Time Flies

Time passes fast. I just noticed it has been a month since wrote in here. I'll attribute it to the lack of excitement in my life. I could mention I went to have bladder stones removed last week, second time. I didn't go to the hospital for fifty years and all of a sudden, in three years, I've had four endoscopyies, two prostate operations, two bladder stone removals, and I have three other minor things coming up this year. It seems they have a hold of me now and won't let me go.

Raining out today. We need the rain and I may have to cut the lawn by the end of the week. I like it better than shoveling snow.

Last week I saw this woman parked out in front of my house. It was about 7:30 in the morning. I thought she must be waiting for the guy across the street. She seemed to be having her breakfast and after she finished up, she drove away. So I guess she parked there to eat. It's not like I'm of the main road, you have to drive another street before you get to mine.

I have a case of beer from my brother having twelve different types. Grabbed one the other day and reefed on the top. Found out it wasn't twist off. That's why we have two hands, the wounded one holds the beer while the other uses a bottle opener.

Hunger Games

Warm today. 25C/77F. I won't be jumping the gun and put away the snow shovel. It's only March. Sat it's supposed to be 6C/43F.

The newspaper is filled with "Hunger Games." No difference than the time of the Roman Empire. Entertainment to keep the nincompoops occupied. I think there are three books, catering to teenage girls. As Col. Klink would say,"You vill vatch this movie and you vill enjoy it."

You know when you get those pictures called "Wal-Mart people?" This morning I was in Wal-Mart. My wife was looking for something while I sat and had a coffee. As I sat there watching everyone, I became a firm believer that there are Wal-Mart people.

I just read the other day that in Sweden they are doing away with paper money. As a point of interest, they were the first to have paper money. So, to get on the bus, you'll need a ticket, or use your cell phone to make a payment. And in church? in church you'll have to swipe your card. Seems to me that might take some time. Then again, how many feed the collection?



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What's a Fag?

The temp yesterday was 12C/52F. Almost spring eh? Today back to normal. -2C/28F.

The new book I am writing is about bootleggers, moonshine and murder. I've picked my hometown in Cape Breton as the scene. Not because it's full of bootleggers and moonshiners, it'd just because I know the area. I've put it in the 1950's and also use some of the slang of the time. Don't know if they still use it.

One of the slang words is fag. What is a fag? It's a cigarette. Someone would ask, "Hey, you got a fag," or "Hey, can you lend me a fag?" That was a popular one. Which leads me to say, when someone borrows something, they usually return it. How would you return a cigarette you've smoked?

In my last post I wrote about an alternate bus company. Bottom line - it was a farce. It sure did heat up the news and blogs for that day. Big excitement, like the Romans throwing another group of christans to the lions. It was even exciting the next day with all the "I told you so." Everyone seemed to know it was bull except the reporters.

Read an interesting item this morning. Iceland is considering dropping their Krona and using the Canadian Dollar. We are taking over the world and this is the first move. Americans send in armies, we'll just be nice. Which reminds me, we had this opportunity before, when the Turks & Caicos Islands asked us to take them over. We declined. We were just too nice to take over someone.

It would have been a good idea, our own place in the sun. Canadian money, Canadian laws and we would be ripped of by Canadians, not some foreigner.

BUS STRIKE OR BUST

Today it is -7C/19F. But tomorow it is supposed to be 12C/53F. Spring is getting here. All it takes is time.

The bus strike is still on, but you would never know it by the news. The strikers are certainly having a hard time keeping this one in front. They did get some help yesterday. A new bus service is planning to jump in and fill some of the gap. So they get their first bus yesterday and what happens? Vandals stroke to the tune of $10,000. Of course we know who is suspect there. As far as this being legitimate service or not is yet to know.

They have their own website at http://busstrike.weebly.com/3/post/2012/03/bus-strike.html
What I found most interesting about it was the comments. The first noticeable point I saw. Education was not a priority on the bus drivers resume. Of course I'm assuming these comments are from them. Perhaps I was swayed by the frequent use of the word "scab." I think the unions have this one word trademarked. Legitimate or not, it's a place for people to air their comments. If you read the comments you'll get the drift.

As in the comment I made, the bus service is actually a shuttle service, not unlike the one from the Holiday Inn to the airport. For some people this shuttle will work, even after the strike is history, going from point A to point B. Cheaper than a taxi and no stopping every five minutes.

The strikers continued antics keep putting them on the wrong side of the public. Open fires, setting up tents, stopping Access-a-Bus, stopping snowplows have helped to downgrade their support. Warm weather on the horizon is certainly not going to help. Information about the strike will float from the back pages to the Obituary Column.


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I just put this on Facebook, but I'll put it here too.

Okay, I've seen it all. At least up to this point. At this side of the bridge going to Halifax, there is a Bus Treminal. Out in front is a number of strikers carrying their placards, "On Strike, etc,etc."

 Walking on the sidewalk in front of them, and among them, is a man protesting the striking transit workers. His placard reads, "Taxpayer: Who do these transit workers think they are?"

 Strikers can't do anything. Public sidewalk, Lots of witnesses.

So, last month we got our new kitchen installed. Kent Hardware said it would cost $14,300.00. Whoa to that. Contractors are just middlemen, who get someone else to do it. Paying for nothing.I knew a guy who could do it. I did the electrical, he did the plumbing, and I helped him with the rest. The whole thing cost about $7,000.00. So that's it for the kitchen.

Next is laminate floors in the dining and living rooms. My son and I will do it. After that it will be a new bathroom. Hopefully, all done by summer.

Busy writing my second book. Two guys just out of high school, running moonshine. Using my home town as the background. Thinking of calling it, "Beer On the Rocks."

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Boxing Day.

I awoke up to the sound of a big truck outside. Oh, oh. Garbage man. Wine and turkey doesn't seem to help a flagging memory. My wife had also heard the truck, a little earlier on, and ran out in her pyjamis, and did the job. I patted her on the back and told her she was a good trooper, after which she answered, "Yeah, sure."

I will tell you that I haven't been entirly lazy in this garbage fiasco. When I looked out the door on Sat. morning, I noticed everyone on the street had their garbage out, and me, being the little sheep that I am, quickly put mine out. But as the day dragged on, I had second thoughts, so I checked the garbage pickup flyer. And there it was in blue and red, Monday is normal pickup day. So I dragged mine back in. I couldn't help but notice, everyone left theirs out, even on Christmas Day.

Last week there was all that ranting about us having a green christmas. Well that didn't happen, got almost a foot of snow on Friday. We ended up shoveling heavy slush and got the driveway cleared out. The snowplow driver decided to give us another swipe, sometimes after midnight. A line of slush across my driveway, which of course was frozen by the time I got up. I hate driving over that ice, I've had ruined tires before.

My wife solved the problem of my Christmas coffee cup. She brought me a new one. It has a house that lights up when the cup gets hot. I guess I will be able to tell when my coffee gets cold.

I didn't do any writing yesterday and now I have all these words in my head I have to get rid of or they will become memories and I'll think they actually happened.

My brother Tony worked all weekend, so is coming over for Christmas dinner today. For him its Christmas dinner, for me it's leftovers. To be truthful, I do love turkey leftovers.

Jack Sakalauskas
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Lobster and a Happy Face.

Cold and crispy to-day. Temp about 0C/32F. Last Friday I took my wife out to look at countertop for our new kitchen. The cupboards are arriving the middle of next month, so we had to get on it. A lot of humming and hawing, but at one point she said, "I like this one, but..." That was good enough for me. I ordered it. Had to be done.

Getting all new appliances also. So far we have the dishwasher, fridge, coffeemaker, and toaster oven. Now we're looking for the stove and under the counter microwave. I'm all for getting he stove now. I can hook up the new one for Christmas and get rid of the other one. (Now say in a low woman's voice with a German accent), "No, we can wait till after Christmas."

I think she forgot about the countertop because she bought me two lobster for today. I cooked them yesterday, eat them today. And that is what a poor senior citizen, retired military, starving author will have for lunch. Hard to get anyone to believe the starving part when I am having lobster for lunch. Harder to believe the author part.

Have to go for a haircut next, then the bank, and then church. Going to drop off $100. for the food bank. My wife gives food all year long, but I always give them a cash gift. Then they can buy what they are short.

One of the first things I do in the morningis write something for my next book. Min. 500 words. What I find interesting is that it's like reading. I wonder what is coming next.

Having been an electronics technician and in the habit of fixing most things my self, people have the tendency to offer me things they are going to throw out. But that's going by the board now, as most things are not meant to be repaired. Where would you get the parts?

My brother gave me a Sony eReader because he has a new Kindle. The battery was getting weaker and weaker and would need recharging after an hour. It's $25. for a replacement battery and I know how to take it apart. The other day I decided to recharge, but I made a mistake and discharged it to the limit.

Then I remembered. Rechargeable batteries should be discharged completely before recharging. In fact, I built a small thing on my workbench to fully discharge the 1 1/2 volt batteries. We did that at the airport for our radios. So I recharged my dead eReader and have read on it for two days. The battery light is still green. Picture me with happy face.

What happens is, "I think," The new charge doesn't add to the residual charge. It just makes a new starting point. Over time, the residual charge gets larger and larger, ahile the new charge gets smaller.


Jack Sakalauskas
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Lost For Awhile

Amazing how time passes. I have not added an article since the middle of Sept. Must be busy.

I can't believe we had a snow storm last week. In November. It usually comes around Christmas Eve. It was eight inches at least, enough to use the snowblower. That snow blower of mine just doesn't throw the snow far enough. I greased it all up this year, but to no avail. So, this summer, I have to take it apart. And I must start early in the summer, in case it takes awhile. It will need a new belt, and I don't know how long that will take to arrive.

I did spend a lot of time writing. Found it best to do every morning. Had to finish my almost first length ebook. 45,000 words should be good enough for the first one. It's about a spoiled Moroccan princess, who gets kidnapped by terrorists.  Two English boys and their guide break her out, and then they get list in the desert, where things go from bad to worse, then worse again. It helped to have been in Morocco and saw camels, trains and desert. Some of the events are from my own experience. Like the lady at the train station, or the two soldiers drinking rum & coke (one of them being me). So click on Amazon and give it a like.
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I think that says you like the picture or the effort.

Anyway, it is better than doing crosswords, which now I have no time for. I had all those words running around with no where to go. I'm working on another book, using my hometown as the scapegoat. Murder, bootleggers, incest. My hometown was never like this, well, not totally.

My project the last few months has been designing a kitchen with my wife. I don't have to describe that  collaboration. I'm getting the parts from Kent, and they sent in a contractor. Well, I must have looked like a meek little lamb being led to slaughter. Lets rip off the senion citizen. Needed a wall put up and he wanted $3000. I got it done for $300. and this guy will do the rest of the job.

The parts will arrive in Jan. and I have to put them all in the house. Can't store them on the patio, and I just hope there is not a ton of snow about.

We put laminate flooring in the recroom. Actually, my son put it down, I did the cutting. The next project will be laminate floors for the dining and living room. Want that done before spring.

There, that should make up for the time I was away. Best put a picture of my book. Have to advertise. No shame.


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World Trade Center

Yesterday was 9/11 day. It's like a JFK day. Everyone remembers where they were. On that day, I was at work, at the Hfx. airport. I used to work in the control center, watching all the cameras, alarms, radio traffic, all that kind of stuff. My son was working if Florida at the time, and he contacted me to turn on the tv. So I was the first one at the airport to know about New York. After seeing what was on tv, I called my boss to check it out. Of course then, all hell broke loose. There was a terrorist under every seat.

There was three of us on that particular job, with two of us there at all times. Normally, we would rotate around, but not that day. We both stayed there till 6 P.M. We had to photograph every aircraft that came in, the planes disembarking, and so on.

That was my last day at work before my vacation. The next morning, I was supposed to fly to Florida. That went down the drain. If it had been one day earlier, I would have been flying into Newark, about the same time as those planes hit the trade center. That would have been a bad experience.

Working at the airport brings back a memory. No matter where I went, hardware stores, supermarket, wherever, I would always run into someone from work. But as soon as I stopped working there, I never ran into them again. I find that kind of weird. A thought crossed my mind, that if I thought about the lottery all the time, maybe I would win.


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The Making of a Superpower

I read some bad news the other day, I had a hard time believing. It seems the Ameicans are running out of big rocks. Yes, its hard to believe, but it appears to be true. I am referring to the big rocks, they make monuments from. They do make a lot of monuments, sort of like the Victorian era in England, when they made a lot of statues. It makes me wonder if this carving up of rocks is another sign of the end times.

Rome made lots of statues, momuments and buildings, then plop, down the drain. England, the same way, plop, down the drain. The Martin Luther King statue is the latest. I don't have anything against M.L.K. But the thing is, they bought the rock from China. I don't know about you, but to me it just doesn't seem right. I can see if they bought the rock in Africa, that would be okay.

It also appears, they have no more artists in the U.S, capable of making that sculpture. Maybe it just falls in line with the policy that they have to give all their jobs to someone else. Not only do we (them and us) send all the jobs to China (& India) we also send the factories. Remember the movie "Terminator"? The end has a hand crawling through a steel mill. Do you know where that steel mill is now? It was chopped up and taken to China. They did the same with a steel mill in Sydney and a oil refinery her in Dartmouth.

Sound like good policy? It might be a good policy for greed. After all, the upper class figure they can buy their way out of anything, so might as well grab as much as you can.

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How Jackie Got His TouchPad!

Last Friday I was discussing the iPad with my son. I told him I wasn't interested in an iPad, all I needed was an eReader. Lately I have been checking them out. Finally, I decided to wait till the new Kindle came out. It's supposed to be in color, etc, etc. So he told me about HP getting out of the Tablet market, and maye some of the people who bought them will freak out, and want to sell theirs. Then, maybe I could get one on Kijiji, maybe $150. Okay, that sounds like a good plan.

Next morning, I see my son with a wide grin. "Guess what? I checked the Staples website this morning, and they have the HP Tablet for $99. & $150. I ordered three." An hour later confirmation came that he had two of them, one of each. So, we each have one. Since then, everyone is going crazy trying to get one. Store lineups, etc, just to order one.

So now I have my eReader and it cost $99. Of course I use it for more than reading books. The eReader only didn't last long. Love those Apps. The one that impresses me the most is the Google App. Just say the name of something and up comes the information. Or you can take a photo of something and it brings up items closest to it. Really Star Trekkie.

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Royally Speaking

When I joined the air force in 1961, it was the Royal Canadian Air Force. Then some dummy got the bright idea to join all the services, so I ended up in Air Command. The navy got Maritime Command and the army was Land Command. (Original eh?) That was in 1968 and we were given new uniforms, badges. etc. Most people hated it, especially the navy. In the late 80's, the air force got their uniforms back, sort of. I don't think the army and navy did. Now they are going back to The Royal Canadian Air Force, The Royal Canadian Navy, and The Canadian Army. The army doesn't have royal in front because it is made up of different regiments, like The Royal Canadian Regiment, The Royal 22nd. Regiment, etc. I would be even happier if they went back to air force ranks instead of army.

The French population of Nova Scotia will now be able to get vanity licence plate. Nova Scotia in French and English and the Acadian flag on the side. Sounds all warm and fuzzy, doesn't it. I'm sure it has nothing to do with the $50.00 cost to get one. They call it a donation. Wonder if you can get one without a donation. I shouldn't talk, I have a Veterans plate. It cost me $5.00 extra.

On the front page yesterday, they told us about civil servants getting bonuses. They call it Merit Pay. Of 1700 workers, over 1000 receive it. The purpose is so they don't want to lose good people. Give me a break. With their fringe benefits and pay that is 50% higher than the street, no one is going to leave. What do you take us for?
The top business leaders say the same thing. Give me a 10 million bonus or I'll leave. Yeah, right!

There is this Mayor in a village in Quebec, who gave his ex-wife a birthday present yesterday. They were divorced a year ago. He has a construction company and in the middle of the night, he brought a 17 tonne bolder and put it in her driveway. He said that she always wanted a big rock.


Jack Sakalauskas
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Our Gas Prices

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The Horses Ass

RAILROAD TRACKS The US standard railroad gauge
(distance between the rails) is
4 feet, 8.5 inches. That's an
exceedingly odd number.
Why was that gauge used?
Because that's the way they built
them in England and English
expatriates designed the US railroads.


Why did the English build them like
that?
Because the first rail lines were
built by the same people who built
the pre-railroad tramways and that's
the gauge they used.
Why did 'they' use that gauge then?
Because the people who built the
tramways used the same jigs and
tools that they had used for building wagons,

which used that wheel spacing.

Why did the wagons have that
particular odd wheel spacing?
Well, if they tried to use any other
spacing, the wagon wheels would
break on some of the old, long
distance roads in England , because
that's the spacing of the wheel ruts.

So who built those old rutted roads?
Imperial Rome built the first long
distance roads in Europe (including England )

for their legions. Those roads have been

used ever since.
And the ruts in the roads?
Roman war chariots formed the
initial ruts, which everyone else had
to match for fear of destroying their
wagon wheels.

Since the chariots were made for
Imperial Rome , they were all alike in
the matter of wheel spacing.
Therefore the United States standard railroad gauge of

4 feet, 8.5 inches is derived from the original
specifications for an Imperial Roman war chariot.

Bureaucracies live forever.


The next time you are handed a

specification/procedure/process
and wonder 'What horse's ass
came up with this?', you may be
exactly right. Imperial Roman
army chariots were made just
wide enough to accommodate
the rear ends of two war horses.
(Two horses' butts.) 

Now - the twist to the story:
A Space Shuttle sitting on its

launch pad has two big booster
rockets attached to the sides of
the main fuel tank. These are
solid rocket boosters, or SRBs.
The SRBs are made by Thiokol
at a factory in Utah .

Engineers who designed the SRBs
would have preferred to make them
a bit fatter, but the SRBs had to be
shipped by train from the factory
to the launch site. The railroad line
from the factory happens to run
through a tunnel in the mountains,
and the SRBs had to fit through that tunnel.

The tunnel is slightly wider than the
railroad track, and the railroad track,
as you now know, is about as wide
as two horses' behinds.

 

So, a major Space Shuttle design feature of

what is arguably the world's most advanced

transportation system, was determined over

two thousand years ago by the width of a horse's ass!
And you thought being a horse's ass wasn't important!

Credit Card Maxed? So What.

The weather today is whatever forcast you pick. The picks are, cloudy, sunny, showers or stormy. They could sell lottery tickets on this.

Had to go to a funeral the other day. It happens, and the older, the more frequent. An old air force buddy died. That's the second in a month. His son was there and that was weird. Looks like his fathers twin. It was like I was talking to his father, thirty years ago.

Read this morning that Canada and India are teaming up to sell nuclear reactors. If I read it right, our part is selling the uranium with Indian technology. Now that's a scary thought. India has nuclear weapons, and do you know, that's our fault. In the 70's we sold them a reactor, and they learned how to make a bomb. This time they say, when we sell them uranium, there will be a monitoring system so they can't use it for weapons. How stupid can you be?

A third of the American news is about the woman in Florida, who has been released from jail, and another third about Murdoch. The last third is about the debt ceiling. In regard to the deby ceiling, isn't it the same as when my credit card is maxed out, and I go to the bank and ask for a new limit, so I can spend?  I don't know what all the fuss is about. Of course they are going to raise it. What it does, is worry the stock market, and when it is raised, the market can shoot up like crazy.

Lots of coverage on strollers on buses. Most cities have laws that allows only fold up strollers. But not here, too dumb. Here women go on the bus with strollers that just make it in. Then no one else gets in. So every stop on the route waits for the next bus. Duh!. City Council too busy with their own ego's to do anything.

They say shoplifting not a problem here. Maybe just smart shoplifters.

The price of ereaders going down. Saw them advertised  for $68.

Saw the other day that they are going to make colored shoes for men. To celebrate the new colors, I will buy two pair. One black and one brown.

Saw this ad yesterday Ramadans.com. Of course, I thought it was for Muslims. Actually it's Ramada Inn Nova Scotia. Don't say you wouldn't be fooled.



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Mayhem Still Reigns

Sunny out today but Thor is supposed to bang his hammer.

Do you notice there is nothing on tv to watch? It's so bad, I've even given the clicker over to my wife. I may be starting a bad idea here, because I'll want it back when the fall comes. I noticed she was watching Masterchef and they were cooking steaks. There was rare, medium and well done. They never mentioned shoe leather or burned to a crisp.

Read this headline,"Retirees Push Up Condo Prices." That's the "Me Generation" for you. It's never them, it's always someone else. When they are through with us, it will be the fault of the generation behind them.

I wrote in my Facebook about Sears catalogs used as toilet paper. Do you know, the first pages they used were from books of poems. They say, on a windy day, you could see these pages flying all over the english countryside. They wern't suitable for collecting.

Yesterday's front page was about the wages collected by people who run charities. Some earn a quarter million a year. It looks like a third of the money they collect goes to wages. And, as I have said before, these charities never die. If a cure is found, the charty is morphed into another. After all, they don't want to lose their jobs. In the U.S, it is not uncommon for the co. of a charity to earn a million.

Mayhem is still running rampant here. At 7:45 AM, three women smucked a woman on a bus and took her purse. She chased them and tried to get her purse back, but went down for the count. The bottom line is two were caught and before the judge at 10:00 AM.
At 5:00 AM on Monday morning, four guys attacked a couple, and used a hammer on him. With all the screaming, they took off and are still on the lam.



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The Pendulum Swings

Rain today - which is a good thing.

In an economics course I took at university, they talked about a pendulum. How everything swings from one side to the other, from one extreme to the other. We were discussing communism and capitalism. Communism was at its extreme and has since swung in the other direction. Each time it swings back and forth, but not as far as the previous spot, and eventually settle somewhere in the middle. I wonder if capitalism is at its farthest point, or has it already started to swing back.

I mention that, because I was thinking about it in reference to unions. Coming from a coal mining town, where unions started a hundred years ago, it was a good thing. My uncles were twelve years old when they started working in the coal mine. I'm amazed they were able to learn to read and write. (Tomorrow is Sunday, Thank God for comic books.) After much blood, sweat and tears, the union pulled them up.

Then comes the pendulum effect. It went to its extreme and now is a hinderence in many ways. Take the Post Office for example. They really pushed in the 70's with their strikes and got what they wanted. Two weeks ago, they were on strike, and who actually cared. It convinced more people to go on the internet to pay their bills. A loss of more customers. At Christmas time, I tell my wife, stop sending cards, pick up the phone. In twenty years, or less, the PO will be nothing more than a small size parcel delivery service.

So the pendulum for the unions has already started to swing the other way. At one time, to get members to form a union, was a piece of cake. But now, take Michelin Tire for example. No way do they want a union. For them, the pendulum is at the other end, or is it at the center? There has been, I think, sixteen attempts for a union, and all have failed. I think they have been told, they should give it up.

So now, Will and Kate are gone to la, la land. I did notice, that in every article, they never failed to mention what she was wearing. I never knew it was so important. To be fair, they also mentioned what Will was wearing. Today, "he wore pants, a shirt, and a tie." Yes, that's a direct quote. As I said, I never knew it was so important. So, today I am wearing long pants, beige in colour, purchased from a high-end store in Cole Hbr, called Salvation Army Store. It is complimented by a short sleeve shirt, made up of verticle lines of different shades of green, with six buttons up the front, and having no man servent to button them, the buttons are on the right side. It must be an orential style, as it originates from China. My feed are shod with brown socks, and dark brown moccasins, in respect for our native brothers. The articles about Will and Kate don't mention underwear, so I won't.


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Murder and Mayhem

Summer is here, probably for a short stay.

When I opened the newspaper this morning, all I could see was murder & mayhem. Downtown Halifax, yesterday afternoon, two guys hit another on the head with an axe. Then there was the guy, with a bat and a couple of other items, headed into the hospital, th whack his 59 yr. old wife and two children. They stopped him at the door. A couple of shootings ans a couple of court trials, where murderers are set free. I don't know if the one in Florida is a murderer or not, but the one in Montreal certainly is. Stabbed his two children. Set free because he wasn't in his right mind. I wouldn't want someone not in their right mind living next to me. Oh crap, there is someone like that next door. I better get a guard cat or something.

I see the highland games are going on and I noticed from photos that men do wear something under their kilts. It reminds me of a photo I saw recently with Queen Elizabeth sitting with a regiment. The front row was sitting on chairs and it was quite visible no soldier wore anything under his kilt.
http://urbanlegends.about.com/library/bl_queen_scots_soldiers.htm  So, is it true or not?


Jack Sakalauskas
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In All the Right Places

A sunny Canada Day to you all.

Looking at the paper this morning, I don't think it was my bifocals, I think it was my thought process. When I read, "Onlooker Grabs French Leader," a different picture passed through my mind, than someone grabbing him by the arm.

Saw a movie the other day with Ellen Page. Crap movie about super heroes. She let it be known, she is no stranger to the F word. I didn't think she had a limited vocabulary, or was hard up for parts. Is she too short? The one on NCIS is short and she won an Oscar. Of course, she did play a man.

I guess there was something on Twitter about getting rid of the camma. It wasn't true, though some people want to get rid of it. Those would be the ones, who don't know where to put it, the comma I mean. Anyway, it's a stupid idea. Without it, you don't know what you're readng.

This morning I had raisin bread toast. I had to slice it myself and do you know how that is done? You don't slice it from the top. You lay it on its side and slice. That way, the slices have the same thickness, unless you can't handle a bread knife, in which case there is no help for you. Which is par for the course, since there is no hope for any of us.


Jack Sakalauskas
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Bifocals Can Be A Hazard

How's the weather? Don't ask!

I just remembered about the yardsale I went to on Sat. Total waste of time and money. I should know better than to go indoor yard sales. They are usually just mini-merchants. The ones that sell jewelry, leather products, that kind of stuff. There was some pockets books there, but they were all for women. I think there are more women authors than men, and they seem to run off those romance books pretty fast.

I usually read two books at once. One is a pocketbook and the other an ebook. Just finished reading, "Rogue Warrior," the building of Seal Team 6. Definately rubbed his superiors the wrong way. For all his work, he got a year in jail, basically for not having the right receipts. Now it seems to be top heavy just like the other elite forces. The ebook was, "Gunboat #14," about the Swedish-Russian War, 1807. Those gunboats were were nothing more than large rowboats.

When you read with bifocals, you have to be careful, not to read incorrectly, especially if you only read the headlines. For example, this morning there was a headline which read,"Canada Primps for Royal Visit." When I first read it, it said,"Canada Pimps fpr Royal Visit." Anyway, I moved my head and saw the error of my ways. The upside is that sometimes it makes for interesting reading.

I was keeping a lookout for a dresser that someone might throw out. I wanted it for my shed, to put my toolboxes on. I have two green toolboxes, with three drawers. When they issued you tools in the Air Force, you were allowed to keep them. So I needed something four feet long to put them on. Yesterday, I was driving around a sub divison and saw this desk someone had put out on the side of the road. So I came back around to check it out. It was a four foot long, metal, grey computer desk, with shelves on one side. Perfect. Tossed it into the back of the van. Came home, told my wife and she said," And who put it in the van for you? Right, operation, no lifting for another month. Promised  not to do it again.

I'll add a photo of my shed.

Jack Sakalauskas
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