Good Idea

My pal Army Wife, Toddler Mom suggest that I while away the broke times with weeding. Great idea. Where do I start? This is my back yard, it is still too wet to mow and, being as how it has rained every day since forever, it ain't gettin' no drier.

Oh well, I don't like mowing anyhow. Thing is, if it weren't for weeds I'd have nothing green at all out there.

The big news is that I have finally learned how to make cream gravy, after all these years of utter failure. I love me some biscuits and gravy, too. I kept failing, Linda Lou quit trying because she failed, too. I finally broke down and went on the Internet and downloaded a recipe...it worked the first time. I cooked a couple of pork chops, drained all but a quarter cup of the drippings, added a quarter cup of flour and two and a half cups of milk,salt and pepper, stirred an' boiled and...gravy! With real mashed potatoes. I'm trying to remember if makin' whoopee was this good...

Tomorrow it's biscuits and sausage gravy and eggs. Woot! Trouble is that learning to cook at my age means that I'll have to sit in shifts before much longer. Eh, I'll just get "WIDE LOAD" tattooed across my backside. Maybe if I eat enough of the new things I'm learning to cook I won't need suspenders for my gunbelt.

The Kids Came To Town

Michael and Jennifer came up from San Antonio with their two kids, Michael Junior and Alexandra. Here are a couple of pictures.

In a flash the visit was over and the kids were off doing kid stuff, watching that Rat Movie and such.

Payday And Arrgh!

Payday came at last, after a month of being absolutely broke, to the point of not being able to buy a couple potatoes, that kind of broke.

Linda Lou decided she was going to the little store for some soda, with the loose change we had left.

Since it started pouring rain she drove off the road, instead, blowing a tire. Fortunately she has roadside assistance as part of her cell phone coverage so they came and got the tire changed. Since my pension goes into the bank at midnight and it was almost that she drove the rest of the way into Quinlan and waited. And waited. Then she waited some more. Finally she put $1.80 out of the last $1.85 in the checking account and came home, the bank was having some kind of computer glitch and my check didn't show until morning.

So, in the morning we gathered up and dove to town, there we found that the sidewall was broken...Goodyear light truck tire sidewalls seem to be made of bubble gum and that particular tire had no Road Hazard warranty as it was the one replaced after the LAST time Linda Lou drove off the road for no apparent reason.

No big deal, a used tire will last for a while, we could live with that until she gets her social security. Off to the used tire store, I did a lot of business there, back in the day...the wheel rim was broken, too.

I do not understand why Linda Lou insists on driving in bad weather, she had done things like driven off the road for no apparent reason for years but she just keeps insisting. There was no particular reason she had to go driving, she had enough soda to last until morning...

So, now another month of no decent groceries, no going shooting, no nothin'. Somebody kick the dog for me. Anybody got a rim for an '05 Chrysler Town And Country Van in the backyard? I need to get offline and go someplace where no one can hear me speak for a while, I have some ugly words about to erupt.

Sixgun Shorty

I am praying for a friend of mine that I have never actually met. Sixgun Shorty is an SASS Pard, lives out by Lake Tahoe. At the moment his house is still standing but that big fire is awfully close.

I am being somewhat selfish in my prayers, Shorty and his wife have gone to stay with a son so they and their dogs are safe. My concern is that Shorty could only get some of his shootin' irons out. You see, Sixgun Shorty is a collector, as well as a shooter. His collection includes a whole slew of 19th Century firearms, many are irreplaceable.

The nifty thing about this particular hobby is that a feller like me can easily rub shoulders with a whole 'nother tax bracket. I will never be able to afford an engraved second generation Colt Single Action Army with ivory grips. But I've shot one.

Anyhow, if you have a spare prayer or good thought, pray for the safety of those firefighters out west, along with some homes and an irreplaceable set of shootin' irons. And some of the prettiest country in the world.

Can We Go Out The Front Door?

The dogs only go out the back door unless they are on the leads. The back yard is fenced so they don't get shot.

Doesn't mean they aren't desperate to get out the front door.

Father's Day

It's Father's Day and I'm thinking about the old man. I often forget that he's been gone since '85, in my mind he is still twelve feet tall with bright red hair. I must have been in my late teens when I finally realised that he was only about five nine or so.

How DidThis Happen?

I am not quite sure exactly how Doggie Friday morphed into Doggone Saturday. I suspect laziness has something to do with it.

Somehow the dogs have decided that the big chair is theirs. The two pugs are not a big problem when we want to sit there but Cochise' Apache Princess is getting to be a slight problem.

CAP turned five months old yesterday, we did not have a big party. Perhaps we should have but she is spoiled enough already.

The big deal we are working on is trying to teach her not to jump on people. Not only is she large enough to knock over a loaded cement truck but her claws are like razors. This wouldn't be so bad if we lived in Antarctica and wore twelve layers of heavy clothes just to take a shower, living in Texas during the warm months is not so joyful. Especialy since we have so many warm months.

It is raining again today. The dogs are all in the house. Somebody pooped by the front door, nobody noticed. Then Ming wanted to go out to pee, she hates rain so waits until the last minute, Princess got all excited about maybe having a chance to go out the front door so she lept into the poop and jumped up and down spreading it all over.

I just had to get a puppy. I couldn't wait to get a nice two year old from German Shepherd Rescue, no, I had to get a puppy. Somebody shoot me.

Oh well, the lake is getting almost to full, finally. I have been watching this one boat house, the kind where you raise the boat out of the water on chains... The water is almost to under the boat. There are actually people able to use the boat ramp nearest the turn to our road, at least with the smaller, shallow draft boats. I don't really care all that much about boats, or fishing, but the lake is our source of drinking water. Also where I get the water to wash the dog poop off my feet.

They Must Want To Be Lobbyists.

The Senate is trying to revive that awful immigration "reform" again. They must have decided that since lobbyists make so much more money than Senators they don't care about being reelected. That's fine, I don't care about them being reelected, either.

The thing they can't seem to understand is that we don't particularly care about them as pals. I have no desire to sit around drinking beer with John Cornyn, Kay Baily Hutchinson does not come by the house and help dust the ceiling fans. They are politicians and I will not stand by and let them drive wages down even more while adding to the tax burden.

This bill is a deal breaker. Period. Vote for this bill and I will do everything in my power to help you back into private life. Now maybe I am no longer a Republican Precinct Chairman but I still have family and friends who will listen to me. Even if you won't.

No pretending. Solve the influx, get rid of the criminals and then we can talk about legalisation.

In other news I read about people lamenting the loss of "innocent life" over in Gaza. I am not sure I believe that there is innocent life. It's like rabies has infected that whole pack.

No dog pictures yet, maybe later. I have to go get my blood drawn to make sure I'm getting enough rat poiso, er Coumadin to keep my blood flowing. I just flat don't understand how my blood got too thick anyhow.

So, Doggie Friday Is Late.

I don't think you can sue me for being late with the Doggie Friday pictures. Even if you can, though, I'm judgement proof. I own nothing that can be taken in a lawsuit. Anyone ever tell you how much I love Texas?

The rain has finally quit, it's hot and, with all the water still on the ground, humid. Tomorrow I am going to fire up the tractor and see if I can start mowing. I have a faint hope that I'll be done in only two days. The undergrowth is so tall that Eddie disappears. Of course ten feet over is bare ground.

There are some things I don't love about Texas. Not least is that to have any kind of a yard one has to work 175 hours a week. This is not helped by the fact that I hate yard work. My Momma used to punish my transgressions by making me work in the yard. Then I went and married a woman with a brown thumb. Every plant she touches dies. She doesn't even dare put seed in the feeder for the birds for fear of killing the tree.

Dear Washington

Dear Washington,

Now that the Immigration Reform Bill is on life support, here is how you can get some public support for your next try.

Back in 1965 when you reformed immigration you promised that as soon as the bill was passed into law you'd get a handle on illegal immigration. At that time we were having a big fight about bringing black Americans into full citizenship, including jobs. Well we brought in a bazillion immigrants and noting was done about the illegals. Black Americans still lagged behind on jobs, meanwhile illegals drove the entry level wages down.

In 1986 we had another big immigration reform. You promised us that as soon as the bill was passed you'd get a handle on illegal immigration. No one knows exactly how many illegals are in the country, all we know out here in flyover country is that the jobs we used to have are now done by illegals, at half the wages.

We notice that Teddy Kennedy had much to do with the 1965 bill and the 1986 bill. We notice that the promises of enforcement as still not met.

As you go back to try again, let me make a couple of small suggestions. First, take Kennedy out of the room. Do not let him anywhere near this. He has fixed it twice, it is still broken. That's enough. At some point you must realize that his fixes don't fix anything. Have somebody take him out someplace with a bottle of Scotch and a couple of bimbos and have someone else try.

My next suggestion is to stop fooling around and build the fence. In 1942 we started building a highway to Alaska, finished it, too. While we were building that highway we also put a ten million man Army together. We built more than ten thousand B-24, thousands of tanks and B-17s, the P-47s and millions of M1 Garands. Now you say you can't build a fence.

Washington, forgive me for saying this but I just flat don't believe you when you say we can't build a fence. We think you are telling another lie. Now if these folks were coming in and taking our jobs and we had the kind of pensions you do when someone takes your job in Congress, we wouldn't mind much. Thing is, we don't have those kind of benefits.

We'd like it if you could figure out a way for employers to figure out the the ID the immigrant worker uses to prove he or she is legal is not bogus paper. We'd like it if you put a stop to this sanctuary nonsense. Now if we can figure out a way to make sure that only legit citizens or green card holders are working we won't have to deport the somewhere between five and twelve million, or more illegals. They'd go home. Or turn themselves in.

Washington, it does no good to screech that I'm a horrible racist or nativist or whatever expletive you are using today. You see, you work for me, remember? You promised enforcement. Instead of giving enforcement you seem to be looking for ways to lock up border patrolmen.

So, you want my support for immigration reform? First find those folks who are under deportation orders and make them go away. Build that fence. Find, and jail those who are here using stolen IDs. Then we'll talk.

Love, Peter

Libby

I would be a lot more comfortable with Scooter Libby getting thirty months in the slammer had Fitzfong tried and convicted Armitage for leaking Plame's name. Since the guy that actually leaked her name was not even prosecuted this is a junk conviction.

I would also be more comfortable with Libby's sentence had they got a change of venue. I simply do not believe a Republican can get a fair trial in Washington, DC.

Libby should be pardoned. Nifgerald should serve thirty months.

We Can't Depend On All Terrorists Being Incompetant

I see that the Left is ridiculing the JFK Airport terror investigation. Well, there is a certain amount of ridicule due, not for the Feebs and local police who busted it but that the would-be terrorists did not understand jet fuel and explosions.

It is my (admittedly limited) understanding that even if this particular bunch of yahoos had gotten themselves a bunch of explosives all they would have done would have been to add to Glow-Ball Warming by putting a bunch of smoke in the air. I wonder had they blown up all of these jet fuel tanks if it would have emitted as much CO2 into the air as Algore and Laurie David do in a year of jetting around?

There is a reason that we don't build those tank farms in the middle of large cities. We also do not put day care centers on top of the tanks.

Still, just because this particular plot would have been an inconvenience instead of a bloodbath had it come off, that doesn't mean it couldn't have morphed into something deadly. That disaffected white loner, the DC sniper wasn't exactly the brightest bulb on the Christmas tree. What was that white loner's name again? Oh yeah, Mohammad. Sorry, all those white loners look alike.

I never did get to be an explosives expert, I know how to set up a claymore and to boil coffee by burning a dab of C-4, that's about it. Now I have a certain amount of expertise with smokeless powder, which is not explosive and I am learning about black powder in cowboy cartridges. If I decided to strike terror into America I wouldn't have decided to blow stuff up, I'm not competent to do that. I would probably use a long range rifle.

Well, actually if I wanted to terrorise America I'd go out in public in a Speedo. Nonetheless, has this JFK crowd have wanted to do real damage they would have only needed one competent member to come in and point them in a direction that would have been effective.

I am no terror expert, I made my living differently. I do know that the vast majority of criminals are rather dim. Many, perhaps most, can barely read. Yet half the people in our cities live in terror of homegrown criminals.

So this bunch wasn't competent to do what they wanted. The Leftist websites are saying that the Evil Bush just picked on these poor innocent Muslims just to take every one's mind off, um, something. Oh yeah, Bush cooked it up just to get the Left to quit hating him. Right.

What I am really tired of is that the Left keeps ridiculing us all because we aren't real eager to have our families killed. Somehow the fact that I worry a little about my grandchildren being murdered by Islamothugs makes me a coward.

People wonder why I hate Leftists even more than I do Islamofascists.

Tired Of Wet Dogs

It has rained pretty much every day for a month now, it seems, I'm getting tired of it. I am tired of wet dogs and their muddy feet. Not to mention other body parts...

I am tired of it always being too wet to mow, my weeds, er yard is out of control and it's still too wet to mow. Of course Linda Lou doesn't care about that. Oh well, it's friction now that we're too old for makin' whoopee, I should be happy.

With all this rain the water in the lake is almost up to some of the boat houses and fishing docks the lakesiders have built back before Algore messed up the weather with his constant blasts of hot air. Hey, that makes as much sense as our SUVs causing it...When Leif Erikson was on Greenland they had vineyards and now the Glow-Ball Warming ninnies are crying because of the Greenland glaciers melting a little.

Why do we assume that the weather in 1952 or 1971 is what it sould be all the time? The weather changes, maybe Algore and the rest of those idiots should just get used to it. Not far from here I can dig in the desert and find ancient seashells. Oh well, the weather people say that it's going to rain today and maybe tomorrow and then we'll have eight or nine days of dry weather with highs in the nineties. Good, I haven't mowed inside my new back fence since we put it up. The mower will be slingin' some dog poo, soon.

In other news it was eighteen years ago today that the freedom and peace loving Chinese government slaughtered the protesters at Tiananmen Square. But we're all supposed to worry about the gulags of George Bush.

I have finally figured out why control of lobbyists is so difficult to come by in Congress. Congresscritters almost never go back to their districts if defeated, they stay in Washington, mostly as lobbyists.

This is probably why the congresscritters won't listen to anyone about the flood of illegal imigrants coming across our borders. What do you want to bet that the lobbying companies don't hire illegal aliens.

Here is something I don't understand about the comanies that are hiring illegals to drive down wages. Who is going to buy their products? I don't think we can last as a society of upper management and low wage illegals with everyone else doing, um, what?