Monday Musings...

Although it's NOT raining(at this moment)...it SHOULD be (and will some of the day)...at least where WE live - yeah, it's another one of THOSE days...since yesterday, in fact, and I'll let you all in on it in a minute.
The Hooiserland weather will find us with partly cloudy skies, a good chance of off-and-on rain, and temps in the upper 50s...maybe hitting 60.
There, now that's over with, so go get a cup of your favorite morning beverage (I've got mine)...because I'm doing my best not to be "madder than hell" this morning.
*** First out of the trough, is our "What the hell happens today, Bob?"
October 20 - 
Today is BRANDIED FRUIT DAY...and that's all there is.

Now, I like brandy, and if someone sticks some fruit in it...as long as it doesn't mar the taste OF the brandy, it works for me.
Meanwhile, back at the distillery...
*** We started off the weekend in FINE style, so that tells me that some type of crap is lurking JUST around the next bend.
Saturday found us with TWO new suet baskets (courtesy of Menards) and suet cakes to place in them.

Let's see THIS one "disappear".

I ONLY placed one basket back outside, and this time, I wired it to the post (branch) with COAT HANGER WIRE...really THICK stuff (beware "Bobby Dearest"...lol).
Let's see anything short of a phone-line worker cut THAT bastard now and haul it away!
So far...no "takers"...let's keep it like that.

When the feeder gets filled, NUTHATCHES show up.

And, we had our assortment of critters stop by the suet AND the feeder...our bunny, our squirrel, lots of birds (nuthatches, chickadees, a junco and sparrows and wrens)
THAT was worth the drive to get the new baskets.

(drunken assholes...)

But you just KNOW that all good things such as these are destined to be ending (soon).
Sunday morning, I get up and see THIS along the side lawn of the house...nice fresh TIRE TRACKS.
Thanks to the all-night drunken Latinos across the street (who need to be shot), we have a "souvenir" of their latest party.
So, I was "planning" to contact a landscaper and see if we can get some long-ass RAILROAD TIES placed along the property line...stacked about two-high...high enough to prevent assholes from parking ON the damn grass, and enough to damage any vehicle that tries..
(yes, that would include the "mommasitas" who pick their charges up from the FWCS bus stop as well.)
That was the initial "plan" for today.
But, our WiFi ROUTER decided it was time to give up the ghost...
Went in to check some stuff, and the Allen County scanner was "off"...(???)
I then noticed NO lights on the router.
I reset everything and still...nothing.
Wifey got on the horn w/ Frontier, the tech did some things at his end, and after nothing changed, the consensus was the router crapped out (after over ten years).

Time for ANOTHER one...

He said the NEW ones are MUCH better...
WE...SHALL...SEE...!
(Gotta LOVE Chinese engineering and manufacturing...NOT)
The good news is we still have TV and phones...bad news - NO Internet until I waltz over to Southgate's Frontier store and grab us a new router around 0900 hrs today...hope no one screws with me along th way. hate to add homicide to a router swap...lol.
One interesting note - the TV program data is DEPENDENT upon the Internet to download it, so I can see the blurbs across the bottom of the screen telling me WHAT THE HELL I'm watching...did not know that.
Right now I only have "program data not available" (well, DUH!) I thought it was ALL done through those wonderful FIOS  fiber-optic connections that we were told could carry SO much more information...guess we were LIED TO...AGAIN.
Anyway, that is where we stand on Monday, and if there's anything else to jaw about, I'll be sure to get it on here as soon as I can get the new router up and running (I hear I have to call and enter some damn codes for the WiFi).
Sure miss the days of plug-n-play.
Hell, I miss the days of FREE broadcast TV...
*** Last back to the barn...when did it become "better" to have SO much of our lives depending on as FEW devices as possible? Don't get me wrong, technology DOES have it's place, but I much prefer a one-to-one trade off. ONE cable for the TV, ONE line in for the PHONE, and ONE line for the Internet (and never the twain shall meet).

Too...Much...Tech...!

That used to work SO damn well for such a long time.
When ONE system has a hardware (or software) failure, it does NOT take something (or everything) else along for the damn ride. Now, the latest bump in the road is STREAMING VIDEO...Internet THROUGH your damn TV.
How many potential bugs can YOU count that can take BOTH of these systems out?

APPS a'plenty, too.

Toss in a home-alarm system, the phones, and various APPS that can do things about the house (like setting the damn coffee maker, or even adjusting the heating when you;'re not even there), and you can EASILY see this can be a recipe for failure.
Take ONE piece out of the mix, and everything crashes down like a house of cards.
This is ONE time were segregation is REALLY needed.
But I don't see that happening any time soon...
It will just keep adding to itself, until the machines are running us (along with some authoritarian regime).
We need to change our mindset...not become THAT dependent upon all these "gadgets" that we dismiss our humanity to with such abandon.
Most all of this stuff is NOT meant to make us better HUMANS, anyway...

It's meant to make a few rich, and isolate (some would say insulate...whatever) us from one another, rather than bring us all together. Look at what computers have done already, and we're barely out of the gate when it comes to the POTENTIAL these things can (and will) do.
We need to back off for a bit...take some time to reclaim who WE are, and not what "IT" is, and why we're being told we "have to have it".
And I think I'm not the only one feeling this way these days...at least I sure as hell HOPE not.
Be well, make a difference to someone, and...
Stay SAFE out there, America