The County Fair

Yesterday afternoon, Charlene and I went to the County Fair, next to downtown Ventura.  Just a couple of miles away and all roads that lead to it are closed, one-way the wrong-way for us or clogged with swat team guys waiting for something to shoot at.  Just kidding about that last one....  Anyway, we spent about 4-5 hours walking around, sampling stuff you would only eat at a 'fair', riding rides, petting horses and goats.  I took some pictures throughout the afternoon and have included them here.  Overall, it was a lot of fun, period.  And that's what it's supposed to be, isn't it! 
If you click on the photos, you'll get a bigger uncropped version.  Then, use your 'browser's ' Back button to return here.

On the way to find a close parking spot, I took a pic of my Fair Ticket.  If you're over 62, you get a $3 discount.  Old People Rock!  As Charlene handed me my ticket, she ask, "Senior or Child"?  I said, "Yes, that describes me perfectly....Senior Child.

Once we made it past the ticket takers, there was a plethera of garbage 'fair' food booths as far as the eye could see.  Once a year, you're allowed to eat this crap in the name of fun.  Don't bother figuring out the fat content or calorie count.  You shouldn't come to a fair if you need to watch what you eat. 

As we worked our way toward the 4H and FFA animal section, there were way, way too many really cool garbage fair food booths.

Of course, there were some with 'catch-phrase' wording like, Best Buns in Town!  But 10 lb. buns?

One thing for certain.  We do not come to the fair for Cookies and Hot Chocolate.  Even though this is a cute little A-Frame booth, please, Grease and Lard Only!

Here's one of the main reasons to come to a county fair:  Funnel Cakes.  Hopefully fried in bacon grease, turned a powder white with the 'Snowstorm Powdered Sugar Shaker'.  Calories?  Animal Fat?  Who cares, it's the once a year county fair, deal with it.

Oh, My God, they had Foot-Long Corn Dogs!  Twice the nitrates and lard.  Mmmmmmm!

As we work our way to the livestock pens, the food frenzy goes on......Austrailian, Italian, Indian and so on....

We finally made it through the garbage food gauntlet and first up were the horses.  Such beautiful animals.  Here's a gaggle of pics from the 'horsey set'.

Then, on to the rest of the animals.  The best were the goats.  Their noses were no where near as soft as horse noses.  But one had a really cool Turtleneck sweater on, the other really cool dreadlocks.

You simply must put some kind of 'fair' garbage in your stomach before you go on the rides.  We started off with potato chips.  With a few onion rings.  These are fresh made while you wait.  Sliced, boiled in fat, hit with the 'Snowstorm' salt shaker, cups and cups of Heinz Ketchup.  Almost a pound of chips per basket.  Mmmmmmm, grease!

Then, it was on to the rides.  We did the Ferris Wheel, the 'Swings', the 'Bobsled' and the giant rocking pirate boat.  The swings was the worst, more centrifical force on stomach that the other rides.  I took pictures from the Ferris Wheel in honor of Ferris Bueller. 

Here's a pic of the Pacific, right next to us.  There's a guy sitting on his 'board' in the bottom left corner.  You're looking at the Oxnard / Port Hueneme coast from the Ventura Fairgrounds.

Here's a couple more taken of the fair itself from atop the Ferris Wheel.

Now, we had some garbage in our stomachs, swirled it with rides, saw the animal displays, it's off to the other buildings full of gems, plants, paintings and other 'fair worthy' crafts.

We stumbled upon an Oxygen Bar.  Bar?  Different flavors of Oxygen?  You Betcha!

  Just before we left, I saw a sign I couldn't resist.

YES!  I had to have one of them.  Damn it, too many choices.........O.K., I went with the deep fried  Snickers.

Of course, smothered in powdered sugar......

The first bite was just the dough-ey end.  Like a corn dog only sweet.  Then I hit the Snickers and everything was well and good with the world.

If you haven't been transported to the ER  with an overdose of sugar and cholesteral, here's the parting signs as we were leaving the fair.  Kind of reminds me of the morning D.J.'s "Pat and Wags"  (before Wags and Elliot) when they were at the Ohio State Fair, years ago, and were raving about 'Pizza in a Cup' on the midway.  Here's the updated versions:

and of course,

Yes, indeed, nothing says if finer than Chocolate Covered Bacon........ Bon Appetite!

Florida Vacation, The Prologue

Most of you are aware that we spent eight days in Florida, returning last Wednesday.  Future blogs will follow each day, pictures included, but today, I'd like to explain the overall trip.  Charlene is from Florida and her brothers and sister live there, including her twin brother (yes, she is a 'twin').  They're located in Tampa as well as North Central Florida and on the East Coast near Daytona.  So, every two days, we were somewhere else visiting a new brother throughout the entire vacation.  Go somewhere, unpack, enjoy another day-and-a-half then pack it up and drive somewhere else to unpack for 2 days.  About the 5th day, Nic, Trav and I were whining about it.  On the 6th day, Nic and Trav said, "If we ever come back, can we stay in one place and send out invitations to everyone else......". 

That and the temperature and humidity.  Both in the mid-90's everyday.  Everytime I'd go into air conditioining, my glasses would fog.  Everytime I left the air conditioning, my glasses would fog.  Even if I was already outside and just opened the car door, the 1000 degree air in the car would 'woosh!' out and fog my glasses.  Now, understand that I am a 'sweathog'.  54 years in Ohio taught me to dress for cool running and drink tons of Gatoraide.  So, the first trip to the grocery store within hours of landing in Tampa was to buy a cart full of Gatoraide.  Living in the temperate Southern California Coastal area, I think I forgot how to sweat but quickly remembered within minutes of walking out of the airport.  Other than those two drawbacks, I had a lot of fun, as did the rest of the family.  And, I finally got to meet those faceless telephoners that have called for years.  Most of 'em are as goofy as my family, if not worse (in a good way).
Click on the photos for the bigger size, then click your browser's 'Back' button to return here.

New Jenny Craig Spokesperson

Hi,

My name is Cat.  I'm the new spokesperson for Jenny Craig Weight Loss Centers.  All my cat friends hinted that I may be adding a little girth in the middle.  So I signed up with Jenny Craig to lose some weight.  Here is my 'Before' picture.

...and on the 9th of June, 2010...

Been lazy or doin' other stuff for a while and haven't updated my blog since the middle of May.  Shame on me.  Remember those tomatoes I planted at the end of March - in the greenhouse?  Tonight, we had our first home grown tomato of the season.  Indescribably delicious.  Only have two ripe.  Saving the other for tomorrow....... Click on the photo to see it in rich, thick, juicy, full bodied wonderful tasting larger size.  Click your 'back' button to return here.

It is Finished.......

I know from being dragged, kicking and screaming, to church every Sunday that when Jesus was ready to die, he uttered the words, "It is Finished".  Well, no religion for this weeks blog, just relief!  Charlene took her RN NS30 final 'final' today at 9:30 in the morning.  No grade yet but she said it was easy.  She only put in about a million hours of reading/flashcards/studying this past week in preparation and this afternoon is doing volunteer work helping at the college with the graduation of NS40 students getting their RN degree.  She's got to put in a bunch of 'volunteer' hours to qualify for graduation when it's her turn, regardless of grades.  No minimum 'hours', no degree.  She's also up for helping the instructors giving the Certified Nursing Assistant tests on Thursday.  She took hers 3 years ago and has been working part time as a CNA at the local hospital ever since. 
NS30, as I have written in the past, was one really tough course.  In addition to 3 instructional (classroom) classes a week and 2 8-hour shifts of 'on-the-job-classes, there was this 'nursing care plan' stuff that consumed hours and hours on her own time at the hospital and write-ups at home.  Way too much information overload crammed down her brain at an incredible pace.  She did great, passing the NS30-A part, taking final and all and then get stuffed into Psychiatric Nursing (NS30-B) for 4 weeks of the same information overload crammed down her brain at an incredible pace.  That was the final 'final' she took today.  End of School for the Summer!  Now, nothing to do but study all summer and take practice "State RN Board" tests until she gets scores of at least 80% or better....... it never ends.   Sigh...........  I was going to end this with "It is Finished" but it's not.  Study all summer, NS40 classes this coming August through December, then State Boards.  Then and only then can we say, "It is Finished"........

Tomatoes Try #3 Update

Well, three weeks and three days after planting my (hopefully) new crop of tomato plants, I have a couple of photos.  I planted 3 different varieties, one of which is my old standby, Early Girl.  Most people aren't aware that you're supposed to bury half the plant, folage and all, when you put them in the ground.  Seems like cruel and unusual punishment but it makes for a stronger, healthier plant.  You got these beautiful 12" tall plants and end up with less than 6" sticking above ground but that's what you're supposed to do.  Does it work?  Check out the photos and click on them for the larger view, use you 'back' button to return here.

Look at those two beautiful baby tomatoes!  These are on the Early Girl, the others, nuttin' yet........

Movie Review

Charlene and I watched "The Men Who Stare at Goats" last night. Not a chick flick, not a war movie. I don't know how you would classify this one other than "Good Entertainment". George Clooney and Ewan McGregor are just great in their roles. Jeff Bridges is good and Kevin Spacey, whom we normally just love, was a wicked-old bad ass you love to hate. This is a funny movie. Nic, Trav and one of their friends watched it this afternoon and give it two iPods up. If you need some funny entertainment, this is it. Loved the ending……..........

HIgh-Tech Charlene

Last week, Charlene was studying and I was doing the laundry.  She got up and went into our bedroom for something and walked back into the kitchen carrying an armload of clothes and dumped them on the floor in front of the washer.  At the time, the washer was only halfway through its current cycle, as was the dryer.  I said, "Honey, I got the laundry, just relax and do your studying".  She replied, "I'm just putting this in the washer queue".  The washer queue?  When did that jargon hit this house?

Got Box?

On the way home, I had to stop and get gas. I pulled into the gas station and 'filled it up' with $20 worth - Whoo Hoo! Almost half a tank! As I was just about through, a chopped motorcycle pulled in next to me. Big, ugly and noisy Harley. The guy riding it had a WWII Nazi war helmet, big ugly "ZZ Top" beard and was over weight. He was wearing a sleeveless T-shirt that said, "Got Box?". He didn't shut off the cycle as he was filling gas into it, kind of 'bad-ass' style. As I finished pumping my gas, I hung up the pump handle and got into my truck. But curiosity got the better of me and, risking life and limb, got out, went up to Mr. Badass and ask him what his shirt meant. "Anger Box!" he yelled above the motorcycle engine noise. Thankful I was still alive, I waived an, "O.K" and quickly got back in my truck and came home. I had to Google it to figure out what the hell he was talking about. Guess you'll have to, also.


On a lighter/heavier note, check out Shelley's latest blog at : http://deliciasez.blogspot.com/ .  The reason she's doing this particular blog is explained by visiting another blog entitled  http://temerity-jane.com/?p=2943

It's a new thing Temerity -Jane made up called 'Stockholming Myself '. Very interesting, very funny, somewhat sad, yet happy. read 'em both. I just might join in........

Third Try at Tomatoes

Most of you know that I love home-grown tomatoes.  Just the best thing in the world - fresh, juicy, tasty and delicious.  What more could you ask?   Ventura has great weather for people, not so good for tomatoes which need heat.  Summer temps here are 65 to 75 degrees average and for a sweathog like me, it's wonderful.  I've tried for 8 years to grow tomatoes and, like our neighbors, never have a good crop.  Small tomatoes, few tomatoes.  The alternative is store bought ones that are picked green, turned red with propane gas and are hard, tasteless things.  If you could find anything resembling real ones, it would be at the weekly farmers markets and cost a fortune.  Nah, I'll build a greenhouse to grow them right.  So, in May, 2008, I did just that. 
Here's a photo of the beginnings:

At the end of our backyard, behind the garage is where I started.  I've never been good at exact measurements so I just planned in my head and measuring was kept at a minimum.  After a week of digging, some Internet ordered Greenhouse film and lots of trips to Lowes, it looked like this:

Then, in the next week, it all came together.  We have a large gopher population in the neighborhood so I had to dig the inside of the greenhouse down several feet and lay galvanized hardware cloth (coarse screening) to keep them out.  I dumped 27 bags of soil, peat moss, cow manure and mulch on top of the hardware cloth to fill up the planting area.  The inside growing area is about 6' by 6'.  Then, up went the roof and walls and door.  Finally, it was done:

It was now the middle of June, a month or so later than when I normally planted tomatoes but as you can see, inside the greenhouse, 5 plants are growing, along with several bell pepper plants.  The greenhouse worked well.  In a month, stuff was growing like crazy:

All 5 plants went crazy, growing to the roof and eventually fell over.  They smothered the bell pepper plants which I could never find again.  The tomato plants were continually loaded with big, red, juicy tomatoes.  Every weekend, I'd fill 4 or 5 plastic grocery bags - almost 20 pounds each. Wonderful tomatoes!  I shared them with neighbors and they agreed these were the best tomatoes in California, ever.  Finally, about the end of October, it was finished for the year. We had harvested hundreds of pounds of great tomatoes but the plants were starting to die.  I  ripped out what was left, cleaned the walls and waited for the coming year.  What a success!.

The following February - the 28th to be exact- I replanted the greenhouse in hopes that tomatoes would be on our table by May.  Here is the hopeful planting picture taken in April.  Only two plants this time and several bell peppers.

But it was not to be.  I had planted too early in the year and there was not enough sunlight to make the plants grow properly.  Yes, they grew tall and bushy thanks to fertilizer but were stunted or mutated by the lack of sun.  There were no tomatoes.  In June, I ripped everything out and started again.  As the summer progressed, we had heat wave after heat wave and the temperatue inside blew past 105 degrees daily, even with the door open and vents installed.  We were lucky to get 20 pounds for the entire season.  Such a disappointment.

I wanted to wait until the first of May this year before planting but was tempted by two 80 degree days this past weekend.  Against my better judgement, I started the 2010 growing season.  I hope things go better this time around. 

Mysterious Notes Appear.......

Remember, click on the photo for the uncropped larger version, then use your browsers 'back' arrow to return here

- - - - -  - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

From time to time, Nic, Trav or I would walk into the bathroom and notice that Charlene had taped a note to the bottom of the medicine cabinet mirror.  A quote from some author, something to enhance our lives or just something to think about.  This week, we walked in and found something weird that made no sense:

Some kind of medical studies stuff from her homework assignments.  We looked at it, baffled.  I guess it's some kind of study aid for an upcoming test.  Totally non-inspiring for us (and her, I'm sure).  It's one of those 'Whatever it Takes" to learn something for RN College.  Nic, Trav and I just kind of ignored it.  But, like a disease, a cancer, it's spreading.  A few days later, walking into the kitchen in the morning to make some coffee (at precisely 192 degrees), another of the same notes, this time stuck to the cabinet above the kitchen counter, right over the Bounty Towels:

So we confronted her and yes, it's a study aid for an upcoming test.  Things to check and what they mean.  Here's a straight-on view so you can read it:

Pretty gruesome trying to fix coffee, toast or a meal with all this blood work running past your eyeballs.  But, 'whatever it takes' to pass the test is what counts so we have learned to ignore it.  Even "The Cat" takes no interest as you can tell from the following photo:

Go, Charlene, Go!  Pass that test!  Take the notes down........

Top o' the Mornin' to ya!

As I was getting dressed this morning, I remembered that it was St. Patrick's Day and put on a green shirt.  I swear, it's the first time in over a decade that I've remembered to wear green on this day.  Always felt dumb throughout the day as everyone is wearing something green and I'm not.  Today was very different.  Very few people I encountered were wearing green.  Most wore Black! 
Something I should explain about the culture of Southern Califonia.  The people here wear black year round.  There is none of that, "fashion faux pas if you wear Black between Memorial Day and Labor Day" stuff out here.  In Southern California, any day of the year, the motto is, "I'm wearing Black 'till I find something Darker".  Go figure - this Midwestern Boy still doesn't fit in........

Red light Thursday, Green light Tuesday, Dropped screws Wednesday......

We've all had one of those days where everything goes great or everything goes wrong.  In the last week, I've had three of those days.

Red Light Thursday.  These days always start out normal.  Wake up early, get ready for work, pack my lunch and have some toast.  Kiss Charlene goodbye, give goodbye hugs to Nic and Trav and head out to ol' Blue, my pickup.  That's when 'those' kind of days start.  Either gonna be good or gonna be bad.  Red Light Thursday was a bad one.  Start to finish, as I approached a traffic light, it turned red.  All day long.  It really didn't bother me as I'm used to 'LA' style traffic - 75 mph, stop, 5 mph, stop, 75 mph, stop.  After 10 years of this, I can take it in stride.  I'm not rushing to the airport to catch a flight or on the way to the hospital with a trauma emergency, it's just driving around for work.  But every light was red.  And then..... and then, people started pulling out in front of me on the side streets, on the freeways, everywhere.  And when I was working, I swear, everything I touched just got worse.  Seems like I should have stayed in bed.  I eventually made it home safely and it ceased being a bad day, unsafe day, frustrating day.  Red Light Thursday.  I'll remember that one for quite a while.

Green Light Tuesday.  The name says it all.  I think I hit every traffic signal green or turning green as I approached it.  Traffic?  Very light, no stop and go stuff, doing the speed limit.  Work?  A breeze!  Everything just went great!  Love to have more of those days.  Green Light Tuesday was a wonderful experience.

Today was Dropped Screws Wednesday.  I have a magnetizer in my tool bag that I use to keep my screwdrivers and cordless driver bits magnetized to hold screws whether I'm taking them out or putting them in and it's a lifesaver..... except today.  Maybe the magnetic North and South poles reversed today or something but I just dropped screws all day long.  Thank God screws fell onto the floor instead of inside the machines.  That's a real pain in the butt!  Sometimes I'll spend a good half-hour extra taking things apart to rescue a screw that can fall on a circuit board or into some gears.  Not a good thing and it's frustratingly time consuming.  But I fixed everything quickly, had a great attitude about it all and considered Dropped Screws Wednesday a pretty good day.  No, it was a very good day!

We all have up days and down days and I hope yours are bright, happy and Green Light Tuesdays!

Exchange of E-Mails on the last blog post

From my long lost Xeroid friend who first trained me at Xerox in 1970:

Kelly: Excuse me if I'm being dense, but Is that really YOU in that photo hugging the keyboard ? It looks like your hairy arms and hands, but your face looks 10 years older than the picture of you sitting on Santa's lap. What am I missing here ? Did you post a young picture with Santa, and I thought that's how you look now ? Set me straight here.


John
---------------------------------------
Here's my reply:

John, you bastard! Yes, I'm old. Yes, I have thinning hair (there's even a hole in my haircut in the back). The Santa pic was from about 5 years ago and it was the 'prettiest' pic I could find without photoshopping a newer one - and, it's not a close-up. The red marks on my hands/arms are old-guy-skin that bruises easy and since 1) I'm still a clutz and 2) I just banged my arm between a finsiher and copier as I was 'mating' them in a tight spot on carpet. So, send me a pic of you, un-photoshopped........


But, I still love ya'....

....kelly

Goodbye Dear Friend

I lost an dear old friend tonight.  Known him for years, always there for me when I needed him.  Right from the start, we just 'clicked'.  Lately, he showed signs of failing health.  Not answering me correctly, not really sounding correctly.  I knew something was going down but I just couldn't bring myself to face it.  You know how it is when someone you've known for years suddenly has health issues and goes downhill rapidly.  And here it was, happening to me - my friend was dying right before my eyes.  He was dropping letters and numbers left and right - keys sticking now.  Yes, I'm talking about my decade-old orginal IBM AT keyboard.  The kind that made that great clicking sound when you pressed a key.  With the big 'Enter' key that couldn't miss.  Not like the new kids on the block with no sounds, no big 'Enter' key.  My friend is large and heavy - made to last for years.  Years have gone by, its time has come.  Yea, I've got 3 or 4 new style keyboards in the garage and I'll have to get one to replace my friend.   Charlene saw me hugging my friend goodbye and had to take a picture.  She wanted to know if I wanted to bury it in the backyard.  I thought about it but realized I'd have to ask Shaquille O'Neil for one of his size 27 shoe boxes to bury it.  Nah, my friend will retire to the electornic waste recycling center nearby that the State of Cowlifornia requires.  Goodbye my dear friend, you've served me well..........  Dan was beside me, agreed and said goodbye as well.  (That's him, or part of him in the pill container on the right).  Remember, if you click on the photo, you'll get the full size, un-shrunk version)

Mmmmmmmm! Onions!

Having lived in the Midwest for most of my life, I was never influenced by hot sauce, hot peppers or any of that 'hot spicy' stuff, including Buffalo Wings.  Just not my style.  Oh, I'd have Tommy's Subs with extra hot peppers (not really hot banana peppers) and Tommy's Pizza with some crushed red peppers sprinkled on top, but not like my Dad.  I remember his weekend breakfast of eggs covered in black pepper and drowning in Tobasco Sauce.  I tried a drop of Tobasco Sauce once back then and have stayed far from it ever since.  Onions, now that's my favorite.  I cook with onions but especially LOVE fresh sliced/chopped onions.  On hamburgers, hot dogs and salads, fresh onions.  Charlene may be the Garlic Queen but I'm the Onion King.
But now, I live in Southern California of which the vast majority are Hispanic.  Oh, my God, do they love HOT.  Not temperature wise, rather spicy-wise.  My introduction to Hispanic Spicy-ness was my friend Omar.  Shelley, Sister Pat, Cuz'n Kent, Scott and Nathan have met Omar.  We all love him.  He's like a big puppy, kind and gentle.  He used to give me his Mom's burritos at lunch and then he'd go out and buy something to eat.  For years, his Mom would take dinner leftovers and make burritos for him to eat for lunch.  I guess he was a little sick of them.  When Zachary spent a summer out here, when Scott spent a few years out here, when Shelley was here, when Sister Pat was here, I'd bring home what we like to call, "Omar's Mother's Burritos" and have them try them.  All of us just love them.  Better than anything you can buy.  She could make a fortune opening a "Omar's Mother's Burritos Shop" in the Midwest.  If Omar decided to eat them, he'd drown them in Tapatio Sauce followed by Tobasco Sauce.  Ahhhh!   Just thinking about it makes my tongue burn.  Omar would buy a bag of potato chips, dump them on a paper plate and do the same.  I mean he would drown them in Tapatio and Tobasco Sause and eat them like it was just plain chips to us.  Wouldn't bother him at all.  I do, however, remember that whenever he would buy a sandwich that had fresh sliced onions on it, he would pull them off and give them to me.  I'd eat them raw, just pop them in my mouth and chew away.  It really freaked him out.  He said they were too 'Hot' for him and didn't understand how I could eat them.  Talk about an oxymoron!
Ventura County doesn't have a lot of industry that makes stuff; it grows fruit and vegetables and has processing plants for all the produce grown here.  Lettuce of all kinds, onions, cabbage, strawberries, raspberries, celery, beans, lemons, oranges - - I could go on and on.  Lots of fruit and vegetable processing plants that take the stuff grown locally, process it as fresh or make juice and ship it all over the country.  One of the places I love to take service calls is anywhere on Pacific Avenue in Oxnard.  There are lots of processing plants in the area but the one that makes me slow down, roll down the window and take a giant sniff is:

I ask all my customers in the area how they like the aroma of onions every day, all day and they just find it repulsive.  Of course, they're Hispanic.  The Midwest guy, he's floating in onion aroma, smiling..........

Lap Time

As most of you know, we have a cat.  I don't know her name that Charlene and the kids gave her, I just call her, "Cat".  I mean, why name them when they don't pay attention to you, don't come when you call them or anything else.  Totally opposite of a dog.  If you hold a snack out for a dog, you're lucky to come away with most of your hand intact.  Cats are weirdly different when you offer them a snack.  If they don't see movement, if they don't feel it with their whiskers, they really don't know how close they are to the snack.  They move up slowly until their nose bumps the snack, back up a little, sniff it and then figure out whether or not they want it.  Oddly enough, most of the time, I'll whistle at the cat (like you would to a dog) and say, "Come here Cat" and she comes!  I've tried to raise her as a dog 'cause that's all I'm used to for many decades.  We all notice her 'dog-like' qualities and refer to her as Catdog.  She really knows the word, "Food".  If anyone says it, she turns her head, wide-eyed, ready for the run to the food dish.

Everyone says she's 'Daddy's little girl'.  I guess I just give her what she wants:  I don't pick her up as she usually dislikes that.  She does jump up on my lap and no other's.  I skritch her where she wants to be skritched, stop when she just wants to sleep ( she'll turn and do a pretend bite on my hand which means stop now or the next one will draw blood).  She just plain enjoys 'Lap Time'.  Sometimes, in the middle of lap time, I want to get up and do something and I'll tell her that I want to get up.  She'll look at me and then I point to the floor and tell her again that I want to get up.  Usually, she'll jump down allowing me to get up.  Once in a while, she'll utter a small 'meow' meaning stay put, I'm comfy.  I'll move a little and tell her again and then she'll jump down and walk away.
A few days ago, she was settled in for the long haul, refusing to get down.  I'd tell her I'm getting up and she'd meow.  I moved my legs to make her get down and she just meowed louder.  I even used the word "Food" repeatedly, loudly, to no avail.  This went on for a few minutes until even Charlene in the next room heard Cat's refusal 'meow'.  Charlene took the following picture of Cat refusing to get up.  Disgustingly spoiled:

OMG! Is that what's wrong with me?

If you've ever been to our house, you'll notice a magazine rack in the bathroom.  It's loaded with various magazines to which we all subscribe.  You'll find Surf Magazine Nic and Trav get, Discovery Magazine, Time and Popular Science that I get.  When Cuz'n Kent comes down from Pismo Beach, he'll grab an Atlantic Monthly.  Charlene always has a collection of " O Oprah" magazine and Real Simple magazine.  In the last month, though, a new one has shown up:  AJN.  American Journel of Nursing.  Cool, something else to read that's different.  After reading a few, though, I think I'm starting to come down with all the diseases discussed in them.  I feel my pulse, check my temperature, poke and prod areas described in the articles.  Sometimes, it's rather scary so I think I'll stick with the death, destruction and terrible news in Time Magazine.  I feel healthier that way.

Strong Coffee

Most everyone knows that I like strong coffee.  Started at age 14 doing the coffee and expresso thing.  Now that I'm 448 dog years old, I like really strong coffee.  Maybe with an expresso chaser.  Years ago, when my late son, Dan would spend time at my place, I'd make coffee for both of us.  He dubbed it, "Dad's Rocket Fuel".  Well, I can appreciate his point of view.  He was just a beginner at the coffee thing.  Since this past Christmas, I've tried various brands of coffee in my new Keurig coffee maker.  It's the one that takes those 'single serving' coffee pods (actually, they're called K-Cups).  There's about a million different kinds of coffee made for it and I'm searching for the best, strong, non-bitter coffee.  Something that tops Starbucks house blend.  Most of the brands and strengths are just, "O.K."  A few are just great, what I've been looking for, but the search goes on.  I stumbled upon the following and it just reminded me of what Dan said.

Let me tell ya', this really was "Jet Fuel".  Way, way too strong.  Dan would have agreed.  Right now, we doing French Roast but my favorite so far is Emeril's Big Easy Bold and Green Mountain's Dark Magic.  The kids love the hot cocoa and Charlene has become addicted to Earl Grey Tea.  Of course, all served at a precise 192 degrees........

Attack of the Boatpeople

After I posted my last Blog, I got an e-mail from my good friend, Andy, who lives in the frigid central Ohio area.  I met him decades ago, late 1980's I believe.  I was living in a 2 bedroom townhouse when Andy, his Mom, sister Amy (with baby), brother Tim, friends Greg and Perry moved in several doors down from me.  My first thought was, "2 bedrooms and a ton of people.  My God, they must be Boatpeople."  You know, where 8,000 people crowd into a rowboat to escape some despot country.  In time, we became great friends, party animals supreme.  They're all very talented musicians, by the way.  We used to go to the Indycar races at Mid Ohio Race Track and have gone to several Inianapolis 500 Time Trial weekends.  I dubbed us the "BoatPeople Racing Team".  Had signs made and all.  We've gone camping together, flown cars through the air into people's yards (well, Greg, son Dan and I did), gone on non-stop trips to help sandbag the great Mississippi Flood of '93 and driven to south-central Pennsylvania just to be in a Blizzard (36" of snow in 12 hours after we got there).  Lot's of fun.  Charlene has met them and gives them (mostly) two thumbs up.  Anyway, back to the e-mail Andy sent me after my last blog about movies.  Here's what he wrote as he quoted one of my lines:

And I quote "Julie and Julia again? Hey, I've seen it 4 times so far."

WHHHATT??? We gonna have to have a redneck boat people racing team intervention and get you out of California before it's too late!!!!

I almost died laughing.  Years ago, Andy and I had a discussion about the kind of movies we liked.  Me, I like 'Chick Flicks' and Andy likes 'War movies, Action movies'.  I ask him why he liked War movies and he replied, "They're historic, they're educational and they blow shit up!".  Yea, great Boatpeople answer.  So, I guess Cows and Boatpeople rock!

But Andy must remember that my all-time favorite movie still is, Francis Ford Coppola's "Apocalypse Now"................

Recent Movies including Avatar

Nic, Trav, Charlene and I just returned from seeing the movie, "Avatar". Long movie, very good movie, astounding scenery, watched in 3D. Why anyone, even wearing glasses, would watch it in non-3D is beyond me. I worried that Charlene, who has a brain the size of a entire dinosaur and a bladder the size of a walnut would miss a lot, trotting to the restroom. She stayed put and glued to the giant screen. (That was more amazing than the movie). I was the only one that returned the 3D glasses on the way out. I thought we were supposed to........Nic, Trav and Charlene didn't care - they paid extra, they're keeping 'em.


After we got home, I got to thinking about the top movies we've seen in the past few months. Would I watch Avatar again? No. Once was enough, beautiful wide screen movie theater in 3D just cannot be replicated at home. Would I watch Julie and Julia again? Hey, I've seen it 4 times so far. We saw 'Up in the Air' a week or so ago. I'd watch that again, at least several times. So, obviously, Really, really loved "Julie and Julia", really loved "Up in the Air". "Avatar" was astounding, once, in a movie theater. Oh, I've seen, "The Hurt Locker". Very good, very depressing, but very good. Hell of a "message" movie. I have it on DVD and will probably watch it again tonight.

Revolving side Pictures

All my kids, wife and very close crazy friends know I love cows.  I just think they are so innocent and so cool.  Raised 'em for years when we lived in the country in Ohio.  Plus, I love milk!  Since the name of my blog includes "Cow", I figured out I really should put a picture of a cow on there somewhere so last week, I added some California Cows that I stole from their website.  Most of you know that I really like the band Pink Floyd and I stumbled upon some of their old albums at Amazon.com.  I used to have just about all of them including Atom Heart Mother, Ummagumma, Meddle and others on LP's (33 1/3 vinyl).  When I finally gave in to CD's, I gave/threw the albums away.  I know, I know, dumb!  I did keep one vinyl:   Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of H.G. Well's 'War of the Worlds'.  Marvelous album.  I even downloaded the digital version when illegal downloading was sort of, well, not quite so illegal.  Anyway.  I decided that every so often, I'm gonna change my Cow picture on the upper right side of my blog.  Hope you notice, hope you enjoy.  Cows rock!

Birthday, the aftermath........

6 A.M. breakfast.........

The best present................

Enough said.........

Old Fart Thoughts

A friend of mine in Florida sent me an e-mail today and it got me thinking about my (ug!) birthday tomorrow.  It was all about the benefits of walking as you get older, the exercise and what the benefits are.  Here's some of the highlights:
1.  Walking can add minutes to your life.  This enables you at 85 years old to spend an additional 5 months in a nursing home at $7000 per month.
2.  I like long walks, especially when they are taken by people who annoy me.
3.  I have to walk early in the morning before my brain figures out what I'm doing.
4.  Everytime I hear that dirty word "exercise" I wash my mouth out with chocolate.
5.  We all get heavier as we get older because there's a lot more information in our heads.  That's my
story and I'm sticking with it.

To keep this short and sweet, now that I'm older I thought it was great that I seemed to have more patience.  Turns out I just don't give a shit .........

Get that Copier out of the Living Room

Three or four years ago, our company was going to throw out some used trade-in copiers.  I looked and grabbed one as did a couple of other techs.  I had our driver guy help me load it in the company truck and immediately took it home.  Charlene wasn't home at the time so we just left it in the living room and returned to work.  When I got home, there was no excitement, no joy in mudville.  Instead, it was, "You're not putting a copier in our living room."  Sigh......  I explained it was a 20 page a minute copier, network printer and a super fast fax.  No dice.  "Put it in the garage".  "Honey, I can't, it will get ruined out there".  So, a compromise was reached.  I took off the auto document feeder and replaced it with a flat platen cover (lid).  Then I took it off the stand and put it on the floor sitting on a piece of plywood.  Now, it was pretty much hidden from view sitting on the floor behind the couch.  Especially with a cover thrown on top (one of the cat's favorite sleeping places).

    It was little used at first but it replaced our small laser printer on my desk.  Then, Charlene decided to become a RN.  Gotta get the Associate's Degree first, then 2 years of intense (put mildly) Nursing College.  All of a sudden, the volume started picking up.  An occasional fax, mainly copies and computer prints.  Now, years later, SHE goes through between 2 and 4 reams of paper a month.  2000 sheets!
Not a day goes by (7 days a week) that she's either printing or copying stuff.  We joke about it often but she's glad it's here. 

Here she is, last week, copying articles from AJN (American Journel of Nursing) for class and study material. 
Dealing with I.T. guys in the network part of my job, I run across used equipment they're trying to get rid of so I've picked up an HP 4050 laser printer and stuck it in Nic and Trav's room.  Both are 'networked' so anyone can print to them.  When Charlene has problems with paper jams she can't clear, she'll turn it off and wait 'till I get home and just switch her print jobs to the HP.  God, I love Technology, especially when it's free.

Gettin' Near the Top......

Charlene reminds me that my birthday is coming up.  Yuch!  Another birthday.  Maybe it's a old fart thing, maybe it's just me but birthdays don't excite me anymore.  She asks me what I want for my birthday every year and I say the same thing, "Nothing, it's just an old fart's birthday".  She goes out and gets something anyway.  This year, the same question, "What do you want for your birthday?".  Thought I'd play a trick on her this year.

Her:  What do you want for your birthday?
Me:  If you promise to get me what I ask for, will you?
Her:  Sure!
Me:  I want Nothing, will you get it for me?

Yea, it was a nice try.  I started to go into the bedroom a couple of days ago and she said, "Stop!  You can't go in there yet, I have something for your birthday and I haven't put it away.....

So, with the lyrics, "Will you still need me, will you still feed me?  When I'm 64" running through my head as I'm reading the newspaper comics, I glanced at the column "Today's Birthdays".  I've read it for decades, noting all the famous/infamous people listed with their ages.  When I first started reading it, my age was at the bottom (youngest).  Now, I'm getting near the top of the list.  Ewwww!  Everyone asks me, "So, when is your birthday and I always reply, "Same as Thomas Edison's".........

Attack of the Study Halls

First, I'd like to say that if you double-click on any photo, you'll get the bigger, uncut photo.  Then use your browser's 'back' button to return to this page....
I've sent many e-mails and even a blog or two about Charlene's continuing assult on RN Nursing College.  She's just started NS30, the 3rd of 4 half-year classes toward finishing her RN degree.  The first requirement was an Associates Degree which she finished in December, '08.  She thought Algebra, Chemistry, Anatomy, Physiology and Micro Biology were tough but she was unprepared for the tremendous amount of homework and studies involve in Nursing College.  Throughout all of undergrad school, she mostly hogged the desktop computer we both shared, leaving me to my company laptop.  I bought her a laptop two Christmases ago and took back the desktop for my own.  Worked out well with the wireless thing allowing her to use it in the bedroom, living room and even the back patio.  Even at her study sessions at the coffeehouse with fellow students with the free Wi-Fi.  The biggest problem now is the incredible mass of study materials she uses, including her 'medical-app' loaded iPod Touch.  (I think it's a toss up between the laptop and the iPod Touch as to which is more valueble).  Here's a picture from a week or two ago.  Travis was sneering on pupose as he saw me raise the camera.  They're both doing homework.  Notice Charlene's laptop and the iPod Touch right next to it.  Medical apps are invaluable - better than books, sometimes.  Notice all the books surrounding Charlene (including the big textbook on top of her even bigger 3 ring binder).  And yes, she's wearing her 'famous' Sock Monkey jammies. 

Here's another picture of the same area, while she's in her student nurse uniform, complete with her "stinkin' badges".  More books consuming space in the living room.  That little woven basket used to hold our remotes (we all have way too many remotes, don't we...) but now it holds weapons of mass instruction - scissors, markers, pens, pencils, post-its and sticky tabs.  Her study hall has out grown the living room.......

So, she decided she needed a bigger and more efficient study hall.  Hey, just around the corner is the kitchen with a huge dining table.  Well, guess what!  No more meals served in kitchen until the middle of May when this quarter ends.  I think this picture says it all (complete with dual monitors which she finds she cannot live without.

Books piled everywhere, a plastic basket full of paperwork and....... well, you get the picture(s).........

Organic - Huh?

Most everyone seems to be on a health kick, doin' the excercise bit, eating right (whatever that means) and trying to live longer.  The big thing I see is the new 'Organic' push.  You all know what I'm talking about.  You hear it on TV, read it in the newspaper (remember those?) and they even have an Organic section in the grocery store.  The other day, I was looking at the giant selection of frozen pizzas and low and behold, there it was:  Organic Pizza.  My first thought was to laugh and I did.  Organic Pizza.  Uh, let's see, organic usually connotates heathy.  I've eaten enough pizza to know that it ain't healthy.  It's chock full of artery clogging animal fat even before you add pepperoni and sausage and ham and other animal meats.  Organic pizza?  I don't think it makes a difference whether pizza is organic or not, it's still gonna kill you. And, as far as this "Organic" thing goes,  just remember that Hemlock is organic, too.........

Bagpipe Guy

I usually take a shortcut home using back roads to our street.  About a half a mile from home, I cross under the 101 Freeway and for the past couple of years, I occassionally see the "Bagpipe Guy".  I don't know who he is, where he lives or anything about him.  All I know is that about once a week, I pass him as he practices under the freeway.   He's got long silver-blond hair, always wears sneakers and he's kind of an old fart like me.

As you can see, there's also an operational railroad track there, too.  I don't know if he's married or lives with someone but seeing as he practices his very loud bag pipes under a freeway, next to a railroad track, uh, I think his musical practice got kicked out of 'home'.  It's kinda cool, though when I come around the corner and see/hear him playing.  I took this picture out the truck window 'on the fly' so it's a little blurry.  Hard place to pull over to snap a better pic as it's a blind curve at this location.  One of the local good guys I guess and it's always fun to see him 'pipe-ing' away.