Creative Endeavors, The Home of BoxcarOkie.com

June 12, 2009

In Memory of Little Brother

Filed under: Uncategorized — ldsrr91 @ 3:06 AM

Roughly one year ago I lost a very good friend, and I think of him from time to time, and today, I thought I might devote the page today to his memory.  Tomorrow he will be gone one full year, it doesn’t seem like it, but still it is very real.

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There is only one thing in this big old world that never takes a holiday.

And that is death.

johnOne of the things about dealing with loss, is the fact, that you always feel there was something left un-said, one final goodbye … I wish I had the chance to …… Unfortunately, a lot of the time, it doesn’t turn out that way. In this particular case it was just that way.

My good, close personal friend died, a massive heart attack without warning. I feel cheated, I feel robbed, and I feel sad. Please don’t confuse this with Brother John, in PA, my computer friend who shares the page with me often.

This John, is John Wright, a locomotive engineer on the same railroad that I retired from.  I used to call him “Little Brother.” Just months away from retirement, we often joked and talked about it, a milepost he sadly will never see.. A time we sadly will not share together.  This is the nature of things this day.


Today I don’t get to write the things I like to write about, the weird and wacky things that make me smile, the offbeat and the colorful, today I have to write about the passing of my friend, John. Today is not a day that makes me smile, nor should it, because this is never a happy experience for anyone.

John was standing on the rear platform of a BNSF Locomotive the other day in Winslow, Arizona fixing to make a trip back across the mountains at Flagstaff to Needles, California, when he had a massive heart attack and he died. Just another trip across the mountains. Something that he had done thousands of times in his long career, but this day, it was not to be so. One of the things that I hate about it more than anything is that “he died away from home” such is the life of a railroad man.

I didn’t care for that at all.

So I have kind of been dealing with that, and that is why I am sort of backed up on the comments section of all this. It will be a day or two before I am back into the routine, I am sure you will understand.

Being at a point in life where I am attending far too many funerals and no longer going to weddings, it doesn’t seem to get any easier. Last year I was dealing with this very same issue, and I suppose next year, it will be the same. Knowing that you have the strength, faith in God and the convictions to face it head on, doesn’t make it any better, it just makes you capable of understanding it in the end. I am really going to miss this guy, and there is already a void in my life, because of his sudden untimely passing.

There is an old story about a Preacher and a Railroader who both died on the same day. And when they arrived at the Heaven’s Gate, they were escorted in and an Angel checked their names in the book of life and they were assigned their respective rooms in heaven.

The next morning, they both happened to meet in the cafeteria and the preacher looked at the railroader and he said, “What is your room like?” And the old railroader said, “I got a pretty nice room, I have to admit. I got this big screen television; central heat and air, even got one of them Jacuzzi s deals in the bathroom. Pretty nice set up.”

The preacher was livid, he said, “Man, something is wrong here, really wrong. I got this little dinky bed, just barely holds one person, a sink, 10” black n white television. Someone needs to do something about this!”

So they both went back up to the front desk and approached the Angel in charge. The preacher said to the Angel, “Hey? Both of us checked in yesterday at the same time, I am a preacher and he is a railroader. I got this dinky little room, barely a television, air conditioner in the wall. He has a 62” big screen High-Def-Television, central heat and air, Jacuzzi in the bathroom the whole nine yards! What gives?”

The Angel smiled and said …… “We get preachers every day in heaven, no big deal. But he is the FIRST RAILROADER we ever got.”

It is my sincere, profound hope, that my friend John is in Heaven today and that he has a really swell room.

So Little Brother, reach down, grab you a handful of throttle, slap her in run eight and let ‘er rip, all the blocks are green from here on out …

I miss him desperately already …. John Thomas Wright II …. My JT.

Thanx

000

June 11, 2009

Mama Cave Bear

Filed under: Oklahoma,Recent — ldsrr91 @ 2:51 AM
Tags: , , , , , , ,

Daddy's hobby 3

Good News!  WordPress and Mozilla have found an apparent fix to thier problems and we can post photo’s again without being shut down on the browser.  This has been a monumental hassle the past several weeks and it is good to know that it is over.  I have missed the graphic’s and hated the back n forth between this and Microsoft.

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This year will be our first year of “Snow Birding” we will leave Oklahoma in the fall in our coach and we will return “just in time for the tornado’s” as my friends on the Westcoast are prone to put it.  That would be around April or May, or in other words, the following spring.  Either way, we are looking forward to the lifestyle change and eagerly await it’s appointed day sometime this fall.  Most everything that I have done so far this summer or spring, is geared towards that goal.  It will be something totally new for both of us, and we are ready to take the plunge.

Two people living within the parameters of a small space could be a problem, we are not sure if we will make it or not.  Might end up killing each other in some rest area over the issue of burnt toast or something.  You ever stop to think about how different men and women are?  Well, they are.

Women and men just think differently, a woman will limp into the room and the man will say, “What’s a matter with your foot Marge?” and the woman will reply, “I hit my big toe on a chair when I was crossing the livingroom.”

Now a man, he will come limping in and when asked the very same question will reply, “Some idiot left a chair in the livingroom!”

Women …They’re sitting there during Ugly Betty or Dancin’ With The Stars and they are simpering, wiping tears from the corner of their eye.  The hubby is sitting right alongside his woman, and he is thinking, “might as well run two more strands of wire back there at the same time, a red & black, #14, just in case I got to hook something else up later on.”

Then there is reality.

A voice yells out “C’mon get in here, three minutes to American Idol” and the guy is thinking “shoot me, shoot me, take me out in a field like an old dog and put one between my ears.”  She often has scared me in the past, she said “she always wanted a big Prevo with LOTS OF STAINLESS STEEL” which we all know, takes a mountain of elbow grease just to keep up.  Having observed her services or help at maintenance on a Koi Pond one long hot summer, I thank God for my dull, clean, low-maint Eagle 10-S.

She can never understand why it takes so long to get from point A to point B, will offer up the Atlas and say, “Look it is only this far on the map” pointing to three or four inches.  But then again, the male by the same standard is most likely the only person on the face of the planet that can relate to “one inch equals a mile” and actually get away with it.

So the saga continues …Testosterone is what I am after.

Ice Road Truckers, American Loggers, NASCAR I want to implode something in Minneapolis or some other place back east.  I don’t want to listen to Paula Deen explain how she found this old dead armadillo on the highway, and soaked it in a secret sauce for the last nine hours, and when we’re done girls “it will taste just like chicken!”  When was the last time you heard anyone male or female for that matter say something like:  “I just love the rich hearty beefy flavor.”  Give me a break.

Face it, we is different.

Take buses for instance, men form a close personal relationship with their coach, they fawn over it, they brush it, they stroke it, feed it, maintain it, they have the most fun you can have in this world with your clothes on, and their respective mates, they hardly even notice.  Men take a great deal of pride in their accomplishments, like a barnyard cock, they strut around the bus, they notice ever ding, every dent, pulling a rag from in their pocket, they knock off the unwanted.

For the most part, I am the same way, the very same way.

Now I refer to it as my hobby, “Daddy’s Hobby,” but others have called it an obsession.  I certainly do not qualify to assume the rank of Certified Bus Nut or Qualified Bus Lover, but there are people whom I come in contact with here lately, that are clearly over the edge.  Stainless Steel Fever has hit with a vengeance on some of these folks, they are carrying a new strain of The Ebola She Don’t Wanna Turn Ovah Virus of which I am sure there is no known cure.

Here is the problem, another bus lover comes over, he admires my coach, we start to bond, and things go swimmingly well.  With all good experiences in life, there is give and there is taking, relationships form, things previously not known are now known.  It is called The Rumsfield Principle I believe, “we have known knowns and we have unknown knowns, and there are the unknown knowns that are still not known at this time.” And as long as all this stays on the exterior of the coach or in the storage bays located along each side, all is well, but the minute I open the door and offer a “stranger” as she refers to them access to HER coach, I am in hot water.

Like a Mama Bear protective of her new cubs, I am put on warning.

I had an old man at Camping World who just insisted on seeing the inside of yore rigg as he put it, so I opened up the door.  There she sat at the table, playing a game of solitaire a game she devotes hours too, and I told the old man, “Step up there pard, and check it out.”   Then I got the look, you know what I am talking about here, “the” look. (Sort of like being THE only male standing in Victoria’s Secret store on Wednesday …. What is HE doing in HERE kind of look)

Later on, afterwards, the look will be replaced with the finger, which she deftly points at me, and when the discussion is particularly heated, the finger starts moving slowly at first, from side to side, the finger will emphasize by moving rapidly from side to side in order to clarify.  Often this is followed by lift off!  (providing all launch code provisions have been met and adhered to)

I just hate that when it happens.

Ceste Le Vive which is French for “that is life,” south of the border it translates La Vita Loca, “this crazy life.”  Thus ends today’s tale of woe, it is often, “not easy to be me.’  A tough grueling act, balancing several balls in the air at a given time working on a need to know basis.  A tough job but what the hey …. Someone has to do it.

Now if you will excuse me, I need to find a spot at the back of the lot and see if I can pull up some local channels and Ophra this afternoon.  She is supposed to have this six foot four-inch Georgia Lumberjack weighing in at 245lbs., his main complaint seems to be he cannot figure out a way to keep his 98 lb., four foot seven inch wife from beating him up.

I don’t want to miss that, no sir, I want to see this one for sure.  Might even be some good ol’ down south finger wiggling in there too.

OOO

June 10, 2009

Totally Blank and Recent

Filed under: Oklahoma,Recent,Uncategorized — ldsrr91 @ 1:46 AM
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I sure wish WordPress.com and Mozilla would fix their respective issues, this has been going on for two long, this shut down crap.  For a period of several weeks, whenever I try to load a picture into this mother, I get in return for my efforts, a system crash.  Fun is fun, but I am tiring of it boys, why don’t you fix it?  

49665872_MayanPrincess1

 

Okay, time to cover some ground and voice our concerns over the critical and impotent issues of the day.  Our understated purpose and vision statement for the 21st Century.  I understand from a fairly non reliable source that the world is going to end on Dec 21, 2012. Which would be my 40th anniversary of working on the railroad if I were still working.

Another end of the world scenario.  Thinking back, it was the fifth grade the first time I heard that the world was going to end, there was a rumor running around school that specifically addressed this issue.  I also remember being very upset, but then again, I was awfully young in those days, just out of puberty and rushing headlong into what my Dad affectionately referred to as “my dumb-ass years.”

Ironically, it turns out that he and the Navy recruitment officer were right.

The second time I heard about the world ending was in the seventies when Oral Roberts locked himself inside a 900 foot tower in Tulsa, Oklahoma and professed that the end was near.  I faintly remember a vision of a 900 ft. German Sheppard telling him this or something like that, however, try as he may, it did not happen.  Some cult over in Arkansas did the same thing, not long ago, of course it did not happen either.

But if you have ever been to Arkansas you would understand that last statement immediately.

So time is once again running out for all the hopeless souls that inhabit this planet, 2012 and then a super asteroid will hit the outer atmosphere and poof, most of us will be pop tarts.  Or it might be a collision on a super sized scale with some celestial body named by some dweeb at NASA, something like planet X or maybe even “Y.”

One source of amusement will be numerous websites will pick up on this of course, and all the airheads of the Internet will begin predicting adding to the fascination of the event and I suppose to a certain extent chaos.  These are the gasbags that currently espouse this theory based loosely on the Mayan Calendar which in itself (to a somewhat normal person in a mediocre good frame of mind) is kind of ludicrous.

We are supposed to bet our future, the future of mankind on a primitive calendar that they insist ends on that fateful day?

I am somewhat convinced that all of these “so called superior cultures” were a bunch of dope smoking, jungle loving cretins’.  I mean who builds runways for aliens in the middle of nowhere (that can only be seen from space), I rest my case.  Now why would anyone believe that a primitive Mayan Long Count Calendar would portend the end of civilization as we know it?

Let us call it what it is, foolish.

If they had all these mystical powers, if they were capable of seeing into the future, then why were they catastrophically wiped out (by unknown forces) and almost immediately if not sooner, vanished from the earth, it seems to me this all could have been avoided.

Mayan Calendar:  May, 2nd, 1211, end of the world, make preparations for evacuations.  Jungle guava-mano comes into season.  Yearly payment to the shaman is due on the 10th.

Now I do recognize that there remains a certain percentage of you who do believe this is going to happen, and are dead certain, that I am (as usual) “full of it.”  Which could be a sprinkle of truth there, I am not sure.  But for all those skeptics out there, remember this …. “Y2K” …. Another non-occurring event highly publicized that did not happen.

Basically what I think about the most whenever this subject comes up is this one little thing.  “Something wonderful begins to happen when we are able to recognize and acknowledge our thoughts, even as they happen.  When a thought surfaces, rather than resist it, simply acknowledge it and let it go.”

In other words “DWABI” which is slang, pronounced “Doo-Wab-ee” and simply means:  Don’t Worry About It.”  Our problem as I see it is simple …. We seem to be smiling less these days, and worrying more.

Not a good thing, no sir, not a good thing at all.

The end of the world (again) yawn, aint gonna happen.  Like I told the little woman just the other day when she brought it up I said, “Don’t worry about it Honey, we owe far too much money for the world to end  any time soon. Everything is just fine, I hear it is all going to stay in place, and the Atlantic Coast is to remain also.” That seemed to qualm her fears and anxieties (a double shot of rum in her Pina Coloda seemed to work too).

For the remainder of you, who don’t buy into it like me, I will see you on Dec 21, 2012.

OOO

 

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June 9, 2009

Television for the Insane

Filed under: humor,Oklahoma,Recent — ldsrr91 @ 5:06 AM
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A little of this and a Little of that

An item on The View or The Ladies Channel, I forget, on how Kirstie Alley lost 75 pounds, it was incorrectly stated that she “ate … twenty six, seven, eight thousand calories a day.” The correct figures are six, seven eight thousand calories a day.  I have personally lost 13 lbs in recent weeks, but it was because I was sick, not because I was dieting.  My doctor now informs me that I am my perfect weight for a person who is seven feet tall.

So I switch over to the “sports channel” which is a total waste of programming if you want my opinion, and I would bet the majority of you never expected to hear a man say that.  On there I find this “The most important thing about batting is getting the bat to hit the ball.”

Yeah right, for this moderators or commentators are paid millions per year?

I just love surfing the dial where you pick up all those little gems that help you make it thru the day contributed by sports personalities.  Such as:  “Chemistry is a class you take in high school or college where you figure out 2+2=10 or something.” Which was recently coughed up by Dennis Rodman basketball player.

How about this great political geopolitical insight from Donald Trump:  “You know, the one thing I sorta liked was what they were saying about Iran.  I believe you have to go in and strike Iran … not with soldiers.  You know, it’s not a world of soldiers anymore.  It’s a world of air.  It’s a world of different kinds of, you know, we’ve changed.”

Uh huh, wonder why we have “soldiers” in roughly 147 countries around the world?  You’re fired.  Where is Paula Abdul when you really need her?

Mr. Obama just appointed a new Supreme Court justice, let us hope that she is better than Justice Clarence Thomas, at a lecture to Holy Cross College in 2002 he said:  “I really don’t want to be a judge.  I don’t want to be judged.  I don’t like judging other people.” In the words of Judge Judy of television fame … “You sir!  Are an idiot.”

(no reflection on any judge living or dead, lawyers said to put that in there, so I did)

Another note on the ladies of government.  “She’s either Puerto Rican, or the same thing as Cuban, I mean they are all very hot.  The have the, you know, part of the black blood in them and part of the Latino blood in them that together makes it.” California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, on California assemblywoman Bonnie Garcia, the lone Latino Republican in the legislature.

Tuesday’s suck.

There I said it and I feel better because of it.  Sign of the week, which is ironic, because we are only two days into the week, oh well …. Never fails me how people take the English Language and mix it up to a point where to most people it is just about inane.  I wonder if they do this in other countries?  “You are invite to visit our restaurant where you can eat the Middle East Foods in a European ambulance.”

Mmmmmm, sounds yummy.

Sinuous:  Adjective of a serpentine or wavy form:  winding, marked by strong lithe movements, intricate or complex.  The hikers followed a sinuous path that curved around a lake and between two small hills.  If you are from the deep south it is “Hey honey can you get me another beer sinuous was going that way?”

Then there is the MTV channel where even the language in itself doesn’t make sense at all.

Take the word “Yo.”

When followed by an apostrophe (yo’) a contraction of “you” or “your.”  How’s yo’ momma?  An informal address or title to one whose name is not known’ can be used as an interrogative address.  Hey, you!  What up, yo?  A declarative or imperative exclamation, whether alone within a sentence.

Yo!  What the hell do you think you are doing?  It’s Tuesday, nothing happen’ here, yo, do your job.  So ends today’s language lesson from Mr. English Person, tune into our page tomorrow where we will delve deep into modifiers, perhaps take a shot at popular euphemisms of modern day society.

I’ma now send you cryin’ to yo’ mama after I mess you up.

Word life!

What up with dat yo?

OOO

June 8, 2009

Refilling the coffers.

Filed under: Oklahoma,Recent — ldsrr91 @ 5:21 AM
Tags: , , , , , ,

Recently President, or Ex-Presidente George Dubya Bush, was spotted giving the graduating seniors of a high school in Artesia, New Mexico, a commencement speech (how sad is that?).  He told them that he no longer felt the pressure and responsibility of being our president, and that in fact, it was kind of liberating.  Since leaving office Bush has given one speech in Canada, and is supposed to be busy writing his memoirs, which should be a real yawner.  Coming to a Burger King in your area, a one time visit from a ex-president of the United States on a limited speaking engagement, come early and beat the rush.

Things are not all that well for the rich here lately.

Paris Hilton and her boyfriend were recently thrown off a yacht in Cannes France at the annual film festival.  It seems that they started “hooking up” as the youngsters are prone to say, and she got a little frisky, so they decided to take it below decks and up a level or two on the excitement scale.  Another guest discovered the amorous couple in what do they call it?  Flagrante Delicto and she informed the captain of the vessel, who in turn ejected the loving couple.

The captain then insisted that they depart for the shore.  For what he called “unsociable behavior” which I do not understand, seems like they were being quite sociable at the time, which is when all the trouble started.

You would think that old geezers like myself would be the first to catch these particularly nasty diseases going around.  But a recent survey has disclosed that only 1% of people over 65 actually got swine flu, and the majority of the cases in the country were with 18-24 year olds.  Of the two-thirds of the 5,000 confirmed cases in the U.S. thus far, the CDC revealed  that many older people, blood studies show, have partial immunity to the swine variant because of a life time of exposure to other similar flu viruses.

So I guess it would be safe to say, “that over the years, all of those shots, paid off.”

The current candidate running for governor of Georgia on a platform encouraging the quaint Peach State Legal theory of “nullification (meaning the state has the right to override the U.S. Constitution) who is known as  staunch foe of abortion who once posted a “hit list”  of doctors in that state.

He is also quoted as saying during his childhood “When you grow up on a farm in Georgia your first girlfriend is a mule.”   That should just about sum it up.  Yeppers …. Now that explains it. Stick a pin in the map, another “new age Republican” has been identified.

It reminds me of the old joke, where the preacher found a dead mule on the road, so he called the sheriff.  The sheriff after listening to what the preacher had to say, suggested that he say a few words over the dead animal and go about his business, that was after all, what preachers were supposed to do.

Then he inquired of the preacher, “Why in the world are you calling me about this anyway?” and the preacher said, “It is our custom to notify the next of kin, whenever we do a service.”

Please don’t feed the lizards.

The world’s largest lizards, have been attacking humans with increasing frequency, villagers in Indonesia report attacks are up this year.  The Komodo dragons are 10 foot long reptiles and they are becoming more aggressive and out of hunger as poaching reduces the population of the deer that they survive on.  A park ranger was recently sitting in his office in Komodo National Park when a dragon appeared and chomped down on his leg.  Indonesia is the only place in the world where these huge reptiles are found.  Might want to scratch this one off your vacation list for this summer, and head to Orlando instead.

Now I like this one.  British police thought they had a standoff on their hands when they received an emergency call in which the caller could be heard whimpering and a man shouting “Come out or else!” in the background.

At that point the line apparently went dead, and the police just knew that they had a possible hostage standoff situation on their hands.  Immediately redialing the number they reached a woman who reported that her golden retriever, had stolen her cordless phone, and pursued by her angry husband, taken it to his favorite hiding place in the backyard.

Behind the garden shed, where he crawled underneath and promptly started gnawing on the key pad.

A Florida woman visibly upset because her local McDonald’s did not have Chicken McNuggets, phoned the 911 emergency service line for help.  In an unrelated incident, a Florida man took the same action when Burger King told him it had no lemonade to sell him.

Clearly these are over reactions, majoring in minor stuff.  I recommend that you not indulge in similar overreactions in the coming week.  When you feel that the drama queen or drama king archetype is threatening to posse you and you need to forcefully keep it away, take immediate action.

If you’re successful, you’ll be visited by a far more congenial archetype … the Social Butterfly …. Someone like Britney or Paris and that would prove to be amusing and who knows, maybe a little productive in the end.

Have to run, some guy named Obama sent me $250 over the weekend and I got to sock it into my “friendly” savings institution currently being run by foreign nationals recently released from Guantanamo Bay, which I think is somewhere south of Atlanta.

OOO

June 5, 2009

Milepost

Filed under: Oklahoma,Recent,Uncategorized — ldsrr91 @ 4:06 AM
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Been a tough week here in OKC, the staph infection started on the weekend or beginning of same, and it was touch and go for awhile.  It has finally reached a point where it is livable and the medicine seems to be working just fine, except “the cure is often worse than the disease” and it has made sick as a dog daily.

First of the week found me in a monumental hassle with the folks at the DMV and that emotionally charged encounter could have gone severe at any point in time.  Government in this country, whether it be federal, state, county and or local, is clearly dysfunctional and doesn’t work. 

If it is working it is on a level one wrung up the ladder from absolute failure.

One thing did occur about mid week that I found interesting.  Creative Endeavors turned over 1.1 million in visitors, that would be since March of last year.  1,100,108.  I kind of found that interesting, numbers have been dropping off here lately (mainly because I have not been posting all that much) and the comments section has dried up and withered away.

Here are some facts or thoughts about your webpage you visit each day. 

Mostly read by women, 45% of our readership is male, and 55% of our reader base is female.  A very high percentage of our daily population consists of ladies, and they are 50+ in age.  We have a very high percentage of Black Americans who come to the site each day.

35% of our readers are in the 35-49 range, 22% are 18-24, 11% are 11-17 years old, and 3% of our reader are below the age of 12.  A full 63% of you have no children in the house from age 0-17, and 37% do have children in the home aged 0-17.

71% of the people who come here to read this are Caucasian, 18% are Black Americans, 2% are of Asian orgin, 7% are Latino or Hispanic, and 3% are other, whatever that might be?   23% are in the 0-30K per year in income, 32% are 30-60K, 28% make 60-100K, and 16% or our readership are above 100K per year.

47% have no college, 41% college educated, and 12% have finished grade school.  On average we have 3,354 page views per month here in the USA, globally speaking, that number is 4,050.  Our most popular countries are USA, Canada,  Germany, UK, and Austrailia.  Here in the USA our most popular cities are Washington DC, Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles California. 

Our most popular states are Texas, Georgia and Illinois.   When we first started last year our ranking worldwide was 3.4 million or something, and last time I checked we were now down to 500,000+ something … we seem to have held on … We carved our little niche and found a place in the sun.

We recently acquired or were given a website grade of 75/100 for www.boxcarOkie.com that means that of the hundreds of thousands of websites that have previously been evaluated, our algorithm has calculated that this site scores higher than 75%, of them in terms of its marketing effectiveness. The algorithm uses a proprietary blend of over 50 different variables, including search engine data, website structure, approximate traffic, site performance, and others. The website www.boxcarOkie.com ranks 252,679 of the 1,006,527 websites that have been ranked so far.

Google Indexed Pages: 319  This number is the approximate number of pages on www.boxcarOkie.com that have been stored in the Google index. The Google web crawler will visit the website periodically and look for new content for its index. Generally, the more pages your site has within the Google cache, the better.

Basically we are doing just fine. 

Top 28.11 % according to Alexa which is an online service that measures traffic for millions of sites on the Internet in a similar way to Nielsen television show ratings. Your website has an Alexa rank of 7,870,113 which is in the top 28.11 % of all websites in the world.  Not bad, when you stop to think about this:  “It didn’t even exist a little over a year ago.”   Like the commercial on television says …………. “You have come a long ways baby.”

Thanks gang, we couldn’t have done it without you.

Have a great weekend, we will see y’all (Okie talk) on Monday.

000

June 4, 2009

Mayors Sippyhole

Filed under: Oklahoma,Recent,Uncategorized — ldsrr91 @ 5:35 AM
Tags: , , , , ,

Early in the morning and the birds are singing, the dogs howl when the ambulance or the occasional fire truck races thru, sirens piercing the cool morning air.  I am sitting here, fresh cup of coffee staring at a blank screen wondering what in the world am I going to write about this day?  On days like this, it is often a chore to sit down to the keyboard which is devoid of idea’s or inspiration.  Also there is a fly in the mix too, been going on for a week or possibly two.

WORDPRESS AND MOZILLA FIREFOX SEEM TO BE EXPERIENCING PROBLEMS.  IF YOU TRY TO POST A PICTURE IN THIS MEDIUM AND AS I UNDERSTAND IT AND IN OTHER PLACES, YOU WILL EXPERIENCE A SHUT DOWN OR A CRASH.  SO NO PICTURE IN THIS POST, THE WORLDS LEADING BROWSER AND THE SECOND MOST POPULAR WORDWIDE WRITING COMMUNITY ARE NOT WORKING … HOW SAD IS THAT?  BUT AS WITH ALL THINGS YOU CANNOT MAKE ANYTHING “FOOL PROOF” AS US FOOLS ARE TOO INGENIOUS, WHERE THERE IS A WILL THERE IS A WAY.

The City Fathers, that wonderful bumbling bunch of elected Meathead’s, figured a race and water sport program would be good for the populace.  So they held an even in the “Oklahoma River” downtown.  This is a seven mile section of the North Canadian River that gently flows through our state.  It at one time had the proud distinction of being the only river for miles around that had to be mowed two or three times per year with a brush hog.

okie riverOur elite Patriarchs of good community living, borrowed some $25 million from the feds, and they damned it up and then started what is now known as the “river project.”  In some area’s it is fairly nice, trails, biking environments and jogging, a better habitat for local species of birds and what have you.  But the river itself, like it or not, is something tantamount to a cesspool.

Very unhealthy, full of chloroform, fecal matter and all manner of nasty stuff.

What better a place to have a “water event?”  Yeah, right.  And lest all of you think I am up on the old soapbox and railingt against the elected and protected here is what Mike at OkieDoke had to say about it:

I say we name it the “Oklahoma Legislature River”. It would be quite appropriate. The Canadian usually moves at a leisurely pace, is murky, attracts vermin, and appeals mainly to fools and children. For short periods during the year it becomes fast and furious, at times exceeding its boundaries and causing severe damage. The vast majority is wide and shallow, with a very small portion being straight and narrow.

             Now it turns out that name is even more fitting today.

Derek Smithee, the water quality division chief of the Oklahoma Water Resources Board, said a six-mile section of the river near the boathouse is listed as “impaired” because of fecal coliform, sulfates and turbidity.

             Impaired, full of sh**, thick and stinky … and to think five years ago I was half joking.

I am not the only one who notices this putrid murky health hazard in our city.  So they (city bozo’s) invite 20 world class athletes to participate in this event downtown.  Now please remember, these are world class athletes, that means that they are for the most part “in great shape.”

So it came as a big surprise to these elected brain-dead benefactors that 18 of the 20 contestants in the event became very sick afterwords, vomiting and losing their lunch, and then later on, diarrhea and all manner of nasty afflictions showed up.

I believe the quote was “city officials are mystified as to recent developments on river sports event.”

When I am on vacation or traveling I buy local newspapers, I like to read up on what is going on.  We were in Santa Fe, New Mexico and I was reading this article I found quite fascinating.  It was about how someone at City Hall had figured out (all by himself evidently) that the water flowing out of the local sewage plant was “just going to waste.”

He was proposing instead of just dumping it, that they should pump it some five miles north of town, in a huge overflow pipe and dump it into the river that runs through town.  His reasoning for this would be “to have a river that has ample flows of water all year long, not just during the spring” and it would of course, be a tourist draw and good for the local economy.

People sure do funny things when it comes to rivers huh?

Load up and come on down to Okie City, ride our riverboats on our fake downtown river and Brick Town Canal (to nowhere).  See a ballgame, drink a .20 ounce 3.2 beer, for only $8.50, eat some ribs at Toby Keith’s.  Don’t forget your swimmin’ trunks, river is up, we had a good rain just the other day.  Oh yeah, all you folks in Santa Fe?  Flush hard, Albuquerque needs the water.

OOO

June 3, 2009

Wednesday’s Tuesday Affliction

Filed under: Oklahoma,Recent,Uncategorized — ldsrr91 @ 3:49 AM
Tags: , , , , ,

People are funny

Lot of folks want something from you, very few are willing to give you something back.  Not being all that sure when this practice became “common place” in America but I can tell you this.  I am not a big fan of it.  Everywhere I go someone is barking at me, “Zip code!” … “Receipt, you cannot leave the store without it.” … “telephone number.” Personally, I am kind of like the monkey and the skunk on this issue, “I have had about all this stinking ____ that I want.”

Now that last one especially irks me, someone who usually pays in advance or in cash.  If I am using cash, why do they need to have MY telephone number?  I purchase a pack of batteries at Radio Shack and they want me to give them my telephone number, what for, I don’t get it?

One common denominator in the above paragraph, did you notice it?

The absence of civility or politeness seems to be disappearing, if not totally gone in this country.  The word “Please” or “May I?” is clearly missing.  Taking it one step further, I have discovered that in Louisiana they are actually teaching courses on it (politeness and civility) as the need has become so acute and the apparent disregard of it totally by the parents has led to an entire generation of rude, crude, demanding mini-people.

As I pointed out in the first paragraph, “Lot of folks want something from you, very few are willing to give you something back.”  Here is a prime example, I walk into a root scoot the other day, go to the Big Slurpy section and retrieve a number three wash tub sized cup and fill it.  I am not supposed to have it, but often to my doctor’s dismay, I will stop for a diet Dr. Pepper and a lot of foam.

At the counter I see a handwritten sign that reads:  “We need $5 bills, help us out.” Which was reasonable, please note no mention of “please.”  So I say to the guy, “How many do you want?” and point at the sign.

He says, “How many do you have?” and I think to myself, “damn another test and I am unprepared.” People who try to control a conversation by always answering a question with a question irate me, I know, I have been married to one who has done this for over thirty-years.

Back to the root n scoot fellow.  “I tell him that I have at least ten of them that he can have.  This is because I carry two money clips with me, I cull out the fives, use them in my savings plan and for tips when I eat out.”

He then says, “I will take them all.”

So then I say to him, “How about  giving me the drink for free?  I am doing you a favor, helping you out, so fair is far, you give me the Slurpy for free?” Mr. I Hate My Second Job Clerk gets rather indignant about it and says, “No way Bud!  The drink is $1.39.”

Which kind of sets the mood from there on out, one thing I do not care for is being called “Bud.”  My name is not Bud.  Another thing I am not overly fond of is “attitude.”  Ka-Ching the register rings it up …. “No Sale.”

Retrieving two rather worn, used up dollar bills from my other money clip, I say, “there is the money for the drink” and he makes change for the drink and then tries to hand me two twenties and a ten.  So I smile and I say, “What is that for?” pretending that I do not know what is going on.

“For the $5 bills” he says.

So then I ask him, is that is how it works around here, I scratch your back, you do nothing for me while all the time I am doing you what is known as a “solid” (favor) in most parts of the country?

“We had a deal on the fives.” Was his reply.

Maybe in “his world” we did, I of course did not see it that way.  Like I said, “Lot of folks want something from you, very few are willing to give you something back.” I scooped up my Big Slurpy and headed out the door with MY fives.

That was Tuesday and of course “today is a totally different day” wonder what it will bring?  Be sweet to all those you meet, because the words you speak, may be the ones you have to eat.  A dollar won’t take you very far in America these days, but a “please and a smile” will take you a long ways down the road of life.

Think about it.

OOO

June 1, 2009

June Index 2009

Filed under: Uncategorized — ldsrr91 @ 4:12 AM

[06-01] Staff Infection Listen y’all I have acquired a staff infection (often known as a boil or a cyst) and I have to take some time off to address this problem.  I am anti-biotic’s and pain killers and I am sleeping quite a lot. When I get to feeling better (sometime next week I assume) I will start in [...]

[06-03]  Wednesday’s Tuesday Affliction People are funny Lot of folks want something from you, very few are willing to give you something back.  Not being all that sure when this practice became “common place” in America but I can tell you this.  I am not a big fan of it.  Everywhere I go someone is barking at me, “Zip code!” [...]

[06-04] Mayors Sippyhole Early in the morning and the birds are singing, the dogs howl when the ambulance or the occasional fire truck races thru, sirens piercing the cool morning air.  I am sitting here, fresh cup of coffee staring at a blank screen wondering what in the world am I going to write about this day?  [...]

[06-05]  Milepost Been a tough week here in OKC, the staph infection started on the weekend or beginning of same, and it was touch and go for awhile.  It has finally reached a point where it is livable and the medicine seems to be working just fine, except “the cure is often worse than the disease” and [...]

[06-08]  Refilling the coffers. Recently President, or Ex-Presidente George Dubya Bush, was spotted giving the graduating seniors of a high school in Artesia, New Mexico, a commencement speech (how sad is that?).  He told them that he no longer felt the pressure and responsibility of being our president, and that in fact, it was kind of liberating.  [...]

[06-09]  Television for the Insane A little of this and a Little of that An item on The View or The Ladies Channel, I forget, on how Kirstie Alley lost 75 pounds, it was incorrectly stated that she “ate … twenty six, seven, eight thousand calories a day.” The correct figures are six, seven eight thousand calories a day.  I have [...]

[06-10]  Totally Blank and Recent I sure wish WordPress.com and Mozilla would fix their respective issues, this has been going on for two long, this shut down crap.  For a period of several weeks, whenever I try to load a picture into this mother, I get in return for my efforts, a system crash.  Fun is fun, but I am [...]

[06-11] Mama Cave Bear Good News!  WordPress and Mozilla have found an apparent fix to thier problems and we can post photo’s again without being shut down on the browser.  This has been a monumental hassle the past several weeks and it is good to know that it is over.  I have missed the graphic’s and hated the back [...]

[06-12]  In Memory of Little Brother Roughly one year ago I lost a very good friend, and I think of him from time to time, and today, I thought I might devote the page today to his memory.  Tomorrow he will be gone one full year, it doesn’t seem like it, but still it is very real. ============= There is only one thing [...]

[06-15]  Lunch Under the arch News is reporting that gasoline is “inching upwards” again.  It goes up .11 cents in less than twenty-four hours and that is “inching?”  Give me a break.  Oh well, plenty of negative stuff in the world, and it is not my duty to report it, so here we go. Saturday  morning, I find myself at “McDonalds” [...]

[06-16]  I hate Tooooesday! I make no secret of it, I am not all that in love with Tuesdays, as a matter of cold unadulterated fact, I believe, sincerely, that Tuesdays are unnecessary and the vast majority of us could live without them altogether.  Thank you for allowing me to elucidate my feelings on the subject, those of you [...]

[06-17]  Tree Hugger Heard any good jokes lately? I thought so. While walking through Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, a man came upon another man hugging a tree with his ear firmly against the tree. Seeing this he inquired, “Just out of curiosity, what  the heck are you doing?” “I’m  listening to the music of [...]

[06-18]  Look to the Heaven’s … Look to the Sky A New York man is suing Bumble Bee Tuna for $100,000 for allegedly choking on a 1.5 inch tuna bone in a sandwich.  He says that he choked for a minute and one-half on the bone before finally coughing it up.  He now says the incident ended his life long love affair with sandwiches made [...]

[06-19]  Summertime Weenies Do good and they will screw you around anyway. An Ohio man has been arrested and charged with disorderly conduct for mowing the grass in a neglected public park.  The man admitted he continued mowing the foot high grass in the park after park officials asked him to stop, but says that since budget cuts forced [...]

[06-22]  Callow Ramblings Not much good news going around, was hoping for an improvement over the weekend, but it appears to be the same old same old.  You know,  people are going to get addicted to this sooner or later, so when things do improve and it all gets better, there will still be a market for “bad [...]

[06-26]  Best Laid Plans The above is a picture of Larry, Cenda, and my wife Yoko.  They are standing beside Larry’s 95 Prevo, his pride and joy.  Not long ago, Larry traded off his Eagle and made what he thought was a good call, and stepped up to a Prevost coach manufactured by Liberty.  It is a 95 model [...]

[06-29]  Up On The Soapbox Again Hi Guy’s, greetings to all of you this Monday morning, I trust you had a productive and fruitful weekend and were sated and amused.  As I am an inquisitive sort, I often wonder about things.  All sorts of things.   Things in general, things that don’t seem right, this thing and that thing. Take Ol T Boone [...]

[06-30]  Tough New Stance This morning, among the usual gaggle of “you just got to read this” I find a request to switch my domain name over to some outfit in Canada.  It seems the people that just charged me to renew my name, now want to rid themselves of it, and toss me aside to these people in [...]

Staff Infection

Filed under: Uncategorized — ldsrr91 @ 12:17 AM

Listen y’all I have acquired a staff infection (often known as a boil or a cyst) and I have to take some time off to address this problem.  I am anti-biotic’s and pain killers and I am sleeping quite a lot.

When I get to feeling better (sometime next week I assume) I will start in again.

Until that time, this site will be shutdown.  Hope you understand.


DS

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