I just don't get it

300 lbs of kobi beef
12000 flutes of the finest champagne
34 lbs of gold dust covering ruby chocolate dessert statues

All to celebrate actors and actresses.

Is it any wonder they seem to think their fucking opinion matters when we fawn over them so lavishly?

I just don't understand how as a country we let this shit go on. We still have so many athletes out there living on less than 10 million a year,  and we waste money on Hollywood?

Quick question

When a commodity is in such short supply that most people have never actually even seen it, much less have the ability to utilize it if they do come across any, wouldn't that make this commodity rare and therefore more precious?
We certainly wouldn't call this commodity common, would we?
You know what I'm talking about here, right? Something like 'sense' for example...

Being introspective. AKA Swimming in the pity pool

I've been pissed. Not somewhat irritated. Not experiencing a period of angst. Pissed.

Lately, the smallest thing has been able to set me off. And I don't like it. I don't like being wound so tight that it takes every bit of control I can muster to not kick the living shit out of my little dog when he wants to get in my lap cause he loves me, but he's getting to old to jump and needs a hand sometimes.

This isn't me. I don't kick dogs, and I don't get pissed when things don't go my way.

So what the fuck is going on with me? Time to do some introspective soul searching and figure this out.

And here's some of the off the wall crap I've come up with:

I don't like my forced retirement. I haven't worked since I got crippled in 2012. Not because I CAN'T, but because no one hires a 50+ year old man with a blown out shoulder.
Thanks to my contribution to social security, I still get a check every month. And FUCK YOU out there who say I'm on some sort of welfare. I PAID into this government dole system all my life, since I was THIRTEEN and held my first job. This is NOT fucking welfare, and I'm not trying to sit my ass at home and live off YOUR taxes. This is an ENTITLEMENT. Look up that word. And I'd rather be fucking working. What the benevolent government "gives" me isn't shit compared to what I can earn.

I'm obsolete. Or forgotten. Or replaced. The actual word is up to you, but it boils down to: no one bothers to come to me for shit anymore.
It never mattered what job I was doing, but thanks to my father raising me with a good work ethic, not only did any job I was hired for get done, it got done RIGHT.  Some of the tenets I was raised under were "If you take a man's money, you do a man's work", "I don't care if you dig ditches for a living. As long as you dig them damn well", and one of my dad's favorites, "Good enough, AIN'T!".
I always seemed to rise through the ranks quickly in all my endeavors, and quite honestly never thought anything about it. Looking back, all I can say is "Thank you, Dad. You done good."

I USED to be "that guy". The one motherfucker EVERYONE came to for ANYTHING.
Those stupid flip-flops you wore to work blew out? No problem. Just shove that little doohickey that goes between your fat ugly toes back through the hole in the sole and stick a couple pieces of straightened paper clip through it in an 'X' pattern. Won't hold forever, but it'll get you through till you get home and put on a REAL fucking pair of shoes.
Can't change your own broke bulb in that blinker that caused you to get a ticket on the way to work? Here. Not only am I going to SHOW you the four little screws you need to take out, but I'm going to use a piece of the duct tape I keep rolled on an expired credit card in my wallet to tape the allen wrench I used on the back of the light fixture so next time you can not only do it yourself, but you actually HAVE the tool you need to DO IT WITH right there with you.
Need a screwdriver, flashlight, wire, lubricant, knife, wrench, spoon, clip, hair tie, tape, or magnet? More than likely, I got it on me, or I'm carrying a reasonable facsimile to get the job done with. And know HOW to get it done, too.

Or as my adopted granddaughter told her old man when the training wheels broke on her bike: call Stevie. HE can fix ANYTHING!

Plumbing? No problem.
Electrical work? Don't be shocked, but I got this.
Carpentry? If you need a hand, I can even build THAT out of wood. Just ask Bustednuckles. And if THAT guy can't fix it, it AIN'T BROKE!

Guess I'm just feeling sorry for myself lately. Friends are fading from my life. I don't feel like I'm making a difference or even a contribution anymore. Even this farm is getting me down lately. With advancing age I'm not able to work as long or as hard as I used to could. My government dole stays the same while the cost of everything from tool replacement to food goes up. And some days it seems like not only am I NOT making progress, but can't even seem to keep up. Plus I finally got my pygmy goat breeding pair, and someone stole my nanny. I fucking hate thieves. Costs an arm and a leg to buy materials for a decent goat  pen, just to come home and find everything still locked up and your nanny gone. With only the buck left, I put him in with the pigs. They get along real well, and anyone wants to go in THAT pen is more than welcome. My boar will even gladly get rid of any evidence....

Well, thanks for letting me rant. I feel a bit better now, and I appreciate it. Guess I'll get out of the pity pool and off my ass now. Supposed to be a sunny day today. Maybe I'll get something done and feel better.

But if ya need something fixed, or just to talk sometime, I know a guy...

Why I don't live in California

front of package

Back of package....

For you gun grabbing asshats who think youll win

Go ahead,  Dumbass. Here's your agenda. I'll make it easy for you:

1. Take all automatic weapons from civilians. This will allow "law enforcement" and the federal government to be the only one's wielding these terrible weapons of death dealing terror. Because this will make you somehow safer. Oh, wait. This is ALREADY a fait accompli...

2. Make illegal those nasty bump stocks that turn legal semiautomatics into illegal full automatics. And, again, this leaves you at the mercy of your police state federal government. This making you somehow safer...

3. Take away all semiautomatic weapons because only the military needs something like that anyway...

Once the above steps are accomplished, take away all concealed/open carry of ANY handgun. This will ensure law abiding citizens are unarmed when the bad guy starts shooting.

Make it illegal to own rifles of any caliber. Shotguns are all anyone reasonably needs to procure game anyway.

Remove the right to own shotguns. No one in this age of enlightened snowflakes needs to hunt. The government will provide. Besides, THEY have automatics.

NOW you're safe! Provided for by your benevolent jack booted government thugs carrying the full-automatic authority of government while you reside comfortably in your safe spaces secure in the knowledge that "all is well".

But I'd like to mention what I consider to be a rather salient point:

ONE well trained man; soldier, LEO, backwoods Redneck, with good intent, armed with a lowly .22 caliber plinker, is a bigger threat to 5 men armed with "spray and pray" automatics who think they're fucking Rambo than THEY are to YOU. And is THE answer to stopping terror. The REALLY dangerous man is the only hope we have to remain safe and free. He's the one willing to step up and save your sorry ass. You're more likely to be trampled by the herd of cattle running over you too avoid getting shot than actually being hit by some idiot wanna-be Al Capone spraying his 'gat' like some kid waving around his winkie.


Just saying...

A quick note on pets

Rose and I both have a love of large dogs.
We've mostly been enamored of St Bernards and Great Danes.
Everyone said our place was to small, especially if we wanted a pair.
Well, apparently everyone is wrong, as our house is more than large enough for either two St Bernards OR two Danes.

Of course, WE will have to move out...

A few thoughts on breathing

I don't know how many of you out there are 'Preppers', 'survivalists', or even breathing.  I do, however, know that when it comes to the last category, I'm definitely a firm convert.

I like breathing.

That slow in and out exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide that allows one the opportunity to not only stop and smell the roses, but also to start up again and run away when the bee that ALSO had stopped to smell the roses gets pissed off at being sucked up your nasal passages.

And I firmly maintain that in order to remain a breather, it is more and more important to be now, or at least start, being one of the former.
I follow a number of sites that try to separate me from my hard earned money  make it their goal to teach me how to be a "survivor".
One of the more informative and enlightening is SHTFPlan by a guy who only goes by Selco. This guy lived through TEOTWAWKI (Google it, or not.) during the Balkan wars.
And in one of his latest interviews on another site I stop by, he compares the former country of Yugoslavia (where it DID happen) with the good ol' red, white, and blue, US of A (where of course it could NEVER happen) and notes a number of surprising comparisons.
Most of it pretty stupid shit, like vilifying the past, and changing it to suit a particular group's own views, or to make one part of the past accommodate the world view THEY think should be the "official" version. Or the impossibility of random attacks on neighbors simply for condoning opposite religious, political, sexual, scientific, racial, or (insert choice of complex individual ideology here). Free speech tolerance,  anyone?
Or any number of possible social, political, natural, or man-made calamities.

He makes some surprising observations on all this.
But this is all really not that big of a deal for me. I'm not a prepper. I'm just inherently used to being prepared. Raised that way by parents who actually BUILT a fallout shelter pursuant to the Cuban missile crisis. And I'm not a survivalist. If the purpose of my existence is only to survive, I've missed the point somewhere. My parents did NOT build the shelter to survive. They built the damn thing to protect their children and allow more generations to go on when they were no longer around.
NO one has ever built a bomb shelter in order to live past being dead.
They just want to stick around long enough to either help kick-start the next batch of breeders, or out of a sense of hubris that they somehow have knowledge to pass on that no one in the history of like, FOREVER, has ever thought of.

Which just caused a random thought. Which of course is also going to make this ramble longer, 'cause you KNOW I'm going to have to examine this new thought (Sorry).
Do you realize that we, the baby boomer generation, are the first to have a lower standard of living than our parents? Do you also realize that the term baby boomer comes from all the kids conceived during the threat of imminent extinction through nuclear war that our parents perceived? Again, they weren't being 'survivors'; they were being animals following an animal's instinct to breed in order continue the species. And doing a fine job of it, too!

So, back to whatever it is I was saying....let's see... Not a prepper.... Not a survivor, because I doubt I will survive dead, even though I've managed to give the Reaper a pretty good run so far...

So, that leaves breather.

I actually like this moniker out of all the others out there. I'm a BREATHER! With all the rights and benefits to be accorded thereto.
I have joy in breathing that prepping and surviving can never provide.

I can breathe in the scent of a new born puppy. That one unmistakable smell that tells all small boys there is faithful companionship waiting to explore rolling hills and muddy banks together, regardless if he's ever actually experienced these joys before.

The exhalation of my wife I breathe in as she leans in for a kiss.

The smell of rain. Of spring blooms and plowed fields.

The smell of wood smoke. Providing both the warmth of a comforting hearth in winter, or combined with the scent of a meal prepared with love from hands often grown feeble from age, but never from caresses.

Okay, sure. I'm fairly prepared for life's little surprises. And strive to become more so daily.

I work at being able to survive in the face of adversities affecting my well-being. A little too late for breeding purposes, though if needed for such activity, I would do my damnedest to step up to the task. But perhaps SOMEONE can benefit from my wisdom that has not come to me from age so much as from being a bit of a fuck up and (hopefully) learning from my mistakes.

I'm just a busted up old breather, taking in one breath after having enjoyed all the benefits of the last, and then living in breathless anticipation of the next as that one too is expelled.

Prep if you must, survive as you will, but take my advice: keep breathing.

Quickie note:

One of the reasons I may seem a bit cynical (aside from the fact that I truly am a cynical old bastard) is that I've been fighting this damn flu for the past week and pretty much stuck on the sofa drinking (ichhh) water! Which, as you may or may not know, does not come in an inherently fermented state, and lord only knows what those fish do in it.
I'm on doctor prescribed disgusting shit that my loving(?) wife insists on constantly shoving down my throat, and am getting better, but have watched that previously mentioned feel good video on the "news" multiple times daily,  and am becoming rather crotchety in my discomfort.
Plus that whole dietary fiber thing....

MORE local news...

Everybody who has turned on the so-called news in order to 'stay informed', and yet still has an iota of actual brain matter remaining in use, knows that what the local stations call 'news' and 'reporting' are in reality 'feed the masses feel-good puff pieces' requiring all the leg work and investigation of searching yahoo.news or getting stupid shit in their inbox from someone looking for 5 minutes of fame from their video of a horse pissing on an electric fence then doing the "I'm a horse that just pissed on an electric fence happy little pee-pee dance".

Now don't get me wrong. I watch the news all the time.
1. I'm actually hoping, beyond any actual expectations, to "be informed".
And 2. You may have noticed I'm a somewhat cynical old fuck that a little dose of "happy little cute kitten shit" once in awhile probably could do some good.

But sometimes, every now and then,  I tend to miss the message I believe these do-gooder, funny-kitten-video showing, self proclaimed 'reporters' happily doing their very damnedest to coherently read the teleprompter to bring you the latest major news event as if they themselves had actually discovered, researched, and are now bringing it to you 'live', are trying to get across.

My rant today is a result of a video story the media has been showing for a whole fucking week now, about a poor widdle doggy owned by some little old lady (of course),  being rescued from a frozen river near Tulsa, because, having walked all the way out to the middle of this frozen deathtrap, it now finds itself unable to return to its owner's loving, (but apparently too busy to, oh, I don't know, actually be bothered to keep a fucking eye on the mutt in the first place,) arms.

The paid responders on the rescue team, the absolute best this city can field, rescue this wayward mutt through the beautiful, insightful, wonderfully thought out expedient of risking their very own lives, by putting a blow up rescue raft on the ice and through an amazing display of Olympian-style synchronized butt-scooching inside the raft itself, scoot said rescue vehicle, attached to a safety line, out to the dog, who promptly jumps into the succoring arms of these incomparable heroes. At which point, raft, rescuers, and dog are all pulled back to the safety of the shore.
Story with video HERE.
Beautiful story, happy ending, everyone impressed by the brilliance and demonstrated agility of these two heroes in this daring and thankfully successful rescue!

Right?

Well, almost. Except for that one asshole out there, trying oh-so-hard to see this as the feel good story of his life, who INSISTS on noticing the bridge crossing the river about fifty yards in the background. And wondering, in his typically cynical view of those who claim responsibility for our safety, and that of our pets, because we can't be expected to take care of our own shit, why they didn't send one of these two butt scoochers down, across the bridge, and back up the other side, throw a damn rope across, tie the raft to the rope, pull ONE guy rather than TWO (thus reducing possible ice breaking, butt scooching weight) out to the mutt, and then either back to the original shore, or continue to the other side? Less time, less effort, and less chance of double-butt weight breaking the ice everyone seems concerned the dog's weight alone will crush if he even breathes too hard...

(The intelligence is strong in these ones, Obi-wan)

So in closing, let me say: WELL DONE you life risking, underpaid public rescue workers!

And THANK YOU local teleprompter reading reporters for bringing us this AMAZING video story of daring-do and thinking-DON'T!


(I think I might have to start getting more fiber in my diet, or something, ya know?)

A rant on some educational issues

There's a rally at the 2nd floor rotunda of the state capital building of Oklahoma. 10:30-3:00...
And I can get behind this one. It's to give OK teachers a huge pay raise they say they need to meet the cost of living here.
I'd even join my voice to this cause if they would be willing to meet a few VERY minor conditions.

1. Teach English. No, I don't mean how to conjugate a verb. I think conjugating should be taught by the parents. It's bad enough they give out free condoms in school without them showing our kids how to go about conjugating with verbs in public, too.
Remember the late 1700's? No? Hmm, well, that's more about history, and we'll get back to that shortly.
I'm talking the English language of the late 1700's. When spelling was secondary to the actual meaning of the words. Try getting a 6th grade kid to read the Constitution sometime. Might as well hand them a copy written in Cyrillic. They're as likely to read and comprehend that as the American version penned by our forefathers.
And don't get me started on the bastardization of our beautiful language by Millenials too lazy and illiterate to even USE real words. ("but, like, REAL words are too BIG and HEAVYISH!")
They're too busy worrying about the fact that precip could ruin their vacay, or of spilling the virtual half-caff lowfat mocha latte they bought at Mickey Dee's on the info hi-way telecommuting to their male-dominated job in Cali on their vajay-jay.
It comes extremely near to positively enforcing a single individual's desire to secrete a saline infused solution from said individual's optic receptors, don't it?
(almost makes ya wanna cry, don't it?)

2. Mathematics. Okay, I think this is a 'core' problem in our schools. In addition to the teachers subtracting any sense of reason from this subject, I think it causes a multiplicity of divisions in the classroom and even in the home.  'Nuff said.

3. History. (See? I told you we'd get back to history in the future. And here we are!)
Here's the Reader's Digest condensed version (and STILL better than the movie!):
We won. They lost.
There, was that so hard?
And speaking of the book being so much better than the movie, try reading the original script of the Declaration of Independence as written by the forefather playwrights for a good look at history! No quibbling, no beating around the bush, no worrying about saying something that could possibly be interpreted as a microaggression toward Henry.
Nope. Just a straight forward 'here's where we feel the problem stems from' and 'here's our intended solution'. Doesn't seem like they were all that concerned with some overseas snowflake's widdle feewings being hurt, do it?

Yes, we beat the Indians
Something like 200-10, and stole the property rights. So don't bring a bow and arrow to a gun fight... Same shit is still being done today, except instead of calling it white privilege, or some such shit, we call it eminent domain, and EVERYBODY gets a chance. And if that don't work, there's always civil forfeiture...still our government, still us.

We bought and sold slaves. Cheaper than gasoline to run the plantation tractors that hadn't been invented yet. Get over it already.
EVERYBODY of EVERY color who was ANYBODY had slaves.
It was SO de rigeur!  And like buying land from Indians, a hand full of beads to an African chief who had a surplus of his fellow blacks as slaves already, was a damn sight cheaper than waiting for bred stock to grow up. The only real problem was the shipping.
I have never bought, sold, or owned ANY other individual. Nor has anyone I know to my current understanding . Those that did are dead, deAD, DEAD. So are all the people who WERE slaves. Don't continue to blame me for my ancestors sins, and get off your ass and stop being a victim, already. For reference, actually READ the biography of Martin Luther King. Or per our current educational level in this country, see the movie. THEN maybe we can engage in rational discourse.

4. Government and Civics.
Put 'em back. Then MAYBE we can get an educated people to hold our government to task, who understand the necessity of the golden rule in dealing with they're fellow man.

Okay, there. I'm not asking much in return for a simple cost of living raise amounting to at LEAST 6000.00/year, am I?

And I'd like to apologize to any persons who are offended by my opinions. This is NOT a safe place, so if I've hurt you in any way, I hope that the discomforture caused has been enough to get you to WAKE THE FUCK UP AND STOP WHINING.


(This particular post is in response to a teacher's rally in OK. Which is being attended by MOST of the teachers in the state. This is NOT an official school function. Participation requires these educators of our children to call in sick in order to attend and still be paid for their time.
And these lying, poor examples of proper work ethics, who want our state gubmint to waste more money to buy the services of an untold number of substitute "teachers" so they can NOT work today, want more money so they can call in sick to rally in order to protest...
Yeah, I can get behind that...