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- July 21, 2019
- Adventures in Lubrication
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Yesterday I went to Ricky's for lube job on my 2008 Colorado LT crew cab.
As happens occasionally, I was advised regarding the remaining miles for which my existing oil is quite good and in Ricky's defense he was only trying to save me money — as he always does.
So we had the standard "change the oil" conversation replete with the poking of fun and such ... Then I stood around engaging his father — who happens to be from the same 'neck of the woods' that I am in a bit of chit chat.
It seems that the great sentimental value I attribute to this truck overrides the additional 50,000 miles the oil may have in it ... because I promised my dad I'd change the oil every three months and I have kept that promise religiously.
When they were done I was handed a lost key and change purse they found and I might mention that I had been looking for the key for months and the change purse for years.
All in all I remain happy with the excellent service and superior attention to detail I get at Ricky's Tire and Auto on Sunset BL in West Columbia, SC.
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- July 20, 2019
- Investigating Nebulizers
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I recently find myself looking at nebulizers so I can get some moisture down into my lungs in conjunction with a nice high dose of Guaifenesin to bring up those remnants of that smoking I ended so long ago ...
The history of this particular adventure is fraught with missteps in the form of entrusting my selection to a buffoon staff at a local pharmacy called 'Hawthorne' and live and learn I will never go there ever again.
Suffice it to say that my initial purchase was totally unsatisfactory and they were neither knowledgeable nor helpful by any stretch of the imagination.
My continuing search has led me to the PARI vios Pro nebulizer of which there are two models:
• Vios Pro LC Sprint
• Vios Pro LC Plus
These concern themselves with how much 'medication' (in my case normal saline) is delivered in a set timeframe in minutes.
My primary attraction revolves around the exceptional properties of the compressor viz a viz a very costly alternative and the fact that I have been talking to others who are both knowledgeable and remotely interested in my business as Hawthorne Pharmacy was not.
Anyway, my final trepidations surround the twenty dollar shipping which I am trying to convice myself is indeed not "profiteering" on the freight as I suspect.
So I'm going to mull it over another few days and order one.
Hopefully the misadventure of entrusting a bunch of disinterested local yokels will not repeat itself.
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- July 18, 2019
- Snowball's Chance in Hell
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I recall from childhood Linus sitting in the pumpkin patch. Hoping that the vines and ripe melons would be 'the most sincere' resulting in the Great Pumpkin rising from the patch ... though I never truly understood the reward.
Pretty much, that's how I view the lottery. I buy ticket after ticket hoping that my plays will be judged most sincere by some benevolent entity which will rise from the lottery and bestow upon me those tangibles for which we who play participate.
Could this be the essence of greed ?
Possibly. It's just that we who live our lives in quiet desperation from paycheck to paycheck will often times pursue something for which we may hope.
So it is with Linus who seeks those rewards beyond the earthly sphere and me, as well as I pursue that which is not really mine and attempt not to be covetous concurrently.
It has been my experience that the Almighty does not involve his or her self with such matters as the lottery. So all I can really do is hope the universe will conspire in my favor one sweet day.
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- July 17, 2019
- Execution of the Romanov family
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The Russian Imperial family consisting of:
Tsar Nicholas II,
his wife Tsarina Alexandra and
their five children
Olga,
Tatiana,
Maria,
Anastasia,
and Alexei
As well as their loyal subjects who chose to accompany them into imprisonment ... notably:
Eugene Botkin,
Anna Demidova,
Alexei Trupp and
Ivan Kharitonov,
As ascertained by the investigator Sokolov they were shot and bayoneted to death in Yekaterinburg on the night of July 16–17 1918.
According to the official state version in the USSR, former Tsar Nicholas Romanov, along with members of his family and retinue, were executed by firing squad, by order of the Ural Regional Soviet, due to the threat of the city being occupied by the Czechoslovak Legion, aka the "Whites".
According to a number of researchers, they were murdered under plans set into motion by Lenin, Yakov Sverdlov and Felix Dzerzhinsky.
Their bodies were then taken to the Koptyaki forest where they were stripped and mutilated.
In 1919, White Army investigation of Sokolov failed to find the gravesite and concluded that the Romonov's remains had been cremated at the mineshaft called Ganina Yama because there was evidence of fire there.
In 1979 and 2007 those remains were found in two unmarked graves in a field called Porosenkov Log.
Thus is the sad ending of a the Tsar of Russia, his family, and servants at the hands of their captors — the victors, who also wrote the sad gruesome history.
No wonder Lenin was murdered by bludgeoning with a hammer.
That which goes around, comes around.
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- July 16, 2019
- Linda Maria Ronstadt
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One of my favorite singers during my youth was Linda Ronstadt.
She has collaborated with numerous other artists on their projects, some of which likewise are included among my personal favorites.
I was most enthralled by her various contemporary pieces but then she went on a vintage/nostalgia kick and I thought they were interesting ... up to a point.
My fondest memories of her surround riding around in my green Vega with my Navy buddy, the late Jerry Landry and listing to various cassette tapes in the mid 1970s.
One of those thrilling live moments happened while Jerry and I were watching a performance when she entered stage left in a Daisy Mae Yokum get up and belted out 'Poor Poor Pitiful Me'.
I almost couldn't contain my enthusiasm.
She is an award winning chanteuse who sold records with wild abandon up to that point she was forced into retirement due to Parkinson's disease — which she has bravely faced while remaining in the public eye.
I recall my dismay when she told of how it had robbed her of the ability to carry a tune at all.
It was a stunning revelation for me personally over which I pondered an extended period of time.
She was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in April 2014.
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- July 15, 2019
- Rembrandt
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Rembrandt was a Dutch artist who worked in many different media and left the legacy of "master" from a standpoint of skills.
Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn
July 15, 1606 - October 4, 1669
He has a broad spectrum of works including portraits to include self-portraits, landscapes, scenes of various genre, as well as symbolic scenes and historical representations, biblical and mythological themes and animal studies and he is remembered as one of the premiere visual artists ever.
I suppose the thing most important to me about Rembrant was that place he held in the heart of my late friend, Dewitt.
He spoke of his skills and art at quite often and at length.
Along with his other key favorite, Michaelangelo, I never tired of those discussions as we would turn the pages of every picture book we encountered.
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- July 13, 2019
- Frida Kahlo July 6, 1907 – July 13, 1954
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I have mixed feelings when it comes to the artist Frida Kahlo.
When I first investigated her as a matter of personal interest, I was intrigued with her folksy naivete infused style and that vast number of portraits, including self portraiture and that accuracy evident when I compared the painting to the actual subject thereof.
She was born Magdalena Carmen Frida Kahlo y Calderón and lived from the sixth of July 1907 through the thirteenth of July 1954 so that entirety of her life predated me by slightly less than a year. While I never achieved 'inspiration' from her work per se, I can say that I considered her one of the more interesting characters from history and marvelled at that skill she wielded and that casual manner with which she represented it.
Being a long term fan of surrealism and fantasy from my own personal history her work was something to which I have always been able to relate.
She passed this earthly existence after a period of declining health from what was likely bronchopneumonia shortly after a political event in which she participated with Diego Rivera, her long time love which was a demonstration against the CIA invasion of Guatemala.
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- July 12, 2019
- The Sixth Stooge
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My childhood was punctuated with episodes of the three stooges.
Joe "Curly Joe" DeRita
July 12, 1909 – July 3, 1993
Moe, Larry, Curly, Shemp, Joe, and Curly Joe at various stages because they were alas, subject to that attrition secondary to mortality.
I really didn't differentiate between the various cast members because in that fog which was the innocence of youth I was neither aware nor interested in any reasons nor did those cast changes affect me in my enjoyment of the various episodes presented.
Born Joseph Wardell, Joe DeRita was an American actor and comedian and his was that ability to be a part of my life in that fantasy which was my childhood. During that time there was sometimes confluence in that which I perceived and that which was reality.
Reality didn't totally set in til somwhere around age 28 for me. That would place the year in the 1983 range.
Joe passed some decade later of pneumonia in Woodland Hills, California.
Rest in peace.
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- July 11, 2019
- The Joke called Woke
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There is this political term derived from African American individuals having a perception of issues relating to social justice and racial justice. This activity of 'being woke' is said to be a mantra touting fairness when in actuality it is simply another term for "I can be racist and lie about you but don't you dare be racist or lie towards me."
There is this political term derived from African American individuals having a perception of issues relating to social justice and racial justice. As all things anymore the original flavor and meaning of the term has been corrupted by those individuals invoking it most often — customized to their specific liking. This activity of 'being woke' is said to be a mantra touting fairness when in actuality it is simply another term for "I can be racist all I care to but don't you dare go there." "Stay Woke" is part of the continuing racial discord in the United States.
If you view the entirety of pedantic racism those roots are weaved though those• "black pages" and • "Miss Black America" and other • "black" exclusionary conventions, • events, • institutions,
and practices which are part and parcel of "Do as I say not as I do". You cannot be exclusionary and treat it like a crime when others do it. Everything cannot be attributed to some vague underlying racisim supposedly evident everywhere. That panacea label applied to all things specific to too many for too long.
So to Maxine Waters and others like Spartacus Booker we are left to tolerate their racism while they blindly cast aspersions and accusations of racist whatever over each and everyone else not doing it. It's like the democrats doing all manner of unscrupulous and immoral activities while accusing the Republicans falsely of doing them. So stay as angry as you like. Stay as woke as you like.
This manipulative "call it what it isn't" mechanism which by which individuals are incapable of recognizing nor speaking the truth is that same circular narrative devoid of logic and full of contrived CNN fake news nothingness to which "the woke" subscribe. In the final tally everyone will know who dishes out the sleaze going around ... and too many of them are persons claiming to be "woke" for "being woke" doesn't really mean anything.
It's a code word for false accusation and innuendo by those with nothing to say otherwise.
You can deny it. You can call it what it's not. You can bear all manner of false witness toward those who recognize that connotation which is "woke". It's unseemly and has been outed for quite a while now.
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- July 10, 2019
- Nikola Tesla Day 2019
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One of those individuals I didn't know much about til much later in my existence is Nikola Tesla.
He was a polymath engineer with off the chart knowledge and skills beyond those known to mere mortals such as the thief Thomas Edison and much lesser engineer George Westinghouse.
Tesla's birthday is today.
As such it is celebrated as Nikola Tesla Day and it is a moment to take stock of ourselves in the light of true genius.
Perhaps some of our papers will be confiscated upon our deaths as Tesla's were by the Federal Government.
It could be the true mark of a worthwhile existence that has escaped me.
Just think.
He was suppressed at every turn and in the end robbed by his suppressors in the name of an obsolete military industrial complex and fossil fuel profiteering still present today.
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- July 9, 2019
- blackeyed diplomat with egg on his face
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Ambassador Kim Darroch has opened his alligator mouth and outdone his hummingbird ass.
The 'senior' Brit envoy to The United States has had his scathing opinion of POTUS leaked and is now assuming those consequences which are the realm of those who aren't too diplomatic after all.
Some senior diplomat.
I'll bet he wishes he had commanded more discretion ... or at least was in possession of a trustworthy staff.
He now resides in that great foul repository called "damaged goods".
Are all Brit diplomats of this dismal caliber ?
I wonder if Trump and he will mend this horribly broken fence.
Just because you don't understand a person it does not indicate any warranted need for some misguided round of comparison to that which your feeble experiential inventory includes in those items you DO know. This is the same mistake idiots like Robert De Niro, Jimmy Kimmel, and the entirety of the democratic party routinely make.
6:37 Judge not, and ye shall not be judged: condemn not, and ye shall not be condemned: forgive, and ye shall be forgiven:
Luke
Holy Bible, King James Version - Comments (0)
- July 8, 2019
- Things with which I cannot be bothered
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In my existence there are two levels of interaction. There are those things with which I become involved to various extents. Likewise, there are others with which I cannot be bothered.
Take my family. I have great interest in my family at multiple levels. However, once you prove yourself extraordinarily rude or devoid of any redeeming quality I am less likely to pursue anything regarding your existence because ...
You can treat those central to my existence with respect or you can banish yourself to that rock under which you exist and I really don't care who you are otherwise.
This goes for dyke maternal aunts, rude offspring indigenous to blended families exhibiting a distinct lack of raising, and siblings who forget the fifth commandment and forget just who their mother is, and that entire notion of people who don't pay respect when and where respect is due.
Take others. Antifa, so-called "social justice" warriors, pink and blue haired feminist idiots, libtard democrats, George Soros, the Jesuits, the Rothschilds, the deep state military who operate on our tax money but remain out to kill us ... the gd Obamas who did their level best to ruin the Republic. All of you need to give me wide berth and stay as far away from me as you possibly can.
Suffice it to say that I'm unhappy with a lot of misguided individuals in my midst.
While others may seek consensus and tolerance I'm quite happy with the thought of depriving a few butt holes of a few of their civil rights.
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- July 7, 2019
- World Chocolate Day 2019
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I am the consumate chocoholic.
That taste, the increased serotonin and dopamine levels it can impart may be part of that desire to ingest all I encounter ...
To the chagrin of my acne and rosecea.
It's all more with which I can contend at times because that wish to eat chocolate sometimes assumes control of the immediate moment until such time as I wash it down with coffee or what have you.
I am particularly attracted to fudge brownies.
I will buy extra brownies and pass them out to my cohorts in an effort not to feel alone in my consumption.
Today is either World Chocolate Day or International Chocolate Day depending on your orientation.
It goes down each July 7 and it is said that the day commemorates the introduction of chocolate to Europe in the mid 1500s.
Regardless of your orientation to the world, if you're a nationalist or some stupid globalist one thing is certain.
Chocolate is a constant in the absence of allergy.
I can't imaging being "allergic" to chocolate myself — but indeed I do suffer consequences from my habit.
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- July 6, 2019
- National Fried Chicken Day 2019
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National Fried Chicken Day was created for people like me ...
We who lived in Southern California, got into GREAT shape eating baked skinless chicken breast with a big slice of pineapple on top — then returned to the deep South and resumed our Kentucky Fried Chicken addictions with diasterous results.
The day is held each year on the sixth of July and the chains typically mark the day with various promotions.
All I can say is that I have loved the original recipe of KFC since childhood and have devoured copious buckets full at various times in my life and it shows.
I keep wanting to eat better, but it hasn't been happening.
All of the foods I have been warned to avoid keep turning up and I don't feel that I will ever see a healthy diet again since I departed LA so many years back when I was young.
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