Can you believe July is over? That means 2009 is more than half over. I’m cabbin’ it, wearin’ red – although right now, until TMBWitW gets back from the dentist, I’m sitting at the kitchen table eating blueberries and whipped cream, surfing the net, and reading the paper.

Mmmmmm – blueberries.

Chat ya later…

Thank you for stopping by, In GOD We Trust, God bless you all, don’t buy or breed cats or dogs while homeless pets die (spay, neuter & adopt a pet, one by one, until there are none), Wear Red on Fridays, and support Warriors for Innocence!

Hi there! It’s been a while – sometimes things get in the way of doing a decent round up. I’ve moved a few things around on my links – some have moved to “Not So Daily”, some have moved to “Endangered” and some have disappeared altogether – but it only reflects my inability to actually read all the blogs on my “Daily” list and trying to pare it down to the ones I actually read. If your blog landed on the “Endangered” list, then maybe an entry now and again wouldn’t be so bad… Just sayin’…

Larry, a retired Squid, had originally pointed me to this site which should not be viewed with a mouth full of beverage. Fair warning.

Speaking of Larry, let’s start the round up with him. He’s got a fantastic essay up about race, secession, and who can keep the slaves (and what makes slavery so irresistible to some) on Last Refuge of a Scoundrel.

And, riffing off a link in Larry’s blurb, take a look at Gunslinger’s entry. Pictures are worth thousands of words…

I know, here I am trying to pare down the list and I added her to it. So sue me. But, first you have to say, with a straight face, that she ISN’T worth the read.

Alaska Steve has been recuperating from shoulder surgery, and he’s starting to get out and about again on A Sense of Place.

Brother Johnny T. Helms has a link into Dr. Al Mohler on the future of missions on Amazed In His Presence and on Our Sovereign Joy. Scroll down and check out the tribute to Keith Green, also.

Health Care Sub-Round-Up

ARRA News Service, Assoluta Tranquilita, a byproduct of the obummercare is on Bloviating Zeppelin, Fire of Liberty, Gateway Pundit (by the way, GP’s mother recently passed on; scroll down and add your prayers to the comment list), Political Pistachio, Some Things Just Need To Be Said.

Richard spotted a white breasted nuthatch At The Water.

A word about Obama’s race-baiting cop comment from Basti on Basti Says.

GuyK has a bit of glee on Charming, Just Charming.

For a really in-depth look at the whole “Gates-Gate” incident in Cambridge, check out AJacksonian’s take on Dumb Looks Still Free.

This may be a little stale, but for most of us it’s worth a look. Ed Dickson has a post up about a nifty anti-ID Theft site on Fraud, Phishing, and Financial Misdeeds.

Gawfer has a note about financial misdeeds committed by (gasp!) congress critters on Gawfer.

Gunny has returned to the Land of the Rising Sun in time to recover form his vacation so he can get back to work on Gunny Goes Geocaching and laments the changes to his beloved Southern California on Write on the Right.

Some Euro weenie gets their head handed to them in the comments on Jenn’s Jungle.

Check your mindset at Jo-Joe Politico.

Maggie has a good article up about Thomas Sowell on her Notebook.

Kathy has Wednesday’s Hero posted on Mail Call! Supporting the Troops.

Mary’s World has a review up on “Blue Like Playdough” – looks like a good read.

Findalis has a post up about Tisha B’Av (a repost, actually) on Monkey in the Middle.

Stewart at Oath Keepers is asking for input on the new site.

What happens when someone gets TOO MUCH television exposure? Find out on Old Soldier.

My friend Greybeard is so talented – retired Army helicopter pilot, Viet Nam vet, currently flying medi-chopper – and a Race Relations Expert! No, really! Check it out on Pitchpull.

Unintended consequences of electing Obama – on RattlerGator Blog.

The love affair between a certain redhead and the United States Marine Corps continues unabated.

DemocRATS continue to ram Sotomayer through the process – details on Texas Fred’s.

Sometimes, no matter what you want to accomplish, someone will find issue with the way you are doing it. Big thanks to cube for pointing this out on the BLOG.

Taco Bell has a good story posted – from the Marine Corps Gazette – that you should read. If it doesn’t move you, you are either a liberal or brain dead. But, I repeat myself.

Third Wave Dave asks a simple question – where’s the proof?

Hammer is on vacation, and also leaves us with a really good question.

I’m sure I’ve missed a few good articles, but I sure didn’t mean to – please accept my apologies if you didn’t get mentioned.

Chat ya later…

Thank you for stopping by, In GOD We Trust, God bless you all, don’t buy or breed cats or dogs while homeless pets die (spay, neuter & adopt a pet, one by one, until there are none), Wear Red on Fridays, and support Warriors for Innocence!

Normally speaking, I don’t delve into a lot of depth as far as politics are involved – and even more rare is a double post day. However, the subject of Socialized Medicine as the obamabots have envisioned it is scary, at the very least. I will be pointing you to a post by my blog friend Jo-Joe Politico a little later – ok, fine, follow the link I just gave you – but the first entry in his “recap” of the Bill That Is Too Big To Read sends chills down my spine:

The bill mandates that the government will audit the books of all employers that self insure!!

“…will audit the books of all employers that self insure…” !!! Since when, and exactly WHERE in the United States Constitution (you remember that little scrap of paper that delineates the duties of the federal government?) does it say that the GOVERNMENT is ALLOWED to stick it’s nose in PRIVATE BUSINESS?

Yes, I know, GM is now Government Motors – that doesn’t make it any more right or acceptable – and it sure points the way down the slippery slope that Obummer has decided to take this country. Giving the government the ability to audit the books means that they will see ALL of the financial information for that company. Now, how many businesses do you know that wants Big Brother able to second guess their every financial move?

By definition, I am not an “employer” since I am the only one who works for me, but it’s just one more step to say “all businesses” must conform…

Go, read the synopsis that Joe provides. Then, do as I will be doing, (even though my “representative” won’t listen to me) and send the list to your representative along with a very strongly worded letter suggesting he/she either vote against the HealthCare Scam or start looking for another job next election cycle.

Chat ya later…

Thank you for stopping by, In GOD We Trust, God bless you all, don’t buy or breed cats or dogs while homeless pets die (spay, neuter & adopt a pet, one by one, until there are none), Wear Red on Fridays, and support Warriors for Innocence!

Couldn’t help but repost this when I ran across it this morning:

The US standard railroad gauge (distance between the rails) is 4 feet, 8.5 inches. That’s an exceedingly odd number. Why was that gauge used? Because that’s the way they built them in England, and English expatriates built the US railroads.

Why did the English build them like that? Because the first rail lines were built by the same people who built the pre-railroad tramways, and that’s the gauge they used.

Why did ‘they’ use that gauge then? Because the people who built the tramways used the same jigs and tools that they used for building wagons, which used that wheel spacing.

Why did the wagons have that particular odd wheel spacing? Well, if they tried to use any other spacing, the wagon wheels would break on some of the old, long distance roads in England, because that’s the spacing of the wheel ruts.

So who built those old rutted roads? Imperial Rome built the first long distance roads in Europe (and England) for their legions. The roads have been used ever since.

And the ruts in the roads? Roman war chariots formed the initial ruts, which everyone else had to match for fear of destroying their wagon wheels. Since the chariots were made for Imperial Rome, they were all alike in the matter of wheel spacing. Therefore, the United States standard railroad gauge of 4 feet, 8.5 inches is derived from the original specifications for an Imperial Roman war chariot. Bureaucracies live forever.

So the next time you are handed a specification/procedure/process and wonder ‘What horse’s ass came up with it?’, you may be exactly right. Imperial Roman army chariots were made just wide enough to accommodate the rear ends of two war horses. (Two horse’s asses.)

Now, the twist to the story: When you see a Space Shuttle sitting on its launch pad, there are two big booster rockets attached to the sides of the main fuel tank. These are solid rocket boosters, or SRB’s. The SRB’s are made by Thiokol at their factory in Utah. The engineers who designed the SRB’s would have preferred to make them a bit fatter, but the SRB’s had to be shipped by train from the factory to the launch site.

The railroad line from the factory happens to run through a tunnel in the mountains, and the SRB’s had to fit through that tunnel. The tunnel is slightly wider than the railroad track, and the railroad track, as you now know, is about as wide as two horses’ behinds.

So, a major Space Shuttle design feature of what is arguably the world’s most advanced transportation system was determined over two thousand years ago by the width of a horse’s ass. And you thought being a horse’s ass wasn’t important? Ancient horse’s asses control almost everything… and CURRENT Horses Asses are controlling everything else.

Chat ya later…

Thank you for stopping by, In GOD We Trust, God bless you all, don’t buy or breed cats or dogs while homeless pets die (spay, neuter & adopt a pet, one by one, until there are none), Wear Red on Fridays, and support Warriors for Innocence!

OK, so since the cab stories are kind of captivating, let’s take a look at a couple of my passengers this past weekend. Truthfully, only one was a passenger – but that’s getting ahead of the story.

First up is a guy I nicknamed (privately, in my mind) Pirate Steve. Why did I nickname him that? When he got in, he dropped his cellphone on the floor of the car. He said, and I quote, “Arrr! I dropped me cell phone!”

I wish I could make this stuff up – then I could write best-selling fiction and be rich. I asked him where he needed to go – he said “I be needing to get to the theater (pronounced thee-A-tur) afore the moving picture starts!” When we pulled up in front of the theater, he said “Ay, I be thankin’ ye for a safe journey! Keep the change, ya scurvy landlubber!”

Apparently, pirates tip well. The meter was about $9, and he handed me $15. Decent sort for a pirate.

The second person was a real case. She was standing on the northwest corner of 75th Avenue and Thomas Road. I was sitting in the left turn lane on Thomas to turn north on 75th Avenue, so she was to my left. She looked at her watch and waved at me, so I rolled my window down. She yelled, “Can you take a fare?” and looked at her watch. I said “Sure thing! Jump in!”

She got the walk signal, and started across. She kept looking at her watch, as she continued straight across Thomas and continued walking south. The only thing I can figure is that she was in a hurry – to be late.

Chat ya later…

Thank you for stopping by, In GOD We Trust, God bless you all, don’t buy or breed cats or dogs while homeless pets die (spay, neuter & adopt a pet, one by one, until there are none), Wear Red on Fridays, and support Warriors for Innocence!

You know what to do!

Chat ya later…

Thank you for stopping by, In GOD We Trust, God bless you all, don’t buy or breed cats or dogs while homeless pets die (spay, neuter & adopt a pet, one by one, until there are none), Wear Red on Fridays, and support Warriors for Innocence!

I was going to do an update today, but then I’ve been involved in the migration of the Black Canyon Railroad Museum site to a Wordpress platform, and decided to go ahead and finish up some little projects over there (big thanks to Bushwack over at American And Proud for the moral support in getting a second wordpress blog going!). I was driving a cab yesterday, had a good shift with a minimum of weirdos. I’ve also been thinking of restarting my BTR show, with an emphasis on interesting web sites and cab stories. What do you think?

Chat ya later…

Thank you for stopping by, In GOD We Trust, God bless you all, don’t buy or breed cats or dogs while homeless pets die (spay, neuter & adopt a pet, one by one, until there are none), Wear Red on Fridays, and support Warriors for Innocence!

I know, I’ve used that title before. But really, I think I am. Let’s take a look at this week already, shall we?

Sunday was church – with all the activity that entails. Consider that I am a Deacon, I sing on the praise team and I help with communion, and you get an idea of how busy I stay just on Sunday. Sunday afternoon was spent trying to get some more configuring done on the new computer. Sunday evening I placed the third week’s worth of stuff on eBay for a friend – he’s selling off his life-long collection of models, collectibles, and excess HO scale railroad stuff. (by the way, the keyboard on this laptop is slightly difficult to get used to – couple that with my occasional bouts of dyslexia and my typing really slows down.) Sunday night, I finally got a chance to sit down and watch “Taking Chance” – which, if you haven’t done yet, you should. It was very well done, and Kevin Bacon really nailed his role.

Monday, besides being laundry and dishes day, I also revamped the railroad’s website – The Black Canyon Model Railroad Museum, Inc. I moved it off the cobbled-together site I had built and onto a Wordpress platform. I like how it turned out, why don’t you swing over there and take a look? Let me know what you think.

Today I’ll be going over to my friend’s house to help box up, label, and ship the items that sold from last week. If you are interested in seeing what kind of stuff he collected over the years, take a look here.

Chat ya later…

Thank you for stopping by, In GOD We Trust, God bless you all, don’t buy or breed cats or dogs while homeless pets die (spay, neuter & adopt a pet, one by one, until there are none), Wear Red on Fridays, and support Warriors for Innocence!

Wearin’ red – driving green – and boy, is it hot.

Chat ya later…

Thank you for stopping by, In GOD We Trust, God bless you all, don’t buy or breed cats or dogs while homeless pets die (spay, neuter & adopt a pet, one by one, until there are none), Wear Red on Fridays, and support Warriors for Innocence!

Sometimes, life gets in the way of trying to keep a blog up-to-date. Take this week, for example. I’ve spent most of it trying to get this new computer updated with the stuff I can’t live without from the old computer. I haven’t even started working on the stuff that TMBWitW needs on the new computer.

Yes, a new computer. No, we couldn’t afford it – but we also couldn’t afford to be without a computer at all, as most of you are in the same boat – your lives are inextricably intertwined with, through, and around either email, electronic checking and bill paying, or some other aspect of the computer in your daily lives. Originally I was just going to replace the hard drive in the old ‘puter and use the existing drive (reformatted) as extra storage. Fry’s Electronics had a one terrabyte hard drive on sale for $90 – isn’t technology amazing? – but then I started looking at the price of an operating system to make the new hard drive go. You see, the old hard drive was transplanted from the original computer, and it still had Windoze XP (home) on it. With the need to replace the hard drive (I have removed and replaced everything BUT the OS, and it still wouldn’t let me get on the internet in anything but safe mode) came the need to have a new copy of an operating system.

Don’t you love when the manufacturer gets to preload what they want to sell with the computer and not have to supply the original disks?

So – in the end, it was cheaper to buy a new laptop with Windoze “Vista” on it than to buy a hard drive and the OS separately. I know – I’m in the process of downloading Linux and getting it ready to run sideways on this computer. Then, maybe I can avoid this problem in the future. Maybe.

TMBWitW also took some time off this week – paid, this time – and suggested that I drive cab for most of the days she was off, to help make up the deficit from when she had to take a “furcation” – furlough, with out pay – last month. So, I drove yesterday, a twenty four hour shift. When I got home, there was a surprise from my wife waiting for me (remember, this is a “G” rated blog!):

Her note touched me. I cried. Can’t wait until I have enough time to sit down and watch the movie.

Got in bed this morning at 0515, got up at 0800 because the bug service was going to be here “promptly at 0830″ – which, of course, means they didn’t show up until 1030 and then only after I had called and asked where they were.

Then, I managed to finish a project that needed installed for some time. finally, got BACK in bed about 1300, and slept until 1800. I’ll be going back to bed shortly, and getting up early tomorrow morning so I can do the cab thing again, this time for two days running. If I don’t see you for a couple of days, you’ll understand, right?

Chat ya later…

Thank you for stopping by, In GOD We Trust, God bless you all, don’t buy or breed cats or dogs while homeless pets die (spay, neuter & adopt a pet, one by one, until there are none), Wear Red on Fridays, and support Warriors for Innocence!