My Muse Decamped. Again.

So, what do we do when our muse leaves us for parts unknown?  We post a re-run, that's what we do.  Like this:

Thursday, January 24, 2008

A Couple of Milestones...Plus Ruminations on the Past

It’s the eclecticism… Or, yet another reason I listen to RP almost exclusively these days. From RP’s play list this morning:

8:21 am - Frank Sinatra - The Coffee Song
8:19 am - Bottle Rockets - Coffee Monkey
8:14 am - Dire Straits - Expresso Love

 

“Coffee Monkey” kicked off just as I was draining my first cup; I come back to the desk with my second cup and Sinatra’s on. Oh, Yeah! I just don’t have this sort of wide variety in my music collection. Bill and Rebecca do. And they use it, too.

 

―:☺:―

 

A couple of milestones passed me by this week…milestones that should be noted.

 

First: to use the military vernacular, SN2 is working for half-pay as of this past Friday, the 18^th of January. That means he has over 20 years of service now, for you non-military types. One is eligible to retire at 50% of base pay at 20 years, ergo: working for half-pay. He won’t retire anytime soon, though. But with the passing of this milestone, planning for his post-military life has begun. Transitions, and all that. Not to mention the fact I’m feeling pretty old, yet again. To think I have offspring that could retire…Aiiieee!

 

Second: Yesterday marked the passing of one full year since I lit my last cigarette. I still miss ‘em, too. Badly. But I ain’t going back…

 

―:☺:―

 

Long-time readers of EIP know there’s a guy by the name of Dan who hangs around EIP and comments occasionally. Dan and I go back nearly 40 years and he is my oldest friend (speaking of the duration of the relationship and not his age…although he can qualify in that space, too). We met at Wakkanai AS, Japan in 1968 or 1969 and we were both in the same racket, job-wise…which is to say we were both 303X2s, the USAF job code for aircraft control and warning radar technicians. We were also drafted by the Air Force for a “special duty identifier” job that took us out of Air Defense Command’s radar business and into USAFSS’ spook biz, beginning in Wakkanai and leading a couple of years later to Sinop, Turkey. Dan and I worked together, drank together, rode motorcycles together, and raced ‘em all over Hokkaido, too. Here’s a pic of Dan sitting along side of a road somewhere near Wakkanai at some unknown time in ‘69, framed by his Yamaha DT-1 (on the left) and mine… on the right. 

 

 

Dan and I both loved Wakkanai for a number of reasons, not the least of which was, in retrospect, the nature of the job we did. And the bike racing and associated carousing, of course. We both managed to wrangle second tours at Wakkanai after we rotated back to the US in 1970, and we returned to Wakkanai in 1971. Alas, the Air Force had other plans for Wakkanai and for us. In a strange turn of events, USAF announced Wakkanai would be closing shortly after Dan and I returned there in late 1971. The unusually rapid base closure (lights out by the end of 1972, as it were) meant all personnel would be re-assigned to other bases, and Security Service flew in a team of personnel specialists in to handle the short-notice re-assignment process. Dan and I got the short, dirty end of the re-assignment stick. We had two choices: take an assignment to Sinop, Turkey and remain in USAFSS, or turn down Sinop and “get released to Air Force.” While Sinop wasn’t exactly a garden spot assignment, the possible alternatives that came with being released to Air Force for world-wide assignment were decidedly worse. Much worse…like Alaska. So, we opted for Sinop…returning to the US for a short leave before heading off to Turkey for a one-year remote tour in Beautiful Sinop by the Sea.

 

After our leaves were up Dan and I met in New York and caught Pan Am’s legendary Flight 002 for Istanbul…with an interim stop in Frankfurt. Dan is pictured below in a shot taken during the short layover in Frankfurt. 

 

 

After Istanbul we caught a THY Fokker to Samsun, Turkey, and then lucked out and caught the Army’s twin-engined Cessna mail plane to Sinop. I say “lucked out,” because the alternative to the 30-minute mail plane flight was a four-hour bus ride over the tortuous and quite scary mountain road between Samsun and Sinop. Dan and I would make that bus trip a couple of times later on during our tour, but that’s quite another story… and one that won’t be told outside of the bar and amongst good friends. To protect the innocent, of course. Not to mention the guilty…

 

So. There we were…on the beautiful Turkish Black Sea coast for one long, long year. This is the view of the town of Sinop from The Hill, as the base was known.

 

 

The base at Sinop was officially named “Sinop Common Defense Installation (CDI),” which was a euphemism meant to imply the American and Turkish armed forces operated the installation jointly. Which was sorta true, as we had a small Turkish Army garrison collocated with us, but the Turks were separated from the “US side” by high chain link fences, topped with barbed wire. NO ONE got into the US operations compound without some serious security clearances…period. The things we did in there were among the most sensitive of all US intelligence activities at the time. The base itself was run by the US Army Security Agency (ASA) and was otherwise known as TUSLOG Detachment 4. The Air Force was a tenant unit on the base, and had the dual designations of TUSLOG Det. 204 and 6934^th Security Squadron…but you never saw the 6934^th designation… anywhere… even on base at Sinop. But…that was work. Let’s not go there. Here’s a pic of a small portion of the antenna farm at Sinop, taken near the USAF barracks. That water-tower looking thing is actually a large electronically-scanned antenna array, and was part of the system Dan and I worked on.

 

 

And speaking of the barracks…this was our home away from home…

 

 

And this is the dorm room Dan and I shared…

 

 

So. Our year at Sinop passed rather uneventfully and oh-so-slowly, it seemed…at the time. Now that I’m gifted with hindsight, it was over in the blink of an eye. Dan I went to work, drank a bit lot more than we probably should have, went exploring in the town of Sinop…which has some remarkable ancient ruins and an even more remarkable history. We both hired on to the local closed circuit radio station as volunteers and hosted a late nite rock ‘n’ roll show interlaced with snappy patter and the like. We spent lazy weekend days during the summer on our very own (Army-run) private beach, drinking beer and lusting after what few American women there were in the area. We went down to the Yeni Hotel on the weekends and drank lousy Carlsberg beer while watching European tourists get off the White Boat and walk around Sinop for an hour or two before continuing on their cruise of the Black Sea. And we took that bus ride to Samsun a couple of times for wild nights of raki-fueled debauchery. To quote Dickens: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” In spades, Gentle Reader, in spades. I may have had better years in my life, but danged few…and none come to my mind at the moment. Such is the nature of nostalgia, eh?

 

To close…Here’s another good Sinop-related site…best I’ve found, actually… that focuses on the military (albeit Army) side of Sinop. The owner of this site preceded Dan and I by about a year and has written a detailed narrative about life “on The Hill” supplemented with lotsa good pictures.

Just to update this post... SN1 is also working for half-pay these days, which means BOTH sons could retire if they had a mind to do so.  I don't think that will happen anytime soon, though.  A further update: I'm still off the ciggies (seven and a half years now) as well, and won't ever go back.

Keurig Broke. Keurig Fixed.

Well, sorta on Part II of the post title.  Last Wednesday I mentioned that my spiffy Keurig machine had apparently lost its feeble lil mind and was only brewing a third of a cup at a time.  It's gotten progressively worse since that time, bad enough for us to actually DO sumthin' about it this morning after I pushed the buttons a record FIVE times to brew a single cup o' coffee.  So we bit the bullet, dove into the manual (old USAF maxim: "When all else fails, read the tech order"), and figgered out what we had to do to get operations back up to par.  We cleaned the needles.  We descaled the machine with white vinegar.

Digression: "Descaling" the machine takes one helluva long time when you (a) fill the reservoir with vinegar, (b) push the damned buttons approximately 63 times to empty said reservoir of vinegar, i.e., run it through the machine a quarter of a cup at a time, and (c) wait FOUR HOURS (per the instructions) before running a reservoir full of water through the machine... once again: much button-pushing... to purge the vinegar.  I began at 0700 hours this morning and finished just before noon, with a short nap during the four-hour wait.

So.  Bottom line?  The machine now makes nearly a full medium-size cup o' coffee when one punches the "large" button.  I suppose that qualifies as success, but I have lingering doubts.  Those old Mr. Coffee machines are looking better and better all the time.

Beastly Weather

Sorry.  I just couldn't help it.  But we MIGHT take our coffee on the verandah this morning.

Saturday, Part Deux: Fabulous Plane Pr0n!

I'd just pulled the trigger on the post below when Occasional Reader and great good friend Lin sent this along:



Who knew they did airshows AT NIGHT!?!

Saturday: HyperFanGirls

Amusing, if you like David Attenborough's style:
 


Just a casual observation: there's a LOT o' money in orthodontia.  

And then there's this, which is pretty cool stuff.



I'd be looking into that software if I did time-lapse vids.

Today's Happy Hour Soundtrack

It takes a lot o' doin' to out-Stone the Stones but Johnny pulled it off...

But it's alright, in fact it's a gas

Yea, verily... it's a gas, indeed.  Wowie-Zowie!  Guitar pyrotechnics don't get no better than this.

In other news... it's a bit warmish outdoors...

... but not warm enough to keep us indoors.  We might even get some rain before the day is through.

I Want My Maypo!

Heh.  Does the title of the post confuse you, Grasshopper?

Today's Happy Hour Soundtrack

Happy Hour isn't happy today, thinkin' as we are about the pain in one of our blog-buds' life at the moment.  This is for Skip...

Got up this mornin', just about the break of day
A-huggin' the pillow where she used to lay
Got up this mornin', just about the break of day
A-huggin' the pillow where my good gal used to lay

I don't believe there's a pain in this life worse than losing the one you love, especially if she's your wife and life partner.  If you haven't already done so, please stop by Skip's blog and give him your condolences.  Life is hard right now.

Rye Resurgent

There's an interesting article in The Atlantic about the resurgence of rye whiskey over the past few years in these United States.  It may be the article is only interesting to those of us who enjoy a dram or two on occasion and you know who you are.  I thoroughly enjoyed the piece and you might, as well.  Here's a screen-cap of the first few grafs...

Bulleit... my favorite rye... gets a shout-out in the article.  That said, it's been a few months since a bottle o' Bulleit rye has graced my likker locker and the spirit is sorely missed.  It appears the Cannon Class VI is NOT a "decent liquor store" as defined by The Atlantic and more's the pity.  The incompetent management at the Class VI store can't even get Bulleit by special order... and I've tried.  Well, I suppose there's always the inter-tubes, eh?

Update, 1600 hrs:  I'm just in from Cannon Airplane Patch where we did the usual, customary, and reasonable things, which is to say pick up meds from the pharmacy, restock the larder at the commissary, and stop at the Class VI for beer.  While we were at the Class VI we took the opportunity to BITCH about that long-overdue special order for Bulleit rye, long and loud.  The management was all apologetic, saying that no, they hadn't forgotten me, and yes they were still working the order but it's a lot harder these days to special order stuff.  I didn't bother to ask WHY it's harder to fill a special order these days, not wanting yet another chorus of excuses.  Still and even, the woman said she would update me by phone later on this afternoon.  We shall see.

Pot-Poury

I might have been the only person in my small circle of blogging friends who didn't acknowledge Robin Williams' passing yesterday.  The Usual Source of political 'toons has a few items dedicated to Mr. Williams today; here's one such:
 

And from the Usual USAF Source, this:

Military Tribute to Robin Williams

—John. A. Tirpak

​The Pentagon issued a rare tribute to an entertainer on Tuesday. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, in a statement, said "the entire Defense Department community mourns the loss of Robin Williams," whom he described as "a gifted actor and comedian, but … also a true friend and supporter of our troops." Hagel noted that Williams had entertained "thousands of service men and women in war zones" and his philanthropy supported numerous causes "that helped veterans struggling with hidden wounds of war." The Twitterverse on Tuesday filled with stories from service personnel and vets on how Williams had taken the time to visit and talk with them personally, going so far as to seek out and spend time with troops who, because they were on duty, couldn't attend his front-lines performances. Many described him as a modern-day Bob Hope. Williams earned his first Oscar nomination for portraying Air Force Sgt. Adrian Cronauer, an Armed Forces Radio DJ, in the 1987 film, "Good Morning, Vietnam." The United Services Organizations, in a release, said Williams went on six USO tours between 2002 and 2013, including five overseas stints during which he visited troops in 12 foreign countries. This included three stops each in Afghanistan and Iraq.

RIP, Mr. Williams.

In other news...

I'm thinkin' UPS loves this video:



Drop-kicking the package on to the roof is a nice move, eh?

In the "Minor Bitches, Moans, and Complaints" category...  We've been living with our Keurig machine for exactly three months today and I'm not very fond of the thing for one simple reason: it takes too damned long to brew ONE cup of coffee.  The machine apparently has lost its mind, in that it has NO ideer what those three different portion-level buttons on its face are for.  To be clear: one has a choice (supposedly) of brewing either a small, medium, or large cup of coffee, depending on which button you push; MY machine brews exactly one-third of a cup of coffee no matter WHICH button you push.  So every morning we stand at the machine diligently pushing buttons and waiting for the machine to cycle THREE times before we get our first cup of coffee.  I don't think that's the way the machine is supposed to work.

It's always sumthin'.

Testing, Testing... One, Two, Three

A video included in an article in Hemming's daily newsletter (screen shot above):



The article about Milford fired off a few long-dormant synapses for me.  One of the very first tasks I was assigned when I hired on with Ed's Famous Data Company back in 1985 was to be part of the QA team validating the installation of a new PBX at the proving grounds.  I spent a weekend at Milford verifying everything worked properly and went through most of the buildings where there were phones.  The facility was in a "minimum manning" state, given it was the weekend, but there were still quite a few people there who were quite happy to explain their jobs to visiting firemen, which included a couple of impromptu facility tours.  The video above focuses on safety testing but there's much, much more going on at Milford.  One of the more interesting things I saw were examples of "competitive analysis," whereby GM acquired competing models from various and sundry brands and tore them down to bare bones in the evaluation process.  I remember seeing a brand new BMW 7-series going through corrosion testing... which involved placing deep (and precise!) scratches on various body panels and immersing the car in salt spray for hours and hours... and thinking "what a WASTE!"  I saw ALL sorts of cars at Milford that weekend, ranging from the mundane to the exotic, including quite a few testing mules of new GM products yet to be released to production.

The Milford proving ground is a wondrous place, indeed.

Tanks a Lot

Here's a video of the 2014 Tank Biathlon which was held in Russia recently.  Exactly what is a tank biathlon, you ask?  Well there's this from the Tube o' You (and a big-ass article at the link, above)...

The 2014 Tank Biathlon World Championship will kick-off in Alabino, a town to the southwest of Moscow, on August 4. Teams from Angola, Armenia, Belarus, China, India, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Mongolia, Russia, Serbia and Venezuela will have to navigate a distance of 20 kilometres (12.5 miles), evading various obstacles, crossing rivers and bridges and shooting at a set of targets. All teams except for China will compete using Russia-made T-72B tanks.

So: Commies (and Commie wanna-bees) driving tanks.  What's NOT to love?



You have to REALLY like tanks to sit and watch this video for the entire two-plus hours.  I couldn't do it, but that doesn't mean YOU can't, Gentle Reader.  If that's your thing.

The Sunday Re-Run

Almost four years ago to the day...

Thursday, August 12, 2010

Still More From the Archives - Moscow

It came to pass in 1993 that Electronic Data Systems (now defunct, the old company currently doing bid'niz as HP Enterprise Services) decided it would be a Good Thing to get their foot in the door of the former Evil Empire, seein' as how the Russian gub'mint was privatizing former state-owned enterprises at a most astonishing rate.  And they were, Gentle Reader, yes they were.  EDS felt that there might be some serious opportunities there and began pursuing bid'niz in Russia... but we're getting ahead of ourselves.

One such newly privatized company was Rostelecom, an analogue to the old monolithic AT&T for all intents and purposes, in that the company provides long-distance telephone services for all of Russia.  It also came to pass that Rostelecom released an RFP early in 1993 for network management consulting services; EDS bid on the RFP and won the contract.  Shortly after that the company released a call for volunteers to staff a team that would go to Moscow for on-site surveys and evaluations of Rostelecom's network management infrastructure, said team further being required to recommend technical improvements and a strategy for implementing the recommendations.

Cutting to the chase... I was the technical team lead for that project and made two trips to Moscow, one in early July 1993 and the second in September of that year.  What follows are some snapshots from the last Moscow trip.  I didn't take all that many still photos when I went, what with having bought my first video camera for the sole purpose of documenting the experience.  And I shot a LOT of video.  At some point in time I'll get those old VHS tapes converted into digital format, but that remains a task on my To Do list... and it's pretty far down that list, actually.  So, without further ado...

Shelly, an EDS sub-contractor and YrHmblScrb

Just me

Two shots of me on Red Square and one of the changing of the guard at Lenin's tomb.  Yep, the mausoleum that holds his waxy ol' cadaver is still one of the biggest tourist attractions in Moscow or was, at the time.   Watching those immaculate goose-stepping troops gave me a world-class chill, believe me.  Click for larger and note how they carry those rifles.  Impressive.

The very FIRST thing we did after unpacking and sleeping off the arrival drunk (more on that phenomenon below) was to walk over to Red Square.  The sole saving grace of the flea-bag hotel EDS booked us into was the fact it was within walking distance of one of the most famous squares in all the world.  We'll digress just a lil bit more to say EDS was doing this deal on a shoestring and doubled up everyone on the team, two to a room.  That was the first and only time that ever happened in all the road trips I made with EDS and it was ugly, given my roommate snored like a proverbial buzz saw.  I MIGHT have gotten all of four hours uninterrupted sleep during the two weeks of that first trip.  Back to Red Square... my one lasting impression of my first view of the place... and it IS most impressive... was turning to one of my co-workers and casually mentioning "there's at least three MIRVs sitting in a hole somewhere in North Dakota with these EXACT geo-coordinates programmed into the warheads."  He looked at me like I was insane.

About the drinking... we were met at the airport by a welcoming delegation from Rostelecom and the first thing we did upon leaving the airport was whip into a hotel parking lot and consume two large bottles of vodka.  Amongst the six of us on the team and our two Russian hosts.  That lil event set the tone for the remaining two weeks.  After we'd finished with the welcoming toasts we were driven to our hotel and given a half-hour to shower and change, whereupon we were off once again to a welcoming banquet.  The food was very good and the vodka continued to flow throughout the two-hour ordeal.  I say "ordeal" because we had just decamped from an approximately ten hour flight between JFK and Moscow... we were DEAD tired.  And then we were drunk.  Dead drunk.  But it was one of those deals you could NOT refuse.

So, we drank a lot.  Early and often, too.  An example: my project counterpart was a Rostelecom director who summoned me into his office every morning at 1000 hrs for his daily briefing.  I'd be ushered in to his office by his secretary who would seat me in front of the guy's desk and then proceed to his wet bar where she would pull out a bottle of vodka and two shot glasses.  We'd have a drink, I'd brief him, and then we'd have another drink... sometimes two.  When we left the country after the first phase of the study was complete one of my team members said to me "Thank God that's over.  Another week and I'd need a new liver."  That's not much of an exaggeration.

Some shots of the hotel room on my second trip.  This time only two of us went over to do final reviews and we each had our own rooms... in a MUCH better hotel.

My bed

The sitting area

The bathroom

The bathrooms were the BEST thing about Moscow hotel rooms, at least in the two hotels I stayed in.  The tubs were long and deep, deep, deep... just the thing for a full body immersion experience after a trying day.  And most days were trying, Gentle Reader.

The conference room where we did our final reviews; note the ashtrays.  I LOVED that aspect of doing bid'niz in Russia... most everyone smoked and NO one looked down on you if you indulged.  My kinda people.  At the time.

Me standing across a busy boulevard from one of the many Stalinist architectural monstrosities that litter the Moscow skyline.  Present day Muscovites take a perverse sense of pride in these Gawd-Awful things.  And they are kinda-sorta impressive in a bizarre way.

One last vignette.  Something else happened in Moscow in September of 1993 and you might remember it, Gentle Reader.  We were in the end-game of our outbriefs and had about three days left in-country when I was awakened very early one morning (like 0430 hrs) by a phone call from a VERY panicked wife who demanded to know "What the HELL is going on over there?"  "What do you mean?" sez I.  "Haven't you been watching ANY teevee?" she asked, incredulously.  "Hang on," sez I.  I walked over and flipped on the teevee (which was always tuned to the Beeb, the ONLY English-language station available) just in time to catch some talking head seriously intoning "... and it looks like Russia is on the brink of civil war.  Back to you, Barbara."  Say what!?!  Russia?  Civil War?  THIS Russia?  Shit!  Damn!  

Fast forward to later that same day.  On our way to the office we noticed many busloads of troops strategically parked at various intersections around the capital and that afternoon we saw our first tanks on the way home from the office.  I returned to the hotel to find numerous messages from EDS... in both the Dallas and Detroit offices... all of which said "Call IMMEDIATELY!"  So, we booked a phone call and got in touch with our management, who informed us we were to leave the very next day, no questions, no ifs, no buts.  Get the Hell out and get out ASAP... there are tickets waiting for you at the airport.

And so we did.  Three days later Yeltsin ordered the Army to fire on the White House and the crisis was over.  But it was sure exciting for a couple of American bid'niz men caught on the ground there... for a brief moment.

I suppose Moscow was an adventure, of sorts.  It certainly was a different experience and in the final accounting I'm glad I went.  The trips definitely had their moments and not all of those moments were good ones.

Updated, 1700 hrs (approx):  Today's Happy Hour Soundtrack:

 I HAD to listen to this a couple o' times this afternoon... just for Old Times' sake.

Saturday: If You Play It They Will Come

Alternate title: "A Man Outstanding Sitting In His Field."



Over four and a half million views!

Cigar Art XVII

In today's mail and in the "beautiful packaging" division, this:

Click to embiggen to readable size.

That would be a box of Xikar HC Habano² sticks in the Grande size (6x60).  As you can see, the box is a well-crafted wooden affair that seals VERY tightly, as in I almost needed a pry bar to get the damned box open.  There's a nice little brass clasp on the box that's a run-o'-the-mill affair but the inside labeling is quite nice.  I found the marketing blurb on the interior label to be quite interesting, especially the tongue-in-cheek bits about "work, work, work."  I suppose every profession or line o' work has its drawbacks, but these guys seem to bearing up under the pressure quite well.

OTOH, a LOT of the tobaccos used in the cigars I smoke originates in Nicaragua.  I'm not so sure I'd want to be visiting that part o' the world on a regular basis right now.

And now, if you'll excuse me, it's time to fire one o' these puppies up, pour a Left Hand Milk Stout and head out to the verandah.

A Question That Answers Itself

This:

"Peak PBR" happened back around 1955 if one wants to get really technical about it.  It's been all downhill since, aside from the hipster market.  The entire article is here and there are STUDIES involved, too!

Today's Happy Hour Soundtrack

Warren, with one of the VERY few prescient rock 'n' roll songs known to me.

In walked the village idiot and his face was all aglow
He's been up all night listening to Mohammed's Radio

[...]

I heard the General whisper to his aide-de-camp
"Be watchful for Mohammed's lamp"
Don't it make you want to rock and roll
All night long 
Mohammed's Radio 

Mr. Zevon released this tune in 1976 as a cut on his eponymous album.  The lyrics quoted above are truly prescient, even granted we have the benefit of 20/20 hindsight these days.  Has there ever been another song in rock 'n' roll's history that predicted the future?  I think not.

Wait.

There's this from Charlie Daniels...

'Cause I ain't askin' nobody for nothin'
If I can't get it on my own
If you don't like the way I'm livin'
You just leave this long haired country boy alone

That tune's prescient because it nailed the Libertarian point o' view long, long before (in 1974 or 1976, depending on your POV) it became fashionable to do so.  Just for the record: we were there with Mr. Daniels during that time frame and that's us: "Just slightly ahead o' our time."  Always and ever.

We Did Our Civic Duty

The frickin' gub'mint is sticky its nasty little fingers into MY pie so today we did what must be done, to wit, this:

I may have overstated my case by describing myself as a "responsible adult," but what does the FDA know about anything, anyway?

Today and tomorrow are the last two days available for public comment on the FDA's proposed regulations affecting the tobacco industry.  The FDA's latest effort is yet another example of the nanny state run amok and is wrong on any number of levels.  You can submit comments on these regulations here, if'n you have a mind to do so.  You don't have to be a cigar smoker to help stop this, all you need to be is a supporter of personal freedom... or what remains of that freedom.

Today's Happy Hour Soundtrack

Pete Townshend with an acoustic version o' "Won't Get Fooled Again:"



I'm pretty sure I like Townshend's acoustic version better than the full-tilt, screaming Daltrey version one finds on "Who's Next."  But BOTH are excellent, classics even.

Speakin' about not gettin' fooled again... We're just in from a whiskey re-supply run out to Cannon Airplane Patch, about which we have both good and bad news.  First, the good news:  the Class VI store restocked with that 18-year Glenlivet that I find so attractive.  The bad news: the price went up.  We didn't find this out until we got to the register and the lady rang us up.  The price on the shelf is labeled as bein' the same as the 15-year old edition but in reality it's 16 Yankee Dollars more dear.  We went ahead and bought the stuff anyway, not wanting to (a) hold up the line while we (b) returned the pricey bottle to the shelf in favor o' the more reasonable version, and (c) not wanting to appear to be a piker.  That said, this will prolly be our last bottle o' the really good stuff for a while.

And we won't get fooled again.

In Which We Steal From Our Fellow Bloggers. Again.

But Hey!  At least it's not Shoebox this time.  Nope, this is from the captain of HMS Defiant:



My comment over at Curt's place: "HELP! I'm trapped in the wimmen's 'no-go' zone!"  Of course I COULD have said "I lived in the men's Fun Zone all my life, and look what it got me."  Those comments aside, I think the guy in the video is on to sumthin' pretty profound.

We Should Prolly Live Somewhere On the Eastern Seaboard...

... according to this:

The interactive version of this graphic is here.

I don't hate the Bruins.  Nor do I hate the Kings, the Ducks, or the Habs.  I have an active dislike... which is about three ticks to the left o' "hate"... for the Blackhawks.  But I really, rilly HATE those Flightless Birds, which means I'd feel right at home in the Carolinas, Virginia, Ohio, and certain parts o' Pennsylvania.  "Pennsylvania!?!  But aren't the Flightless Birds from Pittsburgh?" sez you?  Yup, sez I.  But those Birds don't fly at ALL in Philadelphia (or anywhere else, for that matter), to be specific.  

On another note... this graphic illustrates how far the Avs have fallen in recent years.  If this graphic were drawn 20 years ago the entire state o' Michigan (and other places where Wings fans congregate) would be covered in frickin' snow.

Is it October yet?

Today's Happy Hour Soundtrack

J.J. with today's meme...

I ain't high on cocaine
I don't need the pain
It's bad for your brain and that's true
I ain't droppin' no names
I ain't playin' no games
I'm just one step ahead of the blues
One step ahead of the blues

From Memphis to Reno
From New York to Tokyo
I tried to come through for you
I won't do you in
I ain't no fairweather friend
I'm just one step ahead of the blues
One step ahead of the blues

(full lyrics here)

 Yup.  That would be us... one step ahead o' the blues.  We've kinda-sorta been that way all our life.

"How Many Geezers Does It Take To Change a Light Bulb?"

More than one, apparently.  About which, this:

What you see is a light fixture ripped from its moorings as a result of my ham-handed efforts at installing a new light bulb.  There's a story here, of course.  One needs a special tool to replace these light bulbs, one o' which I dutifully bought and attempted to use recently.  Like this:

To continue...  I managed to (a) remove the burnt-out light bulb, (b) replace it with a new bulb, and (c) rip the fixture from its proper place in the ceiling while attempting to free the special tool from the newly-installed light bulb.  What you CAN'T see are the fixture mountings, which came undone in my attempts to free the tool after diligently screwing in the new bulb.  And here we are... about which... adding insult to injury is the fact the new bulb (which is one of those damned CFL thingies) doesn't work with my dimmer switch.  So, we have duly filed a service request with the landlord (who gracefully refrained from smirking at my tale o' woe) for a service person to come out and re-seat the fixture and change the other burnt-out bulb (there are two).

So... we know when to hold 'em and when to fold 'em.  At least there's that.

It's always SUMTHIN'.

Yet Another Shoebox Blogging Day

The working world prolly feels like this today...

... but not us retired geezers.  I like Mondays for several reasons: traffic is down compared to the weekend (not that traffic is ever much of a problem here), the stores are less crowded, and there's decent stuff on the teevee.  I have no need to return any given Monday.

In other news... I booted up my laptop yesterday morning for the first time since early February.  I was good to go after about six hours, 78 (!) Windows updates, two iTunes updates, gawd-only-knows-how-many AV updates, and three reboots.  I don't think I'm gonna go six months without firing up the laptop ever again.

Yesterday was yet another brilliant day, weather-wise, here on The High Plains o' New Mexico.  We've been unseasonably cool for the past week with highs only reaching the mid-80s, if that.  We also received more rain this past month and my gut tells me this has been the wettest summer since I arrived here in P-Ville.  My gut might could be wrong, however:

Well, now.  This year is only average if one can believe the source data.  May and July were definitely wetter than most but the other months this year were slightly below average.  So much for my "gut feel," eh?

Cigar Art XVI

We haven't done one o' these cigar art postings since April o' this year and that's coz we've been sticking to the tried and true when it comes to the sticks making their way through El Casa Inmóvil De Pennington.  That said, we've sampled a few new-to-us offerings these past three and a half months and here are the bands from four of those cigars:

The "Java" offering from Drew Estate is the only cigar that might make it into our normal rotation.  I really like the coffee/chocolate infusion in this stick; it's a damned near perfect after dinner smoke when paired with three fingers of single malt or bourbon.  The other three sticks fall into the "good enough" category, but I prolly won't go there again.  All four have very attractive bands, especially the Oliva "Master Blend" at the top.  I remain amazed at the thought and execution put into cigar bands.  Lovely.

Saturday: A Keeper

There's a lot of angst about the state of our youth today, but this boy's gonna be OK.

H/t: Old NFO.

Life Imitates Art?

Art...

When Stoners Write the New York Times

Real Life...

When Stoners Write for the Denver Post

The above is from the Denver Post; it's the recurring "Cannabist" section.  Gerard had the faux NYT front page on his Tumblr blog which made me think "Hey!  It's already happened!"