We Tried

To vote early yesterday.  We went twice actually.  First time couldn't find a parking spot, second time we couldn't even get into the parking lot.  I checked online this morning and the place we attempted to vote at had one of the highest turnouts in the county.  We have a few more days to try early voting. If we can't get in I guess we will just stand in line at the regular polling place and hope for the best. The last election the line wasn't as long at the regular poll than the early voting spot was.  Maybe it will be best to just wait until Nov. 8.  It's November 9 for the democrats.  

Not sure what to make of this latest FBI investigation of hildabeasts emails.  It falls in line with the things I have read about obama suspending the election results after she gets elected due to being indicted.  It also falls in line with more false flag moves to distract from the wikileaks revelations.  I have no doubt the last is most likely true.  I also have no faith in anything the FBI does at this point other than some political move to help the white house.

What a messed up system we have and a sad facsimile of what we once were as a country.  I though I couldn't get any more disgusted.  I was wrong.  What is the point where I just don't care anymore? Scary to think about.

Happy Trails......if you can find one

Old Work Friends

Wednesday I drove down into the South Texas Brush country.  A friend I worked with many years ago lives down there, has all his life.  He is a Texas Country Boy.  He could be a poster for that.  I hadn't seen him in about 5 years but we chat online every few months.  He had also invited a few others I knew, some better than others, that worked for the same State entity I did but in other counties.  I knew them as well and got to spend a few hours telling lies and eating dead wild hog meat.  

It was about a 2 hour drive (85 miles) to get there having to navigate the entire width of the rat hole I live North of before I hit the open highway.  Even then it wasn't without it's hiccups. Road construction closed a large portion of the road I used to one lane.  

It was worth it, to see these old faces and cut up and just visit with no agenda.  The faces have aged as well as the bodies but the men I knew are still there.  The things that made me become friends with them in the first place are still the same.  That's refreshing to know that.  These were the guys that made the job worth it.  They deserved more from the job than they ever got or asked for.  Brought back a lot of great memories.  I was going to take a few photos of those old faces but got so caught up in the fun I completely forgot.

Happy Trails

Early Voting

Early Voting began Monday in the county I live in.  The wife and I will take advantage of this.  We were planning on going on one of the first days we could.  Monday we did a few chores around the house and outside, sat down to rest a bit and looked at a quick news report.  The early voting locations were overwhelmed with voters.  The wait being well over one hour.  One of the reasons we were going to vote early was to avoid the crush of voters on election day.  Apparently that is not going to happen.  Our county experienced a record turnout for the first day of early voting.  This is a good thing that there are so many that are exercising this right.  There is no real way to read into it anything, this county has gone blue the last two presidential elections and there were record turnouts then also.  So I try not to read anything into it and be disappointed later when the results are tallied. So we will wait a few days and try again with the hopes that the lines will be a bit shorter.  I am not sure how my recent back issues will be effected by standing still a long time.

There are only two locations to vote early that are reasonably near us.  So we have little choice to pick one that might have less folks.  The other thing is, most all the folks working the polls appear to be volunteers.  Almost all of them are many years into their golden years.  They don't get in a hurry even if they could.  Plus the fact that the way voters are checked in is so antiquated it slows the process anyway.  There is only ONE person checking everyone in and then he passes that person off to another person who completes the check in process. Then your are handed off to another person who will guide you to a voting machine when one comes open.   

I don't understand why this process hasn't been modernized.  Why not issue a credit card type voter registration card instead of the paper copy.  It could have the 'chip' that could be read by the voting machine and record that you have voted.  It would have all the information that the check in folks look for.  This would eliminate the slow check in process.  Various security measures could be added to verify the person is legit.  No it wouldn't be perfect, but how perfect is the current method? Just get in line at a voting machine, swipe your card and vote.  You could have multiple lines for all those folks instead of one speeding up the process considerably.  This would also encourage others to vote that have less patience for the wait and won't vote for that reason alone.  The technology is there, it will have a cost but the results IMO would be worth it.

Happy Trails

Results

The painting for the most part is complete.  There is still a little touch up.  However, we aren't sure we like the results.  While the color we chose is something we both liked, our dark cabinets and other items have seem to make it look much different than we expected.  The color is a 'terra cotta' but it seems to be a bit darker than we both anticipated.  When the lights are on in that room you can even see a glow of that 'terra cotta' color coming into the adjoining room.  So we are waiting a few days for final touch up, especially along the baseboards.  We are considering painting the baseboards an off white to help tone down the other.  At least it's just paint, that's easier to remedy than some other type project.  Just the expense of paint and a little time and effort.

The cold front that was expected early this morning still hasn't arrived and it's now 10:40 AM.  They are saying mid morning now.  10:40 AM is mid morning and I see no signs of it.  The predictions have changed significantly now.  No more talk about 40* temps and highs of 80 and not 70.  That's NOT a cold front.  It is supposed to usher in some dryer air which will be very welcome.

No, I refused to watch the debate last night.  Nothing could be said to sway me anyway, so why bother.  The things I have read aren't encouraging for the right side of thinking.  What a disaster this is shaping up to be.  I read an email from my local State Representative I found though provoking.  Here is the text of it in it's entirety:

Speaking before a local civic group recently, I posed the following questions: How many of you are tired of the presidential election? If you could, would you choose to vote right now, ending all the discussion, political ads and cable news coverage?

Hands shot up in the air. Every person in the room was ready for the circus that is the 2016 presidential election to end.

Let’s examine where we are today and how we got here. In 1968, when the concept of holding national party primary elections was conceived, life was much different for the average voter. The Beatles’ new song “Hey Jude” topped musical charts, there were only three television channels broadcasting the news, and the Internet did not exist.

In today’s world, where the 24-hour news cycle reigns, anyone with a smartphone and a Twitter account can be a journalist, and talking heads fill the airwaves, it makes little sense to continue the presidential primary process we adopted four decades ago.

In the information age, it is no longer necessary to undergo an elongated presidential primary process. Both the national Republican and Democrat parties encourage over-scrimmaging at their own peril. They throw a slew of candidates into the gauntlet, allow the world to watch as they mercilessly rip each other to shreds, then present the bloodied and battered winner to fight in the final round — the general election — after their stature has been decimated. Elongated primaries serve only to encourage the devolution of policy discussions into mudslinging, fatigue the electorate, and tarnish our country’s image in the world. Yearlong national party primaries are a bad 1960’s legacy that need to be retired.

Imagine if American voters had been able to choose among all 17 Republicans and six Democrats who sought to become the 45th president of the United States. Instead, the majority of the country was forced to wait until after the first three primary elections, held in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina, greatly narrowed the field, culling many of our first, second and even third choices. It would be fair to assume there would have been a much different outcome. Instead, we are left with two of the most unfavorable candidates in the past three decades (as evidenced by recent polls), whom only 9 percent of Americans elected.

So how do we fix this mess?

First, we must wrest control of the presidential primary election process from the Republican National Committee and Democratic National Committee. Then, we should institute a National Primary Date in which the entire country casts its vote in a primary that includes all candidates representing all parties on the same day. Include all qualified candidates in a primary election held the first Tuesday in April.

Additionally, we should follow our neighbors, Mexico and Canada, and limit the length of presidential campaigns, preferably to 90 days, which is ample time for the candidates to share their vision and describe how they would move our country forward.

Are you in? If so, raise your proverbial hand and contact your elected officials to let them know it’s time for a change!

What do you think?

Happy Trails

Busy

Been a little busy these last few days.  A couple leather projects some yard work and various errands, just the usual things of life.  Haven't had a lot of mojo to sit and write on the blog, especially about such mundane things.  

I am a bit more concerned about the things that are going on in the world that I have been reading about.  The crap the libtards and the complicit media spew is just mind boggling to me.  How can almost every major news outlet talking head have the same agenda, get hildabeast elected at all costs? Unfortunately there are much to many folks in this country that only listen and buy into the crap they spew forth and then vote like robots accordingly.  

A while back I read a piece that basically was a prediction about how things would go to keep the current potus in office beyond his term.  It was plausible, but I doubted whether something like that would actually happen.  Then this past week I read another article along the same vein from a completely different source and circumstances.  They also pointed out the latest confrontations in the world, mainly with Russia and the moves they have made recently.  I don't know anything about the sources whether they are conspiracy theorists, wack jobs seeking attention, or legitimate news sources.  It did give me food for thought regardless.  Then there are the seemingly false flag things going on to distract from the leaks about hildabeast's latest corrupt actions.  Can't hurt to be more prepared for a catastrophe whether natural, man made or government made.  I have no doubt of which is the most likely.

Painting should start today.  But then we will get some wet weather in a couple more days.  I think we can finish that up before it arrives.  We are finally supposed to get a REAL cold front this week.  I believe it's supposed to hit Thursday and possibly be down in the 40's by Friday.  I am looking forward to it, but I hope it's not real windy, but it probably will be with that drastic of a change in temps.  From 90's down to 40's, yeah, it will be windy.  I'll take it anyway.  

I have a couple tomatoes finally starting ripen and it looks like I will get to harvest a few before any freeze hits this year.  We generally don't get our first real freeze until mid November or later.  That will give me time to get a couple weeks worth of fresh tomatoes.  Still haven't found any onions to plant and may not since it is getting late for that.

A friend gave me her Nook color to replace mine since the battery was dying.  There is no real solution to the battery issue.  Barnes and Noble never set up a way for them to be easily replaceable. Another misstep in their management of the Nook platform.  I have been using my Nook up to the last second and it has gotten to point I am charging it daily.  So I started setting up the other Nook that was given to me.  One of the apps that I use on mine, the Bible Reader, won't even install on the newer Nook.  No idea why that is but it won't let me even download it, giving a message that it won't work on this device.  Makes no sense at all.  So I will return the gift Nook back to the original owner and contemplate my next steps.  I have settled on going with one of the Kindle's, either the Fire or the Paperwhite.  More research is needed.  If they can't use the same app for my bible I am not sure what I will do then.  I still have more questions about the Kindles, color display, available apps, etc. before the final decision.  I don't want to feel like I made a mistake after I spend the cash.

Happy Trails

Annexation

Today is the day Texas was annexed into the United States back in 1845.  What a mess that has turned out to be.  A short 16 years later Texans seceded due to the intrusion of big government. Unfortunately that didn't turn out so well and they were forced back into the Union, under duress I might add.  Over the last 8 years or so there have been rumblings of secession again due to big government intrusion.  We haven't gotten pissed off enough yet to go there again, plus the fact that our 'Texas' culture has been so polluted and watered down by the influx of illegals and 'those people' from the north or east/west coasts keeps the political landscape more inclined to big government.  It will only get worse as Texas continues to be a destination state.

The next couple days will be spent trying to get trees and shrubs trimmed back before the cold weather gets here.  The shrubs are rubbing against the house and the little sucker limbs on the trees we trimmed last Spring have returned with a vengeance.  The wife hates the way they look but there are some that are much to low for me to drive my lawn tractor under without knocking my hat off even with me contorting my body.  Those definitely need to go.

We have been talking about taking another day trip down to the coast but the weather has been hotter than usual and being on the beach with little shade in that heat is not fun.  Maybe it will cool off a little more next week.

Have a couple leather projects in the works.  Another cell phone pouch.  No money to made as I had to resort to a kit.  Things are pretty slow on the leather work front so have been holding off ordering more leather.  I did shop around to see what the prices looked like.  I could get a premium side, (that's half a whole cow hide) for 165$ in recent past.  Now they are 195$ and above.  It's a lot of leather but it takes a long time with a lot of little projects to pay that off.  Christmas has been a busy time for me with leather as folks want various gifts made.  I couldn't take any orders 2 years ago due to my surgery and I got no orders that I remember the following.  Just as well, the folks that usually order want it now and depending on how many I have it can be as much as 3 weeks or more for me to turn a product out.  They are always disappointed I can't bail them out with a gift.  Folks just don't know what hand made means anymore.

Happy Trails

Still Struggling

Yes, losing everything on your PC, well at least mine, is extremely inconvenient.  Bookmarks have been a major hassle.  Trying to go to your regular sites and realize you don't remember the URL.  Not that hard to get them again, it's just tedious and getting them categorized so I can find them readily.  

Then there are the photos.  I have backups of most of them, but not for the last 3-4 years.  I have some saved from posting them to the book of faces and Flickr but there are hundreds that never made it that far.  So I looked around on the WWW to see what was available, software-wise, to recover old files that get lost/deleted.  I did find a free version and it seems to work well enough to recover a lot of the lost items.  But it is mixed in with junk files too and you have to wade through all of it to recover what you want.  After about 10 hours of letting the software do it's things there are over 100,000 photos.  No, they aren't all mine.  Apparently it even finds photos that your PC caches and deletes.  As it turns out the software will only allow you to recover 100 MB in the free version.  You have to buy the full version at 40$.  Not too bad considering what you get back, at least to me.  I will have to wait a bit to lay that down for new software.  At least I know I can get most of them back.

I am also trying to learn a new web browser.  I had been using Firefox but there are just too many things that aren't working right with Win 10.  So I decided to commit to Chrome.  It works better and seems much faster.  However the bookmarking is a PITB.  I don't like the way it works and why I avoided using it after several tries before.  But Firefox continued to have more issues develop with each update.  With the reloading of all my software I made the change.  No, I don't like Edge either.

The BBQ went off pretty well last Friday.  Everyone seemed to have a good time and enjoy my brisket and beans. Several folks tried to talk me into taking home the leftover brisket.  We had 24 folks over and had room for maybe 2-3 more but it would have been tight.  I think as small as our house is, it went pretty well.

My Daughter-in-laws Grandfather passed away last week.  He was 97 years old.  I have very fond memories of this man, a gospel preacher.  I know very little about his life and hope to learn more at his memorial service Tuesday evening.  I have never seen his face without at smile and he made a point to speak to me every time I saw him, maybe one or two times a year.  That's not a lot of time for a 97 year old to be able to remember someone they saw so rarely.  He was still sharp as a tack and didn't let his physical issues change his demeanor.  Always very gracious and kind.   From the way he moved, I know he must have been in some serious pain, but the smile never left.  He was a pleasure to be around and the epitome of what a christian is.  I learned a few things from him about how to carry yourself as a christian.  While his family is missing, him they are rejoicing with the angels that he has gone home.

Happy Trails

I'm Back

Well the PC is anyway.  Windows was corrupted and had to be reloaded and then upgraded.  Lost everything on it, documents, thousands of photos, hundreds of bookmarks, and on and on. Consequently when I lost my bookmarks it took them off my blog roll apparently.  No idea why that is possible but it happened.  So I am in the process of trying to remember everyone's blog I visit and bookmark them.  Not to mention reinstalling all the software that I use.  This will take some time.  So if I had your blog on my sidebar I will try to get it back eventually. 

Not having the PC made me realize just how much time I spend in front of the stupid thing.  Even my dog, Buster was confused.  He usually spends most of the day with me in my office and that wasn't happening.  He is as much a creature of habit as I am.  His ears seem to be over the infections but his hearing has been significantly degraded.  We are hoping that there is just a lot of junk down in there from the infections.  We are going to give it a little time to see how it goes.  We may try irrigating the ears ourselves and see what happens, but we certainly don't want to cause another infection due to moisture.

Meat is currently on the grill/smoker for the get together Friday evening.  Saturday Kim returns to work at the resort and I should be somewhat free.  Normally I would watch my favorite college football team play in the biggest rivalry game they have.  But things have gone south so fast I have lost confidence in the ability of the coach.  I have never been and will never be a fair weather fan and it pains me to say that about the coach.  I believe he is truly a good person and a good coach.  At this point I think he may be in over his head.  Some of his decisions just don't make much sense and leave everyone scratching their heads.  Unfortunately for him, I think the powerful boosters will have a huge influence on whether he goes or stays at the end of the season.  From all appearances and things I've read they are fed up.  It's been too many years of mediocrity and less for any more patience to be shown.  If he does get sacked, I am not sure they won't be set back again.  It may be a case of the right man at the wrong time.

Happy Trails

PC Problems

My desktop PC is seriously jacked up (on the wife's laptop for now).  The PC froze up on me and I couldn't do anything.  Not the first time this has happened.  Only solution was to power off and then back on.  As it powered on, it took forever to boot up and get to the desktop.  Once there, I wasn't able to open anything.  Sometimes I would get a message that there was no interface available for that function.  Not good at all.  After googling a fix there were several things I tried that were suggested.  Nada.  Still the same.  Even my rescue disks won't work.  So now it is at a point beyond my knowledge/capabilities.  This comes at a time I really can't afford an unplanned expense.  Isn't that always the case?  

I am trying to contact the PC guru that fixed the wife's laptop a while back and see if he wants to take a stab at mine.  If not, I will have to find a repair shop/  I truly believe that the operating system (windows 10) is corrupted beyond repair, if not, the hard drive has gotten damaged.  I am hoping it is just Windows, that would be less of a hit I think.

Until I get this resolved posting will be even more erratic than previous.  This may take a while.

Happy Trails

Gone Fishing

Actually, I went fishing.  We were invited up to a friends place near Lake LBJ Friday.  As soon as we got there around 10:30 AM they took me out on their boat.  The weather was perfect.  Clear, cool and calm.  The water was muddy ob the part where the Llano river is from all the recent rains so we went over into the area where the Colorado river joins the Llano.  That area is called the Llanorado by the locals.  The water was clearer there.  There are even a few Canadian geese in this area.  They are there all year, they don't migrate.  Probably as far South as you will ever see them, I don't know for sure.  You can see a couple of them in the second photo below if you click on it.  I was pretty rusty with my casting it has been so long.  It took a bit to get the feel for it back enough where I at least stopped embarrassing myself with bad casts lol.  Yeah, it got pretty funny at times.

We didn't really catch anything.  I did hang a nice bass of about 3 lbs but I did a poor job of tying my lure on and it came untied before I landed it.  Oh well, I would have released it anyway.  It got the blood pumping a little.

The weather has been spectacular since a cool front came in late last week.  Cool and dry.  We had some pretty colorful sunrises the last few days.

By the time I got back out with the camera the colors had already faded a little.  Still pretty good.

Lots of fall cleaning this week and prep for a BBQ this Friday evening will keep me way busier than I usually am.  So I may be out of pocket posting here.

Happy Trails