Rantings Diversified

Everyone and their brother seem to be doing the retrospective thing.  Looking back and lamenting.  Folks seem to be either focusing on everything what went wrong in the world or everything that was good with the past year.  Some people have written posts on what they accomplished while others have focused on all the bad things the governments of the world have thrust upon us.  I actually liked reading the scribblings of a few who looked around and asked questions as to why or why not.
2007AD was a good and bad year.  A lot of things both in my life and in the world at large happened.  Some good, some bad.
I was talked into starting this blog last January.  Good Thing.
I have met, virtually, a whole mess of smart, funny and good people through blogging.  Good thing.
I had an acute attack of gout.  Bad Thing.
I have gotten into many a long, sometimes heated, discussions of world politics with many and varied people from all corners of the globe.  Good Thing.
I got a really fun and challenging contract job.  Good Thing.
The contract ended.  Bad Thing.
I re-established a relationship with someone I fell in love with years ago.  Very Good Thing.
I spent the late summer and autumn traveling all over this state.  Good Thing.
It appears that this year’s stats will go into the books like this;
Good  6
Bad  2
Brianf  8

Well, I have no doubt that I have forgotten to list some things but this post wasn’t suppose to be about retrospection but instead about looking forward.  Tonight I’ll put this year away and file it under 2007AD.
As of Midnight tonight another year begins and I’m determined to make 2008 a banner year.  There are some big changes on the horizon for me and I am more than ready for them.  Come to think of it I’m getting a bit impatient for some them.
I’ll explain them to you as they unfold.  So now it’s time to quit looking back.  Let’s look forward and be excited and happy for what lays in front of us.
Happy New Year to everyone!!!

Ok, a bunch of folk have been asking me to comment on the tidbits that I posted in the last post. You talked me into it. Most if not all of them are true though some do need some explanation.

My sister Trisha said…
You are the best at helping someone “in need.” Many, many times in my life I have been in need……of support, of someone to listen, of a friend, of someone to drive 100 miles to offer that support and you’ve, without fail, have always come through. How’s that?
Well that kinda’ blew me away. Thanks Trisha!
My friend Michele wrote…
1. U like sitting in a hot tub when it’s snowing
True! Sitting in a hot tub in a snowstorm is a rare treat.
2. U can’t drink Tequila
Very True. I poisoned myself with Tequila on my 22nd birthday. I can’t even smell Tequila without my stomach turning somersaults.
3. U SHOULDN’T drink Vodka
Um, Ah, apparently I called Michele one night after having a few too many glasses of Vodka. She is still laughing at me about that night.
4. U don’t Hate cats even though u pretend u do.
Alright, I’ll give you this one. Cats are Ok.
5. Quite sentimental & romantic even though it spoils ur tuff guy image.
I don’t know about sentimental but yea I guess I am romantic, when it comes to her.
6.Ur a jerk and it’s on ur permanent record.
Private joke. She just told me it’s non-expugnable. I said, Well at least I’m good at it.
My friend Helen said…
You had a romantic tryst with Joan Jett.
The only thing I’m going to admit to in public is hanging out with her at an after show party many moons ago.
You shoot squirrels as they attempt to break in through your bathroom window.
Close. I have an air rifle on the back of the toilet to shoot squirrels out in my back yard from the bathroom window.
You have an unhealthy fascination for time pieces.
It’s not unhealthy. I have a bunch of clocks from Grandfather clocks to mantel clocks. I only have five clocks in my living room but I do have nine in my office.
Your favourite sayings are “Horse Hockey”, “Cool Beans”, “Too Too Funny” “Aint no thing” “No biggie” and “For real”.
Yea, I guess I do use them too much but it’s no biggie.
You have an addiction to Stromboli Pizza which kicks in most Friday nights
I have to take Helen to school here. Stromboli and Pizza are two different things. Pizza is just that, Pizza and Stromboli is pizza dough stretched out and filled with Italian meats and cheeses and spices and stuff then rolled up and cooked. Yum!!
You’re going to mount the sapphire in your wedding ring on the front sight of a Kreighof or Benelli.
True! Hehehehe!
You have a vial of crude oil pumped from the McClintock well to sitting on a bookshelf beside a piece of coal from somewhere else in PA
True. How cool is that? I think it is and it sits right beside a chunk of Anthracite coal from Schuylkill County
My friend Jim said…
Brian was my first roommate ever… in a hospital nursery then 19 years later in college we were roommates again, he grew 6 feet 2 inches in that time, I think he has stopped getting taller now.
Nobody believes us. Jim and I were born on the same day, in the same hospital and our Mothers shared the recovery room. He is 15 minutes older than I. By the way I am 6′2″ and Jim is about 5′4″.
My friend Linda also chimed in…
Brian is a motorcycle enthusiast he likes to ride to Ephrata Pa. to look at all the motorcycles and sidecars. He is a master of trivia and a lifelong friend.” Don’t Ya know I had to include sidecars.
She is absolutely correct. It’s called First Sunday at the Ephrata American Legion. On the first Sunday of each month hundreds and hundreds of bikers show up at around 0800 and everyone parks in the three parking lots and walks around checking out everyone else’s bikes. It’s a blast. Then everyone leaves at noon, we stop somewhere for lunch. It’s a fun Sunday ride. By the way Linda has two BMW bikes both of which have sidecars. How else can she take her dogs for a ride?
Polly and Duke the aussie dogs say:
He smells like meat sometimes and is pretty good with a ball.
Duke is definitely an Aussie Shepard. He sits beside you on the couch looking all sad and doggie like then when you are least expecting it he lurches forward and licks your nose. You can almost hear him laughing as he runs away.

Yes dear readers it’s meme time again.  I was tagged with this new twist of an old theme.  Instead of being asked to post things about myself I was tagged by Kate at ….because I said so! to ask others for their input on things about me.  Hmmmm said I and off I sent an email to one of my sisters, my best friend and his wife, an old friend who lives overseas and a virtual friend from Oz.

This is the email I sent.

I have been tagged to do another “6 things about you” meme on my blog but this one has a twist.
I would like you to write back and tell me something about me that I can put on my blog.  I’ll credit you as author.
I’m going to ask 5 other people to do the same so I can post “Six things about me by others”

The first to respond was my sister Trisha.  She said…
You are the best at  helping someone “in need.”  Many, many times in my life I have been in need……of support,  of someone to listen, of a friend, of someone to drive 100 miles to offer that support and you’ve, without fail, have always come through.  How’s that?

Then my friend Michele in Dubai wrote back and said….
No fair….
I’m not a blogger….
1.  U like sitting in a hot tub when its snowing 2.  U can’t drink Tequila 3.  U SHOULDN’T drink Vodka 4.  U don’t Hate cats even though u pretend u do. 5. Quite sentimental & romantic even though it spoils ur tuff guy image. 6.Ur a jerk and it’s on ur permanent record. 

Helen in Sydney Austrailia also took the time to write…..
Ah so is this a test to see if I’ve been paying attention over the past 8 months?
You had a romantic tryst with Joan Jet
You shoot squirrells as they attempt to break in through your bathroom window You have an unhealthy fascination for time pieces Your favourite sayings are “Horse Hockey”, “Cool Beans”, “Too Too Funny” “Aint no thing” “No biggie” and “For real”
You have an addiction to Stromboli Pizza which kicks in most Friday nights You’re going to mount the saphire in your wedding ring on the front sight of a  Kreighof or Benelli You have a vyall of crude oil pumped from the McClintock well to sitting on a bookshelf beside a piece of coal from somewhere else in PA
Shall I go on?

My best friend Jim finally got back to me with this….
Brian was my first roommate ever… in a hospital nursery then 19 years later in college we were roommates again, he grew 6 feet 2 inches in that time, I think he has stopped getting taller now.

Jims wife Linda also chimed in…
Brian is a motorcycle enthusiast he likes to ride to Ephrata Pa. to look at all the motorcycles and sidecars. He is a master of trivia and a lifelong friend.”  Don’t Ya know I had to include sidecars.
Geez even their dogs got in on the act.
Polly and Duke the aussie dogs say:
He smells like meat sometimes and is pretty good with a ball. 

So now you have a bunch of information about me as written by others.  My last task on this meme is to tag some other unsuspecting bloggers.
The envelope please?
And the winners are……
Jefferson Davis
K8 the Gr8
Grandad
Cravey
Baino

Just a week before Christmas I had a visitor. This is how it happened. I just finished the household chores for the night and was preparing to go to bed when I heard a noise in the front of the house. I opened the door to the front room, and to my surprise, Santa himself stepped out from behind the Christmas tree. He placed his finger over his mouth so I would not cry out. “What are you doing?” I started to ask him.
The words choked in my throat, as I saw he had tears in his eyes. His usual jolly manner was gone. Gone was the eager boisterous soul we all know.  He then answered me with a simple statement, TEACH THE CHILDREN! I was puzzled: What did he mean? He anticipated my question, and with one quick movement brought forth a miniature toy bag from behind the tree.
As I stood there bewildered, Santa said, Teach the Children! Teach them the old meaning of Christmas. The meaning that a now-a-day Christmas has forgotten!
Santa then reached in his bag and pulled out a FIR TREE and placed it on the mantle. Teach the Children that the pure green color of the  stately fir tree remains green all year round, depicting the everlasting hope of mankind.  All the needles point heavenward, making it a symbol of man’s thoughts turning
toward heaven.
He again reached into his bag and pulled out a brilliant STAR. Teach the Children that the star was the heavenly sign of promises long ago.   God promised a Savior for the world, and the star was the sign of fulfillment of that promise.
He then reached into the bag and pulled out a CANDLE. Teach the Children that the candle symbolizes that Christ is the light of the world, and when we see this great light we are reminded of He who displaces the darkness.
Once again he reached into his bag and then removed a WREATH and  placed it on the tree. Teach the Children that the wreath symbolizes the eternal nature of love. Real love never ceases. Love is one continuous round of affection.
He then pulled out from his bag an ornament of HIMSELF. Teach the Children that Santa Claus symbolizes the generosity and good will we feel during the month of December.
He reached in again and pulled out a HOLLY LEAF. Teach the Children the holly plant represents immortality. It represents the crown of thorns worn by our Savior. The red holly berries represent blood shed by Him.
Next he pulled out a GIFT from the bag and said, “Teach the Children that God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. Thanks be to God for His  unspeakable gift. Teach the Children that the wise men bowed before the holy babe and presented Him with gold, frankincense, and myrrh. We should give gifts in the same spirit as the wise men.”
Santa then reached in his bag and pulled out a CANDY CANE and hung it on the tree. Teach the Children that the candy cane represents the shepherd’s crook. The crook on the shepherd’s staff helps bring back strayed sheep from the flock. The candy cane is the symbol that we are our brother’s keeper.
He reached in again and pulled out an ANGEL. Teach the Children that it was the angels that heralded in the glorious news of the Savior’s birth. The angels sang ‘Glory to God in the highest, on earth, peace and good will.’
Suddenly I heard a soft twinkling sound, and from his bag he pulled out a BELL. Teach the Children that as the lost sheep are found by the sound of a bell, it should bring people to the fold. The bell symbolizes guidance and return.
Santa looked at the tree and was pleased. He looked back at me and I saw the twinkle was back in his eyes. He said, “Remember, teach the Children the true meaning of Christmas, and not to put me in the center, for I am but a humble servant of the One who is, and I bow down and worship Him, our Lord, our God.”

(I have no idea who wrote this but I’m glad to pass it on)

I did it.
I made a list and stuck to it.
It wasn’t as bad as I thought.
Yesterday, the Saturday before Christmas, I ventured forth and did all my Christmas shopping in one shot.  Yea me!  It only took two hours.  I went to a store just off a highway.  That was an easy  in and out.  People seemed to be calm and happy and generally in the spirit of the season.  I left there and decided to drive through town to get to the next store.  I took my time and was listening to King Crimson’s “In the Court of the Crimson King” in my car so I didn’t really care how long the drive was.  I got to the bookstore and retrieved what I went there for and the 20-something moron with all the bits of metal sticking out of his face behind the counter was definitely not happy in his work.  By the time I left I was not far from reaching over the counter and non-surgically removing that crap stuck in his face.  Oh well he was a jerk and now I don’t have to deal with him any more.  I was back on the road heading for a mall.  I turned the music up louder.  While driving to the mall, on a highway, I thought maybe I’m driving too slowly because everyone is passing me quite quickly.  I glanced down only to learn I was clipping along at 75MPH and everyone was passing me!!!   Geez, slow down folks!!!
I arrive at the mall and when I pulled in there are two lanes.  One to turn right and another designed for those who wish to turn left.  I pull into the left turning lane only to find the idiot in front of me driving right down the middle.  I’m not in any great hurry but this semi-evolved simian was stopped so I drive around them only to be met with horn honking and arm and hand gestures I’m fairly sure was not complimentary.  I turn left.
It was then I realized that the big traffic snarl at the bookstore was caused by someone driving a Lexus SUV just like the one that stopped dead in the middle of the mall entrance.  So I came to the conclusion that to own a Lexus SUV not only does one need to pay twice what any other car costs but apparently one must take and fail a test of common sense.
I park around back and entered the mass consumption area commonly referred to as the mall and again I was happily surprised to see the overall stress level of the consuming public was pretty darn low.  Folks were happy and smiling and nice and all.  It was a welcome change.  I had expected a very high level of stress and a lot of not-niceness but like I said I was happily surprised.
I bought the last present on my list and drove home.
I was supposed to go down the legion yesterday afternoon but I drove by there on my way home and the parking lot was packed and it was only 1300.  So I blew it off.  I wasn’t up for dealing with drunks at 2 in the afternoon.
Christmas Shopping 07 completed in two hours.

Yesterday morning started like any other Sunday morning. I got up around 0830 and looked outside only to see the world covered in anywhere from ¼ to a ½ inch of ice and it was still raining and freezing on contact. So I putzed around for a bit before sitting down on the couch, turning the laptop on, checking my email and whatnot. It was a little past 0900 when I heard the first, “CRASH”, outside. It was so loud that I jumped up from where I was sitting thinking that something just fell on a house. I look out the bay window only to see a large portion of a large oak tree in the middle of the road. I call my neighbor across the street Donna whose tree it is and while on the phone with her two ignorant minivan drivers come down the road and turned and drove right through my neighbor’s yard to go around the debris. Ignorant fuckers! So I get dressed, yes I was in sweats and a t-shirt, and go outside to help move it but by the time I got outside a guy in a pickup truck had pulled up, got out and tied a rope around the branch and pulled it over to in front of my house thus making a lane so as to open the road. While out there I call the township to let them know what happened and that we got the road open. No sooner than I hang up the phone a pine tree snaps in half in another neighbor’s back yard. CRASH!!! While my neighbor Steve and I are picking up wood off the street we hear trees snapping and breaking just about every ten minutes or so. Of course no sooner than I go back inside the cop shows up and is trying to move the wood off the road. I go back out to help him and he tells me the whole county has trees down and we are one of a very few areas still with power. While talking to him we hear another very loud CRASH. We both laugh and I wish him a good day. He drives around the corner and stops. I walked over to the corner only to see a huge maple tree down and across the street. As I turned to walk home another chunk of the big oak tree comes crashing down missing Donnas VW by less than a foot. Through all this not one house was hit nor one car crunched. Amazing!
I finally decided to venture out to the local 7/11 around noonish and it took me 15 minutes to dig through and then chip the ice off my car. As I drove the 10 blocks or so to the store it was a winter wonderland of arboreal destruction. Branches and whole trees down everywhere. If you look closely at the picture above you’ll see my neighbor’s fence broken about half way down their yard.

The Eagles beat the Dallas Cowfaggots !!!

F**k your 12 and 1 it’s now 12 and 2 !!!

Can you say Donovan McNabb?  Can you say Brian Westbrook?

My favorite photo of my son, Jimmy, is when he was 5 years old at his first Phillies game.  He was sitting in front of the pitcher statue at the, “VET”, holding up his first ticket to a major league ball game.  The best part of the photo is the fact he is wearing a red ball cap with a white P on it and a t-shirt that in large GREEN letters says, “Dallas Sucks”!

Can you Cowgirl fans now say E.A.G.L.E.S.!!!

EAGLES!!!

Dallas Sucks and the Eagles Fly!!!

He is becoming more and more interesting to me, the more I learn about him.

RON PAUL for President 2008

A father kills his 16 year old daughter for not wearing a hijab.  This did not happen in Fill-in-the-blank-astan or some tribal land where the wheel is listed in the top ten modern day inventions but instead in Toronto Canada and the main-stream media hasn’t said a word about it.
Read about it here.

Imagine the leader of a tiny little island all covered in rain clouds demanding a salary larger than any other world leader.  This guy doesn’t even wear a silly hat or a ridiculous uniform.  Oh stop laughing and go read this.

Algore and everything that spews from his pie hole is an ever present source of WTF’s.

Why does this lead the national newscasts and this doesn’t make it on to the news at all?  WTF!?!?

This guy and this guy and this complete silliness make me want to scream WTF too.

Rosie O’Donnell and Michael Moore always make me scream WTF.

Glow in the dark cats!  WTF!?!?

 OK, here we go again.
Apparently Baino saw her way clear to tag me with this P.I.T.A. meme.
Here are the rules of the Meme:
Post on your blog . . .
Link to the person that tagged you and post the rules on your blog.
Share 7 random and/or weird facts about yourself.
Tag 7 random people at the end of your post, and include links to their blogs.
Let each person know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

1.
I hate winter.  I don’t use the word hate because it’s a pretty strong word but this is the one instance where I use it quite happily.
2.
I love pizza.  I could eat pizza for dinner 6 days a week.
3.
I’m a dog person.  It’s not that I don’t like cats it’s just that I prefer dogs.  Right now I have neither.
4.
I don’t have cable or satellite TV but I do have really fast internet access with fiber optics to the desktop and 25Mb/sec throughput.    Priorities, ya’ know.
5.
I don’t drink coffee.  I just don’t like it.  OK, so every once and a great while I’ll have a triple espresso but other than that, you can keep it.  Yuk!
6.
I’m a really good cook, thank you.  Self admittedly but other folks tell me the same.
7.
I like Triumph motorcycles.  I could go buy a Harley but then I’d be unique, like everyone else.
Now I have to tag seven people who have yet to be tagged by this.
They are as follows:
Wordnerd
Kate
Hanulf
Sam
Johnny Dodge
The Playaz
Jen