Things Been Thinking

This is a picture, taken while fishing in Tampa Bay, of a pretty cool house. That's downtown in the background.

This post is nowhere near as complete as I wanted it. I have a long, rambling, surprisingly coherent post rattling around in my head. But even trying the bits and pieces approach, it is taking way too long to get it out. So this will have to do.

When I was a kid we used to have to scrub our hands with a bar of sandpaper called Lava Soap. Do they even still make that anymore? I remember joking that it was able to get our grubby little boy hands...and wrists...and arms up to the elbow...clean beacuse it just took off the top layer of skin and all. Ahhhh, childhood disfigurement.

OK, make fun of his hair all you want, but heck, I like the theory that "you can't join 'em, you have to beat 'em". And I especially like what it says in the last sentence:

"I'm glad that, today, the architect of the 1993 plan has another care proposal -- and if imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, then I'm flattered," said Edwards, a former U.S. senator from North Carolina. "The lesson Senator Clinton seems to have learned from her experience with health care is, 'If you can't beat 'em, join 'em.' I learned a very different lesson from decades of fighting powerful interests -- you can never join 'em, you just have to beat 'em." Edwards' proposal would cut off health care for the president, Congress and all political appointees in mid 2009, if a universal health care plan for all Americans has not been passed by then.

I am working on a series of 3 new poems titled RA1, RA2, and RA3. I have fininshed RA1. I am half done with RA2. Still thinking about RA3. The completed one will appear later in this post.

I got a reply to a July 2006 post where I talked about a house band called The Snard Brothers. I rememberized all about Virginia Beach in the winter in the early '80s, the lounge at the VA Beach Hilton (Lavernes), and about partying with the band in a Nissan 240Z that belonged to one of them. Well, the reply was from one Bobby Snard, one year later denying it all and telling me that I must remember wrong. [Actual comment: Anonymous said... If you were burning a joint with someone who owned a 240Z it wasn't Bobby Snard. You have your Snards mixed up! Bobby Snard] Well I beg to kinda differ. I may have which of the Snard Bros wrong, but.... if I got the 80s, Lavernes, VA Beach and the 240Z correct, well then Bobby, you were there and you know who I meant. And really, what's the point in rebutting a year old post in an obscure blog that is only read by 2 people? Get a life. Oh yeah... don't it seem kind of sad that you're sitting home with nothing better to do than googling yourself? And that can be the ONLY way that you found my blog.

RA1 25 Sept 07

Nearly breathless as a Sunday morning
About as restless as a sidestreet high
Would seem about as close to disappearing
As the stories wrote by you and I

New shadows fall
And seem to crawl
Along the edges
Of a wall you're building
Around the things
That made you mean
So very much
That I was always willing

Take a picture like you've lost a lover
Colors bleeding down along the sides
A zipper theory you can just imagine
Running up and down our Friday nights

If colors swirl
Then, like you girl
A softness works
Into the hard I'm feeling
That tends to slam
Until it jams
Up underneath
A paint we can't stop peeling

Don't you call me if you won't talk crazy
Don't you leave me if you can't stay gone
You sneak a smile and then I can't stop thinking
We're just as crooked as we were before

Ed
St. Petersburg

I was watching with interest when the monks jouned the protests in Mynamar. You really have to be on the wrong side of things to mobilize monks agaist you, because they are so peaceful usually. In fact, except when attacked, Buddhists are quite tranquil and forgiving. All the things most religions claim to be but don't live up to. I knew the government would try to wait them out, but would not be real patient. Sure enough, the security forces waded in yesterday. Eventually they will begin firing into the crowds.

The credit card readers in the gas station went out yesterday. After I had already filled my tank. Nothing I could do or they could do. It was just one of them things. Asked me if I had any cash and I replied, truthfully, I have $11. So I paid $11 for the tank. I was telling that to the wife and she said, "That's cool!" I replied, "If you hadn't made me take the $10 last night that I kept telling you I didn't need, I'd have gotten it for $1."

Respect your elders, you punk!, out

Ramblin' Ed

Brave dog and the hundred week storm

We hade a big storm yesterday. Knocked weak branches out of old trees, like a purse snatcher in a bingo hall. It involved some right fair wind driving some very heavy rain, lots of lightning and booming thunder, and hail. Now we don't get much ice falling from the sky here in FL in the summer, so me and my dog, Brave Fart, went into the garage to watch it play out.

Here is Brave Fart observing the storm from a safe vantage point. While it is not a particularly inspirng pose on his part, I do enjoy a certian sense of ankle security in otherwise dangerous situations. Dangerous? Yes. Kim Possible? No.The hail what fell from the sky. As you can plainly see, it was literally hail the size of small ice. This was in the middle of my garage.The wind was blowing the rain, and hail, sideways.

If you'll notice, it is raining inside my garage at this point. I thought that was pretty slick, like the floor.I decided I'd catch up on reading some old papers since there was little else to do. Me: "Pepe, dude, you're kinda in the way." Pepe: "Sorry. By the way, my back feels funny."

Shooter Jennings

Listen to this at least to the chorus. I can't help it, I hit repeat on this two or three times everytime I play it. It is a perfect song for the sunny summer days, windows down and sunroof open. 4th of July

Bonus: Chris Knight

Framed

Trying to reason with hurricane season, out

Ramblin' Ed

Fay Runaway & Tommy Gunn

And now, for something completely different. (and yes, a nod goes out to Monty Python)

Moneymaker - Rilo Kiley

The Frug -Rilo Kiley

Cookie Time! - Troop Beverly Hills

I can do the Frug (but I cannot be your boyfriend), out

Ramblin Ed

A wanted man in Bowling Green, VA

First off, here's a video from some Air Force pukes in UAE to get us started. It is a music video, so there is no carnage. Sorry. I'm anti-carnage. I'M HOT CUZ I'M DEPLOYED

So there I am, tooling up US 301 North from Richmond to see some friends in King George and Fredricksburg. I have my chick magnet of a rented Toyota Corolla cruising easy, have WFLS cranked up loud, and I have a big, fat, surprisingly mild stogie for the ride. Life is good. Or so I thought.

I pass a Bowling Green policeman on the outskirts of town who is sitting on the side of the road, but since I am not speeding, I keep going. Brrrrrp Brrrrp I hear the siren chirp and see the lights, so I move over to let him get where he is going, which turns out to be a spot directly behind my now stopped chick magnetmobile. John R. Law then proceeds to disembark his vehicle. Now, I ain't the sharpest crayon in the box, but I know this is going downhill fast.

"Sir, I clocked you doing 39 mph." (THIRTY-NINE..... I am on a major highway doing less than 40 mph and have just gotten stopped.Oh! The humanity!) "Um, yessir. Is that why you stopped me?" "Sir, the speed limit is 25. This is a school zone." "Oh, then yeah. Sir, the last sign I saw said 35." "Correct. But from 1500-1545 this is a school zone. It was 1535 when I clocked you."

Apparently, Caroline County did not have the financial resounces to put up school zone signs. Or paint the road. Or, if there even was a school, to cut down the trees that were hiding it from view. So they did the next best thing, which was to post a cop there with a ticket book.

"Sir, can I see your license and registration?" "Sure, here's the license and... and... sir, this is gonna sound awfully stupid. My registration is sitting in my hotel room in Richmond. I went out to get some snacks for the room from the 7-11 and decided since it was only an hour away, I'd just keep going and see friends in King George." "Uh-huh. Please sit there in your car, sir."

OK, at this point I'm thinking how this pretty much sucks, but I am not real nervous. Only thing I am really worried about is a second ticket now.

"Sir, please put both hands on your steering wheel for me." WHAAAAT?? OMG, I'm getting arrested. In rural Virginia. You know what they do to boys like me in jail? They fine them, that's what.

He continues, "I ran your tags and they come back with nothing." "Officer, I have internet on my Blackberry. Want me to look up Hertz and we can call them?" "No sir, just keep your hands where I can see them and I will go to the front of your car and get the VIN. I can run that."

OK, he did. The car came back cool. I got a ticket for speeding and a lecture about having the registration in the car. I went on my way and visited my friends, one of whom was home and one was in NJ on business.

So there you have it. Ramblin' Ed, scofflaw. But seriously, who really gets a ticket doing 39 mph? Besides me, that is.

I fought the law and the law won, out,

Ramblin' Ed

WWJBD? The answer is revealed

I got a compliment from our Korean interpreter last week. He told me that I was a pleasure to work with. That I spoke with an easy cadence and, and this part is the real compliment, that I understood their culture. I told him that I had no choice but to understand their culture because I was a southern man raised up by a southern mom. This caused the "Huh?" look to crawl across his face, so I continued. "See, I was raised to be polite, to say please and thank you, sir and ma'am. I was raised to put myself in others' shoes and to consider how they feel. I was taught that if someone has to be inconvienenced, better you than them. I was taught that there is a proper way to act in public and it does not include loud talking and buffoonery. I was taught that a smile compliments any conversation. That's how it is in a small town southern town. Tell me how this is different from how you were raised in your Asian town." He smiled and nodded.

I was sitting there, watching something harmless like COPS or Dog The Bounty Hunter. For some reason, by way of playing with the puppy, I started whispering in his ear, over and over, "What would Jimmy Buffett do?" While I don't think Ramblin' Wreck knows who Jimmy Buffett is, or even what the action verb "do" means, he did respond. In a way that might even make ol' Jimmy smile. He drooled on my shirt.

I was reading a letter in the opinion page yesterday. It was from an Army Veteren. He was some kind of pissed off, too. Seems that the local schools are letting groups opposed to the war have equal time on campus with the military recruiters. The fine veteran vented in no uncertian terms on the subject. That led me to wonder if he had ever made the statement about how I may not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the end your right to say it. Personally, I am of the opinion that some kids are gonna join up and some kids aren't. And that all kids aren't gonna do something just because some adult told them to.

I bought our tickets to Bangkok this week. Just shy of 21,000 miles round trip. $3,600 for the tickets and 120,000 miles to upgrade to business class. Except for the two Tampa legs. Those are on Ted and Ted don't have First Class. But they still took my miles from me. The trip is in February. I just like to ensure that the upgrades get confirmed without hassle. I'm not a "waitlist" kind of guy.

Useful information of the day: Papaya trees to don't take kindly to being moved.

I like this line. It is from something that I am writing that just isn't working right for me. Most of what I have written so far can be described as a good idea that still sounds like crap. But, I think this will remain unchanged:

I guess I'm feeling more or less

stormy. Tropically depressed.

Go Saints!!, out

Ramblin' Ed