Don't ask me why

The birds!

I don't want to leave my hate rant up top all night

(although it still applies)

so I'll leave you with something more pleasant...

The birds nest in the hot tub overhang is ready to offer forth it's nurtured entity...mama bird is yelling and screaming and papa is frantically hopping around in utter ohmygawdwhatdoIdo-ness just as before.

Last year when the nestlings hatched from the nest in the cupola of the greenhouse (which is adjacent to the kitchen sliders and papa kept ending up all the way in the bedroom on the canopy of the bed!), we were on the deck and noticed Jed looking suspicious. I went to investigate and there he was, hatchling in his mouth, and then not. He swallowed it in panic...

"MWAH MBIURRRD"...poof of feathers, just like a cartoon! ACK!

We managed to save the other three that were trapped in the green house while dad frantically pounded the window from outside.

If this isn't exciting enough for you, we're on our way to the Chineese buffet where they serve sushi and crab legs...I get my money's worth there. They hate me. HA!

Then home to watch the "Kill Bill VOL. 1" Netflix that finally arrived today.

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH...

I just went out to get a pic for you and THEY FLEW THE NEST RIGHT AT ME!!!!!

Chaos.....ensues...all other beasts are locked up and birds are everywhere, in an uproar..

still.

Sorry, this is the best I can do...

Pony Girl

My friend Phoenix's new rig.

"# Seven" for now

(go check out 1-6!)

Fuckin beauty, eh?

WOW.

I'd always leaned toward the '96 myself (until now, rdddrrrr!), and even almost had one once. 17K miles, CHERRY red, beige leather interior and of course, convertable. Although it's wasn't the wisest rig to own in Puget Sound as it was to be my main ride and not too safe to drive in the rain, I didn't care. I so didn't care. I saw it driving by the lot one day and pulled in on a whim. I got out of the first and only car I'd ever owned, a '72 green BMW 5 series. She was a rocket, even if a sedan, and I'd put a ton of money into her over the years I had her. I loved her. Her name was Glinda (yes, that Glinda). But when I had to get a cell phone just because she was falling apart faster than I could get her repaired and I kept getting stranded on the highway (things like my muffler falling off, thanks so much Bill G, for driving by that day and having a coat hangar with you) I knew she had to go.

I was approached by the newbie on https://www.chaturbaterooms.com/ website. It was so obvious. And after checking me out a little (with the manager), handed me the keys and gave my dream Pony to me for the week end!!!

OHMYGAWD!!!

It was a done deal even at that point.

Took her to my buddy mechanic to have her checked out. She was perfect but for some minor rear end trouble (ya, minor suspension problem AHEM), but my friend said have them fix it and it didn't seem too awfully bad, maybe a $400 job.

So I went back on Monday, Truly/Madly/Deeply in love, prepared to drop her off for a few days while they fixed her and we worked on paperwork. No go. Newbie spent at least 2 hours runninmg back and forth from the managers office begginbg both of us to succumb. I wouldn't. I wasn't spending $17 K on a rig that I'd have to drive off the lot straight to a mechanic. Did that enough, hence buying a new car.

Finally manager comes in himself and says absolutely not, will they assume responsibility for a problem he wouldn't even acknowledge existed.

And you know what?

I walked out of there, head held high, not being suckered into something that just wasn't right.

And I sobbed the whole way home, straight into a hot bath until I couldn't cry anymore.

And I felt great the next day

Until a blew a rod through Glinda and had to drive an '85 Citation for 3 months....

Congrats Phoenix, for achieving a dream!

So, like, stilts maybe?

In the wake of stories like this where entire hospital facilities are destroyed and must be rebuilt...

...and considering the fact that the existing floodwalls are not going to withstand even a Cat3 storm next year...

...and considering the fact that the city is still sinking...

...Why doesn't anyone in Louisiana build anything, you know...off the ground? How's about building the vital services on big, hurricane-proof concrete pilings? That way in a flood, all that would be destroyed is the way in and out of the first floor. Is there some structural or engineering reason that I don't get? I know if I had to rebuild my house down there I'd be building it like a Vietnamese house in a rice paddy...up. High. With steps that could easily be replaced should nature try to break my balls again. But there people are just going to try to stop water from doing what water does...regardless of the lessons the water tried to teach them this time.

Someone tell me why this isn't feasible. Obviously it's not a viable option for live sex shows or someone would be doing it, right?

Attention all political parties

Would you like to attract reasonable, decent Americans to vote for you regardless of party affiliation? Have I got just the thing for you. It's a three-step plan designed to make fools of extremists on both ends while morally and legally returning America to the collective of strong individual communities it was and should always be.

First, you should come up with a Katrina relief plan that gives people a shot at getting out of the system of welfare and assistance for good, not just taking yet another handout and leaving them to struggle inside a failed system like the Democrats have been doing for decades, or burying them under a mountain of law that favors corporate and special interest like the Republicans have done for decades.

Part two of my three-step plan is to come up with a spending plan that actually reduces the size and scope of the federal government while making the primary mission the safety and security of the people. This means lean and efficient...less bloat, less spending...and yes, fewer federal social programs. The Feds are not and should not be the answer to poverty, racism or illiteracy. Those are personal, local issues that cannot be managed on a national scale when you have a country as large and as diverse as ours.

Lastly, you should return powers not enumerated in the Constitution to the states, and thereby support a model of individualism and self-governance instead of a welfare nanny state where big government solves all your woes.

Now, it won't be easy implementing these steps...hard hard work, stay the course, making progress, all that stuff. But if you believe there is still good in our Union and that it can and should be saved from long-term rot...this is the way to start.

Ratblogging...a series revisted. Again.

One of my rats, the mother of all the others, has a very large growth down by her privates and she's going in tomorrow to determine if it's a tumor or megacolon. No, I don't care that people say it's ridiculous and expensive to do surgery on them...they're my pets and I love them. Especially this one. She's the mother of all the others and extremely personable and friendly.

Most people would never know it, but rats are very much like cats mixed with dogs when it comes to personality. They can tend to themselves if need be, and they behave like cats as far as grooming, sleeping, play, etc. but when they hear or smell you, they act like little dogs, begging for treats and attention and licking your fingers, etc. They have a jasmine live version of purring called "bruxing" where they grind their teeth in a rhythm that sounds a lot like a cat's purr...they do it when they're happy or content.

Diana, the one who is going in tomorrow, is also claustrophobic to a certain extent. Unusual for a rat, most rats love tiny spaces. She can only tolerate enclosed spaces if she is either with one of us or she knows she's got the whole cage to raom in. She chooses mostly open space in which to sleep, but she'll use the little plastic house sometimes. But put her in the "rehab cage" (a 20gal long tank with a screened lid) and she flips out. She hates the lack of room. She'll get more and more agitated until you take her out. Unfortunately for her...since there is someone already in the rehab cage...I had to get a second one tonight in preperation. It's a 10 gallon. She's going to be so pissed when she gets her strength back after the surgery (if she has it). Even more pissed if it's just megacolon, since there won't be any surgery, just a pissed off, fully alert and mobile rat who hates small places. This is her, the one looking up into the camera:

I did absolutely nothing...

...and it was everything I thought it could be.

/officespace

Well that was good. Couple days of doing nothing that required thought or will. No worrying about politics, animals, blogging, the podcast, etc...just sleeping and more sleeping. Man, did I need that. Interestingly, the world continues to turn even when we don't. Funny hwo we think we're all the one person the world cannot possible survive the loss of, and yet...it does. :)

So...How about that president, eh? Y'all gotta give it to him; he is loyal to his friends. Now where did I put that voter registration form? Ahh, here we are.

You are currently registered as: Republican. Would you like to change affiliation?

Yeah...kinda. Why, you got something better?

No. Not really. You can choose between shit and shinola, pal.

So, I can choose between whiny, no-idea, heavy tax & spend, nanny state, big government Democrats, or whiny, bad idea, tax-cut-but-still-overspend, big government Republicans?