Archives April 2008

This site cracks me up.

 
see more crazy cat pics

So last night I followed the instructions given to me by Littermaid to “reset” the box.  I didn’t dump the litter, I just took it apart, pressed the switch a few times and hit it with compressed air.  After doing that and putting it back together it seemed to once again sense movement with the electric eye.  However that doesn’t fix the various other flaws with it.  I am planning on calling Littermaid back, hoping they will send me a replacement unit which I can in turn sell.  I bought one of the older versions to replace it.

I threw together a small but clean website for the local Phi Mu chapter that Ali is president of.  If you want to see it, look here.  I just used a template that I had and modified it to fit the content.  It actually looks color coordinated, amazing.

This morning I got a notice from Ebay that three of my auctions that were supposed to be ending today were cancelled for “keyword spamming”  Evidently it is a no no to put “like new” in the title of the auction?  Why I don’t know but it annoys me.  I better have the listing fees refunded.  Now I have to relist these items for another week without “like new” in the title. Yay. 

Spook actually has been more receptive to taking her medicine.  She isn’t sprinting for cover when I’m coming.  I pet her as I restrain her and we give her tuna after each medicine dosage.  Maybe she is putting two and two together, realizing that yea, the medicine sucks but getting the tuna makes up for it.

Not much to say although I am disgusted by the reports that John McCain is currently in pretty much a dead heat with the democratic candidates.  How in the world this country could even consider voting in someone from the same party that drove America into the abyss we find ourselves us in is incredible.  Of course I never thought Bush had a shot in hell of getting reelected.  I guess I should know better than to underestimate American stupidity. 

Read what Lee Iacocca says about this wonderful time we are living in ….

Remember Lee Iacocca… the man who rescued Chrysler
 Corporation from its death throes? He has a new
 Book, and here are some excerpts.
 Lee Iacocca says……
 
 “Am I the only guy in this country who’s fed up
 With what’s happening? Where the hell is our
 Outrage? We should be screaming bloody murder. We’ve
 Got a gang of clueless bozos steering our ship of
 State right over a cliff, we’ve got corporate
 Gangsters stealing us blind, and we can’t even clean
 Up after a hurricane much less build a hybrid car.
 But instead of getting mad, everyone sits around and
 Nods their heads when the politicians say, “Stay the
 Course”
 
 Stay the course? You’ve got to be kidding. This
 Is America not the damned “Titanic”. I’ll give you
 a sound bite: “Throw all the bums out!”
 
 
 You might think I’m getting senile, that I’ve
 Gone off my rocker, an d maybe I have. But someone
 Has to speak up. I hardly recognize this country
 Anymore.
 
 The most famous business leaders are not the
 Innovators but the guys in handcuffs. While we’re
 Fiddling in Iraq , the Middle East is burning and
 Nobody seems to know what to do. And the press is
 Waving ‘pom-poms’ instead of asking hard
 Questions. That’s not the promise of the ” America ”
 My parents and yours traveled across the ocean for.
 I’ve had enough. How about you?
 
 I’ll go a step further. You can’t call yourself a
 Patriot if you’re not outraged. This is a fight I’m
 Ready and willing to have.
 The Biggest “C” is Crisis!
 
 Leaders are made, not born. Leadership is forged
 In times of crisis. It’s easy to sit there with your
 Feet up on the desk and talk theory. Or send someone
 else’s kids off to war when you’ve never seen a
 Battlefield yourself. It’s another thing to lead
 When your world comes tumbling down.
 
 On September 11, 2001, we needed a strong leader
 More than any other time in our history. We needed a
 Steady hand to guide us out of the ashes. A Hell of
 a Mess
 
 So here’s where we stand. We’re immersed in a
 Bloody war with no plan for winning and no plan for
 Leaving. We’re running the biggest deficit in the
 History of the country. We’re losing the
 Manufacturing edge to Asia , while our once-great
 Companies are getting slaughtered by health care
 Costs. Gas prices are skyrocketing, and nobody in
 Power has a coherent energy policy. Our schools are
 In trouble. Our borders are like sieves. The middle
 Class is being squeezed every which way These are
 Times  that cry out for leadership.
 
 
 But when you look around, you’ve got to ask:
 “Where have all the leaders gone?” Where are the
 Curious, creative communicators? Where are the
 People of character, courage, conviction,
 Omnipotence, and common sense? I may b e a sucker
 For alliteration, but I think you get the point.
 
 Name me a leader who has a better idea for
 Homeland security than making us take off our shoes
 In airports and throw away our shampoo? We’ve spent
 Billions of dollars building a huge new bureaucracy,
 And all we know how to do is react to things that
 Have already happened.
 
 Name me one leader who emerged from the crisis of
 Hurricane Katrina. Congress has yet to spend a
 Single day eva luat ing the response to the hurricane,
 Or demanding accountability for the decisions that
 Were made in the crucial hours after the storm.
 
 Everyone’s hunkering down, fingers crossed,
 Hoping it doesn’t happen again. Now, that’s just
 Crazy. Storms happen. Deal with it. Make a plan.
 Figure out what you’re going to do the next time.
 
 
 Name me an industry leader who is thinking
 Creatively about how we can restore our competitive
 Edge in manufactur ing. Who would have believed that
 There could ever be a time when “The Big Three”
 Referred to Japanese car companies? How did this
 Happen, and more important, what are we going to do
 About it?
 
 Name me a government leader who can articulate a
 Plan for paying down the debit, or solving the
 Energy crisis, or managing the health care problem.
 The silence is deafening. But these are the crises
 That are eating away at our country and milking the
 Middle class dry.
 
 I have news for the gang in Congress. We didn’t
 Elect you to sit on your asses and do nothing and
 Remain silent while our democracy is being hijacked
 And our greatness is being replaced with mediocrity.
 What is everybody so afraid of?  That some bonehead
 On Fox News will call them a name? Give me a break.
 Why don’t you guys show some spine for a change?
 
 Had Enough?
 Hey, I’m not trying to be the voice of gloom and
 doom here. I’m trying to light a fire. I’m speaki ng
 out because I have hope I believe in America . In my
 lifetime I’ve had the privilege of living through
 some of America ‘s greatest moments. I’ve also
 experienced some of our worst crises: the “Great
 Depression”, “World War II”, the “Korean War”, the
 “Kennedy Assassination”, the “Vietnam War”, the
 1970s oil crisis, and the struggles of recent years
 culminating with 9/11. If I’ve learned one thing,
 it’s this:  “You don’t get anywhere by standing on the
 sidelines waiting for somebody else to take action.
 Whether it’s building a better car or building a
 better future for our children, we all have a role
 to play. That’s the challenge I’m raising in this
 book. It’s a call to “Action” for people who, like
 me, believe in America . It’s not too late, but it’s
 getting pretty close. So let’s shake off the crap
 and go to work. Let’s tell ’em all we’ve had
 “enough.”

Eh that’s it.  I want to live on Mars, alone.

Ali met up with the guy selling a Tivo on Craigs List yesterday.  We picked it up for $30, pretty cheap.  Last night I hooked it up in the fitness room and worked on getting it set up.  It is in good shape.  The transaction was certainly more of a pain in the ass than ebay.  It required multiple calls back and forth as well as a trip 25 miles up I-75 to pick up the item.  I tried to get the guy to ship it to me but he didn’t have a paypal account.

Erin Moran is more of a car wreck than I imagined.  Her behavior on Celebrity Fit Club is bizarre.  Not only did she get whacked hard by the ugly stick, she also appears to be a raging alcoholic and have some sort of mental issues, almost bi-polar in nature.  She has strange mood swings where she will be hysterical and then 5 minutes later act like nothing happened.  During the show last night she simulated an orgasm on the bus.  It was extremely disturbing to watch.  If you want to be able to last longer in bed, just think of Erin Moran faking an orgasm.  You will last for weeks.

Well this new “improved” Littermaid Elite Ali purchased a month and a half ago is officially a piece of shit.  The original Littermaid unit we had was not perfect but it worked a hell of a lot better than this unit.  Normally you would expect newer versions of products to improve on the original but that is not always the case (eg. New Coke, Godfather III, Mustang II) Well the Littermaid Elite plus is significantly worse than the model it replaced.  Here are the flaws I have noticed in the brief month and a half we have owned it.

– Weak motor, much weaker then the original.  Almost any amount of excrement in the box will stop the rake, requiring it to back up and try multiple times to clear the box

– Uneven raking.  The path the rake takes on the way back to the park position scoops litter out of the back section of the box, permanently making that a low area.  If you try to add litter to fill that gully it will either be too much litter and jam the unit or it will simply scoop it out again.

– Electric eye does not consistently trip.  Time and again I walk into a box that has been obviously used multiple times yet the rake hasn’t even attempted to run once. 

– Waste receptacle doesn’t fit right.  If you drop the receptacle into the unit the natural way it fits, you will wind up leaving a gap between the receptacle and the Littermaid that allows copious amounts of litter to drop on the floor.  The only way to prevent it is to use your fingers to wedge the shitty receptacle lip under the the edge of the littermaid.

It’s basically a waste of money.  I called their support today complaining about the electric eye not working.   He gave me some ridiculous, inconvenient process to “reset” the unit that involved dumping the litter, ripping it apart and pressing on some button on the underside of the unit.  That isn’t going to fix it.  After reading complaint after complaint about the Elite series online I realized that it will be nothing but an exercise in frustration.  I found a a vendor on Amazon that still sold the older unit with free shipping.  Screw it, I bought that and will probably wind up tossing the new and improved model in the garbage.  There are fancier, more expensive automatic litter boxes out there like the litter robot but it is way more money that I am willing to spend on two animals that I am hoping move on to the kitty after life sooner rather than later.

We are getting a bit better at giving Spook medicine.  Although she still hates it, we are trying to reward her by giving her some tuna right after the medicine.  As far as I can tell, she hasn’t used the rest of the house as a toilet since coming back home on Friday which is all that matters.

So after work Friday I went over to the vet to assume possession of Spook.  Before they brought her out they gave her the liquid antibiotic that she is on so I wouldn’t have to do it that night.  Spook responded to taking the medicine by drooling.  She had long mucus trails hanging off her mouth, how cute.  So I pay the 5 bill tab for the cat and load her up in the truck.  Spook is notorious for losing control of her bodily functions while in a cat carrier.  When Ali took her to the vet she hit for the cycle, pissing, shitting and throwing up within the first 15 minutes.  I figured the same joy was waiting for me.  I was amazed when I pulled into the driveway without the cat expelling any excrement, must be my lucky day.   

Once I let her out of the crate she immediately scurried off to find a place to hide.  I watched her for a bit to make sure she wasn’t going somewhere to take a leak.  She seemed to just be stressed out and wanted some peace and quiet so I let her be.  Ali had told me earlier that she was going to skip ballet and come home since there was a lot of stuff to do in prep for the race the next day.  I was sort of counting on her to be there to help me get Spook re-situated.  I was a bit annoyed when I opened the garage door and saw it was empty.  Evidently Ali decided to go to ballet after all. 

So shortly after I got back the phone rang.  I was back in the bedroom where we don’t have caller id, I assumed it was Ali and I answered with a rather grumpy tone.  Here it was my neighbor across the street.  My neighbor was the one who sent me the felon search web site earlier in the week.  Imagine how ironic I felt when he told me they were robbed sometime over the past couple days!  Someone came in over the fence at the back of his property and stole about $2000 of fishing equipment out of his boat that was parked right near the house.  He was just calling me to give us a heads up.  He was extremely pissed.  He isn’t the type of person you would want to rob.  I don’t think he would have any issue using one of his large arsenal of weapons against someone on his property that was attempting to steal stuff. Wow, I was sort of shocked.  To come over a fence to steal stuff is pretty brazen.  I’d be lying if I said it didn’t concern me.

So Friday night I started to de-Spook the house, meaning I tried to block various spots she likes to run and hide in.  I stuffed various items under our bed to block access to Spooks favorite and most difficult to extract from hiding spot.  I also jammed things along either side of the TV to prevent her from jumping back there.  I wanted to eliminate any spot that could be a possible toilet.  As we were watching tv I said something to Ali regarding my annoyance at her telling me she was coming home because there was a lot to do and then not doing it, resulting in a hectic Friday night of getting stuff ready for the race along with other stuff.  Of course she didn’t see my point of view.   I just have a hard time with stuff not getting done, especially since she started the 2 day a week work schedule.  Typically I just swallow the frustration until some incident allows a bit of it to bubble through to the surface.  well after I said something Ali got angry and we abandoned Biggest Loser mid-show. 

So once again we had a super early Saturday wake up time.  I hit the alarm off button at 4:45 am.  Even though I was going non-stop getting ready, we still got out of our place about 15 minutes later than I wanted to at 5:45 or so.  I wasn’t all that concerned because I knew the race was going to have a low turnout and I knew at the last race when we got there a little before 6am I had more than enough time.  Well I wish we left earlier.

This race was actually held at the government complex where I work.  A few days prior I had scouted the finish line area to verify we had power available.  I saw that all of the light posts had electrical outlets on them, cool.  Well when we got there I was informed that none of the outlets on the light poles appear to be live.  So the first 20 minutes there it was a mad scramble between unloading the equipment, getting Ali set up with a laptop to enter day of registrations and me scrambling looking for an alternative power source that was within extension cord distance.  Finally I found a live outlet at the parking garage a couple hundred feet away.  Luckily we had enough extension cords to make the run.  Once I had power set up I hurriedly got the equipment set up.  Even though I still had time, I felt very rushed and stressed.  There were a few issues at registration but luckily Ali was able to handle most of them without help from me.

I got all the equipment up and tested.  Everything was ready to go.  The race started and then it was just time to wait.  When the first place runner came streaking in, amazingly it was a 13 year old boy.  As he approached the line I held my breath hoping to hear the confirmation “beep” as he crossed.  When I heard it I was relieved.  The kid crossed in around 18:30, insanely fast for a 13 year old.  I felt even better as others started to finish and each one corresponded with a welcomed BEEP.  Then there was some kid that came across with no beep, shit.  However I was told that his chip came off and he picked it up and had it in his pocket, too high off the ground to be detected.  So the last runner crossed.  I only knew of the one kid that didn’t register as he crossed.  However once I started posting the results a woman came to me saying her name wasn’t in the list.  She said she didn’t have any problems with the chip yet I didn’t have a time for her.  In total we had 4 people that crossed the line without times.  Two of them are explainable as they both had the chip come off and they carried it across the line.  The other two I’m not sure what happened.  I will have to check those chips across the lines the next time I set the box up.  The chips could just be bad, I’ve already had a few that were dead.  Even with the few missed detections the race went better than the prior one by far where we had over 20 runners unaccounted for.  I’m sure things will get better as we go along.  The next race is a BIG one that should have over 300 runners.  That will be a big test.

After we packed up and left the race we stopped at the Wal-mart right next door to check out small LCD tv’s for the fitness room.  We found a small 15 inch Polaroid tv that had 720p resolution.  They had cheaper ones with one 480i resolution but the picture difference was very noticeable.  I normally wouldn’t have considered a Polaroid tv until a co-worker of mine told me how much she liked the Polaroid flat screen they got.  The kid that got the tv for us and checked us out looked like he was right out of Deliverance.  He didn’t have a name tag on but I was sure his name was Cleetis.

So when we got back home we were both tired from getting up so early but there was stuff to do.  One of the first things we did was to corral Spook so we could attempt to give her the first dose of at-home antibiotics.  It soon became obvious that I had not blocked off enough areas as Spook scampered from under/behind one piece of furniture to another.  It was extremely annoying.  At the vet the cat has nowhere to hide.  Finally I get my hands on her.  My job was to be the human restraint, Ali was the medicine injector. So Ali squirts the stuff into the cats mouth.  Of course she resists.  I don’t know exactly how much she actually got in her system as she was shaking her head the entire time.  After the ordeal is done Spook goes to yet another hiding spot.  I go over to check on her and see two long fangs of mucus hanging down off her mouth.  I tell Ali to bring a towel over to wipe the dumb cats mouth. This was just a preview of what we would have to deal with for the next week, twice a day.  I can hardly wait.  Another issue we noticed was although the vet said there was enough medicine to last the weekend, there wasn’t.  The bottle was almost empty.  The cat only wound up getting one dose per day and how much of a proper dose is highly questionable.    The only positive to report is as far as I can determine, the cat didn’t piss anywhere outside of the litter box.

So while Ali worked on getting the race results ready for posting on the web site I worked on hanging another shelf in the fitness room to mount the LCD tv on.  It went pretty well.  I got the shelf up and plopped the TV on it.  I hooked it up to cable and viola, we had fitness room entertainment.  I had Ali come in to heap praise upon me for my installation.  She was concerned that 15 inches may be too small but the treadmill is close enough to the wall that it should work just fine.  It’s a nice little tv.  There is one more piece of the entertainment rig for that room, another Tivo.  It will be networked in with the rest of the Tivos so we can transfer shows between them to watch while running.  I found a used one on Craig’s List for $30 that Ali is picking up today.

Later in the afternoon I decided to give the Camry a good bath both inside and out.  I figured I would split the cycle up and do the truck Sunday morning.  Saturday night we put a small dent in the backlogged shows on Tivo.  There is just too much to watch.  One of the casualties has been American Idol.  Even though it records every show I can’t tell you the last time we watched both of the weekly shows.  Once I see on the internet who gets kicked out I find I have very little motivation to watch the shows. 

We DID watch the Idol Gives Back show over the weekend.  I wasn’t thrilled to see it was two and a half hours long.  The show was mostly entertaining if you could ignore the real cheesy parts which pretty much covered anytime Ryan Seacrest was involved.  It seemed like they had more celebrities than last year.  Again the show was filled with various segments about people in horrible living conditions both home and abroad.  Once again just like last year I couldn’t control the skeptic in me.  I understand that many people are saddled with odds that are already stacked against them just because whom they were unlucky enough to have as parent like an AIDS infected mother in Africa or maybe a trailer living, toothless family in woods of Kentucky, or who knows where else.  But to me the feelings of compassion are always overridden with anger I feel towards these parents for not being able to minimize the problem by not procreating recklessly.  Yes I know in Africa many women don’t have a choice, the men there are too stupid or just don’t care about the spread of AIDS.  But my point is all events like this do are treat the symptoms of the same root problem, reckless, irresponsible procreation.  Even with MILLIONS of people dying needlessly every year from these various diseases/conditions, as a whole the world still has far too many humans on it and the number still is growing at an astonishing rate.  Something has to/ will eventually give.  We can throw infinite amounts of dollars at the end result of too many people but until something happens to balance out the numbers, the problems will never subside.  There are just too many people, period.  Fortunately or unfortunately, depending on your point of view, man and technology has the ability to interfere with nature’s attempts to balance the cycle of life and death.   

Saturday night I looked out back through the sliding glass doors and saw something I never saw before, headlights.  There was a vehicle, presumably a truck or jeep driving across the land behind our house, maybe a couple hundred feet beyond our fence line.  The area back there is not meant to be driven across as it is filled with trenches, fill pits and various vegetation.  I watched the vehicle drive across the entire area and stop behind a house on the street down from us for a few minutes.  Then it pulled out and went to another house across the street.  Well after hearing my neighbor’s account of his incident my paranoia meter was very high.  In the 7 years I have lived there I NEVER saw a vehicle driving across the back of our property.  I decided to call it in.  I told them what I saw and why I thought it was suspicious.  They sent a deputy out whom stopped at our place.  I again recounted to him what I saw along with the fact the neighbor across the street was just robbed and that I never had seen anyone driving around back there.  He thanked me for calling and said he would go patrol around to see if anything was up.  I have no idea if anything came of it.  It did little to make Ali or I feel much better about some of the people that live around us.

Sunday morning while Ali was at spinning class I worked on my truck.  I took the time to sweep out and the wash out the bed of the truck which was a mess filled with various organic material and sand.  It was the first time I had done that in quite awhile, probably a year at least.  Then I was lucky enough to have a replacement bulb to replace the burned out parking light on the driver side front of the truck.  Ali noticed it was burned out when left for the race Saturday morning.  Then I gave the 9 year old truck a good bath.

The truck is showing it’s age a bit.  The years of sitting out in the Florida sun has dissolved much of the clear coat on the top surfaces.  It is looking a little beat.  The sides of the truck have various dings and scrapes mostly from assholes in the county parking lot not giving a shit as they throw their doors into my Tacoma.  There was one such scrape that recently occurred that I wanted to work on.  Sometimes you can minimize a scratch or scrape by buffing it out hard with wax.  So after I washed and dried the truck I got out the wax and just applied it to the door in question.  I rubbed and buffed the scraped area forever and was able to minimize the flaw noticeably.  However the wax on the rest of the door did not buff off cleanly, another result of the deteriorating paint.  You could see the left over swirls no matter how much I tried to rub it out.  I reapplied the wax a few times to try to minimize the swirling.  It helped a bit but you could still see it.  “F it” I thought to myself.  So now I have a swirly door.

As Ali got home I was in the middle of cleaning the bird cage, something that Ali normally will get done on a Friday but didn’t because of other things she was doing.  Ali asked what else was on my “agenda”.  I am the agenda maker, the list master.  I told her the only other stuff I wanted to get done was to do the normal counter cleaning followed by unleashing the robots to scrub the kitchen floor and sweep the carpet. I also wanted to get outside to tighten some of the brace wire on the H posts that had loosened up after the fence was stretched but I wanted to do that later in the day.

After getting that stuff knocked out Ali retired to the bedroom to take a nap, she said she was very tired.  While she napped I f’d off in WoW during that time.  As I did I felt my mood getting increasingly worse.  I wasn’t doing anything worthwhile in WoW, not that WoW is worthwhile in the first place.  However in this case I spent a couple hours just tormenting another player in game that was annoying me. It was a complete waste of time.  By the time Ali got up and came out to the computer room I was pretty miserable.

Normally feelings like that are reserved to the full moon sections of the lunar cycle.  I told Ali that even though I just got done doing a month of working on a fence and had a relatively busy weekend up until Sunday afternoon, I felt like a lazy loser.  I felt like there were lots of things that needed to be done or things that just weren’t right yet I had no motivation to do anything about any of them.  It’s a really hopeless feeling.

I was hoping that going out to tighten up the fence would help me alleviate some of those feelings.  I had Ali come out with me as we went to the H braces to check out the brace wire.  The second one we checked had one pretty loose wire so I stuck a thick, long screwdriver into the wire and cranked some more.  Just as I was about to stop cranking I am startled as the damn wire SNAPS. SHIT!  I couldn’t believe it snapped.  Using the smaller screw driver to crank it instead of the wider wrench must have concentrated the twisting in too small of an area.  Well I knew we had some brace wire left over but I also knew it was going to be a pain in the ass to redo it with the fence already attached.  Well we managed to get it done although it was a pain in the ass to do it.  We also noticed that the section of fencing along that section had loosened up.  Reattaching the brace wire helped a bit and I managed to tighten up the rest a bit by driving in some additional staples to take out some of the slack on the big H posts.  It still isn’t as tight as it was when we originally stretched it which bugs me a bit and added to the feelings of failure.  Well the brace wire breaking made me very  hesitant to crank on any other loose wires.  Instead in a couple sections I drove in a staple across the brace wire to add some additional tension.  I guess it is normal for the fence to “settle”.  It still looks fine though.

Earlier in the day I got a call from the neighbor across the street.  They were asking how much the quote was to have someone do chain-link.  Evidently they were considering replacing the aging field fence with chain link as a result of the robbery.  When I told them the 6k estimate it sort of ruled that option out.  I also told them about the incident Saturday night that resulted in me calling the police.  The neighbor was glad I called, better safe than sorry.  He told me he was in the process of electrifying his fence line.  I told you he was the wrong guy to rob.  Not only was he electrifying it, he was electrifying his 1000 feet of fence or so with a controller suitable to electrify 50 MILES of fence.  He told me his thinking was it would deliver more voltage to an unwanted intruder.  I laughed.  I pity any criminal that attempts to get on his property again.  I told Ali that I wouldn’t be surprised if mechanized gun turrets would be next on the security plan.

Before dinner and after the fence tightening exercise I told Ali I was going to run on the treadmill in an attempt to burn off the ill feelings.  I hopped on and did a mile as I tested out our new tv.  I flipped on the Master’s.  The treadmill is pretty nice.  It has a led version of a 1/4 mile track that shows your progress around it, similar to what we have at the gym.  It also has a cushioned running deck, very cushioned.  In fact it may be the softest treadmill I ever ran on.  The minimum incline is 1.5% so effort level-wise it is comparable to running outside which is good.  Even though I had the ceiling fan blowing at top speed 6 inches over my head I worked up a good sweat during the 10 minutes or so.  I was worried that the treadmill would not be as comfortable to run on as the ones at the gym but my quick test run proved it would work out fine. 

Unfortunately the run didn’t do much to make me feel any better.  I spent most of the rest of the night moping around.  I showered and went back to the bedroom early where I took in an episode and a half of Battlestar Galactica followed by Celebrity Fit Club, Boot camp.  Erin Moran is borderline psychotic.  Screech is just huge gaping asshole on the show.  He is lazy, a smart ass and has a ridiculously high opinion of himself.  I can’t stand the guy.  I feel asleep quickly after the show.

I found this letter to the editor in today’s local paper interesting.

In 1787, about the time our Constitution was adopted by the original 13 states, a Scottish history professor at the University of Edinburgh named Alexander Tyler wrote about the fall of the Athenian republic some 2,000 years earlier.

He stated that, “A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government. … A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury.”

The average age of the world’s greatest civilizations from the beginning of history has been about 200 years. During those 200 years, those nations always progressed through the following sequence:

“1. from bondage to spiritual faith; 2. from spiritual faith to great courage; 3. from courage to liberty; 4. from liberty to abundance; 5. from abundance to complacency; 6. from complacency to apathy; 7. from apathy to dependence; 8. from dependence back into bondage.”

Hemline University School of Law Professor Joseph Olson, of St. Paul, Minn., believes the United States is now somewhere between the “complacency and apathy” phase of Tyler’s definition of democracy, with some 40 percent of the nation’s population already having reached the “governmental dependency” phase.

If you listen to the speeches of the presidential candidates, promising everything from lower taxes or increased entitlements — or even both — there appears to be a confirmation of those sentiments. Will we be saying goodbye to the U.S. in 10 to 20 years?

There is no doubt that complacency and apathy are rampant in our country.  Add in a silent invasion from our southern border into the equation and the picture even gets gloomier.

I can throw a poll inside a post as well, neato.

[poll id=”4″]

I remember years ago Ali and I talked about how someone would make a fortune if they made an AC unit that used the hot air created by it to heat a pool.  We wondered why no one ever came up with such a thing.  Well in my electric bill there was a little ad for something very similar.  Instead of using it to heat your pool, it allows you to use the excess heat from your AC unit to assist in your home hot water production.  It connects your existing AC compressor to your existing hot water heater.  It costs $700 installed.  I kept the little pamphlet.  I don’t think we will be doing it right now but it will definitely get on the wish list as well as the little device that gets attached to your electric meter that allows you to directly connect a generator to your entire home breaker box.

Several times this week after work I have gone out in our newly fenced in back yard with Nicki just to hang out.  Sometimes I will sit on the deck out there while Nicki walks around.  Other times I will just walk the fence line or other times simply lay down on a section of grass that doesn’t have fire ants in the immediate proximity.  It’s relaxing and fun.

This will be my first weekend in a month where building a fence won’t be number one on THE list.  The only fence related thing I need to do yet is return the left over fence posts we have.  I pulled 8 posts out last night for us to use when I expand our garden area.  Speaking of our garden, we actually have ears of corn starting to grow.  I was pumped up to see that.  Growing your own food is satisfying much in the way building your own fence is.

This weekend there is another race I am timing.  It looks like the turn out will be very small but it will be another opportunity to fine tune the timing system and the associated procedures.  The rest of the weekend I am looking forward to not having to do a ton of stuff.  Both vehicles really need a good bath so I might do that.  We have a big Tivo backlog to check out.  Next weekend I am planning on making my 2008 volleyball debut with Randall up in Siesta Key.  I am running at the gym today.  I haven’t run for close to three weeks due to the gym schedule not being normal and also being beat up from fence building.

 After work today I pick up Spook.  Hopefully her time incarcerated at the vet will be enough incentive for her to return to using the litter box for excrement instead of the floor.  Since I have set up two litter boxes Buttons has decided to split up her bathroom trips between the two of them pretty evenly.  I’m not quite sure why.  I sort of figured she would stick with one or the other.

Today on Bubba the Love Sponge a caller that works for American Airlines said that the big deal about wiring harnesses causing the planes to be grounded is total bullshit.  The real deal is they are looking for a handout from the government and grounding 1000 flights will be the bait to get it.  He said the airline industry is in much worse shape than the American public knows.  Such poor shape that they have to come up with frauds like this to keep afloat. Unreal.

Go here http://www.felonspy.com/search.html  Warning, it will not make you feel very secure or happy with your choice of domicile.

Edit: I checked a bunch of the names listed around us in the property tax system and found NONE that matched up.  I am skeptical of the validity of the site.

One feature of the Roomba that I never have really used is the scheduling feature.  With scheduling you can have your Roomba and virtual walls turn on whenever you want.  Well I decided to finally set it up with my two 400 series Roombas.  I set them to run at 4:30 every Tuesday and Thursday.  On Tuesday after work I had forgotten that I set scheduling up.  I realized it when I walked in to nicely swept carpet with both Roombas back in their docks recharging.  It was pretty sweet.

 Moveon.org made a commercial regarding Iraq title “How to make a 100 year war, 6 months at a time…” There isn’t much I need to add to it.

 Yesterday the county inspector came out to inspect the fence.  The fence passed with flying colors.   In fact the guy complimented us on the work, saying it looked great.  He was surprised to learn that we dug almost all of the holes by hand. 

Monday and Tuesday nights I felt really hungry, even after eating dinner.  I responded to the hunger by stuffing myself with Pop Tarts, about as unhealthy of a choice as you can make.  Luckily I can afford to make some dietary blunders here and there.  Last night I managed to keep Pop Tarts off the menu.

Spook will be coming home tomorrow after work.  I can hardly wait.