It’s been said that a novel is never finished, only abandoned. The same is no doubt true of financial statements if you’re a particularly anal retentive sort of accounting person – and if you’re an accounting person, you are.
I’m done. Let the Spanish Inquisition begin!
That feeling when they’re trying to figure out at the hangar who needs to get training on using the AED (automated external defibrillator) in case anyone has a heart attack because we apparently need to have a minimum number of people trained and when your name comes up everyone immediately pretty much agrees that you’re the last person that should be trained simply because you’re the one most likely to NEED the AED used when YOU have a heart attack, not to be the one using the AED on someone else.
Mixed feelings about that. It’s great that I don’t have to take the training since my plate is full to overflowing and I really can’t spare the time. The logic used to reach that decision is a bit…disturbing. Not saying it’s wrong (although I feel fine – strong like bull! smart like tractor! smooth like brick! ook! ook!! ook!!!) because I can see their point.
Still…
Aren’t I something of a “spring chicken” in that group?
Having had the adrenaline rush of almost killing some moron who thinks they can win a battle of momentum with a car, I’ve had a couple more thoughts.
That last point is the one I wonder about the most. The Law of Unintended Consequences!
If we make cars safer by putting in automated braking system, are we also breeding pedestrians to not look at traffic or care if it’s “safe” to cross the street?
Or is such a population of oblivious pedestrians self-limiting in size as Darwinian rules creep in?
Jeff Goldblum’s character in “Jurassic Park” said, “Life will always find a way” — so will death.
Filed under Freakin' Idiots!, Los Angeles
Shadows
And Haydn’s Piano Concerton In D Major, apparently.
What do you call someone dressed in black who’s jaywalking after dark across seven lanes of busy traffic in Los Angeles?
An organ donor.
If you need to give your heart away for Valentine’s Day, there are better ways to do it.
I don’t even remember seeing her until I was already standing on the brakes. There was a guy in the lane to my right, just a half car-length ahead of me, that might have seen her and started braking hard – maybe I picked up on that and reacted reflexively before I knew it.
One way or the other, both I and the guy on my right stopped, as did the person coming up from behind who swerved off to the left rather than rear ending me and killing Hissy. We all survived this time. Not by much, but I guess “close” only counts in horseshoes, hand grenades, and thermonuclear weapons.
Los Angeles is becoming the pedestrian death capital of the country. If you’re a pedestrian, try to at least make an effort to avoid being the next victim organ donor. Even if you don’t give a rat’s ass about your own health and safety, think of how much damage you’ll do to Hissy’s front bumper and hood as you’re pulped.
Filed under Freakin' Idiots!, Los Angeles
Playing with the new iPhone camera with our PT-19 trainer as a subject.
She’s a tail-dragger, something I haven’t flown yet (although I have flown in her).
The open cockpit is a hoot to ride in. The tube & fabric body is quite a change for those accustomed to aluminum and titanium.
The cockpit is simple and you can see just how basic the tubular structure of the body is.
The prop is wooden, but it gets the job done.
The brightly colored tail is rakish – the color combo is spectacular. (It also makes you easy to spot after an “off-field” landing, a good thing if you’re a training aircraft!)
Filed under CAF, Flying, Photography
Nabisco Premium Saltines with Unsalted Tops, to be precise.
Where did they go?
Was there an explosion at the Nabisco factory where only the Unsalted Tops production line got melted to slag?
Is there a huge underground market for Unsalted Top Saltines? Are they some sort of delicacy for newly liberated pot smokers in California?
Was there a toxic batch of “unsalt” which made them all get recalled?
I don’t know the answer, but it’s been three weeks and four different markets and I can’t find the Nabisco Premium Saltines with Unsalted Tops to save my life. Nada. Zip.
They all have the regular Saltines, mind you. Lots of them! In two of the stores I actually found the spot on the shelves where the Unsalted Tops were supposed to be, but that shelf space was filled to overflowing with the Regular Saltines.
I tried to call Nabisco to raise the alert, sound the alarm, raise a ruckus. Nothing. No comment. (This might be related to the fact that I was calling at about 22:00 on a Sunday evening and they’re only open 9 to 6, Monday through Friday, but I’m trying to go on a conspiratorial rant here!)
The one Ralph’s superstore did have the Kroger brand unsalted tops crackers – bleh!! I’ve tried them before. They’re one of the key reasons that “house brand” gets such a bad reputation.
[LATE EDIT] – After writing most of this last night, tonight on my way home I found them in a local, non-chain, mom-and-pop style grocery store. Our long, national nightmare is over!
Or maybe… Maybe that’s just what they want us to think…
Filed under Los Angeles, Paul
Geez Louise, I worked harder for more hours on both Saturday and Sunday than I did during the week, and my weeks are freakin’ exhausting at this point. And now it’s 23:58 on Sunday night and Monday’s here in two minutes.
I’m open to the possibility that I’m doing this wrong.
Meanwhile, the deadlines are coming at me like fence posts by the roadside as I’m tearing along at 1,000 mph.
I did sit and watch the lizards for five minutes while I put up the new flag. Does that count?
Gotta go, bye!
Filed under Uncategorized
That feeling when you’re indulging in a little bit of “musical therapy” to unwind on a Saturday night and it’s a good night on the Sirius Channel 33 “1st Wave” Saturday Night Safety Dance show and they keep playing favorites and when they do of course you turn it up REALLY LOUD and your phone keeps pinging alerts and you finally give in and look at it and find out that the music is loud enough to be triggering the security camera on the front door three rooms away and you’re disgustingly pleased by that fact.
I’m easily amused.
Filed under Castle Willett, Music
Among this week’s crises (some of which approached almost comic proportions, like where you want to raise your weary eyes to the heavens and plead, “Really? REALLY? That’s just lazy writing!” – line blatantly stolen from the new “Deadpool 2” trailer because it’s freakin’ hilarious) were a terminally ill phone, which lead to the move up to the iPhone 8 Plus.
Of course, with a new, much better & faster smart phone comes a new, much better & faster camera. Let’s be real – they’re actually pocket-sized high definition video cameras that can take really good still photos with a supercomputer attached for kicks and a phone tacked on as an afterthought today. Oh, and they play music.
Alas, my train of thought has derailed once again.
Given the new phone and a foggy, dreary grey morning on Tuesday morning, the first pictures to come out of the new device were of the flag hanging in our front yard.
It is not lost on me that our house’s flag might well be an accurate symbol for the current state of our country – faded, a bit tattered, beaten up, feeling a bit worse for wear, adrift in a fog with no clear direction in sight.
As with the phone, perhaps it’s time for a replacement and upgraded flag. While we’re at it, let’s keep working on that upgraded and refreshed country as well.
Filed under Castle Willett, Photography, Politics
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