were the only team to achieve an Undefeated Season.) I didn't watch the Green Bay game, but I've seen games where, once a league championship was secured, the coach would put in the Second Team. Why risk injuring the Star Quarterback? I'm not sure if this happened during the Green Bay game, but if I was paying NFL ticket prices only to find that the scrubs were going to play most of the game, I'd feel tremendously Ripped Off. Sorta like Hopalong Cassidy taking Clark Gable's place in "The Grapes Of Wrath".
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ONE REASON I DON'T WATCH PRO BASKETBALL: I guess the NBA is going (relatively) strong, with teams playing 66 games in this strike-shortened season. And after the regular season's over, they'll play another 66 games in the playoffs. Well, that's what it feels like. In a closely contested NBA game, there are so many time-outs towards game-end, that the last two minutes end up being as long as the entire 1st half of action. I used to run a Radio Board for a station that carried NBA playoff games. A player in-bounds the ball, the ball bounces once. TIME OUT!!! Then the ball is in-bounded again, to one of the forwards. The other team changes its defensive look...TIME OUT!!! Substitutions made, the ball is in-bounded again, one player passes it to another who jumps up and shoots; instead he passes the ball back because the defense is all over him. TIME OUT!!!

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After getting the latest play from the bench, Team "A" in-bounds the ball. Team "B" steals the ball!!! Both teams get down to the other end of the court...TIME OUT!!! Offensive Strategy mini-conference. Back to the court: Before the ball can be in-bounded, Team "B" needs to regroup for an offensive strategy mini-conference. The ball is in-bounded, team "B" passes the ball around the court, not getting a good look for a shot, and one of its players calls 'Time'...you guessed it; TIME OUT!!! Then, play is ready to be resumed. The Whistle Blows...TIME OUT!!! Team "A" needs to counter the offensive changes team "B" made. Play resumes, after which a referee spots a puddle of sweat on the floor. TIME OUT!!! Back to the action. Player Substitution! Before the ball can be in-bounded, however, team "B"'s coach needs to substitute someone to counter the previous player substitution by Team "A"...TIME OUT!!! And in the meantime, you've just been subjected to something like 4,000 commercials. Gotta keep them sponsors happy!
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That's what it was like in 1999, anyway. It's probably worse now. Remember the "fast break" that high school and college teams would use to change the tempo of the game? Watching an NBA game is like watching one long fast break. I have not watched Pro Baketball since the days of John Stockton and Karl Malone. They really did work well together. I rooted for Stockton, the little guy who always came up big against the giants he faced. But really, I think Basketball is Too Fast. Soccer is too erratic. Football Season is over too soon. Baseball...is j-u-s-t r-i-g-h-t. Even if you're a Seattle Mariners fan. And so I wait for spring.
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This post was going to be about something else altogether. But it wasn't. Which means I already have a couple of ideas for subsequent posts. Unless I forget them. Which could happen...

2011-12-08T23:07:00.000-08:00

JOHN LENNON, October 9th, 1940-December 8th, 1980

The years pass, but it doesn't get any easier to deal with. I hope he's resting in peace.

2011-12-04T00:57:00.000-08:00

IT'S NOT LIKE HE'S SOLD OUT OR ANYTHING...
...Bob Seger climbs in bed with Wal-Mart...

Consumer Warning: This is a long, setentious Post. You'll need to Bring a sack lunch.

Somehow I expected more from Bob Seger. After all, he came from Detroit, and he's never seemed to have the attitude of "I'm A Star and You're Not". Bob Seger is not really my favorite performer, although legions do fancy him. Rock and Roll!!! From a True Survivor!!!, etc. etc. Sometimes he seems to go into a Bruce Springsteen-type-over-melodramatic style ("We've Got Tonight" comes to mind here), other times he rocks softly (The dinky sound of his LP "Against The Wind" album comes to mind here), and sometimes he is really, really great (His"The Distance" LP comes to mind here). Bob Seger was sorta the voice of Working Class America, a survivor who, after years of neglect, all of a sudden Became Famous in the late '70s thanks to a double-live LP.
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He released a "Greatest Hits" CD a couple of years ago, but then again, so has every other artist. That way, they don't have to keep writing new stuff, and yet, still keep their music in front of people. I'm not saying this is a bad practice, and if I was a star, I'd probably do that too. But I'm not, which is neither here nor there. Okay, let's switch gears really fast here: (screech!) I went to Wal-Mart today. My birds needed food; Wal-Mart has bird stuff; quite a selection, so occasionally I stop in, and when I'm there, I check out the latest CD's, and sometimes there's stuff I want, but more often, there's Not. Recently, though, I bought the newest CD by "Yes" there, which I'd never seen anywhere else and which I hadn't heard about. So yeah, I committed a Federal Atrocity by buying from Wal-Mart. I'm so ashamed...now for another directional shift...
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The Jimi Hendrix estate manages to squeeze out new CD's once a year, and as you know, a Dead Guy isn't gonna come up with any new tunes anytime soon, and still the CD's keep coming out. At Wal-Mart today, I noticed a new Hendrix CD in the racks, some concert appearance somewhere that I'd never seen. So I picked up a copy and looked at the song list, and I have all those songs on CD's and LP's, and I don't really need new versions of "Voodoo Chile", "Foxy Lady" or "Red House" anytime soon, so I passed. There are fans who want every version of every song he did, but as great a musician as Hendrix was, it all begins to sound alike. If I hear a specific "Live" Hendrix track over a loudspeaker system, I couldn't tell you where it was recorded unless I had the Album In Hand. At this date, Hendrix himself hasn't objected to his music being stocked at Wal-Mart or elsewhere (So far I've seen no Wal-Mart exclusivity thing involving the Hendrix Estate), or having endless versions of basically The Same Old Stuff being made available time after time. I don't slight Jimi for that. Being Dead sorta gets in the way, so I understand, and I'll cut him some slack. The "West Coast Seattle Boy" CD that you see in this section features a few previously-unrecorded Hendrix tunes as does "Valleys Of Neptune", another recent release...I recommend these! A nice way to Support the Hendrix Estate. No, you can't write it off.
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But then I came across Bob Seger's New CD, entitled "Ultimate" Greatest hits. Funny thing tho; this new 'Best-Of' has many of the same songs as another 'Best Of' CD...the one where he is standing, guitar 'round his neck, on railroad tracks, and trying to look his bad-ass toughest. What GOT me about his newest "Ultimate" hits CD is that there's an 'Extra' song that's available only if you buy it from Wal-Mart! Forget the fact that you have Everything Else by Seger; you STILL have to buy songs you already have in order to get one song You Don't Have Yet. So really, you're shelling out somewhere in the neighborhood of $10-$15 for One Song. Not good Music Economics. Plus, the logic in the title loses me. Bob Seger had great songs, marketed previously, but one additional song makes the New Greatest Hits "Ultimate"??? I realize I might be one donut short of a dozen, but I'm not STUPID. Somehow I expected better of an artist who is supposedly a"member of the working class" type of rocker. What I'm led to believe, according to the packaging is that you can buy it elsewhere without the Wal-Mart Bonus Song. But while you're at Wal-Mart, you can buy food, drink, clothes, electric erasers and 200 pound bags of dog food...so really, Seger is helping Wal-Mart sell groceries. Speaking of which, stay away from Wal-Mart's "Good Value" brand of Fruit Punch that comes in tanker-truck sized Big Plastic Bottles. I bought a bottle of the "Grape" flavor and it tasted like a hundred Grape Tootsie-Roll pops melted down and squeeeezed together.. Ugh. I dumped it out. It probably corroded my drainage pipes.
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Back to things musical: A couple of years ago, The Eagles did pretty much the same thing as Seger, only they went One Better. Their "Long Road Out Of Eden", a double-CD set, was a Wal-Mart-only item for a while. So I bought it. It was a good value. $11.99 for a double CD album. I stopped back into Wal-Mart a few weeks later, and saw copies of the Same CD I'd bought, only the sleeve was tinted in Red (same sleeve picture), and that issue came out with Two Songs that weren't on the CD I'd bought several weeks before. That really pissed me off. No Way was I gonna buy the new version of the CD for Two New Songs. Perhaps after a time, the original Eagles CD became available elsewhere, so the band shelled out a couple more highly precious New songs, and That Version of the album then became available nowhere-else except for Wal-Mart. I do believe the second "new" cut was their heartfelt rendition of' "Please Come Home For Christmas", which I don't need to hear anytime soon.
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As I was proof-reading this post, something struck me, which was, that Wal-Mart (or any other music outlet) isn't catering to my generation anymore. These older-than-I-am artists market themselves in order to reach those who are half my age. And, a surprising number of younger listeners groove on classic rock which I bought on LPs when I was much younger. So, Older Artists are hoping they can continue to reach generation after generation. At Wal-Mart, you can find CD's by Boston, The Beatles, Creedence, The Moody Blues, Neil Young, Journey, The Who and other big acts from Long Ago, in addition to "Kid Rap" or "The Bumbling Psychotics" or "Empty Mason Jars" or whatever new band of the week is currently for sale. Well, what can I say; Rock and Roll will Never Die...as long as it continues to sell. In fact, the Sears store here actually stocks New Vinyl; those heavy vinyl limited-edition releases that you see selling for twenty-five bucks a pop. I bought a brand-new, still sealed "Abbey Road" album there a couple of years ago. (psst...those three bands I referred to a few lines above don't actually exist. Not yet, anyway.)
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And, there's a dynasty for ya there...Apple, EMI, Ringo, Paul and the estates of John and George. There's all kinds of Beatle Product on the shelves, including a set of four specially-boxed 45's for Record Store Day, (huh?), packaged in picture sleeves that look just like the original '60s issues, retailing at over fifty bucks. Also to be had...wait for it...Official Beatles Tee-Shirts stuffed in with CD's in big packages (!!!) and sold that way. If you enter "Beatles" into the search bar at the top of this blog page, you'll find my rantings detailing how blatant the Beatles' organization has been in terms of keeping itself alive. Hey, I'd hate for Yoko Ono suffer a monetary crisis anytime soon. (My sarcasm meter is in the red). As far as I can tell, Beatles music will be marketed until the day the world ends. And I'm such a collector, and there is so much new Beatles material to buy (same old recordings, different repackaging) that I'm having trouble deciding, "do I want to keep buying their current stuff?" or "stick with the old hard-to-get original records?" From what I've read, Abbey Road studios contains piles and piles of Beatles Tapes, a lot of which have been locked away forever with songs they never issued. Hey, guys, make 'em available and I'll buy em! I'd love to hear the complete, unedited 29-minute performance of Helter Skelter! It does exist, according to Mark Lewisohn's Book, "The Beatles' Complete Recording Sessions". Paul taped himself a copy and took it home with him! How 'bout it, guys? I wanna hear it too!
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There is a small record store in town that's been run by the same solitary guy for ages; he's a Californian-tie-dyed hippie sort who I've never seen not wearing his bandana. He's been in this area for decades. If I special-order anything, I go to him. It might cost a little bit more dealing with him, but I feel good helping him to put beans on the table. So am I a hypocrite buying music (occasionally) from Wal-Mart? I haven't quite decided that one yet.

2011-11-29T23:49:00.000-08:00

REMEMBERING GEORGE...
...hard to believe he's been gone for a decade now...

Ten years ago, George Harrison departed this world and that's been on my mind today. Ten Years. When Abe Lincoln died, it was said that "now he belongs to the ages". To apply that to members of The Beatles startles me a bit. My first Beatles' album was "Yesterday and Today", after which I got their subsequent later albums...Sgt. Pepper, White Album, Magical Mystery Tour, White Album, Abbey Road, Let it be, etc. Back in 1966, when I got "Yesterday and Today", I found out it contained a whole bunch of singles I'd heard on the radio, "Yesterday", "Day Tripper", "We Can Work It Out" and "Nowhere Man" plus the rest of the tunes were cool, too. George Harrison wrote one song on that album, "If I Needed Someone" which has a whole different flavor...it was jangly, the lyrics were fairly morose, and it went in a different direction; the song was strangely moody and haunting. With that tune, George began writing some major songs, every bit as good as Lennon-McCartney. He provided a sort of "counterpoint"; his dark tunes contrasting with the bubbly Lennon-McCartney compositions that occupied the majority of Beatles albums. George's songs were generally darker than the Lennon-McCartney tunes which made up most of the Fabs' repertoire.
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The Dark Horse...

"All Things Must Pass", George's 1970 solo triple LP, contained songs that Lennon-McCartney had rejected outright in the past. George's songs carried a dark element throughout; a sort of gloom with maybe some light at the end of the tunnel. Ironically, the group's early albums, such as "Meet The Beatles" or "Beatles VI" were albums I got after they broke up. And those early albums invaded my consciousness ,same as if I'd bought them in the heyday of Beatlemania. During my junior year in high school, I was wheelin' and dealin' for Beatles albums. That's how I got my first copies of "The Early Beatles" and "A Hard Day's Night". It was amazing how good their early songs sounded to me, even if some of that material had been released 4 or 5 years previously (an eternity when I was a kid). When KJRB radio (in Spokane, Washington) played a full weekend of Beatles Music once it was announced that the group had broken up, I was all ears and liked what I heard. And things just went from there . Turns out I'd heard some of that early stuff before; I just didn't know the song titles, but once they hit the turntable, they sounded amazingly familiar.

In 1970 I found my recently-acquired copy of "Meet The Beatles" (which originally came out in '64), contained a similar George Song, "Don't Bother Me", which is far away in musical flavor from the Lennon-McCartney songs that dominate the album. The song is gloomy. It's an Early George song; he downplayed the significance of that song, but I thought it was as good as any Lennon-McCartney tune and its inclusion gave the album a different sort of flavor. Many of George's tunes contain that dark element, whether it be "Taxman", "Love You To" (both from the "Revolver" album), "While My Guitar Gently Weeps", "I Me Mine", "Long Long Long" (from the White Album) or "Think For Yourself" (from "Rubber Soul"). Perhaps it was how he heard rock and roll. Yes, the Beatles recorded some not-so-good songs, and George wrote his share of clunkers, but he gave Beatles albums a unique sort of depth. Later on, after the group broke up, George started up a record label, and he named it "Dark Horse". I think that's how he saw himself. He once said that he considered himself and Ringo as "economy-class Beatles". I think George was more than that. Much more. I'm not sure about Ringo, although he was/is a great instinctive drummer. Or perhaps it was the combination of such wide-apart personalities that made The Beatles what they were. The only other group that comes close in terms of chemistry is U2. The depth of feeling that U2 puts into their tunes immediately sets them apart. Led Zeppelin was also like that. I really do think they were "The Beatles of the '70s" in terms of inventiveness. Now don't go running off because I mentioned Zeppelin. They recorded some nice tunes, dabbling in folk and pop music. Think "Going To California", "That's The Way", or "All My Love". Nice stuff.

RECORD RESEARCH BEFORE THE INTERNET: It's hard, now, to imagine life B.C. ("Before Computers"). Way back in the day, though, if one wanted to know anything about anything, he/she would visit the Bookstore or library. My friends and I would talk about music, and they would ask me how I could remember such things as record-chart positions, groups, history of various songs an particulars. I'd tell them that I wasn't smart, I just read everything I could get my greasy hands on. If I had the opportunity to shave 30 years off my age, I'd want to be a record store owner. Or an album reviewer. I may not be much of a musician, but I'm one hell of a great listener. I was always intrigued by music, records and song lyrics. So here's a couple of really important books that I've used; they're fun to research with, learn from, or to enjoy as light reading...
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The Rolling Stone Record guide has provided me with so much priceless information over the years. They contain capsule-type comments about record albums and assign them 'star value'; a "1" album is mediocre; a "5" means it's a great album, and a small black square means the record should be burned and forgotten about forever. I ordered the "Red" book from a bookstore in 1978, and I found a used copy of the "Blue" book for cheap at a used book store. There are probably over a hundred artists in the "Red" book that aren't in the "Blue" book, and vice versa, which is why I keep both books handy. As you can see, the "Red" book was falling apart at the seams due to overuse. Duct Tape to the Rescue! Looks like my "blue" copy is about ready to fall apart, too. Handle with care, eh? The "red" book stops at albums issued 1978 and before, while the "blue" book goes up through 1984.

Recently, I was on Facebook, exchanging messages with an old high school friend. I had posted that if I had to choose My One Favorite Song by Anybody, it would have to be "Hey Jude". And her response was, "Puh-leeze, our ladies' knitting group could do better than that." Which made me feel as if a knitting needle had been stuck in my eye. My own take is, that if someone does not like the Beatles, I'm probably not going to get along well with that someone. I'm not being one-sided about this. I can't stand opera of ANY kind, so I probably wouldn't get on well with someone who's an opera buff. And I kinda feel the same way about classical music. Ack.
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Finally, I want to address a topic that really bugs me. In fact, it really Ticks Me Off. I keep hearing/seeing television ads that name anything having to do with Christmas as "The Holidays". A holiday is a day where you celebrate something. So what do "The Holidays" celebrate, if not "Christ", who the holiday was Named For? I'm no religious wacko; I'm quite the backslider actually, but Christmas is Christmas, whether you're atheist, agnostic or a fervent disciple. If you're not Christian, perhaps you can use Christmas to honor who you do believe in. There's no competition in religions here. It's supposed to be a time of peace no matter who you are or what color your skin is. Put that in your pipe and smoke it, as long as you don't blow the smoke in my face. There. Sermon over.

2011-11-21T00:03:00.000-08:00

SO WHAT'S HAPPENED IN THE LAST 248 YEARS?
...a different way to put things in perspective...

*Three World Wars.
*The Vietnam War.
*The sinking of the U.S.S. Arizona.
*The sinking of the Titanic.
*The Great Depression.
*The Assassination of President Kennedy.
*The Assassination of President Lincoln.
*The signing of the Bill Of Rights.
*The Space Shuttle disaster.
*The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.
*The Charleston.
*The Macarena.
*The Invention of the Wax Cylinder Record.
*The advent of I-Pods and mp3's.
*Tippecanoe and Tyler Too.
*The Edsel.
*The Model T.
*The Louisiana Purchase.
*Alaska and Hawaii become States.
*Joe "Fingers" Carr.
*Rollie Fingers.
*The Beatles.
*The Hoosier Hot-Shots.
*The Pony Express.
*The Forever Stamp.
*Riot Control.
*Birth Control.
*Fats Domino.
*Fats Waller.
*"Minnesota" Fats.
*The Shootout at the OK Corral.
*Teddy Roosevelt.
*Ted Bundy.
*and on and on and on and on...

All of the above occurrences barely make a scratch in the totality of history. Generations come and go, and things keep happening. To put this in perspective, while Humanity has undergone all of these events (and many more); since the year 1763, (248 YEARS AGO), the planet PLUTO has gone around the sun exactly ONCE. Sorta puts thing in perspective, don't it? In short, Pluto hasn't even made HALF an orbit around the sun since it was discovered by Clyde Tombaugh in 1930.

So let's see Pluto in order to get a better perspective. It is one of the stranger bodies of rock in the Solar System. In fact, Pluto's Orbit is elliptical (Oval-shaped) and rather than orbiting on the same plane as all of the other planets, Pluto actually goes above, then below the plane. Nobody's ever really seen Pluto other than through fuzzy depictions that can only hint at what's out there. When it was discovered, it was through the use of grainy space photos that compared the position of stars and planets. Since planets travel faster, one of the old grainy photos showed Pluto in different positions relative to the stars in the sky. So, without further adieu, here's Pluto...

OOPS, wrong Pluto...Guess I'll have to start using another Search Engine. While I look for the correct Pluto, I'll inundate you with facts about what used to be (and maybe still is) the 9th planet: Pluto is only two-thirds the size of Earth's Moon. Pluto may actually be one of the innermost asteroids from the Kuiper belt. Perhaps Pluto was on a path where it got near enough to be snared by the gravitational pull of The Sun. And, it's a helluva place to raise your kids, according to Elton John. Wait...I think he was singing about Mars...

Here's Pluto along with Charon, its Moon. Charon wasn't discovered until 1978. Charon (pronounced KA-RON) is large, in proportion to the ball of rock it revolves around (well, I can't say 'Planet', right?) and as such, Pluto and Charon revolve around an epicenter (or, point between the two bodies. Both little worlds are composed of Rock and Ice. Rumor has it that Pluto might have more than one moon, but we don't know that for sure. One of the primary reasons Pluto is not a planet (according to some) is because its orbit crosses another planet's orbit. Pluto's oval orbit is so eccentric, that it actually sails inside Neptune's orbit for half of its revolution so it's the furthest Planet (if indeed it's still a planet), only about half the time.

So there ya go. A little renegade sphere, along with its little renegade moon. In fact, they're both Cold As Hell...

2011-11-17T23:15:00.000-08:00

YOU KNOW YOU NEED A NEW COMPUTER WHEN...
...your hard drive makes a sound that resembles a Norelco razor...

And that's just what happened the very evening I wrote the previous post in this here Wunnerful blog. I was semi-hypnotized after a couple of hours on Ebay and I couldn't react right away. It didn't matter. Dies is as Dies does. And my computer didn't need a fork, for it was already Done. "ZZZZZZHHHHHHHHTTTTT" went the noise that my 'puter was making all of a sudden. Then, nothing but a black screen. I tried signing on, and got the cyberworld's equivalent of a nuclear blast. A big blue screen came up, saying my "BIOS" needed updating and to contact a System Vendor about whatever. That's what I told the kid at the Computer Service business, and he pronounced the verdict by saying, "ahhh, looks like another case of "BLUE SCREEN DEATH".

Basically, my keyboard divorced itself from the rest of the computer. It didn't matter if you lightly tapped the keys or brought a sledgehammer down, that was it. Done. Finito. It turned out the Fan inside the computer (which was a Reconditioned Model I bought a couple years ago) was mounted off center. The computer, on occasion, had been running very, very hot before it flamed out altogether. So I took it to a repair place where I met The Computer Kid. What did I learn? That actually, "Laptop" computers aren't really meant to rest on your Lap. The Computer Kid said that's why they refer to them as "Notebooks" instead of "Laptops". People were actually burning their laps with their computers. (The cyber-world's equivalent of the McDonald's Hot Coffee In Lap Incident.)
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I imagine the computer industry is hoping that since the word "Notebook" is now in vogue, people won't be burning their laps anymore. Gotta avoid them lawsuits! So Now You Know: Laptops aren't Laptops anymore. So, people...if you see a cheap computer at your local Radio Shack, especially if it's a make that Radio Shack doesn't NORMALLY sell, and it's for sale cheap, it may not be new. Which means that your new computer isn't new after all. (Still with me? I'm starting to lose myself here.) Instead, your new computer might be, and probably is, reconditioned. Which means it's not entirely new. It's just been refurbished. It could die at any time. Like mine did. Sorta like a 90-year-old guy in the best of health. "ZZZZAP!!!" At any moment he could keel over. Just like my computer. "ZZZAP!!!"
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So I left the computer with The Computer Kid, and after a while, I went back, and there was nothing he could do. While us humans may be relatively fragile, at least the body can be put on Life Support, and you can't do that with a computer. I still have both "shells" of what once were computers; maybe I should bury them and make them little headstones. "Here Lies HP Pavilion dv6000" (the computer I replaced a couple years ago), and "Here Lies "Toshiba 586D", both good servants who died before their time. Or maybe what I'll do, is build a Computer Mausoleum, and instead of little Urns, I'll just shove both dead computers into enclosed shelves located in my Garage That's About To Fall Down. Death, be not proud.

I don't know what it is about the forces above us all who know when we have some extra money. I spent the majority of this year in hock to the bank; I'd borrowed too many times from them, so I got my account "cooled off", the effect being that I began budgeting my money well. Then it happened. Last month, I spent $80 bucks getting my car seat fixed; I was leaning back to get my wallet out of a back pocket, and all of a sudden, "SNAP!!!", the back of the seat deposited itself onto the seat in back of it. But I worked my way through all that. I really budgeted myself for the next month, and was in good shape; bills were coming in, I was able to pay them, I was doing really well 'till this Computer thing! So how to explain this? It could be that little ghost characters from the Dark Side follow everyone around in a time dimension 2 seconds ahead of all of us and report in, "guess what! He has Extra Money! Let's GET him!!!" When psychics begin to get hired by Credit Bureaus, RUN FOR COVER!!!

So what did I do about the computer? Off to "Staples" I went. For under $400, I got this little HP computer. Yeah, I know an HP died on me before. But it was the cheapest that they had, and hey, it's got 4.0 GB of memory, which is 1.0GB more memory than the Reconditioned Toshiba I was replacing. I also got a little accessory which enables my laptop to Actually Be a laptop; it's a "Chill Mat" which supplies air to the bottom of the computer; it attaches by a USB port, the computer sits on it, and all is well with the world, until my next computer breakdown which will more than likely be followed by my own personal breakdown. (If it hasn't already happened, that is.)

So when I got ready to pay for my new computer, the Sales Associate said that if I sent in a portion of the receipt with numbers on it, that I'd get a $50 rebate (8 to 10 weeks waiting time). I asked the Sales Associate, "why can't you give me the savings right now?" and he said, "sorry, that's the way they do it." He also told me that if I took an HP Online Survey, I'd get entered into a contest for $5,000 dollar prize. I was told it was a short survey, but it took 25 minutes to fill out all dang stuff. It felt more like one of those 500-question MMPI personality-test things. They seemed to ask the same questions, over and over, in slightly different ways. The survey, that is. Although the MMPI test does the same thing. And both drive me crazy.

So once again I had to go thru the torture of computer loss and reacquisition. So if you've read this entire post, now it's your turn. Nice guy that I am, I decided to share the misery.

2011-11-09T00:03:00.000-08:00

COLLECTING or HOARDING?
...sometimes the distance between the two is a fine line...

Every now and then, I catch a fairly new program on one of the cable channels, called "HOARDERS". And, it's a show that makes me uncomfortable. Why? Because the images on the screen resemble portions of my own life. I exasperated my Mom and Dad; it was so difficult for me to keep my room "straight". This has been a tendency of mine since I was a kid. Mom and Dad kept a very neat house; everything organized and in its place. So why was I more "Oscar" than "Felix"? I don't really know. Except that, I've always got a thousand things on my mind, and all that mental clutter renders me absolutely motionless sometimes, and it doesn't take much. I can sit in a spot for hours, just letting my mind wander. And I often do. And somehow, there's always little piles of stuff in my house that threaten to overtake me, and sometimes do.

This is NOT my house. Not yet, anyway.

So am I a hoarder? I think at various times in my life, I have been. It all depends on my frame of mind. When I get good and mad, or if I've got people coming to visit, I can clean house like the proverbial white tornado. I must be vigilant, though, forever on the watch, or little "messes" not addressed can soon become frighteningly huge, and seem to pop up out of nowhere. It's a helpless feeling. I also have, and have always had, a tendency to wander off task. I'll get going on a room, tossing, sorting, straightening and et-cetera, and then something will spring up to de-rail me. Any type of activity that involves drudgery and repitition will soon render me motionles after a couple of hours. It's a weakness, and its' always been that way with me.

I probably can be accused of Record-Hoarding. I bought records as a kid, but my collection was average; 200-300 records max. When I went away to college, a friend of mine introduced me to the world of second-hand record buying from shops that sold used LP's for two or three dollars a shot. We'd get back to Campus with armloads of vinyl. Throughout my life, thrift stores have always been a place to score, and score big. And it became a mission of mine to hear to all of the music I'd bypassed in earlier times, and the great thing was, I got that music for CHEAP at Goodwill, St. Vinnie's, Salvation army, you name it. A few years ago, I decided to clean house and tighten up the record collection. I gave away 24 boxes of albums, which I'd played once and shelved. I long ago got rid of all the records I didn't care about. Now I'm at the level where I'm now giving away albums I really like, but don't really need. I dub 'em, either partially or whole, onto CD, then, out the door they go. So maybe I'm a reverse-hoarder?

So it's a fine line between Hoarding and Collecting. Everyone Collects Something. It's when that Something interferes with quality of life that Hoarding begins. People who hoard have various insecurities ranging from depression or anxiety, and that has a lot to do with all the clutter in my life. Being bi-polar with all the attendant mood swings can stop me in my tracks sometimes. But another situation is presenting itself: I'm getting older and having to reduce the amount of things I have. And a box of records seems to weigh a lot more than it used to. At least that's what my back tells me. Hoarders have difficulty in choosing what gets thrown out, and I'm having difficulty with that too, but it's made a bit easier knowing I can preserve anything I give away on CD.

I once knew a family whose matriarch was a hoarder to the "Nth" degree. The picture at the top of this post doesn't even begin to APPROACH how bad their house was. A path led from the front door to the kitchen; another path led to the bedrooms and bathroom, and piled up at least four feet high everywhere were bags and bags of all kinds of things; clothing, electronics, canned food, paper goods, cleansers, pots and pans, and on and on and on. That scares me. I don't want to be like that, but at times I've wandered dangerously close.

2011-11-03T00:04:00.000-07:00

SOMETHING TO "SMiLE" ABOUT...
...the saga of unreleased 44-year-old music suddenly made available...

Those of you who like The Beach Boys are in for an Excursion in Sound. The Beach Boys were slated to come out with an album called "SMiLE" in 1967, and it was supposed to be The Next Big Thing. Group leader Brian Wilson was the creative voice that gave the group songs to sing. By 1966, he wasn't touring with the band anymore. He assumed the role of Studio Wizard whilst his band-mates were out there gigging away. That formula worked for quite a while. But things began changing. The landmark album, "Pet Sounds" must have confused a lot of people when it came out. Including me. No fast music! Hardly any guitars! An album full of ballads! The first time I heard it, that's what I thought. The record stayed in my collection, because Everyone Said it was an important album. Which it was; I just didn't appreciate it at the time.

Brian Wilson had gotten deadly serious with the "Pet Sounds" album; it's full of melancholy musings about loneliness, confusion and alienation. I tried Really Listening to it, and it just sat there on the turntable spinning around while I sat in front of the turntable, Just Totally Confused. It definitely wasn't one of those fun surfing or hot-rodding albums they used to do, after all. So it sat in my collection for ages. Over the years, I've read everything I could find about pop/rock music, and that was how I found out about the aborted "SMiLE" album. And, that made me want to hear it all the more. One day while shopping in a used-vinyl store, I mentioned the "SMiLE" album to the owner, and he reached under the counter and pulled out a bootleg CD full of songs and musical fragments recorded during the "SMiLE" sessions. The CD was overpriced, but well worth it. So I finally had an idea of what went on during the "SMiLE" sessions. But the bootleg CD, consisting of fragmented musical tidbits, was extremely disjointed.

Yaay! After 44 years, here it is! "SMiLE"!!!

I got on the internet and began searches for anything having to do with the "SMiLE" sessions, and I ran into Beach Boys' fan websites, and through that, I was able to more or less ascertain the running order of the songs. Then, I surfed another fan website in which one guy wrote a post about actually assembling "SMiLE" tidbits into some sort of cohesive whole. So I did. Over the years, I've made half a dozen tapes/discs with "SMiLE" material; in a sense, I feel like I've "lived" the music. For a couple of years, I listened almost exclusively to the music of "SMiLE". So, the fact that this 44-year-old music was finally made available to the general public for the first time wasn't that big of a deal for m since I'd heard portions of it. But, I wanted to compare the album's song order with what I'd come up with over the years, assembling my own "SMiLE" discs. And I was surprised to find that for about half of the album, the discs I made came close to matching the officially-released "SMiLE" music in terms of song-order. So I thot that was cool. It's nice to be 'in the ballpark' sometimes. (Except if you're a Seattle Mariner...)

Brian Wilson's "SMiLE" album from 2004.
Not to be confused with the Beach Boy's version.

A few years back (2004?), Brian recorded a version of "SMiLE", complete with new lyrics for some of the songs; the original "SMiLE" album featured a good number of instrumentals, and so it was interesting hearing new lyrics for 'formerly instrumental' songs. But as in all recreations of most anything, something suffers. Brian's voice is nowhere near as pure as it was back in '67. The instrumentation on the new "SMiLE" album didn't sound as warm or organic, and while it's a good album, it's just not the same. I had come to know the original "SMiLE" music note-by-note, and the new version of "SMiLE" paled in comparison. Fast-forward to a couple of months ago, when news of the release of the original "SMiLE" album was gonna happen on November 1st. I'm going all-out for this release; I already have the two-record "SMiLE" album sitting in front of me as I'm typing this post. And I'm also going to get the CD issue. The 2-LP set features 4 or 5 extra "SMiLE" songs, while the CD features tons of out-takes and alternate versions of "SMiLE" songs.

So what's "SMiLE" about? There's a nod to the old west; there's some Americana, there's some whimsy, philosophy, and there are portions of it that are "anyone's guess". The songs are suggestive of loss, as well as contentment, and like an abstract painting, "SMiLE" leaves you to paint your own picture. It's not rock, not symphony, and it's barely 'pop'. With song titles such as "Cabinessence", "Wind Chimes", "Vega-tables" and "Surf's Up" (which isn't about surfing), it's a very introspective and personal album. At the time "SMiLE" was supposed to have come out, the album featured two big hit singles, "Good Vibrations" and "Heroes And Villains". This is important, because Brian had come under a lot of fire from his band-mates about the album's weird songs and strange lyrics. But there were two hit singles for the group to do in performance. Sadly, all the pressure made Brian fold, and the album was shelved. Some songs destined for the "SMiLE" album ended up on later Beach Boys' albums, so how bad could this music could've been, seeing as how the group decided to use them later on? "Cabinessence" was issued on 1968's "20/20" album (1968) and "Surf's Up" was the title track for one of the BB's l970's albums.

The original "SMiLE's" music is very rich, very musical. Some songs are "large" and "echo-ey", and others move to the tempo of a quiet solo piano. Those Beach Boys harmonies are all over the place, and the songs are beautifully strange. This album was supposed to be the Next Big Thing way back when. Supposedly Paul McCartney visited Brian Wilson during a recording session, and told Brian something along the likes of "you'd better get going because our masterpiece ("Sgt. Pepper") will be coming out soon." Finally, after immersing myself in the "SMiLE" music, I dug out the "Pet Sounds" album and instantly felt at home with the gentle nature of songs on that record, which to me, were forerunners of the fascinating "SMiLE" music.

The Beach Boys' "SMiLE" album features 1960's-era Black w/Rainbow Capitol Records labels, which the record collector in me absolutely freaked out over! And the album jacket features the original catalog number (ST-2580). In comparison, "Sgt. Pepper" was ST-2653. Had "SMiLE" been released back in 1967, it would've set a lot of listeners square on their ears, as "Pepper" did. Me, I'm thankful to see "SMiLE's release. So cool, so doggone cool. A red-letter day as far as I'm concerned.

2011-10-27T22:09:00.000-07:00

SO THIS IS WHAT BASEBALL LOOKS LIKE...

Hitting! Pitching! And all kinds of derring-do!

I must admit that the Fox network has cleaned up its act during the World Series. I mentioned in a previous post that the the Volume was swinging wildly up and dow; it wouldn't stay at a consistent level, and so far that hasn't happened during the World Series. Also, Fox hasn't broadcast its promos for an obviously annoying TV series about 4 Nerd-guys and 1 Nerd-girl. The promo's stated that the program would air three nights a week, and I know why: They wanted to get as many shows on the air as possible before the program got cancelled. Now if someone could get that really annoying commercial featuring big beefy out-of-tune guys singing, "it's the most wonderful time of the year" off the air...please?. I run for the remote when that one comes on. I think it's promoting some kind of a sports-TV package, and I cringe just thinking of it.

In one of the most exciting Baseball Games I've Ever Seen, St. Louis beat the Texas Rangers in game 6 of the World Series, forcing a Game Seven, tomorrow (Friday) night. Twice, the Cardinals were down to the last strike, and twice they hit their way out of it, got a couple of home runs along the way, and beat the Rangers. I'm finding I want St. Louis to win out; why, I'm not sure. Must be something about Being the Underdog; I've heard that the Cards came back from ten and a half games out to claim their division on the last day of the regular season. Being a Seattle Mariners watcher during the regular season means that I never get to see some teams except on the highlight reels. I was on the edge of my seat while watching this game. It was a privilege to watch this game, drink in the fervor of the crowd and trying to Will the Cardinals to win. Regardless of what squad wins the Series, tonight's game, as Tim McCarver said, "is a classic".

There was more excitement in this one game, than in two-thirds of the entir eSeattle Mariners 2011 season. One could almost forget that fans Actually Cheer For Their Team. One might forget that any team, at any given time, can pose a threat. One might forget that hitters actually GET HITS with men on base. One may not realize that with some teams, pitchers actually get RUN SUPPORT. These are the kind of games you see when you watch WGN, or TBS, or any of the games you see on other Big Networks. You can see plenty of that when you watch the Mariners on "ROOT" Sports, if you don't mind that it's the OTHER TEAM that does all the hitting/scoring/winning. Every year is a rebuilding year, or so we're told, but if the M's can't win HALF of their games, it's going to be well into the next century to see the M's in any kind of post-season action.
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UPDATE: Tonite, the St. Louis Cardinals are World Series champs. The Texas Rangers actually walked a couple of hitters with the bases loaded which contributed to the Cards' 5-2 victory. No one expected St. Louis to get to the series, let alone win it. And, this game was strangely anticlimactic on the heels of last night's wild game. In the end, the Cardinals' pitchers seemed to have more depth. It could also be that Texas, after getting their hearts torn out last night, was a bit flat tonite, but that's only speculation. And the 2011 Baseball Season is now over (snif).
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As a reward for you putting up with my gripes this far, I figure I should give your eyes a break, which I've tried to do with the pictures I've enclosed below...The Southern Oregon Coast is usually fairly warm this time of year, but this year, we seem to be having more wind and cold temperatures so far. Still, most of the tourists are all done touring, and it's a good time to visit the area to see what you can see. These were taken about a week and a half ago, when things were still fairly warm...

Taken at low tide on the bay...in the foreground you can see a guy who's clamming; when the water's this low, you can walk right up to that big maritime warning scaffold. In the background, that big rectangular thing is a barge being towed up the bay to pick up wood chips. This photo gives you an idea why the bay needs to be dredged now and then.

Just what you wanted to see...a seagull eating (or trying to eat) a starfish. Those birds with the cast-iron bellies will try to eat anything. This was taken from up on the pier. The tide always leaves a bunch of sea garbage in its wake, which makes makes me think of those who get great nutrition by dining on seaweed. Isn't it supposed to contain mega-protein? I think I'll pass...

This is my really Artsy Photo, designed to appeal to those with a sense of Perspective. I'm just hoping it HAS some perspective. This one's called "Water through the Weeds". Isn't a photo supposed to make the viewer see things in a new perspective? I can only hope this photo does that. It's a different way of looking at weeds, if nothing else. Weeds and beachgrass.

Back to baseball for a moment, many of us who post on the Seattle Times Mariners' blog page, game after game, year after year, really miss Dave Niehaus who passed away last November 10th. Dave deserved to call more games like this 6th game of the World Series. While watching the M's this past season, there were times where I could almost hear Dave's voice calling the play. He is missed greatly by a lot of folks, among them I.

2011-10-21T02:12:00.000-07:00

I THINK I'M ADDICTED...
...well, they say admitting it is the first step of recovery...

When I don't have 'em, I crave 'em. When I have 'em, I can't get enough. Oh, how images of them dance through my mind until I can get to my supplier and score another batch. Yep, it's those little white pills I'm addicted to. Most everyone takes 'em and those who take too many of 'em can't stop what they're doing either. Or so I tell myself. When I open up a new batch, I know my senses are more than ready to experience that terrific rush once again. Sometimes I buy two cases, so I have a ready supply while home, as well as in the car. I'm so hooked on 'em that I take 'em while I'm driving. Or walking. Or sitting at the beach. It's gotten so bad that I now take 'em in public; what do I care? Let 'em point their fingers at me! Some days I'm stronger than others; sometimes I haven't had any little white pills all day, but sooner or later I experience that familiar yearning feeling once again, and I can't stop myself.

Just now, I took another little white pill. That's right, folks; I had to pause mid-blogpost to take another one. You are reading Affected Blogging. Don't say I didn't warn ya. I don't think my habit is controlling me, though. I mean, I can stop anytime I want to, right? Sometimes my cravings are non-existent, and then all of a sudden, over coffee, or out shopping, or straddling my exercise bike, my brain yells to me, "Stop what you're doing Now, and take another Little White Pill!" I fear that I'm becoming a slave to chemicals. But I can always tell myself the Little White Pills aren't hurting me. I don't have to cook any potboiling substances; I don't have to mix in gallons of Clorox with cases of antihistamines and pieces of tar that fell off my roof during last year's winter winds .All I do is lay down the money, stick 'em in my pocket, and then look all around me to make sure no one noticed my furtive actions, and then rejoin the rest of humanity, who may or may not be as addicted as I.

The culprit? TIC-TACS! They're out there, at every grocery or convenience store. They're even at my drugstore, and best of all, I DON'T NEED A PRESCRIPTION! They only contain 4 calories per pill, but I've taken so many that I probably won't have to be embalmed when my time comes. They don't increase my heart rate, they don't make me perspire, they don't interfere with my coordination, and I Can Get Them Anytime I Want. In fact, I can't get away from them; they're EVERYWHERE!!!

What brought this on, you ask..It's a long sordid story, filled with peaks and valleys of cascading emotions and desperate yearnings. Those of you who've suffered all these years trying to make sense out of what I write will remember (or are trying to forget) that I had to have All My Teeth pulled out back in '08...or was it '09...the time seems to be going so fast these days. For the most part, I'm fairly comfortable with the equivalent of two hockey pucks in my mouth. I understand that some people SLEEP in their dentures. That doesn't work for me. I've tried it and when I'd wake up, I'd feel like I'd been subconsciously banging my head against the wall. Nope, not for me. The ol' mouth needs a rest once in a while.

Dentures are cumbersome things that feel slightly better in your mouth than an old pair of Converse Sneakers. Sometimes after a meal, I get a really weird taste that reminds me of three-day-old Milk left out in the sun too long. (I had to take another Tic-Tac after that last analogy...) And that's where Tic-Tacs first entered the picture. Wow! That refreshing relief bursting into my mouth, like a cool ocean breeze. It's a rush, all right. And although I've never been a smoker, I think I might have at least an idea why people smoke Menthol Cigarettes. After a Tic-Tac, my mouth is Fresh as a daisy! Wheeeee!!! But I still maintain that I can quit anytime I want. Really. I don't have a problem. Do I?

I'm part of that age demographic which is known for purchasing Dentu-Creme, Polident, PolyGrip, Fasteeth and whatever else. (all Registered Trademarks). My demographic is known for consuming Ensure by the case. My demographic is content when we find a laxative that works. (No, I don't O.D. on those.) (Although I crave Chocolate...help, I'm sinking fast...) My demographic hasn't been aware of which singer/group is the latest musical sensation in the last 25 years. And I'm a full-fledged, card-carrying member of The Denture Society. The sheer irony of my situation is (almost) hilarious. I actually have two teeth still in my jaw, which serve as the anchors for my lower denture. And I spend more time cleaning those two remaining teeth than when I had a full set of choppers.

Imagine what our founding fathers went through, getting their teeth pulled. I heard that George Washington wore wooden dentures, which is probably the reason why ol' Georgie-boy isn't smiling on the One Dollar Bill.

2011-10-15T23:11:00.000-07:00

"AMERICA" IS CALLING...

...bring your huddled, your downtrodden, your musically-deprived ears...

I've been recording many of my record albums to CD, after which I donate the records to Goodwill, basically because I'm too lazy to try and open up an Ebay account and sell them piecemeal. One group whose records were gonna get donated was "America"...but after recording one of their LP's onto CD, I became highly enamored of it, because it is REALLY GOOD. The album didn't feature any chart hits, other than "Muskrat Love", which is the only Really Bad Song on this LP. But it's the first song, and it paves the way for all the fine music which follows. The album is titled "Hat Trick", which is their third album. And of course "Hat Trick" is a Hockey term, for all of you Iceheads out there. I don't watch Soccer. Which is why I don't watch hockey. After the players end up kicking or punching each other for a while (in each sport), I just get bored. So why use this title? I think a "Hat Trick" refers to a hockey player who scored three goals in a game. And "Hat Trick" was their Third Album. So now you know.

The Front Cover...

But back to the original topic (I get led astray very easily), most of us became familiar with America when "Horse With No Name" was getting played all over the wide wond'rous world of AM radio (This was in the days before FM stations began rocking), and what a huge song it was. I've heard that some people thought the song was sung by Neil Young, and lead singer Dewey Bunnell's voice does bear a resemblance...anyway, long ago, I played the record for my Dad, and he said, "the singer's singing only one note!!!" Well, yeah, "Horse With No Name" isn't the most melodious song ever, but it's more of an "atmospheric" musical "rumination". (See how I slipped my blog title in there?) And then, "I Need You", their second single from that LP, came out. So America got real big, real fast. (Sorta like our nation in general.) For some reason, I never bought America's albums when they first came out (I was too busy studying the music of Black Sabbath and Deep Purple, you see...). I got America's albums at thrift stores (Hey, I can't afford new prices for Everything, y'know. Their first two albums, "America" (Later titled 'Horse With No Name), and "Homecoming" were released within half-a-year of each other. Then, over a year and a half passed before "Hat Trick" came out.

...and, the flip side.

In the process of putting "Hat Trick" onto CD, I thought, "Hey, this music is really good." The title track, "Hat Trick" is actually a suite of three songs which is reminiscent of The Beatles' "Abbey Road" or Badfinger's "Wish You Were Here" . The music comes in all flavors; slow dignified ballads, breezy pop numbers and a couple of heavy tunes to keep things honest. Records that flow well from song to song, with good vocals and well-structured songs attract me every time. This is the most eclectic album America Ever Made.It's obvious that everyone involved lavished a lot of love and care on this record. And it's made my top 20 list of "desert island albums". The way this album sounds, it's obvious that America, the group, really wanted to do a Great Album. And they did.I didn't know they had it in them. From what I've read, the members of America got to know each other in England, where their families were serving military duty. And so that's how those Military Brats got together, guitars in hand. So, perhaps, "America" is one of Britain's best exports. I've always liked the sound of acoustic guitars, and for sure, America's music has plenty of that. And the contrast between Acoustic rhythm guitars and Electric guitars is all over the place on the group's albums.

America recorded several later albums with Beatles' Producer George Martin, and with him, the group recorded such toe-tappers as "Tin Man", "Daisy Jane", "Sister Golden Hair (a #1 hit), "Amber Cascades" and "Today's The Day". The last two weren't real big hits, but every other artist back in the late '70s had to fight off disco fever, and many pop/rock groups fell by the wayside during that time. Later on, group member Dan Peek quit the group to focus on a religious music career. America continued on as a duo, and of course everyone remembers "You Can Do Magic" from the early '80s. That was a huge song, and their last big hit. It comes to mind that if one of the members of the Duo (which America had become) left, the remaining member could be called An "American"? And I must go on record here and say that I thought group member Gerry Beckley's "Daisy Jane" is about as sappy and spineless a tune as I've ever heard. He seemed to write the group's sugary-sweet stuff, and if you listen to "Daisy Jane" too much, your teeth will rot and fall out of your mouth. Still, it beats "Muskrat Love". Of course, Flatulence coming out of a speaker beats "Muskrat Love". Later on, The Captain and Tennille recorded their version of "Muskrat Love" in which The Capitan's synthesiser is supposed to sound like two rodents gettin' together in the pond. Uhhh, no thanks...

The titles of America's '70s albums are "Horse With No Name", "Homecoming", "Hat Trick", "Hideaway", "Holiday" and "Harbor". Their greatest-hits album was titled "History".(See a pattern here?) Their 'live' album, tho, was titled "America Live". I thot, why not call it "Highlights?". Or "Hoe-Down?" Or "Happening"? But the group showed it had "Humor"...they broke the mighty spell of "H-word" titles, calling one of their later albums "Silent Letter". Although...I have a 1998 album they recorded, titled "Human Nature".

2011-10-05T20:37:00.000-07:00

THIS BLOG FEELS LIKE HOMEWORK...
...well, at least I'm being HONEST...

I've never been the type of person who enjoys deadlines, requirements, policies, etc. I remember getting in trouble in 5th grade for not finishing my homework. There were cartoons to watch when I got home, after all. Of course, that was the time in my life where I had a witch as a teacher, a kommandant in the principal's office, and I had to go behind enemy lines at the end of the school day because everyone wanted to beat me up. And I didn't have a Tiger waiting for me when I got home. (You know, the "Calvin and Hobbes" tiger...) So I'll just let my mind wander here in yet another "dandruff" post (You know, 'off the top of my head'...)

THE WORLD SERIES: No, that's not happened yet. But I have been watching the Playoffs, which is a lot different than watching the Seattle Mariners. After all, in the playoffs, there is excellence, there is professionalism, and actual timely pitching and hitting. Dare I say, Actual Competition! Turner Broadcasting service is carrying all the divisional playoffs. And what you don't see on TBS, can be found on TNT, another Turner network. Gosh. I remember when the Federal Communications Commission used to outlaw monopolies in broadcasting. I have a complaint, tho. The Volume Levels wildly fluctuate up and down, with commercials louder than any of the game broadcast. And then, during the broadcast itself, all of a sudden the volume will nosedive to a barely audible level, before (gradually) returning to anything like a normal noise level, just in time for them to blast me out of the water with another ultra-loud commercial. I think this issue has to do with some sort of signal compression. How about this, guys...make the volume at least EQUAL for both commercials and gamecasts! So far, tonite's Phillies/Diamondbacks game has gone smoothly, but things were pretty lousy on preceding sportscasts.

THE GREAT CAMERA DILEMMA: A while back, my Canon Powershot camera was stolen. I replaced it with a cheap Vivitar camera, which is a good camera, but it only has about half the "zoom" that my Canon had. Just for kicks one night, I looked online, and there was the same model of Canon Powershot camera for only $50 bucks! So, I bought it. Now I have two cameras. I could probably take the Vivitar to the Pawnshop, where I might get $10 or $15 bucks for it. So I haven't done that (yet). I'm inclined to use the Canon more than the Vivitar. But when I choose one camera or the other, I feel like I'm "jilting" the other camera. This situation sort-of "jilts" me. Then again, I tend to personalize inanimate objects, and I know it's terribly silly, but I feel Guilty, would you believe, for preferring one camera and leaving the other camera out. This is the point where a typical blog reader is going to throw his hands up in the air, screaming, "GET A #$@# LIFE!!!" And I think I'd agree. Anyone gotta life for sale cheap?

KNEELING AT THE FEET OF THE MASTERS: No, no, no Hare Krishna chants here. I was thinking more along the lines of The Big Bands. I have acquired the Original January 16, 1938 Carnegie Hall recording featuring Benny Goodman and his multi-talented band. The way that band could play Swing Music just leaves me speechless. This is back when Lionel Hampton (vibes) and Gene Krupa (drums) were in the band. Oh, and don't forget Harry James on Trumpet; finally, Teddy Wilson on Piano was little short of magical. What a band!

It Swings, Swings, Swings.

The album was recorded using a single overhead microphone, and transcribed onto two huge master disks. A copy of that set was made and ended up in the Smithsonian, and the other set disappeared. Folklore has it that someone approached Mr. Goodman the next day and said, "somebody should have made a record of it." Mr. Goodman replied, "someone did!"

In 1951, Mr. Goodman's daughter found that other master disk set in a closet, and said, "Daddy, What's This?" The recording had lain dormant for 13 years. By then, long-play albums were being made, and the entire concert was etched in vinyl, and in spite of the primitive recording methods in 1938, the resulting album is one of the most exciting records I Have Ever Heard. Benny Goodman may have been a bandleader, but he was no slouch; he put himself out there every single time with absolute whirlwinds of clarinet notes and runs. And with the band he had at the time, well, the whole thing is just MATCHLESS. The band's Really Big Showcase, "Sing, Sing, Sing" turns me on just as much as "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida" ever did. Gene Krupa absolutely played drums with a rock and roll intensity and can be seen doing so on various YouTube videos. The Carnegie Hall Concert was noteworthy, because it brought elements of Jazz together, and proved that Jazz could be respected by even the stodgiest Carnegie Hall Concert Attendee.

Finally, some Good News: Sarah Palin said today that she is NOT running for President. We can all now Breathe Easier. Although, if she were Prezzident, she could save on traveling expenses; instead of using Air Force One, she could fly around the world on her BROOMSTICK.

2011-09-23T00:31:00.000-07:00

Being a Seattle Mariners Fan...it ain't easy...

...They'll have a better record this year...so what?

Last Year, the Seattle Mariners were little short of horrible. They lost something like 104 games in 2010. This year, they'll slide in with a loss figure below 100. Am I supposed to be impressed by that? I realize this is the age of lowering expectations, but all I wanted was for them to finish with a .500 season, or at least one in which their wins and losses would be more or less equal. .500 ball. That's all. That would've been a major improvement here in M's Land. There are just under 10 games left in this season, so even if they lose the rest of their games, they can't be as bad as last year. Last I looked, the M's had a record of 66-90. 162 games in a season; they've played 155 games, so the worst they can do is 97 losses this year. Seven less losses than last season. An under-100 games lost in this season? Hey, hey, it's party time! Break out the bubbly! Maybe next year, the M's might be in last place by even less of a margin!

Does losing less games this season constitute an improvement? Let's move off the base-paths for a moment: If you go outside, shirtless and shoeless on a winter's day, you're gonna freeze if the temperature's +20 degrees (F); you'll also freeze at zero or 40 below zero. It might take you technically longer to freeze at 20 above, but it's still a situation you don't wanna find yourself in. Applying this logic to this year's Mariners won/loss record, they're (theoretically) better this year, because they aren't gonna lose 100 games. But...they were in last place in their division last year, the same place they're gonna be at this season's end. Last. The last cow in the pen being led to slaughter. The last bar of soap in a 4-pack. The last cowbell-beat in Blue Oyster Cult's 1976 hit, "Don't Fear The Reaper". Being Last means everyone else is Ahead Of You. When I finished last in my age-group at the last half-marathon race I ever ran, it was punishing. I hurt all over. And the pain was so bad, I didn't care. All that counted was finishing the race. And so the Seattle Mariners are nearing the end of this agonizing baseball season, about as gracefully as I finished that half-marathon.

Ah, but this year, the Mariners got off to a positive start. From April through mid-June, the M's were hovering right around the .500 mark. Us Fans were Excited. The M's were playing tough, and win or lose, we saw True Progression, a Chemistry that was beginning to Click, as we smelled the oh-so-sweet fragrance of the rarefied air of Not Being Last, Not Rolling Over. The M's were effectively competing with the other teams in their division, and we all crossed our fingers behind our backs, and roared and cheered. Winning, or at least Being "in it" felt really, really good. Then the wheels came off the bus, in the form of a 14-game Losing Streak that began shortly before both leagues shut down for the All-Star break. And we were all hoping that with all the rest the M's would be getting during the break, they'd re-enter the season rip-snorting and ready to take on all comers. So what happened? The Losing Streak continued.

Our dearly-departed sportscaster, Dave Niehaus,
can't have been resting peacefully if he was able
to watch this season's Mariners from high above.

The Mariners' bats stayed quiet. And the pitchers all of a sudden became largely ineffective. Even King Felix (Hernandez) was losing games. He looked quite ragged this season and no one seems to know why. In one game, Felix got pulled in the 4th Inning. He looked awful out there. And he's our Kingpin-Pitcher, the one that's supposed to right the ship after blowing thru the turbulent seas of repetitive losing. Sure, Felix has won his share of games this season, but there were some games where he should've delivered the letters, because he was definitely "mailing it in". If a team's hitters can't hit, and the pitchers can't pitch...well, the won/loss records speak for themselves. The negativity is only enhanced and intensified by The M's baserunning errors and inability to hit with Runners In Scoring Position. Our beloved (or not) Ichiro, he of the fleet feet, is beginning to exhibit signs of slowing down, and this year will be the first in which he hasn't collected 200 hits. Shaun Figgins at 3rd base, was a total washout for the M's; he couldn't hit or effectively play his position despite the zillions of dollars in his contract. Jason Vargas, a lefty who'd been pitching great in the first half, took one heckuva nose dive in the second half when the team needed him the most. The other incidents of Baseball Carnage courtesy of the Seattle Mariners are reported more effectively elsewhere in sports pages and sites. But...baseball is a game, right? Games should be fun, right? But really, folks, we're talking Mariners baseball. And it hasn't been fun for a while now. So, ya wanna talk about bad baseball teams? Take the Mariners! Please! (rim-shot)

Technically, the M's were somewhat better this year. But, again, So What? At least, a horrible record (like last year) commands attention because we're all sitting on the edge of our seats wondering how much lower things can sink. This year, the M's won some more games, but So What? A victory these days robs one of that "hard to look away from a train-wreck" feeling. What good does winning do the M's after a 14-game losing streak? None, actually. There are those who say the M's actually jeopardize themselves by winning, 'cos that means the team won't be eligible to get first pick in next year's baseball draft. This year, the M's rendered themselves incapable from being anywhere near .500 with that long losing streak. All of the games the Mariners won after that were cosmetic victories that really didn't count for much. Before the streak, the pitching and hitting were exciting, but over the last half of the season, we've watched the M's try to play baseball in front of a small hometown audience that doesn't seem to care about anything except where to get a latte' after the game?

There are those who can write more eloquently about all things baseball. I'm no stat-man; I just go by how my gut feels. And the games I've watched lately have feltl Awful. Even during a win, there's this feeling of abject despondency concerning the Mariners. How much of my time (and my life) have I wasted in front of the TV, adjusting my day so I could fit in the Mariners, whether they were playing a 7pm game at home, or a 1:10pm game start at home or elsewhere? This year, I've seen at least 90% of the Mariners' games, and being a fan at this level is a labor-intensive thing, for most times, I, together with a whole bunch of other people, have participated in enormous Mariners blog-threads at the Seattle Times website, all watching TV together and rooting or 'not rooting', depending on how the game's going.

Last year, I had more sense. I watched many of the M's games on tape-delay, in the evenings or late at night. But this year's team started out so great, that I wanted to be on top of it all with my many blog buddies. And for a while, it was great, great fun. Nowadays, if I try to watch the M's for any length of time, the energy gets sucked out of me. I get tired. There's no point. Why should I subject myself to this torture? Look, the M's do have some newer acquisitions that have done fairly well, pointing the way towards a better year next year. Hope always springs eternal with the start of a new season. But right now, I've had my fill of the Mariners topsy-turvy low-down ways. I may watch 2 or 3 more of their games this season...if that much. I'm currently saving my viewing energy for the upcoming Baseball Playoffs, played by Real Baseball Teams playing Real Baseball.

In a parallel universe, there was once a ship that sailed the chilly waters of the Northern Atlantic Ocean. In that parallel universe, the ship that struck the iceberg back in April of 1912 was the U.S.S. Mariner. I'm also having visions of the Hindenburg disaster right now, so this is probably time to end this post. Oh, the Humanity!!!

2011-09-11T16:46:00.000-07:00

A GUT-CHECK FOR THIS NATION...
...9/11 is something that really will never go away...

So many words have been written about 9/11, and on this Tenth Anniversary, that gloom is still out there. After all this time, the video images of 9/11 coverage are still horrific, terrible, sad and maybe just a bit scary, too. This past year, Bin Laden got his. Perhaps loved ones left behind in the 9/11 aftermath found a bit of closure in that, although I don't really believe there is such a thing as 'closure'. Things never really close. We never lose the memories of tragedy on such a great scale.

But it has been Ten Years. The memories are bitter. But life doesn't stop. It can't stop. And maybe there is solace in that, for in returning to everyday life, all the bad things get pushed back, and somehow, people manage to carry on. The only thing I can compare it to is, perhaps, the Kennedy Assassination, some 48 years ago. That horrible event slips further and further back into the past, and after a while, the 'edge' of that awful time recedes further and further back in our minds.

Given several decades, the painful memories tend to not hurt as badly or cut so deep. The memory of 9/11 is unforgettable and I hope that as time passes by, that those who lost loved ones in that disaster will someday not hurt as badly as they do now, ten years after the fact. Hopefully, a tragedy such as this will strengthen our nation, making us more vigilant, especially where border traffic is concerned.

However, if 9/11's tragedy leads us to be safer as a nation, then not all will be lost. If we can become more aware of those who commit terrorist actions and what they do to prepare for another attack, then that's a good thing. And if the events that happened on 9/11 make all of us more understanding of our fellow citizens, perhaps this nation will be on the way to healing itself.

The JFK assassination happened 48 years ago. Although I was only ten years old when it happened; there was an undeniable presence of gloom and doom in the atmosphere. I could feel it. It was a bad time for our country, but, like 9/11, our country became a bit more united as we collectively had to do in the face of such grim tragedy. Of course we'll never forget, but like the JFK Assassination, so too will 9/11's harsh memories will cut a bit less deeply than it does now. And God bless everyone who lost family and friends on 9/11.

2011-09-03T22:30:00.000-07:00

TO REST IN PEACE...
...in the end, perhaps that's all we can hope for...

It all started about a week and a half ago. I received a cryptic message in my e-mailbox, saying ownership of my Mom's "Find-a-Grave" page had been transferred to me. Evidently some lady who keeps cemetery records found my e-mail address and the transfer was completed. I wrote her back, asking why she'd done this, and she said that she likes reading bio's of people who've gone before, but thot my Mom's page would be better off with the likes of me. So I went to look at Mom's page, and there was no picture, very little biography information, and I plunged right in, knowing it was going to take a whole lot of work to make it better. I found snapshots of her and put them in My Pictures with a digital camera, as I don't have a scanner. The pictures came out fairly well. And as I was writing the copy for Mom's page, I found myself remembering things I forgot I remembered. But I completed her page, and was told I did a good job by the lady who transferred Mom's page over to me.

It turned out my Dad had a Find-A-Grave page too; it was currently being maintained by the Lady in charge of the Cemetery where both Mom and Dad are located. I wrote her, asking if she would "transfer" ownership of Dad's page to me, and she did, and I attempted to do a good job for him, although I know precious little detail about his younger years. To say that our family was dysfunctional would be a stroke of understatement, but in completing my parents' grave pages, I wanted to bypass those issues. And so I did. Mom and Dad deserved that much from me. Ten Years after their passing, I feel like I've turned a corner. I just wanted to 'do right'.

I used to live in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, and still check the websites of two funeral homes there, and last week, I was scrolling down the listings of the deceased, and all of a sudden I recoiled from the screen in horror; a guitarist I used to be in two bands with, had passed away. How can that be? I'm older than he was. He was one of the nicest people I've ever known; talented, with a gentle sense of humor. He passed away just before the Summer Solstice in June. Upon learning of his death, I was depressed, almost sick for a couple of days. For some reason, in June, I'd decided I wanted to hear some of the tapes our band made. Is there a connection there? I don't know. I do know that he was healthier than I. He was thin; I'm fat. He was a vegetarian; I'm not. He had tons-more guitar talent than I'll ever have. I think of his guitar ability as I fumble my way through my rudimentary chording.

In the late 1970's existed a really intelligent Rock Group whose name was "Crack The Sky". They had no hits, but their music was very complex. John Palumbo, who wrote the group's songs, was really, really crafty. And the music was so limber, so flexible, so endlessly fascinating. On their first album, "Crack The Sky" performed a long, melodramatic song titled "A Sea Epic". The lyrics tell the tale of of a Ship's Crew, trying their best to keep the boat afloat during a violent storm. The Lord decided that he was going to save one the young shipmates. The shipmate beseeched the Lord to Please Save The Captain instead, because the Captain had a wife and kids depending on him. Or, Lord, please save the Admiral, because he's got the mind to Lead, and that the country needs him to keep Leading the Fleet.

In the song, The Lord responded vehemently, saying "Don't try to tell me who to save or kill", saying that it was both the Captain's and Admiral's "Time", but not the young shipmate's. In the song, the Lord said, "I'll take the Captain if it's his time; I'll take the Admiral, too, and you're not cool, I'll take YOU!" The young shipmate said, "You know what's best, but could you also please spare the Cook? By the looks of this ship, I'm gonna starve." The song continues, "well, the ship went down to the bottom of the sea/ and the only ones left were the fat cook and me". Sometimes I think of life and death in that manner; those with more talent and intellect than I seem to be passing away, while I've still "got life". I don't know how God makes his decisions or why things happen the way they do. Mysterious ways, indeed.

http://www.findagrave.com/ is a huge website that's great for historical research, or to honor family and friends that have passed on. It might sound like a morbid site to surf, but it's really interesting. And, Rick, my musical friend, Rest in Peace...

2011-08-21T00:27:00.000-07:00

BUMPING MY WAY THRU LIFE...
...of Cameras, Birds, Cassettes, DVD's, all in a disorganized heap...

Last week, I left the house, got into my car; I had bills to pay and items to find at the thrift shops. But as I entered my car, I noticed a bunch of items piled on top of the dashboard. And, all of a sudden, I couldn't find my digital camera, which I left in my car from time to time. I love taking pictures, and ya never know when a photo opportunity is gonna present itself. And not only was the camera gone, my cam's battery charger was gone too. And that's all. My guitar and a few hundred cassette tapes were still in the car. Which means, a typical opportunistic thief isn't gonna want very much of anything I might possess.

"CASSETTE TAPES", you say??? What, are you a DINOSAUR?" I guess I resemble that. A long time ago I went to a Dodge/Chrysler dealership to try and find a DVD player for my car; my car was barely five years old, and I was told, "Sorry, the factory thinks your car is too old and custom DVD players for your car no longer exist." They suggested that I could get a standard-looking DVD player and have it installed elsewhere near your car. I asked if they could send the DVD's volume through my existing speakers. The dealership said "No." Damn, I hate the word "No", especially since I don't ask that much to begin with.

The Camera that I had was a Canon Powershot A470. Easy to use, no owners' manual needed, and designed for the Total Idiot, like me. Actually, I had two of those cameras. Somehow my first Canon absorbed some sort of violent shot, and my viewscreen was all broken, and so I got another one, since I already had the Canon software installed into my computer. A few months ago, a Parrot I had at the time found my camera, and proceeded to try and chew off the lens. As a result, the bottom shutter wouldn't work, although the top shutter still did. A few months later, the top shutter fell out, but the camera still worked! That tough little camera was like the proverbial Timex Watch that Took a Licking and Kept On Ticking! (John Cameron Swayze, remember him? He was the announcer on those old Timex TV ads).

That 2nd Canon camera was the one which was stolen. Now I don't know much about cameras, but I'm beginning to think the little Vivitar camera I've got now isn't as high up the food chain as my long-lost Canons. I don't think it's gonna zoom out as far as the Canon, but I got it for $50 bucks, and now that I know what most of the buttons on it do, I'm gonna give it the Amazing Oregon Coast Photo Workout. Which means I'll be snapping photos like before with a different camera. Like the guy in the "Dry Eyes" commercials says, "Wow...)

The first photo is a shot taken about half a year ago with my Canon Camera. This is a Pied Cockatiel, and it's hard to tell the gender of the bird; both Males and Females have bright head feathers. Of course as they mature, the males make more noise, whistling away non-stop, driving everyone around them nuts. The next phot, taken yesterday with the "Vivitar" camera, is a little female gray cockatiel. In this case, it's easy to tell what the genders are; the female grays have gray head feathers while the males have yellow feathers on their heads or cheeks.

George Harrison, ex-Beatle, turned Author back in the 1980s with his book "I Me Mine", said in the preface that the creation of that book was agonizing, frustrating and miserable. And he tells those who bought his book that "now it's your turn to suffer the same". And so it goes for this here post.

2011-08-05T01:07:00.000-07:00

PHIL OCHS, FOLKSINGER...
...truly a victim of his times, and himself...

As of the early 1980's, I had only heard of Phil Ochs briefly, but I never knew anything about him until I found a biography, written by Marc Eliot, titled "Death Of A Rebel". I also had known that Phil committed suicide back in 1976. But this isn't your everyday-death-of-a-spoiled-Rock Star story; this is a story of a manic/depressive, sharper-than-a-whip, intelligent and humorous man who, in the end, lost it all. It's a sad story, but what a life he led.

Phil Ochs injected himself into the Greenwich Village (New York) folk scene way back in the early '60s. Back then, everyone was beginning to become more and more aware of political injustice, and Phil wrote tons of songs about current events, becoming one of the most expressive and informed singers on the scene. Indeed, his first album was titled, "All The News That's Fit To Sing" (Elektra Records). Phil was a contemporary of Bob Dylan, although Dylan moved away from social commentary to more of a poetic, personal sort of music. That was the biggest difference between the two.

This is a DVD that just hit the market a couple of weeks ago, and in about an hour and a half, tells the story of Phil Ochs in far more detail than I can do here. It's the story of Phil's life. He was ultra-involved in causes, political events (he just about got swept away by all of the rioting in the 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago); he'd been excited that the nation had a young, strong leader in John F. Kennedy, which coincided with the folk-movement boom in the early '60s, and like all of us, he was shattered by the President's death. And he took it very, very personally.

This is one of Phil Ochs' albums from way back in the early days. Marc Eliot's biography of Phil indicates that due to nervousness, his performance was erratic, and so a lot of the vocal lines were re-done in the studio. A song on this album, "I Ain't Marching Anymore", a song in which the Universal Soldier sings, "Look at all we've done with a saber and a gun, tell me, was it worth it all...when I saw the cities burning, I knew that II was learning that I'm Not Marching Anymore". Phil, as always,

was on fire for many causes here.

The Folksinger scene began to disappear in the mid-60s, and Phil headed to California, seeking fame and fortune, and for a while, he had both. He signed with A&M records, which was one of the hippest-ever labels, and recorded three albums for them. His material was less cause-oriented and more personal, but He still could write a poignant comment when the occasion presented itself. He wrote about the murder of Kitty Genovese in New York City. She was screaming and trying to fight her attacker but none of the neighbors paid any mind, and she died. "And it wouldn't interest anybody...outside of a "Small Circle Of Friends" which dressed up Phil's lyrics up with a honky-tonk piano and a snare drum...and he actually made the Top 40 with that song, in 1968. That's when I first saw Phil's name, on a record in a department store, but back then, I didn't know anything, so I didn't buy it.

Although Phil was insanely political, he spent most of the mid-to-late 60s trying to achieve the American Dream by becoming Really Famous, but that never did quite happen. One of Phil's songs, for example, appeared on the B-side of a Peter & Gordon 45, a song called "The Flower Lady" which Phil had done on his first A&M album, "Pleasures Of The Harbour", the title song of which is an achingly beautiful song. One of Joan Baez' first well-known songs, from earlier in the '60s, was another Phil tune, "There But For Fortune". A few prophetic lyrical lines from that song:

Show me the whisky that stains on the floor

Show me the drunkard who stumbles out the door

And I'll show you a young man with many reasons why

And there but for fortune go you or I...you or I.

But things began to get really ugly for Phil towards the end of the '60's. I mentioned he was manic/depressive and his distorted persona took over his life in the form of "John Train". One night onstage, Phil announced that he died and became "John Train", his alter ego, who was sloppy, drunk and loudmouthed, sleeping in alley ways, drunk and filthy, the whole nine yards. Before the advent of "John Train" he went to Chile to get into that country's political identity; he became great friends with Chilean singer Victor Jara. Jara was later killed by Pinochet's forces, and Phil virtually lost his mind over that. Phil went to Australia, his "John Train" persona showing up during his unfocused stay there. Phil also went to Africa. How was that trip paid for? Phil found a studio in Nigeria and recorded "Bwatue", a song he wrote in Swahili!!! and thusly wrote off the trip. And one night while he was walking on an African Beach, two thugs jumped him, choked him and mugged him. Phil's voice was never quite the same after that, and that only fed his depression.

One of Phil's mangled ideas was to "Make Elvis Presley become Che Guevara" (Che was a Cuban Radical), and Phil said, "if that can't be done, you're just beating your head against the wall, or some cop will be beating your head against the wall", which he said onstage at his Gold Suit Concert, of which the "Gunfight" album contains portions of that Carnegie Hall concert. Phil sang medleys of Elvis Presley and Buddy Holly songs, really trying to rally the spirit of America. But, New York was the only fan base he had left, and as he stepped onstage in his Elvis-Styled Gold Suit, someone in the audience shouted, "Bring Back PHIL OCHS!"

As time moved on, Phil slowed down a bit and his mind began coming together again, but the thought he came away with, was that he'd pushed "John Train" too far, alienating (or so he thought) everyone in the process, and now that Train had left his psyche, he couldn't face appearing in public anymore. He spent some of his last weeks at the Long Island house of his sister, just going through the motions, and it was there he hung himself in April 1976. No one knew how to help him. Phil's last big event was "An Evening With Salvadore Allende", a benefit for Chilean refugees featuring many of Phil's fellow musicians taking part. And although Phil could never reach Bob Dylan on any kind of level, Bob appeared for Phil's Big Event, and for a while after that Phil was ecstatic. I find Phil's death sadly ironic. He was such a patriot, yet he didn't even make it to the bicentennial. That's the way it is with severe depression; you just don't notice things anymore. Depression is totally exhausting.

I found the Phil biography, "Death Of A Rebel" extremely interesting. I had never heard any of Phil's music until after I read it. With a life like that (a fantastic but tragic story), I just had to hear what he was all about. He had a great voice and lots of enthusiasm early on. And his later music, some of it downright morbid, is a great subject for study. Phil Ochs' music, or at least some of it, can be found on CD. My take, at least musically, is that Phil had a great sense of melody, and his almost-tenor voice was clear and engaging. Rest in peace, Phil.

It's a sad story. Who knows; if Phil was still around, what do you suppose he'd have done when the Iran controversy, or the war in Iraq took place? There'd still be a lot to sing about! I've pretty much fractured Phil's story; so many stories, so little time and space. There are quite a lot of Phil Ochs' songs posted on YouTube if you're interested. And that "There But For Fortune" DVD is definitely worth seeking out.

2011-07-24T17:40:00.000-07:00

ANOTHER GREAT VOICE GONE AT 27...
...she was different, and she could have been great...maybe she was...

I'll admit that I'm not qualified to write this, because she's not of my generation, I know next to nothing about her, and I'd never heard her until I visited YouTube the day after she died (yesterday, July 24th). I'd been aware she'd had all kinds of trouble, I'd seen her name in the headlines and in various stories on the internet, most of them indicating she had drug problems. I'm 57; she died at 27. My knowledge of music tails off after the late '80s/early '90s. But I had to find out what she was all about, and while I'll never know that much about her, I did dial up some of her music on YouTube. I don't even know enough to memorize her song titles, but she made an impression on me, and like most all things of a pop-culture nature, it might not make sense, but I'll give it a go...

AMY WINEHOUSE reminds me of a lot of self-absorbed musicians of My Day. Now when I say 'self-absorbed', I don't mean 'narcisstic'; it's just that she took music and did it her own way, and if her stage performances are any indication, she was totally in her own world, and shared that with her fans. It's sort of a Jim Morrison (The Doors) thing, where she'd stare into space, all the while looking deeply within to a secret place, and as a result, she was an oddly fascinating singer. She reminds me a little of Van Morrison, who also crawled deep within himself in order to bring out what was within him and anyone who sees Van Morrison knows he's different, on a level that requires hard listening. Ms. Winehouse had that intangible something; I don't know how to label it, but it's easy to see in her performances.

Artists like this are compelling; they draw you in, and at the same time, make you visit deep places within your own soul. Amy's music reminds me of Janis Joplin's "Kozmic Blues Band" period, in which she got funky with a horn section backing her, and as we all know, Janis was certainly compelling in her day. I wish it weren't so, but certain artists are just self-destructive. Janis was, Amy was, and no matter how those people get to the place where their lives end, we all lose something when people like this pass away. Had I been younger, reaching maturity in This Generation, Amy is someone I definitively would have placed among my favorites. It's a shame she had to die before I heard any of her music, and although I've only heard a few of her songs, I could tell that she was For Real. I'm sure fans in Great Britain, along with Americans that paid attention to her, have suffered a great, great loss in the music world.

We've been thru this before, and I wish we could learn from the past, but I don't have any idea as to what makes certain artists the way they are, to end up being suicides, conscious or otherwise. The age of 27 has claimed more than its share of performers. Jimi Hendrix. Janis Joplin. Kurt Cobain. And now Amy Winehouse. Jim Morrison basically drank himself to death, although it's rumored there was heroin in his system when he was found in the bathtub. Janis was also drunk, buzzed and stoned a lot of the time. She accidentally overdosed; she didn't know the heroin she was sold almost Pure, not 'cut' heroin. But it's nice to know Van Morrison is still alive and singing his heart out, just in case you wondered. So that's a positive thing. He's an artist I still don't understand and believe me, I've tried.

I wish we could go back in time and somehow make things better for these tortured artists who give so much of themselves to us. There are so many who've died by their own hand, and each time it happens, it's a tragedy. And although I'd never heard Amy Winehouse until now, her death is a tragedy. It just is. I hope she's at peace now.

2011-07-21T13:39:00.000-07:00

The Turned-Off-TV-Blues...
...among other things that don't quite make sense...

I've been noticing something weird when I turn on the TV these days. I watch mostly the cable networks, and it seems every time I dial in a channel, it features some sort of program where people are yelling each other. There's the pawnshop shows in which everyone's trying to make a buck and meanwhile all the employees hate each other and they're constantly screaming and fighting; there's the Bad Girls Club where hot chicks are encouraged to fight and scream and make all sorts of bodily contact; there's the Storage Unit program which features an auctioneer, spitting out the prices while there's all kinds of animosity going on between the folks in the crowd as they try to do better than their competitors, and if you want diversion, on another network you can go on an alligator-hunting trip with a crazy guy who encounters all kinds of adversity; possums, raccoons, crocodiles, and (ack!) hives of sting-happy Bees! And ya know, all of this activity burns me out. Just give me drama. "Special Victims Unit", "NYPD BLUE", "Criminal Minds", "CSI: Miami" or any other show that has characters on it that aren't so young that it makes me feel as if I'm obsolete. Some of the new in-house dramas on the "USA" network make me feel Hopelessly Old, what with all their young, dashing and annoying youthful energy. Bruce Springsteen once sang, "57 Channels and Nothin' On". How true.

Okay, let's toss in a photo for variety's sake here; this is where some of the Coastal Fishing Boats hide inside Charleston Harbor. That body of water in front is the South Slough, which actually extends for a few miles inland. That's why the water here looks so peaceful, because it's far removed from the tides crashing on the Ocean Beaches. The little town of Charleston is where I shot this picture, about 4 miles south from where I live.

On the cloudier days, I head for some of the thrift stores in the area to see what affordable treasures I can find. It's a habit I got into many years ago when Mom would take me shopping with her. And since I'm too lazy to hit all the garage sales, thrift shops are a good thing. I tried to buy this record separately from several others it was included with, but I had to get the whole set to get this one ($2.99 Price tag). If you look closely at the label, you'll see this disc contains "Earth Angel" by the Penguins, on the DooTone label. A friend of mine once told me that it's difficult to find DooTone records in any condition; it was a small L.A. label back in the '40s and '50s. And based on some internet research, a copy like this can be worth somewhere between $40 and $100. I guess that's how Ebay Merchants get started; they go out and buy all the used stuff they think they can sell, and then they get back to the shop and wildly inflate the price, using Collectors' Guide Books. I don't plan on selling this, but it is kinda fun when you discover a treasure amongst the rubble.

I got this old Exercise Bike from a Craigslist posting. The speedometer and odometer don't work, but the tension does work, and I can peddle my little self for hours and hours, and best of all, I got it FREE; the couple I got it from now have a newer, more functional bike and this one had to go. This Schwinn "exerciser" it's a fairly old model, made many years ago. I've had the suspicion for many years, that I was just Spinning My Wheels. It's true!

And, finally, Sunset a couple nights ago, taken from Bastendorff beach. The sun is actually setting behind a cloud bank on the far horizon, which means I got cheated out of 5 minutes of sunshine, but when the colors turn out like this, it makes me glad I re-charged my camera batteries. This is the time of day when fishing boats come back to the harbor. As a teenager, I went on a Charter boat, and I was seasick all that day. Dad just looked at me, shook his head, and continued fishing. The Old Man and The Sea personified.

I'm trying to find new ways to keep this blog going. The previous posting was a one-subject post, about which I could write enough so as to achieve an average-length post. Here, I just threw a bunch of stuff together. So posts like this are sort of a diary of stuff happening to me. Perhaps I'll use this technique so I can post more often. The hardest part is working with the photos. Positioning them within the blog is sheer guesswork, sometimes accompanied by sheer Frustration.

2011-07-21T01:55:00.000-07:00

A RELATIVELY UNKNOWN GUITAR-GOD...
...who deserves a place alongside Clapton, Page, Hendrix, and all the rest...

Jimi Hendrix went on tour with this man's group. He told one of the band members, "hey, your guitarist is better than me". Better than Hendrix? Of course musical styles, being a subjective topic, are always open to interpretation; just because someone says someone else is great doesn't mean he'll sound great to you, but within the general parameters of Guitar Proficiency, this cat was a monster.

So may I introduce Terry Kath of the group Chicago, the big horn band that topped the charts in the '70s and '80s. Unfortunately, Terry wasn't around for the '80s decade. He was a gun buff, and one night, while playing around with a gun, accidentally shot himself, back in early 1978. I saw the Original Lineup of Chicago twice in concert, and he was in motion all of the time. A big group like Chicago didn't allow for as much "solo space" for guitar because, well, there were all those other instruments as well...trombone, trumpet, saxophone plus keyboards in addition to drums and bass. So mostly, Terry added texture to the band's sound with lots of heavy rhythm guitar playing, which won't make one stand out as a guitar-god, but nonetheless he contributed heavily to Chicago's output between 1968 and 1977.

To hear a great example of Terry's solo stylings, all you need to do is hear Chicago's big hit, "25 or 6 to 4", which is played all over Oldies radio stations. Encased within the four minutes of the Album Version, Terry was the best guitarist in the Universe. He puts it all on display here; low notes, high notes, heavy rhythm chops, delicate single-note playing and crushing guitar rhythms. Other great songs he played on were "I'm A Man", "Make Me Smile", "Old Days", and "I Don't Want Your Money" (from "Chicago III"; not a hit); if you like raw electric guitar, seek out that song. That's as raunchy as Lead Guitar Gets, and as we all know, Raunch is an important commodity when bashing out chords and scorching the ears with those high, eardrum-shattering "leads".

He not only could rock,he could play jazzy, he played delicate patterns on acoustic guitar, and in addition, he wrote a number of Chicago's tunes and was one of the band's lead singers. It's his voice you hear, for example, on "Colour My World", "Make Me Smile" and the two-part song, "Dialogue" in which he alternates lyric lines with then-bassist Peter Cetera. Kath had a soulful voice, and some have compared his vocal stylings to Ray Charles. Unfortunately, as the '70s progressed, loud guitar rock was giving way to pop balladeering, and Terry's presence on Chicago's Big Hit songs diminished, although he continued to back his band up any way he could. You can hear his rhythms on "Just You And Me", for instance. But in that song, he's way in the background, but you can hear what he's doing if you Really Listen.

It must be stated, though, that on each Chicago album recorded during his lifetime, he was still writing songs, and playing Extremely Forceful guitar on his own songs, which, on those latter albums, provided the necessary roughness to balance out wimpy ballads such as "If You Leave Me Now" or "Baby What A Big Surprise", a song I absolutely DESPISE. There's a really spiffy track on "Chicago VIII", a song titled "Hideaway" in which Peter Cetera actually Rocks Out, if you can believe that, and Terry's hammering away on his guitar in sort of an "All Right Now" (a song by "Free") manner. It should be pointed out, though, that he contributed a gentle acoustic ballad, "Till We Meet Again" to that same album. Even rough-and-tumble Terry had a gentle side.

I just absolutely loved Chicago's sound. It was a band that really ROLLED; there was so much going on, so much music by so many top-notch musicians in the Original Lineup, and although Terry couldn't read music, he was an Absolute Natural. You can see that if you go to Youtube and call up one of Chicago's songs. He was, for a long time, the Driving Force of Chicago; some have called him the "heart" of the group. He could sing a lounge ballad or rough things up, a true Group Player. It's sad that he died waay before his time. A personal story: I was working in a radio station in Spokane, Washington in early 1978; I was on the overnight shift. All of a sudden, DING-DING-DING went the teletype, announcing some kind of emergency, and it was then I learned about Terry's death. And there I was, banging my fists on the tabletop, screaming, "No, No, NOOOOO!!!"

Most all of Chicago's albums were titled with Roman Numerals; Terry played on "Chicago Transit Authority" (the group had to shorten the name; the City of Chicago's own Transit Authority threatened to sue), up through "Chicago XI". There's a great Chicago concert posted on YouTube; they played at 'Tanglewood' in 1970, and it's a really great performance.

2011-07-08T01:00:00.000-07:00

SHE'LL BE FREE NEXT WEEK...
...and people are gonna have to learn to deal with it...

Casey Anthony is going to be free in a few days, and there's lots of Angry Folks around the nation who are royally P.O.'ed. She'll be walking among us again soon. She'll probably never have any real peace of mind. People aren't prepared to feel that Casey didn't kill her child. No matter where she goes, she'll be the object of speculation; she'll probably always have to look over her shoulder, and perhaps she'll never really feel like she's free, unless she's so narcisstic that she doesn't care about anyone's feelings and in that case, she won't feel as if she's wrong in the first place. The (very remote) possibility exists that someone or something else caused the death of her child. Is She Guilty? I think she did Something wrong, but what, exactly, I don't know..

She can never be tried again for her daughter's death. It's called "double jeopardy" which the Constitution has outlawed. It is the system that our lives are regulated by; it's the system that sends the guilty to jail while protecting the innocent, although none of us are so naive to think that every case is black-and-white and automatically resolve themselves in the name of the Common Good. It's the system, it's the way it is! People who are angry about this don't have a life, and they need to Get One. I'm not so much outraged as I am incredulous. O.J. all over again. She beat the rap. She Skated. She'll be cut loose soon. And if you're mad about that, Get Over It!

Look...there's a (very small) possibility that she didn't do it. Nothing can connect, in a physical sense, "Totmom" with her daughter's death. There was all kinds of evidence that inferred all kinds of things, but no one piece of evidence that could directly connect her with her daughter's death. I'm no lawyer, but even I could see that. And as I posted a couple of posts ago, I was afraid she might "skate". But there's nothing anyone can do about it now. Yes, the shock of it all was felt around the country. Personally, I was shocked by the O.J. trial of 1994, and how he managed to "skate" (bad knees and all). And I feel the same with the whole Casey Anthony thing.

I want to point out one thing that I haven't heard anyone address so far. Of course, it's been mentioned that in the Mark Peterson case, lots of evidence was presented, but like the Anthony case, nothing could directly connect Peterson to the murders of his wife and unborn child. And right now he sits in squalor in San Quentin Prison, with a death sentence hanging over his head. A male ends up facing execution while a female, with no direct evidence against her, is going free soon. Why is that? Do people feel better about sending a male to death row? That might be an interesting point to ponder. We all have biases contained within, even though we might not be aware of all those biases. And it's generally known that a female is less likely to be given the death penalty.

As far as Casey Anthony, she has a right to be able to live like a human being. She has been found not guilty, but in this case, 'not guilty' might not mean Innocent. Or it might. We'll probably never know. So if you're wanting to spew hate her way, if you want to do away with her yourself, if you want to stalk her or scream profane accusations at her if you see her in a shopping mall somewhere, DON'T. Let it pass. Just Let It Go. I haven't been around for 57 years myself without finding out that Life Does Not Automatically Go Your Way. It's all just Something That Happened, and that's where to leave it. Done. Finito. That's it; I'll get off my soapbox now.

2011-07-07T23:54:00.000-07:00

SUMMER HAS (finally) ARRIVED...
...along with hayfever and high humidity...

It's been nice to be able to go out and see some sunshine, which can be a tricky task here on the Southern Oregon Coast. From what I've found, the months with the most sunshine here are September and October. Right now, there seems to be a couple of cloudy/rainy days in-between each day of sunshine. I posted recently about my hayfever and I might have found something, an Over-The-Counter medication which is labeled as "Ceterizine HCI" that appears to be working. The sneezes still happen, though not much, and the eyes aren't watering up as badly. Here in Oregon, the Sudafed-type-stuff can only be obtained by prescription. Boo!

Next to hayfever, the "High Humidity" part has been the roughest thing I've had to cope with; I've always perspired slowly (too much info, probably), and on humid days it's difficult to MOVE sometimes. Off comes the hat, the thin jacket is jettisoned, and relief is finally found when it cools off at night. But enough of that...it's said pictures are worth a thousand words, so I hope the snapshots I took (see below) manage to "total" somewhere close to that amount. Photography is something I've found that I really enjoy; it provides incentive to seek out new things, or finding new ways to portray the same old things, which is mostly what I do since I don't travel an awful lot. So sit back, take off yer shoes and gaze...

I'd just pulled into the boat launch area parking lot when I saw Mr. Seagull
checking me out to see if I had any food...

A big ship, guided by a tugboat brigade, is assisted through the
intricate nooks and crannies of the Coos Bay Harbor.

Most of the time, small boats cannot near the ocean because the waters are so turbulent.
This little boat is in the 'bar' with the North Jetty in the background.

Area residents are shown gathering together, around campfires on the beach far below me.
That's when the "night shift" begins; I always leave just after sunset.

Here's the Pelican Death Brigade; they're looking for fish and when they see easy prey,
they go into free-fall, smacking into the water, and then, "GULP!"

This boat is the dredge ship, "Yaquina", which scoops out the bottom of the bay.
Here, it's headed to an offshore dump site, before coming back in again...

So there ya have it, some photos taken during "those lazy-hazy-crazy days of summer". So far this year, the temperature has not been above 75 degrees, which is good because I get even lazier during hot temperatures! (if that's possible...)

2011-07-05T20:05:00.000-07:00

MURDER BY NUMBERS, 1-2-3...
...it's as easy as learning your A-B-C's...

As the Casey Anthony trial in Orlando, Florida ran its course, I had a little nagging premonition that she just might skate. After all, it happened with O.J. Simpson way back a long time ago. Mostly, though, I thought she might get convicted of either a 2nd-degree murder charge, or perhaps manslaughter. This is because although the prosecution presented hundreds of evidence, they couldn't place the proverbial Dagger In Her Hand. The prosecution, at best, only was able to assemble a circumstantial case. After all, no one saw Casey Anthony put the child in her car trunk and gas her with chloroform. No one saw Casey Anthony throw her daughter's trash-bag-enclosed body into the woods only 2 minutes away from her house. And since there was nothing left of Casey Anthony's little daughter Caylee but Bones only, there were no abuse marks anywhere, since all the tissue had decomposed.

What a strange expression for a child.
Could it be she was on to her mom?

Caylee Anthony had been missing for 31 days. In that time, Casey, far from acting anything like a concerned, grieving parent, partied her little tush off, and in general, behaved like a Very Bad Girl. During that period, Casey would call Mom and tell her that she, Casey, was in Tallahassee, or in Timbuktoo, anywhere except the town they were living in, Orlando. Casey said that her little daughter was with "Zannie the nanny" or at a myriad of other places. Casey lied, lied, and lied some more. Prosecutors hammered away at Casey, saying that her daughter interfered with the "party girl" role that starred Casey ("Totmom" to that pitbull-in-a-skirt, Nancy Grace) in the lead role. Finally the jig was up. Casey's mom, Cindy, learned, after 31 days, that her grandchild was missing. Casey said that she had been searching for her child for 31 days. Lie. Casey said that Zanny The Nanny took little Casey because she, Zanny, told her, Casey, that she, Casey was a bad mother. Lie. And, through her lawyers, Casey said her father, George, molested her. Also, said Casey through her lawyers, George had found little Caylee floating in the backyard swimming pool, and that he took Caylee's body and threw it in the woods. Lie Again.

During the trial, Casey's mom, Cindy, said that she, Cindy, did all those searches for Chloroform and Neck-Breaking on the family computer, not Casey. It was proven through computerized time sheets that Cindy was lying, that she was at work when the home computer searches were made. Ironically, Cindy might face a 15-year sentence for Perjury. What really happened was that Casey, who was basically free all day, snuck home while her parents were gone and did the searches HERSELF. So in this case, there was Motive: Casey didn't want her little daughter anymore, because she wanted to live the party lifestyle. There were Means: Trash bags with maggots, duct tape near Caylee's skull, and DNA in the skeleton that proved it was indeed Little Caylee Anthony, whose body had been in the trunk of Casey's car for quite a while before being tossed in woods that were so congested that vines and plants were actually growing through what was left of little Caylee. And there was opportunity: Casey had plenty of time on her hands to toss Caylee's body into the woods like just another sack of garbage. The jury must have felt that little Caylee jumped into the woods all by herself, then she put the trash bags over herself and drifted off to sleep, suffocating in the process. It's said "you never know what a Jury's gonna do", and this case certainly hammers that home! Could it be the Jury pleasantly IGNORED the prosecution in this case? It looks like it!

To me, the jurors should have been able to make the connection. They didn't. Or maybe they did, but felt there wasn't enough evidence. (Over 300 pieces of evidence were presented by the prosecution). Maybe the jury took things Too Literally. Or perhaps the problem was that they were permitted to think for themselves. Or perhaps the jury had a love affair with defense attorney Jose Baez, who is without doubt, the most disgusting human being I've ever seen. If nothing else, I thought Casey Anthony would be convicted of Manslaughter, which doesn't involve premeditation or wanton, unresponsible disregard for human life. I thot she was guilty of Something. After all, the final question to the jury, submitted at Closing Arguments by prosecutor Linda Drane-Burdick was, "who would benefit the most from Caylee not being around?" Grandfather George? No, for he loved his little grand-daughter. Grandmother Cindy? No, for it was she who had called 911 saying Casey's car smelled like there'd been a decomposing body in the trunk. She also said her daughter "needed to be arrested". Casey herself? She was reputed to have put Caylee in the trunk either before or after "chloroforming" her, and covering her mouth with Duct Tape so she couldn't cry out. That way, Casey could party hearty and spend the night with who knows who.

I'm thinking that the Sequestered Jury placed only Cursory Value on the prosecution's evidence, and although there were 300-plus items of evidence, the jury only spent 6 hours yesterday and perhaps a small portion of today determining that Casey Anthony Wasn't The Devil after all. I'm convinced that they barely looked at the evidence. If they had, they would've been in deliberation AT LEAST 2 or 3 days. During the trial, George Anthony testified that the last person he saw with Caylee was Casey, and that he just "put 1 and 1 together". The Jury NULLIFIED that comment. So where does Casey go now? She's said her father's a molester. She lied to he and Cindy over and over. And over again. If I were Casey, I'd go get some dramatic plastic surgery done, then snag herself a rich guy who'll take her out of the country. For Casey, the entire United States is one great big fishbowl. At any rate, this just-concluded trial is Something we can learn from. If you want to kill your child, this is how you do it:

1. Take your little child, and disappear for an extended period of time. Do't forget to tell family members that you're somewhere else instead of where you actually are.
2. Make all kinds of new friends and acquaintances that don't know, or care, about your personal life. Make sure they like to party hearty and stay drunk most of the time.

3. Make sure the garbage dump you've selected is out-of-the-way and under water at least part of the time before throwing your dead child in with the rest of the trash.

Murder by numbers, 1-2-3, it's as easy as learning your ABC's.

"Murder By Numbers" is a song that the Police recorded; it was issued in 1983 as the B-side to the single, "Every Breath You Take", and was not featured on any album for a long time. I think it's one of the better songs they did. The song was issued on the Cassette of the "Synchronicity" album, but not the vinyl LP. Finally, to those who may be offended by this posting: I turned up my Sarcasm Meter Waay Up for this post. Although it may be closer to the truth than you or I know.

2011-07-02T02:16:00.000-07:00

IT'S ALL IN THE FAMILY...
...a case where anything can happen...

I've been watching the Casey Anthony Trial over the last month, hearing all the reports and watching as much "raw video" of the trial as I could. Last night, finally, I reached a point where I couldn't watch anymore. What is it with this trial that's gripped America and perhaps the World, that people can't tear themselves away from it? This trial hits us all where we live, for everyone comes from a family, and it's something that shapes you for the rest of your life. My best friend came from a really mellow family, and I wondered why my own family couldn't be more like that. And you know, "it is what it is". There's no control; you can only play the cards you're dealt.

Tension reigned supreme in my family. Like the Anthonys, we were a small family. The Anthony Parents are both obviously high-strung and hyper-emotional, and so were my parents. Like the Anthonys, there was me and my younger sister. I remember shouting matches between Mom and Dad; I remember how much tension there always seemed to be in the family, which overshadowed everything, and at any moment, Dad or Mom could blow up if my sister or I said the wrong thing, or did the wrong thing. Have you ever had a temperamental boss who could really lower the boom and you had to make sure and tread carefully so as not to incure his wrath? That was my Dad in a nutshell. Mom could yell as well, although when Dad went out on the road, things seemed to be calmer, for a while anyway.

Sometimes it's so difficult to rise above it all...

Being five years older than my sister, I went away to College and had no idea (and didn't think about it at the time) what she was going through, alone, with my parents. From what I've heard, she and Mom had major issues, knockdown-dragout fights, and she evidently had a very difficult experience living with them while she was growing up. I managed to get away from the family; if things got testy, I'd just leave. My sister did everything she could to please Mom and Dad, and I think she just wore herself out. Later on, she got married to a Really Nice Guy, and they have a son. Evidently there were some conflicts between Mom and my sister regarding parenting and everything that goes along with it. As a result, my sister had a complete emotional breakdown, and it's taken years and years for her to recover. She's doing better now.

Looking back at all of the mistakes we made with each other, our little family had a lot of ups and downs. But I always thought compassion was supposed to be a part of the family, and as near as I can tell, our family didn't have that. I feel to this day that Mom and Dad didn't understand me. Maybe I was a rotten son, though, and I feel badly about that too. My sister, her husband and her son have evidently made it through life pretty well, and I'm glad; now, hopefully, with many things long past, I hope they all are at a good place in life. But I'll probably never know for sure, since my sister and I haven't communicated for the last 5 years, and we haven't seen each other for the last 8 years. Tensions between Brother and Sister. "It is what it is".

I spend lots of time alone these days. There is no one in my life. I can't live with anyone. Here in this new place where I've lived for the last six years, I still don't know anyone's last name. No one's ever visited me, and I have no one to visit. I socialize, talking to store clerks, waitresses, people walking their dogs on the beach, and enjoy taking pictures, playing guitar a bit, and finally slowing down my life enough so I can take care of myself. I love being at the seashore; for the several hours a week I go there, my anxieties and depressions seem to lift as I cast my eyes upon the vast endless ocean. It has been a true comfort. Realizations of all the stupid things I've done, awful things I've said, lies I've told, many bad memories and all other assorted woes leave me when I hear the mighty ocean's roar. And I tell myself, "that's why I came here".

Walk through your neighborhood; every house that contains a family unit can potentially turn into an explosive situation, full of fear and deceit. Look at the Anthonys...daughter Casey, who's stands accused of killing her 2-year-old daughter Caylee has, with her lawyers, basically sold her Father down the river, accusing him of molesting her (Casey), and saying He was the one who tried to cover up Caylee's death. Her Father, George, evidently had a relationship with another woman around the time his deceased grand-daughter was found in the woods. Cindy, George's wife and Caylee's grandmother, has lied under oath to try and protect her daughter, committing Perjury and possibly facing charges of her own. And Casey lied to everyone. And look what happened. There are tensions between them all, and it's been heartbreaking to see this happen; relationships torn apart for the whole world to see. And now Casey faces the possibility of the Florida Death Penalty, and Florida Indeed Does Use Its Death Penalty. How awful life must be for all of the Anthonys; it's horrifying seeing what they're going through.

The Anthony Trial has made me look back into my own past, back when our family was forging its way through the years, and I can't help but think that we had similar tensions, although thankfully the outcome was far, far different. I was busy living my life. My sister had her own family. And Mom and Dad would head for Arizona or Utah most winters. And that's the way it was until Mom and Dad passed away ten years ago. My sister, living near my parents, cared for both of them, and though she was having problems before, that's when she began developing severe mental illneses. She's doing better these days and I hope her and her family have many good years to come. Me, I've blocked out a lot of the grief. I already had lived alone a number of years before my parents passed away, and that's what I kept doing after they were gone. There's a lot that I don't let myself think about these days. I read ceaselessly, watch a lot of TV, always trying to outrace my mind, for if I don't, I'll lapse into severe anxiety episodes, and I just can't afford for that to happen anymore. For I want some good years too. Is that too much to ask. I'm now three years away from 60. Does it ever end?

Within every house, within every family unit, someone's getting their feelings stomped on, someone's taking advantage of someone else, someone's lying, someone's crying and someone's being punished. And it just continues. My sister has done as much as she can to "break the chain" and her son has turned out to be a fine young, college-bound man. So it can be done. I may not ever be able to do that, but I'm hopeful. And that's what keeps us all going...hope. Without that, what's left? In Casey Anthony's case, the prospect of sitting alone in a cell for the rest of her life, possibly having to cope with a Death Sentence. I was initially curious about the Anthony Trial, interested in the mechanics of the Legal System. It's fascinating. But now that it's almost over, I feel gloom and doom. It's horrifying. A family being ripped apart in front of the Whole World. How sad.

Just trying to find that peaceful place within...

Perhaps the saga of the Anthony family will cause a lot of parents to take a good look inside themselves and perhaps change the way they do things, for if something's wrong and goes unnoticed, drastic things can happen. Even Casey Anthony was a sweet little child once upon a time...

2011-07-02T00:17:00.000-07:00

"A MAN NEEDS A BELT"...
...I can still remember my dad telling me that...

My Dad was a strong, logical character who worked hard all his life. I don't feel much of an emotional connection to him, but he was rugged, he was good-looking, and he was a man's man. He looked good, too, in a Clark Gable sort of rugged way. He was smarter than me, better looking than me, and he could do everything better than me. I didn't turn out the way he envisioned,and I know that always disappointed him, but I remember some of the little things he told me. For instance, when you put your wallet in your back pocket, put it in with the "wide" sides facing up and down; that makes it harder for pickpockets out there. And another thing he always told me was, "A Man Needs A Belt". And he always made sure I wore one. I wore a leather belt he gave me for close to twenty years; it finally tore itself apart last year, but I clipped off a segment of that belt and I'm keeping in my little "odds and ends" box.

What's left of
Dad's old belt

So I had to go out and get a new belt. Why? "A Man Needs A Belt", that's why. At a JC Penney's store, I finally found one long enough to go around my ever-expanding waistline. The Belt I bought was reversible; the clip on the belt was attached to another piece of metal, which meant the belt could be worn on the Brown side or the Black side; all I had to do was rotate the buckle. The entire buckle mechanism was clamped around a miniature steel cable going from end of belt to belt buckle. This morning I pulled it on, and the #$#$!!! buckle pulled loose from the belt and wouldn't snap back in! I had no choice but to get a new belt. I had to go beltless, hands in pockets, trying not to let my drawers drop down! Thankfully, the first place I went had belts in stock, including the same Reversible Belt that I was seeking to replace."Nope, ain't gonna get THAT ONE!" I thot, afraid that I might have to. After a while, I found a "Wrangler" (TM) belt that was long enough to fit, didn't have any reversible gizmos, just a good, old-fashioned belt made of Thick no-nonsense leather. No frills. Made in the USA. It set me back almost $20 bucks, but I've got a belt which I hope will last me the rest of my life. "A Man Needs A Belt", after all. All my life, every time I've buckled my belt, I can hear Dad saying that.

Another thing Dad used to tell me was to take care of my car. He would yell and yell at me about my car, and I guess when I'm yelled at, I'm less likely to do what the person doing the yelling wants me to do. Perhaps I need to have reverse-reverse psychological tactics used on me? Back in the days when he used to travel a lot, he could easily put 200,000 miles on a car in a couple of years' time, and he always kept the oil changed and the interior clean, showing some pride in his car. He bought me a really nice AMC Concord a couple of decades ago, and did I listen to his advice? No. And after 5 years, I'd run that car into the ground. It wouldn't run. It literally died. After that, I drove various little egg-beater-type import cars, each for a couple of years until all of them, too, died. Finally, years later, I was at the place where I could buy a nice car. I check the oil periodically, I treat the car gently, never gunning the engine, and maintain full-coverage with The Gecko.

This hasn't been an easy year. I've had to put in a new Water Heater in my house and I got a New Pair of Glasses, both of which managed to set me back $1500, which in turn made me have to cut waay back on other expenses until I'd financially recovered, so that I could spend money on something else besides food and bills. I finally "turned the corner" this month and found myself with Extra Money! Except there's no such thing as Extra Money, is there? So, yesterday I went down to the Car Wash to get the green algae-type substance that accumulates on my car every spring scrubbed off, and I decided to Fill Up the Tank, All The Way (something I haven't done for ages). Then I remembered that I needed an Oil Change. I was only 5,000 miles LATE! So I went and got that done. I spent close to $200 on my car yesterday, and I thought perhaps Dad would be proud of me for getting all that done.

I bought my1999 Dodge Intrepid back in 2002. When I bought it, there were only 36,000 miles on it. It doesn't even have 90,000 miles yet. Way back when I bought it, I was thinking to myself, "this is probably the last car I'll ever have". I once heard an automotive show being broadcast, ironically, over the car radio, in which an expert said the most economical way to run a car is to drive it until it drops. It looks good, and it runs good, and you know, I'm proud of that. Dad knew what he was talking about, didn't he? And as the years pass, I feel like I understand him a little bit better. And I hope, wherever he may be, that he realizes that perhaps I'm not as bad as he might have thought.

I realize that I sound like a severe case of Arrested Development, especially since I'm only three years away from 60. I still feel like a little kid trapped inside an old body. Just as gullible, just as dumb as ever. I can still hear the yelling. I still feel all the put-downs. As fresh in mind now, as they were five decades ago. But hopefully I'm making progress. Hopefully there's hope...

2011-06-27T23:08:00.000-07:00

THE LEGAL SYSTEM ON DISPLAY...
...the Casey Anthony Trial is now 40 days old...and counting...
-
The defense is now making its case in the Casey Anthony Trial (I probably don't have to tell ya, but she stands accused of killing her little daughter, Caylee.) Up front, I'll admit I'm not watching this phase as closely as I watched the Prosecution's. But it's easy to see what the tactics of the Defense Team are: Throw anything at the wall and see what sticks. Defense attorney Jose Baez has been threatened with Contempt of Court for not having had his witnesses deposed according to the Deadline established by the Judge. Mr. Baez will most likely be subjected to the will of the court after the trial's over. He might even find himself disbarred. But that's off in the future, not now.

Meantime, Casey Anthony informed the court that she wanted to have the trial halted because she said she was "incompetent to stand trial". Oh yeah? She's in constant communication with her lawyers, "assisting in her own defense". So the judge had three mental-health professionals analyze her behavior, and the end result is, she is able to continue to stand trial. Meantime, various Expert witnesses from various forensic fields have been paraded to court for the Defense, all trying to negate the forays into the case which the Prosecution's witnesses tried to establish a week and a half ago, if not two weeks ago.

Not Exactly Mother
Of The Year

I've been reading all the reports and watching all the shows concerning this trial, but one thing that hasn't been brought up, is that the last time anything negative was heard in court regarding the Defendant happened a long ago. The Defense is managing to put a whole lot of time in-between the Prosecution's case and the eventual end of the trial. I heard a lot of shocking things from the Prosecution, but it's all rather numbed-down at this point in time. The fur is really gonna fly come the Final Arguments. Like a train wreck, this whole thing is hard to look away from.

Not Exactly Broadcaster
Of The Year

Nancy Grace (pictured at left) has built a TV Career by riding this case like a deranged cowgirl since Casey Anthony was first tossed in jail three years ago. I am all for reporting the facts and sharing opinions, but Nancy really takes the cake. She brings on a guest, spends ages asking a long, drawn-out question to the guest being interviewed, tailoring the question's answer to conform her own viewpoints. When Nancy asks for more information from her own correspondents, she runs them down on the air (The Zenith of Unprofessionalism); if the report doesn't totally satisfy her, she harangues them some more until she gets what she wants. Tonight, she went from accusatory (she's especially good at that) to almost crying, "why is no one thinking of this little girl?" Nancy, you're a Mom; I get that. Casey Anthony is in a whole lot of trouble; I get that too. But what you do is harsh, amateurish, and shouldn't hide behind the guise of being a news program.

I don't like the way Nancy presents her subjects. She operates from a bully pulpit. She harangues and belittles many of her guests, shouting, shouting, shouting, talking over her guests' answers, framing her questions to fit her opinions, after which she brings on some more staffers, all the while yelling, gesticulating and virtually screaming at them, too. Nancy Grace is Harsh. She used to be a prosecutor. That by itself is okay. But she's a Pit Bull in a Skirt. Unprofessional in almost every way by broadcast standards.

My take on all of this is that Casey Anthony is Guilty of Something. Will she get the Death Penalty? She might. I'd say she has a 40-60 chance. An exact cause of death hasn't been established, so the Prosecution has had to assemble countless exhibit items in a rather delicate framework, hoping that the Defense won't wreck the structure with all kinds of desperate stuff. In my last post regarding this trial, I said "things are gonna get nasty"...and I'll change that now, to "nastiER". The whole thing is quite a spectacle. The legal system on display. Finally, if you think you've had a bad day, you could always be Casey Anthony. She's not exactly having a lot of fun these days.

At the end of every show, Nancy Grace alters her tone drastically, assuming a low, hushed, whispery tone of voice and thanks her audience for watching, bidding adieu with "good-bye, friend". I don't trust people who can change on a dime like that. It's been accepted that Casey Anthony's family is dysfunctional; I'll bet Nancy Grace is a bit dysfunctional, too.

2011-06-21T00:51:00.000-07:00

DIGITAL CAMERA TO THE RESCUE...
...just when I thought I didn't have anything to post...

This first photo was taken at sunset a few nights ago at Bastendorff Beach, 6 miles south of Coos Bay, Oregon. As the sun descended, I saw an "extra" illumination on the sun's left side (shown in this photo) as well as one on the Sun's right (not in the picture). In short, this photo depicts a sort of light image accompanying the Sun . Maybe some sort of atmospheric 'ring' which means something weather-wise...?

Taken at Bastendorff Beach, it's obvious someone went to an awful lot of work to construct this elaborate castle of sand; the architect just had to be a kid (or kids) with all of the energy us older people wish we still had. However, even the best sand castles will succumb when high tide returns. Jimi Hendrix once sang, "Castles made of sand...fall into the sea...eventually".

Here's a photo I took at Cape Arago State Park; even though I've been to the Cape quite a few times, I'd never ventured to this particular site, which was taken at one of the park's picnic areas, looking southward. This photo gives you an idea of how large some of the cliffs around here are. There's a trail from here that zigzags down to the ocean and when I get crazy enough, I'll descend it...with camera, of course...

This photo looks almost 100 feet straight down. What am I, Nuts!?!? I have Vertigo! And my balance isn't very good, either. This was as close as I dared get to the edge. Face Your Fears, they say. All I know is, my gut was tied in knots. I was leaning against a tree trunk so I could keep my balance. Why is it, that when you get close to the edge of something, you feel as if you were getting pulled in? Or down?

____________________

It's been Nine, Nueve, 9 days since my last post. And I'm not going to let this blog die without a fight. Although, the great weather and ultra-long days do lessen the frequency of what I do here. But that's okay; both you and I can enjoy these photos when the winter winds come a-blowin'.

2011-06-12T22:21:00.000-07:00

SHE (allegedly) DID A BAD, BAD THING...
...trials and tribulations happening in the Sunshine State...
-

"THE WHOLE WORLD'S WATCHING!!!" yelled protesters at 1968's Democratic Convention in Chicago. That same phrase could sum up the Casey Anthony Trial which is underway in sunny Orlando, Florida, although Casey isn't seeing a whole lot of sun these days. Going to court can be a real bummer, huh? Casey Anthony allegedly put duct tape over her three-year-old daughter Caley's mouth and stuffed her in the car's trunk; Caley allegedly died there and Casey's alleged to have driven her friends around with her dead daughter in that trunk of her car for a few days before dumping the body in a wooded area near her house. The jawbone, which is normally separated from the skull when bodies are dumped, was (theoretically) held in place by Duct Tape near where the skull was found. If convicted, Casey could get the death penalty for killing her daughter. And mobs of people compete for seats at the trial early, every morning. It's crazy.

If you enter "Casey Anthony Raw Video" into a search engine, you'll find sites where you can watch, uncut, unedited tapes of the trial. It's time-consuming stuff for sure, but it provides a fascinating portrayal of Florida's well-oiled Legal System in Action. Back in 2008, CSI had collected hundreds of items, and the Prosecution spent all last week, and will spend all this week, absolutely burying the Defense with Evidence. Casey's only recourse, short of being found innocent? She could always allege that she had an inadequate defense, since Chief Defense Attorney Jose Baez seems to trip all over himself and makes rookie mistakes in the courtroom, according to reports I've read. I'm really looking forward to the case the Defense will put on next week. I wanna see what those Sleazeball attorneys pull out of the muck. I'm afraid things are gonna get nasty. By the way, did you notice the way I used the word "allegedly" in this post? Could I be a lawyer too?

____________________________________________________________

THAT DOES NOT COMPUTE: I think I have what is known as the "blacksmith's touch". I dropped my computer a few weeks ago and it quit picking up the Wireless Internet signal. So I had to buy a gizmo which plugged into my computer's USB port that picks up the signal. Well, that gizmo broke this week when I bumped my computer into the side of my La-Z-Boy recliner. The "blacksmith's touch", I tell ya. So for a while, I had to use an Ethernet cable to get online. Last night, a popup with my connections popped up (as popups are prone to do), and voila, there was my Wireless Internet, which I clicked on, so now I'm Wireless Again! (cue up Andy Williams' version of "Born Free"...)

SWEET, SWEET IRONY: I don't follow politics a whole lot, but there's this congressman whose last name is Weiner. He's sent pictures of his crotch-bulge to a few young girls, and now he's elected to go and seek professional help, while Congress is doing its best to convert his temporary absence a more permanent one .As in "unelectable". Are you in doubt as in how to pronounce his name? Just sing this phrase: "Oh, I'd Love to be an OSCAR MEYER _________".

NO, I DIDN'T INHALE: Menthol or not, lots of smokers have a tough time quitting. No, I don't smoke. But I've worn dentures for the last 3 years, and if food or milk gets trapped in the upper plate it can really leave a bad taste, so I combat that with Tic-Tac Breath Mints (White), and I feel like I've become addicted to them. Something about the menthol. Although, I can quit any time I want. I Really can. But don't go to 7-11 to get your white Tic-Tacs; the 7-11 corporation makes their own white breath mints. And they're not as good. Although they, too, contain a lot of menthol. I found that menthol actually helped me get through a recent allergy attack. Ahhhhhh, Minty!

THIS YEAR'S SEATTLE MARINERS: Ichiro is shown hitting, among other things, a Tic-Tac (white) breath mint, among other things in one of this year's nifty Mariners promo spots. He's been having some trouble this year with baseballs, though. His batting average is down, he hasn't hit even One home run yet this season, but he's working on it, I guess. Meanwhile, this year's squad has played some lousy baseball, but have played very good baseball too. Their record reflects that; they're still hovering around the .500 mark so far this year. The Pitching, oveall, is quite solid. If we could get our hitters going, maybe we could get somewhere. But this year's team is so much better than last year's. They hang tough in close games and often find ways to win. I don't care about the M's going to the Series (tho it would be nice), but at least they're Respectable.

WHOSE REALITY?: There are so many Reality shows on these days that they're driving me nuts. Most of them feature people screaming at, and hitting, other people. I won't watch the "Repo" series, I won't watch "Hard Core Pawn", and when I see the "Bad Girls Club" coming up next, I run for the remote. I won't watch "Cops" because even though I respect 'em, I don't like 'em. And I'm tired of "Dog, The Bounty Hunter", although I still watch it sometimes. My favorites are "Ice-Road Truckers", "Pawn Stars" and "American Pickers", although the skinny guy with the big nose bugs me sometimes. Each of those shows are informative, and feature engaging characters and a good sense of humor. I must admit I used to watch Anna Nicole Smith's show, 'cos it was so stupid, and the reality show, "Family Plots" that featured a family who owns a Mortuary. Creepy, huh?

A THOUSAND WORDS?: To those of you who've read the above muckraking, here's a couple little pieces of Eye Candy (without Menthol) for ya's. The South Coast of Oregon: No heatwaves here...if you click , the pics and they'll get really huge...

A fishing boat enters Coos Bay Harbor.
I'd imagine the crew was really looking
forward to getting off the rough windy sea.

Sunset on the bay. The Ocean is
just beyond a narrow strip of land,
known as the North Spit.

__________________________________________________

In my last post, about allergies, I found I'd repeated myself; I posted something similar a couple years ago, so I really did try to keep this post fresh, vivacious and calorie-free. I'm not quite ready to use old age as an excuse for not remembering what I'd posted before!

2011-06-07T18:45:00.000-07:00

Ah, yes, Springtime. When a young man's fancy turns to...AH-CHOO!!! AH-CHOO!!! AH-CHOO!!! AH-CHOO!!! Most people, when they see a grassy meadow or a clump of Shady Trees, think, "oh, how nice this is; I think I'll just lay on the grass, in the shade and take it easy". Me, I go running for cover. I face an opponent that I can't see. It's an airborne opponent, and I can't get away from it. When I used to live in North Idaho, Hayfever season, for me, ran from about Mid-April thru Mid-July. Down here on the Oregon Coast where the vegetation is much more lush, Hayfever Season is shorter (Mid-June thru Mid-July), but it's more intense with all of the plants blooming at once.

Pollen wreaks havoc with my system. It gets into the corners of my eyes, the eyes start watering, the nose starts running, my nasal cavities begin to burn, the body throws its mucous-producing capacity to High Overdrive, and before you know it, I'm a basket case. Several times during the last week, it's gotten so bad that I had to take a cloth, soak it in cold water, then cover my eyes and nose with it so I could breathe without any more pollen spores from getting in. That, after taking an anti-histamine which takes a couple of hours to take effect. By the time I remove the cold cloth from my face, I'm totally spent. I have no more bodily fluids to sneeze out, and the anti-histamine leaves me with a sort-of "stoned" feeling. Far out, man. The cold-cloth treatment cools me down; my Hayfever is just that--a fever--and the drugs kick in sooner or later.

I've tried every hayfever drug under the sun. It used to be easy to find what I needed, until all the Meth-cookers out there began buying up all the potent hayfever drugs to use in their cooking vats! So nowadays, in a lot of states, Sudafed and other such medications are kept behind a locked cabinet door. In Oregon, the only way I can get Sudafed is by prescription. So this is a situation where people who Need the Drug can't readily Get the Drug because of all the damn meth-heads out there! Luckily, I had a few days' worth of Sudafed from my last prescription (a year ago) and the pills appear to Still Be Potent. I've tried Claritin and all the other over-the-counter medications. Nothing Works. I need a good strong anti-histamine to dull my senses so I CAN'T sneeze. Either that or a detachable nose and sinus cavity!

When I'm in the middle of a hayfever attack, I know it's gonna last for at least another two hours. There used to be an old Dristan commercial that said something along the lines of, "Taking Dristan is like taking your Sinuses to Arizona!" Well, residents of Arizona, I'm sure you've got a good state, but I don't wanna go there 'cos I don't like Deserts! Sorry 'bout that. Sometimes the cool ocean breezes help during a hayfever attack, but there's beach grass on the Beach (a good place for Beach Grass, right?), and the last time I was at the Ocean during a hayfever attack, I still couldn't stop sneezing. Think of the effect on your body that sneezing 10 or 15 times in a minute can cause. I've literally thrown my neck out sneezing.

I'm not looking for any kind of grandiose degree of sympathy by posting this. I just want to make people out there realize that Hayfever is nothing to sneeze about! Hayfever can get serious; I've felt ill after my worst hayfever attacks. So what makes me sneeze? As near as I can tell, it's the pollen that escapes when Grass Grows Tall. My neighbors last year didn't mow their lawn until July, and I sneezed my head off! (Well, almost) So what was one of my biggest chores when I was a kid? You got it, Mowing The Lawn. I pay the neighbor kid to do that these days. Most of all, an acute Hayfever Attack makes me feel frantic, helpless and just really awful. People used to tell me that I would Outgrow my Hayfever. WRONG! My first hayfever attack was in 1964, when I was ten. Our family moved from a big house, near the lake, to the northern part of town, which at that time, contained a lot of large grassy fields. And I began sneezing my face off. That's what it felt like.

This is one case in which Manners are Not Needed. There are those who say "bless you" every time they hear someone Sneeze. Those are the people who will go hoarse if they're around me for five minutes of a hayfever attack. It truly is an Assault on the Senses.

2011-05-31T14:12:00.000-07:00

MUSIC FOR DINING AND DAYDREAMING?
...how could you actually do that with this set of records?

I was surprised to find on Ebay a 2-EP-record set that I've already got in my collection. It strikes me that the record industry back in the '50s, released records on mere whims. A case in point is this EP (Extended Play) set by Hugo Winterhalter and his Orchestra, Henry Rene' and his Orchestra, and Hugo Winterhalter and his Orchestra. Yep, folks, here it is; the big monster hit album, "Music for Dining"/"Music for Daydreaming". Obviously record-shoppers back then were storming the local hi-fi shops, frothing at the mouth, trying to get their very own copies of this Smash Hit Of The Fifties...or not...

This 2-EP record set averages 6 to 8 minutes per side. The first record has sides 1 and 4 on one disc while sides 2 and 3 are on the other, so you can stack 'em on yer changer. If you try to eat dinner while playing the "Music for Dining" songs, you'd have to wolf down your food during those 4 songs if you want music throughout your meal. There's no music for dishwashing here, so you have to get up, do the dishes, and let your phonograph fall silent. Then, if you want to daydream, flip over the 2 records on your changer, although most people's daydreams are longer than the 4 Day-dreaming Songs here. Or, you could use the Day-dreaming songs for dishwashing instead if you're more practical than the average Daydreamer. This record set came out in 1954. RCA, who invented the 45, stuck to its guns with the 45rpm EP, while Columbia (a huge label) came up with the 12" LP. Of course, as time went on, RCA pressed LP's and Columbia issued EP's, and in the long run, the EP died a long and lonely death.

Obviously, I'm being a bit facetious here ("Ya Think???"), but I can imagine it now: Record execs of the day,in the boardroom, and the big boss says, "We think the time has come to issue some "Dining and Dancing" music. Next month, we'll put out some music for" Washing and Bathing", and the following month, we'll release a similar record set, "Music for Painting the House and Mowing the Lawn"...but, I guess there was a market for specialty-purpose records such as this or they wouldn't have been issued. One of the larger record companies actually issued a record titled, "Music to Wash Clothes by"! Perhaps the release dates of records such as this were arrived at by spinning a roulette wheel, with album titles taking the place of the numbers on the wheel. Arbitrary at best. Certainly there was no ravenous record-buying public out there going ga-ga over "Music For Transmission Repairs and Putting Fiberglass Lining On Your Wooden Canoe." Or maybe there was...

Me, I'm awaiting something along the lines of "Music For Blogging", especially if it makes me type faster and encourages originality of thought...a sort of subliminal seduction on CD...

2011-05-27T01:48:00.000-07:00

Dance Your Last Dance, Party Girl...
...the Casey Anthony Case in all of its dubious splendor...

She's accused of killing her little daughter. In 2008, all of a sudden her little daughter wasn't around anymore. She disappeared in mid-June of that year. The little girl, Caylee, had been missing for one solid month before the authorities were contacted. And, it was the Grandmother (Casey's Mom) who did the contacting. And for the entire month that little Caylee was un-reported as Missing, her mom, Casey, just partied her little heart out in bars and nightclubs, while her daughter was Out There, Somewhere. During that month, Casey, with little Caylee, found men's apartments to sleep in and otherwise occupy. In mid-June, the people Casey and little Caylee were living with, all of a sudden, weren't seeing little Caylee around anymore.

Totmom

Casey told her acquaintances that she was working at Universal Pictures as an Event Planner. She lied to them. She wasn't working there, and hadn't for a couple of years. But she carried a Universal photo-badge ID, and pretended to get herself ready each morning and head to work. Well, she got the pretending part right. She did 'something' all day long; who knows what. During that time, she went out "clubbing" with many people who she didn't know well. She even entered a "hot body contest". She wasn't the hottest body there. Far from it, in fact. But now she's known as "totmom", a sweeping title bestowed upon her by that Queen of understatement, Nancy Grace. (Hint: Nancy Grace and Piranhas have similar genetic makeups.)

Well, the authorities put two and two together, interviewed, and later arrested "Totmom" and she's been in the slammer since then. Her trial finally got underway this week, and her lawyer, legal buffoon Jose Baez, came out of the corner swinging, accusing Casey's Dad of Molesting Casey, and accusing her family of covering up all kinds of mean, nasty and ugly things. This means, basically, that the Defense Team, with the approval of Casey Anthony, sold her family down the river. Casey's Dad was on the stand today, questioned ad infinitum about a missing gas can, and he accused Attorney Baez of baiting him and making him mad. Good for You, Mr. Anthony. And, folks, the trial ain't even One Week Old yet. It's supposed to last for the next couple of months. It's a Death Penalty case. Casey cries her heart out in court every day. Her lawyers have the word "Smokescreen" written on their foreheads.

Those who theorize about such things say that Casey wanted to live the "good life", and for 31 days, that's what she did. She Became a "Stupid Party Girl" (look up that phrase on YouTube) and Danced The Night Away. Everyone she met, whether ex-boyfriends, room-mates or people she partied with, say that Casey never expressed any anguish, fear, anxiousness or even the slightest bit of concern for her Missing Daughter. In December '08, Little Caylee was found in a wooded area near Casey's Parents' Home, where she and her daughter had been living. Little Caylee's skull was wrapped with duct tape, and her bones were scattered around that area.

If you choose, you can see our Justice System in action every single day 'til trial's end; various Florida TV stations provide raw video so you can see this travesty for yourself; if you've got Cable, you can also see it on Tru TV (formerly Court TV). I can just see Tru TV executives dancing in the aisles; "Everyone's Gonna Watch This Trial; our ratings will go up and Up and UP and we can make Lots of Juicy Advertising Revenue!!!" Regarding this trial's outcome, I'd initially thought that since it seems to be more difficult to send women to Death Row, that Casey would probably get Life with No Parole. I'm not so sure now. Experts (if there is such a thing in these cases) say that Casey's uncaring behavior was the main force that tipped the scales, causing the State of Florida to pursue the Death Penalty. Florida's not a good place to get into trouble, by the way. If you're going to kill someone, Don't Do It There. Florida's Death Penalty can be summed up thusly: "We...Never...Close", so saith the character Horatio Caine of "CSI: Miami".

This is a country with Justice For All. We The Citizens are indeed cloaked, yea, verily, within the vast shroud of Justice and have been, since the days of George Washington and his wooden false teeth. It's a big system, with the inherent sluggishness that a big system seems to operate with. One author said that justice is like a train heading towards you; it seems like it takes forever to get to ya, and THEN ALL OF A SUDDEN IT'S HERE, CLANG-CLANG-CLANG!!!!!, and so it is with Miss Casey Anthony. She is on trial. She is accused of doing something very Mean and Awful. But this is a country with Justice For All. Even Casey Anthony is cloaked in justice...

What not to do with Old Glory...

The above photo was taken during the period of time Casey's Daughter went missing. In a death penalty state like Florida, photos like this don't bode well. There are other developments in this trial which I haven't referred to which further solidify the case against Miss Anthony, but I'll stop here. I think it's quite safe to say that she's in a whole lot of trouble.

2011-05-25T00:36:00.000-07:00

INVERSE PROPORTIONS...

...as related to assorted coastal landmarks...

Think of the following photos as a gauge of distance, framed by geographical locations which show how far one point is from another point. And then looking at that 'other' point from the point you ended up at (Does that make sense?).

First, we'll start with Cape Arago, which is only about 8 miles south of where I live on the Oregon Coast. It's a beautiful place, situated on a point some 100+ feet above the ocean. On top is a circular viewing deck made of stone, from where I took this photo. Looking south, you can see a point of land way off in the distance; that's where the town of Bandon is. I took photos of the mighty seastacks of Bandon which were placed on a previous post here in this blog. In this photo, Bandon is probably 20+ miles from this location. That's your reference point. Well, one of the reference points, anyway. If you look straight down the cliff in the foreground you can see a tide-pool sort of area; before I took this photo, I saw seals swimming down there, nibbling on the seaweed, I guess...several years ago, a car veered off this cliff, and the driver survived! That's a trip I wouldn't want to take.

Another location in an earlier post, "Seven Devils" was featured in still another recent post. (Both of those posts are no more than 2 or 3 weeks back, so they should be easy to find.) Seven Devils is located between Cape Arago and Bandon. This photo looks north from Seven Devils and that's Cape Arago, where I took the previous photo from, off in the distance. As you can see, the land in these parts either tumbles into the ocean, or was sheared away abrupty by massive geological events, resulting in steep cliffs, graced with a bit of beach. Whatever the case, the views are outstanding. There is so much to see; I want to see it all and take it home with me. With photos, I can do that.

This photo was included in one of the recent posts I referred to above, used here as yet another point of reference. The land dips into a small valley where a creek runs, and then rises once again into ocean cliffs; this is the area known as "Seven Devils" which is a day park/picnic area of sorts. On this particular day, the air was rich with moisture, the wind was brisk, and it was a nice day to be out there. This place is rather difficult to get to; you've got to access winding, twisting two-lane roads to get here. And I had to travel 20-odd miles of road just to get 7 or 8 miles down the coast, but the solitude is worth it.

Now this is where everything begins to get really interesting. The Cape Arago photo at the top of this post, is also where this shot was taken from. In the middle right section of coastline, you can see that aforementioned Seven Devils portion of coastline, where the land rises "back into Ocean Cliffs" (see previous paragraph). I'd say Seven Devils is probably 7 or 8 miles away; maybe more; it's difficult to gauge distances using a Zoom Lens, which sort-of shoves everything together. At times, the air is very misty which makes it difficult to catch detail when it's far away. For a closer look, you can click on all the photos here and you'll get expanded versions to examine when you've got nothing else to do...

This next photo was taken a couple of weeks ago, from just north of Bandon, at Bullard's Beach State Park, where a lighthouse is situated. In this photo, we're looking back north at Cape Arago, some 20+ off in the distance, with the Seven Devils area somewhere in between. So, on a somewhat meager sort of fashion, I've tried to establish some sort of interrelationship between points and other points. And, hey, if it doesn't make sense, or if I've erred in some magnanimous way, at least the views are good! Pure Eye Candy! Spending time out here is tremendously thereapeutic. It's calming, out in all that weather with the ocean roaring constantly.

Finally, I know it takes valuable energy to try and make sense out of what I attempt to establish here. And I'm grateful that you stopped by to see my latest bout of ill-logic. As your reward, here's a view of an ocean sunset, taken back up towards Coos Bay, from where I launched the expedition that resulted in this innocuous post. Eye candy just for you. And you've gotta admit, Mother Nature is quite an artist when she wants to be. This was taken from the Bastendorff Beach Overlook, which is about 100 feet above, a quarter-mile away from, the ocean. Supposedly, the horizon is 25 miles away. And, the day is ending...

I was wondering when I was gonna be able to post these photos; ever since I re-loaded Windows 7 recently, my photo-loader was out of sync. Thru some great technical advice from the folks at Canon Camera Corp., I was able to get it going again. Now if I could just figure out the rest of this computer, I'd be on the way!

2011-05-19T02:06:00.000-07:00

COMPUTER SHENANIGANS...
...or, I've Got A Life, at least I Think I Do...

I posted a computer-based entry earlier this week that I deleted. I really didn't like the way it turned out, although I was right about one thing: If you sign up for automatic Windows Updates, you'll find Microsoft has stuck Windows 9 among the many other updates that MSN thinks you should have. Sneaky, sneaky. Me, I'm a big fan of Windows 7. I like the way it works; it ranks right up there with Windows XP as a very easy way to go online. Actually there were two reasons I deleted that computer-based entry; number one, I had some of the information wrong, and, number two, an "anonymous" person commented on it saying that I Really Needed To Get A Life. That Ticked Me Off. If he read thru that post, he needs a life too. At least I don't take cheap potshots at other bloggers. I save that for the politicians.

Recently, I found that I was running Internet Explorer 9 instead of IE. Microsoft found a way to sneak it in. I had already stripped IE9 off my computer and replaced it with IE8, since IE7 is no longer available. I got all of that done, and found that my screen resolution (size of print and images) was different for every site I went to. That drove me nuts! I had desktop icons which took up more than half of my screen! And every time I tapped the touchpad, the type kept changing sizes and I had no idea how to stop that. But I got everything installed the best I could and called it a day. Tonight, I was going thru various functions, trying to get everything to operate just a little better, when I found a system recovery option which said, "use this only if you have installation disks." Well, I have the Windows 7 disk. I bought it a while ago to replace Windows 'Vista' that originally came with this computer. Vista is Purely Awful. But that's another subject altogether. Back to Internet Explorer...

When I tried to download Internet Explorer 7 from an online site, the best I could do was to get IE8, since IE7 is no longer supported, the latest in a long line of Computer Dinosaurs. Tonite, after finding the System Recovery/Disk program, I put my Windows 7 disc in the tray, all the while hoping that I hadn't converted my laptop computer into a large paperweight in terms of function. And, voila, it worked! Everything's running as smoothly as it did before I was forced into Internet Explorer 9. I opted out of Windows Automatic Updates; I still get updates, but can choose what I want. Up popped a Windows Page with a list of 84 updates that Microsoft said I needed. And sure enough, in that list was inserted the deadly Windows 9. I picked all the updates except for that one. I will not let MSN be the boss of me. It took ages for all of those updates to be downloaded.

So why is everything working now, when it hadn't been? Probably because when I tried loading IE7 (which was bounced up to IE8) online, my computer still contained remnants of the IE9 that I didn't want. It was as if the computer couldn't make up its mind what version of Internet Explorer it was running. I tried to Defrag several times, but that didn't help. It's my theory that when I installed from Disk, everything that had gone before had been completely erased and I could start on a clean slate. The fact that I have to reinstall programs I used to have bears that out. So, do I have a life? Of course. But tonight, getting all of this computer stuff done has taken about 7 hours of my time. Good thing there was a baseball game on; waiting for a computer to recover and download can take forever.(The Seattle Mariners played the Los Angeles Dodgers, and the M's shut 'em out 3-0. YAAY! See? I've got a life.At least I think I do).So anyhow, if I'm gonna invest a chunk of time getting something to wor, which takes up hours of my life I'll never have again, I'm gonna post about it. And so I did.

Looks like I've been online a little too long...

Many, many times, I'm online only 2 or 3 hours a day. If that. But I've got this annoying tendency; I Hate It When Things Don't Work. And nights like this are long, dragged out affairs, trying to do stuff that takes forever to accomplish. I suppose if I was a tekkie who indeed Didn't Have A Life, I could probably have gotten this stuff down in half of the time it took me.

Public Service Dept.: Of course, there's all kinds of nasty things out there just waiting to invade your computer and send it reeling; protecting your machine is necessary, and can be important and can be costly. I've been running the Comodo Firewall, which is free for home use; I've run it for a couple of years now and it's great! And the price is right, too. Okay, I'm done. Back to my life now...

2011-05-17T23:49:00.000-07:00

Ten Years Gone...
...and it's hard to believe it's been that long...

Time flies by so fast. As the years begin to recede into the distant memory, anniversary dates sometimes pass by unnoticed, and that's what happened to me. I didn't realize what day this wa until I saw the date on the computer screen. My Mom and Dad left this earth 10 years ago, and today's the tenth anniversary of his passing. Sometimes I can still hear Mom calling me to dinner, or Dad singing songs while playing the banjo; he could also play guitar and keyboards. Most afternoons or evenings, Mom would be playing hymns on the organ or singing and strumming her ukelele. I remember Dad playing his guitar alongside Mom on ukelele at church services sometimes.

I remember coming home from my job at the grocery store during high school, and we'd sit up and talk about anything, everything, and nothing until past midnight when Dad was on the road and my little sister was asleep. She treated me with respect, and that's my most deeply-etched memory of her. Dad and I never got to know each other well, but I remember shooting hoops with him in the back yard, or tossing a frisbee back and forth or going fishing with him in his canoe. He could and often was emotionally distant. In that way, I think I take after him.

Our family had its share of tension, more than its share sometimes. The bad memories live side-by-side with the good memories. We're all shaped by our memories, with achievements and shortcomings competing for the space within us. But it's too late to change things once they've happened. Our household was one of all-out devotion coupled with a sense of alienation, and to this day I remember how topsy-turvy everything seemed to be when I was growing up.

But I'm not writing this to disparage my Parents. I loved them both, although sometimes I acted like I didn't. I respected them. Sometimes they could both be a lot of fun, too. I respected them both, looked up to them, and in turn they treasured me, yet could be so frustrated with me. The good and the bad. My Dad wanted me to go into business with him. I told him no, thinking that if I couldn't get along with him very well at home, that me working for him would be a disaster (I never told Dad that). I'm sure that was the largest-single disappointment I ever caused him. Again, I Let Him Down. From that day on, we were never that close again.

My Parents did the best they could. They gave it all; I know they did. Maybe they gave too much. I had good times with both of them. We had fun along the way. No Parent can be perfect, but they tried to be. Do I miss my Dad? I'm not very sure about that, but he was a good guy. Do I miss my Mom? As the years went by, and I knew I wasn't measuring up to her and Dad's idea of how successful I should've been, tensions resulted and distance came between us, and I'm sad Mom and I weren't closer later on.

I wanted to try and honor their memory by writing this, and I'm not sure I accomplished that. But I remember them; they were both such a huge part of my life. They made sacrifices over and over and over again for us kids, and maybe I wasn't grateful enough. I don't think I'll ever come to terms with that, but I wanted to let the world know that They Were Here, They Did Exist, and I Remember Them. They did their best.

Rest In Peace, Mom and Dad...

2011-05-08T17:11:00.000-07:00

LENDING AN EAR...
...does anyone have one I can borrow?

My left ear has been out of commission for almost a couple of weeks. Me, a music person with affected hearing. I understand Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys could only hear out of one ear after his dad whacked him in the head with a baseball bat. His ear can't be fixed, but mine can be, hopefully. My ear appointment is tomorrow, at which the doctor will switch on a miniature vacuum cleaner and stick it in my ear and suck all the impacted wax out of it. I've basically had 25% of my normal hearing capacity in my left ear lately, and it's a bummer. I've always had problems with that ear; back when I used to swim regularly, it was my left ear that needed an ear plug; if I didn't use one, I wouldn't have normal hearing for 2 or 3 days. I could hear the water sloshing around in my skull. This time, it's That Annoying Wax Buildup, the same thing all those frustrated housewives in Johnson & Johnson commercials have to face.

Looks like a problem for Roto Rooter!

More than anything, though, I haven't really been able to enjoy listening to music lately. One speaker, Mono; Two speakers, Stereo. But I've been a Mono person in a Stereo world. I've tried experimenting with my stereo system; turning the right speaker Way Down and turning up the left speaker Way, Way up, and have been able to achieve some sort of audio balance although everything sounds muddy in my left ear. I cannot imagine never being able to hear music. It's one of the few things that can re-set my psyche whenever I've had a bad day. I've also tried listening to some Mono 45's, and old 78's (Scratchy Mono) and that works okay, although I notice that even on bad mono recordings, 2 ears are still better than one; there's a whole dimension of sound depth I'm missing. And I tell ya, if I can get my left ear working tomorrow, I'm gonna have me one heck of a Music Listening Party! And I'll try to stop before I go deaf in Both ears!

So for me to lose an ear is a real emergency, because I want my ears to WORK! I want it fixed RIGHT NOW! I'm afraid I'll lose my hearing! But the medical community doesn't see it that way. I've had an Ear-ectomy (or whatever you call it) performed on my ear before. It's a ten-minute process, but one of the disadvantages of a small town is that the medical community works at its own very, very sluggish pace. I tried arguing with the lady in the doctor's office, and she got mad at me because I was stressing her so badly! But lady, this is my ear! DON'T YOU CARE? "Sorry, sir, but there are no openings for two weeks." When I'm frustrated, I can get really nasty and I did. I later went back and apologized to her. I've tried using "Debrox" which is some sort of goopy liquid yer supposed to pour in the affected ear to dissolve wax, but that hasn't worked at all. So into the doctors' office I go tomorrow, and then I'm gonna set up a regular ear-maintenance schedule. Finally, three paragraphs about a defective ear is probably too much information, so I'll stop now.

Finally...and it must be said...I imagine my readers, all two of them, will turn a deaf ear towards this post...and I can't say I blame 'em...

BLOG UPDATE: I went to the Ear Doctor and now I'm hearing once again out of my Left Ear. Let's hear it for the little Ear-Vacuum cleaner. No More Waxy Buildup!

2011-05-02T02:57:00.000-07:00

ONE LESS BAD GUY IN THE WORLD...
Osama Bin Laden finally got what was coming to him...

During a firefight just the other night, we got him. We finally got him. People are rejoicing over the fact that Osama Bin Laden is no longer alive. Hopefully the ghosts of all those who died on 9/11/01 are resting easier now. And, for their loved ones, perhaps they now have a sense of justice. Back then, the whole world was shocked at what happened that fateful day. Lives were destroyed instantly, and all of a sudden this great big world of ours wasn't as safe a place as it had been before.

As much as I've maligned former Prezzident George W. Bush, and believe me, I have, hopefully he has some sense of validity now. In a way, the events of 9/11/01 wrecked his Presidency; there are those who've speculated that he would have spent his time in the Oval Office dealing with the routine matters of the highest office in the land, but all that changed. Things got really serious all of a sudden. Standing in the rubble of 9/11, he vowed that whoever was responsible for 9/11 would be caught. His re-election came and went and Bin Laden was still nowhere to be found.

There are those who are cheering, filled with glee, celebrating the fact that Osama Bin Laden is dead. I'm glad he's dead, too, only, remember, he too had a mother and father and those who cared about him. I'm not saying he didn't deserve to die. He got what was coming to him. At the same time, isn't it wrong, celebrating someone's death? A Life is A Life, after all. I have no idea if it was the intent to Kill Obama outright, or if he could've been captured, kept alive at least long enough to face justice. But I can't help thinking that we tarnished ourselves somehow when we celebrate the fact that someone's been killed. That's not what life is about, and I believe we diminish ourselves as human beings when we throw a big party over someone's death.

So is the world now a safer place with the death of Bin Laden? I don't know, but probably not. Who knows how many of his colleagues are lining up to take his place, after all. Who knows how many foaming-at-the-mouth potential martyrs are out there, thinking that they'll get to a higher level of Heaven if they kill great masses of people who are just going on about their lives? That is indeed cruel, and the fact remains that if someone places no value on life, then they just can't be stopped. That's the reasoning suicide bombers use, after all.

Perhaps in this uncertain world we need to show other nations that if you mess with the U.S.A., you will pay. That's what we've shown by relentlessly pursuing Osama Bin Laden. It was taking so long to "get him", but I figured that our nation's intelligence community was buzzing with all kinds of secret deals and covert operations, hunting him down. Sooner or later, we all get what we deserve, and Bin Laden got his. And, he doesn't have to be dealt with anymore. But people like that are still out there. But now, perhaps, we can all breathe just a bit easier. In closing, don't "glorify" Osama Bin Laden's death. Rather, think of it as something that probably had to happen. And it did, it really did. Let's all breathe easier now, at least until the next Really Bad Thing Happens.

I'm not politically astute by any means, so I probably have no business posting stuff like this. But when something causes me to feel a certain way, it's a bit therapeutic to post it here. So I did.

2011-04-29T21:20:00.000-07:00

The Royal Wedding...
...the world can now rest, it's over, it's over, it's over...

It's happened; Prince William whats-his-name has married Princess Kate (who now has the same surname as the Prince's). Come to think of it, I don't know what the Royalty's surname is. Anyone got a clue? Anyway, I've kept my observations of the wedding to a minimum; I'm watching The Learning Channel's re-broadcast of the occasion which took place, what, 12 hours ago now? All the vows that were repeated today are the same vows that Prince Charles & Lady Di took so very long ago, and look how everything turned out. It was just awful, the spectre of Camilla lurking forever in the background until the day of that fateful life-claiming car crash in Paris.

I tuned in the TLC network about 15 minutes before the tape-delayed wedding vows took place. Held in Westminster Abbey, all of the proceedings so solemn in that vast, cavernous structure that was built back in the stone age, and the energy level was about the same as the last Papal Death in terms of regimentation and solemnity. I hope the poor girl knows what she's getting into. For they are both now under the microscopic eye of the British Press, as they dissect the lives of the Royal Couple for years to come. And the tabloids are already speculating on Poor Kate. "Is she too skinny?" was one such article I saw online just moments ago. The ink isn't even dry on The Wedding Register yet, for crying out loud!

The Royal Cupple.

So who are these grandiose ceremonies, such as today's Royal Marriage, for? I think it comes from an innate desire for human beings to Commemorate Everything. This wedding ceremony could've been held in some anonymous Registrar's office, but oh no, we have to over-inflate all of the juicy details of this overblown event; we have to have something to celebrate, we have to try and lift ourselves out of our dull lives by making this something Much Bigger Than It Deserves To Be, it's a way for us insignificant human beings to try and attain some form of external validation. This ceremony wasn't really About The Royal Couple; it's for everyone else, it's the way the Royal Family continues itself, it's for England's national pride, and now that it's over, British Royalty can resume its existence of being irrelevant to anything else going on in the world. Now we've all gotta find something else to commemorate.

That said, I have best wishes for the Royal Couple. She's pretty, and he's...ah...ummm...almost bald; too bald for such a young guy. Maybe the strain of being born into the Royal Family has taken its toll on his scalp? And I'll stop now, before the Royal Air Force finds out where I'm at and bombs my house. I probably deserve it for what I've posted here...

2011-04-26T19:59:00.000-07:00

AN ELEGY FOR SWEET PEA...

...we went thru a lot together, and I'll never forget her...

"Oh, Sweet Pea, come on and dance with me

Come on, come on, come on and dance with me

Oh, Sweet Pea, won't you be my girl

Won'tcha, won'tcha, wont'cha be my girl...

I've kept quite a few species of birds over the last few years. And just when I thot I'd never have another, I met Sweet Pea. She was a 35-year old Umbrella Cockatoo. On impulse one day, I went into a pet shop, and there she was in the corner, her cage hidden from view by a bedsheet stretched over it. She had been previously kept, for 30 years, by a woman who yelled at her all the time. She was sitting on the bottom of the cage, her head down in the corner. She'd just been in another situation that didn't work out for her. Sweet Pea didn't like women, because she was treated so badly, for so long, by her first owner. The second owner kept her for a while, but the bird attacked his girlfriend. So back to the pet shop went Sweet Pea.

I went to a dance just the other night

I saw a girl there who was out of sight

I asked a friend of mine who she could be

He said that her friends just call her Sweet Pea...

I came in to the Pet Shop several times in February, and each time, I'd talk softly to her, trying to establish a rapport, and after a while, she'd climb up the cage wall and sit on my fingers poking between the cage bars. My heart went out to her, because I know what it's like to feel depressed. I brought her home, and she and I became fast friends. I vowed to her that things would be better now. She was out of her cage quite a lot, she was easy to handle, and she'd sit in my lap for hours at a time. I fell hard for this bird. No bird owner can be with his bird all the time, and that's where the problems began. She chewed and broke several of the bars on her cage, and made a great escape, climbing to the top of the cage where she began ripping paneling off the walls. I was literally in Shock when I got home that day. I couldn't understand; she seemed like such a gentle girl when I bought her.

So I blocked off the part of the wall she chewed with books in plastic milk crates, and thot all was well. Think again...she broke out and got on top of her cage again, where the milk crates full of books were. She pulled down the top milk crate, which fell onto her cage, which sent everything crashing to the floor in a resounding thud. When I got home, the cage was on the floor, tipped sideways, with milk cartons and books scattered all over. She was on top of the side of her cage, and was all wide-eyed, thinking I was gonna kill her, but no, I didn't do that. A couple of days later, I got another cage with stronger bars. She climbed all over that cage, trying to find a weak bar she could snap off. That failing, she began ripping her seed dishes out of the mounts, scattering dishes and seeds all over the place. And yet she was so nice when I was home! It's almost as if she had a split personality.

I walked on over and asked her to dance

Thinking maybe later we'll be makin' romance

But every guy there was thinkin' like me

I had to stand in line to get a dance with Sweet Pea...

By this time, I had kept it in for so long. I finally lost it one morning, when I got up to find seed dishes and broken bird toys scattered all over the place. I absolutely lost it. I yelled at her, and shook a stick at her. No, I didn't kill the bird. But as I was yelling, I saw a change come over her. She became afraid of me for the first time. And I turned into the very type of person that I'd tried to get her away from. And I knew I'd lost her in that instant. She was now afraid of me in the day, but at night she would still indicate she wanted a little company. The final night she was here was a good night; I wanted to give her at least one more good night before the people from a local "bird rescue" operation came and got her today.

As I handed her over to the guy who was gonna take her home, she started fawning all over him, squealing with delight and cooing to him, just like she'd done with me when I first got her. And, you know, my heart was absolutely broken. I wanted to hang on to her, yet I knew I had to give her up. The bird and I simply were not good for each other anymore. I had dreams of taking her for car rides, out for walks and showing her off to people. I really thought I'd finally found the right bird. Hopefully her new owners will do a better job of keeping her than I. "It's the right thing to do", said the bird-rescue lady, and I know it was. That doesn't make me feel any better. I'm past my mid-50s now and it's harder to live alone than it used to be. But yet people drive me crazy. They complicate my life. So I've tried to find a bird companion.

I finally got to whisper sweet words in her ear

I whispered we oughta get away from here

We took a little walk, I held her close to me

And underneath the stars I said to Sweet Pea...

My time with Sweet Pea took so much energy out of me that I don't have any left. I gave her a lot of my soul. It might sound silly to some of you who read this, something along the lines of "it's just a bird, you know". Bird owners feel differently. And my heart broke today when I had to give her up. After all, it was "the right thing to do". Yeah, rrrrright. Tell that to my heart. Why didn't I post about Sweet Pea before? I didn't want to jinx myself. After all, I had such high hopes for this bird...

Oh, Sweet Pea, come on and dance with me

Won'tcha, won'tcha, won'tcha dance with me

Oh, Sweet Pea, wont'cha be my girl

Won'tcha, won'tcha, won'tcha be my girl...

The chords to Tommy Roe's "Sweet Pea" came to me one day while playing guitar for her. "Sweet Pea" was indeed the bird's name.

Goodbye, Sweet Pea.

My little Sweet Pea girl.

2011-04-23T00:22:00.000-07:00

IT'S JOE ALBERTSON'S SUPERMARKET...
...but the store will no longer be here...

When a grocery store has to close, it's always a sad thing. It becomes sad to shop there, because you know that sooner or later it won't exist anymore. And there is no other Albertson's supermarket within at least a 25-mile radius of the store here in North Bend, Oregon. Twenty-five miles doesn't sound like a long distance, but when you factor in that there are no interstate highways around here, the distance becomes, in effect, a bit further because the narrow two-lanes around here can be quite taxing at times. Don't even think about trying to drive them at night; if you do so, you've got to be aware every single millisecond of twists and turns in the road. There's portions of these little roads that I'm uncomfortable driving in the Day! Thankfully, there are numerous "slow vehicle" lanes, where I let everyone else whizz on by. Speed on, brother, hell ain't half full...

So what does this store's closing signify? Well, there's one less place for people to gather, one less place to greet a friendly checker, one less place to access a USBank cash machine, no more Cheap-Chicken Mondays, one less place to get money orders, and so forth, and so on. I was told long ago that an average grocery store makes less than one-half of one percent pure profit, so perhaps even the most successful stores are skating by on a wing and a prayer. Maybe the managements of other grocery stores in town will breathe a bit easier ("maybe we'll get their customers" syndrome). And it's the same old story; the company that owns Albertson's just wasn't making money, and if this happens to a big grocery store (everyone needs food, after all), certainly other, more specialized businesses face a bleak existence. Albertson's is/was part of a fairly large shopping mall here, and perhaps other businesses in that mall will see less customers due to the lost drawing power of the Supermarket.

Follow The Money (or the lack thereof).

Many years ago, I worked for a Buttrey's supermarket in North Idaho. In the late 1980's, that supermarket had to close; so many other stores with longer hours were being built in the area that Buttrey's got squeezed out of the market. I knew the management, and over coffee one morning, the "third man" (a management term, I think), told me that in addition to added competition, Buttrey's, being part of a shopping mall, had to pay fairly exorbitant monthly rent to the Mall Management, and that the amount of money each shopper spent was less per capita at Buttrey's because of all the other places to shop in the mall. So, I guess, a store is more profitable if it stands alone? Sounds like it. Buttrey's was not the cheapest place to shop, although the prices were reasonable, but when I worked there as a 'box-boy', I felt that we had the best customer service in town, as far as grocery stores go. In the final two-weeks before Buttreys had to close altogether, the customer-vultures invaded, looking for really good deals, because the store was trying to get rid of as much stock, as fast as they could. How sad that was to see.

In that same North Idaho town, another large grocery store, Rosauer's, ended up having to close for basically the same reasons almost a decade later. Rosauer's had a full-service restaurant, and it was a great place to go to dine and shop, or vice versa. Some of the restaurant employees told me that their side of the business was making money, but couldn't make enough to overcome the losses over on the Grocery side. Every grocery store has its share of customers who show up almost every day, and there are still others who live in the area but don't or cannot drive. Another fact is, every store has a senior citizen base who come to depend on one store to get the food they need. These stores become gathering places that people depend on, and when those places are gone, people have to try and adapt as best as they can. I was in the Rosauer's restaurant on the final day they were open, and I expressed condolences to the waitress, and immediately she began tearing up; it must have been a really rough day for the staff.

Life goes on, though. When I was in Albertson's to get money orders this week, the lady who was working at the customer service center told me that some employers had actually come to the store to recruit staff for their businesses; I've never heard of that before, but I guess it's possible. And I wish them all success in their future endeavors.

2011-04-15T16:27:00.000-07:00

IT'S A HEINZ-57 BIRTHDAY...

...WHICH MEANS I AIN'T GETTIN' ANY YOUNGER...

I've listed the true facts before. It's the day that President Lincoln died; it's the day the Titanic Sank, so that means I was the third disaster. It's hard to believe that in three years I'll turn SIXTY. So that it applies to me more accurately, I'll have to change the old hippie phrase accordingly: "don't trust anyone over 70" .There. That should work for a few more years. Aging is a fairly subtle thing; I still see old men and women walking around doing whatever, but I'm now having to realize that, "whoa, I'm one of these people, aren't I?" Any woman who'd be interested in me now would probably have a "fatherly image" that kicks in. And I've often thought, "I don't want to go out with that old bag", but wait a minute here: My Bag is Now Old TOO. (Try not to interpret that last observation too literally...)

A TAXING SITUATION: Earlier this year, I decided to attempt to procrastinate getting my taxes done. Later, I finally decided that I actually was going to procrastinate. (wow! some progress!) After a time, I decided I'd attempt to procrastinate further, so I did put it off for a while. I thot, "well, let's try to set some sort of record for procrastinating". Before I knew it, April first came and went, so I decided to do some Really Serious procrastinating until Today, April 15th. So I took all my financial stuff to a church that serves as a facility for AARP members who are really great at doing their taxes. (They don't procrastinate...) These seniors who had careers in finance, taxes and things of that ilk are sharp cookies indeed. The U.S. gov't supplies them with computers, software, what have you. After all, the more e-files (which they do right on the spot), the less clutter there is in the U.S. mail, making everything more convenient.

YOU CAN'T MAKE IT UP: I just thought of something: The Post Office reports that less and less people are mailing letters, documents, whatever. And the P.O. has had to raise postage rates to cover the deficits they encounter due to less letters in the mail. So the U.S. Government that doles out free tax service, e-filing without postage, is also the Same U.S. Government that, you guessed it, is in part causing the Post Office to generate Less Revenue from not as much user-purchased postage. I guess it really makes sense if you don't think about it. Now, let's examine another issue. People are buying electric cars, which of course, use less gas. The state of Oregon makes a lot of money on fuel taxes. But since those with electric cars use less gas, the state generates less money from gas taxes. So, there's a proposal circling around that everyone's talking about: Those who operate Electric Cars will have to pay a Really High tax rate to make up for the money the state won't be getting from those who operate conventional, gas-burning vehicles. Leon Russell wrote, in one of his songs, "I'm so happy, I'm dying of laughter", and it sure applies here...

FOCUSING ON THE SITUATION: Last month, I went to WAL-MART, where there's an optical franchise inside. I am now seeing the world through dark-colored glasses. Say what you will about Wal-Mart (and most of it is true), this vision franchise examined me, they had a large selection of frames, I wanted glass lenses with photo-gray tinting, it took only a week to get my glasses, and THEY GOT IT RIGHT THE FIRST TIME! Last year I tried to get new glasses at a Local Eye Clinic. They grind out lenses themselves instead of sending 'em out, and either the Optician who examined me, or the eyeglass drillers themselves kept getting it wrong. I was re-imbursed $700, the amount I had pre-paid them. And, my Wal-Mart glasses cost $150 LESS than the local eye clinic charged me. That's including eye exams. I really wanna go into that local eye clinic and tell 'em, "Look! Here's what Wal-Mart did, that YOU couldn't do, nyaah, nyaah, nyaah, nee-ner nee-ner, nee-nerrrrr, but I can't see how that would serve any kind of positive situation, so I won't. But the thot crosses my mind every now and then...

IT'S BEEN A HARD DAY'S NIGHT: Every once in a while, Angels Smile down from Heaven, casting beaming rays which permeate my Every Being, or something like that, and today was one of those days. I was rummaging through racks of used albums, and I couldn't believe what I'd found inthe Goodwill Bins....A Copy of The Beatles'"A Hard Day's Night", the soundtrack thereof. Although the Beatles' U.S. label was Capitol, this album was issued on United Artists records, because the film company wanted the rights to said soundtrack album, as they were afraid they were going to lose money on the Beatles' film of the same name. Well, that didn't happen, not in those early days of Beatlemania. Everyone made money, hand over fist, and I imagine the Boys in the back room of United Artists were really partying hearty.

There are, I believe, only seven Beatles-performed songs total on this album, which is filled out with instrumental versions of other fab tunes. This thing sold like hotcakes. The same album in England featured nothing but Beatles' songs; the songs used in the movie were on side one, while other Beatles songs recorded but not used in the movie, took up side two. The Beatles' U.S. label, Capitol issued some of the same songs on the album "Something New", and regardless of song-duplication, both albums sold heavily. The song, "A Hard Days' Night" was a Capitol Single, but it showed up on the United Artists album, and not on Capitol's album. Sounds like thar was some heavy dealin' going on behind the scenes between the two record companies! Much later on (in the 1980's), Capitol bought the rights to this album and issued it for a few years.

Groovy-Groovy 1968 label!

In 1964, the original United Artists pressing of the "Hard Day's Night" was issued on a black label, which the company used for the next four years. I guess the times, they were a changing, and of course in 1967 there was the Summer Of Love with along with psychedelia; really groovy (I hardly ever use that word; I find it embarrassing) fashions, whacked-out virtually unreadable posters and wild color combinations in almost everything...and I really believe that United Artists meant for this label design to reflect the changing counterculture. This label was only printed in one year, 1968, and you've gotta admit this label design was a real departure. I like it. It's pretty wild-looking. Anyhow, the copy of this that I found at Goodwill cost me 99 cents; it's in great shape, and could be worth as much as $75 DOLLARS. Oh, heart, be still...

Finally, here's where the Ketchupping begins; a full Ketchup (Catsup?) bottle that dispenses from a remote-control mechanism. Obviously, this can't be done with a glass bottle. 'When you shake a ketchup bottle, first none comes out and then a lot'l", after all. Actually, I prefer Mayo on my burgers, but I can absolutely not eat Onion Rings without ketchup. Actually I try to avoid tomato-based products altogether; the sodium contained in everything from Ketchup to Vegetable use has lots of sodium. But I can mitigate that for if Onion Rings are involved!

In closing, I'm still trying to figure out this new blogging editor, so it's quite possible my posts will be shaky-looking for a while, but the compulsive-obsessive side of me now knows this blog is working again, so I can live with that...although it's not perfect...yet...

2011-04-11T23:37:00.000-07:00

A RESURRECTED BLOG? COULD BE...
...Okay, Okay!!! I think I'm back in business here...

Well, Ain't this a fine way to go? Grand Funk Railroad once sang, "No matter how hard you push on the door, it won't open without the key". And it turned out I had the key. After installing, re-installing, deleting and re-re-installing my Javascript program, nothing worked. So I went back to the Blogger site, trying to find some sort of "fix" on the site, and it turns out Blogger.com resembles me...it HAS ISSUES! Except that "Blogger" errors are fixable. My own neuroses are probably not.

So I went into Blogger.com, selected the New Editor, got the blog fixed (I hope) and now I get the chance to once again expose all of you to my Blogging Neuroses! So what I'm gonna do here is post some photos that I couldn't post before, and treat 'em as if I've never posted them before. Hah. Now I'm stealing from myself. Okay, how about some photos I've taken (fairly) recently; "old news" since they were taken just after my previous post back in mid-March. I've tried posting these photos probably half a million times, so I'll try it again; hang on!

TURBULENCE ON THE SOUTH COAST: Just because we don't have much snow in the winter don't mean that we don't have winter; she just presents herself in a different way. The Jetties down here on the bay are really important to the area's economy, because every boat that gets into the bay has to cross the "bar", which consists of a jetty on either side of the passageway. I've read that most of these jetty rocks average one to two tons, so you'd think they'd be pretty hard to move. "Hah", says Ma Nature. She gets her temper in a twist, and proceeds to rip boulders off the jetty, scattering 'em all over the place. I once sat atop the South Jetty, when a wave came down on ME. It felt like someone had dropped an Anvil on my head. That's known as "Wile E. Coyote" Syndrome.

In this photo, a crashing wave heads towards Chicken Point, on top of which is the Coast Guard observation building. It's called "Chicken Point" because in days of olde, fishermen planning on going out to sea stood atop the point, and if they decided not to go out because of the waves, they were "Chicken". So there's a little piece o'folklore for ya's. It's days like this that the Coast Guard absolutely forbids boats to go out there. Not exactly a day for a leisurely cruise.

On this particular day, I resembled the title of a Led Zeppelin song, "Fool In The Rain". The wind was blowing so hard that it was coming down sideways. After 15-20 minutes, I had to escape to my car, and if you'd thrown me in the ocean, I couldn't have been any wetter. This second photo was taken between waves, and the ground looks like a moonscape; all of those scattered rocks were once atop the jetty. Mother Nature's fury on display, for sure.

This last photo shows an improvement in the weather; at least I was able to stay dry, and I wasn't the only person on the beach 'cos the sun was out, and usually it's really difficult to time the camera-snap to coincide with waves crashing, but on this day, the ocean was so turbulent that virtually every time I took a shot, it featured a wave. And for sure, on days like this, a person can feel really small and ineffective. But mostly, you come away realizing that it's not an ideal day for swimming or a picnic on the beach.

I'm sure that I'd get seasick on a day like this; some of the waves can be 10-14 feet high (or more) on any given day, and that's what you encounter...pitch...roll...pitch some more...roll some more. I've seen boats turn around and come back in due to the size of the waves. There's a high cliff near here, with the unglorious name of Chicken Point. The name came from fishermen, who went out to the point, studied the weather, and came away with "nope...ain't goin' out thar!" They were "chicken". I'd be, too. I don't handle rolling waves too well.

Before posting this last portion, I've gone back in and edited some things, and for starters, it turns out I posted a fairly coherent blog, both in linguistics as well as appearance. And I'm finding I don't have to make much sense as long as the blog looks good. How shallow of me...

2011-03-15T17:11:00.000-07:00

A RANDOM, BORING LETTER FROM HOME...

...plus, a picture at the end. Is that enticement or what?

That Does Or Does Not Compute: I love laptop computers. Back in the days when I used to bang away at my desktop, I had no idea all of that technology could be shoved into something small enough for use while sitting in an easy chair. Maybe someday they'll make a waterproof model that you can use in the bathtub. Wait, no, there's still that whole electricity/water issue, so that's probably not gonna happen. The problem is that the Laptop Computer is so portable that it finds itself in situations a Desktop never encounters. Such as, placing the Laptop on top of a shelf, or perhaps another chair, or maybe even on the floor 'cos you've gotta get up and do something else. "Calls of Nature" can be hazardous to the Laptop's health. One such call happened to me, so I placed my Laptop on another chair, only I didn't place it well enough, and THUD, it hit the floor. Right after that my Wireless network didn't work anymore. My computer's wireless receiver was toast.

Lucky for me, there was another way to get online; I located my long-lost ethernet cable, plugged one end into the modem, the other into my Laptop, and voila, it worked. The only thing is, when you have to physically connect the Laptop into the modem, it ceases to be portable. Ya can't ride the horse until after you untie it, after all. Yesterday, I took my Laptop to a little shop where GeekSpeak is conducted, and was informed that my wireless mechanism was too difficult to easily get to and that they'd have to charge me a lot of labor. Instead, the GeekGuy at the Geekshop told me to go to Radio Shack and get a wireless adapter. I spent three hours last night trying to get it to work; I was bounced from one tech support person to another, and nothing could be done. My computer was receiving the signal, but the signal couldn't connect it to the internet. Ah, but this issue resolved itself today:

A representative from my internet/tv/phone provider was due to make a house call today, and he also ended up programming my Laptop. I guess service reps have to have Electrical Engineering degrees, doctorates in Computer Science, and have to be brave enough to climb up a telephone pole to in blinding Oregon Coast Rain to raise the TV cable attached to my house.He was a knight in shining armor, only he had no armor 'cos he was driving a van. I guess the van was armor enough. I still don't know what he did my computer to make the Wireless adapter work. Hey, I guess as long as the buttons work and the connections connect, I'm happy. A case of where Igorance is indeed Bliss.

Thank You ,Thank You Very Much: While at Wal-Mart one rainy day, I looked deep into a bin of CD's that were priced at Five Bucks Each, and found an Elvis Presley CD; the afternoon performance of the "Aloha From Satellite" concert, performed in 1973. While the Evening performance has been available since that time, the Afternoon Concert wasn't released until 1995; I'd never seen that CD before. Both Afternoon and Evening Performances consist of the same songs in the same order; the idea being that if a mistake was made in one performance, an edit could be pulled from the other. The "Aloha From Satellite" concertwas beamed up to, and bounced back down from a satellite, the first time a concert was relayed in that manner. I don't know if Wal-Marts around the nation have that particular CD, but the local Wal-Mart sure did. So, if you have to go there for some particular reason, you might as well stop by the CD bargain bin; you never know what you'll find there.
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A Further Indication That I'm Falling Apart: Last year, I tried to get glasses from a large local optical firm, but try as they might, they couldn't cut a pair of lenses for me. Something about one eye being too different from the other in terms of focal range. Now, before you growl at me for what I have to say, remember, I tried to give the local optical firm my business. This time around, I went to the visual centerfranchise inside Wal-Mart. Wal-mart! How could I? Well, I did. And if they can cut me a pair of glasses, I'm gonna take 'em down to the Local Optical Firm and rub their noses in the fact that Wal-Mart outdid them! (Well, I'm thinking about doing that...) Anyway, I know I've mentioned Wal-Mart quite a bit in this post, but remember that local people work there too; at least that's what I tell myself when I go in there.

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Is This Worth A Thousand Words? The huge watercraft pictured here, the mighty "Santiago Basin" out of Hong Kong, (which will never be mistaken for a luxury liner), waits for truckloads of logs to arrive, after which one of its three cranes picks up an entire truckload as if it was a toothpicks. It looks like it has a little red submersible craft attached to it (that red thing mounted on the back), although I have no idea why it's there. This was taken yesterday. There's no truth to the rumor that when this boat enters the bay, the water level rises three feet. Heck, not even the recent Tsunami could do that. Me, I'm amazed that it can hold hundreds of truckloads of logs and still be able to float. The logging trucks that pull up alongside this boat look like tinker-toys in comparison; the highest log doesn't even come up to the top of the "Pacific Basin" lettering on the bow.

And with that, my work here is done. This addition to the Information Superhighway is now formally closwed now that you've been tittilated, amused, and informed by the writings contained herein (I hope). There are certainly worse ways for someone to pass the time (I think).

2011-03-13T00:31:00.000-08:00

STAYING UP ALL NIGHT FOR THE TSUNAMI...
...it's coming, it's coming, they were telling us...
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I stay up late most of the time, and maybe I shouldn't do that. I can't sleep if I know something out there's trying to get me. Early Friday morning, I was surfing the web and encountered a news update on the Yahoo site, something about a huge earthquake which devasted Japan. So I switched on the TV, and found out that a huge Tsunami was heading eastward across the Pacific Ocean, putting the entire West Coast of the good ol' USA in jeopardy. "Yikes!", my brain went, and I knew I wasn't gonna be able to get to sleep until I found out more. Breathless newscasters, endlessly repeating themselves over and over again with the same information, all wondering about the tide pulling waay out, which would announce the coming of a mighty ocean wave; they were getting hysterical and were becoming more difficult to listen to by the minute, speculating, "when will it arrive?" and "how big's the Tsunami waves 'sposed to be?" Then a weather guy came on the screen, and said that the Tsunami's course had been plotted, and the biggest thrust was basically heading further south than Coos Bay, where I'm at. Next, I went to the local paper's website and looked up the Tide Tables. High Tide was at about 11:45pm Thursday evening, which meant the tide was falling as the Tsunami headed eastward Friday morning. So it's not really because of the Tsunami that the tide was going out. The tide was going out anyway, which worked in our favor; there would be no High Tide which would make the tsunami-inflated water level not as high as it could've been.
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As the newscasters began speculating about the possible devastation, and emergency procedures, and readings that Tsunami-sensing buoys near Hawaii were providing, they all began trying to get various Tidal experts to speculate how much higher the water levels would be when the big waves finally got here, and they came across with a height figure of about 2 and a half meters, which is somewhere between 6 and 7 feet. Knowledge is power, and the more I knew, the safer I felt, because my neighborhood sits on a bluff about 50-60 feet above sea level. 50 feet minus the 7-foot tide prediction meant I had 43 feet to play with. Plus the fact that my house sits about 20 feet higher than the 50 foot bluff meant that by a fairly long shot, I'd be safe. But I still couldn't bear to go to sleep until the Tsunami actually got here, even though my house is higher up than the local fire station, where people can go to wait out the Tsunami. I knew all this logically, but that didn't make any difference.
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The Talking Heads kept saying the Tsunami would encounter my portion of the coast at 7:15am Friday. So I Had to stay up until at least then. I couldn't rest until I saw it for myself. Just after 7am, I walked over the road that borders the bay, and I thought "everyone's gonna think I'm some kind of wacko for doing this". However, that wasn't the case. 7:15 in the morning, and people were gathered by the side of the road, looking out onto the bay, to see this Big Event that everyone was talking about. I realize that on other areas of the coast, people were seriously impacted by the rising Tsunami-related tide levels, but here, it was the Tsunami that never happened, sort of like the Kouhoutek Comet or Geraldo Rivera's futile attempt at discovering treasure on network TV.

This photo looks almost straight down onto the bay. You can see a full-size seagull down there, looking for food. It was taken from the 50-foot bluff I referred to earlier. The bay at this point is half-a-mile wide, if not wider. Then there's a strip of land (a "spit") between the bay and the ocean. The wave would have to go over that spit before it got to us locals. Thankfully, it didn't happen. Obviously, Mr. Seagull didn't care one way or another.

This photo looks south, and at middle left, you can see a bluff with a white building on top, about 4 miles down the bay. It's the Coast Guard Tower, and at the right, is where the Ocean meets the bay, and if the tide's high, you can see waves crashing on that bluff. There really wasn't a whole lot of water activity there as far as I could see. That bluff is about 20 feet higher than the bluff I was standing on, and the bay looks fairly placid. The tide is low, and near the bottom of the photo, a shallow portion of the bay is exposed. The seaport town of Charleston is located just east of the Tower (off the left side of the photo) and I understand there was some structural damage to the docking area. Lots of fishing boats dock there, I'd imagine boats were bumping into docks, perhaps docks bumping into other docks. A friend of mine lives in his docked boat; I hope he's okay. Of course, Charleston is right at Zero Feet above sea level; not a great place to be during an approaching Tsunami.
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Back to Friday morning, I'd been hanging out on my Perch of Safety for a long while, and had been up for close to 20 hours straight; it came time to head back home and catch some ZZZZ's, Tsunami or no. I woke up that afternoon, and drove into town to see if any other places were devastated. By then, the sun had come out, and before heading up the highway, I took this shot out of my car window. It was still fairly windy, but as far as I can tell, this particular section of Coast was spared the agonies of devastation. Local school districts here had been closed, and a shopping mall in North Bend, near here, decided not to open for business. It's located where the bay comes up and around, and is close to sea level; better to err on the side of caution. Further north, up around Tillamook, where there's a lot of relatively flat territory, people were heading to safe places, in some cases going up over the Coastal mountain range, towards the Willamette Valley. Gold Beach, which is about 60 miles south of here, experienced some damage in its harbor; Brookings, which is close to the California border, experienced some really high tides, and in Crescent City, California, a town which is built near the harbor, there was a lot of boat, dock and structural damage. Back here, some of downtown Coos Bay is actually on land that was scooped up out of the bay long ago, and there was no damage that I could see. So many in this area got off easy this time around. But I think I'm going to get what's known as a "72 hour kit" together and put it in the trunk of my car. Such kits consist of foods, a can opener, a flashlight, bottled water and other necessities, just in case things are worse the next time around.
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In no way was this post meant to trivialize the suffering that the nation of Japan is experiencing right now. The news footage from over there is just terrible. This world can seem very big most of the time, and it's events like this that show just how vulnerable we all are. The earth's crust isn't all that thick, and we're all just running to and fro on top of it. Let's hope Mother Earth calms down for a while.

2011-03-07T22:47:00.000-08:00

PHOTOGRAPHY WITH WILD ABANDON...

...or, the coastline near Bandon, Oregon...

I posted some photos of Cape Blanco last month, and on the way back from there, I stopped off in Bandon to take some more photos, which are unpublished until now. (You can find the Cape Blanco photos by scrolling down, or failing that, going to the Feb. 2011 archive.) I'd wanted to spend some time on the Bandon beach. The last time I went here, I was pressed for time. So anyway, come to the ocean with me...
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Left: 200 feet above the ocean, looking north towards Cape Arago, 25 miles away. Right: Seastacks scattered on the beach, looking south.
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Left: some expensive real estate out there with lots of lumber scattered around. Right: The big staircase provides beach access.
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Left (and right): Down on the beach, among the seastacks. Some of the smaller rocks are white agate-type stones, rounded off by erosion.
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Left: Seastack with seagull perched on top. Right: Coast Guard ship a few miles out. I had to wait for the ship to position itself. Fairly warm, but Windy.

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Left: The same ship, further out while waves crash on that big rock. Right: The beach curves around to another set of steps and a hilly path.
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Left: The sun is sinking low, and I've returned back to where I started. Right: A huge set of seastacks, with a hole that waves churn through.

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Left: A group of high school runners stretching before their evening run. Right: A gorgeous sunset from high above. Colors by Ma Nature.

After climbing up the stairs and then on the steep pathway back up to the top showed me exactly how far out-of-shape I am. After that last photo, I had to hurry up and get out of there; I figured there was half-an-hour of light left and home is close to 30 miles away, and I made it just before Total Darkness set in. My night vision's not what it used to be. But I definitely wanna come back down here and spend more time.

2011-03-07T19:10:00.000-08:00

GENTLEMEN, START YOUR ENGINES...
...the Car Engine, not the Search Engine...
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First it was the Cell Phone. Drivers who use cell phones have more accidents than those who do not. Whether or not the cell phone is being held while yakking away, the outcome is the same. Well, John Q. Public, there's something else to watch out for, and that's Drivers who use the WORLD WIDE WEB while driving! I can relate to this whole Web Thing, 'cos I'm online quite a lot, and it takes all of my psychic energy to navigate the Web. In fact, while online, I'm less effective at doing other things; I miss plot lines in TV Shows, entire football or baseball games fly by, and were it not for instant replay, I wouldn't know what just happened. I've always been like that; multi-tasking and me don't agree. Since I'm not someone else, I have no idea how it affects others, but Surfing The Web While Driving can not be a good thing...? State Farm Insurance polled 900 drivers recently and 19% of them said they surfed the web while driving. Well, up go the insurance rates...or at least, a good reason for Insurers to Charge More...
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THE EYE OF A NEWT: Here's a dubious political development...Newt Gingrich (who lives up to his first name) has said he expects to be a Republican Presidential Nominee in 2012. Isn't he the former political bigwig whose wife died in the hospital, but before she died he was already dating someone else...? He's an annoying little guy whose best years are behind him, and Sarah Palin would look like a liberal next to him. Oh my gawd, I've just had visions of a Palin/Gingrich ticket...Excuse me for a bit, I feel a little green in the gills...if this is the best that the Republicans can come up with, welcome to a 2nd term, Mr. Obama.
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PORK FOR PORK: It's been a long time since I've eaten a Pork Chop. They're good and I love 'em. 82 million Americans can't be wrong; that's how many of us consume Pork in one version or another. Pork, of course, used to be ballyhooed as being "The Other White Meat". However, The National Pork Board (yes, there is actually one), doesn't think "The Other White Meat" is usable anymore; it's out of fashion, old hat, irrelevant, and no longer effective, so says the Pork Board. The new Pork slogan they've just adopted, after probably paying an inflated amount for some ritzy ad agency to come up with, is: "Pork: Be Inspired". How about that, "pork" for Pork! I never 'sausage' a slogan, and while I think Sausage/Egg/McMuffins are great, and while they postpone my appetite for a while, they don't inspire me.
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PLEASE PASS THE TOE JAM: Have you heard about this yet? A diabetic guy in Roseburg, Oregon (my neighborhood, roughly), woke up from a nap to find out his dog had Eaten His Toes! Evidently it's an instinctive thing in a dog's nature to removed diseased flesh from its Human. This isn't the first case; back in December, a dog ate the toes of a 10-year old Illinois girl; she had a sore on her foot. The only human food I can think of that would even come close are Mushrooms, breaded or otherwise. Chomp! By the way, the guy in Oregon is giving up ownership of his dog. Good thing, probably; otherwise perhaps he'd wake up with Fingers missing one fine day.
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A HOLLYWOOD DOPE: Here's the latest dope on an actor, or the latest actor on dope, whichever you prefer. Charlie Sheen, who thinks he's better and more worthy than you or I or the Rest of the world, has been fired from the alleged 'hit' TV series, 2 and a half men. In the wake of his absence, the show will be re-titled "Two Men". And, right before I set this post into motion, I found out elsewhere on the 'net that he's hired some sort of Understudy. An understudy. For a non-employed actor. Oh, and in case you wondered about this Sheen photo, he's not waving to the crowd. He's flipping the bird five times in one collective gesture to people he thinks just might be fans of his. It's these people we glorify by bothering to actually watch them trying to act their way through sub-par scripts for useless, totally irrelevant TV shows and/or movies. I actually thot Sheen did a good job of replacing Michael J. Fox on the "Spin City" series a few years back, but whatever positive qualities people attributed to him are now gone, long gone. Good riddance.
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A little closer to home, these two structures are near my house. The first structure just has to qualify as the Original Haunted House looms over the neighborhood. The owner puts Goats in the yard instead of hiring a neighborhood kid to mow the grass. And, I'm not sure if that Pink House is the one John Mellencamp wrote a song about, but it's just about the ugliest and most garish house I've ever seen. A pink house! I'm gonna have to read over the county zoning laws; a big Pink House has just got to be a violation of some code or other. The Pink House's owner has got me a little bit confused. He's cutting down a few trees on his property, which means my house gets more sun, but yet I love trees too. I think living in a Pink House is a Cry for Help. "Help! Send Paint! Anything but Pink!" It's probably safe to say that there ain't no man-caves in a Pink House.
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So what's the overall theme of this post? Most of the above stuff was gleaned from a Newspaper. Conditions for newspapers are not favorable in this day and age, but I can't think of a better way to enjoy a cup of coffee than to have a newspaper at tableside. So I salute newspaper publishers everywhere for enriching my life.

2011-02-27T23:41:00.000-08:00

DESPERATE POSTS REQUIRE DESPERATE MEASURES...

...such as throwing photos up on the blog wall & hoping they stick...

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Snow on the Coast! At Sea Level! Here's what I saw when I poked my head out the window a few days ago. Snow! If you click the picture (it gets waay bigger), you can see the flakes falling. I've heard that each snowflake is a minor miracle, because many flakes start out as snow, but they don't end up that way. So to get all the way down to sea level, a flake has to be especially hardy. Most likely, there were a couple of snow clouds overhead that blew away later on, because about a half-hour I took this shot, the Sun had broken out, the ice melted off my steps, and Snow as we know it was all done, at least for a while. It makes me think, though, if it snows this much here, it's gotta be snowing a lot more inland. Having lived through quite a few snowstorms in my life, the ol' winter driving skills immediately return. Actually one of the worst times for driving, at least for me, is when it's raining at night; the precipitation causes the roads to get darker, they cause the car to hydroplane, and sometimes I can't see the fog line at road's edge because the raindrops splattering on the windshield, as well as reflecting light from approaching motorists, obscures my view of just where I'm at on the road. I've also heard that as a person ages, their night vision worsens. For a few years now, I've felt that the Nights are darker than they used to be. So now there's some medical evidence to bear that out. Just another sign I'm gettin' old.

On one of the colder days last week, the sun was out, and so I went driving around. There are still a lot of places I've never stopped at in Coos Bay or North Bend, and there are some really drastic hills in this area, which juts out into the bay like a miniature San Francisco. Some of the roads go almost straight up, so maybe it's a good thing it doesn't snow a lot down here. What you're seeing here a steep hill leading down into North Bend, only the Camera doesn't really capture how steep this hill actually is. In the distance, off to the left, is the old North Bend Hotel that's undergoing massive reconstruction. You're basically looking down, way down, at the old downtown area of North Bend. There are more convenient ways for me to get home, but this is the 'road less traveled' in my case. Of course, I've made a fool out of myself, accidentally pulling into dead-end streets or roads that end up in a cul-de-sac; a lot of the streets here don't go all the way from one town to the other; you'd almost think the City Fathers of each town couldn't agree on connecting their roads with the other guys'...either that or the zoning laws are all out of whack, and I'd say it was a little of both.

Just past the top of the hill, way, way up, I found this little Neighborhood Market that I'd never been in. And since my daily Wild-Cherry-Pepsi fixation hadn't yet been addressed, I stopped here and got that taken care of. This really takes me back; it's almost as if the concept of a small-neighborhood-grocery store is almost irrelevant in this hustling, bustling age of ours. This store is not on a main street, and traffic on this hilly road is nowhere near as busy as it is in other parts of town. Why am I making such a big deal out of this? I remember going to the little small neighborhood market, back when I was a kid. Mom would send my sister and me to go get bread, milk, and other small items that wouldn't justify a trip to a larger store. Back then, the days were so lazy and hazy, I was in the middle of Being A Kid, riding bikes with my sister, who sometimes went along with me. That's a good memory of a now-long-ago time. While one can never really go home again, it's nice sometimes to think about life back then. As such, I'm sure countless neighborhood kids go to this store for candy or gum, or getting a few groceries Mom sent them for. It's all just part of being a kid.

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The weather around here lately's been a whole mixed bag of tricks imposed upon us by Ma Nature, and she can't seem to make up her mind if it's gonna be clear or cloudy. The weather down here can change on a dime. The coastline here doesn't freeze up, as it can do further north, nor is it as arid and dry as a lot of the California coast seems to be. We get it all here. For example, in the course of driving 5 miles around here, I've seen sun, rain, hail, heavy winds, blue skies, turbulence and calm, all in one short trip. This photo shows Mother Nature's confusion, but maybe she's beckoning me to just have faith, because the sun is still shining up there somewhere, and amidst all the turbulence o fimposing dark rain clouds, there's also peace and the promise of more blue skies to come. Well, it's either that or, "hey, the sky looks like the weather is uncertain, hope the sun comes out and shines someday!"

Finally, what would a photo-blog be without a couple Sunset photo or two? So, at left, is your ordinary cloudless-skies sort of Sunset, with a Winged Messenger navigating towards his home, or wherever it is that Seagulls spend the night. Actually, the gulls and many other birds around here "park it" for the night waay out on the end of a jetty, way out near the seaward end of that rock wall which juts out into the ocean. Contrasting with that photo is the sunset of another recent evening, with the clouds overhead making everything look Really Weird, almost looking like some massive starship on its landing approach. I think my camera, working under much duress, throws 'false coloration' into the mix when I'm trying to make it do what it wasn't made to do. The calm waters of the bay add to the overall strangeness of the photo.

And there, just like that, is another post. Gotta feed the blog, ya know...or else I'll be in the "bloghouse", ha ha...this is a case of going to the blog-site, having had no prior idea what I was gonna write. And then I thot, "well, there's always photos I can use". Desperate times make for desperate posts, after all...

2011-02-16T15:03:00.000-08:00

THERE'S A FORCE OUT THERE...

...that knows when you've got extra money...

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It's happened again. Five Hundred Bucks gone just like that. I'd been living in a fairly austere manner over the last couple of months, saving up to try and get my taxes paid. I'd like to get 'em paid in one shot, but that's not possible this time around, so I'm paying my taxes in stages. I didn't even have to take out a bank loan this time around. How about that, I Now Have Money! Except I don't. A couple of weeks ago, all of a sudden I had No Hot Water. When I left the 'hot' water on, it would warm up to, maybe 60 degrees. Lately it doesn't even do that. And, at the risk of providing too much information, sponge-baths in Winter aren't a really big turn-on. Everything that's said about cold showers is true, by the way. BRRRRRRRRR!

So, I need to get a new Hot Water Heater. It's on its way and most likely will be installed by this time tomorrow. There. Problem solved. Done with it. But I really did need that money for other stuff. It seems that if I have extra money, I'm always having to spend it on something I didn't plan on happening. Such as busted pipes. Or car windows that won't roll up. Or a TV fizzes out all of a sudden. Every time I have disposable cash, it gets disposed of paying for things I wasn't planning on. There is a force out there that watches over my Monetary Life and capriciously Makes Things Happen that I Need To Pay For. Such as, dropping this laptop computer, and now it doesn't receive Wireless Internet. So I had plans to take it in and get it fixed. But, NO!!! I''ve got to spend it on a HOT WATER HEATER instead! (that's my really bad Steve Martin imitation there).

PICTURE BREAK #1: In the photo at left, you see a little tugboat doing double-duty, chaperoning the two barges that are being towed behind it. After it moved further seaward, I noticed something thru my binoculars on the horizon, and about half an hour later, the big aquamarine tanker I'd been spying on prepares to cross the bar into the bay.

Switching subjects here, I was thinking that I haven't regularly watched prime-time programs on the major networks for over Ten Years now. This is the way I become familiar with programs such as NYPD Blue (it had been on the air for three years before I saw an episode) or "Criminal Minds" which I started watching on Cable; I guess it ran on CBS (or maybe it's still running) for several years before I became aware of it, and by now, I've seen so many cable-TV reruns of CSI: MIAMI that I'm almost sick of the show. And I LIKE that show. I've seen so many reruns of all those shows that I can see 5 seconds of a show and tell you what it's about. One night, I meant to watch channel 55, but accidentally hit 44, which is the USA Network, and, ha! More police dramas such as "Special Victims Unit" and "NCIS" which features Mark Harmon as a hard-core slavedriver who slaps his employees on the back of their heads if they don't perform well enough. So, at least it'll be a while before I begin seeing the same episodes over and over again. And then, I'll have to find another channel.

PICTURE BREAK #2: In the photo at left, it's near 5pm and the sun is beginning to think about shutting down for the night. At right, another sunset a bit closer to nightfall. The colors are great, aren't they? Every sunset has a different personality.

So there ya go, some vital (or not) information and some pictures to serve as eye candy. Just when you get tired of reading my ramblings, there's fotos for ya to gawk at. Yep, that's my blog: Bunches of boring stuff alleviated by pointless photos. Enjoy!