Today’s Earworm
Posted by daddybear71 on August 14, 2025
https://daddybearsden.com/2025/08/14/todays-earworm-888/
Musings
Well, got some good news about the lawn mower. The dealer got it fixed faster than expected, and it will be returned on Friday. Looks like committing shovelcide only bent up the blade something fierce, so it was a relatively easy fix.
Grand total for getting it repaired was just north of $600. That’s much less than I thought it would be, and a whole lot less than purchasing the GrassReaper 5000 I was going to replace it with. Hey, if you’re going to make a statement, make a statement. My statement was going to be “I spent your college fund on a new lawnmower with its own sound system and a bigger engine than a 1996 Honda Accord”.
I asked for a written receipt for my payment, because I’ll need it for the tattoo artist I’m taking my youngest son to this weekend. I’m going back and forth on location. Currently, forearm, middle of chest, and forehead are the frontrunners. If I go with forehead, I’ll probably have to pay extra to have it put on in reverse so he can read it when he looks in the mirror.
I shall allow his lady mother a few minutes to plead for his skin before deciding. She has ways of convincing me to let the boy live to see his next sunrise.
I am a tyrant of my word, so the punishment phase of all this ends when the mower is back in the garage. Restitution phase begins immediately thereafter.
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Life with the little fuzzy velocilabrador continues. Her diet is expanding both in volume and variety.
- Puppy food – Good for her, although I’m pretty sure it bypasses her digestive tract and goes directly to her legs. Maggie Mae is going to be tall.
- USB cables, especially those used for Apple products – Not sure why these are so tasty, but she goes through these faster than a pair of wirecutters. I’m discouraging this behavior, both because of her health and the replacement costs.
- Various articles of clothing – Apparently, the smelly, sweaty tee shirt The Young Prince left on the bathroom floor after taking a shower is a particularly tasty treat. Again, discouraging this behavior.
- Dishrags – Kind of puzzled on this one. The soapy taste can’t be very appealing, but she is fascinated with these things.
- Yogurt, cheesecake, and ice cream – These I understand. I just wish she’d have the manners to beg rather than grab them from whatever flat surface they’re sitting on before wolfing them down.
- Tails – Maggie likes to live dangerously, so she makes a habit of creeping up on her brother and sisters and affixing her sharp little teeth on their tails. The older dogs use this occasion to teach the young pup that they are bigger and stronger than she is, and a few “Th-th-the big dog b-b-bit me in the ass!” crying jags have been noted. Unfortunately, she seems to be a slow learner, so I expect this behavior to continue for a bit.
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Speaking of puppies and sunrises, I need to pass on a quick pro tip for the younger readers – When your family has pets, especially puppies, extra especially if those pets are used to being let outside for their morning constitutional, followed by a leisure breakfast, immediately after the morning alarms go off, you darned sure better get your fuzzy butt up the moment your not-so-gentle “Hey, it’s the first day of school. Time to rise and shine!” alarm goes off.
Do not, I say again, do not let the alarm go off for about 5 minutes, slap it repeatedly until it quits making nose, then roll over and go back to sleep. It’s really a bad idea to do this if the noise of the puppy losing her everloving mind because she is hungry and has to pee realy bad was drowning out the incessant beeping. Especially do not do this if you are not as bright as your mother thinks you are and set the alarm for 5 AM, when your school bus won’t roll past until 8 AM.
Not following these words of wisdom makes your rather curmudgeonly gray haired father start to reconsider why he didn’t do the watusi in a Bosnian mine field about 15 years before you were born while he trundles himself out into the back yard, fuzzy pup in his arms, in the dark at 5:07 AM.
Posted by daddybear71 on August 13, 2025
https://daddybearsden.com/2025/08/13/musings-411/
80 Years On – Hiroshima and Nagasaki
In early August, 1945, the United States dropped two atomic weapons over the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The explosions, firestorm, and aftereffects killed hundreds of thousands of people.
Better minds than mine can discuss what happened and why.:
All I can say, with the long arm of hindsight assisting me, is that President Truman had run out of moral choices, so he picked the least immoral choice available to him to end the war.
Did his decision to employ these weapons kill hundreds of thousands of people, a large number of them civilians? Yes, it did.
Was it an unprecedented use of horrific weapons? Yes, it was.
But when faced with the choice of killing hundreds of thousands of people or killing potentially millions of Japanese and losing at least hundreds thousands of American and allied soldiers, sailors, and airmen, the Devil’s calculus dictated that Hiroshima and Nagasaki be destroyed to demonstrate to Japanese leadership that further resistance was not only futile, but cruel.
Had Truman chosen the other path, Japan would have been starved out, firebombed, and invaded by Americans and allies. Its army in Manchuria would have been utterly destroyed by Soviet forces, and a likely Soviet invasion of northern Japan would have brought about the partition of Japan as it did in Korea.
Leadership is more than making decisions. It’s making decisions when there is no good option.
Those who look back now and cry about the decisions made after over a decade of conflict in Asia and the Pacific should try putting themselves in Truman’s shoes for a bit. Better yet, they should put themselves in the shoes of American sailors and Marines who didn’t die storming a beach on Honshu. The best thing they can do is put themselves inside the head of a Japanese teenage boy who survived the war to lead a successful life instead of dying of hunger, disease, bullet, or gas defending a doomed regime.
Posted by daddybear71 on August 12, 2025
https://daddybearsden.com/2025/08/12/80-years-on-hiroshima-and-nagasaki/
Musings
Look, I’m not pointing fingers at anyone, but when I shuffle off this mortal coil, I’m pretty sure Blue Bell ice cream will have something to do with it.
Their Banana Fudge variety is delicious. It’s even better with chocolate sauce, sliced banana, and slivered almonds.
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The puppy is approximately 1/3 bigger than she was the day we picked her up.
Luckily for Sophie, she and the puppy have figured out how to wrestle. When Maggie passes Sophie up size-wise, in about 3 to 4 weeks by my calculations, hopefully enough boundaries will have been created to prevent snortal combat from turning into dachshund bowling.
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The mower was picked up by the dealership on Friday. I should know whether or not it can be fixed in a week or so. In the event that it cannot be salvaged, the next mower will be fully selected for my use. The current model is zero-turn, but has a steering wheel. This slows things down a bit, but would be easier for Irish Woman or the Young Prince to use. Any replacement will be a skid steer, and I shall drive it like I stole it.
Speaking of the Young Prince, the weather gods have smiled upon him this week. It’s been hot and dry, so the grass has grown at a reduced rate.
Unfortunately for him, that doesn’t mean it hasn’t grown at all. Tomorrow and Tuesday, which happen to be the last days of his summer vacation, he shall be using the $30 push mower his mother bought when we moved to mow the entirety of the lawn. It’s not self propelled, and has a rather small footprint, which is why it’s great for doing edges and corners of the yard where the rider doesn’t do well. I’m curious to see how it does on the yard in general.
Out of a concern for his safety and the continuance of his mother’s bloodline, I have encouraged him to get out early and mow as much as he could before Kentucky gets as hot and humid as Satan’s posterior crevice. I hope he takes that advice. Should he fail to do so, he will be laboring under the hot sun all day on Tuesday to complete his task before he has to get ready for school on Wednesday.
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Summer canning season is in full swing.
While Irish Woman and the Young Prince were in Florida, I bought a bushel of Georgia peaches and made a couple batches of peach jam and peach sauce. I picked up a half bushel of local peaches this weekend, so Irish Woman will be canning them this week.
Cucumbers are doing very well this year, so we’ve got several batches of dill pickles, some of them with chilis in them for a little extra kick. Irish Woman has made a batch of bread and butter pickles, and will be trying her hand at sweet pickles in the near future. Since I consider any pickles that require sugar to be an abomination in the eyes of the Lord, I shall not be partaking.
I went out to one of the local farms and got four bushels of canning tomatoes yesterday. So far, I’ve made a batch each of spaghetti and chili sauce. The Young Prince wants to try making pizza sauce, so that will get done when he’s not mowing lawns over the next couple of days. When that’s done, I’ll either make more pre-made sauce or make a batch of crushed tomatoes.
The zucchini is being very prolific this year, so I think I’m going to run what we don’t eat fresh through the food processor and freeze it. Zucchini bread and other treats can be quite tasty, and it’ll give us some free nutrition in the winter.
Posted by daddybear71 on August 10, 2025
https://daddybearsden.com/2025/08/10/musings-410/
Morning Cadence
Up in the morning before the break of dawn
I’ll be working before too long
Let the dogs out and watch them play
It’s hard to see the puppy before the break of day
A cup of black coffee with a side of spite
Hope the long day turns out all right
Canning tomatoes before it gets too hot
Yesterday made pickles at this very spot
Tomatoes, herbs, onions, and peppers
Store it away like a good prepper
Too hot to work, time to read
Looking to see what craziness shows up in my feed
Cackle loudly when I read the news
Some of these folks need to lay off the booze
Time to make breakfast, maybe bacon and eggs
Watch the dogs teach to puppy to beg
Ah gimme some,
Caffeine
Gimme some
Caffeine
Posted by daddybear71 on August 10, 2025
https://daddybearsden.com/2025/08/10/morning-cadence/
Today’s Earworm
Posted by daddybear71 on August 8, 2025
https://daddybearsden.com/2025/08/08/todays-earworm-887/
Today’s Earworm
Posted by daddybear71 on August 7, 2025
https://daddybearsden.com/2025/08/07/todays-earworm-886/
Today’s Earworm
Posted by daddybear71 on August 6, 2025
https://daddybearsden.com/2025/08/06/todays-earworm-885/
Musings
Life was simpler, some would say better, when our entertainment was made up principally of falling anvils, ACME deliveries, and ducks with their bills blown halfway around their heads.
When a redhead trying to feverishly package bonbons, to the point she stuffed the excess into her own mouth, all of us laughed until we cried. When a cartoon husband bellowed for his brontosaurus burger, and his shapely redhead of a wife cut him down to size with a quick remark and a raised eyebrow, we all realized that this was the pinnacle of domesticity.
Now, we’re bombarded with “I’m better because I’m special!” dreck, or “I’m different from all of you, so you have to do what I think is right!” nonsense. Our airwaves and network bandwidth are overloaded with “You’re the husband/father/boyfriend, so you must be the buffoon!”.
And people wonder why old TV shows and movies do so well in DVD sales and streaming.
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I want credit for my self control and patience this morning.
Yesterday, I was mowing using the less than a year old, zero turn mower. Suddenly, it bucked, made a weird sound, started shaking violently, and began plowing our side yard.
Let me tell ya, when a 46 inch lawnmower cuts a groove into a patch of grass, you can see it from orbit. In thousands of years, archeologists will be bickering over whenther or not I was trying to signal extraterrestrial visitors.
Apparently, the Young Prince had left a short handled shovel in some tall grass/weeds after digging up a few small maple and sycamore seedlings. The last scion of his mother’s house neglected to police up his tools after finishing. I did not see it, being distracted by other tools he left next to the flowerbed, and ran it over.
Not sure what exactly got broken in the mower, but the steel head of the shovel was cut into two pieces and the handle was shredded.
I was not, physically at least, harmed. No fragments of shovel, rapidly spinning blade, or mower components were flung in my general direction.
So, mower goes to the dealer for evaluation and, hopefully, repair later this week. It’s going to take at least a couple of weeks before there’s any chance of it being operational again.
As I am a merciful domestic tyrant, and the Young Prince received an innoculation this morning, I am not going to have him start push mowing the remainder of our acreage until tomorrow. Luckily for him, the seasonal humidity and heat will return to the area overnight, so he’ll be able to atone for his sins through copious sweat. Perhaps, in his labors, he’ll have a vision of his ancestors standing to the side, their arms crossed and their heads shaking in disappointment.
I may or may not be sitting under an umbrella on the back deck, a fan playing over me and a glass of ice cold tea sweating next to me, while I watch him work that mower until the lawn looks like a putting green.
It is only because of my deep and persistent love of his mother that the young man still has any butt left. I’m so angry that I’m afraid to get angry. Visions of signing him over to Marine recruiters, perhaps even paying them for their trouble, have danced in my head on multiple occasions in the last 24 hours.
Her loving presence, her steadfast loyalty over all of our tribulations over the past quarter century, her awesome cooking, all of these have ensured that her son has not been shipped to Australia in the steerage hold of a Salvadoran goat galley, there to muck out stalls in the Queensland water buffalo creamery and tannery.
Luckily for him, we are both too old to create a replacement child, so I must do my best to salvage what can be salvaged from what remains of his life. Now that I think of it, my grandfather begat my father in his 60’s. Hmmmm, no, she’d kill me if I made a baby with her, and she’d kill us both if I created new life with another woman.
Did I mention that the fool thing is less than a year old? It is now a bright yellow riding rototiller.
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Miss Maggie Mae decided to respond to Ellie May growling at her this afternoon by springing from side to side, wagging her tail and barking up a storm. Ellie looked over her shoulder at me, then walked away.
Something tells me that ye olde boundary setting is going to happen pretty soon. I’ll need to keep someone with thumbs handy to make sure it doesn’t go too far.
Posted by daddybear71 on August 4, 2025
https://daddybearsden.com/2025/08/04/musings-409/
Today’s Earworm
The fact that this works for me tells me I spent way too much time listening to Doctor Demento once upon a life.
Posted by daddybear71 on August 3, 2025
https://daddybearsden.com/2025/08/03/todays-earworm-884/
DaddyBear
DaddyBear’s Den 