Guilt

  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...