Can you?... Imagine world peace?

Just rambling...

Good morning world! Hope most of you are having a good day, so far, and actually that it continues to be good. I'm bored. Updated my blogger blog. Didn't really do much except delete a link and update the header. I also looked through the gadgets to see if I could find a good music player, but nothing really grabbed my attention. *sigh*

Got a couple loads of laundry done yesterday. I could find more dirty clothes (think teenager's bedroom) to wash if I really, really wanted to, but I don't. I'm kind of hoping that she'll decide that she needs to wash her own clothes, but I'm not holding my breath. LOL.

Offered a non-working electric dryer on FreeCycle yesterday afternoon. So far no takers. Now if I had a dolly to move said dryer, I would move it out to the shed and then we'd have a place to keep the portable dishwasher when it's not being used, thus creating more floorspace in the kitchen. 'course we're pretty used to NOT having that space available, since we've lived here with that dishwasher and dryer where they are now for almost 8 years.

Now that it's seemingly in the 'cool' season, I'm thinking it's just about time to start painting the outside of the house. It was suggested that we throw a house painting party and have friends help. The problem is that ALL of our friends are either busy or live way to far away to just pop over for that. So either we do it ourselves, or it doesn't get done.

It's looking like we're going to have to start thinking about getting some firewood. Haven't priced it since the gas/fuel prices went up, so don't really know how much pre-split wood we can afford to buy. However, there are at least 3 Poplar trees that I can cut down and turn into firewood. Plus there's one Poplar that had it's top half blown over this summer. I went out yesterday to move that half away from the bottom so I could have it over by the woodshed to cut up. But it's still connected to the trunk and I'm not sure how safely I can separate it. Plus there's already a smallish tree in front of the woodshed laying on the ground that need to be cut and split. I suppose I could do that today. Yeah? *thinking*

Speaking of 'things' to do, I was looking for things to do yesterday besides laundry, and decided that since it's likely that we'll be having friends visiting next weekend for a day, and their daughter LOVES swimming, I mowed around the pool. Don't really know that it was necessary, because I seriously doubt she will care what it looks like OUTSIDE the pool, but like I said, I needed *something* to do. I also mowed right around the house, although it didn't need it because the grass has not been growing very fast for a few weeks now.

I guess that's all I've got. Bye.

Driving to visit

We were just thinking about something, and I figured my blog would be a good place to pose the question. As you know we live in the country (ie not in the city) and get very, very infrequent visits from friends who live an hour or more away.

My question is this: How is it that city people have time to drive around their cities to run errands and visit friends for hours, but just can't seem to find the time to drive 45 minutes each way to visit us? Seemingly an hour and a half (round trip) to anyplace outside the city is "just too far" or "just takes too long". Thoughts? Opinions? Anything?

Meanwhile, back on the farm

I often write in my blog that there's "not a lot going on", and this is part of what DOES go on, on the homestead. Fun, eh? There's a reason for the saying, "Meanwhile, back on the farm".

60 seconds of pool/billiards

I uploaded the below video to YouTube called "60 seconds of pool" which could also be called 'only 60 seconds to sleep', 'insomnia cure', etc. LOL. But because I'm just a really damn nice guy, I've imbedded it here on my blog as well, for your pleasure. *smile*

Video of a "pool break"

The start of a pool game called "breaking", from table/ball level :-)

(UPDATE!) A little update

UPDATE: Just got a call from my Nurse Practitioner and she got the PROVIGIL approved for at least one year. I will be getting that filled today! *EXCITED*

Had my appointment with the Dr. to discuss increasing my Fluoxetine (generic Prozac) dose to see if my mood could be enhanced, and we talked about my MS fatigue. Well, she increased my Fluoxetine to 60 mg per day (was 40), and said that anything like the drugs (speed) used for ADD/ADHD just aren't "appropriate" for MS/non-ADD patients, so didn't prescribe anything. *sigh* The exact same attitude my neurologist has. However, she did say that she'll talk to my prescription company (AdvantraRX) and try and make them understand why Provigil is the best thing I can take for fatigue because "it's safe, effective, and proven". The hope is that if TWO doctors explain the benefits of P that they'll listen and cover it. *crossing fingers* I just don't 'get' how there is supposedly NOTHING ELSE (really??) that can be prescribed! *boggle*

Prior to the appointment, we stopped at our best local friend's and visited while my son played and chatted with her son. She (mom) made us grilled cheese sandwiches, opened a bag of BBQ chips, and offered soda for our drinking pleasure.

Our friend also gave us their family's extra Digital Converter Box that they got at Wal-Mart (sweet!). We hooked the DCB up when we got home and now we get 11 channels over-the-air (antenna). Granted, a few of those are duplicates, but still. The picture is great, and I'll go outside today and see if adjusting the outside antenna will make the reception better on a couple of them. Now we just need one more converter box for the kids' television by the end of September (that's when out coupons expire) and we'll be all set. YAY! (I guess). I've been told that the DCBs that Radio Shack sells are better than the ones Wal-Mart sells, which definitely wouldn't surprise me. We're strongly considering getting the other box from Radio Shack and testing that story.

Chickens, homestead and life in general (or thereabouts)

Well, I sent an email to a couple of local-ISH friends to ask if they know anyone who would like to get into the chicken raising hobby. We have 30-ISH chickens, including a couple of roosters (roosters ARE technically chickens, just not usually lumped in like the hens are). We are offering them to ANYONE who is willing to pay us $2 per or $50 for all. If you know of anyone around the Long Lane, MO area interested, please pass it on.

Anyway, was outside on the porch visiting with Rain while she smoked a cigarrette and was looking around at this and that, most the storage-dresser with a few cans of paint in it that're not be used, and thought, "Hmm... I could paint the house with some of that, even in stripes of the different colors (yellow - lots, white [probably more in the shed], along with blue, green and peach)". Then I said outloud, "I could, but I just don't really care what color the house it, but I guess any color better than the dull brown it currently is". *heavy sigh* Then Rain mentioned, "Too tired to care, huh?" YEP! That's pretty much true about ANYTHING though, hence why I've got a doctor's appointment tomorrow to see if the possibility to raise the dosage of my generic prozac is available, and something/anything that I could get put on to counteract the fatigue my MS is causing. My nuerologist WON'T fucking prescribe ANYTHING but Provigil but my prescription insurance won't pay for that because "it's too expensive" (and we all know that insurance companies need to pinch their pennies!! *sarcasm*). We (my wife & I) KNOW from doing lots of research that other doctors have prescribed things (ritalin, etc) that people with ADD/ADHD have been, that's helped us with MS and other illnesses that cause fatigue, but my nuero REFUSES to even CONSIDER them (and the insurance company won't consider paying for provigil until after he does). So we're going to ask the PCP/NP if she will. Wish me luck, please?

That's all I got, because well, I'M TOO FUCKING TIRED OF CARING to write more.

Hemp for the Hungry

You can watch the video and comment on YouTube as well.
Please checkout the website for Hempster the movie

Please help spread the word if you believe it's a good cause.

23 silly cat pictures

On a more personal note...

... not much really happening on our lovely MO homestead. Yeah, it's been NON August-like for about a week now. Meaning that the highs are only getting into the 70s and low 80s (as opposed to high 90s low 100s), with the occasional day in the low 90s (those are all Fahrenheit, btw :). Besides those typically "fall" temps, it just feels like fall, not summer. Then again, it's been this way for a while. We only had about a week or two of "spring" before the daytime highs were getting into the 100s. Those lasted about a month or so before this fall-like weather we're currently experiencing set in. Ironically, we were able to get the swimming pool opened up earlier than usual this year (June) because of our too-distant friend's 'cleaning' advice (bleach and white vinegar). Our DD and I have swam in it a few times each, mostly by ourselves, except I think there was one time we actually swam together. Our DS (12-13) hasn't only been once. We're guessing he has just gone deeply into 'modest' mode for some reason (puberty, probably).

Chickens (25-ish) have decided that we no longer need a consistent supply of eggs, so they lay 0-2 eggs every other day or two. So we've been getting them front a friend up the road. Which shouldn't be a big deal because 1) I'm not a big egg-eater anyway (DW is though, so it kind of is, 2) Because of my MS I really shouldn't eat baked goods that contain wheat and/or gluten anyway (but I do some times). I'm also not supposed to have caffeine, but for the last several months I've indulged in 1 or 2 pots of coffee a day (2 pots is a rarity, and upsets my tummy). But, I have been good in that I did quit smoking and have been a non/ex smoker for approximately a month now (stopped July 23rd, 2008). Caffeine, hard candy, and McDonalds are my only 'bad' crutches right now. WAS contemplating quitting the coffee after my current supply ran out (which was today), but have just decided it's 'okay' to have one vice. *mischievous grin*

We had a hen hatch-out 4 chicks about 6-7 weeks ago. A couple of days ago she went missing, leaving her 4 chicks to fend for themselves. It was kind of fate though. Before her chickens were born, we found her nest behind the chicken tractor, under some grass/brush when it was just POURING rain one late afternoon. Got her and her then 7 eggs into a broody pen at that time. And now, as of last night, there are only 2 babies left.

Emberfae never did come home, so we're housing only 9 cats which will be dropping to 6 at the beginning of Sept. when we take 3 more to the Lebanon Human Shelter.

We're hoping to be moved by this winter so we don't need to cut down trees and split wood for another season of heating with wood. Actually, IF we're still here, we're thinking strongly about finding a way to get one of those 'radiant-heat boxes' You know, the ones that cost around 3-400 dollars? Like the ones below: Oh daddy dearest??? *puppy-dog eyes*

Surveillance

So, you thought that it was going to end, didn't you? Well, think again, not only did congress grant those telecoms immunity for ILLEGALLY wiretapping us before and since 9/11/01, they're going to give them even MORE fucking power. To me this doesn't say we're getting closer to a real and true democracy, but dangerously close to tyranny of a dictatorship, which we've (U.S.) been heading towards for too long now.

FBI Agents May Get More Power to Probe Anyone

The New York Times reports the Justice Department may soon allow FBI agents to open an investigation of anyone, conduct surveillance, pry into private records and take other investigative steps without any clear basis for suspicion. According to a letter signed by a group of senators briefed on the issue, the plan might permit an innocent person to be subjected to such intrusive surveillance based in part on race, ethnicity, national origin, religion or on protected First Amendment activities.

Not sure if this is the article that DemocracyNow was talking about or not, but I figure it gives you/us a place to start or keep researching from.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/10/washington/10fisa.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

8 amazing HUGE holes around the world

Got this from a good friend of mine... May. Checkout her blog :-)
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8 Amazing Holes!

These holes are not only amazing, but some of them are really terrifying! The sheer scale of these holes reminds you of just how tiny you are.

1. KimberleyBig Hole - South Africa

Apparently the largest ever hand-dug excavation in the world, this 1097 meter deep mine yielded over 3 tons of diamonds before being closed in 1914.

2. Glory Hole - MonticelloDam, California

A glory hole is used when a dam is at full capacity and water needs to be drained from the reservoir

This is the 'Glory Hole' at Monticellodam, and it's the largest in the world of this type of spillway, its size enabling it to consume 14,400 cubic feet of water every second.

3. BinghamCanyonMine, Utah

This is supposedly the largest man-made excavation on earth. Extraction began in 1863 and still continues today, the pit increasing in size constantly. In its current state the hole is miles deep and 2.5 miles wide.

4. Great Blue Hole, Belize

This incredible geographical phenomenon known as a blue hole is situated 60 miles off the mainland of Belize There are numerous blue holes around the world, but none as stunning as this one.

5. Mirny Diamond Mine, Serbia

This one is an absolute beast and holds the title of largest open diamond mine in the world. At 525 meters deep, with a top diameter of 1200 meters, there's even a no-fly zone above the hole due to a few helicopters having been sucked in.

6. Diavik Mine, Canada

The mine is so huge and the area so remote that it has its own airport with a runway large enough to accommodate a Boeing 737. It looks equally cool when the surrounding water is frozen.

7. Sinkhole in Guatemala

These photos are of a sinkhole that occurred early this year in Guatemala. The hole swallowed a dozen homes and killed at least 3 people.

And the most terrifying one of all?

#8
This is the famous 'Rat Hole' that you have heard about.

It is capable of swallowing trillions and trillions of U.S.

Dollars... Annually! Never to be heard from again.

Crime-ridden Arkansas Town Expands 24-hour Curfew

Crime-ridden Arkansas Town Expands 24-hour Curfew

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/08/13/ap/national/main4346608.shtml

CBS News Online

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[excerpt] (AP) Officers armed with military rifles have been stopping and questioning passers-by in a neighborhood plagued by violence that's been under a 24-hour curfew for a week.

On Tuesday, the Helena-West Helena City Council voted 9-0 to allow police to expand that program into any area of the city, despite a warning from a lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union of Arkansas that the police stops were unconstitutional.

===========

Rambleman: As my wife pointed out to me, this is just bad. There have been other cities in the U.S. where there's been high crime rates and they solved their problem by 'the people' taking back their city/town back themselves. By neighborhood crime-watches, etc. By giving the police the power to carry assault rifles like the military does, I believe you're just inviting the citizens to become even more victim-like. Police DO NOT prevent crime, they get there AFTER THE FACT. Agree? Disagree? Tell me/us what you think.

Cat picture, AVG 8 issues

As we were coming back in the house last night we noticed these two laying sound asleep on the sofa and just had to take a picture for you.

As for the "AVG 8 issues", they all started yesterday evening (8-16-08) when I noticed a red exclamation point next to the time on the right-hand side of the bottom toolbar. For a couple of hours I though it must be something that *I* changed on the computer, although I had *no idea* what that was. So I did a "restore to an earlier checkpoint", but that didn't change anything. Then I uninstalled and reinstalled AVG 8 using the Windows Uninstaller. That didn't 'fix' it either, even after a reboot. After the reboot I tried to get the updates it said it needed, but that only accomplished me getting an error that said, "update failed, 'no bin' file. And finally, being a "man", I went to the AVG website and type in the error message to the support forum and the results was an entry from AVG saying that the .bin file was corrupt and they were working on it. They got the update problem fixed by this morning and it updates just fine now. Unfortunately for me I wasn't getting the little arrow on the toolbar when it was scanning. *sigh* So of course that sent me off on other wild goose chase. To make a long story short, I went and got the very latest version from AVG's servers, rebooted and updated, and there were no error messages from me after that. Still, it took me several HOURS to finally decide to do that since the "repair" I tried from the setup file didn't help at all.

I've got water topping up the pool so that when we can afford to two more bottle bottles of bleach for a "shock" treatment, it'll have enough water so that the pump doesn't get air sucked through it causing too much pressure in the sand-filter tank.

I've also rearranged the front porch by moving the loveseat to the level part where the trashed dresser was sitting. Said dresser is currently being used to store small "stuff", rather than getting demolished and burned.

Other than the aforementioned, I've played a couple games of pool with my wife, which she won both times. Read/replied to email and read and commented on a few blogs.

P.S. 3 weeks later and still not smoking!

Sportswear

I don't know what the hell my problem is, but when watching the Olympics, I can't seem to get into them. Maybe I'm just getting old. I am going to be 44 this year. Anyway, it's like I just don't see the point! I sorta get that it's good for "us" to see that our country isn't the only one who can be good at any given "sport". Perhaps because I've been paying so much attention to political stuff for so long, that it's like there's just more important things to worry about than whether or not my country beats another and gets the 'better' medal. It's like I have this "can't we all just get along?" attitude.

Speaking of the attire between men and women, what's up with that? I mean, women beach volleyball players wear bikinis, which is very sexy I admit. Then you have the men wearing baggy (comparatively) shorts and tank tops or t-shirts. Same thing with the gymnastics. My point is, women like my wife would like to see sexy men too, and she thinks baggy shorts just aren't sexy on men. Why are the people who decide what the 'proper' attire for each sex is SO into women wearing skimpy clothes but the men get to be 'comfortable'? Don't get me wrong, I like women in bikinis, but I just think it's not fair for the women viewers, or women sports players.

The RoveCyberGate Campaign: Stunning Revelations About Election Fraud & How You Can Help Preserve the Integrity of Your Ballot

Think our "votes" really count? I don't, but you need to decide. Checkout the video(s), please?!

Submitted by Chip on Tue, 2008-08-12 18:19.

The RoveCyberGate Campaign

Brought to you by VelvetRevolution.us in cooperation with AfterDowningStreet.org. We are working with Ohio election attorneys, Cliff Arnebeck, Bob Fitrakis and Henry Eckert to find out the truth about recent information indicating that Karl Rove architected and directed a strategy to manipulate elections through the use of computers. Rove's Cyber Guru, Michael Connell, has worked for the Bush family for over 20 years and helped Bush Sr., Jeb and Bush Jr. "win" their elections using his computer skills. Whistleblowers, including a Republican cyber security expert, say that several of these and other national elections have been rigged through various invisible and illegal means, including vote tabulation manipulation, improper partisan use of the Justice Department to target Democrats and uncooperative US Attorneys, and the laundering of hundreds of millions of corporate dollars funneled into fake advocacy groups directed against Democrat candidates running for public office. Ex-Alabama Governor Don Siegelman has stated publicly that Rove was the person who directed Siegelman's rigged election and criminal prosecution. GOP cyber sleuth Stephen Spoonamore has stated publicly that the leadership of the GOP has been "lying and stealing elections" and doing so through computers. Watch the stunning and revealing video here (play time 30 mins - and worth every minute!).

According to the attorneys, Rove's goal with this strategy is to establish a unitary Executive Branch with a supportive judiciary, a weak legislature and a fearful press.

Corporate sponsors of this strategy, such as tobacco, energy, telecom, and pharmaceutical companies are rewarded with hands off government: deregulated oversight, stringent limits on class-action damages, the stacking of high courts with pro-business/anti-consumer Justices etc.

Presidents must be held accountable, sign the petition

Representative Dennis Kucinich tells the House Judiciary Committee that Congress has a duty "to demand accountability for one of the gravest injustices imaginable...The decision before us is whether Congress will stand up to tell future Presidents that America has seen the last of these injustices, not the first."

Full text of Congressman Kucinich's testimony

Minute-by-minute blogging report on Judiciary Committee hearing

NBC Olympic coverage sucks!

Is it just me, or is anyone else really disappointed with NBC's coverage of the 2008 Olympics? It could be that we no longer have Satellite television and can get ONLY the over-the-air signal from NBC. Just about every time we turn it on, it's either in a commercial, or there's swimming or some other water-sport, which we find boring. We wouldn't mind seeing more gymnastics, but apparently that's done more during China's daylight time and therefore we can only see highlights. Only highlights or very few "live" gymnastics because of course NBC wants us to see the live events. I thought I would go and watch some video on NBC's site, but each time I tried I only got a pop-up asking what cable or satellite company we're subscribed to, and since we're not for either, we can't watch the video. So you say to download their "NBC Direct beta" program? I tried, tried again, and again, but EVERY TIME the LAST part of the installation process gets within 3 minutes: 40 seconds (or so) it errors out. The error message says to go to a FAQ site for more information. However, there was NO information about the error I got, nor of any other error while installing their stupid "beta" program! At the site it gives you an email to nbcdirect@nbcuni.com to send your non-faq question to, which I did yesterday. Still waiting for an answer. I tried to watch a video at NBC on the other computer (although I expected the same result), but got the same question about cable/satellite, therefore I couldn't watch any. So I sent an email to them saying that they suck because not EVERYONE can afford to have a Satellite or Cable connection. I told them another reason that they suck is because they show ONLY the U.S. playing China or another country, or China competing with another country or the U.S.. But they, at least on our antenna-version viewing, didn't show anyone else. I told them the Olympics are about THE WORLD, not JUST about the U.S. and China! However, since "the poor" in no country has their opinions matter, I'm not expecting anything to change. BTW: I read nothing but negative reviews of NBC Direct when searching the web looking for solutions to installing the program.

Homesteading getting old. Wanting to move.

Just wanted to let you know that I am indeed still here. Still on the farm/homestead. Still raising chickens even though we're only getting an egg or two every other day or so, which makes raising them kind of pointless in my opinion. We've butchered and eaten them in the past, but because they're free range birds they tougher than shit. And that means you have to use them for stew and such. We're going to be looking into getting a local butchering plant to butcher them and turn them ALL into ground chicken burger meat, which we'll use for burgers, tacos, spaghetti sauce, etc. Our birds are NOT meat birds. In fact we've weighed them after de-feathering and de-gutting them, and they way on average about 1/2 pound. Hardly worth even butchering.

Before gas prices went way up (pre hurricane Katrina), it wasn't too bad living here. Since then however, we can't afford to go anywhere unless we practically HAVE to. Driving a van that gets up to 14 miles per gallon sucks and we can't afford payments on another vehicle, so we feel STUCK :-( No kids/teens/young adults in the neighborhood that we ever see outside, and we suck at going door-to-door looking for kids for our kids to play/socialize with. And yes, I DO feel guilty/depressed about that :-( But it's just the way I am and ALWAYS have been, even before I had kids of my own. *sigh* Hence why when we can sell the house for enough to break even (or win the lottery), the plan is to get to a more populated city or town. It won't be to Buffalo, MO since their largest employer (chicken factory) went out of business and layed off around 400 people. So there aren't many places to work there that pay well enough to support a family of four with growing teens. Although I suppose the kids COULD work at a fast-food place to help pay the bills. But our DD has decided to get her GED and start college when we can afford it. My wife's bio-dad SAYS he has set aside money for the kids higher education, but until we get closer to a city, we're not asking for any. In our opinion, 16 is too young, especially for a farm girl, to move to a city on her own to attend school without we parents living in the same city/town. Before anyone suggests enrolling our kids in the local public school system... parish the thought, as the schools are having serious problems, hence why we'll be home-schooling them until they go to college or whatever they decide to do.

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Up early. Adding a mirror. Silly cat picture. Digital Converter Boxes

If you remember, yesterday I started the dryer a couple of times and each time it tripped the circuit breaker. Not only did it cause the living room computer to restart, but it caused the bedroom clock in our room to do the same. Long story short, when I reset the clock at bedtime I didn't have an accurate timepiece to check. All I had as a reference was my memory of the last time I saw a clock, and the timer sitting on the dresser. Unfortunately, said timer was off a couple of hours, so when my wife got up a few hours later because she always wakes-up a few hours after going to bed, she thought that she had only been asleep a little over an hour because the bedroom clock was 2 hours behind. I too had woken-up a couple of times during the night/morning and thought at one point it was awfully light outside for as early as I thought it was. I went back to sleep thinking (correctly) that maybe the clock was wrong. So when I woke-up the last time I thought that it was two hours later than it was, but my wife had gotten up at the normal time to feed the chickens (son woke her up, since he was up most of the morning as usual). Anyway, she corrected the time on the bedroom clock, but of course I didn't know that. So instead of getting up around 9:00 a.m. as I planned, the actual time was about 7:45 when I wasn't really ready to get up and start moving. But since I was up, I made coffee and started drinking it because I knew I only had a couple of hours until we planned on going to the city 20 miles from here.

Once in said city, we did our 2 stops before lunch, went to lunch and then did some grocery shopping. What I really wanted that I couldn't find locally yesterday after stopping 3 different places was a desk fan. We found one today, and it's now sitting, you guessed it, on the desk beside the monitor, keeping me a lot cooler than I had been when sitting here before. YAY!

Once home I changed the wiper assembly that had gone bad last week, at that time we got a replacement which sat in the back of the van until today. But that's been done, so now if it rains while we're driving my wife will be able to see out of the passenger side of the windshield.

Right before we left this morning, our cat that lays in the weirdest positions was doing it again, so I took a picture.

This is Twitch; aka: Flat cat

My daughter's bedroom dresser has needed a mirror since before she moved into it (bedroom, not the dreser. lol). Today I finally got around to getting it put on. But it was a bigger project than I had anticipated so it took me a few hours because the mirror and dresser-assembly was taken on a much larger dresser. I had to add a couple of support pieces to the back of the mirror so that I could attach it to the smaller/more narrow dresser it was going on. That took a long time because I had to first find a couple of boards in the shed, then I had to cut them down to size (in the end it wasn't necessary, as I had messerged wrong. sigh). Anyway, here's what the back looks like after being refitted...

And just to show what an awesome project it turned-out to be, here's the front of it. LOL.

I think she'll be happy when she returns home from her friend's this weekend. Although you can't tell from this picture, she's definitely going to need to clean it! :-)

And one last thought. We were at the Wal-Mart Supercenter and also checked to see if they had a Digital Converter Box - they didn't, as frikkin always. Anyway, when we were in another town yesterday looking for a fan, we stopped at Radio Shack, and while there asked if they had any DCBs. They didn't, but they said we could put one on lay-away, which we declined because we have until the middle of September before our coupons expire. Anyway, while at Wal-Mart today I asked if we could put one on lay-away there (their's are $10 less). He said, "No, and you can't put anything on lay-away because we've stopped doing that since we went to the 'site-to-store' service. I said, "But you don't sell these on-line!" To which he of course just shrugged his shoulders. *sigh* Well, we'll get one somewhere, probably Radio Shack at this point, for $10 per box more.

Blogging, Buffalo layoffs, laundry and dryer

Okay, so I guess I'm going to write in my blog and tell someone (one of my two 'regulars' I guess) . I wonder if I didn't post this to my email list if more people would read it on my blogsite. I also wonder if I mentioned that it would be okay to leave a comment even if I didn't ask a question. Just a thought that I had a day or two ago.

I guess it really doesn't matter, as I should be writing for pleasure, mine.

And now for my local (15 miles away) news, one part of it that is:

County takes big hit with Petit Jean closing

By Paul Campbell
paulc@buffaloreflex.com

Published: Wednesday, August 6, 2008 11:28 AM CDT

First it was the historic ice storm of 2007, then the general downturn in the economy, and later the devastating tornado on March 31. We can now add to that unlucky streak the closing of Dallas County's largest employer, Petit Jean Poultry, set for Oct. 4.

This latest "storm" sent shock waves throughout the community and the economy when it was announced Friday morning that 465 Petit Jean employees would lose their jobs and that its $8 million annual payroll (in 2006) would go by the wayside. Continued->

Yesterday I got the walls and bottom of the swimming pool vacuum, followed by the addition of 3/4 of a gallon of bleach and 1 gallon of white vinegar. I also got the front and back yards mown, and it took me only an hour and a half of actual mow time (riding mower).

Today, so far, I've got two loads of laundry washed and one has already dried and has been put away. The other one is on the clothes line. We decided that we wanted to de-cat hair our clothes. We thought we would do that by running each load (after it dried on the line) through a 'fluff' cycle in the dryer (heat no longer works). I pulled the dryer out of it's spot, cleaned it and tightened up the back plate that I had taken off over a year ago to try and fix it (wasn't able to). I cleaned it, the wall next to it, and the side of the washer, with wipes. Then I plugged it in to make sure it worked - it did, but sadly it blew the circuit breaker two times (I reset it and tried it again). So now if we want hairless clothes we're either going to have to use a lint brush or get another dryer. Guess it's time to ask on FreeCycle.

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Finished bedroom, pony tail, voting

This is the front of our DD's new bedroom, which her and her friend painted together. We, as in parents, have considered adding another coat of the paints used on the outside, but will let our DD decide.

This is the color of the walls on the inside. I'm not posting any other pictures of the inside because of privacy issues (me respecting my daughter's).

Above is what used to be on the back of my head, which I had my lovely wife cut off a couple of days ago. Below is a picture I took, just being silly, of a miniature skull with the pony tail in it's mouth. As you can see, it wasn't long, about 6 inches, which took me 3-4 years to grow.

Well, other than that we haven't been up to much (as always). Although it was our state's voting day for sheriff, governor, representatives, county assessors, etc. We did that early this morning (to beat the heat). So now you know we've done our civic duty by voting.

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From IncrediMail (edited to be like it was supposed to be originally)

I don't know what this is going to look like once it's on my blog, but I'm going to do it anyway and find out.

Have NOT been doing much at all, not so much because of the heat, but because I really don't have much TO do. I added water to the swimming pool because a lot had evaporated because of the heat lately. I burned the house trashes (bathroom, kitchen, desk). I've also taken apart an old phone (just several years, not an antique), and it still doesn't work. I did find out though, contrary to what the phone tech told me about not needing a DSL filter because he wired that line directly to a separate plug, that in the poolroom it is needed. It might because because the phone I was working on was on the Fritz, so I don't know.

Other than the aforementioned, I've ran the dishwasher, played a game of pool, and read email. Carried a monitor that finally crashed yesterday to the big shed with other junk we don't know what to do with. Still got some blogs to read though, but I was using the other 'puter which doesn't download blogs.

Oh yeah, and I now have NO friends in my neighborhood because of a difference of politics that reared it's previously unspoken about head.

Oh yeah, and I've also cut my ponytail off. It has been in the back of my so-called mind for a while now, but I finally made a decision while we were visiting some friends in the city. I don't know, it occurred to me that I'm no longer a young person who needs to be rebellious-looking to prove some existential point.

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