Just poking along....

 I'm certainly NOT living life in the fast lane!  These days my big event is usually a visit to the physical therapy people for some neck exercises and a bit of a rub.  Wow!  There are only another 5 visits or so prescribed so I'm probably about as cured as I'm going to get.  It's not like I can swivel my head around like a kid but I guess it's good enough.  

There was a lunar eclipse last week.  I missed it.  This being awake in the middle of the night to look at the moon just doesn't work for me.  I went out about 22:00 and found this.  It worked just fine for me.

We have had our first couple of night of freezing temps; all the way down to 28F(-2C)!  It will get cooler I'm sure but I can wait.  

Lately I've become obsessed with a show on MTV called Ridiculousness. They take clips from YouTube and it's like and show and comment on them. It sounds fairly dumb and I suppose it is but I'm just a fan. Watching some idiot try to float his skateboard along a metal guardrail and fall crushing his guy parts on the rail is just something I love watching! Of course there are some where the aforementioned idiot throws gasoline on a fire. You get the idea. Anyway, I'm addicted.

Our daughter was here last week so we are on our own for Thanksgiving and have been discussing what we should do. So far the only decision is that it won't be out at a restaurant or casino. Turkeys are too big for two people and we have ham leftover from our daughter's visit. Hmmm, it is fast becoming just another day so we'll see.

So have a Happy Thanksgiving and take care!

Just sayin...

We had a lovely cloudbank around sunrise this morning.  I had to take a photo!

My wife and I are trying to get out before 06:00 to be able to take our walk when it is cool.  We've been having 105+ Fahrenheit  (40C) in the mid-afternoon so that ain't the time to walk!  Afterwards we wanted to go out to breakfast but our favorite place had people waiting outside the door so we went to a casino!  Believe me, I wasn't expecting that one but it was actually pretty good.  We've had breakfast at their cafe before and this time it was not only good but very uncrowded.  Cool!

Last night I was watching Conan O'Brian and really liked hearing what some of his black guests had to say.  The first guy, Sam Richardson, is an actor and writer who was born in Detroit but his family is from Ghana and he has spent time there.  Conan visited Ghana and he acted as a guide.  The second interview I saw was with Van Jones, a news commentator and author.  Both men talked very plainly about the expectations of black men.  Frankly it was pretty depressing.  Both these guys are obviously well educated and successful but given an interaction with police neither was optimistic.  Their expectation of interactions with just everyday white people is a bit better but it sure wasn't great.  Of course we have people who are openly anti-Semantic, anti-Latino and anti-Asian as well.  It's downright depressing for me.

Of course demonstrations against something like the Floyd murder are perfectly justified.  It is the riots and looting are a problem.  I've got no idea how much the police presence influences the marchers; much less how a demonstration turns into a riot.  Clearly there is antagonism at the simple presence of the police but, after all, their job is to keep order.  It seems to be a question of how much violence is acceptable on both sides and at the moment both sides seem to be going too far.  I've never marched in a peaceful demonstration much less participated in a riot.  Bottom line, I'm just confused.

Keep on washing those hands and if you are interested check out the Conan links.  Take care!

Quiet times

Things are pretty quiet around here these days.  It is getting cooler and the crazy neighbors are getting their Xmas lights out but, you know, nothing exceptional.  I'm sure they think we are crazy for NOT having lights all over the place.  We'll get there but it will be a while yet; like after Thanksgiving at least and that is only a week away.

As expected our deceased Republican candidate for the state legislature won so now the local Republicans get to argue over who to send in his stead.  Our local paper had a column suggesting that it might be better that the guy died because he was pretty divisive and might have been a poor representative for the area.  Personally I think the whole area is pretty weird so having a weird representative might actually have been in character.  Oh well, no one is asking my opinion.

Speaking of our local population, there is a new reality cop show called Live-PD.  They have camera crews following police around on calls in various places in the US.  Of course, Nye County (where we live) is one of the places in the spotlight.  You can see some of the clips on YouTube if you would like a taste of what they are doing.  One of my favorites was where some guy got his phone numbers mixed up and was calling a sheriff's deputy asking to buy some marijuana.  That was pretty weird.  Then there was the time some deputies went to arrest a guy in a local hotel and ended up letting him escape from the hotel.  They eventually chased him all the way into Las Vegas before they got his car stopped.  See, even the cops around here are kinda different. 

Just to end on a high note.  Here's a photo I took the other morning.   It was cold and windy.  So windy that there is a wave frozen in the birdbath.  (No there is no rock or anything else in the ice.)

Oh, if you have a better idea about what might have happened to that water I'd love to hear it!  Until then, thanks for stopping by.

Not a good day

We wandered over to the Toyota dealer yesterday to have an oil change.  The local EZ-Lube or whatever does it in about 15 minutes.  The dealer managed to stretch it out to over 2.5 hours!!!  Needless to say, we were under-whelmed.  I must say the Service Director did give us basically a full refund.  Still, my bride was pretty darned hungry by the time we got to eat.  We also got to deal with a fouled up prescription so by the time we got home about 16:30 we'd been gone all day and had darned little to show for it.  We didn't even get close to the Smith Center for the Performing Arts as we had hoped.  Oh well, I guess it isn't going anyplace.

I've been staying as far away from coverage of the Republican National Convention as possible.  Mr. Romney is now the official candidate and I actually rather respect him.  The medical insurance scheme he came up with while Massachusetts governor was pretty clever.  And since he was a Republican there was no use of the 'socialist' term at all.  I'm a little worried that the remainder of the party may pull him to the right and he'll end up like that idiot from Missouri who talked about 'legitimate rape'.  Mr. Romney has already proven on his swing through Europe and the Middle East that his brain isn't always engaged while his mouth is in action.  I'm not so certain about Mr. Ryan who is to be the VP candidate.  He wrote a Republican version of the budget that I thought pandered to the naivety of  the 'tea party'.  His own legislative background is slight; but since Mr. Obama's is pretty slight as well maybe that is the new 'normal'.

I don't tend to watch a lot of television but do end up watching more than I should!   Last night I found a show called "Hard Time" on National Geographic Channel.  I guess it's been on for several years but I only just found it.  I do recommend it if you want to see a very strange side to life.  The particular episode I watched followed some inmates at Ross Correctional Institution in Chillicothe, Ohio.  It was very touching how these guys became institutionalized and were soon close to unfit for life on the outside.  One guy was 16 when he was involved with a murder (didn't actually do it, just tried to cover it up); now he is 27 and has been paroled.  He was clearly worried that he wasn't going to be able to make it on the outside.  A guard takes him outside the gate and stands around in the snow with him while they wait for someone who is coming to pick him up.  He says something like "So I'm free.  I could just walk down the road?"  He has never driven a car.  He has never slept with a woman.  He has never held a real job.  He has tattoos all over; on the back of his neck, his throat, his skull.  The show made it clear that even in a prison where they were really trying to give inmates a chance to learn; the inmate had to motivate himself and some of them, like this guy, didn't care at all.  I was almost surprised he didn't get into some kind of trouble so his parole would be revoked.  It was an amazing view of life.

Here's to living life on the outside.  Makes the idiots at the Toyota garage seem endearing; almost!  Have a good one.