Gun for Hire

He cleans up good and is quite well known in environmental and air quality circles, looking for work in databases, statistics, maritime trades, educational metrics, energy related fields, business process re-engineering, quality assurance, ISO, environmental impact studies, and related goodness. Mr. Wells or "Sam" as they call him currently works from the house and is searching for diversified contract ops, a full time salary position, or even part time work. Dedicated, reliable, proven, and quite proficient at SAS programming as a plus. 956-772-1470.

These are the Februaries of our lives

killer swamp wabbit top right

Trials, tribulations, cold, freezing-arse cold, low on money, and hunkering down, knowing that February is thank goodness a short month, we hunker down. The first week of this February was real snotty, icy weather and the power went off many times for a long time. Did I mention it was cold? But yeah, we survive, and get by with the bad news of people dying and getting cancer and if you think about it, February is an especially evil month.

On February 3rd, we shifted into the Chinese New Year with the year of the metal rabbit. I am a fire monkey (by the Chinese zodiac) and I hate steel fooking rabbits, OK? Man they're bad news, and sure enough the weather, the electricity, and even the water pressure went kafflooie. Egypt rioted and there was a small earthquake in Oklahoma. This is a bad omen, one that I pray doesn't portend for the future.

And what's with all these "transformers" on the Super Bowl ads? Don't you know those are evil metal rabbits in disguise? Disgusting! Don't they know that the year of the rabbit is horrible luck? The only good rabbit is one that's in my pot or on the BBQ. Where do you think they got the superstition about a rabbit's foot being a good luck charm? If you don't eat a rabbit, one will eat YOU.

No reason to talk bummer stuff all the time, how about Mead? It's making a come-back and we ought to get in on the market. I can be quite potent, up to 18 percent alcohol with the right yeast, yet aged three years can be nearly a refined as a merlot. My experience has been more on the beer making side, where you make a boiled wort and add 1 part of honey for about 2 parts of water if you can find and afford that much honey ... with the beer method you can extend the honey further by using some barley malt syrup. I wouldn't go less than a gallon of honey in 5 gallons of hooch.

The batch I last made was before moving to SPI but it would be cool to do that again - a real crowd pleaser. It was 1.25 gallons of honey topped off to 5 gallons with filtered rainwater, a handful of white crystal malt in the grain bag, and a half pound or more dose of light malt syrup. I didn't use mead yeast but more a Belgian one that would get about 10% ABV. Folks it's enough to get you schnockered don't laugh.

After being sure that the fermentation doesn't explode and then the fermentation is done, into a second carboy as a clarifier stage, a very important step. The mead must sit in total darkness for at least two weeks before bottling. We used table large wine bottles for our stash. At three years it is in its prime, but it is passable after at least one month setting in a closet and good at 9 months.

True mead is good at many temperatures from near freezing to quite warm, and should never have any cloying sweetness to it (unlike most honey beer on the market). It should be very crisp and clear, never cloudy, like a champagne but not nearly as bubbly. The beehive honey dictates the aftertaste, which can be grassy clover to musky mesquite flower. Using local honey also has the benefit of making you used to the local pollen, so as to reduce allergies. Good mead is hard to find but even though expensive, is well worth the effort.

Sea Smoke 1

Well that's certainly not South Padre Island here in lower Texas at latitude 26 degrees, but that is sea smoke or sometimes called ice fog. I think it is an excellent picture and is that a sailboat in the upper right corner? They are also known as killer fogs, since they seemed so eerie, still, and inherently evil.

Back to reality, think are going just OK here in imperfect paradise, been worried about work because contracting got slow, although I am hopeful for the spring. But we've got our health, good luck, and a second puppy dog - we should call him "Temporary" because I fear we'll fall in love with him (he's supposed to be a foster puppy for a few weeks). Brody is his name. The kids and family is good and it was 66 degrees for the day's high, about normal.

How about the budget mess? Has anyone been following that? What I heard was that government services, state federal, could be cut by about half (no more jokes about killer fogs). This time the ultra-conservatives seem to really want to cut the budget, as opposed to the previous increases such as during Bush 43. This has major implications, since most states, counties, and cities are limited by their constitutions about how much they can tax - and are either tapped out or promise "no new taxes." For local taxes to be raised over this threshold, a referendum vote must be held. Therefore, only rich local entities can vote themselves some tax increases if they want more services. When you push down services like education, medicine, and public safety to the local level, no grant matching, it gets real tough. Combine that with increasing nervousness on the "muni" bond market, once considered sacred, I say we have an official boondoggle.

Maybe it won't be all kaddywhumpus and bad. I don't get any entitlement money so that's not my issue. But it affects everything from my local taxes to big airports and marine ports, which is my bread and butter; even my DOD work will get cut back. I will muddle through this mess like many in a similar position. I just hope I don't have to learn Chinese to stay employed.

Onward through the fog.

Hurricane Tomas

Photo of October 26th Storm - NASA
Record Low Pressure in Minnesota

In the last week we had an un-named storm in the Mid-West (above picture as of 10/26) and now we have Tomas approaching the Antilles in the picture below (10/30/2010). This is truly strange, powerful weather for this time of year. The gurus are studying this stuff, like why the central pressure can drop so fast and so low. Climate change? We'll see.

Enhanced Photo if Hurricane Tomas - NOAA
Water Vapor

Hurricane Tomas has a large circulation and is expected to go Cat 2 or 3 before running into wind sheer, and blending into a cold front. Very dry air extends from the Yucatan through Cuba. The storm in hot pink color on the right appears to be redeveloping and is already quite large.

Graphic - Unisys
GFS-x Model

This is a roughly 6-7 day future scenario when Tomas is now east of Cuba, the blob in the lower right. It is the pushing force of that big Mid-West storm as shown in a big red-orange loop at the middle of the picture, how much and when. Various models do different things but you can get a sense of the spaghetti after a while. Gawd I love spaghetti.

Health Insurance

This is not a post about Obama-care but I can say that we've been having hell over the medical insurance. To make a long story short, Lori the wife had a public school job with cheap insurance, she left, COBRA didn't work although it would have been nice for 18 months, and we're faced with monthly payment of over $850 and that includes a $5000 deduct on major hospital stuff. After applying with several places and getting quotes, they're calling back wanting to know when's the last time I had sex, and personal questions like that.

Humana rejects people for being slightly overweight and another says that mild hypertension is cause for WWIII. Asthma, forget it!

Then I got to figuring. Assuming I'm healthy and including the dang dentist, we spend no more than $5000 a years on drugs and doctors, both of us. But the insurance costs $10,000! I guess they're banking I won't stroke out or something ... but remember they want $5000 if I get the farts and think it's one, just to visit a hospital.

Now something is wrong here. I want my insurance to cover my arse for the regular stuff and if I want the hospital stuff, well I can add that on as the economy comes back all rosy and ducky-wucky. Ten years and I can draw retirement, retirement insurance, Medicaid, and all kinds of freebies. I have to wonder about this all ... but I plod along, and send them documents, and keep going because it is the American way, being a good boy. It is getting tiresome, though.

For all this, Lori is seriously thinking about working for the man again, like a school district, since they insure you for everything even if you are a walking medical time-bomb. That's about half the cost, perhaps $400 to $500 a month. It just doesn't seem right to screw the independent small business person, though.

The Great Ambiguity

We can only guess that as the Great Recession of 2007-2009 fades into memory, that things seem to resist doing well - economically of I would say even deeper, philosophically. it seems as though the grand Experiment failed ... now what?

So things are great, wonderful, and living in paradise, yet going to heck at the same time. The environment is clean, healthy, and getting better, yet we live in a world of trash and ones of the largest oil spills ever. We want to "take back the USA" but don't have a clue how to do that, other than kicking foreigners out of our borders.

Ambiguity is prevalent everywhere one looks. We hate taxes or the prospect of raising taxes, so we'll call them "fees" and jack up all the fees one can find - a fee is just a tax in sheep's clothing. For example, the Cameron County Parks want to jack up beach fees from 3 to 4 dollars to 12 dollars, and incredible increase of 300 to 400 percent!

Back in the late 60s through the 90s, we fought over matter of high principle, from the Hippie Revolution to the protests about the Iraq War. But now it is the Great Blah, a time of stasis and contradiction, and death by a thousand little fees. We simply don't know what to think. I ponder the notion, and have no answers.

Wow is this summer or what?

Overnight Partly Cloudy Lo 83 °F

Thursday Isolated Showers Hi 92 °F

Thursday Night Partly Cloudy Lo 82 °F

Friday Mostly Sunny Hi 89 °F

Friday Night Mostly Clear Lo 83 °F

Saturday Mostly Sunny Hi 89 °F

Saturday Night Mostly Clear Lo 83 °F

Sunday Mostly Sunny Hi 88 °F

Sunday Night Mostly Clear Lo 82 °F

Her Eyes

Those far away green eyes
Staring as if through me
Beckoning, as if a dare
But ready to smack me down
The hint of a smile
That "come hither" expression that only a man knows
Suggesting good times like you've never experienced
The arch of an eyebrow
A quick blink of those far away eyes
And I swear, a wink!
Gosh I wish my dog wouldn't stare at me like that

Screw You, Dell

In this day and age of computers in which we seem so dependent, I was amazed when my hard drive on the desktop crashed last month. Boy what a bullshit runaround that was! So a week or so later when I finally got my stuff back together I called my dad up in Maine. He reported that Dell sold millions of laptops and desktops fully knowing that the hard drives would fail, due to a power control issue with the disk controllers. Unfortunately, this is not a big issue on the blogs these days, but Dell owes me several grand now.

But screw them, and I'm thinking about shopping with somebody else. Come to think of it, two or two laptops malfunctioned as well. After being a faithful customer for years, I feel like I should "get even" but I don't have the 10 grand to sue the retards.

This isn't something about a computer virus or some BS like that. It's called a "planned hardware malfunction right after the warranty expires." Do you now how hard that is to recover when you're a small business? All those groovy programs must be downloaded again and if you don't have the license key, well, you're going to have to pay again! True, some where free but most programs cost between $30 and $7,000 dollars. You didn't read that wrong, that's seven thousand dollars. I was able to hack that expensive program but that's not right!

Living on "cracked" licenses really sucks and I hate that. I've been paying my way since 1994 when I started this computer piddling. I think the government should sue the crap out of Dell for having substandard equipment because otherwise, I had a perfectly good system with an expensive surge protector, firewall router, and the top of the line stuff (for a Micro-Shaft Computer anyways). So now my PC is always barking at me 20 ways like "your copy of this software is not genuine."

It's OK and I so get to rant, but in this dang Great Recession I didn't need to be spending thousands of dollars on software because of some company THAT KNEW THEY HAD DEFECTIVE PARTS.

Summertime Blues

Been working hard the last month or two, and am finally coming up for air. Sure beats worrying about going broke! Been having a little fun although not as much fishing as I'd like. For a while the surf was good but now it's pretty flat, although hot as Hades in the afternoon.

Hard to believe that August is already upon us, and that the summer trade will soon end and turn us back into a ghost town - which suits me fine although the locals need the booty because things got a little slow because of Hurricane Alex. The TIFT has passed and today is the Lady's Kingfish Tournament.

The garden did well on its first crop, although the tomatoes died off and I pulled a bunch up after Hurricane Alex. We now have some okra and various melons coming along - don't ask what kind of melons because we eat one up and throw the seeds into the garden! No telling if it's a watermelon or a butternut squash until they fruit ... I hope they don't cross pollinate. I hope the honeydew and cantaloupe does good. When it gets cooler, back to fall tomatoes & peppers and then herbs and onions.

The fam seems to be doing well, with kids moving about - Samantha left last month for Austin. The oil gusher off Louisiana has been plugged, which is good news for my brother in Biloxi. Hard to keep up with everything but no bad news, anyway. Hope y'all are doing well, too.

Let's All Freak Out!

After a rough recession, with the state of the current economy and deficit, things were getting depressing. But for the most part, people kept their heads together. Now with an uncontrollable oil gusher off Louisiana and possible hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico, it appears that many have completely lost their minds.

Attempts to interject some sanity or realism to the situation does not help, a fact which frustrates me to no end. The entire ocean is dead, all of it, and a hurricane is going to blow us to Kingdom Come. OK, I can handle that, but why freak out?

Many years ago, Frank Zappa said the same things about people getting so upset, what with the hippie revolution, Vietnam, and weirdos who thought is was Armageddon. Gosh we made it through that easy enough, didn't we? If Frank Zappa was alive today he'd be horrified.

Happy Father's Day!

photo credit: Melissa

That's a picture of the international surf camp on our beach, with lots of dads teaching kids how to surf on a beautiful Sunday, Father's Day. It's actually good the surf isn't roaring today, and I'm sure the kids had a great time.

The wife got me a pair of fancy surfer's board shorts, so maybe they're trying to tell me something? LOL, should be expecting some easterly swell maybe by mid-week. Whew, it's a little early for the Dog Days of summer.

After staring at that underwater oil leak on the blog, I decided it was time to get happy again. Funny, tourists are calling up businesses down here asking if the oil is bad - when that's like 400 miles away.

By the way, it's officially summer tomorrow morning, with the Summer Solstice at about 8:30 in the morning. Oh, and Happy father's Day too!

Just When Things Were Getting Better

I promise not to dwell on the heartache, tears, pollution, and busted lives because of the Deepwater Horizon blow-out. But gee, right when things seemed to be going OK, some recovery from the Great Recession, and a few good things coming out of Congress, this happens. The National Mood Indicator swung from nearly the middle about 50% to Zero.

I don't know if there's a way to cuss and discuss this boondoggle of major proportions in any constructive way. I blog with the environmentalists and they accuse me, and environmentalist by trade, of being a fool because I won't ban Big Oil today. I know better than trying to ban anything, but that's how ardent they are ... just as the fools who say "drill baby, drill baby now." Or something like that.

Perhaps some happier ideas will float into my head ... I will sat that Sam & Lori Days with all the birthdays and our anniversary was a wondrous great time, and I couldn't have picked a better place to celebrate it.

The State of the Universe

I think it was Einstein who said that the universe and human stupidity are expanding - and he wasn't too sure about the universe. Funny quote.

But here is out island mascot, an American alligator of moderate size who lives at the pond by the SPI Convention Centre. Scalet used to call her "Allie" although I don't know if this one is different or even a boy. Come to think of it, alligators are so mean and ugly to me, I never thought about "sexing" a male or female. I mean these guys could eat you for lunch.

So a nice lady takes this photo and says "it was sleeping peacefully and basking in the sun." I know some of the alligator language and that boy or girl is fixing to eat some dang dinner! Classic attack pose for an ambush feeder, since they mainly feed in the water and are amazingly strong in the water. Don't these people know anything?

I got into an argument with Allie one time when she was on dry land to sleep. I'd talk pretty to her and she'd hiss, blowing air out her nostrils and trying to be tough. Sooo, being weird, I did her hiss back to her. The dang girl nearly came unglued with fury. I'm no "alligator whisperer" but that was quite an experiment. I swear she winked at me when I blew her an air kiss, though.

Testing 1-2-3

No I'm not a rock 'n' roll star, I seeing if this thang still works!

Last Post Until New Server

Wee doggie, it's been a ride since 2004 or 2005 when I started on Google Blogger. Google still seem to indicate that I need to migrate to a new server thang, and the instructions are so incomprehensible I just gave up - time for something new.

But it's been fun. I have met a ton of people, some through this very porthole on humanity, and not a single bummer. Not even a troll, wow!

I don't know where I'll be, although I do think that "poofnwhiff" is an unusual name if you want to search for my new stuff after May. I be sure to keep that name if I can.

This Is Better

Lori approves of this post.

The Garden Box

After begging from local vendors like Veranda's, Bayview, and various dirt haulers like for Brownsville compost, I gave up and went to Wal-Mart. That's a cubic yard of potting soil in a four by eight frame made of two by twelve treated pine. Obviously, the stuff settles so maybe a wee bit more soil and an inch of mulch and by late Sunday, I am "in like Flint." Expensive little booger but it should last years with some TLC.

After seeing how well Sandy Feets' salad garden was doing, I finally got with the program. This one is for tomatoes, a few peppers, and herbs - and whatever darlings that Lori picks out. Summer okra to follow if the plants get sunburn too bad, and love those multiplying onions.

Oh well, got tired of calling and getting dissed so I took the bull by the horns and crossed the Causeway. Twenty minutes after getting home I took this photo ... doesn't look too bad. FYI, the comforter we had on our bed when we got married is now the "weed screen" on the bottom. Now we're talking some major tomato potential here!

EDC Bird-Brain Boondoggle Continues

Well it is the holy week for many Christians, but unholy things have been happening at the World Bird Brain Center next to the SPI Convention Center. There used to be nice, free walkways there on the south side of the Convention Center, but the EDC took that over and put up a gate.

So some prankster - not me - comes along and steals the gate, hinges and roots and all. I think that God made him do it.

In their infinite wisdom, the EDC erected a wood panel blocking the access completely. They could care less about the birders: all they want your money. Five bucks and you can get in the front door. See, the World Bird Brain Center decided to be self-funded by gate revenue and that was a huge mistake. I could care less about their boondoggle as long as I don't have to bail them out, because the Town guaranteed and voted "yay" on the project. But when they take my free access and commercialize it, I get mad. Apparently, so does He.

Let's not go into how in the early days of our town, the Convention Center was funded by hotel taxes for the sake of the common good, and us local land and property owners already bought it once. But from what I can tell, the EDC went to Cameron County and got "easement rights" to those old walking boards that go out over the marsh, two of them, one going to the alligator pond and the other to a nice little pavilion on the bay.

So the World Bird Brain Center effectively annexed all that land. Amazing, isn't it? Nobody else has an easement there except for the electric company at that giant, ugly transformer station ... as well as the water works, and that's no trespassing.

So here we are paying for all that again. Oh, and plus the price of some fancy-schmancy gate that some Yahoo stole.