Changing times

It's time again, time for the "snowbirds" to leave the area, and go back to whereever it is they came from. Time to stop messing up our roads, providing more than two hundred examples of absolute cheapness,.. excuse me, frugality, per day. ("Oh my, your steak is so big here I guess we'll just have one and a sharp knife and extra plate and we'll share it!")

If I ever get that bad ,...shoot me!

The good news is that with the snowbirds headed back North we are about to get the opposite extreme, the spring breaker. They are far from cheap, they spend freely, the problem is that they don't have that much to spend, so they come collectively in groups, or herds if you like. They are an interesting people study. They break down sort of like this;

Type 1. gorgeous, beautiful, young lady- knows it, makes sure everyone else knows it, and shudders at the idea of using her money for anything that's why she maintains this "groupie" herd of goofy college guys around her. They all think she "likes" them. DUH? You are the bankroll Bubba, think about it, when was the last time she paid for anything? But you ARE being allowed to be seen with her.

Type 2. Homely, or plain female with "a great personality" who has some money and is willing to spend it on beer, frozen margarita's, breakfast at Whata Burgers, can afford the hotel room the "crew" rented, and the gasoline to get here and back. Is having fun, but wonders if this "fun" is all there really is.

Well this one's old so I'll publish and move on

Light at the end of the tunnel!

Yesterday was a better day, they finally got gas for my guinness at the pub, for that I'm thankful, The bad news is that once you tap a keg of Guinness it begins to "sour". Don't laugh it's a fact. In fact I pride myself on being able to tell a bartender, within two days, exactly howmany days a keg of Guinness has been "on-line", and I've never been wrong! But now the currrent Keg is pumping, but it's been eight days with no pressure, at least another seven or eight before thay ran out of gas, and it sure is evident from the taste. (sigh) I guess I'll have to work on getting them to mount a new keg before I turn sour from the current keg contents.
Big Superbowl party at Buster's again this year, FREE draft beers, FREE house wine, Free Apps from kickoff to half time, FREE buffet (Ribs, Roast beef, Chicken tenders, and tons more) starting at half time, the usual tons of give away drawings for beer stuff the suppliers have been dumping in all year, and all for only $30 a head! If you're in the neighborhood drop by it's always a blast.
It just dawned on me that January is pretty much shot already, seems like I'm ripping those monthly calendar pages off at a much faster rate this past few years. The long awaited "Beach Re-nourishment" stuff is supposed to start arriving this next week, with the actual process beginning about the first of February. This is an engineering feat I'm really anxious to watch. If you think about it it's really mind boggling, rebuilding an entire seven mile stretch of beach by pumping sand from the Gulf of Mexico onto the beach and making the entire thing 75 to 1oo feet bigger! It is supposed to be all done by Spring Break, but we'll see. And then there are the pessimists who are saying "fine, ok, you got beach agin, but only til the next storm, and then we've pissed away a few million dollars again!" Who cares we'll at least start looking like we used to for as long as it lasts.
Got to get new tires for my little pick-em-up, so I called around and the best price was Walmart (almost $100 less than anyone else in town!) but no matter when I bring the truck down, 7a.m., 7 p.m., it doesn't mattter they say its a 3 1/2 to 4 hour wait! Maybe because the Snowbirds are here and have nothing else to do but sit and wait for new tires, I don't know! I guess I can wait a few more weeks before I do it.
well got to run, have a great day
-30-

ooops! wrong button!

just a side bar here. My favorite pub ran out of "beer gas" that mixture of 75% nitrogen and 25% carbon dioxode with which they pump the Guinness and imported draft beers. (It is the only gas to use on guinness, and if you use it on your other imports you reduce spillage by about 80% plus your clientel will love it becasue you are tasting the beer, not the "fizzies" of a straight CO2 pump. The result is better tasting beer, less "bloating" and more $ at the register) They ran out last thursday, so I am on day eight without a pint of guinness! I've been reduced to Bass Ale in the bottle, not bad, but most definately not a substitute for my "Vitamin G". The result is I blame my budding case of Broncitis on my pub! (Seems logical to me).
I guess in the interests of health if they don't have gas back in by this evening I will take my Guinness glass and head to Beef O'Brady's for a pint. I have "discussed" the situation with the owner, his two sons, the GM, and every bartender on staff. Perhaps Discussed is too mild a word, ranted and raved and generally made a scene would be more like it! After all they have two tanks, one on line and a back up. Pray tell how you get to the point of BOTH being empty and noone even aware of it? The last time they ran out, about a year ago, they did the usual stupid thing, they brought in EIGHT tanks! Then they ran out six months later and had EIGHT empty tanks sitting around. You would think someone would say "Hey, we need a better system of tracking this stuff", but alas here we are again!
Well it's just one of lifes little aggravations I guess, but I want my Guinness!!!!!

Life's little aggravations

Waitng for the other shoe to drop!

Great game Saturday for the Patriots, they sure looked like the SuperBowl Champs they are, and I think they still have'nt peaked yet for this year. Guess they'll be playing Denver this coming weekend, and I must say Denver makes me a little nervous, but I have faith in the Pats!
My brother in law and sister in law are down, he's only staying a couple days as work calls, you all know how that is, but my sister in law is staying for a week or two, should be fun.
Me? I'm just "hangin' out" waiting to see what my genius boss has planned for 2006. (I'm sure it's going to piss me off regardless of what it is because he is just that kind of an idiot! The "snowbirds" are here in full force and that's a good thing for the economy, but a bad thing for business. I feel like I'm running a day care center for senior seniors all day. They roam in packs, come in and wander around, have to see feel and pick at everything in the store, comment on every single thing they see ("boy they sure don't make these like they used to look how flimsy it is, bet it won't hold up six months!) They are the only people I know who are always asking for non-existent things which have such specialized applications it would take ten years to get back the cost on making 50 of them, and then they are pissed because we don't have them. And by the way the Canadiens apparently have the market cornered on these Robertson screws. They look like a regular screw except the head has a small square inset hole to put it in, and of course it requires a square headed screw driver tip. In the states you see a few, and just about any package of accessories and bits you buy has one or two, but the entire country of Canada must be assembled with these things and the Canadiens are always bugging me for special sizes. When you tell them they only come in packages with an assortment of other bits, (i.e. 75 accessories for $4.98) the answer is universal. "Oh, all I need is that one bit, do you have them seperately?" Of course not, they are probalbly about half a penny to make, and would retail for maybe on the high side for a nickel, but would cost who the hell knows how much to package, handle distribute, etc. I guess since Canada is semi-socialized they have lost the grasp of the concept that the purpose of business is to make a profit, ...or be out of business.
But the good news is Canadien men are quasi useless, the wives keep them on very short leashes, make damn sure they have no money on them, and I don't even want to think oof the fate they would incur if they spent a penny without spousal approval. Sometimes a guy will get very excited to find exactly what he has been looking for for thepast ten years, it's on a severe mark down to get rid of them, they are priced at half thier cost, and the then you watch them get crushed to dust, because the wife simply says, "You don't need it!" End of case end of story, end of the whimper of masculine independance. "Yes dear."
Well off to face the throngs today! Have a good one!

One down three to go!

Well "We're baaaaack!!", The Patriots that is. Today is Sunday and I've got to follow that Steelers, Bengals game to see where we go next week. If the Steelers win, the Pats go to Denver, if the "Bungles" win we go to Indy! Either way we are most definately on the road to the Superbowl again.
Other related, well not really, items. My brother in law and asister in law are both down. He can only stay a couple days then back to Atlanta, but I guess my sister in law is staying for a week or two (I guess it's on a need to know basis!)
I'm drawing a bit of a blank this morning so it looks like this will be a pretty brief post. The local Pub just put in the Racing channel (RTN?) for several of our regulars who are into horse and trotter racing. While it's "ok", I just can't get overly excited about it, I'd have much rathered they keep the NTN Trivia stuff, but the costs are supposedly outrageous.
There are several other pubs dishing up the NTN, and a couple even have Guinness on draught, but I guess I'm like the old time patriot, "My pub right or wrong", it's not worth the hassle of moving my butt to a new "neighborhood". You know how hard it is to move into a new neighborhood? There are already regulars, so you are the "newbie", there is a "pecking order" of seniority, respect, "personal service" and of course "my stool". Everyone knows I sit at the far end of the bar, usually the first or second stool down, "Mikie" owns the corner with the full view of the front door, Jim & Linda the two either side of Mikie and I, and of course a few others have their regular spots as well. Regulars get thier "Channel priveleges", despite the ominous sign posted that proclaim "All TV's are preset and the channels can't be changed, so don't ask", and we even get "volume" if we want it so we can hear over whatever the management decided to put on the "house" speakers.
Then of course there is the whole "family thing". As a regualr you get all the straight skinny on the place, everyone there (called gossip by some), and really feel like part of a family, albeit aclassic dysfunctional one, but there is a "familiararity" that is both re-assuring as well as comforting. For example if you just frequent a number of different places with no real "home" you miss all the "good stuff", like now there are at least four waitresses tha have dumped at least $4,000 into "boob jobs". (Incidentally they don't look any different to me, but one of my "buds" tells me if I dropped by the Whale's Tail (local beach and hangout for all waitstaff off duty) I would most definately notice the differeence in bikini tops. Guess I'm getting old, it's a "so what, looks good but I'm married, doesn't help me".
Well got to go get another cup of coffee, finish up a few nit picks, and head out for the morning, so it's "post time"

Things to do in 2006

Yesterday we got a panic call from one of my sisters looking for me to forward all my geneology research to my little brother who was going to have someone followup on it for a family trip to Ireland we are all making this coming August.
It's one of my life's goals to go to Ireland and see where my ancestors came from as well as see what happened to the "other side" of our family. Ever since I was a kid (too dumb to listen to what the "old farts" were talking about at the St. Paddy's day parade gathering) I've always been curious about it. As a second generation American citizen growing up in a blue collar family with four brothers and sisters it's always been sort of an enigma to me.
Welll it looks like I get to find out this August and I'm looking forward to it. My brother in law and I started researching the family history about fifteen years ago (primarily as an excuse to get to the Irish pubs for which Boston is so famous for), but it moved beyond that and we spent hours pouring over records and birth certificates, wedding certificates, and death cetificates and got back to our grand parents, who all came from Ireland. But that is as far as we got, the trail went cold.
My little brother has some business contacts in Ireland and he now wants to take up the gauntlet and see if he can add more to our quest. My tattered old looseleaf full of copies of all the records we could find still end in the early 1900's as each of our grand parents seems to have come to this country alone and met and married over here. Thier names were common, there was little if any clue as to how they got here (obviously by boat, but to where and from where?) that's what's perplexed us for these past years. It seems like there is a huge hole in data trails from there on.
Well it's up to him now as I have hit the wall (without dumping tons of money into these cottage industry geneologists who will do it for you)
Well now that I'm awake for the day I gueess I better take care of some other business that's pressing on me today. See you next entry!

Dumbing down America

Recently as I stood outside my pub having a cigarette. I picked up one of those "free" tabloids designed for the tourists to take and was thumbing through it. I caught a page titled "Internet Gem of the Fortnight" and it caught my eye. The paper had reproduced an 8th grade test given in Salina Kansas as the final exam of the year in 1895! I began to look at the questions and had to go back and read the header again. This thing was like a grad school exam! And I'm not kidding! For example, "Give the epochs into which U.S. history is divided.", or how about "What is meant by the following: alphabet, phonetic, orthography, etymology, and Syllabication?", and if you think these are a piece of cake, "Name all the Republics of of Europe and give the Capitals of each".
Ok boys and girls there are 45 questions like this and you have five hours to complete the test, remeber a passsing gfrade is required to graduate from the 8th grade! Ready begin, remember no calculators, no notes or crib sheets, and no talking during the test,...ready, begin!
So just how do you think one of today's 8th graders would do? Or for that matter a graduate of one of our prestigious "pillars of higher learning"?
Remember this is 8th grade stuff, no wonder our parents and thier parents were so damn smart and gave us what we have today, but it begs the question with our "dumbed down" system today what the hell will this country look like in another 100 years. God knows we can see some of the early results now, business men (ooops! sorry, first mistake, I meant "business people") who can not craft a regular intelligent writen communication without spelling mistakes, use of slang, or, God forbid, properly punctuated! Or people who can't do something as simple as count change back to you but rely on what the computer tells them to give back to you. Or how about asking anyone today to name three countries in Africa, let alone their Capitals!
How did we let our country backslide (oops! another slang term) to this point! In a lot of respects it's maddening, but moreover it's just plain bitterly sad.
The bigger question is can we "fix" it? I think not because we've come too far down the road of permissiveness, politcal correctness, and sheer "feel good" logic. Are we doing our future children and leaders any good with this direction today?
Sure hope the pharmacist filling my perscription knows the difference between millimeters and all that stuff, or the doctor who has to operate on me knowing exactly where my spleen is, or the accountant who can glean the proper percentage of taxes I need to pay.
Sure is scary!

A day off!!

Today is payday for the month so I said "what the hell" and decided to take the day off and get some Christmas stuff done. My crew is more than able to run the joint without me.
Let's see, it's 6am, been up for an hour(as usual!) had two cups of coffee, scanned the world news and all, surfed a few of my favorite sites, and have about twenty minutes left til I go get showered shaved and dressed for my Rotary Club meeting. (I'm the President this year). Then it's a quick Board of Directors meeting with the Rotary to finalize our Christmas caroling and stockings distribution Sunday at the local hospital, then off to see my broker. (Setting up IRA's for my wife and I,...finally) and discussing why of the only stocks I bought last spring that grew was the one I picked (Apple Computer), not the brokers "recommendations".
Maybe a quick cup of coffee then off to finish the Christmas shopping for my wife. She's wanting a certain setting for her wedding ring. (After forty years of wearing it I guess I can spring for it!) Then I want to get her a mixer, you know the kind you see on all the cooking shows with the one big ass beater that works in an eliptical fashion, like the Kitchen Aid ones. (I went out and priced them last week even the re-conditioned ones start at $150, and some of the new ones are as high as $450! (I know it's a "guy thing", and I'll get over it, but it better not become a doorstop for those kind of bucks!)
I'll probably swing by the store just to check up on things and handle a crisis or two that occurs during my absence, then the post office thing to send my tax guy a check (this guys good for a number of reasons I can't go into here, but trust me he's really GOOOD!) A few more forays into the stores for last minute things and I should be done. Then off to "the Pub" for a couple of pints and home to relax before the final ten day push to Christmas at the store,(sigh).

I haven't even finished writting this and I'm tired already! Guess it's time for another cigarette, cup of coffee, and re-entry into the world from my little "blog capsule" here in the ether layers.
Have a great day and drop me a comment or two so I don't feel like the sole inhabitant of this "vast wastland".
The nice things about a blog are it is mind provoking, and fun to express yourself. I can't even imagine the "game nerds" who sit for hours on end just encouraging early arthritis by blowing up aliens and all that other game stuff. Besides reaching the 14,343rd level what else do you have to show for yourself? At least I have my thoughts and words and know there are thousands of others doing the same thing which I can tap into and read.
("Get down off the soapbox and go shower", my alterego or conscience is yelling,....Bye!)

Twas the week before Christmas

I guess this is the start of the 12 days of Christmas, or at least the 12 days before. This is that time of year when everyone goes into "panic mode", ya know? I mean you REALLY start thinking about the gift thing heavily. Instead of the neat organized list, which most folks already completed, it's time to buy for your "special someone", be it a wife, husband, significant other or whatever. And this is when the whole "plan" starts to go awry.
First you have the old, "don't worry about me, I really don't want anything,...really." But is that true? Or could you be being set up for a big fall? Does it really mean "I'm not going to tell you, that's the easy way out, use you're own brain and figure out what I really want, and for your sake I hope you get it right!"
Or the old, "Whatever you want to get,..a scarf or a dress would be nice, or some perfume." Now this one is the one that strikes real fear in my heart. It's like being on a TV quiz show and the emcee is saying "Ok, choose a door, remember one of them is for the new Porche and three million dollars and the other two are either a years supply of Purina Cat Chow or fifteen hundred Twinkies. Which door do you want?" Particularly with women. Do you have any concept of how many scarves, dresses, and perfumes there are to choose from? Not that I can't be decisive, but for a guy this is like picking the 20,000 to 1 shot in the Kentucky Derby! The odds are that you'll pick wrong and the result is a nice, polite, but disappointlingly subdued, "It's lovely, but what ever possessed you to buy this color?" (That means it's going to cost you at least three times as much bucks for her to "exchange it", or it will be placed somewhere prominently to be seen and remind you for the next year that you didn't come anywhere close to the mark. In rare cases it's the catalyst for a trip to the mall for a whole new wardrobe because "I don't have anything to go with it, but I love it, I'm sure I can find something at the mall that will work with it."
Are you feeling the pressure? Is it beginning to become difficult to eat, drink or sleep? Or perhaps you're sleeping like a baby, in which case beware, you are far too overconfident, you missed something!
Guys are easy, big boy toys do the trick every time. The less we need it, the more stupid the purpose of it, the more lights, bells, whistles and manuals the better. In fact some women already figured it out. If they get the real "guy toys" he'll be happy as a pig in you know what, and even if he doesn't need it or want it he'll act like he does or next year it's back to sweaters and ties, and women know that he'll never ask for directions or help making it work, so the next twelve hours will bring peace and quiet to the house because he'll be buried in a manual, sucking on a beer, and oblivious to food, maybe that's the best gift she can get!

Coming soon to a computer near you....

Yup, I'm going to be doing two blogs, this one and my old one, at least until the subscription expires in June on my old one. This new sight lets me do pictures with two clicks of the mouse as well as looks a bit better than the sterile format I've been using.
So stay tuned for "Pub Times & Life" at this sight within the next few weeks. Now all I have to do is figure out if I can transfer any of my other sites rantings to this!
That's the only thing I shudder at is the possibility of losing everything I've already written. Granted it might not be Hemingway quality, but it has value to me.
-30-

"Tis your proprioter himself, Mr. Guinness 

Me old Pub- "The Emerald Rose"

T'was a fine pub if I do say so myself. I was just tinkering with loading pictures and as long a s we're talking pubs here I thought I'd try one of "me Pub".

By Jove, I think I'm getting it!!!

After playing around with this blog format I thought I would just rip off an article before I head for the pub.
I noticed recently that good old indecisive France had a spot of "troubles"( I guess that's what they think a few weeks of rioting and burning every car in sight is defined as). Well what impressed me is after the situations all quieted down and the government "reviewed" things they made a few decisions of their own. One in particular struck me as one of those "who da' thunk it!" things. In particular the fact that all immigrants MUST learn and speak and read the French Language. I'm impressed, why didn't our government come up with that one?
While my grandparentts all came from Ireland and aside from a rather quaint "accent" they spoke English, I had friends of Italian, Portuguese, Spanish and Latvian back grounds and they found out that if you didn't read, write and speak English you couldn't get work. What a motivator hey?
So where do we get off groveling to everyone who comes here and apologizing becasue we don't know their language, but we'll make all the signs, forms and everything else in their languages to keep them happy!
Rumor has it that the State of Massachusetts has welfare forms printed in sixteen different languages! Hello? What's wrong with this picture. Now don't misunderstand me, I 'm not saying so immigrants need our welfare to survive and get on thier feet, but let's face it, aren't we making things just too damn accomodating and encouraging folks to "get comfortable" and the State will take care of you!
Then again when I look at things there was essentially no welfare back then and look at the number of immigrants who came to this country years ago and have now risen to the millionaire ranks of our society. You think they developed thier money while they sat home waiting for the welfare check to arrive?
Would I hire immigrants to work in my business, legal or illegal? You bet your sweet bippy! I hire people to work and if they do they become valued employees, I don't care if they are green blue red or purple. What I do care about is if they want to work, that's the more important factor. I'll give anyone a chance, but the problem today is that you can't get rid of the slaggards and losers because of "the law". Sure Florida is a right to work state, but just try and fire someone! You'll find your butt in a chair across from an attorney wanting half your retirement funds to defend you because the little lazy, shiftless worker you canned went crying to one of the "equal rights" clowns. (Oops! Sorry shouldn't call attorneys clowns. Maybe scum sucking bottom dwellers is a more pat expression)
Well, Ithink I'll stop here and post it and then figure out how to get some pictures posted and add a little "jazz" to the sight.
In the words of my favorite bartender,..."you outta here?"
"Yup, see you tomorrow."

Slowly but surely, step by step,..

Started setting this blog up this morning, slow on the learning curve, but I should be up and running by the end of the week. Look forward to the views, comments, and "animated discussions" that our wonderful right to free speech brings!

First draft of Pub times

wake up and smell the roses