tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38041149353128111752024-03-13T15:23:34.065-04:00PinchgutBadgerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11283813317560446754noreply@blogger.comBlogger1327125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3804114935312811175.post-70605007633648193982018-07-18T21:17:00.004-04:002018-07-18T21:17:34.011-04:00So it has come to this!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Dear America</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">As we prepare to depart your shores we would like to thank you for putting on a truly wonderful show. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">The Madness of King Donald has been a thrilling ride from the very first episode. (The entrance of the the Mad King down the gold escalators was a sensational opening sequence).</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">It is rare to see a series as long as this that does not have some flat spots but this is not the case with The Madness of King Donald. Every episode has been carefully crafted to ensure that the talents of the writers and actors are given full reign. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">The casting of the Mad King is a triumph. He exudes precisely the right amount of dangerous lunacy coupled with the manic language necessary to impart instability. He takes me back to Silence of the Lambs but with an unrestrained ability to deadpan language that has the viewers rolling on the floor laughing. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">The writers must certainly be up for awards for the genius of casting him as a fat orange man who wears ill fitting suits and ties that are six feet long. It is pure comic invention. His performance is faultless. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">The series really kicked into gear when season two started on 8 November 2016. The opening sequence in episode one flabbergasted everyone </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Since then it has been a roller coaster ride of shock, horror and amazement as all the performers throw themselves into free space clearly clutching for something ephemeral. They provide stunning performances that I have never seen bettered anywhere. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Some of the cameos have been brilliant. Michel Flynn as the poisoned dwarf was perfectly cast. The Scaramucci character burned bright but too briefly. I was disappointed to see him written out so early in the series. Vladimir as the dungeon wrangler was eerily good. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">And I was sorry when Sean Spicer left but his replacement Sarah more than filled his boots and is simply stunning in her role as the prevaricating waffler - yammering witlessly to groups of stunned journalists who dribble as their mouths hang agape. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Of course the longer the show goes on - the greater the tendency is for the writers to jump the shark - and indeed some of the episodes are so far fetched as to make it necessary to suspend disbelief. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">But all in all a riveting, rollicking show with a madcap cast of characters and never ending series of impossible and hilarious situations.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">I give it five stars. </span></div>
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Badgerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11283813317560446754noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3804114935312811175.post-78781798340594788572017-04-03T17:49:00.002-04:002017-04-03T17:49:31.088-04:00Paris<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I have been in Paris during the last week visiting my daughter and her family. I have posted on Facebook daily but never seem to get time to write a blog. I have posted lots of photos on Facebook. Having discovered the magic of the exposure triangle I am giving it a solid workout. </span></span></div>
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Badgerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11283813317560446754noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3804114935312811175.post-72393465783695899842017-03-20T20:33:00.003-04:002017-03-20T20:34:03.040-04:00Las Vegas<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I got on a plane in Indianapolis and landed in one of the circles of hell. I should have known this from the plane trip. There was a drunk woman sitting behind me and she shouted and shrieked for the entire excruciating 3.5 hour trip. I think she may also vomited and defecated but I did not dare look. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I have never seen anything like the Venetian hotel. I never wish to see anything like it again. If I was wearing a jock strap and sandals I would be overdressed here. There are poker machines in the airport. There are poker machines everywhere. And they smoke everywhere - EVERY FUCKING WHERE!</span></span></div>
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To get to our room we have to walk miles through acres of poker machines and smokers. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">We had dinner in a French restaurant and it was expensive so we figured that we would avoid most of the drunken women with their tits hanging out and the men with green hair and green shirts vomiting into the pot plants. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">It was so dark the only way I could read the menu was to photograph it with my iPhone and enlarge it on the screen. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">It's very noisy here we said to the receptionist and yes she said it is St Patrick's day and also MARCH MADNESS. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">This apparently causes many young people in America to congregate in places like Las Vegas and drink themselves insensible and wake up in the morning covered in vomit and semen. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">We did not venture outside. We asked where the quietest bar was and were directed to a place where there appeared to be a couple of hundred people engaged in hand to hand combat accompanied by heavy metal music and TV screens showing snuff porn. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">We went back to our room and ordered a $12 bottle of Pinot Grigio. This translated into a check for $120 but if you need to drink yourself insensible money is no object.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Today we went to Death Valley. It was very hot and very stark. It looks like most of America will look like after 4 years of Trump. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I did not bring my camera on this trip because I did not think we would be touring the countryside. However - after in evening in Las Vegas we decided we needed to escape. It was not like I expected it to be but was sensational scenery. People camp out - in RVs of course - to see the night sky. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Tonite we went to see Cirque de Soleil at the MGM Grand. This was about a mile from our hotel and it was hot so I said to Cate that we should catch a cab. No we will walk she said. I have never experienced anything quite like it. The strip is hard to describe but imagine more people you have ever seen in one place in your life all wearing clothes that look like they have been fired backwards through a thrift shop and - toss in a helping of drunks, panhandlers and near naked women - add excruciating music bellowing from every restaurant and shop and you are starting to get the idea. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Most people seem to dress like they are just about to go to bed or else they woke up naked and in a drunken stupor after a party and put on what they could find in the trash can. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">It took us 40 minutes to walk a mile because there are many, many unavoidable detours as you are funneled into drinking, music and shopping areas. By the time we got to the hotel Cate was crippled with blisters and was hobbling. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The MGM Grand is as terrifying as most other hotels but we found a very nice Italian restaurant and steadied our nerves with Lasagna and Soave. The show was wonderful. We got a cab home and crashed.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">On this trip we used this Allegiant Air because it is the only one that goes from Indy to Las Vegas direct. We will basically do anything to avoid transiting through Chicago</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">This is one of those airlines where you pay to select a seat and pay to carry a bag on board and pay to get priority boarding. There is a box for donations on the way out of the plane.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">When we first got TSA pre approval there were not too many people who used the facility. The TSA pre lane is the one where you do not have to remove your shoes and belt and take your iPad out of your bag. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">These days it is always immensely crowded and it is quicker to go through the non TSA pre lane. But we generally don't do it because we cannot be bothered taking shoes and belts off. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Also in the TSA pre lane people are not shouted at quite so much. It makes me nervous when security people shout at me for an infraction I was not aware that I committed. There are so many possible infractions that there should be a manual and exams. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">They are always shouting SIR! SIR! you cannot……..</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">These people lie awake at night thinking about new tortures for passengers. I guess I would too if I was paid so little for dealing with an endless line of grumpy and whimpering passengers. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">In the Venetian monstrosity in which we stayed there was no way to the rooms except via the casino. I guess all the hotels are the same. We would not mind this except that smoking is allowed in the casino and we had to run the gauntlet every time we went out and came back. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">This is because many chronic gamblers are addicted to smoking. So in most parts of the USA you cannot smoke because smoking and passive smoking are lethal. But in Las Vegas your money is much more important than your health. So go broke and die. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">In the elevators the music being played is all classical and we heard Pachelbel and Brahms. In fact I think it may have been baroque music when we traveled 9 floors with a a man with a gut the size of Texas. He was not wearing a shirt and was sucking on a bottle of beer. He was also a world class belcher. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">There are trucks in the streets with signs saying that there a girls who would like to meet me. Well I sincerely doubt that but I was willing to meet one - but Cate would not let me dial the number. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">There are some interesting shows own in Las Vegas. One that caught my eye was Donny and Marie Osmond who have apparently been rated the number 1 show for the last three years.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Up until I saw that sign I had imagined the Donny and Marie would by now be in a nursing home being fed mashed peas but no - they are battling on and I guess they must really like what they do. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">But the act that astonished me was the Righteous Brothers. They are still going? Well actually as you all know they were neither righteous or brothers and one of them died from a drug overdose - but the survivor - Bill Medley has teamed up with Bucky Heard to storm Las Vegas. Unchained Melody has always been on one of my playlists. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I no longer feel so old. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Last week I was doing a new playlist for my iPhone - which I use in the car - and I deleted - for the first time ever - Chuck Berry. He took this rather badly as you know.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">And he was working on a new album. </span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">There is hope for us all. </span></span></div>
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Badgerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11283813317560446754noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3804114935312811175.post-90885260814988712832017-03-08T14:40:00.003-05:002017-03-08T14:43:13.972-05:00You should do it with some style.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I have been having a few eye problems which have slowed me down a bit but my sight does not seem to be getting any worse so I expect it will clear up. I am seeing the doc in another couple of weeks. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">But I can do everything apart from read or write very well - and this is not a huge burden given that there is not much one would want to read these days in this country because it is mainly bad news followed by worse news. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">However the appalling daily news is inevitably punctuated by insane tweets by the orange dickhead in the oval office. These are exponentially flabbergasting and I just wonder where he can go next. I think he jumped the shark with the ‘Obama bugged me’ tweets so I think he must be just about done. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Although he does seem to get all of his news from Breitbart and Alex Jones and the other masses of unhinged people on the far right - so we may get a rerun of ‘Obama was a a male prostitute before he became President’. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Cate has been accepted in a program in Morocco where she will go to build schools and stuff like that for a couple of weeks - in late May. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I was not aware that Cate had any skills at all in the area of construction but she may surprise us all. We have been wanting to go to Morocco for a long time so she will take a week at the end of her work so we can take a trip in the desert. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I am taking photography lessons. I have had a DSLR camera for many years and have only ever taken photos on full automatic. I decided that it was probably about time to actually start taking decent photos. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I have learned about the exposure triangle and am taking lots of photos of apples. I am well pleased with some of them.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">A man from somewhere comes to Indianapolis every couple of months to sell Four’N Twenty meat pies. These were invented in the town in Australia in which I was born - two years after I was born. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I have no idea how this local pie things happens but they are delicious pies and remind me of home. So I have been getting stuck in to them while Cate has been in China and Japan. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I am playing chess weekly with my mate David. I had no idea there was someone on the planet who played chess as badly as I do so we are a match made in heaven. In honor of this auspicious event I have purchased a new hand carved board and pieces. </span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Even when you play as badly as we do you should do it with some style. </span></span></div>
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Badgerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11283813317560446754noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3804114935312811175.post-63403845539041649682017-02-13T20:14:00.002-05:002017-02-14T10:54:42.640-05:00Not my problem<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I woke up on Saturday and discovered that I could not read properly. I have funny little blotches all over the place in front of my eyes so many of the words are missing when I try to read anything. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">This is not necessarily a bad thing because there is simply not much worth reading at the moment that provides comfort to a delicate soul like me. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">But because I can read only half of what I see - I only get half as cross. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">But I must say that I am getting a lot less cross as time moves on. This could well be because Indiana’s behavior is so appalling and so disgraceful that everything else - even the antics of the orange fluffbudgy - pale into insignificance. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">So I spent two hours with the eye doctor today and he concluded after an intense examination that he did not know what was wrong with me so he has referred me to a specialist - where I go tomorrow morning.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I asked him if I should get new glasses and he said let’s not worry about that at the moment - and I have worried about that statement ever since. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">So I have carried out a brief assessment of the seeing eye dog capabilities of both Georgia and Indiana. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">At the mercy of Georgia I would spend an immense amount of time standing in front of the treat cupboard - and would never leave the house. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">As for Indiana - well with her I would be dragged miles on my stomach - shouting hoarsely for her to stop - as she galloped towards whatever she gallops towards. I have no idea what this is but she always wants to go somewhere and it is always at a gallop. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">And (spare me) she is now bigger than Georgia.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">So after we walked them together last week Cate said ‘fuck me I am not doing that again’ or words similar to that </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">And if you are wondering how I can write this without being able to see - then I should tell you that I am using one eye - squinting - and my nose is pressed to the screen of computer. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">And the fact that my personal trainer works me like a drover’s dog does not help at all. He says things like ‘this is the last one’ and when I finish and collapse sobbing on the floor he says ‘well just one more set’. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">So after gym I am nearly comatose and then have to deal with the travails of the day. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">So over the last week I have made many bookings for flights and hotels and shuttles and all sorts of things. I could not begin to tell you how hard it is to fly from Indianapolis to Paris if you are traveling Lufthansa. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Lufthansa flies from JFK. United flies only to Newark. American flies to JFK but only on Shrove Tuesdays when the moon is full. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">So I have to go to Newark and get shuttles to JFK and on the way home I have to stay (shriek) at Newark overnite - but I am not staying in the rat infested hovel where we stayed last time. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">And there is so much to do here it makes my head spin. There are two people in this house - why is the washing machine going 18 hours every day. Where does all this dust come from. Does UPS deliver it in bags and Cate spreads it around the house and then puts her white gloves on and wipes the surfaces - and says hmmmm. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">So I really don't have time for politics. I have accepted the fact that the orange fuckweasel is not my president. I am not a citizen and I did not vote. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">And we will not be here to suffer the consequences of fucknuckle and his band of trogs. </span></span></div>
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Badgerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11283813317560446754noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3804114935312811175.post-20938049223379917752017-02-08T20:24:00.001-05:002017-02-08T20:27:37.039-05:00Oh say can you see<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Things are moving at a rapid pace here.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I have decided to go to Paris in March to see my daughter and two of my grandchildren. The others are in Australia and I shall go there soon.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">We have also decided that we should go to Las Vegas for my birthday.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Naturally I booked Paris first and then booked Las Vegas for basically the same dates. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">This is an uncanny knack I have had for many years. I have brutally murdered a number of bookings over the years because I book flights to leave places before we get there - and stuff like that.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Nowadays I always pay extra so that I can cancel flights and hotels without any problems because I just know that when I make a booking I am going to have to change it.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">When I am in the process of booking it all seems perfectly sensible and logical but days later when I check it…..well.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">We have decided to go to Las Vegas because we think it is one of those places that just has to be seen. I think it will be execrable - because we hate all the glitz and the glamor and the gambling but we will certainly have lots of fun. But there are some good restaurants. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">We are staying in the Venetian resort which has its own canal with gondolas and men in striped shirts who sing opera. Can’t wait for that. I may sing along. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">And incidentally in Indianapolis we also have a canal with gondolas where men in striped shirts sing opera. This is very weird but you get accustomed to it after a while and given that most people in the mid west have never traveled further than the next state - for them it is probably quite exotic.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">And we are going to see Cirque de Soleil. This was a bit doubtful at first but I spoke to the bank manager and she has given us a second mortgage. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I am looking forward to Paris. I love Paris. I have been there a lot - maybe 50 times - and am always captivated by the city. It has changed a lot since I first started going there in the 70s and it never ceases to amaze me. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">It also gives me a chance to boot my once fluent French into life. I once worked for French bank and spoke really good French. Nowadays I start speaking in French and people interrupt me and say - ‘Would you like to speak English’. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">For which the only appropriate response is ‘Fuck you - you cheese eating surrender monkey’ but of course I just fall in line.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">But I am tough. I live in America where the president is a lunatic. I can cope with anything you throw at me. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Cate and I spoke last year about the possibility of us staying in America when she retired. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">HA HA HA HA HA</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">We need to get out of here as soon as possible and now all we talk about is how soon we can leave. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">This blithering orange idiot is going to do so much damage that it may take this country 50 years to recover from the devastation he has planned with his willing compatriots. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">In centuries to come they will talk about ‘Putin’s puppet’ and the destruction he wreaked upon the home of the brave and the land of the fucked. </span></span></div>
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Badgerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11283813317560446754noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3804114935312811175.post-65566952034644552002017-02-03T00:02:00.002-05:002017-02-03T00:02:36.864-05:00This is America!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129;">I forgot to tell you about how excited I am about Beyonce being pregnant. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129;">Fuck me dead this is such fantastic news. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129;">The people starving to death in Africa and the Syrians being slaughtered in their thousands rise as one and say how excited they are about this truly phenomenal event. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129;">And twins! Holy shit - this is truly a miraculous intervention by the one who loves us and guides us all. Who else would give us so much joy in the face of the excrescence of the toxic presidency</span><span class="text_exposed_show" style="color: #1d2129; display: inline;">. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="text_exposed_show" style="color: #1d2129; display: inline;">Clearly this is God's work. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="text_exposed_show" style="color: #1d2129; display: inline;">Sure he fucked up badly with DJT but he is making amends with this sensational life giving experience. Do not knock this. This is his gift to you. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="text_exposed_show" style="color: #1d2129; display: inline;">Now B has 86 million followers on twitter. This is one off the scariest numbers you will ever see - and gives you a pretty good idea why Trump is President. But you need to suck it up. It is what it is. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="text_exposed_show" style="color: #1d2129; display: inline;">This is America. Rubbish reigns. Good Luck!</span></span></div>
Badgerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11283813317560446754noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3804114935312811175.post-68264993813617117642017-02-02T20:54:00.004-05:002017-02-02T21:20:41.492-05:00It would turn out just fine<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-VhoSzkPKHDk/WJPi5wsAY_I/AAAAAAAA5YU/ejNU54ZyS149N14X_XJirnfy1WgcWrDtQCLcB/s1600/GettyImages_528103708.0.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-VhoSzkPKHDk/WJPi5wsAY_I/AAAAAAAA5YU/ejNU54ZyS149N14X_XJirnfy1WgcWrDtQCLcB/s320/GettyImages_528103708.0.jpg" width="320" /></a><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Now you would have read or heard that President Trump spoke to Australian Prime Minister Turnbull and effectively bit his head off before hanging up.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">But if you are not Australian you may not be aware of the refugee deal which Mr Turnbull and President Obama agreed upon - and why it is happening. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">It goes like this:</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Many refugees from Iran and other places have risked their lives to travel to Australia on boats. This has been facilitated by people smugglers who charge enormous sums of money to put people on leaky boats with a promise that they will get sanctuary in Australia.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Many of them drown - but some get through. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Australia has decided that it does not want people arriving this way so instead of accepting them and processing their refugee applications in Australia it has set up gulags in places like Nauru and Manus Island. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The purpose of this is to discourage people from attempting to find refuge in Australia.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The gulags are hell holes. They are tent cities set up in some of the hottest places on earth. They are run by private companies whose only interest is to make a profit. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">There are rapes and murders and bashings and self-mutilations and psychological problems in spades. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Children are going crazy in these places because they are confined there permanently. These children will be damaged permanently. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">There is anger and frustration and hopelessness. These people are refugees for fucks sake and they are being treated much worse than murderers. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">These places are so bad that the government:</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">1: Sent big teams of medics, psychiatrists and social workers to help with the problems: or</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">2. Passed legislation that anyone who talked about the problems in these camps would go to gaol for two years.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Yes the correct answer is 2. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The government has said that anyone who try to enter Australia ‘illegally’ will never be admitted. Let us pass over the fact that by definition a refugee cannot be ‘illegal’. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Hence the deal between Mr Turnbull and President Obama. You take our ‘illegals’ and we will do something for you(we do know yet what it is). </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">President Trump has probably said what a stupid idea. I don't even want my refugees let alone yours. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Me? </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I am ashamed of my government for what it has done. I never talk about this because it cannot be defended. It is a horrendous stain on the character of Australia which is a nation founded and sustained by immigration. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">If I had my way I would put all of the politicians in gulags and make the refugees politicians. I am sure it would turn out fine. </span></span></div>
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Badgerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11283813317560446754noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3804114935312811175.post-49207783095899248422017-02-01T21:21:00.004-05:002017-02-01T21:21:55.670-05:00We have failed them<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">These are my grandchildren. My generation has failed them.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I am frustrated by my inability to do anything of real substance in the face of the mind boggling ineptitude, incompetence and willful destruction of our values by the Trump administration.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The appointments he has made make it look like he actually wants to destroy America.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Perhaps he really is a Russian agent doing the bidding of Putin. He certainly behaves as though he is. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Each Secretary he appoints is someone who has no affinity whatsoever with the area they will control and indeed most of them appear to want to demolish what they have been given.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The potential head of the Environmental Protection Agency is a noted climate change denier. This is not unusual - the majority of this administration’s senior people are - but the damage this person could do is immense. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Sydney has just experienced its hottest month ever. i.e. it was the hottest month since we started keeping records some hundred or so years ago. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Each year is hotter than the last and indications that every future year will be hotter than the last.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">My personal belief is that it is much too late to actually do anything to stop what is happening. There are some things we could do to mitigate the future effects but even in Australia - where the climate change effects are obvious even to blind Freddy - the government sits and wrings its hands and does nothing.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The Labor party has a plan - so the government immediately starts a scare campaign tell all and sundry that their electricity bills will be enormous if we try to mitigate climate change. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This is rubbish but in any event - there has to be some cost to attempt to save there planet. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Indeed the majority of Australians are prepared to pay something. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">But our chicken shit Prime Minister is captive to his right wing. And - our deputy Prime Minster is a creationist. Yeh he thinks the world is 6,000 years old.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Give me a break.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">If we keep kicking the can down the road we will find eventually that the can has been turned into a boulder and is no longer kickable. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We only have one planet. When we destroy this one there is nowhere else to go.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Now what happens - or does not happen - is not going to affect me much. But it will affect my children and it will certainly affect my grandchildren. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In 20 years time they are going to wonder why the fuck we knew what was happening and did almost nothing about it. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">They will think well there must have been a reason. There was obviously a big problem so why did they not take any action.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Well I am telling you in advance my dear children and grandchildren whom I love so much that we did nothing because we are fundamentally dumb, cowardly deadshits.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">There are only two groups of people in the whole world who do not accept that climate change is real. They are the conservatives in Australia and in America. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">History books will record their stupidity, their lack of imagination, their cowardice, their self interest and their inability to see the bleeding obvious. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Many are dying now because of climate change which causes massive storms and devastating droughts.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Millions will die in years to come. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">So really - no one says it better than Lily Allen so you should watch this video.</span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8VZX4sHn-4"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8VZX4sHn-4</span></a></span></div>
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Badgerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11283813317560446754noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3804114935312811175.post-26903879691049319442017-01-30T22:29:00.005-05:002021-06-24T06:06:04.046-04:00Good luck to you all!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif">I am in the process if trying to get fit and lose weight. To do this I have joined the YMCA gym downtown and have a personal trainer. I go three days a week and he works me very hard indeed. Today I had a very hard workout and was quite pleased at the end of it. </span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif">His name is Kevin so he really should be Australian. But he is a nice man and is probably religious and may be even a (shriek) Republican so I sort of nibble around the edges of politics. But he has gay friends so that is a good sign. </span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif">I rowed and pushed and pulled and huffed and puffed for a solid hour and was buggered at the end of it. (Buggered in the Aussie sense i.e. very tired - not molested).</span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif">I thought to myself that I must be losing weight by now and weighed myself when I got home. I have gained four pounds. </span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif">So perhaps my fat is turning into muscle. This does not seem likely when I look in the mirror - but who knows. </span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif">And surely there must be a time in life when people should not have to look at themselves in full length mirrors. </span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif">Honestly this does no good at all. When people get to my age they should come and take the mirrors away. They will say - hey - you look like a diseased walrus covered in barnacles - and everybody sees this when you go out - but there is no need for you to see this horrifying sight every time you go to the bathroom.</span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif">So we have replaced your mirror with a full size picture of a naked Donald Trump. This will certainly make you feel better about yourself. You will think every day ‘well I just must look better than that’. And you probably do. </span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif">After the gym today I shoveled snow. I love shoveling snow. It is very therapeutic and I think about lots of good things while I am doing it. It was a crystal clear day and very cold and it was just marvelous. Nothing could be heard except the sounds of our two insane dogs chasing each other and growling and yelping. </span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif">The new presidency it so much better than I had anticipated. I expected some amount of amusement - punctuated by bouts off dismay - but fuck me swinging sideways it is a complete catastrophe. </span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif">I think the current presidency was designed by the Italians. They have turned roadside dining into an experience so surreal that people do it just to be there and say they did it. We traveled in Italy a lot and could not wait to get to the diners. </span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif">It is like a vortex. </span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif">Imagine a room absolutely stuffed full of hungry people. They all want to eat - and food abounds. But to get it you have to:</span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif">Fight your way to the food counter to see what you would like to buy:</span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif">Then fight your way to the other side of the room to the cashier to place your order. (remembering precisely what you want).</span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif">Pay for your food and fight your way back to the food counter - clutching your receipt - to buy your food. </span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif">It is a whirling shrieking mass of throbbing and sweating humanity and sometimes people get spun off the edges and end up in the car park sobbing their hungry hearts out. Are they strong enough to try again?</span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif">That is this administration.</span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif">It is not a circus. A circus is organized. This is a total mess of uncoordinated rubbish perpetrated by ideologues and fools who have no idea what they are doing and have no idea how it should be done.</span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif">I think we can say with confidence that what is happening now is going to fuck America for a very long time. </span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif">We will not be here then - but good luck to you all. </span></span></div>
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Badgerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11283813317560446754noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3804114935312811175.post-65792748488230564152017-01-25T20:09:00.005-05:002017-01-25T20:14:34.856-05:00Happy Invasion Day<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">William has booted me into life again. But I do indeed use Facebook most days - especially now that we have the orange man to talk about. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">But the lack of posting is not all my fault. There are those dogs - and many other things also intrude on my ability to blog. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">My main preoccupation over the last two weeks has been doing Cate’s US tax return. This is a truly horrendous process and takes much more time than it should but Uncle Sam wants to know many, many things - and wants a piece of everything. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Then I have had to worry about our trip to Mongolia to see our relatives and attend a hair cutting ceremony for my nephew and then planning for our trip to Patagonia where Cate will walk 250 kilometers in 5 days. I shall think about her while I lol about in the nearest hotel. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">But back to Estonia. My $9.99 purchase of an Estonian language app was pointless. Everyone - and I mean everyone - speaks very good English. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">However we did have trouble at the supermarket where we went to get supplies. Most things were obvious except for butter and we ended up with cream cheese. However this did prove to be quite good on toast. It could become a habit. If you happen to be in Estonia and need butter - it is ‘voi'. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">We were much more successful than we were when we were in St Petersburg where we bought salt instead of sugar, Yoghurt instead of milk - and dust instead of cereal. We never did find out what it was - it may have been wheat bran. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Tallinn is quite wonderful - as is Riga. Vilnius is not really worth visiting but it was only a flight of an hour so we went to have a look. There are some fabulous Art Nouveau buildings in Riga - look up the images on Google. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">So 26 January is Australia Day. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">This celebrates the landing in Sydney Cove of the First Fleet on 1788. This contained the first white settlers in Australia. There were 13 ships including the ‘Scarborough’ which contained Frederick Meredith my GGGGG grandfather. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">He was not a convict and was a steward to an army captain. One of his wives - and my GGGGG grandmother - was Sarah Mason - and she was a convict - arrived on the second fleet.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">So white Australians celebrate Australia Day. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The indigenous people not so much. They generally call it ‘Invasion Day’ and it represents the day when - after 40,000+ years undisturbed occupation of the wide brown land - they commenced the process of being marginalized and exterminated.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Think American Indians. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">So of course I always celebrate Australia Day - but with a tinge of regret about what happened to the aborigines. Cate and I have aboriginal friends - and the hurt runs deep with them. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">But back to the Home of the Brave.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Now I had thought that sure he was a conman, a serial liar, a cheat, a misogynist, a narcissist, a racist and a gold plated buffoon but since he was inaugurated I really am beginning to think that he is in fact insane. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">This is not the behavior of someone with all his known failings. There simply must be a kangaroo loose in the top paddock for the truly bizarre behavior that is now a daily occurrence.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">And it is not just him - they are all doing it. They are all as mad as cut snakes. The things that are happening are simply mind boggling. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">But it is a lot of weird stuff and I wake up eager to see what the crazies have done - and will inevitably do throughout the day. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">You can find me on Facebook:</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Phillip Prideaux</span></span></div>
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Badgerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11283813317560446754noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3804114935312811175.post-36632189041008024132017-01-13T11:05:00.003-05:002021-06-24T06:08:27.939-04:00I blame the dogs<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Tallinn</td></tr>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif">I blame the dogs. </span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif">I have said it before but having two dogs is not like having one dog twice. There is a multiplication factor and it is exponential. The problem is of course that it is too cold for me to leave them outside for very long lest they freeze to death and I am sure I signed something saying that I would not do that. </span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif">So they are inside a lot of the time and stick to me like velcro. I do not mind this if I am doing something in the kitchen because they just hang about but when I sit at my computer they both sit next to me and look at me mournfully. Georgia sometimes rests here head on my knee and stares up at me. I know just what she is thinking.</span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif">'Oh I am so sad. I have a wrangler who does not love me. I am treated so badly in this house it makes me want to vomit on the carpet. There - I did it. See what you made me do!'</span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif">So it is difficult to blog - or do anything much on my PC. Others would cope but I cannot function with dogs staring at me and infecting my brain with their negative thoughts.</span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif">Of course the only advantage with the cold is that the dog poo gets frozen and is easier to deal with. I have a small pick axe to separate it from the snow.</span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif">Anyway - PK and Gwenyth arrived on time and we immediately set about demolishing the 6 dozen bottles of Austrian wine that I had bought. I got the wine shop’s last stocks of Gruner Veltliner. Nectar of the gods. </span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif">For Christmas Cate wanted some of the usual unfindable stuff - I am talking pomegranate molasses - but I got it from Amazon and produced it triumphantly. Cate and Gwenyth said oh we made that dish yesterday we don't need that now. </span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif">What a surprise. </span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif">I doubt that we will ever need pomegranate molasses again so will store it in the basement along with the crushed butterfly antennae, the smoked goose toenails, the grilled eel ears and the peanut butter flavored smoked maple syrup.</span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif">Christmas dinner was a complete disaster. The turkey was inedible. And that was the best bit. </span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif">We left to go to Tallinn in Estonia and got to Indy airport bright and early. Up until 20 minutes before the flight was due to leave it was shown on our United app as being on time. Then we are got a message telling us that our flight is 100 minutes late. WTF! </span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif">Of course it got even later so we got to Newark well after our flight to Frankfurt had left.</span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif">We engaged in hand to hand combat with the United service counter at Newark to get new flights. It seems from what we went through that this is the first time this had ever happened. Oh my goodness I am not sure how we fix this. Let me look at the computer - oh is is not working very well today (surprise). </span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif">We got hotel and food vouchers to stay at a gruesome hotel at least a half hour away by shuttle. We drove through a ruined landscape that appeared to have been carpet bombed. </span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif">The hotel should have been called 'Grizzly Towers’ or 'Bog Hollow’. There was no bar, no restaurant and no room service. But there was a bar in the hotel next door - and it closed in 5 minutes - so we ran there and bought 3 bottles of warm wine.</span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif">We got a pizza delivered and washed it down with plastic tumblers of warm wine. Not exactly what we had planned but it got the job done. </span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif">We had a day to spend in Newark while we waited for our evening flight. So we asked what we should do in Newark for a day.</span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif">'Go to New York' was the answer.</span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif">To be continued.</span></span></div>
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Badgerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11283813317560446754noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3804114935312811175.post-50723922824490087552016-12-19T22:02:00.001-05:002016-12-19T22:08:30.127-05:00The gifts that will go on giving<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">We have had some snow. Nothing of Viennese proportions but enough to cover the ground to the depth of and inch or two. This has since sort of gone away but we have some hard icy stuff all over the place now and in is very slippery. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">This was apparent on Saturday when many Hoosiers drove on the roads as though they were as shitty as they usually are - but dry. Well in fact they were shitty and slippery and many hundreds of cars went into ditches and each other and there was a spectacular crash on the I something or other that involved hundreds of cars and trucks. Maybe not that many but you know what I mean.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">At some stage the state government is probably going to have to spend some money on roads instead of using it to persecute gays and poor people - but then they are Republicans so they have their priorities and for them there is nothing more important than gay bashing and stopping women from having abortions. And sex. Why are they obsessed with sex?</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Anyway - as for the ice conditions - I am quite capable - as I have demonstrated previously - of falling down the steps even without snow so I am being very cautious. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Gwenyth and PK arrive on Wednesday. PK has had an operation on his eye so is a bit wobbly. He apparently snoozes a lot so he should fit in well here with the dogs and the cats. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Tomorrow I am buying him an extra special bottle of Jameson so that we can sit around and discuss our operations - even though my brain operation was years ago I am never reluctant to talk about it. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I love it when I say to people that the doctors told Cate that I was not going to make it and that she should assemble the family to bid me farewell. This alway elicits a few gasps of awe in which I can bask. ‘Oh it must have been so terrible for Cate!’</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Well it wasn’t to chuffy for me either. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Although I will get no sympathy from PK. He is an ocean sailor and has many harrowing stories to tell - which I can only listen to if I am sitting next to a bucket and have some wet wipes at hand. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">There is an amazing amount of stuff to be cleaned when we have visitors and Cate adds to the list daily. Today I was told that I had to get the hard water stains off the drink glasses. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I am not sure why the water is so hard here. Perhaps because of it being a red state - or maybe Mike Pence sneaks in at night and pisses on our glasses - but I had to watch YouTube to find a solution - which I was unable to do. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I worked it out for myself and used rinse aid. The glasses are now so clean you could …well…drink out of them. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">It is that time of year when Cate digs through obscure recipe books and finds things that perhaps were never cooked - at least since the 1900’s. My task today was to find pomegranate molasses and golden caster sugar. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Give me a break.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">In years past I would have prowled around Whole Foods and Trader Joes and Fresh Thyme searching vainly for this stuff but I am older and wiser. Amazon. They will be here on Thursday. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">It has been an exciting week so far. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Georgia ate a corn cob. This is not the first time she has done that but this time it got stuck and she became quite unwell. So it was vet time for $700 and they referred us to another vet who charged another $1,000 but the is OK now and that is all that matters.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Then the furnace had a problem and that cost $1,700.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Then today the downstairs toilet started leaking and that was $400 because of course it had to be dismantled and reassembled. ‘Oh there is a problem here!’ </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Of course there is - this house is older then Methuselah. Just get on with it. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The plumber said that he had been here before. I said I am sure he had because we have seven toilets and at any given stage one of them is going to have a problem. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Our Christmas tree was delivered and has been appropriately festooned with lights. It actually looks quite nice. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">As an atheist I actually have no problem with Christmas. It is a tradition - adapted from pagan rituals thousand of years old. But I am happy to participate because I like the tradition. I always say ‘Merry Christmas’. I am not into this happy holidays rubbish.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">It’s Christmas for Christ’s sake. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Cate wanted me to put lights on the trees in the back garden - so I did. She said why do the lights go only half way up the tree and I said that they go as far as I can reach without being on a ladder and as you wont allow me to get on ladders that is the best I can do. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">She is considering rectifying this situation but it is too damn cold. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I continue to watch the antics of the president-elect with great interest - and glee. I am laying in supplies of popcorn and coca cola because the next few years are going to be really special. So many episodes - and I bet there will be a surprise ending.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Because we are Australians we are really lucky that there is nothing that the orange-utan can do that will affect us. Except of course for a nuclear war. I admit that could be a problem. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Although Indianapolis is probably a fair way down the list of targets by Russia and the many other countries that want to exterminate America. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Ah George Bush, Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld. The gifts that will go on giving for the next 100 years.</span></span></div>
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Badgerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11283813317560446754noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3804114935312811175.post-61180008382106209082016-12-12T22:59:00.004-05:002016-12-13T20:07:36.664-05:00I blame Obama<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Its not my fault that I don't blog nearly enough. I have a punishing schedule and - while I have four assistants - they are all useless. The cats sleep all day and the dogs seem to spend the entire day rolling around and biting each others ears. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">It has taken us a while but Cate and I realized on the weekend that we are involved in an elaborate reality TV show where reality is a matter of perception. We realized that what we are witnessing here cannot be real. No president-elect would be behave like this unless he was pulling our chain. In fact - no sane person could act like the president-elect is acting now. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">So we are much more relaxed now and cannot wait for season 2. Although the shark was jumped on many occasions in season 1 - so we will be interested to see what happens. <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I have found that having two dogs is not like have one dog twice. It is much more difficult and as Indiana is a puppy she is a lot more trouble than Georgia. And it is now very cold so I cannot shove them out the back door and let them run wild. I can only leave them for a short while and then bring them back inside. Most of the time they are in the house they spend chasing each other and biting each others ears, crashing into furniture and creating mayhem. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Of course to go outside they both have coats which I can put on them. These are expensive weatherproof coats which will theoretically keep them nice and warm. Putting them on requires hand to paw combat. When they get them on and go outside they become fixated on tearing them off each other and playing tug-o-war with what are becoming the tattered remains. They may be weatherproof but they are not dog proof. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Grizelda came and gave us and the dogs our first lesson. Neither we nor the dogs were any good at all at what we were supposed to do. Indiana is absolutely hopeless and cannot master even the basic things that a dog should be able to do. She is extraordinarily stubborn and is really only good at one thing at that is tearing Georgia’s collar off.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">John and Mike and Antonio have finished the work on the house and we have high hopes that it will make it through winter before disintegrating completely. They have put a door on Cate’s study to turn in into a bedroom with an ensuite. So we now have five bedrooms with ensuites and seven bathrooms. Yes I know it seems a bit excessive but we really liked the house.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Cate needed a door on her study because Georgia barks frantically every time the doorbell rings - or the proximity whizzer on the door bell indicates someone or something has approached the door. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">This proximity whizzer is affected by large trucks or buses passing the house - so there is a lot of lunacy in dog land many times each day. And no I cannot change the sensitivity of the motion detector because it is already on its lowest level.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Yes I can tear it off the wall and throw it away. This may happen soon. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Cate also had John install some mantelpieces above our fireplaces. This is a lot harder than it sounds as first we had to find some reclaimed lumber that was just what we needed - and then take out a bank loan to buy it. We have found that old timber planks from ancient barns are more expensive than gold. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Then much drilling and messing about was required by Mike and John. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">So now Cate has lots of space for the Christmas decorations which include owls, hedgehogs and polar bears we bought in Vienna.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Today I suddenly realized that Gwenyth and PK arrive next week so I have embarked on a major linen washing and cleaning campaign. Tomorrow I will get stuck into the general cleaning. The toaster will wait until the day before they arrive. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">And then I have to start worrying about Christmas dinner. This is theoretically not my department as I usually have Christmas day off. But I am responsible for the planning and the shopping.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">There will also be the last minute shopping when Cate decides to cook minced larks tongues with bat paw foam and shredded musk rat embryos - garnished with a frisson of lightly toasted goat droppings. None of these things will be available in Indiana so I will have to scour the countryside for the ingredients.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">So at Christmas we are going to Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. We always go somewhere cold at Christmas - except last year when we went to Mexico. Too damn hot for our liking.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">We expect to be very cold so I have resurrected my considerable amount of winter gear and am organizing this for the icy cold conditions which await us. I tried on my padded winter pants tonite and alas they have shrunk. This is an increasing phenomenon in this house.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I blame Obama. </span><br />
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Badgerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11283813317560446754noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3804114935312811175.post-7262488541400090902016-12-02T20:02:00.001-05:002016-12-03T13:20:04.690-05:00One of the finest<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I am particularly bad at blogging at the moment as the dogs are keeping me fully occupied and are driving me crazy. I get very little time to myself. </span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I am not really commenting on American politics. But I am watching in amazement as this grotesquery happens in front of me. I am pleased to say that things are going according to plan (as far as I am concerned). I am looking forward to a series of catastrophes which will probably culminate in the destruction of the planet via an environmental or a nuclear disaster of biblical proportions. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">It is with as sense of wonder that I watch as the President-elect tweets a never ending stream of lies and rubbish. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Not that I believe anything that is in the bible - but you know what I mean. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">When I was in Vienna some people selling religion got into our building. It was supposed to be a secure building but there was a massage parlor called ‘Japan Studio’ on the first floor so there was more traffic through our building than there is in Times Square on New Year’s Eve. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The girls incidentally were not Japanese - they were Chinese and were led by the redoubtable Ms Elizabeth to who I spoke quite often in a mixture of German and English.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Anyway the religious people made it to level 5 and knocked on our door and I foolishly opened it. They were very tenacious and talked about God quite a bit. Whenever I tried to baffle them with logic they told me what it said in the bible. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I did not tell them what I thought of the bible but finally - stumped for a way to have them go away without being too rude - I said that if they had been born in Iran they would now be trying to convert me to Islam.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">This finally silenced them and they looked at me sadly and moved on to greener pastures. Not that I think there were too many of these in Vienna. The Europeans are fairly practical when it comes to fantasy. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">But because of politics we no longer watch TV and confine our viewing to Netflix or Amazon video. There are limits to what we can endure. It is amazing how long you can spend browsing Netflix before you decide that there is nothing you want to watch. If there was a competition for this we would be certain medalists. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">So we went to Washington for Thanksgiving and communed with our relatives - Australian and Mongolian. I was not put in charge of anything so just mooched around and ate turkey and drank wine. It was quite a satisfying evening. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">We are going to Mongolia next July because Mason (what a fine Mongolian name) is having a a hair cutting ceremony after which we will all exclaim ‘Tom xun bolooroi!’ </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">On Friday night we went to the theater and saw a very good play that had a very unhappy ending. The play is called ‘Straight White Men’ and if you are looking for a good time you should see something else. Also do not sit in the front row unless you wish to be covered with crisps. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">On Saturday we went to stay with some friends in Washington. These were people with whom I worked 30 years ago and they are living there temporarily in a quite wonderful apartment in Arlington. They took us to the Stone Tower vineyard in Virginia and we ate cheese and drank wine. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The girls did a wine tasting and the sommelier asked them how they liked the wine. ‘Not bad’ they said in Australian - which means of course that it is pretty damn good. He was a bit horrified and said ‘I am so glad to hear that’. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I had seen Wayne a year or so ago and he visited us in Indy and stayed for a couple of nights. We discussed old times and life in general until 5 AM and the next day neither of us could remember anything we said. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">So we were able to do it all again on this trip. We are simply preparing for Alzheimers. As Bill Bryson said ‘I am now too old for early onset Alzheimers - when it arrives it will be right on time.’</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The damn tree is finally dropping the remainder of its leaves so tomorrow is mulching day. Some people are also coming to clean the gutters. I cannot do this because some of the gutters are three stories high and would involve the climbing of a very long ladder. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Cate rightfully will not allow me to climb any ladder let along a high one as she seen me at my clumsiest - which is now becoming my norm - and I really cannot be trusted at any height all. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">If you have a dog and are thinking about getting another one - think very carefully and contact me for advice. You may not change your mind but I will be able to give you some very valuable tips. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Indy is smarter than Georgia. This - admittedly - is a not a great leap - but she is a puppy and has had no training at all. So she pretty well does as she pleases. This is not always the results for which we aspire and my constant companions are paper towels and mops.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">In fact I have purchased a carpet shampooer - and use it a lot. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">But Grizelda the dog trainer comes on Sunday for the dog’s first lessons. She came a few weeks ago and observed the dogs and her view was that they are redeemable. She has the demeanor of a gulag guard but swears that she will not harm the dogs in any way and does not use methods which involve the use of blow torches for baseball bats.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Anyway we gave her a vast amount of money and she will appear on Sunday to get the dogs into shape.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Bits are falling off our house so John and Mike and Antonio have been back to effect repairs. While looking up at some guttering that was falling to bits John said that I had a real money pit on my hands.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I reminded him that it was he who sold us the house three years ago. He laughed. But he is a gay Democrat - one of the finest people on earth. </span></span></div>
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Badgerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11283813317560446754noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3804114935312811175.post-55230250303397466222016-11-22T20:25:00.003-05:002016-11-22T20:25:52.467-05:00Winters, fires and dogs. <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Badgerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11283813317560446754noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3804114935312811175.post-82005425563338005752016-11-22T18:05:00.004-05:002016-11-22T18:05:54.672-05:00Hunter at work<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Georgia stalks a squirrel. By the time Georgia gets to where the squirrel was it will be sitting up in the tree buffing its nails.</span></span></div>
Badgerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11283813317560446754noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3804114935312811175.post-53532188742575638122016-11-21T21:18:00.003-05:002016-11-22T18:11:48.014-05:00Hold the feet<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">So I am over American politics and shall write no more about the whole sordid business. But I must say - giggle - that it is to going to be great fun to watch over the next few years. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">We have been watching ‘Crown’ about the Royal Family and it has made me realize that I know almost nothing about them. Whatever I know has been gleaned from newspapers over the last 60 years or so. And I never really paid much attention. They were just always there and made no difference to my life at all.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I do remember when I was small and lived in Deniliquin NSW in Australia that I caught a train to Shepparton Victoria to see the Queen. I stood in a large crowd of small people and waved a small flag as she went past in her big black car. And my goodness she is still there. If people ever think they have a bad job they should look at what the Queen has to do. And she never retires. Think about that. She pays into social security for her whole life and then dies. And collects nothing. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">There has been in Australian for some time a movement for us to divest ourselves of the monarchy and become a republic and elect a president. I suppose it will happen one day but I don't think it matters. I think we should just sit there and watch with horror what is happening in America. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">More importantly - my new leaf mulcher is a ball tearer. Last year I had a hand held leaf mulcher and used it for hours and hours and nearly crippled myself. So I bought one that just stands there and that you throw leaves into and it works a treat. I tried it out last week and have been overwhelmed with the ease of use. Of course it is not very efficient and only mulches selected leaves - but small enough to enable us to throw them on there garden. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Each year - on the day it decides is best - our gigantic mulberry tree decides to drop its leaves. So it starts mid morning and in four hours it divests itself of every leaf. So it started today and we said ‘today is leaf day ‘ but at noon it stopped completely. Not a leaf has fallen since. I just don't understand the world anymore. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">And I have a new poo bucket. Much improved on the old one which - post Indiana - was too small. And disappeared. Could someone have stolen a plastic bucket with holes in the bottom - which was used to collect dog poo? I am sure they would her been sorely disappointed. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Indiana does poos in the most amazing places and I am not usually able to use the garden spade because to the intricacies of the location. I have commandeered a pair of kitchen tongs and use these to extricate her droppings mainly from ‘ground zero’. This is an area of the garden - thick with ground cover - which appears to have gained her favor - although she does spread this around a bit. I have to remove a great deal of foliage in poo collection but I am sure nature will cope. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">So on Wednesday we are going to Washington for Thanksgiving to be with Cate’s brother and his wife and their son who is married to a lovely Mongolian woman. So thanksgiving there is a blast with 5 Australians and about 10,000 Mongolians. She has many relatives. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I am usually in charge of the oxen spit but may not be allowed to do it this year because last year I overcooked the oxen. This is not hard to do if you start cooking and drinking at 6.00 AM and get lackadaisical about the heat beads. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I reckon this year it might be the coleslaw. It wont stop me from drinking.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">We are going to Mongolia next year and apparently have at least 1 million relatives there by marriage. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I have seen Indiana Jones movies and am not eating any yak’s eyeballs or cobra’s hearts. (That may have been Anthony Bourdain but nevertheless I want only good wholesome food like barbecued goat. Hold the feet.)</span></span></div>
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Badgerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11283813317560446754noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3804114935312811175.post-75007219140042205032016-11-12T21:01:00.001-05:002016-11-12T21:03:51.765-05:00I was devastated<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">So I am sort of recovering from the election of the orange idiot. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I was devastated. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">We are permanent residents although not citizens. So we do not have the rights of citizens - but I figure that as my wife pays $150,000 in taxes each year - and the president-elect has never paid any taxes ever - this gives me complaining rights.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Like most other people I did not see this coming. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">George Carlin said ‘never underestimate the power of stupid people in large groups’. And he was right. In fact he was always right and he would have predicted a Trump presidency.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">George had a great understanding of the fundamental ignorance of large swathes of the population. He would paint a picture of the great unwashed religious zealots and bigots in middle America and his audiences would laugh out loud at the caricatures.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">But he knew that he was not talking about caricatures - he was talking about living and breathing people who had turned dumbness into an art form.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I knew that there were enormous numbers of stupid people in America - the system is designed that way. The education standards in America are appalling - the lowest in first world countries. But any system that favors the really rich needs a whole bunch of dumb grunts to actually do the work. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">And Americans are used to being conned by charlatans. This is the very nature of the society in which they live. I listen to mainstream radio each day and most commercials are designed to inveigle people to partake in the immense number in scams that are legal here.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Have a major tax debt? We can fix that. Have a bad credit score? We can fix that. Have a large debt for college tuition? We can fix that. Want to earn $100 per hour at home on your computer? Just send money and your bank account details.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">So why would not those people fall for the biggest con of all time.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Now the very people who voted for Trump are going to be well and truly fucked over bigly. No the coal mines are not going to reopen. No manufacturing is not coming back to America. No the wall is not going to be built. No the Mexicans are not going to be deported. But yes - maybe 20 million people will lose their health cover. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I really feel sad about this. They needed help and instead they have been fucked over. But I am more concerned about things other than stupid people.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Trump has the opportunity to do lasting damage to the environment. He may appoint to head the EPA a climate change denier. This nitwit will have the opportunity to do enormous and irreversible damage to our environment and to poison the future for our children and grandchildren. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">He has already caused chaos with there LGBT community and with other minorities who are regarded by many of his supporters as non-citizens - as people who should not be an integral and vital part of this country. Across the country these people are being attacked. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I find this concept appalling. It is contrary to everything I believe, </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">This is why - as a resident of this country - I will fight tooth and nail for the restoration of sanity. For the acceptance of science. For the contempt of religion zealotry. And for the preservation of the rights of the the gay and minority communities which are so much a part of what we believe America should be. </span></span></div>
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Badgerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11283813317560446754noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3804114935312811175.post-62062350882614268032016-11-09T10:45:00.004-05:002016-11-09T10:52:48.123-05:00We have a new dog<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">So we have a new dog. She is a German shepherd mix and is four months old. Her name is Indiana and Georgia just loves her to bits. The idea was that she would give Georgia some company and that this would take the pressure off me and stop Georgia from following me absolutely everywhere.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">That is not actually so bad but Georgia has more than a few psychological problems and when I went into my study to do things she would stand in the hall outside the study and look at me - possibly reproachfully - hard to be sure.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">We had not intended to get another dog until next year but Cate went to a Humane Society breakfast last Thursday and Indiana was outside on show - waiting to be adopted. Well Cate being Cate she immediately fell in love with Indiana (who was then Mosey) so we went to the Humane Society on Friday and got her.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">She is a truly lovely dog and we are all as happy as clams together. Georgia is teaching her how to dig up garden beds and eat Cate’s plants. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Of course she is a baby and is currently teething so I am covered in bite marks. And there some issues with toilet training but best if I do not talk about them here. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I have started yoga. I have been wanting to do this for a long time but have never had the courage to drag my ancient wrinkled body to a yoga place and put it on display while I did the downward dog. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">So I have had three private lessons and will have another one in week or so when my teacher gets back from holidays. Yoga is much harder than I thought it would be and some of the positions are just about beyond me - although I have surprised myself - and my teacher. </span></div>
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Badgerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11283813317560446754noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3804114935312811175.post-79628407237789208342016-10-31T20:21:00.001-04:002016-10-31T20:51:49.395-04:00It is apparently idiot proof<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>Why do women complain when I grope them? I am so rich and so orange. </b></td></tr>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">My goodness I am bad at blogging.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Over the last week I have made two types of pumpkin soup. Both were inedible. I have never been able to make pumpkin soup. Whatever I make is disgusting. I don't understand this because I follow tried and true recipes but have obviously not used the right amount of ingredients.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Anyway both batches went down the Insinkerator. I love that word. It takes talent to make a word like that. A word of advice. Do not put asparagus down your Insinkerator. It will die and a man will come and say 'you should never put asparagus down your Insinkerator’. Not only will its pee smell funny - but it will be completely fucked!</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">But recently I have made some excellent Thai dishes. We have an astonishing market here that sells absolutely everything Asian including lemongrass. What a wonderful thing this is. At this market there were - and I counted them - 60 different types of leafy vegetables. I bought shrimp paste and other stuff that you cannot find anywhere else. I could have bought cod balls and grees nuts but I have no idea what these are for. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The fence is being moved again on Wednesday. This is to give Georgia more grass. She really loves grass and we can play chase the hippo for hours. The hippos are indestructible plastic toys that squeak and she loves them. We cannot give her anything made of fibre or cloth because she destroys them and eats them and the results are not pretty. It is bad enough collecting large turds - but multicolored stringy ones are just too much early in the morning.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">We have a very large and very old house and there are three stories. It is hard to see what is happening up top but my casual observations have deduced that large bits are rotting and are in need of attention. There is no way of proving this because there is simply no way I am going to climb an 80 foot ladder. At my stage of life I am risking everything just climbing out of bed.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">So I thought I should buy a drone with a camera so that I could send it up to take photographs of the destruction.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Drones are much more difficult to manage than I had imagined. But then I have trouble with the toaster so it should not have been much of a surprise. I spent some time crashing into trees and bushes before it took on a life if its own and vanished into the ether. The last time I saw the drone it was heading towards Carmel. I am sure I will not see it again but can only hope that its last act was to decapitate a Trump supporter. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I have ordered another drone from Amazon. This one is apparently idiot proof. But these drones have never encountered an idiot like me. We shall see. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">We gave Georgia her first bath on the weekend. Oh sure she has had baths before at dog grooming places but we have never dared to try. So we girded our loins and had a go. We were not expecting much as she is the most timid dog in all of Christendom. The previous day we had been at Petco and she was such a wimp I told he that she really had to put her big girl pants on. I did in fact say after Petco that she did not appear to have any big girl pants.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">But she was amazing when we washed her. She was still and quiet and let us lather her up and wash her nether regions without complaint. So she does have some big girl pants after all. I now have to clip her nails. I cannot do this alone but Cate does not want to participate because she thinks it will be awful - but she he going to have to put her big girl pants on too.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Tonite is Halloween. We have left the lights off and kept quiet. This is because last year we left a big basket of goodies outside and a horde of children got out of an SUV and took the lot. Sort of destroys the trick or treat thing so we could not be bothered.</span></span></div>
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Badgerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11283813317560446754noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3804114935312811175.post-81234794176163937072016-10-21T17:09:00.002-04:002016-10-22T09:49:34.533-04:00I just can't wait<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>9 November: WRONG - I never ran for President. </b></td></tr>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Well the ribs I cooked were just awful. I had not realized that they had already been covered in rub so I could not use one of Myron’s rubs. I did not smoke them for nearly long enough and they were not the way they should have been. I suspect that were not the best quality ribs. It was not a happy experience but I shall try again later this season.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">We had been spoiled because Cate was given some ribs which had been cooked by a guy named Sherman - and they were fabulous. He guards his recipe closely and will not give to anyone. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">There is still no sign of Johnny so I am doing gardening things myself. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">It is less than three weeks to the election and it will all soon be over and the orange moron can go back to doing what he used to do. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I have never seen anything quite like the last 12 months or so - and the debates were a sight to behold. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I think in 200 years they will still talk about the Trumpeter as the single most dangerously unqualified person ever to run for office. I mean it is one thing to not know anything about - well - anything and to be a rampant narcissist and a frothing conspiracy theorist and a serial liar and a misogynist and a racist and a promoter of violence and a cheat and conman extraordinaire - but to combine this with more than modicum of outright hooting lunacy is a combination I do not think this country could survive. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">As it is there are millions who are now cleaning their guns and sharpening their pitchforks ready to take to the streets to massacre all those election rigging liberals on 9 November. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Cate bought me a Hillary tee shirt and I sure as hell will not be wearing that in public anywhere in this town.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">It will be - as they say - a shit show. Best to lay low for a few months or years. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I finally changed TV providers. We had a service which was provided by satellite. This was fine unless there were storms or tornados or high winds tor heavy rain. We have a lot of that kind of stuff here so we constantly lost our service. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I could not afford to have something like this happen on election night which I expect to be almost delicious as the night John Howard lost his seat.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I just can't wait. </span><br />
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Badgerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11283813317560446754noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3804114935312811175.post-33827818734157357362016-10-14T11:07:00.001-04:002016-10-14T11:08:41.710-04:00How could I go wrong?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>Still waiting for a squirrel </b></td></tr>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Before we went to New Orleans I dropped Georgia off on Friday afternoon at the Broad Ripple animal clinic. She was to be looked after by Rachel who was going to take her home. So I had the vet give her a checkup first as she has been scratching a lot and we were sure she did not have fleas.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Georgia was as well behaved and cooperative as she always is when she goes to see the vet - and after unsuccessfully trying to climb on top of my head she scrunched herself into </span></span>the smallest possible ball underneath the bench in the examination room. There she lay shivering and panting until the vet was able to be extract her for the examination. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This is never an easy task because she weighs 51 pounds and is able to wedge herself into impossible spaces. Sometimes it would be handy to have the ‘jaws of life’ to get Georgia out of her hiding places. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Turns out she did have a flea - maybe even two - and they must be hardy little souls because they survived a flea collar and flea tablets. They might be Democrats living in the mid-west -these are a very tough breed indeed. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">There are many things to see and experience in New Orleans. You have to go to Bourbon </span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">street at night. The best way to do this is by helicopter so that you avoid the absolute ghastliness of the place and do not end up being covered in blood and vomit.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">However if you need to go on foot do so before midnight because legend has it that at that time otherwise normal people turn into asshats - or even worse - Trump supporters. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">There are oodles of jazz clubs and there are a few really good ones. We went to Irvin Mayfield's and the man himself was not there but the crew that was on stage were very good indeed. We were impressed by that and another bar we went to in the afternoon where a group of young guys were having a fine time.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We saw the museum of art which is surprisingly good. There is a fabulous sculpture garden which just knocked our socks off. We went to the National WW11 museum. I have no idea why this is in New Orleans but it is worthwhile going to NO just to see it. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We were hugely entertained while we were away by the totally unhinged Trumpster ranting and raging and stalking Hillary on the stage at the debate. It seems we are out of the woods as far as his election is concerned although he is doing is absolute best to ensure that a revolution takes place when he loses. He is now frothing about a global conspiracy to bankrupt America. I am sure there is worse to come. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Tonite I am smoking some St Louis ribs on my Traeger. This is my first time with ribs and I am guided in my endeavors by Myron Mixon who is the ‘winningest man in barbecue’. How could go wrong. </span></span></div>
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Badgerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11283813317560446754noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3804114935312811175.post-27159594461318790142016-10-06T12:12:00.001-04:002016-10-06T12:14:36.118-04:00It is easier to get wet<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The thing that Georgia is most afraid of is an umbrella. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Now she is afraid of many things - but umbrellas seem to be at the top of the table at the moment. Last week we were coming home from shopping and when we went to leave the garage the rain was pelting down. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">So I did what any normal person would do and opened an umbrella. Big mistake. Georgia took off into the garden and would not come inside the house. I could not leave her out in the rain so I had to chase her round the garden for half an hour trying to bribe her with treats.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I had forgotten that it really is easier to get wet than use an umbrella.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">My gardening mate Johnny has gone missing and did not turn up last week to do the gardening - and his phone has been turned off. It is possible that he went on a bender - as he occasionally does - and ended up in jail - as he occasionally does. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Cate had yet another plant nursery expedition last week so I had to dig the holes for the plants. This is harder than it sounds as the soil around our house is basically rubble and any digging requires the removal of masses of rocks. Georgia digs lots of holes but they are never where I need them. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">But I did it and yesterday I mowed the lawn. There is not much of this now so it was quite easy. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Yesterday Georgia was sitting on the back porch and spied a squirrel in the tree. The squirrel climbed down and sat on the lawn eating bird seed and corn. The girl thought her time had come and she sat stock still for ten minutes sussing out the prey. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Finally she moved. She lifted her front paw to take a step towards the squirrel - and it was gone in a flash. She ran to the tree and watched as the squirrel sat there watching her pathetic performance. She is lucky squirrels do not guffaw.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I am much more relaxed now after the presidential debate has given Hillary a comfortable lead overall and in the battleground states. It should not matter that much but I have to live here for a while and I am just not ready for that lying, blubbering, sniveling, whining pile of orange toxicity to be in charge of the country - or indeed anything at all.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Poor Donald looked at all the online polls the next day and told everyone he had won by a large margin. Is he really that dumb? Probably. The real polls showed Hills completely blitzing him. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I expect the Trumpster to go full feral in the next debate as this is his last chance to save his sorry ass. I will be glad when this is all over and he can go back to doing what he does best. Being a world class conman - perhaps the like of which we have not seen here ever.</span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Tomorrow we are going to New Orleans. We shall drink Sazerac and munch Creole food for three days. </span></span></div>
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Badgerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11283813317560446754noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3804114935312811175.post-84120278171874795652016-09-28T15:56:00.001-04:002016-09-28T15:56:27.584-04:00Stupidest people in America?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">So I did something to my back again and have been hobbling about. I don't know how I do this stuff but it probably does not take much given my vast age. We went for a 20 mile ride on Saturday and it made my back even worse - so I have been taking it easy.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We had a cursory examination of Georgia yesterday and she appears to be missing some teeth. I am sure she is healthy - and its just that she chews stones. This makes a terrifying noise when she does it and I am sure it does her teeth no good whatsoever.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">So I am going to take her to the vet soon that he can tell me what’s wrong - or more accurately - if anything can be done. Now this is America so I am sure his brother will be a dog dental implant specialist and can give George a full set of gleaming white teeth made of kryptonite for about $50,000. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I rather think Georgia may have to struggle along with the teeth she has left because even if she got new ones I am sure she would still eat stones. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I have been watching videos about how to trim Georgia’s nails. Normally the nails are trimmed when she goes to stay with Rusty or has a grooming session - but at the moment she has nails like Freddy Krueger and causes nasty lacerations when she jumps on me - as she does frequently. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I know what to do but it does require a modicum of cooperation from the dog and she is not willing to participate. I have managed to do one or two nails but then she loses interest big time and goes off in a huff. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I started writing this before the Presidential debate and have since see it and absorbed the results. Hillary pretty much destroyed Donald - with a lot of his help - but I am not sure it will make much difference. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Large numbers of Trump supporters seem to be trying out for the ‘stupidest person in America’ contest - and there is a lot of competition for this particular title.</span></span></div>
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Badgerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11283813317560446754noreply@blogger.com5