The world is indeed comic, but the joke is on mankind. — H.P. Lovecraft, August 20, 1890 – March 15, 1937
Quote of the Day
Posted by daddybear71 on August 20, 2013
https://daddybearsden.com/2013/08/20/quote-of-the-day-116/
Today’s Earworm
Posted by daddybear71 on August 20, 2013
https://daddybearsden.com/2013/08/20/todays-earworm-402/
Thoughts on the Day
- Went back to work this morning, and was completely wiped out by 1 PM.
- I’m trying to decide if it hurts more with or without the sling for my shoulder. I’m leaning toward it hurting more with it.
- I seem to have consumed all of the aspirin in the bottle that I carry around in my laptop bag. I must correct this, for the sake of the children.
- Boo enjoyed his first day of Kindergarten.
- I hope this continues. He’s in the two year program, so if he hates it, it’s going to be a struggle.
- Girlie Bear has three classes with her best friend. Nothing good can come from this.
- Apparently Girlie Bear’s German instructor is a DLI Chinese graduate.
- If she was there from 1989 to 1990 and was in the Air Force, this might be an uncomfortable parent-teacher conference.
- I’m not admitting anything, but it is quite possible to hang by your fingertips from the windowsill on the second floor of the Air Force barracks in Monterey and then survive the fall to the grass below in good enough shape to run through the woods after gathering up your clothing.
- Sometimes you’re damned if you do, and you’re damned if you don’t. Problem is that ‘sometimes’ seems to be ‘always’ lately.
Posted by daddybear71 on August 20, 2013
https://daddybearsden.com/2013/08/20/thoughts-on-the-day-163/
Thoughts on the Day
- Boo met his teacher today after church. She now knows that he is much more civilized than she might have been led to believe.
- For the third time this week, Irish Woman and I were able to get caught up on both dishes and laundry. Around here that’s some kind of record.
- No matter how often I put them back in Boo’s room, his toys always seem to find a way back into the living room, including when he’s asleep.
- Bad – Getting hit in the driver’s side door when someone crosses the double yellow line and you swerve to avoid a head on collision.
- Worse – You’re driving your wife’s car.
- Even worse – We’ve only had the car for 5 months.
- Good – You had your seatbelt on and only the side impact airbags fired.
- Bad idea – Yelling out “Oh Sxxx! I’ve got warrants!” and running away from the scene of an accident you caused when you suspect that the witness who was open carrying was a policeman.
- Not so good idea – Before fleeing said accident scene, you grab all of the documentation from the glove compartment and console of your vehicle.
- Bad idea – dropping your cell phone on the floor of your vehicle and not retrieving it when you were fleeing the scene of said accident.
- A lot of people helped Irish Woman and me out tonight, and I’d like to take this opportunity to thank them.
- Good automobile insurance is worth every penny.
- I’m OK. My shoulder is sore and bruised, I have a few cuts and scrapes, and I’ll probably feel pretty rough tomorrow morning. But x-ray’s show no fractures to the neck and back, so I’ve got that going for me.
- The ER nurse looked at me oddly when I declined a narcotic pain-killer and opted instead for ibuprofen.
- The muscle relaxant they gave me is really kicking in, so I’ll bid y’all good night.
Posted by daddybear71 on August 18, 2013
https://daddybearsden.com/2013/08/18/thoughts-on-the-day-162/
Thoughts on the Day
- Irish Woman came back from the farmer’s market with a bottle each of blackberry and elderberry wine, a couple of fresh peaches, sweet corn, and a seedless watermelon.
- I must say that blackberry wine is an excellent way to end the day.
- Apparently some of my neighbors don’t understand that when someone else owns a piece of land, they can either do what they want in a way that fits in with the rest of the community, or they can say screw it and just put in whatever strikes their fancy, and complaining vociferously about what they want to tastefully do is counterproductive.
- It’s never a good sign when walking on a bare floor feels like you’re walking on Lego’s, and no amount of NSAID stops that.
- Dinner tonight was pork ribs marinated in either tequila or bourbon, corn and green beans cooked with bacon and onions, and fresh corn on the cob.
- It’s nice to make a good summer dinner every so often.
- Girlie Bear asked me if she could read “1984” today. I couldn’t find my copy, so I gave her “Brave New World” instead.
- Now, that’s going to be an interesting literary conversation.
- I’m so proud of Boo. He liked a Marx Brothers movie as much as I did.
- I haven’t heard that many belly laughs from him in a long time.
- Irish Woman spent almost 7 hours working in the yard this afternoon and evening.
- I can express my entire opinion on cutting grass and weeding – xeriscaping.
- A few gallons of weed killer, a few hundred yards of black tarp, and a few tons of pea gravel, and I only have to do yard work a couple of times a year.
- Apparently Kentuckians would rather sweat in the dirt, heat, and humidity.
Posted by daddybear71 on August 17, 2013
https://daddybearsden.com/2013/08/17/thoughts-on-the-day-161/
Book Review – Survivors
Survivors, by Holly Chism, is a collection of short stories that deal with loss, betrayal, abuse, and redemption. Ms. Chism uses each vignette to paint a picture of a human being in pain, and while there is rarely a happy ending, there is almost always hope or redemption. The overall message that I drew from this work was that if you are willing to look the horrors of life in the face, you will find that they are surmountable, no matter how difficult that may be, and that you are rarely alone if you seek others.
While this book deals with adult concepts, it does so in a way that did not discourage me from sharing it with Girlie Bear. My teenage daughter absolutely consumed this book, finishing it in an afternoon. She understood most of the underlying themes, and I hope that the lessons are remembered. I expect that this will go into her “read again” rotation.
I would recommend this book to anyone who needs a little hope, or who has survived the worst that life can throw at them, or who just enjoys a well-written short story. Ms. Chism leaves off the very end of the stories in a few times, but this works more toward getting you to sit back and think about how the character will continue the story line rather than feeling like the plotline just ended. This isn’t a sugary, cheery, turn-that-frown-upside-down kind of book. Rather, it’s a put-on-your-big-girl-pants kind of book. If you try it, I think that you will enjoy it.
Posted by daddybear71 on August 17, 2013
https://daddybearsden.com/2013/08/17/book-review-survivors/
Surprises
On this week’s Squirrel Report, Alan and Breda asked listeners and callers what it was about them that surprised people when they learned about it. Since I can never listen to the Report on Thursday nights, I couldn’t call in, but this should work:
People always seem surprised when they find out that I love to cook and bake. I guess I don’t look the part, but I love good food, and up until I met Irish Woman, that meant I had to cook my own food or make a whole lot more money so that I could afford better than drive-thru burgers.
So, that’s my thought on the subject, but I have one or two for you all:
- What have I revealed about myself on this blog that came as a surprise to you all?
- For those of you who have met me in real life, was there anything that surprised you about the meatspace me?
Please leave answers in comments. I’m curious what people think.
BTW, mistyping sqrpt.com to sprpt.com takes you to a Chinese industrial painting company. Could this be the source of all those Chinese downloads of the show?
Posted by daddybear71 on August 16, 2013
https://daddybearsden.com/2013/08/16/surprises/
A Damn Shame
Last night, a woman was allegedly horribly beaten and stabbed to death by her boyfriend. The child the couple brought into this world was in their home at the time, and there were witnesses to the crime. It appears that the alleged murderer and abuser has previous convictions for domestic abuse, as well as violating protective orders. He was arrested a few days ago for abusing the victim in this case, but was released on his own recognizance on Wednesday, the day that the victim also allowed a temporary protective order to lapse.
Witnesses say that they saw the defendant beat and stab the victim in several locations in the house, and that they even tried to intervene to save her. They claim that they backed off when he tried to cut them with the knife that he was using to carve up the mother of his child.
So what we have here is someone who has been convicted of domestic abuse on multiple occasions being arrested yet again for using his significant other as a speed bag, but being let out of his cage with nothing but a stern warning to be a good boy while he awaits trial. We have a young mother who has nothing to defend herself except for the honor of the man who she accused of bouncing her off of furniture for fun and profit. We have adult witnesses who were not able to get him off of her because all they had was their bare hands.
What we have here is the inevitable outcome of what happens to the weak when they are denied effective defensive tools and are confronted by the strong.
That is the insanity of the gun control laws in places like Massachusetts. Would Ms. Martel still be alive if she had owned a gun? I don’t know, but I do know she would have had a better chance at survival armed than she did when her boyfriend got out of jail and came over for one last sparring match. But she was prohibited from walking out of that courthouse on Tuesday and walking into a gun store and purchasing the single most effective defensive tool known to man. Heck, as I understand the laws in Massachusetts, she didn’t even have the option of calling someone she knows who already owns a gun and getting a loaner. Her neighbors, who tried to help her, were also hamstrung because all they had at their disposal when they tried to pull a large, muscular, allegedly murderously enraged man off of her were their bare hands.
Instead, they were all left to the mercy of someone with a history of using women as kinetic stress reducers.
Ladies, I’m not going to promise that a gun will magically save you from an attacker, be he some psycho who randomly picked you out of the herd or be he the father of your children. It’s a tool, not a talisman, and the mere presence of a gun does not guarantee good outcomes, just as its presence does not cause bad outcomes. But like any tool, if used properly and judiciously, it can mean the difference between success and failure in a situation where failure means death of the innocent or worse.
Ladies, and especially mothers, please take a moment to think about how much you love your life and the lives of your children. No-one wants to hurt or kill someone else when they cherish life, but in instances like this, you have to weigh the life of your attacker against the value of your life and what you add to the lives of your children. Please, do not let all of that be protected only by a piece of paper and the honor of those who have no sense of honor. Protect yourselves, with whatever means you can get.
You are too precious to have that happen to you, even if I never met you.
UPDATE – Credit where credit is due. I realized after I wrote this that I borrowed heavily from Kathy Jackson in “The Cornered Cat: A Woman’s Guide to Concealed Carry” when I was writing the last paragraph or two. It was unintentional, but I definitely want Kathy to get credit for the sentiment I was trying to get across.
Posted by daddybear71 on August 16, 2013
https://daddybearsden.com/2013/08/16/a-damn-shame-3/
Today’s Earworm
Posted by daddybear71 on August 16, 2013
https://daddybearsden.com/2013/08/16/todays-earworm-401/
Today’s Earworm
It’s almost football season. Our long night is coming to an end.
Posted by daddybear71 on August 15, 2013
https://daddybearsden.com/2013/08/15/todays-earworm-400/







