Da Blooze & Stuff

Yesterday was a pretty good day, unlike other days this past week… or perhaps longer. I’ve alluded to the fact I’ve been…um… “out of sorts” of late. It’s actually been worse than that, but that’s beside the point. Let’s get back to yesterday.

I awoke around 1000 hrs, put the coffee on, lit off the teevee and switched it to NBC… to catch the final game of the Red Wings’ season, which was televised nationally (lucky me!). I was anticipating a bit of a pre-game show but this being Texas (well, not really but my NBC feed is out of Amarillo), what I got was Today’s Evangelical Sermon For Shut-Ins. Instant and immediate zzz’s ensued, until I was awakened by the beep-beep-beep of the coffee pot signifying all was right with the world. So we roused ourselves yet again, made our way into the kitchen, poured that first cup and puttered about a bit before the game began.

About a minute after the puck dropped, my phone rang… SN1 on the line… and we proceeded to watch the game together but separately as is our custom. SN1 demonstrated what it means to be a true hockey fan, as he was out until 0400 hrs Sunday morning yet still roused himself after only six hours sleep just to watch the game. You may remember, Gentle Reader, I’ve mentioned SN1 is TDY to Nellis AFB in Beautiful Lost Wages, NV attending yet another boondoggle “career broadening” activity, this most recent one being an advanced service school. He and his class had some sort of function last evening and Buck served as the gaggle’s Designated Driver. So…no hangover involved, just a lack of sleep. But true hockey fans rise above this sort of thing… and so he did. We traded off phone calls as the game progressed, mostly when the Wings scored or Hasek made a spectacular save…things like that.

The game wasn’t a disappointment. The Wings dispatched Chicago easily… winning by a score of 4-1. Hasek came close to his sixth shutout of the year but it wasn’t to be, as Chicago scored on the power play with a little less than three minutes left in the game. Overall, the Wings looked really good and I’m taking this as an omen of future success. The playoffs begin next Saturday, and it looks like Buck and I might get to watch the first game together… in meat space, rather than on the phone. He graduates from his school at the end of next week and will swing through P-Ville on his way back to South Carolina.

That’s a great good thing, ya know. Beer will flow with wild abandon and there will be LOTS of yelling, cheering, and the odd moan or two. Kewl. It don’t get much better than that (for a geezer).

Deetroit Free Press Photo: Nick Lidstrom and the President’s Trophy, at a presentation before yesterday’s game. Nick never touched the trophy. The only hardware you actually TOUCH at play-off time is The Cup itself, once you’ve won it. It’s one of the quainter superstitions in the NHL.

―:☺:―

So. The wind diminished enough yesterday to allow me to put my awning down, open up the windows, and take in the gentle Spring air minus the gale force winds. We only got up to 70 degrees, which is dead-solid-perfect in my Big Book of Weather. Just the kind of day that made sitting out side with a couple of hefeweizens and a good cigar most enjoyable. (A critical beer review here. Beer snobs might wanna bookmark that link; good stuff be there.) A few more days like yesterday would do a whole lot towards restoring my mental health. Speaking of which…

My step-mother (“Mom,” hereafter) called on my birthday lo these two weeks or so ago. Mom is only about ten years older than I, so we relate to each other more as peers than in a traditional mother-son sort of way. Talk flows easily between us, punches certainly aren’t pulled, there are no agendas or games. The conversation turned almost immediately in this sort of direction (and it’s most certainly not verbatim, either):

Mom: So. How ARE you, anyway?

Me: I’m about a six on a scale of ten.

Mom: Really. Why is that? Birthday thing? Introspection about aging?

Me: That’s part of it. Growing old ain’t for sissies. One makes adjustments, one realizes there are “certain things” you can’t do as well as you used to, if at all. Your reflexes slow, your appearance changes, yadda, yadda. You adjust. But that’s only part of the issue.

Mom: Well…what else?

Me: I find myself missing (The Second Mrs. Pennington) a lot these days. I know that’s neither rational nor normal, given the fact it’s been nearly ten years now.

Mom: I understand. It’s been 17 years since your Dad died and I’m still not over it. I doubt I ever will get over it. Some wounds just don’t heal.

Me: Wow. Thanks for that. I’ve found friends and even family have a very limited tolerance for wounds that don’t heal; the expectation is you should just “get over it” and get on with life. After a bit you just stop talking about it. But (The Second Mrs. Pennington) was in my life for so long, and so deep…

Mom: What you and (The Second Mrs. Pennington) had was very special, Buck. And you have to realize some people never have what you two had, even for a moment. I understand completely.

Me: Thanks.

Ah… that’s what Moms are all about, innit? Even we geezers need a shoulder once in a while. Or a therapist, if you believe in that sort of thing…which I both do and don’t. As in I “do” believe where other folks are concerned and “don’t” when it comes to me, based upon past experience. “Therapy” in my situation would be both a waste of time and money... two commodities in relatively short supply in these parts.

Lest this pity-party get completely out of hand, let me reassure you I’ve just got Da Blooze. It ain’t nuthin’ serious. Sitting outside yesterday with a cigar and a few beers got ‘em on the run, for the moment. It also helps (me, anyway) to “count your blessings” when you hit the lower points in life. I went through that exercise yesterday, too. I have a lot to be thankful for… relatively good health, two wonderful and successful adult children, beautiful grandchildren, financial security, and a life-well-led, with tons of great memories.

That should be enough, no? But sometimes it’s not. Who knew this damned torch would burn so brightly, for so long?

Not me.

―:☺:―

Today’s Pic: Mom and Dad, sometime in 1990…about a year before Dad died. Taken in Newport Beach, CA.

Fine W(h)ines...

Today is one of only two days every year the Trinity Atomic Test Site is open to the public, and I should be there…rather than typing this post. But: best laid plans, mice, men, tires, wind, etc., etc., came into play and I’m here, not there.

My Buddy Greg in Detroit called me up to remind me about Trinity last week, we discussed it, and I made a mental commitment to go. Trinity isn’t a long way from P-Ville…about 200 miles or so… so a day trip seemed to be in order. Four hours down, an hour or two at the site, and four hours back…with a little time off for lunch and/or dinner in Ruidoso… or somewhere like it. I could pretty much do the whole deal in daylight, should I choose. So, why am I not there, you ask, Gentle Reader? Let me explain…
I had a flat fixed a few months back and the guy who fixed the flat didn’t balance the wheel correctly. As a result I’ve been living with a very minor, yet irritating, vibration that occurs between 72 and 80 mph…right in The Green Hornet’s cruising sweet-spot. So, I got off the dime yesterday, thinking I couldn’t stand eight hours of bad vibes (heh) and drove over to The Big(ger) City to get that wheel balanced. That was when the guys at the tire shop told me I’d be throwing my money away and I had better replace the rear tires, doncha know, coz they’re worn out. And they were. Are. This is an embarrassing admission on my part. I’m always on top of things like this, to the point of replacing tires well before they’re worn out. It’s a safety thing, not to mention performance… as in handling/cornering. But… in my defense… I had been checking the health and well-being of my tires, but only the fronts, mainly because they’re more accessible and visible. Here’s the strange part: the front tires are fine and have at least two or three thousand miles left in them. The two rear tires, OTOH, are worn to the point where the tread wear bars are flush with the tread… or as the tire guys said… “You’re running slicks.”

So. The Big(ger) City being Clovis, there were all sorts of tires available for garden variety SUVs, pick-ups, and Hondas. And none for a Miata, of course. “Gotta order those, they’ll be in Monday or Tuesday, at the earliest” sez the helpful tire guy. Not only are tires in my size not immediately available, they’re immediately expensive once they arrive… ergo: Thought required. The last time I put tires on the Green Hornet I did what most sensible people do: I bought them from The Tire Rack. I’m not sure I want to go that way this time, however, mainly because the last time I bought tires I bought much more tire than I need here in New Mexico, with its arrow-straight roads and dearth of corners. Goodyear Eagle F1s just might be overkill (and overpriced, locally, at $200.00 a pop), especially in light of my recent mini-rant on frugality. Bottom line: I made no deals yesterday…even if I could have done so. But I need to replace those tires before I take a road trip further than out to the base or back over to The Big(ger) City. And even then I don’t like riding on worn-out tires. Add in the fact we have major wind still at play here on The High Plains and the bottom line is no road trip to Trinity. I’m thinking the weather will be better in October and I’ll definitely have good rubber on the car then.

The illustrations were taken from The Wiki’s article on the Trinity Test Site.

―:☺:―

Too bad about the above. I’m feeling a need for a road trip, and Trinity would have been perfect. I’ve been very out of sorts lately and I find there are a tremendous number of things that simply irritate the Hell out of me… for no apparent reason. And some things irritate me for VERY good reasons, such as politics. You may have noticed I’m in yet another of my apolitical phases, Gentle Reader. We also happen to be in a dead zone where presidential politics are concerned. The on-going Democrat soap-opera is moderately interesting in a “He said – She said” sort of way, but even that gets old after a while. Spare me the Clinton tax returns, if you will. Please.

The Big Event on the horizon is the upcoming congressional testimony/progress report on the war by Ambassador Crocker and Gen. Petraeus… but I expect nothing but sniping and partisan rancor out of that, based on the press conference given by San Fran Nan and her Band of Merry Men this past Thursday or Friday. I watched about half of their presser before shouting a few selected obscenities at my teevee and flipping over to the WX Channel, which is infinitely more useful. As long as their whining, nagging and berating global warming climate change Chicken Littles aren’t around, anyway. Speaking of which: TWC hired a side-kick for Heidi a while back. We now have two full-time Prophets of Doom. The new gal reminds me for all the world of Morticia Addams (except Morticia was better looking), and that’s sorta appropriate, innit? Just sayin’.

See what I mean, Gentle Reader? Irritation ‘R’ Us.

―:☺:―

I did manage to get my taxes done and in the mail before April this year… I did ‘em this past weekend and mailed ‘em out on Monday. Wonder of wonders: I’m getting a refund. I never get a refund, what with not being in the business of lending money to the Feds, which I leave to the Chinese and people like them. But the convergence of The Bobby Deduction (it’s my year; The Second Mrs. Pennington and I alternate), coupled with an over-withholding of Federal tax on this year’s 401(k) distribution resulted in a refund. I was very disappointed/irritated that 90% of my Social Security is taxable, which was yet another reason I over-withheld tax on the 401(k) distribution. Planning for the unknown ‘R’ (also) Us.

Except where tires are concerned.

Congratulations!

News Item:

DETROIT — Henrik Zetterberg wrapped up the Presidents' Trophy for Detroit, scoring with 11 seconds left to rally the Red Wings to a 3-2 victory over the Columbus Blue Jackets on Thursday night.

With 113 points, the Red Wings took the Presidents' Trophy as the regular-season points leaders and earned home-ice advantage throughout the Stanley Cup playoffs.

All well and good, Boys, and congratulations. Well done. One more piece of silverware for the trophy case and not an insignificant one, at that. You know what the real objective is, though. Rest up, get well, and don’t worry about that last game of the season. The most exciting time of the year is right around the corner…and just to remind you: We have high expectations.

What He Said...

Here’s a compelling essay about one of my VERY serious hot-buttons in life… Frugality, and its obverse, our spendthrift society… courtesy of The Art of Manliness. Excerpt:

I was once watching a TV show in which a round table of finance gurus were dispensing money advice to the studio audience. One of the advisors said that people should give up little luxuries like a daily Starbucks run and save and invest that money instead. A woman in the audience stood up and cried, “But what if I don’t want to give up Starbucks?” The crowed roared and clapped in approval.

The Founding Fathers feared such attitudes. They feared that too much luxury made a nation weak. They would often point to the Greeks and Romans as examples of what happens to a nation when it lets prosperity go unchecked by temperance and frugality. John Adams often preached against “effeminate luxuries.” And although wealthy, Ben Franklin lived a relatively simple life. He made an effort to eat and dress plainly.

Unfortunately, Americans have lost sight of the importance of frugality. For a generation of men who have grown up in a period of unprecedented affluence, living frugally seems down right silly and old fashion. But if a man wishes to remain economically and emotionally independent, frugality is an essential virtue to develop.

Why Being Frugal is Essential to Manning Up

(ed: and the essay continues from there…)

Brett, the blog’s author, emphasizes that frugality is essential to one’s independence… in the sense that debt enslaves you, taking away a lot (if not nearly all) of the choices in life. Brett’s argument is mostly couched in “manly” terms, but his advice applies to everyone…man, woman, or child.

My parents were children of The Great Depression, and as such, were very well-equipped to teach their children the value of being frugal. Nothing teaches us as well as experience, be it personal or anecdotal. I use “anecdotal” in the sense that my father, while never destitute, saw enough destitution in pre-war (WW II) Detroit to fully appreciate what being destitute meant. There are damned few among us today that learned that lesson first-hand, and those that DID learn it won’t be with us all that much longer. So…it’s understandable, perhaps, that our instant-gratification, No-Money-Down!, Bad-Credit?-NOT-a-Problem!, society is out there on a rather thin limb.

Some of us, anyway. The thing that pisses me right off is the spendthrifts will take the rest of us down when that limb breaks. I’m not the first person to say this, but a LOT of our current financial crisis is due to the fact people bit off more… a LOT more… than they could chew. Who, in their right mind, would willingly take on a mortgage they KNOW they can’t afford? And the same thing goes for cars big-ass SUVs, boats, swimming pools, so on and so forth.

It’s waaay past time for us to Man Up…financially speaking.

(h/t: Mike…who tipped me to The Art of Manliness, but not about the frugality bits. Mike was on about pocket knives, and he was right about that.)

Potty Mouth...

Created by OnePlusYou

The level of profanity here at EIP is 16% MORE than other websites who took this test, according to this quiz. The cuss-o-meter would be pegged if I used the REAL F-Bomb in place of my standard euphemism for same, i.e., “frickin’” or “freakin’.” Or if I were blogging while still on active duty. I’ve really cleaned up my act since I got out of the Air Force, ya know.

Hard to believe, yet true.

(h/t: Fire Fox)

Finding My Place

I’m obviously living in the wrong place, if you believe this:

(click for larger)

The article is slanted towards the younger demographic, however, and apparently has little or no value for us geezers who would be dating the (semi-) geriatric segment of the population. Then again, conventional wisdom (which ain’t always wrong) sez I should button up El Casa Móvil De Pennington and head out for Florida’s Gold Coast, or somewhere like it. Assuming mate-finding is Priority Number One, which it clearly isn’t, Gentle Reader.

I had to laugh just a lil bit over this, tho:

In Phoenix and the San Francisco Bay Area, single men outnumber single women by roughly 65,000.

[…]

Being in a place where the gender odds are stacked against you can be very frustrating. "When I was in Chicago, it was never long between dates" says one single male. "When I'm hanging out with friends [in the San Francisco Bay Area], often times in a large room with few if any women, we routinely turn to the topic of how the dating scene sucks."

My Best Bud, who was also my boss whilst I was living and working in the Bay Area, had NO sympathy at all when I began to whine about the lack of suitable “opportunities” available in the Bay Area dating world. He’d say something to the effect of “you’re a successful single straight male in a city where single straight males are at a premium. And you can’t find a date? Something’s wrong with you, My Friend…”

Well, yes and no. I didn’t lack for dates… there were many more than a few of same. My issue was finding someone suitable (read as: compatible), which gradually and relentlessly moved, over time, to one simple qualification: “not frickin’ crazy.” That proved to be a Fool’s Quest, however, given I was in the Bay Area. There were other issues, of course, not the least of which was my age. A good friend of mine once told me her roommate thought I “would be perfect if he (me) were 20 years younger.”

{sigh} She was a lil hottie, herownself. And what’s 30 years difference in age, give or take a decade, between friends?

―:☺:―

Today’s Pic: YrHmblScrb during the time period discussed above. Mind you, I lived in Berkeley at the time... so what you see is the relatively short-lived Berkeley persona. Which might have been yet another part of the problem, eh?

Berkeley, CA. February, 2001. I turned 56 the following month.

Poisson d’Avril

It’s April Fools’ Day. But ya knew that. One thing you might not know, Gentle Reader, is there’s a web site that lists the “Top 100 April Fool’s Day Hoaxes of All Time.” Great good stuff there. Blog-Bud Barry, from whence I got the link, likes Number Five on the list…and I have to agree with him, being the language person I am (or like to think I am, anyway).

#5: San Serriffe

In 1977 the British newspaper The Guardian published a special seven-page supplement devoted to San Serriffe, a small republic located in the Indian Ocean consisting of several semi-colon-shaped islands. A series of articles affectionately described the geography and culture of this obscure nation. Its two main islands were named Upper Caisse and Lower Caisse. Its capital was Bodoni, and its leader was General Pica. The Guardian's phones rang all day as readers sought more information about the idyllic holiday spot. Few noticed that everything about the island was named after printer's terminology. The success of this hoax is widely credited with launching the enthusiasm for April Foolery that gripped the British tabloids in subsequent decades.

I could see this particular hoax flying long and far in the USofA, given our woeful geographic knowledge. But it surprises me the Brits were taken in, what with the fact the British are very well-traveled (compared to us), and especially the blatantly obvious “Upper Caisse,” “Lower Caisse,” yadda, yadda.

Also from the list… the first internet hoax, ever:

#12: Kremvax

In 1984, back in the Stone Age of the internet, a message was distributed to the members of Usenet (the online messaging community that was one of the first forms the internet took) announcing that the Soviet Union was joining Usenet. This was quite a shock to many, since most assumed that cold war security concerns would have prevented such a link-up. The message purported to come from Konstantin Chernenko (from the address chernenko@kremvax.UUCP) who explained that the Soviet Union wanted to join the network in order to "have a means of having an open discussion forum with the American and European people." The message created a flood of responses. Two weeks later its true author, a European man named Piet Beertema, revealed that it was a hoax. This is believed to be the first hoax on the internet. Six years later, when Moscow really did link up to the internet, it adopted the domain name 'kremvax' in honor of the hoax.

Who said Commies had no sense of humor?

The Wiki also has an impressive list of April Fools’ Day pranks… Also from The Wiki is this bit of trivia, with which I have personal experience, given I lived in Paris as a boy: “The April 1 tradition in France includes poisson d'avril (literally "April's fish"), attempting to attach a paper fish to the victim's back without being noticed.” You cannot imagine, Gentle Reader, the lengths young boys will go to just to attach a paper fish to another boy’s back (or girl’s…but not so much at ages 8 ~ 10). It’s pretty danged difficult to spend an entire day with your back to the wall, so to speak.

―:☺:―

And then there’s this:

Happy April Fools' Day!

As expected, Google's Gmail rolled out a fake "custom time" feature, which purports to let users send e-mails into the past and consequently never miss important deadlines again. The new feature "utilizes an e-flux capacitor to resolve issues of causality," Google wrote.

"I just got two tickets to Radiohead by being the 'first' to respond to a co-worker's 'first-come, first-serve' email," a fake testimonial on the Custom Time site read. "Someone else had already won them, but I told everyone to check their inboxes again. Everyone sort of knows I used Custom Time on this one, but I'm denying it."

April Fools' Day is something that the Gmail folks take very seriously--the product's real beta launch was, in fact, on April 1, 2004.

Fun at the Googleplex… I use G-Mail but I missed the prank. Google must have taken “custom time” down by the time I rolled out of bed.

―:☺:―

This is no joke, however:

A new storm worm with an April Fool's Day theme is targeting the Web, according to security software firm PC Tools.

"The Storm worm gang has done it again. This time e-mails are being circulated, which are associated with the April Fool's Day theme," said PC Tools chief threat officer, Kurt Baumgartner.

The e-mail messages contain links that direct users to Web sites that contain malware. Once the files are downloaded and executed on the computer it sets a firewall exception rule and then attempts to 'phone home' using various outgoing ports.

According to Baumgartner, the packer and major sections of executable code have changed significantly, indicating that it could be another variant and AV detection for this threat is close to nonexistent.

"The most effective way users can protect against these new threats is with antimalware products that use behavioral technology. Traditional AV products, which use signature detection are simply not equipped with this behavioral technology and the threat is currently evading those users' defenses," he said.

Read the whole thing…and be careful out there.

―:☺:―

Not related at all to Poisson d’Avril… but here’s another link, this time from Blog-Bud Mike… News I can most definitely use (and you might as well, Gentle Reader):

Worth noting that if you haven't heard by now, every single episode of South Park is now available for viewing for free at their website. Let me repeat that: Every. Single. Episode. For free.

Bookmarked for those times The History Channel is in re-runs and The Discovery Channel is doing yet another of those oh-so-lame “survival in the wild” things.