Tuesday Tidbits...

You sure can feel the difference outside THIS morning, compared to yesterday (and all that snow), but like the carnival barker once said "You ain't seen nothing yet, folks."
Welcome to the next installment of the game of life (niot to be confused with the board game that you CAN actually WIN from time to time).
Our Hooiserland weather today will be...COLD, with an expected high of around 13 degrees.
Told you yesterday about the bottom falling out of the thermometer. And this time tomorrow will be even COLDER.
Right now, it ONLY feels like MINUS SEVEN outside (a balmy day in McMurdo AFB).
Skies will be clearer today and more sun that will NOT be aiding in ANY melting of all the crap we have on our streets.
That's it...begin the day on an UP note...lol.
So, go get your favorite hot cup of morning bliss (and I'll get mine) and we'll see what's been going on elsewhere.
*** First out of the ice pack is our "What the hell happens today, Bob?" feature:
January 13 -
---Today is  NATIONAL RUBBER DUCKIE DAY.

Rather self-explanatory, especially if your name is ERNIE.
---It's also NATIONAL PEACH MELBA DAY

(not to be confused with Melba Toast or Melba Moore)
---And, it's STEPHEN FOSTER DAY, so break out in song, and put a smile on your face.

One might consider him America's FIRST "pop-star", with such ditties as OH SUSANNA, CAMPTOWN RACES, OLD FOLKS AT HOME, OLD KENTUCKY HOME, I DREAM OF JEANNIE WITH THE LIGHT BROWN HAIR (mine's blonde and lives in a bottle), and BEAUTIFUL DREAMER.
Moving on...
*** A couple months ago, Wifey and I got another portable quartz heater, stuck it in our (non-functional) fireplace and thought that was it.

Pulled the old "Jacob Marley" on us.

Well, last week, that WAS it, as in the almost new heater QUIT...just shut the hell off, and it has not come back on since.
Naturally, this is the ONE item bought late last year (November-ish) that we cannot find the damn RECEIPT for, so we may have to just write it off.
But, that's not quite the end to this tale of our electronic nuisances...
*** Last night, Wifey has the TV on in the family room (she was on the phone with relatives) and the set just SHUT OFF.
Now, we did have a vertical deflection issue (picture shrinks from the top down), but that was not a major thing. We could limp by for another few months...or so we thought.
I tried unplugging the set and then replugging it and trying to turn it back on...nothing.

Makes a NICE ottoman now.

Normally, such a thing (for others) would precipitate a hasty run to the nearest "big box" to grab anything on the shelf as a replacement (this set was a CRT set - 12 year old Magavox we got from the Target store we USED to have down here).
That means we're gonna HAVE to get a FLAT SCREEN set (oh, joy).
But, since Wifey was married to ME...I (as always) had a... "PLAN B"
Out in the garage sat a 20 inch Zenith TV we have not used in over 15 years - used to be my Mom's set (in her bedroom back in Philly), and it's a REAL "classic".
No stereo, a MANUAL on/off switch and volume, ROTARY DIALS to change the channels (one for VHF, one for UHF), and a set of integral "rabbit ears"...

Sure don't make 'em like THIS anymore.

Not to worry, I had a matching transformer (75 ohm) that takes the 2 set-screws on the back of the TV and makes them accommodate a COAX CABLE.
The channel had been set to "3", so we should have a match.
Well, I hook up the cable coax, plug the set in (give it some time to warm up from a freezing garage) and...

"...HOUSTON, WE HAVE IGNITION..."
The cable "box" changes all the channels with the cable remote, so no worries there, and the picture is DAMN GOOD for it's age, too.
Sure, it's clunky and ancient...BUT THE DAMN THING WORKS AFTER ALL THAT TIME.
Try that with some new-fangled techie hunk of crap...I dare 'ya!
So, Wifey has a TV once again in the family room.
In the living room, my 20 inch Mitsubishi is trying to give up it's ghost.
Takes 5-7 minutes for the picture to brighten up and stabilize.

Soon to be "additions" to the "Fortress".

But when it does, THAT picture is fantastic (been told so by a technician, too).
Again, not bad for IT'S age (about as old as the Batmobile aka the '83 Firebird).
These "warning signs" are telling us that sooner or later (most likely SOONER, knowing MY luck...lol) we'll be trading up to some LED flat screens.
And, as usual, I've been doing some "homework" on them.
We're NOT going as large or larger that 32 inches...that would be ridiculous
I don't plan to turn ANY wall of this house into a "television", and besides, I don't have a home theater that accommodates several hundred people, so who REALLY needs to see the screen (if it was a HUGE one), anyway?
A nice 24-28 inch screen will do fine in BOTH rooms.
Looks like a run to Best Buy in our immediate future. ((yawn)) I can hardly wait.
*** Next up...remember how I said we had NOT had ONE plow come through our streets?

Well, SOMEONE downtown must be reading this blog, because we had SEVERAL come through yesterday (later in the afternoon).
TWO passes along BOTH our streets...and there had to be ONE U-Haul truck that was causing issues, because they got stuck on the side street SEVERAL times.

Sure, block the street - BE IGNORANT.

Now who in their right mind chooses one of the worst weather days to MOVE (and to MY area)?
Wait, I forgot...more newbie "locals" who will soon multiply and add to the overall din of the ghettohood...THAT'S who.

Damn U-Haul stunk things up well enough.

Anyway, those several passes did little to actually CLEAR the streets, and with temps close to freezing, it should have been easier than on a day such as today (or tomorrow).
Naturally, they "rooster-tailed" the streets and since I've learned to build-a-berm along my sidewalk, I negated any attempt to toss that street snow onto my pavements. Our driveway is another matter...
The plows piled a nice little berm along our property perimeter, crossing the driveway.
That was frozen SOLID this morning - had one helluva time clearing that out so Wifey could roll back onto the street.
But, clear it I did...no thanks to the street department.
So much for PRIDE in one's job...but hey, it's a CITY salary...and  whatever crap job you do is always "good enough for government work", right?
*** Last back to the frostbite ward...I was telling the Lovely Mrs. Bobby G. yesterday that there are some days where  I am in such PAIN from living where we do.
And, fortunately, it's not a PHYSICAL pain (got enough of that due to age and arthritis), but more of a MENTAL pain.
Perhaps an EMOTIONAL pain might be more apropos.

You got THAT right, Mr. Twain!

It HURTS to be around all these f$cking morons, and it's not based on any level of superiority, although that DOES figure into the mix.
We are MUCH better examples of  humanity, flawed as we are.
It's born out of a sense of knowing and (more importantly) LEARNING to do the right things in life...something NONE of these "locals" have the slightest inkling as to what that could possibly be.

Why even HAVE a ghetto?

I have YET to see evidence of human EVOLUTION when I look around MY neighborhood.
Whatever YOU have been brought up to know is right, think the EXACT OPPOSITE when referring to the REST of the idiots living around us.
And the weird thing is...WE didn't choose to move here (after the gact). In fact we were quite content with this area...about SEVENTEEN YEARS AGO.
That was before the city decided that all the human refuse needs a much LARGER "place to play", and moved more of them further south from one ghetto, creating another right where we live...imagine that.
Yes, it's damn IRRITATING to see all these sh*theads  who were moved all around you doing nothing...and getting by nicely, while you toil for everything you get or have.

It's ANNOYING to see drug deals happen along your block and NO police patrolling the area to deter such activities.
You see trash-strewn alleys and streets, and these mooks think that's perfectly normal.
Hell, they even ADD to the flotsam on a daily basis.

They rob any and all businesses at will, because they've nothing PRODUCTIVE to do in their pathetic lives.
They break into houses looking for quick cash - ditto for carjackings, robberies and assaults.
This is NOT how I envisioned the autumn of MY life (or Wifey's).

This city needs to get it's head out of the sand and out of it's own ass and decide to DO something about all the "urban terrorists" we have among us, and then hold everyone ELSE to the same standards that have been set for NORMAL people.
Screw diversity, screw ethnicity...you want EQUALITY?
Then, by God, make EVERYONE OBEY THE LAWS (equally) and become BETTER CITIZENS...
Now THAT would produce a better quality of people than what I see around here, and it benefits everyone involved.
And THAT is how a country reclaims and retains it's greatness...

Be well, make a difference to someone, and...
Stay SAFE out there, America.