SOME TUNES

I put these posts up because I like to hear the sound of my own voice. I enjoy the music. I am interested in things that mean jack shit to others. The feeling is mutual.

Between doctors and my chemo treatments and chores and range time, I do not look at other blogs. They never change their tune: like a short talk topic on a long tape loop, it comes and goes like a hula hoop. I am not in a constantly agitated state, suggested by the various blogs, and I do not spend time pecking out significant messages warning the world of its decay and impending doom. No outrage or indignation here, just resignation and cynicism; I have seen much and I say little about what I have seen.

 Don't spend any time looking for messages in the music. Just figure, you came for a visit and that's what I had on the box.

TALKING DOG





Be patient and polite. read through this most excellent post. The dog story has been verified by a panel of international experts.









I value my time so I don't cruise the blogs. I can do without all the clever people offering suggestions on how I should think. I also don't agonize on putting up posts; the one or two readers I have already know what the weather is and the folks that stumble on the site 'cause they can't type, or want soup recipes, they can always go to the archives and read all about it. Or they can go away. Mind over matter: I don't mind, and it don't matter.

Here's something I have learned about blogging:

The most impor­tant tasks of the aspir­ing blogger are:
(1) blog daily;
(2) link head­lines;
(3) excrete out­rage - vainly, and rep­e­ti­tiously;
(4) throw on some boobs;
(5) don't drink, and don't die;
(6) use post titles that contain buzz words to attract strangers;

Learned what not to do, is what I learned. Me, I just putter along, posting stuff that I get a kick out of. I'd rather be putting my M1 together or going to the range with some heavy metal. Which is what I'm gonna do as soon as the ink dries on this post.

 

 

 

 

A guy is driving around the back woods of Montana and he sees a sign in front of a broken down shanty-style house: Talking Dog For Sale

He rings the bell and the owner appears and tells him the dog is in the backyard.

The guy goes into the backyard and sees a nice looking Labrador Retriever sitting there.

"You talk?" he asks.

"Yep," the Lab replies.

After the guy recovers from the shock of hearing a dog talk, he says "So, what's your story?"

The Lab looks up and says, "Well, I discovered that I could talk when I was pretty young. I wanted to help the government, so I told the CIA. In no time at all they had me jetting from country to country, sitting in rooms with spies and world leaders, because no one figured a dog would be eavesdropping.

"I was one of their most valuable spies for eight years running. But the jetting around really tired me out, and I knew I wasn't getting any younger so I decided to settle down. I signed up for a job at the airport to do some undercover security, wandering near suspicious characters and listening in. I uncovered some incredible dealings and was awarded a batch of medals.

"I got married, had a mess of puppies, and now I'm just retired."

The guy is amazed. He goes back in and asks the owner what he wants for the dog.

"Ten dollars," the guy says.

"Ten dollars? This dog is amazing! Why on earth are you selling him so cheap?"

"Because he's a liar. He never did any of that shit."

Songs and jokes. A lot like life.

TIE-DIED

Got this quote from Bruce Hanify. Pretty much sums up my feelings for the 60s generation. I was, ahem, a wolf amongst the sheep back then.

"Conservative values. Class Warfare is for dope-smoking commies. Standing on your own. No leeching. No whining. Fuck the hippies."  Hanify  

I would add, get a haircut, get a job.

That having been established, I offer this taste of that infamous decade. Where the decline took roots. Baby Boomers suck.

Just a glimpse. More would be too much. Man. 

The 60s had some markers for me: JFK and the grassy knoll; Army time 66-68; the year when Bobby and MLK got it; the moon landing.

The 70s was bad for me. Too much time on the dark side.

CAR TUNES

The Brocker's old high school boyfriend races cars for fun.







Every time I hear this tune I think of him, haw haw:







Back in the day they knew how to style a ride. All the cars in the 50s had sweet lines. No angles, no aerodynamic horseshit, just heavy metal and horsepower. You hit a deer with one a them and the deer died and you could pound out the minor dents at home.







Flathead V8s. Ah, no other sound like one winding out at 6 grand.





I omitted Beach Boys, Deuce Coupe, Jan & Dean, bubble gum music. 

I am not sweet on Fords, but this is a nice song. And Henry Ford is a Brother. So was Ransom Olds for that matter.





Detroit made, when that meant something. Gordy Howe and the Redwings, the Motown Sound, all the cars that mattered.

Like this deuce-and-a-quarter:

BLUE FRIDAY

Blues for Friday. Figured you got through the week OK without my help.

Thinking about the life I have lived so far, I carry few regrets and those are more about people I have hurt rather than bad decisions I have made. There's a whole lot in life I don't care much about, but I am pretty well centered in my own spirituality and the older I get I allow that there's probably about 23 different ways to get into Heaven.

"Everybody's got their own way to butter their bread" as my father would say; "Don't trust the priests, son, all they got a key to is the shithouse".

And besides, as I get older I am paying more attention to the evidence and less to the arguments.

When I see some of these punks running their game I want to say “Kid, I ran with bikers, shot junk, robbed banks. My hands have taken lives and saved lives. I worked with the Billy Graham Crusade, I got a million miles of highway under my ass. I slept with dogs and danced with angels. I got screwdrivers older than you, what are ya gonna show me, uh?” 

I have had a lot of joys too, and if I could get in the time machine, go back, I would not change anything. Except for the part about hurting people.

There are a lot of places I have no desire to revisit. I do "remember when" and once was enough.





Yeah, we all used to be bullet-proof. Time has a way of wearing things down, of dulling the blade, so to speak.





Had some loves, and lost some loves. Never got to the point, I wanted to top myself.







 My father told me "Son, never lay down with a woman that has more troubles than you." There's a couple times, I shoulda listened.




.

BLUES HARP

Oh my God it's Monday doesn't mean anything to me. I worked shiftwork, 12 hours day or night and staggered days so if it was Monday or Thursday or a holiday, it was all the same to me. The only day I cared about was Pay Day.

I do like the harmonica (which I consider to be the poor man's accordion) and I like the blues, so I figured why not post something which contains both? No heavy lifting here folks, merely connect the dots.

Uh? You don't see any dots? Funny, I see 'em all over the place: conspiracy theorists and survivalist commandos and IRS and NSA notwithstanding. The screensaver in my brain is set to shuffle.


Here's some a my homeboys:








I had an interesting experience with Charlie's piano player one time back in the bad old days; statute of limitations has run out but it's still none a yer business. I'm just sayin' is all. 







Sittin' on top of the world. Yeah, that's me, that's the way I roll.

Stevie Wonderbread can kiss my ass.

BLOGGING & RULE 62

Rule 62:  "Don't take yourself so damn seriously"

 

 

I'm not here to teach or preach, deny, defy, or simplify. I am not dispensing words of wisdom. Sometimes I say something wise or clever but usually by accident. If you came here to find out how to live your life you are looking in the wrong place. A person can compile a list of rules and regulations for living, hyper-vigilant and in excruciating detail. Politically correct personality modifications, behavioral patterns that are appropriate for social situations. Veneer. Personality rather than character. Character is a set of values, morals, passions and desires. Building blocks for the rest of life.

How To Live Life is an Inside Job. Get a guidebook (I use the Bible) and get up off the couch, get out there and live. Won't get any hay in the barn by standing around talking, and you won't learn much about Life reading blogs. You got to live your way into better thinking. 

 

There are a lot of blog sites and most of them fall into categories based on their style:

West Coast: Out there they have mastered the shot across the bow with a smile. East of the Cascades/Sierra Nevada ranges people get offended by the way West Coasters say things like:

“Hey, nice shoes -- NOT -- hahahahahaha”

(That means, “I like you…your shoes are goofy, but I like you.”)

(Silence means “what an effing freak, I hope he never calls again”.)

That’s West Coast communication. At first thought to be only in Cali, turns out it runs the length of the Western seaboard — mostly for urban types, I might add.
 

 

East Coast: They say stuff like:

“Oh look, those shoes again”.

(Means: “never wear those shoes again if you want to keep your job”.)

Different style all together.



 

Chicago: says “The shoes are f#*%ked … lose ‘em.”
 

(Means: just what it says.)

 

This is West Coast

This is East Coast

This is Chicago

Are there any questions about that?
 

 

This lifted off the pages of The Washington Rebel some months ago, before it imploded. The sophistry and polemical discussion on that blog site reached critical mass:
 

 I doubt the efficacy of teaching, though it's noble indeed to attempt it. Witness the enormous learning, wit, and insight of so many wonderful bloggers whose voices can now be heard. Still, as entertaining as their efforts are, it seems to me that the effect of their work in defeating the liberal, grifter enemy is marginal. Colonel B. Bunny


  That happens on a lot of sites, especially the ones that Take Themselves Oh So Seriously.

 When you get so many bloggers saying the same thing back and forth to each other you get a feedback loop. Like looking at the girl on the Morton Salt container, she's carrying a Morton Salt container with a picture of a girl carrying a Morton Salt container, with a picture of ...

 

I would add,

Indeed, there is no result for the efforts at all, merely academic exercise, pedantic pontificating and preaching to the choir: "See how clever I am?"

The commenters think the sun shines out their ass; they can do better than the guy that created the blog and they gonna show us, by God. 
 

The shoe fits me too so I gotta wear it. But I don't have to take it too damn seriously. Besides, if you can't laugh at other people, who can you laugh at, eh? 
 

.

POLITICAL MUSING

I first posted this back in August 2011. That's the way I saw it then. Shifting the paradigm. I see what's going on now, more of the same old malarkey. I wonder  what these two woulda done. And they are, ahem, easy on the eyes.

OK, so I am not a political genius. Actually, I have eschewed the farce that donkeys and elephants are acting out. I would not know GNP if it hit me in the ass. But ... however ...on the other hand (I love these qualifiers) I will toss out my 2¢ worth on the upcoming elections.

For POTUS we have had a redneck governor who can't keep his lumber in his pants, we have suffered a two-bit community organizer whose only claim to fame seems to be his race, in the past we have endured a peanut farmer softer than a sneaker full of shit, so forth, so on. The last good one was the one not afraid to drop some bombs. It is time to bump it up a notch, to get way outside the envelope. What do we have to lose?

Ahem, I suggest we embrace a prez/VP team of the following:

Yeah, she runs hot.






Bachmann

With the Good Old Boys and some fat money backing them up we might be able, pull out of the hole we are in. They would be up front, enacting the draconian financial policies needed to get the economy under control. They can take the hits.

Need oil? Drill. Too much staff, too many committees? Yer outta here. Fly a couple hundred to Europe for wine and cheese? Nope, it'll be Milwaukee for beer and brats. Problems with Putin or any other posturing leaders? Um, you boys sit here, let me talk to your wife.

Yeah, yeah, gimme some flak. I'm nuts. Uh, yeah. How many a you guys are married, or chased after dames, or remember your mommas?

Let me draw your attention to this picture, titled Wisdom and Strength. Note the guy, sleeping. What's she got in her right hand, uh?

What is important is to realize that whatever we have been doing is not working.

Desperate times require drastic measures. Sounds melodramatic, uh?
Military coup, third party takeover, states seceding from the ailing Union? Foreign invasion? Nuclear meltdown, EMPs, Aliens fro outer space?

Folks, something drastic must happen or we will continue sliding down the slippery slope to mediocrity and third-world ruin.

BLUES INTERLUDE

Don't have to listen to me chattering on. Enjoy the tunes.

THE OLDEST FRATERNITY



This is one of the wells where I draw my water.

 

 

 

 

We always have the Holy Bible, Square and Compasses on an altar at the center of a lodge room:

• The Bible as the rule and guide to our Faith and practices;
• The Square to square our actions with the Square of Morality;
• The Compasses to circumscribe our desires and keep our passions within due bounds. 

For behold, how good and how pleasant it is for Brethren to dwell together in unity.



 

WM: My Brother, in your present blind condition what do you most desire?

   C: Light.

Character of a Freemason

In The Farmers Almanac for 1823 published at Andover, Mass., the following was printed under the heading, "Character of a Freemason":

The real Freemason is distinguished from the rest of Mankind by the uniform unrestrained rectitude of his conduct. Other men are honest in fear of punishment which the law might inflect; they are religious in expectation of being rewarded, or in dread of the devil, in the next world. A Freemason would be just if there were no laws, human or divine except those written in his heart by the finger of his Creator. In every climate, under every system of religion, he is the same. He kneels before the Universal Throne of God in gratitude for the blessings he has received and humble solicitation for his future protection. He venerates the good men of all religions. He disturbs not the religion of others. He restrains his passions, because they cannot be indulged without injuring his neighbor or himself. He gives no offense, because he does not choose to be offended. He contracts no debts which he is certain he cannot discharge, because he is honest upon principal.

The observance of law and order and the duty of patriotism are primary duties imposed on all Freemasons. Freemasonry is organized patriotism, standing for just laws, loyalty and cooperation. There is no room in Freemasonry for treason or disloyalty. Freemasonry is the enemy of communism and anarchy; does not tolerate the undermining of public virtue or social stability; and has no use for the man who plots behind the flag which protects him. "In the state you are to be a quiet and peaceable citizen, true to your government and just to your country. You are not to countenance disloyalty or rebellion, but patiently submit to legal authority and conform with cheerfulness to the government of the country in which you live."

A Masonic lodge is a guarantee of good order, and strength to the community; it stands for morality and law and for law-abiding citizenship. There are today thousands of Freemasons in positions of trust and responsibility in the state. No rebellion was ever plotted in a Masonic lodge for the Masonic obligation binds us to uprightness and fair dealing.

Link to a list of famous Freemasons. Wikipedia.

Note the number of politicians, judges, military leaders, entertainers. Role models, that's what they were. Something sadly lacking nowadays.

 

SERVE AND PROTECT

Not that you'd ever obtain a ham radio, which can be run on batteries BTW ... or want to listen to weather reports ... or monitor certain channels. I'm just sayin'.

 Public safety, civil unrest, crisis management, disaster planning, all these things are in the hands of Trained Professionals.





















But if you are a curious type, one of the 10% that want to know what is actually going on, this might help:

 

10-0	Caution
10-1	Unable to copy - move
10-2	Signal good
10-3	Stop Transmitting
10-4	Acknowledgement
10-5	Relay
10-6	Busy, unless urgent
10-7	Out of service
10-8	In service
10-9	Repeat
10-10	Fight in progress
10-11	Dog case
10-12	Stand by
10-13	Weather/Road report
10-14	Prowler report
10-15	Civil disturbance
10-16	Domestic problem
10-17	Meet complainant
10-18	Quickly
10-19	Return to
10-20	Location
10-21	Call by telephone
10-22	Disregard
10-23	Arrived at scene
10-24	Assignment complete
10-25	Report in person
10-26	Detaining subject, expedite
10-27	Drivers license information
10-28	Vehicle registration info
10-29	Check for wanted
10-30	Unnecessary use of use
10-31	Crime in progress
10-32	Man with gun
10-33	Emergency
10-34	Riot
10-35	Major crime alert
10-36	Correct time
10-37	Investigate suspicious vehicle
10-38	Stopping suspicious vehicle
10-39	Urgent, use lights and siren
10-40	Silent run, no lights/siren
10-41	Beginning tour of duty
10-42	Ending tour of duty
10-43	Information
10-44	Permission to leave for …
10-45	Animal carcass as …
10-46	Assist motorist
10-47	Emergency road repair
10-48	Traffic standard repair at …
10-49	Traffic light out at …
10-50	Accident
10-51	Wrecker needed
10-52	Ambulance needed
10-53	Road block at …
10-54	Livestock on highway
10-55	Intoxicated driver
10-56	Intoxicated pedestrian
10-57	Hit and run
10-58	Direct traffic
10-59	Convoy or escort
10-60	Squad in vicinity
10-61	Personnel in area
10-62	Reply to message
10-63	Prepare written copy
10-64	Message for local delivery
10-65	Net message assignment
10-66	Message cancellation
10-67	Clear for net message
10-68	Dispatch information
10-69	Message received
10-70	Fire alarm
10-71	Advise nature of fire
10-72	Report progress of fire
10-73	Smoke report
10-74	Negative
10-75	In contact with
10-76	En route
10-77	ETA
10-78	Need assistance
10-79	Notify coroner
10-80	Chase in progress
10-81	Breathalyzer report
10-82	Reserve lodging
10-83	Work school xing at ..
10-84	If meeting … advise
10-85	Delayed due to …
10-86	Officer/operator on duty
10-87	Pickup/distribute checks
10-88	Present telephone number of ..
10-89	Bomb threat
10-90	Bank alarm at ..
10-91	Pick up prisoner/subject
10-92	Improperly parked vehicle
10-93	Blockade
10-94	Drag racing
10-95	Prisoner/subject in custody
10-96	Mental subject
10-97	Check (test) signal
10-98	Prison/jail break
10-99	Wanted/stolen indicated

OK, don't 10-79, I'm just going 10-7 for breakfast. I'll be back when I 10-8.

Copy that?