Horse Manure Park

It all started a couple of days ago when I read an article speculating coffee prices were going to skyrocket in the coming months (there are a number of reasons for this price hike, but for the sake of humanity, I won't go there). While the article did not predict how high the prices would soar, the author used the word "significant." Since then, I've been thinking about something and I suppose I'm little morbid for even broaching this squeamish thought. Like everyone else, I'm a creature of habit. And one of the worst the worst habit I have is drinking coffee. Actually, let's call it what it is: an addiction. I've said to the Speaker of the House more than once that if I was forced to make a choice, I would stop imbibing in my favorite barley and hops beverage  for life before I would cease my coffee intake. It is something I simply can't live without. But how much am I willing to pay for this bean of the gods? And how much money woul...

I'm attempting to make a few changes today, because I know when there's too much on my plate. I am speaking in figurative terms here. I never seem to know when there's literally too much on my plate. I eat everything within my ZIP code (figuratively). Especially pastries. I love me some pastries. But let me get back to my original thought... whatever that was. I shouldn't have mentioned doughnuts. Oh yeah, I was talking about changes.... Today I opted not to renew the domain name for my football web site (thelonepylon.com). It was a difficult decision, but this is about knowing one's limits: there are not enough minutes in the day for me to keep a fantasy football site up-to-date with accurate and timely information. The problem is this: I am gainfully employed, I have a couple of tax deductions, and occasionally I try to be a reasonably adequate husband. (You know, minor details.) This means something's got to give. And why pay money for a d...

It has been a stressful couple of days here in my neck o' the woods. On Sunday evening we had the worst storm we've experienced in 14 years of living here. More on that, including all the ugly pictures, in a later post.  The important thing is we are all safe, just "stuff" was lost and damaged. Mother Nature is a vindictive old bitch and she knocked us to the canvas for a couple seconds, but we bounced right up, came in swinging and jabbed her right back in the chops.  Take that, you crabby old heifer.  On a lighter side of things, I made one of my semi-annual pilgrimages to The Darkness (commonly called "Walmart") on Sunday before the wind blew and the trees twisted through the air. The Darkness did not disappoint in amusing me.  A reminder, the date was July 12th, not August 12th. I am guessing we will see Christmas decor out in a couple of weeks. After all, we only have 23 more Thursdays till Christmas (yep, look it up!)  The Girl's reaction to this s...

It is already June 6th. Life is moving fast and furious. It was a long week of work. It is Saturday and I don't really have any plans (I'm waiting for it to rain) and I feel guilty for not having any plans. My brother-in-law and sister-in-law (B&B Construction) were here this past week and they installed wood paneling in our downstairs living room. It is amazing what a little accent like that can do to a room. I got home late from work but took some "before" pictures after the project was already started. The living room wall is bisected by a wooden shelf. The wall, top and bottom, was orange peel consistency and plain white. After almost 15 years of living here, we decided to kick it up a notch.  Work in progress... The finished project... Now to paint the living room... but the jury is still out on what color to use. As you can see in the top picture, we flirted with yellow hues, but it does not work at all with the color of wood we have. It l...

In memory of my father this Memorial Day. I visited his grave for the first time in several years yesterday. It was good to say hello.

Please forgive me. It has been two months since my last blog. I have no idea where that time went. I suppose it went to that place where all the other time goes. I was kind of surprised to get an email from someone who asked me if I had given up blogging. It made me feel kind of good that someone checks in to read now and then. Believe me, I think about writing all the time but "thinking" and "doing" are two different things. Actually, I have written a couple of posts over the last 60 days, mostly on rainy days (which has been 55 of the last 60 days), but I decided the posts got too political. There's nothing worse than somebody rambling on about their political/moral beliefs. Especially when you run the risk of upsetting others and when you don't really know what you're talking about. I confess I usually don't know what I'm talking about. So here I am sitting on my unstained deck, typing away. The neighborhood is alive with the sound of...

I'm a bit sporadic at updating my little space in cyberland here.  That's what happens with kids and a job.  Thankfully, you haven't missed much if you don't visit here often. I opened an account on a new site called This Life , which is maintained by Shutterfly, and I'm really liking it.  It sort of works like Drop Box; all of our photos on our devices automatically upload to our This Life account and all of the pictures on our lap top automatically upload to the site as well. But what I really like about This Life, as compared to Drop Box, is the site magically organizes your photos by date and it has a facial recognition program which organizes your photos by people as well.  It is kind of cool and creepy all at the same time.  It's bizarre how it can recognize the Boy as a baby and as a five year old. I don't know how it works, but it works.  Yet it makes me wonder what kind of technology is out there that we don't know about?  It's probabl...