Mid Week Activities

Got work finished early Tuesday, the weather was warm, so I grabbed the mutts and headed down to the cabin so they could run free, and I could do a little catch-up work.
After the heavy rain over the weekend, I decided to make some walkways in the damned clay that sticks to your shoes like glue. I made some rock steps up toward the outhouse, and put down some nice ones to and around the rain barrel. Andy has been putting up the window trims on the inside. He's using weather worn oak taken from an old chicken coop. Mama sent down the old wooden Levilor blinds for him to put up. They ain't needed, and some are actually about 2 inches too narrow for the windows....but, I'll have him hang them anyway.....cause "that's whut Mamma WANTS"!
Reminds me of two little signs I saw last week at the consignment shop. First one was the one seen in most kitchens " If Mamma ain't happy...then ain't nobody happy". The second one said ..." If Pappy ain't happy....Nobody gives a crap"
I just got a new cellphone yesterday, and have actually taken the time to try figuring out how to use the darn thing. It's a little more advanced that my old one. It's still a flip-phone , not a smart phone....didn't want to go that high tech.
Marisa and her friends were driving back tonight from Marde Gra in New Orleans.... so, I tried sending her a video message on the phone. It surprised the hell out of her and friends that I actually figured it out!
Last week, Marisa decided that "the mutts" needed to show their pride of being big UK Basketball fans....that's the reason for the attached pics.

Catch-up thoughts and ponderings

Each morning I check the weather forcast on the computer and also monitor what the weather is like in other parts of the country where friends live. It was a little depressing to note that we were only getting up to 6o today, but, Dotham, Alabama was supposed to get up to 78, and worse than that, San Antonio was supposed to get up to 84! However, I felt much better when I saw that Great Barrington, Mass. was only getting up to a high of 21!
I was able to spend a nice long and relaxing weekend at the cabin...even with the mutts along! It was a little chilly, so I kept a nice fire going the whole time. However, it got warm enough Friday evening that the "peepers" (small frogs) were singing lively tunes down on the ponds. It rained quite a bit, but, it just made it nicer with the rain on the metal roof when it was nap or bed time.
Got some good quality reading time in, along with watching my 3 Netflix DVD's. Could have gone home early, or driven up on a hill to watch the UK vs Tennessee Basketball Game, but, was perfectly content just listening to it on the radio. YEP...my TEAM won.... "Sorry 'bout that Carol"

Geneal Ponderings:
Liberia and it's problems: I think we need to keep our noses out of it. IF we do get involved, then damn it, lets go in there and take over the frigging oil wells!
LINDSEY LOHAN: Throw her ass in jail for about a year or so, with NO MORE get out early crap!
Martin SHEEN: Ban him from getting anywhere near a camera. He's nuts and thrives on all the attention.
Westboro Baptist Church Members: The next time they protest at a soldiers funeral.....I'd like to horse whip every damn one of those worthless pieces of crap!
Illegal Aliens: I seem to understand that part about "illegal".... why can't our frigging President and his Federal Govt Agencies not grasp that?
Gay Marriage: I'm against it. I'm just an old fuddy duddy that believes its between a man and a women. However, I think that gays should get some of the legal rights that married folks get....as should couples of opposite sex.
Abortion: I have to straddle the fence on this issue! I am in favor of a woman making her own decisions. I personally don't cotton to the idea, but, I don't like to make decisions for other people!
President: I think he SUCKS! He has shown no respect for our allies, creates Cabinet Csars to get around Congress, directs his Att Gen to disregard enforcement of laws that he does not agree with. ETC !
CONGRESS: What the hell good are they? Both sides are only interested in grand standing and getting re-elected so they can get more slop from the Lobbiest and UNIONS! Creating new laws are pretty much a waste of time. They pretty much are unenforceable due to the Liberal Federal Judges that rule just about everything as "Unconstitutional". Except "O Bama Care" which was ruled as Unconstitutional, however, they are going to run it through anyway!
Well....guess I'll get down off the soapbox for now!

Paradox

Italian Virgin

Maria had just gotten married, and being a traditional Italian she was still a virgin. On her wedding night, staying at her mother's house, she was very nervous.

Her mother reassured her; 'Don't worry, Maria, Tony's a good man. Go upstairs and he'll take care
of you. Meanwhile, I'll be making pasta.'

So, up she went. When she got upstairs, Tony took off his shirt and exposed his hairy chest. Maria ran downstairs to her mother and says, 'Mama, Mama, Tony's got a big hairy chest.'

'Don't worry, Maria,' says the mother, 'all good men have hairy chests.. Go upstairs. He'll take good care of you.'

So, up she went again.. When she got up in the bedroom, Tony took off his pants exposing his hairy legs. Again, Maria ran downstairs to her mother. 'Mama, Mama, Tony took off his pants and he's got hairy legs!'

'Don't worry! All good men have hairy legs. Tony's a good man Go upstairs and he'll take good care of you.'

So, up she went again. When she got there, Tony took off his socks and on his left foot he was missing three toes. When Maria saw this, she ran downstairs. 'Mama, Mama, Tony's got a foot and a half!'

Her Mama said, 'Stay here and stir the pasta.'

HE'S BACK!

Well....it finally happened....the computer crashed ..... hard-drive fried. Just got another hard-drive put in. Now the fun part..... trying to re-install all the extra crap I had on the old one. And also, trying to go back and bookmark all of my favorite spots!
I had all of my pictures and videos backed up on a separate hard-drive, so, I lost very little.

Depression? Who ME?

I don't think that what I have would be considered "depression" in the clinical sense. I just seem to have an acute case of the blahs! I go through this every Feb and March. It's one of those periods whereas I don't want to get out to "be sociable", or even fool with any of my hobbies. I just seem to want to just burrow up in my man-cave.
I'd say that it is a combination of lack of sunshine and too damned cold to get out and do anything.
I've been this way for about 3 weeks, so I pretty much ruled out the side effects of Chantix ( couple of about 1,000 possible side effects is depression and suicide), or grumpyness from cutting back on cigarettes.
I have been able to go from about 30 cigarettes a day ( as of last weekend) down to 5 today. This Chantix stuff does work great for me, with no side effects. I'm just using them once daily instead of twice.
I was able to quit smoking for the first time ever last year (for about 6 months), but, had something really upset me, and I "lit up" to calm me down. It's like an alcoholic just taking one drink to "take the edge off".
The sad thing was that I was really proud of my accomplishment and was able to actually quit after about a month.
Also, I chipped in $25 per week as my "smoking fine" and ended up with $1300 to use toward the cabin expenses. Effective this week....the fine is $35 per week. This will continue on after I quit, to use as a reward to myself.
I have been credited with many flaws, but one of my worst is being "damned bullheaded" as my Mom used to say. Others just say I'm "pretty stubborn". Well, hopefully this will work in my favor again like it did last year!
I guess I need to "head up into the Mountains" to visit my ole friends, play a little poker, swap lies, and drink a little bit!
Hell....I'm feeling better already just getting this off my chest!

Ricky Jay - The Cups and Balls

This is a beautiful example of "Close-Up Magic.