~ Czech proverb

Quote of the day:
"The big thieves hang the little ones.”

I stole that from another Website.
They probably stole it from somebody else...

Finally

I've been waiting all day for some kind of inspiration and all I've had is brain f*rts.
But along about 5:00pm, while I was down at Red Bluff (home of the Bull & Gelding Sale, Red Bluff Roundup and the Monster Truck Nationals to give you an inkling the type of community) it began to rain...YES, RAIN!!! The really good news is that it is forecast to continue until Monday, which means that if there's enough rain Red Bluff may wash away.
Seriously, I'm only picking on Red Bluff because I can. there's really nothing wrong with the town other than it's 20 miles away and the freeway doesn't have enough lanes to handle the traffic.

Did anyone besides Sharon remember that tonight is Devils Night?

There are really only two reasons for posting pictures:

1. The writer is totally bereft of any original thought
2. It expresses a thought better than words
   

You can decide what my reason was

It's She's the Great Pumpkin

Actually that's Eden Hope

The original Title bothered me...

Today's throwaway remarks

Just about every day I boot up my computer and check emails on three different accounts. Then I visit a couple of websites that view regularly, including a couple listed here. Then, after determining that all is well in the world, something snaps. I can't just remain an observer. I have to become a participant. That's not so bad when it can be accomplished by responding to a post somewhere else on the Web. It can be downright dangerous when I initiate something.
It seems that I am entirely unable to leave things well enough alone. In other words I'm a sh*t disturber, one of those folks that says to himself, "I wonder what would happen if I [insert applicable words here] ." Fortunately I've been able to direct these urges in such a manner that they remain almost harmless. In fact most often they involve only little tweaks or additions to this blog. Only those who know me well are aware just how demented I really am.

Hmmmm! Maybe that's why I keep going back to Dave Barry's blog?

Okay that's enough laughter for now.

I'm sure y'all remember what started this whole blog?
It was all about a surgical procedure, specifically a spinal fusion, to guarantee that my head will remain attached... or something like that anyway.
So here I am four months later receiving bills because Drs. and insurance companies don't understand each other and it's up to me or some other poor soul to translate.

Well I have the perfect solution:

Learn Another Language!!!

let's start off with a laugh - "Twins"

A census taker in a rural area went up to a farmhouse and knocked. When a woman came to the door, he asked her how many children she had and their ages.

She said, "Les' see now, there's the twins, Sally and Billy, they're eighteen. And the twins, Seth & Beth, they're sixteen. And the twins, Penny and Jenny, they're fourteen---- "

"Hold on!" said the census taker, "Did you get twins every time?"

The woman answered, "Heck no, there were hundreds of times we didn't get nothin'."

A little revenge?

The next time I receive one of those surveys in the mail I am tempted to reply with this.

Then again I may just ignore it like all of the others.

Waxing philosophical

I guess it's time that I quit bellyaching and do something about my email account.
It's really a simple task to gripe about something that's bothering you me. I don't have to do anything else. No physical action is required, yet everyone becomes aware of the situation. The only problem is that it's up to me and me alone to fix it. I have two choices. I can make some calls or send some emails that will require some other steps. Or, I can shut up and do nothing. In either case you won't hear me whining about it any more.
The bottom line is that I am in control of the issue as long as I realize that I have the choices. As long as I keep a positive attitude, I have even more control.

As long as I don't take myself too seriously, I will have friends.

Another mystery of life cleared up

And this is why we pass gas.

Gleaned from a major scientific source... Dave Barry

Yep I really have to do something II

Now, not only is my ISP filtering spam and relegating it to a special folder, they are filtering emails from Sharon... and lord knows who else.

Winston Churchill said -

"We make a living by what we get, we make a life by what we give."

almost as bad as filler II

A man and his wife were awakened at 3:00 am by a loud pounding on the door. The man gets up and goes to the door where a drunken stranger, standing in the pouring rain, is asking for a push.
'Not a chance,' says the husband, 'it is 3:00 in the morning!' He slams the door and returns to bed.
'Who was that?' asked his wife.
'Just some drunk guy asking for a push,' he answers.
'Did you help him?' she asks.
'No, I did not, it is 3:00 in the morning and it is pouring rain out there!'
'Well, you have a short memory,' says his wife. 'Can't you remember about three months ago when we broke down, and those two guys helped us? I think you should help him, and you should be ashamed of yourself!'
The man does as he is told, gets dressed, and goes out into the pounding rain.
He calls out into the dark, 'Hello, are you still there?'
'Yes,' comes back the answer.
'Do you still need a push?' calls out the husband.
'Yes, please!' comes the reply from the dark.
'Where are you?' asks the husband.
'Over here on the swing,' replied the drunk.

Too cool for words

It's the batteries!!!

Weekend recap:
Saturday was pretty much devoted to Lions Club. We (the club, that is) hosted a district leadership workshop from 9:30 - 3:00. That, of course, involved a good deal of preparation beforehand... Thank you Sharon!!! ...and some cleanup afterward... there were a number of volunteers for that. There were over 50 in attendance so there wasn't much chili left over from lunch.

Saturday evening was spent searching for something worthwhile on TV. I finally settled on some Food Network reruns and recaps of college football games.

Sunday was mostly a vegetation day. I did manage to do some updating of a website, but mostly just surfed because that's easier.

Speaking of www

There's this web site that I maintain for the Anderson Lions Club. I'm having a minor problem in that whenever I view it in the Firefox browser, it shows the last update taking placed during the second century. This does not happen with Internet Explorer.
Anyway it's really weird looking at the bottom of a web page and seeing that it was "last updated on: Sunday, October 19, 108."

Wuh, wuh, wuh!!!

If we didn't surf, we wouldn't learn anything

It dawned on me that I made a reference to some cookies a couple of weeks ago that may have seemed a little strange if previous comments weren't read.
The cookies in question are ginger spice cookies.
Just thinking about them makes my mouth water. So if anyone wants to bake some and send them, I will be more than happy to evaluate.

Well I just wasted ten minutes

That's it. I just wasted ten minutes

If spam isn't bad enough...

We've been having problems with our Internet connection since yesterday just before noon. It became intermittent at best.
Another strange Internet thing happened. The first post I made yesterday didn't show up until well after the second... I mean like forever. I realize that it takes awhile for video to upload, but hours is ridiculous.
And now my cpu or the keyboard is acting strange. I find that about every fifth key I type does not reach the screen unless I go back and type it again (sometimes twice). I am hoping that by replacing the batteries in the keyboard (it's wireless) the problem will resolve itself. Should it turn out that it isn't the keyboard or the cpu, I may have to re-evaluate the success of my recent surgery?

Frankly, I hope it's the batteries

And another thing....
I typed a comment on another blog, entered it and it went away?

The Three Little Pigs

Three Little Pigs went out to dinner one night. The waiter came and took their drink order.
I would like a Sprite,” said the first little piggy.
“I would like a Coke,” said the second little piggy.
“I want beer, lots and lots of beer,” said the third little piggy.
The drinks were brought out and the waiter took their orders for dinner.
“I want a nice big steak,” said the first piggy.
“I would like the salad plate,” said the second piggy.
“I want beer, lots and lots of beer,” said the third little piggy.
The meals were brought out and a while later the waiter approached the table and asked if the piggies would like any dessert.
“I want a banana split,” said the first piggy.
“I want a cheesecake,” said the second piggy.
“I want beer, lots and lots of beer,” exclaimed the third little piggy.
“Pardon me for asking,” said the waiter to the third little piggy,”
But why have you only ordered beer all evening?”
You’re gonna LOVE this….
The third piggy says -
“Well, somebody has to go ‘Wee, wee, wee, all the way home!

Then there's this II

A former shipmate sent this to me. Maybe I will send him my new email address...

...when I get one!

Finally

Something we can all use:

New Stock Market Terms

CEO --Chief Embezzlement Officer.

CFO-- Corporate Fraud Officer.

BULL MARKET -- A random market movement causing
an investor to mistake himself for a financial
genius.

BEAR MARKET -- A 6 to 18 month period when the
kids get no allowance, the wife gets no jewelry,
and the husband gets no sex.

VALUE INVESTING -- The art of buying low and
selling lower.

P/E RATIO -- The percentage of investors wetting
their pants as the market keeps crashing.

BROKER -- What my broker has made me.

STANDARD & POOR -- Your life in a nutshell.

STOCK ANALYST -- Idiot who just downgraded your
stock.

STOCK SPL IT -- When your ex-wife and her lawyer
split your assets equally between themselves.

FINANCIAL PLANNER -- A guy whose phone has been
disconnected.

MARKET CORRECTION -- The day after you buy stocks.

CASH FLOW-- The movement your money makes as it
disappears down the toilet.

YAHOO -- What you yell after selling it to some
poor sucker for $240 per share.

WINDOWS -- What you jump out of when you're the
sucker who bought Yahoo @ $240 per share.

INSTITUTIONAL INVESTOR -- Past year investor
who's now locked up in a nuthouse.

PROFIT -- An archaic word no longer in use.

A laugh

Now it's entirely out of hand

I received another one of those insidious emails. This one notified me about the In-N-Out Burger 60th anniversary special.
I won't go into the details other than to say this and this is what I found out.

When Al Gore invented the Internet, He unleashed one big rumor mill.

I have been warned...

...for about the bazillionth time about the

"HUGE VIRUS COMING !!!
PLEASE READ & FORWARD !!!"

I'm sorely tempted to turn off the computer to make sure that I don't become infected. Also, since I'm somewhat of a contrarian I'm not going to forward it to anyone else since I know this message, or a variation, has been around for years.

Yep I really have to do something

Just a minute ago I received this

Remind me not to send the person who sent it to me my new email address... whenever I get one that is. Meanwhile go ahead and try it out.

Another bright idea

After discovering this morning that I am not receiving all of the emails sent to me, I came up with a brilliant scheme. I will just make sure that everyone in my address book know about this blog and if they have a message for me, they can post it as a comment. That should accomplish two things:

1. It will cut down the amount of correspondence I receive
2. I forget what the other is
   

Whoa!!! Iknow this guy

Check this out. Some of you may know this guy. He was one of my college roommates.

Don't get excited now...

I was thinking about adding a hit counter to this blog. Then I decided I really don't want to know that only some of my family and a friend in England are the only ones who read it.
There's another friend in Maryland who says he checks occasionally, but that he's really too busy. I should remind him that it's my turn to buy dinner so he should check in more often.

I made a batch of chili yesterday. First taste was pretty good. It's not as 'hot' as some batches have been but you'd still know it's chili. The next test is tonight, but the true test will be next week when it is served to an unsuspecting audience. That's also why it isn't as 'hot' as many previous batches.

Ouote for the day

Production of useful work is limited by the laws of thermodynamics, but the production of useless work seems to be unlimited.
—Donald Simanek

And a cartoon as well:

"It may be perpetual motion, but it will take forever to test it."
Cartoon by Donald Simanek.

Good News

I just came from the Dr.
After looking at my most recent x-ray (yesterday afternoon), he's determined that my head is still attached to the rest of my body and not in immediate danger of separation. He seemed really blown away that I haven't had a cigarette since June.

Tuesday fodder

I thought seriously about copying and pasting this. But it's really only an updated version of and old list. It certainly helps convey my sentiments.

...and it beats the daylights out of having to write original material

I only have one minor question

There's a photo on the Astronomy Picture page That's entitled "Earth at Night"
What I want to know is where's the daylight?

New email address

I think maybe it is time for me to have my email address changed. I just checked my Inbox. There were 82 emails. Two were from people I know, but I'm pretty sure they were sent to me in error. In addition to those emails there were another 279 filtered as spam by my ISP and two containing viruses.

That was nice

The rain that started yesterday morning is now mostly behind us. There are still a few scattered showers but for the most part we should now expect clearing and mostly sunshine again. It is weird to look at the Weather Service map and see "Winter Weather Advisory" and "Winter Storm Warning" actually in effect this early in the year.

OMG... who'd have thought?

So I was doing some surfing research for my reading list over there on the left side at the top. I couldn't just find and copy the links. I have to delve further and look what I found!!!

BTW - I've actually finished reading two of the books on the list, but on occasion I am reading more that one book at a time.

What is really unusual is when I read more than one non-fiction in a row.

Economic update

How bad is it you ask,

"Today I went to buy a toaster and was
given a bank as a free gift."

Thanks to Doug MacInnis

Rain!!!

'nuff said.
It's time to cover the patio furniture and put away the big umbrella.

Gibberish...

...or gobbledygook seems to have finally found its useful place. It is called "word verification." It really saves a lot of hassle for a blogger who wants comments from others, but doesn't want to be spammed by automated responses.
We see it, too, working its way into other places as acronyms: LOL for laughing out loud; ROFL for rolling on the floor laughing; NTTAWWT for not that there's anything wrong with that; WBAGNFARB... would be a good name for a rock band.
If this isn't making any sense to you, think of something you say or write all of the time. Then reduce it to the first letter of each word, capitalize the letters and type or write them out. Then wait while others try to guess what it means (or they go away and leave you alone because they think you've lost it).

hkzhqeff

I don't know where this is going... YET!!!

I really envy folks who can sit down and write a cohesive narrative. I'm outright jealous of my friend Brian who writes, not one but, two blogs almost daily. There's a link to his first over on the left side of this blog. The link to his second blog, Pebbles, is on the Les Levandes page.
He claims to burble on at times. Well, I'm fascinated by his burbling and he may continue for as long as he pleases.
I have concluded that my problem is that my attention span is short. Thus I am disinclined to stay on topic long enough to register much more than an idea let alone put those thoughts down for others to view. I used to wonder what was the matter with students who preferred essay examinations over true/false, multiple guess or even fill in the blank exams.
Then again maybe it is just that I am too lazy to take the time to develop and write a complete thought?
Or, maybe I really am part dog.

What a great idea!!!

But we don't need these in our neighborhood.

The cats and dogs seem to have run off all of the wildlife