Monday, April 30, 2007

"The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers."

We have some moron lawyer from downstate trying to screw up our auction which hasn't even happened yet. He has been harassing us, and is now harassing our auctioneer. I almost hope he shows up to the auction. I would love to show him what a swamp is good for. I have a feeling that if he were to mysteriously disappear, there would be precious few who would care enough to even bother looking for him. My only regret is that I sold all my guns before we left Michigan; knives are so messy and greatly increase the likelihood that I'll get icky lawyer blood on me.

[Aside: Most people know that this line came from Shakespeare's Henry VI spoken by a charming fellow named Dick The Butcher. According to this article, several law firms are now claiming that this is somehow a complement to lawyers. Only an over-educated retard could come up with something so stupid.]

Update: Then we have this: a $65 million lawsuit against a family-owned dry cleaners for a lost pair of pants. Is there anyone surprised that the plaintiff is a lawyer? Is it mandatory to get a frontal lobotomy to get into law school? Just how stupid can a human being be and still remember to breathe?

Ending School Violence

How? By reinstating corporal punishment? Permanent expulsions? Arming teachers? Start actually teaching something? Good heavens, no!

Liberalism is a philosophy of consolation for Western Civilization as it commits suicide.

(And just who is this dork? Oh yea. Filmmaker. Just who we need to tell us all how to raise our kids.)

Sunday, April 29, 2007

Weather, Work and Whatever

The weather is warming up again -- Monday's high was 69.8 here and Saturday's was 90.5. Thursday I was down in Phoenix for my last CLIA training class for my ACC (Accredited Cruise Counselor) and it was 94 that day down there. It is still cooling off at night -- great for us -- we open up the windows and door and get our room cooled back down.

Work is going well. The move to the new office got put off once again -- now they are predicting the first week of June. At least this time, the contractors have actually started doing some work in the new building. Still not really busy -- have those sporadic days, but nothing like "busy season" back in Michigan yet.

Saturday, May 5th is the BIG DAY! Our house/land auction in Michigan. Our auctioneer called last week to ask for some copies of something and mentioned one or two serious contenders have already talked to their banks about financing. Woo Hoo! One of the people wants to sweeten his offer to have us give up what mineral rights we do own on the property. Once we sat down and figured what we get per year -- that is a lot to lose over our lifetime. I don't think this guy can sweeten the pot that much! We are just going to be happy to get the mortgage paid off, the money paid and due to the auctioneer, and all the other things involved in selling land. If we make some money after that ... great, but if not, still ... great. That is the biggest cloud still hanging over us.

We will be flying in late Thursday night and spend most (if not all) of Friday cleaning up the house and surrounding area. When we peeked in last time we were in town, the dead ladybugs were outnumbering the dust bunnies! We have to run the generator and get a good charge on that and then start with the vacuuming and other cleaning touch ups. Hopefully we have some time to work outside and kinda spruce up the areas around the garage, the house and the power shed. (All are welcome to come help!)

Saturday, April 28, 2007

Supidity on Stilts

As a nation, we have gone mad. We deserve the coming collapse.

(sigh)

Friday, April 27, 2007

EEEEEEEEK!!

I can now add "rattlesnake" to the growing list of dangerous critters I've encountered here in Arizona. I passed it on my bike riding up the mesa from camp yesterday. I was looking down just trying to keep moving up a steep section of road, and there he was. I didn't have a lot of choice where to go with a cliff on one side and a sheer rock wall on the other, so I just edged over as far as I could and kept going. He seemed more interested in soaking up some rays than a large, hairy, sweaty, blob on a bike; he didn't even rattle as I went by.

The tally so far: one brown recluse spider, four black widow spiders, three scorpions, one tarantula, and now a rattlesnake. Ain't Arizona wonderful?!?!?!?

Tuesday, April 24, 2007

Domination and Submission

I remember years ago having a conversation on the web about the then-new phenomenon of white males being constantly bashed by blacks and women for stating what is obvious to everyone (e.g. women are physically weaker than men; blacks, as a group, score lower on all standardized tests), or, more commonly, for no reason other than that we are white and male. Blacks could scream nastiness at whites and not only not suffer any sanction, but actually be rewarded for it. Women could be depicted in movies kicking every man in sight square in the balls for any reason or no reason whatsoever, again without consequence, but a man raising his voice at a female coworker was grounds for immediate termination. We agreed then that this would be allowed to continue as long as it was viewed as largely harmless. When it progressed to the point that that was no longer so, women would be shown the truth of the "weaker sex" label, and blacks would be taught what "minority" really implies (namely, that you are vastly out-numbered). I guess we didn't count on the truth of the first-seven-years doctrine.

(shrug)

It seems pretty clear that western civilization is played out. I intend to emulate Jonah: find a nice shady spot and watch the fireworks.

(And yes, I realize Jonah is largely seen as a villain by church folk.)

Thoughts on Serial Killers...

...from a retired cop.

Don't have much to add other than a reminder to the earth-is-going-to-hell-which-proves-the-Second-Coming-is-just-around-the-corner crowd that the earth has been going to hell for a long, long time. Like since there has been Homo wandering around on it.

That said, I still think we are replaying the history of every previous civilization.

Monday, April 23, 2007

Old vs. Young

I had two large tour groups yesterday and today. Yesterday's group was 40+ seniors that were split between myself and another tour guide; today's group was 20+ high school students. Now we all "know" what high school kids are like: rude, noisy, insolent, disrespectful, inconsiderate, blah, blah, blah. Anyone care to take a wild guess at which group caused the most problems? I'll give you a hint: it wasn't the rude, noisy, insolent, disrespectful, inconsiderate high school students who in the 3+ hours I was with them managed to be none of those things. When it was time for them to pile back onto their buses, every last one thanked me for the tour.

Now the old people on the other hand were, with rare exceptions, a total pain in the butt. I don't think I ever finished a sentence in the entire hour-and-a-half without being interrupted by someone else asking their question, which in most cases was the exact same question I was already trying to answer. Whining, griping, complaining about everything from the wind to the fact that they actually had to walk the tour, was the order of the day. At the end, I had exactly six people that thanked me for the tour. The only consolation was that those half-dozen seemed genuinely embarrassed by the behavior of the rest of the group.

The next time I hear some old fart complaining about "kids these days" it will be hard to not shoot back a "back at ya, gramps." Of course we all know that would just make me another one of those rude, disrespectful, inconsiderate kids.

Sunday, April 22, 2007

Don't put things off

My Mom called my late last night after she got a call from a high school acquaintance of mine. A close high school friend (Irene) was taken home from the hospital with hospice. I had gotten an email from Irene's husband earlier in the week that she took a turn for the worse and was in the hospital. Cindy told my Mom that Irene (or the family) wanted to make sure I knew what was happening. I got Irene's home phone number. I knew she probably wouldn't be in any condition to talk to me, but I wanted to call so her husband or Mom could tell her (when she was coherent) that I called and was thinking of her. I didn't call that night since it was after 9pm (or so) Michigan time. I figured I would have time today to do it. Irene died this morning. I know she is now in heaven and isn't feeling bad at all. Her husband, kids and the rest of her family are in my thoughts and prayers. I wish I could be there to give some hugs (especially to Mom Vitany and Mary), but unfortunately that isn't possible.

Saturday, April 21, 2007

Virginia Tech

I haven't said anything about the VT shootings mainly because of the traveling last weekend, catching up here after being away, and the fact that I just don't follow the news much. But mostly, I haven't bothered to say anything because this sort of thing is beginning to follow a predictable and rather disturbing formula:

1. Someone, somewhere commits some horrifying crime against a group of people.
2. Everyone starts a witch-hunt for someone to blame. The perp is invariably dead, and it isn't nearly as much fun to blame dead people as it is to publicly beat up on people that are most likely doing an excellent job of it themselves. Is there a sentient being with an IQ over 50 that doesn't understand that every survivor, every family member, every faculty member at VT hasn't already asked themselves a million times what they could have done differently? Is it really necessary for some hack politician, who has never had to negotiate any situation more dangerous than a big-city crosswalk, to start pontificating about what ought to have been done?
3. Congress gets involved, meaning we all suffer more erosion of our constitutional rights while simultaneously doing nothing to prevent the same horrifying incident from happening again (and in most cases, making it more likely by pissing off hundreds, or even thousands, of borderline psychotics by pushing them into a corner).

I was talking to a gentleman on one of my tours earlier this week about how we seem to be accelerating towards some sort of breaking point as a society. Expect to see more of this.

Wednesday, April 18, 2007

Par-Tay!!


DSC03426
Originally uploaded by rdfrost.
I must have been at a wedding, 'cause I be doin' the Alligator!

The rest of the pictures are here.

Congratulations Michael and Melissa!!

Tuesday, April 17, 2007

3 and 1/2 weeks to go

Our auctioneer is still getting calls from the ads on his website and now the ad in the April issue of Woods-n-Water (pg 124). We were able to get out this weekend to check out our property and take care of a couple things. The snow was melting fast on Sunday with the sun out. We wondered about the tire tracks and footprints and found out from Todd last night that somebody was out and wandered around looking at things. Another interested party! The other ads will be in major newspapers on Sunday, April 29th -- the last Sunday before the auction.

We've been telling people we will be having a party that night (auction day 5/5) --- we will either be crying or smiling -- but we will have a party either way. Keep us in your prayers -- that the auction turns out well. I'm not nervous (yet!) -- I know we have somebody "up there" looking after things for us and an awesome auctioneer.

Wednesday, April 11, 2007

Busy, Busy, Busy...

I haven't posted in a while, but I have a reason. Or at least an excuse. A long time ago, I mentioned that our current room has a funky, triangular window that is essentially impossible to cover with any conventional window covering. Well, we tried something artsy.



I've also been working on another small project that I just finished up today. It may not look like much, but it took me almost as much time to get it done as building the desk.



I've also been doing some volunteer work down in agriculture after my regular shift digging around rediscovering where all the utilities are buried. That's actually a secondary task; I'm trying to fix the septic system so sewage doesn't back up out a clean-out right next to the door into the shower room (this was considered a vast improvement to the sewage backing up into the showers...). But I decided there needed to be some documentation of the other utilities after I smacked the propane line good and hard with a shovel. Of course, according to what "everyone knows," that line isn't there. Yet there it was, right under my shovel. At that point, I switched to a hand trowel and proceeded to find two water lines and two electrical lines, none of which is supposed to be there, either. I also picked up a new nick-name in all this: The Archaeologist.

And of course, there have been other diversions that could only happen at Arcosanti, like the Second Annual Peep Eating Contest. This is the winner after eating nearly 70 peeps in a half hour, and about 10 seconds before he hurled:



There is some very disgusting stuff hanging off the front of the mesa; when visitors ask, we tell them it's from migrating birds....

Thursday, April 05, 2007

Not topless yet!

I know I wasn't the only one to laugh about Ric's post "Wavin' in the Wind", though I got a bigger laugh from the comment left from Tom. I haven't seen any lady going topless here, but I have seen the armpit hair on some of the foreign visitors. I have to admit, it can be a long time between shaves for me, but I would never go out in a tank top while in that state.

Work is going well still. The move to the new office is still going slow -- now they are saying Mayish! I really am looking forward to the new office -- MY OWN DESK -- and full time.

Ric and I are trying to lose weight and get into better shape. We had a goal to be down to for the wedding, but I don't think we will both make it. This week I decided to get off my butt and start biking. I've been good -- only took one day off so far this week. The shortest ride is 2 miles. The longest I did so far is 3 miles. Right now I am using the main road in/out of Arcosanti. I've clocked the mileage at different points so I know how far I have to ride to get in my miles. It is pretty flat, so it makes it easy for me to get used to riding alot and building up my endurance. I figure once I can make it all the way to the Junction (about 2.5 miles one way), I will celebrate by going into McDonalds for a parfait!

Next weekend we are flying back to Michigan for a nephew's wedding. Yesterday I talked to Courtney and found out they were getting snow and had a "winter storm advisory" out! Of course, they know the snow birds are heading back. Don and Shirley are heading home from Florida and Teri and Gary are heading to Michigan from Alabama. They should all be in Michigan by this weekend. We have to get out to our place and mark off around the cabin where we want to keep part of our property. Hopefully it isn't too snowy or we will have to borrow somebody's four wheel drive to get back there!

Auction is coming up on Saturday, May 5th! We are selling the house/garage/ and 100 acres. If anyone is interested -- check out our auctioneer's website: http://www.respeckiauctions.com/ and come out to bid on the place. If you don't want the whole 100 acres, I"m sure something could be arranged for less land.

Too True to Be Funny



The biggest reason I was more than happy to lower my income by around 80% just to get out of that stupid gray box and away from Pointy-Haired Boss.

Wednesday, April 04, 2007

If At First You Don't Succeed...

...keep guessing. It's not like US news media will hold you accountable when you predict certain disaster and nothing happens. As usual, the last two paragraphs contain the key data:
Last year saw nine storms form five of them hurricanes which did relatively litle damage after a disastrous 2005 season.

It was a record-breaking season with 28 storms forming, 15 of them hurricanes, including Stan which killed some 2,000 people in Guatemala and Katrina which hit the US Gulf coast flooding most of New Orleans and killing about 1,500 people.
You remember last hurricane season, right? The one that was supposed to destroy civilization? Relatively "litle" damage indeed; most didn't even make landfall (And for the sake of the English language, learn how to spell check and punctuate a sentence!). But never let facts stand in the way of making splashy headlines.

In related news, global warming hits Mars. Hey Al! Tell us how it's all because the evil corporations keep building "monster" SUV's (snicker, giggle). While you're at it, can you explain how this albedo thing works? Specifically why none of your precious climate models (which given conditions from 100 years ago cannot "predict", within an order of magnitude, current climate conditions) take water vapor into account? It seems kind of important. And complicated. Warmer weather would seem to create more water vapor. Water vapor is a greenhouse gas (which, according to our Supreme Court can be regulated; expect the EPA to enact regulations any day now telling the oceans to stop all that evaporating) that also, in the form of clouds, increases earth's albedo. Little ol' stoopid me would think that all this actin' and interactin' stuff might be what is throwing one or two monkey wrenches into your models. Maybe you and your Really Smart Friends need to think a bit more about what you include and exclude from your models before you start using their predictions as an excuse to destroy Western Civilization.

Remember folks; send your kids to college so they can grow up big and strong and smart like Uncle Al and his Really Smart Friends. Pffft.

Monday, April 02, 2007

Wavin' in the Wind

It tends to get breezy here in the afternoon (in the same way that the ocean tends to be slightly moist). It had finally warmed up enough today that I could take my shirt off for my thirty minutes of sun this afternoon. While I was working, I happened to look down and notice that my armpit hair is now long enough to blow in the wind.

Huh.

Just thought I would share.

Pimpin' Paolo

I do tours here at Arcosanti in addition to working in the maintenance department (and volunteering in agriculture, and the occasional shift in the cafe helping to make dinner for 50 people, and, and, and...). Normally, I do a couple during the week, then two on Saturday and Sunday. I just added up my tours for the last pay period ending on Sunday: I did 17 tours in two weeks. That's a lot of directions to the public restrooms....