And there goes my golf lesson money. Sigh.

Say! Hey? There's a donut on my car!
Hey! Yay! The tire store ain't far!
Boo! Hoo! They can't patch it, man that sucks!
Bye Bye! To a hundred and fifty bucks!

It being a rainy night off last night...

...I decided to finally dare myself to open one of the bottles of Fre I bought ages ago to decorate my (since sold off) kitchen wine rack thingamajig.  You will note the label states this is a 2003 vintage of non-alcoholic wine. I admit I had some doubts...wondering if it would be putrid, if it was actually now an ALCOHOLIC wine...but no. It tasted just fine. I drank half the bottle and am looking forward to finishing off the rest. Who'd a thunk it?

Gross!

OK, day off in beautiful, rainy Pittsfield.  At least the temp has dropped from the high nineties to the high sixties. Excellent.

They got some kind of bugs here. Playing tennis yesterday (gingerly) I felt a shocking burning pain on my left calf. When I finished the point (gotta finish the point) I looked down and something had chawed the hell out of my leg.  Here is a blurry pic of the deep L-shaped furrow whatever it was cut through my leg in about 3 seconds.  Plus there are incidental small point-like wounds all around the same area.  This wound is probably an 1 ⅛ inches long and deep enough to scab over like a cut. I wish to hell I'd seen whatever the heck it was that bit me. Especially since it got my right leg a few minutes later, though not nearly as bad. Some kind of malevolent flying melon-baller, it would seem. 

Red states, blue states, and driving ability

This is a picture taken from the driving range. On a perfectly clear day, on a straight stretch of roadway, on a 40-mph, well-maintained state road, two local drivers were unable to negotiate the complicated "2 lanes go down to 1" highway design.  They ran each other off the road and through the lovely bed of flowers that decorate the entrance to the driving range.

Now, in a red state, one would assume they were both jockeying for position and refused to yield and ran each other off the highway from sheer muleheaded idiocy and lust to be in front.  But this is not a red state. And both of these cars were festooned with Ben -n- Jerry stickers and 'Visualize Whirled Peas' and all the of that other liberal claptrap.  These kinds ran each other off the road because they were nervous nellies who can't drive worth a damn.

Which brings me to my point: although in every other way, I sympathize with the Blue States in general, they are terrible, terrible drivers.  In fact, they are terrified of anything that could hurt them or their dubiously precious offspring.  They drive the way they do because they are scared, all the time. Which, as I get older and grumpier, I start to see is the basis of the Red side scoffing and calling liberals self-centered and self-absorbed. In this small particular, they are correct. Every very liberal friend I have drives like the Grim Reaper is tailing them, nervous eyes darting back and forth, hands twitching on the wheel, braking uphill, regarding every thing around them as a harbinger of death.  They go slow in fast lanes, never mind that they cause people to start changing lanes like demented monkeys behind them to get around, thus making things way more dangerous. They don't care. Eyes locked on the road, fingers frozen into frightened claws on the wheel, mouth set in a rictus of fear, they drive like Victorian women had sex: close your eyes and think of England and you'll get through it.

Driving is dangerous, yes. But it is more dangerous when you are white-knuckling your way making everyone jumpy around you.  Why are people so afraid of dying when there is no chance in the world they are not going to die?  How much fun is your life if you spend it fretting about your death?  I think fretting is a good word here. See...these people who had the accident, they probably could have steered their cars out of each others way- they probably saw the accident coming seconds ahead. But, sadly, all they are really capable of doing is fretting. I'm sure they spent those last few pre-accident seconds worrying about what was about to happen and hoping someone would get them out of it. Even though they are the one holding the steering wheel.

One week up here. I'm trying to follow pickups and avoid Volvos. Cause even though liberals are nicer people, they cannot drive worth a goddam.  Let me follow a guy on the way to a Klan rally or something.  If the whole country one day turns nice, does that mean we'll all have to be whiny, fretful scared, bad-driving, do-nothings? Ah well...the price of progress, I guess.

In honor: every shuttle mission in 8 minutes and 1 second

As you know, I have my reasons for digging the Berkshires

Things I saw on the way up to the Berkshires

I saw traffic jams...

 

I saw the Hudson River....

 

I saw the lovely and blissfully empty Taconic State Parkway in New York.

And...(shudder)...my Nemesis.  I hate that bridge.

Well, I guess not...

Checking Google Maps Street View for that intersection, this is right where I should be.  Approximately where the elephant is pooping out the small child. I can tell you that that CERTAINLY was not there when I was at the intersection earlier today.  So this must be an older picture....

Google mapping!

Followed the Google Street View car for a bit today. Let's see if I show up on Google at the intersection of Walter Reed and S. Arlington Dr. Cool!

Apparently, being a kid in Pamplona is no cakewalk...

Hotel W, 15th & Pennsylvania

Rooftop! Nice.

My camera is claiming to be full...

...even though it clearly isn't. So while I figure out how to 'empty' it out enough to save more pictures, I will cull pictures from other souces. For instance, you probably could have gotten through a large part of your life without even being aware of the stunning Japanese action film, "Hajirai Machine Girl". Here's a clip to click on.  It isn't dirty, although for a second you think it will be. Her bashfulness causes a machine gun to protrude from her ass, which embarrasses her more, which causes it protrude further and fire, and so on.  See? She's so embarrassed, she cries, "No!" It's tricky: you beat her in a fight, she gets embarrassed and that allows her to kill you. Tough call on whether or not to win the initial fight, there.  Japan is a rich, rich vein of weirdity.

I forgot I had these pics!

When we went to the ball game and had good seats the other day, Michelle Obama was there. (arrow)  Guarded by snipers on every high surface in the area. (arrow)  The snipers watched the whole game through their guns while scanning the crowd. Very weird to actually have guns pointing at you while watching ball. Go government!  'Watch the game in peace, citizen. While we point guns at you. And make ready to kill you. You've committed the crime of showing up in a public place.'

The Sun blows up real good

I love NASA's video pages.  Here's a great selection of solar flares, prominences, and the like. Dad, your guys do the coolest work.

Again, Spartanburg's telegenic brand of mayhem has a starring role.

I think I've seen the Spartanburg evidence technicians more than my kids the last few years.  In the case of Jame - WAY more. Love y'all. Stay out of Spartanburg.

Kate and I being Americans at our National Pastime on the Fourth

Happy Fourth!

Happy Independence Day!  The day that reminds us that we are free! Free to stick flaming things down in our pants if we so desire. Happy Fourth all!

Singing a quartet at the BestFest last week

Yes, I know that Larry, Ray, and me only make 3. But with Ray on the melody of the jazz barbershop quartet, "This is the Army Mr. Jones,"  Larry and I managed to vocally cover the other 3 parts between us. We're THAT good. And it actually sounded kickass. Not bad for a song we haven't sung for 20 years. Much better than the Hogan's Heroes guys in that clip....

Cool little online thingamajig

Using mouse or arrow keys, this zooms the scale level from the Planck length/quantum foam at the small end, to the size of the observable universe at the big end. Very cool.  And personally diminishing, perspective-wise.

I had thought my "Poem for Los Angeles" had sent yesterday, but I guess not....

So, a day late and not really worth the wait...

Stuck, stuck at LAX
With creatures of most every sex
There's freaks n geeks n what-the-hecks?
When you bide your time at LAX.

I realize I am not the most practical of fellows

But something about this new building just seems a little...off.

Farmer's Market, Riverside, CA

Yum! Hummus and Honey and Veggies and Bread!
Jellies and Lettuce as Big as your Head!

The trouble with being a sensitive, left-wing sort

...of which I occasionally am one --although 'sensitive' might be replaced by 'prickly' in my case. Or just 'prick' maybe.  Anyway, out front of Metro Center yesterday were pretty girls wearing fur coats in cages to protest the evil and unnatural wearing of fur. Although I think their grasp of 'unnatural' is a bit tenuous.  However, the nobility of their sacrifice and the crystal clear expression of their empathetic viewpoint is utterly lost because the reality of the situation is that any 20-30(-40?-50?-60?) year-old male who emerges from the metro is captivated by their display, yes. But do they see dedicated souls striving for the betterment of their beasty brethren? No. They see hot chicks in cages. "YEAH!  CHECK DAT SHIT OUT!  Look at this, Fred, chicks in cages! Man, cell phone pics....cell phone pics...hold still chicks! Quit whining about animals. Can you bare your teeth a little like you're mad cause you're in a cage and can't have sex with me right now? Yeah...that's the look. Oh baby.  Yeah. You want it, don't ya.  TONY! GET UP HERE! CHICKS IN CAGES! Man. I wish I had a chick in a cage. Hey, girlie, you look pretty hot in that fur coat, whyn't you slip that off....HOLD STILL!"

Yeah. Young women activists have a hard row to hoe. 

Brian Best

I think I mentioned that my old pal, Brian, Gary's little brother, a stellar guy and someone I actually double-dated with before I got married, is semi-riddled with stage IV lung cancer that has moved all over, even up unto his brain.  We all got together and threw an event in his honor yesterday.  We did it in Columbia, at a private school. What was not realized was that in official buildings with computerized a/c and whatnot, the air conditioning is not able to be turned on on the weekend. So we did the event in a room that was about 90 degrees, and more like 110 on stage under the lights.  I was the MC and had to spend most of the day on the hot stage. So when you look at this picture and see one smooth, cool, together-looking guy and one quasi-demolished, bleary, wasted, spent guy looking on the absolute verge of death...uh, reverse those. I am actually fine, despite my near-funereal appearance. And Brian is much less than fine, despite his dapper front.

Interesting side note: the US Open was today (golf) and Brian mentioned that and one thing led to another and it turns out that Brian is a scratch golfer (translation: so good, he doesn't have a handicap when he plays officially) and loves to teach people to play.  He is --literally-- dying to teach me how to play right. He claims it is one of the things you cannot teach yourself. So he's going to take me out as many times as he can while he's still mobile.  I'm kind of psyched. Plus, I'll get to spend non-awkward time with him.

Love you guys!

In less ranty news....

...I may quit going to Japanese steakhouses altogether.