J_E_G.....From the land of OZ

Wednesday, March 31, 2004

 

It's been a while since I've written anything for a post here, and until I saw the news today about what went down in Iraq I wasn't sure what to write. Now I know. Look out I am about to climb onto my soapbox and rant a little.

Here is the question of the century I would say and that is Why are we in Iraq? Why are we in a place where it is becoming more and more evident each day that we are not wanted there. Despite what the Bush administration and others might tell us. Take today for example, five more U.S. soldiers were killed from a bomb planted by Iraqis. These five soldiers by the way were stationed at the army base right next to the town I live in. But even more sadly was the killing of eight civilians, four of whom were Americans. Not only were they shot but they were burnt and then had their bodies dragged through the streets. I ask you does that sound like actions from a people who want us there in their country.

So why then are we there? Is it to fight the war on terror? Hardly since no proof has been established connecting Iraqis with the terrorists. That fight should be reserved for Bin Ladin and his followers. Well then maybe it was to defend our country. But from what? Weapons of mass destruction that posed an immanent threat of danger to our country. Nope, that can't be it, since we failed to find any of those so called weapons. Ok so that only leaves to go in and help free the people of Iraq of a vicious tyrant and bring democracy to this country, even though non of them asked us to. And what kind of democracy are we bringing to them, it's certainly not one I'd recognize. I mean is it really democracy when you go into a country with guns a blazing, and say this is the government you are going to have and if you don't like it we will keep our military in your country till you decide you do like things our way.

So again I ask...Why are we there? And where does it stop?

In conclusion I'm not saying we should just pull out of Iraq, we are in to deep to do that. But don't we have enough to worry about within our own country then to try and become a Laundromat for the world, cleaning up governments we don't approve of.

That's it for now. Later.

Posted by J_E_G 9:17 PM   

Tuesday, March 30, 2004

 

Wanted to create a simple, easy on the mind post tonight. I thought and I thought, then it came to me. What can be more simpler and easy on the mind then this.












Later.

Posted by J_E_G 8:12 PM   

Monday, March 29, 2004

 

Ok, so besides having small internal explosions, what else did I do on my little break from blogging. Well let's see, floors are scrubbed and waxed, carpets vacuumed, and some other general housecleaning chores accomplished. Some spring cleaning you might say. I did manage to get most of the things done I wanted to, well inside that is. I had to put off the work I wanted to do in the yard due to less then ideal weather conditions. As you can see form the pic above the clouds were churning rather angrily saturday.




And then the heavens opened up and it came down in buckets.





And kept coming down, rather forcefully I might add. But hey, without these spring rains we wouldn't get this.





That's it for now. Later.

Posted by J_E_G 7:02 PM   

Sunday, March 28, 2004

 

I'm back, didn't really go anywhere but I'm back, I think. It's been a stormy weekend. With the heavens opening up and soaking us yesterday and although it was sunny today the storm seemed to continue. It's a hell of a feeling when you suddenly realize that your life is on the verge of being turned upside down. And of course it deals with family. All I know is I've got a lot of thinking to do and decisions to make. Which hopefully will yield some answers and new plans. Anyway it appears I'm back on the starting line again, thing is I don't know how many more restarts I have left in me. But hey, life is a long walk, and it's not always through a park. I will trudge through these next few miles of mushy ground threatening to become quicksand and emerge on solid ground again. As long as I keep that thought in mind I know I'll make it through this.

I had a post in mind that I was going to do, complete with pic's. But it would seem like everything else around me right now my photo hosting service has decided to have issues of it's own. So sorry no pic's today. Hopefully tomorrow.
That's it for now. Later.

Posted by J_E_G 8:24 PM   

Thursday, March 25, 2004

 

The signs of spring keep popping up everyday. Yes, the migratory birds are returning, trees are budding and now the flowers in the yard are starting to bloom. Pretty soon winter will be nothing but distant memory.

I have some things around the house that require my attention, and some reading I want to get done therefore I'm taking a blogging break for a couple of days. Be back again late saturday or sunday.
Thats it for now. Later.

Posted by J_E_G 7:20 PM   

Wednesday, March 24, 2004

 

Today on an impulse I decided to do something that is normally hard for me to do. And that is do or get something for me. It has always been easier for me to do for others then for myself. Well anyway, I've been unsatisfied with the quality of some of the pictures I've taken lately, so I decided what the hell I'm going to get a new cam even if I can't really afford it. After work I pointed the car in the opposite direction from home, headed to the store where I found and got myself a new cam. I ended up getting a 3.2 mega pixel Sony cyber-shot. It is a step up from the Concord 2 mega pixel cam I have now. I would have liked to take the step up to a 5 mega pixel but I just couldn't bring myself to put out that much money right now. Though I was ready to reach out and test the water, I was not prepared to dive in head first.

Oh yeah, the pic on top (which is an example of the low quality I was talking about) is of a small portion of a large group of buzzards I spotted flying overhead. One reason this caught my attention is an old farmers tale that says when the buzzards return warmer days are not far behind. YAY!!!

Ok, that's it for now. I'm off to read the operators manual for the new cam. Later.

Posted by J_E_G 9:18 PM   

Tuesday, March 23, 2004

 

It was a rather bizarre afternoon around here yesterday. It came across the news that the sheriff's department was searching ten miles south of where we live for a person who had jumped from a plane at 2500 feet. So what's so bizarre about that, well, he did it without a parachute. So yeah the sheriff's officers were actually searching for a body, which they did find after three hours of searching.

Shortly after take-off a pilot of a single engine plane radioed back to the airport that a person had just jumped out of the plane with the intent of killing himself. It is my understanding that the investigation is going to continue to determine what actually happened. Question is did he jump, fall out of or was he pushed. I'm fairly sure they'll determine that he committed suicide, but then again how would you prove what really happened. Hummmm???

Space The Final Frontier......

.....ok not really. This is a pic I downloaded from my cam. What exactly I was taking a picture of and how in the hell it turned out like this I don't know.


That's it for now. Later.

Posted by J_E_G 8:35 PM   

Monday, March 22, 2004

 

Monday and the start of a new work week. And on arriving at work this morning the boss announces he wants to have the building ready to sell by Wednesday. This meant starting to go room to room and correcting anything that may not yet be quite right. The way we see it the building is ready, and the people who are to occupy it are ready to move in. Unfortunately the army corps of engineers, the inspectors and final approving authority see things other ways and are in a mind set to jack us around. Oh well, just makes life more interesting I guess.

With the arrival of spring this last saturday and the weather getting better and better I went out into the yard to see what I have to look forward to when I finally get out to do some yard work. It doesn't look like it'll be to bad. I still have to decide if I am going to put in a garden this year. Who knows maybe I'll just stick a single tomato plant in the ground and call that my garden.

While I was out in the back yard I also snapped a few pic's of the neighbor's ham it up dog. You'll take note how she liked to pose for the camera.
That's it for now. Later.

Posted by J_E_G 6:42 PM   

Saturday, March 20, 2004

 

Ahh a saturday with no special plans can lead to a boring day. Just as being in a three bedroom house all alone can lead to becoming stir crazy. So I sat here trying to figure out something to do today when it dawned on me that even though I've lived here more years then I care to say, I've never been to our local historical museum. So I thought what the hell, grabbed my cam and off I went to take a short trip into the past. Took plenty of pic's too. To join me on this little trip to the past Click here or on the pic below.
That's it for now. Later.

Posted by J_E_G 9:31 PM   

Friday, March 19, 2004

 

Oh what a day this turned into. I suddenly became a walking stroke of bad luck. It happened toward the end of the day at work and carried on after I got home. Nothing bad really, actually it was something to laugh at. Like I said yesterday I was putting together the irrigation system, today we turned it on to try and water the grass seed we had just sowed. We turn it on and for the most part it was working, except for one sprinkler head. I walked over to it, shook it and it still didn't want to work. These sprinklers are made so you can connect them together by adding some hose and another sprinkler. Since we didn't have any others hooked up to this one it had a cap screwed onto it. I decided to loosen it and bleed it a little and see if that worked. Sounds simple right, well it should have been. I gave the cap one twist, two twists and a third and some water started to ease out of it. So I thought one more would do the trick. So I gave it that one more last one to many twists and the cap comes off in my hand. So there I am trying to hold that cap over the hole, hollering for help all the while getting soaked. Finally one of my co-workers came to my rescue, pinched off the hose and I was able to screw the cap back on. Bit not before I was soaked from head to toe. As I said it was nothing to get upset about in fact we all got a good laugh out of it. I was just glad it was warm today and it was close to quitting time.

I got home from work and after that I figured nothing else could go wrong, right........wrong. I was out fixing something up for supper and decided to have a fish fillet. Just throw it in the microwave. Again sounds simple and again it should have been. I had had one of the fillets last week and put the remaining fillet in a freezer bag. Well when i did that, of course I threw the box away and with it the cooking instructions. Now for some reason 12 minutes popped out at me so I set the micro fro 12 minutes and started it. While it was cooking I was in checking my e-mail. After about ten minutes I thought I better go out and check it, good thing I did. As I entered the kitchen, first thing I see is smoke coming out of the microwave. After a quick oh shit I turned off the micro and opened it. And of course even more smoke came rushing out, there before my eyes was a shriveled up piece of something black that resembled anything but a fish fillet. After letting it cool down I was left searching the freezer for something else to eat. Like I said the latter part of this day was something else, but nothing insurmountable that's for sure.

Ok time to kick back and watch some of the NCAA basketball tournament, the KU game just started.
That's it for now. Later.





It's controlled burn season again.

Posted by J_E_G 9:14 PM   

Thursday, March 18, 2004

 

I know I posted earlier that I took a break last night. But really if the truth be known I just ran out of time. Instead of coming home right after work yesterday I took advantage of the nice day and drove out to the lake to wander around and take pic's. Then I came home fixed something to eat and worked on the pictures I'd taken. I took about thirty pictures although I only ended up with about six that I liked and might get posted.

Got to work this morning and it turned out we were kicked out of the building. No not that kind of kicked out, but rather the cleaning crew was going to be stripping and waxing all the floors today and tomorrow. So we are stuck doing outside work for these next two days. I ended up working on the landscape and trying to get the grass growing. So I spent most of the day gluing together the PVC pipes of out make shift irrigation system (pictured above). Some sections I had to replace completely, because it sat out there through the winter and wasn't drained properly. And when that happens whole sections tend to shatter. Tomorrow we plan to rake out the ruts created by the rain water that ran through it, and then resowing the grass seed. At least we have some decent weather to be stuck working outside in.

Time to grab a shower and a bite to eat.
Later.

Posted by J_E_G 6:33 PM   

 

Sometimes we just need to take a break. And that's what I did last night.
Later.

Posted by J_E_G 5:03 AM   

Tuesday, March 16, 2004

 

Did something I don't normally do last night. That being I put myself to bed at what one would call a decent hour, instead of the 1am hour I usually end up going to bed. And well, it worked I woke up feeling more refreshed then I have been in a long time. Hmmm maybe I should try that more often.

Today was another one of those freaky type weather days. When I headed off to work it was like we had taken a step back into winter, with it being cold and windy. And by lunch time it really looked like we had fallen back into winter. For on looking out the door just before we went to lunch it was snowing like crazy. By the time we got back from lunch the snow had quit. And an hour later it was 53F and we were shedding coats and enjoying a nice afternoon. Can't wait to see what tomorrow brings, although the weatherman says it is supposed to do nothing but get nicer as the rest of the week progresses. We'll see.
That's it for now. Later>

Posted by J_E_G 8:28 PM   

Monday, March 15, 2004

 

Again what a difference a day makes. Yesterday was such a nice day and today turns out to be windy, rainy and cooler. Ahh well we gots to take the bad with the good I guess.

I was over at Brand Trueboy and read an excellent post True wrote yesterday dealing with the bombings in Spain and some very valid points to be made concerning 9-11. If you haven't already, I suggest you go over and check it out. The post got me to thinking and I started to write a post about some things or questions I have about things that are happening in our country now. But my ability to just sit and write is not as good as some others and I will post it after I have had a chance to work on it.

Right now my body and my brain are having a tug-of-war. After a day at work which consisted of moving a lot of heavy items around, my body is telling me it's tired and yet my brain doesn't want to give in just yet. I have a feeling though my body's going to win out, the best way to rid oneself of being tired and sore is to get rest. And the way this post has bounced off every wall in the room ought to be proof enough of how tired I feel. With that said all that's left is.....that's it for now.
Later.

Posted by J_E_G 8:51 PM   

Sunday, March 14, 2004

 

Woke up this morning to the sun shining and plenty of blue sky above. The air still had a slight chill to it, but I could tell it was going to be a nice day. To nice a day to spend it holed up in the house as I had originally planned on doing.

Anyway I've had this twenty-five dollar gift certificate to sears that's been sitting here in my room for almost a year now and I thought maybe I'll go and see what I can find to get myself. The only reason I've held onto it for so long is in order to shop at sears it takes a road trip to the next town over. Thus a little before noon I climbed into the car and pointed it east on the interstate and made the sixteen mile trip to Manhattan where the mall and sears is located.



Spent some time wandering around the mall before finding my way into sears to see if I could find something I could get with that gift card. First off I didn't really think I could find anything worth while to get with that card that I wouldn't end up having to add some more money to go with it. But I set off anyway to look and headed into the tool department. And you know what, for some strange strange reason I was blessed with a stroke of good luck today. I found this cordless screwdriver that I'd been wanting for some time now, and it was marked down to forty-nine dollars from ninety-nine dollars. After subtracting the twenty-five dollars that was going to bring the final cost to twenty-eight dollars. Not bad at all I figured. So anyhow I head over to the cashier to pay for it and she asked if I would like to apply for a charge card and put this purchase on the card. I thought what the hell, so what if they said no again for like the four hundredth time. But to my amazement I was approved and to top it off for opening up a new account with them I also got an additional ten dollars off my purchase. If you're keeping track, that brings that once ninety-nine dollar screwdriver down to eighteen dollars. What I'd consider a goddamn steal more then a deal. Finished up the transaction and decided it was time to go. To top off my visit to the mall, I stopped on my way out and bought two lottery tickets and won fifteen dollars. I know, I know I'm still trying to figure out what happened that caused me to be so lucky. And to tell you the truth I've been going around every since then with my eyes to the sky, watching out for that piano that I'm sure will fall on me any time now.



I never used to believe it before, but there really is some truth to the saying that shopping can help make ya feel better, and especially when you manage to get a good deal on something. I do know that for a little while afterwards I felt better then I have in a long while and was, even if for a short while, able to forget about all those little meddlesome troubles.

Oh, I did manage to snap a few more pic's while I was over there. That top pic is their main street and at the end of the street you can see part of the mall. The other two pic's are of this fountain in the mall. Ok, time to get the clothes out of the dryer and start getting things ready to go back to work tomorrow.
That's it for now. Later.

Posted by J_E_G 7:34 PM   

Saturday, March 13, 2004

 

Nothing much exciting to write about here lately. Mostly it's the same go to work come home and start all over again. Speaking of work it's looking like we're getting down to about two weeks left before we consider ourselves done and we hand the building over. At least that's the way the plan stands as of now, providing we can get them to accept the building. The inspectors are being extremely picky and sometimes downright assholes at times. Oh well just means we have to work harder.

Spent most of the evening doing my taxes last night. It wasn't really that hard to do after installing the tax software. it was just time consuming since I had to manually enter all the info off the W-2's and 1099's. Got lucky and I'm getting a refund, although if I hadn't of been hit with that 10% penalty for drawing out my 401K last year the refund would have been two thousand more. But hey, I'm happy to be getting back what I'm getting.

In keeping with posting pic's from around town, here is a shot of the big bar district, all one block of it. Ok, so there's a few others in another area of town, but not many.

And of course even here in small town middle America you'll find the infamous strip joints. And no, I haven't been in this one. At least....not yet. hehe

Was going to go out on another picture taking adventure today but sadly the weather didn't want to cooperate with me. It's been cloudy and rainy most of the day. Who knows maybe tomorrow.
That's it for now. Later.

Posted by J_E_G 3:40 PM   

Thursday, March 11, 2004

 

Till tomorrow.....Later.

Posted by J_E_G 9:28 PM   

Wednesday, March 10, 2004

 

Oh what a fun day was had at work today. Well ok, maybe not so much fun as it was tiring. Let's put it this way, there's nothing like swinging a sledge hammer all day to remind a person (me) they're not as young as they once used to be. We were installing parking lot blocks, like the one pictured above only ours were made of concrete. They are held in place by two two foot pieces of rebar, and the way that rebar is placed into the asphalt is with a sledge hammer. We had twenty of those blocks to install today, and it took most of the day to get them in. I think it's safe to say that come morning some muscles I had long forgotten about and some I didn't even know I had will be sore as shit. But that's ok, it's nothing that an hour in a hot tub and two hours worth of a good massage won't cure. Yeah right.

That's it for now. I think I'm going to lean back and shut my eyes now because I know that's the only way the hot tub and massage are going to happen. Later.

Posted by J_E_G 6:00 PM   

Tuesday, March 09, 2004

 

When I first posted the pictures of the downtown area where I live I received a few comments on them. People were saying how it was nice that a town was letting these older building stand instead of tearing them down to make way for advancement. It is nice to walk down and see these older buildings that make up our main street. But they are not still standing out of the kindness of the city officials, for I believe they would tear them down if they thought they could get businesses to come in there. The reason they still stand is that the city officials know if they were torn down it would mean the demise of our main street. In fact the main street is already pretty dead. With the exception of the banks there's not much else active on this street. Most of the small shops closed down because they could not compete with Wal-Mart and other stores of this type that started popping up some years ago.

The building pictured above is an example of the way our city leaders think. It is an old hotel dating back easily to the early 1900's if not earlier. It has sat vacant for maybe thirty years now. Well some of the city leaders decided that it was run down and had become an eye sore. So they wanted it torn down and hoped to be able to draw in some business to rebuild in it's place. Now here's the kicker they wanted to use tax dollars to tear this building down. They eventually dropped that plan but still wanted it torn down. Enough people complained about getting rid of this building that they went back to the drawing board and came up with a plan to renovate the building and turn it into senior housing. I for one was happy when they came up with this plan, I know that if they had gone through with tearing it down all we would have ended up with would have been a big hole in main street which would have turned into another parking lot. Sometime I can't help but wonder what our city leaders use for brains at times.
That's it for now. Later.

Posted by J_E_G 6:32 PM   

Monday, March 08, 2004

 

Ahhh monday, that glorious first day of the week. Well, the work week that is. The day that is usually the hardest to go back to work. It is the day we spend the morning trying to get geared up to being back at work again, all the while wondering where the hell the previous two days went so fast. Ok, now combine the fact that it was monday and a temp of seventy-one by early afternoon and it was really hard to be at work. However with the help of a little extra focus we made it through this day.

On my way to work this morning I found myself having to check the clock in the car to make sure I wasn't running late. Reason being as I drove to work it just seemed a lot light then I've been used to it being. I guess the changes of the seasons are catching up with us. Usually I would have been at work an hour or so before the first light of day would hit the horizon.

Just as I was getting ready to get busy this morning I looked out the window and noticed that even though the darkness was giving way to the morning light the full moon was still shining brightly. So of course I had to sneak out and snap a couple of pic's.

Ok I just finished my supper of left-overs and now I hear the shower calling.
So that's it for now. Later.

Posted by J_E_G 6:48 PM   

Saturday, March 06, 2004

 

Rolled out of bed at six this morning and with coffee in hand sat by the window awaiting the sunrise. The rains have moved on taking the gray gloomy clouds away leaving in it's place a beautiful sunrise with bright blue skies, and a sense that spring is truely just around the corner. You can sense it all around, the grass longing to return to it's plush green color once again, the leaves and flowers yearning to spring forth from the newly forming buds. Soon too the song birds will be back to seranade this part of the world once again with their wonderful morning songs.

Thus far it's been a rather easy going saturday. Went down and got a haircut and did my grocery shopping. While I was out I decided to take advantage of this nice weather to wander around town and take a few pictures. Came back and just kicked back and relaxed the rest of the day. Actually I should be doing my laundry but I think that'll have to wait till tomorrow.
That's it for now. Later.

Posted by J_E_G 4:45 PM   

Thursday, March 04, 2004

 

With the way today has been I think it's safe to say that we are on our way to breaking this drought we've been in here. It started raining around six this morning and has been raining ever since. With rain like this the lakes and farm ponds should start filling back up again. Come to think of it the last time I saw it rain like this around here was back in '93. Only back in '93 not only did the lakes and farm ponds fill up, but so did the creeks, rivers and streets. I sure hope this isn't a repeat of the flood of '93, filling sandbags is no fun.

Today is also a good example of the diversity of the weather in this great state in which I live. Right now depending on which area of the state you might happen to be in you could find yourself under anything from a winter weather advisory, to a flash flood warning, to a tornado watch. The only thing missing is an advisory for sunshine which we could sure use a little of right now. Oh, and the part of the state I live in is the one under the flash flood warning. And seeing as I can't swim I think I'll stay on the high ground. Better yet, I think I'll just stay in the house where it's dry and warm.
That's it for now. Later.

Posted by J_E_G 4:56 PM   

Wednesday, March 03, 2004

 

I was in my car headed home looking forward to kicking back and relaxing a little after a rather fun day at work. Ok, maybe fun isn't the right word I'm looking for. I spent most of the day on my knees sanding some of the cement floors in the building getting them ready to be sealed. Anyway I was in the car heading home when it suddenly wanted to keep pulling to the right. I couldn't figure out why it was doing this. The car seemed to be riding smoothly and there wasn't that distinct thump-thump you normally get when you have a tire going flat. I soon found out after pulling into the drive-way that yes you can have a tire go flat without the normal thump-thump.

My first thought was to rush down before it went completely flat and air it up and then it would be ok. But then I decided it wasn't worth the chance of having to change the tire early in the morning in the rain, thus of course making me late for work. So i broke out the jack and pulled the tire off putting on the little donut of a tire they call a spare when you get the car and headed off to get it fixed properly. An hour later I had the tire back and replaced it. So much for the relaxing right after work. But hey, what's life without a little added excitement, sometimes you just gotta roll with the punches and keep on going.
That's it for now. Later.

Posted by J_E_G 6:12 PM   

Tuesday, March 02, 2004

 

Right now words fail me know, at least words of interest to those of you who visit here. However I do have some pic's to post which at times I believe are better then my words anyway. Hope you enjoy them.
That's it for now. Later.

Posted by J_E_G 4:44 PM