Damn computers

I done went and screwed my web page up and have spent 3 days trying to get it back up. It is gone boom nothing, I still have it on my program I used to publish it with but can't get the damn thing published again,time to call Go Daddy. I use a program called Dream Weaver and it does not like Go Daddy for web hosting for some reason. I spent 2 days with them when I first started that web page getting it published, at least I have something to do now.

 This weather has me wanting to get out and do things again. I need to head out to the ranch and check on the place and make sure I'm not housing any illegal's since I've been gone and check on my Johnson Grass sure wish I could get rid of that dang stuff , every time I go out to the place I've lost more land to that damn stuff it goes crazy out there.

 Update, just got the ole web page back up and running had to change my password around to get it back up. Sometimes I think I'm getting to old to jack with this crap. When I was young things stayed the same for a long time, now the same thing changes every other day, now another password to remember. Sometimes I feel like just setting all my passwords to just one number like the number 1. I can remember that pretty well but hell no, they want you to have a 15 letter and number password with some kind of symbol throwed in with it and a capital letter. Who in the hell can remember all that crap. OK enough of the rant.

 Anybody want to buy a scooter?

 

 I let my month overload my ass again and told a friend of mine I would help him sell this thing. It's $1250.00 with 2200 miles on it and gets 80 miles to the gallon.I wouldn't mind having it but I don't want to be going down the road on it and everybody saying, "That fat SOB ought to be carrying that poor little thing instead of riding it". So I will try to sell it.

Ain't nothing going on.

Well I have not done anything interesting lately and  havn't a dang thing to write about so I will just let you read how not to catch a deer.

This letter was in a town paper in Maryville, TN.

Actual Letter from someone who writes and farms ...

I had this idea that I was going to rope a deer, put it in a stall, feed it
up on corn for a couple of weeks, then kill it and eat it.
The first step in this adventure was getting a deer. I figured that, since
they congregate at my cattle feeder and do not seem to have much fear of me
when we are there (a bold one will sometimes come right up and sniff at the
bags of feed while I am in the back of the truck not
4 feet away), it should not be difficult to rope one, get up to it and toss
a bag over its head (to calm it down) then hog tie it and transport it home.


I filled the cattle feeder then hid down at the end with my rope.
The cattle, having seen the roping thing before, stayed well back.
They were not having any of it.
After about 20 minutes, my deer showed up -- 3 of them. I picked out a
likely looking one, stepped out from the end of the feeder, and threw my
rope. The deer just stood there and stared at me.

I wrapped the rope around my waist and twisted the end so I would have a
good hold. The deer still just stood and stared at me, but you could tell it
was mildly concerned about the whole rope situation.
I took a step towards it...it took a step away. I put a little tension on
the rope and then received an education.

The first thing that I learned is that, while a deer may just stand there
looking at you funny while you rope it, they are spurred to action when you
start pulling on that rope.
That deer EXPLODED.
The second thing I learned is that pound for pound, a deer is a LOT stronger
than a cow or a colt. A cow or a colt in that weight range I could fight
down with a rope and with some dignity.
A deer? - - no chance.
That thing ran and bucked and twisted and pulled. There was no controlling
it and certainly no getting close to it. As it jerked me off my feet and
started dragging me across the ground, it occurred to me that having a deer
on a rope was not nearly as good an idea as I had originally imagined.
The only upside is that they do not have as much stamina as many other
animals.

A brief 10 minutes later, it was tired and not nearly as quick to jerk me
off my feet and drag me when I managed to get up. It took me a few minutes
to realize this, since I was mostly blinded by the blood flowing out of the
big gash in my head. At that point, I had lost my taste for corn-fed
venison. I just wanted to get that devil creature off the end of that rope.

I figured if I just let it go with the rope hanging around its neck, it
would likely die slow and painfully somewhere.
At the time, there was no love at all between me and that deer. At that
moment, I hated the thing, and I would venture a guess that the feeling was
mutual.

Despite the gash in my head and the several large knots where I had cleverly
arrested the deer's momentum by bracing my head against various large rocks
as it dragged me across the ground, I could still think clearly enough to
recognize that there was a small chance that I shared some tiny amount of
responsibility for the situation we were in, so I didn't want the deer to
have it suffer a slow death, so I managed to get it lined back up in between
my truck and the feeder - a little trap I had set before hand...kind of like
a squeeze chute.
I got it to back in there and I started moving up so I could get my rope
back.

Did you know that deer bite? They do! I never in a million years would have
thought that a deer would bite somebody, so I was very surprised when I
reached up there to grab that rope and the deer grabbed hold of my wrist.

Now, when a deer bites you, it is not like being bit by a horse where they
just bite you and then let go. A deer bites you and shakes its head --almost
like a pit bull. They bite HARD and it hurts.

The proper thing to do when a deer bites you is probably to freeze and draw
back slowly. I tried screaming and shaking instead. My method was
ineffective.
It seems like the deer was biting and shaking for several minutes, but it
was likely only several seconds.
I, being smarter than a deer (though you may be questioning that claim by
now) tricked it.

While I kept it busy tearing the bejeezus out of my right arm, I reached up
with my left hand and pulled that rope loose. That was when I got my final
lesson in deer behavior for the day.
Deer will strike at you with their front feet. They rear right up on their
back feet and strike right about head and shoulder level, and their hooves
are surprisingly sharp.

I learned a long time ago that, when an animal -- like a horse --strikes at
you with their hooves and you can't get away easily, the best thing to do is
try to make a loud noise and make an aggressive move towards the animal.
This will usually cause them to back down a bit so you can escape.
This was not a horse. This was a deer, so obviously, such trickery would not
work. In the course of a millisecond, I devised a different strategy.

I screamed like a woman and tried to turn and run.

The reason I had always been told NOT to try to turn and run from a horse
that paws at you is that there is a good chance that it will hit you in the
back of the head.
Deer may not be so different from horses after all, besides being twice as
strong and 3 times as evil, because the second I turned to run, it hit me
right in the back of the head and knocked me down.

Now, when a deer paws at you and knocks you down, it does not immediately
leave. I suspect it does not recognize that the danger has passed. What they
do instead is paw your back and jump up and down on you while you are laying
there crying like a little girl and covering your head.

I finally managed to crawl under the truck and the deer went away.
So, now I know why when people go deer hunting they bring a rifle with a
scope so that they can be somewhat equal to the prey.

The world is not coming to an end.

Just thought I'd drop a quick note and let you know that the world will not end tomorrow,I have a niece that lives in New Zealand and it's the 21st over there and everybody is still kicking, so don't blow all your money today partying, thinking your gonna be drunk as a skunk when the end comes tomorrow cause it anit gonna happen. The only way the world will end for you tomorrow on the 21st. is from you shooting yourself for spending all your money today partying.

IT'S A MAN THING

Since it's close to that time of the year again, I thought I would repost this again this year, it's to funny not to.

It's that time of year again, sooooo..............

IT'S A MAN THING

About 2 weeks ago, I was looking around the Web for the BIGGEST sky
rocket that I could get shipped to me via common freight carrier.  I
located a fireworks importer in Wisconsin who had this mondo sky
rocket--biggest thing I had ever seen--called a Sky Dragon.  These things
are 48 inches tall and are mounted on a 1/2-inch wooden dowel. Pure
aerospace engineering.

I plopped down a bunch of money and had him send me two cases of these
things.  They arrived at the freight dock a few days ago and I had to
drive the van over to pick them up.   Two boxes each 2 feet by 2 feet by 4
feet in size containing 80 rockets each.   The 'Class 4 Explosives'
sticker on the side of each box was a real bonus.  I am gonna have to save
them for the scrapbook.

That night, me and the kiddos had a gen-u-ine rocket launch ceremony. I
placed one of these beauties in a liter-size glass bottle and the bottle
fell over.  Hmmmm- this thing was waaay too big.  I looked around the shop
for a pipe to set it in, but realized that the only dirt I could drive the
pipe into was in plain sight of my neighbor's house.  I knew he was a cool
guy, but I didn't want him to call the cops.  You see- 'projectile-type'
fireworks are totally illegal in this county.  I was surprised that the
Buncombe County Sheriff Department wasn't waiting for me at the loading
dock when I picked these things up.  Anyhow, I finally rigged a launch pad
by prying up one of the driveway drain grates with a crowbar and sitting
the stick into the deep pit.  Looked sorta like an ICBM silo with its
hardened lid slid aside.

I asked which of my three kids wanted to light the fuse, but all took a
few steps back and politely declined.  Chicken shits.  Kids just aren't
made the same nowadays.  They fulfill their danger quotient by shooting
bad guys in video games.  About as far from real danger as you can get, if
you ask me.

I told the little weenies to stand back as I bent to light the device
with a Bic lighter.

The lady at the fireworks importer promised me that these things would
NOT make any noise.  I told her that they HAD to be relatively quiet so I
could shoot them off in my neighborhood without causing 'undue alarm'. She
said I wouldn't have any problem.  I emphasized the particular legal
problems I would have if  there were any type of loud report at apogee.  I
emphasized the fact that I lived right next to a National Park and that
any type of firework that was discharged or assumed to be discharged on
that property would get me sent before a FEDERAL judge right before I got
sent to the COUNTY judge.  She again assured me I would have no problem.

That lying bitch.

That rocket engine had a burn time about as long as any I had EVER seen,
and the ascent echoed off the surrounding trees.   Diamond shock pattern
extended from the back end.  It kept going and going and going.  When it
hit apogee at about 1000 feet,  the rocket disintegrated into a huge
shower of silent red sparks.  Pretty cool, I thought......until the shower
of sparks burned out and suddenly transformed into a cloud of extremely
bright and loud explosions. The kids scrambled into the back door 'Three
Stooges' style (ie where all three try to get through the same closed
door at once) and left me standing in the smoking haze waiting for the
cops to arrive. The dogs that live along our street were all barking their
heads off at the apparition they had just witnessed in the night sky

That ended the fireworks test for the night.

The next day, my oldest son Doug and I decided we were gonna 'neuter' one
of the rockets so it wouldn't make any noise.  I took him into the closet
where I store the gardening tools and he saw these two huge cases of
fireworks standing there.  The kid went nuts.  He wanted to open BOTH
boxes so he could see what all 159 rockets looked like lined up next to
each other.  This kid has promise.  I told him "Since mom only thinks I
have a few of these things lying around, maybe that wasn't such a good
idea."  He mulled that over for a few seconds, then gave me a real big
smile in agreement.

We pulled one of the rockets out of the box and re-locked the closet
door.

He and I both sat down on the driveway and proceeded to take it apart. It
was a standard issue big-ass Chinese sky rocket.  I bet they used these to
kill people 500 years ago.   As I sat there taking layer after layer of
paper off, his brain was filling with the details of construction. Tissue,
cardboard, plastic, fuses...etc. Realizing that he was mentally storing
the design for some future project sorta made me shudder.    All I was
thinking was the fact that this thing was probably put together by a
political prisoner in a hellhole somewhere who is probably gonna get
'executed' so they can sell his internal organs on the transplant market.

Probably not too far from the facts, but I managed to do a bit of
explaining to him from the standpoint of aerospace engineering regarding
how the thing worked.  Doug is probably the only 4th grader in the U.S.
who can now describe the principle of thrust using a control volume model.

The rocket was pretty simple.  It had a very large booster engine topped
with a warhead that contained the red sparkly things that exploded.
Removing the warhead was as simple as giving a quick twist, and I assumed
the neutered rocket would fly higher without the payload.  I was correct.
Doug and I did a daylight 'stealth' test and were able to add about 50% to
the altitude attained the previous night.  We decided to modify four more
rockets and put them aside in the closet for easy access.  When this was
done, Doug had a jar full of stuff that came out of the warheads
including 12 fuses about 3-inches long each, some paper, 4 plastic
nosecones and a big handfull of these little black balls about the size of
12-gauge buckshot that turned out to be the 'red sparkly popper things'.
It appeared that the outer layer was a simple gunpowder coating designed
to quickly burn off as red shower of sparks.   I surmised that the inner
core had some kind of magnesium thermite that gave off an intense white
light and a loud bang.  Pretty cool if you ask me.   Lots of energy packed
into one teeny little ball.

I didn't want to see the popper thingies go to waste, so I told Doug we
were gonna put them in a hole in the ground and set them off.  He gave me
another big smile.

It's amazing how kids think alike...even when separated by 30 years.

As I was digging a shallow hole with my hand, Doug asked if it would be
alright to put an army man next to these things so that "When they go off,
it would look like he was getting shot with a maching gun".
Dang....exactly what I was thinking.  I agreed and he ran off to his room
to dig something out of the mess.  He returned in about 3 seconds, out of
breath and  holding a cheap plastic imitation of Robert E. Lee on
horseback and a Civil War cannon.  I pointed out that they didn't have
true machine guns in the Civil War, but we would overlook this for the
purpose of the demonstration.  He handed me the action figure and I placed
it and the cannon next to a rather large pile of black beads from which a
few of the fuses extended.

I figured that three inches of fuse would take 2 seconds to burn, so I
had at least that amount of time to stand up and take a few steps back.  I
neglected to recount the night before.....when the warhead ignited
IMMEDIATELY upon reaching apogee.  Tricky Chinese.  They had installed
extremely fast-burning fuse in these things and that fact totally escaped
me.

I squatted next to Robert Lee and gave a short eulogy.  Doug laughed. I
took the trusty Bic lighter and placed it next to the fuse.  One flick got
the lighter going and THIS IMAGE IS ONE I WILL REMEMBER FOR A LONG TIME.
My hand holding a lighter next to a pile of explosives.

There is usually a short but noticeable mental pause that occurs
immediately before something bad or really stupid happens.  It is where
that little voice in your head says "You dumbass."

The fuse burn time was in the 1/1000ths of a second range.   The pile of
little popper thingy's immediately ignited into a tremendously brilliant
ball of fire.  All I could think was ..."...th....th.....thermite..."
Unfortunately, when they are viewed at ground level, these little popper
thingies become REALLY BIG POPPER THINGIES and have a tendency to jump up
to 15-feet in every direction from their point of ignition.  I
instantaneously became engulfed in a ball of fire that sounded a lot like
being in a half-done bag of Orville Reddenbacher's popcorn.

It was all over about as fast as I could snap my fingers.

After the smoke cleared, Doug started laughing his butt off.  That meant
I was still in one piece.  Doug does not laugh at dismembered limbs.   He
said I jumped about 10-feet, an action that I do not remember.  I checked
my clothes for burn marks, and found none.  He checked my back to make
sure it was not on fire.  No combustion there.  The driveway was peppered
with black holes where the concrete had been scarred from these things.

A close one.  Another REAL close one.  My mind ran the tapes again to
re-hash what it had seen.  All I remembered was being inside something
akin to a 30-foot diameter........flaming dandelion.  Whew.

We examined Ol' Robert E. at ground-zero.

Instead of a machine-gun peppering, he got nuked.   He and the horse he
rode in on.......and his cannon too.  One side was untouched, but the
other side was arc-welded.  Real warfare.  Doug examined it real
quiet-like and then started laughing again.

I assume he will remember the finer points of the lesson as he grows
older. When I now speak of 'almost being burned beyond recognition' he
will have a slightly better understanding of what I mean.  I hope that
this vivid image tempers the knowledge he now has regarding rocket
construction. O well.  After all, if your dad isn't gonna teach you how to
get your ass blown off, who will?

I'm Still Kicking

I see where Big Foot checked in on me so I thought I ought to get off my butt and post something for a change. I've been real busy the last month or so and have been to tired to post anything. I don't know how much longer my ole body will hold up to this Ballooning Business. I think the second heart attack I had wore my body down so much that I'm about 45% of what I used to be. I was having a heart attack at least once a day for 3 weeks before anything was done about it and it took its toll on me, I have not been the same since then. My body just can't take anymore than a half of a days work and then I'm beat I just sit in the chair the rest of the day with no energy to do anything so the only ballooning I do now is mornings, after around high noon I'm done for the day and it gets really aggravating. My body has told me it ain't taking no more, my knees are ready to be replaced, I'll get that done when I can't walk no more I guess, my ole back is telling me not to forget about it and now I have this damn pain in my heal like a stone bruise, I think its time for a full body transplant.
OK enough of my feeling sorry for myself.

Went out this morning and did a tether with the balloon. In this picture you can see a blast of raw propane coming out before igniting. We put nitrogen in the propane tanks when it gets below freezing  to boost the pressure in the tanks. It was above freezing this morning so we had a little extra pressure. Each burner puts out 16 million BTU's of heat and we have 2 burners on this system.

Happy Holidays everyone and stay safe through these holidays.

Evolution . . . . . homo-stupidea

 

Made It Back

Well we made it back in one piece but I was sicker then hell and came home Sunday. I don't know what I caught out there but Saturday night my throat starting getting sore and Sunday morning woke up to a cool cloudy windy day and a sore throat so we headed home.
With all the rain we had out there it sure was green and grown up around the ole place. I had to get my pick and rake out and clean up my roads around the place. I have a road in the back 40 that the Johnson Grass has taken over again, couldn't even see it, the grass was so high. I took a video of my roads around the place if you will skip to around the 6 minute mark you can get an idea about the Johnson Grass, toward the end of the video you can really see the grass I have out there. I need to find some way to get rid of it before it takes over the whole place.

Friday we went to watch the Shelby Mustangs at the Lajitas International Airport, they ran the quarter mile facing east on the runway and did a obstacle course run on the west end of the runway. I walked around with slobber running down my chin all day drooling over those cars. 

We headed down to Lajitas to see how everything was there. I was even offered a job down there, still thinking about that job offer.

The golf course was looking great for being in the desert.

Saw this grave down there, thought it was different, it had "Just Jake" for a name.

Then we headed home and Friday my good friend Dale came over and helped me with my solar panels.

It took on into Saturday before we were finished with them and by then it was to late to go to Ft. Davis for the show. I really wished we could have seen it, but the weather was not to good Saturday night so I don't think we missed anything.

Then we headed home Sunday sick as hell. I just started feeling better today.

Time To Head Out

Will be heading out to Terlingua tomorrow and I can't wait. The Shelby Mustangs will be down there starting Thursday.

                               We will do some 4-wheeling while we are down there.

Then on Saturday night we will be in Ft. Davis for this, 

Over 40 living history re-enactors will perform compelling vignettes to take you back in time to the 1800s when the U.S. Army occupied Fort Davis. Meet the spunky officer’s servant, Mrs. Murphy, bantering humorously as she serves warm cider and cookies to guests. Watch a delirious sergeant on sick call at the post hospital chiding the capable post surgeon. Encounter officers and some gossipy officers’ wives of the 10th Cavalry in 1885 discussing the regiment’s upcoming move to Arizona.
Tour times are staggered every half hour. The first guided tour begins at 6 p.m. and the last begins at 8:30 p.m. This unique once-a-year event allows the public to see the Fort after hours and by lantern light. You’ll see living history characters from the past in scenes based on actual historical events at the fort. A special side attraction is to view new exhibits in the 1876 hospital.

                        I went and bought 100 LBS of corn for my 4 legged friends out there .

I will get my new solar panels hooked up with my new battery's, so it will be a busy trip but well worth it. 

I did get to spend $1300.00 on the rear end of my truck the other day, that made me real mad at ford. How in the hell can you put clutches in the rear end and just let the clutch material fall into the grease as it wears out. From reading other peoples stories on this they get about 35,000 miles between clutch jobs on the rear end. I waited till I had 90,000 on mine and had to have all the bearings replaced as well as the clutches. If you plan on buying a used Ford truck around a 2003 model stay away from it unless you like spending money on replacing clutches. I've really been happy with it except for the damn rear end on it. The clutches give it positrack when it needs it, just in case you think I lost my mind talking about a clutch in a rear end.

Made It Back From The Wedding

One of my favorite things to do,is going to a country wedding. When some friends asked me if I would come to their wedding and take some pictures I jumped on it. If you have not been to a country wedding you are missing out on what America should be like, at least to me anyway. Its the only time I get around a bunch of young people and all you here is yes sir, no sir, yes ma'am and no ma'am.  Just makes me want to get the hell out of Austin that much quicker,I love country life.
 This little couple is so photogenic its hard to take a bad picture. I took around 800 pictures at that dang wedding and I took my margarita machines up there also, 8 gallons of margarita lasted a couple of hours and the kids emptied out 8 gallons of coke slushies in a couple of hours, everybody had a great time.
 After setting around the house doing nothing but trying to heal, this trip was great medicine for me I got a lot of walking in up there and today most of the swelling has gone from my groin area and its not as sore as it was, I'm starting to feel great again, thank God, I was getting a little worried that something wasn't right down there.
In a 8 days it will be time to head out to the ranch for a week, can't wait for that trip, we have some great friends out there and I will get a workout out there also, 4 wheeling about 50 to 75 miles a day up in the mountains. I'm sure I could clean my roads up around the place, when I put them in I used a pick and a rake to cut  most of them in, and then ole Charlie brought his skidsteer over and finished cutting them in for me, he said I didn't have enough blood left in me to finish cutting them in, everything out there will stick you, you know.

Its late for me to be up, just wanted to post something, I haven't felt like writing in so long it feels good to set here and try to think of something to write about.

That's a good looking couple ain't it

I'm Back Home For Now

Thanks to everyone that commented on my last blog, I did not get a chance to reply to y'all before my trip back to the hospital.

I'm back home with another Stent put in. What I thought was acid reflux these past couple of weeks was another heart attack coming on. Turns out my heart doc knew about this blockage but decided to leave it alone when he put the first Stent in. Does not make a bit of since to me,because this blockage was about 3 inches past the first one, looks like he could have fixed both at the same time but what do I know, I have another Stent and they have another $100,000.00 plus.
 I'm really pissed that he knew about this blockage and didn't say one word to me about it. The last 3 weeks had been hell, I was bent over groaning for 30 minutes at least once every day with chest pains, even going to the emergency room with them and he never said one word about it. This doctor is head of the heart department at the hospital, if he is like this i hate to see how the doctors under him work. It took 3 calls to get in to see him and decide we better go back and have another look. The sad part is he has never told me he knew this, his nurse told me he knew about it when he put the first stent in. I ask her why it was not fixed the first time and her answer was in and emergency they just fix the main problem and see how you do. If you have one blockage that is 99% blocked and one 3 inches from it that is 95% blocked I would think it would be in the persons best interest to fix both problems at the same time.
Well I'm mad now just talking about it and probably not making much since so I better go cool off before I have another attack.

Back to the hospital tomorrow.

I hope this trip back to the hospital will get some answers, it will be the 3rd time since I've had the damn heart attack. The first couple of weeks I felt great and then I started getting this burning in my chest again, then it turned into the same feeling I had when I had the heart attack, arms numb, bent over double like my chest was on fire, did some reading online about one drug they have me on, Plavix, that can cause chest pains from acid reflux. Went to the hospital last week with chest pains and after blood work and EKG they said it didn't look like I was having a heart attack. I explained to the doctor what I had read about Plavix causing these systems and he looks it up and decides that what is causing it and gives me a new script. for a drug that will cut back on my system making acid, well that did not work. I have been calling my heart doctor 3 times since this has been going on and had to leave messages with the promise I would be called back. I did get a call back Monday and I explained to his nurse that these pains felt just like I did when I had the heart attack and was told I needed to see the doctor which I have been trying to do for 3 weeks. I went today and he is concerned that my pains are just like the ones of my heart attack and wants to do another Angiogram tomorrow to see if something went wrong with the stint he put in or if there is more blockage in there. I hope something can get done about this pain it has gotten where I don't eat or drink anything for fear of having another one of these attacks, they last for around 30 minutes and are the most intense pain I have had to deal with and I've dealt with a lot of pain in my life time.
 I'm hoping I can get back to a normal life again all I do is set now , all my energy is gone, I'm out of breath most of the time and don't really feel like doing anything.