The Ring o' Truth

That would be this:

"My mind is made up; don't confuse me with facts" is the corollary.

And then there's this... while we're in truth-tellin' mode... in reference to the post immediately below:

I said "a MOMENT o' solidarity," dint I?  All gone now; no power outages or downed trees, mainly coz we don't have many trees, in part.  Just for the record (and for Skip): I made sure to get Jake and Elwood... my flamingos... in the picture this time.

A Moment of Solidarity With Our Brothers and Sisters In the Northeast

What?  You're not impressed?  Sorry... it's the best I could do on short notice.

Today's Happy Hour Soundtrack

This tune got stuck in my head earlier today, bein' as how I'm "of a certain age" and considerin' the day's first post (scroll down)...



I do believe Ol' Jed's gone home... wherever "home" was... if'n he's still alive.  I should remind you Gentle Readers that I voted with my feet some ten years ago.

I'm a Good Guesser

The post title is the only way to explain this:

My results testify to my guessability, mainly coz I didn't know the answer to one single question on this quiz.  Not one.  You can take the quiz here, but don't bother if you either (a) failed geography or (b) aren't a good guesser.

And then there's this:

Heh.  "Heeeey, Bay-bee..."

Update, 1415 hrs:  Further to the 'toon, above:

Texas governor Rick Perry knows how to start a rumble. Last week, he spent a mere $24,000 on radio ads in California, urging firms there to move to Texas, with its “zero state income tax, low overall tax burden, sensible regulations, and fair legal system.” The ad goaded Governor Jerry Brown into telling reporters that Perry’s effort wasn’t news. “It’s not a burp,” he sneered. “It’s barely a fart.”

But his insult generated dozens of stories about the differences between Texas and California, playing into Perry’s hands. He begins a four-day barnstorming tour of California today, touting Texas’s virtues to business owners.

[...]

“Perry’s getting exactly what he wanted,” Gavin Newsom, the former Democratic mayor of San Francisco and now the state’s lieutenant governor, told radio station KQED. “He’s getting all kinds of press up and down the state, and why? Well, because he’s leaning in. He’s in the game. He’s getting in our heads.” Newsom ought to know. In 2011, he accompanied a group of state legislators on a fact-finding trip to Texas to interview former California business owners about their reasons for moving. Newsom told me at the time: “I am impressed with the focus on job creation I’ve seen here. We need to have a more balanced business climate in California.”

Indeed, in the last five years Texas has gained 400,000 new jobs while California has lost 640,000. The Lone Star State’s rate of job growth was 33 percent higher than California’s last year, even as the Golden State finally pulled out of the recession.

That's from a National Review Online article.  RTWT, as we citizen-journalists say.

Today's Happy Hour Soundtrack

Peggy Lee...



And what brought this on?  This, from the WSJ:



Six hunnert Yankee Dollars for frickin' ROSES?  Ahem.  Well, that ain't us and we could think of a lot o' different things to do with our Beloved with that amount o' money.  YMMV.

Update, slightly later.  I got to thinkin'... what was the biggest (and not necessarily best) thing I ever did for V-Day?  I suppose it had to be this...  On Valentines Day of 1998 I had a limo pick up The Second Mrs. Pennington at our residence and whisk her off to a local spa where she received the full treatment, billed as a full body massage and "beauty treatment," the details of which are unknown... exactly... to me.  The limo was "on hold" while TSMP was in the spa (a couple o' hours, if memory serves) upon which time car and driver returned her to our home after all was said and done.  I think the deal went off, as advertised.   TSMP told me that the whole experience was "OK."

Now, that said, it wasn't but six weeks later the maid handed in her resignation, ingrate that she was, and I haven't done anything remotely similar since then.  It's quite possible the ship had already sailed at that point (V-Day, 1998).

(sigh)

Mood Swings

Today was Hockey Day In Portales and talk about emotional mood swings... I went from edginess to despair to elation, all in the space of a single minute's time.  From NHL.com:

Jimmy Howard did it all for the first 59 minutes Sunday afternoon.

After the Los Angeles Kings struck in the final minute to even the score, the Detroit Red Wings goaltender needed a little help from Jonathan Ericsson to ensure his team a victory.

Ericsson scored with 4.5 seconds remaining and Howard made 45 saves as the Red Wings pulled off a thrilling 3-2 victory over the defending Stanley Cup champions in front of a big crowd at Staples Center and a national-TV audience.

Alex Martinez had tied it for Los Angeles with 52.8 seconds left. Shortly after Kings goalie Jonathan Quick left the net for an extra attacker, Martinez got to a loose puck in front of Howard after a Kyle Clifford shot, moved across the crease and deposited his first goal of the season into the right side of the net.

Yup.  That's why we LOVE hockey!  The game is even better when the home team wins, of course.  And they did.

Update, 1405 hrs:  Highlights video:



Jimmy was GOOD, eh?

Update, 1430:



Mo' betta... just the winning goal.

Everybody Talks About It, Part Two

I've spent the first part of my morning... read as "first cup"... looking at Nemo pictures and burning incense in thanks to The Deity At Hand that I'm not in that part of the country.  Horror stories abound... about 650,000 people are without power in the Northeast and seven people are dead.

The WX here on The High Plains o' NM has calmed down a bit since yesterday... literally, in that our winds are a manageable/livable 25 mph and there's no visible dust in the clear blue sky.  I'm thankful for that.

Gettin' back to snow... here's a blast from our past:

It Could be Worse, Part Deux

Up too late again. Back in a few, but until then, there’s…

Today’s Pic: Keeping with the “It could be worse” theme… Yesterday’s pic was taken at the old homestead in Perinton, NY. Today’s pic was taken in my new, post-marriage-termination quarters, a rather nice, very new apartment (I was the first tenant) in Webster, NY.

Me (on the phone, waiting for the other end to pick up): …dum-da-dum-da…
Him: EDS, this is (my boss)!
Me: Hey, it’s Buck. I won’t be in today, I’m snowed in.
Him: Snowed in? You can’t get out? Really?
Me: Really. There’s a four foot drift right outside my garage door.
Him: Really?
Me: Yeah, really. Check your mail in a minute or four. I’ll send you a picture.

And this was the pic I sent. It was very late in the day when the apartment complex finally got a front-end loader and a dump truck in to remove the snow… March 3, 1999.

Everybody Talks About the WX...

... so why should I be different?

It's NOT a nice day outdoors, so we shall remain in the Great Indoors today.  Note our winds, the result of which is INCREDIBLE dust, making the sky an ugly dun color.  But at least we don't have three feet of snow, like some people we know.

The view from my study window:

See?  Uggg-leee.

Saturday

As the Usual Source sez... this prolly wasn't made by any Rooshian Tourist Board, but it's pretty damned funny:



Drunks play prominent parts in this vid, eh?

And then there's Random Bond Girl Number 732:



Heh. 

We can't forget this:

Yeah, Dude.

♫ ♪ I'd Been Thinkin' Lately I'd Get a Maid... ♪ ♫

Not the service I hired.

You Gentle Readers know this is a recurring theme here at EIP and we even have a label for these sorts o' posts.  Well, today we moved beyond the "thinkin'" stage and actually contracted for housecleaning services.  Tomorrow is our first appointment and we'll evaluate the services from a few angles, e.g., efficiency, cost-effectiveness, and thoroughness.  This might could be an on-going thang or I might get someone else.  Trial-'n'-Error Я Us.

I really do hate house cleaning.  I mean REALLY hate it.  OTOH, I feel guilty about doing this sorta thang... mainly coz I have ALL the time in the Free World to do what must be done.

I know: First World Problems.  We all have 'em.

Dark Days

There were quite a few items about the effects of the looming sequestration action in today's Usual USAF Source.  Here are two:

Second-Rate Power: Defense Secretary Leon Panetta on Thursday issued some dire warnings to lawmakers on sequestration during what will likely be his last time testifying before the Senate Armed Services Committee before he steps down from the post. During the Feb. 7 oversight hearing, Panetta reiterated claims that the budget sequester would bring about a "terrible readiness crisis," and said the erosion of US military capabilities inevitably resulting from the across-the-board spending cuts would turn the United States "into a second-rate power." In addition, Pentagon leaders would be forced "to throw out" the nation's most recent defense strategy, he said. "My preference, frankly, is that the Congress would do the big deal. Get it done. Get this behind us, de-trigger sequester, [and] stop this constant uncertainty, this month-to-month situation where we don't know what the hell we're going to get," said Panetta. He is expected to retire later this month, pending the confirmation of former Sen. Chuck Hagel as his replacement. However, the committee chose not to vote on Hagel's nomination at Thursday's hearing, following a request from some GOP members for more time to receive additional information they've requested on Hagel. The committee had not set a new date for the vote, as of Thursday. (See also Controversial Nomination.)

—Amy McCullough

Sequestration Blues: Profound readiness decay, billions in unexpected costs, an unrecoverable maintenance backlog, and potential large-scale reductions in force are among the many predictable problems awaiting the Air Force if Congress fails to stop the looming budget sequester from taking effect in March and/or pass a budget for Fiscal 2013, said senior service officials on Thursday. At a press roundtable in the Pentagon, Vice Chief of Staff Gen. Larry Spencer said: "As things stand today, we don't know how much money we will have to operate the Air Force, and we don't know when we will find out. But we do know sequestration will mean Air Force people will not be adequately trained, and will lack the equipment they need." Acting Air Force Undersecretary Jamie Morin said the Air Force's share of the Fiscal 2013 sequester hit would be $12.4 billion—not including another $1.8 billion in shortfalls from the overseas contingency operations accounts—and the Air Force would have to reduce spending that much in just six months. Flying hours would plummet; only those units in or going to war would get their requisite hours, leaving many units idle for as much as three months, said Morin during the Feb. 7 roundtable. After just 30 days of inactivity, "essentially all" functions in a unit—pilots, maintainers, loaders, fuelers, etc.—would be "non-mission-capable." and it would take a long time to get them back up to par, he pointed out. Spencer noted that the sequester problem just starts in Fiscal 2013; more years of sequestrations could come, and that would compel the Air Force to start thinking about a reduction in force to "balance" people with the equipment and funds available. Meanwhile, Morin said, the American people haven't signaled they want their Air Force to do fewer missions.

—John A. Tirpak

None of that sounds promising, it's all doom and gloom.   I'm generally an optimist about America and her prospects but this bullshit is really wearing me down.

And then there's this... or rather, these:

Heh.  Brings new meaning to the ol' "you can run but you sure can't hide."  Mebbe the sequester will ground the drones.

In other news... a couple o' folks have noted they're having difficulty leaving comments here at EIP.  I did some snooping around and the kind folks at Blogger had this to say about that:

Thursday, August 18, 2011

We have received reports from users not being able to create or edit posts. We are working on fixing this. In the meantime, you can change your language settings to English as a workaround. Thanks for your patience.

Update, 9:45AM PST: This has been fixed, thanks for your patience.

A comment MIGHT could qualify as a post and the issues could be related.  I'd appreciate an off-line if you have problems commenting. 

Update:  The perils of writing when not fully caffeinated are apparent above.  Note the date on that Blogger status message.  Fuckin' Blogger.  You can take that to mean both the software AND the guy using it.

Today's Happy Hour Soundtrack

An outtake from the Katy Lied sessions...

Daddy can't get no fine cigar
But we know you're smoking
Wherever you are
Daddy don't live in that New York City
No more

Becker and Fagen are half-right.  While it's true we don't live in that New Yawk city no more... said city bein' Ra-cha-cha... we most definitely can (and do) get our fine cigars.  We're smokin' one on the verandah as we speak, seein' as how I scheduled this post.  Or we might be takin' a nap.

Zounds!

So... have all y'all heard about this?

We're speakin' about Amazon's Cloud Player, about which: details here.  I've already downloaded three albums on to my phone/MP3 player, as we speak.  So I may not have rings on my fingers (I have one ring, singular) and bells on my toes, but I'll sure have music wherever I go... wi-fi and/or a fast connection for Pandora or not.

I swore I'd be damned before I got into MP3s and that I would NEVER buy an MP3 player.  The latter is somewhat true, but my Android phone does double duty in that space.  I just need to figger out how much storage space I have for music but I suspect it's more than I'll ever use.

So here I am... arriving in the 21st century, at last.

Why We Don't Celebrate V-Day Any Longer

Heh.  Wait.  What the Hell am I laughing about?

H/t: the Shoebox blog.

Yum

From NatGeo, a list of the ten best chocolatiers in the world.  One of 'em is prolly in a mall near you...

7. Godiva Chocolatier (Brussels, Belgium and worldwide)

It's all about finishing touches at Godiva. (Photograph by Everjean, Flickr.  Click for larger.)

The beginning of Godiva chocolates traces back to a 1920s chocolate- and sweet-making workshop owned and operated by the Draps family in Brussels, Belgium. Their “pralines,” typical Belgian filled chocolates, were sold in the large, highly fashionable shops. At the age of 14, Joseph Draps went into the family business. Over the years, he developed both his ability and creative talent as a master chocolate-maker as well as his business sense. He decided to create a prestige range of chocolates and to give it an evocative name. He chose “Godiva” and marketed his chocolates in instantly recognizable gold boxes. In recognition of its excellence, Godiva has been rewarded with an appointment as supplier to the Court of Belgium. Godiva continues to be an innovator in gourmet chocolate.

I've been known to drop a hundred or more Yankee Dollars in a single visit to the Godiva store... mainly coz there's not one near me, the closest bein' over two hours away.  I tend to stock up when I go.

The other surprising thing on this list?  Half of the "ten best" are here in the USofA.

Plane Pr0n of a Different Sort

This is interesting...

Chief of Staff 2013 Reading List Released: Gen. Mark Welsh, Air Force Chief of Staff, issued his 2013 reading list for airmen. The list features 14 books, but is not limited to reading recommendations since it also includes seven films, 11 pieces of art, 10 songs, three photographers' galleries, and seven TED talks. These selections "highlight our heritage and fighting spirit, as well as encourage innovation and forward thinking," wrote Welsh in his introductory message. "We are the world's greatest air force because of our airmen . . . and we must continue to strengthen that team," he stated. "Take a look at the list and find something that grabs your attention. Hopefully it'll expand your mind, and ultimately make our great team even better," he concluded. (See also the 2012 list.)

I believe this is the first time the Chief of Staff's reading list has included art, photography, and anything from the TED talks.  There's enough stuff in the links above to keep an aviation historian (or buff, you choose) busy for hours and hours.  I began with a quick look at the art link and found this, among other things:

There's mo' betta stuff at the art link, and it's ALL good.  Check out the TED Talks, too.  Hell... everything is good, if not great, here.

Texas Cookin'

Blog-Bud Lou left a link to this tune in comments to yesterday's Happy Hour Soundtrack, sayin'...

That music was good, but if you want some good cookin' music, this is it. If you ain't dancin' around the kitchen to Guy Clark, you ain't livin'.

She's right, yanno?  I'm thinkin' there might be a slew o' songs about our regional cuisines but then again, mebbe it's only Suthin' and Southwest cookin' that inspires people to sing about it.  I'll have to give this some thought.

In other news... it was yet another late, late night/early morning (we finished season five of "24" in a marathon viewing session) and we're still workin' on our first cup while goin' thru the overnight mail.  The chances are pretty good I'll find sumthin' else to babble about before I'm done readin' all the political BS, love letters from Amazon, and news from the Air Force Association.

Today's Happy Hour Soundtrack

Pink Anderson with sumthin' only Good Ol' Boys understand...



Ol' Pink might have been singin' about sumthin' else, but let's be literal here.  About which, yes.  Collard greens, turnip greens, kale, and spinach... the latter as a last resort.  If you're a traditionalist you buy 'em FRESH and cook 'em up in a big pot with a BIG-ass piece o' fat back and let 'em simmer most all day.  There's times when you either can't or don't want to go to the trouble of doin' it up right, and that's OK, coz a couple o' tablespoons of bacon grease works just as well.   And speakin' o' that... one good way to tell if you're in a Suthin' kitchen is the presence of sumthin' that looks like this:

That would be my ADCOM NCO Academy coffee cup, which has been used as a repository for bacon grease for at least as long as I can remember.  I learned that from my Mom.

Willie Sutton Got It Wrong

A graphic from a tweet by the WSJ...

Criminals in Our Brave New World don't have to stick a gun in a teller's face to get the money any longer, despite what Willie Sutton allegedly said* about robbing banks.  I guess the real money is in identity theft these days.  Mebbe I otta get Life-Lock.

*According to Snopes, Willie never said "that's where the money is" when asked why he robbed banks.  Another illusion, shattered.

Incentive

Negative incentive...

Some of my blog-buds are makin' noises about hangin' it up and pushing themselves away from the keyboard for good.  A few have already done so and the evidence is in my sidebar, what with the abundance of dead blogs therein.  I'm beginning to have similar thoughts and my mood isn't enhanced when I look at the Site Meter graph, above.  All things must pass... mebbe EIP is at the end of its natural life.

But what else would I do with my mornings?

Update, 1315 hrs.  Chris, in comments, mentions that Site Meter might have issues and I think I might agree.  I just checked Blogger's stats and it seems like all's well with our traffic.  Note:

OK, I'm all better now.

Today's Happy Hour Soundtrack, Part Deux

Well.  Not five minutes passed between the time I put up the post below and FedEx pulled up to our door, as fate would have it, and we are in possession of new and brighter birds.  Say what?  We'll get to that but first... the tune we had in mind:



Flamingos.  New ones.  Coz the old ones didn't fare well in a land without shrimp.  Notice:

Earlier today.

It's shrimp that give flamingos their pink color and we're decidedly short on shrimp in these parts, so we freed our older birds to fly away to happier climes and replaced them with these:

Just a few minutes ago.

I was taken in, yet again, in that Amazon PROMISED me these birds would be at least 32 inches high.  Well... close, but no cigar.  At least they're pink.  But, Hey!  How about the Duke?

Today's Happy Hour Soundtrack

White Boys playin' da blooze and doin' a damned good job of it, too:

Can't get the one you love, have to use somebody else.

That would be Eric Clapton and the legendary Duane Allman playin' and singin' fer YOU.  We digress, coz we were gonna be on about that line I quoted above.  There was a time when that sentiment rang true and I have a couple o' tee shirts in that space... memorable tee shirts, at that.  But these days?  No.  Coz first and foremost, we aren't into using wimmen any longer.  And second, we're not prone to "settle" in our old age given we've had the Real Thing and everything else is just so much jerkin' off.  Think about my last.

I had an alternate Happy Hour tune all cued up and ready to go but... alas.  I was waiting for Godot FedEx to visit me and deliver the stuff that my soundtrack was dependent on and they're not here yet.  So, Happy Hour is nearly over and a nap is imminent.  Mebbe tomorrow.

I Heard There Was Some Sorta Game Yesterday That Kinda-Sorta Resembles Football

About which, this:

Heh.

The h/t goes to Occasional Correspondent and Good Friend Lori.

A Rare Case...

... of a political cartoonist unclear on the concept:

Kerry is fillin' Hillary's shoes... Hagel will fill Panetta's.  This surprises me about Mr. Foden.  Or am I missing the point?

In other news... I poured my first cup of morning coffee about ten minutes ago.  I put that post about Twitter up just before I went to bed this morning, after pullin' an all-nighter finishin' up season four of "24."  (Aside: these sorts o' all-nighters are MUCH more fun than the ones I pulled ten years or so ago.)  A couple o' few observations:

• Jack Bauer is a way-badder bad ass than Chuck Norris EVER was.
• The CTU is ridiculously easy to infiltrate.
• Terrorists drive really nice cars... Mercedes, Lexuses, Hummers, and Cadillacs.
• SUVs can corner pretty well when driven hard.
• The gub'mint knows EVERYTHING about us and can call it up... whatever "it" may be... in a matter o' seconds. Except for terrorists.
• Infrared satellites can see through walls.
• "Enhanced" interrogation techniques work.
• Protagonists run out of ammunition occasionally and have to change clips. Terrorists, however, don't seem to have this problem... especially those firing MAC-10s on full auto.

This prolly is old news to folks who watched "24" in its first run.  But Hey!  I hadda say it.  And now on to Season Five.

Understanding Your Audience

So I get this e-mail from Twitter... note the subject line:

Yeah, those are similar.  Just like I'm similar to the Pope.

Today's Happy Hour Soundtrack

Mississippi Fred McDowell...

Lord, if I hap'n a-die, baby
'Fore you think my time have come
Lord, if I hap'n a-die, baby, Lord
'Fore you think my time have come
I want you bury my body-yeah
Out on Highway 61

Ah, yes.  Highway 61... whatta road.  I bought me a pair o' red, white, and blue shoestrings there once upon a time.  I got meself a telephone, too... but I got ripped off coz the damned thing wouldn't ring.

Not Your Father's Air Force XXV

From a piece at Milblogging.com:

Apparently, Team Maxwell-Gunter at Maxwell Air Force Base earned very low marks for standards in 2011.  "Disregarding them shows a lack of attention to detail and a lack of respect to our service. It shows disregard to our core values." writes Jeff Bergdolt of the 42nd Air Base Wing Plans Office.

While news of uniform violations may not be all that interesting, here's where the story gets juicy.

In the coming months, Maxwell AFB photographers will capture pictures of standards violations across Maxwell Air Force base and post them in the Dispatch.  Then readers will be challenged to identify the violation. 

Fashionistas are going to have a field day with this.

Dang.  I would have been a permanent feature on this Hit Parade, had USAF adopted this sorta thang back in the day.  From an old post...

...what used to be known as AFR 35-10... the bane of my military existence and a perpetual thorn in my non-conformist side... but is now AFI 36-2903. (Minor digression: Today's Modern Air Force doesn't have regulations; it has "instructions." This irritates me slightly, an unusual position for a non-conformist to take. Whatevah.)

You have NO ideer, Gentle Reader, how many times I shot myself in the foot over "personal appearance" issues. It took me a loooong time to grow up.  Wait.  Check that -- it hasn't happened yet.

Saturday

Boy meets girl...

Today's Happy Hour Soundtrack

^{Lightnin' Hopkins...}

^{If you ever go out in West Texas
Please stop by Abilene}

^{And if'n ya get to Abilene, come on over to P-Ville... coz we ain't that far.   We're just four and a half hours away from Abilene... and the beer is always cold.  Just for you!}

I NEED One of These!

From the Usual Hockey Source...

February 1, 2013 (Toronto, ON) – Budweiser is set to elevate game time for die-hard Canadian hockey fans beginning this Super Bowl Sunday. The iconic goal light – the red beacon of celebration during every hockey game – has been re-invented by Budweiser and is now available for purchase†. Budweiser Red Lights^TM are new, authentic-looking portable goal lights imbedded with technology that will sound off whenever a fans’ favourite city scores a goal – making the at home viewing experience bigger and more action-packed for Canadians. Goals will never be the same!

[...]

A combination of leading edge technology and innovation, the Budweiser Red Light ensures fans will never miss a goal. With a WIFI connection and the Budweiser Red Lights App – available for iPhone and Android users – the installation process is easy. Fans just need to select their city (or two or three!) and follow the simple instructions on the app. Hockey-obsessed Canadians can rest assured they’ll know when their city has scored – the Budweiser Red Light’s horn sounds and the red light flashes. Budweiser Red Lights also give fans a ‘five-minute to game time’ warning message.

That's from a Budweiser CANADA press release.  One wonders if they (Bud) will sell the things down here in the USofA.  Prolly not, I'd guess.  Mebbe I'll have to ask The Mayor (whose website is currently down) or Occasional Commenter marc in Calgary^TM to smuggle one into the US for me.

Local Plane Pr0n and a Grab-Bag

Air Frame: An AC-130W Stinger II gunship from the 73rd Special Operations Squadron at Cannon AFB, N.M., flies over New Mexico's Melrose bombing and gunnery range, Jan. 10, 2013. (Air Force photo by A1C Ericka Engblom) (Click on image above to reach larger version.)

I spent some time down in Florida's panhandle a few years ago; when conditions were right you could hear the AC-130s from Hurlburt Field on the range at Eglin, and by "hear" I mean the sound of that big 105mm howitzer letting go.  I often think about that when I see the Spectres/Stingers (there's a difference) making lazy orbits over P-Ville before they head out to Melrose or down range to White Sands.  That said, we're too far away from Melrose to hear the guys practicing.  More's the pity.

―:☺:―

And then there's this... 

That's EXACTLY what troubles me about women in the combat arms.

―:☺:―

The service guy from the appliance store stopped in yesterday and left me with a suitable substitute handle for my fridge while he orders the correct part.  He informed me that I'm not the only one with this problem... his bid'niz has been VERY busy replacing handles on these appliances.  He also told me that Frigidaire issued a memo to all dealers stating that handle replacement would NOT be covered under warranty any longer.  So if you're in the market for new appliances... I'd consider another brand, were I you.