Your mileage may vary

Since I got the S-10, I've been noting the MPGs as I filled up.
It's been averaging between 19.75 and 22.5. not bad, but I was wondering about the variation in fuel economy, especially since I was pretty much doing the same highway rout. I thought it may have had something to do with the weather because I seemed to get better mileage when it was cool to cold outside. It didn't make much difference if I had my A/C on or off, though.

Then I was assigned to a H.S. on the east side of San Antonio (go Rockets)and started getting my gas almost exclusively at Flying J truck stop because of their marginally better gas (it dropped to $3.68 on the way home today) and noticed my mileage holding pretty steady at 22.5 MPG, so I think my variation was from the varying amount actually measured per gallon at different stations.

And since I'm holding steady at the higher mileage, not only does Flying J have better prices, it seems that I get more gas for the price, too.



Oh, speaking of petroleum products- we got off early today (2PM) because we figured we'd poisoned Gaea enough for one day with three broken hydraulic hoses on the backhoe.

Devastation?

That's what our local news has been saying most of the day about South Padre and the coastal bend.
So now downed power lines, flooding and some wrecked buildings from a Cat.2 hurricane is 'devastation'? I know it's not fun down there right now, and the utilities are telling people to boil water and the power may be out up to three days.
But......Devastation?

What kind of description will they be dreaming up when we get a MAJOR storm that really tears things up?

Just a quick question about Himself

Looking at Obamas record in both Illinois and the U.S. Senate...does he know that as President he'll actually have to make a descision?

I mean he can't just vote "present" like he has a history of doing.

A question for my Jewish readers

Ok, it seems you missed the boat about 2000 years ago and are still waiting for the chosen one, and when He arrives you will achieve *oneness* or something- right?

So what are you planning to do when 'He who is all to all' makes Himself known to your religious scholars and head Rabbis on His *introducing Himself to the world tour*?
Has anything happened yet?
I mean ObaMessiah has already landed in Israel, so there must have been a religious shudder, somewhere.

Hurricane update

It's geting onshore in Brownsville, the waves are about 17 feet.

I guess it's creating problems in the upper atmosphere because our satellite broadband is really slow.

Our newest humanitarian crisis

And it's right on our border.
Due to BusHitler McHalburton, and his Draconian immigration crackdown, hundreds, or thousands of our poorest and neediest will be weathering the coming huricain on the border, because they're afraid to head north.

Not that it matters to anyone

Ecxept those that were there and the Guammanians-
But on this day in 1944 the invasion of Guam began.
It lasted until Aug. 10 and Guam became a major jumping-off point for the invasion of Japan.



I was stationed there at Camp Covington in the early 80's and have driven some of those old abandoned WWII B-29 runways that the Seabees built on N.A.S. Agana and Polaris Point.

To all who know what it means- "Hafa Adai!"

Sighhh......

So I'm reading this tripe about the Prime Minister of that once gallant island nation called Great Briton, and his brown-nosing a bunch of terrorists the downtrodden Palestinians.

You know, the usual tired pigswill of Israeli occupation, and the defenders of Palestine.

Naturally he made the obligatory gesture of taking a tour of the Holocaust Museum, and as usual made the noise about never letting anything like that happen again....

I wonder if it ever occurred to Mr. Brown and all the other apologists and appeasers of those anti-Semites in the Mid-East- that in their 'Final Solution' they wouldn't even bother with the showers?

RE: Dr. Who

Ok, I got home with my takeout Whataburger (it could have been gizzards hun!).
Ate that and crashed until almost 9 when I heard the answering machine~ I think your mom called.

Anyway, I think I'm watching the Dr. Who I missed, but not sure with the little fat nodules all over America.

Anyway, in the background, two of the doKTors women are getting to know each other.
Rose, who we last saw getting sucked into the Tardus drive (somehow) and Donna the overbearing wannabe bride.

I'm not really following it, but Rose looks like the afterlife really doesn't agree with her.












UPDATE~
oHHHH,,,,,,,,Rose told Donna "Bad Wolf".
Chit, it's the end of the world as we know it.

UPDATE (part dos)
You know those MRE tuna packs that you could just dump a bunch of mayo in and dip it out with crackers (or hash browns~yum) if you do the same thing almost twenty years latter after being dehydrated all day, you'll get the vicious hickcoughs that hurt all the way to your back.

light to non-existant posting soon

Our stadium lighting job just obtained "DO IT NOW!" status and we'll be working either 10's or until that days job is done- whichever is longer.

That's on top of all the buried conduit that we have to repair before Aug. 18 when the fans meet the new H.S. football team.

Before looks became a selling point

And not just in politics.

I'm not sure any of these could get in the door of a major record company by talent alone, any more.

George Thorogood


Janis Joplin


Meatloaf


Freddy Mercury?

So, oil profiteers aren't the problem?

That's what I keep hearing from their commercials and their apologists- that actually oil profiteering is 'good' for us all.

Because it helps your retirement portfolio.

Ok, has anyone told you just how much it's helping your retirement portfolio, or your mutual funds, or whatever it 'helping'?

I don't know, but I really don't see a lot of offset in 'boosting' a portfolio $5 a share when it costs double to fill your tank, buy anything made with corn, or just anything transported using petroleum- unless you own hundreds of shares (at least).

So will that $500 you made this year go to offset the $75+ to fill your tank?
or the extra cost of utilities you're on the hook for?
How can you split the future funds when they're the cause of you spending geometrically more to buy at retail what your portfolio (and the traders) are making on the profit end?

UPDATE (8:45 PM)

Sorry, but I forgot to mention that I place most of the blame on Congress, both Houses and BOTh parties.
It's not enough that We're paying for that Ethanol boondoggle four times, but just to prove how abysmally out of touch they are in D.C.- they're actually mulling that idiotic 55MPH sped limit again.

I wonder what it's like

Edited because I know whats not good to talk about.

This one's for Becky

Yes, I do have a problem with this.
Not just with the 19-yr old, but especially with the judge.


I wonder if he and Bill Clinton ever met at any frat parties?

A series of long days

Yesterday was 14 hours in the Texas sun because we had to get ahead since we were getting sent to another job for two weeks.

Pictures part dos

Here's what I came up with as a combination display case and range box to show off my Colt Navy.
Like It?

I tried to come up with a way to have everything needed to load it all in one box.
I'm not sure they even thought of something like this for such a utilitarian revolver back then, or if they had something- they'd use it for a more expensive pistol.


Displayed as a wall hanger.


Nothing can rattle around too much.


Everything you need to load, including the stand.


Everything withing easy reach.




Now, if I knew anyone who might be able to use something like this for customer or employee rewards or promotional use...

Pictures part 1

This is the Trapper case I was having trouble with.
First I cut the finger joints wrong, then I miscut the Plexiglas about a quarter inch too short to be able to make it work.
At all, no matter what.


Boy, you can really see that seam in the felt, can't you?



This is where I finally quit before I screwed up more oak pallets reclaimed seasoned oak boards.
I don't have any room in the loafing shed I tried to turn into a wood shop, so now it'll have to wait until I get out and ad another (at least) 12' x 12' section to the back.

And run some big enough wire to make it usable AND 220.
(We are stringing #4 service drops, and it IS about 100feet......hmmmm)

Finally

What an expensive week-end i'ts been.

Thing 2's computer(that we got on e-bay two years ago) had a huge hick-up and quit conneting to the internet. It has office 2000 on it and no rstore CDs, so after getting tired of f*cking with it, we all agreed to try Best-buy's Geek squad. While waiting in line I mentioned to Thing 2 that the ...girl in front of us looked like a hooked fish with her pierced bottom lip and chewing her cud gum looking exactly like a landed bass.
he saig: "Yeah, I was just thinking that, too."

Anyway, we get to the front and talked to Mr. Geek and explained what was (not) going on and how much it would cost to throw a Dell restore CD in to get it going again?
Almost $180!
UMMMmmm, ok- we'll forget that and look at new ones thankyouverymuch.
We ended up getting a Kodak digital cam to replace the Nikon that stopped working for 140; and today She got her early Christmas present in the form of a brand spanking new Acer laptop(which is copying to disc the factory restore settings as we speak).

Igot the oil and filters changed in both trucks in spite of that rotator cuff problem.
Tomorrow it's back to stringing secondary for portable classrooms.

Now it's my turn for a new hard drive.

So, how was your week-end?



UPDATE:
We got done creating restore discs -10 of them, and now we find out that it won't connect. I have either to get with Wildblue, DISHiternet of ACER to find out what to configure,

Okayyyy....will the driver be black?

Will the pit crew "look like America", or will they be the best they can get for the Obamessiah car?

Well, it fits his political leaning, doesn't it? Go straight and turn left.
He couldn't even get a good team, he had to look for the desperate ones to sponsor.
That opens up a whole world of politically tied questions, doesn't it?
Will the minority driver (i'm sure he won't be a white guy) be given preference points?
Will they get to start farther down the track to - you know "level the playing field"?
Will the girls (no matter what their sexual preferences are- just don't ask) get paid the same as the guys? (just wondering because the Obama '08 team doesn't pay parity)
Will they be using an environmentally friendly fuel?
What about the environmentally hazardous chemicals?
The used tires?

This could be fun if it ever catches on to the big blogs.

The great Salmonella outbreak of 2008

In the almost 300 million (legal) inhabitants of the U.S., we have a total of 1107 cases of Salmonella in this latest health kerfuffle.
And one death of a cancer sufferer.

If that's all we have to worry about, I think we have it pretty good here in America.

ohhh? Really?

Gee, I didn't know thirty years ago, that I was flashing 'oral sex gang signs'.
Apparently gangs are so sophisticated now, that in addition to marking your private property like dogs- they also have oral sex gang signs.
And one of their spokesbitches people is a Miss Oregon.
Here she is in all her glory. See if you can figure out which is the 'oral sex gang sign'.



So, does that mean I was gang signing before gang signing was cool?

What is Kurts least favorite color?

Red and blue flashing in my rear view mirror.

Just a quick PSA for all you readers in the San Antonio area.
Officer Obie told me that they had lots of complaints about HWY 90 between Gen. Hudnell and 1604 and they were going to be heavy in the area for the next two weeks.

He was nice enough to make arrangements so my 13 MPH over the limit won't go to the CDL people in Austin.
We're going to talk about it on July 24, and according to this yellow invite I got- it looks like about $171,,,,if it's not somehow enhanced because I have a CDL.




Oh,,, he was driving a black unmarked

One of them days

Except that it's Tuesday.

The job wasn't *that* bad except for the rain and thunder rolling around.
We need it, it hasn't rained in San Antonio in almost six months- but it kinda sucks playing with secondary wire that's tied into the grid in a thunderstorm.
It was getting bad enough that I was ready to call it quits and get my helper out of the bucket when it

Just

Stopped.

So we got to finish that schools' portable classrooms.
...And we ran out of the right size connectors we need, so we're using oversize kerneys* now, just to get thing working.

I finally got home (it's raining and people want to drive even f*cking slower) when I was met with a plant massacre of the potted pepper plant kind.
The green (and red and yellow) pepper plants that the dogs took
No. notice. of. whatsoever.
were strewn all over the porch (because they were so happy Thing 2 was back from England) because of the freaky weather.

I was going to make Sweet and Sour chicken tonight, but ran out of the S&S sauce, so I had to make some more wiht balsamic vinegar and sugar. It was tangy.

I tried taking pics of the gun display cases, but either the BRAND NEW EVERREADY
batteries I just bought are bad, or the $125+ Nikon is on it's last legs- because I get two pics before it says *batteries expired*.

Then I decided to watch some old west shootouts wiht Robt. Duval and Kevin Costner in AMCs Open Range...BUT,,,
I started watching a 90 minute movie well into it, and was still watching it two hours latter due to all the commercials.
No wonder hardly anyone with half a brain doesn't watch TV that much any more.
I'm going to cancel two TVs on my DirectTV account because the two bedrooms TVs are never on.
...and I can hook them up to the two working co-ax lines if need be, so they have cable to watch the *Gem Channel* if needed.

*No, I don't mean just a little bigger, it's like 1/0 split bolts for a #4 wire oversized.


AND I realized that I forgot to tell the wife that I was going to put a $20 into my nephews birthday card, so now I have to send *another* belated B-day card.

In remembering our birthday week-end

I was trying to find the Forerunners to Airplane nose art- in the form of Continental frigate's figureheads, but they're harder to find than an original Vargas nose art.
Instead, we'll have Continental flags and their evolution.


This was the first official Continental flag flown aboard naval vessels, also known as the Washington flag.

The first official Naval flag followed


Then the more common navel jack


The Grand Union flag was first unveils Jan, 1776 by General Washington in Cambridge, Mass.


And finally the Betsy Ross flag that we have adopted to our changing status as we grew into what we are now.


And as usual, a musical taste of subject:

Haul away Joe


An original version of "Yankee Doodle"

WARNING

Extremely disturbing picture below.







I mean it!





If you have the slightest sense of compassion, stop now.




OK, you asked for it:














UPDATE:
Becky, I was meaning to ask~
Why did you knit that sweater after one of the "Killer Klowns from Outerspace?

Don't you just hate it

When you're surfing the web and someone else is watching a made for the theater movie?
She has to have the volume up so she can hear the dialogue, and the sudden noise dramatic accents shake the walls.

Including the obnoxiously loud commercials.

Ahhhh, so it wasn't 'The DoKtoor*"

Those faceless people seen around England weren't products of the Beeb sucking their faces off to feed the *Wire*.




*and Yes- that's how they pronounce it.

also- "Dahhleckts" are spelled Daleks

Happy Birthday, America!

I just want to say:
Thank God I'm a citizen of the best country that's existed in the last 50 years.
We're the last super power that hasn't yet given in to the nanny state-ism or full fledged socialism that our allies are suffering from.

Lets buck-up and keep it strong.

Independence day week-end

We know it's a three day week-end because we have a marathon of the "twilight Zone" on the SciFi channel.



UPDATE
Elizabeth Montgomery was much more of a babe as a Russian soldier than she was aa Samantha.

I also compleetely F8cked-up a prototype display case for my muzzle loader.
I finished the display case/ range box for the Colt navy and it doesn't look bad. Pics when the camera gets back from England.

Hi.

Could some of you people out there do me a favor?

Please- it's not much.

Just-


GET THE F*CK OUT OF THE FAST LANE WHILE JACKING YOUR JAW ON THE TELEPHONE!!!!


We still don't know if we're workinf Fri. It depends on how much we get done this week.

Good thing I have no social life, huh?