Wasted a double oh three..

Dialed a 14.3, car was on a 14.35 pace. Lost by .0046. Oh well. That put the fear of the slowbird into them....

I shall return.

One down

First round win. It's good to be slow. My .048 light didn't hurt the other guy's redlight either.

Big wagon

280k mile Mercury.

Another 14.2

Car's running well. First dial is 14.26

Staging

10 lanes. Lots of cars. The new owner is starting out well.

The track

So far, two runs. 14.35 & 14.25. A little skippy, but run 2 was smoother than run 1.

10 second Galaxy

I have determined that....

Flogging your vehicles within the limits of their design tolerance is appropriate.

A casino in my yard.

He doesn't have the right accent...

One of our non-nocturnal lizards. Too bad for him I just switched to Progressive.

Some critter pics..

Here are a few shots of the lizards that hang out in the carport after dark. They're translucent, so I think they're nocturnal. There were 10, but 2 scurried away before I got the camera. Maybe they'll eat some gypsy moths.

Another stupidity...

Here's a picture of a dead tree and some advice.... After the tree can stand on its own, pull the damned tether stakes out of the ground....

I hate gypsy moths.

In the last week, the little bastards have absolutely stripped four of my oaks and are diligently devouring a fifth. Of course, the one tree I need to remove before the upcoming hurricane season, they haven't touched.

Another Southern Quirk..

Anything can be made cheaper if you put it in a trailer.........

Even a bank???

Christian Holiday Thought.

Apropos of nothing, I'm wondering if Christmas midnight mass was a Vatican construct of a bone thrown to the consumerist dogs to help them get their kids to sleep later on December 25.

Well gas is getting high again..

Stopped for fuel in Nachitoches. Took about $90 to fill the beastie. But at least the oil consumption is down a little. Onward!

New route to Texas.

Trying out LA71 this morning. Very foggy but the road is decent and dead straight. Stopped at the McDonald's in Bunkie. Cutest one I've seen in a while. Here's a picture.

What a week.

Finally, sitting on my porch contemplating the past week over a cigar and a few beers. Pretty good week, personally, at work. Not so good for everyone else at work. Several long outages because of parts failure, one mechanics sister's appendix rupturing, and my counterpart across the department almost being killed in a motorcycle accident last night, made for a lot of hours. But, everything is running again, and Herb will be OK eventually. The accident did postpone my transfer/promotion as I now will be covering for Herb while he recuperates. And who knows, he may retire after this. He's certainly able and I'm sure his wife would appreciate it.

Anyway, I was supposed to drive to Forney for the long weekend, but I'm tired and certainly don't need to create any more road hazards. So that will wait until tomorrow.

Upside is I've found a dragstrip that races on Saturday. So, I'm shooting to get the car back on the track by April 29. Yay!

Tax THIS!

From: 2Evil4U et al

Re: 2005 Tax Return

To whom it may concern:

I have finally filed my tax return for the calendar year ending December 31, 2005. Your paperwork shows that I owe $11,874.00 for a grand total Federal Income Tax paid of $48,150.00.

After reading this article, I think I can cover the bill rather nicely:

Please find enclosed, One (1) coffee maker: value - $7,622.00, Six (6) toilet seats: value - $3,840.00, and Six (6) screws: value - $456.00.

Please apply the overage of $44.00 toward my 2006 taxes as I need all the help I can get.

Thanks for your understanding,

2Evil4U

P.S. - The AMT. Nice touch.

Now THIS might be what they need...

New Orleans R&B star begins posthumous mayoral bid (Reuters)

NEW ORLEANS (Reuters) - Ernie K-Doe has some big hurdles to overcome to win his bid for mayor of hurricane-ravaged New Orleans: he lacks the political experience and financial clout of many of his rivals.
He's also been dead for almost five years.
No matter, said the widow of the flamboyant rhythm-and-blues singer and one of the city's most enduring characters as she launched his tongue-in-cheek campaign for the April 22 vote.
"He's the only one qualified -- that's my opinion," Antoinette K-Doe said on Saturday at a rally outside the Mother-in-Law Lounge, the nightclub that bears the name of K-Doe's biggest hit song.
"He gets the job done. The guy has soul," she said as supporters enjoyed live music, beer and heaping helpings of red beans and rice. "And I'm speaking like he's still here because in memories he is still here with us. He gets along with everybody and he makes things happen."
K-Doe's not actually on the ballot but his campaign provides some rare levity in an election widely viewed as the most crucial in the city's nearly three-century history. Mayor Ray Nagin faces 23 challengers with a spectrum of views on how to rebuild from the devastation of Hurricane Katrina seven months ago.
The campaign is vintage K-Doe, the self-proclaimed "Emperor of the World" who died in July 2001 at 65 after a colorful music career. His campaign T-shirts feature him grinning with his trademark long hair cascading over his shoulders, decked out as Uncle Sam. "Vote K-Doe Vote," they blare.

Thanks to yahoo news. http://wap.oa.yahoo.com/raw?dp=rssnews&u=nm/20060409/music_nm/hurricanes_kdoe_dc&rn=entertainment&ySiD=mWk5RM43on8n0hUwM9._

Another picture if it came out

One of the few bugs I find more odious than fireants..

Is the gypsy moth. And Jesus are we in the early stages of a moderate outbreak around here. Now, mind you, my description of moderate is tempered by the fact that I witnessed firsthand the worst outbreak in history back in the late '70's early '80's in New England. I remember it looked like winter in July because all the trees had been completely defoliated by those voracious bastards. I remember riding down Starkweather with mom in the Skylark and hearing the caterpillars squelch under the tires.

And today, while pruning my trees, I've heard another sound from the past: the sound of caterpillar shit raining down from trees in my woods.

The little worms are everywhere. I hope somebodydown here is preparing some arial spraying because it's only going to get worse from here.

Of course, there is the little issue of the thousands of displaced criminals to support so I expect little to be done until it's too late.

For the life of me...

I don't see the allure of spanish moss. If I could, I'd clean all of it out. To each his own, I guess.

Spoiled Dog

I just installed She!bie's dog run at the new house. To this point she's been able to go wherever she wanted. Now she's restricted to a good chunk of the front yard. She is not happy about the turn of events. All she does now is sit on or near the porch. Here is a picture of her giving me her best, "This demeans both of us." pout.

Mobile picture

Let's see if I can send this picture of the house from the front yard.

UPDATE:

Un-freaking-believable. It worked!

Mmmmmm, Eeyeeaaaah.......

Now for something completely different.

I had the chance to spend about a week in Austin, Texas recently. Austin is famous for a bunch of stuff, but most importantly, it was where a lot of the movie, 'Office Space' was filmed. Through the magic of the internet, I was able to locate several of the venues that were used during the outside shots of the movies. I was able to get pictures of each with either me of my truck in the shot.

Yeah? Well I think it's cool.

Anyway, here are the pics and some short descriptions:

In order of appearance in themovie, first, the street where the opening traffic jam was filmed:



You can see there is no sidewalk where that old dude with the walker was. But that is the fence.

Next, the IniTech building:



The actual front was around the left side of this same building but it was full up with cars. It looks about the same from all angles, though. No Porsche in my parking spot.

Next the ditch that Smykowski trips up on the way back from Tchotchkies:



This is just around the back of the IniTech building in South Austin.

Finally, the buiding that provided the front for Tchotchkies:



Yes, it's a bank. I was wondering what they'd think about some weirdo from Louisiana taking pictures of a bank, but nothing came of it. (Jennifer Aniston never showed up, either.)

Thanks to Amanda S. for help getting some of the shots and for directions around town.

That's pretty much my trip to the mecca of the cubicle dwellers. Next time, I'm going to try ot get better shots showing the backgrounds and other buildings that were used in the film.

Yeah, I know, but what else is there to do in Austin? ;-)

Phew.

Kinda quiet lately, I know. Busy, Busy, Busy.

New job at work, One more and then one fewer person in the household, A monumental birthday gone awry, near death in the family, Spring yard work, you name it.

I'll start this one slowly.

Back in January, 'the Boy' requested help with his life. Against what should have been my better judgement, I relented and allowed him to return home on the condition that he get his GED and join the service.

Much to my surprise, he pulled it off. And in fine fashion, I might add. He actually buckled down, studied for the GED test, passed it and was inducted into the US Army on March 28. He also got and held a job during his stay here and was able to reimburse us for the money we fronted to get him here and stabilized.

He received nothing but accolades from his boss at the job he had here, and I expect he'll do very well in Basic and AIT at Ft. Benning. He'd been suffering from a chronic case of severe cranial-rectal inversion for about a year and a half, so my expectations were pretty low at the outset. I think my exact words to his mother were, "I'll cry at his graduation from Basic, but for now I'm just going to be pissed off." I'm now no longer pissed off and I think I'm actually proud of what he has finally chosen to do. Hopefully, in about three months, I'll be prouder still.

HOOAAH!