My Return To TV News

Isn't technology great? We can see beheadings, homeless war refugees, citizens versus cops, fraternity lunch mobs, and government shut downs in hi-def."

I guess I will start this morning by passing out a couple of warnings. This post could get political and I'm in a grumpy mood at 5:19am. It could also be a long post, maybe not. I'll include only two photos in this early morning rant just to keep within the design pattern of my blog's front page.

So you wanted transparency ... you'll see transparency this morning from the depths of an overactive brain. Don't blame me.

I am not totally sure I am grumpy. Probably am. I got up AGAIN before 5am, did the same routine as always, dogs out coffee on. They eat, I read the internet, check email etc. They go back to sleep in the dark bedroom while I walk back in my dimly lit kitchen (on purpose) to pour a cup of coffee. As I am about the grab the pot handle I barely notice that the coffee level is not quite to my mark "6", which gives me two twelve ounce cups of coffee.

I feel my pulse rise ... maybe my pulse has a news hangover.

Instead of turning on the regular kitchen lights that are bright I grab my small camping flashlight on the shelf, you know the one, the one I use to track Stella in the dark when she is outside to take her last pee break of the day.

There is nothing like walking the dark backyard late at night or early morning after midnight, sometimes in the field, in freezing weather wearing a down jacket, shorts (yes) and cheap large Chinese rubber sandals, telling Stella "HURRY UP!!! or Where in the F*** are you????).

So I lean over so I can slide that light from the flashlight between the bottom of the bucket that holds the the coffee grounds and the top of my coffee pot only to see a stream of coffee so small it might take all day to make coffee. This does not make me happy. That stream of coffee, so small, also reminds me I may or may not have a prostate problem.

So we have the slow making coffee and a news hangover after trying to follow one of my "campaign" promises a few days ago. Remember? I told you that I might make a comment or two about what's going on in the news. Since I had not tuned into any kind of news besides my sports addiction since October 28, this was a major step for me. Don't they say the first step of recovery is admit you have a problem.

I do ... a big problem with the news and everything else going on including sports.

It's like telling a recovered heroin junkie "here take some of this". It didn't take an hour? 30 minutes? Who knows because I possibly had blacked out from anger. I had given into the popular majority and made a promise I wasn't sure I wanted to keep but here I was.

I stood in shock as I was looking at my 55" tv screen with CNN, FoxNews, MSNBC, CNBC and maybe others. Geeeezzzzuuuuuussssss H. Christ !!!!!!

What am I doing?

I won't go into a lot of detail because you have all seen it, heard it or read it. The news in general. There is so much stuff to pick, choose to comment on and literally all of it in my eyes is total bullshit. It amazes me how so many intelligent people can be so f****** stupid.

All I got from my short time viewing the news was SPIN SPIN SPIN SPIN SPIN SPIN SPIN .... should I keep going? I felt myself getting a little lightheaded. Reminding me of my days of too much tequila, standing in the same spot of the living room with the stereo turned up to concert level sound with Metallica .... before passing out. Then at work the next day bright and cheery.

It's no better online. CNN, FoxNews, Breitbart, TheGuardian ... blah blah blah blah blah blah blah.

All that crap that infested my corrupted brain cells did one thing ... can you believe it????? ONE THING POSITIVE !!!!

After turning off the tv and telling Heidi who had witnessed everything from the couch, "NEVER again". I would have told Stella the same but she slept through all of it and has no time for stress in her life ... food and sleep is all she wants.

I sat at my kitchen table with my MacBook Air lid closed. Looking out my large kitchen window across the highway, at the harvested corn and soybean fields .... thinking if the crap they call news even affects my daily living experience? Am I hurt in anyway?

I think you can see here blogging about RVs at first, then the Hounds later, that it is a pretty simple easy lifestyle that the hounds and I live. The only stress here is when the toilet overflows with clear clean water because that damn rubber flap doesn't settle right in the tank after flushing the toilet.

Does all that news YOU made me watch and read, so I could comment on it, make one bit of difference to me?? Does it???

I did NOT get on my knees but I did thank my lucky stars for the life I have, my hounds and the good health I experience.

Yes, like John Mellencamp sang many years ago, "Small Town" ... that is where I am from although different from where I live now. My parents grew up here. My great aunt built the house I live in today .... back to the news. (Sometimes I have to grab my brain like a mother does to her child in the grocery store saying "get back here")

Before the 2016 Presidential election I never paid attention one iota about politics. In their own way there isn't one politician that isn't corrupt, in some way. All the way back to George Washington. Did you realize that George was the first president of many to have sex with a woman besides their wife in the White House??? Did you?

History will tell you that George being a short man, and small in physical structure, had sex in a White House closet. Yep ... do some history research. I've never googled it, I read about it in the fall of 1970 in Ballentine Hall at Indiana University sometime before noon during a history class I had signed up for. I heard it and I wasn't stoned either.

Now whether that closet was a walk-in closet was not stated.

Anyway ... back the USA Cesspool I call the news.  (Coffee is tasting great by the way)

I understand the desire for people from the south of us willing to die, give up their children and leave their families to cross borders from Texas to California. I really do. It's just not the reasons for economic, gangs, violent neighborhoods in Central America ... it's lack of money, lack of jobs, lack of water to grow crops for food, it's lack of HOPE ... on and on. It's happening all over the world, not just in America.

I understand all of that. How terrible that is for anyone with a family, even single?

So why don't they stop and settle in beautiful Mexico? I mean people from Canada, and the USA drive across their borders every fall to spend the winter in beautiful country from the beaches to the mountains. Why don't they settle there?

Why not settle down in a country that speaks the same language and an easier way to adapt to the country's society, plus closer to their family in Central America or even in Mexico??? Am I confused??? Or will you call me a racist like people get called on Twitter? My old friends from the past that were black, brown and oriental would laugh out loud at that accusation.

To shut off this immigration commentary so I can move to other stuff, here is what bothers me about illegal immigration.

Let just say that the news is not fake. Let's just say.

From what I have read in the past on online news articles before October 28th ... illegal immigrants from Mexico are taught where to apply and how to fill out the paperwork for financial assistance, food assistance, and housing once they cross our border. Our country is 20 TRILLION DOLLARS IN DEBT !! so stop whining about the national debt.

An article I read less than 6 months ago in the LA Times reported that some of these illegal immigrants that do not work, don't want to work and don't have to work because they are pulling in approximately $3,500 per month in welfare payments and that does not include $500-$800 per month in f****** food stamps. Even quoted participants laughed and bragged how easy it was to get money here ... then send it back where it was needed ... to their families south of the border.

What about medical insurance? They don't have any and don't need any ... the good old USA government, that no one likes, will take care of them.

So I answered my question why don't they just don't stop in beautiful Mexico and I am serious when I say "beautiful Mexico" ... the land is beautiful and the families and people are the kindest. I'll blog later about my days of going to Baja every two weeks and later becoming friends with a few families I met at the horse racing book in downtown Tijuana. (1979) In fact for a year I went to Tijuana every day from Carlsbad CA to the "foreign book" on Avenida Revolucion to bet horse races in the USA while working for a horse racing handicapper. (Great funny job before computers)

They don't want to stop in Mexico because that isn't where they get free money, to get housing, and to eat. Plus many already have family in the USA so I can understand they have other motives.

I'm a racist?

I wouldn't say that. I mean had a "white trailer trash" living next to me for 5-6 years that knew how to play the system and played it like a professional. His live-in 'wife' using her maiden name, made above average salary working. How else can you get disability payments every month with a bad back declaration and then spend all day and night working on cars that you drag race. Anyone want to help changing that engine, it's heavy? Not needed, he did it bad back and all by himself. "Honey did the disability check come in yet?"

So yes, you don't have to be an illegal immigrant to work the system for free money.

I forget the number I saw the other day for the decrease in Food Stamp precipitants since Trump took office .... 3 million?? 300 thousand??? That's what happens when short term memory is on the blink, you can't remember a simple number 48 hours ago.

Good for him though, now if they would just work on that disability payment plan problem. I hate all cheating ranging from taxes, food stamps and disability payments and it doesn't matter what color of skin they have.

So now what?  Let see .... hmmmm

Oh, I just caught this morning's headlines or the sub links on CNN news ... Californian wants to tax 'texting' to raise money so they can support all their new illegal citizens with iPhones and Samsung smart phones ... their choice. Does that mean they will will have to change all of the amnesty forms filled at the border with a little box  they need to check for Apple or Android phones??

I would say it but I can't say the word "fuck" too many times here.

You know that you can use that word 14 different ways in the English language? I'll not count the ways. I was hesitant in typing it but you wanted transparency on my blog ... you got it. Sometimes while watching ballgames on TV ... ALONE ... the referees think that word is their first name. Oh well, so what if I am a 'sick puppy' ... it's my dry sense of humor.

Even where I live in "BumF*** Egypt" ... otherwise known as Small Town USA, we have illegal immigrants living downtown. In fact in 1997 this house I live in may have had a few. My dad owned the house then and rented it out to the owners of the new, at that time, Mexican restaurant.

Of course the owners were not renting it for their families but what looked like their whole kitchen staff, based on the repairs and painting I did before moving in my furniture and three hounds, Harry, Maggie and Maxwell.

They still work in that same restaurant under different ownership. I never read about crime from them ... oh a couple of drunk divers that have killed innocent citizens in this county turned out to be here illegally but that could happen to "white trailer trash" or in a high powered lawyer in Indianapolis just as well ... so it's just not an illegal immigrant thing ... it's a drunk driving thing.

That is pretty much my feelings on illegal immigration. I like legal immigration, not illegals who feel they are entitled to free support from the rich USA who just happens to be 20 f****** TRILLION DOLLARS IN DEBT. Who are now saying as of yesterday, the USA Government owes them money at the border ... Ha, what a joke.

Feel free to leave your honest thoughts in the comment section. I'll read them all. I WILL NOT ARGUE and I WILL respect your opinion. Besides, I am sure I can learn something on this issue from other people. I guess subconsciously I am looking for more knowledge about this immigration issue.

You may have done some early morning math this morning ... let see he is 66 years old, in 2016 he would have been 64 minus the 21 years it took to vote LEGALLY .... why was he not interested in what went on in politics for 43 years and then all of the sudden gets interested, inflamed during the campaigns, angry on Facebook angry on Twitter, and shouting at long time friends over the phone ???

Two words and I could add one more like "f*******" before the two words here:

Hillary Clinton

I don't give a shit if her opponent in November 2016 was always wearing red, carried a pitchfork and the MEDIA called him/her "the devil" .... I WOULD HAVE voted for him or her.

That's all I'll say this morning about politics .... otherwise you would be looking at an hour or more reading time, 100,000,000 words, and possibly news that Steve had some cardiac problems while writing on his blog. He was found leaning back in his desk chair with his mouth wide open in a screaming position clutching his chest.

Now that would have been something you could call fake news.

I will say I am a little familiar with President Donald Trump. No, I've never met him nor do I want to. He has his own mental issues, don't we all? I never watched his TV show and I didn't need to read much about him during the campaigns either.

So how am I familiar with him?

From 1995 - 1997 I worked for a small family owned business ran by two brothers. Mysteriously they had pulled up stakes in Chicago and moved to Bloomington Indiana of all places. IU grads?? No. Family around??? No. Sports fans???? No. Every question I asked due to my background check on them was answered with "No". They seemed to have followed "The Donald's" plan of tying things up in court with lawsuits if they didn't agree or didn't pay the bills. They later declared the company was bankrupt, took their money and ran.

Kevin must have read the book that Trump wrote because I swear to god on a stack of bibles a mile high or space station high ... Kevin was a spittin' image of Donald J. Trump in his attitude. I never jumped through so many hoops they called a job. There were days I loved working for him and their days where I coulda ... shouda .. uhhhh, we won't go there. That would lead us to the fight on gun control and how did someone so demented mentally get a gun.

You get the picture though don't you?

You know ... hounds and sports are so much easier and nicer to write about.

After a few days in the news muck or quicksand plus I can see nothing has changed since October 28th, my last viewership. It WON'T change either. Personally I don' think it will ever change. Society has fallen off the cliff and hasn't hit bottom yet. I cannot fathom what the next century will look like or lets say from the years 2030 onward, who knows from now on?

There are days I hope I am not around to live it.

I was told a few months ago by a friend whom I made the mistake of sending him a draft of the first post for my brand new blog I had set up. He didn't reply immediately because he doesn't live on the internet like I do because he has a family and a life.

He did say this though after reading it:  "Don't do it. What I read here could put you behind bars" ... I immediately thought of all the bars I had attended during college, California, Breckenridge CO, Hussongs in Ensenada, even Whidbey Island.

I told the hounds when I read his text ... "Stella, I don't think he is talking about drinking bars". She raised her head from the floor, acknowledged I had spoken to her ... then went back to sleep.

Again ... you've heard it before from me ... toward the end of a long post ....

I've lost my train of thought again !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Why?

Where are those bullet points icon under this new Wordpress system? I want to list a few news highlights that have caught my attention before my second cup of coffee? I'll do them manually I guess.

• Over 95% DACA applications, renewals for illegal aliens approved by Trump. (Really?????) Who woulda thunk it?
• Google CEO Sundar Pichai told "5 Whoppers" to Congress
• Huawei is a "Front Group' for the Chinese Communist Govt.
• China is 'building communism' in America with Technology, Finance
• How God led rock superstar from demons and $23 million
• ObamaCare continues to fail

As you can see I FOUND the icon to add bulleted comments.

Well it's a small sample but geeeeezzzzzuuuussss, what's fake and what isn't? Really how can you tell? Which news agency tells the truth? Who can I depend on as I wade back through shit that is knee deep and the hip waders I bought at Cabela's don't work as good as they were advertised?

There are a few people I will mention that I cannot talk about, now ... possibly never.

• Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
• Robert Mueller
• Maxine Waters
• Purdue University
• F****** Hillary Clinton

I must admit that after typing only 2,974 words I'm exhausted.

I've lost my train of thought. Who knows maybe this will be more than enough transparency that the general public loves.

Just remember I am not an expert in any of this crap. My expertise is in basset hounds, bloodhounds, craps tables, a little computer, and sports.

I kept my promise to you about writing more open and as one comment said ... transparent.

If I continue to watch the news --- WHERE I REALLY DON'T WANT TO ---- I will have to pull my stamp out of the box in my closet labeled "Work Info"

 No worries .... it's all good in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.

A Day Of Coffee & Books

It was bound to happen. All of that great sunny weather finally disappeared and today was a dark overcast day with light rain most of the morning and afternoon. It felt like a fall day back on Whidbey Island, that also use to turn into a day of coffee and reading books.

The hounds were only outside each time to dump their tanks. Heidi ran outside and back inside so fast the Nikon D3200 didn't have time to even auto focus for her photo.

The weather today should be the same tomorrow if all the weather experts have read the radar correctly. It was one reason I raked leaves yesterday. Both Sadie and Stella stopped at the edge of the carport once they realized it was raining, hesitating whether to go in the yard. They went but not for long before heading back to the house.

It wasn't must different for the hounds in the afternoon. Winston decided to show up but he missed the morning trip due to being in a deep sleep. He is getting ready for winter.

I took a short trip to the town library to pick up a book I had ordered from a different library in their state library system online. It was here in the morning of the 2nd work day, ready for me to pick up. Driving the FJ to town in the light rain washed off the dirt/dust that gathers from being parked in the carport, surrounded by fields.

Back to my book reading, a fresh cup of coffee until the first game of the World Series comes on tonight.

A wet day in "the tropics".

It's Always Hazardous To Run Out of Coffee

The hounds woke me at the usual time around 6:25am ... or should I say Winston woke me at 6:25am. He's getting older and when he whines to go outside he means it, but he is also great letting me know that he does have to go outside.

The sky was beautiful so I ran back inside to get my camera. After looking at the photographs I have to say the sky colors were much more dynamic in person than what these photos show.

We proceeded to go back to bed until 9am. Of course Heidi doesn't wake up or go outside with the other two at 6:25am .. she never does.

When I posted yesterday about being "out of the zone" and not knowing why ... well this morning I think I figured out why. When I opened my eyes this morning and felt for any kind of pulse to let me know I was good for another day, I realized I had not had my morning coffee for the last 5 mornings. I had a rare headache Wednesday night but I thought that was more from watching the Cincinnati Reds play bad baseball with a minimum wage of over $400,000 per year, than it was from my lack of caffeine.

The routine is always the same, letting the hounds outside, make coffee while they are outside and then let them back inside after the coffee starts dripping into the pot. That routine was off this week. I was out of coffee.

I wondered if the lack of a good cup of coffee to start my day might be the reason for my lack of productivity and a foul mood that I wrote about yesterday?

Last Monday morning as I was grocery shopping and adapting my shopping to only the produce, meat/fish/poultry isle to fit the new diet ... I missed the coffee isle. I didn't realize the error until I returned home 12 miles later. I was out of coffee. I knew then it might be dangerous for me to proceed without having that morning cup or those two cups in the morning, but I thought I'd give it a shot.

Since I only drink Seattle's Best Coffee and Starbucks, most of the time, it was going to take me 25 miles round trip to pick up a pack of coffee. My local IGA grocery store carried Starbucks at a higher price but it closed at the end of April due to very poor management by a new owner. That new owner was able to destroy a local 40 year grocery business within 4 months after taking ownership. It had carried "my" Starbucks Coffee and was only a mile away.

So it was going to be a 25 mile roundtrip just to get coffee. I knew this morning I needed a cup and was willing to do whatever it took to have a cup before doing a list of things needed to get done. While taking some photos of Winston and Sadie you would have never thought a torrential downpour was just 10 minutes away. It wasn't sunny but storms did not see like a possibility.

After the photos, and telling the hounds I was off to buy coffee, the skies opened up 4 miles away raining so hard I could barely see. A lot of people couldn't see so there were a line of brake lights coming in the traffic ahead of me. When I left it was partially sunny 67° and looking like a great day ... so every window of the house was open.

It rained hard off and on and by the time I got to the Walmart Super Store, it stopped long enough for me to get inside. I felt better just picking the package of coffee off the shelf. I knew this was going to be the solution to my "twilight zone". I grabbed a couple of great tasting cantaloupes, some fresh strawberries and fresh blackberries ... and I walked through a hard rain back to the car.

I thought I might be the idiot of the day for driving 25 miles round trip to pick up some coffee but I was wrong. I was not the idiot of the day. There were more than one winning the idiot award today and that was 6 different golfers, sitting in 3 different golf carts in 3 different places along the fairways that run next to the highway. Why did they win the award? Everyone addicted to golf one time or another has played in the rain but these 6 golfers were sitting in their golf carts UNDER TREES as LIGHTNING was putting on a great sky show.

I might be wrong about that assumption but I think I remember there is something about being around trees when there is lightning going on. Were the rubber tires of the carts enough protection for them? So maybe I was the idiot after all.

One of my readers, Ed Frey, made a very good comment on my weird blog post I made yesterday. It mainly pertained to me but then I starting wondering how many other bloggers fall into the same trap that I sometimes do? We start blogs for our own journal, maybe to keep family and friends updated with traveling or just a document that we can come back to later on as reference. Then unexpectedly we have a few followers that for some reason find what we write or the photos we take, are interesting enough to come back day after day.

Interesting enough, they keep coming back to read your blog even when you are not traveling, blogging regular or even writing a lot about nothing. Without trying to, over the years a feeling of an obligation may develop where the blogger starts thinking they have to write, even when they don't feel like it. The feeling of obligation to their readers finally hits them up the side the head when they post they can't come up with something to blog about. If you were writing to yourself you wouldn't say that. Still it's nice to let your following know that you are taking a day/night off from blogging. Some people may shut their blogs down temporarily, and/or may feel like they don't want to blog anymore and disappear without a word.

With my background of online sales between 2005-2010 I use to analyze my websites traffic. It was a requirement to help maximize your websites visitors, that hopefully turned into an increase in sales. It became a habit, with an eBay Store, an Amazon Store plus a couple of additional websites. So I have always enjoyed looking at the blog traffic stats seeing where people are from, or why I am getting visits from Russia or the Ukraine when they are busy doing other things, plus a curiosity on which posts are the most read by the visitors.

I made a comment wondering if blogging was worth it with a decrease in traffic. Ed pointed it out to me, why would that matter and if that was the reason to blog he would have shut his blog down years ago, due to lack of traffic. I had to agree. Blog traffic numbers were not the reason I started this blog. I never have had nor have plans to monetize it, so traffic numbers don't matter. I guess it may have been the old habit I had of analyzing site traffic that made me think that way.

So with Ed's comment, that made me think on why I really blog. With my 1st cup of coffee in 5 days and headed for a 2nd cup, and thinking on why I like to blog, I feel much better about blogging in the future. Granted when I started this blog in October 2011 I did not think I would be sitting here taking photos and writing about daily life of a single retiree ... and three hounds that keep him sane. I thought I'd be many miles away. Yet, taking photos of my daily life and the hounds is the direction the blog has taken. It will change eventually but it's where it is right now.

I want to write about Heidi's health update and Sadie's experiment of being "off leash" but it would make this post too long. So I'll add another post today covering both of them. Winston is cool and laidback as always. He will have his 11th birthday on May 18.

For those that came back to this blog day after day ... thanks for stopping by and reading.