The Pugs Visited Their Mama!

I took Ming the Merciless and Bingo to see their Mama today. I got to the hospital and bundled Linda Lou into a wheelchair and off we went down the elevator and outside where they had a joyous reunion. This is where I discovered that the plan is that Linda Lou should stay in the rehab wing for TWO MORE WEEKS!!! Holy crows, I knew it was a bad break but two more weeks? Anybody know of a nice chubby girl whose hobbies are housecleaning and kinky sex?

The good news is that the county has a program to send someone out to handicap-ize the house, they'll raise a toilet and put grab rails on, and fix grab bars for the tub, plus put in a ramp. That will help a bunch.

Meanwhile I have no idea persactly how I'm going to be buying gas for daily visits to the hospital, some sixty+ miles round trip per day, we have been budgeting a tank and a half of gas a month lately. Well, I will figure something out.

Anyhow, Linda Lou is already working with the physical terrorists in the new wing, something over three hours today and this was a Saturday. I believe the pace will pick up during the week. She says she'll work extra hard so she can come home and torment me. All I know is that I'm plumb wore out from all this. As soon as she's healed I'm going to collapse and be bedridden for a month or so.

More Slow Progress

I showed up early to the hospital on my way to my Doc's appointment and they actually had Linda Lou sitting up in a chair. It takes a bit of effort getting her up and down but the hospital staff is very good at that. Maybe not so good at information but danged good at taking care of her.

Meanwhile the idiot in chief is doing his damnedest to remake our system into what the Brits face. Let's review: Linda Lou fell at about 4:30 on a Sunday morning. We live so far out in the country that we don't get the Grand Ol' Opry on the radio 'til Tuesday Afternoon. I had to mess with dogs and suchlike before I could go to the hospital, by the time I got there it was about 6:30 or 7:00, they'd already had her X-Rays and put her into one of those boot things and were working out a plan of attack.

They put her into a (private) room, the only kind they have in that section and, from there into surgery the very next morning where they inserted half a hardware store, two thirds of an oil derrick and, I believe, a 1992 Buick 3.8 Liter V-6 in there to hold those bones together. I may have some minor technical details wrong, medicine is not really my field, the important thing is that Linda Lou is getting as fine a medical care as anywhere in the world where, in Canada, where medical care is "free" she'd probably not have had her surgery yet..

She is getting visits from everybody in the hospital staff it seems, the Physical Terrorists a couple times a day, naturally her Doc and her Nurse, an aide, about half the days a student nurse, even a respiratory therapist to see that she's getting enough oxygen. That woman gave me an alarmed look when I told her we hardly ever watched that channel.

I left to go to my Doc's, having extracted permission to bring Linda Lou her favorite meal, a double cheeseburger and Tater Tots from Sonic (I'm not sayin' I married her because of the cheap date factor but...)

I got to my Doc's office and eventually saw the Doc hisownself instead of Amy, the PA that I normally see. Dunno why, I didn't argue though. The Doc and Amy see both of us, that's why they call it a family practice, I guess. So we spoke about me, he poked and prodded and, as expected, bent me over the table. They always give me a funny look when I carefully look to make sure the Doc doesn't have both hands on my shoulders during this process.

I'm too polite to ask why they have to reach around my lowest intestine before they can write my prescriptions but, what the hey, I got out with my scripts and an order for some fasting blood work and pee tests and off I went. I might walk better with that KY Jelly lubing up a friction point but am kind of leery about doing some kind of scientifical test. The good news is that there is an office of the Lab we use just a few blocks from the hospital.

From there I went to the supermarket and bought Linda Lou a six pack of her beloved Diet Pepsi and a package of blueberry scones and found a lemon chess pie on the marked down rack for me. Rigorous testing by one of the finest minds in the country (mine) has proven that marked down improves the flavor of almost anything.

From there a drive up to the county seat where the hospital is. I doubt many will care but we live on the very edge of our county and we seldom go there, the distance is more or less the same to where we normally go and there is much better shopping there. As far as we live from anything but pastures, lake and trees, we try to combine as many trips as possible. Anyhow it is close enough to make no nevermind which town is closer and it's actually about five miles closer to the county seat of the next county over the other way.

A quick stop for Linda's burger and back to the hospital only to discover that she had the catheter out, more progress! Linda Lou could not eat the whole burger but the dogs did not let it go to waste. Shortly after LL finished eating the Physical Terrorists showed up to help her back to bed. They told me she'd be moving to their lair in the hospital for the rest of her stay.

Shortly after that I left to come home, dropped my scripts off on the way and came home, let the Pugs out for their evening constitutional, then let CAP in and we all took a nap. Now, come morning, I get to try to bemember how to do a load of laundry and it's getting out of hand. Let's see, rule number one, do not wash my bright red shirts with my underwear...

So, we're muddling through. I think I have found a new home for Cochise Apache Princess, I'll know this weekend. I just can't take the chance of this hardly-trained monster dog and a Linda Lou barely able to navigate. Sigh. We're really too old for a dog her size, though, we'll stick with Pugs from here on out. What the heck, as long as the Pug can wake me up I can shoot the bad guy.

The IV Is Out, That's A Little Something

Those following the saga of Linda Lou's broken leg will be glad to know there is some small progress. When I got to the hospital they had removed Linda Lou's IV drip, oxygen tube and "that ball". "That ball" is, oddly enough, a clear ball containing a local anesthetic delivered to just above the leg. I was also in the room, just before I came home to feed the livestock, when they gave her the last dose of Hillbilly Heroin, Oxycontin. I'm not persactly sure what they will give her when that wears off but I'm glad that stuff is about over. Not that it doesn't work.

As an aside, I must say I am totally amazed about how Rush Limbaugh managed to stay coherent, as much of that stuff as HE was taking. Linda Lou kept falling asleep in the middle of a sentence, nay, a word!

I have no idea of when they will let her come home, the only word is that they will soon move her from the room she's in to a room in the physical therapy wing. The fuse is lit, burning slowly toward a major tantrum if somebody doesn't tell me what's going on soon. I have a doc's appointment of my own on Thursday, just a visit with my family practice Doc to get lectured about my diet and exercise (or lack thereof) and to refill my scripts.

Speaking of prescriptions, I finally figured out why Democrats hate the drug companies. I'm retired, getting social security. There are a few scripts that literally keep me alive. Without them I would die fairly soom, with them I may even have another ten-fifteen years. And THAT is why the Donks hate those drug companies, they keep us old folks alive, actually using those benefits they promised. If the drug companies would just let me die the Donks could wail and demand more money to prevent such horrible deaths, if only there were more midnight basketball courts!

But, I digress...When I get to the hospital tomorrow, after my Doc reaches up my backside far enough to examine my tonsils and wave at all her friends over on the next block, I'm hoping Linda Lou will be coherent enough to bring me up on what's happening. Then I'll tell you.

Surgery Was A Success, Medics Allege

I left the house right about my normal (?) for me bedtime and drove up to Greenville, by the time I'd got to the hospital they'd taken Linda Lou from the room. So we sat around, waiting. The twins (our youngest) had met and driven out, too. So we sat, I spent about half the time trying to stay awake and the other half worrying.

Afterr what felt like two weeks of waiting they brought a sleeping Linda Lou into the room. They had to open up her leg and put about half a hardware store in there, screws and plates and a rod and lord only knows what else. If only they could put something in there that reminds her to watch where she puts her feet.It's not like we just had that hall put in. Shut up, Peter, while you still have a chance to survive...

We have, as yet, no idea of when she can come home. The Doc expressed the thought that the bones would knit completely, that's something. I am really worried about her mental state, I think she fears that she will never be able to get around well enough to do for herself. Or, maybe just she's fearing that she won't be able to keep trying to put me in the poorhouse. It's all right, dear, there is always internet shopping!

Seriously, she seemed pretty depressed today, I hope it's just the residual effects of the General.Please keep up the prayers.

In proof of how tired I was, and am, I was unable to tell the left from the right. It is her right leg that is broken. More later.

Fun With Broken Bones

We went to our grandson William's Blue and Gold Banquet yesterday, we have a few pictures that will have to wait.

At 4:30 AM I was minding my own business, getting ready for my bedtime snack and all of a sudden tere was a big ol thud and scream in the hall behind me. Linda Lou had woken and on her way to the john, fell and broke the Tibia abd Fibula of her right leg, just above the ankle.

This kind of spoiled my whole bedtime although not near what it did to Linda Lou. There isn't much that made me feel more helpless in this life than waiting for the ambulance. I knew there was something seriously wrong just from the swelling and the pain to the touch.

Now that we've seen the X-Rays we know the breaks are bad. The Fibula, the smaller bone in the back of the calf is a fairly simple break, the Tibia looks like a spral fracture. They will be going in and putting a plate and a rod in, probably tomorrow (Monday, 22 February.)

Anyhow, prayers would be welcome. Now that we are in our sixties we don't heal like we used to.

Cast Bullet Softness And Hardness Versus Velocity And Pressure

It's been almost forever since I wrote something about shooting here. Stupid winter. Stupid poverty. Stupid health.

I figure I might ramble on a bit about cast bullets. The art of jacketed handgun and rifle bullets is well known, the art of lead handgun and rifle bullets is rapidly being forgotten and that is a shame. A bigger shame, of course, is the way lead has been demonized but that is another story. Well, just a mention, y'all know how lead shot was banned for waterfowl a couple decades back because of the claim that ducks and geese were eating spent shot from the bottom of lakes and using it like gravel in their gizzards to help digest their food, thus being poisoned? This led us to steel shot which, being lighter, wounded more ducks and geese to die later, uncollected. Naturally though, wounded critters do not count toward the bag limit so, where is the gain? Some mighty savvy gunnies, including that grand old man of the shooting sports, Elmer Keith, claimed that we could have eliminated the problem(?) of lead poisoning simply by using larger, heavier shot for all waterfowl. Their claim was that simply by going up to number five shot as a minimum would make the shot sink a bit deeper, eliminating the poisoning problem(?), instead we got steel shot. And now a bunch of others, many costing well over two and three dollars a shot. This also leads to cripples, at three bucks a shot, how much practice do most of the shooters get? And even the fellers (and gals) who do practice, say on the trap and skeet fields, shoot the cheaper lead shot which has a slightly different drop and lead factor. Sigh.

Anyhow, about cast and swaged bullets. The most important thing about them is that the hardness or "temper" of the bullet must match the pressure and velocity of the load. The second thing to remember is that if one gets very far off, leading becomes a miserable problem. Oddly, too hard a bullet will lead as badly as too soft a bullet. A bullet that is too hard will not obdurate or swell up to seal all the powder gases behind the base. This means that those very hot gasses get to blow the lube out of the bullet's lube groove(s) and also melt bits of the lead allow which then sticks to the cooler barrel. This builds up fairly quickly and soon accuracy is lost. Not to mention the joy of scrubbing those big lumps of lead out of the barrel.

Too soft is also a problem although one can drive a fairly soft bullet out of a handgun with little lead at surprisingly high velocities. The dirty little secret is that most commercial casters concentrate on making their bullets easy to make and easy to ship so they arrive to the final shooter nice and pretty. They are also only really good for high velocities, 'way past the capabilities of, say, the .38 Special or standard .45 Colt and other cartridges where the standard velocities are less than 1,000 feat per second.

This, of course, is the range that some 75% of handloaders strive for since the vast majority of handloaded rounds are simply made for fun. These days, for instance, almost all the shooting I do is a Cowboy Action matches where all handgun ammo must be under 1,000 fps and most is lower, a lot lower. The recent hoo rah over velocity finally made a rule that no revolver bullet may go less than 400 fps and that all our reactive targets be set to fall at a 100 grain weight bullet striking at 600 fps or a 200 grain slug at 400. I shoot the standard weight .45 slug of 255 grains or, cast from my alloy 248. I could almost throw one of those fast enough to knock the target down. While I'm digressing, I have never seen them set up a chronograph at a club match and, when the sun was at the right angle I have actually seen some of the bullets in flight.

Muzzle loaders and cap and ball revolver shooters load pure lead, usually. This, the softest of bullet metals is good enough for those velocities. A black powder arm when properly cleaned at the start and used within the limits, will have no leading. The Pards in my club that shoot cap and ball revolvers can shoot a six stage match , sixty rounds total with one cap and ball revolver, switching cylinders to get to the ten rounds per stage, and have zero leading.

The next step up from pure lead is a small amount of tin mixed in the alloy. This is good for all standard handgun rounds and the big black powder rifle cartridges of the buffalo hunter days. The usual range of tin in the lead is one to forty to one to twenty. Saint Elmer of Keith used one in twenty for just about everything, including the .44 Magnum and his earlier attempts to "magnumize" the .44 Special.

This one in twenty alloy is good for even over the normal limit of 1200-1400 fps possible in the big cartridges like .45-90 and pretty much all normal handgun cartridges like the .38 and .357, the .44s, etc. This alloy will run out of steam and start leading badly in things like the .454 Casull Mag, .500 S&W Mag, things like that. In other words, even the "standard" magnum cartridges like the .357 and .44 have to be loaded at the very top of their capabilities to make these bullets match the pressure and velocities. Not one shooter in a thousand runs the mags at full charge every shot. After all, that's hard on the gun and hard on the shooter.

It's not just the recoil, either. Even with the best hearing protection available, a full load .44 Mag is hard on the hearing. There is a reason I do not watch much TV or listen to much radio. I started shooting before hearing protection was common. The BOOM! of the low pressure rounds like the .38 Special wadcutter loads, the standard .45 Colt or .44 Special, even the .45 ACP was easier to take than the hot .357 Mags, the old high pressure .38s, the .38 Super, etc. When it came to rifles, anything hotter than the .30-30 would have my ears ringing for days, even with the old chewed up Kleenex or toilet paper wadded into the ears. Of course, in those days everything was power for me. It took a lot of years before I figured out that all the bullet had to do was amble on down for 25 or 50 yards, often a lot less and fight it's way, somehow, through a sheet of paper wand some light backing, maybe a tin can and it was all done. No, in those days, everything was loaded up to stop a charging bank vault in it's tracks. It's funny. In all my born days I've never been charged by a bank vault. I digress, again.

The next step is a lead tin antimony alloy. In these the antimony does the hardening and there is usually just a tad of tin. In these alloys the tin is just used to make casting easier. There is some long metallurgical explanation for this and I have read it many times, usually either falling asleep or getting a headache. Truth is, I don't need to understand it to use it. I used to shoot a lot of wheelweight metal, cast into bullets. Wheelweights are (or were, this is fast changing) lead and antimony. By itself, wheelweight metal makes for some pretty good bullets for the 800-1000 fps loads only there are a lot of rejects going back into the pot. By adding one pound of tin to some forty pounds of cleaned and fluxed wheelweight metal the reject rate is almost zero. I could use this alloy for just about all of my smokeless powder shooting for the rest of my life and be happy.

The next level is about the hardest practical cast bullet alloy, linotype metal. This runs about 84% lead, 12% antimony and 4% tin. This is good for the highest pressure and velocity, with a gas check on the base and good lube these bullets can get up over 2600 fps in rifles. There are harder lead alloys but they tend to shatter on game.

There is one other place where lino is about the best metal for bullets, the standard autoloading pistols. This may not be the "best" metal alloy for the pressure and velocity but the self stuffers are hard on a bullet. The ride in the magazine is bad enough, every time the gun recoils the rounds in the mag bang back and forth, plus being forced up by the follower and mag spring, then the trip from magazine to chamber. After all that the gun goes BANG! Then the poor bullet hits that shallow rifling, meant for jacketed bullets. The softer alloy that is fit for, say, the pressure and velocity of a .40 S&W or a .45 ACP, would skid about halfway up the barrel, causing it's own leading. So the autoloaders require a harder bullet metal than they would otherwise use.

A trick to reduce leading in autoloading pistols is to use a wad of the right size. I use Walter's Wads although you can buy gasket materiel and make your own with the right size punch. This works even better with a small ball of bullet lube on top of the wad, this takes out the gas that would ordinarily try to blow by the bullet base. Most hand loaders don't bother, though, they simply scrub the lead or use jacketed bullets. Walters does not seem to have a website but his stuff is available through Midway, there on my side panel, plus a bazillion other places.

I am lucky enough to have a Pard in the scrap business. I "pay" for my lead and tin with bullets and loaded ammo so I can cast my bullets to the hardness that suits my needs. Folks that buy their bullets are a little less lucky. The best outfit selling bullets to shoot, rather than bullets to ship is Desparado Cowboy Bullets. These folks make the bullets that shoot easy, right up 'til about 1000-1100 fps. Not only are they great for cowboy action and paper punching but They'd be just the thing to have in your shootin' iron if a critter of the size your cartridge is good for happens along. I mean small critters if you're carrying a .32, .38, something like that or dear if you have a .357 or .45 Colt, or even a bear with the right load. Nor would I feel naked before my enemies if I had a revolver stuffed with these.

All of these bullets are soft, meaning they'll expand some, they are the round nose flat point type. In other words, instead of the old, reliable semi wadcutters that work great in revolvers but tend to hang up in a lever rifle, these have the round nose profile that feeds well, except the point is flat. We have found that this profile hits as hard as the semiwadcutter and penetrates just as straight through whatever bone and tissue it meets. If I did not cast my own, these folks would get all my business. I haven't been a customer of theirs, I tried a hundred rounds of ammo that I loaded with their bullets in a complicated trade. All I can say about them is that their bullets are as good as my best. And I'm pretty ruthless in my quality control, being retired and all. It's no trick to sitting for three hours, listening to Rush on the radio and casting a whole slew of bullets in my six cavity Big Lube Mold plus another slew of semiwadcutters for my .38s and .357s.

Another nice, soft bunch of bullets are the swaged lead bullets. I sometimes use the Remington swaged lead bullet in my .45s. With smokeless powder these bullets are wonderful. The lead is so soft that they slug up to fit the bore so there is never iny undue leading, at least up to the maximum the original .45 Colt rounds are designed for, about 950 fps or so. Do not disparage this "low" velocity, this round and this bullet will go right through both sides of an elk. The only downside to these wonderful bullets is the odd, flaky black lube on 'em. This lube works well but is kind of messy. Do not wear your best clothes will loading these bullets. And, once the ammo is loaded, take a few minutes and wipe the noses of the loaded ammo before using it, or even putting it in the box. This bullet is also great with black powder, just smear a dab of black powder lube in that slight hollow base and seat it over a wad. The ugly black lube on the bullet will last for a gunfull or two in a revolver but you'd have a real mess in your carbine. That big dab of lube, though, is just what you'll need.

There is one more, really big advantage to the soft cast or swaged bullets. In the action shooting games we shoot at steel targets. The hard bullets break up on the target and bullet fragments bounce all over. It is not unheard of that they draw blood on a competitor or spectator. The soft bullets mostly hit and spread out, expending all their energy in deforming against that hard steel. Then, energy spent, they fall. Most soft bullets are found laying there, within a few feet from the targets.At my club you'll find guys going around where the targets were with buckets, collecting those spent bullets. Why they're saving the environment from a horrible poison that just happens to come right out of the Earth but, once it's out it's an affront to Mother Gaia. They have an odd prayer to Mother Gaia, though. If you listen close you'll hear them say things like this will cast enough bullets for the next six months! Oh well, it must be some foreign language that only sounds like English. All Hail Gaia!

There are other fine soft swaged lead bullets.I'm partial to the Hornady and Speer swaged lead hollowpoints in the .38s, it's easy to work up a load just like the old FBI load, that soft lead bullet going about 900 fps from a service revolver. I have a three inch Ruger SP101 that I carry when I think I might need a little more gun than the Model 60 S&W Chief's Special .38. I have yet to convince one of the small ammo companies to make a load just for these small .357s, no luck so far. If you live where the judge worries more about why you shot the bad guy than whether or not you used a handload, a Speer or Hornady 158 grain lead semiwadcutter hollowpoint in front of 5.7 grains of Alliant's Bullseye Powder and a standard primer will give right at 1000 fps out of that three inch barrel. The recoil is very controlable, too and, bullseye being a fast burning powder, the muzzle flash is nice and low.

There are a few others, GOEX Powders has taken over the Black Dawge Bullets sales. I haven't used them but they look interesting. Their .45 handgun bullets and .38s match some weights used 'way back when, the .38 is 145 grains, much like the old .38 S&W cartridge used and the .45s are 235 grains, just about exactly what the old Cavalry load was. Load that up in front of 28-30 grains of FFG Black and not only will you have the load the Indian Fighters carried but also what went to the troops in the Philippine Islands when the local Moros took a bunch of those .38 Colt bullets and kept coming in, swinging those Bolo Knives and chopping a lot of soldiers to doll rags. They mostly fell down and stopped their antiAmerican ways when hit with the .45s.

This is also the load that John Browning copied in then modern materials to make the .45 Automatic Colt Pistol round, a short, rimless case and a nice hard jacketed round nose slug going just about as fast as that old Indian fighting load, 830 fps.

Funny, though, after a whole lot of years where the .45 acp round settled a lot of close up fights the military, in all it's wisdom, decided to go with a full jacketed 9mm load. Of course, as all the real gunnies said, that full jacketed load is about as effective in settling fights as that old .38 Colt. So, now all the Special Ops people are carrying .45s and everyone else who can put their hands on them also carry them. It's quite another story but the best hollow point rounds in 9mm, which our troops are forbidden because it is against the Hague Convention, which the bad guys never signed, is every bit as effective as the best .45 rounds. That's another story, though, since our troops can't carry the best ammo. It's some kind of rule the big brass, who no longer ever hear a shot fired in anger, have. We can't use the effective ammo while the bad guys can, except most all of them are spraying those AK rounds all over. Fortunately for us, most of them still believe that the harder they yank the trigger, the harder the bullet hits. I suppose it is racist to call a bunch of ignorant savages ignorant savages but still... It's bedtime, I have to go to a grandson's Blue and Gold Banquet. I wouldn't mind so much if I could go without going to town.

Pork

It's supposed to get more normal around here temperature wise, that's a little something. The bad news is that just about the time the mud from the melted snow dries out, we're supposed to have some rain. I have not been able to bring CAP into the house when she didn't have mud all over her for two months now.

I roasted a pork loin today, trying this recipe from the 'net. All recipes.com if it matters. Balsamic roasted pork loin. I had this five+ pound pork loin and so had do do some jiggering with the recipe, considering that it called for a two pound loin. I reckon they used piglets. Anyhow, here is the recipe as posted:

Two pound pork loin
One half cup balsamic vinegar
One half cup olive oil
two tablespoons steak seasoning rub.

Stir the steak seasoning into the vinegar and keep stirring until it's dissolved. Then mix in the oil. Put the loin into a resealable plastic bag and pour the marinade mix over it. Let it marinade overnight and then put it in a pan. Put the pan into a preheated 350 degree F oven until it reaches 145 F internally, about an hour. Baste often. Let sit ten minutes before slicing.

This recipe is from someone named Melissa S. I do not know her nor anything about her. I will say that if this Melissa person is married her husband should be a happy man. If he ever treats her wrong he'd be dumb enough to pay Al Gore to teach him about climate. Just sayin'.

Anyhow, since I had no steak seasoning rub I simply took three tablespoons of garlic powder, some paprika, sage and thyme and some ground white pepper, regular pepper and a tad of salt. Never did hold with storebought seasoning rubs, not when I have spices aplenty in the cabinet.

Anyhow, I don't have to worry about lunch for a while, I'll have pork sammiches. I probably should have cut that thing in half before I put it in the freezer, a five pound loin is a lot of meat now that it's just us. Oh well, sammiches, pork with potatoes and applesauce, I'll make it go away. The dogs have volunteered to help if needed.

As anyone can see, I don't have much going on right now. More than anything, this is just to show that we're still alive.

Update 2/19/10: If I ever make this balsamic pork again it will be a smaller piece. It's good but then I thought about some hot pork sammiches. No gravy! Arrgh!

More Glow Bull Wurming Pictures

I was on my way to bed Friday morning and took some more pictures. I took a ruler out and measured the snow in a couple-three different places where it was flat, seems that it was about seven inches. Now for someplace up north like Minnesota or Maryland or Vermont* or some other dreary place that isn't Texas, seven inches of snow may not sound like much. Here, seven inches is a blizzard. Remember, folks, we get our blizzards at Dairy Queen.

At any rate we have had the most snowfall since the mid to late '70s when all the people (that were then alive) now screeching about global warming were nattering on about the coming ice age. Well, we didn't get the coming ice age and we aren't getting any man made global warming, either.

To believe in man made global warming one must also believe our ancestors caused all those other climate changes. The didn't and we aren't. This whole global warming cult is simply those who have given up their belief in God and jumped on a new religion, the Church of global Warming, Pope AlgoreI. Well, it's true that Pope AlgoreI has made quite a bit, somewhere around a billion dollars selling Papal indulgences, er, sorry, carbon offsets, to people who aren't real smart. Here is a guy who flunked out of law school and then left divinity school "voluntarily" just before they threw him out for grades. There are a lot of rumors about saying that he was really majoring in marijuana.

Well, anyhow, it's supposed to warm to the 50s today so I reckon this will be gone by tomorrow nite at the latest. I hope the folks in Dallas took their kids to Flagpole Hill and let them slide down on sleds, big pieces of cardboard or trashcan lids.

Update: I neglected to put the thought about the asterisk at the "northern states like Maryland or Vermont. I know full well that Maryland is not northern.

If anyone cares, clicking on the bottom photo to embiggen it will show the Cardinals at the bird feeder. Putting birdseed into that feeder put me into snow deep enough to have it slop into my boot. Ugh. Double ugh since I wasn't going to be out there very long so I just pulled those old boots on over bare feet.

I call them "old boots" because they are sort of old, they were my new Justin Ropers that George the German Shepherd puppy chewed to doll rags. The soles are still "pert near" brand new, after George chewed them I only wear them while I'm on the riding lawn mower or out in the mud. That chewing thing was in early 2006. Shortly after I bought those boots Justin changed the design of their basic Ropers and the heels are now molded as part of the rubber soles. Meh. Plus they're made in China now. I'm still waiting for my loyal readers to send me to China so I can check out the Chinese cowboys.

I know that pretty much all the religions tell us to forgive those who have done us wrong but, even so, I'm still waiting for my chance to um, show the creep that shot George the error of his ways. I hope this won't keep me from going to Heaven.

Southwestern Snowcopolypse!

It started snowing last night sometime and hasn't stopped yet. I haven't seen snow like this down here since the '70s. This was when all the academics were screeching and waving their arms about the next ice age and how we're all gonna die!

Ever notice how all these oh so smart people can never figure on human ingenuity? None of these hothouse flowers has ever managed to, oh, I don't know, take a trip and see that people are thriving everywhere from Point Barrow Alaska to Tierra del Fuego.

The climate is changing, of course. Which direction? Um. Let's see. We had the Little Ice Age. We had the Medieval Warming Period. I would say that we are coming off a little warm period, heading toward a cooler time but then, I could be wrong. What I know for sure is that it has nothing to do with anything we are doing. Man's industry is not annoying Gaia.

We, in the wealthier west, have cleaned up the environment tremendously. I'm old enough to remember not being able to see for the smog and rivers so polluted that they caught fire. This does not happen anymore, no matter that we are a lot more crowded than we were back then. I am really sick of the idiots on the left saying that we conservatives don't care about the Earth. Anyone with eyes can see the difference between where the left held sway and where the good guys held power. Take a look at the former East Germany and the former West Germany, even today. For that matter, take a look at Detroit and then Dallas. And even Dallas has slums where, oddly, everyone votes left.

Anyhow, our Snowcopolypse down here is nothing compared to what they're still going through northeast of here, prayers would be welcomed.

I only went out to fill the bird feeder and take poor Ming the Merciless out to pee and poop. She did not like it at all. Bingo T. Pug was not quite sure at first but started running around and barking. Cochise' Apache Princess was out there running around and biting great gobs of snow and just playing.

I do not think we'll have Ming much longer, she is really having difficulty moving. Most days I have to carry her down the steps from the deck to the ground. She can still get from her little doggie bed to the food and water bowls, though. On a nice day she still enjoys laying in the grass in the front yard, barking. She may not know persactly what she's barking at, just tellin' the whole world who the yard belongs to, I reckon. Anyhow, she's still enjoying life now, with a little help.

It was a day to stay in so I decided to invent a recipe. I had a package of skinless, boneless chicken breasts and half a back of egg noodles. So I browned the breast on a griddle with some butter and boiled the noodles. The noodles went into a casserole dish with a can of mushroom soup and a can of cream of celery soup with a bit under half a can of water each.I cut the chicken up into small pieces and mixed it in, added some spices and a package of steamed broccoli and cauliflower and an eight ounce package of sharp cheddar cheese on top.

Please don't tell me someone else has a recipe exactly like this somewhere, I was just going with what I had. It could use a bit more veggies and noodles, though or maybe I just didn't give enough chicken to the dogs. Anyhow, this is now going to be an official bad weather meal for me. The only bad news is that we don't have a nice chubby girl with the hobbies of cleaning up and kinky sex. Okay, okay, I'll settle for cleaning up.

Well, now it seems that Debra Medina is the next thing to a 9/11 troofer. The only complaint I've seen about Perry, besides the fact that lefties don't like him, is that he is in favor of that HPV shot for kids. While I kind of sympathize with those against making those shots mandatory I'm not going to fight very hard against someone for trying to make sure our young women grow up cancer free.

The thing about this vaccine is that it seems to protect against a cancer that most often happens to girls that engage in too much sex, too young. My life experience is such that the ones screaming "my daughter won't need that!" the loudest have the girls that need those shots the most. Okay, not every girl but, enough. Don't get me wrong, I'm for parent's rights. I'm against cancer, though and I think that is a little louder in my head.

I'm not trying to pick a fight with Medina followers. I, unless there is a huge surprise, will vote perry in the Primary. If, by some chance, Medina gets the nomination, I'll work hard for her election. I do not think she will, nor should, get the nomination, though. Still, anybody but KBH or a Donk.

Update: The dogs all think I didn't give them enough of the chicken and that's what was wrong with the casserole.

A Little Bit Of Bacon...

One of the things that makes living in "genteel poverty" bearable is Wright's Bacon Ends and Pieces. It comes in a three pound bag in a box and is very reasonably priced. Cut that thing in half, freeze half and fry the other enough to get most of the grease out, pour that grease over the dog's kibble and throw the mostly cooked bacon in a pot with two pounds of whatever beans you feel like eating. Add a couple of onions and in a while, make some cornbread or cornbread muffins. Or maybe some nice rye bread with lots of butter. And here I go, drooling on the keyboard again. This batch was pinto beans. I also have two pounds of great northerns for the other half of that bacon.

I can really hurt myself with those pinto beans, though. When I get down toward the bottom of the pot I get out the skillet and cook some sliced bacon or some sausage and then refry some of those beans in the oil. serve with eggs and picante. I do believe there may be a reason that I haven't seen my feet while standing in quite some time.

There sure is a lot of hoo raw over Sarah Palin writing a few words on her hand. I am not nearly as famous as Governor Palin but I have done a little public speaking. There is very little that is as embarrassing as standing before X number of people and get asked a question, only to suddenly draw a blank. Nor does one need a room temperature IQ to draw such a blank, it has happened to a lot of very smart people. Most times it is merely uncomfortable but in business it can cost a contract or a promotion, in politics it can be career ending.

I suspect that she had her speech all set up on those little index cards, idea one, idea two, etc. Then she had these few little bullet points for question time and feared that index card might be lost in the shuffle, therefore, the hand. I dunno persactly how many little notes I've written on my hands over my lifetime but it's a lot.

Even better was the note she wrote on her hand for the Houston area blowout for Rick Perry.Hi mom. I can see her laughing at all the lefties who think it's such a big deal to write something on one's hand when durned near everyone does it. Sarah has to be asking if lefties are simply trying to alienate middle America or if they're simply dumber than yesterday's coffee grounds. Hmm, it could be both. I don't know just how Governor Palin would fare in the primaries if she decides to run for the presidency but it sure is plain to see that she has a better sense of humor than the incumbent.

The Obamanuts are claiming that Obama wiped out the Republicans in that meeting they had. I guess that's right if you call taking every question and answering something else, totally unrelated to what the question was. Furthermore, I'd really like to meet these folks Obama is talking about when he pops up with some outlandish statement and saying it's from some say. Some say, Mr. Obama? Who? Come out with some names and hometowns so we can call 'em on the phone and ask when they said it.

Some say. The some, in this case are as elusive as Obama's college transcripts. Y'know what? I'm plumb tired of the left getting all up in the air about Palin or Perry or insert conservative figure here while everything about Obama is a stinking mystery.

How did Obama travel to Pakistan when it was against the rules for an American to go there? How did a guy who, according to his own book, couldn't afford a cab in new York manage to scrape together the money for that trip? Why would a guy that age, brimming with youthful hormones, want to go to Pakistan? Okay, back then I could see a guy wanting to go to Thailand or the Philippines, even Okinawa or a bunch of other places full of girls of low morals but Pakistan? Really, Pakistan? Why? Why would anyone, much less a red blooded young man, who cannot speak any language but English want to go to freaking Pakistan where they'll throw acid in the face of any girl that so much as smiles to him? So, instead of focusing on what Sarah has written on her hand today, how 'bout some questions for Potus?

I have been asked by a couple of people who I support for governor of Texas this term. I know Rick Perry, he's actually done a pretty good job. While the rest of the country is completely in the toilet, Texas is merely kind of slow. I do not know Debra Medina. She is the Chairman of the Wharton County Republican Party, jumping from there to Governor seems like a pretty big step. Then again, George Bush went from selling his share of the Texas Rangers for a gazillion bucks and thence to the Governor's Office. He may wish he'd stayed there. I met Senator Hutchinson back when she was Kay Bailey, I believe she was a State Rep then. Dang she was good looking!

Well, I know I'm not voting for Hutchinson. It's time she spends some effort on something else. She has simply been infected with Washington. think of her as a taller, better looking version of John McCain.

I do not know Medina. She may be a wonderful person. She is also the state coordinator for some kind of Ron Paul thing. Ron Paul seems to be a nice enough fellow too but he has a lot of very strange and creepy followers. I shall do a little research before deciding to take a chance or simply go with Perry.

I have three fears about this election. Fear #1 is KBH getting the nomination and conservatives staying home and a Dem getting the Governors mansion. Fear #2 is Perry getting the nomination and the Paultards staying home and a Dem getting the Governor's Mansion. Fear #3 is Medina winning and the government getting filled with Paultards. Y'know what else is funny? How ron Paul manages to keep his House office from filling up with Paultards. I'm leaning hard toward Perry.

I'm also leaning towards my pillow. It's going to be a gray, wet and rainy day, just perfect for the bald fat guy to lay abed. and dream of beans with bacon and onion! That's something to take my mind off politics.

Update: Why is it that the left, the bunch that always claims to be for freedom, especially sexual freedom, must constantly slander folks they disagree with in sexual terms? I'm not quite sure what satisfaction is found in teabagging. My Linda Lou and I used to be pretty open with each other and if we had understood the concept years ago we might have tried it. Today? Nah, it would be too embarrassing to have to call the volunteer fire dept to get us out of the position. And now the left has decided to call Palin's scribbles a hand job.

Further update: Commenter Jennifer has taken me to task for namecalling in my comments about Debra Medina. I have called her nothing, merely stated that I don't know her. I'm a long way from Beeville, TX. I stand by my comments that there were a lot of very strange people following Dr. Paul. The term Paultards is not a blanket indictment of everyone who supported Dr. Paul, merely those strange people.

I have no way of knowing why or how these really strange people involve themselves for one candidate over another. Nor is it any particular Party. I remember the Buchanan Brigades. By the same token I remember how Senator Clinton won the most votes in the Texas Primaries but the Obamites played some very strange and dirty games in the caucuses. So, Obama "won" Texas.

So, sorry, Jennifer, I'll not apologize. I will stand by my statement that I will have to learn a lot about Medina before I switch from Perry. And I feel no guilt about the verbal shorthand of Paultards. All politicians have some weird supporters. Dr. Paul has an unusual percentage.

Corpsman Up!

There are Navy Hospital Corpsmen on duty in the White House, 24/7. Naturally the political gods that run the place never notice those guys and gals in the funny clothes and out of style haircuts.

I am not surprised that Obama can't say the word, he's probably never even looked at them, much less asked them what they do there. I don't think he's ever bothered watching a war movie with American Forces involved. After all, he wouldn't want to get caught rooting for the other side.

A lot of people want to cut Obama some slack here, after all everyone cut Dan Quayle so much slack when he got that misprinted flash card. Oh, wait. Well, how about we give him exactly as much slack as Quayle got? We are under a constant barrage about how smart Obama is, and how his administration is chock full of the smartest people in the country. They've all gone to the first rate schools, too. Not like that dreary Palin who took extra years to get a degree in some cow college.

why they're so smart that either Obama doesn't need to practice his speeches or nobody else knows how to pronounce it. Or is it the speechwriter? The people in charge of making Obama sound so smart (if one looks at Obama's numbers they ain't doin' such a hot job, there) might have actually written "Corpse Man". The more I see of Obama the more I see that he is simply an empty suit, a mass of skin held up by narcissism and hunger for power. Nor do I believe he knows what to do with that power except to command everyone to "look at me!" We could actually handle that if the rest of the government were not filled with mendicants and knaves.

My (electronic) friend Cynthia says that Obama is a malignant sociopath. She may very well be right, I lean towards that when I look at what he's doing to the economy. Still, years ago, more years than I care to think about, way back when my chest was bigger around than my belly and I had legs like tree trunks I learned to never attribute to malevolence what can be explained by stupidity. Of course there is always malevolent stupidity.

There is a very real possibility that Obama is just a convenient front for the Chicago mob and convicted felon George Soros. Soros has made a pile of money wrecking economies, he is, after all, the man who broke the Bank of England. While most people make their money either working for others or building something, there seems to be another way, destroying the savings and livelihoods of innocent, hard working people. I'm not smart enough to understand how one makes money like that but there are boatloads of bucks to be had wrecking lives. And this is at least part of the bunch behind Obama. Meanwhile he screeches about people who make money honestly.

At any rate that's about all I've got. It's been really wet here, it rains and before the ground dries it rains again. The dogs are Mud Monsters. I went to my cardio doc the other day, he lectured me about my weight, wants me to eat healthier foods. Right. I would except those waterhead looking clowns in Washington have priced healthy food out of the budget. Other than my cholesterol being way too high, I'm fine. So, now I have another pill to take. Oh, goody.

The Dogs And Their Sweet Potato Orgy

I was over at my (electronic) ladyfriend Pamibe's blog and she had a recipe and link to a dog treat recipe blog a while back, the simplest recipe was for yam or sweet potato treats. Well, I like simple and sometimes I even understand simple.

The website is The Dog Treat Kitchen and is jam packed with dog treat recipes, ranging from dead simple to super-duper complicated. The dogs here will have to go without complicated.

Preheat oven to 250 degrees F. Line a cookie sheet with baker's parchment paper.

This one, though is really simple. Take a sweet potato or three and cut it into slices about a third of an inch thick. The recipe says to wash and dry it first but you don't even have to peel them. The recipe says don't cut the slices any thinner than a quarter inch but doesn't say what calamity will befall you if you do.

Here comes the fun part, put the sliced yams onto the cookie sheet and then, wait for it....

Put them in the preheated over. Leave them there for an hour and a half or ninety minutes in metric. I think that's metric. After the timer goes off, take the cookie sheets out of the oven and turn the slices over. Let them sit in the oven for another hour and a half.

Then put 'em on a wire rack and let them cool completely. And that's it. They say keep 'em in the fridge, they also says they'll keep for up to three weeks in the fridge or four months in the freezer. I cannot imagine my critters allowing them to get stale in the fridge.

The only downside to these recipes is that that one treat recipe, baked dry yam slices took seven pages to print. I think the site is written with people who have government computers and so don't care. the rest of us can do it the old fashioned way and just write it down.

Oh, and my dogs loved loved loved them.

My next try will be the oatmeal-peanut butter dog cookies.