Friggam Fraggam

I'm just glad these children were here to listen to what old Gabby had to say; it's been an up and down week.
I may have used that title before, sorry. 

NK turns 35 next week and is featured in this month's Our State magazine; I'll post a copy when I can get one. First time a Riley has ever been in a magazine, I should add in a good way. Happy birthday Kevin, we love you and are proud of you. Don't forget the deal we have................

Too much time on your hands?

Bruce Springsteen's Born to Run is forty years old. Let that one sink in.......

Thanks to the FO I got my bike back this week, although with a bent side stand. Looks like I'll have to replace it so the bike is safer when stationary. $$$$$$ Happy birthday and merry Christmas to me!

Each year the Mullet Bucket goes to the winner of the West Carteret-East Carteret football game. Here is an old picture of Jackson holding it with the score 65-3. West won it many times in a row but tonight they will have to be mighty lucky not to be run off the field. Good luck to all and behave!

We ate with the Combat Warriors group tonight and will take a few of them fishing in the morning. I don't deserve to be in that room.

And now for those whacky pictures you like:

Guess who lives on this street?

 Central Park pond, I forgot to post it earlier

 A long time ago in a galaxy far far away, with a mustache!

The mini-split industry is the fastest growing segment in HVAC. Everyone in it sells a lot, and other suppliers are developing accessories to go with it. We are always at the mercy of the installers in any products we build. Here, Moe, Larry and Curly use a ladder to counterbalance the person who is the foreman on the job; they call Moe their leader. 

We had a lot of rain last week and the Atlantic Beach causeway got flooded. Now you know where all of the sharks went.

And a video that I took Wednesday night, so wrong:

Hurricane Erica is heading our way and of course I'll be out of town. But, no one knows where she will go, especially the weather forecasters. Here is their summary of projected plot lines:

"But do you know what is wrong with your blog?" I hear these words each and every week. no pictures of my grand babies!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So here you go:

Cooper and Keelyn on their way for the first day of school. It was 40 minutes before school time and Cooper was worried he might be late, sound familiar? Oh, did I leave the oven on? OK I'm back. 

Next week: Texas early Monday morning through late Friday night. 

Sometimes The Magic Works

...............and sometimes it doesn't. I posted that video of Chief Dan George some time ago, this week it was very true.

With SWMBO away and a room in the mountains I planned to ride last weekend. A suspect battery forced me to change my plans, I started for Chesapeake for a replacement and oil change, only made it as far as Little Washington (Original Washington). Since I would have to remove tubberware to jump it I asked for a free BMW MOA tow. Five hours, yes five hours later he came, fortunately Pygmy was in town and offered to come get me. I really appreciated that, and the fact that he only charged me $50 for the ride.

A sad sight, and she is ready now and I have to go get her. Logistics!

FO came down Sunday morning and we went waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay offshore. Beautiful day, saw some beautiful scenery, but no fish to bring home. Dang. 

Good week in Oregon with a major customer, and was able to hire a rep. It was 100 degrees Tuesday and Wednesday evening I went down to the coast and saw some beautiful scenery. I'll post some pictures some day, but not today, I'm off for more important things:

A baby who digs LedZep, specifically from the second album:

Stupendo! No, that might not mean what you think.

The King has been beaten up pretty well throughout his career and I know he is in a lot of pain at his age. To help him deal with this daily condition he uses Blue Emu; listen carefully to the last line about the product he promotes:

Get ready customers, that's going to be my new closer.

You've heard me mention how my parents taught me how "to swim" and some of you questioned if that was their motive. Someone posted a recap of that day, or those days (they had to teach me a lot since I was such a good student) on Facebook:

Daddy loved his movies. And fish can see your shadow, that's why two 30 pound plus cobias came up to the back of the boat Sunday, just to look and see. You have to be smarter than the fish to catch him (who said that?)

And while on that subject, Daddy saw this when it happened.

I have no idea why I was thinking about the USS Mount Hood this week (I was in Oregon and looked at Mount Hood for a couple of days) but it certainly was in his memory bank for a long time. He told me the explosion killed a lot of sailors on other boats who happened to be facing that way when it blew. Yes, getting home 5 hours late was really hard Saturday.....and Friday. 

When they built the WW II memorial in DC Daddy's comment was something like "well it is about damned time" Something like that...but following that line of thought:

Say hello to the new Ventamatic promo: buy 6 fans and get one of these!

Pardon me while I refresh my drink.

There, much better and now I can't read my writing. where was I?

There are some other notes here but I can't make out what I wrote. I make notes throughout the week for this and sometimes I can't read my writing from late at night or early in the morning.Oh well, sometimes the magic doesn't work.................

Ran into a lower class man (woman) from high school Thursday night and it made my delay so much better. She was a nice young lady and lives close to me now; I told her that people my age tell one another that "you look great" when we see each other, but I really mean it when I told her she looks great. Come to find out we have a lot of mutual friends. 

The Ken Burns War of Northern Aggression series (Civil War to you yankeees) is 25 years old. And he still believes it was only about the slavery of one race over another. We can make tons of excuses as to why it wasn't, and that was not the only reason, but without the war and solidification of the union, Hitler takes Europe.......................give me some backup here Jackson. But that makes me feel really old, seems like yesterday.

I really need to write gooder. 

It Is Late

And I'm tired and have zero energy level, so this week you're getting what you paid for........

A friend told me once that free legal advice is worth what you pay, good point, but I do hope you're amused by some of this.

Welcome dingbatters, school is getting ready to start and I've never seen so many dit-dots riding down Arendell, and that was yesterday on Thursday. Be careful.
As I write this I just heard a report on my antiquated police scanner that a bicyclist on highway 58 called in to report that he was accosted by three women on the road who threatened they were going to take his bicycle and make him walk home. They were in a lime green Honda Element, OK, that narrows it down a bit, and they were all "at least six feet tall and looked like Amazon women." The responding LEO said he would keep an eye out for Amazon women.

My plans changed this week and I stayed in town; kinda nice to be around SWMBO for one more week before she starts back to school. Monday night we went out for an evening booze cruise towards Swansboro, beautiful night and very relaxing, all the way up until I started cleaning the boat when we got home (no, no booze for the captain). You see kids, I went out late Sunday evening and caught some dinner.

If you're not sure, that is Spanish mackerel grilled with a mixture of butter and sweet BBQ sauce, very tasty and of course the best ingredient: FRESH.! Anyway it was a little sporty outside Sunday and the boat had a nice coat of NaCl and I waited until Monday night to clean her, ergo the late night.

The yellow butterflies are here, do you know what that means?

After a subscription which lasted from 1986 the Raleigh News and Observer and I called it quits this week. It started last year with more travel in my new job, SWMBO never reads the paper, and when they quit publishing baseball box scores..........well that was it! I praised our carrier but ended the long ride. It was just fine until about 5:30 AM Thursday morning when I walked out to get the paper, yes, I forgot........and it wasn't there. Not to worry, I can go online and get nearly everything. It worked out well until breakfast and coffee had been shall we say "digested" and I looked around for the sports section. EGAD! Is this how civilized people live? I improvised, but the Morehead City paper is only published three times a week, I'm concerned I might be a bit irritable, OK more irritable.

And I stayed up Wednesday night until 1:30 watching the meteor shower, thank you Lord, that was impressive. Strangely enough one of the prettiest one was at 5:30 AM when I walked down the driveway, oh yeah, you already know that part.

My life partner took off for Ocean Isle for a girls only weekend so I planned to ride the bike to the mountains, but I had a lot of obstacles which have now prevented that. Maybe a long weekend in September, you know, when the fishing cranks up...............oh well. Part of that scenario was the premature passing of the bike battery. I did get her cranked last night and went for a ride, afterwards as a test I turned the trickle charger off and she wasn't feeling very perky today. So instead of a beautiful drive along the Blue Ridge Parkway I'll go to Chesapeake to get a new battery tomorrow. BUT, fishing Sunday? We'll see.

Probably just as well I don't push it on the bike this weekend, my workout regiment (insert eye-roll here) hasn't been too good lately, much to the delight of one JW Red from Scotland. Anyway this from the BMW MOA magazine ON this month in an article about some middle aged guys riding the Blue Ridge Parkway, I should mention the article said every morning they had a big hearty (pun) breakfast and a huge "local" lunch, dinner was normally wine and appetizers which at some point "undoubtedly overstressed the senior member of our group, later at dinner he reported a very high pulse rate which progressed into extreme nausea and profuse sweating-----three signs of cardiac distress. Before long our companion was prone on the floor unable to sit upright. No pain in the chest or elsewhere, we summoned the local EMS." They suggested we change clothes into something very comfortable, we were going to be in the hospital for a while..............................no, that happened to someone we know while he was having a stroke. But anyway, figured out what was wrong with him?

Simple dehydration, very common with motorcyclists.

Now on to silliness, I mentioned Jim Parsons as God in New York City, here is a clip:

I hope that didn't offend too many of you.

So as you sit here reading this dribble I know in the back of your mind you're probably thinking "I wonder what the worst toy of all time is?" I'm glad you asked

Who was the marketing guru who came up with this?

I've got some more stuff but my goodness I am a bit tired, and up early in the morning so I should end this. But I've got some more stuff so tune in next week (hint: after 50+ years of promising that we will have these in the future: flying cars!)
Happy 64th Pygmy; when I'm 64...............................

Maybe I'll bring something good back from Portland OR.................and we'll leave it at that. 

So Long Belle

I think this blog sounds too much like WAYN's Obituaries on the Air.....you see kids WAYN is an AM station in Rockingham. When I moved there in 1978 I was a little surprised that I couldn't find that station on my way home from work at 9:45 PM, someone told me my first week that they went off the air at sunset. I would look it up to see if that is still the case but I'm betting they don't have a website. An old fashioned organ would start the show and then they would list the daily obituaries and times for the funerals. Every so often they wouldn't list any, I'd just sit there listening to How Great Thou Art or whatever the hymn du jour was and a mournful Jimmy Smith would say "we are sorry there are no obituaries to report today." No, you can't make this stuff up. By the way, Rockingham was elected the # 2 worst place in North Carolina to live recently. Funny enough, Hamlet was # 5 and Wadesboro # 8, do you see a US Highway 74 connection? I'm surprised they didn't throw Bennettsville South Carolina in for the hell of it. Jay and Jackson: you are welcome! But I digress as usual, where was I? Oh yes, Clara Crocker Talton Rooker passed away this week and I went to the funeral Thursday. We knew her as Belle.....Clara Belle.....anyway she was a sweet lady. She and Walt were my parents' best friends when they were much younger. Her daughter Walda (yes, we ran out of names in Rocky Mount long ago) was kinda like a big sister when I was a tiny little knothead. As usual I saw a lot of people I never see, and fortunately only a couple of minor fistfights broke out. We all had to behave because we were at the Rocky Mount public cemetery and we all knew we were all either carrying or had one in the car. Belle had been in poor health for too long, but no longer. Afterwards Pygmy and I discussed the fact that there aren't but a couple left from our parents' group of friends, in keeping with my sortaspicious nature I will not name any names. Rest in peace Belle and thank you for being a part of my life, a good part.
I've never liked Brad Keselowski, he is a good race car driver, it's something about that smirk on his face.....anyway I heard an interesting story this week that really touched me. I ask that you read the entire story:
http://www.nascar.com/en_us/news-media/articles/2015/8/6/brad-keselowski-daughter-scarlett-blog-paige-white-kentucky.html

Brad is an active social media person and he kept this one close until this past week. We all have pressure in our lives, and as I've told my boys often, you don't know what someone is dealing with on a daily basis, be kind to others.....................except that SOB who changed lanes while I was on my bike. Where was I? Oh yeah, driving a race car through this was tough, I still won't pull for you but I am even more impressed.

Now for some fun, yes I know he was shall we say a little odd, but I heard this song on the road this week, give it a try, if you're like me you should turn the volume up and I'll bet your toes will be tapping, in my case out of rhythm: 

And last but, well you know, this from the absolute huge pile of steaming bullshit file:

Mark my words, flag the tape, that will be exposed as a hoax, egad! You're kidding, right? Listen as the author thanks his brave Yorkie for scaring away the monster, and as the Yeti runs away, moves his camera to the dog.........I'm telling you, Darwin nailed it. But I want my 15 seconds of fame so please pass this along to some unsuspecting fool, or I'll tell Sasquatch, and I know where she is. AHA! It is female! And that is why she is so elusive, she has a closet full of clothes but can never find the right outfit for the occasion. 

OK, enough horse hockey for one night.