Creative Endeavors, The Home of BoxcarOkie.com

August 10, 2011

Mexi-Merica

Filed under: Life,Oklahoma,Recent — ldsrr91 @ 3:52 am
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This is going to be a little bit hard to write, without sounding like “so much sour grapes” but I am going to give it a shot anyway.

We ate Chinese today, there is a little place on the south side of town, been eating there for 15-20 years.  We have watched the owners’ children grow up, go thru school and on to college, seen the place change decor a couple of times over the years.  We have been good, steady customers of this nice small restaurant for quite a long time.

Because we had moved to the country, we had not eaten there in a couple of years, and as luck would have it, today we found ourselves there in the midst of the lunch crowd at a little booth in the back of the room.  The food as always was super and we were hungry so it made for a good mix.  In some ways, it was almost like before, old home week, call it what you want.

Except for one thing, and that is this.

“No one in the room was speaking English, the entire restaurant had been taken over by people of Mexican and/or Hispanic origin.  And no one was speaking the King’s English.  Which is, if you are like me, a person who doesn’t speak the language or understand Spanish, well, it was just a lot of noise.  Unfortunately, it kind of took away from the meal and it was upsetting.”

It appears that I am now officially in the minority in this country, a white, tax paying member of society.  I am also slowly but surely being run out or pushed aside by more than one race of people who were not born here.  Mexican’s and Asian’s are now the two fastest growing segments of our society in America.  They are also a lot different from what I am used to.

The Mexicans are proud of their country, culture and lifestyle and try to preserve it as much as possible even when they are living anywhere other than Mexico. The Mexican Americans however don’t have to make much effort as the neighboring countries have quite a lot in common.

So, the Mexican American culture is a blend of the culture of both countries, while distinctly being Mexican. This cultural blend stands out amongst many other ethnic groups living in the USA.  Now on the other hand, the American Culture, such as it is, fragmented, diverse, and very much mixed, doesn’t stand much of a chance of survival in this day and age.

Mexicans while very big on family life (the center of their culture really) are doing well and thriving.  While on the American side of the scale, they are divorcing in record numbers and the family unit is quickly disappearing in this country.

A lot of these people are being provided benefits for free, all they had to do is show up.  I had to serve six years in the military in order to qualify for some of mine (the very few I have left).  Most of us had to go to school, graduate and learn a skill before going to work.  All they had to do is cross what was or is basically an open border.  The truly sad thing is the way they are exploited by those who hold the purse strings, and often, entered into almost involuntary servitude (wage slavery) by American businessmen.

Only a few pay taxes, in my home state only one in five bother to purchase car insurance, they quickly sign up for social programs and assistance, not only for themselves, but their entire family.  In other words, they don’t play by the rules, take more than they give back.  Now I know that sounds harsh, but it is a proven reality in this country and has been this way for a long time.

You know, if you take a frog and dump him in a pot of hot water, he will jump right out.  But take the same frog, place him in a pan of cold water, then apply the heat slowly just a little at a time, and he will stay in the pot until he dies.

Why?  

“Because you changed his environment, a little bit at a time, not all at once.”

Same thing here.  Inch by inch, slowly but surely, the fabric of this country is being re-arranged.  The signage is slowly shifting to Spanish first and English second, one milepost at a time, this country is going down the tubes (the America that I grew up in and loved).

Today, while sitting in this noisy crowded little restaurant it came home to haunt me.  I am slowly becoming a stranger in my own land, and of course, I resent it.  This is no longer an immigration issue, this is colonization of a country, plain and simple.

And I honestly feel I have to wonder about this one simple fact of life.

In the end, will there be any room left for me?

OOO

RELATED:  SNEAKING INTO AMERICA

March 16, 2011

Tagged

Filed under: Life,Oklahoma — ldsrr91 @ 4:39 am
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Excuse me, but some of us, would just like you to keep it to yourself.

What is it about the Internet that compels people to trot out every aspect of their totally rancid lives and share it with complete strangers?  Why is it some folks feel compelled to share every waking moment, each minute detail of their feckless existence with people they do not even know.  I just don’t understand that one at all.  Last year,  I lost two people in my life that were important, they were instrumental in my day to day existence and always there when I needed them.  One died of a massive heart attack and the other of pancreatic cancer.

I miss them both dearly, they have created a void in my heart that cannot possibly be replaced or filled.

But I did not go on the net and vocally urge people to rush out for heart checkups, or cancer treatments.  I did not appoint myself a Social Champion or protector of the masses concerning these two ailments so common to man.   If you are somewhat troubled, or greatly concerned about your loved one or friend who is ill, then why aren’t you sending PRIVATE EMAILS to everyone in your address book about it?  Why the apparent need to go public, as if all the rest of us have been living under a rock somewhere and were totally unaware of this particular ailment or condition?  Some things clearly have a place on the net and some things don’t …  But that is just my take on it.

Oh well, I have vented, perhaps it is time for me to shut up.  If I live to be 100 years old, I will never understand why people do these strange quirky things, is it for the common good or is it some kind of lame attention getter perpetrated on a captive audience of people who could care less.

So there you go … You heard it on the Internet … So it has to be true.

Here is another candidate for the Creative Endeavors Stinker of the Year award …  From time to time, people send me stuff and it just amazes me how some folks can be so gullible or buy into a lot of this “Internet Information pass it on garbage.”  The last time I got something so foolish as this  it was on the Mayan Calendar or the Aztec Right of the Sun or How to get rid of dry itchy skin or some other thing.  Clearly this is just another example of “electronic junk mail” being passed around, you be the judge.

 


Keep an Eye on your license plate.
From a State Office:

Pass it on to those you know. Thanks.

A woman said her son found his license plate missing so he called  the police to file a report. They told him people were stealing the plates to get free gas. Given the rise in gas prices, people have taken to stealing license plates, putting them on their car, then getting gas and running. The gas station will have “your” license plate # and you could be in trouble  for  “pump and run.” Check your car periodically to be sure you still have a plate. If you should find it missing, file a  report immediately!!! Keep an eye on your license plate! Make sure you always know it’s there! When the license plate is reported as the  “drive off vehicle”, it’s YOU they contact! Be aware!!!! Be aware of your license plates, most of us never look to see if the plates are there or not.

Please note it does not say which “state office” kind of vague on that.  Now I don’t know about the rest of you, but I have for about two years now, been required or forced “to pay up front first” for motor fuel or I simply did not get any.  I cannot for the life of me, at these prices, even imagine someone allowing you to pump first and pay later.  My last tank was well over $80 and I had gas in the sucker when I drove in there.

Freely I admit, moving to the country has its benefits, I now do not have to pay first, they know me, I am one of the tribe, I get to pump as much as I want and no one requires me to pay first.  Another thing that tends to make me believe all of this is just another internet bogus rumor would be credit cards, most gasoline purchases are with credit cards, and those as we all know, are just pretty hard to beat (cheat).

Pump and then pay is now long gone sports-fans … That like cheap gasoline … Is now a thing of the past …

It just aint gonna happen.

That is what makes this email laughable at best.  Kind of pathetic.Instead of “checking your car periodically to be sure you still have a plate.”  Perhaps it should be “check your brain to see if you still have one.”

Most American’s in this day and age generally speaking are aware of who is rippin’ off who at the gas pumps … Here is a little clue … They don’t require your stolen tag in order to do it.

Pass that on … to everyone you know … and I suppose, don’t know.  Where do people get this —-  One reason I seldom “pass anything on” when I get it, I just don’t want to look just plain stoooopid when it comes back to me.  Stick a little red pin in the map, another urban legend (half truth) has been exposed for what it is … Bogus.

Wednesday, hang in there, you almost have it made.

OOO

 

Cartoon courtesy of American Progress Online.

February 23, 2011

Power of the Internet

Filed under: Bus Life,Life,Oklahoma — ldsrr91 @ 5:14 am
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061909

The Internet is a powerful tool, recent events in Eygpt certainly have shown us that.  A civil uprising was started and completed, mainly using the Internet and not a shot was fired.  You can get the world’s news instantly at the drop of a hat off the Internet, it is all there, plain as day, and available 24-7.  One thing I have always liked about the Internet, was the fact, that “I could pick and choose which news I wanted to see and what news that I wanted to avoid.”  Kind of tailor made for me, it allowed me the luxury of avoiding those things that I find so repulsive in life, that feed my anxieties, my worries and fears.

Yesterday, against my better judgment I watched the national news, and as usual, the fare was pretty grim.  Earthquakes, politics run amuck, baby dolphins dying in the Gulf of Mexico and “no one knows why.”  And then people wonder why it is that I do not watch the news.  One of the things that we have always strived for here at Creative Endeavors was the pure abscence of “real news” we find it too depressing and often a downer.  So we search out the little light-hearted items, the good news, and we put that up instead.  It could be the reason for our apparent popularity, no one wants a constant diet of bad news.

It is frankly … bad for the soul.

So even after a self imposed prolonged abscence from the news I find that not much good news going around, was hoping for an improvement, 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 news.”

Which will be good news for people like me.

Most likely people will miss it, that is where I come in, I will publish a newspaper that is filled entirely with bad news, figuring folks will still need their daily fix, I will provide it for them.

Should be a money making proposition for me, Whadya think?  We will then print a bad news paper, no good news in it, I figure when all the news is good … people are going to miss the bad news … thus I will create my own market.

Here is some bad news, especially if your first name is “the defendant.”  A state judge in North Carolina has been reprimanded for discussing a pending child custody case on Facebook of all places.  He is accused of discussing the case with a lawyer after they became Facebook “friends” and soon found themselves discussing the case in a public forum.  Which surely a judge should know, is a violation of judicial ethics.  The judge has since disqualified himself from the case, and a new trial has been ordered.

Remember, when you are standing before that judge, “he used to be a lawyer at one time.”  I always like the story they told of a Mafia Godfather who finds out that his bookkeeper has cheated him out of ten million dollars.  His bookeeper is deaf, that was the reason he got the job in the first place.  It was assumed that a deaf bookkeeper would not hear anything that he might have to testify about in court.  When the Godfather goes to confront the bookkeeper about his missing $10 million he brings along his attorney, who knows sign language.

The Godfather tells the lawyer, “Ask him where the 10 million dollars is that he embezzled from me?”  The attorney, using sign language, asks the bookkeeper where the money might be?  The bookkeeper signs back; “I don’t know where the money is.?”  The attorney tells the Godfather “He says he doesn’t know what you are talking about.”

The Godfather quickly produces a pistol, puts it to the temple of the bookkeeper and says …. “Ask him again.”

The lawyer signs to the bookkeeper, “He will kill you if you do not tell him where the money is.”  The bookkeeper says, “Okay, You win!  The money is in a brown briefcase, buried in my brotherinlaws back yard in Queens!”  The Godfather then asks the lawyer, “What did he say?” and the lawyer replies, “He says, he doesn’t believe you have the guts to pull the trigger!” …. You just gotta love a lawyer.

News this weekend said that some guy was arrested for murder in Las Vegas, and he had “a history of questionable actions.”  Can you imagine if we were all held to that standard?  Not long ago, our local paper ran an article on some kids finding a body, completely wrapped in chains, hanging from a tree, and the headline said that “police suspect foul play.”

Uh huh?  Where do they get this stuff?

You read the headline and it says, “Convicted Rapist arrested …”  Now here is the part I don’t understand, if he is convicted, then what is he doing out?  And then there is always the guy who will say something like, “I don’t understand how a convicted rapist can be out walking the streets.”  How do we know?  How do we know that this guy is out walking the streets?  Not everyone who gets out of prison is likely to be just walkin’ the streets.

How about this?  I understand that a lot of them jack people up and steal their cars for instance.  We ought to be glad, “Thank God he stole a car, at least he’s not out walkin’ the streets!”

Another thing Internet people do is under estimate the power of this tool to reach people.  We sit here in our abodes, drink our coffee, type away at the keyboard and when it is shaped, molded and formed to our satisfaction, we hit “post” and don’t give it another thought.  Often we do not think of the people that will eventually read it, or the lives we might impact when we publish our works.

Believe it or not, you don’t have to be “Freshly Pressed” to get exposure.  I will give you a for instance.

On most days I have four or five different Internet boards that I haunt, looking around, reading and sometimes, posting on.  This past weekend I wrote a little fluff piece entitled “How Much Did It Cost” an article on our bus, and published it on a bus board.  In two days over 1,300 people read that piece, and 65 offered up comments.   That was intriguing to me, as that is some first class heavy-traffic for a little bbs.

You can read it here.

It was also sort of a wake up call for me, I have found myself taking advantage of this medium as has been my habit for several years, and forgotten the possibilities that were available.  I had completely forgotten the power of this medium to reach out over time and space, to land in someone’s home and be read and considered.  The recent events in the Middle East and this little fluff piece have shown me that.  In the future, I will give it even more thought before I publish it.  Because once it leaves this keyboard and hits the net, there isn’t any limit to the amount of people it will be seen by, and that friends, is an awesome responsibility.

OOO

“The cartoon courtesy of Center for American Progress” (online)

November 29, 2010

Monday Morning Pick Me Up

Filed under: Oklahoma,random,Recent — ldsrr91 @ 6:31 am
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Munday-Munday-Munday!

Monday morning, I have those get up, wake up, eat your eggs and oatmeal, rush to work blues!

It may be that I have completely lost my mind, but I added a new feature to the website this weekend.  You can now “rate the post” if you wish to do so (and as always, leave a comment if you so desire).

This may or may not be a good thing, I am not all that sure, only time will tell.  Please try and be kind … and by the way there is no this “Really Sucks” button … Sorry.

Just this week someone commented, “I like your posts, they are informative and humorous.”  Did you know that the U.S. Declaration of Independence has a total of 1,337 words?  Words that launched a nation.  The Bible, the Word of God, has about 773,000 words, so I am told.  And the U.S. Tax Code has approximately 7,000,000 and it is still growing.  Now that is incredible to me.

Okay, quick quiz.

What was the name of John Wayne’s horse? Anyone, anyone …. “Duke.”
We all knew Trigger, Roy’s trusty steed, what about Dale’s horse …. Anyone, anyone? …. “Butter Milk.” Don’t forget Pat, the jeep?  C’mon now … “Nelly Belle.” Gotta go, Sky King and Penny are coming on and I haven’t had my cholesterol lowering cereal this morning.

Best remember these little ditties; you never know when you might be called upon to come up with something witty and interesting on the Cocktail Circuit.  You remember that old saying?  “A mind is a terrible thing, and it must be stopped before it kills someone!” … “Have you seen the new bear cub’s at the zoo?”…. And my favorite, without a doubt …. “A watched pot never boils.  But it does get paranoid.”

So, what has been happening?  Earlier in the week while we were on the road, I got this email from a person and it said, “This sounds like the kind of joke you would tell.”  The email went on to explain the joke to me, which I will spare all of you the misery and will NOT pass it on.  The thing that bugs me about the situation, this was an off-color joke, and I don’t tell off color jokes.

I guess what is buggin’ me is this ….What type of image is it that I project to folks that would make them think I enjoy garbage like that?  Well, having said that, I will move on.  It is not often easy being me.  But I cannot be anyone else, you see, “everyone else has been taken, I have to be me.”

Don’t you just hate clicking on an email, and when it opens up you see something like this.  “Dear Mr. Smith, my name is Franklin J. Fenstamacher, I am an Agent with the U.S. Copyright Infringement Division here in Washington D.C.  It has come to our attention that … Now those types of email I read them all the way to the end.  Man!  I hate emails like those; don’t you guys hate emails like that?

You guys get them too, right.

Last week was a pretty good week, all in all.  Most of it was pleasant and positive in nature, and that always helps.  Did get some pretty negative stuff over a couple days about mid-week, but it wasn’t anything that could not be handled.  Especially if you are a kind, generous, and the wonderfully sensitive guy like I is …  A few detractors, I call them “non-fans” but that is no big deal either.  If you chum the waters, you have to expect to find some sharks showing up from time to time.

Just another week, some of it good and some of it, not so good.

On the downside (there is always a downside), I hate receiving negative emails, they drive me up the proverbial wall.  Two in particular really have been weighing heavily on my mind. They addressed the loss of a long time friend, and another was a spouse, these are the types of emails I just cannot bear to read.  Personally I don’t see how some of those folks that are putting a “Memorial Site” together do it.  I am not geared for something like that.

Interesting week … Like they say … Life is not measured by the numbers of breath we take … but rather … By the moments that take our breath away.  I guess it would all be rather boring, slow and mundane, if everything went the way WE wanted it to.

It would be nice to receive something uplifting and positive in nature every now and then, something like:  No two snowflakes are exactly alike.  All snowflakes start out the same: as a hexagonal crystal formed on a single particle of dust.

As it falls through a cloud, the flake begins to change shape dramatically from the cold and moisture inside the cloud, building on itself in a complex pattern.  The only way you could have two identical snowflakes would be if they followed the exact same pattern as they fell through the sky … which they don’t.  It is the same with people.

No two people are exactly the same.  You are totally unique and different from all those folks who surround you each day.  What makes you special is: “When I am around you, I feel more intellectually challenged.  Thank you for that.  When I am around you I come alive, feel inspired, and have fun.  You have that uncanny characteristic that just naturally seems to bring about the best in people; those who you come in contact with definitely are rewarded by your presence.  Thanks for having such a great impact on me.”

Next time you get a “downer email” send something positive and uplifting back …. Something simple and to the point …  Just tell ‘em …. “Thank You for being so dog-gone special” …..  Yeah that would be okay, that would be just fine.

Life …. What happens when you are not looking.

OOO



June 26, 2009

Best Laid Plans

Filed under: Oklahoma,Recent — ldsrr91 @ 3:56 am
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DSC00244

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 with a series 60 Detroit.  I call it Larry’s Traveling Cat House, because they travel with four cats, three that they owned, one they found starving at WalMart.

I am reading with some amusement another website where the stories of people getting in trouble on the road with their Eagles  and I think about Larry’s recent trip back home to Ohio to see his family and spend Father’s Day.  When they come thru our city, we meet and have dinner and visit with each other, trade stories, catch up on the news.

Larry recently made a trip from his home in Arizona to Columbus Ohio.  What you might describe as an annual pilgrimage home to see the family.

Before leaving Arizona it was discovered that the Prevo had a problem in the air conditioning system, and it was put in the shop, of course the parts were not handy (had to be ordered) so it sat there for about two weeks, and when retrieved the bill was for $4,800 and some change.

Ahhhhhhhhh, the joys of bus ownership.

Packing up and everything in good working order, or at least assuming that everything was in good working order?  They hit the road east and make about 225 miles, when something goes amiss in the air system, and the bus lowers itself to a “kneeling position” and becomes un-drivable.  A shop is called, and room is made, the air leak is found and the check is written, $280.00.  I thank my lucky stars that I have a torsion bar suspension system, even tho it is archaic and outdated, it is still better than this.

Next day finds them in Tucumcari, New Mexico, just down the big hill from Amarillo, the series 60 Detroit is starving for fuel and barely has enough energy in it to make the top of the hill.  Not any particular hill mind you, just about any hill.  Another diesel shop, Q&A, the whole nine yards, new fuel filters, carefully putting up the check book, here we go again.

Next stop Okie City, home of the Brickyard Canal and Toby Keith Steakhouse.  (Maybe)

After a nice short visit, our friends depart for St. Louie and points east, at least that is the plan.  They make it up to Missouri, barely inside The Show Me State, and are once again, put in the “foot patrol.”  This time it is a clutch fan, and it is on Sunday.

Pulling into a truck stop and assuming a spot, they call road service, and a local guy comes out after church, and removes the errant clutch fan and assures them a new one will be on the next day.  Now Prevo’s have two types of clutch fans, the $800 model and the $1,400 model, which one do you suppose Larry needed?

After replacement, installation, service and labor, they head onto to Columbus, Ohio.  They make it all the way there, well almost, they are shut down 150 miles from their destination, clogged fuel filters again.

By now you should know the drill.

I call him three days later and all is well (of course it is, the bus hasn’t been running and has been parked all this time) and he says “I still have one problem.”  So I say “What is that?”  He replies, “Well, I came out this morning and the thing is kneeling again, and down on all fours.  I just cannot figure it out?”  He then tells me that he is going to check on it at the Diesel Shop later on in the week.  He is in the market for a six pack and I am not talking Bud Lite (fuel filters).

A few days go by, so I pick up the telephone and I give him a jingle, kind of wanting to touch base with him and see what he is up to. We talk for awhile and then he offers, “I got the air problem solved.”

Curious I respond, “Yeah?  What was it?”

So here is the setup, for the uneducated or curious.  Prevost coaches are loaded usually with all the bells and whistles, they have miles of wiring, electrical relays out the kazoo, they are also generously equipped with a host of switches and dials.  He has a bank of switches up near the driver and on this bank there are two push button switches that “dump air” out of the system, in case you wanted to level the coach or for some other reason.

Intently I listen and then he says to me …….. “Dog-gone cat did it, don’t know which one, but one of them suckers, has been walking around up there by the dash, stepped on the switch, and let all the air out of the coach.”

So I said, “You sure?”  His reply was, “Yup.  I aired it back up on Tuesday and then I covered up the switches and it has been up for three days now!”

Which brings me to this …. “The owner of a second hand bus knows how hard it is to drive a bargain” … I cannot wait for the back-haul to Arizona.

Life is short … Enjoy the ride.

Have a great weekend, if you travel be safe.  We will see you all on Monday.

OOO

March 4, 2009

Dont Blame Me

Filed under: Oklahoma,Recent — ldsrr91 @ 3:24 am
Tags: , , ,

i-am-the-law2

Today, this morning, is my third or fourth day of no political comment or ranting (I personally prefer the term commenting) and I feel and look just great!  So once again, you are free from the rigors and the turmoil inflicted upon you by my extremely poor social upbringing and the lack of good writing skills.  Continuing my current effort to clean up my act, I shall keep this strictly a pantagraphic hauntograpy of proto-mantic motherworlds.

There will be no political mysteriograms of toposonic radiances that deconstruct and propel one into raptoluminal resonances deep in their souls, or feeble attempts to raise up residual numinophillic nemeta sites which are reiterated in myco-boreal precincts located around the country.

There …… that ought to clear it all up.

I am however still allowed to comment on the strange doin’s, the bizarre, the wonderful wacky world that we all live in, that fact of life has not changed.  For instance, did you know that the Smithsonian in Washington DC has asked Aretha Franklin to donate her inauguration hat festooned with a giant, bejeweled bow?  It is true, stoopid yes, but still, true.

Turning up the heat.  The new president, who declared on the campaign trail that we cannot afford to keep our homes at seventy-two degrees, has cranked up the thermostat in the oval office, and some staffers are reporting that it is hot enough to grow orchids in there.  But then again … The dude is from Hawaii.  (that isn’t political is it?)

Jessica Simpson this week thanked every one of her fans for their positive support of her during her recent weight gain.  She said that we as American’s focus on a lot of things that are typically pointless … Like Jessica Simpson.  I like this one, no I really do.  I am reading this article on “How to use an electric razor” and one of the tips is to …. Get this …. Dry off.

Yeah, like shaving a wet face with an electric appliance, like that would be a brilliant idea.  Here is another one, on the side of our hair blower it has a little sticker, the sticker reads, “do not use in the shower.”  Yeah like duh?  I can just see it in my minds eye, three big burly firefighters huddled in my bathroom (we do have a rather small bathroom) and they are looking down at the body, naked, dripping wet, and in my left hand is the hair blower.

Most importantly … Don’t believe the suicide note, everyone knows that I am “right handed.”

Business in the country continues to slowly sink into what most would describe as a “Black Hole of Despair and gloom”  If you spent one million dollars per day ($1,000,000.00) every single day since Jesus was born (734,380) you still would not have spent as much (734,380,000,000) as Congress did in the stimulus Bill (734,380,000,000) now let us quadruple that amount (X4) and we’ll have the cost of the Iraq War (Tilt).

This isn’t political is it?

So far this year, banks are failing at a rate that is more than one per week, the worst failure rate since 1993.  So if you are opening up a new checking account, I would not expect a toaster.  (Oooooh, that was good I am gonna save that one!)  A new surprise on the horizon has appeared, more women bank robbers, stocks may be down, but the percentage of women robbing banks is now up in the U.S..  It is nice to see that it is a “equally-opportunity crime” and that territory once owned and dominated by the men, has been taken over by the girls.

“Anything that you can do … we can do … Only better.”

If you figure business isn’t all that bad, then look at this photograph of the dead line in Fullerton, California (outside Los Angeles) this is a recent photo of Union Pacific locomotives that are shut down, because their business has gone south and they have no freight to haul.*  UP is the second largest railroad in the U.S..  (Thanks to Sam Locomotive Engineer for emailing me the photo and the info)

It may not concern you that pollution from coal burning plants and development in this country has obscured the Milky Way from more than two-thirds of America, and a fifth of the world.  That the national debt is now at a point where your grandchildren will NEVER be able to pay the F.I.C.A guy and your American Dream is just that …. A dream.

While we are at it (nothing like being right and this one is right on!) Here is another eye opener. To my legions of self-appointed critics I say … It is not my fault that your home interests or your 401K’s have lost trillions of dollars, I didn’t vote for him or support his war.

I cannot help (nor do I care) that you can no longer afford a $5 Starbucks latte, your Jimmy Choo shoes, granite counter-tops and stainless steel appliances, or buy your hubby a new Rolex watch on his next birthday.  That your elected officials appear to be brain dead and can now safely be un-plugged from life support.   Like I said … It was not of my making nor is it of my concern.  Don’t blame me.

al_gore

Just do what me and the Mrs. did when we hit the end of our rope.  We tied a big ol knot in the end of that sucker and then we just started to hang on!

OOO

*Thanks to RailPicturesNet for the photograph.

February 26, 2009

Are We Having Fun Yet

Filed under: Oklahoma,Recent — ldsrr91 @ 4:19 am
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balloon-economyGreetings!  Welcome to the first class on how to make two small hats out of a Brassiere, paid for and subsidized by the U.S. Government. Man, first it was the mayor of New Orleans and now it is Bobby the Gov. from Lousy-anna.  Gov. Bobby Jindal’s task the other night, to rebut President Obama’s first address to a joint session of Congress, was a thankless one.

But it still constituted an opportunity for the Louisiana Republican to show that he could handle the national spotlight, present himself as a fresh face of the Republican Party, and stand up to the current president in a proper controlled oratorical manner.

On each of these three hurdles, he came up short. Both Democrats and Republicans alike panned Jindal’s rebuttal in terms that were decidedly harsh: “amateurish,” “laughable” and, most commonly, “a missed opportunity.”  Pretty bad, and what made it worse, I stayed up past my bedtime to make sure I watched it all.  “After watching Jindal,” one Democratic strategist emailed, “I’d pay a lot of money to be back watching a Palin speech.”

Repeat to yourself, “life isn’t an emergency, life isn’t an emergency, life isn’t … oh well, you get the picture, don’tcha?”

Been mostly a slow week here in the last vast bastion of good community living … No one is commenting, and this thing is drier than a cold water spring in Furnace Creek, Death Valley California here lately.

I don’t know where everyone has got off too.  So as it is slow, I have been musing it over in my mind what my options are here of late.  Y’know, scrubbing my Federal Window of opportunity to see if the view has changed for me personally.

I haven’t made up my mind if I am willing to take some of this bailout money that the other states do not want, you know that great big ol piece of the American Pie everyone seems fixated on here lately.

Meanwhile I pick up the paper and no rainbow there.  Things are so bad, that the Treasury Department issued a press release that they are considering a new five dollar bill and Lincoln will be wearing a T-Shirt.  And of course there is this barn burner of a news item that I cannot for the life of me figure out.

THE NEW STATE QUARTER WAS UNVEILED TO THE DELIGHT OF QUARTER HOARDERS EVERYWHERE … WASHINGTON DC … ONLY ONE SNAG EVERYONE OVERLOOKED … WASHINGTON DC IS NOT A STATE!

I also hear the lottery isn’t doing well now, will it never end?  The first number is twenty-seven, second number is thirty-three, here’s another one that you do not have …. Trenton New Jersey lottery officials are moaning the blues – The state Lottery said fewer people appeared to be buying tickets. Lottery ticket revenue for the first six months of the current fiscal year is down, and the state Treasury Department said New Jersey received nearly $4 million, or about 1%, less than anticipated.

Also in New Jersey, Newark – A former employee in the city’s health department was sentenced to eight years in prison for a $1 million scam. Charles Brown said his drug addiction led him to print bogus vouchers for the Women, Infants and Children program and sell them to a store, which sold them to other stores and pocketed the proceeds.  Now let’s do our math, shall we?  Eight years in the slamma, that figures out to about $125,000 per year, 3 hots and a cot, and six figures.

Hmmmmmm? (Well, it doesn’t mention anything about him having to make retribution for the stolen funds does it?)

Yesterday I was over browsing in my favorite business supply store.  Saw something neat.  Staples has that “That Was Easy” expression on a button for your desk, $4.98 drop by and pick up one today.  I like it.  I think of this banking fiasco and how easy it was for them to just drop in and pick up their collective bag of money and then run.  It was so easy that American Xpress changed itself (seemingly overnight) into a bank instead of a credit card company, and so easy, they are now offering people $300 to close out their credit card accounts.  What a concept, wonder who thought of that, especially after I CLOSED MY ACCOUNT in a responsible manner and moved on.

Mo betta bankin’ news …. SunTrust board of directors in their infinite wisdom have given their CEO a nice little raise.  Even tho’ the profits of the bank tanked under his leadership, down some 50% which is a pretty lousy indicator of good leadership.  The stock price was cut in half but the company’s board of directors saw fit to give or approve a 75% increase in the 2008 total compensation of the head man.  He is now making just under $8.1 million according to their most recent proxy statement filed this week.

Now That Was Easy

Here comes the next wave, are you ready for this Sparky?  I have been right more than I have been wrong, so here it is.  According to the Federal Reserve, the total outstanding credit card debt carried by Americans reached a record $951 billion in 2008 — a number that will only climb higher as more people reach for the plastic to make ends meet.

Yet the same banks that have been bailed out with billions of taxpayer dollars, have been turning around and gouging their most vulnerable customers, ratcheting up interest rates to as much as 32 percent and charging an ever-widening array of late fees, cash-advance fees, and over-the-limit fees.

mastercard

Open up the Federal Checkbook … Now it is time to feed another pig at the trough.

Priceless.

Click here to read more.

(If you are not already thoroughly convinced that the end is truly near, that is)

Anybody want to buy a used lottery ticket, I have some I will sell “dirt cheap.”


OOO

“Some of this material [article] was published by the Center for American Progress” and cartoons are from the same.”

January 27, 2009

O Happy Daze

Filed under: Oklahoma,Recent — ldsrr91 @ 12:01 am
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living-and-dying

You know I look at the headlines and they are just so dire, so outright depressing, I almost avoid them completely.  They are enough to make a guy sick, if you let it.  I tend to lean towards “Happy Stuff” I know that this is totally unrealistic, but what they hey, it doesn’t drag me down.

We are sitting on a mountain of personal opportunities, if you just look around.  I want to make a difference in someone’s life this day, I know that out there in cyberspace there are people who are not having a good day.  There are people who are getting a bad medical report, financial news, a kid who is sick, or a bill that needs paying and there just isn’t money to cover it.

They don’t need any more bad news — I don’t need any more bad news —You don’t need it either.

So I kind of naturally lean towards something lighter, something uplifting, something positive if I can find it, if it is possible to think along those lines.  Tiring of the ambsace numbers coming out of Washington, I want another shot at it, and I want a winner.  I am tired of standing on the curb and clapping when the parade moves by, I want to get out and the street if only to march and sing!

Most of us want or desire to be a good example in life, wouldn’t you agree?  I remember in High School, I was never the trophy winning athlete, I was the “example.”  The coach would point his finger at me, and then he would say something profound and inspiring like …. “Look at Smith, at least he finished.  He wasn’t first and he wasn’t last, but he did finish.” And I would mutter a lowly “uh thanks, I think?” and move on.

Now later, much later on in life, I am still striving to achieve something, anything, as long as it is positive in nature.

Following along those same lines, I recently took on a second job sort of thing, working in the afternoons.  It is something like the Wall-Mart greeter guy, only different.  I am now working at Weight Watchers, they are paying me $8.40 and hour to stand in the corner, there the weight trainers and personal rep’s point at me and yell ….. “If you continue to eat Twinkies and Ding Dongs, this is what you will look like!”

Always the good example.

Winners, I want stories about winners.  Rudy, Clash of the Titans, The Horse Whisper, that Will Smith movie about the homeless guy, and a host of others.  I want a movie where the dog comes home, the guy gets the girl, the storyline where the hero makes a difference.  I love stuff like Charice, the little Filipino girl who dreams of singing with Celina Deon and comes to America and does just that.

And she is good, knock down drag ‘em out the door good, check out the video.  Her talent really shines in part two at Madison Garden when she sings with Celina.

Brings a tear to my eye every time.

Like most of you, I am sick of stories of big time bankers and politicians that get convicted, pick up the bag of money and waltz off into the sunset.  I don’t want to hear about the polar bears drowning or the Eskimo’s that cannot heat their homes or find any grub.  I am sick of all this negative crap going around, I want some good news.

dsc00193

Give me something like this story that a friend of mine recently shared with me.  In the days when an ice cream sundae cost much less, a 10-year-old boy entered a hotel coffee shop and sat at a table. A waitress put a glass of water in front of him.

“How much is an ice cream sundae?” he asked.  “Fifty cents,” replied the waitress.  The little boy pulled his hand out of his pocket and studied the coins in it.

“Well, how much is a plain dish of ice cream?” he inquired.

By now more people were waiting for a table and the waitress was growing impatient.  “Thirty-five cents,” she brusquely replied. The little boy again counted his coins.  “I’ll have the plain ice cream,” he said.

The waitress brought the ice cream, put the bill on the table and walked away.

The boy finished the ice cream, paid the cashier and left. When the waitress came back, she began to cry as she wiped down the table. There, placed neatly beside the empty dish, were two nickels and five pennies and she realized that he chose not to have a sundae, because if he had, he would not have enough left to leave her a tip.

You can make a difference in someone’s life.

Do something, anything, nice for someone today.  You’ll be surprised how much better you feel when you are the example and not the cause.

000

Comments is open, every reader with the letters A-N can comment now, O-Z you have to wait until tomorrow, or whenever you feel like it.  Have a great weekend.

October 1, 2008

Bush-Whacked Again

Filed under: Oklahoma,politics,random,Recent,Uncategorized — ldsrr91 @ 9:25 am
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From time to time I hear of some outrageous stuff going on concerning America.  I had someone I know and trust, tell me that he believes, that there is actually a concentration camp type center being built in the area of Central Ohio for the possible internment of American’s and it is being built on an abandoned Army base.

Then I had a guy tell me that he saw a government boxcar (Yes our government has its own freight cars, they own their own tank cars, box cars, flat cars labeled D.O.D.X. – Department Of Defense and of course, you and I.).  Anyway he said the door had came open on it, so while in a siding he went back to close the door and inside he spied “guillotines!”  Now I know this guy and I have no reason to believe he was fabricating this, but it sure does make a fellow wonder?

And then I came across this:

U.S. Army brigade being assigned to the Homeland.

Normally this would be a cause for celebration, the shedding of a tear or two, utter and uncontrollable joy.  But it is not so … What you are about to read will possibly stand the hair on the back of your neck straight up.

Mr Bush is bringing the troops home specifically to keep you in line by means of “martial law.”  Martial law is a euphemism for military dictatorship.  When foreign democracies are overthrown and a junta establishes martial law, American’s usually recognize that a fundamental change has occurred.

Bush (and I suppose Cheney) have enabled legislation to circumvent another constitutional law and no one seemed to even notice.  It was tucked into an appropriations bill with little fanfare or debate.  Secreted neatly in a $500 billion appropriations bill, without so much as word of discussion from anyone.  More than money on the line here, your basic freedom is now in jeopardy.

In case you are wondering I ran it thru the usual source checkers and it appears to be true, it isn’t a rumor, and it isn’t an Urban Legend.

What it is …. Is scarier than hell.

This administration has been the most inept, corrupt, and illegal administration in the history of our country. It is common knowledge they are ripe with liars and have no real consideration or respect for the constitution.  They have their own agenda and priorities.

Recently I came across this information and if it doesn’t make you wake up and smell the coffee … If it doesn’t send a shiver up and down your spine … Then I guess there just isn’t any hope for you at all.

If you don’t believe that tyranny is possible in America, then you need to take five minutes out of your busy day and the article.  If any of this is true, then I would say we could be in for some serious problems in the future.  As much as I hate to admit it, “we might be already there.”

Check out theVideo here.

Let us hope and pray it isn’t this way.

000

Source File: Tyranny In America

September 27, 2008

Back Off (audio)

Filed under: Oklahoma,politics,random,Recent,Uncategorized — ldsrr91 @ 10:55 am
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Leave Me Alone I am disgruntled

Leave Me Alone I am disgruntled

Went to the doctor on Friday, part of my yearly check up and planned maintenance schedule. You see life doesn’t begin after forty, maintenance begins after forty. Recently my sister said “that sixty was the new forty” and I love my sister, but she has that wrong, she isn’t even close … Sixty is the new Sixty and that is the name of that tune.

My doctor says my blood pressure is high, I am winning the lottery on my cholesterol and all in all, I should not be here, but I am. Another mystery of medical science.

He says that my weight is perfect if I was seven feet tall! He cannot do a thing about this fungus on my thumb and I should be encased in something that they make pickles out of.

So I am sitting there and I tell him (the doctor) that I am somewhat depressed with all this government crap, Obammer not willing to show his birth certificate to anyone, McSame not remembering where it is he lives, Sarah Palin and her views on loading your own ammo. So I ask him about some anti-depressants and what could he give me.

He said he could give me this stuff that would alleviate a lot of my anxiety, but that he would have to schedule checkup’s for at least 84 days to check on me. I suggested that perhaps he could pass on that, and instead, just listen to the Police Scanner.

But he said no dice.

So I am back to my own reality, not a good week for government, business, and doctor appointments. I suppose we are onto another four years of pretending that the Global Warming issue is NOT an issue and we are going to burn freight-train loads of “Clean Coal.” Which like the Easter Bunny, Santa Claus, Big Foot and UFO’s, the Republican Flat Earth theory, all of which do not exist.

Bush did promise, exactly like McSame has promised, that he would impose mandatory emission controls not only on carbon dioxide but also on three other dangerous pollutants. Unfortunately in Bush’s case, that quickly took a back burner position in the government kitchen, and he went back to sitting in the oval office popping bubble wrap and playing video games.

With all this current rounds of check kiting schemes and far fetched financial programs going on, I have forgotten if we are going to drill the tundra or not? We are going to punch holes in this theory too. Welcome to the wonderful world of Washington Fuzzy Thinking.

What, you wonder, does drilling for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge have to do with solving the energy problem in California? Absolutely, nothing. Less than one percent of California’s electricity comes from oil. So it pretty apparent that dog isn’t gonna hunt.

Wind power, Mr. T. Boone Pickens plan is currently being tossed about, take a look at that. He wants to be the Saudi Arabia of wind-power on the American plains. Take a gander at how much land it would take to accomplish this lofty goal, it boggles the mind.  To get the United States off foreign energy, we would need 41,767,850 turbines, which would over an area of 10,441,962.5 acres of land.  This is also 16,316 square miles or nearly the size of Vermont and New Hampshire combined.

The complete article can be found here ….

Perhaps after one solid week of “bad news” this is why this morning I find myself disgruntled. I always loved that word “disgruntled” my boss used it quite a lot. It has that “Metamucil” (laxative) sound to it. I am a bit disgruntled; I ate too much cheese last night on my pizza. You get disgruntled when you see that the amount of gas you used last year at this time was $54.54 and this year, the same amount of gas, is $110.47.

And then there is Joe Biden who this week is quoted as saying …. “It is your patriotic duty to pay higher taxes.”

That will make you disgruntled for sure.

Finding myself debilitated by a series of bad news announcements, I have sank into a truly pitiable senescence attitude, surrounded by newspapers I no longer can stand to read, and once again bitching about the moron’s in our government this morning.What the hey?  It beats mowing the lawn or finding yourself on the wrong-end of weed whacker.

Bad news just has that effect on me.  I just naturally find myself bent out of shape.  And after the week I have had … It is no small wonder I feel yucky.

000

Parting Shot: “Cheer up.  Do you realize that in about 40 years, we’ll have thousands of old ladies running around with tattoos?  And Rap Music will be considered Golden Oldies!”

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