SunsetMan

Pale Green or just cheap?

2008-07-12T14:57:00.000-07:00

I think I am more cheap than Green. I tend to reuse and or repair items rather than throw away. I drive my cars until they are worn out. Most of my cars have been used cars. These things that I do are Green, but I do them because it saves me money. Lately I’ve been looking to be Green. However, it cost to do so. Yes I have bought a few compact fluorescent light bulbs and I figure that it will take three to five years to recover the extra expense for the CFL bulbs in the energy savings. I guess I will live long enough to make it worth while. But many of the things to be Green take too long to pay back the initial cost. I would consider things that pay back within two to three years. Conservation is the only thing that makes sense for someone of my age. So going Green to heat water, to heat the house, or to make electricity just isn’t going to happen around my house.

Kneepads!

2008-07-09T11:41:00.000-07:00

Ever since I had a total knee replacement on my left knee last fall, its been painful to kneel due to pressure on the scar. I had a kneeling pad and some cheep foam kneepads from before the operation which only did a little (very little) to reduce the pain. Today I bought a pair of kneepads that had a hard plastic cap. With these I can kneel without pain. Being only able to kneel on one knee has made many of the things I do around the house very hard to do. I worried what I would do after I got my right knee replaced this fall and I could not kneel without pain at all. Problem solved!

Are we (USA) becoming a third world country?

2008-07-07T14:15:00.000-07:00

I found the following rant in a story I am reading. It struck a resonate cord in me. There seems to be a lot of truth in this rant. It may not be quite as bad as the rant indicates, but we seem to be headed in that direction. I’ve modified the wording to remove story elements and to make it a little more readable. Note, there are no solutions offered, it’s just a rant.

The problem is that reasoned argument -- and even principled agreement -- no longer works in this country. No, we have allowed our politics to degenerate to a level of corruption we usually associate with third world nations.

Our courts, our politicians, our police, and above all our legislatures are bought and paid for by money from every sort of interest and pressure group. Decisions in this country are no longer made in the best interests of the country or the people, but in the interests of whichever group or organization has bought and paid for enough influence to get their way.

I submit to you, this isn’t a very good way to run our country.

And, make no mistake about it -- this is our fault. Yes, there are those who are taking advantage of the system, and it’s a system that has been redesigned and reconstructed by those who are intent on reducing us to third world bondage -- and we have let them do it. We say that we’re voting for the lesser of two evils when there are people running for office who are unpalatable. We vote the party line or we vote on a single issue without regard to the other issues and worst of all we don’t vote. Until recently, this was a country where we had a free press with competition that kept track of what was going on -- if had we the least interest in seeing how the sausage was made. The USA press (newspapers, radio, TV and the like) is owned and controlled by a few -- with little or no competition. Therefore, we usually get only one point of view from the press.

Yes, watching sausage being made isn’t pleasant, and of course neither is watching politics. The problem is, the sausage factory isn’t producing sausage for the people these days -- it’s making all beef patties on sesame seed buns for just a few.

I wonder

2008-05-30T15:37:00.000-07:00

I wonder how much of the increase in gasoline/energy prices are a result of the secret energy conference at the start of W’s and Cheney’s reign. The secret conference did not result in an energy policy for a transition from a oil based energy society to other sources of energy. I also think it funny that when “oil companies” talk about “alternate energy” they mean new places to drill for oil.

Wisdom of Ziggy

2008-04-17T19:09:00.000-07:00

I have so much to get done today, I don’t know which thing to put off first!

I wonder

2008-02-03T15:24:00.000-08:00

I wonder how many Americans stand as their national anthem is played on TV?

Merry Christmas

2007-12-24T11:20:00.000-08:00

I wish for each of you a joyful and happy Christmas.

War Bonds

2007-09-25T16:56:00.000-07:00

The USA financed WW2 by selling war bonds. Why aren’t we financing the “war” in Iraq by selling war bonds? Because W and his cronies do not want to spend their money supporting the “war.” They want the middle class, not the upper class, to pay for W’s “war” with their taxes.

Why the quotes around the word war? When a country is at war the whole country and everyone in it are at war not just the military. In W’s war, the country is not on war footing. Where is the draft to support the military. Where is the rationing? Just where is the all out effort to win? All this means that W is not serious about the military action in Iraq.

There is NO war in Iraq.

The USA’s Iraq policy is a failure

2007-09-14T09:38:00.000-07:00

Why? Because W and his cohorts do not understand the realities of the Mideast. W and his crowd only see/believe the facts, half-facts and falsehoods that support their preconceived (although erroneous) beliefs and desires. To continue down this path is just stupid. Its like the joke about a guy betting on the losing sport’s team while watching a video rerun expecting a different outcome. It is not going to change! W’s asking for more time for his policy to work is like asking for an additional video rerun hoping for a different result this time. Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!

Blue Light Special

2007-07-09T10:00:00.000-07:00

How many of you remember K-Mark’s Blue Light Special they use to run in the stores? Not many I’d bet. Its been a long time since the last one. I think its interesting that the current K-Mark ads features a blue light bulb guy. Must be someone old at the ad agency.

Yes I’m still around

2007-05-30T10:44:00.000-07:00

I’ve started several posts - I first write them in my word processor - but they seem too short to bother with the hassle of the new login procedure that Bogger has started. Instead of logging in to Bogger, I log into Goggle Accounts then go to my blog. I don’t seem to be able to login directly to my blog. That also means that in order to comment on Blogger blogs I must first login to Goggle then go to the blog I’m reading and leave my comment. What a pain.

Well messing around some more I have found that Blogger had changed my user name to an email address. I hate this! Its harder to type in and not as secure. And Google will not let me change my user name. Damn Damn Damn

Hypocrisy

2007-03-11T10:15:00.000-07:00

Saw in the Sunday newspaper in the “Voices” section.

“The party that believes bringing every pregnancy to term and then letting those children fend for themselves is the same party that sends our ill-equipped soldiers off to war and then abandons them upon their return. What a shock.”

In general terms I agree with this statement; however, I don’t think it’s “the party” but the religious supporters of that party that believe in bringing all pregnancy to term. This group is only able to fucus on one issue at a time. This group of believers cannot see the forest for the trees, in fact, they can’t see the tree for looking at the bark to even see the tree let alone the forest. I think the name of this group should be changed from “Right to Life” to “Right to a Bad Life.”

Also, I don’t think that the “movers and shakers” of the party are very religious but they do pander to the religious right. So the politicians pretend to be religious, at least in public.

As for the shameful way the US has been treating its wounded veterans, it’s the result of cost cutting to give the very rich a tax cut.

How do you see your spouse? With your eyes or your heart?

2007-03-09T10:54:00.000-08:00

I saw a cartoon today that caused me to think about this. It was a single panel by the name of “Real Life Adventures.” It shows a seated man with his wife talking to him saying:
“So, what do you think?”
He replies, “Oh... um, I like your new haircut.”
“Same haircut.”
“New blouse?”
“Old”
“earrings?”
“Ditto”
“Am I getting warmer?”
“No, but I am.”

It’s a standard joke that men do not pay attention to the physical appearance of their wives. This is based somewhat on the truth. However, there is another side to the story. I think as partners live with each other, after awhile we start seeing with our heart instead of our eyes. We start looking beyond the physical appearance and start seeing the reasons we are (still?) together. As we grow older and the body declines this is a good thing.

The Dollar coin

2007-03-01T11:20:00.000-08:00

What makes the US Government think that the third(?) try of a dollar coin is going to work? Hell, even the half-dollar has gone out of circulation. If the Government wants to change the coins we use, stop making the penny and the nickle. These coins are used mainly for taxes and should go the way of the mill.

Rain, Rain, Sun breaks, Rain and more rain!

2007-02-25T12:09:00.000-08:00

I’ve been in the Portland area for the last several weeks. And all but part of one day it has rain or drizzled. It is cloudy every day with a few Sun breaks. Until I have been in the northwest I have never heard of the weather term “Sun breaks.” I think it means that the clouds part enough to let the Sun shine through for a few minutes. Not even enough Sun to call it partly cloudy. Back in “fly over country,” it would be called overcast.

My son has gotten remarried and is in Hawaii. I am watching his business, signing checks and doing a few repairs at his office.

I feel tired most of the time. I hope it is mostly the overcast weather and rain that is getting to me.

The Holy Book of Terror

2007-01-26T12:12:00.000-08:00

I read an interesting opinion piece by Thomas Friedman of The New York Times. It basely asked, where was the “Muslin Martin Luther King?” He also asks, “How could it be that Danish cartoons of Muhammad led to mass violent protests, while unspeakable violence by Muslims against Muslims in Iraq every day evokes about as much reaction in the Muslim world as the weather report?” It should be also noted, that although Mr Friedman only wrote about Iraq, this Muslin on Muslin violence happens throughout the Muslin world.

Well Mr Friedman, I have an answer for you. According to Muslin Holy book, which is the actual words of Allah, not the inspired word but the actual word and is not subject to interpretation, violence against those who do not believe correctly, that is as you do, is permitted. By the way, I don’t equate Allah with the Christian God but with a darker and evil deity. You must also remember that the areas that Islam rules was not converted by reason, but by the use of the sword.

So you see there will not be a “Muslin Martin Luther King.”

Iraq, the end game

2007-01-24T18:15:00.000-08:00

Here is the way I think that Iraq will end up. Iraq will revert to the pre-British arrangement. Three regions or maybe countries, Kurdish, Sunni and Shia. The Sunnis will get the short end of the stick. Many Sunnis will be slaughtered by the Shia. I don’t think that there is anything that the US is willing to do that will change the eventual outcome.

Love is ...

2007-01-23T07:16:00.000-08:00

Today in the Comics. The Garfield strip.

Jon says,

“Love is Weird.”

“It just sort of sneaks up on you when you least expect it.”

“Sort of like a chili dog in an Elevator.”

How to shovel snow

2007-01-21T15:33:00.000-08:00

when you are out of shape. Shovel snow a few shovel fulls then look at the beauty of nature for a while. Repeat for about 20 min then go inside to watch TV for 30 min or so. Spend several hours shoveling, standing and then watching TV inside. After awhile remembering that the snow will still be there tomorrow. Go inside and rest up for tomorrow.

I was able to get the inch or so of ice chipped off of my front sidewalk and steps and on the drive where there is a ten degree slope before the Saturday night’s three inch snow. Now I’ve got the snow removed from the front walk and driveway slope. I live on a corner lot with city sidewalk on the front and side and I am starting to get the ice and snow off of it. However it will probably take a day or two to get it all removed. That’s OK, what else do I have to do?

Life is boring

2007-01-19T11:32:00.000-08:00

or at least I am boring. Not much going on here. I had a cold for a couple of weeks around Christmas. Because I should not take decongestants, I have some codeine cough syrup that I use to dry up the nose. That stuff causes my “Getup and go” to be gone. It’s a good thing I’m retired cause I can laze around all day.

Anyway there does not seem to be much to blog about. Well, I could rant and rave about political things (like what W, I mean King George, is up to) but then I would seem like a grumpy old man which I am not.

Oh, another good thing about being retired, I didn’t have to get out and drive during the ice storm.

ThanksGiving

2006-11-24T01:02:00.000-08:00

Well the big day has come and gone. Of course, I ate too much. Watched part of the parade on TV and stayed out of the kitchen, with three cooks there, it was a zoo. I finally got to working on the basement. The tooth problem kept me from wanting to do much beside take meds and feel bad. The antibiotic had upset my stomach so now I am eating an active culture yogurt to restore the good things in my tumtum. I still have a bit of pain from the root canal. But now it just bothers me when I go to bed. So I take three Ibuprofen and three Tylenol to reduce the pain and swelling in my jaw. I just did that and am having a bite to eat to have something on my stomach and am waiting for it settle before going back to bed.

There are a lot of things to be thankful for at this time of year but I am too lazy and wanting to get to bed to make a list.

And Jamie, I’ll be sending you an email soon to get a password.

Night all.

Ouch

2006-11-17T22:06:00.000-08:00

Last week I drove from Provo to Portland to visit my son. I took my time staying overnight in Bosie. I left Provo on Sunday and arrived in Portland Monday around rush hour. I drove through very heavy rain the last hour in the gorge. Was sure tired of the rain when I got to my son’s house. Tuesday was a good day, however on Wednesday my upper right molar started hurting me. I took Ibuprofen to ease the pain. Friday I started the drive back to Provo taking Ibuprofen at each rest stop and taking a short nap. I did the same Saturday. It rained and snowed off and on all day. I looked like a chipmunk with the infection in my upper jaw. I got setup with a Dentist on Monday morning and was sent over to an Endodontist and by Monday afternoon I got a root canal on my molar through a cap I had on that tooth. And a prescription for an antibiotic for the infection. I’ve got the infection under control now with just a couple of days left on the antibiotics but the upper jaw still hurts some from the root canal. Hopefully the pain will be gone by Thanksgiving day.

Iraq

2006-11-02T15:40:00.000-08:00

I read an opinion piece in the USA Today newspaper by Ralph Peters. He said, “I supported this war, but the deteriorating situation is starting to convince me that we can’t win. Those of us who hoped that the Iraqis could achieve democracy were wrong – and their failure has implications for the entire region.”

Latter in the piece he said, “My disillusionment with our Iraq endeavor began last summer, when I was invited to a high-level discussion with administration officials, I went into the meeting with one firm goal, to convince my hosts that they’d better have Plan B in case Iraq continued to disintegrate. I left the session convince that the administration still didn’t have Plan A, only a blur of meandering policies and blind hopes. After more than three years, it was still ‘An Evening at the Improv.’”

You can (and I think should) read the full article In Thursday, November 2, 2006's paper.

I feel the USA is “Staying the Course” on a road that is dead end. I think we need to shit-or-get-off-the-pot. By that I mean we should send in enough troops to control the country, probably two or three times the number we have now, or get out as fast as we can. However, to send in more troops would require the draft and the administration is afraid to do that because they are not really conducting a war on terror, but are in fact using those words to create fear in order to stay in power.

I’m in Utah

2006-10-17T10:36:00.000-07:00

My niece-in-law’s wireless was not working when I got here. I had to st it up - - again. Unfortunately, she had misplaced all the settings and codes so I had to reset everything and start from scratch.

I’ve done a few things around here. One of which was to install an overhead fan and light. It took me all day to get it done. Well I did have to go to the store to get some screws and washers. It sure looks good in her bedroom.

Driving around here is hard. The town of Provo and Orem are right next to each other. You can’t tell when you leave one and enter the other. And the street “names” are just plain lame. Both have a street named Central (an east-west street) which is the north-south dividing line. On the north side of central the streets go 100 North, 200 north, 300 North and so forth and on the south side the streets go 100 South, 200 South, 300 South. This is for both towns. The main north-south street is State and this is a common street for both towns. The east-west streets go 100 East, 200 East, 300 East an so on and 100 West, 200, 300 West and the like. It would be a great system if both towns didn’t use it or both towns used Stake Lake as the start point for the system of street names. So as it is if you are the corner of 800 North and 400 East and you try to use a map to get to where you want to go you cannot tell where you are, you have to first find out whether you are in Prove or Orem. Try finding someone to ask at five in the morning. Needless to say I got lost.

I’m still alive and kicking

2006-10-02T16:55:00.000-07:00

My main computer has died. It’s a Win98 machine and Win98 will no longer boot. So I guess its time to move up to Win XP. I need to upgrade the hardware also. I guess I will do that in December when I get back from my next trip. My last trip to North Carolina was to be just to be three weeks, but I was there for four months. Now I am leaving Friday the 6th of October to drive to Utah. I plan to drive back the first week of December. I hope! More family handy man work.

I’ve been working on my house trying to get caught up on the work I was to do last spring. Some of the yard work will have to wait until next spring.

My back has stopped hurting when I urinate. Never passed a stone. I don’t know what was going on. My Doctor is injecting my knees with Synvisc (sp?). I hope it helps me get around better.

I am soo upset with W and his non-war on terror. I could rant for hours about the things that he has done wrong. But, because I live in a red state I have very few people with which I can let my true feelings out. The main thing people are concerned about around here are Gay marriage, abortion and stem cells. They don’t think much about what is happening in the rest of the world – except they want to “stay the course.” Too bad it’s the wrong course.

I'm Stoned

2006-08-16T17:59:00.000-07:00

Kidney stone, I think. For the last week I have had very sharp pain in my back and right side when I urinate. No blood or stones seen. The pain is very intense. If 10 is a pain that would make you pass out, then what I have been feeling is a 8 to a 9 for a short period of time then the pain slowly decreases. Last Friday through Sunday I took Hyrocodone/APAP pain killers. I really hate the drugged feeling I get with it. The last several days the pain does not seem so intense but it still is bad. I got my knees X-rayed today as a first step toward getting my knees fixed so I can walk more than ten minutes at a time.

Damn, I am just falling apart.

Another Question

2006-07-29T16:15:00.000-07:00

Does the secret energy conference at the beginning of W's reign have anything to do with the current high gasoline prices and the high profits of the oil companies?

They've gone to the Dark Side

2006-07-27T15:01:00.000-07:00

The radical Islam people all clam to do things in the name of Allah. Here in the west we usually take Allah to mean God. However, I think that is wrong - - at least for the radical Islam groups. Their Allah is our Satan. They have gone over to the Dark Side. So with this in mind the meaning of Hezbollah is NOT "Party of God" but instead "Party of Satan."

The Mayonnaise Jar and 2 Cups of Coffee

2006-07-24T16:37:00.000-07:00

I got this in an email and I wanted to share as there is a lot of truth in this.

When things in your life seem almost too much to handle, when 24 hours in a day are not enough, remember the mayonnaise jar and the 2 cups of coffee.

A professor stood before his philosophy class and had some items in front of him When the class began, he wordlessly picked up a very large and empty mayonnaise jar and proceeded to fill it with golf balls. He then asked the students if the jar was full. They agreed that it was.

The professor then picked up a box of pebbles and poured them into the jar. He shook the jar lightly. The pebbles rolled into the open areas between the golf balls. He then asked the students again if the was jar was full. They agreed it was.

The professor next picked up a box of sand and poured it into the jar. Of course, the sand filled up everything else. He asked once more if the jar was full. The students responded with a unanimous "Yes."

The professor then produced two cups of coffee from under the table and poured the entire contents into the jar effectively filling the empty space between the sand. The students laughed

"Now," said the professor as the laughter subsided, "I want you to recognize that this jar represents your life. The golf balls are the important things--- God, your family, your children, your health, your friends, and your favorite passions--- and if everything else was lost and only they remained, your life would still be full.

The pebbles are the other things that matter-- your job, your house, and your car.

The sand is everything else--- the small stuff.

"If you put the sand into the jar first," he continued, "there is no room for the pebbles or the golf balls. The same goes for life. If you spend all your time and energy on the small stuff you will never have room for the things that are important to you.

"Pay attention to the things that are critical to your happiness. Play with your children. Take time to get medical checkups. Take your spouse out to dinner. Play another 18. There will always be time to clean the house and fix the disposal.

Take care of the golf balls first---the things that really matter. Set your priorities. The rest is just sand."

One of the students raised her hand and inquired what the coffee represented. The professor smiled. "I'm glad you asked. It just goes to show you that no matter how full your life may seem, there's always room for a couple of cups of coffee with a friend."

Oh, and don't forget to stop every once-and-a-while and smell the roses.

Termite Repairs

2006-07-21T15:19:00.000-07:00

Here are a few pictures of the repairs to my sister-in-law's house. They show the termite repairs in progress. The first picture is a view of the front of the house after I have replaced about two and a half feet of the corner support of this two story house. I had also sistered several floor joists by the time the picture was taken.

The rim joist was bad back almost three feet on the front and about four feet on the side and had to be cut away. I supported the bad studs down to the foundation.

Here are pictures just before the siding was replaced.

A question

2006-07-20T13:35:00.000-07:00

Now that W has vetoed the bill to provide federal funding for stem cell research because of moral reasons, what is going to happen to all the unwanted embryos? I can't think of any action that would meet W's moral code.

Privatization of Space

2006-07-18T12:59:00.000-07:00

Back in 1953 when I was in Jr. High I told my science class that man would go to the Moon within our life time. I soon became the butt of class jokes as everyone thought I was crazy.
Sixteen years later my prediction was proven right and I never got an apology from any of my classmates. All through the seventies and eighties I waited for commercial use of space to start - - nothing. I waited for mankind to return to the Moon - - nothing. To me it seemed that mankind was giving up on space except for robotic space probes. I once visited the Kennedy space center in the mid nineties and saw all of the old hardware from the Apollo times. All there were there were memories of the inspirational and glorious time in American space history. I left sooner than I planned to do as I was so sad. On the way home I stopped at the Huntsville Space center. I was disappointed in lack of imagination for the future of space travel.

However, last year my spirits were lifted a bit by the winning of the X-prize.

My hopes for the future of mankind was lifted last Wednesday by the launch of a private module for the testing of concepts for a private space station. Bigelow Aerospace of Las Vegas successfully launched its pathfinder mission the module Genesis I using a Russia rocket. Robert Bigelow owner of Bigelow Aerospace wants to privatize space. To that end he plans to have a private space station by 2010. To encourage ways to get there, he has setup a prize, America's Space Prize, for an American company to develop an space ship that can orbit earth with a crew of five or more twice within 60 days with at least 80 percent of the ship reusable.

To learn more about Bigelow Aerospace visit their web site here.

I like to close this post with a quote from that site.

"In any event, you have my word that myself, and all of us at Bigelow Aerospace, will do everything in our power to transform the dream of a robust human presence in space into a reality. I hope that the whole world will join us in this adventure."

Robert T. Bigelow

I need a transplant

2006-07-14T17:46:00.000-07:00

My hip joints hurt from time-to-time. My knees start hurting after walking a bit, sooner if I am climbing stairs. My prostrate is enlarging. And my dick never gets hard anymore.

I need a waist down transplant.

Guess which bothers me the most.

I'm Back Home

2006-07-09T16:17:00.000-07:00

I got home Saturday evening after driving for two days pulling a 4X8 foot trailer. Everyone on the road passed me as I was only doing 60 mph. Now I have to unload the trailer and its raining. I am supposed to return the trailer to U-Haul Monday but I may need to keep it an extra day. The extra day will cost me twenty bucks. May be I can get it unloaded during breaks in the rain.

I only made one entry while I was gone as I did not have enough privacy to write and post. It took me three days of sneaking around to get it posted. I even did not have much alone time to read Blogs.

Anyway I'll be back to posting and reading.

Termite Damage

2006-03-11T04:48:00.000-08:00

I am at my sister and brother in-law’s house to help with repairs to get their house ready to sell. One of the big things to be repaired was some termite damage. Well, it was bad. The whole corner of the house was eaten away. I am surprised the corner of the house had not fallen. I have been working every day shoring up the corner. Then I will need to replace sub-floor and some siding on the house. I had not expected this much damage to repair.

My Grandfather was a carpenter and a lot of his work was doing repair to houses damaged by termites. I have some of his tools with me and I sure that they feel at home working on a termite damaged house.

After the corner of the housed is repaired, then its on to other repairs. Now if I could get my knees to stop hurting I could get this done faster. My mind is young but the body is old and tired.

I hate it when I get stumped

2006-02-19T13:38:00.000-08:00

A friend of mine has a Acer TravelMate 506T laptop that I was installing a wireless card in. She can't find her original Win98SE install CD. And I can't find the one I have either. I have a Win98 CD new install CD and a Win98SE upgrade CD but no Win98SE new install CD. I have the CD case and the product key but the disk is missing. So I had to go to the web to get all the files to install the wireless card. At the end of the install the computer locked up. I turned off the computer and restarted. Now Win98 won't start in normal mode. Damn! At this point I need to backup her laptop before I go looking for a bad file. I was going to remove the harddrive and install it as a second drive in my computer to backup the files and to do a virus scan on the drive. But I can't get to the harddrive. This laptop requires the case to be split to accesses the harddrive. I've removed all the screws from the bottom and I can get half of the case to open but there is still something keeping the case from coming apart. On some laptops there are snap latches that will release when pressure is applied. Don't seem to work for this laptop. Any more pressure or prying will probably break something. Damn, damn, damn! I hate it when I get stumped!!

Get off the Grid

2006-02-18T09:36:00.000-08:00

I my part of the country there are three electric generating "plants" being opposed by the "not in my backyard" (NIMB) groups.

Apparently one of the plants the electric company did not have the correct county permits and the courts, as a result of a suit filed by neighboring home owners, have told the power company to tear down the plant. This plant has be in operation for several years. NIMB in action.

Another is a new coal fired plant being proposed in another area. These neighbors are trying to keep this plant from being built. Again NIMB and lets build this needed plant in your backyard.

The third is a wind farm. The neighbors and people that drive by the site on the tollway are against this eye-sore in a cattle grazing area. BTW, many of these people are the same ones who are saying we should make more use of renewable energy sources.

To these people I say, "Get off the Grid." By this I mean to disconnect from the electric companies and make all of your own electricity. Yes it can be done but it cost a lot of money to set up your own environmentally friendly system.

Of course I believe in conservation, however many of the things that allow you to conserve cost up front money and it takes several years to get your money back in power savings. But the good thing is that many of the things you can do to conserve makes your house more comfortable to live in. I put adding insulation, weatherstripping and caulking in this category.

Muslim threat to free speech

2006-02-07T15:11:00.000-08:00

A quote from this blog

"It is suddenly coming to our attention that Islam is not, cannot, and will not be integrated or assimilated to the values of freedom and democracy. Islam is not only a religion; it is a totalitarian and expansionistic political ideology."

W's lack of understanding of this will continue to cause the USA many problems in the years to come. Already this has caused a large loss of life and expenditure of our economic future to wage an unwinnable war. In the end, if we continue the way we are going, we will only defeated ourselves.

Of course, if the real reason to attack Iraq was to get rid of its leader then in the immortal words of W, "Mission accomplished."

Also go to this site if you want to see the cartoons that started the violent protests.

Happy Blog Anniversary to me

2006-02-06T12:37:00.000-08:00

I started blogging a year ago to tell my stories. Well I have told a bunch of them and now I find I blog about other things. Much of the angst is now gone and I have settled for where I am in life. There is no longer the fire in my belly. I am content to just live day to day. I have stuffed all of my ambitions into a hole and covered them up. I'm not altogether happy about this but it seems to be the practical thing to do. All my goals are short term - - one to two years. The only thing that seems to get my blood boiling is the unthinking radical religious groups and lying self serving politicians.

So, how has your blogging changed over the past year?

Bumper Sticker

2006-02-02T12:01:00.000-08:00

I saw this bumper sticker this morning, "He that dies with the most toys wins."

I thought the next verse should be, "And he that inherits the toys wins even bigger."

I'm a handyman

2006-01-29T17:46:00.000-08:00

In a few weeks the wife and I will be driving to North Carolina so I can help with the remodeling on the sister-in-law's house. Her husband has a few physical problems making it hard for him to do much of the work. There are several projects I'll be working on. The front entry needs a new floor starting with the subfloor, which is water damaged, and then laying a hard wood floor. The SIL wants me to take out a flourescent light in the kitchen and replace it with some track lighting. This will probably require some rewiring of the AC power in the ceiling. I am to repair, read cover up, some termite damage - - the termites are gone. Also I am to install some trim, around a door, some shoe molding and some crown molding. And more. I have a long list but many of the things are routine maintenance items that have just been left undone.

I'll load up my tools and head off in the morning of the 16th. First its to St Louis hoping to arrive after rush hour and then east on I-64. We're planing to over night in Lexington. The next day its on to Charleston then south on I-77 to I-74 and then on to Raleigh on I-40. If the weather is bad, I may go south from the St Louis area and pick up I-40. I don't like I-40 as it is wall-to-wall trucks. Another option if the weather is bad is to just delay the trip for a day or two.

The wife will enjoy visiting with her sister and, believe it or not, I will enjoy the handyman work.

Ouch, Ouch

2006-01-13T11:33:00.000-08:00

As I was being prepped for my Colonoscopy, a nurse was poking a needle into my right arm, and it hurt. She first poked me in the inside of the elbow and could not get the needle positioned correctly. Normally when I get blood drawn for tests my Doc wants, the lab techs get the vials of bloods from there easily and with little pain. Then the nurse poked me in the middle of my arm below the elbow, and it hurt. Also could not get the needle positioned correctly there. So I told the nurses that in times past, IVs were usually put in the back of my hand. The nurses said something about diabetic veins, implying that the problem they were having were due to my veins. I don't think so, as I have been told by the lab techs I had good veins. Anyway the other nurse then placed the needle in the back of my hand without much pain.

After a forty minute wait, I was wheeled back for the procedure. They had me lay on my left side and then put three medicines into the port on my right hand. The next thing I knew I was in another room. They said they removed a couple of small polyps. They will call in a couple of weeks to let me know about them. Other than being tired, no after effects.

All in all, it was not too bad. The worst part was drinking the "clean out" liquid. I drank it until the output was clear. Not clear like water, but clear like apple juice. I was told that the yellow color was from bile. And of course I didn't like being poked with the needle. But hey, the nurse has to learn how on someone.

Colonoscopy

2006-01-10T08:32:00.000-08:00

Yes I am having one Thursday morning. This means dry toast for breakfast and that's it for Wednesday as far as eating. Then Wednesday evening the fun begins. "The clean out." First a laxative and then four liters of a vile liquid to drink at the rate of one glass every ten minutes or so. Fun, fun, fun. NOT!! Guess I'll be "sitting" a lot Wednesday evening. The information from the GI's Doctors office says that I will "have sedation to make you comfortable during the procedure." I hope so.

This is not my idea of a "diet procedure" but maybe I will lose a couple of pounds.

I don't think any thing is wrong with me, it's just that my Doc is proactive. Which is good, I think.

January should be the official dieting month

2006-01-05T09:51:00.000-08:00

Yes I gained about eight pounds over the holidays. Now I must lose them.

We had a bunch of women in the house over the holidays. My wife's sister, the sister's daughter and my wife's brother's daughter. Four women in the house. They had a great time and I hid and watched TV to stay out of their way. The older niece, in her thirties, has visited with us for the last several Christmases. She loves to buy a bunch of rich cakes and pastries, which I can usually eat very little of, but this year she also bought a box of dark chocolate candies. I was too weak to not eat a bunch of them. I just love dark chocolate. The younger niece, she's seventeen, does not know much about cooking, so the others were working with her to learn more about cooking. One day they spent most of the day making cookies. They were good! Of course I ate too many.

So the holidays were eat, drink and be merry for January we will diet.

Sounds like a country song to me.

Science and Religion are orthogonal

2005-12-23T11:36:00.000-08:00

Science describes how things work. Religion tells why things are the way they are. The two do not oppose each other but each is a part of knowing about things.

In mathematics when we graph an equation with two variables, X and Y, the two axises are at right angles (orthogonal) to each other. The value of X and Y are independent of each other until the equation is considered. With different equations the value of Y is different for a value of X. For example: for the equation X=Y, when X=2 then Y=2, and for the equation 3X=Y, Y=6 when X is the same value of 2.

How (science) and why (religion) are the variables, X and Y, in the graph of the equation of existence. The domain of Science is the physical and the domain of Religion is the spiritual. Knowing how things work does not tell us why they work. Neither does knowing why tell us how they work. You need both to fully understand existence.

However there are two problems. The first is that different groups of people have different ideas of why things happen. The second problem is that some people confuse the why and the how.

There are different religions in our world. Native Americans view the why different than Christians and both are different than Pagans to name three of the hundreds of belief systems or religions. For each the equation of existence is different so the why is different for the how. Which is the true and correct equation?

Some people confuse the how and why. Because the how and why are related they get confused and think they are same thing. Distance and altitude are both measured in feet but they are not the same. You should not confuse the altitude of a city and distance to a city if you want to drive there. If you do get the two confused you might run out of gas or time.

Many of the people who are pushing Intelligent Design have the how and why confused. The idea of why of the changes in evolution occur the way they do has nothing to do with the fact that evolution occurs. The rest of the people who are pushing Intelligent Design just want to teach their brand of religion in the public schools.

The people pushing Intelligent Design do not have any idea of what science is about.

Who’s in charge?

2005-12-21T11:32:00.000-08:00

Everyone knows that if you are the manufacture or designer of an item that is flawed then you are responsible to make it right, that is replace it or make a refund. If you do something that causes harm to others, again your are responsible. You should do something to right the wrong or make restitution to the party that was wronged. This is true even if the harm comes about because of a mistake on your part. Making excuses is not making restitution.

If you start a war based on a mistake, then shouldn’t you do everything you can to stop it? Of course, if the reason given is not the real reason for the war, then the war is not based on a mistake and you should “stay the course.”

So if you are the intelligent’s behind “Intelligent Design” then aren’t you responsible for the flaws resulting from your design?

So question is, when is it going to be made right?

I love fruitcake

2005-12-20T11:18:00.000-08:00

I know that there are many jokes about fruitcakes. The comic strip Garfield had such a joke about fruitcakes today.

I don't care for the light brown colored cakes, I like the dark rich ones. And its better if its moist. If it is too dry, I soak it in rum for a few days. Some times even if its not too dry I soak it in rum. Dark rum is better than light colored rum.

Excuse me while I go get a piece of fruitcake. Now my fingers are sticky and I have to clean the keyboard. :-)

Its hard to find good dark moist fruitcakes. A reliable source of good fruitcakes is the Assumption Abbey in Ava, Mo. I have mail ordered a Fruitcake from them every year for over ten years. I am the only one in my house that likes the fruitcake so I get to eat the whole thing. Boy, oh boy, oh boy.

I often wonder about all the jokes about fruitcakes, do most people really think that badly about fruitcakes and I just outed myself or do most people really like fruitcake and don't want to say so?

I bet most people have not eaten a good rich rum soaked piece of fruitcake.

Christmas Cantata

2005-12-12T08:12:00.000-08:00

Sunday (Dec 18th) was the big Christmas music Sunday for the church choir. We even had an orchestra performing with the choir. I sing tenor in the choir. We sang two services and my voice is tired. Since I have stopped teaching my voice is not as strong. Also age does effect my singing voice. I lost my high A and few years ago (5 or 6 years?) and now my high G is gone also. When the tenor part splits I now sing second tenor. Its a bit sad as I loved singing first tenor but can no longer reach the highest notes.

But I stilled enjoyed yesterday morning. I just love to sing. I started singing in junior high school and sang in the schools double quartet. In high school I sang in the quartet and we got "1" in the state competitions two year in a row. I don't have a solo voice but I do blend well in a choir. Oh, the Cantata we sang was "The Winter Rose" by Joseph Martin. I think we sounded very good.

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow

2005-12-08T07:14:00.000-08:00

And boy did it snow. We got about 10 inches here. Its the lightest most powerery (sp?) snow I have seen in a long while. A snow shovel full weights almost nothing. Even so, its going to take a while to shovel out the driveway in order to get the car out onto the street. And its cold, very cold. Its 6 degrees. The only good thing is that there is almost no wind. Its funny that one of the local TV weather forecasters had predicted total snow fall for this winter was to be 11 inches. He said he would be revising his forecast. :-)

I think I will be spending a lot of my time today shoveling snow. I live on a corner lot and have the sidewalks on my side of the street. I am going to take my time as I don't want to become one of those guys who has a heart attack while working in the snow.

Well, I've warmed up now - - so its back outside for me.

Big Sky Country

2005-11-30T14:20:00.000-08:00

As I was driving through Wyoming on I-80 I could see what was meant when the term big sky is used. The sky was all around and I think you could see forever. No trees or buildings on the horizon. Just ground and sky. Sure makes one feel small.

Somehow while driving on I-70 in western Kansas the sky did not seem so big. I just can not figure out why. Seems to be similar terrain but somehow its different.

The drive to Salt Lake on I-80 took two days staying over night in Cheyenne. The road were good, the car gave no trouble and the only thing that was stressful was the strong winds. There seemed to be as many semis on the road as cars.

The return trip was a bit more stressful as I was following one snow storm and ahead of another. The roads had some ice spots and were wet but overall the roads were OK. I-80 and I-70 were both closed ahead of me for the next day's travel. But I-70 was opened on the second day around eight in the morning, so it was all good except that I got a later start than I wanted. We (wife and I) spent the night in Fort Collins.

The Internet is a great help in planning the trip, especially watching the weather reports for the return trip and checking on road conditions. Because of the weather reports I was able to be on the road between the storms. Years ago I always worried about the weather when traveling as I would not have very much information on the weather ahead. I would have not wanted to make this trip without current weather information. Back then traveling at this time of year you risked being stranded for days by snow storms. Everything about traveling on the roads is much better now than it was thirty to fifty years ago.

At the rest stops there were signs about the Eisenhower highway. They told that Ike saw the need for good roads for the military after he accompanied the Army's first transcontinental motor convoy from Washington, DC, to San Francisco when he was a Lt Colonel in 1919. The trip was long and hard with many delays due to bad roads. This put into his mind the need of a system of cross continental highways that eventually led to the concept of the National Defense Highway System. However the signs failed to note that Ike got the idea for a national road system when he traveled on the German Autobahn during WWII. Thus it failed to note that the National System of Interstate and Defense Highways were based on the Autobahn. Also the signs use the term Interstate highways leaving off the fact that the highway system has the term defense in its title. I guess its not politically correct to talk about the military use of the roads and that they are based on a German design.

Off to Utah

2005-11-16T19:55:00.000-08:00

Friday morning, the 18th, the wife and I will leave on a drive to Provo Utah to visit her niece for Thanksgiving. We will spend Friday night in Cheyenne after a long drive. In order to have the energy to drive 10 to 12 hours I will stop taking my cholesterol medicine. I am now on Zetia and it makes me very tired. I have stopped taking Antra as I had no energy, no libido, and I just did not care about anything while I was taking it. Now not having libido was not too bad as I no longer can get an erection, but I did get tired of just looking at the faces of the women around me and on TV. It just seem something was missing - - now I remember what. So the Zetia is better, barely. With the Zetia I sleep about ten hours a night with a three hour nap in the afternoon. And I feel tired the rest of the time. The time I'm not sleeping, I am mostly veging (sp?) in front of the TV. I hope I can get use to this medicine as I think it is one on the last ones or family of meds I have not tried.

Maybe I can find some things interesting to post about on my trip.

Latter

The Rev. Pat Ridiculous

2005-11-15T08:11:00.000-08:00

Its just so ridiculous for a man to think that he or she can speak for God. Just because Pat is unhappy that Pennsylvanians voted out the school board that backed the weakling of science in favor of faith based creation is no reason to think he can speak for God. Pat has often spoke for God on his 700 Cult program. He spoke against the Venezuelan President, prayed against Supreme Court members, linked 9-11 to not allowing prayer in schools and the list goes on. He claims to be a Christian but he seems to worship a different God than I do. My God and Christ is about love and forgiveness not hate and judging.

I've been hiding from my self

2005-10-28T10:32:00.000-07:00

I have a lot to do but I just don't want to do it. My get up and go has got up went. All I seem to want to do is to read. I think I am trying to escape and to hide in a make believe world. My reading of choice is science fiction.

Sorry but I don't feel like typing more. I just wanted to let everyone know that I'm still here.

I'm feeling better today

2005-10-19T08:44:00.000-07:00

It looks like that the Zoloft is finally working. Or I am getting use to the Antara. Yesterday was a good day too.

I have been racking the bare/dead spots and pulling up the weed grass in the front yard. I am using a rake made for kids to "use" with their parents to make the kids thing they are helping. Its about 8 inches wide with 4 teeth. Just right for the small spots in the yard. After cleaning up the spots, I seed the bare ground and put a thin layer of enriched garden soil over the seed. All I need to do now is keep watered every day and in a week or so, then - - presto there is new bluegrass growing. It will take me the rest of the week or so to finish up the front yard. Then its on the side yard which is also on the street as I live in a house on a corner lot.

My other outdoor project is putting Hardy panels over the existing composite siding who's bottom edges are rotting. I am almost done putting up the panels. I have about 8 feet left on the back where the utilities come into the house. This requires a lot of cutting and fitting. The concrete board does not cut easily and soon dulls the tools used. I hope to be done putting up the panels by the end on next week. Then its on the cutting and installing the trim boards to finish the batten board siding look.

I have half of my 14 oz bag of dark chocolate M&Ms left. I just ate two as I was writing this. Oh so good.

I've gone to the dark side

2005-10-11T14:29:00.000-07:00

I went to the grocery store today and saw some new M&Ms. They are made from dark chocolate. As I like dark chocolate, I bought a bag. Oh my, are they good. I hope I don't eat the whole bag tonight.

Not much happening

2005-10-10T10:49:00.000-07:00

The new med is still kicking my butt. Not too much ambition right now. I just want to set and read. Don't want to think too hard. I need to figure out how to use M$ FrontPage to make some web photo galleries for my son's web site, but my mind is a bit foggy and I can't seem to quite figure it out. I have work to do on finishing replacing the siding on the house but it seems to take more effort than I want to expend. This is the time of year to work on the lawn, re-seeding the bare areas after raking up the dead grass and weeds. I've got a few small places done with a bunch more to do. I don't feel much like blogging except for some rants. I just do not want to sound like a bitter old man because I'm not normally like that. I am usually happy and in a good mode most of the time so I am sure its the new med I'm on.

On a better note, I have lost some weight. I was up three pounds when I returned from visiting my son and have lost that plus an additional three pounds. I'm starting to get use to being hungry. Ah, it would be nice to be able to stuff my face like I use to years ago.

I hope y'all are feeling more alive than I do.

Will I ever have sex again?

2005-10-04T11:58:00.000-07:00

Probably not.

I have metabolic syndrome. This means I have high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, abdominal obesity, high triglyceride level and low HDL cholesterol level. I take meds to control all but the obesity. Because of the group of medical problems and the meds I have ED (Erectile dysfunction). It does not respond to Viagra.

One of the recommenced things to do is to lose weight. But this is hard to do for someone with metabolic syndrome. While I have lost some weight in the last year, about 15 lbs, I need to lose a lot more, about 50 to 60 lbs.

Say I lose the weight what effect will it have on ED? From what I read, little help. Oh I will be less likely to have heart problems, the amount of meds needed will be reduced and I will live longer. However a longer life without sex, when you really want to have sex, is not appealing.

I went to the mall today to get my new eye glasses. I put on my new glasses and decided to walk around the mall for some exercise. It depressed me. I was looking at some of the women walking from store to store. Several nice looking women walking ahead of me with the their ass twitching. It was so appealing to me. Several women smiled at me. You know the type of smile that indicated more than just being nice.. But then I realized that even if one of them would be interested in me, I could not satisfy them or me. Well I could do good things for them orally, but most would want more than that, as would I. Damn damn damn!

I think my wife thinks of oral sex as foreplay. I think she gets frustrated if I cannot follow up with penetration. So we do nothing. I'm sure she is unhappy with my lack of performance too.

So what do I do? I have not a clue. All I know is that I am unhappy.

I've got the blahs

2005-10-03T11:22:00.000-07:00

It may be because of a new medication I am taking. I started taking Antara last week. I can't seem to find out if the general malaise is a listed side effect.

I could also be depressed. I want to move to the west coast and live near my son. I was there for three weeks and got back a couple of weeks ago. While there I was looking at houses. OMG are they expensive. To get a house about the same size and as nice as the house that I now am now paying a mortgage on, would cost me almost three times as much. While it looks like I may qualifie for a higher mortgage on a higher priced house, I will not have the down payment. To pay off the credit cards, I took out a 2nd mortgage on my house. That meas when I sell I will not get enough to make a down payment on a new house on the west coast. I may have to rent to live there. Bummer.

Well on to better news. My son make it through the primaries and is now working on getting elected to the city council in November. I am the Webmaster for his web site. I am using FrontPage and wish I knew more how to use it. It you want to see my poor work, email me for the url.

What is it with these single issue people?

2005-09-26T14:51:00.000-07:00

I don't understand some "Right to (a bad) life" people. My son is running for a city council position. He talks to voters about what they want their city council to do for the betterment of their community. Most are concerned about crime, fire protection, roads, bus service and the like. The things that the city can control and/or provide. He has also had several calls asking if he was against abortion. His reply is that as a city council person that is not an issue that he, as a councilman, can effect so it does not matter what his view on this issue is. He tries to go on about the quality of life issues he could effect. The caller interrupts and asks about abortion again. He then said that he thinks that each woman has the right to make that choice because... and before he can explained his views he is hung up on. WTF!! They did ask for his views but did not want to hear them once he said the word "choice." I think these people would vote for a thief as long as they were against abortion.

I think his reply should be he is against abortion and will do things to eliminate the need for abortions. So what things can he do as a councilman? How about a law requiring all public restrooms in the city to have free condom dispensers. Of course these same public restrooms could charge for the better, nicer condoms. How about a law requiring all pharmacies in the city to dispense all legal birth control prescriptions unless they have a easily read sign on the out side of the store saying that they do not dispense birth control. I'm sure there are other things the city could do to reduce the need for abortions.

Sugestions?

I saw Martin Short

2005-09-11T11:20:00.000-07:00

at the Ariene Schnitzer Concert Hall last night. I was very disappointed with the theater. The acoustics were bad. I could not understand him a lot of the time. There was to much reverb in the theater. When the orchestra played, the reverb did add to the sound making the orchestra sound fuller however for the speaking voice the sounds were muddied. Too many hard surfaces and not enough sound deadening. The sound system also had too much base boost. A large base drum was too loud and when the tuba played moving into the lower notes from higher notes its volume increased unnaturally. I wonder if there is a sound engineer on staff. Maybe part of the problem was that I was in the cheep seats in the upper balcony coupled with the placement of the speakers.

The theater is beautiful and deserves a better acoustical tuning when used with sound-reinforcement (speaker system). The hall looks like it would sound good for a acoustical only performance of an orchestra and I would love to find out sometime.

A Half Open Marriage or the Cuckolded Husband - part 7 conclusion

2005-08-30T20:35:00.000-07:00

So there I was getting home around six am after falling asleep with G. Of course getting home this late or early the next day was noticed. So I told the first wife (fw) that I had gone home with a woman from the bar and spend the night. Boy did it ever hit the fan. I got yelled at, cursed and in general was told off. I just could not believe it. Here she was f*cking several other men and she had the nerve to tell me that I was cheating on her. Well this was the beginning of the end of the marriage as far as she was concerned. The next several months were bad at home. Finally she gave me the ultimatum, stop seeing G or she was going to file for divorce. I have a bit of a quirk in my personally, I lead like pony and push like a mule. She said that I was damn well going to stop seeing G or else. Of course fw was not going to change her life style. As I was the one in the wrong according to her. So I moved out. To make a long story short, I moved back and then out several times over the next year until fw filed for divorce.

To this day fw tells people, including our kids, that the reason for our divorce was my seeing that woman. Of course she never tells them that she had cuckolded her husband.

I'll be visiting my son

2005-08-28T12:09:00.000-07:00

the next three weeks. I leave early Wednesday morning and return on the twenty first. My wife is going with me. This is the first time we have traveled together to visit my son in many (maybe five) years. After about a week my son and his girlfriend are going to Paris France to spend a week there. While he is gone I will be looking out for and overseeing his business. I have done this for him several times in the past. I don't have to do much, just deposit the checks that come in each day. If needed I can write checks but I have not had to do that yet. If a customer has an emergency, I usually just get hold of the tech and route them to the customer. If it is going to be a while before the tech can get there I may go to see what I can do (usually not much) and to show the customer a quick response to their need and to hold their hand until the tech, the real help, arrives. Although once I was able to get the customer up and running again all by myself.

The wife and I plan to do some sightseeing while we are on the west coast. And we will get to visit with my granddaughter, she is nine. I will be posting off and on about the happenings while there.

Support Our Troops

2005-08-24T10:58:00.000-07:00

Here in red state flyover country I see a lot of these magnetic ribbons on cars. My guess is that over one third of the cars around town have them. But I wonder if they are really supporting our troops or are they supporting W. I wonder if they have helped the USO, VFW, American Legion, military relief societies, American Red Cross Armed Forces Emergency Services, Fisher House and the like or sent letters and Care packages to the troops? There are so many things one can do - - just Google "support our troops."

I think the United States owes the troops sent to Iraq Big time.

The USA has troops in Iraq based on a lie. There were no WMD and W knew it. Iraq had nothing to do with 9-11 and W knew it. Iraq was only a threat to its own people and maybe, just maybe, to their neighbors and W knew it. Iran was and is more a threat to the USA than Iraq ever was.

The USA does not have enough full time active troops to fight and control two or more countries by itself. So the National Guard and Reserves had to be activated for Iraq. These are the troops and their families that I feel the sorriest for. I keep hearing in the news of families that are threaten with home foreclosure as soon as the service (wo)man returns from active duty and have to depend on donations to keep the house. Being activated puts a financial hardship on the families. One that takes several years, if ever, to recover from. These families are being hurt and loved ones killed, not to defend our country but to defend a lie. To me all the options for us now in Iraq are poor to bad. Damn, damn, damn!

I really hope the USA will do more for its vets. I also hope that the people who have the "Support Our Troops" ribbons on their car are doing concrete active things for the troops.

A Half Open Marriage or the Cuckolded Husband - part 6

2005-08-17T09:37:00.000-07:00

I really don't remember for sure how G and I consummated our agreement to have an affair. I suspect it was the next Friday night. At that time G was living in the basement of a girlfriend of hers. It was a townhouse with the livingroom and kitchen on the ground floor, bedrooms on the second floor and a basement. G's girlfriend had two little girls grade school age. Because of the girls, G and I would need to wait until the girls were in bed and asleep before I could be snuck into the basement to be with G. Probably around eleven or so we left the bar and drove to the townhouse and quietly went into the basement. Foreplay was a little kissing and some hands on petting. Not much as we were both ready. Soon we were having sex probably in the missionary position. The good thing was I was able to go bareback. I had a vasectomy a few years before and she was on the pill, so no worries of pregnancy. Back then almost all of the things one could catch sexually could be cured with penicillin, no AIDs no herpes to worry about. It was a wonderful time to be sexually active.

During many lunches, G and I would take her car and we would get a quick bit to eat and to set and talk and sometimes we would drive to a hidden place so we could kiss and pet.

For about a month, we would have sex on Friday nights and make-out during many lunch times.

One Friday night I fell asleep with G and did not wake up until about five Saturday morning. G was in a toot to get me out of the townhouse before the girls woke up to watch Saturday morning cartoons. We heard the upstairs bathroom in use as I snuck out the front door. G told me latter that the girls came down the stairs just a few minuets after I left.

I usually got home on Friday nights, well Saturday mornings, around one to one thirty. I had told the first wife (fw) that I had left just before the bar closed. G did not want me to tell fw about our affair as she thought that it would cause trouble - - and she was right as it turned out. I thought it would be alright to tell fw. After all, she was in no position to complain, as she was having sex with several men. Boy was I wrong.

To be continued.

Buying a new TV? Good Luck with that. Update and clarification

2005-08-14T11:19:00.000-07:00

(Note this posting applies to USA only. I don't know what the rest of the would is doing. I would like some info and some links if you have them.)

My sister-in-law was telling be about a TV she saw at the store and was thinking about buying. After a she told me that it was a flat thin TV and would fit in so nice and easy in her house, I had to give her the bad news. The TV she was looking at is not a TV set but just a display. Based her confusion I have put together the following.

If you buy a standard TV set you need to know the Over The Air (OTA) standard analog TV signals (NTSC) are scheduled to stop the end of 2008 in the USA. Congress may change the date, but the cutoff of standard analog TV is coming. That's right, our old TV sets will be obsolete in 2009. No OTA channels 2 through 13.

Your old NTSC TV set may still be useful if you have cable TV or satellite TV. You may be able to buy conversion box to receive the new digital signals and use you old TV set to view them as NTSC TV.

Going out and buying a new TV is becoming different if not difficult. When you go to the store and buy one of those new plasma or LCD flat screen TV you are going to be in for a surprise. Its not a TV like we have come to know them. You can't unbox the TV hook-up the antenna and start watching. Its not a "TV set" but only a TV monitor or display. You will need to have a digital tuner/receiver for OTA signals. If you have cable TV you will need to have a cable box that has outputs for a TV monitor. Instead of one box, aTV set, a separate box for each function is required. Its becoming component TV.

Update and clarification:
Most, but not all, of those new plasma or LCD flat screen TVs do have an analog (NTSC) tuner built-in, for now. You need to check for a NTSC tuner before you buy if you want to view the existing analog TV signals.

Another thing that is different is that the new monitors are wider. In technical terms the aspect ratio is going from 4:3 to 16:9. That is about one-third wider. The displays that can be used with High definition TV (HDTV) are four times sharper. Oh, BTW, not all of the new monitors are able to display HDTV, so be careful when buying a monitor.

New NTSC TV sets are going to be more expensive in the near future. Manufacturers are being required to add digital tuners to some of their TV sets, starting with the large screens, 36" and above, and dropping down in size as the next year or two goes by, until all new NTSC TV sets have digital tuners. This will allow these TV sets to be used to receive the new digital TV signals.

Another thing to be careful about is that digital TV (DTV) may not be high definition TV (HDTV).

There are still some things to be ironed out. Current digital TV is using the MPEG-2 encoding scheme but it looks like MPEG-4 will be used in the future. A DTV receiver and or recorder bought now may not work for all future digital signals. Also there currently are no HDTV DVDs on the market. There is a new standard being developed so hardware (players, recorders and media) is a year or two away. Throwing a wrench into the works are content makers. They are trying to protect their copyrights by making it hard and very hard to record or copy their stuff by blocking the development of new recorders.

Its all very confusing. Hold your head and reach for the Aspirin.

The price for all this new stuff is high. It will be quite a few years before the prices come down.

This transition from standard analog TV to Digital TV and HDTV is going to be interesting. Interesting like the old Chinese curse, "May you lead an interesting life."

A Half Open Marriage or the Cuckolded Husband - part 5 1/2

2005-08-10T11:55:00.000-07:00

I was seduced. Well maybe not.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Seduction is the process of deliberately enticing another person into an act. The word can have a negative connotation, either seriously or mildly (and also used jokingly), and may refer to an act that the other may later regret and/or would normally not want to do

Seduction most commonly refers to the use of sexual desire in order to persuade someone to change their behavior to meet the desires of the seducer.

It is usually implied that the seducer is acting out of a motive other than love for the seducee, and that the object of the seduction would not ordinarily have engaged in such behavior.

There are many strategies that can be used for seduction, depending on sex, personality and circumstances. Many social behavior theorists classify seduction as a specialized form of persuasion. Seduction can also be viewed as a form of power that relies on psychological mastery rather than the use of coercive power, money, or intellectual appeals.

So was I seduced? Maybe, maybe not. Can the willing be seduced? You decide.

Was I deliberately enticed into having a sexual relationship? yes.

Was sexual desire used to persuade me to change my behavior to meet the desires of the other? Yes.

Was G acting our of a motive other than love for me? Yes.

Would I have had sex with G before she asked. Yes, I would have the Friday night before if she had said yes when she got into her car.

Did I have any idea that my agreeing to have an affair with G was going to make major changes to my life. No.

Did G have an idea of how having an affair would change my life? Probably.

If I could go back, knowing what I know now, would I do it again? Yes.

Because of G? No. But because of a women I met a few years later, D. Read about her here. D may have been the love of my life. What I did to her I would change if I could. ::tears::

To be continued.

A Half Open Marriage or the Cuckolded Husband - part 5

2005-08-09T05:48:00.000-07:00

I was seduced, I think.

One Friday I was at a bar with some of the Friday night crowd. I was setting at a table of some women at the invite of "G." I was acquainted with G and her friends. They worked together progressing (moving) parts and sub-assemblies from one part of the plant to another. I would see them from time to time in the hallways. Sometimes a few of the "Progress Girls" would join my technicians and me in the break-room. For the last several Fridays I had danced with most of them. So it was not that much of a deal to be invited to sit with them that Friday night. As the evening progress I found myself dancing and talking mostly with G. Near closing time G ask me to walk her to her car. I was felling real good because of the beer and dancing. When we got to her car we kissed. As she got behind the steering wheel of her car I asked, in a teasing way, if she would like me to go home with her. Now I did not expect for her to say yes, but she did look thoughtful before saying no. We both left going our separate ways. I had a great time that evening and one of the songs that I really liked dancing to was "Proud Mary" by Creedence Clearwater Revival. To this day when I hear this song I think about this night.

It wasn't too surprising for a Progress Girl to come into our area to see if we happened to have some needed parts in our stock that we could release to manufacturing. We always made them sweet talk us into letting them have the parts. G came into my office and sat down and started talking to me. She told me what a good time she had last Friday night. She stood up and closed the door to my office and said she had a question for me. "OK ask" I said. Then she dropped the bomb shell. She asked "Do you want to have an affair with me?" I was stunned. Before I could say anything, she got up opened the door and said "Think about it and give me you answer at break." And she was gone.

I was worthless at work. All I could think about was the question. After thinking about it awhile the decision was easy. The first wife (fw) was having sex with at least two guys, so why couldn't I have an affair with G? At break I said yes and my life changed.

A easy decision, a large change.

I had no idea of the things to come.

To be continued.

RSS

2005-08-06T16:15:00.000-07:00

I've been using Mozilla Firefox as my Internet browser. Why? Several reasons chief among them are:

1) Built in pop-up blocker. Seems to work better and not get in the way like IE with a third party blocker.

2) Ability to increase text size. Some fonts, font sizes, and color schemes are hard for this old man to read. I especially have trouble with red background.

3) Built in RSS reader. I have setup many of my favorite blogs on RSS feed. In Firefox this is a tool bar and a list of blogs that I have setup. As I move my mouse pointer over the blog name a list of the last five or more postings are displayed. That away I can quickly move through the blogs looking for new postings. The only catch is that I need to remember the last posting title. Not too bad for the 35 or so blogs I am currently watching and reading. Oh, its easy to set up for the RSS feed. While viewing the blog, click on the RSS feed symbol in the lower right corner and save to the bookmark toolbar folder. A few blogs do not offer RSS feed. For these I must revert back to using the regular bookmarks to read them.

The one enchantment I would like would be some way to know if I had read that posting without remembering the posting title. Like a color change for the text.

How many of you are using a RSS reader to keep up with your favorite reads and how many Blogs do you check for new posting each day?

Wednesday Morning Adventures

2005-08-03T12:49:00.000-07:00

This morning at 5:30 am I awoke to the alarm, struggled out of bed, did my morning stuff, put a handful of tools in my car and drove off. I was going across town to help a friend to reinstall the light fixtures on the front of their house. He had taken a job in Baghdad as he was painting his house and ran out of time to reinstall the lights before he went to Texas for a week of training and then the long flight to Baghdad. He is working and living in the green zone so he is mostly out of the line of fire.

The drive should have only taken 20 to 30 minutes but took 45 due to two of the eight river bridges being closed for repairs. Why so early? Two reasons. One, its cooler in the morning, its going to be in the mid 90s today. And two, I wanted to get ahead of the go-to-work traffic. I arrived around 7:15. I had three lights to put up, one by the front door and two on either side of the double garage door. I quickly had the light by the front door up and working. She and I could not find the brass nuts that hold the lights to the wall by the garage, so its off to Home Depot for some hardware. Then back to the house and I installed the garage lights. Easy to do if you have a cue. Put the house numbers up below the front door light and I was done. Left there about 9:20. When I got home I laid down and slept till noon.

It may not be much of an adventure, it felt good to do something for a friend.

A Half Open Marriage or the Cuckolded Husband - part 4

2005-08-02T05:57:00.000-07:00

So life was interesting. I was having a lot of sex with the first wife (fw) and she was having even more sex: with me, the store guy (sg) and maybe others. I was staying late drinking and dancing with the Friday night crowd near where I worked across town. It was almost wonderful. I still wanted to have sex with other women.

One evening while fw and I were having sex, she started telling me about this married guy (mg) she met. She told me that she and mg had gone for a walk in a local park and had sucked him off. This is the first I knew about him. I asked her if she thought mg's wife (mgw) would be interested swapping. Fw said that mg thought mgw would, but we would need to take it slow. We set up a movie date with them. After the movie, they came over to have drinks with us. After a few drinks fw and mg were playing kissie face and roaming hands. I was kissing mgw was starting to touch her up. Fw and mg got up and went off into the other room. I had my hands under mgw's bra and I was thinking "this is going well." But when I started unfastening her pants she jumped up ran into the other room and yelled to her husband to pull up his pants as they were leaving. Again I ended up with nothing, but fw added another man to her stable.

I guess that I was going to have to learn to meet and seduce other women. Instead I was seduced.

It seemed at this point in my life women were in control of my relationships. I was just along for the ride.

To be continued.

Monday Morning Murmurs

2005-08-01T08:00:00.000-07:00

I went to Panera Bread to have a bagel and coffee for breakfast. Its a good thing that the Monday paper is thin as I was having trouble concentrating on what I was reading. Why? One reason was the comment left by Odd Wife :-) and the other was thinking back about how I met "G." I am working offline writing about my first wife and will post the next instalment in a day or two.

Sunday a week ago I started having pains in my thigh muscles when I moved. No pain when I sat still, only when I used the muscles. No idea what was causing the pain as I could not think of anything I was doing different. I got to thinking about the meds I was using and thought about the Crestor. I had been on Crestor at 5mg a day for almost six months and one of the known side effects was muscle pain. I decided to stop the Crestor and see if the pain went away. Its been about a week without taking Crestor and the pain has almost gone away. Next I will go back on Crestor and see if the pain comes back.

Well its off to Home Depot to buy some bell wire for a project I'm working on.

Ta tah for now.

I'm depressed

2005-07-29T18:59:00.000-07:00

I'm old, fat, lonely, have high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, in a loveless marriage, with no real purpose in life it seems. My only sex partner for the last 6 or 7 or more years has been my hand. Some times I'm ashamed to be using up resources.

I guess its not all bad. I did add some information to my son's web site - - it took all of fifteen minutes. I left a few comments on some blogs. I did some technical investigation on a possible design/use problem on a computer motherboard.

The value of what I did today would not pay for the air conducting I used.

My greatest joy after sex is doing electronic circuit design. My areas of expertise are analog circuitry and lightning protection. I have a patent on a circuit I designed. I'm damn proud of my design work. I just have not done any since 1992.

Damn, I've not enjoyed two of my most favorite things for about a decade. Sad, sad, sad.

Anyone out there that need some circuits designed and willing to pay for it with sex?

A Half Open Marriage or the Cuckolded Husband - part 3

2005-07-25T11:16:00.000-07:00

After the "date" with E, things at home stayed about the same. The store guy (sg) would often come by during the days first wife (fw) was not working for a nooner. Sometimes he would come by when I got home from work. We would send the kids off to the swimming pool so that sg and I could enjoy fw together. Fw and I had more sex during this time than ever before. It seem like she and I would get-it-on a couple of times a day. It seemed like the more sex she got the hotter and more sex I got from her. She had to be getting it three of four times a day at least.

I worked at a electronics company across town. Several of the guys and gals I worked with would go out for a beer after work on Fridays. I started going out with them for a couple of beers and then went home. Fw asked about who was there, so I asked if she would like for me to leave work early some Friday and take her to the bar the guys went to. She said yes so I did. After that she said it was OK for me to stay latter if I wanted. So I did. I started getting home between nine and midnight on Fridays. Once in a while one of the guys would have a house party on a Saturday night that the fw and I would go to. Some times she did not want to go, so I would go by myself.

Looking back I realize that I never got invited to any get-to-gathers with the people she worked with although she use to go to them. I now wonder how many were sex parties. The few times we had sex after she attended one of her functions she was extra hot and wet.

I was happy with life except for one thing, I wanted to have sex with other women. I think I was passing up opportunities all the time.

I was so shy and inexperienced that I did not know "yes" when I saw it.

To be continued.

Why the lack of spark

2005-07-21T10:01:00.000-07:00

I posted the other day about the lack of spark between the wife and I. The Odd Wife left a comment saying "Can you create a spark?" My answer is "I don't know."

I guess first we need to know why the spark is gone. I am a timid soul. I dislike conflict. I like to get along. Yes when I am pushed too far I react in a bad way. I guess I have a passive-aggressive personalty. I have learned to control my anger by holding back my feelings. Otherwise I will do something I will regret in the heat of the moment.

My wife as it turns out is bi-polar. For years before we found out, she would sometime get into a rant over something trivial. When the rant was directed at me it just tore me up. How could a person that I cared so much about treat me that way, did she not care for me? I just had to stuff my feeling into a hole and cover it up in order to survive. I did not want to get a divorce and start over again. So I learned to deal with the mania rants by disconnecting myself from her. We sleep in different rooms because "of her snoring." It was an excuse that worked as I did not want to sleep in the same bed with her. A couple of years ago, after a very bad rant against her mother who she loved dearly, I told her she needed to control herself. She told me she knew at the time the rant was wrong but she could not stop herself. We went to the doctor and the Doc gave my wife some medicine to even out her moods. After some adjustment in the meds, she is mostly easy to get along with. I don't know if the spark is still there but buried or completely gone. But I think the spark has been extinguish.

So where do we go from here? I feel guilty that I lost my love for her over a medical problem that she had no real control over. But it does not change the fact that its gone.

Can I get the spark back? I just don't know.

Scotty has been beamed up

2005-07-20T19:18:00.000-07:00

James Doohan, who played Chief Engineer Montgomery Scott "Scotty" in the Star Trek series died early today. He was 85. Mr. Doohan, who had Alzheimer's disease, died of pneumonia at his home early this morning, said his agent, Steven Stevens.

I really liked the character he played. Too bad about the Alzheimer's.

Not much going on

2005-07-18T11:19:00.000-07:00

Not much going on here. Spent a couple of days working on a web site for my son's run for a local political office. Mowed the yard over the weekend. Need to finish writing about the Half Open Marriage with the first wife, but just don't feel the burn. The current wife and I seem to be more like roommates instead of husband and wife. There is just no spark between us. Its even hard to find things to talk about. But life is comfortable. We get along. We do little things for each other. From the outside it would look good, but I am just dead inside. Not much going on here.

Temptation Time

2005-07-11T18:56:00.000-07:00

Well the wife is leaving again to visit her sister. This time she'll be gone for three weeks. Leaves on the 20th and returns on Aug the 3rd. If I can find any temptation I'm going to yield to it.

Any offers?

A Half Open Marriage or the Cuckolded Husband - part 2

2005-07-10T12:53:00.000-07:00

My first wife (fw) worked part time on various shifts. The extra money she brought in allowed us to buy a nice house. Because most weeks we would need someone to watch the boys we paid a neighbor to watch them every day after school until she or I got home. One day when I got home the front door was locked even though her car was there. The door was usually unlocked when the kids were home. Thinking that she must have just gotten home I started up to our bedroom to change out of my work clothes. I heard some noise coming from our bedroom so I assumed she was up there changing clothes. I open the door to our bedroom and got quite a surprise. There on the floor was my wife getting screwed by some man I did not know. Well I had told her that I wanted to watch and maybe join in, so I did. It was everything I had dreamed it would be and more.

I still was only having sex with fw, while she was having sex with me, the store guy, and maybe with the railroad guy. While I enjoyed sharing fw, I wanted to find a woman for me to have sex with. I was a bit shy around women back then so I was having a hard time meeting a woman. So I asked fw to fix me up with someone. Who better to find a willing woman than another woman. So fw set me up to take a single woman (E) to a party. Fw told me that E wanted to go to this party but did not want to go by herself and needed a date. I asked about sex with E and fw said she didn't know. E came by the house so she and I could go to the party. I don't remember why I did not pick E up at her apartment, but it would have been better if I had. E was a few years younger than fw and I and was nice looking. She wore a sun dress with no bra. At the party I noticed that I could see all of her breasts including her nipples by looking down her dress. After we were there a while E complained to me about the guys there looking down her dress but she didn't change how she sat. Looking back, I think she made the comments to make sure that I looked down her dress. At the time I took her statement to mean that she was not very liberated and was put off by men seeing her body. I began to think that all she wanted was a man to take her to the party and nothing more, so I was a nice guy and did not push beyond a kiss. I always have and will always respect a woman choice. Looking back I think E was willing for more but I misread her due to my inexperience.

Back then I couldn't buy a clue about women.

To be continued.

A Half Open Marriage or the Cuckolded Husband - part 1

2005-07-07T09:01:00.000-07:00

I'm not sure how we, first wife (here after called fw) and I, got started talking about the topic. We were talking about having sex with others. Fw told me that the wife a couple we knew was having an affair with her husband's permission. I could tell that fw found this to be real exciting and soon I did too. After talking about it for a few weeks we came to an agreement that it was OK to have other sex partners provided we told each other. There was nothing said about preapproving the other's partners. Two nights later fw told me that she had sex with guy she met. I asked where she met him. She replied that he worked at this store/business near to where we lived. At the time I thought it was peculiar as this was a place she would not normally shop. At the time I did not worry about it as I was excited about the sex. Also I took this as a green light for me to find someone to have sex with. She asked if it would be OK to bring hin to house to screw. I told her it was OK with me and I would sometime like to watch and maybe join in. She said she did not know about doing that but she would see.

At this time she was working as a clerk in a railroad yard with maintenance and traffic control men. One of the men she had been close friends with for a couple of years. I thought that this would be the guy she would be having sex with. She never admitted it, but I think she had been having an affaire/sex with him long before our agreement. She would often have unaccounted for hours that she could have spent with him. That was coupled with the fact when he came to visit at our house, at my insistence, he always acted a bit odd around me. I only met his wife once and then he was careful to not let my wife and his wife be alone together. Most of these observations I did not make at the time and it was years latter that the meaning came together for me. God was I ever stupid back then.

To be continued.

Science vs Intelligent Design vs Creationism

2005-07-04T11:15:00.000-07:00

Science is based on observable phenomena. Scientific Theory is a story or model of reality that is consistent with the known observed phenomena, it is testable and can be used to predict future events. Scientific Theories are Scientific Hypothesis that have withstood the test of time and attacks on the hypothesis by the use of the Scientific Method. Hypothesis start as an conjecture. A conjecture is a provisional idea whose merit needs to evaluated using the Scientific Method to confirm or to disprove the conjecture. Theories, hypothesis and conjectures can be disproved whenever the facts contradict them. When a theory is proved, it becomes a law. There are few if any Scientific Laws. Many so called laws are just well accepted theories.

Intelligent Design was born out of opposition to the theory of evolution and the belief that life on Earth was designed or created by an intelligent agent or agents. Proponents of Intelligent Design study objects in an attempt to isolate what they call signs of design by intelligence — physical properties of an object that necessitate design as opposed to an undirected process such as natural selection. Examples being considered include irreducible complexity, information mechanisms, and specified complexity. Advocates of Intelligent Design say that their focus is on detecting design in nature, not about who or what the designer might be. Advocates of Intelligent Design also argue against the assumption in science that any meaningful explanation is based upon an empirically accessible material reality. Materialism of this sort rules out explanations that depend on factors located outside of observable nature, including most concepts of an active creator. Intelligent Design proponents argue that the exclusion of supernatural possibilities amounts to an ideological prejudice that obstructs the genuine search for truth. Intelligent Design appeals to those who believe in the supernatural or God. Another group that Intelligent Design appeals to are those who believe in extraterrestrials as the intelligent agent.

Creationism is the belief that human beings, the world and the universe were created by a supreme being. That said, however, Creationism covers a spectrum of beliefs. Some of these are: Babylonian, Christianity, Egyptian, Greek, Hindu, Hopi, Islam, Judaism, Maya, Navajo and Taoism.

My main source of information used above was wikipedia, which is a online wiki free encyclopedia, along with other web pages and my own knowledge. So if any of the above is in error please leave a comment or email me. Thanks.

The following is what I think about the above.

Creationism generally belongs to our religious beliefs and/or institutions. This concept does not belong in our classrooms. Almost everyone agrees with this. Not because they do not want their beliefs taught, but because they do not want someone else's beliefs taught in the classroom.

How about the battle between Intelligent Design and Evolution. Proponents of Intelligent Design say they are offering an alternative idea to overcome perceived problems in the Theory of Evolution. Their perceived problem seems to be that The Theory of Evolution seems to leaves no room for God. As a conjecture to explain changes in the Theory of Evolution that may be needed with the discovery of superior beings in the universe (extraterrestrials) Intelligent Design is OK. However, its being used to bring the Christian's God into the class room.

Oh another thing, the Proponents of Intelligent Design are trying to make their idea look better by tearing down The Theory of Evolution instead of building up Intelligent Design. They seem to have gotten this tactic (negative campaigning) from the politicians. From what I read online and in the papers the people pushing that Intelligent Design be taught in the classroom have no idea what the Theory of Evolution is, just that it not conform to the Bible. Now its OK to require that the short comings of the Theory of Evolution be taught in the classroom as long as the short comings of Intelligent Design are also taught. There are plenty of problems in both ideas.

Now don't get me wrong, I kinda like Intelligent Design as I fits in with my beliefs. But I think it needs to be taught in Sunday school not in Monday through Friday school.

I don't think that Intelligent Design and the Theory of Evolution are opposites. To me Intelligent Design is an addition to the Theory of Evolution. The Theory of Evolution is based on material observations. Intelligent Design should just be about adding the unobservable or the supernatural and should not be used to tear down the Scientific Method. Without the Scientific Method mankind would still be dying from the plague and many other diseases.

Wife safe blog

2005-07-02T17:30:00.000-07:00

I've made a new blog that is wife safe. Its many of the posts I've done here with the stuff that would offend her removed. After all I am not looking to get divorced at this point in my life. In about a month I may let my wife know about it. Hell, I might even get her to post there. If she does, I will let you all know. Until then this is my primary blog. This is where I will post my memoirs and more private thoughts and deeds. Comments there that would lead her to this blog will be removed. Sorry. I will try to let you know if I remove any comments over there.

If you find it, let me know by email.

Its going to be a quiet Fourth

2005-07-02T16:52:00.000-07:00

My wife is out of town until the fifth. I have just been lazying around. Taking naps in the afternoon, reading and watching the idiot box. Well I am doing some layout work on a web site for my son. He bought a template to use but I don't like it much. I may roll my own. My brother-in-law's computer has gone belly up. He shipped it to me to fix. He had some repair group from Best Buy look at it and they charged him $160 and told him that his motherboard was burned up and he would need to buy a new computer. The computer boots fine and I can log on as administrator and then it blue screens. It seems like the hardware is OK just got some nasties in the software. I think I'll install a new hard drive and install XP Pro. Then I'll see how much of his data and settings I can get off the old hard drive. To me this is fun.

My beautiful town does not allow any kind of personal fireworks. But I keep hearing loud pops and bangs and whizzes. Don't see any cops around though. Don't know if I will go to any public fireworks display.

I was at Culver's, a fast food restaurant, to get lunch today and saw several MILFs but none seemed "available." (See my earlier post on June 25th.) These were mothers and a few fathers of a preteen baseball team. You would think that for a Saturday there would be more fathers wanting to watch their sons play baseball.

Fantasies

2005-06-28T18:12:00.000-07:00

Jamie over at Margaritaville has a posting about fantasizing. Her post ends with this: "...But I was wondering if any of you guys ever do it. And what do you fantasize about? No fair lying, since I just told you my deep, dark secret!"

I'm sorry, but I don't think that Jamie posted a deep or a dark secret. In fact her fantasies seem quite normal to me. Now I don't share her type of fantasies (horror/thriller), but I do have my own. Let's remember that fantasies are the source material for writers. In Jamie's case maybe a writer like Edgar Allen Poe. And of course we all fantasize about hot sexy people. I guess what I am saying is we all fantasize.

The issue, to me, is how much and when. If we fantasize too little we become dull lifeless people. If we fantasize too much we lose connection with reality and are worthless, maybe dangerous, to our self and those around us. Timing is also important. Fantasizing or day dreaming is bad when we are driving. Day dreaming about the hot person setting next to us during a boring meeting may be the only way we can survive it.

Also many of our goals in life come from our fantasies. As we were told in the song from the musical South Pacific, "If you don't have a dream, How you gonna make a dream come true?"

Fantasies do have an important place in our lives. I for one could not maintain my place in life without my masturbation fantasies.

Fantasies allow us to have in a virtual world that what we cannot or should not have in the real world. Where we get into trouble is when we act on our fantasy when it is wrong to do so.

One of my fantasies is to have an affair with a thirtesh woman. (Women in their thirties are the best sexually.) But its not going to happen. Because, what women wants to date a man twice their age? Sigh.

Another fantasy of mine is to get rich. But that is not going to happen either. Its too late, I've had my chance and I'm not going to rob a bank.

One more fantasy is to meet and have coffee or a meal with some of my blogging friends. Who knows, that may happen.

Sometimes being old is so sad

2005-06-25T05:28:00.000-07:00

Until a few years ago I had an interesting and a good sex life. The most interesting times were when I was between marriages. I seemed to have a sixth sense about women who wanted to be with me. Its almost like I could see a sign above their heads saying "available for sex." I seemed to develop this ability a few months after my divorce. When I followed my feelings I could almost always pick out a women in a crowd at a bar, a dance or other social gathering who would go home with me or agree to a date within the week. Life (sex) was good!

My ability seem to continue after I remarried. I said seem to as I never had sex with them even when they came out and all but said f*** me. You know like "Call me sometime when your wife is out of town." or "Why don't you come by the house and visit, my husband is on a fishing trip."

This is all background to what happen last evening. I was at Culver's, a fast food restaurant, to get one of their Beef Pot Roast Sandwiches. While thinking about some web design work, in walked a woman with a young boy. All of a sudden like a bright light I knew she was ready. My first thoughts after is saw her were about I could approach her and to see how far I could get. Then like a bucket of cold water in the face I thought "You fool, your sixty six years old." "Why do you think a thirtyesh woman would be interested in you for sex." That made me sad.

I went home and lost myself in reading stories to escape reality. That too is sad.

Sometimes I wonder if maybe a woman would be interested in me? Should I even try?

I've been a good boy

2005-06-23T21:51:00.000-07:00

mostly. My wife has been gone visiting for two days now. I have done some painting and have mowed the lawn. And the rest of the time, probably more time than working, I have spent reading. Its what I've been reading that has made me less than good. Most of my reading has been from Stories on line and I also read from Alt.Sex.Stories Text Repository and Literotica. And of course I had some five finger relief.

That's not being too bad is it?

Eleven more days to resist temptation.

My father

2005-06-20T18:23:00.000-07:00

Now that Father's Day is past, I guess I need to post about my father. He was overly strict. My wife tells me he was abusive both physically and mentally when I tell her about how he treated me. I do not love him nor do I even like him. I try not to hate him. His voice left on my answering machine a few years ago gave me the willies. My own strong reaction to his voice surprised me. At that point I decided to avoid all contact with him. I mean, why should I put myself in that dark place? Since then I have received several cards. I have not even opened them. Well I did have my wife look at them to see if there is anything that I needed to know about. I got one last Christmas so I guess he is still alive. I really don't want to write or think anymore about this.

Reading the Comics

2005-06-13T09:27:00.000-07:00

Curtis 6/13/05

First panel.
Curtis standing at his teachers desk saying:

"I can't believe this is the last day of school, Mrs. Nelson! I'm going to miss your well-planned, thought-provoking lessons."

Second panel
the teacher replies:

"I, too, Mr. Wilkins, will sorely miss standing in front of this black-board to teach smart students like yourself."

Third panel
the teacher and Curtis smile at each other.

Fourth panel
the teacher says:

"I can shovel it with a straight face too, Mr. Wilkins!"

Braahaahaahaa

My Granddad's Rocker

2005-06-12T13:11:00.000-07:00

My Sister-in-law was here last week and saw my granddad's rocking chair. She told me that I should clean it up, repair it and refinish it. I said nothing. There was no way I was changing that rocker. Its wreathed and repaired with wire to hold it together in places.

Just as my granddad last used it.

No I am not changing it. Its the last physical thing I have of my granddads that we enjoyed together. I bet he never had any idea how I would cherish that rocker.

I wonder if there is any ordinary thing of mine that my son or granddaughter will keep for memories?

No Future Just a Past

2005-06-11T09:16:00.000-07:00

As a kid I use to set on the front porch of my granddad's house and listen to my granddad tell stories of his youth. He told the same stories time and time again. I was glad to listen each time as I loved my granddad. He would sit there in his rocking chair and smoke his pipe as we watched the cars drive by on the street. He rarely talked about what would be happening tomorrow or next week. I often wondered why that was.

Now I know.

I don't like to think and talk about the future as I have none. Well that is not quite right, I only have small futures not big ones. Maybe I never had a big future (lots of money, fame and the like) maybe all I ever had were small futures - but I had a big pile of them. And now what futures I have are short. Not much time left and what time there is is hard to use as I have a failing body.

What triggered these thoughts? Cleaning up and throwing away things. I realized that many of the things I had saved I had no future use for. None! Not that the things were old, not that they were worn out, not because technology had passed it by but because I had no future to use those things in.

Its a overcast rainy day and it may be affecting my mood. But the facts are still true.

Damn

What is Marriage?

2005-06-08T10:53:00.000-07:00

I was reading Bad Girl's soon to be stopped blog Diary of an Affair. She asked some questions about marriage: "...I thought there should be more to a marriage. Shouldn't there be love? Shouldn't there be passion? Shouldn't there be want? Shouldn't there be respect? Shouldn't there be an overwhelming need to spend the rest of your life with this person? ..."

I thought to myself, this would be true in an ideal marriage but there seems to be more. I also have been reading Odd Wife's blog The Odd Wife about how marriage is about many boring and unexciting things so that it makes an affair seem to be so much fun. (I just went over there to get some more info from her but her blog has some sort of a problem right now.) And then I keep hearing about how gay marriage threatens the future of the family. I take that statement to mean marriage is about having and raising children.

Trust Tyler (In Tyler We Trusted) made an very good comment to Bad Girl about marriage:

" I've noticed that people get into marriages, on the most part, for the right reasons. Love, affection, companionship, compatibility, etc. I have also noticed that people stay in marriages for, often, differing reasons. Safety, stability, laziness, etc. Love is a great thing, when it first occurs. It's a deep, powerful maelstrom of emotion, but, after being married and talking to people who have been married a while, it becomes a different kind of love. It becomes deeper and more soulful, less passion, more ingrained. In these kinds of marriages, the partners love each other no less than they did before, but it's on a different level and that is where some people find themselves when they look afield for others. Because the passion doesn't seem to be there, it is, but it has been subsumed by the deeper, more comfortable, soulful love that the marriage has become.

Of course there are other kinds of marriages. The convenience marriages, the "need" marriages, the "settling for" marriages. ..."

This is one of the best summaries of why people stay married that I have seen. The only main reason I think that he missed was "for the kids." Also he points to the idea that there are different reasons for and types of marriages.

To me marriages are like cars, there are different makes and models to reflect different needs and wants. To extend the analogy a bit, relationships are like vehicles, there are many different types: horse and buggy, bicycle, motorcycle, car, truck and so on. One can also borrow, rent or own. And oh yes, you can have more than one - own a car and rent a truck for example. The combinations seems to be endless. Of course no analogy is perfect, but I hope you get what I mean.

Both cars and marriages need to be maintained. If you don't, they will stop working and soon fall apart.

While I own a Ford van, I don't presume to think you MUST also. As a society we see the need for different cars and types of ownership. I don't think anyone should require marriage to be only about having children which is what several states seem to be saying. If one's church will only allow a church wedding between one man and one woman, that is fine and within their rights. However, to require a civil union to only be between one man and one woman because of your religious beliefs is wrong and is an abuse of the power of the majority over the minority.

This narrow minded attitude limits all of us.

Wife will be gone for two weeks

2005-06-07T16:51:00.000-07:00

My wife will be visiting her sister to get away from the house. This will help her to come to terms with her mother dying. I will be left all alone for the two weeks. One of the things I will be doing is eating fried SPAM sandwiches. My wife hates the smell of SPAM cooking so I only get to have SPAM when she is away for a few days. (It takes several days to get the smell out of the house.)

A few years ago I went on a two week mission trip with the youth of our church. On one of the work days I wore a tee-shirt with the SPAM logo on it. Most of the kids made fun of my like/love of SPAM and it became a lot of fun with them teasing and with me defending. I got the nickname of SPAM man. After we got back the youth had a church dinner as a fund raiser. As a joke I brought fried SPAM sandwiches and they were all eaten by the crowd. About a month latter the women of the church put together a recipe book as a fund raiser. Again, as a joke, I gave them the following recipe and they had the nerve to put it in their booklet. This is what I turned in:

SPAM Sandwiches — Deluxe
By SPAM man

1. Open a can of SPAM.

NOTE: be careful when opening vintage cans of SPAM that you do not cut yourself on the can edges. Most households have a vintage can of SPAM way in the back of the cabinet that was bought (in a weak moment) for emergency food.

2. Remove contents and discard the packing jelly. One does not need to worry about Salmonella being spread from the material in the can. The contents, while in the can, no longer support life.

3. Slice the mass on the can end face. Slices should be 1/8th to 3/16th inch thick. Thinner slices, when fried, give only crust and no innards. Thicker slices give too much innards.

4. Place slices in a heated skillet that has a small amount of oil in it; additional oil will magically appear as the slices fry. Southerners may use bacon grease.

5. Fry the slices turning several times. Turn more often if you are impatient.

6. Fry until golden brown. Then continue cooking some more.

NOTE: If the slices turn black, they have cooked too long and you must start over with fresh(?) slices.

7. When cooked, remove the slices and place on several layers of paper towels. EPA regulations require disposal of the used paper towels in sealed bags.

8. Cut each slice in two to make cracker size squares. Larger pieces require cast iron stomachs.

9. Place four fried SPAM squares on a piece of white sandwich bread. Be sure to use white bread which has only the minimum amount of nutrients as required by Law.

10. Place a small dollop of yellow mustard on each of the fried SPAM squares. You may use more mustard if you think you can still taste the SPAM.

11. Cover with another piece of white sandwich bread and cut into quarters. If these sandwiches are to be used in a formal setting, cut off the bread crust.

12. Place the completed sandwiches on a serving plate and cover with plastic wrap. Do not use aluminum foil for if it touches the SPAM, the aluminum will corrode.

13. These sandwiches may be prepared up to several days before hand. Storage time depends on the bread used. Additional storage time can be gained if stored in a refrigerator.

Headline

2005-06-06T08:28:00.000-07:00

The following headline caught my eye:

"Paris Hilton proves that money doesn't equate to class"

enough said.

Jokes

2005-06-03T08:37:00.000-07:00

Old joke:

What do you call couples who use the rhythm method to control conception?

Parents.

New joke:

What do you call parents who teach abstinence to their teenagers to prevent pregnancy?

Grandparents.

My Mother-In-Law died.

2005-05-29T15:41:00.000-07:00

My MIL died last Friday morning. My sister-in-law is here and my brother-in-law is due in Monday. MIL will be buried Wednesday in Springfield where her first husband is buried. We will drive down Tuesday to finalize the arrangements. Not looking forward to the four hour drive with a van load of people. The roads are good so the drive is easy but long.

Over a Barrel

2005-05-26T10:30:00.000-07:00

Back when I was between marriages, I used to go drinking with the people from work on Friday nights. Most of the workers got off at 3:15 and I would leave work around 4:00 on Fridays. Most of the married ones would leave by 6:00 to go home to their wives or husbands. One guy, who worked in my department, was still there around 6:30 which was unusual. I asked the married guy why he was still there. He said that his wife was at her mother's home in another state.

This guy had joined our company about six months before straight out of school. About a month after starting at the company he got married and moved his wife to our town. She was a nice good looking woman and looked well suited for him.

There was a single gal at our company that most of us guys would have loved to date and more but she would never give any of us at work a second look. I'll call her Miss V. Setting with her at out table was another woman who was married but she always stayed late on Fridays. She was a loud pushy woman and was big and round like whisky barrel. I'll call her Ms Barrel. Ms Barrel had ridden with Miss V that day due to car trouble. Ms Barrel talked Miss V into staying late. Ms Barrel had for the last year let me know that she would like to bed me. I always found someway to avoid her. She was not appealing to me physically or personally wise. I was surprised to see the married guy and Miss V making a connection. Neither had ever shown any interest in their coworkers. When the women had gone to the bathroom, the married guy asked me if him and Miss V could use my apartment for some one on one time. I said OK and I would give him a key when they were ready to leave and I would stay at the bar until he returned. Well Ms Barrel had a different idea. She did not want to stay at the bar without a ride. As I has been drinking and was a bit drunk, I went with the flow. Soon the four of us were headed to my place.

Ms Barrel and I went to my bedroom while the married guy and Miss V stayed on the sofa in the living room. I had hoped that Ms Barrel would show some creativity in bed to encourage a return engagement. But it was not to be. She just laid there letting me do all the work. I remember thinking "This is just like fucking the bung hole of a barrel and about as much fun."

Oh well. The things one will do for a friend. In this case our friendship had put me over a barrel.

My Mother-In-Law is dying

2005-05-23T08:16:00.000-07:00

My MIL has lived with us the last ten years or so. Her health has declined over the last couple of years resulting in her being coming weaker as well as with more delusions and dementia. About three weeks ago she fell and hurt her back. Every time we tried to get her up to go to the bathroom or to set up in her chair to watch TV in the family room it hurt her. My wife called MIL's doc and she said to take the MIL to the hospital. She was admitted for a few days then sent to a nursing home. She has not eaten or drank much for the last month and it has been very hard to get her to take pills for her headaches or back pain. When she was admitted she was malnourished and dehydrated. Now she has stopped drinking or eating altogether. The doc thinks she is terminal with only a few days left. My wife is devastated. All of this is reminding me of my mother's death. Right now the least little sad thing causes me to tear up. I am so emotional right now.

Not much in the way of Inspiration

2005-05-18T17:03:00.000-07:00

My muse has spring fever. Some political things chap my ass but not enough to work up a good mad. I have even been a bit slow in reading my fellow bloggers.

But I have been working in the yard and on the outside of the house. Maybe if it rains I will blog. Until then:

be happy
be glad
be not so sad

My First Time

2005-05-11T09:29:00.000-07:00

In my junior year of college I met the woman who was to become my first wife. I was quite ignorance about the ways of dating and women.

(Funny, I don't remember how we met and I have thought and thought about it but just don't remember.)

She was a freshmen and lived in the women's dorm. At that time I did not have a car so on most of our dates we walked to the date activity. Sometimes I would borrow a car from one of my friends in the rooming house where I lived. I did not borrow the car often as the cost of borrowing was to fill the car with gas. Even though the gas was only 24.9 cents per gallon, it was more than I could afford. My part time job only paid 85 cents per hour and I worked fifteen to twenty hours per week.

The most we had done until that weekend was some heavy petting. I was too shy and too ignorant to push further than that. This was my first real serious dating experience. She invited me to go home with her to meet the parents and to spend the weekend together. I think we went with a friend of hers who lived in the home town as neither of us had a car. Her mother was a big brash pushy women and her father was one of the nicest kindest men I have ever met.

(When we divorced years later the thing I missed the most was his friendship. In many ways my oldest son is a lot like him and I am very happy about that.)

Sunday morning her father was out of the house doing his thing and her mother was at church. She and I were in a little used bedroom kissing and fondling. After a bit we were both naked. This was the first time we were together without having clothes on. Soon she was guiding me into her and I lost my virginity. I was really dumb as we did not use any birth control. Luckily there were not any consequences.

(Looking back - - while she was my first, I am sure I was not hers.)

We dated for another couple of years and then we were married. It would be many years before I had sex with my second women.

I love reading blogs and making comments

2005-05-10T11:55:00.000-07:00

And reading the comments others leave. I hate rude uncaring comments and of course I hate spam. But what is worst than rude and spam?

Commenters who are judgmental are the worst. What gives them the right to judge others. Many of the commenters who leave judgmental comments are cowards. They are like drive by shooters afraid to be seen or to confront. They are the type of people who will shoot you in the back. They do not have the courage or knowledge to defend their statements or beliefs.

That said, I too have left judgmental comments. I've done it in the guise of helping, by leaving comments telling the writer of the blog what they should do. There is a fine line between constructive criticism and being judgmental. And I probably have cross that line on a few comments. Why do we cross the line? By being too strong in our convictions and being too sure we understand what is going on in the life of others.

Some blog writers have thick skin and don't care what comments are left. Others we hurt with judgmental comments.

So how as bloggers do we protect our self from bad comments? The easiest way is to turn off comments. To me this is like throwing out the baby with the bath water. Several blogs that I like to read the posting and the comments have turned off comments. So sad. You lose the interaction with your blogger friends. Another way is to not allow anonymous comments. This is not foolproof but it seems to reduce the number of bad comments. Yet another way is to require logon to access the blog or even hide the blog. Both of these methods reduce the interaction with other bloggers.

Its a good idea to learn how to delete a comments on your blog. I just got an off topic comment so I just deleted it. Poof its gone. Not had any spam yet so I guess for now I will just delete any that gets posted.

So how do you handle bad comments? Any tricks for the rest of us?

My Mother 1920 - 2001

2005-05-07T22:19:00.000-07:00

Its been five years since I was able to get my mother a Mother's Day gift. For her last several years I got her some mail order fancy fruit(because she enjoyed it), a card and spent time with her. Before that I would get things that I though she would like and she usually did. And before that I would often forget it was Mother's Day and to get a gift until it was too late so I just got a card.

Around 25 years ago she moved from LA to live near me. She bought a house and lived within a quarter mile of me. She was a very independent woman. During those years I would help her do thing she could not do for herself. And I knew not to try to do things I though she needed but waited for her to ask. That was the way she wanted it. When the house became to much for her to take care of, she moved into an apartment. Her first apartment was on the 2nd floor. When getting up and down the stairs became too hard she moved to a first floor apartment.

She developed Leukemia (CML). She refused to have chemo as she had watched her closest friend in the world suffer through six months of treatment and then die. She wouldn't even see a cancer doctor for any other options. Soon her red blood count was way down and the doc sent her to the hospital for blood transfusions. She needed another transfusion in a couple of months. She could tell when she needed to get another transfusion by how tired and weak she got. After a while the time between transfusion got down to a couple of weeks apart. She and I saw her doc and in talking with him we found a steroid she could take to keep her red cell count up. But the steroid caused her blood sugar to go sky high, over 200. To control the high blood sugar she needed to inject insulin. She would not use insulin because of all the bad side effects she read about in the alternative health magazines. However, the effect of not using the insulin was worst, it killed her. She continued for about a year without the need of a blood transfusion by using the steroid. But her body got weaker and weaker. She called me one day telling she could not get out of her chair. I rushed over to her apartment and seeing her in her weaken condition I called 911 and took her to the hospital. From there she went to a nursing home and in a few weeks she died. I never heard exactly why she died, but I think she died of organ failure due to diabetes.

I miss my Mother. She was always on my side. She always told me the truth, even when I didn't want to hear it. I miss her a lot. I feel so alone sometimes.

SunsetMan

Pale Green or just cheap?

Kneepads!

Are we (USA) becoming a third world country?

I wonder

Wisdom of Ziggy

I wonder

Merry Christmas

War Bonds

The USA’s Iraq policy is a failure

Blue Light Special

Yes I’m still around

Hypocrisy

How do you see your spouse? With your eyes or your heart?

The Dollar coin

Rain, Rain, Sun breaks, Rain and more rain!

The Holy Book of Terror

Iraq, the end game

Love is ...

How to shovel snow

Life is boring

ThanksGiving

Ouch

Iraq

I’m in Utah

I’m still alive and kicking

I'm Stoned

Another Question

They've gone to the Dark Side

The Mayonnaise Jar and 2 Cups of Coffee

Termite Repairs

A question

Privatization of Space

I need a transplant

I'm Back Home

Termite Damage

I hate it when I get stumped

Get off the Grid

Muslim threat to free speech

Happy Blog Anniversary to me

Bumper Sticker

I'm a handyman

Ouch, Ouch

Colonoscopy

January should be the official dieting month

Science and Religion are orthogonal

﻿Who’s in charge?

I love fruitcake

Christmas Cantata

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow

Big Sky Country

Off to Utah

The Rev. Pat Ridiculous

I've been hiding from my self

I'm feeling better today

I've gone to the dark side

Not much happening

Will I ever have sex again?

I've got the blahs

What is it with these single issue people?

I saw Martin Short

A Half Open Marriage or the Cuckolded Husband - part 7 conclusion

I'll be visiting my son

Support Our Troops

A Half Open Marriage or the Cuckolded Husband - part 6

Buying a new TV? Good Luck with that. Update and clarification

A Half Open Marriage or the Cuckolded Husband - part 5 1/2

A Half Open Marriage or the Cuckolded Husband - part 5

RSS

Wednesday Morning Adventures

A Half Open Marriage or the Cuckolded Husband - part 4

Monday Morning Murmurs

I'm depressed

A Half Open Marriage or the Cuckolded Husband - part 3

Why the lack of spark

Scotty has been beamed up

Not much going on

Temptation Time

A Half Open Marriage or the Cuckolded Husband - part 2

A Half Open Marriage or the Cuckolded Husband - part 1

Who’s in charge?