• Not sure what was going on last night, but I dreamt in Korean.
  • I speak precisely six words in Korean – Soju, Mekju, Bulgogi, Kimchi, Kamsahamnida, and Anyanghaseyo.
  • Yes, I know, some of those are more than one word.
  • Not surprisingly, I have no idea what my dream was about, but looking on the bright side, I did wake up with a stress headache.
• Kentucky people need to learn that they can’t out-stubborn me.
  • If I say I can’t do what you need without more input from you, and you don’t give me the input, I’m perfectly happy to wait forever before doing what you say you need.
• It took me four hours of work today to be able to report “Nope, can’t be done”.
  • Luckily for me, my co-workers agreed to my work-around, so it wasn’t all wasted time.
• The drive home tonight made me miss North Dakota, where there weren’t enough people to piss me off.
• Boo had his latest kindergarten orientation today.  Irish Woman got a bunch of paperwork.
  • It included the fee and tuition list for next year.
  • He’s going into pre-kindergarten, and we’re paying several hundred dollars for books.
    • Yeah, I don’t know either.
• Girlie Bear was selected to go to JROTC summer camp this June.
  • She leaves on June 6.
  • That’s right, she goes off to an Army summer camp on D-Day.
  • She was so proud that she got issued ACU’s today.
    • Anyone know how you iron those wrinkle factories?
    • And what’s up with boots you don’t polish?
    • What are you people doing to my Army?
• My basket at the store tonight contained a 100 foot network cable, a roll of duct tape, flashlight batteries, shoe polish, tortilla chips, and a soda.
  • The lady who checked me out asked me where the party was going to be.

• It’s amazing how smoothly things work when everyone does not only what they’re supposed to do, but also what they’ve said they would do.
• If you ask the impossible, don’t be surprised if my plan for fulfilling your request is improbable.
• We got through the end of the year school picnic without Boo doing his Forrest Gump impression.  We had a much better time than we did last year.
• It took precisely 3 minutes to upgrade the RAM on the iMac.  Irish Woman is quite happy that it doesn’t take five minutes to start iPhoto, and Chrome comes up instantly.
  • For the moment, I am The Man.
    • Subject to immediate downgrade to The Putz, of course.
• Note to neighbors:  If you don’t like the plans that the owners of the business-zoned vacant lot are thinking of doing with their property in order to make it productive again, then feel free to buy it from them and then do with it as you wish.
  • Seriously, until you’re ready to do that, please shut up before the civic-minded local owner decides to say “Screw it” and sells the place to an out-of-state developer who will bluntly tell you where you can shove your opinions.
• Advanced planning and preparations for Boo’s birthday party are underway.
  • Apparently the event is going to happen on Saturday.
  • I am buying food to feed an army.  If I’m eating leftovers from this past about Monday, then Irish Woman is going to have some ‘splaining to do.
  • When Irish Woman threw my 40th birthday party, I was eating leftovers for over a week.  I eventually ended up putting all of the fresh fruit in the dehydrator because we couldn’t eat it quickly enough.

• In some circumstances, “Just one more thing” is a good phrase to hear on a Monday morning.
  • Today wasn’t it.
• I was going to write “Break it all over again” as my back-out plan for something I was trying to fix at work, but my better judgement won out in the end.
• A couple of years ago, when I got re-certified in CPR, I was told to only give compressions.
  • I had always been taught some variation on “Two breaths, compressions for x  repetitions, then two breaths.”
  • I figured they were the experts, so whatever.
  • Today I got recertified, and they are back to breaths and compressions, if you feel comfortable giving breaths.
  • Didn’t know that proper technique came down to a mood.
• The first aid instructor was  talking about tourniquets because of their use after the Boston Marathon bombing.  That kind of surprised me, but shouldn’t have.
• Most of our first aid class involved lecture and scenarios presented by DVD.  If anything ever screamed out “computer based training followed by an hour or so of Q&A”, this is it.
• The first man to come up with a non-toxic, non-itchy attic insulation will be a billionaire in about 15 minutes.
• I’ve reached the point where it makes more sense to throw extra building supplies in the garage than it does to take them back for a refund.
  • They’ll get used eventually, so why waste the gas?
• Irish Woman seems to be having trouble being on a conference call from home when the dog is barking and whining at the cat and the cat is hissing and spitting and yowling at the dog.
  • I will have to work with her on her multitasking.
• I am proud of myself.  When someone I know was whining about us not getting more involved in Syria, I didn’t call them a twit.
  • I did, however, tell them that only a damn fool would get involved in a civil war between two groups that dislike us.
  • I mean, I can’t be all sweetness and light.  I have a reputation to protect.

• Girlie Bear went with her JROTC class to clean up Churchill Downs after the Oaks and Kentucky Derby.
  • Talk about scared straight.  After cleaning up the detritus of a few thousand drunk, rowdy, over-fed, and over-sexed bluntskulls may have turned her off of partying for life.
  • She wasn’t half as excited to go on Sunday morning as she was on Friday night.
• Moving half a ton of concrete and limestone is easier if you do it a hundred pounds at a time, but you’re still sore and tired afterward.
• Of course it was raining all weekend.  Doesn’t everyone build garden beds and retaining walls in the rain?
• It’s the first week of May, and I’m still heating up the house using the fireplace.
• Apparently my bet on the brown horse in the Derby won again.  I really ought to actually put down some money one of these years.
• I think Irish Woman has it figured out.  She points me to a product she wants, I go to Amazon and order it, and it magically appears on her front step in two days.
• It must be love.  I turned my back on Irish Woman while she was using a shovel and was annoyed with me, and I never feared for my life.
• I can’t wait for the NRA convention next year.  I miss my tribe, and it sounds like everyone is having a grand time handling hardware, meeting new people, and laughing at hippies.
• Louisville people:  There is no reason to drive in either a suicidal or homicidal manner just because the sky gods chose to bless us with rain for the past day or so.
• I like living in the future.
  • I can upgrade Irish Woman’s iMac from 1gb to 4gb of ram (quadruple what she has).
  • If I wait until my warranty is up in December, I can upgrade my Macbook from 2gb to 8gb of RAM, and if I upgrade the OS, to 16gb.
  • Irish Woman’s move from 4gb will cost $80, a move to 8gb on my Macbook will cost $62, and the 16gb upgrade will cost between $150 and $200.
  • For someone whose first SERVER had 128mb of RAM, which was an upgrade from 64mb that cost my employer an extra $5000, this is head spinning information.

This an excerpt from “Ghosts of the Ostfront”, a series of podcasts by Dan Carlin.

If someone pointed a gun, figuratively or literally, at the head of your child, would you be able to stand up and say “No, I won’t put those people on trains!”?  As much as people say we have to role play defensive violence in our minds so that we know what we are morally and psychologically capable of when we need to defend ourselves or our loved ones, we also need to mentally role play our reactions to creeping totalitarianism or how we would react to societal threats to our loved ones if we don’t get in line.

Like Mr. Carlin, I’d like to think that I would have the ability to stand up for what’s right, but no-one’s pointing a Tokarev or a Luger at Girlie Bear’s head right now.  I think the correct answer is to not let things get to that point in the first place, because the only way to win that particular game is to not play at all.

• A problem I worked on today can be best discussed this way:
  • Help!  My hair is on fire!
    • Wow, OK, let me call an ambulance for you and I’ll help you put it out.
  • Well, actually, I have such a bad migraine that I think I’m having a stroke
    • Really?  OK, you need to lie down, and I think I’ll still call an ambulance.
  • Well, you know, I could just have a sinus headache
    • Well, that’s not as bad as you made it sound originally, but let me get you something for that.
  • Actually, I had a slight dizzy sensation last night.
    • OK.  You’re better now, right?
  • OK, it’s just that my eye had this weird twitch last night, while I was asleep, but you need to look into it.
    • You hate me don’t you?
• It’s a bad sign when you feel guilty for taking 10 minutes to work on what you need to get done today while what cropped up and bit you on the butt first thing in the morning is calmed down, at least for a moment.
• Out of about 15 seniors in Girlie Bear’s JROTC program, 3 have been accepted to a service academy.
• Survival note for military recruiters – When the retired full colonel Airborne Ranger Vietnam Veteran JROTC instructor tells you that you shouldn’t talk to his cadets without first talking to him and their parents, you probably shouldn’t take the opportunity of being present at the end-of-year  awards ceremony to hand out cards to the students.
• The retiring  instructor (not the Colonel) has, between active duty and JROTC work, over half a century under his belt.
• It occurred to me tonight that the Tet Offensive (1968) is as far back in time now as the Battle of the Bulge (1944) was when I was in high school.
• The area for parking chartered jets at the airport was about half full when I drove past it tonight.  Either a lot of people are coming in for the Kentucky Oaks and Kentucky Derby later this evening, or the economy has hit the rich and fabulous harder than I thought.
• Can anyone explain to me how keeping people from bringing in cameras with removable lenses is going to improve security at Churchill Downs?

• You know, I was  glad to hear that we would be trying to cut down on the “I know you weren’t scheduled to work this weekend, but something’s come up.” style of project planning at work.
  • A lot of my co-workers, on the other hand, seem distressed that they’re going to be asked to actually, you know, plan their work and tell people about it ahead of time.
• You know the water table is high when you don’t have to add water to the concrete you pour into a post hole  to get it to set.
• Note to self – do not get concrete dust in your eyes.
• I may have a changeling in the house.  Boo announced tonight that he does not like Irish Woman’s meatloaf.  No way he got that from me.
• Looks like I’m going to miss Oddball’s blogshoot in June.  It’s the same weekend as the yearly Hoosier Roundup, and as much as I would love to go shooting for a weekend, family calls.
  • Unless, of course, I can get the Hoosiers to move the family reunion from southern Indiana to southern Kentucky.
  • Hmmmmm
• I’m wavering between upgrading the AR-15 lower I have with a new stock and trigger so that it will fit better with the 20 inch heavy barrel upper I’m building, or just build a whole new lower  so that I have two rifles, a carbine and a longer-range rifle.
  • Decisions, decisions.

• Just because it’s kind of drippy out doesn’t mean I can’t work in the garden.
  • Where would I be without my beloved Irish Woman to keep me on the straight and narrow?
  • Who needs to nap anyway?  I can sleep when I’m dead.
• Our strawberry patch is growing.  We had to re-allocate one of the raised beds for strawberries, and plans for an additional bed are in the works.
• I must remember to ask forgiveness of the Lord for the evil things I thought about my fellow man today.
  • I did not mean it when I said I hope that the people who blocked the aisle at the grocery store as they lined up for free samples choke and turn blue right then and there.
  • I do not really ask that the woman who had to handle each and every package of hamburger, thereby holding me up at the meat counter, then decided she wanted pork chops instead, breaks a bone or two.
  • I did not really mean it when I thought that the man who had to use a 30 word description of his coffee this morning should burn his tongue so badly he would never taste anything again.
  • I feel bad about the predictions I made about the future of the ‘rambunctious’ teenagers who made going through the department store a rather hellish experience this afternoon.
• I did, however, remember to be pleasant with the nice county sheriff’s deputy who approached me at the gas station to tell me that my one of my headlights is out.
  • Looking at what it takes to get those things out in my truck, I’m going to wait until it’s not dark and raining to replace them.
• You could say it’s been raining a lot lately.  I know this because Irish Woman dug a two foot deep hole yesterday and it was half full of water before it started raining today.
• Taking Bluegrass to the veterinarian as a 12-year-old dog is much easier than taking Bluegrass to the vet as a 2-year-old dog.
  • When she was two, it took three full-grown adults to hold her steady for her exam and vaccination.  Today, all it took was the promise of a bone and some scratching behind the ears.
  • She was very high energy and strong.  I didn’t know this when we got her, but her bloodline was bred for search and rescue, which explains why she was able to drag me for an extra five yards after initial contact in a tackle.
  • Bonus – She did not try to drive the truck on the way home, which has happened before.

Today is ANZAC Day.

• It’s always nice when you realize that you already did something that someone else is asking you to squeeze into your schedule.
• The lady at my cutlery store was shocked when I told her why I was buying another razor this afternoon.
  • She found it curious that I knew exactly which brand and model I wanted without her help.
• Things you don’t expect to see when snaking out a clog in the drain from the washing machine – a 12 inch long, decades old section of copper wire.
  • I have no idea.
  • It was about 7 feet out into the yard.  At first we thought it was a tree root.
  • The drain is still slow, so I’m going to douse it good with drain cleaner tomorrow and see if that dissolves whatever’s down there.
• Irish Woman has asked that we have a family picture taken.
  • I’ll be the one with the soulless eyes and rage in his heart by the time we get everyone dressed and placed.