I truly believe Global warming is a fact….. We have serious calendar slippage here…. We’re going into the sixth day straight with temperatures above 90 degrees…. Yesterday it reached 98 (a new record and 26 degrees above normal) in the OKC area (100 and above at other locations) and the wind was blowing out of an abnormal direction…. We haven’t had any rain to speak of and all of our usual thunderstorms and tornadoes are occurring well to our Northeast in states like Iowa where weather like this is as rare as gold-pressed latinum….. It’s mid-August instead of mid-April, although, they keep saying things are supposed to return close to normal in the near future….. I’ll believe it when I see it….. If things don’t change, I expect you can be reading about Oklahoma burning to the ground since the winds haven’t let up and any little spark turns into a major fire….. The trees are budding out with yellowed and shriveled leaves…. And people wonder why I want to move out of Oklahoma!…. I never thought I would be praying for thunderstorms since that is usually the only way we get rain around here….. A nice, slow, extended soaking rain is something I’ve haven’t seen in many years….. Anybody have any ideas or forecasts on rumors behind the weird weather?…. And if you come to Oklahoma – Bring RAIN!……

Over the years, my job took me to many different cities around the U.S…. I found five locations which are much more desirable than my current location of the Oklahoma City area…. New Orleans was on the top, but I dropped it due to the recent damage…. I don’t think they’ll have it up-to-snuff anytime soon…. It’s a shame, though, because you talk about a 24-hour party place…. If you’re in the French Quarter after about 1 a.m. you’ll notice that all the police seem to disappear…. I guess they figure if you’re there that late, you’re there for something more than sightseeing and short of murder, it’s a wide-open town!…. Another favorite place is hidden in the mountains of Arkansas called Hot Springs…. They have bath houses there that date back to the twenties when the rich and famous used to enjoy the natural hot springs…. There are casinos, horse tracks, a famous wax museum, and a beautifully preserved historic downtown…. Much more to offer than Vegas and a lot less crowded….. Next is in the Rocky Mountains – Colorado Springs….. Lots and lots of natural beauty here: Pikes Peak, Cave of the Winds, even a Will Rogers Memorial (I never figured out why since Will was from Oklahoma)…. Haven’t been there for many years, so it’s probably a lot more crowded these days….. My “out-of-the-country” pick is Priory Bay, Jamaica…. I picked Jamaica because they speak English there (well, a form of English)…. You’ve got “James Bond Beach” just across the bay where they filmed a lot of the stuff for the movies and right in the middle of the bay is one of Columbus’s ships that sank in the bay on one of his first voyages to the new world…. you can still see the tops of the masts in the crystal clear water of the Caribbean….. The temp is a constant ’70’s day or night and they make a helluva rum drink…. But, I decided on my fifth place as my choice…. I just can’t afford to move there at this time – Seattle…. It’s got everything I enjoy – a serious music scene, cool temps, beautiful scenery, and the Space Needle…. All I need is cash (sounds like a good title for a movie)…. So, that’s my pick for a “Home, Sweet, Home”…. Look for “MR’s Big Bargain Basement” coming soon (gotta raise money somehow!)….. So, does anyone else want to live in a different place than they are now?…. I don’t mean a dream island, but a serious intention of moving that they might do in the future…..

I have decided to end the EDUCATIONAL QUIZ because after much research I cant come up with anything that Google cant find making it far too easy for any serious quiz. ( I did find one that Google didn’t know. Google did come up with something but it was the wrong answer. It’s kind of gross. Try it if you want……What is a “Holy Water Sprinkler”? I may or may not send a

prize)

I do plan to periodically post educational bits to stimulate. Who knows , maybe I will find something Google doesn’t know and have another quiz.

This Educational Bit: “Daylight”, in drinking bumpers, means that the wine-glass is not full to the brim; between the wine and the rim of the wine-glass light may be seen. Toastmasters used to cry out, “Gentlemen, no daylights nor heeltaps” –the heeltap being a little wine left at the bottom of the glass. The glass must be filled
to the brim, and every drop of it must be drunk.

Randalf, the contestant who correctly answered the quiz, the only contestant, an appropriate prize is in the mail.

I think you could adapt this piece to compare different political systems/philosophies. Which one of these do you think fits our society?

DOS Airlines

Everybody pushes the airplane until it glides, then they jump on and let the plane coast until it hits the ground again, then they push again jump on again, and so on.
OS/2 Airlines

The terminal is almost empty, with only a few prospective passengers milling about. The announcer says that their flight has just departed, wishes them a good flight, though there are no planes on the runway. Airline personnel walk around, apologising profusely to customers in hushed voices, pointing from time to time to the sleek, powerful jets outside the terminal on the field. They tell each passenger how good the real flight will be on these new jets and how much safer it will be than Windows Airlines, but that they will have to wait a little longer for the technicians to finish the flight systems.Once they finally finished you’re offered a flight at reduced cost. To board the plane, you have your ticket stamped ten different times by standing in ten different lines. Then you fill our a form showing where you want to sit and whether the plane should look and feel like an ocean liner, a passenger train or a bus. If you succeed in getting on the plane and the plane succeeds in taking off the ground, you have a wonderful trip, except for the time when the rudder and flaps get frozen in position, in which case you will just have time to say your prayers and get in crash position.
Windows Air

The terminal is pretty and colorful, with friendly stewards, easy baggage check and boarding, and a smooth take-off. After about 10 minutes in the air, the plane explodes with no warning whatsoever.
Windows NT Air

Just like Windows Air, but costs more, uses much bigger planes, and takes out all the other aircraft within a 40-mile radius when it explodes.
Mac Airlines

All the stewards, stewardesses, captains, baggage handlers, and ticket agents look the same, act the same, and talk the same. Every time you ask questions about details, you are told you don’t need to know, don’t want to know, and would you please return to your seat and watch the movie.
Unix Airlines

Each passenger brings a piece of the airplane and a box of tools to the airport. They gather on the tarmac, arguing constantly about what kind of plane they want to build and how to put it together. Eventually, they build several different aircraft, but give them all the same name. Some passengers actually reach their destinations. All passengers believe they got there.
Wings of OS/400

The airline has bought ancient DC-3s, arguably the best and safest planes that ever flew, and painted ‘747’ on their tails to make them look as if they are fast. The flight attendants, of course, attend to your every need, though the drinks cost $15 a pop. Stupid questions cost $230 per hour, unless you have SupportLine, which requires a first class ticket and membership in the frequent flyer club. Then they cost $500, but your accounting department can call it overhead.
Mach Airlines

There is no airplane. The passengers gather and shout for an airplane, then wait and wait and wait and wait. A bunch of people come, each carrying one piece of the plane with them. These people all go out on the runway and put the plane together piece by piece, arguing constantly about what kind of plane they’re building. The plane finally takes off, leaving the passengers on the ground waiting and waiting and waiting and waiting. After the plane lands, the pilot telephones the passengers at the departing airport to inform them that they have arrived.
Newton Airlines

After buying your ticket 18 months in advance, you finally get to board the plane. Upon boarding the plane you are asked your name. After 6 times, the crew member recognizes your name and then you are allowed to take your seat. As you are getting ready to take your seat, the steward announces that you have to repeat the boarding process because they are out of room and need to recount to make sure they can take more passengers.
VMS Airlines

The passengers all gather in the hanger, watching hundreds of technicians check the flight systems on this immense, luxury aircraft. This plane has at least 10 engines and seats over 1,000 passengers. All the passengers scramble aboard, as do the necessary complement of 200 technicians. The pilot takes his place up in the glass cockpit. He guns the engines, only to realise that the plane is too big to get through the hangar doors.
BeOS Air

You have to pay for the tickets, but they’re half the price of Windows Air, and if you are an aircraft mechanic you can probably ride for free. It only takes 15 minutes to get to the airport and you are cheuferred there in a limozine. BeOS Air only has limited types of planes that only only hold new luggage. All planes are single seaters and the model names all start with an ‘F’ (F-14, F-15, F-16, F-18, etc.). The plane will fly you to your destination on autopilot in half the time of other Airways or you can fly the plane yourself. There are limited destinations, but they are only places you’d want to go to anyway. You tell all your friends how great BeOS Air is and all they say is “What do you mean I can’t bring all my old baggage with me?”
Linux Airlines

Disgruntled employees of all the other OS airlines decide to start their own airline. They build the planes, ticket counters, and pave the runways themselves. They charge a small fee to cover the cost of printing the ticket, but you can also download and print the ticket yourself. When you board the plane, you are given a seat, four bolts, a wrench and a copy of the seat-HOWTO.html. Once settled, the fully adjustable seat is very comfortable, the plane leaves and arrives on time without a single problem, the in-flight meal is wonderful. You try to tell customers of the other airlines about the great trip, but all they can say is, “You had to do what with the seat?”

I see the news media, in their infinite intelligence, are now calling all the illegal aliens we have immigrants!….. I think everyone on the blog knows my feelings about this subject from my previous posts – Border Patrol Officers and I don’t want to live in Mexico ……

I was just wondering if anyone else had any thoughts on the subject?……..

U.S. military and Bush Administration civilian officials confirmed, U.S. forces have invaded Syria and engaged in combat with Syrian forces.

An unknown number of Syrians are acknowledged to have been killed; the number of Americans – if any – who have died so far has not yet been revealed by the U.S. sources, who, by the way, insist on remaining faceless and nameless.

The parallel with the Vietnam War, where a Nixon administration deeply involved in a losing war expanded the conflict – fruitlessly – to neighboring Cambodia, is obvious. The result was not changed in Vietnam; Cambodia itself was plunged into dangerous chaos which climaxed in the killing fields, where an estimated 1 million Cambodians died as a result of internal conflict.

On the U.S. side, no declaration of war preceded the invasion of Syria, in spite of the requirements of the War Powers Act of 1973. There is no indication that Congress was involved in the decision to go in. If members were briefed, none of them has chosen to share that important information with the American people.

Will it be too late, by the 2008 Election, to stop the madness?

Chinese authorities asked, no, told the Rolling Stones not to perform 5 of their songs at their first China concert.  “Fortunately, we have 400 more songs that we can play, so it’s not really an issue,” Jagger said.  Wanna guess which songs were objectionable?  I’ll put the answers and a link to the Associated Press article in a comment of this post.  Now, now… no cheating!

If you think Veterans get free medical from the V.A., you’re wrong…. I spent over six hours at the V.A. yesterday and saw only two real doctors…. One for about five minutes and the other for 10 minutes…. You don’t pay in money, although, depending on your income, you do have a low co-payment, but you pay in time….. My first appointment was a follow-up on the surgery…. After 45 minutes in the waiting room, I finally got into an examination room….. In comes medical student A, a mid-twenties male, who wanted to know every symptom, action, and/or reaction in detail that I had experienced since the surgery…. He poked and proded around my neck, checked my breathing, pulse,etc… After about 30 minutes, he takes off saying that he and the doctor would return shortly…. 30 minutes or so later, enter medical student B, a mid-twenties female, who wanted to know the exact same thing as med student A…. I have to admit though, this exam was a lot more pleasant as she was a looker and very friendly (Who-hoo!)….. Again, this exam lasted about 30 minutes and off she goes stating that she would be back with the doctor shortly, and again another 30 to 40 minutes passed…. By this time I was starting to get worried as it was closing in on the time for my second appointment with my primary care physician…. I was feeling like a guinea pig and wondering if there was going to be a med student C and I still hadn’t found out anything, but it was the real thing this time and she covered everything I needed to know in five minutes or less including changing my medication….. I guess the med students had passed the right info to the doctor and I was a good training aid….. It was then off to the second appointment with waiting and more waiting, etc…. I guess it boils down to if you’ve got the time and don’t have a life threatening ailment where you’re going to croak in the next few minutes they’ll take care of you…. All-in-all, I think I received excellent care, even if it was sometimes s-l-o-w, and I am recovering well and should be back “in-the-pink” soon…..

By David Ruppe

N E W Y O R K, May 1, 2001 In the early 1960s, America’s top military leaders reportedly drafted plans to kill innocent people and commit acts of terrorism in U.S. cities to create public support for a war against Cuba.

Code named Operation Northwoods, the plans reportedly included the possible assassination of Cuban émigrés, sinking boats of Cuban refugees on the high seas, hijacking planes, blowing up a U.S. ship, and even orchestrating violent terrorism in U.S. cities.

The plans were developed as ways to trick the American public and the international community into supporting a war to oust Cuba’s then new leader, communist Fidel Castro.

America’s top military brass even contemplated causing U.S. military casualties, writing: “We could blow up a U.S. ship in Guantanamo Bay and blame Cuba,” and, “casualty lists in U.S. newspapers would cause a helpful wave of national indignation.”

Details of the plans are described in Body of Secrets (Doubleday), a new book by investigative reporter James Bamford about the history of America’s largest spy agency, the National Security Agency. However, the plans were not connected to the agency, he notes.

The plans had the written approval of all of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and were presented to President Kennedy’s defense secretary, Robert McNamara, in March 1962. But they apparently were rejected by the civilian leadership and have gone undisclosed for nearly 40 years.

Duh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yeah, I know, everyone, including myself, thought I was going in for a thyroid surgery and a nice overnight stay with room service and some good drugs…… As it turned out the surgery ended up being the least of my worries…. After the recovery room, I ended up in my room for the night….. My roommate looked like an old Popeye and sounded like him too… He had the bed next to the door, which placed me in Bed #2 in the back against the wall with one permanently sealed window….. I couldn’t see him after I was placed in my bed as there was a curtain between us, but I could hear him muttering to himself and earlier Jek said he asked someone which cemetery he was in!…… and he was sitting on the edge of his bed shaking and rocking back and forth all the time. Just before visiting hours were over his family came in and he seemed to settle down…. With visiting hours over, I nodded out and woke-up around 10:30 pm or so to his loud talking. At first I thought he was talking to someone on the phone, but quickly realized he was talking to himself thinking he was talking to someone. The conversation went along the lines of “We gotta get out of here, You better run the cops are comin’, etc..”. I did hear him dialing the phone and apparently not getting the right person and getting more and more agitated at whatever poor soul was on the other end. I thought, Great, I’m locked up with ‘El Nuttso’, oh, well, it’s just for one night, I’ll just ring up the nurse, get some pain killers and go back to sleep. This worked until around 12:30 am when I was awakened by loud noises, things crashing on the floor and a nurse screaming, “You’ve pulled your IV out and you’re bleeding, PLEASE calm down and let me put it back in”, to which Popeye replied for her to stay away from him or he would hurt her. About this time I saw him as he passed the end of the curtain heading for the bathroom with blood going all over the place and yelling at the nurses to stay away from him….. So now I’m trying to figure out what I’m going to do to repel a Popeye attack with me trapped in the back of the room with an IV in my arm which was attached to a big pole on rollers and no way out of the room without getting past him. The nurses called in his doctor and security because he was threatening them with bodily harm if they came near him. The doctor had no luck in making him believe where he was and that they were trying to help him. The doctor finally had to call in his family and around 4:00 am they finally convinced him that he was in the hospital and everyone was trying to help him…… I guess they had totally forgot I was even in the room as no one checked on me or asked if I was alright. They decided it might be best if they moved him to a private room with windows so he could see where he was…. So, there I am, wide awake and wondering if I could make through the night and get released before they brought in Popeye II – The Terminator for my new roommate…… Please don’t ever make me stay in V.A. overnight again. I found that surgery’s a breeze but the stay might kill you……

MR is doing fine.  The surgeon told us that they were able to save both of his parathyroid glands. (The ones that regulate calcium.)  They also got all of nodule/potential tumor out–along with the entire thyroid.  Fortunately it appears the nerve to his vocal chords is fully operational, meaning that he is able to talk/complain. 🙂   It’ll be a week before the lab processes the nodule to see whether or not it was benign.

It is likely he’ll get out tomorrow.  From internet research on thyroid removal, he thought he would only be able to eat soft foods for a few days.  It turns out he can eat anything within his normal diet.  It’s too bad though; we already bought a few days worth of food.  Any one interested in SouthWestern Yam Soup, Lemony Lentil Soup with Cilantro, or Carrot Puree with Kalamata Olives?

I have been watching the series on PBS the last few weeks “Monty Python’s Personal best” . The surviving members of Python are starring in different episodes playing their personal favorite skits.
My Question, What is your favorite Python, Skit, Album, Movie, Member. Also do you think they are as funny and relevent as they were when they in their prime?
Signed
Brigidier Sir Charles Arthur Strong (Mrs.)

Fed kills a key inflation gauge
Friday, March 31, 2006
The Fed wants you to think it’s fighting inflation. So why did it kill an important measure of the money-supply boom that feeds rising prices?
The U.S. Federal Reserve made big news at the end of March. And almost nobody noticed. Here’s the headline you didn’t see:

Fed kills M3, decides money supply doesn’t count
Move raises risk of higher long-term inflation and new asset bubble

I’m obviously not talking about the March 28 decision to raise short-term interest rates one more time to 4.75%. That got headlines all right, and most of them portrayed the Federal Reserve as a tough fighter against inflation.

The March 28 interest-rate hike wasn’t exactly unimportant. Stocks and bonds both took a hit that day because the language accompanying the Fed’s 15th rate hike since June 2004 proved that those who had bet on “one more and done” were clearly wrong. The Federal Open Market Committee is now very likely — an 88% chance, according to the futures market — to raise rates again at its next meeting on May 10. The odds on a further hike at the end of June have started to climb as well. Higher interest rates in the future will put downward pressure on the prices of stocks and bonds.

Thought I’d pass this along for those of us who have retirement funds, etc. in stocks & bonds.
The old axiom “Stay the course” just doesn’t ring true these days.

I hope not!…… Well, the surgery has been rescheduled for this Friday the 31st……. I won’t know the exact time until the day before…… Surely, this thing will come down this time and I can put it behind me….. So-o-o, I leave the Blog in Community hands…… Use and Abuse to your heart’s desire……. So Long and Thanks for All the Fish……. Results will be posted – Bets are in favor of MR this time, although, The Oklahoma V.A. is still a strong contender…….

F SHARP. A flea. The pun is F, the

initial letter, and sharp because the bite is acute.

(see B Flats. )

Maybe someone could explain that one to me.

B FLATS. Bugs. The pun is “B” (the initial letter), and “flat,” from the flatness of the obnoxious insect.

I found this obscure stuff and thought I would share it with the musicians out there. Sorry, can’t reveal my source.