Tuesday Tidbits...
Okay, so it's not going to be AS warm as it was yesterday, which I have to admit was too hot for me. When it tickles 80 degrees, I'm not comfortable any longer, unless I'm indoors.
I'm at that age where my internal thermometer gets "twitchy".
I love being warm in the winter, but hate being uncomfortable with the heat in summer. Gotta find that "happy balance".
Our Hoosierland weather today will find us with partly sunny skies, and a high of around 68-71 degrees. Won't have to use either the furnace nor the central A/C.
That should save a few bucks...lol.
So, let us get our morning drinks poured as we prepare to set sail into this day, and all it brings...
*** First off of the dock is our "What the hell happens today, Bob?" feature:
April 19 -
---Today is NATIONAL AMARETTO DAY

(I love this stuff. Mixes well with scotch AND coffee. Patrician's brand is the best)
---It's NATIONAL GARLIC DAY

(goes great on pizza AND keeps vampires away)
---It's also NATIONAL HANGING OUT DAY

Nothing like the smell of laundry drying outside.

(I plan to do some of the OTHER hanging out with my squirrel buddies)
---And, it's NATIONAL OKLAHOMA CITY BOMBING COMMEMORATION DAY

(remembering those who died at the hands of "homegrown" terrorists)
---It's also NATIONAL EDUCATION AND SHARING DAY

(always good to share education, as long as it's not "common" in it's "core" values.)
*** Next up (and on the correct day this week), we bring you ALL the police calls that the local media will never tell you about, simply because their printed space is better used for stupid, full page adverts, and all those (very) used car classifieds.

SHOTS FIRED / ARMED ROBBERY CALLS - 4/11- 4/17
=========================================
APR 11 -
16F046824 18:10:16 113 SHOTS FIRED 2800 MONROE ST S
16F046755 15:34:56 53 ARMED ROB 2300 FOX AVE
APR 12 -
16F047329 19:58:01 113 SHOTS FIRED 2400 GLENWOOD AVE
16F047397 23:03:41 113 SHOTS FIRED 2600 REED ST & PONTIAC ST E
16F047408 23:24:10 53 ARMED ROB 5800 ST JOE RD
APR 13 -
16F047830 23:28:42 113 SHOTS FIRED 1900 BROWN ST
16F047836 23:54:24 58 SHOOTING 2700 PAULDING RD E
((NO armed robberies))
APR 14 -
((NO shots fired))
16F048198 21:26:35 58 SHOOTING 5200 PORTA TRL
((NO armed robberies))
APR 15 -
16F048255 01:26:09 113 SHOTS FIRED 5700 ANTHONY BLVD S & PAULDING RD
16F048264 01:56:02 113 SHOTS FIRED 1200 GRIER ST
16F048265 01:57:56 113 SHOTS FIRED 4600 AVONDALE DR
16F048414 13:10:29 58 SHOOTING 4100 BOWSER AVE
((NO armed robberies))
APR 16 -
16F048805 02:41:41 113 SHOTS FIRED 7900 SERENITY DR
16F048818 03:47:08 113 SHOTS FIRED 4500 MONROE ST S
16F048833 05:12:16 113 SHOTS FIRED 400 ENGLEWOOD CT
16F048985 14:17:14 113 SHOTS FIRED 2800 ROUSSEAU AVE
16F049169 21:03:57 113 SHOTS FIRED 2900 REED ST & COLERICK ST
16F049181 21:23:58 113 SHOTS FIRED 6400 AMARILLO DR
16F049201 22:10:28 113 SHOTS FIRED 500 LASSELLE ST
16F049247 23:26:30 113 SHOTS FIRED 2800 WEISSER PARK AVE
16F049254 23:42:29 113 SHOTS FIRED 6000 KENT RD
16F048953 13:09:36 58 SHOOTING 2300 HOAGLAND AVE
((NO armed robberies))
APR 17 - 
16F049325 02:38:49 113 SHOTS FIRED 3000 BARR ST S
16F049327 02:39:20 113 SHOTS FIRED 2700 FOX AVE
16F049331 02:39:23 113 SHOTS FIRED 3300 WEBSTER ST
16F049328 02:41:30 113 SHOTS FIRED 2900 WARSAW ST
16F049334 02:42:00 113 SHOTS FIRED 300 WOODLAND AVE W
16F049332 02:42:03 113 SHOTS FIRED 2200 FOX AVE
16F049333 02:44:25 113 SHOTS FIRED 200 PONTIAC ST W & WEBSTER ST
16F049409 09:52:39 113 SHOTS FIRED 2000 FOX POINT TRL
16F049410 09:55:53 113 SHOTS FIRED 6000 ANTHONY BLVD S
16F049414 10:13:45 113 SHOTS FIRED 6800 JOHN ST
16F049746 22:26:57 113 SHOTS FIRED 1700 LAFAYETTE ST S & WALLACE ST E
16F049768 23:42:41 113 SHOTS FIRED 1100 LAFAYETTE ST S & LEWIS ST E
16F049770 23:48:09 113 SHOTS FIRED 1400 HAYDEN ST & MCCULLOCH ST
((NO armed robberies))
===========================
Must have had some sales on ammo this past week. Looks like the mooks on the SE side are spending their welfare money well enough. Now, if they could hit what they aim at, we might see a DROP in criminal activity.
===========================
FIREWORKS CALLS 4/4 - 4/10
============================
APR 16 -
16F049153 20:41:51 44FW 100 CROWN LN E
APR 17 -
16F049713 21:11:41 44FW 2700 OAKWOOD DR & LEMAR DR
Wow, a 100% INCREASE in fireworks...getting to be that "special kind of stupid" season once again.
*** Next up, about 100 protesters to this latest annexation proposal were downtown yesterday.
And here's the story link:
http://www.journalgazette.net/news/local/Annexation-plan-protested-12630576

Yeah, those decent and nasty, trouble-making, hard-working white people are ALWAYS causing a ruckus, aren't they?
And I am behind them 100%.
Those rural residents believe that city "rules" would impose upon their personal lifestyles (which do not include all the crimes that take place inside the city limits)...and they're correct.
This is nothing new. And this is what takes place when you have to put money out for frivolous lawsuits, allocate to 30 (city-related)entities to support THEM, allow more low-income housing for the government-sponsored among us, have to add MORE police to deal with the crime from many of the aforementioned people, and so on...

Cities excel at this...no surprise there.

That will put a severe drain on city coffers, because the tax revenues you USED to have when more people were productive citizens is drying the hell up.
Add to that, an aging population that leaves the workforce, or retires, and sometimes, moves away, and less $$$ is available to run the city.
So, you annex to bring BACK some of the tax revenue, rather than make those lazy-asses IN the city ante up and get their collective crap together and become as productive (and tax-paying) as the people they have replaced.
Look at every major city, and you see the same thing.
It's the same old story, just a different generation.
*** Speaking of different generations (and hanging out), we always get to see things such as THIS where we live.

Sat there for a GOOD 20 minutes, too.

Sure, partially block an already too narrow street with two-way traffic, JUST so you can jaw-jack for a spell. No cops around, and traffic control hardly EVER comes down here, so why not, right?
And these people wonder why a lack of respect (from others) follows them around like a storm cloud over their heads...THEY promote such feelings from others because of their OWN actions...effin' idiots.
*** Okay, so we (meaning Wifey) got ourselves a new computer (oh, crap, not again), and it's a very slick unit (made by Stone computer).

In-Win BP series desktop - a Hot Rod Lincoln

Now, when it comes to the BASICS of computer operations, I can figure my way through a smattering of it. The whole mouse, keyboard, screen, thing is a no-brainer. Plus, I've grown quite fond of XP over the recent years.

THIS is a START MENU???

BUT (uh, oh)...THIS new system has WINDOWS 10 onboard, and that is going to take some time to get to know.
Hell, I didn't even get a shot at Vista or Windows 7 (or whatever else they had in-between).
Now, I understand that WIN 10 is pretty good (except for the terrible parts)...LOL.
For example, I can't change the background screen into something I LIKE (they only put about FIVE choices in there,  and all of them suck).

You're kidding me, right? THIS is a wallpaper?

Plus, you can't change the type FONT like you could with XP, but you can increase the SIZE (in leaps of 25%, rather than by the publisher standard of "points". (I miss that, having been in the publishing industry back in the 70s)
The system STARTS  at 100% and jumps up to 125%, and so on...not cool. They do have a "magnifier"...useless.

I miss it and want it back...!

If I want to change the background, I'll have to pick and choose a PICTURE from "somewhere".
NO MORE VORTEX....definitely NOT awesome.
(okay, I did finally manage to get this picture AS the background - yay for my side...lol)
And a screen saver? Well, they have a few of those, but no "star field".
So, what DOES this system HAVE? Glad you asked.
It has plenty of SPEED, and STORAGE (half a terabyte for starters), BUT (uh, oh again) access to all these APPS (something I want no part of), plus, it has a lot of "privacy" issues, or should I say the LACK of privacy (issues).

Nosey bastards...!

With XP, I could just select a USER, and off we go. I had the "option" of making it PASSWORD SENSITIVE.
Not a problem at all.

This new system wants to know too much about us, and that bothers the crap outta me.
I don't want to create an account that MS will access whenever JUST to log the hell onto the damn system.
There should be some way to defeat all that intrusive BS, and I'll be looking for it.
All I want to do is select a user (like ME) and run with that.
I have enough accounts, nicknames and damn passwords (for enough websites)  to choke a corral of horses...don't want or need ANY more, kapeesh?

On the up side, I WILL say that the sound system we got is GREAT. Separate (Logitech) sub-woofer and two damn fine speakers make listening to music on YouTube a lot better (and no buffering lags or audio dropouts, thanks to the hot-rod processor in the system).
So, all that to get a decent stereo...there has GOT to be more than that...LOL.
Overall, it has WAY too many "bells and whistles" (that will probably remain unused) for MY liking, and not enough "meat and potatoes"...but I'm old-fashioned, and I like what's SIMPLE, and what WORKS...period.
Gonna be a long learning curve for yours truly...
*** Last back to the marina...there are those who say that "life is as simple as you make it", and

I would like to believe that it's true...but I can't, and here's why...
Life was never meant to be EASY, because if it were such, then EVERYONE would be successful,  rich, smart, well, you know the drill. That doesn't happen, and yet, we STILL have people who are very happy in what they do, as well as in their particular "station" in that life.
If the situation was such that WE could only affect life and not have any oppositional force from life upon us, things would be fine and dandy.
But, we struggle, we toil, we deal with problems, setbacks, and other assorted nuisances, and most of the time, we come out better on the other side. Why is that?
Well, we do something called LEARNING along the way, and that's something we should NEVER stop doing throughout our lives.
Dad always said that: "The day I stop learning is the day I drop dead."
He always was a "to the point" kinda guy.
But, it's true...think about it.
And then, think about the people who HAVE stopped learning (as we know the word)...what happens to them?
Well, they tend to do some really stupid-ass stuff, and wind up paying for that in one way or another.
Jails are full of such NON-learners, and well explains the term "repeat-offender".
More importantly, when it come to those of us unafraid TO learn, we can not only apply what we learn (through wisdom) to other facets of our lives, but also, can pass along such lessons to those who have yet to learn what we have.
That's the way we used to do things, and that worked better than any pill, therapist, politician's agenda, or governmental intrusion..

Nowadays, such "quaint notions" (like learning or life lessons) are summarily dismissed, and scattered by the wayside, when they should at the forefront of a lot more lives.
Perhaps a bit more heavenly intervention is needed for those folks, hmm?
Life CAN indeed be what you make it, as long as you don't try to overextend your reach, and as long as you learn to deal with all the detours, potholes, and distractions that come along during your journey.
You may surprise yourself and find you can settle for a lot less, and yet have some of that contentment the elite find so elusive.

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