Guilt

  My love affair with a cat came to an end recently. Well, not really…..Quigley died before he could manage to have one last Spring fling, but the love affair remains. He now has a peaceful corner of the yard. Here’s what I wrote on Facebook: Quigley was my side-kick for a really long time. He was never really over-friendly…..even with me. He was a one man tomcat. And I was the man. He attached himself to me as a kitten. And I was with him when he died of old age. The pictures are of me and him when he was a kitten, and then one of him in his prime on critter patrol in the front yard of our house in Ohio several years ago. I called him Quig, Q-Tip, Q-Cat, and “The Mostly Crazy White Tomcat”, as well as Quigley. He would answer to a simple calling out of “Q”. He was large, muscular, beautiful, and dangerous. He had the gait of a tiger. I’ve pretty much always had a cat as a companion, but never for as long as this guy. I’ll miss him. He was born in Santa Clarita, Cal...

  Yep. I caught some baseball on Opening Day. Watched some Cleveland/KC and some Brewers/Cubs. Much as they’ve homogenized the game, and as much as I abhor that, I watched. And listened. It’s still baseball. Mostly it’s turned into the American League version of a “baseball-like” game, but it’s all we’ve got now. I don’t really see the purpose of even having an American League and then real baseball in the National League. It’s all the same. And that’s awful. Time was, the American league played in smaller parks, and real baseball was played in larger parks. The American League was a “bloop and a blast” game dominated by home runs, while the National League was a “grind-it-out” league dominated by batting average and base stealing. My main team is the Giants, and has been for as long as I can remember, but I lived in Youngstown Ohio for a number of years and became an Indians fan. So today, since the Giants don’t start on time (they start tomorrow at home), I put o...

  Honestly…..If you insist on calling vegetables “veggies”, I will no longer take you seriously about pretty much anything. And now I hear that at Disney resorts, there is no longer a welcoming phrase of “Ladies and Gentlemen…..Boys and Girls”--It’s been replaced with the gender-neutral term “Dreamers of All Ages”. What a Bunch-O-Hooey. No more “Boys and Girls”…..Don’t even say those words at a Disney resort, I guess. Look, I have grand-daughters and grand-sons. They are, in fact, “boys and girls”. And I’d like to think that they’re also welcome at Disneyland in the off-chance that their parents can afford the entry fee. You’ve just gotta wonder where Disney stands on Mickey and Minnie Mouse these days. Or Daisy and Donald Duck. I was watching some MST 3K—Something about 50’s era spaceships and such. An old serial made into a movie, I think. What I wonder about is why did capes go out of fashion with aliens? They look right snappy. The cherry trees here in Ca...

  Up here in bucolic Castle Rock, we had 2 consecutive non-rainy days. So I cut the grass. Made me feel like I live in the ‘burbs again. I actually like taking care of a lawn.   Even with all of the hoop-la about climate change/global warming the rabbits on our hill and the squirrels and all the birds seem to think it’s Spring. The cherry and apple trees and tulips agree. We have neighbors who have turkeys and ducks. Other neighbors have chickens. Maybe I could build an aviary and we could have squab. Tasty little critters. There’s also doves and American robins the size of barnyard fowl here. I bet they’d taste pretty good too.  I bring this up because the price of gasoline is causing my food budget to shrink. Commercials on TV are always louder than the programming. I have a TV that compensates, but it’s still overwhelming. I was just wondering if the advertisers know that I have a “mute” button. I also wonder if advertisers (and the programming staff of ...

  My Bride makes a dish that I really like. She has always called it Mexican Meat. I call it Messkin Meat, but I mean no disrespect by that. It’s a name for the meat dish, not the people who are now and have always been my friends. They understand that I’m actually harmless. At least they THINK that I’m harmless. You might find disagreement if you look hard enough. I like all sorts of Mexican food, and when I’ve got a cold or the flu or otherwise just don’t feel quite right, I medicate myself with Jalapenos. It’s something that works. But….Mexican Meat. Our little Terrier-Dog, Lil, gets meat scraps all the time. Parts of steaks, chops, chicken skin…..She’s a lucky dog. But she does draw the line at rancid and “sorta” rancid hamburger meat. Back to Mexican Meat. Today, I did a regrettable thing and happened by while the Bride was cooking up a Mess-O-Messkin Meat at the same time that she was preparing Lil a meat plate. Lil got some trimmings from a pot roa...

  It tickles me to watch the “weather” reports on news programs. Tickles me even MORE to watch The Weather Channel. I’ve been living in the Pacific Northwest for about 6 or 7 years now, and I’m here to tell you that we have wide deep rivers and massive lakes that are just chock full of fresh clean sweet water. It never really quits the rainy season here. The standing joke (based, of course, in truth) is that we have two seasons—Winter and August. Typically, we usually have about 3 months of decent weather—middle of July into sometime in September. That’s it. Then it rains. A smattering of snow, and that’s always a treat, but it’s rain. And, frankly, it takes the gas right out of me after a month or so. Boredom and depression in the winter are very real things up in these parts. True, we’re not as hammered as, say, North Dakota, but it’s still pretty grim. Which brings me to the weathermen (this included weatherwomen, just to make sure you know I’m not a sexi...

Looks like we will, after all, have a baseball season this year. The millionaires and billionaires buried the hatchet and agreed to disagree for another 5 or so years. Best I can tell, the biggest thing they agreed to was having a designated hitter in the National League. Shit. I don’t even like divisional play, much less this clap-trap. Pitchers are no longer baseball players. They’re just chuckers of orbs. They shouldn’t be allowed to even call themselves baseball players. Or qualify for MVP voting—that really should be reserved for players. Same goes for career designated hitters. They are not baseball players. They simply bat-swingers, and nothing more. Even though the season is starting late, they have also agreed on a full 162 game slate. This means, of course, that there’s going to be a crap-load of 7 inning double headers. More heresy, you ask me. 7 innings does not a baseball game make. They did this nonsense because the owners only pay their employees for g...

  With all the talk up here in the greater Pacific Northwest about the never-ending drought (regardless of the flooding, I guess) and global warming, and protests against fossil fuel, and that idiot Greta Thurnberg…….The sky is falling crowd….. Well, the Dogwoods here in Castle Rock are blooming, the birds are nesting and, from what I can tell, making little birds. So, counting the crises (not the Wuhan Flu, but the other ones), we got Fossil Fuel, Global Warming, Climate Change, Flooding, Drought, War, Gun Violence, Police Brutality…..I’m certain that there’s more. But in these parts, it just looks like Spring is right around the corner. At least the Dogwoods and the birds think so. Soon as it warms up a little (it was 22 degrees American this morning), and dries out some, my big crisis will be mowing the grass. Another big Springtime event is re-setting the clocks for Daylight Savings Time, which happens this weekend. Really looking forward to that. We ...

  I don’t live an expensive life. My house in bucolic Castle Rock was built in 1935. I drive a 21 year old VW Beetle. I’m a retired Law Enforcement Officer and my medical benefits are supplied by MediCare. That’s not an extravagant life. I’m on a fixed income. I have Social Security and some retirement benefits from the two agencies I worked for (for 32 years). I’m a U.S. Army veteran. I’ve always done my part. Paid my taxes. Voted. Respected the elected officials. Always carried my own water, you could say. I felt sorry for Joe Biden. He seemed (and seems) befuddled. He lurches when he walks. His wife has to hold his hand on steps to prevent him from stumbling. I felt sorry for him. I really did. When Donald Trump was president, the gas station here in Castle Rock sold gasoline for $2.75 a gallon, more or less. Today, I filled up the VW at the gas station and paid a heart-stopping $4.99 and 9/10ths a gallon. In Castle Rock, for Chris...

  Ya’ know…..I first started farting around on the Internet a really long time ago. The first browser I used was called Cello. Us Cello users called ourselves cellists. This pre-dated Netscape by quite a distance. Everything was text-based, because the speed of downloading information was restricted to, at the most, a 14.4 or 9600 baud POTS modem speed. And graphics eat up a crap-load of bandwidth. Don’t know what POTS is? Shame on you. That’s Plain Old Telephone Service. Modem was short for Modulate-Demodulate, which is now irrelevant, but the term has hung on. No, no one knows why. I remember clearly when I bought an upgrade to the IBM 386 I had been using. The machine I got had a Pentium 60 processor, 14.4 modem, 4 MB of RAM, a 560 MB hard drive, a sound card, a color monitor and Windows 3.1. Brother, that was a MACHINE!! I bought it at Circuit City. Back in those days, everything was freely accessible, and the WWW was only a small part of the experience. E-...

  Energy shortages? Easy. Go nuclear. Remember…..”The China Syndrome” was just a movie, not a scientific expose. Remember…..Nuclear disasters like Chernobyl fail to have the millions of years of on-going disaster that the Chicken Little folks would have you believe. Nuclear. That’s the answer. Maybe the ONLY answer. Get yourself enough working nuclear power plants and you put the Russian oil and gas industry completely out of business. OPEC too. And no, I don’t really want to hear all about solar, hydro-electric, or wind. There’s not enough of that to even power all the cell phones in the USA, not to mention the onset of electric cars. Don’t be stupid.

  As promised, here’s the follow-up info on the cold brew coffee maker. Mine came with instructions, and each instance makes about 2 quarts of concentrated coffee. To make that much cold coffee takes 2 cups of ground coffee and a whole bunch of water. Plus, of course, the two days wait. I only waited about a day and a half. You put the coffee in the strainer, put the water and the strainer in the carafe, screw down the water-tight lid, and give it a shake. Like a martini shake. Like that. It’s to get the coffee grounds damp. Then stick it in the fridge. Give it a courtesy shake once in a while to keep the grounds moist. What you get at the end of the process is a really tasty, highly concentrated carafe of cold coffee. I mixed it with diet coca cola and Hoo-Boy was it good. I’m thinking it’ll make a really good hot drink all by itself, watered down, with booze, with cream, whatever...I’m a fan. The balance of the 2 quarts of coffee is in the carafe, in ...

  I don’t know about you, but I’ve just about had it with the MLBPA—That’s the “Player’s Association” of major league baseball players to the uninitiated. Think union. Yeah, the owners are all richer than God…..Billionaires, I think. At least most of them. And their investment keeps growing. Yep—they actually make money even if they have a losing team. But it’s their team. They're the owners, after all. A back-up second baseman who plays half the games in a season, hits .220 with 10 RBI’s and 15 errors still makes league minimum. Oh, that’s in the neighborhood of $750,000.00 a year. And that’s a lot of scratch just to play a game. But the player’s association wants a shit-load more. They can KMA. If I was an owner, here’s what I would do: I’d cancel the contracts of every player on the roster who refuses to play after a given date (like today, maybe). Let them sue. It’ll take years to resolve the lawsuits. Next, I’ll have open try-outs for the major ...

  Interesting weather up here in the greater Pacific Northwest. Interesting if you’re REALLY into rain. On an average year, it rains for 9 months, then, if lucky, we get about 3 months of decent weather. If it fails to rain for more than 3 consecutive days, even in August, the weather reports and the local newspaper start talking about drought. Idiots. Then, there’s the constant rejoinder as follows: “We really need the rain…..That’s why it’s so green here”. MEGO. We are just now recovering from flooding due to what was called a “Pineapple Express”--A non-ending stream of heavy rain originating in the South Pacific (or thereabouts) and aimed directly at me. It rained for three days straight. I’m seeing a little bit of sun today, so I guess it’s mostly over for the time being, but the Cowlitz river (the one that runs right through the middle of bucolic Castle Rock) flooded—Not in Castle Rock, but elsewhere. The grater Seattle area was also hammered…..but they, of course, ...

  Looks like there’s three really big stories today: -1) No one has any idea when, or if, baseball will return. Or, for that matter, what it might look like if it does return. -2) Russia is taking over the Ukraine without invading, leaving the idiot Biden completely flummoxed. Like he wasn’t already….. -3) The spoiled child of a Canadian head of state cannot get enough of his emergency powers. And then there’s this…..I’ll celebrate President’s Day again if we ever get an actual president.

  I’ve always done more than my fair share of shopping remotely. Before the Internet became the controlling method of remote shopping, I was a catalog shopper. Not that I don’t (and didn’t) go to stores, but catalogs (then), and the web (now) has a more complete tableau of products from which to choose.  And I can shop without putting on a face decoration, too--Can't discount that part of it. Easy stuff for a guy like me. Buy remotely. Have it shipped to my front door, usually for free. Save the gas for the car, which, frankly, is now cost prohibitive anyhow. The part that bugs me right now is that after you buy something—and I mean ANYTHING—from a website, you get a series of nagging reminders to review and rate you product and the seller and the shipping and the cost…...It’s endless. And it’s not just product reviews that are wanted—The dentist now wants them too. Here’s my “every time” review for my dentist—“Didn’t hurt as bad as I thought it might”. Qui...

  I skipped the Super Bowl. Bet you can’t guess why. Other than a complete lack of interest, I mean. I’ll be relying on Bill O’Reilly to give me an intelligent run-down on his podcast tonight. I rely on Mr. O’Reilly for quite a bit actually. I don’t always agree with him, nor him with me, but he’s a really smart guy with some of the best researchers in existence. I’ll be looking forward to his take on the asinine half-time show, and commercials (if there were any of note), and the viewership numbers. I’d be delighted to find out that the audience numbers are down from years past, but I’m not holding my breath. There are some things that you’ just can’t figure—Like why the NFL keeps viewers, or how you really can’t underestimate the American voter, or why no one can figure a criminal jury. Imponderables. The only sports story that I’m looking for is the MLB and MLBPA negotiations. Far as I know the only thing they’ve actually agreed on is a Universal Designated Hit...

  Time was…..Netflix had a pretty nice line-up of recent Hollywood titles and some dandy re-runs of popular TV shows all at a reasonable price, but….. Got a right friendly e-mail notice from Netflix that they were “upgrading” my Netflix experience by 1) Adding even more top quality entertainment, and 2) Jacking up the price again. Seems to me that they just increased the price a couple of months ago, and their programming blows. That “Made For Netflix” crap is really bottom of the barrel. Endless low quality movies and series produced in South America, Eastern Europe, Mexico, and Asia. And more and more, everything on Netflix is made by and for Netflix. No, actually I can do without it. I only kept them through the last price hike because I wanted to finish NCIS, but after DiNozzo left NCIS, it was no longer worth the effort. The DiNozzo character was the glue that held that program together. I enjoyed Ozark, which was “Made for Netflix”, but that was the rarest of exc...

  I like the game of football. I played it in High School, in the Army, and when I worked for the Santa Rosa Police Department. Football is a great game. Tough, manly, brutal. It creates esprit de corps. Teaches teamwork and sacrifice. You know what I’m talking about here. “You gotta be a football hero to get along with the beautiful girls”. When the Beach Boys wrote and sang “Be True To Your School”, it was about football. Ok, then…..That’s out of the way. I really like football. But the NFL is no longer about football. It’s about furthering the black agenda in the United States, and nothing more. College football is no better. The concept of the “student athlete” (when related to football) is a thing of the past. College football is just the minor leagues of the NFL. I no longer watch the NFL, and have largely given up on the college game. I’ll catch a game or two at the local high school on a Friday night here in Castle Rock. Here’s what I really d...

We have an old little dog and an even older tomcat. Neither one will live forever, and I’m not looking forward to the inevitable. I’m really not. The tomcat’s name is Quigley, the little dog is Lil. Quigley has been with me longer than my wife has. He was always a ferocious and independent cat. Did not tolerate people well. None of them, with a single exception—me. He was always my companion. Can’t really call him “my” cat, because he simply wasn’t built that way. He’s a white Rag-Doll, large in size and powerfully built. He came into my life some 17 years ago as a kitten, barely old enough to be taken from his mother. As a baby, he slept with me, usually wrapping himself around my head, where I’d find him in the mornings. As he got older, he became a bit more distant. Like I said, he was powerfully built. As an adult, from a standing start, he could leap over a four foot fence in a single bound, land on all four feet, and never make a sound doing it. When he performed ...

  Pretty normal Sunday in February here in bucolic Castle Rock. Frozen fog, overcast, drippy, cold. Normal. I walked up the drive and picked up the local Sunday fish-wrap. Seems that the Wuhan Pandemic is still with us, Portland and Seattle still have a “homeless crisis”, and their policemen are leaving by the double handfuls, violent crime is out of control, and the cities leaders are just at their wit’s end!! Perused the sports section for any sort of update on the baseball lock-out, and their ongoing negotiations. In a normal year, pitchers and catchers would be reporting in a few days or a couple of weeks, but there seems to be absolutely no urgency to get this season under way. And no mention of the talks AT ALL in my paper. I’ve almost lost all faith in baseball as a professional sport. I already wrote off football and basketball…..I don’t get the attraction to soccer, and hockey confuses me. I still love baseball. Just not the professional variety. Turne...

  I was reminiscing a bit about when my oldest daughter was about 5 and we had a family vacation to Disneyland. The girl, her Mother, and me. We drove from Santa Rosa down to Disneyland in a Datsun 310 hatchback with one of those containers that you can put on the top of the car for all of our necessary stuff. No A/C in that car. Not back then…..And it wasn’t really expected. It was a long drive, and at some point, my daughter began figiting about the extended car ride, She wound up in the front seat, and my (then) wife retired to the rear. My daughter finally had enough of the drive, and the heat (it was summer time in Southern California) and while on the freeway she opened the passenger door of the car to get out. I was really busy for a short period of time. When we finally got to the Disneyland area, we got to our hotel, which was nearby. We had 5 day passes that included a “Magic Morning Breakfast” with the characters, and an early entry. It was spectac...

 While this isn't really new, it tickles me: Aquarius - January 20 to February 18 You have an inventive mind and are inclined to be progressive. You lie a great deal. You make the same mistakes repeatedly because you are stupid. Everyone thinks you're a jerk. Pisces - February 19 to March 20 You have a vivid imagination and often think you are being followed by the FBI or the CIA. You have minor influence on your friends and people resent you for flaunting your power. You lack confidence and are a general dipshit. Aries - March 21 to April 19 You are the pioneer type and think most people are dickheads. You are quick tempered, impatient, and scornful of advice. You are a prick. Taurus - April 20 to May 20 You are practical and persistent. You have dogged determination and work like hell. Most people think you are stubborn and bullheaded. You are nothing but a goddamn Communist. Gemini - May 21 to June 20 You are a quick and intelligent thinker. People like you because...

  Ever wonder just why it is that all of those “Made for Netflix”, “Made for Amazon”, “Made for Any Streaming Service” movies pretty much all suck? They are, by and large, terrible. Sure, I watch them too, because more than anything, they’re included in my monthly fee, and if I don’t like it, I can just turn it off. Same thing you do. Once in a while, they accidentally put together something worth watching. Netflix is the absolute worst. Amazon, probably the top of the heap. Here’s the problem. The movie studios have been taken over by Sony, Google, Amazon, Apple, Microsoft, and all the rest of the digital media/silicon valley crew. The people in charge of these companies are richer than God, and they think that they can do anything better than anyone else. Unlimited money will do that to you, or so I've heard. Don’t believe it? Just wait for your next car to bear the Samsung or Apple brand. Just you wait. So they bought up the movie studios and are now in control ...

  My underwear comes in a wide variety of fabrics, colors, and patterns. I’m not married to anything in particular. Whenever I’m having a known poop issue, I go for the darker colors. You know what I mean. Sometimes, I have a surprise poop issue. Ever have one of those? Of course you have…..You just never told anyone. But you’ve had them. When it’s a surprise, I just might be wearing white all cotton unders. Maybe not, but maybe. Bought a package of white cotton jockey-style (but not REAL jockeys) tidy-whities recently. Pretty much my normal go-to, but, like I said, not always. Depends on my mood sometimes, too. Here’s the interesting part-----The washing instructions printed on these white cotton undergarments had the following warnings: “Machine wash warm. Use only non-chlorine bleach”. Really. My white underwear gets laundered in hot water with full strength Clorox bleach every time. How dare they say otherwise? Real bleach and hot water is the ONLY method...

  Everyday up here in the Greater Pacific Northwest, in the local newses (both Portland and Seattle) there’s at least one major daily hand-wringing about how in the world the “gun violence” issue can possibly be addressed. Do they really not know? Really? I know how. Lock up the criminals. Teach gangster trainees that confronting the police will result in their demise. Put the police back in the driver’s seat. This is not brain surgery. There is no problem in Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, El Lay, Chicago, or anywhere else that we cannot incarcerate our way out of. If you’re a black criminal and you get arrested, it’s not because you’re black. If you’re a white criminal and get arrested, it’s not because you’re white. Same for any other color of skin. It’s because you’re a criminal and cannot be trusted to reside in polite society. People sleep safely at night only because rough men with badges are willing to do violence on their behalf. Police work is sometimes n...

  Big surprise here…..I watch Newsmax on TV some of the time. Every day, actually, but not all day. Suits me better. This afternoon, there was a commercial break that consisted of the following: -Urolift. Seems to make you pee better without loss of sexual function. Just for old guys. -Prevagen. Apparently, makes oldsters regain mental function. As if. -Super Beets. Another brain food, I guess. Or maybe heart food. -Balance of Nature. How to spend hundreds of dollars on supplements that, according to their own “studies”, increases lactation in Russian mice. Another thing that bugs me about these ads is that the testimonial people featured always start the name of the product with “The”…..It’s never just Balance of Nature, It’s THE Balance of Nature. What’s up with that? I was just wondering if these ads were tailored for me, or if everyone gets a daily dose of this crap. Next time I need to make the mice lactate better, or if I need to pee bett...

  A list of all the reasons I give a shit about Neil Young……… 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. I could go on, but there’s really no point. Fargin’ Canadian.