We Are Not Amused!
A week into spring already and Mother Nature decides to give me this view from the porch this morning!
“I knew I should have expected something like this when I saw that dufus Roket Man putting his snow shovel away! I don’t even know why he drags it out each autumn………he never uses it!”
The maple tree is trying to leaf out.
“ If you had listened to me we could have saved the trip south, stayed in Canada and I could have spent the money on a new flak vest for next hunting season!”
“ I don’t care if it snows as long as my pond doesn’t freeze over.”
“YEE-HAW…..SNOW!!!!”
“We are not amused!”
From the Inbox
I may be wealthy!!! Mom always taught me to share so if anyone out there would care to get in on this by all means, do!
HOW ARE YOU TODAY?
Good thing to write you,
we Have A Proposal for you, INTEND to establishe we with you in your Which Country Is Not mandatory rules however will Compel In Any Manner Honour to you Against your will.
Dearest I am Anthony and my sister Morine of Our late Mr and Parents Mrs Kone Kurubos. Our Father Was a highly reputable business magnet-(acocoa merchant) WHO operated in Abidjan capital of Ivory Coast During historical days.It That is sad to say I Passed away mysteriously in France During one of historical business trips abroad.
Though His sudden death Was linked or Suspected to Have Been Rather masterminded by an uncle of ours Who Travelled with Him at That Time. But God knows the truth! "Our mother died When We Where small, and since then Our Father took us so special.Before His death, My father Called Me and Told me that I have the sum of (USD $ 15,000.000) (Fifteen MILLION UNITED STATES DOLLARS) deposited with a security company as a Trunk box Cote’D Ivoire in west Africa.
Weitere I Told me that I deposited the box with the name of a business partner while i am the next of kin and That the security Company That Is Not aware the content of the box is cash. We are just young 20 years old and 18 to highy school and college people, Knowledge of business with little Which is why we are in Need of a Whom partner will assist us to get this fund released for Investments his or her country in while I will proceed with Our education.
Dear, We are in a sincere desire of your humble assistance program on this Regard, and your suggestions and ideas will be highly appreciated.Now FEW These permit us ask questions?
1. Can you honestly do this transaction with us?
2.Can We trust you?
Please, Consider this and get back to us as soon as possible so That We do Give you the full informations That will be need. And We will want you To Know That You Are We Have the frist person contact for this transaction.
Thank you so much and God bless you abundantly.
Best regards,
Anthony and Morine Kurubos
Spell check had a fit with this but I felt it might detract from the message if I altered it in any way. I do have one concern; if this guy passed away in France before he wrote this do I still get the money?
A Handful of Spring
Frankie decided to cut these daffodils before Old Man Winter rolls back in this weekend.
Man am I ever tired of snow and ice!
Not my usual
Folks, I need your help. Those of you who know me know that I’m an animal lover and the subject of this post just sickens me.
Most of you are probably unaware of the outrageous conduct of animal control officers at the Chesterfield, South Carolina Animal Shelter. At least 22 dogs from the shelter were taken to the Sheriff’s Department firing range, shot and hastily buried in a nearby landfill. There is also evidenced gathered by an undercover investigator of shelter animals being sold as fighting animals while other animals at the shelter, used as bait dogs, were mauled to death to impress prospective buyers of fighting dogs.
It has come to light that the shelter manager is a convicted felon who takes pride in telling prospective buyers that the fighting animals he sells trace their bloodlines to some of the dogs once owned by NFL player Michael Vick who did time in federal prison for dogfighting convictions.
The shelter falls under the purview of Chesterfield County Sheriff Sam Parker who initially tried to sweep the matter under the rug, blaming it on his predecessor.
My friend Jeanne Newton has established a blog Watch Dogging For Justice with background information as well as up to date information. Please take the time to stop by and, if you are as angry about this as Jeanne and I please make your voice heard via the email links to the State Police, State Solicitor and Governor.
This is not the only case of blatant mismanagement of animal shelters but this case is already in the public eye. If enough pressure is applied to bring about an official investigation and to see those responsible for these criminal acts brought to justice it may bring about change in other shelters.
Please help us speak out for those poor creatures who cannot speak for themselves.
The Moon Boss, The Moon!
I was all set to shoot the super moon last night, camera sensor and all lenses cleaned, tripod out of the truck and a close eye on the eastern horizon.
However, Mother Nature decided to throw me a curve and provide some overcast for the big event.
Using my longest lens I managed to capture a few frames but they’re nowhere near as good as I had hoped for.
Oh well, we’ll have another super moon in 2029. I hope I still remember how to use the camera when I’m 74 years old.
Contrary to popular belief……
…………….I did not fall off the edge of the world. My canine pal, Buddy, damaged the front porch while chasing a cat and, among other things, I used to bang nails for a living so…….
For those who don’t already know, I wrecked my back in a fall at home in 2005, fracturing several vertebrae and damaging my spinal cord. When surgery to repair the fractures in my lumbar spine failed to correct the problem I was forced to retire on disability.
I’m what my father would call “bull headed”, a trait shared by all my siblings and just about all of our relatives on Pop’s side of the family. Being bull headed and refusing to let my physical problems, or common sense for that matter, dictate what I can and can’t do I sometimes push the envelope a little too far and end up paying the price.
The week before last I really pushed it. This past week I paid for it. I’m also a chronic pain patient and have an impressive collection of narcotic pain killers in various dosages, some of which could probably knock out an elephant.
I only take my meds when I absolutely have to. This past week, after deciding to not just repair the porch but to re-design and re-build it without bothering to ask for help I have been taking full doses of all of my meds. I have also spent most of my “waking hours” stoned out of my gourd, staring at the idiot box and trying not to drool on my chest. To give you an idea of just how loopy, every thing Charlie Sheen has been saying makes perfect sense to me!
This is why I haven’t been blogging or even playing around on Face Book. It’s not that I haven’t tried, it’s just that the Gibberish to English translator on my laptop has apparently malfunctioned and I’ll have to do a lot of password resetting…….
…….as soon as the drugs wear off………again!
You see, I was feeling pretty good this morning and the weather was nothing short of glorious; sunny, pleasant little breeze and 72°F ( about 22°C for those of a metric persuasion) so I decided to tackle a few little jobs I’ve been meaning to get to.
The first order of business was to change out those lamps in Godzilla’s headlights for the high powered ones I bought at Auto Zone. I put a set in Laura’s Jeep a couple of years back and people were flashing their high beams at us in an attempt to tell us we had our brights on. Flashing her high beams in response left several people suffering temporary blindness as well as flash burns.
Godzilla sits a lot higher off the ground than the Jeep and I can’t wait to show that jerk across the street my high powered headlights! I wonder if his vinyl siding will melt if I aim them at his house and leave them on all night.
Next I decided to do a little more on the porch, nothing too strenuous mind you, so I broke out the implements of construction, buckled on my carpenter’s belt and proceeded to measure, cut, curse, nail, curse some more when I hit the wrong nail (usually thumb nail), drop stuff where I couldn’t reach, curse ………. and wreck my back again.
At least I still have plenty of meds!
As you can see, I also managed to get a few shots of the sunset this evening. I wanted to be sure the camera was ready for the super moon tomorrow night, the largest it has appeared in the sky in 18 years.
I also discovered the camera needs a good cleaning, especially the sensor, but I’m not going to try that until the meds wear off.
See? I do have a little common sense, especially when it comes to playing with delicate electronics while stoked to the gills on pain killers, muscle relaxers, sleep aids, nerve pain meds.
Besides, I can’t do any fine work with my hands until the bandages come off. Did I mention that Frankie spent a good half hour doctoring all the cuts, scrapes and splinters I picked up today. I won’t repeat any of the “special” words she used when voicing her opinion of “a man my age” doing the bull headed things I do. Your monitor would probably catch fire if I did.
Oh look………the meds must be kicking in…….the cartoons in my head have started and it’s a Road Runner marathon! WOO-HOO!
P.S. If you are having trouble following all this you may want to stop by www.tigerbloodAdonisgenes.com and have Charlie Sheen explain today’s post. I’m sure he knows where I’m coming from.
No Photos Today
Yes, I realize this uncommon display of common sense is out of character for me but I have opted to stay home and behave myself. Ain’t a fit day out for man nor beast and it looks like tomorrow is gonna be more of the same! At least the drought is over.
Guess I’ll go old school and finish off that book I’ve been reading before the County Library starts sending me nasty e-mails about overdue fees.
Flood Warning
Flood Watch
Hazardous Weather Outlook
Late Afternoon: Rain. The rain could be heavy at times. High near 41. East wind around 10 mph. Chance of precipitation is 100%. New rainfall amounts between a tenth and quarter of an inch possible.
Tonight: Rain. The rain could be heavy at times. Low around 41. East wind between 10 and 13 mph becoming calm. Chance of precipitation is 90%. New rainfall amounts between three quarters and one inch possible.
Thursday: Showers likely, mainly before noon. Cloudy, with a high near 52. South wind 7 to 15 mph becoming northwest. Chance of precipitation is 70%. New rainfall amounts between a quarter and half of an inch possible.
Thursday Night: A chance of rain showers before 3am, then a chance of rain and snow showers. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 30. West wind between 14 and 17 mph. Chance of precipitation is 50%. New precipitation amounts of less than a tenth of an inch possible. Friday: A chance of rain and snow showers before 10am, then a slight chance of rain showers between 10am and 4pm. Partly sunny, with a high near 42. Breezy, with a west wind between 17 and 20 mph. Chance of precipitation is 40%.
White Breasted Nuthatch
The White Breasted Nuthatch. I haven’t seen these little guys around the feeders until the past couple of days. Now they’ve started showing up in pairs. They’re very skittish and wouldn’t allow me to get too close so these were shot with a Canon EOS 55-250MM image stabilized zoom lens from about 20 yards distance.
I should mention that just as I stepped out the door a flash of color caught my eye and I managed to get a few frames of a Red Bellied Woodpecker perched on a branch near the feeders. Those shots are posted on my Blogger page Virginia Through My Lens.
I’ve Seen Better Days
As is the case with so many older buildings in the vicinity this one has been left abandoned and deteriorating but this one may be getting a reprieve.
Today I drove by on my meandering path to pick THE BOSS up from work and I noticed that all the overgrown shrubbery as well as a several “trash trees” (really nothing more than overgrown weeds) had been cut down.
Most of the old siding has been stripped away to expose the original clapboards and there are other signs of recent work performed. If the building was to be demolished it would be a pile of rubble by now.
I really like to see these old buildings brought back to life. The tales those old walls could tell……
On the Mend
Well, it looks as if I’ll survive, despite my best efforts to do myself permanent injury……….or any more than I already have. I’d like to thank everyone for their prayers, advice and good thoughts. Please rest assured that my doctor and two of his nurses gave me a thorough a** chewing for being too stubborn to slow down and take it easy when my physical problems get in the way of something I want to do.
The back and legs are on the mend but I’m far from 100% so I’m still taking it easy and staying close to home. Just in case I do injure myself again I am well prepared. My doctor had Santa Claus stop by in his big brown truck this afternoon with another 90 day supply of WOO-WOO pills. I still had about half of the last 90 supply left so I now have enough prescription narcotics on hand to get the entire county as screwed up as a soup sammich……..if I was so inclined.
As you can see, I finally pulled the camera out of the bag again.
This is what the eastern sky looks like when I’m trying to sleep in and THE BOSS remembers something I did back in 1994 and decides to cut me a little pay back by sending Buddy in to wash the entire left side of my head with a big ol’ slobbery “kiss’”. I was not amused but I was awake……instantaneously!
I took this shot so that I’ll be able to remember what the sky looks like without clouds. There is a weather system moving in as I type and the TV weather guessers are saying the drought we’ve been under recently will soon be a dim memory, not to be confused with my memory which is always dim. They are also advising people to begin building a large boat and start rounding up two of every animal.
This Tufted Titmouse was having a fine time watching the four legged clown roll around in his yard.
Ahhhhhhhhh…..that sure feels good!
In the past some readers have commented on the harness Buddy wears. That’s more for my benefit than anything else. As a result of my injuries I am sometimes less than sure footed and occasionally need to use a cane. As a matter of fact I have earned a doctorate in falling on my butt from the University of Hard Knocks! The old black hats at Jump School in Ft. Benning (those sadistic ogres who made me jump out of perfectly good airplanes) would be very proud if they saw me fall because I always execute a perfect parachute landing fall with the camera tucked into my stomach and wrapped in my arms. Broken bones and bruises heal. Camera lenses don’t!
While Buddy is usually well behaved on a lead he is still a pup……an 80 lb. pup……and he’s strong as an ox! When something grabs his interest he has a tendency to forget I’m on the other end of the lead and take off after it.The harness allows me to maintain control without strangling him and/or getting jerked off my feet and dragged to my death. I’ve learned, the hard way, that a collar does not provide that kind of control.
This female Downy Woodpecker must have decided I posed no threat because she was so close to me when she let out her cry that she startled me! When I recovered I captured this image from less that 10 feet away.
My brother in law, Fish Hook, and I are trying to raise enough money for a new squirrel gun. Personally I don’t really have any problem with squirrels. My plan is to park it in the front yard, pack that rascal with a homemade 155MM blank cartridge, point it at the front door of the miserable bast***d across the street and give that dirty, rotten, low down, poster child for retroactive birth control a massive and hopefully fatal heart attack when the muzzle flash sets his hair on fire from 100 feet away the first time he sticks his head out the door! I’m still convinced he had a hand in poisoning Sam but I can’t prove it and that’s why the jerk hasn’t had a hunting accident……yet.
Anyone interested in making a donation should send it to:
Roket Man and Fish Hook Need One of Them Big Ol’ Guns Fund
c/o The Keeper of the Flame
Big Ethel’s Exotic Dance Emporium, Tattoo Parlor & Bait Shop
Beautiful Wythe Vegas, Virginia 24382
Donate $50 and we’ll send you an autographed set of 8X10 color glossy photos of the festivities……as long as you agree not to turn ‘em over to the police should they contact you concerning evidence of the aforementioned event. If asked, me and Fish Hook plan on using a temporary insanity defense based on years of mental abuse by our spouses (they’re not only mean, they’re also sisters!) too many Road Runner cartoons in our youth, processed sugar in our breakfast cereal, repeated abductions by space aliens and maybe even global warming.
On the Mend
Well, it looks as if I’ll survive, despite my best efforts to do myself permanent injury……….or any more than I already have. I’d like to thank everyone for their prayers, advice and good thoughts. Please rest assured that my doctor and two of his nurses gave me a thorough a** chewing for being too stubborn to slow down and take it easy when my physical problems get in the way of something I want to do.
The back and legs are on the mend but I’m far from 100% so I’m still taking it easy and staying close to home. Just in case I do injure myself again I am well prepared. My doctor had Santa Claus stop by in his big brown truck this afternoon with another 90 day supply of WOO-WOO pills. I still had about half of the last 90 supply left so I now have enough prescription narcotics on hand to get the entire county as screwed up as a soup sammich……..if I was so inclined.
As you can see, I finally pulled the camera out of the bag again.
This is what the eastern sky looks like when I’m trying to sleep in and THE BOSS remembers something I did back in 1994 and decides to cut me a little pay back by sending Buddy in to wash the entire left side of my head with a big ol’ slobbery “kiss’”. I was not amused but I was awake……instantaneously!
I took this shot so that I’ll be able to remember what the sky looks like without clouds. There is a weather system moving in as I type and the TV weather guessers are saying the drought we’ve been under recently will soon be a dim memory, not to be confused with my memory which is always dim. They are also advising people to begin building a large boat and start rounding up two of every animal.
This Tufted Titmouse was having a fine time watching the four legged clown roll around in his yard.
Ahhhhhhhhh…..that sure feels good!
In the past some readers have commented on the harness Buddy wears. That’s more for my benefit than anything else. As a result of my injuries I am sometimes less than sure footed and occasionally need to use a cane. As a matter of fact I have earned a doctorate in falling on my butt from the School of hard knocks! The old black hats at Jump School in Ft. Benning (those sadistic ogres who made me jump out of perfectly good airplanes) would be very proud if they saw me fall because I always execute a perfect parachute landing fall with the camera tucked into my stomach and wrapped in my arms. Broken bones and bruises heal. Camera lenses don’t!
While Buddy is usually well behaved on a lead he is still a pup……an 80 lb. pup……and he’s strong as an ox! When something grabs his interest he has a tendency to forget I’m on the other end of the lead and take off after it.The harness allows me to maintain control without strangling him and/or getting jerked off my feet and dragged to my death. I’ve learned, the hard way, that a collar does not provide that kind of control.
This female Downy Woodpecker must have decided I posed no threat because she was so close to me when she let out her cry that she startled me! When I recovered I captured this image from less that 10 feet away.
My brother in law, Fish Hook, and I are trying to raise enough money for a new squirrel gun. Personally I don’t really have any problem with squirrels. My plan is to park it in the front yard, pack that rascal with a homemade 155MM blank cartridge, point it at the front door of the miserable bast***d across the street and give that dirty, rotten, low down, poster child for retroactive birth control a massive and hopefully fatal heart attack when the muzzle flash sets his hair on fire from 100 feet away the first time he sticks his head out the door! I’m still convinced he had a hand in poisoning Sam but I can’t prove it and that’s why the jerk hasn’t had a hunting accident……yet.
Anyone interested in making a donation should send it to:
Roket Man and Fish Hook Need One of Them Big Ol’ Guns Fund
c/o The Keeper of the Flame
Big Ethel’s Exotic Dance Emporium, Tattoo Parlor & Bait Shop
Beautiful Wythe Vegas, Virginia 24382
Donate $50 and we’ll send you an autographed set of 8X10 color glossy photos of the festivities……as long as you agree not to turn ‘em over to the police should they contact you concerning evidence of the aforementioned event. If asked, me and Fish Hook plan on using a temporary insanity defense based on years of mental abuse by our spouses (they’re not only mean, they’re also sisters!) too many Road Runner cartoons in our youth, processed sugar in our breakfast cereal, repeated abductions by space aliens and maybe even global warming.
Touching base
This will be a short post but I wanted to let y’all know that I’m not ignoring my online family. For those who are unaware, I’m a chronic pain patient. While I refuse to allow my medical problems to rule my life there are times when I have no choice but to take a break. When the pain in my back and legs gets to be too much I have to resort to taking the narcotic pain killers my doctor has prescribed.
Recently I’ve pushed my beat up old body farther than I should have and I’m now paying for what my dad used to call being bull headed. In fact, I’ve pushed myself to the point that the narcotics just haven’t done the job. I saw my doctor Tuesday and he has increased the dosage on my pain killers. He warned that it would take a few days for my body to adjust and he wasn’t exaggerating!
While the increased dosage is doing the job, it’s also left me feeling like a zombie. Because of this I haven’t been online much or had my camera out of the bag lately. In fact, I’ve been writing this post for 3 days.
I promise I’ll catch up once I’m back to what passes for normal in my world. In the meantime I’ll be busy catching up on my sleep deficit.
