Sunday, June 25, 2017
Around London
While in London we did the usual touristy things involving historical sight seeing. We toured the Tower Of London and saw the amazing Crown Jewels , as well as a fascinating armor collection going back to the Norman conquest in 1066.The stories and traditions are fascinating as you watch young soldiers standing guard in bright red uniform coats and traditional bear skin head covers.They are now carrying automatic British armaments of SA-80 designation which are unloaded during the day, but live ammo clips are very close at hand during emergencies. There are no such guards as "Ceremonial Guards", as all are in the regular British army and have been exemplary soldiers to be honored as Queen's guards or Tower Guards. The Beefeaters on the other hand are chosen from British Army ranks with at least 22 years active NCO service. Needless to say none of the guards are to be taken lightly.At one time the Tower of London hosted the Royal Menagerie , where over 60 exotic animals were kept for Royal Entertainment. Started in the 1200's by King John of Magna Charta fame, the zoo lasted for over 600 years. Polar bears ,lions , and tigers were kept as well as baboons which couldn't be confined due to their climbing skills. The only animals left are 6 Ravens ceremoniously kept for traditional purposes. All six wander the grounds at will, confined to the earth with clipped wings.There are wonderful life size animals on the site sculpted by Kendra Haste of wire. They look so real as to startle visitors.The legend of the Ravens says that the British Empire and the Tower of London will fall if the Ravens ever leave.The revelry of the Tower of London's past and historical significance is given a dose of reality as one can see the modern 41 story skyscraper named 30 St Mary Axe towering above the walls. Finished in 2003, the cylindrical tower looks like a space rocket towering over old London. Often called the Gherkin by Londoners, the building looked to many like a Pickle. It was featured in the Sharon Stone Thriller Basic Instinct 2.We
took a boat ride down the Thames at low tide and saw much of modern London's financial District.Standing starkly against the sky is the Shard,which at over 1000 feet is the tallest building in The United Kingdom.It looks like a monsterous piece of blue glass piercing the sky, hence "The Shard".Also dominating the London skyline is the London Eye, once the word's tallest Ferris Wheel at 443 feet tall. It was erected on the South Bank of the Thames to celebrate AD 2000. We rode the contraption for one of the best views of London. Each of the Glass enclosed cars holds about 25 riders and the thing never stops. It is moving as you walk on board and it is moving as you step off. A complete revolution takes about 30 minutes , and allows you a beautiful view of old London on the North shores of the Thames , as well as The Houses of Parliament and The Bell Tower, which is not "Big Ben". Big Ben is the clock inside the Tower. Later that night we went to see 42nd Street at the largest theater in London at Theatre Royal on Drury Lane. We had great seats and it was a lavish production. The truly weird thing about the theater experience was that everyone went up and paid 4 Pounds for little paper cups of Haagen Daz ice cream between acts, something unheard of in American theaters.Some of our group saw Sir Paul McCartney at the Savoy down the street from the theater. Paul probably wouldn't have known me.He's come a long way from Liverpool. Next day it was Dover and the English Channel.
Sunday, June 18, 2017
A Pile of Rocks
One of our scheduled trips out of London was to visit Bath and Stonehenge which were a couple of hours out of the city. Bath, which our guide Daisy pronounced Baaath was a Roman outpost whose claim to fame was the mineral springs where they built an elaborate bathhouse with plumbing and pools. The whole location of Bath suited the Romans as it was built on seven hills like Rome. The Romans settled in Bath in AD 60 and utilized the native limestone which is quarried under the city. Today Bath has around 90,000 inhabitants and 2 universities. It is situated on the Avon River of Shakespearean fame. The town today is primarily Georgian in style with construction of 4 or 5 stories of limestone. Daisy told us that inhabitants used to be taxed by number of windows and therefore you can see false windows of stone where tightwads valued English Pounds more than sunlight.Jane Austen lived in Bath if you are inclined to read fussy old maid literature. Jane hated Bath and only lived 2 years there, probably to the benefit of Bath . It was raining while we visited Bath but I was very impressed with the city and the architecture. Another Jane, the actress Jane Seymour lives on the outskirts of Bath. We also travelled west to Oxford, the home of Oxford University. What can you say about Oxford that hasn't been said in millions of words? One of the foremost colleges in the history of mankind.. Teaching started there in 1096 and it is the oldest English speaking university in the world; the 2nd oldest college in existence. Oxford as a city has around 170,000 inhabitants and is about 70 miles from London. 29 Prime Ministers of England attended Oxford.It is a beautiful city which makes me realize how young our country is. We then went to Salisbury Plains to view Stonehenge. Built between 3000 BC and 2000 BC by Bronze age inhabitants, the purpose is still argued. The circle of stones are up to 24 feet tall including the portions underground ,and weigh around 25 tons each. They were transported from around 18 miles away and some came from Wales, all by primitive Bronze age people. Arguments abound as to their purpose. Were the stones a burial ground? Yes. Were they a center of worship ? Yes. Were they a site of astronomy study?Yes. Just how all of this relates to each other is argued and unknown , which is the real beauty of Stonehenge. It is truly a magic place and perhaps the mystery should never be unveiled.The only thing I can add in my limited knowledge is that it is an awesome pile of rocks. Maybe Fred Flintstone and Barney Rubble were British.
Friday, June 16, 2017
Across The Pond
This past month of May we had scheduled a trip across the Atlantic to visit England and France. I don't normally dread flying but anything over 4 hours fills me with dread of confinement . This particular flight to London Heathrow was scheduled for a little over 6 hours but was a red eye leaving Boston Logan at around 9 pm. Being that London is 5 hours ahead of the US we would fly all night and get there in the morning. The flight at 30000 feet and 500mph was smooth and uneventful, and the British customs people were very cheerful and nice, quite the opposite of the surly and rude TSA officials here in the USA. Our travel agency , Trafalgar, had a young gentleman waiting at the baggage area to take us to the Cumberland Hotel which is about 45 minutes from the airport.It was quite a change from Stanford ,Kentucky as we entered the London metropolitan area of 8 and one half million people. The first thing we noticed was how green the country side is.Kentucky is green, but not the vivid emerald green of England, and later France. I guess it's because of the moderate island climate and abundant rainfall, which it was doing upon arrival. It is also obvious that England is a virtual melting pot of nationalities and ethnic groups. Our guides told us London is the most expensive city in the world. It is in somewhat of a turmoil due to the exit from the European Union, and subsequent elections left a dilemma to Teresa May and her party, which leaves Great Britain in a divided state much like the USA. Our hotel was only a block from the Marble Arch which used to be the entrance to Buckingham Palace but was moved by order of Queen Victoria to its present location in Hyde Park. Hyde Park is one of four major parks , and at 350 acres is the largest. It was established in 1536 by Henry VIII as a hunting area. Like our own Central Park, which is nearly 900 acres, Hyde Park has been used for many things ,including rock concerts. Pink Floyd, The Rolling Stones and Queen have given concerts there. Also of note is a podium in Hyde Park where anyone can address issues to whoever will listen. Appropriately enough this area is Speaker's Corner. There were people speaking every time we went by.Speaker's Corner has been in constant use since 1872.The area of food was also a great education. We were prepared for "Bangers and Mash"every morning for breakfast but they never appeared at the hotel. Bangers are sausage which are called that because they popped and banged in the skillet as they were fried. Mash is mashed potatoes. Breakfast was usually a buffet with normal eggs and toast, but with the addition of cooked tomatoes and pork and beans. There is no such drink as iced tea to be found in the British Isles. They don't believe in ice either. I did grow to like scones which is like a crumbly sweet biscuit, usually with a jam spread on it. The Brits are heavily into marmalade.We were anticipating the infamous "Spotted Dick"which is supposedly a pastry with raisins or currants which gave it the Spotted description. Nobody could tell us the "Dick " origin. It never appeared on the menu , much to everyone's relief. Fish and Chips were good and one night we ate at a pub called "The Grazing Goat".Some of our group had beef which they said was good. I again had fish and chips which is rumored to be haddock. Chips are French fries. Our hotel had 1000 rooms and was very well situated in central London. It is a 20 minute walk to Buckingham Palace, which we saw but the Queen wasn't in. We were hoping for an audience but she was at Windsor. You know that because her flag is flying if she is in town. We were also within 5 minutes of Selfridge's Department store which we walked through because Sandy has watched a series about it on Public Television. We didn't buy anything because we had spent all our money getting there.We watched the Queen's Guard change at the Palace, and it was impressive. I actually liked Freddy Mercury playing the Queen at Wembley Stadium better than the actual Queen but I suppose I would warm up to her if we met.Freddy played for over 400,000 fans at the old Wembley Stadium in 1986 over a series of nights. That Wembley Stadium was torn down and replaced with a new one in 2007 , mainly for football, which is British for soccer. Soccer is a European game played and liked by females as well as men. Kind of a boring and sissy game by American standards. Like I said previously London is a Virtual Tower of Babel with many nationalities in evidence. Many Arabic and Moslem citizens, mostly driving Rolls Royce and Bentley automobiles. In five days of Great Britain I only saw 2 American cars. The rest were European or a very few Japanese.T
hat was a surprise. I was looking forward to Stonehenge and Bath, but that's a future story.
Sunday, November 06, 2016
A Little Ditty About Jack And Diane
On October 26 we went over to Richmond to EKU's regional arts center to see John Mellencamp in concert. Like many in my generation I am a fairly recent convert to Mellencamp. I remember him early on as John Cougar , country boy from Seymour, Indiana. He was slow to catch on to the Rock and Roll scene and changed his name to Mellencamp, which is his given name. I've grown to like his somewhat unique style of rock which includes an electric violin and an accordion, which are both pronounced on some of his bigger hits. The opening act for the concert was Carlene Carter, the step daughter of June Carter Cash and Johnny Cash. Her father is the traditional country singer Carl Smith. She sang about eight songs by herself with most accompanied by her guitar and one on an electric piano. One of her stories was when as a child she was out in the yard of the Johnny Cash estate one Saturday morning when an Army Huey Helicopter landed in the back yard and a young soldier jumped out and went to the back door wanting to see Johnny Cash. As it turned out it was Kris Kristofferson, a member of the Tennessee Air Guard who had piloted the chopper in to deliver a song he had written , that he hoped Johnny Cash would sing. It happened to be "Sunday Morning Coming Down" , and the rest is history. Carlene said she was 61 years old, but was a very pleasant surprise. After she played the opening act John Mellencamp came out with a terrific Rock and Roll band and played most of his hits from 30some years. Sandy told me John was in some kind of relationship with Billy Joel's ex , Christy Brinkley. Seems the old girl likes aging rockers. I think that she was the inspiration for "Uptown Girl".I also don't know how Sandy knew about John and Christie, but women just know some things. The concert progressed and he sang the little ditty about Jack and Diane by himself. Actually theaudience sang most of the song with him and did a great job. The audience really got in the swing of things when he sang, "I fought Authority and Authority Always Wins".It seems that the mostly late middle-aged audience had done their share of fighting authority.Perhaps the low point of the concert was when the middle-aged white women started dancing, a spectacle that is always depressing. White women of that age have no rhythm and make complete asses of themselves. It's always fueled by $6 beer.Then the same group wanted to take endless selfies of themselves and their drunken best girl friends with smart phones as big as I-Pads. They lit up everyone 4 rows behind them, oblivious to the anger and threats from the aggravated spectators .I saw the same foolish white women at a Seeger concert. What is it about middle aged white women and alcohol??The Concert ended with "Cherry Bomb". I give the Concert a B+. I like some of Mellencamp's music a lot more after seeing the concert. I give the drunken white women dancers an F for totally abject behavior.Their dancing is irredeemably bad and a burden on the whole Caucasian race. By the way, what is Beyoncé doing on the CMA awards, with the foul mouthed Dixie Chicks? The Dixie Chicks have way overdone their welcome in the country music genre. They have talent but no one cares about their opinions. They are from Texas, not California.It's almost Election Day. Could it be that this Horrendous period of time is just about over in two days? Either way we lose, but maybe it will end.
Thursday, October 06, 2016
Subjected to Insanity
Sometimes I think the United States is unwittingly being used as mass participants in a cruel game of how much the citizens can take in this Presidential Election.Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. This has to be the most bizarre game in the history of mankind. What kind of system has evolved in American politics that would allow two such unlikable, rude people to face off as our leader?Our country has had its share of scandalous citizens running and winning public offices, but never have we had such a pair of disliked and untrustworthy contenders. It seems like having no morals and a lack of respect for the citizens is now a prerequisite for running for office. Our country was founded upon freedom and pride in our government. All we are hearing is about Trump's tax returns and lack of respect for women, Hispanics, blacks, and Muslims. All we are hearing about Hillary are how half the country are deplorables and about her 33,000 E mails on her private server. Haven't we as a country had about enough of this insane barbs at each other?Neither has the first clue as to how to get our country back as the leader of the free world. The real problem is that the earlier contenders in both parties were no better. Bernie Sanders ,I think is probably the most sincere and likable of all the candidates. Liked by all young voters, he nonetheless wanted to give everything away to the masses. He is a Socialist with a Robin Hood complex. I feel I Like Bernie,yet he is a Don Quixote fighting windmills.I just wouldn't have felt the Burn enough to pull the lever.Cervantes would have felt a comradeship toward Bernie. "Little Marco" Rubio felt he had a lot to offer the country ,but found little support other than Nikki Haley , the 42 year old governor of South Carolina, who incidentally took the place of the philandering ex- governor who inexplicitly would disappear to Argentina at times. Chris Christie seemed to have taken pleasure in clogs in traffic at bridges, and now holds Trump's hand. Rand Paul didn't even score in the game and dropped out. Mitt flirted with the idea but never dropped in. Ted gave it his all but sulled up and went home, a poor loser.He sulked his way back to Texas. Carly Fiorina gave it her all but Trump steamrolled over her and she went to be Ted's running mate,to no avail.Carly is certainly no slouch as a MIT graduate and first female CEO of a Top 20 Company. She is also the first woman to fire 30,000 employees while leading Hewlett-Packard. She took her millions and went home. Jeb Bush had dreams of becoming the third in his family but lost steam and took Brother George's support with him. Paul Ryan, while not a candidate hovered around the peripheries like a little Diva. McConnell did the same, while sputtering around like an old grandmother ,both impotent to stop Trump.This sets the stage where every American is a loser regardless of who wins the election. Hillary promises 4 more years of Obama , which really gives us all something to wait with bated breath .Should Trump win, it's like "What's Behind Door Number 3?"We are about to enter the World's Biggest Reality Show, where there are no winners. There is no precedent for such an important event being hijacked by the two most inept and disliked people in the free world.This is going to be the beginning of an era in American History that could very well effect the entire world's population.I hope that our country can navigate through the next four years ,and that some sensible, caring,and patriotic people will come forward to lead our country. It has been said that cream rises to the top, but in this case other things have floated from the bottom, and they are not cream, if you catch the gist of what I'm saying.The Fifth Estate fawns over Hillary, as well as the Trailer Trash of Hollywood. The rednecks and working class are behind Trump. I will vote come Election Day, but I resent the fact that we have become a part of the world's most cruel reality show.
Friday, September 30, 2016
Santiago
The final stop on our Cuban tour was to be Santiago, the second largest city on the island. Located on the south eastern end of Cuba, Santiago is 542 miles east of Havana and has over 500000 residents. We entered the channel toward the harbor early on Friday morning and was immediately aware of the mountainous terrain surrounding the harbor. In the distance were beautiful rugged mountains covered with tropical forests, and the same cloudless blue sky. Guarding the channel on the steep mountain side was the 16th century Spanish fort, and on the opposite side a stione lighthouse. The ship continued toward the harbor in a tight zig zag course that gradually widened into Santiago Harbor. Again the shore ,like Havana was a scene of power plants and some type of refinery. The burning odors were here as well, and the vintage cars were waiting on shore for photo opportunities. After finally getting docked and secure , the disembarkation process began again . More customs and money changing, and more new Chinese buses awaiting the wide eyed Gringoes.We started out on a walking tour and were shown where Fidel had started his Revolution. The revolution started during Carnival in July,which our guide Jorge told us was the oldest and biggest Carnival in the Americas. He didn't seem, to respect Rio's carnival.Jorge seemed to think there was no finer drinking and time of debauchery than Santiago's Carnival. We were taken on a tour of a drug store and what is a government owned department store, where you can buy anything a household needs, as long as you don't care that there is a waiting time and little options for colors or styles. I think it would be similar to Russian held countries during the height of the Soviet empire.Again the streets were clogged with people standing and talking with little obvious purpose like work. The neighborhoods were primitive in areas away from the port, with mules and horses pulling shaky looking carts. Some of the streets were mainly dust and gravel. Beautiful old 3 and 4 story colonial masonary buildings are all in a state of decay or dilapidation. All have ornate wrought iron grills and gates to keep people out and protect belongings. The upper stories are festooned with flapping clothes hung out like banners to dry. Many of the buildings have tropical colors painted on details to give an intense mixture of blues and pinks and yellows. It is Shabby Chics poster city.We ate lunch in a wonderful private little pizza parlor owned by an Italian who had married a Cuban woman, one of the only ways to gain Cuban citizenship. For our lunch they served Cuban cuisine, again chicken, pork, and beans and rice. Like Havana the waiters and waitresses wore black presses slacks and snow white starched shirts. They also had a lady troubadour singing during our meal. She was a Cuban version of Tracy Chapman and had cds for sale. After the meal the staff opened up an impromptu bar on the terrace and gave out generous shots of rum. Most of our group wanted to stay with the rum and congenial staff, but Jorge had a schedule and the tour went on. We visited San Juan Hill where Teddy Roosevelt, Leonard Wood , and the Buffalo soldiers kicked some Spanish Ass. Jorge called it the Cuban Spanish War, and gave us a little credit for whipping the Spaniards, but in reality it was Major Parker and 4 Gatling guns that decimated the Spanish army . We whipped the Spanish in Cuba and the Philippines and gave them their freedom. Along the way the USS Maine mysteriously sank in Havana Harbor in July 1898, losing over 260- American soldiers. The Yellow press took up the cause and Admiral Dewey did the rest, with Spain never again regaining its world leadership.San Juan Hill is somewhat under whelming with a bunch of Cuban monuments that are confusing.We then went up to the Spanish fort guarding the harbor entrance and it was perhaps the most amazing piece of architecture and construction on the whole island.The Castillo de San Pedro de la Roca was designed to defend against the original Pirates of the Caribbean , but took two centuries to construct . It is probably the most beautiful Spanish fort ever constructed, partly due to its architecture, and partly due to its location overlooking the approach to Santiago Bay.The final stop on the Santiago tour was a stop at a dance club-bar with a very professional Cuban band. They called themselves the Retirees since the leader was 82 years old. There was dancing , Mojita drinking, and a great time. Jorge danced with the ladies in the tour group
and we headed back to the boat. Santiago became our favorite site on the tour. Like San Francisco, we left our hearts in Santiago.Jorge told us on the end that we should all vote for Hillary Clinton so as to continue the progress between the US and Cuba.That was the only sour note of the whole trip to Cuba.
Tuesday, September 27, 2016
Cienfuegos
The second stop on our Cuban tour was to be a Southern port named Cienfuegos , which means "A Hundred Fires". The nickname of the city is "The Pearl Of The South", and like Santiago, is one of the busiest ports on the Cuba -South American trade routes. The city itself is much smaller than Havana and has about One hundred and Fifty thousand people. Our guides told us that it is only a three hour trip from Havana to Cienfuegos by bus or car, but it took our ship over a days sailing to reach the southern port because we had to sail west and round the western tip of Cuba and then sail East about 250 miles. The Island of Cuba is around 700 miles long and is 100 or so miles wide. An interesting fact is that Cienfuegos is primarily agricultural and raises sugar cane and tobacco in very fertile soil. Much of the Sugar cane eventually turns into Cuban Rum distilled in the original Bacardi rum distilleries that were socialized by Castro after the Revolution.During the height of colonialism in Cuba there were over 700000 slaves working the huge plantations for the Spaniards. That is more slaves than the United States had previous to the Emancipation Proclamation. The city of Cienfuegos was very much less cosmopolitan than Havana, yet still had very beautiful colonial architecture of Spanish and French influence. It was attacked briefly during the Revolution because there was a Pro-Castro movement against Batista. The morning we were there was very hot with a cloudless blue sky.After walking around the town square the tour guides took us to the town's Opera House for a concert of the town singers, which are funded by the Socialist Government, as are the other artists of Cuba. We were led into the Four story theater and found the performance was already started. the only lighting in the large open theater was spotlights on the stage , and the rest of the theater was so dark you could almost feel it. Along with the blackness was a pervasive heat of at least 120 degrees. our guide told us to go up steps invisible in darkness and find seats we could not see. We finally stumbled up a flight of unlit stairs and felt for empty seats. After falling all over each other and finding the seats we sat in tropical darkness and listened to a talented group of singers sing in Spanish of traditional and contemporary Cuban songs which would have been very entertaining had we not been in a dark sauna sweating our lives away. They sang"Guatanamara", which was very pretty, yet we finally found our way downstairs thanks to Sandy having a small LED light in her purse. It reminds me of pretty women singing in the pits of Hell to captured souls.We stumbled outside to the bright tropical sunlight ,and gratefully entered our air conditioned Chinese Bus like the spoiled, pampered,complaining asses that we are. We then drove around the city and went down to their beach and waterfront area where the guide told us the city inhabitants go in the evenings to cool off , drink, and socialize. There was a beautiful hotel there that is very expensive overlooking the water.There were also a couple of beautiful turn of the 19th century mansions that were taken by Castro in the revolution when their wealthy owners fled to Miami.After a half day tour of the city our bus took us back to the port where we filed past the Custom men and women and boarded our home away from home to start our next leg of the journey to Santiago. A very interesting ritual at sea is the boarding of Cuban pilots who must be aboard your ship as it enters the channels into the ports and who must take you out of the harbor until you are safely on the open seas. There is an international law that all ships entering a harbor of any nation in the world must have a licensed pilot, to guide the ship in and out of the country. This applies to military ships as well as commercial ones and the law is very strictly enforced and the pilot commands the entire ship as long as he or she is on the bridge. That's why there are very few ship incidents while in the channels entering the world's busy harbors.Once past the channel an official orange runabout reading"PILOT"picks him up and goes back to the harbor. The open sea is gorgeous with deep blue waters full of silver flying fish
gliding above the waves.The setting sun at sea is indescribably beautiful with golds and reds above the blue.Words cannot describe,nor can cameras capture the beauty. I thought that Santiago cannot top what we have seen so far, but I was wrong.
gliding above the waves.The setting sun at sea is indescribably beautiful with golds and reds above the blue.Words cannot describe,nor can cameras capture the beauty. I thought that Santiago cannot top what we have seen so far, but I was wrong.
Sunday, September 25, 2016
CUBA
In early spring I noticed an advertisement for an educational cruise to Cuba.This was after Obama's historic softening of the freeze in diplomatic relations between the US and Cuba since Castro's seizure in 1959. I have always been fascinated with Cuban history and its relationship with the USA and we talked some friends into signing up with us for the 7 day tour. It is sponsored by Carnival Cruises, but leaves Miami on the ADONIA, which is a much smaller ship of only 700 passengers and 300 crew members. I had always vowed to never take a cruise but this was the best way to see Cuba because you stay onboard at night and tour Cuba during the day.I had read that you don't want to stay in Cuban hotels at this stage because they are still pretty crude compared to American standards , and I personally saw some of the best they offered during the tours and it was Holiday INN circa 1959. The Russians certainly didn't do much to modernize Cuba in the 30 years or so of their r
elationship. The average Cuban is paid $20 a month by the Socialist government and Professionals like Doctors and scientists are paid $40. All medicine and medical care is free, as well as college. You must work for the country for 2 years or your college degree is revoked. A lot of teachers and professionals are quitting their $20 a month jobs to become tour guides and bus drivers because the is a lot of tourist tips coming their way from American tourists. Its amazing that your tour group gets off the ship each day and goes through customs and then boards new red ,white , and blue air conditioned buses imported and partially owned by China. The premise of being allowed to tour Cuba at this stage hinges on it being either as an educational group, or as a commercial venture rarely sanctioned by the US. It was just a couple of weeks ago that the first US airlines were starting to be allowed to land in Cuba. It is somewhat of a surprise as your ship enters Havana Harbor as it looks totally like a modern city with tall buildings and an air of modernism. That quickly fades as the ship winds its way through the channel to the dock and you get closer to the city and realize that it is Miami in maybe 1940. The old cars are there as promised, but there are already yellow taxis picking up tourists. Havana is changing even as we watch. The harbor is surrounded by refineries and utility power plants as well as medium tankers loading and off loading petroleum products. There is a smog haze in the air befitting a city of 2 1/2 million people as well as a constant smell of burning paper or wood. As the ship threads its way to the dock, both sides are lined with Cubans waving and taking photos with their I-phones, yelling"Viva America!"They seem happy to see us.The water in the harbor is probably the dirtiest I have ever seen in the Caribbean, much like they described at the Rio Olympics. Everybody on shore seems happy except the Customs people who stamp your Passport and sign your Visa. It's interesting that half the Customs officials are Men and half are attractive young women wearing mini skirt uniforms with black hose like from Victoria's Secret. There are medical people who scan your forehead with infra red thermometers . If you have a temp you get further evaluations.Once on shore you get on your bus with a Cuban guide who speaks English and takes you through Havana on a bus tour, as well as assorted walking tours. Havana has 4 major town squares with many historic government and cultural buildings , mostly explained in terms of Fidel Castro and Che Guevara ouster of Fulgencio Batista and the American Mafia in 1959. The bus takes you to Revolution Square where classic cars are parked and you pose in 1955 pink Bel Air Chevy convertibles with the Cuban Driver. You pay him maybe $1 or 2pesos CUC which is Cuban currency for tourists.The guide tells you to only buy Cuban Cigars from licensed stores, because otherwise you will probably buy banana leaves wrapped in tobacco. Americans are allowed to buy $400 worth of cigars and rum. That's all . American currency must be exchanged for Cuban dollars as you exit customs. You are charged 10% for a fee. The dollar is about equal to a peso in value but becomes 90 cents after the exchange.American credit cards are not allowed so leave them on board the ship. Your cell phones won't work on land so turn them off when you leave Miami or you will receive enormous roaming charges while you're on board the ship. The ship has WIFI at an exorbitant rate, but what the hell, you're in Cuba living like the USA in 1959.Get used to no cell phone. We survived. Mass transit in Havana are 1950 vintage Ford and Chevrolet flat bed trucks with benches.There are thousands of these coming into Havana every day with workers, but I saw very few people working , mostly standing on street corners talking. I didn't see any loose cats, but there were many flea bitten dogs running loose at will, scratching their mangy hides. The tour took us to two different restaurants in Havana the two days we toured the City. The first was a private restaurant on the upper patio up about 50 steps . The meal was Cuba Cuisine of rice and beans , lobster, sautéed vegetables and chicken or pork. Desert is always some sort of ice cream. It was a very pleasant meal with a Cuban band playing Cuban Music. Those who ate the lobster said it was too salty , an observation of everyone who ate lobster on shore the whole trip. The second day in Havana we ate on the 31st floor of an office building . The food was again about the same. Usually they serve a Sangria which brought mixed reviews.It was interesting that we watched Cuban vultures soaring below us as we ate on the top floor in the restaurant. I felt very safe in Havana, and actually we felt more secure in Havana than in Miami. The Cubans were all very friendly and nice to the Invading Americans. There were the usual scammers wanting to sell you artists' renderings , and Attractive Cuba woman dressed in bright tropical clothing wanted to kiss American men for Pesos but I resisted. I might add that the Cuban women as a group are knock outs. I kept hearing The Black Eyed Peas singing "Latin Girls"in my mind. We went to the Art Museum , which had a lot of Egyptian and Roman Artifacts. It was interesting that in the American Section there was a life sized Portrait of Henry Clay and one of George Washington. There weren't many Cubans partaking of the art work. It was a Beautiful Museum of marble and Beaux Arts design. After two days in Havana the ship loaded up and sailed around the western tip and headed to the second city on the tour which is a different story.
Monday, February 15, 2016
Snow
Tuesday, January 12, 2016
State Of Union 2016
Ok, so this is the annual state of my union address, which coincidentally is the night of our President's final State of The Union for the USA. I don't pretend that my state carries any of the weight that emanates from the White House, nor do I feel that any great decisions or comments will be arrived at from my state of affairs. First of all my use of paragraphs and proper grammar has obviously not been a factor during the past year, nor will it improve over the remaining days of my life. I am also aware that my thoughts and beliefs will have no impact on our community, state, or nation, not unlike the true politicians that guide us and our future. Polls show that our national Senators and Representatives are at an all time low for public trust and effectiveness, something they have all earned repeatedly over the past decades. Again I am amazed at the Republican Presidential candidates . This is probably the most inept and self serving bunch that I remember in my lifetime. Well maybe Michael Dukaksis and Willy Horton come close. We have Hillary and The Socialist running for the Democratic seat. The girls over at Planned Parenthood like Hillary or her pantsuits and are donating $20 million for her Campaign. Bill is flittering around the perimeter looking for ways to help his woman . Any way the election of 2016 pans out will be more of the same. Our stocks are ready to drop out of sight again and Red China is on the ropes. North Korea's Pillsbury Dough Boy says he set off a hydrogen bomb., and the dumb-assed Iranians have captured 10 American Sailors on the day of Obama's State of the Union Address. Are the Iranians that dumb , or are they just incredibly unlucky and inept ? Iran capturing 10 American Sailors shows a very short memory in world events. Seals are Navy. That wasn't Avon calling on Osama Bin Laden. You dumbasses need to take a deep breath and remember Iraq and its famed Republican Guard. Warthogs have a good track record on Middle Eastern elite soldiers. Our own little piece of the world is doing as well as to be expected. Gasoline is down to $1.65 in Knoxville, and politicians are crying big tears because road usage taxes on gasoline is way down. Now they want to raise taxes to pay for road repair. The Powerball lottery went up to $1.5 Billion for tomorrow night and everyone is making secret pledges to help the world if they could only win. The chances are 1 in 292,000,000 for a person's ticket to be drawn, about the same odds that Rand Paul will become President, or that Kentucky will have a winning football team. Stoops fired some coaches and hired one new one for $625,000 a year, and another for $400,000. That is total insanity paying some dumb jocks that kind of money to help Kentucky have a losing season. My brilliant idea is let some junior college and high school coaches take turns coaching UK football. They would do it for free just to be seen on the sidelines wearing UK caps, and I'll bet they would win as much as these high paid nimrods that Barnhart keeps bringing in. Eastern Kentucky has huge unemployment because of Washington killing coal, and UK keeps building athletic Taj Mahals. David Bowie died yesterday and I will miss him. It's like he was a part of my generation, and those of our age sense our own mortality when a fixture like Ziggy Stardust passes on. Speaking of mortality a recent trip to the emergency room cost me almost $600 for a MD to tell me that I was ok and that there was nothing wrong with me. That's almost equal to a new Offensive coach for UK. For my clients who think I'm expensive the Doctor saw me for 15 minutes and charged the equivalent of $2400 an hour, topping the 6 stitches in my thumb last year that cost $1800. Another debacle the past year was when my Doctor's nurse practitioner gave me a hearing test that consisted of her going to a corner of the exam room, covering her mouth, and whispering while I was across the room with my finger in one ear, looking in a corner and waiting expectantly for a sound to reach my ears. A sound that never came. The Gestapo nurse failed me for my hearing test, something that didn't surprise me. I hear what I want to hear; I'm just sorry I didn't live up to that sociopath's expectations. Alabama beat Clemson, something that doesn't mean much to me, and a private company sent a rocket into space and the brought it back to earth and landed in one piece, something NASA hasn't been able to do. I guess they're not the only rocket scientists on the block. We went to Chicago and drove, since it's about as fast as flying considering trips to and from airports. We saw a monster field of wind powered generators in Northern Indiana. Research says there are over 600 of the things in the area. They were pretty impressive. We happened to be on the sidelines of the march because of the police killing of a young black man. We watched it on Randolph Street as we were going to a theater. It seems our hero homophobe Kim Davis is attending Obamas Speech with her attorney. Now won't that make some noise in Washington? Does anyone understand this Golden Globe mayhem and a bunch of foul mouthed actors and actresses? Ricky Gervais needs some kind of lessons in good behavior. Is this what we have come to expect of entertainment, and haven't we really had enough of Star Wars to last us a lifetime. Han Solo and Princess Leia have gotten old. Give the franchise up. Sean Penn cannot talk literately so why does Rolling Stone Magazine pay him to interview a drug lord? It's a confusing world out there for people like me. We were in San Antonio between Christmas and New Years and saw the Alamo. The city downtown and the river area was neat. I can't say as much for the food. I never ate as much red rice in all my life. Don't expect to go back to San Antonio, just like Davy Crockett didn't return. My world is fine and I'm happy to still be here and with a good amount of business for my company. Left Knoxville today, number 4 in line for take off on I-75 runway, and touched down 2 and 1/2 hours later in Mount Vernon. Passed a bunch of snowbirds headed to Florida and had unlimited visibility all the way home. Life is good except for occasional hearing faux pas.
Saturday, November 07, 2015
Relief At Last
Less than 3% of the water on earth is fresh. I know that because that is what the underside of the cap from the Snapple that I just opened has told me.The top side says,"Made from the best stuff on earth", which I am in no position to argue about.I think its very laudable that even our soft drinks want to educate us in the United States.What I am even more proud of is that Election 2015 for Kentucky is over and written in the record books. What is most notable is how badly the pollsters missed the results. Survey USA and the TV stations predicted the Democrat Conway to win by five percentage points when in reality the Republican Bevin actually won by about 80,000 votes or by nearly ten percentage points. They were equally bad in last years Senatorial elections when McConnell smeared Alison Grimes. You'd think in our age of computerization and probability that professional pollsters wouldn't be so inept. Only two Democrats won and one of them was Andy "Obama" Brashear , the Governor's son who becomes Attorney General. He only won by around 2200 votes statewide over the Chubby Pedicure-loving Westerfield. In his victory speech Andy got carried away and gave the impression that he had a landslide victory, when in reality he had one half of a percentage margin over his opponent. I would have preferred neither of these buffoons had won, but such is the downside of Democracy. Bevin is addressing the forms for county clerks that are used in county clerk issued marriage applications. He is taking the clerks' names off the form whereby they apparently won't be giving their blessings for same sex marriage. He had promised before the election to release his tax returns like all other candidates, but told reporters he wasn't after he actually won. He seems quite comfortable in going back on his promise. We now have the Donald going on Saturday Night Live tonight with everyone he has criticized protesting his appearance. That is just about everyone in the USA at the moment. Ben Carson is in hotwater for his West Point not so appointment and Chris Christie is not going to be on the main podium at the next debate. Can we just hire someone as a manager for this country instead of having this bunch of ill mannered people insulting one another?Maybe we could have some of the Waltons from Arkansas to take charge. They have conducted warfare on small town business for the past 50 years and have virtually wiped out most main street business in the USA. They could probably wipe out China in the next fifty years if we would give them the power. I just know that we as a country are very tired of politicians and empty promises.Its the 7th of November and the past couple of weeks have been beautiful Indian Summer weather, nearly 80 degrees several days. I don't know if it's alright to use Indian in that context so I'll say Native American Summer to keep from offending anyone. We were in Charleston SC the first of October and on the way down we were watching Hurricane Joaquin headed from the Bahamas toward the mainland. We jokingly said that if Jim Cantore showed up we would be leaving the same day. We arose the next morning and Cantore was broadcasting live from the Battery. Without preamble we packed our belongings and headed back to Kentucky. Jim Cantore made the remark that he was praying for Charleston and Columbia. There was a lot of misery and flooding in all of the region , with over 20 inches of rain in that long weekend , most of which wasn't related to Joaquin. I hope things return to normal in South Carolina because it is a beautiful and historic region.Halloween and the elections are over and we are headed for Thanksgiving in a couple of weeks . The stores have already decorated for Christmas and I've heard Christmas songs. It is too early for that. I noticed they had put up the tree yesterday in Rockefeller Center. Maybe the Donald could be the Star atop the tree, shining in his radiance. There certainly won't be a manger scene, since that is outlawed .I don't know about Lamar's condition as they aren't talking about that anymore , but maybe Snapple could put news like that or about the elections under the bottle caps.At least we could have something to drink as we are informed. Snapple did tell us that twelve cows is a "Flink"
Wednesday, October 21, 2015
Help From All Sides
It seems that we as productive members of society are constantly being inundated by offers of help from all corners and from very unlikely sources. First of all we are suffering in Kentucky with the most boring and tiring group of candidates running for office on November third. The governor's race has Jack Conway running against Matt Bevin. Conway is a young Democrat who is currently our Attorney General. He is saddled with Obama against his will, which is definitely a bad thing since Obama is about as popular in Kentucky as is Coach K and the Duke blue devils. Conway's opponent is a Louisville business man who states something today and denies it tomorrow. There is an independent running against them who is much the brighter and has better ideas but has only around 7% of the voters according to the latest poll. The independent was only allowed to be in one debate since he doesn't have 10% of the vote. Either way Kentucky loses when one of these clowns win. The Attorney Generals position is up for grabs with the present Governor's son, Andy "Obama" running against a Republican legislator , Westerfield who is chubby and was reprimanded for missing a court appearance as prosecutor for getting a pedicure. Again we would be better off if we could just pay an outsider to be Attorney General for four years. On the national level we hav a plenthora of candidates on both sides. They all want to help us by leading the country.From the look of the potential Presidential candidates I must say that Democracy has failed. I can't see a person that I am comfortable with leading our country. Maybe if Lamar Odom recovers from his four day vacation in Nevada he can file for President. Please let someone wake me up and tell me I've been sleeping for 20 years like Rip Van Winkle, and have been having nightmares about how someone spends $75000 on prostitutes and drugs and has been updated as to his condition every night since then on the prime evening news. All in a swirl with the Kardashians pleading for privacy in the moments of recovery. HUH ?? The Kardashians wanting privacy? And then the reporters are asking Caitlin Jenner about his/her feelings toward the situation with Lamar and he wouldn't answer. Or is it she wouldn't answer. Hell I dont know what it is. If I decided to be a duck and started quacking it wouldn't necessarily mean I was a duck. Sorry Caitlin that's the way I feel. Our own county clerk from Morehead was placed in jail for not blessing the marriages of gay couples which the US Supreme Court said she must. She refused and a Federal Judge, Mr. Bunning declared her in contempt and sent her to jail for 5 days. Now the Religious hate group from Kansas are picketing Mrs. Kim Davis' office ,not for gay causes , which they hate incidentally, but because she has been married for four times and she is an adultress in their enlightened and blessed eyes. The haters are the West Boro Baptist Church. They actually hate everything ,and have to have a vile mission of protest everyday to feel warm with vile rhetoric and sociopathic intent. Why can't they go after Justin Bieber or Kanye West or Bill Cosby? Speaking of Bill, He isn't looking so Mr. Huxtable at the moment is he? If the allegations of that many women are even close to being true then he is about as hypocritical as anyone in recent memory. His honorary doctorates are falling like autumn leaves after a heavy frost.There has to be a lot of nice ,kind people out there in America that wake up in the morning with good feelings toward mankind and go out and make meaningful contributions toward our great society and country. They plod along everyday and raise good families , pay their taxes, and work in productive jobs. They seldom get praised and are embarrassed if they get compliments. They are what made this country the great place it is when you travel across it from east to west.Most are tolerant of others and don't have $75000 to spend on drugs and prostitutes.You will find them at places of legitimate worship on Saturdays and Sundays and at school meetings and soccer games for their children. Some own guns but wouldn't think about mass murder. They are us. We are not politicians and celebrity trash or West Boro Haters. Maybe we will all wake up and find the last twenty years have been a crazy sleep over. But then again I don't think even a drug induced nightmare could drag up these crazy assed politicians and public figures.
Sunday, February 01, 2015
Cheating
It seems appropriate on Super Bowl 49 night to discuss cheating.The past two weeks have had nothing but discussions about the deflated football used by the Patriots against the Colts. Nevermind that even the Colts felt that nothing made a difference to the outcome of that game. Supposedly the Patriots had someone in a ninety second time span to deflate 11 gameballs by one and one- half pounds. The theory is that it enabeled Brady to throw the balls better and receivers to hold on to catches. This doesn't seem to be rocket science, and it seems somewhat ludicrous that the deflated balls have a lot more momentum in a pro football year than wife beatings and child abuse by the players. Even serious newscasters have taken up the story on the deflated footballs. Every sport seems to have cheating and accusations of cheating. Pete Rose is not in the Baseball Hall of Fame because he betted on games. Lance Armstrong went from America's Golden Boy to a drug laced cheater. Penn State didn't cheat but had Jerry Sandusky which caused them to be stripped of titles and pride. Like Saddam Hussein, Joe Paterno had his statue taken down.I never see middle aged men wearing their LIVE STRONG bracelets anymore. Tonya Harding had Nancy Kerrigan 's knees beaten and went on to a career of talk shows and bad girl appearances. Bruce Jenner went from Olympic Star to the Kardashians, and now there is talk that he's becoming a woman. There has to be something in California's water. On second thought there wouldn't be much sleazy news in our country if it wasn't for California. Nascar has cheating in all forms and fashions. It seems to be ok to drive another car in the wall at 200mph but to wreck yourself deliberately is a no no. Just ask Clint Bowyer and Michael Waldrip.What is sometimes judged to be cheating in sports is just good strategy in business.I wish there were performance enhancing drugs that would allow me to sell and design more products, and then to allow my boys to fabricate them. I would be a new customer at that clinic. Nascar is allowed to deflate and inflate their tires to enhance track stability, so what's the deal with the footballs? Maybe they should use an inert gas like nitrogen that won't shrink like air. Belichick was fined for videotaping opposing teams signals in 2007. The football league fined him $500k , the maximum amount, while slapping players' hands for child and spousal abuse. It appears consequences are greater in money than anything else.I also read the commercials cost $4.5 million for 30 seconds this year. I decided not to advertise at the last minute. I believe that one viewing of a Super Bowl explains the negative feelings the rest of the world has about the USA.So tonight we are supposed to have a trace of snow. A couple of weeks ago we were promised the same and Lexington had 5 inches.there is no telling what the weather will be tomorrow. This winter storm is Lucis or something. Hopefully it stays north of the Ohio.Winter Storm Kari was to dump snow of Historical proportions on New York City last week. The city got 6 inches.Boston wasn't so lucky. Maybe the weather fear mongers should figure out a way to cheat so their predictions are more accurate. I really don't care who wins Super Bowl XLIX , but I will be glad so we can have sometrhing else to talk about. Romney is out of the race, at least for now but we have a huge gathering waiting to spend millions for election. We have 2 years to listen to this BS. As far as cheating there is nothing more devious and cheating than our politicians. Cheating is a way of life to office holders.Ask the past governor of Virginia, or the past governor of South Carolina and his trips to Argentina. Or ask a past Governor of Kentucky who cried on TV and said he had sinned. I guess no one is perfect and I guess everyone has cheated. Just don't lie about it!
Tuesday, January 06, 2015
Little Lies
Everyone lies. I think it is in our deepest, innermost program to be deceptive. People have been lying to survive since perhaps the first two humans interacted. We learn to lie as children to avoid punishment , first from our parents and then from our teachers in school. Society seems to abhor lying on the one hand and to practice it on the other. Attorneys make a living with lies, and all too often criminals are released through the legal system by skilled lawyers that make lies believable to juries. O J Simpson ended up in prison, not for double murder ,but of threats in a Las Vegas Hotel.Johnny Cochran and his team tore Marcia Clark and the California legal system to ribbons. Judge Lance Ito coiuld only sit back and watch tax payers money go down the drain. The legal system and the jury said the prosecutors were lying and OJ was telling the truth. Even a first grade schoolteacher would have been more effective than the prosecutors in in exposing OJ. Then we have Mr. Bill Clinton. Who doesn't remember his indignant proclamation of "I did not have sex with that woman". Which woman ?Jennifer Flowers, Paula Jones, or Monica? I guess its in what is the definition of Sex. If they had known to ask about a cigar maybe he would have remembered. Later coming clean. Mr. Clinton could easily win re-election if hecould run again . At least half of our country would vote for him , lies and all. Politicians seem to get a free pass for lying. Entire campaigns are based upon lies. Our own Mitch McConnell and his opponent Allison Grimes were constantly being called on the carpet in their campaign for telling falsehoods , or maybe just stretching the truth a little. Our legal system is so tuned into lying that the Constitution gave us the 5th amendment to avoid having to tell the truth.Boy I wish I had had the 5th to use in grade and high school, or even now in my marriage. Unlike Justice, Sandy is not blind and she doesn't recognize the 5th. She also does not have to read me my Miranda Rights or have probable cause . I think she could resort to waterboarding if necessary. I don't know how Clinton gets a get out of jail card and I can't. In Africa The Bladerunner killed his girlfriend and came out with 5 years for Manslaughter 2. They say he'll be out in 10 months. Again we have lies coming out ahead of justice. As for Bill Cosby, there seems to be a lot of lying going on by someone . Is it the 25 women that say they were molested or is it Mr. Huxtable? Maybe time will tell. Sometimes a lie is necessary for the common good. What man has not been asked"Do these pants make me look too big?" And what man has not lied and said"No you look great". I do know of a young colleague who told his wife she had to lay off the doughnuts because her ass was getting too big for her sweat pants. What a mental lapse! He will replay that remark for the rest of his marriage if I know anything about women.Then we have such a thing as "Kind Lies". whereby we tell partners and friends falsehoods for nice reasons, even love. Christine McVie sang "Tell me Lies, Sweet little Lies". I love for a woman to tell me sweet lies, always have and always will. I look like a street person on the 51st Street subway stop and Sandy tells me I look nice. I definitely see Nick Nolte's mugshot every morning as I glance in the mirror, and she tells me I look nice. Tell me lies, sweet little lies . I hope she does it for love, but I suspect she does it out of habit, and even worse, out of pity. I'm starting to get depressed as I think about this.Tomorrow night it is scheduled by the weathermen to drop to 0 degrees or lower here in Central Kentucky and I just dread the cold.I guess I will just have to take Nick's Mugshot and wash it up a little and head down South to Knoxville to a jobsite. Going 85 down I-75 does have somewhat of a potential risk to lie as we are all susceptible of running afoul of the traffic monitors and their radar. Like Slick Willy I have no reservations of evading the truth when he or she asks how fast I thought I was going. It seems contradictory to survival to admit to speeding to an officer of the law. Like Christine i'm going to tell that officer "Sweet Little Lies". Like Roger Daltrey said, "If its good enough for Pavarotti its good enogh for me!"
Monday, January 05, 2015
Defining Moments
There are times in our lives that somehow become embedded within our brains and stay in our thoughts as memories. These memories are either pleasant or they can be very negative in their content. They are often lying just beneath our thoughts in our subconscious , just waiting for a signal to emerge and remind us of a past experience. Sometimes these memories will emerge from events that happened years ago or they can be something that happened only days ago . If you're old enough you will readily remember what you were doing when JFK was assassinated. , or you can see in your mind what was going on when 911 occurred that morning. Sometimes even a smell will take you back to childhood as maybe the first day of school when you enter a classroom saturated with the whiffs of books and paper. Or a certain scent of perfume will take you a time of mini skirts and peace marches. The sound of soldiers marching still takes me back to ROTC and ugly baggy uniforms and even uglier, pie faced NCOs trying to get us to sign up for Advanced ROTC and become "Lifers". I can still smell locker rooms at gymnasiums as we dressed in shiny, short basketball uniforms, usually in advance of getting our country- boy asses humiliated all over the shiny hardwood floors. I can still feel the bruising punches in my skinny back as ugly, pimple faced forwards tried to intimidate me , hidden from the view of the referees as they tried to control the game. Just the sound of a bouncing ball brings back the smell of the old gymnasium with its balcony that was obscured from view by cigarette smoke and loud catcalls. The real games were being played up there and out in the gravel parking lots. Back in those days 57 Bel Aires and Impalas weren't classics. They were means to get from point A to point B. You could smell 39 cents per gallon ethyl gasoline as they rocketed out of the parking lot on their way to the burger joints or some dirt road guaranteed for privacy. We were left on the hardwoods getting bruised and beaten. Sometimes we would go to the drive in if we had a ride or admission money. It didn't matter what was on because no one watched the show anyway. Again the show was really secondary as Social Rituals were taking place at the concession building. People met there to find romance, to fight, or to learn things, sometimes all at the same encounter. Many times the first taste of beer was found at the drive in. We didn't have drugs of any sort back then ,unless you counted Polio oral vaccine on a Sugar Cube. We did have talk of fallout shelters and local civil defense as we prepared for Nikita Khruschev and his Promise to bury us in Communism. The Cuban Missile Crises still comes to memory at odd times, and I still can see Lee Harvey Oswald shot in the stomach in black and white on our snowy old tv. We didn't know that down the road HDTV was lurking or that scratchy 45 rpms and 33s would be replaced with digital. A defining moment was installing an Arthur Fulmer 8 Track under my Gran Torinos dashboard and listening to Led Zeppelin . The Immigrant Song was perfect coming out of 4 speakers as a skinny brunette drank Boones Farm straight from the bottle. That smell of alcohol and strawberries seem to be positive in my memory.Then there was a Homecoming where my friend's date slowly ate her football mum corsage during the first half of a hazy football game. It was bright yellow with a large ribbon that was certainly a defining moment to me. She was chasing the flower petals with Bacardis Rum and left nothing but the bow and a green stem. I have wondered what happened to that girl from 1970. I imagine she went on to live a normal life and be a productive member of society, probably with children and grandchildren , who would be aghast at a picture of grandmother eating her corsage as a sexy young coed. Obviously this was a very defining moment as I have beaten it to death. Nevermind that my date and I were to be married after graduation, a pact that went different directions.Movies are an incredible source for memories both from the actors and the audience. Again the differences in male and female perception is nowhere more acutely displayed than in movie attendance. No chick flicks for me! No actor stands out more in male moments than Clint Eastwood. Dirty Harry is what we all want to grow up to be. "Do you feel lucky Punk?" or "Go ahead , Make My Day". What about "Beam Us Up Scotty"? Or how about Maverick and Goose? Especially when she lost that loving feeling, or when Maverick called the ball?How about Maverick requesting a fly by? Even when the pattern was closed?How about Doc Holiday Telling Ringo"I'm your Huckleberry"? Or how about Val Kilmer's portrayal of Doc?I think we all need writers to pen us scripts for daily conversations. That way we can all create defining moments for future generations. Sometimes I do get quoted ,but it is by Sandy's friends and generally of the negative type of defining moments.How about when Quigley shot that bucket from 10 miles away? Or when Quigley told a dying Alan Rickman,"I didn't say I didn't know how to use them. I said I didn't have any use for them". Almost Shakespearian. Another favorite Defining Moment is Lonesome Dove.Tommy Lee Jones and Robert Duvall could have quit because everything else is commonplace after that.The soundtrack is perfection.The final two minutes of A River Runs Through It should be on everyones Desk Top.Norman MacClean said it all right then.I'm still trying to figure out whether I like "American Pie " or not.Most of the time I do ,But this driving my Chevy to a dry levy at times renminds me of that dirty, pimply faced SOB that punched me in the back nearly fifty years ago . That seems to have been a Freudian moment. Maybe I need some counseling. Take us out of here Mr. Sulu.
Thursday, January 01, 2015
State Of Union 2015
Well 2014 has ended and we start into the unknown waters of 2015.For some bizarre reason November was an abnormally cold month and then December was a reasonably mild one. We were in NYC to celebrate our anniversary and it occurred during the weekend of Santa Con.There were some protests down by the Brooklyn Bridge and City Hall concerning Ferguson, but there's always some kind of protests in the Big Apple and it was barely noticed. We went to see "Once" and it was ok , not great ,but ok. Then we went to see "Hedwig and the Angry Inch"and I rate it right up there with"Cats ", which means I would be more entertained with a fist fight on the subway. How entertaining can a transvestite rock singer with a heavy metal band be? The gay guy that used to be on Frazier had started the lead role but was in it only a month. The new lead role is played by a seemingly straight guy that was the lead character on Dexter, which I've never seen.The only thing worse than Hedwig was the pain in my knees from the cramped seats. I decided to get Sandy a mixed drink before the show so told the bartender I wanted a diet coke and Canadian Club. He asked single or double and I told him a single. He said $15 and I was glad I had asked for a single.We had wanted to see Beautiful again but the price for two tickets was in the range of $500 so we opted out of that rather quickly. The weather in NYC was really nice and we went down to the 9-11 memorial and looked at the finished World Trade Center.Earlier in November we had flown down to Homestead, Florida to see the final Nascar race of the season and Sandy had rented a house in Hollywood about 10 minutes from Fort Lauderdale Airport, where we had flown in . Hollywood has a wonderful historic downtown with some really good restaurants where we ate several nights. Our phones showed night temperatures in the teens back home and we were eating Italian food under the stars in Hollywood. We drove by Miami on our way to Key West on the Saturday before the race and that was probably the best part of the whole weekend. Temps in the low 80s as we went through Largo , Marathon, and over the Seven Mile Bridge. It always brings good memories to be back in the Keys. There's something about blue water meeting the blue sky that makes you want to pack up your possessions and head south, at least for January and February. That is not to be however, as we are committed to projects that are filling our schedules until at least the middle of April. One of our projects is atop a mountain in Eastern Kentucky that is gravity defying at times, especially if it is raining. Some of our best custom wood projects are taking shape in some of the most artistic homes being built.This all comes at a cost of being on I-75 at least three days a week going to Tennessee and Eastern Kentucky, which last year was going to Western Kentucky. The big difference is that it is costing us $35 less per fillup in a monster old suv that craves premium gasoline and gets 12 miles per gallon. So the first blessing of my State of the Union is $1.96 gasoline. I find it hard to feel sorry for the Big Oil Companies. They have been gouging us since 1974.Its funny that my suppliers that kept adding fuel surcharges on us have not talked about taking them off, something that we are going to start talking about in the coming months.I'm also starting to get hostile with Dish Network that keeps taking off programming and raising rates. When I complain they say that they are adding more shows. Thats BS! They keep adding shopping channels and crap that noone watches. The trend is everyone is streaming and going back to antennas and local programming. The history channel ,TLC, and animal planet ceased being educational and flooded the air with reality tv. I'm tired of watching moonshiners, Turtle Man , and Alien files. Are there no producers or writers left?Are there no subjects for movies other than XMen, Hobbits,and Vampires? And Frozen??? What can I say?Elsa and Anna have taken the place of Miley and Brittany.,I think the sales for Frozen is what got us out of the Depression/Recession. The other thing I am happiest and thankful for is that the nastiest political race between McConnell and Allison Grimes is over. Its a shame that the two mudslingers could not have both lost. Then next year we have the Governors race here in Kentucky. I noticed that Kentucky is the fifth worst run state in the Union. That will give the politicians plenty of goals to strive for. On a positive note if you want to leave Kentucky fast you can download an app and your boarding pass is now on your smart phone. The airlines are charging you $5 to print you a boarding pass, just one more reason to drive. The medical news is that we had about 2 weeks of media driven ebola panic and then it went away. People in Africa are still dying but the media shifted our attentions to elections and Ferguson.Now they say our flu shots are not going to be effective because they guessed the wrong flu strain or flu du jour.I read Charlie Ergan, the founder of Dish Network is worth $ 9 billion and is striving to give us the best value in TV programming. I'm betting that you won't miss me when I unsubscribe Charlie.All in All my State of the Union is Ok. Its off to Eastern Kentucky tomorrow but with Blue Skies and blue water in my heart.
Sunday, January 05, 2014
Winter Storm Ion
So it is January 5 ,2014 and we are sitting tight in our pup tents awaiting the arrival of Winter Storm Ion . This bad boy has all the weather people breathing and gasping in our ears . Really? I think they should take a break and just let it happen like it used to. I started seeing the forecast 10 days ago and they want to remind us of this continually. I thought that I was tired of Bill Meck on Lex 18 until I switched over and saw this Bailey Clown on WKYT 27.Their silly antics got me to thinking if they had a real job, or do they just hang out all day at the stations watching the weather channel and rehearsing the bad news. They probably have some geek that loads up the graphics and shows them how to click the buttons so we can see what is happening in Dubai , or they will show us live scenes from atop Central Baptist, or maybe a shot of the mountains in Breathitt County. They then tease us about what's coming and promise to tell us in the next segment.Do you boys really have a true job, you know something that truly merits a pay check? I never see any of the local weather gurus out in the weather like Cantore or Bettis. They always send the newsgirls out in blizzards or tornados to report"Live". Maybe they should do like that Creepy Al Roker and Matt Whatshisname and get Prostate exams live on the 6 o'clock news. Now that would really give them something to look concerned about! But back to Ian, we have nearly 60 degrees today and tomorrows high is scheduled to be 3 degrees. Schools are already cancelling classes across the state, and I have cancelled an installation for tomorrow and Tuesday. I guess that's the chance you take when you don't work inside a TV station. I was reading with interest the predictions of this guy on the computer home page concerning the 25 things that a baby born in 2014 would never experience . One thing was the US Postal Service and I think that is right. They are raising postal stamps again to 49 cents and will still lose billions. Let it go and we will find a way to survive. The guy also predicted the end of bank tellers, book stores , dvd movies, fax machines, movie cameras,and phone booths. I haven't seen a working phone booth for twenty years. The biggest gripe that I have about disappearing customs is the rearrangement of seating in airport waiting areas. LaGuardia's Delta Terminals have replaced about 2/3s of conventional seating with bar height I-pad stations where you can while away hours on the internet or even order drinks, delivered to you at a premium.You can do everything from the I-pad stations but pee or get comfortable. The result is a lot of people having to lie or sit on the floor while waiting on their departure. You can also use electronic devices on board your flight other than talking on your cell phone, a right that most intelligent people hopes never is allowed. Flying has become a no frills ride that charges you for every little item. Want to check your bag?$25 or $50 please, depending on your Airlines.Reserve a special seat? More charges. Food during your flight? They take your credit card. Change a return flight? $200 please. Delta testified that it made something like$.14 per passenger, but charging extras allowed them to make less than $20 per passenger per flight. Really?? I don't think I believe that BS. I was driving toward Lexington this afternoon and noticed a large Red tailed hawk perched on a telephone line doing what hawks do. He was deciding what to have for dinner and being at the top of the food chain was in no hurry to pounce on what warm blooded rodent was going to provide protein. I was thinking that he had no concept of Winter Storm Ian fast approaching from the west and didn't have to worry about "Flash Freezing"(new weather phrase du jour), nor did he have to obtain clearance from Indianapolis Control tower about departure. A hawk's life is relatively simple, straight forward, and honest. Brutal at times but efficient. I think his life makes more sense than mine at times.
Tuesday, December 24, 2013
Christmas Eve
Well here we have the day before Christmas, 2013. Where has this year gone?Sandy and I just got back from New York City two days ago and man what a trip! On Sunday we were down in Central Park and then to Rockefeller Center. The sky was overcast, but by lunch the temperature had soared to the upper 60s, and people were wearing tank tops and shorts. It was hot. Early in the morning we left the hotel and it was sprinkling rain so since we were heading uptown to the Park we decided to get off the subway at 59th street and go into Bloomingdales for a cheap rain jacket. Wrong! The jacket that would have been suitable cost $450, but it was on sale for 40% off. This was for a jacket that costs $39 back home. But in all fairness back home doesn't have a subway stop in its basement either. Come to think of it back home doesn't have a basement at all. We didn't buy the jacket and the rain had stopped anyway. We usually buy our clothes, and pay money that goes straight to Arkansas instead of Bloomingdales. We then walked through the park watching runners and dog walkers, on our way up to 75th street to visit the Whitney Museum. We are big museum fans and had not taken advantage of the Whitney. It was generally a total waste of time and $40 admission charge for 2. The fifth floor was their permanent exhibition and I loved some Edward Hoppers and a couple Georgia O'Keefes. There were a couple of nice Calder mobiles in a stairway, and lower down was a whole floor dedicated to Robert Indiana , which was a lot of stenciled letters and numbers in black, white , yellow, and red. The remaining floors were dedicated to crude doodlings and arranged garbage. I think it was a case of the Emperor's Clothes. The day before we were eating lunch in Grand Central Station, and as usual there was a multitude of people, but it was the last weekend before Christmas. I had to go to the restroom and saw immediately that the line to the ladies room next door stretched out of sight, but that the mens' room was without a line. I went in and walked up to a vacant urinal and was doing what I came to do when I heard feminine voices very , very close to me! I looked over my shoulder and women were coming and going out of the mens' stalls, an arms length from those using the urinals. It was somewhat of a shock to be using restrooms with the girls but no one seemed to mind, so why should I? When you gotta go,you gotta go! As I was leaving the restroom I had to sidestep an attractive blond heading in. I said,"Excuse Me" and she just nodded, on her way to relief. I shouldn't have been shocked as I have shared bathrooms for 40 years with a woman. The only difference is that I know this woman. We went to see "Beautiful", the musical about Carol King and it was fantastic with all her music and the songs she had written. I think the highlight for me was when actors portraying The Righteous Brothers sang "You've Lost That Loving Feeling". They were fantastic. Saturday evening we saw "Motown " and it was almost as good. The Marvin Gay actor was almost Marvin Gay. The Temptations sang "My Girl" and all was right with the world.
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