Heh

From the Usual Source...

A hat-tip to one of the big stories in yesterday's news, of course.  EIP: a day late and a dollar short.  Always.

Tonight's ADWH Soundtrack

We're just in from After Dinner Whiskey Hour which was quite chilly this evening, Gentle Reader.  To wit:

Now 52 degrees ain't exactly cold, but it was enough to send me to the closet for a wool shirt and also made me abandon my usual and customary bare feet for shoes... for the warmth that was in it, yanno?  Which got me to thinking... I prolly might want to invest in one of these and fairly soon, too.  For winter she's a comin' and we can feel the chill.  But we digress... we should be on about the music.

About which, more Joan Osborne:

As I walk this land of broken dreams,
I have visions of many things.
Love's happiness is just an illusion,
Filled with sadness and confusion.
What becomes of the broken hearted
Who had love that's now departed?
I know I've got to find
Some kind of peace of mind
Maybe.

It may seem sacrilegious to cover an icon of a Motown song and Jimmy Ruffin fans may or may not agree.  Me?  I think Ms. Osborne's cover meets and even exceeds the original, in all respects.  This, my friends, is soulful indeed.

An Honest Donkey-Party Ad

I was mucking around on the Tube O' You and found this (via Sunny):

Heh.  The beer a person drinks is a pretty good social indicator.  Not always, as there are outliers, but usually.  Coors Light?  Suspicions confirmed.

Speaking of light beer... I've been meaning to blog about this for a while, "this" being the new series of Miller Lite ads that feature four guys standing around drinking beer, three of whom have Miller Lites and the fourth a generic light beer.  At which point in time the Three Cool Guys dump all over the fourth for not bein' manly (coz he ain't drinkin' Miller Lite, of course) with some admittedly funny scenarios, like one guy asking other guys if they wanna go to the men's room.  But irony is apparently lost on the Miller people, because men DON'T FUCKING DRINK LIGHT BEER.  That's the general rule and there may be the odd exception, of course.  The emphasis should be on "odd" in that last sentence.

I Missed It

I'm really bad about remembering dates.  I mean really bad, just ask my kids.  I'm the type o' guy who NEEDS a social secretary and life has been hell in this space since the last secretary (and maid) quit.  All by way o' introduction to this:

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Then and Now

Digital cameras are wonderful things… and one of the major reasons is the metadata included with each and every photo you shoot. What this really means is you know the exact date and time you took a particular shot (among a lot of other techie-type info), so there’s no wondering “where/when was THIS taken?” as you browse through your archives. Which is quite unlike going through an old shoebox full of photos, believe me.

So… the foregoing is an intro to a minor celebration of sorts: The Green Hornet is eight years old today. I’ve owned one other car longer than the Green Hornet and that was my Baby Beemer…which I kept for ten years. I obviously liked that Beemer and I really like the Miata, too. Both cars have served me well, both cars were/are great good fun, and I see no reason why the Green Hornet won’t tie my personal record for auto longevity and maybe even break it.

That bit is obviously from three years ago and we have broken the automotive longevity record, what with The Green Hornet turning 11 just a few days ago.  The reason the post is titled then and now is I posted pics of both TGH and her master on the day I bought her and a couple o' more recent pics.  You've seen more than enough o' my ugly mug but good car pr0n is always in vogue... so here's the usual, customary, and quite reasonable shot o' My Baby:

The way thangs are goin' TGH just might be the last car I ever own.  I'm OK with that.

WX and Puzzlement

We haven't said much about the weather o' late, mainly coz it's been rather fine with no extremes in any direction, and that would include wind.  That said, we did set a record yesterday:

I'm pretty proud o' myself in that I didn't fire up the AC yesterday.  Those sorts o' temperatures would have seen the AC running all day long were I still in ECMdP, no matter if the awning was down or not.  The new, improved, and Inmóvil casa is oriented in such a manner that it never receives full sun on the front of the building (the long side) and the verandah shades what sun that does fall on the exterior.  So... the combination of open windows, a shady exterior and ceiling fans made for a nice cool day.  I like that.

―:☺:―

I noticed sumthin' rather strange while in the shower this morning and it made me wonder...  Why is it the hair on my head... including my beard... has gone completely white silver and the hair in other places is still as red as it was when I was 20?  I'd illustrate the point but I wouldn't want my female readers to go into a swoon, nor would I want to induce feelings of anxiety or inadequacy in my gentleman readers.  You'll just have to take my word for it.

But, seriously... why is that? 

Heh

From the Usual Source...

I'd give 'em a lump o' coal.  No, wait... that's Christmas.  What I really mean is a resounding "Get OFF my lawn!"

Speakin' o' that... I'm wonderin' if I'll get any trick or treaters this year.  I had nary a one in the eight Halloweens I spent in Beautiful La Hacienda Trailer Park.  Zero.  Zip.  None.

Sparkles and the Lack Thereof

Yesterday was a sorta blah day for me, which is unusual for a Saturday in the Fall.  Saturdays in the Fall used to mean wall-to-wall, door-to-door football... or at least it's been that way for as long as I can remember.  This year?  I might have watched three games, total.  If that.  I dunno why but I can't seem to get enthused about the game this season... and it doesn't have much to do with the success (or lack thereof) of my favorite teams: ND has done about what I expected, Michigan was on a tear before yesterday, and Air Force managed to beat Navy, which is pretty much all that counts in that space.  Oh, yeah... there's Army... and the CinC's trophy, which should might be ours again this year.  That pretty much sums up my lack o' interest in the game.

That said, I did watch Michigan lose... and badly... in East Lansing yesterday.  Some elements o' my past cannot be denied and the rivalry game is one such.  Then I promptly fell asleep on the couch as OSU beat Texas, in Austin, and slept through that entire game.  So much for yesterday's football.

Speaking of elements of my past... it's been quite another story where the Beloved Wings are concerned.  I haven't missed a single game so far and the Wings have rewarded my dedication and loyalty by remaining unbeaten in this young season, going to a 4-0 start for the first time since '97-'98.  Those of us who are prone to staring into the dregs of our tea cup think the signs are good and there's hope that the 2011-2012 season will end up the same way as '97-'98... which is to say yet another parade down Woodward Avenue.  But last night was a near-run thang, what with the Wings having to engineer a come-from-behind victory (they were down 2-0 as late as the middle of the second period) and win it in the last few seconds of OT.  A "W" is a "W," innit?

―:☺:―

Yet another weird thing about my Return to Normal:  I always feel like I'm in a dish-washing detergent commercial when I empty the dishwasher, coz I'll stop and hold up a glass or three to the light and marvel at how they sparkle.  I mean that quite literally, the glasses simply gleam now.  My glasses were clean when I lived in ECMdP, but they didn't shine like they do now.  I've been wondering about that for days and weeks now but haven't arrived at a plausible answer, other than the wonders of a rinsing agent.  I suppose I'll just have to chalk that up to modern science; it's yet another example of "better living through chemistry."  That particular phrase used to have an entirely different meaning to me but we won't go there.

Dinner...

... was all that but no bag o' chips.  We didn't need a bag o' chips when we had this:

Out of the broiler

Dinner is served!

We got off to a rocky start this evening when we discovered our range isn't furnished with a broiler pan, the first such ever in my experience.  But that's OK, for we happened to know where a broiler pan was lurking, so we hastened over to ECMdP and retrieved it; crisis averted.  Everything after that was pretty much bid'niz as usual, and everything came together more or less on time and in the sequence desired.

We fixed enough for me and everyone who threatened in comments yesterday to drop by for dinner this evening.  But that's the normal state of affairs when you're cooking for one.  That's a Good Thing, though... tomorrow's dinner is just a matter of re-heating tonight's leftovers.  And we have a LOT of those.

Oh, yeah:  it was fucking GREAT!  And now it's time for After Dinner Whiskey Hour and some vintage Bowie.

It's Always SUMTHIN' XIII

This time it's in the "day late, dollar short" category... I got a phone call this morning from a very friendly lady at Golden Acres (no, not THAT lady) informing me (a) that I'd reached the top of their apartment list and would I like to make an appointment to swing by and (b) that they'd sent me a letter LAST WEEK that I failed to respond to.  Our conversation was brief but pleasant, wherein I explained I hadn't received her letter since the post office has been much less than efficient at forwarding my mail since I moved and that she should take me off her list, since I had moved, again.  "You've signed a lease, then?" she inquired and I replied in the affirmative.  So we were done.

That's that.  I could have been living in an apartment of equivalent size at literally half the cost had I not been so damned impatient.  I would have had to buy my own appliances but the ROI on that transaction would have been very quick in coming, my best guess being the appliances would have paid for themselves within a year or less.  But... I have the bennies of bein' a first-ever tenant in new construction and I'm not imposing on the gub'mint to subsidize my life any further than they already are, e.g., the Social Security and military pensions.  I think the latter is prolly the best aspect of this New Life as I know it.  I hope I feel that way next year when the rent goes up.

In the meantime... I think I need to go to the post office.  Again.

The Brain Works In Strange Ways

Well, mine does.  Blog-Bud Lou happened to mention today that she really liked the word "onomatopoeia" but there are precious few occasions when one can use it.  So the very FIRST thang that came to my mind?  This:

I swear to The Deity At Hand I hadn't heard that song in at LEAST 11 years (I have the album it's on, but said album is vacationing in Pennsylvania).  But Hey!  How many other songs are there where the chorus is a repeated "Onna, Onna, Onomatopoeia?"  None that I know of...

―:☺:―

In other BIG news... I'd mentioned in passing that I was gonna get a new teevee as my old one, while entirely adequate for the small space that was El Casa Móvil de Pennington,  was underwhelming in my new and larger digs. Like this:

Watching hockey on that tube was OK... but.  Underwhelming.  So it came to pass last evening that SN1 rang me up to tell me granddaughter Monique was downsizing and looking to get rid of her one-year old big-ass teevee at a VERY good price and would I be interested?  "Well, yes," sez I... "lemmee go look at it."  Cutting right to the chase, a little over an hour later Diego and I were drinking beer and watching the Red Wings dominate Vancouver on this monster:

It was Diego's very first hockey game and I may have made a convert.  As for me... watching hockey on a 53-inch 1080p HD teevee is almost as good as bein' there.  Really. 

The Day, So Far

We accomplished today what we meant to do yesterday, which is to say we cruised over to The Big(ger) City™ where we got The Green Hornet a bath, then rode on over to Cannon Airplane Patch where we picked up this month's meds, hit the Class VI Store for the customary and reasonable beer re-stockage, and topped it all off with a major commissary run.  We were back home around noonish, put the groceries away (how pleasant that was, and I kid thee NOT: storage, and lots of it!), retrieved a shipment of cigars from the mailbox and promptly adjourned to the verandah for to partake of a Partagas Black and a 1554.  Rewards, yanno?

So... that's done and we're in the midst of preparing tomorrow's dinner today.  We'll feast on the Pennington variation of a London Broil tomorrow evening after letting the flank steak marinate over night.  Here's what the main course looks like before going into the marinade:

Note the 1.65 pound flank steak is lightly scored on both sides and will soon be immersed in marinade, consisting primarily of three-fourths of a bottle o' red New Mexico table wine, about a quarter cup o' Spanish olive oil, three cloves o' crushed garlic, a sprinkling of parsley, basil, thyme, pepper, and a couple o' bay leaves.  If this were Former Happy Days we'd be using fresh herbs from our herb garden but it ain't, so we won't.

We may or may not post pictures of the finished product tomorrow but rest assured it WILL be delicious.

Now we have to figger out what's dinner this evening and prepare for more hockey goodness later on.  Tonight it's the Wings against the Canucks, at The Joe.  It would be good if the Beloved Wings remain perfect on this young season, but Vancouver is coming off of a tough loss to the Flyers last evening and will be motivated.  We shall see...

Heh

From the Usual Source...

I'm thinkin' the parents of the OWS kids deserve a few lashes at the public whipping post, when ya get right down to it.  YMMV, of course.

Yes, We Have No Bananas...

... for we are decidedly short on motivation and our left arm is throbbing.  In re: the left arm... we got our flu shot today, nuff said about THAT, I suppose, except this year's vaccine stung a lot goin' in and hurts like hell several hours later.  I'm such a wimp...

I got that flu shot because I had to whip by the RGH clinic earlier today to get a scrip renewed, seein' as how I ran afoul of the USAF pharmacy's one-year expiration date on prescriptions.  I was gonna go out to Cannon and pick up this month's meds... but nooo: I was denied a phone-in refill.  I have one refill left on the current scrip but can't refill it due to the expiration date; sumthin's wrong with this picture, methinks.  So, the planned excursion over to The Big(ger) City™ and then on to Cannon has been put off until tomorrow.  That screwed up my entire day and contributed in no small part to my general disaffection with "things" as we know them.

We went looking for blog-fodder and came up empty there, as well.  The Usual Source's political cartoons are pretty lame and there aren't any interesting cat videos on the Tube O' You, and for that you should be grateful, Gentle Reader.  That said, I DID find this lil gem from NWA which might cross over into the realm of TMI... unless you've had the opportunity to encounter what we euphemistically called "bomb-sight toilets" back in the day.  Without further ado...

I never thought I'd see the day when someone, anyone, would wax rhapsodic about bomb-sights.  I tolerated them when I was out of the good ol' USofA in the way-back, mainly coz when ya gotta go, ya gotta GO.  But generally speaking?  I'm Western, through and through.  You can keep your Third-World toilets, thankyaverymuch.

Domesticity, Part Deux

We put on our virtual apron today and did what must be done, domestic-wise.  Dusted (yet AGAIN!).  Unloaded the dishwasher (no, I'm not living out of the thing as I said I might).  Vacuumed.  Did a load of laundry.  And changed the sheets...

About which, this.  Every married couple develops lil shorthand expressions and "interesting" ways to communicate, be it good thangs or bad thangs.  One of the Good Thangs back in Former Happy Days was when The Second Mrs. Pennington would look at me and simply announce "clean sheets," followed by an expression that looked a LOT like this:  , only much sweeter and less evil.  Well, there might have been some evil there but it all depended, and we won't go any further than that.  That particular announcement might could have come at any time, but was most often delivered as I hit the door after work or mebbe after dinner.   I knew EXACTLY what that meant; the only thang open to conjecture was the timing: now?  Or later?

These days "clean sheets" means that and only that: the sheets are clean.  And the small amount of work associated with making the bed and doin' the laundry, of course.  (sigh)

This Is Good

Darren Eliot, writing at SI.com:

Then you have the Detroit Red Wings, long the benchmark of NHL excellence with 20 straight playoff appearances. Their season-opening game is as under the radar as I can remember. While my memory isn't great, this is more about the Wings impressing to the point of being taken for granted -- right now, even in home in Hockeytown! 

Detroit's attention is elsewhere these days. The Tigers prevailed over the New York Yankees to go on to the American League Championship Series and the once downtrodden Lions are 5-0 for the first time since 1956. Throw in the University of Michigan at 6-0 as it heads for a game against its in-state rival, the Michigan State Spartans, and sports fans in the area have more to cheer about than any others in the country right now.

Sure, the locals showed up at Joe Louis Arena for Friday's perfunctory home opening win over the over-matched Senators. But with everything else going on in the city, please excuse even the diehards if they didn't notice what the Red Wings accomplished next. For that matter, give everyone a pass for failing to measure how impressive the Wings' 3-0 road win the next night in Denver truly was. 

Why? Because the Wings have been doing it for so long. We forget that this eastern time zone-based team didn't just win on the road, in a back-to-back situation, it endured the travel, a two-hour time zone recalibration and the energy-sapping thin air of Colorado to prevail over the Avalanche in their home opener.

RTWT, as we bloggers say, coz there's more hockey goodness there.  The win over Colorado was a triumph, no doubt.  But we WERE concerned during the first period as the Avs came out like a house afire while Detroit looked sluggish, to be kind.  It very well could have been Colorado 3, Detroit 0 at the end of the first period if it wasn't for the stellar play of Number Two goalie, Ty Conklin.  The Wings got their legs back in the subsequent periods and went on to that 3-0 win in what was a most gratifying game to watch... assuming you're a Wings fan.  That's not at all true for some people I know... but Andy was generous enough to send me the photo below on the day after:

Yeah, he was at the game and I was so envious!  It's not every day one gets to see The Holy Hockey Trinity... Franzen, Dats, and Z... score in the same game.  Those were pretty goals, too... even Dats' empty netter.  SN1 and I had a most excellent time watching that one together.  "Thank you, Sir... May I have another?"

It Ain't Funny Anymore

Two from the Usual Source about the OWS "protesters"...

I dunno about you, Gentle Reader, but I'm sick to death of these asshats, the people making excuses for them, and the media coverage.  Their 15 minutes is UP; it's time for the tear gas and rubber bullets.

In other news... I had mentioned in passing a couple o' weeks ago that my new satellite teevee provider didn't have PBS in their channel line-up.  Turns out I was wrong about that, as I happily discovered last evening.  I was looking for the Portales PBS station... KENW... and it ain't there, still.  But I DO have PBS out of Amarillo, which is a Good Thing, and it only took me a little less than three weeks to find it.  The bad news is the station is on Central Time, which means I have to recalibrate my internal clock and watch McNeil-Lehrer (I know, but that's what it still is to ME) at 1700 hrs instead of 1800 hrs.  Same-o, same-o for all my other faves.  But Hey! there will be much more teevee at El Casa Inmóvil de Pennington in future; we're Happy Campers now.  For the moment.

Tonight's ADWH Soundtrack

Moonrise over 17th Street

Bob Mould:

I took this song off a mix tape that I made long ago in the way-back.  The tune is by Bob Mould, who achieved minor fame as the guitarist in Hüsker Dü, a band I never really got in to.  But I did buy Mr. Mould's 1989 solo album, from which this tune is taken.  If he had done more songs like this I might have bought more of his stuff... this tune is sort of an anomaly, albeit a very good one.  It fit my mood this evening.

As for the pic... I was about a half-hour too late to get a gorgeous full moon on the rise but this is pretty good, if I do say so.  I really need a longer lens to capture things like this in all their glory, no?

Sunny's Latest and Tunnels, Light At The End Of

Wherein she demonstrates how Stimulus works...

I'm in love.  I mean... LOVE.  She could cut up my tens and 20s any ol' time she wanted, in exchange for... wait.  Stop.  Let's not get carried away here.

―:☺:―

In other news... we hit bottom and there's light at the end of our tunnel (metaphors: shaken, not stirred).  Which is to say we put in a good eight hours on the office this weekend, the end result being the entire floor is free of boxes, bags, and other debris.  The bookshelf is arranged (and full), the filing cabinet is organized (and full), and we put several bags of "stuff" out in the dumpster (which isn't full).  I can't believe how much useless crap I got rid of... like a MESS o' cables (audio, USB, ethernet, yadda, yadda), an old Zip drive and a slew of Zip disks (remember those?), still more old receipts and miscellaneous paper I held on to for NO good reason, an old Zagat SFO restaurant guide from 2001, and on, and on.  And on.  We still have one box to go through (which is in the closet and safely out o' sight but WILL be emptied by the end o' the day) and then we shall be DONE.  Officially moved-in and at home.

Yay me!

―:☺:―

It's Christopher's Day and all you Feds have the day off, dontcha?  I never got this day off as a civilian... but I don't have to go to work today.  That's good, innit? 

And while we're on about the holiday thang, a very Happy Thanksgiving to my Canadian friends!

The Wonderfulness o' Bein' Normal

I'm having an on-going experience with this New Life that feels almost child-like, but not quite.  I use the term in that way very young children seem to approach everything they encounter that's new... which is to say with a sense of wonderment and unbridled joy.  Therein lies the difference, of course, because none of this is new to me and every bit of it is trivial and mundane.  It's just life as we used to know it but it IS different.  Some observations:

Sleeping in a bed is good.  I worried about that, mainly because I only slept in my last spiffy bedroom when I had company over; the rest of the time I was on the couch.  Not this time; the fact the current bed is more comfortable than the futon pictured at right MIGHT have sumthin' to do with that.  While we're on the subject: my jury's out on the cost/benefit aspect of the Tempurpedic mattress.  I have no complaints but I ain't ready to record a gushing testimonial, either.  That's a lot o' money to spend on ambivalence.

Black furniture and dark counter tops require one helluva lot more housecleaning than I like, or am used to.  It's the DUST, Gentle Reader.  Ditto with walking around on tiled floors in my bare feet: I feel EVERY gotdamned mote o' dust.  My new Swiffer mop/dustmop is getting a lot o' use.

I still marvel at (a) the frost-free appearance of my freezer and (b) the (relatively) cavernous space therein... every single time I open it.  And never running out o' ice.  Same thing with the fridge: I no longer buy 12-packs of Dr. Pepper... it's two-liter bottles now.

While we're in the kitchen:  I have cabinet space I'll prolly never use.

More kitchen:  I feel guilty running the dishwasher after I exhaust my supply of beer glasses and coffee cups.  The entire top rack is full, the bottom rack less so.  But I do it anyway.

I no longer fear laundry.  Hell, I'm doing it every week... sometimes more... just for the novelty that's in it.  The downside?  I find myself wearing my favorite tee shirts over and over again.  That will wear 'em out right quick.

Muscle memory has finally died.  I raised my foot to flush the toilet for the first two weeks I was here.  And felt stoopid every single time.

I might have spent too much money on my office.  I find myself using the laptop either at the kitchen counter  in the morning (close to the coffee pot) or on the couch later in the day.  The desktop?  Hardly used at all... but that may be premature since I only set it up yesterday.  But I did have a temporary desk made out of boxes and such.

Accessible music.  We've been goin' on about this for at least a week now, but what was once old is all new again.  I recorded a lot o' my vinyl on cassette (like 30 90-minute cassettes, two albums per) before I shipped it off to SN2 these ten or so years ago and I've been playin' that stuff for the past three days.  Wonderful!

The verandah at El Casa Inmóvil de Pennington gets a LOT more use than the verandah at ECMdP, mainly coz it's more verandah-like than a slab o' concrete.  Speaking of ECMdP... it's wonderful to not be so in touch with the weather, like wind-speed.  No more worries about awnings flying away to Texas and it's always shady on the verandah now.

I prolly have more thoughts like these, but this is all that comes to mind right now.  I really should write this shit down, yanno? 

Miscellaneous Ramblings

First, the important stuff:  SN2 is 43 today.  Here's the birthday boy and some old Zoomie, taken last year at the Naval Recruiting District, Pittsburgh Change of Command ceremony in Buffalo, NY:

He's still serving at half-pay, too.  Happy Birthday, Sam!

―:☺:―

Our desk was delivered late yesterday afternoon and we got started on putting the last piece of El Casa Inmóvil de Pennington together.  Which is to say the desktop computer and its peripherals are assembled and in place.  Witness:

Looks pretty spiffy, eh?  Well, it's ALL about camera angles, coz here's what ya don't see in the above two pics...

And that's only part o' the mess.  We'll be a couple o' few days sorting this out...

―:☺:―

The Beloved Wings got off to a good start last evening, beating Ottawa 5 - 3 at The Joe.  Needless to say, the home crowd was pleased, as was YrHmblScrb and SN1.  We did our usual hockey thang, which is to say we watched the game together but separate, taking full advantage of the unlimited mobile-to-mobile minutes we each have in our cell phone plans.  SN1 and DIL Erma surprised me with an early Christmas present as well, gifting me with the NHL's Center Ice package.  I was MOST pleased and grateful, especially since Fox Sports Dee-troit was blacked out in my viewing area.

Speaking o' hockey and thangs, here's your Exit Question:  How do you know a REAL hockey fan when ya see one?

Exit Answer:  When his neighbor knocks on the door in the middle of the game to ask if he'd like to accompany her to her favorite watering hole for a drink and dinner and he DECLINES, saying "Any other night I'd be right there... but tonight is Opening Night!"  (The Lady understood, bless her heart.)