Tonight Things Start in Earnest

 

The Debates; Chapter One.

I said awhile back I would need to watch the debates, not to make up my mind, but to see if Romney can sell me on him.

And to watch the Train Wreck that I hope Obama becomes.

Or would; if we had a fair and balanced press.

As is, I expect the questions to be more like this:

Gov. Romney; please explain in detail in 2 minutes how you intend to fix the economy.

President Obama; please describe the best breakfast you have had in the White House.

Gov. Romney; please explain in detail how you intend to repair the healthcare crisis.

President Obama; have you ever shot a hole in one?

Gov. Romney; how does it feel to be such an incredibly successful Presiden... Sorry; wrong question. Gov. Romney; who do you intend to bring unemployment down to less than 4%?

I guess you see where I'm going with this?

The Presidential debates will be a chore for me to watch, but I'll do it.

The Vice Presidential debate should be interesting. Especially if Biden gets asked who exactly has been murdering the middle class for the last 4 years.

Sorry 'bout Yesterday

Well; the weekend kicked my butt. I am still sore and tired. Hopefully I will recover in time for round two this weekend.

This past weekend was spent in my son's bathroom. It was drastically in need of a redo. He and his wife bought the house 4 years ago, and at the time we did a clean and paint with a new tub and flooring. the room was serviceable.

But it was due a refit. It had a closet in one corner that took up too much room and provided too little storage, and the sink and cabinet that were serviceable 4 years ago were now past prime. They had to go.

Last Friday afternoon, they went. Along with the wall behind the sink and the floor, down to the subfloor. That was the easy part.

Saturday we hung drywall on the sink wall and filled in hole in the walls and ceiling the closet removal left. and fixed a few things elsewhere in the room, and then started slinging drywall mud.

Sunday morning it was 2nd coat of mud; wait for it to dry, and then 3rd coat of mud. In between we ate dinner, as pictured above. About 12 pounds of ribs. We put about 6 ounces in the fridge.

Monday was touch up on the drywall, and starting on the floor. We had to lay cement backer board, and then layout the tile. The tile had been chosen by the daughter in law, so we had to make it fit in the room.

It came out stunning, if I do say so myself. Pictures later, as soon as I can figure out how to get them from a text on my phone.

We had the original layout, the layout we first decided to use, the revised layout, and the layout that developed as we were laying tile out on the floor. The actual laying of tile is easy. The prep work will kill you.

But I suppose it is like everything else in this world; the job itself is easy; its the prep work for the job that is hard.

Once we had the layout, then we had to center it on the room- left and right, and front to back, then determine our layout lines. The other hard part is the first thing anybody will see is just inside the door. And that is where you stop laying tile; not start. You start back in the hidden corner, and if the hidden corner isn't absolutely perfect, then when you get to the door the tile look like somebody backed a truck up and swept them out of the tailgate.

I had to leave about 9:00 Monday night; I was spent and had to work the next morning. The Boy finished up by himself, until he ran out of tile about 11:00.

This weekend it is finish sanding and paint on the walls and ceiling; install the new sink and sit back to hear the compliments.

And drink beer. Laying tile is not a job you do under the influence.

Day 3 of The Remodel

Today we finish the drywall finishing and start laying the tile floor; should be another busy day.

With luck, I will have enough time and energy to do a real post tomorrow.

And no, that's not our remodel; neither was yesterday's picture.

I ain't got time to take no pictures!

Friday Night Didn't Get a Movie

This Friday was one of those bittersweet occasions; a going-away get together for a co-worker. He had been with the company for more than 15 years, and was quite popular to boot. The interesting thing was I think there were more former employees there than current ones. That says two things to me; this old boy had a lot of friends, and our company had shed a lot of people the last few years.

I also ran into some interesting conversations; things that are tracking with national data, but provided anecdotal evidence of the collapsing and retracting economy.

Saturday was busy as well, I spent the entire day helping the oldest boy redo his bathroom. More later on both topics, but right now I am late for another day Redneck Renovations.

If It Says Lite, It Ain't Beer

Okay; I had to share my thoughts on this post at Hot Air.

We can take this one of two ways; either Republicans are finally growing a pair (figuratively ladies) or we have an influx of new folks with a pair who are now identifying themselves as Republican.

I think we are looking at an influx of new Republicans, and we starting to out number the namby-pamby Republicans.

Me? Sam Adams is one of my lighter beers, and I ain't touching any beer with a fruit flavor. If I want a fruit flavor, I'll drink Kool-Aid.

As usual, the comments are worth reading.

One comment I had to agree with whole heartedly, from a commenter called coldwarrior:

Next week at this time I’ll be in an antiseptic environment surrounded by all sorts of folks who will be looking to examine, cut out/off body parts, radiate and flush chemicals all through me…and I think I finally figured out why.

That whole frat years, college days, early Army beer drinking, womanizing, day-old pizza eating lifestyle.

But…was it worth it?

Ohh, yeah….sure was.


It's like I always say: After all the fun I've shown this body through the years, why is it betraying me now?

More Garbage From Washington

Really? Are they serious about this?

First it was a YouTube Movie Trailer that nobdy saw; now it's this.

Can you believe that we are having such a hard time in Afghanistan and Iraq because of the serial numbers on US Rifle scopes?

I am also stunned that there is an organization that exists solely to seperate the US Military from God? I hate to link to them, but would have sworn this was an article on the Duffel Blog without proof that they realy existed.

November 6 can't come soon enough.

Reminds Me of The Good Old Days

I was looking for something to blog about tonight, and was having trouble. So much to talk about, but then, so much of it is horrible. Iran and their nuke program; Israel, as the target of said nuke program; Obama and...., well, Obama and anything he says or does is horrible.

So I went some of my 'Feel Good Sites'; like Sippican Cottage; The Duffel Blog and Sippican's companion site, The Borderline Sociopathic Blog For Boys.

That's where I found this video.

I'll have to admit I have done a few engine changes in my time. I have even done a few swaps, where we took out a V-6 and dropped in a V-8, or pulled a small V-8 and dropped in a honkin' big one. Sorry; went back to my old days there for a minute.

My sister had a VW Bug that required what seemed like constant maintenance. My brother and I had it down to a science. We could drive the bug into the garage and have the motor on the work bench in less than 10 minutes flat. But I have never done an R&R (remove and replace) on an engine in 42 seconds.

Wow. But then, I never did any of my engine swaps with a squad of Royal Marines.

And none of my swaps were on a specially prepared car, like this one. But that being said, this is still an impressive display of team work. And they may be able to drive that car, but they wont drive it far. No Radiator, no coolant, no transmission grease. The 10 meters they drove it is probably the limit of its distance; any more than that and you'll be sweeping up pieces of it.

I am trying to think about what would be my favorite engine swap. I guess it would have to be the one we did on the 1977 Lincoln Town Coupe.

Dad bought the car with a bad motor in it; a 400 big block with a spun main crank bearing. But the car was beautiful. Black, with a black leather interior, and every option Lincoln offered, including the factory CB radio.

We happened to have a 429 laying around from a 1969 T-Bird we bought for parts, so we through a few gaskets on it and dropped it in the Lincoln. This thing went from a 166 horsepower 400 to a 390 horsepower 429. Yeah; we doubled the horsepower. But then, this car weighs about 4200 pounds bone dry and empty. It was a flat dog with the 400. I mean a SERIOUS dog; I got beat off the line one time by a school bus. A FULL school bus. Being driven by a nun. Okay; that last part was a bit of an exageration, but not by much.

I think she was actually a former nun.

But, I digress.

Afterward, we had a sleeper. A sleeper is a car that doesn't look like it is fast, but is wicked fast. Like a 400 horsepower, 4200 pound Lincoln. I wish I had a nickel for every Honda that was expecting a snail, and ran into a jackrabbit at a traffic light.

I miss the good old days, when a weekend a couple of bucks would be all you would need to swap an engine. Now it damn near takes that long to disconnect the damn wires.

Well, maybe not that long, but a damn sight longer than 42 seconds.

Please, Spare Me

Last night was the long awaited- for me anyway- season premier of NCIS; the only show I watch on network TV.

And Obama almost ruined it.

If you don't follow the show, NCIS stands for Naval Criminal Investigative Service; basically an FBI for the US Navy. It is more or less a spin-off of JAG, an older Navy legal show. In it's tenth season, it is still consistently in the top ten. It also follows my prime directive; a good story convincingly told.

Anyway, last season ended with a cliff hanger (don't they all?) with a bomb going off at the NCIS headquarters, and all of the stars appearing to have gotten injured at the very least.

Well, as usual, all of the stars are fine.

But in the beginning of the show the Secretary of the Navy was on the bomb scene, and explained that finding the bomber was the highest priority. And he added that "The President has been briefed". Now I know this is fiction, and in repeats, even next summer, Obama won't be President, but last night my first thought, upon hearing that the President had been briefed was: "Did they catch him between the 17th green and the 18th tee?"

There was another scene where again the Secretary of the Navy was talking on the phone, apparently to the President again, and he hangs up and proclaims that "the President is giving the issue his full attention". I was watching the show with the wife and kids.

We all laughed.

But real kicker came when the characters were watching a news broadcast of the incident, and the news reader said something to the effect of: "The President says this act of terrorism". It was then that I knew the show was not talking about Obama.

The word terrorism is not in his vocabulary.

More From Mike Rowe

Out and about on the Internets this morning I ran across this post, and then this comment from a commenter named Benjamin:

Mike’s career is fine. Do you really think leftist weenies sit around watching Dirty Jobs and ads for Ford Superduty trucks?


And now that I have your attention, the context!

I found a link to the post through Instapundit, talking about Mitt Romney's campaigning schedule, and specifically how Mitt would be appearing with Mike Rowe, of Dirty Jobs fame, at an Ohio event. A previous comment was concerned about Mike's career, after being seen with Mitt Romney.

And then Benjamin's comment.

Read the post, and as usual the comments are the best part.

Gold Is HOT; Why?

I just heard on the radio that Facebook stock has dropped again. As far as I know I don't own any stock in Facebook, unless it is in a Mutual Fund somewhere, but here is why I find this interesting.

The Facebook IPO (Initial Public Offering) was the only- or one of a very few IPOs- that the insiders shared with the real public.

And it tanked.

Here is the question: is it cause and effect or effect and cause?

What I mean is, did the stock tank because the general public was allowed access, or was the public allowed access because the insiders KNEW it would tank?

Interesting question, ain't it?

I have the same question about gold. I know you've heard the ads; Gold is set to explode; Gold is set to double in value; Hurry- Buy Now!.

If there is such a fortune to be made in gold, why are the insiders sharing the information?

Or is it, as I suspect, that the bottom is about to drop out of gold and the insiders want out?

That puts a different spin on the issue, doesn't it?

I could be wrong. Maybe gold is ready to explode. But how many other investments that are ready to double have we been let in on?

Or how many other IPOs that skyrocketed from their original price? Doesn't it seem strange that we are only allowed in on the ground floor of those investment products that have then proceeded to the basement, and not the penthouse?

But maybe I'm just cynical.

Nostradamus I Ain't

I was reading this article yesterday. Amazing what the press won't report with a Democrat in the White House, ain't it?

I normally don't like making predictions, because predictions can go so disastrously wrong. So many little things go into an event, and all it takes is one of the steps to turn out B instead of A and you look like a damn fool.

Think "Dewey Defeats Truman".

But in this case I feel secure in my predictions. Because they are based on recent history.

I predict that once Romney is elected- and no, that's not a prediction; that is a fervent hope- we will start again hearing about the cost of the wars. We will start having body counts again on the evening news, and pictures of flag draped caskets in full color on the evening news.

I predict that once Romney gets elected, we will start hearing about the homeless problem in this country. We will see images of homeless children, living in cars, and barely surviving. The numbers of homeless won't go up or down, but the attention to them will increase dramatically.

I predict half of the people in this country will starve to death once Romney is elected, or it will at least seem that way. Every time an elderly person is found dead in their home it will be because of 'recent' changes to Medicare an Social Security.

I predict that after Romney's election half of the bridges in the country will collapse, or it will seem to appear that way. Every time a backwater two lane bridge is closed for repair it will be because of 'recent' cuts in the transportation budget.

I predict Romney's Presidency will result in a dramatic increase in teen pregnancy, teen suicide and teen alcoholism. All because of 'recent' changes to Federal programs. At least, that's what the media will try to convince you of.

 I also predict that there will not be any change in any of these areas. There maybe slight drops in some rates- a change that will not be mentioned anywhere, or you risk a charge of heresy- because despite the trillions of dollars cast at these problems for the last 40 years, there has been no dramatic change on the rates of any of these issues.

But all of the issue we have not heard a peep out of for the last 3.5 years will suddenly become urgent, and drastically increasing in urgency.

Just like they did when Clinton was President; all of these issues disappeared, from the press anyway, for 8 years, only to appear cicada-like moments after George Bush was sworn in.

That's why I can make these predictions so confidently; I have seen the media's playbook.

Sunday Will Be a Day of Rest

Because Saturday sure wasn't.

We hit the road yesterday around 1:00 and didn't get home until 10:00 last night.

In between we drove almost an hour to hit a going-away party for a family member leaving for Army National Guard training, drove another hour to Mom's house for a family get together, and then left there to hit a fireworks display.

Which we had to leave early because we had the Young'un with us, and she suddenly announced that she 'had to good to the bathroom real, real bad', and refused to use anything but the bathroom at home.

The fireworks display was probably a once in a lifetime thing. and what we saw was spectacular. I tried to get a few photos, but things were too dark for my camera. I did manage to get one shot (yeah, that's from my phone camera), and you can see the Ohio River in the foreground. The colors were phenomenal. Some of the displays had an almost LED brilliance and color tone. Others were Gold and Orange; colors unusual in pyrotechnics, to me anyway.

We didn't go to Coney to watch the show; why pay to stand close to something you can see from across the river? For those who don't know, Coney Island is one of America's oldest Amusement Parks. Started as a picnic grove in the 1860's, by the 1950's Walt Disney was using Coney Island as a prototype for the original Disneyland. Located in a bend of the Ohio River, it is possible to stand on the Kentucky side of the Ohio River and watch the displays. I figured we would be pretty much alone watching the fireworks.

Boy was I wrong. An hour before showtime the spot we picked was filling up. By the time we left- just about halfway through the show- cars and people were lined up for miles in either direction. And it wasn't just the road and the railroad right of way that was crowded; the river was so full of boats I almost think I could have walked to the other side.

And that was only part of the drama. During a break in the show we all heard a loud 'THUMP'; a noise that brought a police response a few minutes later. Rumor was a plane had crashed just up the road. I found out this morning that those rumors were true.

I have been searching the news all morning, trying to find some video of the show, and to find out who won, but no luck.

 I'm rooting for whichever country had the gold colored shots; they were incredible.

If they hold this competition here again next year, I'm there.