Monthly Archives: August 2015

On Shaving and Cleopatra


I recently signed up on one of the advertised shaving supply sites and tossed out the razor I had been using for 3 years opting for the newcomer that promised a smooth, clean, and money-saving shave. The ad promoting the new shaver unabashedly had its celebrity spokesman telling the world what an incredible shave one would have. Well, I was happy with my old razor that the new company was telling me was a horrible razor and that the new blades would last longer…..uh, well, not true….the new blades irritated from the start and fell short on the length of time they would hold up. Additionally, the new company wrote that it would be less costly to use its system than the one I was using…not true….the blade in the razor I was using was a year old and did not pull or irritate where the new blade did. Oh how I wish I had the old razor back and the money back in my wallet for the new razor which irritates and is worn out in less than a week.

Today is the anniversary of Cleopatra’s suicide that was in response to Mark Anthony’s suicide which was in response to his belief that Cleopatra was dead. What does that have to do with shaving? Absolutely nothing.

The Twentieth Anniversary.


Yesterday, August 3rd, was Jan and my 20th Anniversary. I love her so much. We went out and ate dinner and relived the memories of our first night together as a married couple.  Those memories always bring smiles from the actual marriage in a small chapel (just she and I, the minister and his wife) with a cow bell that they range from the steeple to announce our wedding. Photos, flowers, all dressed up. We didn’t tell anyone because we didn’t want to have anyone go out and buy gifts and things as we had our own households and didn’t need anything. Unfortunately, we made a lot of people angry at us because we eloped. Well, anyway, we rented a cabin with a hot tub. Our luck.. the cabin was haunted. Out on the side porch was a hottube. Jan and I had never used a hottub and thought it would be fun. We turned it on. It got hot. I almost broke the cover getting it off,……something about not crawling across the cover to unlatch it…heard a loud snap sound and crawled back off. My lady came out and tested the water….perfect. She jumped in and I went to get my swim suit on (we were very visible from the road you understand with woods behind us houses across the street and up and down the hillside). I went inside and changed and came back to jump into the tub but the sliding glass doors were closed; and before Jan could stop me I walked into them. The next thing I knew I was on my  back with a very sore forehead having bounced off the doors. I sat up and Jan was in the tub laughing. We both laughed. I was fine and it set up the night for hugs and a great memory of the day. That night I tried to sleep but was hounded all night long with things (remember I said the place was haunted) touching my face and arms that were uncovered from under the blankets. Jan said “I’m out of here” and went back to the first floor. We checked for flying bugs….none. Tried to get back to sleep and again the same things….something touching my face, neck, arms, and hands. We never found out what it was. Whenever I’d flip on the lights there was nothing visible that could be touching me or her. The next day, our one night rental over, we went into Gatlinburg and rented a non-haunted room. 20 years plus one day. I love my wife.

A rainy day.


Well, yesterday and the day before were a bit stressful. I’ve never seen such a mess. The rain that is. The Tampa Bay area had numerous areas where flooding occurred. Skywarn was activated and one of the Emergency Operation Centers was asking for flooding reports. Several  Ham Radio operators were reporting flooded streets, homes, and offices.

Brandy VA Update — breaking into a happy dance.


Good News! Brandy received her first DIC VA check. It came in on Friday. Very exciting news because we were told she might not get a dime for up to and possibly longer than one and a half years. She was/is a hardship case having NO money which we told the jerk at the VA. He simply said he could do nothing. He didn’t even tell her about the hardship application that, once we knew about, she filed. We had to figure that one out by ourselves. The government is so helpful. The last time I was in room 222 at regional in St. Pete, they informed a widow of two days that her husband wasn’t dead because the computer was showing him still alive.

Cecil had a sponsor!


Cecil the lion had a sponsor. Cecil was being studied. The brave white  hunter paid $50,000 to have the lion lured out of the safety of the preserve. It was hunted by someone who simply wanted to show a trophy head and the animal’s skin on the floor. He wasn’t interested in sharing Lion meat with the natives. He wasn’t interested in  providing money to the natives. No. He wanted to have a head and a skin from Cecil. Personally I think he was in need of this to make him look like he was a man. Trophy hunting is just that. It has nothing to do with preservation of a species by combing out the sick or reducing population to avoid illness and starvation. No. It is about making people think you are a man. I think there is another way of showing manhood. One way is to work at stopping the incredible number of abortions in this country daily. On Friday, over 2,740 were done. Probably only a few were necessary due to incest, rape, or the need to preserve the health of the mother……Yep…. you are a mother if you are pregnant. Well, if you were one of them then you might have checked to see if the fetus was then sold for research. If this disturbs you then maybe you need to feel something about this wretched problem. I am for abortions when it comes to the mother’s health, because of rape, and because of incest. I do not think abortion is a birth control device. Nor do I think that luring a celebrity lion out of its safety and killing it is hunting.

Cecil the Lion -v- Abortions and the right to feel.


Okay, so I have been on Facebook with everyone else jumping up and down about Cecil the Lion. I needed to be in the pack. I was outraged. Others were outraged. We clashed as to what each was outraged about. Some have the facts. Some think they have but don’t. Some like Aleesa in Perth, Australia just want to fight about whatever. It makes no matter what you say, to her, you are wrong. She’s a model. A skinny model. Makes her money walking up and down a short platform and is overly impressed with herself.

Anyway, enough said about her. She is a one of a kind and there are plenty of models out there who make a good living in a tough industry and I salute you all. My middle brother was a model in Chicago as a child.

But again, I digress…… Cecil brought forth emotion! Emotion! We need emotion in our lives that light us up like flashlights, fireworks, howitzers, nuclear bombs going off…we need to be able to feel (Aleesa disagreed). We need the comfort of being able to state our feelings and argue points of difference and….FEEL…… Our emotions have been severed. Over 2,700 abortions were committed in the US yesterday and more will be performed today, and tomorrow, and the next day. Do you see outrage on FB? No. You see outrage over Cecil and I think you should and I am happy that somebody out there feels something because we are headed to the land where everything is the same and everyone wears the same, talks the same, buys the same, elects the same, has 2.5 kids and never, never, never ever feel anything! And all the little Aleesas out there can go to hell as far as I’m concerned because they want to restrict your right and my right by trying to bully us into submission.

Do not stop feeling. Do not stop caring. If you do you will be nothing but a robot and the social democrats = communists = socialists = liberals want that to happen. Only they can feel anything as far as they are concerned. Well I say NO.

Bass Pro Shop Day—–8/2/15


0900 and I just made pancakes with almond milk as a substitute for real milk. But if it is almond milk then doesn’t that mean that it is milk? If I have cows milk then that seems to be the norm. But almond milk is still milk, I think. And soy milk? How about cashew butter, or almond butter. I mean that if you generally go to the store to buy butter, then it is cow butter. But, we don’t say I’m going to the store to buy cow butter. We say we are going to the store to get butter. See my point? Is there a point there? Anyway, I had pancakes.

I was reading the back of the package because the front said I could make pancakes or waffles. Ah, there is a novel idea.

But I wondered what was the difference between pancakes and waffles if they all have the same components. Is there a special waffle mix? No. Same stuff. Mix, eggs, oil, and …….. oh, the box said milk for pancakes and water for waffles. Why? Why can’t I just make pancake stuff and put it in a waffle maker (assuming I owned one which I don’t) but the issue is why? Milk -v- water? God help me.

Anyway, we are going to the new Bass Pro Shop in Brandon, FL today. Yeah!